Series: Advent: The Season to Prepare for Jesus’ Arrival

Title: Signs from God

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

I. It= s a Miracle

Does anyone remember the TV show It= s a Miracle?

Richard Thomas – who stared in The Walton’s back in the 70s at "John Boy" – hosted the show.

In one episode, Thomas told the story of two brothers: Chad who was five years told and Ryan who was nine years old.

In late May of the year 2000, Chad and Ryan went fishing with their Uncle near Decatur, Illinois.

"Five-year-old Chad lost his balance, slipped and fell down the moss-covered embankment into the [murky]creek."

His Uncle Les threw down his fishing pole and jumped in to try to save him, but to no avail.

Nine-year-old Ryan ran to the road to try to get help.

Jody Fortner – who "was driving down a road he usually didn’t take" – "noticed 9-year-old Ryan running toward his truck crying,

‘My brother is drowning!’"

"Fortner immediately [ran down to the creek]...jumped into the [freezing water]. While coming up for air after his first search, he felt Chad with his foot."

Two others who had stopped, gave Chad CPR, and successfully brought him back to life.

http://page.dnv.cooketech.net/flyer/fysep00.pdf

Was Chad’s rescue a wonderful set of coincidences?

Or was God actively at work, using people as his hands and feet in this world?

I choose to believe God is constantly at work behind the scenes, blessing and protecting His people.

A miracle is any event in which God intervenes in human history.

Some miracles are obvious. Some are not so obvious.

Some miracles are meant to be anonymous.

Some are meant to be special signs from God.

II. The Greatest Old Testament Miracle

The greatest miracle recorded in the Old Testament is the parting of the Red Sea.

For four hundred years the descendants of Abraham had been slaves in Egypt.

God raised up Moses to free his people.

God intervened with miraculous signs to soften Pharaoh’s heart. He sent plague after plague:

The plague of blood.

The plague of frogs.

The plague of gnats.

The plague of flies.

The plague on the livestock.

The plague of boils.

The plague of hail.

The plague of locusts.

The plague of darkness.

And finally the plague of death of the first born.

After these ten miraculous signs, Pharaoh finally let the Israelites go.

God’s people fled quickly for fear that Pharaoh would change his mind.

By the time they reached the Red Sea, Pharaoh had clearly changed his mind.

His army and chariots were barreling down upon them.

The children of Israel were cornered:

The Red Sea before them.

The army of Pharaoh behind them.

There was no escape!

Then God intervened like he had never intervened before.

He parted the Red Sea before them. God’s people walked to Sinai on dry ground.

When Pharaoh= s army pursued them, God brought the water back, drowning the Egyptians.

This miracle was so great, skeptics refuse to believe it.

Not only was the parting of the Red Sea a miracle, but it was a sign of God’s favor towards his people and his judgment against the wicked.

III. Miracle Births

As we approach the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sign of Mary’s miraculous conception and virgin birth come to mind.

Three times throughout Scripture, God intervened to allow miraculous conceptions and births. Each time the miracle was a sign from God.

2,000 years before Christ was born into this world, God sent three angels to Abraham and Sarah.

The message they gave was so incredible, so fantastic, so miraculous that Sarah laughed in disbelief.

The angels told them that in one year Sarah would bear a son.

Abraham was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89.

There is no way on earth, that Sarah could have a child at the age of 90.

Yet, a year later Isaac was born. Isaac was a miracle child.

He was the child of promise.

The child through whom the great nation of Israel would come.

The child whose descendant would be the Messiah.

Sarah= s miraculous conception and birth of Isaac:

Clearly foreshadowed the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus.

It was a sign of God’s favor up Abraham and his descendants.

Three months before the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary, he appeared to Zechariah in the temple.

Luke chapter one tells us that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were:

Both ⁶...upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

7But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

Luke 1:7 (NIV)

Not only was Elizabeth sterile, but she was too old to have children.

One day, Zechariah who was a temple priest, was in the temple burning incense to the Lord.

As he burned the incense, the Archangel Gabriel in all his glory, appeared at the right side of the altar of incense.

As you can imagine, Zechariah was terrified.

Gabriel told him,

13"Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

17And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

Luke 1:13 & 17 (NIV)

Zechariah= s son would be the greatest prophet of all time, the prophet who would prepare the way for the Messiah. His son would be John the Baptizer.

God made the impossible, possible. God miraculously intervened in human history.

Elizabeth= s miraculous conception and birth of John:

Clearly foreshadows the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus.

John himself would be a sign to God’s people, that the Messiah was coming.

 

IV. The Miracle Child

When the Archangel Gabriel finally appeared to Mary, he came to deliver the most important message an angel had ever delivered:

The message that God had chosen her to bear the Messiah.

The message that she would carry the eternal Word in her womb.

The message that her son would "reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." (Luke 1:33)

Seven-hundred years earlier the prophet Isaiah had foretold the sign of the Messiah’s coming. From our Old Testament reading, Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14,

14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)

Many false Messiahs came and went, but how would they know if he was truly God’s Messiah?

His holiness of life.

His love for others.

His truthfulness.

His adherence to God’s Holy Word.

His fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic prophesies:

Born in Bethlehem – Micah 5:2.

He came up out of Egypt – Hosea 11:1.

They would pierce his hands and feet – Psalm 22:16-18.

His resurrection – Isaiah 53:10.

 

But the miraculous sign of the Messiah’s coming would be his virginal conception and birth:

14...the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [God with us].
Isaiah 7:14 (NIV)

 

When you see this sign, you know this is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, Emmanuel [God with us].

In today= s reading from Matthew chapter one, at first Joseph did not see Mary’s pregnancy as a glorious sign from God.

He saw it as the tragic end of his love relationship with Mary.

He saw it as evidence of her infidelity.

 

In the middle of the night God sent an angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream. He sent the angel to convince him of the truth:

That Mary had remained a virgin.

That her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

That no unfaithfulness had been involved.

That her virginal conception and coming birth of Jesus was in fact the long awaited miraculous sign of the Messiah.

Just as road signs point you in the right direction, throughout Scripture, God gives us signs, signs which point you to Him, signs which point you in the right direction.

The miraculous sign of Jesus’ virginal conception and birth, points us to the one true God, the God who loves you so much, he became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1).

May you ponder the sign of Jesus’ virgin birth.

May you search the Scriptures for the signs which will point you in the right direction.

Like Joseph and like Mel Gibson in the 2002 movie Signs,

May you not draw the wrong conclusions from what may seem like a tragedy.

May you constantly be looking for God’s miraculous signs to guide you into God’s perfect will, signs to bless and protect you.