Heaven On Earth

Big Idea of the Series: Sometimes, it’s difficult to enjoy Christmas when we’re too busy to stop and savor the holiday. This sermon series takes congregations back to the foundation of the Christmas story, revealing the joy and celebration it brings to all those who place their faith in Christ. Christmas changes everything. God has come to us in the form of Jesus! Heaven has come to earth!

Text:

Matthew 1:18–25 KJV 1900

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

–2

Topic: The Gospel, Redemption, Incarnation, Suffering, Christmas Big Idea of the Text: Immanuel means “God with us”; we have a God who dares to come near to us in our brokenness and suffering.

Topic: The Gospel, Redemption, Incarnation, Suffering, Christmas Big Idea of the Text: Immanuel means “God with us”; we have a God who dares to come near to us in our brokenness and suffering. Application Point: When we suffer the hard things of this life, sometimes God feels aloof, but the birth of Jesus reminds us he chose to come near to us in our hurts and struggles.

Application Point: When we suffer the hard things of this life, sometimes God feels nowhere around, but the birth of Jesus reminds us he chose to come near to us in our hurts and struggles.

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1. This video reminds us that Jesus was born in a barn—a messy place in a messy world. Jesus “came to be messy,” he did this to be near to us in our struggles and pain: .

2. In this video produced for the Biblical Imagination Series at InterVarsity Press, Christian musician Michael Card sings of “a king in a cattle trough,” and reminds that the Jesus stooped low to come among us, making himself a servant for our sake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZX9zlbiNBo.

3. Katelyn Beaty

WE DON’T BELIEVE in Christmas anymore. We believe in Christmas gatherings, Christmas shopping, and Christmas recitals, of course, and even Christmas outreach events and Christmas acts of charity. You know that Christmas has dominated our mass-mediated imagination since before Halloween. Christmas is the piece de resistance of a year spent hustling from one “big event” to another, anticipating the next holiday as we try to enjoy the present one. Christmas is the biggest celebration on the calendar. But we know not what we celebrate. Church leaders are in a major bind with this one. They have to compete with the usual rivals—Santa Claus, TV specials, and generic holiday cheer that can be felt without taking the family to a church. This year, Christian leaders face the allure of the new Star Wars. In a tossup between the baby Jesus and Luke Skywalker, I’m not sure most Christians would bet on the Christ Child over the Jedi Fighter. In an effort to capture their neighbors’ attention, churches have perfected their Christmastime marketing game. It’s no longer the Christmas sermon; it’s four weeks of “Unwrapping Christmas” or “An Upside-Down Christmas,” with children’s programs and four weekend services—all requiring members’ time and energy—to match. In a 2011 Charisma article on “the 12 mistakes of Christmas outreach,” the No. 1 mistake is “not planning for something great.” Even God knows you gotta have a WOW moment: “The Incarnation was one of God’s Biggest Ideas,” write the authors.

The Advent Conspiracy, founded in 2006 to encourage worship, simplicity, and giving, rightly draws the holiday away from ourselves, onto God and others. But even it tries to add big ideas—generosity and justice—to God’s Big Idea. Our critiques of Christmas consumerism come wrapped in the packaging of a consumerist society.

It’s like we don’t trust the Incarnation to sell itself. And maybe that’s our problem. The trick about the Incarnation—God becoming man; God becoming man—is that it can’t be sold, scheduled, or enjoyed in the way a glass of eggnog or a new gadget can. It refuses to bend to the rules of the market. It can only be beheld.

The Christmas story is “amazing” because it is beyond human thought. It is nothing we humans could have invented. Yet it is everything that we need to hear in order to flourish in our dark and violent world. It is the great rescue plan of God, initiated before time itself to save sinners from death. It is salvation. Come and behold.

(Katelyn Beaty, “How We Forgot the Poverty of Christmas,” Christianity Today, November 23, 2015, ).

4. Matthew Henry writes, “The people of the Jews had God with them, in types and shadows, dwelling between the cherubim; but never so as when the Word was made flesh—that was the blessed Shechinah. What a happy step is hereby taken toward the settling of a peace and correspondence between God and man, that the two natures are thus brought together in the person of the Mediator! … By the light of nature, we see God as a God above us; by the light of the law, we see him as a God against us; but by the light of the gospel, we see him as Immanuel, God with us, in our own nature, and (which is more) in our interest. Herein the Redeemer commended his love. With Christ's name, Immanuel, we may compare the name given to the gospel church

Ezekiel 48:35 KJV 1900

It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.

Jehovah Shammah—The Lord is there; the Lord of hosts is with us” (Matthew Henry, Matthew to John, Commentary on the Whole Bible 5 [Ethereal Classics Christian Library], chap. 1, under “The Birth of Christ”).

Jehovah Shammah—The Lord is there; the Lord of hosts is with us” (Matthew Henry, Matthew to John, Commentary on the Whole Bible 5 [Ethereal Classics Christian Library], chap. 1, under “The Birth of Christ”).

5. Many people are carrying a burden around, not just at Christmastime, but at other times of the year too. At Christmas, sorrow and brokenness feels especially alienating because everyone around us seems to be bright, happy, and celebrating (even if, internally, they aren’t). It is a hopeful thing to remember that Jesus, “God with Us,” is not sparkly and festive like our local department store. He deliberately came to be with us in the messiness. We are not alone in our sorrows; instead, we are closer to the real reason Jesus came.

6. God of love and understanding. Help us to know that you are present with us in all of our moods and feelings and seasons. Grant us a taste of the hope, peace, joy and love that you promise to all of your people through the gift of your son Jesus.

CANDLELIGHTING

We light four candles tonight in remembrance of our loved ones. We light these candles for our own needs. We light one for our grief, one for our courage, one for our memories and one for our love.

This candle represents our Grief. We own the pain of losing loved ones, of dreams that go unfulfilled, of hopes that evaporate in despair.

This candle represents our courage. It symbolizes the courage to confront our sorrow, to comfort each other, to share our feelings honestly and openly with each other, and to dare to hope in the midst of pain.

This candle represents our memories. For the times we laughed together, cried together, were angry at each other or overjoyed with each other. We light this candle for the memories of caring and joy we shared together.

This candle represents our love. The love we have given, and the love we have received. The love that has gone unacknowledged and unfelt, and the love that has been shared in times of joy and sorrow.

Go in peace, knowing that the God, whose love created this world, sent Jesus into the same world to be our friend, companion, and Savior. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.