Category Archives: Christmas Day

The Christian celebration of Christmas

Posted on by
Sermon
Download Sermon
Service

To download this video, press here to go to the download page. You may need to scroll down to see the download button.

 Download Service Bulletin

Sermon for Christmas Day

Hebrews 1:1-12  +  John 1:1-14

Dear Christians, saints of God and siblings of Jesus, who became our Brother in order that, through Him, we might become children of God: Last night, we heard the story of Jesus’ birth, and we heard the angel declare to us exactly who that baby was whom the shepherds would find lying in a manger. Unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. A Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. Christmas Day digs deeper into those key truths about the Child who was born to Mary and placed in a manger. It identifies for us who the Jesus of the Bible really is; it defines the celebration of Christmas, and it separates the Christian celebration of Christmas from the secular traditions that have corrupted Christmas and turned it into a Christ-less nothingness.

So consider with me for a few moments, on this Christmas Day what the writer to the Hebrews, and also St. John, reveal to us about the Christ, so that ours may truly be a Christian celebration of Christmas.

Long ago, at many times and in various ways, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son…

Dreams. Visions. Brief, mysterious encounters with God. These are some of the ways God gave His word to the prophets in the Old Testament, bits and pieces of knowledge, snippets of revelation. In some cases, we don’t even know how exactly God gave His word to the prophets, who then preached that word to our Old Testament fathers and revealed to them what God wanted them to know about Himself and about His demands and His promises. But from the moment Jesus came into the world, God had a new and better way of communicating with mankind. Because God didn’t have to send His word to Jesus or reveal Himself to Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Unlike the prophets of old, Jesus, the Word-made-flesh, didn’t receive the word of God. He was the Word of God. He is the Word of God. Jesus didn’t speak from God some of the time, but all of the time, in every word, in every deed, and gave us the perfect revelation of God’s Being and of God’s will, and especially of God’s grace.

His Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the universe.

Those two phrases don’t seem to go together. If God the Father made the worlds—made the whole created universe—through His Son, then isn’t the Son already the co-owner of all things, together with the Father and the Spirit? He is! So why does He have to be “appointed heir of all things”? This is the mystery of the incarnation. According to His divinity, Christ already possesses all things from eternity. But Christ, the co-Creator and co-Owner of the universe, was born in time and took on human flesh in order to become the Redeemer of humanity. And so, according to His humanity, born in time as one of us, Christ has to receive everything from His Father, just as we do. As a man, Christ owned nothing until the Father declared Him the Heir—the human Heir of all things.

And of course, if the Son of God is the Heir of all things, then what is left for anyone else to inherit? If the Son of God receives all things, then what is left for anyone else to receive from God? Nothing! And yet Scripture speaks many times of the “inheritance of the saints.” How does that work?

Understand what it means to be made a believer in Christ Jesus. It means that God brings you into the body of His Son, as Scripture often uses the analogy of Christ being the Head of the body, and the individual members of His Church being His mystical body. As a sinner is converted by the Holy Spirit and united with Christ through Holy Baptism, he is now counted by God as being a part of the Son of God, so that everything that the Son of God inherits, the converted sinner who believes in Christ now inherits, even a place in God’s house, even the inheritance of all things—together with Jesus, and never apart from Jesus.

Back to Hebrews. It says that Christ is the radiance of the Father’s glory and the express image of his being, even sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Can you separate the brightness of a light from the light itself? Can you separate the image or the appearance of a thing from the thing itself? And yet that’s how the Bible describes the relationship between God the Father and God the Son—distinct Persons, and yet one God, so that when you see Jesus, you see exactly what God the Father is like, and when you hear Jesus, you hear exactly what God the Father speaks. That’s a little bit mysterious and hard to grasp. The Apostle Philip once struggled with it, too. He once said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father. Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;

Do you see, then, why it’s utterly impossible to say that those who don’t believe in Jesus still believe in the same God in whom we Christians believe? If Jesus is the express image of the Father and the brightness of the glory of the Father, then to reject Jesus is to reject the Father, and to worship anyone but Jesus is to worship a false god.

On the other hand, to receive Jesus is to receive His Father as well. And to know Jesus, the express image of God, lying humbly in a manger, showing mercy to sinners, dying on a cross for our sins, is to know God the Father as well. And so, by faith in Christ, we are made children of God.

