Sermon Tone Analysis

I love the Christmas season because it forces me to be reminded again of the depth of Christ’s condescension for a rebel like me.

The depth is infinite because my sin is infinite.

And his righteousness is infinite because his value is infinite.

What a striking scene Luke captures with his pen.

It’s filled with irony and theological beauty.

There is Mary, the mother of Jesus, wrapping up the second person of the Trinity in swaddling clothes.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Son of God became the son of a virgin.

The Creator comes to dwell among his creation.

The one who swaddled the stars with darkness (Job 38:9) is now clothed in cloth as a baby.

Christ, the Lord God, becomes a man and dwells among us (John 1:14).

We cannot stare long at the manger before it begins to change.

Informed by the rest of Scripture, we begin to see the looming shadow of the cross emerge upon it.

Jesus was born to die (Matt.

1:21).

We see the baby here, swaddled in rags, but in due time he will be clothed in the rags of my demerit, my sin (Is.

64:6; 1 Pet.

2:24; 2 Cor.

5:21).

He did this so that we could be vested with his infinite merit (Rom.

4:4-5; 5:1; 2 Cor.

5:21).

Jesus who was wrapped in the garments of humility dresses his children in the merits of his righteousness.

This Jesus will, by his perfect obedience, earn the everlasting righteousness that will be credited to people like me and you.

I have tagged this morning’s text Christmas in the Key of C. The key of C is the most common used key in music compositions and this morning’s truth’s are common and begin with the letter C. No new truths only more serious reflection on what we already know.

CHRISTMAS REMINDS ME THAT GOD CONTROLS EVERYTHING.

God is more interested in declaring than explaining.

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!

CHRISTMAS REMINDS ME THAT GOD COMPLETES HIS PROMISES.

It stands to reason that God would abandon us because of our constant sin, but if that was a reason for Him to leave us, then there never was a reason for Him to have been drawn to us… If He was came to us when we were aliens and hostile in mind, how could He abandon those whom He now calls His children?

CHRISTMAS REVEALS THAT CHRISTIANITY IS CHALLENGING.

How long would it have taken to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

People could perhaps travel about twenty miles a day.

However, given Mary’s late stage of pregnancy, that number would have been much less, perhaps around ten miles a day.

This means their journey likely took place over a ten-day period.

The hazards were many.

Wild animals, bandits, desert robbers—all these and more factored into the nature of the trip.

The valley of the Jordan river was a forested refuge for lions, bears and wild boar.

Archeologists have uncovered signs warning travelers of these kinds of dangers.

Our faith is not meant to get us out of a hard place or change our painful condition.

Rather, it is meant to reveal God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of our dire situation.

CHRISTMAS REINFORCES CHRIST CLAIM.

Anyone can experience Christmas

Anyone can explain Christmas

Matthew’s gospel begins by telling us that Jesus is Immanuel “God with us” (Matthew 1:23) and closes with Immanuel reassuring us of who he is when he says “I’m with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

In an article in Fortune magazine, David Whitford wrote of the shocking discovery prior to his father's death that his dad had amassed a six-figure debt on high-interest credit cards.

There had been clues that his father was having financial problems, but when Whitford had tried to talk about it his father immediately changed the subject.

“At one point,” Whitford writes, “he put his hands over his ears and made a humming noise.”

Yet two days after his father's death, Whitford found these words scrawled on his father's desk: “Help me.

I'm drowning.”

Whitford's story illustrates a tragic reality.

There is little we can do for those who refuse our help.

Our command is to explain salvation; their experience of salvation is Christ work.