What time is it?

Warren Brosi

December 24, 2023 (7 p.m.)

Dominant Thought: The timeless one entered our time to free us from sin for all eternity.

Objectives:

I want my listeners to understand the time of salvation history.

I want my listeners to feel the impact of the birth of Christ in the times we live.

I want my listeners to embrace the opportunities to advance the message of Jesus each day.

What time is it? Well, if you look at your clock it might be about 7:30 p.m. If you look at your calendar, it is December 24. If you look further in your calendar it is 2023. If you look outside and see that it is dark, then you would say it is nighttime. If you look at the Christmas tree and decorations, then you may answer Christmas time. All of those are accurate answers.

The gospel writer Luke, as he often does, sets the Jesus story in time and space. The beginning of Luke 2 begins with time, “In those days...” He goes on to say, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decreed that a census should be taken.” Then, he writes, “This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2.1. Luke highlights the birth of Jesus in Luke 2 and his inauguration into ministry at his baptism in Luke 3 by listing the rulers of the day. In other words, Luke is setting Jesus up as the king that rules over all the other kings and rulers of that day.

We find out that Joseph went up from Nazareth in the region of Galilee in the north and traveled south to Judea. He went to Bethlehem, the town of David because he was in the family line of David. He went to register with Mary, who was pledge to be his wife and was expecting a child.

Luke 2:6 (NIV)

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

"The days were fulfilled for her to give birth” is another way to read the phrase. The moms in the audience know the feeling of the days were fulfilled. When is this baby going to arrive?

Luke describes Mary giving birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in cloths and placed them in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.

Luke moves attention from the manger to the shepherds in the fields. It’s not a difficult transition from the feed trough to the flocks in the field at night.

The shepherds keeping watch over their flocks at night are interrupted and frightened when the angel of the Lord appears. The glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. In the original language, it could read, “They were filled with fear fear great.”

The angel reassures the shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2.10-11).

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. Today.

The Apostle Paul comments on what happened that night in Bethlehem when he wrote to the followers of Jesus in Galatia.

Paul writes in Galatians 4.4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 NIV

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Paul wants the church in Galatia to understand what happened that evening in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The time was fulfilled. It was the right time and Jesus was born of a woman under the law to redeem or purchase freedom for those living under the law. In other words, Jesus freed people from slavery to sonship. And since we have the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts, we can call out to God, Abba Father.

James S. Stewart describes how it was just the right time for Jesus to arrive in the second chapter of The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ. He describes how the world was prepared at the time of Jesus as Bethlehem was near the path to unite three continent: Europe, Asia, and Africa. He writes, “It was no haphazard that made Bethlehem and Nazareth and Calvary the cradle of the Christian faith” (p. 15). The world was prepared through Roman “peace” or Pax Romana, great roads in the ancient world, and a common language of Greek.

So what time is it? It is the time of salvation. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born, Christ the Lord. Today is a day of salvation. Luke loves to use the word today. Some count over 20 times in his gospel, Luke records the importance of today. On one occasion, Jesus is passing through Jericho. He looks up into a sycamore-fig tree and sees a wealthy chief tax collector named Zacchaeus. Jesus calls up to him in the tree, “Come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19.5). Zacchaeus gladly welcomed Jesus into his home. The people mutter that Jesus has gone to be the guest of a sinner. I’m not sure what Zacchaeus and Jesus discussed at lunch, but it was enough for Zacchaeus to get up from the table and say, “Look, Lord!” Remember who the angels said was born that night in Bethlehem? “A Savior who is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2.11). Zacchaeus continues, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19.8). Jesus replied, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19.9-10).

When you join Luke’s Christmas story with Paul’s perspective of what was happening in the little town of Bethlehem, that Christmas night, we see God’s plan to rescue his people from sin coming to fulfillment. In other words, The timeless one entered our time to free us from sin for all eternity.

James K. Smith shared in his book, How to Inhabit Time, - “Jesus enters time—We need to remember that at the heart of Christianity is not a teaching or a message or even a doctrine but an event. God’s self-revelation unfolds in time, and redemption is accomplished by what happens…Being a Christian, then, is not so much a matter of believing something about God as much as living in light of this event’s cascading effects on history. Christian faith is ongoing participation in the Christ-event which continues to rumble through human history. Christianity is less a what and more a how, a question of how to live given what has happened in Christ” (p. 13).

James K. Smith also highlights the phrase from Annie Dillard, “the absolute is available to everyone in every age” insofar as both the contemporary follower in AD 33 and the follower-at-second-hand in 1843 are in immediate relationship with the Absolute. God is as near to the twenty-first-century disciple as to the medieval saint. And the medieval peasant is as near to God as the first-century apostle” (p. 83).

The beauty of Christmas is that Jesus, God in human flesh, came near to us. At just the right time, Christ appeared and rescued us from our sin to be in a healthy relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Earlier this month, our American Heritage Girls decorated the church building for Christmas. Here’s a picture of some of them after preparing the advent wreath, Christmas tree and manger. Do you notice something special in this picture? Look to the left of the picture. The youngest girl is kissing the baby representing baby Jesus.

What time is it? It’s time for us to learn from the youngest ones in our midst to remember what Christmas is all about. It’s about loving a baby born in Bethlehem, Christ, the Lord.