The Essentials Of Christmas

God As Rescuer Or I Bring You Good News

CONNECTION

My Christmas Story

It was 1980 I didn’t get any Christmas gifts that year. My mother a waitress didn’t make enough tips to buy me and my brothers any gifts and it was the best Christmas I ever had. It is my most memorable Christmas because my mother sat me and my brothers down and told us why Christmas was essential. Why Christmas matter. She reinforce in us that Christmas wasn’t about presents or a tree. She told us that Christmas was about Jesus coming into the world to save people from their sins. The story she told us I had heard before but this time it stuck with me. When my kids or my wife would ask me what do I want for Christmas I would respond with Love, Joy and peace on earth. If I got something cool but if I didn’t cool because I new there was a greater gift Jesus.

2020 has certainly been an interesting year. We’ve heard a lot about this word essential. You see this year we found out that gas stations, grocery stores, banks, hardware stores, fast food, toilet paper, just to name a few are essential to living. But what really is essential?

So over the next couple of weeks we’re stating a new sermon series entitled The Essentials Of Christmas.

Go with me to Matthew chapter 1 starting at verse 18-21

INSTRUCTION

The definition of the word essential means, Absolutely, Necessary and Indispensable.

I can’t speak for you but I think the message of Christmas is absolutely necessary and indispensible. God The Father sending His son Jesus to be born of a virgin, pay the penalty for our sins (death) so we could be reconciled back to Him (God) Is essential and Good News!

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.

19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Go with me to Luke Chapter 1 verses 26-31

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,

27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.

28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

‭‭The name Jesus, announce to Joseph and Mary through the angels means Yahweh saves or Yahweh is salvation.

Transliterated from Hebrew and Aramaic, the name is Yeshua. This word is a combination of Ya, an abbreviation for Yahweh, the name of Israel’s God (Exodus 3:14); and the verb yasha, meaning rescue, deliver or save

The name Jesus was quite popular in first Century Judea. For this reason, our Lord was often called Jesus of Nazareth, distinguishing him by his childhood home, the town of Nazareth in Galilee.

Jesus was sent by God the father for a particular purpose, and his personal name bears witness to that mission.

You see the mission of Jesus

In 1987 a toddler by the name of Jessica McClure fell into a 8 inch well casting. Down she went becoming stuck 22 feet below the ground. Once people discover that baby Jessica was in the well they took immediate action. They didn’t tell her to find a way to climb back up and they didn’t just shout happy thoughts to encourage her. No they went down to where she was and got her. They did whatever it took. Rescuers worked nonstop for 58 hours to free her.

They didn’t tell her to find a way to climb back up and they didn’t just shout happy thoughts to encourage her. No they went down to where she was and got her. They did whatever it took. Rescuers worked nonstop for 58 hours to free her.

In the garden of Eden, Adam and eve fell. Down they went, dragging ALL humanity with them into the darkness and death of sin. And what did God do? He did not tell us to find our way out of the mess we were in, he did more than shout down happy thoughts to us from heaven. No, He came down to where we were and got us. That’s what’s Essential about Christmas God coming down to rescue us, to do whatever it took to deliver us from sure death and reconciling us Himself.

That’s our Loving Father. He did whatever it took to rescue you and me back to the family. So He sent His best Himself.

INSTRUCTION

So we pick up this amazing story in Luke

Go with me to Luke‬ chapter ‭2 beginning at verse 8 NLT‬‬

8“ That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.”

9“ Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified,

10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to ALL people.

So what is this Good News? Why was it good then? Why is it good Now?

11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.

17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.

18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,

19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.

20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:9-20‬ ‭NLT‬‬