The Paradox of Christmas

Christmas is not a good place to play tokenism with God. The birth of Christ was either the most glorious event in the world or it is the damnation of a man's life and his destiny. You don't play around with the birth of Christ.

Imagine if the President of the United States moved from the White House to a run-down one-room shack, or if the King of England left Buckingham Palace for a cardboard box. That's a small picture of what happened the first Christmas, when Almighty God was born in the humblest of ways. John MacArthur is going to take you back 2,000 years to the staggering events surrounding Christ's birth. The lesson you are about to hear is titled, The Paradox of Christmas. If you have questions about the true meaning of Christmas, or maybe you want to make sure that those you love understand the holiday's lasting value, I urge you to stay tuned for a practical time in God's Word.

And now here's John with today's lesson. Our attention, of course, is drawn to Christmas. And as I was thinking about what I might share with you, I was struck again with the dichotomy between Christmas for the Christian and Christmas for the world, and I began to think about the paradox of Christmas. What is Christmas? For some it is peace toward men of good will. For the world it is mass confusion, furious, rushing around, and a rising suicide rate. That lovely night 2,000 years ago, one star lit the heaven and marked the spot where the Christ was born, where God was made flesh.

And today a million neon signs mark the spot where the sale begins, or where you can throw away your money buying what isn't needed and doesn't fit anyway. The first Christmas was a poor one, a manger, a stable. Our Christmas is a dazzling display of wealth beyond belief as millions of people spend millions of dollars to ignore the true meaning of Christmas. Once wise men came to worship Jesus, and today fools have parties of wickedness, ignoring all that Jesus came to accomplish. That's the paradox of Christmas.

Who does it belong to? And as I thought further about the paradox of Christmas, I thought about the great paradox of Christmas, who is Jesus Christ? And I began to look at some of the prophecies and I began to say, now I wonder what prophecies might be exciting for us to study in the look at the birth of Christ. And I came across the idea of the paradoxical prophecies. Did you know that the Old Testament is loaded with apparently contradictory prophecies about Christ?

Did you know that? For example, the prophet would sit down and the Holy Spirit would inspire him and he would write that there was coming a conqueror who would rule the world, who would be the Savior and Deliverer of men. The same prophet would sit down later and write about a man of sorrow who was lonely and rejected. The prophet would write about a King of glory, a King of heaven, eternal Savior, the desire of all nations. And then a prophet would sit down and write that there was no beauty, that men would desire him and that he was a servant, bloody, suffering, crucified and dead.

How do you resolve these things? The last of all the Old Testament prophets was trapped in the paradox. His name was John the Baptist. In fact, John was so confused that when he was a prisoner, he sent some of his disciples to Jesus and the record of that encounter is in the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew. And John was declaring the Messiah and he was saying certain things about the Messiah. You say, well what was he saying about the Messiah? Well he was saying that the Messiah was going to be a judge, that when the Messiah came, terrible things would happen. And so John says, for example, in Luke 3, 7, O generation of snakes, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

This was his message. John said, there's coming a Messiah and he is going to be a terrifying judge. In Matthew 3, 7 he said the same thing and in verse 10 he said, the axe is laid to the root of the trees and every tree which brings forth evil fruit or doesn't bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Verse 12, his fan is in his hand.

He'll thoroughly purge the floor, gather the wheat and the granary and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. That was John's message about the coming Messiah, foreboding, judgmental, damning. That's the Messiah that John anticipated. And then Jesus came and you know what he did? Mostly deeds of mercy and John didn't understand it.

And so he sends his disciples from his prison to inquire of Jesus. John was trapped in the paradox of prophecy. There is no way that an Old Testament prophet could ever understand all of the resolution of these things. The New Testament commentary makes sense out of all the paradox. Let's look at some of the paradoxes.

What are they? What are the paradoxes the prophets had a hard time with? The first one is the paradox of the God-man.

