The Good News that God became a human in the person of Jesus Christ for us and for our salvation should forever define our lives. The message was given on Dec 22, 2013 at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, go to www.NewCityChurch.ca.

1. What IF
God Was
One Of Us?
Matthew 1:18-25
image: Kent Landerholm

2. God Gives Us His Words of Eternal Life
Today’s Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25
Found on page 807 in our guest Bibles.

3. If God had a name,
what would it be?
And would you
call it to his face
If you were faced with
him in all His glory?
What would you ask if
you had just one
question…?

4. And yeah, yeah,
God is great
Yeah, yeah,
God is good,
yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah

5. What if God was
one of us? Just a slob
like one of us?
Just a stranger on the
bus trying to make
his way home?

7. “But will God indeed
dwell on the earth?
Behold, heaven and
the highest heaven
cannot contain
you….”
~ King Solomon,
in 1 Kings 8:27

8. What IF
God Was
One Of Us?
Matthew 1:18-25
image: Kent Landerholm

9. Be on the lookout
for clues about…
1 …the IDENTITY of Jesus
2 …the MISSION of Jesus

10. Matthew 1:18-19
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took
place in this way. When his mother
Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together she was
found to be with child from the Holy
Spirit. And her husband Joseph,

11. Matthew 1:18-19
being a just man and unwilling to
put her to shame, resolved to
divorce her quietly….

12. …the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of
Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a
man whose name was Joseph, of the house of
David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he
came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one,
the Lord is with you!”
~ The Gospel of Luke, 1:26ff

13. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and
tried to discern what sort of greeting this might
be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with God. And
behold, you will conceive in your womb a son,
and you shall call his name JESUS.
~ The Gospel of Luke, 1:26ff

14. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High. And the Lord God will give him the
throne of his father David, and he will reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom
there shall be no end….”
~ The Gospel of Luke, 1:26ff

15. And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be,
since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
power of the Most High will overshadow you;
therefore the child to be born will be called holy,
the SON OF GOD…. For nothing will be
impossible with God. ”
~ The Gospel of Luke, 1:26ff

16. Matthew 1:20-21
But as he considered these things,
behold, an angel appeared to him in
a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of
David, do not fear to take Mary as
your wife, for that which is conceived
in her is from the Holy Spirit.

17. Matthew 1:20-21
She will bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus, for he will
save his people from their sins….

18. Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the
Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and they shall
call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).

19. John MacArthur
Pastor-Teacher-Author
“If we could condense
all the truths of
Christmas into only
three words, these
would be the words:
‘God with us.’
We tend to focus our
attention at Christmas
on the infancy of
Christ.

20. John MacArthur
Pastor-Teacher-Author
“The greater truth of
the holiday is His
deity. More astonishing than a baby in the
manger is the truth
that this promised
baby is the omnipotent Creator of the
heavens and the
earth!”

21. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word
was God…And the
Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we
have seen his glory….
~ The Apostle John in
The Gospel of John 1:1, 14

22. “The Incarnation”
in·car·na·tion
the “en-flesh-ment”
or
the “embodiment”

23. “[The incarnation] is by far the most
amazing miracle of the entire Bible
– far more amazing than the
resurrection and more
amazing even than the
creation of the
universe.

24. “The fact that the infinite, omnipotent,
eternal Son of God could become man
and join himself to a human nature
forever, so that infinite God became
one person with finite man,
will remain for eternity
the most profound miracle
and the most profound
mystery in all the
universe.”
~ Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology

25. “Infinite and yet an infant.
Eternal and yet born of a
woman. Almighty, and yet
nursing at a woman’s
breast. Supporting the
universe, and yet needing
to be carried in a
mother’s arms. Heir of all
things, and yet the
carpenter’s despised
son.”
~ Charles Spurgeon
1843-1892

26. Matthew 1:24-25
When Joseph woke from sleep, he
did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but
knew her not until she had given
birth to a son. And he called his
name Jesus.

27. The Good News that
God became a human
in the person of Jesus Christ
for us and for our salvation
should forever define our lives.

28. 1
God in Christ
suffers with us.
image: Nicolas Raymond

29. 2
God in Christ suffered for us.
image: Christopher Brown

30. “No other religion—whether
secularism, Greco-Roman
paganism, Eastern religion,
Judaism or Islam—believes
God became breakable or had
a body. Eastern religion
believes the physical is
illusion. Greco-Romans believe
the physical is bad, Judaism
and Islam don’t believe God
would do such a thing as
live in the flesh….”
~ Pastor Tim Keller,
“The Gift of Christmas”

31. “The gift of Christmas
gives you a resource
—a comfort and
consolation— for
dealing with suffering,
because in it we see
God’s willingness to
enter this world of suffering
to suffer with us
and for us.”
~ Pastor Tim Keller,
“The Gift of Christmas”

32. “If God had a face,
what would it look
like? And would you
want to see if seeing
meant that you would
have to believe in
things like Jesus and
the saints and all the
prophets?”

33. Would you want to
see the face of
God if seeing
meant that you
would have to
believe in
Jesus…?
?

34. ~ The Apostle Paul
in 2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let
light shine out of
darkness,” has shone in
our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.

35. “ There is no reality more
breathtaking
than Jesus Christ. ”
~ John Piper, “The Dangerous Duty of Delight”

36. flickr images courtesy of:
Kent Landerholm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/landerholm/6565779779/
Nicolas Raymond: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80497449@N04/10011881004/
Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/