Sermon Tone Analysis
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Christmas Illustration – MERRY CHRISTMAS
Opening Prayer
· I want to take us back to a month ago to look at snapshots of a family’s experience this Christmas season.
Fictional story
· It’s Friday morning November 25th, the day after Thanksgiving.
· Joe and Susan get up early in the morning and drive to Rapid City to shop after Joe’s failed attempt to avoid this catastrophe.
They must beat the crowds to get the Black Friday deals on the Christmas present list this year.
Pause
· After a few days pass by.
And after some well needed rest from this experience, the Christmas planning begins.
· Susan is getting Christmas cards ready to send to family and friends.
· Meanwhile, Joe is planning out a schedule for the bowl games and NFL games he’s planning on watching this December.
Pause
· Now a few more days have passed by and Susan is now planning out the Christmas day menu.
· Joe has been sent out to decorate the house with lights.
The temperature,1.
· After an hour and a half, Joe is not in the best of moods because it took him this long to just untangle a massive knot of lights.
· After another 2 hours, the lights are finally up.
Joe plugs them in and of course half of the lights don’t work.
That’s the last straw for Joe because he equates checking every bulb with the last prostate exam he had.
Pause
· Christmas is now getting close, so Susan makes the drive to Gillette to get all the groceries.
She is kicking herself for not going earlier after parking a mile away from Walmart and spending the next 3 hours weaving her way around the 2000 people there.
· Joe stays home after a long deliberation of which is worse, Walmart or cleaning the house.
Cleaning house wins.
· And since Susan will be gone, he figures on cleaning only the areas of high visibility.
And the bathroom?
Forget about it, it looks great.
· Susan finally returns home from Walmart with a look on her face that would run off a bear.
Never mind the look she has after she has seen Joe’s idea of a clean house.
· Joe makes a B-line for the back door headed to the garage to find anything he can work on for the next 6 hours.
· He now doesn’t even care what the temperature is.
Frostbite seems pleasant compared to facing Susan.
· That night, Susan gently encourages Joe to sleep on the couch.
Pause
· It’s now 2 days until Christmas.
Joe and Susan are welcoming the relatives with smiles as they arrive at the house while in the back of their minds, they are worried about what Crazy Uncle Bill will do this year.
· Christmas has officially begun.
Pause
· Christmas morning finally arrives.
And it arrives at 5am as the kids wake them up eager to open presents.
Mind you, these are the same kids that trying to wake them up for school is like pulling teeth.
· The tree looks perfect.
Most of the presents under the tree are wonderfully wrapped by Susan.
· The remainder of the wrapping was Joe’s responsibility, which apparently, he delegated the job to an ape.
Pause
· The rest of the day, Susan, her mother, and mother-in-law spend in the kitchen preparing dinner.
· Joe and the guys are watching football between naps.
· Dinner is now ready.
The table and food look fantastic as if Martha Stuart did it herself.
· Everyone is enjoying the meal, except little Bobby who thinks any vegetable should be avoided like the plague.
· Afterwards, they all make their way to the living room for coffee and dessert.
· But they must pass through the kitchen which looks like the PBR held the bull riding event there.
Pause
· As the night passes by and Christmas day is over, Joe and Susan are wondering what happened during this whirlwind of a month.
· They finally make their way to the bedroom and spend the next 2 days sleeping.
*** I bet many of you can relate to this story.
Pause
Transition
Every year on December 25th families around the world celebrate Christmas, celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Unfortunately, many experience the Christmas season like the story I just described.
As Beth and I were planning our own Christmas this year, I started reflecting on the reason for the season.
And in doing so, 3 questions came to my mind.
I asked myself;
Do I take time out of our busy schedule to purposely reflect on the significance of Jesus’ birth?
Does an event that occured over 2000 years ago have any bearing on my life today?
And have I heard the Christmas story so many times that I have taken it for granted, lost the amazement and awe that I felt when I first believed for the reason why God sent His son?
Well, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow we all can take time to reflect on these questions.
I believe that until we understand and embrace the significance of Christ’s birth, it will remain just another holiday we observe.
Pause
C. Main Point
So as we look at the significance of this monumental event in history, it is important for us first to know that this birth is just the beginning of God’s overarching plan of redemption and salvation.
And because of this, I want to look at the bigger picture tonight.
Because the centrality of God’s activity and His plan of salvation lies in both the person AND WORK of Christ.
He is Emanuel, which means “God with us”
Pause
D. Transition and Context
Our Scripture reading tonight picks up from Luke’s narrative we heard in our children’s message.
Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated.
This was the Jewish custom that every first born son was to be presented to the Lord and be circumcised on the 8th day after their birth.
But Before we look at this event in the Bible, I want to provide some context for us.
The narrative focuses on a man named Simeon.
His role in the story would be to testify to the identity of Christ and the significance of His birth.
Now Simeon was a wise Jewish elder.
He was anticipating the coming of a King who would be the salvation of Israel.
You see, the Jewish people knew the Old Testament very well, they knew of the prophesy of the coming of this King.
In fact, Steve’s earlier reading of the passage in the Old Testament book of Isaiah prophesied about this king who is Jesus.
The amazing thing was that it was written over 700 years before Christ’s birth.
Pause
So Let’s now turn to our text.
E. The reading is from the Gospel of Luke in chapter 2 versus 25-33.
Pause
(25) Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
(26) And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
(27) And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, (28) he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
(29) “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;
(30) for my eyes have seen your salvation
(31) that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
(32) a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
(33) And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.
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