Point one, the paradox of the God-man. I want to show you two passages in Isaiah to begin with. Isaiah 7, 14 is the first. Here's the prophecy. Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign.

Now mark it, friends. The Lord is going to do something unusual. When it says the Lord is going to give you a sign, that's going to be something supernatural, right? So watch. Behold, the virgin shall conceive.

Now friends, you don't have to know much to know that's supernatural. A child born without a father, a virgin shall conceive. You say, oh Alma can mean young woman. And some of the liberal translations translate it that way. No, Alma may mean young woman, yes. In the Old Testament, Alma is always used a virgin. The Septuagint uses it a virgin.

The New Testament comment is quoting this uses the word virgin. And could you imagine that it says this? The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a woman will have a baby. That isn't a sign.

That's going on all the time. The very language indicates the supernatural. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

Now here is amazing. And His name shall be called Immanuel. You say, what's so important about that? I know somebody named Immanuel.

I'll tell you what's important about that. That only became a name because of that verse. El, those two letters e-l, that's God. El Shaddai, El Makedishkim, El Elyon, Bethel is the house of God. Those two letters mean God. Immanuel-el means God with us. Notice you have a paradox. A son who is God. Now wait a minute.

How can that be? A child born of a woman who is God? Look at Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9, 6, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

I can handle that. The government shall be upon His shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace. How could a child be born who is the Mighty God?

The paradox is clear. There's a child, he is human, he is God. A woman will bring forth a son who made the woman who brought forth the son.

Could it be? If Scripture is true, it better be. I draw you to Luke chapter 1, verse 30. And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be called the Son of the Highest.

There's none higher. And Mary had the same problem the prophets did. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be?

Seeing I know not a man, never had a relationship with a man, how could I have a baby? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now you see, the prophecy was, Mary, you'll have a baby but it won't be just an ordinary baby, it will be a holy thing. Is any baby ever born into the world holy?

No. This is unusual and the Son of God, Son not in the sense of offspring, Son in the sense of incarnate servitude. He is God, He is man. How can one be the Son of Man and yet have no human father and be born the seed of a woman when a woman has no seed and be the creator of that woman at the same time? No wonder the prophets wondered.

God did it so there couldn't be a counterfeit. Jesus was all of these. He was God and He was man, the Word made flesh. He was the seed of the woman, virgin born without a human father. Galatians 4 says He was born of a woman. He was the Son of Man. He said Himself in Luke 19, 10, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He is the Son of God, read Hebrews 1, verse 2 and verse 5. But I know Jesus said this, John 14, 9, He that hath seen Me...what?

...has seen the Father. That's a paradox, friends. That's the paradox of Christmas. The babe was God. Let me give you another one, the paradox of the line of Judah.

This is fascinating. Go back to Genesis 49, 10, the paradox of the line of Judah. You know that as far back as Genesis, the prophet Moses makes the statement that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah.

That's a problem as we'll see. Genesis 49, 10, there's 50 chapters so it's near the end. The scepter shall not depart from Judah. The scepter was the symbol of a king, the right to rule. The scepter will not depart from Judah. In other words, there'll be no king outside the line of Judah until Shiloh come. Shiloh means the one to whom it belongs or the one who's right it is.

And unto him shall all the gathering of the people be. Now watch, whoever this king is, he's going to come from what tribe? Judah. And no other tribe is going to have a king. Now He took the twelve tribes of Israel and narrowed it down to one tribe and said He'll come from Judah.

So you say, what's so paradoxical about that? I mean, Moses wrote that down. Well listen, Moses wrote a few other things too that must have confused him.

