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The angel still tells the meaning of Christmas

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Sermon for Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-14

Back in 1965, a man named Charles Schulz wrote a Christmas special for TV called, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and he decided to include in it a reading from the Bible, Luke 2:8-14, which you heard a moment ago, read by Linus from a public school stage, after which Linus said, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” When asked if he was sure he wanted to include a Bible reading in his cartoon, Schulz said, “If we don’t do it, who will?” He had no idea how right he was! Because, fast forward 60 years, and, where would you turn, if you didn’t know the true meaning of Christmas? Where would you look? How could you find it? Certainly not on a public school stage, or classroom. A drive through the neighborhoods and streets of our city would make you think Christmas is about pretty lights, and ornamented trees, and reindeer, blow-up dinosaurs and Mickey Mouses, snowflakes and Santa Claus. Christmas movies tell of family gatherings, romance, cookies, presents, holiday cheer, and maybe also Santa Claus—most of which is harmless fun, but none of which gets at the true meaning of Christmas. Who even knows what it is anymore?

You do. We do. It isn’t complicated, but it is largely unknown in this world, whose adults have intentionally forgotten it and whose children, in many cases, have never learned it in the first place. But, for those who are paying attention, it’s all captured in the verses that Linus read in that old Christmas special, where an angel from heaven explained it perfectly well to a group of shepherds. Let’s review it together this evening and proclaim to the world again from this humble church building what the meaning of Christmas truly is, as revealed by God’s holy angel. And in proclaiming it, and in contemplating it, let us rejoice!

We start with just a little background that’s also relatively unknown to people today. The true history of the world starts only about 6,000 years ago, when God—the true God, the only God—created a beautiful, perfect world, including a perfect man named Adam and a perfect woman named Eve. He gave them everything, except for the fruit of a single tree, from which they, tempted by the Prince of demons called Satan, still decided to eat, knowing, and not caring, that it would ruin their relationship with their Creator and would place them and their descendants under God’s curse of death and condemnation. But God, in His mercy, promised to send a human child who would be more than a human child—a Child so powerful, so special, that He would be able to save fallen mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Some 4,000 years went by, and the more you study world history, the more you see just how violent and idolatrous and unjust mankind has always been, from the great civilizations down to the scattered tribes of men. Men lived in darkness and always in the shadow of death. But during those 4,000 years, God was getting all the world actors into just the right places, including the people of Israel, including a young woman of Israel, a virgin named Mary, and her fiancé Joseph. God sent an angel to Mary to announce to her a miraculous pregnancy and a virgin birth. She was to give birth to the Son of God, the Savior first promised 4,000 years earlier, and Joseph was to care for her, and for her Son. 9 months later, God turned the tides of history to cause Caesar Augustus of Rome to issue a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, which forced Mary and Joseph down to Bethlehem, where, 700 years earlier, in that prophecy you heard this evening from the prophet Micah, God had foretold that the Savior would be born. Well, Mary’s baby was born right there in Bethlehem, and wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger, where animals feed, because all the inns in Bethlehem were full that night.

And then there’s the part that really gets to the meaning of it all, the part that Linus read from the school stage in the cartoon, the part about the shepherds, and the angel, and the brilliance of the glory of the Lord piercing the darkness of the night, and then a whole sky full of angelic soldiers in the angelic army.

The angel appeared to the shepherds and said, Do not be afraid. For, behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. The Christmas message, is above all, good news! Joyful news! Because God had finally fulfilled a promise He had been repeating to mankind for 4,000 years—the birth of a human Child who was not just a Child of man, but also the Son of God. And the Son of God was not born into the world to destroy sinful men, or to shame us into obedience, or to model for us the way to earn our own way back into God’s good graces. No, the Son of God was born as a man to save sinful man, because we, by ourselves, are beyond saving. We, by ourselves, are godless, idolatrous people who love neither God nor man as we ought. But, instead of destroying us, instead of abandoning us, God became one of us, joining us in our hardships, choosing a manger for His very first bed. But that’s only one part of the good news. The awful, wonderful rest of the story is that God became one of us as a little baby, laid sweetly and tenderly in a manger, so that, one day, He might give His life for us on the cross, as the true price of mankind’s reconciliation with God.

The angels knew this. They knew the extent to which their God had lowered Himself, and why. They knew the height and the depth of God’s love for fallen mankind, which brought Him to earth as a tiny baby, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And so they sang, Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace to men! Goodwill! God gave His Son as a peace offering to man, so that we might turn from our sins and find God’s goodwill toward us—God’s love and forgiveness—lying in a manger, that we might believe in Him, and be saved by Him.

