A challenge in any group discussion is to draw
out the normally quiet ones. The danger, of course,
is that the more vocal participants will dominate
and preclude others from joining in. But let's
face it, by personality, some of us are more
naturally reticent about opening up in group
situations than others. and yet what those who
are more quiet think or feel is just as important
as what anyone else thinks or feels. Perhaps
you're that kind of a person. Today in our study
of God's Word and our look at the meaning of
Christmas, we want to look at it from the perspective
of the quiet member of the Trinity, the one who
is active and involved in the story and yet who
is not as talked about often as God the Father
and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is seldom considered
in the Christmas story. We're going to begin
today with a text we have partially read earlier
in the service, but we'll read it again in Matthew
chapter 1, beginning in verse 18. Now the birth
of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother
Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they
came together she was found to be with child
by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband,
being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace
her, desired to put her away secretly. In other
words, he desired to end their legal engagement
quietly rather than publicly. as he might have,
which could have resulted, by the law, in her
stoning. She could have been killed. Rather,
he decided to do it in a quiet way because of
his great love yet for Mary. But when he had
considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son
of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your
wife. For that which has been conceived in her
is of the Holy Spirit, and she shall bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is
he who will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place that what was spoken
by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled,
saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and shall bear a son, and they shall call his
name Emmanuel. which translated means God with
us. And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as
the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took
her as his wife, and kept her a virgin, until
she gave birth to a son. And he called his name
Jesus. The meaning of Christmas to God the Holy
Spirit would include at least three aspects.
It would include his prophecies, His power and
His person. Those are the three lines of thought
we're going to follow this morning, and I invite
you to write down those key words so that you
can follow along more easily with me. The meaning
of Christmas to God the Holy Spirit would in
the first place include the thought of His prophecies,
for His prophecies were fulfilled. Excuse me.
In calling the Holy Spirit, as I did earlier,
the quiet member of the Trinity. I am not at
all suggesting that he has had nothing to do
or to say in ages past. Indeed, the Holy Spirit,
like each member of the Trinity, has been deeply
involved in every aspect of creation and redemption.
But I'm thinking today particularly of the Holy
Spirit in his role as the author of Scripture.
Human vessels were employed by the Holy Spirit
as his instruments or his channels by which to
reveal the mind of God. Peter says that holy
men spoke for God as they were born along by
the Holy Spirit. As they were carried along,
is another way to say it, by the Holy Spirit.
That gives us a hint, at least, as to that work
of the Holy Spirit that we call the work of inspiration.
The Holy Spirit did not dictate God's mind into
the minds of people, so that what they wrote
was dictated to them as the Word of God, like
an employer might dictate a letter through his
secretary. That is not how he did it. But rather
the Holy Spirit, through the gracious work of
superintendency, oversaw the human authors so
that as they wrote what they wrote out of the
context of their own personalities, what they
wrote were the very thoughts and the very words
that God wanted them to use. He guided and guarded
the writers of Scripture so that what you and
I have in our hands today in which we call the
Bible contains propositional statements that
reveal God Himself to us. The Holy Spirit is
the author of the Scriptures. Now, in the Bible,
there are different kinds of literature, as you
may know. There is history, for example. A great
deal of the Bible is historical. There is also
poetry. There are epistles. And there is prophecy.
Prophecy, in the sense that I'm using the term,
is the prediction of events or persons. Yet future
from the time of the writer. In other words,
some prophecy has been fulfilled from our perspective,
but prophecy to be prophecy was yet future to
the writer as he penned the words. All of these
prophecies are related in some way to God's program
in Christ, revealing to us the person or the
work of Messiah. Prophecy actually is one of
the great evidences of the Bible's supernatural
origin and the existence of a living, personal
God who transcends time. God is able to reveal
to a prophet living here what will happen there,
because God Himself transcends time. He is apart
from time. If you are interested in prophecy,
by the way, and how It gives evidence to the
authenticity and the authority of the Word of
God. One of the fine reference works you might
want to get your hands on, if you haven't seen
it, is the book by Josh McDowell, out now a number
of years, called Evidence That Demands a Verdict.
