Sermon Tone Analysis
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The Western World, peopled primarily by post-Christian peoples, still comes to a stop at Christmas time around this one great holiday of the year.
Intended as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, Christmas has almost always had a bit of a checkered history.
Is Christmas all that important?
It Furthered God’s Plan
Many people point to this verse and the myriad verses like it that point to a Savior who would die as being of critical importance.
They are not wrong; Jesus’ death on the cross, in our place, and for our sins is critically important.
But this line of thinking misses two important facts:
Logically - Jesus could not die if He were not first born.
That makes Jesus’ birth an important event for furthering God’s plan.
Textually - There is a lot of emphasis here on the Seed of the woman.
What is the seed of a woman?
A child.
What was the Seed referred to here?
Jesus.
This emphasis is placed on His eventual arrival…or birth.
To be fair: Jesus birth was not the culmination of God’s plan, but it was necessary to further God’s plan.
(For that matter, Jesus death was not the culmination either, each was a necessary step leading to the eventual culmination of restoration of all things in Revelation.)
Paul Highlighted this essential element in God’s plan:
It Fulfilled God’s Promise
Since Jesus’ birth was part of God’s plan, it makes sense that He told us it was coming.
These historical references to a future plan are what we commonly call prophecy and the Old Testament Scriptures are littered with them.
There are others, but these serve to make the point.
Jesus’ birth—really most of His entire life—was prophesied.
Being born as He was and living as He did fulfilled prophecies.
It Furnished God’s Pleasure
Sure, this last was at Jesus’ baptism, not His birth, but it highlights the truth that God was well pleased with Jesus’ life, which would include His birth.
Jesus’ birth, life, and relationship furnished God with pleasure
Jesus as a gift to, and for, us furnished God with pleasure in the same way that we are pleased when we are able to give something that pleases others.
We could argue that the first Christmas was the most important ever.
Certainly, no Christmas would have followed had the first not occured, so it is definitely important.
But, we could argue that it was one of the most important Christmases ever.
What other Christmas might be important.
We’ll talk about that next week: on Christmas Day!
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