Luke 2:1-20
Among the books I’ve read that have had the greatest impact on me is a short one about the central message of the New Testament. That message, it said, is: for you. Actually, that’s the message of the entire Bible. Friends, God is for you.
He gives His law–His commands–because He wants you to see that you fail to keep His law and that You need to turn to Him in repentance. He also gives His Gospel–the good news–that tells us that because God loves you, He sent Jesus to take your sins onto Himself to give His righteousness to all who believe in Jesus.
In the first sermon delivered by a Christian preacher, the apostle Peter tells the crowd who just have heard the Law and the Gospel: “The promise [of the Gospel] is for you…” (Acts 2:39)
He gives His law–His commands–because He wants you to see that you fail to keep His law and that You need to turn to Him in repentance. He also gives His Gospel–the good news–that tells us that because God loves you, He sent Jesus to take your sins onto Himself to give His righteousness to all who believe in Jesus.
In the first sermon delivered by a Christian preacher, the apostle Peter tells the crowd who just have heard the Law and the Gospel: “The promise [of the Gospel] is for you…” (Acts 2:39)
There was an immediacy to Peter’s message that couldn’t be avoided. One reason Christmas has become so meaningless for most people is that the miracle of God becoming human to destroy sin and death for all who believe in Him is lost.
We forget that God did all this for us: for me, for you. But when you hear Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, you can’t miss the message from God that the promise of Christmas is for you, not as members of a numberless, faceless mass of people, but as individuals for whom Jesus came to die and rise.
Let’s look at three different places in our Gospel lesson where this is underscored.
An angel came to shepherds. Although in the history of God’s people shepherds were highly regarded, by the first century AD, nobody looked up to shepherd, generally seen as lowlifes. The angel tells the shepherds on Christmas night: “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…” (Luke 2:10) “This news is going to bring joy to all sorts of people,” the angel was saying, “but right now I am bringing it personally to you!”
The Lutheran preacher and novelist of the last century, Bo Giertz, said in one Christmas sermon that this message had a deep effect on the shepherds. The shepherds could see that “God cared about them. God wanted to help them. In the midst of the dark and the cold, during their hard and heavy work, in the midst of all the burdens life had put on them, God came so close to them, so near, and did so much in order for them to understand…It really was good news.”
An angel came to shepherds. Although in the history of God’s people shepherds were highly regarded, by the first century AD, nobody looked up to shepherd, generally seen as lowlifes. The angel tells the shepherds on Christmas night: “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…” (Luke 2:10) “This news is going to bring joy to all sorts of people,” the angel was saying, “but right now I am bringing it personally to you!”
The Lutheran preacher and novelist of the last century, Bo Giertz, said in one Christmas sermon that this message had a deep effect on the shepherds. The shepherds could see that “God cared about them. God wanted to help them. In the midst of the dark and the cold, during their hard and heavy work, in the midst of all the burdens life had put on them, God came so close to them, so near, and did so much in order for them to understand…It really was good news.”
In Jesus, God is near to you too.
He wants to help you too.
God with us–Immanuel, Jesus–is with you and He cares about your every moment.
No matter how high the bills pile up.
No matter how overwhelming the required readings of the syllabus are.
No matter how challenging the 1:00 AM feedings can be.
No matter what challenges or conflicts or griefs may meet us in this life.
In all circumstances, there is joy in knowing that in Jesus, God is with you. He is for you!
The angel then tells the shepherds, “a Savior has been born to you…” (Luke 2:11) We all need this Savior. We are all sinners.
The angel then tells the shepherds, “a Savior has been born to you…” (Luke 2:11) We all need this Savior. We are all sinners.
And there are days when all of us feel like failures: as parents, grandparents, spouses, friends, children, employees, bosses, and human beings.
Jesus comes to save us from condemnation for our sin and our failings.
A man came to see me. He was single and had been conducting an on-again, off-again, on-again affair with a married woman for years. “I resolve never to see her again,” he told me, “then she’ll call me. I’m weak. I see her again, then I hate myself again and I’m sure that God can never forgive me or change me.”
Jesus has come to free us from our self-loathing.
He has come to save us from ourselves.
He can set us free as we turn to Him daily for the strength to follow Him and to live in the love for God love for others for which we were made.
The apostle Paul, after talking about his weakness in the face of his own sin, cries out: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Friends, Jesus the Savior has been born to you and for you!
Even if you were the only person in the universe who needed saving, He would have been born to you, gone to the cross for you, and risen for you.
You can’t decide to be a better person (none of us can), but Jesus can save you and make you a new person as you daily follow Him. (Luke 9:23)
God’s Word says, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
It also tells us, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1) In Jesus, you have a Savior.
There is joy in that!
The angel then tells the shepherds: “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12)
The angel then tells the shepherds: “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:12)
There were likely many babies in Bethlehem that night, their families back in their ancestral town to be counted in the Roman census.
But it’s equally likely that none of the others were in an animals’ feeding trough.
And who would expect the One the angels described as the Messiah, Savior, and Lord to be in such a place?
You’d expect such a King to be in a palace in a crib covered in gold, attended by armies.
But that isn’t how the God Who is for you operates. He enters your life not to intimidate you or force you to bow, although when you see Him in His holiness and perfection, you will inevitably feel impelled to bow down to Him. In fact, God enters your life to, in the words of the Christmas hymns, “cast out [your] sin and enter in”--into your life with forgiveness which, when received by faith will make you righteous in God's sight forever!
And so, on the first Christmas, the simple sign that pointed to the shepherds to the King and Savior of the world was a manger in a barn.
But that isn’t how the God Who is for you operates. He enters your life not to intimidate you or force you to bow, although when you see Him in His holiness and perfection, you will inevitably feel impelled to bow down to Him. In fact, God enters your life to, in the words of the Christmas hymns, “cast out [your] sin and enter in”--into your life with forgiveness which, when received by faith will make you righteous in God's sight forever!
And so, on the first Christmas, the simple sign that pointed to the shepherds to the King and Savior of the world was a manger in a barn.
The signs of the now-crucified and risen Savior Who comes to you today are just as simple and easy to overlook or ignore by a world flailing in sin, selfishness, and death: God’s Word and the Sacraments.
By these signs–these means–Christ comes to us and the Holy Spirit brings faith in and everlasting salvation through Jesus the Savior to us. These are the means by which the Word about Jesus is planted within you, “which can save you.” (James 1:21) This too is our joy!
In the weeks before Christmas, we may ask the people in our families and circles of friends for their Christmas lists. It turns out, God has a Christmas list too.
In the weeks before Christmas, we may ask the people in our families and circles of friends for their Christmas lists. It turns out, God has a Christmas list too.
This Christmas, whatever else is going on in your life or in this world, know that in Christ, you are deeply loved and that, in Him, there is forgiveness and everlasting life with God. As Jesus says elsewhere: “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:40)
In Christ, you can turn to the God Who is for you.
The Savior in the manger shows us that all God wants for Christmas is you! Amen
[Videos of the two Christmas Eve worship services can be found here.]
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