In fact, there are two volumes to that. And if
you're interested in this sort of thing, you
will find compelling evidence regarding the authority
that prophecy gives to the Bible. A good deal
of prophecy, all of which came by the Holy Spirit,
I remind you, deals with the Christmas event
that is Christ's first coming. In fact, there
are over 300 specific prophecies from the Old
Testament that were fulfilled in Christ's first
coming. Peter Stoner, who wrote a book called
Science Speaks, dealt with only eight of them
in some research that he did. One of the eight
included Christ's birth at Bethlehem. He calculated,
based upon these eight specific prophecies, the
odds that these eight prophecies could be fulfilled
in one person. Are you with me? He calculated
the probabilities that only eight of the three
hundred, but only eight of the prophecies, could
be fulfilled in one person. And the results of
his research indicate that the probability is
one in one hundred quadrillion. That just these
eight prophecies could be fulfilled in one person.
You say, how much is a quadrillion? That's about
half of our national debt. No. We haven't gotten
quite that far yet, but we're learning all these
new terms like trillions and quadrillions is
what comes next. It's hard to visualize what
a quadrillion is. It's a lot of zeros. But perhaps
we can illustrate it the way he does by saying
that if you were to place silver dollars across
the whole state of Texas, two feet deep, that
would be about 100 quadrillion. Then let's suppose
that you took one of those silver dollars and
marked it and hit it. somewhere out there in
the middle of the state of Texas and all those
silver dollars. And you sent a blindfolded man
out to find it. The chances that he would pick
that one are the same that those eight prophecies
from the Old Testament could be fulfilled in
one person. It could not be manufactured. It
had to be supernaturally overseen. And so, as
we think about the meaning of Christmas to God
the Holy Spirit, we have to start here. His prophecies
were fulfilled. That's what it means to him.
Now, what prophecies were fulfilled? Well, we
see one of them here in the text we read. The
virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 7 -14 is
quoted. Behold, the virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son, and they shall call his
name Emmanuel. That specific prophecy regarding
the Messiah, says Matthew, is fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. If you let your eyes rest on chapter
2, you notice again in verse 6 a quotation from
the Old Testament. Hear from Micah, the book
of Micah, chapter 5, verse 2, where it says,
In you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means
least among the leaders of Judah. For out of
you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd
my people Israel." In other words, the prophecy
was given hundreds of years before Jesus was
born that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem
of Judah. And Matthew accurately records that
was fulfilled. And again at the end of chapter
2, you see another prophecy, this time from Jeremiah
31 and 15. regarding the death of the young in
Bethlehem. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping
in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.
And she refused to be comforted because they
were no more. And Matthew says this was the fulfillment
of Jeremiah's prophecy. What happened when Herod
commanded the death of the young in the city
of Bethlehem? And so we see wonderfully the fulfillment
of prophecy in the coming of Jesus Christ. And
we've only looked at three here in this immediate
context, but there are over 300 of them. A hundred
times more prophecies than we've looked at this
morning that are fulfilled in the first coming
of Jesus Christ. And so when the Holy Spirit
celebrates Christmas, one of the things that
He celebrates is the fulfillment of prophecy.
And you and I can do the same. And then I believe
the Holy Spirit, in regard to the meaning of
Christmas to him, rejoices in that his power,
his power was manifested. And we see this in
the virgin birth, which again is mentioned in
the text that we've looked at. The virgin birth
of Jesus Christ. Let me say a word about this
matter of virginity. That is a word that is actually
looked upon in our day with disdain If someone
is a virgin That is a disgrace to a lot of people
in our world They would say a person who claimed
to be a virgin and may I remind you that that
is not a feminine word That is as masculine as
it is feminine That when a person claims to be
a virgin, there's unbelief in our world. Why?
How? Well, that's unhealthy. It's impossible,
they say. But I remind you that virginity was,
is, and always will be God's standard for the
unmarried. We're talking about sexual abstinence.