That, as you know, dear Christian friends, is what Christmas is all about. That’s the meaning of Christmas, and it puts all the other fake meanings to shame. Who cares about Santa Claus or reindeer or anything else, when you have the truth of God’s love staring up at you from the manger at Christmas time? So rejoice in your God, your faithful God, your Savior-God, who came for you, and who wants nothing more for you at Christmas time than that you should know, and believe in, and rejoice in His only-begotten Son, and find rest for your soul in the true meaning of Christmas. Amen.

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What will you do with this Child?

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Sermon for Christmas Eve

Isaiah 9:2-7

We asked and answered a very important question in that last hymn, one of the most important questions in all of history. What Child is this who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? It’s the first of only two questions that really matter at Christmas time. Since we’re being led by the prophet Isaiah during our midweek services this year, it’s fitting that we should also be guided by Isaiah in our Christmas celebration, to hear his answer to that first question: What Child is this?

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Those dwelling in the land of the shadow of death, a light has shone upon them. The people walking in darkness were the people of Israel. At the time of Isaiah, they had largely rejected their God and turned in their hearts either to false gods or to foreign nations. But false gods can’t save, and neither can foreign nations. Only the true God can save. And so the Lord God subjected them to oppression by foreign nations, on and off, for the next seven centuries.

But the real enemy the people needed saving from wasn’t foreign oppression or earthly trouble. It was the enemy of sin, death, and the devil. And since only the true God can save from those enemies, mankind remains trapped under the power of those great enemies as long as mankind remains an enemy of the true God. And Israel was! Even though God had called them out of darkness and revealed the light of His truth to them. They had rejected that truth. They had made themselves God’s enemies by their idolatry and unbelief. Some still believed, of course, but most didn’t. Even 700 years in the future, from Isaiah’s standpoint, Jesus looked out at the people of Israel and lamented that the people were like sheep without a shepherd, with no leaders left in the Church who were teaching them the truth—so far had the outward, visible Church of Israel deteriorated.

But God had a solution for Israel—a solution that was meant to extend far beyond the borders of Israel, to all the nations of the earth. He foretells a time of great joy and deliverance. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased their joy. They rejoice before you as with the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoils. And what was the cause of the deliverance, and of the joy? For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. Isn’t that exactly what we heard the angel proclaim to the shepherds? I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. The entire Old Testament had been pointing to the birth of this Child, the great Deliverer, the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Son of David, now finally born as the Son of Mary, along with Joseph, who was descended for everyone on that list. What Child is this? It’s the Child whose birth announcement God had been sending out for 4,000 years. Finally, He was born.

Now, the fact that God sent His Son into human flesh isn’t necessarily good news all by itself. But it is when you add that other phrase: To us, Isaiah said. To you, the angel said. A Child, a Son, has been born to us, to you, for our good, for our deliverance, for our salvation from sin, death, and the devil, and, eventually, from every evil.

But each deliverance at the proper time. The light that shone on the people who sat in darkness wasn’t primarily the light from the angel choir or from the star. It was the light of truth that would later be spoken by that Child. It was the light of the revelation of God to mankind as the God who loved the world and gave His only-begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Isaiah goes on to tell us more about that Child who was born. The government will be upon his shoulder. Not the earthly government of the nation of Israel, but the government over all things, not immediately when He was born, but after His death, resurrection, and ascension, as He sits even now at the right hand of God the Father.

And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. How can the infinite God wrap himself up into a package so small he fits in Mary’s womb, and then in Mary’s arms, and then in a manger? How can God choose to dwell among his enemies and love them? How can the Creator humble himself to the level of his creation, and then get down on his knees and serve his creation? How can God substitute this one child for the whole human race and lay all of his wrath and all of our punishment on him? Truly He is wonderful. And the perfect Counselor, because He knows God perfectly and He knows man perfectly, the one Mediator between God and Man. He is the Mighty God, whose goings forth are from of old, from eternity, as Micah also said. He is the Eternal Father, not the same as God the Father, but eternal with the Father and, since all things were made through Him, He is still the Father of all creation, even as He has become our Brother within the creation. Prince of Peace, because He came to make peace between God and sinful man, and invites all men to repent and to come to Him, find peace with God through Him, and escape from everlasting condemnation.

That’s Isaiah’s answer to the first most important question in the world, What Child is this? God has answered that question for you. The second most important question is yours to answer: What will you do with this Child? Will you reject Him as true God and true Man, as the Savior who was born for you, to bring you to God? Or, just as bad, will you ignore Him, or fail to listen to Him? May it never be! No, God has given His Son to you, so that all men, including each of you in this room, should receive Him in faith and wonder and joy, worship Him, believe in Him, and listen to Him. Picture the Son of God as a humble child, lying in a manger, and then as a humble Man, hanging on a cross, and lying in a tomb. He is no longer a child. He’s no longer lying in a tomb. But God still offers His Son to you in His humility, so that you may know how much your God loves you, what He was willing to live through and to sacrifice for you, to give you this time to come to know Him and believe in Him during this time of grace. So haste, haste to bring Him laud! Hail, hail the Word made flesh! Joy, Joy, for Christ is born, the Babe, the Son of Mary! Amen.

