You and Christmas
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Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Read the key verse again…
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Introduction
Introduction
God had a particular people in mind when He sent His son into the world. The birth of Jesus Christ was not a random event. While the birth of every baby into this world is a unique and special occassion for parents, the birth of Jesus was unique and glorious for all of humanity, through the ages.
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
In fact, God had been preparing the world and His people for this particular moment when Christ would enter into the world.
Many of the events in the Old Testament were types (pictures) of the coming Christ. The Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:1–13) was a picture of Jesus the Lamb of God—John 1:29.
See also Hebrews 9:22. Also see John 3:14–16 and how the serpent upon the cross is a picture of Christ upon the cross. Then in Isaiah 53, we see the suffering Saviour, which would come true in Matthew 27. Christ died for our sins so that we need not suffer and die, but have eternal life—John 5:24. You are a very important part in Christmas—God planned it that way!
I. You and Your Sin
I. You and Your Sin
“And she shall bring forth a son.” Jesus came into the world with a definitive purpose. Jesus was born because mankind faced a problem that could not be rectified but by a perfect Saviour.
So let us consider, you and your sin (and me and my sin!)
Dear friends, we need to recognise that you and I are sinners by birth.
10 as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Beyond merely being born in sin, we remain sinners by choice. What I mean by this is that our sinful human nature makes it impossible for us to bring us out of that condition of continued sin. Our flesh has been so corrupted by sin that it is impossible for us to do anything without it being tainted or affected in some manner by sinful selfishness.
The reason that this is so serious is that because of this sin, we have lost our union with God. We must remember, and keep bringing to our memory, that separation from God is the worst imaginable situation to be in. Separation from God is literally death and and suffering. But that’s exactly the state that sin places us.
4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
The word “die” here means to be separated from God. Sin separates from God on earth and later forever in eternity.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
There is a separation that is caused by sin. Sin places a barrier between the Creator God, and His creatures who ought to be living in humility before Him.
Now, before we go on from this, I want to emphasize that this is an important truth to remember even as Christians. We as born-again believers, saved by the grace of God, have a significant potential to water down and forget just how serious the condition of sin is.
We have the potential to play with sin, and to continue in sin without so much as a thought.
It ought not to be.
Those who have not been born again, who do not know Jesus Christ personally as their Saviour, ought to be deeply troubled by their sin. Their sin causes them to walk in hostility towards the omnipotent God - the God has all power and authority, and who can destroy and snuff out life in an instant.
For those who are Christians, we ought to be grieved by our sin, not because we as Christians will be punished with the wrath of God, but because sin is so contrary to God’s nature. How can we, who claim to be grateful for the grace of God, continue in wilful sin, or continue to sin as if it didn’t really matter. It does matter.
Let us consider something more of this sin that the Scriptures teach us about. The effects of sin upon us as people. Consider the life of Cain, as he had put his own brother to death out of jealousy.
God had warned him that sin was crouching, and that he was to master it. But Cain failed to master it, and before long his brother was murdered. God placed a curse on Cain in punishment...
11 “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
12 “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”
13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear!
The reality is that participation in sin leads to sorrow.
When David sinned, he spoke about the hand of God against him…
3 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.
Selah.
And this is true universally for all mankind. Certainly there are those whose consciences have been seared, and they go do exceedingly great wickedness, without showing much sorrow. But let me assure you, sin affects deeply.
You can find the most ardent of atheists on their death bed, deeply troubled by the presence of sin in their lives.
All of mankind has some personal sense of morality, particularly when it comes to unrighteous acts being perpetrated against them.
But the reality is that we are conscious of our own sin when it is committed.
Sin has consequences upon us, as the guilt of sin rightly weighs against us.
The more we appreciate our own sin, the extent of that sin, and the consequences of our sin, the more we will appreciate the Saviour.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Despite the immediate consequences in terms of sin (separation, guilt and shame, immediate punishment for wrongdoing) there was an eternal dimension. Ultimately perishing under the wrath of God.
But it was for this that God sent His Son, in order that we would not perish.
II. You and Your Saviour
II. You and Your Saviour
“And thou shalt call his name Jesus.”
Right here, in the giving of the name, there was significance. The name meant originally “Yahweh helps” or “Yahweh is salvation.” Bound up in the name given was the task for which Jesus had come.
Although the name Jesus / Joshua was fairly common in that day, here was the one that would ultimately come as the true Saviour of God. In other words, Jesus was truly the ultimate Saviour through whom He would save sinners.
