Work of the Cross

God’s Work at Christmas

Work of the Cross

Luke 2:7-12

Theme: God shows the pathway to the cross at the first Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and your family today. Thank you for being in church on the Lord’s Day and Christmas Eve. Tonight, we will have a one-hour candlelight service at 5:00 to 6:00 PM. We will not interrupt anything you are having with your family and respect your time. The Patch children will do a Christmas presentation so bring your family and join us tonight.

Christmas is a reminder of the miraculous work of God in the first century. The work He did two thousand years ago is reason to celebrate His greatness. The God of the Bible is not some manmade fabrication of man’s imagination. He is the only God and there is no other God. He doesn’t have to prove His power because His person reveals His Godhood and ability. God has shown us His work of adoration, incarnation, surrender, and redemption.

Today His work of the Cross.

As you read this passage very carefully, you will note on two occasions swaddling clothes are mentioned. It is found in verse 7 and in verse 12. This is not there by accident but it is very significant. While birth means new life; you generally don’t think of death at the birth of a baby. This birth is unique, a one of a kind of birth. This God coming to earth incarnated in flesh as the God Man. As man He thirsted, as God He is the Living Water. As man He hungered, as God He is the Bread of Life. As man He suffered pain, as God He healed those who suffered.

While this miraculous virgin birth is totally amazing, it also points to the finished work on the cross. From the cradle to the cross is found throughout this Christmas story. Jesus came for the purpose of the cross.

He came as new life in the cradle to give us new life on the cross. There is a significance about the swaddling clothes here.

What do they mean to us here?

There is an announcement v.12

This shall be a sign unto mankind. Signs point us to something ahead. Like a sign might say prepare to stop, or right lane closed ahead, or bridge out in one mile. There are signs that point us to take notice of something we need to know about the future.

God is giving us a sign with the swaddling clothes. He is drawing attention to them because they were quite significant in the first century. Swaddling clothes would be used a wrap up a baby to keep them warm and secure. They were bands of two or more where they would tie the clothes together and strengthen the arms for protection.

The thought was the arms would grow straight when they were wrapped tightly. Swaddling clothes were actually used to wrap a dead body in preparation for burial. This found in John 11 where Lazarus who had died and Jesus raised him from the dead out of the tomb

“And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” (John 11:43–44)

He was bound with swaddling clothes which were grave clothes and God removed them when he came out of the grave.

The grave clothes found here in Bethlehem announces the purpose of Jesus coming. Paul makes this clear in I Timothy

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Timothy 2:5–6)

The idea of ransom is one who pays the price which we learned last week. Jesus is the Mediator, the One who goes in between man and God. He comes to reconcile man to God.

Jesus came to be our mediator. He is the only Mediator between us and God. It is not the church and God, not the priest and God, not the pastor and God, not religion and God, not the government and God, not money and God, not philosophy and God, not baptism and God. Jesus ONLY is the mediator.

God is announcing to the world in this birth where the baby is wrapped in swaddling clothes, He is the answer to man’s sin problem.

There are many people looking for a sign. Some will study the astrology looking for a sign. The aligning up of the planets. Some will look for a sign in Ouija boards or Tarot cards or fortune tellers. Sometimes people look for signs in circumstances and people.

However, here God gives to mankind a sign. Jesus comes to provide new life found in Him through His death on the cross. What are you trusting in? If you trust in anything other than Jesus Christ, you have no hope. Jesus comes to a world without hope to offer hope for all of mankind through His death on the cross.

If you don’t take heed the signs on the road, you could endanger your life and the life of others. If you don’t take heed to this announcement at the manger, you endanger your spiritual life.

The second meaning is . . .

There is a promise vv. 9-10

God offers for the entire world a message that will be life changing. As we sing the Christmas carols, there is a reminder to us of God’s promise which is given to us in these verses. A message that brings good tidings. There are many messages which bring bad news. Often you turn on the news and it seems there is nothing good going on in our world.

This first century message is seen in the grave clothes. When Jesus went to the cross, He literally died and was literally buried. Some people do not believe He literally died. One writer said, “when Jesus was on the cross, he passed out from sheer exhaustion. Since the medical advances were not around in those days, they thought he was died and placed Him in a damp tomb where the cold revived Him.” That is not it all.

The Bible states even from His birth to His death that He came to die for us on the cross. Last week, we learned He paid a price we could not pay by shedding His own blood on the cross. The death, burial, and resurrection offers a promise of new life, a life of purpose and meaning. The promise of eternal life is offered through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Here is this promise directly from God the Father.

For he (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us (mankind) who knew no sin (Jesus was sinless) that we (mankind) might be made righteous in him (Jesus).

Jesus bore our sins so that we can be righteous. Peter also mentions this truth

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

The promise says we don’t have to suffer for our sins because Jesus suffered for us by dying on the cross. By accepting Him as our Savior, we are forgiven through Him.

God was telling the world in Bethlehem’s manger that God sent His Son with a total purpose of providing for mankind absolute forgiveness through Him alone.

He was a baby and a child, so that you may be a perfect human. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, so that you may be freed from the snares of death. He was in a manger, so that you may be in the altar. He was on earth that you may be in the stars. He had no other place in the inn, so that you may have many mansions in the heavens. ‘He, being rich, became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich.’ Therefore his poverty is our inheritance, and the Lord’s weakness is our virtue. He chose to lack for himself, that he may abound for all. The sobs of that appalling infancy cleanse me, those tears wash away my sins. – Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke.

“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame; and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down, I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.

Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me; For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above, to bear it to dark calvary.

The last meaning . . .

There is a decision v.11

The grave clothes point to man’s great need of a Savior

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)

God sent an announcement to the first century that man needed and a Savior. Jesus is the One and Only Savior.

One time a man told me, when God writes the message in the sky, I will believe. Well, God sent the angels to announce the good news.

He sent His Son to die on the cross for us and the decision to receive Him as our Savior is now being offered to us. Will you receive Him today? Will you let Him be your Savior?

Many in the first century had no room for Him just as the innkeeper said no room. They went on living as if this Savior meant nothing to them. God is giving you an opportunity to decide to accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Romans 10:13.

If you are a Christian today, you can celebrate His coming and be reminded the grave clothes is a reminder of why Jesus came.