Opening — Matthew 1 Read at the Start

(The service opens with a reading of Matthew 1:18–25.)

“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, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 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). 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.”

Welcome — Would You Have Believed It?

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas! Welcome to Big Valley Grace Community Church; I’m so glad that you’re here; I’m glad that we’ve come to worship the Lord together. If today is your first time at Big Valley Grace Community Church, a warm welcome from all of us to you — we are so glad that you’re here. If today is your first time in a long time, we want to say welcome back. We hope that we can help you make coming to church a regular part of your life — every week, Sundays at 9:00 a.m., at this same time, at this same place, we gather to worship, and we’d love to have you with us every week.

Today we’re going to be in the text that we just heard on the screen, which is Matthew chapter 1. If you have a Bible, take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 1. If you don’t have a Bible, we would like to give you a Bible. We have a room over here — there’s a sign above the door that says “the altar” — it’s a room we’ve set aside for anyone who needs prayer, and we have Bibles in there that the church has purchased. We’d like to give it to you as a gift if you do not have a copy of God’s word. So please come and get a Bible if you need one.

Before we read our text again, I want to begin with this question: What has happened in your life that, if you would have been told ahead of time, you would not have believed it? What has happened in your life that, if God would have told you ahead of time it was going to happen, you wouldn’t have believed him? As we walk through our time of teaching today from God’s word, there’s going to be multiple places where I’m going to share from my family’s experience — where if God would have told us what he was going to do, we would not have believed him.

This is Matthew chapter 1, beginning in verse 18: “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, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 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 Emmanuel’ — which means, God with us.”

Let’s pray together. Father God, Lord, thank you for your word; thank you for the Bible; thank you for the holy Scriptures. Lord, would your voice be the loudest voice in the room today. God, we pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work in our lives. For those of us who are followers of Jesus and we have faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, would the Scriptures confirm and affirm our faith in you. For those of us, Lord, who are here and we have questions and we’re doubting, God, would you do a great work that no one else can do but you — that you would open up hearts and minds and draw people to yourself through the message of your word, by the power of your Holy Spirit. And so, God, we recognize we’re in desperate need of you to do what we cannot do, and so, Lord, we look to see you work; we expect to see you work; we desire for you to work; so we say, please, Lord, be at work. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, and all God’s family said, amen.

Consider Him — and Bring Your Questions

In this text it says that when Joseph learned the information that the woman he was engaged to was pregnant, he considered what he was hearing. He considered it. And the Scriptures teach that when Mary found out that she was going to become pregnant and she had never been with a man, she responded with, “How can this be?” She brought her question. And you might be here today and there’s things that you’re going to hear from God’s word and you need to consider what you’re hearing; and you might be here today and as you hear God’s word you have questions, and you’re going to need to bring your questions. So my encouragement is: consider him — consider Jesus — and whatever it is that you have questions about, bring those questions to Jesus, and see how Jesus, using his word and his Spirit, might want to address some of the things you have questions about.

So why had the prophet foretold about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel? Out of context, this is very odd; this is very strange; it’s very unique; it’s very different; it’s not common; it’s not normal. Why had the prophet foretold about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel? Well, this prophecy is the coming-together point of many threads of God’s story — of many places of God’s action in history, of his story of creation and his story of redemption. This prophecy about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel is the moment where it all comes together into one place.

There was a situation that occurred in my family — the pieces of the situation were so unlikely to happen at the same time that, as we observed all these different things from different directions coming together in one moment, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. In fact, my son, who was about fourteen or fifteen at the time, said this: “I feel like my life is a movie.” Maybe you’ve felt that way before, where so many things are coming together at the same time and in the same place, and you’re like, what is actually happening? Am I actually living in this moment right now? Is this real? Well, when we look at the prophecy about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel, it’s like the moment in a movie where all the pieces come together — all the aspects of the story come together; they all come together to meet in one moment.

The First Promise — God’s Promise to Abram

God made three promises, and these three promises are going to help explain why the prophet had foretold about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel. We’ll look at each of these promises, and it’s going to help us see the thread of how all these pieces of the story come together in this prophecy about a virgin.

