Sermon Tone Analysis
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The Greatest Gift
Luke 2:1-20
Is there a gift you remember receiving?
Illustration: Jennifer making treats for Abigail’s teachers when she was small.
Put treats in Ziploc containers that were holiday colored.
Also put a leftover pork chop in one.
Next day she sent the goodies with Abigail to school to give her teachers.
That evening she began looking for the pork chop.
It dawned on her that one of Abigail’s teachers got a left-over pork chop as a Christmas goodie.
We are imperfect givers.
We give imperfect gifts.
God is the perfect giver.
He has given us the perfect gift in Christ.
This Christmas Eve I want to share with you about the greatest gift ever given, the gift of salvation in Christ.
1.
It is a gift we could not purchase for ourselves.
Have you ever wondered why God chose to come into the world through a virgin?
There are some theological reasons:
The sin nature is passed through the father.
Without an earthly father Jesus could be human but be born without a sin nature like the rest of us.
To fulfill prophecies.
Genesis 3, Isaiah 7:14
To establish that the Savior is not just a man.
He is Immanuel, God with us.
There is something else we can glean from the virgin birth.
A virgin conception is something man could not accomplish.
We needed a Savior, but we could not create our own.
God is determined to give us what we cannot create.
In the story we have the Roman Empire demanding the people return to their birth towns for a census.
The purpose of the census was twofold:
Taxation
Military purposes
The government is burdening the people.
Forcing them to travel
Forcing them to pay taxes
Forcing them into the military
The truth is the Jewish people could not even save themselves from the Roman Empire.
They certainly couldn’t save themselves from their sins.
The people were in a pitiful state.
But God was working all things together for His glory.
He was moving all the pieces in place.
He got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so the prophecies about the birth of Christ would be fulfilled.
700 years earlier Micah said the Savior would be born in Bethlehem.
This couple traveled 85 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
You may think that this is inconvenient for Mary and Joseph.
It was.
But many others were doing what they were doing.
Our thoughts should be with Christ.
Christ is the eternal God.
Christ becomes a baby and lives within the womb of Mary for forty weeks.
Christ is born in humble conditions.
Christ submits Himself to his parents.
Christ is rejected, tortured, and killed.
Why would Christ place Himself in this situation?
Because we cannot save ourselves.
He is the only One who can save us.
We can buy gifts for one another.
Illustration:
Woman wanted buy gifts for some of her friends.
Her list got longer than she could afford and time was running out so she decided to just send cards.
She rushed to the store and picked up a pack of fifty cards with a beautiful picture on the front.
She didn’t even read them, she addressed them, wrote “With all my love”, and sent them out.
She had a few left over and it was New Years Day.
She picked one up and decided to see what they said on the inside.
It read “This Christmas card is just to say a little gift is on its way.”
We can buy:
Toys
Clothes
Trips
Jewelry
Electronics
Food
Cars
Homes
We cannot buy our salvation or anyone elses.
If we could, why would Christ come?
Look at the cross.
Would Christ suffer all of that if we could save ourselves?
The virgin birth shouts to the world- God is doing something for you that you cannot do for yourselves.
2. It is a gift we do not deserve.
On the night Christ was born God chose to make the announcement to shepherds.
That’s important because they were low on the social ladder.
They were poor.
They were unclean.
They were untrustworthy.
People didn’t like shepherds because:
They were unable to attend many religious services
They often were accused of taking others sheep or allowing their animals to graze on people’s property.
The Talmud would not even allow them to testify in a court of Law.
Look how they respond to the angel:
They were filled with great fear.
They were sinners in the presence of angelic beings.
They probably thought this was it for them.
In their minds God had come to judge them.
The angel calms their fears.
He says “Fear not.
Behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
The angels said a Savior had been born.
This implies someone needs to be saved.
Saved from what?
Saved from our sin.
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