Welcome to the Panhandle. Come on in and let’s fellowship a bit as we look at God’s Word during this festive time. So far in this series titled Miracle of Christmas we have look at the Miracle of the Moment and the Miracle of the Message. Today we are going to look at the Miracle of the Method. Part of the miracle of Christmas is the miracle of the method. God’s methods are beyond our comprehension.
To illustrate my point let me take you back over Two Thousand years ago:
Gabriel is talking to God, “God, is it true? Are you are going to visit earth again? Great, we’ll prepare your chariot of fire. Then I’ll gather all the angels to announce your arrival. No one will be able to deny your greatness and glory. When you appear on Earth in all your splendor and glory no one will be able to deny that you alone are God, that you alone are worthy of worship. Every knee will bow and tongue confess that you are Lord! It will be a day to remember! Let’s pull out all the stops. No shortcuts on that day. We will do a full-scale, grand revelation that will turn every head so that they will see you in your royal splendor and holiness.”
Then God said to Gabriel, “Hold your horses. I have a different plan for saving the world, Jesus is going as a human.”
“Umm, Okay, not a problem. I’ll get some of the other angles and we’ll go get the Temple in Jerusalem ready for Jesus’ grand appearance. Yeah, this can work, Jesus appears in the Holy of Holies and then walks out flanked by a squad of angels, yeap this could work.
“Well Gabriel, that’s not quite what I had in mind. I mean yours is a good plan and all, but it’s not my plan. And remember Jesus has to come from Bethlehem.”
“Bethlehem, hum, okay, still not a problem. We’ll just go down there and build a palace fit for the King that Jesus is. Oh yea, how awesome will that be? One day no palace and the next day the most magnificent palace ever, the people of Earth will be so impressed.”
“Yeah, good idea, but not quite what I had in mind either. Jesus is going go come to Earth as a baby and He is going to be born in a stable.”
“Well can we at least clean the stable up? You know get rid of all that dirty hay, maybe put in a nice bed for Jesus to be laid in. A midwife, we’ll need a midwife to help with the birth. What do you think?”
“Again great ideas Gabriel, but no. We are going to keep it simple. A simple stable, a simple manger, just a mother to be and her husband.”
“Bummer, but your God so okay. Do we get to do anything?”
“Oh, yeah. You are going to talk to a girl named Mary and then her betrothed – Joseph. Then on the night of Jesus’ birth you will make an announcement to the shepherds in the surrounding hill of Bethlehem. Once you give your speech then I’ll have an army of angels appear, stretching as far as the eye can see to help you praise the birth of Jesus.”
Romans 11:33
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Yes, God’s methods are beyond our comprehension. Paul is reminding us of that fact here in Romans 11:33. Paul begins this passage of praise to God, focusing on the greatness of God and on how absolutely wonderful He is. His riches, wisdom and knowledge are great beyond measure. His methods are beyond our understanding. I mean just take the Christmas story for instance, the way in which God came to save from our sins it doesn’t make much sense at first glance.
But then again, think about the ways that God had already revealed Himself in history to people. He had revealed Himself through a burning bush, through a pillar of fire and a cloud. He revealed Himself through a variety of different means even a donkey and a still, small voice. In the Christmas story we have the greatest, grandest revelation of who God is and what He is like. And He does this as a babe in a manger in a backwater town to ordinary parents.
1. Christ Jesus’ Earthly Parents'
God could have just appeared on the scene with an army of angels if He had wanted to. Instead He chose to reveal Himself to us in a way that we could understand. Christ Jesus – God/man came into the world as a helpless, defenseless, baby.
God chose to be born to humble, young, working class parents. Mary, who was between 14 and 16 years old and unmarried only engaged would be Christ Jesus’ Mother. Joseph, Christ Jesus’ earthly father was older, between 18-20 years old. He was a carpenter, not the best paying profession, but an honest one.
They may have been young but their hearts were pure ~ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you...And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-28; 38).
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 the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit...And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, (Matthew 1:20; 24). They were favored in God’s sight, but their worldly influence was non-existent.
Mary and Joseph, the man and woman God chose to be the parents for His Son were plain, ordinary people, living out their lives in obscurity. Their home after hiding out in Egypt was back in Nazareth. Nazareth had a reputation for a rough and tumble town found in the boonies of Galilee. Remember what Nathaniel said when he heard that Christ Jesus was from Nazareth ~ "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" (John 1:46).
Mary and Joseph – plain, ordinary, hard working folks from a frontier town. Yet they were the ones God chose to be the parents of His Son Christ Jesus. Through them, God’s greatest, grandest revelation would come to all mankind. How absolutely crazy is that?