The first promise was God’s promise to Abram. Now, Abram’s name was changed to Abraham after he received the promise — you might be more familiar with the name Abraham than Abram, but his name was Abram when he received the promise. And this is what it says about how God brought a promise to Abraham: “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

So God brings this promise to Abram. It’s about a land, and it’s about a nation, and it’s about how Abram’s going to be blessed and everyone else is going to be blessed because of him. Well, there came a moment later in the historical account where Abram was trying to figure out what to do with his inheritance, what to do with his estate — and he did not have a son yet. And so he was inquiring whether he should give his estate to one of the servants in his household, and God came to him again and clarified the promise and expanded the promise that he had made to Abram: “And God brought Abram outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

So God now comes and confirms the promise that he made to Abram — that the way the nation would come about is that Abram would have a son; in fact, that son would turn into a nation that had so many you would not be able to number all the people that would be his offspring. So God promised to Abram: a land, a son that would turn into a nation whose offspring you wouldn’t be able to number, and a blessing — that Abram would be blessed and would be a blessing to the entire world.

Now, after this occurred, there came a moment where God was telling Abram, “About this time next year you’re going to have your son.” And Abram’s wife Sarai — her name was later changed to Sarah — Sarai heard that God was telling Abram, “About this time next year you’re going to have a son,” and when Sarah heard it, she laughed. And the Scriptures say that she gave an explanation for why she laughed, because she was old — golden age — and she said, “Am I now, as an old woman, going to be able to have the pleasure of having a son in my old age?”

There was a moment in my family where we found out that we were going to have a son, and we laughed. The story of my family in the short version goes like this. We had three sons the good old-fashioned way, and at that moment I began to realize the fact that only sons are coming out is my fault — I’m the contributor for the fact that we have three sons. And so we thought, well, if we’re going to have a daughter, we need to balance things out here a little bit — maybe we need to go find a girl and bring her into our home. So we went and adopted a little girl, and we now had four children: three sons and a daughter. And we thought, surely at four kids we are done. We are in minivan territory, and so this is the moment we should stop. So my wife went and had a procedure so that we would no longer have children, and we got it confirmed and everything’s A-okay.

And a few years later, my wife became pregnant. So we went and saw Dr. Johnson — he’s now retired since then — and we said, “Doc, we’re pregnant.” And Doc walked into the room and he said this: “After thirty years — congratulations, you’re our first failure.” And I said, “No problem, Doc, just write the check for college and we’ll call it good.” But my wife and I laughed when we found out that we were having a son. That son’s now twelve; he’s in the room right now — I won’t point to him. But if we would have heard what God was going to do in our family ahead of time, we would not have believed that it was going to happen.

The Second Promise — God’s Promise to David

God made a promise to Abram; God also made a promise to David. This is King David — David the son of Jesse, of Bethlehem and Judah, Israel’s greatest king. And when God made a promise to David, he was making a promise that was adding on to the promise that he had already made to Abram. It says, “Moreover” — so, in addition to what he had confirmed to David about how he had promised to Abram — “the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son… And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

So in addition to the promise that God had already made to Abram about a land and a son and a blessing, God adds to this promise and he narrows it down to David — to Judah, of Israel. And he says that David is going to have a house. And when God promises David a house, it means dynasty — he’s going to have a dynasty, a house. God promised to David a house and a throne: that someone from David’s line, a descendant of David, would sit on the throne, and that it would last forever — there would always be someone to sit on the throne of David, of that house.

And in the context of God bringing David this promise, God reminded David of where he took David from. And he said, “David, I took you from the pasture — following sheep around in the pasture, I took you from the pasture following sheep around, and I raised you up to be the prince of Israel.” David would have had no idea what God was going to do with his life until God showed up and did something that was far beyond something David would believe or understand.

If God would have told me what he was going to do with my life, I would not have believed him. Big Valley Grace Community Church used to be on Staniford Avenue — 605 Staniford Avenue. I grew up across the street, 409 Redford Lane, two blocks that direction. I’m a kid from the neighborhood, two blocks over there. And years ago someone said to me, “You know, I think you should be a pastor,” and I said, “You’re crazy. The fact that you think I should be a pastor means you don’t know who I am and you don’t know what I’ve done. They don’t hire guys like me to be a pastor” — and yet here I am, and here you are. As I was dating, and engaged, and then married to my wife Sarah, my wife said, “I will never be married to a pastor.” If you would have told my wife and I, “This is what God’s going to do in your life,” we would not have believed it. If God would have come to us ahead of time and told us, “This is how I’m going to work in your life,” my wife and I would not have believed what he was going to do with us.

