Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Two years ago, a friend of mine shared a newspaper article on Facebook that caught my eye: Church pays off $43 million in medical debt.

A church in Columbia, Missouri raised over $430,000 and used those funds to pay off medical bills/debt of families in the region.

The church didn’t do this for recognition.

They didn’t do this in order to make a name for themselves or to make the people on the receiving end of these funds feel bad about being in the situation they were in.

They came together with a common goal and sought to help those who were in need and use what God had blessed them with to in turn, bless others.

Have you ever been blessed by someone who gave you something or did something for you that you could never repay?

That is a blessing that changes your trajectory and circumstances!

If you’ve ever received such a gift, you likely were full of happiness and joy for a time.

You thanked the person who helped you in your time of need.

Yet, as humans, we often go from one problem to the next.

We have a tragedy and we recover only to experience yet another tragedy.

This is due to the fallen, sinful world that we are living in - it was never supposed to be this way.

We look around at the Christmas season and we see many people who do nice things for others.

We go to the store and people donate to the Salvation Army.

We look online and we see people helping one another out.

We come to church and there are fundraisers and gift exchanges for those who are in need.

This is a time of the year where people are more apt to give and support others.

But, what comes after Christmas?

What comes after this season of giving?

Another season.

See, friends, circumstances change.

Needs change.

People change.

Feelings change.

Happiness comes and goes.

What stays the same?

The Gospel message of Jesus Christ saving sinners.

What you and I need to be reminded of during this season more than ever is that our greatest need hasn’t changed over the past year.

We have many needs and I don’t want to minimize those at all - but our greatest need is our condition before our holy God.

Our greatest problem is our sin.

Suffering, pain, disease, finances, relationships, all of those problems find their root in sin and the Bible shares with us that we’ve all sinned and are separated from God as a result!

So, what’s the solution?

The solution to sin remains the same year in and year out.

The solution isn’t more stuff.

It’s not more money.

It’s not more time.

It’s not the latest and greatest thing.

It’s not therapeutic messages.

It’s not rock and roll.

It’s not even time with family around the holidays.

The solution to our sin is Jesus Christ.

The solution to our sin is a savior and during the Christmas season we celebrate His coming to earth and saving us.

Because Jesus Christ came, as we talked about last week, we can have hope.

Why can we have hope?

Because He is always with us and He is faithful to His promises.

This week we’re going to look at another theme of advent and that theme is Joy.

People around Christmas time are happy, often.

Why?

Because of our circumstances.

But what happens when circumstances change?

What happens whenever prosperity is replaced by pain?

What happens whenever happiness is replaced with heartache?

What happens whenever blessing is replaced by busyness.

Whenever things don’t go your way and you feel a deep pain - perhaps a physical one or one due to immense loss - can you still have joy?

As one Christian author put it, “My joy cannot eradicate my pain, but neither can my pain wipeout or rob me of joy.

Joy, genuine joy, can thrive in the midst of pain.”

If you’re here this morning and you’re struggling, know that joy isn’t the same as happiness.

During the Christmas season, be reminded that, as a Christian, you can have genuine joy at all times because joy comes from knowing that God is present with you, that God loves you, and that God has a purpose for you in every season of your life - even in the darkest of valleys you find yourself in.

This Christmas season, rejoice because God is with you and He sent His Son to solve our greatest problem!

Rejoice Because Jesus Came to Serve (52:10-53:3)

Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re confused as to what this text of Scripture has to do with Christmas.

This passage of Scripture is commonly referred to as the Suffering Servant text as Isaiah describes what the coming Messiah would do - He would serve His people and suffer in their place.

What does this have to do with Christmas?

It has everything to do with Christmas!

Why did Jesus come to earth?

We see the answer in the Gospel’s

Jesus Christ came to do 4 things in these verses: Seek, Save, Serve, and Give His Life.

Now, consider who Jesus is.

Jesus is the 2nd person of the Trinity.

He has all power.

We read that He is co-eternal with the Father and that the Father created the universe through Jesus Christ.

Seeing that Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost blows our mind because of who He is! Seeing that Jesus would give up His life as a ransom blows our mind!

Seeing that Jesus Christ came to serve others equally blows our mind.

Whenever you think of someone serving someone else, what do you first think of?

If you’re like me, you think of someone at a restaurant taking your order and serving you your food and drinks.

You think of a waiter or waitress.

Is this the kind of server that Jesus is?

Is He our cosmic butler waiting for us to tell Him what we’d like to eat for dinner?

Is He our genie in a bottle that we can order around whenever we want something big or small?

No! We read in the Bible that He is the One who serves humanity as our Savior.

Jesus doesn’t come to just help you out, Jesus came to save you from your sin.

Jesus does what you and I could never do.

We read in the suffering servant passage of Isaiah 53 that Jesus Christ is this servant who is successful and is greatly exalted.

Whenever you are a servant, you humble yourself to the point of putting the needs of someone else above your own.

This doesn’t mean that you are inferior to the other person or anything of that nature, you simply put their needs above yours.

Think of Jesus Christ in this regard.

Before anything else was here, Christ was.

Before we existed, Christ existed in heaven.

Yet, what do we celebrate at Christmas time?

The coming of the King.

The incarnation.

The humiliation of Jesus Christ as He left the throne room of heaven and came to earth as the God-man.

He humbled Himself.

He created all things in the first place and, yet, He subjected Himself to creation.

Jesus Christ experienced bumps and bruises.

He had sleepless nights.

He got sick.

He even died!

We read in Isaiah 53:3 that He was a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.