Virginity is very positive because virginity
produces freedom from guilt, which a lot of people
have to carry around with them. Furthermore,
it is healthy because virginity gives freedom
from anxiety about disease, not the least of
which is AIDS. With regard to virginity, once
it is given away, it cannot be reclaimed. It
is impossible. Now I say that gently because
I know that that can be devastating to someone
who has improperly, prematurely given that gift
away. To understand that it is something that
cannot be brought back, that cannot be reclaimed,
can be devastating. But I want you to know that
Jesus Christ forgives. He forgives sexual sin
like He forgives any other sin. He cannot restore
virginity, but He can restore purity based upon
His cleansing and forgiveness. And so if you
are one of those today who cannot claim virginity,
let me exhort you to claim purity by the confession
and repentance of your sin sexually and claiming
the forgiveness of Jesus Christ and determining
by His grace in your life to live from this point
on purely. The engagement ring, by the way, does
not give license to sexual intimacy. Some couples
assume that that is the case, but it is not so,
and Joseph and Mary are good examples that prove
that that is not so. For they were legally engaged
and yet had never come together until there was
the public ceremony, setting them apart as husband
and wife. And that is God's plan. Sexual intimacy
is to be reserved for marriage. Now it is in
that context of virginity that we come here to
this second work of the Holy Spirit as we think
about the meaning of Christmas to him. His power
is manifested in the virgin birth, a miracle.
The virgin birth was essential to Christ's coming
as genuine man. but one who was free from imputed
sin and a sinful nature. The virgin birth was
essential. He had to be human in every respect
that he might empathize, identify, and finally
sacrifice himself for the human race. But he
of necessity had to be born by a means other
than the natural means involving a man and a
woman. Because there is sin transmitted in that,
in God's eyes. David said, in sin my mother conceived
me. Not that he was born sinfully in a manner
that involved some kind of sexual looseness.
But he was simply indicating the fact that even
in his mother's womb he had inherited a sinful
nature. Therefore, Jesus Christ had to be born
uniquely to avoid that. Now, his name, Emmanuel,
and by the way, that's not so much a name as
we think of that term, but a description or a
characterization of him, because the name means
God with us. Emmanuel stresses the deity of this
one who is involved in the birth. We ask the
question, how was the virgin birth accomplished?
Well, we do not know how, and we cannot say how
it was accomplished because God has not told
us, except that she was with child of the Holy
Spirit. That is impossible apart from a miracle.
Now it is true in some lore forms of life, reproduction
is possible without the participation of the
male. But it is impossible in humans, whether
naturally or artificially. Jesus Christ was supernaturally
conceived within Mary's womb. Now there are some
who say that God created the egg, the embryo,
and supernaturally put it into Mary. I disagree
with that because that again separates him from
her humanity, which was very important. He had
to be truly her child. And so he was conceived
within her womb. But then there was another miracle
that took place by the Holy Spirit. For the Holy
Spirit protected the humanity of the Lord Jesus
from Mary's sin. So he was conceived without
father and then protected within his mother's
womb by the Holy Spirit. So that that holy thing
that would be born of her would be called the
Son of God As the angel told Mary and recorded
in Luke chapter 2 So when the Holy Spirit thinks
of Christmas, he thinks of his power being manifested
and it was it was But then the Holy Spirit as
he thinks of Christmas and its meaning to him
would surely realize this too, that in Christmas
we see His person hidden. The person of the Holy
Spirit is hidden. Always, even in these Christmas
texts that we're dealing with in this season,
the central person is Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit never seeks to promote Himself. He only
seeks to lift up Christ. The Holy Spirit is modest.
He is unpretentious. He is unassuming. He keeps
Himself always in the background and puts Jesus
in the foreground. And Jesus said the Holy Spirit
would come after His ascension back to heaven.
And would He speak of Himself? No. Jesus said,
He will speak of me. He will continue to reveal
me to you. You see, the Holy Spirit is always
in the role of an implementer, an executor, an
equipper, an enabler. But He is never the headliner.
He is never the principle. He is never the center
of attention. He seeks to glorify Christ but
shuns attention to himself. And so as we look
at the beautiful Christmas story, we observe
that while the Holy Spirit is quietly doing his
miraculous work, he is nonetheless hiding himself
in the narrative so that nothing will detract
from the Son of God who came to save. As we think
of the meaning of Christmas to the Holy Spirit,
there are some wonderful observations we can
make that apply to our lives. First observation
is this, that our faith is rooted in the supernatural.