As Jesus came into the world, he would do so with one great mission in life, and that was to save people. His life would be lived for you and I, for all of His elect who would be saved.
In John 15:13, we read the words of Jesus himself…
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
The greatest of all love is shown by Christ. He left His heavenly home because He was consecrated. He was set apart, before even the foundations of this world, for this task of being a Saviour through the laying down of his own life.
Think back to the Old Testament prophecies, and how they spoke about the work for which the Saviour would come.
10 But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
Indeed, this was the plan before the foundations of the world. The Father had purposed to send a Saviour, One that would save us from our sins.
34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
What kind of a Saviour would He be?
He would be a Cleansing Saviour—1 John 1:7.
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
The shedding of His blood would be the means that we would be cleansed of the guilt of our sin. He who knew no sin became the Sacrifice for all the sins of the world. Upon the cross He bore the sins of all men.
Titus 2:14 speaks about Jesus...
14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Not only does Jesus cleanse us from our sin - perfectly cleanse us - but our consciencouses are cleansed as we come to understand our standing before God.
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
He is a cleansing Saviour.
But He is also a Concerned Saviour—Hebrews 4:15.
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Christ’s entrance into the world was an entrance into a world that was opposed to Him. Sin and rebellion are an opposition to God. But He entered into this realm of humanity, and He endured every hostility, and He persevered through every confrontation of temptation.
He is a concerned Saviour.
17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
He is touched with the feelings of our weakness. He is concerned with our lives. He knows our weaknesses. He understands our frailty and suffering.
18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
You have a concerned Saviour who is able to come to your aid when you are tempted and weighed down with sin.
Taking this a step further…
4. Compassionate Saviour—Matthew 9:36–38.
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Think about the context here.
When Jesus saw the many lost men and women he was MOVED WITH COMPASSION upon these people. Even upon the cross He had compassion upon those who were killing Him.
This is the Saviour that came into the world. A Saviour that was filled with compassion for those who were sinners.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
This must lead you to consider…
III. You and Your Salvation
III. You and Your Salvation
“For he shall save his people from their sins.”
We’ve considered briefly together the seriousness of sin, and just something of the consequences of those sins. The Saviour that entered into the world came to save people from their sins.
The Scriptures teach that this salvation is effective for all sins. There is no sin that the grace and mercy of God through Christ cannot atone for, apart from the sin of rejection of the Son Himself.
What are some of the implications of this?
Firstly, our salvation in Christ brings us freedom from Satan’s power over us through sin.
We must understand that to sin is to follow the ways of Satan.
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
Those who continue to live in sin are servants, or slaves to Satan and sin. Christ came to set man free from sin—John 8:36.
36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Secondly, this salvation leads us to live a life that is transformed from an orientation of self, to an orientation of worship and obedience to Christ.
20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. We, too, must be crucified with our selfish sins! Selfishness is one of the worst sins in the world. A self-centered life is one in which we seek to dethrone God as our rightful Sovereign, and place ourselves in His seat.
But the one who has come to understand their salvation realise that the new life, flowing out of a new heart, is one in which Christ is truly Lord and master, and self must die.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Do you recognise the implications of this for your own life?
Do you live your life, in light of sin, it’s seriousness, your Saviour, his grace and mercy…
Beyond this, we must understand that our salvation means that we are freed not only from sins that are overt and obvious, but also from sins that are unseen.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
All the things we do, if good or bad will be brought before the Lord and judged. We may hide our sins from man, but remember, God knows everything that we do. —Numbers 32:23.
23 “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
One further joy worth pondering is that because of this great salvation, we will be finally brought into the presence of our Saviour. In our speaking about sin earlier, I mentioned that sin separates us from God.
This will lead to an ultimate separation.
Revelation 20:11–15.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.
14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Application / Conclusion
Application / Conclusion
What does Christmas mean to you? (1) The Saviour or Santa? (2) Gifts of God? (3) Celebration or Christ?
Christmas is not so much about
God never showed his hatred of sin so much as he did in Christ. When God sent his Son into the world to die for man’s sin, he is saying, “they shall see the extent to which I hate sin in how I deal with my son.” Jeremiah Burroughs, The Wonders of Jesus, (Crossville, TN, Puritan Publications, 2022) 78.
Pentz, C. M. (1970). Evangelistic Sermon Outlines (pp. 66–67). Baker Book House.