The Threat Against the Promised Son — and the Sign of the Virgin

God made a promise to David. Now, there came a moment — 734 BC, so we’re going back in time — where there came a threat, and the threat came against the promised son. Remember: to Abram there was promised a land and a blessing; to David, a house and a throne that lasts forever. And so this promise to Judah, of Israel, was threatened in 734 BC. A threat came against the promised son, and this is how the threat came: “Because Syria, and Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves,’ and then — here is where the threat is — ‘and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.’” In other words: we want to take a son from a different kingly line and place it on the throne of Judah, of Israel. We want to replace and put a different son on the throne.

And so the threat came to what they understood was a land, and a son, and a blessing, and a house, and a throne forever. And this threat came in the form of a nation wanting to put their own king’s son on the throne. This is the context for when the prophecy about a virgin conceiving and bearing a son came. This is the context into which that prophecy about a virgin who was going to conceive and bear a son — and he would be Emmanuel, God with us — this is the historical heading for where this prophecy came in.

And so later on in that same text, we see it in Isaiah 7: “Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ‘Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.’” Sheol is the Old Testament word for, like, the underworld. So he’s saying, as deep as you can think and as high as you can imagine — “You ask me to do anything; that’s as deep as you can think and as high as you can think, because I’m going to give you a sign.” So there’s no boundaries — however big you can dream, I’m going to give you a sign. And Ahaz, who was not a good king, said, “I will not ask.” It’s always bad when God asks us to do something and then we tell him, “I’m not going to do it.” “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.” So it’s like God is saying: I am tired of messing around with you; you’re not doing what I ask; I’m going to give you a sign to confirm my promise — my promise about a land, a son, a blessing, a house, a throne that lasts forever. I’m going to give you a sign, and this is the sign I’m going to give you: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.”

As deep as Sheol and as high as the heavens — God’s saying, I’m going to do a sign that is so deep and so high, you’ll never have seen anything like it before: a virgin’s going to conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel. This is the God of creation, who made the earth, who made the sun, who made the stars, who made the universe. It is the God of creation who made everything — there is nothing that is out of his ability. And he said, I’m going to give you a sign — something you’ve never seen before. There’s going to be a virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel.

So this virgin conceiving and bearing a son named Emmanuel was foretold by the prophet to confirm God’s promise with a miracle. And this is not just any miracle. This is a miracle that changed everything. This is a miracle that opened up a way for us to know God. This is a miracle that opened up a path for us to have peace with God. This is a miracle that opened up for us to have salvation.

The Third Promise — God’s Promise to You

Which brings us to the third promise. We’ve already looked at God’s promise to Abram, and God’s promise to David, and the threat that came against that promise — which is why we have the prophecy of the virgin birth. And the third promise is this: it’s God’s promise to you. And who are you? You are made in God’s image. Who are you? You are loved by God. Who are you? God wants you to know him, and God has made a promise to you.

Now, because of the impact of sin in my life and the impact of sin in your life, our relationship with God is separated — we have a severed relationship, which means we need a Savior, a Savior from our sins. Which brings us back to the Christmas text that we started with — and the reason we refer to it as a Christmas text is because it’s about the birth of Jesus. Let’s go back to Matthew chapter 1, in verse 20: “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’”

When the angel came to Mary, the angel explained how this was going to happen, with these terms: that the Holy Spirit was going to come upon Mary, that the power of the Most High God was going to overshadow Mary, and that the child that was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit would be holy — and it would be the Son of God. So what is God’s promise to you? Well, God has promised to you salvation from sin in Jesus. That is God’s promise to you. God has promised to you salvation from sin in Jesus — Jesus, who was born of a virgin; Jesus, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; Jesus, who is Emmanuel, God with us.

Now, why? Why a virgin? Why a prophecy so deep as Sheol and so high as heaven? Why did God choose to use a virgin birth? Well, one of the things the virgin birth shows us is that only God can bring salvation — because only God was able to do something as deep as Sheol and as high as the heavens. Only God was able to do this; only God is able to bring salvation. Another thing the virgin birth shows us is the method in which God chose to unite full deity — which means fully being God — full deity and full humanity. The virgin birth is the method God chose to use to unite full deity and full humanity. Another thing we learn because of the virgin birth is that the virgin birth is how God chose to bring about the possibility that there could be someone who was truly human yet without sin. The virgin birth shows us how God chose to bring about a true human who was without sin.

