Sermon Tone Analysis
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What do you do at Christmas?
Many of our traditions include
Christmas lights
Decorating a tree
Hot Chocolate
Gift exchanges.
Candlelight Services
For example … we have a candelight service planned for December 23rd.
Often it will include a certain meal or side dish.
Like a ham, tea ring, egg nog.
It might include watching certain movies.
I know for us we traditionally have watched White Christmas on Christmas Eve.
And that is what we do for Christmas.
And
For many, to ask what you do for Christmas is the same as asking what Christmas is all about.
That is the doing, is the meaning of Christmas.
- And that is it.
- There is no greater meaning, than having a festive time with famiy and friends.
Yet, for the Christian … the true meaning of Christmas is not in all the festive doing,
but in the remembering.
It is remembering the good news - that is the Good news of the Birth of Christ.
Many people enjoy Luke’s account of the birth, and if if you would turn to Luke this morning as we prepare our hearts for the true meaning of Christmas.
So far,
this Christmas season we have talked about hope, peace, and joy.
And the celebration of Christmas should certainly inlcude hope, peace, and joy.
That is the language of Luke, Matthew, Isaiah, and many of the books of the Bible.
And yet, may I add this morning LOVE.
Christmas is a celebration of God’s great love.
No matter what part of the Birth you consider … you have to conclude it is a demonstration of God’s great love.
You ask,
How does Christmas show God’s great love for us?
To answer that question, I wrote a simple sentence that personalizes what Luke 2:11 teaches us this morning?
“For you the Son was sent according to His promises to save you and bring you the blessings of the kingdom.”
This morning, I will answer that simple question - How does Christmas show God’s great love for us? - with this simple paraphrase of Luke 2:11.
To start with … the Birth of Jesus was …
(1) For You.
At Christmas,
we spend a lot of time talking about the Nativity scene.
Why was it in Bethlehehm?
Who are the wiseman?
Why is the baby in the Manager?
We spend time amazed at who Jesus is.
God in the flesh.
Prince of Peace.
The Messiah.
But in all the study and in all the questions and in all the amazement we forget something really important.
Jesus, the son of God, left the throne of God, to be born in a humble manager, FOR ME!
God did it for you.
God didn’t do it for himself.
God did for you.
Look down at your bibles, Luke 2:11, and read what it says.
Admitedly “For unto you” means the world.
It is a plural pronoun.
And It is roughly equivalent to the concept of John 3:16.
Same thing … “For unto you is born this day”
Everyone of us belongs in this world.
We are apart of the world.
Which means, yes, God did it for the world … but not some abstract world.
But for me and for you.
If you are apart of the world … than Christmas was for you.
ILLUSTRATION:
Generally … if you do something for someone … that is an act of love.
When I come home, and my wife has had a hard day, and so I do the dishes … I do it for her.
I don’t do the dishes because it is easy or fun … I do it because I love her.
We all understand … acts of kindness are acts of love.
In the same way,
Jesus was born for you.
It is one of the ways we know that God loves us.
I want you to remember, in the midst of all the celebration … that all of the celebration of Christmas is because God loves you.
But consider, what comes next?
“For you the Son was sent”
Think about the signifigance of that ....
(2) The Son Was Sent.
How valuable is a child?
Sometimes we worry about promotions, retirement, buying house, or the next vacation.
But let something happen to one of my kids.
And all those worries go away.
Suddenly … I come really focused.
My whole world stops.
In fact, we have term for this … Mamma bear.
The sweetest ladies in the world become raging bears after the cubs … if you mess their kids.
Ask any principal who has had to sit across from an angry parent.
Why is that?
- Because there is nothing more valuable in this world besides your child.
- It is the most precious possesion we have.
But the Bible records an incredible love …
Who is born?
What child is this?
This is no less than the son of God.
All the diffirent titles and Scripture references that Luke uses in Luke 2
connect this idea from the Old Testament.
But to make it easy for us this morning …
Luke makes this explicitabely obvious in Luke 3.
When describing Jesus Baptism, Luke shows Christ as the very son of God.
It is just like John 3:16.
Now think about this in terms of love.
God sent his Son to us.
Our greatest gift on Christmas … is that God sent his son to us.
We joke about Mom’s being Mama bear, but do you think God is any diffirent.
God has sent his greatest treasure, His son, to be born in the flesh … for us.
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