The Good News of Christmas

Prelude

O Come All Ye Faithful

Welcome

Thank you for being here

What to expect—hear readings from the Christmas story, sing well-known Christmas carols, hear teaching from God’s Word, close with a candle lighting ceremony that reminds us of how Jesus has come as the light of the world

If we can accomplish all that without catching anything or anyone on fire, it’s a success!

My hope—this is more than a ritual or a tradition for you. That God uses something said or sung here tonight to change your heart so you respond to the good news of Christmas.

Pray

Scripture Reading (Matthew 1:18-23), Bibi Laborte

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Scripture Reading (Luke 2:1-7), Phyllis Higgins

O Holy Night

Scripture Reading (Luke 2:8-14), Colin Smith

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

SERMON

An old man in Miami calls up his son in New York and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough."

"Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams.

“We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister in Chicago and tell her," and he hangs up.

Now, the son is worried. So he calls up his sister. She says, "Their is no way we’re letting them get divorced!" and calls her father immediately.

"You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing, the two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and she hangs up.

The old man smiles, turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

It’s so good to see so many families with us this evening. I hope that nobody had to do anything like that to get you to come.

Even if they did, I believe you can leave here happy and grateful that you came. Not because of anything special that we do or say, but because of something that happened two thousand years ago on a dark night just outside of Bethlehem.

Shortly after Jesus was born, an angel appeared to a group of shepherds outside Bethlehem. Although the shepherds were frightened (wouldn’t you be?) the angel responded by saying...

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

Let me repeat the good news they heard...

“unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Some of us are so familiar with hearing those words at Christmas time, we’ve lost sight of their meaning. So let’s walk through them together...

UNTO YOU...

Angels are talking to shepherds, who were among the lowest class of society!

Rabbis had banned sheepherding from Israel, except in deserted plains

In the Rabbis writings, Shepherds were called "incompetent"

Another passage said people should not feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who had fallen into a pit

Shepherds were not permitted to serve as witnesses in court

One Bible scholar said, “To buy wool, milk or a kid from a shepherd was forbidden on the assumption that it would be stolen property.”

If the Good News of Christmas was for lowly shepherds, than it’s for you too!!!

This appearance to the shepherds reminds me of how Jesus conducted His entire ministry.

Tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, Romans, lepers, and Gentiles

But what’s the Good News about? It’s about a person...

unto you...

IS BORN THIS DAY...

Being a part of a church that takes the command in Genesis to “be fruitful and multiply” seriously, means we hear lots of reports about babies that are born.

But never does anybody say, “this baby is born unto you!”

When the angels say to a group of random strangers, “unto you is born this day...” there’s something utterly unique happening here!

This is no ordinary baby. This is a baby that was born with a mission.

How is that even possible? Babies don’t arrive with plans!

I’ve never seen the babies in the hospital nursery talking to each other going, “oh yeah?!? Well I’m gonna party all night once I get out of this joint.”

Not saying that Jesus arrives as some sort of freak talking baby. He’s a normal human baby. But he’s also more than a human baby, because He arrives with a mission.

Well what sort of mission does He have?

unto you is born this day...

IN THE CITY OF DAVID...

At first glance, this might seem like relatively unimportant information. But it’s not. it’s positioning this baby within a story.

Like the first half of It’s A Wonderful Life, where the angel Clarence learns the story of George Bailey’s life before he is sent down to help him

The whole first half of your Bible sets up the story of who this baby is that’s born in the city of David

Offspring of Eve… Abraham… Isaac… Jacob… Judah… David

David’s line seemed to have ended, like a mighty oak tree that had been chopped down

But the prophets prophesied that from the stump of David’s family tree would come a shoot

What's this descendant of David going to do?

unto you is born this day in the city of David...

A SAVIOR...

The word means “rescuer, deliver”

Why do we need rescuing?

God is holy...

We are not

I’m not that bad!

In the Christmas movie Noelle, a new Santa Claus believes he can make Christmas deliveries more efficient after developing a new algorithm to determine there’s only 2,837 nice children in the world.

Believe it or not, the movie was onto something. The truth is, if we use God’s Word as a standard none of us are good.

10 commandments test

But it’s not about being naughty or nice. You can be a sinner and still be really nice! The issue is your heart before a holy God!

Romans 3:10-12—. . .None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

How is this baby going to save us?

unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior...

WHO IS CHRIST...

Not Jesus’ last name. Christ is a word that means “Messiah”

For hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the Jewish prophets wrote about a coming Messiah (Christ) who would rescue His people.

One of those prophets said this about how the Messiah would rescue His people...

Isaiah 53:3-6—He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Clearly pointing to the cross of Jesus!

For many people, we’ve lost the wonder of this!

Let’s imagine that you have an aquarium at home with a handful of frogs. You notice one day that the frogs are a little out of sorts. They seem to have lost their appetite. They refuse to eat their food. Now let’s just imagine you’re particularly attached to these frogs, so you take them to some sort of frog vet to try to sort things out and they tell you there’s nothing wrong with them physically. But for whatever reason they simply refuse to eat. If this continues for an extended length of time, the frogs will die.

Now imagine that some sort of magician came to you and offered you a solution. He could send you into the aquarium so you can attempt to reason with your frogs, but there’s a catch, he says. First, he can’t send you as a frog. You’ll have to go as an egg, transform into a tadpole, then a froglet and finally you’ll turn into a frog and have enough respect to try to convince your existing frogs to eat. The second catch is this: there’s a considerable danger. Sometimes frogs eat tadpoles and froglets. The very action of trying to save your frogs may end up being the death of you.

Now how many of you would be willing to do such a thing? What kind of person in their right mind would give up their humanity and risk their life in order to save a handful of frogs? I know it’s an absolutely ridiculous scenario, but that’s precisely the point!

The difference between you and a frog is nothing compared to the difference between Jesus and humanity (frogs and humans were created on the same day by the same person!).

Yet Jesus left the glories of heaven to enter into this little aquarium called earth. He became an embryo, then a fetus, then a baby.

And from the beginning, dying wasn’t just a potential risk. It was part of the plan. He was born to die so that His people might be saved.

Jesus lived a sinless life yet died a sinner’s death, then rose from death o that all who belong to Him can have everlasting life.

How can I belong to Jesus?

unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ...

THE LORD.

That word “Lord” is a word that means master or boss.

Liar, lunatic, or Lord?

The most important decision you’ll make this Christmas is what to do with Jesus.

Repent and believe!!!

If you’ve already done that, or if you do that tonight, you can celebrate! Even if this Christmas is the worst one you’ve ever had, you can celebrate because you have received good news of great joy!

Joy to the World

Lighting the Candles

Silent Night

Benediction

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone… For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, therefore, go out into the world with good news of great joy.

Merry Christmas!