SERMON 477
CHRISTMAS EVE –
ISAIAH 62:6-12, TITUS 1:4-7, LUKE 2:1-20
A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE LORD, ALL IN ONE BABY
Beloved in the Lord, grace
and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life.
Christmas Eve has dawned
again, and with millions of Christians around the world we gather together to
give thanks and praise to God for a baby that was born some 2000 years ago. Now
babies are indeed miracles in themselves and each family to whom a baby is born
greets that infant with joy unbounded. But it is astonishing, is it not,
dumbfounding really, that millions upon millions of people around the world
gather to greet and remember a babe that was born some 2000 years ago, and that
they gather in the same way each and every year? There must be something about
that babe for such celebrations to occur. There is of course. For we believe,
teach, and confess that there is to be found, A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE LORD,
ALL IN ONE BABY. That is the theme for this meditation by the way!
Now December 25 has been set
aside as the birthday of this person whom we now call Jesus Christ. The truth
of the matter is that we do not know the real day of his birth, nor do we know
for sure the true year of his birth. But our calendar has been set with the
current date in mind.
And the Christmas celebration
as we now know it and celebrate it does not go back to the first century.
Indeed it was only in the fourth century that Christians began to celebrate
Christmas. The Easter celebration of the resurrection has been with the church
from the beginning, but not so Christmas.
It was Emperor Marcus
Aurelius, in about the year 275 A.D. that decided that December 25 was the day
of the winter solstice and that on that day they should start celebrating the
festival of the Sun God and so they did. Not long after that Emperor
Constantine build a Christian Cathedral over the remains of a Persian Sun God
temple and they replaced the Pagan Sun God celebration of December 25 with the
Christian celebration of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of
righteousness.
There was another reason that
Christians were moved to celebrate the birth of Christ. In those days there
arose a heretical movement in the church which denied that Jesus was God
incarnate, God become flesh. And the church, ever ready to confess that Jesus
was God in the flesh, took the opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the
incarnation, every year, on December 25. And so it has been for the last 1700
years all around the globe.
A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE
LORD, ALL IN ONE BABY! Is it not interesting that it is in our in own era that
objections have been raised concerning the celebration of Christmas, with some
in government and some in business and industry telling us that it is improper
for us to say Merry Christmas; that the only proper way to greet one another in
this season is to say, Happy Holiday? Can you think of anything sillier, more
mundane than going around wishing people a happy holiday at Christmas?
There is and must be freedom
of religion in our democratic nation. No one is forced to believe or confess
that Jesus is God incarnate, God become human flesh. At the same time, no one,
government official or business conglomerate has the right to deny someone the
ability to say, Merry Christmas!
The Christmas celebration
arose, replacing the festival of the Sun God. Now, in our time, there is a
movement abroad to replace the Christmas celebration of the coming of the Son
of Righteousness with a holiday for the God of the almighty dollar, the God of
silver, the God of Gold and the God of pleasure unbounded and the God of every
form of unrighteousness.
A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE
LORD, ALL IN ONE BABY! But let us return to the joy of Christmas and the good
news that it brings. We do not know the date on which Jesus was born but we do
know what happened on that night. That story has been melded into our minds and
hearts so that when we sing of it and read about it, it is almost like we were
there, so much a part of our psyche it has become
There were angels all over
the place. An Angel appeared to Mary. An angel appeared to Joseph, on two
occasions at the very least. An angel appeared to the shepherds keeping watch
over their flock by night, and scared the living daylights out of them, as the
glory of the Lord flashed and shone around them. It is always so exciting to
think of angels, even though we also would be terrified if one would appear
before us.
And then on that holy night a
whole multitude of angels appeared praising God for the wonder and the mystery
that was being revealed in Jesus. They
praised God for the peace that God was bringing through Jesus, peace
with God for all who would believe in the miracle that God was sending into our
midst.
And as we wander outside on a
starlit night, who can fail to appreciate the star that God provided for the
three wise men in the East? They saw in that star and its movement a sign that
a very special king had been born. Can you imagine crossing a continent to
worship a king whose star had suddenly appeared in the heavens, a star that no
one had noticed?
A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE
LORD, ALL IN ONE BABY! There is so much potential in every new baby that is
born. Each new born is a wonder indeed. But in this child all the heavens
rejoiced, and we have the story of that birth enshrined in the annals of
history, in the very Word of God, in the highest heavens, and in our own hearts
as well.
They called this new born a
Savior. I do not know about you, but I know that I need a Savior. I will not be
raised from the dead under my own power. I will not be able to stand before the
Holy One, the most High God, at the end of the ages, and claim a place beside
him in his everlasting kingdom based on my own merit. I need a Savior. I need
one who can forgive all my sins and my shortcomings. I need one who can bring
me new life and a body fit for the kingdom that is coming. I need a
righteousness that can only come from the Son of Righteousness. I need a
Savior.
They called this new born the
Messiah. The name Messiah means “The anointed one.” God had promised for
centuries that God would provide for human kind an anointed one, one through
whom the whole world would be blessed. This anointed one would come through the
children born to Abraham. Later on we were told that the anointed one would
also come through the lineage of David. And when the right time had come God
did send his anointed one, son of Mary, Son of David, Son of Abraham as he had
promised. God kept his word. The anointed one had indeed come in that baby
called Jesus. I do not know about you but I very much need the blessings that
God has promised through the anointed one, the Messiah.
They called this new born,
The Lord. We still have a few lords among us though they have little if any
power. It has become a title reserved for the persons whom Queen Elizabeth
appoints to the House of Lords. The one Lord who is fairly consistently in the
news is Lord Conrad Black who has been accused of stealing and squandering
millions of dollars. In our age we have significantly limited the power and
authority of those who lead us, and rightly so. We do have a dictator cropping
up here and there, usurping and exercising absolute power. But such lords are
not in favor.
But this baby is called Lord.
And it is not simply a title. After he had made purification for sins, Jesus
was raised from the dead and made Lord of all. All power and dominion in heaven
and on earth has been given to him as the angels said. When we come to the
manger on Christmas Eve to worship the baby Jesus, as did the shepherds so long
ago, we come to worship the one who holds the whole world, including our own
lives, in his hands.
I do not know about you but I
need this Jesus who is called Lord and in whom all authority in heaven and on
earth has been placed. By his authority he has cancelled my debt of sin. By his
power he has created the world that is yet to be revealed.
This Lord over all is also my
brother. When he was born as a babe he became like you and me, a brother to us
all. He is the kind of brother that loves his brothers and sisters. Our
brother, who has all authority in heaven and earth has declared that he is
willing to share his inheritance with us, an inheritance of life eternal and
glory beyond all telling.
The Lord of all is our very
brother and he will never hesitate to call us his very own brothers and
sisters. I do not know about you, but I will never hesitate to call him Lord. I
can do so because I trust him with my very life, and my very life is already in
his hands.
Christmas is such a wonderful
time and we all have such wonderful memories of gathering around the tree and
listening to the story and waiting impatiently for the gifts to be opened, for
the meals and the laughter and the love and the family gathered together. But
what has made our memories such a treasure is the underlying truth revealed to
us and implanted in our hearts by the Spirit. We can rejoice and sing for we
all have A SAVIOR, THE MESSIAH, THE LORD, ALL IN ONE BABY! AMEN!