The Bible affirms the virgin birth; the Bible teaches the virgin birth; the Scriptures teach the virgin birth. And so we will do well to accept the virgin birth, because the Bible teaches that it’s true. To not accept the virgin birth is to not accept the truth of the Scriptures; to not accept the truth of the Scriptures is to not accept the God of the Scriptures. So to disbelieve in the virgin birth is to disbelieve God, because God has said that the virgin birth occurred.

The Threat of Unbelief — and Jesus’ Words About Believing

Now, in the same way that in 734 BC a threat came against the promised son, in 2024 AD — right here, right now, today, in this very moment — there is a threat. There is a threat that comes against your salvation, and that threat is directly related to unbelief. This is what Jesus has to say about unbelief: “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard; his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

Jesus has more to say about this subject: “And when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment — concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.” Jesus said, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

The problem of unbelief is a problem that has impacted every single person. Every person has been impacted by the problem of unbelief — even the people that Jesus was closest to during his earthly ministry; they struggled with unbelief. It says this about the eleven disciples — the twelfth disciple was Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, but the eleven disciples, this is what it says about the eleven: after he appeared — it’s referring to after he was resurrected from the grave — “after he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.” Unbelief is a huge threat that comes against our salvation — the promise that God has for us, that we would have salvation from our sin in Jesus Christ.

There’s many places in my life that I would not have believed if God would have told me ahead of time, “This is what he’s going to do.” I’ll give you some examples. There was a day that my wife received a phone call, and the person on the other side of the phone call said, “There’s a little girl who needs a safe place to sleep tonight. Can you be that safe place?” And forty-five minutes later, that little girl showed up. That little girl never left. She still eats dinner at my table every night, and she’s sitting in the room right now — I won’t point her out. But I would not have believed you if you had told me that that was what God was going to do in our life.

On October 11th, 2017, three children joined my home on the same day: a thirteen-year-old, a six-year-old, and a three-month-old. If you had told me that that was going to be something that God was going to do in my life, I would not have believed you — that that’s what God would have done. The story of my family is so wild, it’s so crazy, it’s so outrageous, it breaks all the rules. If you’d have told me, “This is what God is going to do with your life,” we wouldn’t have believed it. Here’s a picture of my family: my wife and I have nine children; we’re a family of eleven. This last year our family’s tending to grow exponentially, and we’re up to fifteen. I got a grandbaby due January 4th — I’m super excited, all right? Super excited. But my wife and I wouldn’t have believed it if you had said, “This is what God is going to do with your life.” We wouldn’t have believed him if he had told us ahead of time.

Jesus helps us as we struggle with disbelief. He says, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Jesus died on the cross for my sin, for your sin, for the sins of the entire world, that we might be able to have salvation — because Jesus has paid the price for our sin. Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Jesus Christ died on the cross, and he was dead, and he was buried; he was put in a tomb; he was dead. But he did not stay dead, because he was resurrected — he was raised to new life. And because Jesus Christ conquered death and conquered the grave and has resurrected life, he is now able to invite us in to the life that he has — the resurrection life that he has. Jesus said, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

The problem of unbelief is a huge threat to your salvation from sin. God’s promises foretold to Abram — they came true. God’s promises foretold to David — they came true. God’s promises foretold to Judah, of Israel — they’ve all come true. Every promise that God made that was to come true by this time in history — they’ve all come true. And my encouragement would be that today is the day to believe God’s promise to you. Today is the day to believe God’s promise to you.

Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” The word “gospel” means good news. It is good news that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sin. It is good news that Jesus was resurrected from the grave. It is good news that we have salvation in Jesus, and in him alone. That is all good news. The word “repentance” means to turn around — it’s an about-face; it’s a 180; it’s going in a new direction; it’s moving away from sin and moving towards Jesus. It is good news.