And so, after making a cleansing of our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…

The writer to the Hebrews connects Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and the Ascension for us. The same Jesus, the same Christ the Lord, who was born at Christmas, purged our sins by His death on the cross. He rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the majestic Father—all of this according to His humanity. First His humiliation, then His exaltation. It’s our Brother who now reigns over all things.

…having become as far superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

There was a bit of angel worship going on in the first century, as we also learn in Colossians 2. But the writer to the Hebrews shows us how foolish that is, because in the Person of Christ, we have the eternal Creator, who took on human flesh for us, who died on the cross for us, who now reigns over all things for our good. And we are invited to trust in Him and to worship Him and to call upon Him as the God-Man, our Brother, who is the one Mediator between God and man. He is far superior to the angels according to His divinity. He has become far superior to the angels also according to His humanity. Why on earth would anyone pray to an angel or a saint, or worship an angel or think of the angels as anywhere near as important as Christ?

No, the angels themselves don’t want anything to do with being worshiped. They themselves bow down and worship Christ, even as they came down from heaven and worshiped Him when God brought Him into the world on Christmas, because they know who He is: the Son of God, who is also called God and Lord and Yahweh/Jehovah, as the rest of the verses from the Epistle demonstrate, the Son of God who, out of pure grace and mercy, took on human flesh to save His fallen human creatures. That makes Him worthy of all praise and honor and worship, from the angels, but even more, from us human beings whom He came to save.

And so we have come today to praise Him, to honor Him, to worship Him who took on man’s flesh to save man from sin and to bring us to God. And the highest and best way to worship Him is to hear His Word, to hear what He says about Himself, to believe it, to believe in Him as our Savior, and to receive, in His holy Sacrament, the very body and blood that once lay in a manger, later to be sacrificed for us on the cross, that we might be forgiven all our sins, that we might believe in Him and be given the right to become children of God. Let us praise the Lord God for His grace revealed in Christ Jesus, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary. This is the truth that defines a Christian celebration of Christmas. This is the truth to which we must cling, and by which we must be saved. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Worship the God-Man who brings men to God

Posted on by

Sermon for Christmas Day

Hebrews 1:1-12  +  John 1:1-14

A baby can soften the heart of just about anyone. Anyone can accept that a baby was born in the small Judean town of Bethlehem, a baby named Jesus, to a mother named Mary. It’s rather harmless. It’s unintimidating, by God’s own design. It’s why, sometimes, even unbelievers are willing to hear the Christmas Eve Gospel from Luke 2, because the story of God’s salvation begins, in a sense, with this baby, who doesn’t threaten anyone. The unbeliever can even tolerate, for a night, at least, the notion of angels. Because it’s all good tidings of great joy for all the people (even if they overlook the part about Him being a Savior, who is Christ the Lord). It’s peace on earth, goodwill to men!

But we’re careful to explain, even on Christmas Eve, that the good tidings of the birth of an unintimidating baby can only be understood properly through the lens of the sin and darkness into which that baby was born—sin and darkness that permeated even Israel, not to mention the even greater darkness that covered the non-Jewish world, that this Jesus was born because of mankind’s idolatry, because of mankind’s rebellion against God’s Word, because of mankind’s disobedience toward God’s commandments, that He was born to suffer and die for the sins of the world, and that His peace on earth has nothing to do with the absence of war or the end of violence. That’s a lot harder for the unbeliever to hear, and yet it’s the only way an unbeliever will ever become a believer, by hearing the whole truth about Christmas and about Christ.

Then we come to the Christmas Day Gospel, and suddenly the unbeliever is confronted with the truth head on, with things that human reason can’t even begin to grasp, with things that sound like foolishness to the modern “scientific” ear. That there was a time when time didn’t exist. That there was a time when there was no matter, no energy, just God who brought all things into being, not with a big bang, but by His almighty Word. And most incomprehensible of all, is that that Word was with God, and that the Word was God, and that this Word that was with God and that was God eventually became flesh, became a Man. That this Word who existed already in the beginning, outside of time and space and matter and energy, is the very Person through whom all things were brought into existence, including the flesh that He one day took on.

