Sermon Tone Analysis

*“A COMPLETE CHRISTMAS”*

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*(I Timothy 3:16)*

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*            /“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.”/*

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*            *The daily newspaper of Sunday, December 21, 1997, carried a magnificent Gospel message in Johnny Hart’s “B.

C.” comic strip.

By his personal testimony and the public testimony he incorporates often into his comic strips, it is apparent that Johnny Hart knows Something Awfully Big—in fact, it is evident that he knows it (Him) well!

The comic strip was built around this poem:

 

            “It seems to me that since the ‘Fall’ — without even thinking it odd,

              That man has had no trouble at all, Believing that he can be God.

How he would do this I cannot conceive, Tho’ he certainly thinks he can;

              And yet, he cannot bring himself to believe, /That *God* can become . . .

a *man.*/”

/Does Johnny Hart know The Story — or what?/

 

            Let’s “try on” a poetic presentation that may have more theological clout, but not more profundity.

This poem was written by an Englishman named H.

R. Bramley.

“A babe on the breast of a maiden He lies, Yet sits with the Father enthroned in the skies;

  Their faces from Him the Seraphim hide, Yet Joseph stands unafraid by His side.

O wonder of wonders, what more can unfold?

The Ancient of Days is but a few hours old;

  The Maker of all things is made of the earth; Man is worshiped by angels, and God comes to birth.

The Word in the bliss of the Godhead remains, Yet in flesh he suffers the keenest of pains;

  He /is /what He /was/ and forever /shall be/, But /became /what He was /not /for you and for me.”

One little boy got thoroughly confused as he was reciting the Lord’s Prayer in a candlelight Christmas Eve service.

When he came to the “trespasses” part, he said, “And forgive us our /Christmases /as we forgive those who /Christmas /against us!”  Everywhere we see figures of Santa and his reindeer, striped candy, mistletoe, holly wreaths, and sparkling lights—in most places, we see everything/ but/ Jesus.

We would be wise to pray, “Lord, forgive us for /our kind of Christmas/, and move us again to /Your kind of Christmas!”/

But what /is/ God’s kind of Christmas?

Pastor Stephen Crotts was right when he said, “Christmas was actually a 33-year event.”

Christian author and educator T. S. Rendall wrote, “In reading a biography we never stop after having read about the birth and early years.

We keep on until we have read the entire account of the subject’s life.”

However, many people today celebrate the season and the sentimentality of Christmas and totally disregard “the rest of the story.”

In the early church, they magnified the rest of the story (the life, death, resurrection, ascension, etc.)—and didn’t even celebrate Christmas at all!

In fact, the celebration of Christmas apparently did not begin until sometime in the fourth century after Christ.

So what is /God’s/ kind of Christmas?

What is this “33-year event”?

*I.

A BABY IN A CRIB*

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*            *First, the story of Christmas is the story of /a Baby in a crib./

At Bethlehem, God dropped an anchor squarely in the middle of the mainstream of  history.

/A baby in a crib,/ and wonder of wonders, the Baby was God!

At Bethlehem, He who made man was /made/ man!

Here was the greatest case of planned parenthood the world has ever seen!

In fact, Jesus was the only person in history who could /plan His own birth.

/But then after an eternity of planning, He was /still only born in a barn, /in a despised out-of-the-way country.

Was it a case of /poor planning—or did He know something we don’t know?/

The truth is that /God is at home in barns and despised places—provided they will accommodate Him!  /It is not that He has a prejudice against palaces, but people in palaces usually do not want Him. 

/ /

/            /The shepherds were only “on their way to Bethlehem” for several hours, and the wise men for several months, but Jesus had been “on the way to Bethlehem” for all eternity!

When Adam sinned in the Garden, Jesus had already “packed His bags” for Bethlehem.

On that “holy night,” when “God reduced Himself to the span of a woman’s womb,” God came to where we were, that He might finally take us to where He is.

The newborn Babe of Bethlehem was the everlasting God come “down from His glory.”

This Infant “with no language but a cry” was the Eternal Word Who spoke the worlds out of the womb of nothing.

The tiny arms of this helpless Child were the limbs of Him who laid the timbers of the universe.

In the crib, the Most High became the Most Nigh, the Infinite became the Intimate.

In face, the Limitlessly Infinite became the Locally Definite.

God built a bridge across the deep, wide chasm of sin and /came to us/.  /He came to us because we could not go to Him.  /Why did He come?

“To bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18).

But before He could bring us to God, another dimension had to be added to the story.

“Sing lullaby!

Hush, do not wake the Infant King.

/Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing./

/                                     /Then in the grave at last repining.

Sing lullaby!”

 

*II.

A MAN ON A CROSS*

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            Second, the complete Christmas story is the story of /a man on a cross./

A biography/ /doesn’t stop with the birth and early life of its subject.

In fact, when it’s time to honor historical figures who have a day set aside for them on our calendar, we don’t think about them as babies.

We don’t keep pictures of cuddly little Abe Lincoln in the log cabin where he was born in Kentucky.

In the story of Jesus, also, we must continue reading until we have finished the entire account.

With Jesus, the “rest of the story” is the Best of the story.

The Virgin Birth was the first historical step toward the Cross.

In fact, one theologian phrased the combination of His Birth and His Death in this graphic sentence: “Theologically and spiritually, it is as if Jesus was born in a tomb.”

Just as Bethlehem, the place of His Birth, and Jerusalem, the place of His Death, are less than ten miles apart, so His Birth and His Death are very closely connected.

Charles Dickens illustrated the truth of Christ’s death for men and their sins when he allowed Sydney Carton to die in the place of Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities.

All the sympathy in the world could not have kept Darnay from the guillotine once the revolutionaries had marked him for death.

His only way out was through the death of a substitute.

Even so, /Christ died as a substitute for sinners!/

When Jesus was born, He came into fallen humanity, cursed by sin, and though He was personally free of both the sin and the curse, He took both the sin and the curse upon Himself, and passed down into death itself.

We cannot now properly celebrate Christmas without realizing the Cross in the midst of it all.

Jesus not only came /to /us; He also came /for/ us.

The word “for” must be translated carefully here.

It is a word of /sympathy/—Jesus is /for /me (John 3:18).

But it is also a word of /substitution./

Jesus died, “the just /in place of /the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18).

This peculiar and poignant story will illustrate the part that Christ’s Person and Sacrifice had in covering man’s sin.

An eight-year-old boy was in class, taking a test.

He was so nervous and distraught over the possibility of not completing the test on time and not making a passing grade that he suddenly and uncontrollably wet his pants.

He was wearing dark trousers, and he hoped that the evidence of his mishap would not be seen.

However, when he looked down at the floor, he saw a telltale puddle beneath his feet.

Already sick with panic, he looked up in time to see the teacher moving down the aisle toward him.

What could he do?

/Everybody will see, everybody will laugh, and I will never recover,/ he thought.

What the boy didn’t know was that at that very moment one of his classmates, a little girl who sat behind him in class, was coming up the aisle from behind him, carrying the large goldfish bowl which she had just taken from the classroom window sill.

When she got alongside his seat, she suddenly tripped and dropped the heavy bowl.

It shattered on the floor with a loud crash and sent water, broken glass, and the fish flying everywhere across the floor.

Some of the water even splashed up on the boy’s legs.

He was rescued!

With the evidence of his problem now covered by the water of the fish bowl, the boy experienced a rush of relief (forgive the pun; you could call it a /second/ relief).

/Thank God!  What a wonderful gift!

My problem is covered!/