Christmas Basics: Matthew 1:18-25

For many people this Christmas will be a tough one! We have a COVID-19 shut down and are encouraged not be with anyone who doesn’t live in the same home we live in.

Businesses and industries are shut down and many people are unemployed and have lost their businesses.

By Christmas day more than 300,000 people will have lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many families will have an empty chair around the Christmas dinner table.

It has been my observation that tough Christmas seasons come along. I have had some.

Christmas 1969 and 1970 were two of those tough Christmas seasons. I was in the Army stationed in Germany. I had never been away from family at Christmas. It was strange being away from them at Christmas.

What did I do? I worked, ate at the messhall and got drunk both for Christmas 1969 and Christmas 1970.

I missed the traditions I was used to with my family and substituted those things with the self-medication of alcohol. Stupid way to respond to a tough Christmas!

I have a better idea. Get back to the basics. The Christmas Basics are the history of Jesus’ birth and the reality of Jesus and who He is. You may miss some Christmas traditions, but make sure you get to the basics and Christmas will be OK!

I want to tell the story of the history of Jesus’ birth from Matthew 1:18-25.

Mary, the mother of Jesus was “betrothed” to Joseph. That means they were in a year long engagement. At the end of the engagement a wedding ceremony would take place, and the couple would live together and have intimate relations.

To exit betrothal required divorce according to Jewish tradition and law. Intimate relations weren’t allowed.

While in that year long betrothal Mary shows up pregnant! Verse 18 of the text says Mary was with Child by the Holy Spirit. In other words, she was still a virgin and was pregnant by way of a miracle of the Holy Spirit.

Notice the Bible says she was with Child, not with fetus!

Joseph is called her “Husband.” Betrothal was such a firm commitment to the marital union they were called husband and wife.

Joseph notes his wife is pregnant during betrothal, meaning he KNEW the child wasn’t his! He’s in a tough spot because no one ever heard of a virgin being pregnant! He had to assume Mary had been unfaithful, so he was going to quietly divorce her and move on with his life!

But an angel appeared to him and told him to not fear taking Mary as his wife because the child in her is from the Holy Spirit. The angel told Joseph he was to name the child Jesus because he would save his people from their sins.

The text makes it clear all this took place to fulfill Isaiah 7:14, written 750 years earlier. The virgin would have a son and he would be God with Us!

Joseph, being a good Jewish guy might have figured out the angel was talking about Mary giving birth to the Messiah!

Joseph woke up and took Mary as his wife and made sure he kept her a virgin until after she gave birth to that son, and he did as the angel told him and gave him the name Jesus.

The basics involve focusing on two things:

First, Focus on Jesus.

Matthew 1:21, “She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (ESV)

The name Jesus is the English translation of the Greek word that translated the Hebrew name “Joshua.”

The name Jesus means what the name Joshua means, that is God saves!

Jesus is God who showed up on earth to save sinful mankind who would trust what He paid for them at the cross when He died in their place.

At Christmas we see Jesus as an infant in a manger. If we focus on the infant Jesus in a manger we could miss the impact of Jesus who died on a cross and was raised bodily from the dead 33 years after that birth!

It’s important to focus on Jesus at birth, but we can’t leave Him there. He grew to be a man of 30 years of age and entered the three years of His public ministry culminating in His death to pay for our sin and then His bodily resurrection from the dead to wreck death permanently.

For the guy who sees Jesus once a year at Christmas and sees Him as an infant in a manger it would be easy to miss the 33-old man who died as the substitute for our sin on the cross and was raised from the dead to give us life that will never wear out!

We will miss some traditions this Christmas, but don’t miss Jesus who saves us! Make sure you focus on Jesus in His totality from a cradle to a cross and a crown!

Second, focus on Immanuel.

Matthew 1:23, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Which means God with us). (ESV)

Jesus was “God with us,” as Immanuel when He was here on earth, but He still is God with us as He takes up residence in our lives in the person, presence and power of God in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us today as He’s still with us to help us and empower us even during a tough Christmas.

Mark this down and take it to the bank… There’[s never a time when Jesus stops being “God with us.” He’s here for this tough Christmas with COVID-19, shut-downs, businesses going under, people unemployed and even government uncertainty and craziness!

When I was 17, I saw a 57 Chevy painted a candy-apple red with tuck and roll interior and mag wheels for sale for $300. When I asked the guy how he could sell it so cheap he popped the hood and there was no engine.

Trying to get through a Christmas like this one is going to be, would be like trying to drive that Chevy without an engine. Immanuel, God with us is here and He’s the engine. He’s the power to move us through this tough Christmas.

He doesn’t make the difficulties go away, but He drives us through them! This Christmas could be a tough one but go back to the basics and let the basics take the place of some traditions, they should any way!

Christmas 2013 was a tough one for me. I had been scheduled for triple-by-pass surgery on January 28, 2014. I went through the Christmas season knowing what was coming in January.

I focused on Jesus as God who saves me and on Jesus who’s God with me, and Jesus saw me through Christmas and through my heart surgery too!

If you get to this Christmas with no decorations, no Christmas meal and no way to give any gifts to anyone, how would you get through Christmas?

Go back to Christmas basics! Jesus is still God who saves, and Jesus is still Immanuel, God with us! Jesus is the basic thing about Christmas!

Re- present your heart and life to Jesus and re focus on Him as God who saves and God who’s with us! It might be Christmas basics, but it could be the most important Christmas of our lives!

Tom West works in advanced planning with Myers Funeral Service in Porterville. You can reach Tom on his cell phone at 602.758.1168. You can see Tom’s messages on his You Tube channel, Life in the God Lane.