Go back to chapter 38 and I'll show you one of the most interesting incidents in Genesis. Judah, now remember, Messiah is going to come from Judah's line. Judah was an evil man and he found that he was going along there thinking probably evil thoughts and his son had died and left him a daughter-in-law. His daughter-in-law covered herself up, went out where Judah was going to come and apparently he was in the market for a prostitute and she played the part. She seduced by harlotry Judah into committing relationships with her and apparently he never even took her veil off to see who she was. And so Judah, through whom was to come the godly line, David and Christ, had committed adultery with his own daughter-in-law. Look what happens in chapter 38 verse 24. But he didn't know it. It came to pass after three months.

That's about how long it takes to tell whether anything has resulted from the relationship. And it was told Judah saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law has played the harlot and also behold she is with child by harlotry. And Judah said, bring her forth and let her be burned. Oh, that self-righteous pride, a double standard. You know, according to Deuteronomy 22, you stoned people for that.

Burning is mentioned in Leviticus 20, 14 and 21, 9 only in cases of excessive crime. He was really playing self-righteous. And when she was brought forth, she said to her father-in-law saying, by the man whose these are am I with child. And she said, discern I pray thee whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff. And when she seduced him, she took those things from him in order that she might come back at him with them. Whose are these, Judah? And it dawned on him.

Horrible thing. Judah acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous than I because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. You see, when a Jewish son died, if there was an eligible son left, his wife was handed over to that eligible son.

He didn't do that. And he knew her again no more. He ceased from the sin. It came to pass in the time of her travail, twins were in her womb. It came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand. This is interesting, the midwife took and bound on his hand a scarlet thread saying, this came out first. He started to come out and she wrapped that thing around, but he pulled his hand back. And his brother came out, 29. Must have been a little hassle in there.

What are you doing here? You see, the breach is upon you and his name was called Perez. And afterward came out, his brother had the scarlet thread upon his hand, his name was called Zerah. So out of Judah's sin were born twins Perez and Zerah.

You say, what's so significant about this? Moses wrote that. Moses wrote that Judah by harlotry had illegitimate children. Moses also wrote that the Messiah's line would not cease from the tribe of Judah. But Moses also wrote this, Deuteronomy 23 2, a bastard shall not enter the congregation of the Lord.

He shall not again, he says in verse 2, enter the congregation of the Lord. If the offspring of Judah is an illegitimate, cursed line, how could David ever reign? And if David never reign, then Messiah could never be the son of the king. He could never inherit David's throne. Well Moses must have scratched his head and said, how can it be in Judah when Judah is an illegitimate offspring? And how can Messiah come from such illegitimacy? Ah, but Moses also wrote this in Deuteronomy 23 2, a bastard shall not enter the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, up to the tenth generation. At the tenth generation the curse was removed. I draw your attention to Matthew chapter 1 and I want to show you something. It's fantastic. Verse 3, you say, are there anything in these genealogies of interest?

Oh, fabulous. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brethren. How do we come to Judah in verse 3? And Judah illegitimately begot Peres and Zerah of Tamar.

Now notice this. Peres begot Hezron, that's two. Hezron begot Ram, three. Ram begot Abinadab, four.

Abinadab begot Nahshon, five. Nahshon, Solomon, six. Nahshon, Boaz, seven. Boaz, Obed, eight.

Obed, Jesse, nine. Jesse begot David, how many? The curse was removed at David. You see, God does things exactly and precisely according to His Word so that when David was born as the tenth generation from the sin, the curse was what? Eliminated and David had every right to enter the congregation of the Lord and the messianic line was purified. That's how accurate God's Word is. All the paradoxes are beautifully resolved.

Let me give you another one. The paradox of the right to the throne. The Messiah was to be a king. It was clear in the prophecies. That's what the word Messiah means, the anointed one. He was to inherit David's throne.

He was to take the scepter that he really had the right to. Now in the New Testament genealogy, if you're looking at Matthew 1, you're in the right spot. The legal right to the throne is passed through Solomon to Joseph. I want you to notice, if there was a king in Israel and there wasn't a legitimate king, if there was a legitimate ruling king in Israel, it would have been Joseph, the father of Jesus, because he came in the kingly line. Now David had many descendants.

