The Lord’s Messages
- 12/03/2024
The Lord’s Message: The Miracle of Christmas: The Miracle of the Moment
Date: December 1, 2024
Where: Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference: Galatians 4:4-5Happy New Year! Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Today begins the church year. If you might recall from last Sunday’s message, I told you that the church year begins with Advent, waiting for the birth of Jesus or Jesus’ second coming and ends with Christ the King Sunday, Jesus being crowned king of our lives.
During this time of the year, this season is a season of miracles. I consider the birth of Jesus or His second coming as miracles. I find it miraculous that Jesus would choose to leave heaven and be born as one of us. That Jesus would choose to grow up as one of us. More miraculous that all of that is that Jesus would choose to be punished for the sins that you and I have committed and then miraculously give up His life for all of us. God miraculously raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus miraculously ascended into Heaven and promised that one day He would return to take all the believers in Him to Heaven.
Pastor Greg Fine wrote an outline of a sermon series called the Miracles of Christmas. I am going to be using his outline as a guide for the messages on Sundays during this season of Advent.
Let us pray.
(Looking down at my watch.) Now is the time. It is 60 seconds later than it was just a minute ago. That means that you have 24 days or 566 hours or 33,960 minutes or 2,037,600 seconds to get all your shopping and baking done before Christmas.
Timing is everything. You do not plant tomatoes in November. You do not crab in January. You do not go swimming in the bay in March. Why? Because the timing is off. The frost is going to kill the tomato plants. The crabs are deep in the mud. The bay is too cold in March to go swimming. The timing is off.
I watch some football games. I am amazed at how the quarterback will throw the ball before the receiver is at the spot or even before the receiver makes his move. It is a well-orchestrated play when the ball arrives where the receiver ends up. Of course, the defense wants to disrupt the timing, either by making the quarterback throw the ball earlier than anticipated or by altering the route of the receiver. If the defense does this successfully than the pass is incomplete or even intercepted. Timing is everything.
God’s timing is always perfect. In Galatians 4:4, it says, “But when the time had fully come.” God was not a year off. God was not a month off. God was not a week off. God was not a day off. God was not an hour off. God was not a minute off. God was not a second off. God was right on time. The miracle of the moment.
“God sent His son, born of a woman.” At just the right time in history, Jesus was born. This was not an accident. This was not a chance occurrence. This was a well-thought-out plan by a God that loves us so much.
I just want you to think about what the world was like when Jesus was born. The Holy Land was under occupation by the Romans. The Romans had built well-constructed roads for people to travel from one place to another and all roads led to Rome. For the most part, there was peace in the world under Roman rule. For Roman citizens, there were laws to protect them. There were established languages in the Roman empire. There were more learned people under the Roman occupation than before. This is evident by the number of letters that Paul wrote. The long-ago predicted prophecies of the Old Testament were all coming true about the Messiah. The timing is perfect for God to send His Son.
So often during this time of the year, we get all caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season that we do not take the time to think about the Hope that God brings to us. A hope that is not fleeting, but ongoing. We do not see that this Hope comes at the right time for all of us. The miracle of the moment is that God would choose to bring us this Hope during this season. The good news is that God comes to us at the right time for His message of love and forgiveness to spread across the world. We should take time out of this busy season to celebrate this Good News. God’s timing is perfect.
God not only came at the right time, but God comes even today at the right time to provide us with a miracle. “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Every one of us here have broken God’s law. We have all sinned. The payment for sin is death. Here comes God at just the right moment with the Good News as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:6. When do you need a miracle? When are you at the end of your rope and with no more options and no more resources? When are you running out of Hope? You are now ready for a miracle. God has promised to come at the right time and provide what you need. When we are utterly helpless, Christ comes at the right time and provides us with what we need.
Are you a person that puts off getting projects or activities done, because it is not the right time? “God sent His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law.” God has been knocking on your heart to accept Him in and you say that this is not the right time. God wants to have a personal relationship with you. God sent His Son, born of a woman, a miracle, so that He could have a personal relationship with you. Now, is the time to open your heart and allow God in. Jesus said in Mark 1:15. Do not put this off, your time is now. Say, “Yes to God.” You may not have another chance.
One moment in time can determine an eternal destiny. “God sent His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons and daughters.” Right now, is just that moment. You do not have to live separated from God and His grace. God loves you, so much that God wants to give you Hope. Hope for a better life. Hope for a better eternal destination. Hope that comes with having a relationship with Your Heavenly Father as His child.
The miracle of the moment is that God chose this time for His Son, Jesus, to be born as one of us to redeem us from our sins, so that we could become God’s child. This is what we need for this moment in time. This is our hope. This is the miracle of Christmas. This is how we grow together in Faith. Amen.