Sermon Tone Analysis

The law is only a shadown of the good thingso that are coming—not the realities themselves.p

For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfectq those who draw near to worship.r 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered?

For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.s

3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.t 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goatsu to take away sins.v

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world,w he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for me;x

6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings

you were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scrolly—

I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”a z

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”a—though they were offered in accordance with the law.

9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”b

He sets aside the first to establish the second.

10 And by that will, we have been made holyc through the sacrifice of the bodyd of Jesus Christ once for all.e

Introduction

Thesis: What do you do when Christmas is over?

The gifts are unwrapped, the living room is a mess,

the dinner ham and jellied meatballs are digesting nicely in slightly bloated bellies, and the kids are napping away using their new toys as pillows.

Now what?

This forces us to ask.

What is the significance of Christmas anyhow?

What is any of it about?

Yes, yes, Jesus is the reason for the season, but what is the reason for Jesus?

:

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,s so the Son of Man must be lifted up,f t 15 that everyone who believesu may have eternal life in him.”g

v

16 For God so lovedw the world that he gavex his one and only Son,y that whoever believesz in him shall not perish but have eternal life.a

17 For God did not send his Son into the worldb to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.c

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned,d but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.e 19 This is the verdict: Lightf has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.g

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

You Can’t Have Christmas without a Tree

One of my favorite sermons the Lord has ever giver me to preach was born out of the ramblings of a Christian coworker who complained about so much about the evil she saw in the Christmas tree.

For me that led to the realization that “You Can’t Have Christmas without a Tree”.

Biblically, the birth of Christ was never the point!

Matthew devotes his first two chapters to that story

Mark is silent on the topic

Luke gives two chapters to the topic if one counts very liberally, though, in reality the number is more akin to 75% of a chapter (the first 39 of ’s 52 verses)

John’s total can be estimated to be one verse ()

WHY???

Because the focus of the story is not on Christ’s birth, but on his death!

The birth narrative serves as an origin story to the world’s only true super-hero tale.

It is not what Kal-El did as an infant on Krypton that mattered, or even Clark’s actions in Smallville that are significant, but Superman’s battle against evil in Metropolis.

That geek moment aside the parallel is apparent: the most relevant moment in the Gospels, in the NT as a whole, and indeed in the entire Bible, is Christ’s battle against sin waged on a Roman cross.

All those details about the baby in the manger are there so that we can clearly see the transition where the eternal Mighty God becomes a helpless infant human on his path to becoming the sacrificial mediator between both.

It is no wonder then that in the Bible’s Gospel accounts, the tale of the crucifixion is introduced quite early...

By (of 28 chs.)

By (of 16 chs.)

By (of 24 chs.)

By (of 21 chs.)

In fact the word “Christmas” means “Christ’s Mass” or in essence it is a statement about the memorial celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

“Mass” is usually thought to derive ultimately from the Latin missio for “dismissal” referring to the dismissal at the conclusion of the eucharist.

So even our English term for day celebrating Christ’s birth speak etymologically more to his death.

In fact the word “Christmas” means “Christ’s Mass” or in essence it is a statement about the memorial celebration of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

“Mass” is usually thought to derive ultimately from the Latin missio for “dismissal” referring to the dismissal at the conclusion of the eucharist.

The theme of the book of Hebrews is the compelling supreme sufficiency of every aspect of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 10 of that book emphasizes the supreme sufficiency of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Animal sacrifices were never the point.

:

1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.

For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered?

For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.

3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

(References which turns out to be prophetic of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the LXX [39] the ascription appropriately reads eis to telos, or “for the end”.

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for me;

6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings

Christ was given human flesh, so that his flesh could be rent.

He was given man’s blood, so that his blood could be shed.

All men who are born into this world will die, but He was specifically born in order to die for this world.

you were not pleased.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—

The Point of the Tree Lies in the Gift

I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”[fn]

John 3:16

οὕτως γὰρ “For this is the manner in which” ( a better reading than “how much,” because it refers back to the pericope of )

ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον “God loved the world”

ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν “therefore he gave his one-of-a-kind Son”

ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ’ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον

The point of the analogy to is with

the unworthiness of the recipients, and

the super-effectiveness of the gift, but

diverges significantly at the high cost of that which is given.

Christ is at once the one-unique, priceless son of God, and also the only perfect Son of Man.

He is the treasure of heaven who is the solution to two impossibilities regarding the atonement.

In order for His conditional will to go into effect, a deathless God must die (), and

In order to satisfy the conditions of that will, a kinsman of the rebellious human race must walk in perfect obedience ()

The Gift on the Tree is Inevitably Followed by Something Happy and New

he turned to me and heard my cry.