Date: December 4, 2022

Bible Text: Matthew 1:18-25 | Jordan Coros

Series: All this took place

Every year at Christmas the story of Jesus’ coming is told in homes around the world. The standard narrative is recounted: the angels appear to Mary and Joseph, the census takes the pregnant mother and father to Bethlehem, where no room is found for them. The baby is born, and laid in a manger, shepherds come and worship, angels appear. All of it. While the story is nostalgic for many and the tradition is treasured, the weight of the story is often lost in our usual retelling. We breeze over Matthew’s far-reaching comment, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken…”

Jesus’ birth was the critical moment in the multi-phased rollout of God’s rescue plan for humanity—a plan he had put in place from the foundation of the world. The Son of God’s coming to rescue people from their sins was foretold by prophets who spoke hundreds of years before the baby would be born and laid in the feeding trough in Bethlehem. Every fulfillment of ancient prophecy proclaims the faithfulness of God, his sovereignty and the beauty of his providence.

This Christmas season we’ll look at three of the prophetic messages fulfilled in the nativity story, in order to get a greater glimpse of his goodness, to expand our understanding and to encourage our faith in the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ so many years ago.

I’m excited to begin this series on Sunday and hope you’ll join us.

Series: All This Took Place – Christmas Series
Jordan Coros
Message: 1 – They shall call his name Immanuel
Harvest Bible Chapel
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
December 4, 2022

Jesus’ coming changes everything for me…

1. Turning my world upside down (v. 18-21)

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2. Miraculously fulfilling God’s promise (22-23)

There is no hint of pagan deity-human coupling in crassly physical terms. Instead, the power of the Lord, manifest in the Holy Spirit…miraculously brought about the conception.
D.A. Carson

A) The true humanity of Jesus

Sometimes we get the idea that Jesus came out of the womb using words like “kingdom,” “righteousness,” “substitution,” and “propitiation,” but that’s not the case.
David Platt

Matthew 13:54-56

B) The true divinity of Jesus

John 10:17-18

C) The supernatural reality of salvation

2 Corinthians 5:21

3. Compelling me to faithful obedience (24-25)

John 6:38

Topics: Christmas