Sermon Tone Analysis
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ATTN
Well, there you have it: Ask anyone if they love Christmas, and they’ll probably say yes.
I googled something like “The top ten reasons I love Christmas” and these were some typical responses.
One person gave 8 reasons they liked it.
Number 8 was because “things smell so good.
Christmas trees, cinnamon and spices, cold groung after rain or snow, baking yams, the decorations are amazing,
Number 7: The food is awesome and so special.
Besides fruitcakes, there are dozens of holiday treats that make my mouth water
6.
The decorations are amazing.
Face it.
Nothing can beat the loaded window displays, the ribbons and garlands around every lamp post, the glittering lights of various colours and doilies and nativity scenes and the trees and everything!
5. ...Presents.
Need I say more?
3. It's celebrated all over the world.
While there are world issues that separate nations and peoples, Christmas is something that everyone on Earth can share.
2. Family comes together.
Christmas is about the only time of year I see people outside my immediate family.
They come to the house and we get to regroup for the first time in 364 days.
1. Everything is so happy.
Did you notice that I left one out?
Yes, it’s number 4. I saved it till last because I think its where so many people are.
His number 4 reason was, “It’s not necessarily just for Christians.
It’s gotten so commercialized that agnostics like myself can still enjoy it.”
Now you might be a little put off by that if you’re a Christ-follower, but whether you think its good or bad you can’t deny that it is true.
The typical attitude in our country is that Christmas is a great excuse to spend money and party, and, quite frankly, that’s about where it stops.
NEED
This attitude gets mirrored in the church.
When it comes right down to it, many of us are planning the typical holiday celebration.
Yes, we will say “Merry Christmas,” with our lips, but our lives are simply saying “Happy Holidays.”
What I mean is, we have divorced the holiday from the person of Christ, at least in practical ways.
BACKGROUND
But, when you read the story, and you really listen to it, you are struck by something, well, awesome . . .
something you must respond to.
If you hear it and you really believe it, you can’t walk away and just celebrate another holiday.
There must be response.
Will you just listen to it again and try to hear it like you’ve never heard it before - READ LUKE 2:1-12.
This really is an amazing story but we can read the words but never think about what they mean.
Listen to how Max Lucado gives us the implications of this birth:
It all happened in a moment . . .
a remarkable moment.
As moments go, that one appeared no different than any other.
If you could somehow pick it up off the timeline and examine it, it would look exactly like the ones that have passed while you have read these words.
It came and it went.
It was preceded and succeeded by others just like it.
It was one of the countless moments that have marked time since eternity became measurable.
But in reality, that particular moment was like none other.
For through that segment of time a spectacular thing occurred.
God became a man.
While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived.
Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb.
The omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable.
He who had been spirit became pierceable.
He who was larger than the universe became an embryo.
And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl.
God as a fetus.
Holiness sleeping in a womb.
The creator of life being created.
God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen.
He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.
God had come near.
He came, not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl and a sleepy carpenter.
The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty.
No silk.
No ivory.
No hype.
No party.
No hoopla.
Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception.
And were it not for a group of star-gazers, there would have been no gifts.
Angels watched as Mary changed God’s diaper.
To think of Jesus in such a light is—well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn’t it?
It’s not something we like to do; it’s uncomfortable.
It is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation.
Clean the manure from around the manger.
Wipe the sweat out of his eyes.
Pretend he never snored or blew his nose or hit his thumb with a hammer.
He’s easier to stomach that way.
There is something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant, packaged, predictable.
But don’t do it.
For heaven’s sake, don’t.
Let him be as human as he intended to be.
Let him into the mire and muck of our world.
For only if we let him in can he pull us out.
This remarkable birth demands a response from us.
From this story, let me give you three particular responses that it demands.
The first one is this.
DIV 1: SINCE HIS BIRTH WAS HISTORICAL, WE TRUST
EXP
When your first hear that statement, you may wonder where I’m going.
How does the fact that Christ’s birth was “historical” create trust.
Well, I do have a point to make and I want you to listen carefully.
Today Christ is under attack like never before.
Many modern scholars attempt to reduce Christ to a “spiritual” person, almost like a legend, and tell us that the real “historical” Jesus, at least in the way the Bible speaks of Him, never existed.
They seem to think that they can preserve the truth of Christianity apart from the historical fact of Christ.
They cannot!
Jesus’ birth had to happen if we are to be saved.
If He was only a legend, He might provide us with great story material, but, at the end of the day, He can really do nothing eternal for us.
That’s why I’m so glad that Luke takes great care to place Jesus in a specific time reference.
He goes out of his way to let us know that Jesus concretely invaded human history.
He begins v1 of chapter two, saying.
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