But again, if anyone is going to believe in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, it will only be through hearing this truth proclaimed. You can’t argue anyone into the faith. It’s all about the simple proclamation of the Word, the promise of forgiveness through Christ, and the invitation to believe.

Already in v. 5 of our Gospel, St. John the Evangelist is referring to the Word coming into the world as a man, as “light.” As Jesus Himself once declared, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life…As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. The very One who is true God also became true Man, the light which gives light to every man, just as the sun gives light to every man, except that He was already there before the sun was, and the sun was created through Him. St. Paul once wrote that God alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. So the only way we poor, sinful mortals could truly see the light of God, is if it’s veiled in flesh, if God makes Himself approachable to us. And that’s exactly what He did in the Person of the Word made flesh.

John the Baptist bore witness to Him. This is the light who gives light to every man! Not that every man sees by this light. But He is the only light by which any man may see, and He offers His light to all. What is His light? It is the knowledge of who God is and of how God gave His eternal Son to be born as a man, not to show us how to work our way up to heaven, but to earn heaven for all men, to suffer hell for all men, and to show us that it is by believing in Him who did all this for us that all men might have everlasting life.

That brings us to the tragedy of Christmas. The tragedy of Christmas is not that Jesus had to lie in a manger for a little while. The tragedy of Christmas is that He came to save all men from their sins, to give life to all men, and yet most men, even His own people of Israel, didn’t and don’t want Him for a Savior, and so most men remain dead in their trespasses and sins. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

But, John writes, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is the glorious victory of Christmas, not that God’s Son was born as a human child, but that the eternal Child of God was born as a human child in order to give us sinful human beings the right to become holy children of God like Him.

Because we weren’t. By nature, no one is. Creatures of God? Yes. But children of God? No. As sinners, we had no right to call Him Father, and no expectation of living in His house or of inheriting anything from Him. But now we do. Because we have a Brother who is God’s Child. Because we have a Savior who paid for our sins and offers us a place in God’s family through Holy Baptism and through faith in Him. Because He sends His own Holy Spirit to give us that new birth of faith, since we couldn’t come to faith by our own power or will.

Yes, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. He became Emmanuel, God with us, so that we might follow Him in faith, be safe on the Day of Judgment, and live with Him forever.

The angels worshiped the Person of the Word since the moment they were created. But now God has taken on human flesh, and all God’s angels continue to worship Him also as a Man, even as they did on the night of His birth. If the angels worship Him for taking on human flesh to save sinful human beings, can we fail to worship Him? May it never be. On this Christmas Day, may the truth of the God-Man in the manger fill your hearts with wonder and with joy. And let your worship of Him today change the way you live your life tomorrow, so that you who have received Him and have been given the right to become children of God may live as children of God in the world, that your life may be a song of joy and thanksgiving. Amen.

Source: Sermons

Rejoice in the Father’s greatest gift

Posted on by


Right Click to Save

Sermon for Christmas Day

Hebrews 1:1-12  +  John 1:1-14

Dear Christian friends: You know what Christmas is about, or else you wouldn’t be here this morning. Christmas is not really about family, although it’s a great blessing to spend it with family, when and if you can. Christmas is not about decorations or traditions or food, although those things are nice, like icing on the cake or the cookies. Christmas is not about presents or gifts, except to the extent that giving and receiving gifts allows us to show one another just a tiny bit of the love that the Father has shown to us, because, of course, Christmas is about the Father’s greatest gift of love, which the Apostle John carefully unwraps for us, more and more, every year in the Gospel. Once again this year, we gather together around the Christmas tree in God’s house, to let the Holy Spirit hand out the Father’s greatest gift to you and for you, the gift of His eternal Son, born in human flesh.