“Do Not Fear, Only Believe” — and a Time of Prayer

Maybe you can relate to some of the people who struggled to believe in Scripture. Jesus said to a man whose daughter had just died, “Do not fear; only believe.” If you are full of fear — you are not alone. There are many who are full of fear, and what Jesus communicates to us when we are full of fear is: fear not — believe. Maybe you can relate to a father of a boy who had a demon, who cried out to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” It’s like saying, “I’m there; I’m not there.” And maybe you’re here and you’re struggling with doubt. If you are doubting, you are not alone; there are many who are doubting, and you can do the same thing that this father of this boy did: he asked Jesus for help, and you can ask Jesus to help you believe.

Maybe you can relate to what Jesus said to two blind men: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” In other words, do you believe that I’m able to heal you? Maybe you need God to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. And if you need God to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself, you are not alone — because there are many who need God to do something for them that they cannot do for themselves. And the encouragement from this is to believe that God is able. Jesus said, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

It all comes down to one decision: do you believe Jesus? Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you? Do you believe that he was born of a virgin, and that he was holy, and he was sinless? Do you believe that he was resurrected from the grave? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord God, and that he is Savior for your sin? Do you believe?

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment” — which means you will not die in your sins and pay the penalty for your sins — “he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life,” from spiritual death to spiritual life. There is only one way for all of us to be forgiven of our sin and to experience eternal life, and that is through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only way for us to experience forgiveness of our sin.

This is what John 3 says, and it explains what happens to a person when they believe in Jesus. Jesus said, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” This passage explains what happens to a person when they believe in Jesus.

How does someone stay condemned because of their sin? According to this, a person stays condemned in their sin because they do not believe in the name of the only Son of God. The way we stay condemned in our sin is by not believing in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the Savior for our sin.

If you’re struggling with unbelief, you are not alone. If you are struggling with doubt, you are not alone. We all doubted until we stopped doubting; we all had unbelief until we began believing. And I want you to know, there is opposition for you to believe. There is a real opposition for you to believe in Jesus Christ. Your enemy is not Jesus. Your enemy has a name, and the name is Satan. And Satan would like to do everything within his power to keep you in doubt and to keep you in unbelief. The enemy does not want you to believe in Jesus Christ. So in addition to your struggle of doubt and unbelief, there is a real opposition that is working against you right now, and you need to be aware: you’ve got an enemy that’s trying to keep you from coming to Jesus.

This is what that passage says — these are phrases directly from the passage; I want you to see all the phrases on the screen at the same time. It says: whoever believes in Jesus may have eternal life — that’s life with God forever in heaven; should not perish — that means you wouldn’t be condemned to death, eternal death, apart from God; that you would be saved through him — that means you would have forgiveness of your sin, salvation of your soul, because of Jesus Christ; and that you would not be condemned — condemned to eternal death. This is what the Bible describes of what happens to a person when they believe in Jesus: whoever believes in Jesus may have eternal life, should not perish, is saved through him, and is not condemned.

Now, we’re going to enter into a time to pray, because I want to give people an opportunity to pray and to come to faith in Jesus Christ. And if you’re a believer — if you’re a follower of Jesus — I would challenge you to do a few things. I would challenge you to be praying and to say, “God, thank you for confirming my faith; thank you for affirming my trust in you; God, thank you that I have salvation.” And I would challenge you, as a follower of Jesus, as a believer, to be praying for those who are here who are hearing the gospel message and they are struggling with doubt and struggling with unbelief — that you would be a part of the prayer team for their life right now.

And for those of you who are here and you want to believe, and you want help to believe, I’m going to lead us through praying through the passage we just looked at, and I’m just going to give you some prompts that you could pray to God, that you might ask God to help you believe in Jesus. So let’s pray together.

If you’re here and you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re thanking God, and you’re praying for those who are yet to know him. And if you’re here and you want to know God — you want to believe in Jesus — I would encourage you with what this passage teaches. It says, “Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” I would encourage you to pray: “God, will you help me believe in Jesus? God, would you help me believe in Jesus, so that I might have eternal life?” It says, “For God so loved the world.” I would encourage you to pray: “God, thank you that you love me.” It says that “he gave his only Son.” I would encourage you to thank God that he gave Jesus for you. “That whoever believes in him should not perish.” I think it would be appropriate for you to pray and say, “God, help me to believe in Jesus, because I do not want to perish because of my sin. God, help me believe in Jesus, because I do not want to perish for my sin.” It says, “But have eternal life.” “God, I need eternal life. God, will you help me have eternal life? God, would you help me believe in Jesus so that I can have eternal life?” I would encourage you to pray that to God. It says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” I would encourage you to pray: “God, I need to be saved by you. God, I need to be saved by you.” It says, “Whoever believes in Jesus may have eternal life, should not perish, is saved through him, and is not condemned.”

