“For with God nothing will be impossible.” – Luke 1:37
Christmas is an interesting time of year, isn’t it? We tend to be more open to interacting with strangers during this time of year. Normally, I like to ask people, “You having a good day?” It opens up a dialogue the Lord sometimes uses to encourage or share the gospel with people. But during Christmas time I like to ask, “So, you ready for Christmas?” Most people are never “ready” for Christmas, but whether they are or not, I conclude the conversation with a “Merry Christmas.” Almost all people welcome the cheer.
The other day I met a fellow dressed like Santa. I tried to witness to him. I even shared a tract with him. But as I spoke with him it became clear that, he was not just a guy dressed up and making believe he was Santa Claus, THIS GUY REALLY BELIEVED HE WAS OLD ST. NICK. He was jolly, with a beard, and he dressed the part well, but I didn’t see any reindeer or sled, and somehow I didn’t think he had it in him to answer the age old questions of time and matter. “How do you fit down those chimneys and how do you fit all those toys in your bag and reach all those boys and girls all over the world, in one night?” No, I didn’t think he had the answers, nor was he open to them. I walked away feeling sorry for the dear old guy and expressed my hope that he’d read my tract and consider Jesus.
You know, if someone dresses up like Santa and claims to be Santa, you feel sorry for them. You feel sorry for them because, “Miracle on 34th Street” notwithstanding, you know they’re off, they’re out of touch with reality, irrational, maybe even mentally ill. You feel sorry for them because their fantasy is going to rob them of the potential blessings of reality; it could rob them of the eternal realities found in Jesus. Why, it would be cruel to simply go along with them in their fantasy that might rob them of a great reality. Perhaps they are trying to escape a reality. Our guide is the word of God which instructs us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). We might not always know how to do that, so we pray for God to open doors to share His word in a wise and gracious way (Colossians 4:2-6). Having run into this confused and lost individual, it made me realize all the more and pity that we live in a society that readily not only accepts but tries to impose their will on society that men who dress like women are not only women but can even have babies like a woman. Is that rational, or is that like a delusional Santa? What was once clear absurdity is today a forced acceptability. It’s a sign of the times. It’s sad.
Christmas is about the impossible. Christmas is about how God can do the impossible, but how humans are usually not open to it. When humans try to make fictions factual, they expose they are irrational. But with God, the impossible doesn’t only become possible, it becomes rational. God protects us from sin, He doesn’t use His overcoming-the-impossible abilities to legitimize sin or enable the sinner to indulge their sin. He does the impossible according to His truthful word. God through the power of the gospel frees people from their sins (Luke 4:18-19; Romans 1:16). We are not freed to sin but freed from having to sin (Romans 6:15-18). That is the wonderful hopeful encouraging Christmas message, the message of The Impossible Christmas.
That Impossible Part of the Christmas Story
To the contrarian skeptic the incarnation of Jesus by the Holy Spirit is made to appear like God is forcing Himself on the virgin Mary. It’s a blasphemous thought that fails (or refuses) to consider Who God the Holy Spirit is and that everything He does is “holy.” The incarnation is outside the realm of the usual biological conception, but upon some spiritual reflection nothing less could be expected when the Holy uses an unholy human to make Himself known.
I say “unholy” only in the sense that Mary looked to God as “God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). Only sinners need Saviors (cf. Romans 3). But while Mary was a part of this fallen world, still she was the “highly favored one” chosen by God to be the birth mother of Jesus (Luke 1:28). And as we will see, Mary was also the fully-surrendered-to-the will-of-the-Lord-one as seen in her accepting words, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). The message of Christmas therefore is that God is able and willing to do the impossible through those who trust him in full surrender. What “impossible” thing might God want to do through or in you? Overcome a sin? Win a hard-hearted sinner to salvation in Jesus? overcome an impossible obstacle of some kind? The question isn’t whether God is able. The question is are you willing?
That is a very hopeful, encouraging, and challenging message. As we look at the details of the announcement of the birth of Jesus to Mary, we should be asking ourselves, “Lord, what might you want to do through me that’s impossible? How might You want to use me for Your glory?” That my brothers, sisters, and friends, (and even skeptics), is what The Impossible Christmas is all about.
Luke 1:26-38 (NKJV)
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
There is an unseen realm of the spiritual. When we deny that or forget or fail or refuse to factor that into life’s equation, the Bible says we become fools (Psalm 14).
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
The Christmas story of the incarnation of Jesus involves real people.
28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
Mary was a real person, but she was exceptional. What made her exceptional was her faith. God “highly favored” Mary because of her devotion to Him, and her innocence.
29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
Mary was a normal, regular person who reacted like any other normal, regular person. God uses regular people in His plans.
30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
That must have been comforting and encouraging to Mary.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
This announcement shocked Mary. First, she was a virgin, how could she conceive a child? Second, why would His name be “Jesus” which means Jehovah is salvation? Third, how would He be great? Fourth, in what sense would this Jesus be, “Son of the highest”? Fifth, why would the LORD God give him the throne of “His FATHER David? What does that mean? That’s a messianic title! Sixth, how can, could this child reign “forever” over the house of Jacob? And lastly, how could He have a kingdom, a kingdom that would have “no end”? Yes, people of the female gender tend to ask a lot of questions and want to know details. I’m sure Mary was processing this circumstance a mile a second.
