Christ's mission on earth; the means by which Jesus saves and the miracle

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER 2020

MATTHEW 1 VERSES 18 - 25

This is the account where Joseph is pondering over what to do in the situation he found himself in.  Mary his espoused wife is expecting a child.  His first thought was she had been unfaithful.  While he thought on these things God sent the clarity he needed by way of an angel.  The Lord knows what is heavy on our hearts today.  Here he sent an angel to where Joseph was.  Do we need God's word clarified today?  Sometimes the gospel message goes over our heads.  Philip asked the Ethiopian eunuch "do you understand what you are reading?"  The eunuch replied "how can I understand except someone explain it to me?"  The angel came to Joseph to help him understand what was happening in his life.

Christ's mission on earth.  "As Joseph pondered all these things" then he sees the angel and is told to call the baby Jesus "for he shall save his people from their sins".  He came for no other reason but to save, to restore us back into a relationship with God.  God was in the world reconciling the world unto himself.  Consider the God who made the heaven and the earth, he hung the stars in the sky and filled the seas with great fishes.   Then he made man in his own image and finally a woman from man's ribs.  As he looked at his creation he sealed it with the words "now everything was really good."  How can it be good when we experience sickness or pain, sorrow or death?  It all came as a result of man's sin.  That is why Jesus came into the world, to make amends.  Satan came into the Garden of Eden and directed Adam and Eve to believe a lie.  To eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden would result in death, not physically but spiritually.  All of creation groans in anticipation.  Christ came into the world to reconcile the world to himself.  "For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19 verse 10) Paul himself said "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst."  (1 Timothy 1 verse 15) The greatest need we have today is a Saviour.

The means by which Jesus saves - his atoning death.  If Jesus had never entered into the world and died for mans sin there could never be atonement.  He satisfied the demands of a holy God in heaven.  We can make the cross of no effect.  Man is a sinful being and the cross was God's way of reconciling the world.  Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Messiah said in chapter 53 verse 12 "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."  He was pointing to the death of Jesus, how he would be crucified.

There is also a miracle here.  Every time a man comes to Christ it takes a miracle of grace.  In Acts 13 notice Barnabas' reaction to the people getting saved in Antioch.  When he came he realised he had seen the grace of God.  It is nothing of us but all of the Lord.  His grace, mercy and love - that he ever looked on us to save us from sin.  Barnabas could see something of the miracle of grace.  The blind man in John's gospel  - the people looked on him but couldn't understand the miracle that had happened in his life.  It is impossible to explain the miracle of grace in people's lives.  When we hear the message of the gospel something dramatic happens.   God comes in and saves us once and for all.