And if you’re here and this is your moment — this is your moment to believe — you’re part of the “whoever believes in Jesus”; you’re part of the whoever. And that you would say to God: “God, I need Jesus. I need Jesus to save me. I can’t save myself, and there’s no other way for me to be saved. So God, will you please save me because of Jesus.”

And Father God, I pray for all of those who are praying right now — God, that whatever’s going on in their heart and their mind, and as they’re praying, that you would bridge the gap between the work that only you can do — your work of redemption, your work of salvation, your work of moving people from eternal death to eternal life. God, we recognize you’re the only one who does that work, and so, God, we’re asking for you to be at work, and would you bridge the gap between where people are praying right now and your work of redemption, that you might be glorified — that you alone would be glorified in this moment. And I pray this in Jesus’ name, and all God’s family said, amen.

Celebrating Spiritual Birthdays

Now, as a follower of Jesus, there is so much to celebrate, because we are in Jesus Christ — every day is a day to celebrate because we are in Jesus Christ. And we are about to enter into a moment where, as followers of Jesus, we enter into a time of great celebration — celebrating that we have faith in Jesus. But one of the things that we don’t want to miss is celebrating with the individuals who are coming to know Jesus today. This is what the Scriptures teach: “But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” — who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So when we come to faith in Jesus, we become a child of God.

So coming to faith in Jesus is having new life. When we come to faith in Jesus, our new life starts at the moment we come to know Jesus. It’s like referring to it as a spiritual birthday. It’s like a spiritual birthday: when you come to know Jesus and you become a child of God, you have been born again; you’ve been born into God’s family. And spiritual birthdays are worth celebrating, and we don’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate with someone. So if today you are placing your faith in Jesus Christ — this is how we want to do it: we have a team who is ready to bring you a gift, to celebrate your spiritual birthday today. All you have to do to let us know that today you are placing your faith in Jesus and starting your faith in Jesus is to just stand up. And when you stand up, we’re going to cheer for you, and we’re going to celebrate, and our team is going to bring you a gift.

So if you are here and today is the day where you’re trusting in Jesus Christ and placing your faith in Jesus, I just want to challenge you to stand up right now, wherever you are. We’re going to celebrate, and we’re going to bring you a gift. We have someone standing right there — awesome, right there, awesome. Anybody else? You’re here — hey, right here, we have someone right here. Right there; he’s coming to get you; right there; our team is going to meet you right there. Very cool. We want to celebrate with you; we don’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate that you placed your faith in Jesus today.

So if you’re here and you’re placing your faith in Jesus, let’s celebrate together. This is worth celebrating. You have salvation in Jesus — that is something to celebrate. Awesome, right back there — very cool, awesome, awesome, awesome, very cool. Anyone else? Anyone else? We don’t want to miss the opportunity to celebrate with you. And I know what you’re thinking — you’re thinking we put Velcro on the seat and that’s why you can’t stand up. But it’s not true; there’s not Velcro on your seat. You can just stand, just like you would normally, at any time, and we’re going to cheer for you and we’re going to bring you a gift. Anyone else? I don’t want to miss the opportunity. Anyone else? Okay.

Let me pray for those who stood. Father God, Lord, thank you for the work that you’re doing — you’re the only one who does it; you’re the only one who can do it. You draw people to yourself; you bring people to Jesus. And so, God, thank you for the opportunity to celebrate with those who stood. God, we pray for the work that you’re doing in their life, that it would continue, and that we would come around them well — that we would love them well, that we would help them as they’re coming to Jesus. God, we’re going to enter into a time of celebration. Would God be the one who gets the glory? Would Christ be exalted? Would the name of Jesus become more famous because of what’s happening right here, right now? Would this be about you, and you alone? And so, Lord, we love you, and we exalt you, and we pray this in Jesus’ name — and all God’s family said, amen. Amen. Let’s celebrate what God is doing! Yeah!