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
“How can this be?” I’ve asked such a question many times in life. This would not be the last time Mary would either. We all often ask that “How can this be?” question in life. The answer is always the same, “The Holy Spirit. . .” THE HOLY SPIRIT. “THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL COME UPON YOU, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST WILL OVERSHADOW YOU.” From that point on Mary would explain any questions about the Virgin Birth by saying, “The Holy Spirit came upon me and empowered me.” People would doubt her, bring accusations of infidelity against her. But it wouldn’t be until Pentecost that anyone would truly understand her. That’s because it was at Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came UPON and empowered the early believers in Jesus.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you receive the power to do what God calls you to do.
36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
Elizabeth became pregnant in her old age. She would birth John the Baptist, the one called by God to prepare the way for Jesus. God is able to overcome and heal people of barrenness.
Mary didn’t come right out and say it, but she was probably giving the impression to the angel that what he was sharing with her was impossible. The closest she came to expressing outright impossibility was “How can this be?” This didn’t phase the angel, he just added a type of, “Oh, and by the way, your elderly cousin Elizabeth, you know, the one past childbearing age, the barren one, she’s already pregnant too. Just so you know.”
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Here is the key to all of this, FOR WITH GOD NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE. That is the attitude we should live our life with. When we accept that, God does great things through us.
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
How was Mary going to respond? Here is the greatness of Mary and the key to the impossible at Christmas. “Let it be to me according to your word.” SURRENDER. FULL, UNRESERVED SURRENDER IS HOW WE CAN EXPERIENCE GOD DOING THE “IMPOSSIBLE.”
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”
That statement is true in the sense that Nothing God intends to do is impossible for Him to do.
But there are things God will not do. For instance, the Bible says:
- God cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone –
James 1:12-15 (NKJV) – 12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
God is holy, sinless, and He never will sin.
- God cannot lie –
Titus 1:1-3 (NKJV) – 1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;
Think about that, God cannot lie. God allows the possibility of lying (which is due to sin). But God Himself cannot lie. That means we can trust what God says to us. God will never lie to us. God speaks to us in His word which He breathes out to us (2 Timothy 3:16-17). As Jesus said to the Father, “Your word is truth.” As Christian’s we are to be sanctified or set apart for God’s use by His truth (John 17:17).
There are other things God will not do; He will never act contrary to His nature. But that He will not tempt us or lie to us is what’s important for us to understand here. Haven’t tempting Mary. He wasn’t lying to Mary. He was simply stating truthfully what He was going to use Mary to do. God was straight with her. God will be straight with us. Just read His words.
Overcoming the Impossible with God’s Possible
Part of the message of Christmas is overcoming the impossible with God’s possible. There are a lot of “possibilities” we face in life and not all of them are good. Sometimes people can be overwhelmed, torn, and ripped up with anxiety, paralyzed with fear, depressed with self-imposed darkness, lost in depressing despair because they focus on the “possible” bad things or obstacles in life. But in the incarnation of Jesus, Christmas, we see that we need not fear scary possibilities because what is impossible with people is possible with God. When you believe and know the God with Whom nothing is impossible, like Mary you will be able to courageously overcome and be used by God to do great things. All we have to do is surrender ourselves and be available to Him.
The Bible says this repeatedly:
Jeremiah 32:17 (NKJV) -‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.
Jeremiah 32:27 (NKJV) – 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?
Matthew 19:26 (NKJV) – 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Mark 10:27 (NKJV) – 27 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”
Luke 1:37 (NKJV) – 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Luke 18:27 (NKJV) – 27 But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
The potential problem. If there is a problem with getting something done that God wants to get done, it is not with God but with us. Jesus explained this saying:
Matthew 17:15–21 (NKJV) – 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
If there is a problem with getting something done that God wants done, the problem is not with God but with us.
However, it is not always God’s will to heal or to move a mountain. Sometimes it isn’t God’s will to heal. Sometimes, rather than move a mountain out of the way, God wants us to walk up or around the mountain to build our faith and be a testimony to His enabling faith. God doesn’t always assign us the easier path.
But if Jesus wants someone healed, He will give the faith to heal the person. We see this in Acts when it states:
Acts 3:16 (NKJV) – 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Why wouldn’t Jesus want to heal someone? Why wouldn’t He remove some difficulty or trial? For a number of reasons:
- Jesus does not heal or move the mountain because it is necessary to build our faith:
James 1:2–5 (NKJV) – 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
1 Peter 1:3–9 (NKJV) – 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
- Jesus does not heal or move the mountain so we can learn of the sufficiency of God’s grace:
2 Corinthians 12:8–10 (NKJV) – 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The Real Meaning and Purpose of Christmas
The real meaning and purpose of Christmas begins with Jesus, Immanual – “God with us.” But it does not end there. The real meaning of Christmas, the very practical gift God gives us in the incarnation of Jesus, is that we can overcome the scary possibilities of this world with His nothing-is-impossible-for-Him truth. Once we understand that, we will begin to understand “The Impossible Christmas.”
The Deciding Factor
For any of this to matter or be valuable to you, you need to know the Lord like Mary did. That means you need to respond to the Holy Spirit who convicts you of your sins (John 16:8-11). You need to admit and confess to God that you have sinned (Romans 3:10 and 23). then you need to ask God’s forgiveness not based on any effort or good works of your own but one the basis that Jesus died on the cross to pay your debt of sin. The wages or consequences of sin is death. Jesus dies for you to pay your debt of sin (Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:21). God did this for us all while we were lost in our sins. He did this for us because He loves us (Romans 5:8). Then you just need to call on the name of the Lord. this means you believe in your heart that Jesus died for yo and rose again from the dead and confess it openly with your mouth (Romans 10:9). All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13). God is faithful. He will forgive you when you call on Him by way of Jesus. And always remember, God is able. Are you willing? Will you experience an “impossible” Christmas this year? or