The angels revealed much about the Father’s gift on the night of His birth: He is a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. John reveals even more. He is “the Word,” made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. God had so much to reveal to mankind about Himself. The creation itself reveals a plenty. But still not the most important things, like, who God is, what He demands, what He promises, and on what basis. The Old Testament prophets revealed much of that as God’s Spirit inspired them to write down in words the truth of God. But there is just no substitute for direct communication, for meeting someone in person. And yet, after the fall into sin, direct communication with God as He exists in His majesty was simply not possible for sinful human beings; a terrible rift had been opened between the holy God and sinful man. So, God designed, in eternity, a way to speak to us directly, to show us His heart, what He is like, what He commands, and what He gives. God the Father gave His only-begotten Son, begotten of the Father before all worlds—to share our humanity, to be born into our world. So badly God wanted to teach us about Himself that He joined Himself forever to our race. So badly God wanted to redeem sinners and to make them His children that He gave His Son to become our Brother, our sacrifice, the innocent for the guilty. That is the Word of God.

That Word of God, as St. John describes, was the very One, the very Word whom the Father used to create all things. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. When the Father said in the beginning, “Let there be light,” it was the Word of God, who later became flesh, who brought the light into existence, and everything else that the Father spoke. The Baby lying in the manger was not so helpless, nor was the Man who would one day hang on the cross. He was the Maker of the manger and of the cross, the Maker of His mother Mary, the Maker of the humble circumstances of His birth, even the Maker of His own human flesh. Even as He lay sleeping in Mary’s lap, the Word-made-flesh was upholding all things by the word of His power.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. As Jesus would later say, I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. And how do we sinners, destined for death, have that life? The Life had to take on human flesh, so that the Life could die a human death. But when the Life took up His life again, He became the source of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe in Him as the Life-giver.

And how do we believe in Him who is the Life and the Light of men? That we cannot do on our own, by our own power, by our own reason or strength. As John wrote, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. We’re all born in that darkness. We’re all born spiritually blind, unable to see the Light of Christ, unable to comprehend His light, unable to receive Him. If we are to believe in Him, He has to work faith in us.

How does He do that? You know. He does that through preaching. Faith comes by hearing, by preaching. When the Word of Christ is preached, when the Gospel of the Word-made-flesh is proclaimed, there is Jesus enlightening blind eyes by His Holy Spirit.

The apostle talks about that. He mentions the very first preacher sent from God to point to the Light: John the Baptist. There was power in John’s testimony, power to enlighten blind eyes, to turn sinners to repentance and faith, power “that all through him might believe.” That was always God’s intent, that all men might hear the Word and believe in the Word.

The true Light which gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Not all men did believe through John’s preaching. The world didn’t know the Father’s greatest gift. It didn’t recognize the Father’s greatest gift. It didn’t want the Father’s greatest gift. Why? Because it appeared too small, too weak, too humble.

To some, the humility of Jesus was offensive. From His lowly birth in Bethlehem to the suffering He endured on the cross, it all seemed like foolishness to most people—it wasn’t the gift they expected from God, not the gift they wanted, not the glorious kind of salvation they were seeking.

And yet, to others, the humility of the One born of Mary, the humble way in which He led His whole life, from His lowly birth to His humble suffering and dying on the cross, and the humble means by which He works faith—the Gospel, Baptism, Holy Communion—makes Him accessible to lowly people, like you and me. It shows God’s love for everyone. It allows the worst sinner and the lowliest man or woman or child to see that God came for him, too, that God suffered for him, too, that God is eager for him, too, to repent and believe in Christ Jesus, to receive the Father’s greatest gift.

Now most people still didn’t receive Him when He dwelt among men, and most people still don’t receive Him as He dwells among us in Word and Sacrament. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is what Christmas is all about. This is why you’re here this morning. Because, not by your bloodline, not by your own will, not by the will of your earthly father, but by God’s grace, working through Word and Sacrament, you have been reborn as children of God. You have been brought to see the Light of Christ, to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. You know that Jesus is real, that His birth of the virgin Mary was real, that His divinity is real, and that He is really present here and now, to give Himself to you in this Word that you’re hearing, to give His own body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word no longer dwells among us in the same way that He did during His 33 years on earth, nor do we behold His glory in quite the same way. But His grace and His truth remain unchanged. The fact of His birth, the fact of His life, the fact of His death and resurrection can never be erased. And if you are willing to receive Him where He still offers Himself, in Word and Sacrament, then the Father’s greatest gift of love is poured out into your lap, and God is still with you and God is still for you. Let us rejoice in our Father’s gift, and give Him thanks with our lips, with our lives, and with our love—for Him, and for one another. Amen.

Source: Sermons