Source: Sermons

Repeating the story of salvation

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Sermon for Christmas Eve

We hear pretty much the same Scripture lessons every year at Christmas time, on Christmas Eve, and we even sing mostly the same hymns, rich in Scriptural texts and truth. That’s because there’s really nothing new to say. Just the same old things to keep repeating: the ancient prophecies about the birth of Christ, the actual, historical events surrounding His birth, and what it means for us poor sinners. We repeat the things we should never forget. We repeat the things that are worth repeating, and the story of Jesus’ birth is right at the top of that list of things, because it’s the story of how our fallen human race, surrounded by suffering and destined for death, was given the gift of a do-over, an alternate destiny, to be won for us by the Child born in Bethlehem.

The human race needed saving. We were all “the people who walked in darkness, who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,” as Isaiah wrote. Because whether it’s the land of Israel, or the Middle East, or Europe, or Africa, or America, every single human being who has ever been born was born ugly—ugly on the inside. Worse than ugly. Depraved. Godless. Wicked. Every time a mother gives birth, she gives birth to a tiny idol-worshiper who is precious and sweet on the outside, but hostile to God on the inside; absolutely innocent according to human law, but already guilty according to God’s holy standards; alive according to biological measurements, but dead in sins and trespasses as God measures things. As God Himself declared about the human race way back in Genesis 8, the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. That’s because we bear the image, not of God the Father, but of our first father Adam—Adam after he fell into sin.

Tonight we celebrate the only birth in human history where that was not the case. The Child born of Mary bore the earthly image of His father, Adam—a human body and a human soul, just like the rest of us, so that He could be a true Substitute for human beings, a Second Adam who would not turn His back on God and sin against His commandments, as the first one did; but who, by virtue of His virgin birth and His conception by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, bore the spiritual image—of God His Father, so that the One who would one day die on the cross would bring with Him the eternal and infinite value of the Son of God, so that He might taste death for all of us, suffer death for all of us, and give us the right to become children of God. Because we’re not born that way. But Jesus was born that way, in order that we might be reborn that way.

As Paul wrote to Titus, that doesn’t happen by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of rebirth and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Christmas and the birth of Christ is directly connected to Baptism, where God the Holy Spirit offers us rebirth into Christ, the rebirth that joins us to the holy birth of the holy Child born of Mary, to the alternate destiny won for us by the Child born in Bethlehem, the destiny of eternal life that we don’t deserve instead of the eternal death that we do.

Glory to God in the highest, the angels sang. Why? Why do the angels give glory to God in the highest heavens at the birth of Christ? Because it’s to the praise of God’s glorious grace that He gave His Son to save sinful mankind. The God of the angels demonstrated just how good He, how praiseworthy He is as He stooped down to take on the flesh of the very creatures who had been rebelling against Him since the Garden of Eden. That’s how great He is. This is the God whom the angels gladly serve. And He had just shown, there in Bethlehem, how merciful He is, how kind and good He is, how devoted to mankind’s salvation He is. The Creator had joined Himself to the human race in order to save the human race. Glory to God in the highest!

And on earth peace, goodwill to men. The angels weren’t singing about peace among nations or about the goodwill of people doing good deeds for one another in their communities. They were telling us about the gift that God was giving to us in the Person of His Son: peace. As Micah prophesied, this One shall be peace. Because where Jesus is, there we have a reconciled God, a God who is not angry, a God who is not coming to destroy, but a God who is gracious and kind to sinners, for the sake of Christ, who would one day die for our sins on the cross. Where Jesus is, there is God’s goodwill to men.

Where is that peace and goodwill now? It’s still wrapped up in Christ Jesus, who dwelt among men for about 33 years, and now reigns at God’s right hand. What connection has He left us to Himself? He has promised to be with us always, to the very end of the age, not just anywhere, but in the preaching of His Gospel and in the holy Sacraments. So hear the Gospel again tonight: A Savior has been born to you. He is Christ, the Lord. Believe that, believe in Him, and you have Him as your Savior, as your Substitute, as your Redeemer from sin, from death, and from the devil.

That’s the story we hear over and over again at Christmas, and really, throughout the year. And we’ll keep hearing it and keep repeating it, because the way to peace, the way to joy, the way to heaven, the way to God begins and ends with the Babe who was once wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. Amen.

 

Source: Sermons