The life of the king of the entire universe was going to be entrusted to a simple carpenter and his wife. This precious baby who embodied the very nature of God, the son of these teenagers from Nazareth. I think we can agree with Paul, How impossible it is for us to understand God’s decisions and methods. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Yes, God’s methods are different than our methods.
God’s ways are not our ways. His methods are not our methods. That is the miracle of Christmas – that’s the miracle of the method! Over and over again, God chose plain, ordinary people through whom He could do His extraordinary work.
God chose His Son to come and die on a cross so that we have a chance at life. God/man – Christ Jesus dying for us while were still in rebellion, still refusing to believe in God ~ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). It doesn’t make since, but that’s what happened. Praise God that His ways are not ours.
2. A Manger in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7) ~ "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah (ef-rawth'), though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." (Micah 5:2)
Luke 2:4 records that Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem to register for the census. While there the time came for her baby to be born and Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped Him in strips of cloths and placed Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.
A manger is a feeding trough for animals, Mary and Joseph were staying in a barn or stable or a stone grotto, a place where animals were kept. I’m sure Joseph, being the good husband and soon to be step father tried to clean the trough out and put some clean straw in it. And he probably did his best to move the manure away from the place where Mary was going to deliver her baby. I’m just sure that he did the best he could for his wife and child. But it was still a barn. It was not the most sanitary of places to give birth. Not a palace, not even a house, but a barn. Wow! Creator God born in a barn in a small, insignificant place called Bethlehem.
Christ Jesus may have been born in humble surroundings. And His parents may have lived in obscurity. And to those in Bethlehem, Christ Jesus’ birth may have gone unnoticed. But to those who were camped out in the hills surrounding Bethlehem, Christ Jesus’ birth did not go unnoticed. To celebrate the birth of our Saviour the angels announce the news of His birth, but to whom do they go and share this wonderful and wondrous news? That’s right – to the shepherds! Not kings and queens, not even the religious leaders or military leaders. God choose to make this grand announcement to some lowly shepherds who were out that night taking care for their flocks. But you know that may have been appropriate, after all Christ Jesus was compared to a shepherd more than once in the New Testament. And He went to the cross, like a lamb to the slaughter. And we must never forget that Christ Jesus was the perfect, unblemished lamb sacrificed for our sins.
Part of the miracle of Christmas is the miracle of the method. God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things! And this is the Good News, God wants to work in and through you if you will let Him.
3. God Still Uses Ordinary People
If you haven’t figured it out yet, God’s ways are not our ways. Not only that, but God uses everyday, run of the mill, ordinary people.
A big part of the miracle of the method is that God is at work in our lives in ways that we do not and cannot fully comprehend and understand! In life we experience problems, pains and pressures. We experience struggles and sickness. We experience temptations and failures. It sometimes seems that we take one step forward in our spiritual growth and then slide three steps back. There are defeats and despair, but there is also victories and celebrations. And all the while God is at work in our lives to remind us that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.
God is bigger than the box we sometimes want to put Him in. I can’t answer all your questions as to why some things have happened in your life. I can’t give you easy answers for complex questions that seem beyond logic. I don’t have all the answers, some times I don’t have any of the answers. I don’t have God completely figured out and all wrapped up in a brightly colored box with a pretty bow on top. God is much bigger than our minds can comprehend.
The miracle of the method is that God is at work in our lives in ways that we do not understand. God has revealed Himself through Christ Jesus so we would know for certain what He is like. Through Christ Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection He communicated clearly that He loves us.
When going through circumstances that we don’t understand, we don’t have to despair. We can trust that God is at work in our lives for our good. We don’t always understand why we have to go through difficulties and tragedies, but we must trust that God is working in the midst of those circumstances for our good. This is part of the mystery and miracle of Christmas. God at work in our lives in ways that we simply do not understand, but it always for our good. That is the miracle of the method.
When the angel appeared to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of God’s Son, there was no way she could have predicted all that revelation would mean for her. Joseph had no idea of what would be involved when he obediently responded to the angel’s message not to divorce Mary but to take her as his wife. Joseph and Mary endured shame, accusation, embarrassment and ridicule. But they also experienced the miracle of seeing God become flesh right before their eyes. They saw God! The cost of obediently following God’s plan was worth it for the prize of drawing near to God.
We do not always understand how God is at work, but that is the miracle of the method. God is at work in our lives in ways that we do not understand. Therefore we must continue to trust that He is at work and that He is working for our good!
A big thanks to Greg Fine for this series and for some great ideas for this study.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. May our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus be with y’all.
Biblesurfer
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