Sermon Tone Analysis

Hope Arrives

In the Garden of Eden and in the New Jerusalem we see God physically with his people.

Everything between Genesis and Revelation is the story of how we get back to perfect oneness with God.

This is part of that story.

In the garden sin, a desire to be like God instead of being one with God, causes a separation from perfect oneness with God.

God creates a covenant community that wrestles with him, Israel.

There are good times, but there are also very bad times, but all the while God is promising to restore oneness through his Messiah.

Finally in the perfect time, in the perfect way, God comes to restore oneness in person, in human form.

We know him as Jesus.

Luke 2:1-21

The Shepherds

If a royal birth today were to take place, the royal family would send the finest invitations to the most important people in government and religious circles.

Instead God comes through the poorest of poor families (Mary & Joseph offer a gift of poverty at the temple, see 2:24, & Lev.

12:8).

And his arrival is announced to the shepherds in the fields.

According to biblical scholar Dwight Pryor, writings from this time indicate that shepherds were detestable and unreliable.

They could not testify in court, and were rejected by the “good” people of society.

The only people group lower than shepherds in this day and time were lepers.

Yet God has always sought to elevate the lowly.

Consider Moses, raised from the river escaping his life to become prince of Egypt, flees for his life once again to become a shepherd and then the leader of a nation.

Consider David, the poor shepherd boy anointed king, a man after God’s own heart.

Consider Ruth, a poor widowed foreigner that is redeemed and made whole.

Esther, poor Jewish girl that becomes queen and saves her people.

At the birth of God in the flesh, the Savior of all mankind, Jesus’ arrival is announced to the lowest of the low, the most humble and despised.

Why? God was revealing something about himself, his nature, and his mission.

He was teaching us a lesson through the announcement made to these Shepherds: God cares for the lowly and rejected.

God doesn’t discriminate based on who you are, where you’re from, your bank account or lack thereof…He’s the God of the Jews and Gentiles.

He eats with tax collectors and sinners, he welcomes prostitutes, he heals the dirty, touches lepers, and praise God he saves sinners.

That is the story that Jesus came to tell, that is the story we look at today, and that is the story we sing about.

The Gift

How many times have we read about the magi bringing gifts to Jesus and been confused?

Why these gifts?

Why not something fit for a baby?

We obviously know now that Jesus was far more than a baby, but there’s more at play here.

Let’s read the story together.

Matthew 2:1-12

Matthew is quick to tell us the prophecy that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, but I think Matthew expects us to understand another prophecy in here.

It’s the gift that they bring.

Isaiah 60:1-6

The Gift

Isn’t it cool how the events surrounding his birth, even the gifts, retells the old story about the salvation that God was bringing to his people.

But one of those gifts wasn’t mentioned.

Myrrh.

Myrrh was a foreshadowing of what was to come.

In John’s Gospel we read that Nicodemus brings 75 pounds of myrrh to anoint the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.

Even at his birth, the gift he receives sheds light on why he truly came.

The Gift tells the story.

There are other events that God has placed in the church that retell that story of God’s salvation.

Baptism retells the story of his death, burial, and resurrection.

Baptism preaches the Gospel to those who see it.

The Lord’s Supper is another event that preaches the Gospel.

When we eat it we proclaim his death.

Jesus came into this world with the cross in mind.

God fulfilled the covenant made to Abraham in Genesis 15.

God knew we would sin and took it upon himself through Jesus’ sacrifice.

That’s what the Lord’s Supper reminds us of.

That Jesus, God in the flesh, would offer his body and blood for us, to give us life.

As we gather at tables, share with your brothers and sisters how Christ has given you life.

Share a word about what he is doing in your life, or what you are seeing him do in the lives of others.

Through his death burial and resurrection he has given us hope, and a new life.

Praise Him!

The Star

It amazes me how often we read right past the Star.

We fail to realize that the Star itself was a prophecy fulfillment (Numbers 24:17), but the wise men knew what the star meant!

Some how, whether it was Daniel teaching their predecessors, or some other means, they had learned to look for a sign of Jesus’ birth, and they found it!

God spoke into their world.

He reached them the way he saw fit.

He appeared where they were searching.

I think it’s beautiful that God seeks to reach into the lives and appear to those who are searching for him.

Some things we should consider about the magi:

They sought Jesus, I need to do the same.

They recognized him as both King and Messiah, I need to realize the same.

They brought Him gifts, I need to do the same.

They specifically came to worship Jesus, I need to do the same.

The star served a specific purpose - to illuminate Christ in a dark world.

We too should serve that purpose through our lives, our words, our service to others, and our worship.

The Savior

The Savior, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.

That’s certainly not the way I would picture it, would you?

If you were sitting a hundred years before Jesus came, is that how you would write the story?

But our God is a God of imagery, of significance, of meaning.

So much surrounding the Savior’s birth points to him being the Savior!

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”

And he was born in Bethlehem, literally “house of bread”…bakery!

John called him the Lamb of God.

He was born in the place where a lamb would be born, and laid in the place a lamb would feed.

The cloths he was wrapped in?

Most likely swaddling bands that were used to protect the newborn sheep.

Bethlehem was the place where sheep were raised to be sacrificed at the temple.

They were wrapped in the swaddling bands to protect them so they could be without blemish when it was time for the sacrifice.

Jesus was wrapped in those cloths.

God, from the time of Moses, commanded people to look after the poor and the traveler.

And here the Savior is born to poor travelers.

Mary was the first to be notified that this miraculous event would happen, and another Mary would be the first to be notified that another miraculous event had happened, that the tomb was empty, and that the Savior defeated death.

The Star in the sky illuminated the place where the Light of the World was laying.

Everything about his birth points to his life and his sacrifice.

The Bread of Life is the only place where our hunger can be satisfied, not in the things of this world, but in the God who created and saved this world!

The Lamb of God was the perfect sacrifice for our completely imperfect lives.

Our sins were laid upon him.

The myrrh at his birth adorned his body in the tomb, but only for a short time.

Because his death was not the end!