Whether you are talking about the production
of this book, or you're talking about the virgin
birth, our faith is rooted in the supernatural.
If it is not, our faith is meaningless. We are
not the followers of some legendary hero or a
cunning myth or a superior ethic, but rather
we who claim the name of Jesus Christ are followers
of the one living God. Wilbur Smith, who went
home to be with Christ a number of years ago
now, said the supernaturalism of Christianity
rests distinctly and solidly upon the supernaturalism
of its founder, Jesus Christ." Our faith rests
upon the supernatural. And so let us never hesitate
to identify with a savior such as Jesus. We do
not need to apologize for him. We do not need
to be embarrassed about him because he is the
supernatural God come into time. Our faith is
rooted in the supernatural. A second observation
I make is this, that our power comes from a supernatural
source, and that is the Holy Spirit. The same
Holy Spirit who was active back then in the birth
of Jesus is the Holy Spirit that is active in
your life and mine today if we are Jesus Christ.
As He worked in Mary, so He works in all of God's
servants, with different actions of course, but
it's the same supernatural energy or force that
is involved in us. And so we have to ask the
question, are you living in the fullness of His
power or in the futility of your own weakness?
the servants of God throughout the generations,
have been men and women who have known the meaning
of living life in the power of the supernatural.
We can weakly make our way through the years
of life and merely exist as Christians because
we are living it in our own strength. where we
can learn what it means to appropriate the power
of God and begin experiencing supernatural life,
abundant life, here and now. Does He live through
you, my fellow Christian? What proof is there
in your life that the supernatural Christ lives
in you? Can it be that there would be nothing
about us that sets us apart from the unsaved
person in the world who lives merely on a natural
level because that's all he is? Is it possible
that a person whose life source is rooted in
the supernatural can live merely on that plane?
If we profess the name of Christ today, let us
begin living in the power of His Spirit and allowing
His life to flow through us unimpeded and freely.
A third observation I make is that our witness
should imitate that of the Holy Spirit. Our business
is to lift up Jesus Christ and not ourselves.
My stepfather often prays at the table before
a meal using a little phrase that I remember
from the time that he married my mother when
I was 15. And he says, hide us behind the cross.
Now I'm not sure all that he means in that, but
I like that phrase. We are so prone to want to
be center stage. We want to promote ourselves.
We want to enjoy the limelight. Our humanity
wants to be noticed. We crave the applause and
the approval of others. But beloved, let us be
like the Holy Spirit as we think of Christmas
this year. Let us be content. Yes, let us desire
to live in the background and with meekness and
humility to put Jesus forth. There's an old adage
that says, he that tooteth not his own horn shall
not have his horn tooted. Hey, let's just blow
one trumpet. And that's Jesus Christ. The Holy
Spirit. is unassuming, unpretentious, hides himself.
Let's do the same and live seeking to exalt Jesus
Christ and then others and then ourselves. And
to those who may be here without Jesus Christ,
may I reinforce in your mind this morning that
the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in causing
Christ's birth had but one purpose? And that
is that he might, the Savior, Jesus Christ, might
be qualified to die for your sins and thus glorify
God. That's why he was active. That's why he
was doing what he was doing. That's why he caused
the conception within Mary that he might do his
part in producing the Son of God who is Son of
Man. and able to die for you and your sins. I
was listening to the radio earlier this morning
and the announcer mentioned an evangelist who's
been home with the Lord now a number of years,
John R. Rice, who made this statement, you can
never truly enjoy Christmas until you look up
in the Father's face and tell Him you have received
His Christmas gift. My friend, can you look up
into the Father's face and say, I have received
your gift? Or are you still putting off that
decision? Will you make it today? Will you decide
today to receive that gift? He's waiting. He's
holding it out to you, offering it graciously,
appealing to you to come to Him. Will you? Let's
bow together. Lord Jesus, I pray that in the
closing minutes of this service you will accomplish
your perfect will in the heart of every one of
us. Amen.