Mark it. David had many descendants, but which descendant received the kingly right? The firstborn. So it was through Solomon that the kingly right came. The other descendants of David had royal blood and there was a royal line, but the kingly right went to the firstborn. So from the firstborn came the kingly line.

Now notice, here we go in verse 6 of Matthew 1. Jesse begot David the king and David the king begot Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba. Solomon begot, here comes all the list of the kings of Judah. Now note, Jeconiah is the last king. There has never been a king in Israel since Jeconiah, never. Jeconiah's son tried and failed.

The Babylonian captivity ended the ruling of Israel's own kings. You see, the right to become king came through Joseph. Mary didn't descend from Jeconiah's line. No, Mary didn't come through Solomon.

You can read in Luke 3. Mary's line came through Nathan, another son of David. She was royal and she was David's line and she had to be right to be the mother of Messiah, had to be a son of David. But if he had only been born of the son of Mary, he couldn't have inherited the kingly right because that had to come through Joseph. There was only one man in all Israel who had to be his father, a man named Joseph, the only man who could be, the firstborn of Jacob who had the right to rule. But he couldn't exercise the right. There weren't any kings in those times.

You say, well why couldn't there be a king? Go back to Jeremiah 22, I'll show you a fascinating prophecy. Jeremiah 22 verse...well 30, let's look at 30. Thus saith the Lord, write this man childless.

What man? Verse 28, Coniah. Now that's Jeconiah, same man. Now that doesn't mean he'll never have children. It means that a man shall not prosper in his days. No man of his seed shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.

Now watch this. Here is a prophet saying, Messiah will be a king. He will come from Judah. He will come through the line of David. You go down the line of David, you come to Jeconiah. The prophet says, no offspring of Jeconiah will ever rule. Now how in the world can you resolve the prophecies for a king through David and the prophecy that no son of Jeconiah will ever rule?

How can it be? Well back to Matthew 1. Look at verse 16. And Jacob begot Joseph. Now watch, the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus. Did you know that it says, and so and so begotten, so and so begotten, so and so begotten, so and so begotten, and Jacob begot Joseph and Joseph begot Jesus?

Is that what it said? I don't know because if Joseph had begotten Jesus, Jesus would have inherited the curse of Jeconiah and never been able to reign though he had the right. He would have inherited the physical curse. So watch, Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom in the Greek, beloved, that is a feminine construction. Feminine, watch this, singular.

Isn't that something? Feminine, you don't have children in the singular. Of whom was born Jesus. Jesus had to be born of David's line. He was born of Mary. He had to inherit the right to the throne without the curse so Joseph had to be his legal father but couldn't be his earthly father. Do you see it?

Absolute fulfillment. Listen, beloved, when God writes history, He writes it right. So the paradox of God-man, the paradox of the line of Judah, the paradox of the right to rule, let me give you a last one. Paradox of the stone.

When you think about Christmas, you think about a baby. Drop that, would you, for a minute and think about a stone. Think about a rock.

Nothing could be further to the opposite end of things, but think of it that way. Because the Old Testament presents the coming Messiah as a stone. And interestingly enough, in Isaiah you have two views of the stone. Isaiah 8, 14, and He shall be for a sanctuary. But, watch this, for a stone of stumbling, for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now here is coming the Messiah is going to be a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.

Not a very inviting picture. Later on Isaiah says this, 28, 16, Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Isaiah must be scratching his head saying, I don't understand God. He is a stumbling stone. He is a rock of offense and then all of a sudden He is precious. How could a stumbling stone and a rock of offense be a precious cornerstone? Psalm 118, 22 says, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. And there you have the idea of the cornerstone. How could one person be stumbling stone, rock of offense, cornerstone, precious stone, tested stone, sure foundation?

And then Daniel throws in, just to make it extremely difficult, a smiting stone. How could one be all of those? Jesus was, listen to 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 6. And here Peter quotes Isaiah 8, Isaiah 28, and Psalm 118, the three I just read.

