God’s Favor

Intro

Today is a special Sunday. Christmas day lands on a Sunday in cycles. 11, 6, 5, 6 and then it starts over again. the next time we will get to do this is in 11 years. I thought that was kind of cool. What I had planned to look at today as we celebrate the birth of Jesus is How the message of the birth of Jesus should change our lives. Today also happens to be the day we usually celebrate communion. The message that this gives us is that the birth of Jesus points to His death on the cross for our sins and the promise that He is coming back again.

The theme we are going to be going through then with all this in mind is the year of jubilee. What does that mean? Well that is what we will get into by starting out in reading from isaiah.

Isaiah 61 - the year of Jubilee

Isaiah 61:1–11 (CSB) 1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify him. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the former devastations; they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. 5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. 6 But you will be called the Lord’s priests; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their riches. 7 In place of your shame, you will have a double portion; in place of disgrace, they will rejoice over their share. So they will possess double in their land, and eternal joy will be theirs. 8 For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and injustice; I will faithfully reward my people and make a permanent covenant with them. 9 Their descendants will be known among the nations, and their posterity among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are a people the Lord has blessed. 10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth produces its growth, and as a garden enables what is sown to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

I start with the year of jubilee because of what it stands for. - Every 7 years the Jews were to observe a Sabbatical year. The point behind this was to allow the land to rest. All that are in the land, the cattle, the slaves the foreigners will have to trust in god to provide food for them.

After 7 of these Sabbatical years, or 49 years they were to celebrate the 50th year as the year of jubilee. During that year, all debts were canceled, all land was returned to the original owners, the slaves were freed, and everybody was given a fresh new beginning. This was the Lord's way of balancing the economy and keeping the rich from exploiting the poor.

If you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord in savior we are told that you are living in a a spiritual year of Jubilee. This is the promise given to us in this passage. The birth of Jesus that we celebrate today brings the message that we can be set free from bondage, we can be set free from sin and death we can go to be with Jesus again some day. Isnt this amazing! we look to our own year of Jubilee If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are living today in a spiritual "Year of Jubilee." You have been set free from bondage; your spiritual debt to the Lord has been paid; you are living in "the acceptable year of the Lord." Instead of the ashes of mourning, you have a crown on your head, for He has made you a king. You have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and you wear a garment of righteousness.

This points to the end of time, when the year of Jubilee will come to full effect in the Kingdom of God. We can look forward to this time when everything will be wiped clean and we will live in joy with the Lord, we can be set free as well. and we will learn how you can experience this wonderful favor of the Lord. For it is not for everyone, but only those who have committed their lives to Jesus.

Matthew 1 - The Birth of Jesus

we go from the promise of spiritual freedom in the birth of Jesus looking forward to the ultimate freedom we will see as his children when His kingdom comes to the birth of Jesus that ushered this all in. The birth that we celebrate today.

Matthew 1:18–25 (CSB) 18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. 20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

We celebrate today as thew day Jesus was born. Even though we know that Jesus was not actually born this day. Christmas comes from old English meaning “mass on Christs day” This was the liturgical celebration of the birth of Jesus. But this day or around this day used to be a different holiday.

The story goes that the ancient Romans would use this day to celebrate The roman god Saturn, which they called Saturnalia. It was one of the most popular ancient roman holidays. During this period as the Romans and Christians clashed but the church established Jesus birth celebration on this day to try and stop the celebration of the false god Saturn. But even as the traditions started to mix even now the real reason for why the celebration of the birth of Christ has been lost to the secular world.

But we establish today again that the Messiah Jesus Christ was born. Maybe not on December 25, but nevertheless He was born. Divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit and Mary. The messiah was born 100% man and 100% God. From the kingly line of David yet without sin.

Many people skip over the genealogy at the beginning of the book of Matthew but it has vital information to us to prove Jesus is the one true king of the line of David. It set in place something miraculous. Shepherds came to worship the infant whop was the messiah. Wise men traveled for years following prophecy to see the one true king of the world. Risking their own lives to do so.

We give gifts, we celebrate together because of the ultimate gift that was given us this day many many years ago. The son of God, the messiah was born and lived and died so that we could have freedom from our sin and darkness and despair. Jesus died once for all people for all time that have put their faith in the one true God.

Luke 22 - The death of Jesus - Communion

Luke 22:14–23 (CSB) 14 When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21 But look, the hand of the one betraying me is at the table with me. 22 For the Son of Man will go away as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!” 23 So they began to argue among themselves which of them it could be who was going to do it.

shortly before the death of Jesus He was sitting at the table after what we call the last supper. Jesus Knew what was coming and had been telling His disciples the same thing. He had predicted one would betray Him and one disciple would deny Him before it all was over. Even though He knew what was coming He still had stuff do do. The next thing that we remember is that we celebrate the birth of Jesus is that it points to His death on the cross. This is why Jesus came the first time. As the perfect, spotless lamb who would take away the sin of all those who accept His sacrifice.

We must turn our lives to Jesus As the one true God. who came to shine light in the darkness that we are going through, the darkness of sin. He gives us a chance to be with Him for all eternity if we ask Him to forgive our sins and live our lives for Him. We remember this regularly as we celebrate communion which we are going to do next.

Revelation 19 - The great Feast

Revelation 19:6–10 (CSB) 6 Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns! 7 Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself. 8 She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure. For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true.” 10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold firmly to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

What I want to leave you with is this. We love to eat, to take any opportunity we have to get together for a potluck. Who doesn't like to get together with friends and family over wonderful food. That is what we do during Christmas as well. Well the bible talks of a great feast called the Marriage supper of the lamb.

Without getting into to much detail The relationship between the church and Jesus is likened to a groom and her bride. The groom has gone off to prepare a place for His bride and when everything is prepared then He will come back and take her to where He is.

Jesus was born many years ago and we celebrate his birth today. He came to die for our sin which is why we remember that through communion. But we are told that He is gone to prepare a place for those that are his followers whom the bible calls His bride. There is a great feast prepared but we must first be ready to go there. some people will wait till Jesus comes back and they will say, why was I not invited, I want to go. They are to late. We must be prepared for the second coming of Jesus.

This is also what we celebrate here today. As you celebrate with your family and friends will you you also be prepared to be with Jesus? There is a great feast prepared, will you be ready to join Him?