He quotes them all in one passage. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious. He that believes on him shall not be confounded. Under you therefore who believe he is precious, unto them who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to them who stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto they were appointed. Notice, Peter says, Yes, he is all of these stones. The difference is this, he is precious to you who what? Who believe.

He is offensive to you who do not. Listen, Christmas is not a good place to play tokenism with God. The birth of Christ was either the most glorious event in the world or it is the damnation of a man's life and his destiny. You don't play around with the birth of Christ. You can celebrate it with joy only if you believe and that stone is precious because if you do not, Christ is a stumbling stone.

He is a rock of offense. And the word offense in the Greek is skandalon. It is the crooked stick that is used in a trap. The bait is placed.

When the bait is grabbed, the stick snaps the trap and kills the victim. That's Jesus Christ. He is deadly or he is precious.

But tokenism in the middle is a disaster. The rock of offense, the word petra pictures a huge rock bed against which men smash themselves. What is this Christ to you this Christmas? Is he precious? Is he the cornerstone on which you build your life?

Is he a sure foundation? Or is he a stumbling stone, a rock of offense set to ensnare and trap you? Don't let Satan hustle you into believing that you can pay tokenist homage to Jesus and get by. He is either to you precious or he is a smiting, crushing stone.

That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson on Grace to You can help you get ready for the upcoming holiday. It's titled, The Paradox of Christmas. John, you said today that there should be a stark difference between how the world celebrates Christmas and how the church marks the holiday.

And I'm wondering, what does that look like practically? How do we make sure that our celebration is different from the world's? Well, I think we just focus on the person of Christ in our own personal lives, in our church life, in our family life, with our friends and acquaintances. And obviously the world ignores the reality of Christ at Christmas and just has a big party. But as I said a few days ago, this is an opportunity for us to make Christ the center for that one season and proclaim the gospel.

So, I think if I could give you some good ideas about what to do, I'd start by reminding you of the following books that we have available. The first one is God's Gift of Christmas. It's a beautiful, colorful gift book that examines the most encouraging truths, truths that tend to get lost in the busyness of the holiday season. It's the most important truth in the world.

It's the salvation that is brought by the Son of God who came into the world. The book is The Gift of Christmas, 120 pages. You can read it as a family. You can order many to give to your friends. And secondly, Christmas is a great time to give someone the MacArthur Study Bible.

It's been out since 1997. Millions of them have circulated around the world in, I think, about 12 languages now. It includes 25,000 footnotes that explain the scripture text, give you background so that you understand what you're reading. It brings the Bible to life, and it comes in the New American Standard, which I've used to teach for decades.

You can also get it in the New King James and the ESV, and then in many non-English versions. That's right, and friend, God's Gift of Christmas and the MacArthur Study Bible both make ideal gifts to share with unbelievers, young believers, or those who simply want to set their worship more on Christ this Christmas. To get God's Gift of Christmas or the MacArthur Study Bible for yourself, or get a few to give away, contact us today. You can order by calling 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. Our number again, 800-55-GRACE and our website, gty.org.

God's Gift of Christmas costs $9 and shipping is free in the U.S. Call 800-55-GRACE or use our website, gty.org. And just a reminder that Grace To You is listener supported. It's listeners like you that help change lives in your area and around the world by connecting people with verse-by-verse Bible teaching through your support. To partner with us, mail your tax-deductible gift to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California 91412. You can also donate at our website, gty.org, or speak to a customer service member at 800-55-GRACE.

That's our toll-free line, 800-55-47223. Thank you for your help in taking these sermons, like the one you heard today from John's study, The Real Meaning of Christmas, to people who are hungry for the truth. Now for John MacArthur and our entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Be sure to watch Grace To You television this Sunday or watch anytime at gty.org, and then be here Monday as John continues unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You. .