The First Christmas
Luke 1:46-55
Christmas is good news of great joy for all people and is an invitation to respond in worship
Luke 2:8-20
December 24th, 2018
Main Idea: Christmas is good news of great joy for all people and is an invitation to respond in worship
I. THE CONTENT OF CHRISTMAS (2:8-12)
The response to an experience with God’s “glory” in Scripture is always the same: fear (Cf. Isaiah 6). When we are confronted with God’s holiness and majesty, we realize that we, as humans, are neither of these things.
The message of Christmas is that “mega-fear” will give way to “mega-joy,” because a Savior, Christ the Lord, is born.
Christmas is not simply about a birth, but about a coming - Tim Keller
This good news of great joy is truly for all people. Shepherds, the first to hear of this good news, were viewed with great disdain and suspicion in this society. God purposely comes to the lowly and downcast in society, rather than to royalty or the elite.
II. THE BATTLE-CRY OF CHRISTMAS (2:13-14)
When the Scriptures describe the heavenly “host,” it is in reference to a military unity or an army, not a heavenly choir. The Shepherds are now witnessing a battle-cry of a multitude of the heavenly army.
These angels are making a declaration of war on evil, sin, and death. The coming of the Savior means that peace is coming to a world that desperately needs it.
Christmas means peace on earth, but this peace comes at a cost. The battle here will not be won with swords and ancient warfare but through the perfect life and suffering of the very son of God.
III. THE CALL OF CHRISTMAS (2:15-20)
Christmas is an invitation for all of us to “go and see this thing which the Lord has made known to us.”
Christmas calls together a group of imperfect people gathered around a perfect savior, and the same thing is still happening today.
This first gospel community responds to the message of the shepherds in 3 ways:
1. Wonder & Amazement (2:18)
2. Treasuring & Pondering (2:19)
The more we look at [the incarnation], the more we are astonished; the more we become accustomed to it, the more have we a sense of its surpassing splendor of love and grace. There is more of God’s glory and majesty to be seen in the manger and the cross, than in the sparkling stars above, the rolling deep below, the towering mountain, the teeming valleys, the abodes of life, or the abyss of death. Let us then give ourselves up to holy wonder, such as will produce gratitude, worship, love, and confidence, as we think of that great “mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh
3. Glorifying & Praising (2:20)
All of this adds up to worship. The good news of Christmas is an invitation to let this good news of great joy permeate all of life.
The Ancient, Present, and Future King
Micah 5:1-5a
Jesus is the promised King whose peaceful reign is ancient, present, and future
Micah 5:1-5a
December 16th, 2018
In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. It can well be called the Time Between, because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable in Bethlehem, and his second coming, in glory, to judge the living and the dead… Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of the now and the not-yet that our faith requires…. The disappointment, brokenness, and pain that characterizes life in this present world is held in dynamic tension with the promise of future glory that is yet to come. In that Advent tension, the church lives its life. - Fleming Rutledge
Main Idea: Jesus is the promised King whose peaceful reign is ancient, present, and future
I. THE PROMISED ANCIENT KING (5:1-2)
Micah describes a scene where troops have surrounded Jerusalem and their King is being humiliated by the enemy. This ought to humble the people of Israel, but they continually ignore gracious warnings from God.
The King described in verse 2 stands in stark contrast to the weak & humiliated King of Israel. 3 things we learn about this coming Ruler & Messiah:
1. He will be born in Bethlehem
2. He will serve God faithfully
3. He is from “old, from ancient days”
Though this King is “born,” he is actually “ancient.” This is what we celebrate at Christmas: the incarnation of Christ is God himself coming in the flesh. Strikingly, he comes not in strength but in weakness, born as a baby, born in a small, meager town, and born into a poor family.
“Christ is always born in Bethlehem among the little ones. Big hearts never get Christ inside of them; Christ lives not in great hearts, but in little ones. Mighty and proud spirits never have Jesus Christ, for he comes in at low doors, but he will not come in at high ones. He who has a broken heart, and a low spirit, shall have the Savior, but none else
— Charles Spurgeon
The message of Christmas forces us to life our eyes from the cradle to the cross.
“There has never been a gift offered that makes you swallow your pride to the depths that the gift of Jesus Christ requires us to do. Christmas means that we are so lost, so unable to save ourselves, that nothing less than the death of the Son of God himself could save us. That means you are not somebody who can pull yourself together and live a moral and good life. To accept the true Christmas gift, you have to admit you’re a sinner. You need to be saved by grace. You need to give up control of your life
— Tim Keller
II. THE ALREADY & NOT YET KINGDOM (5:3-5A)
The reign and rule of this Messiah here can be difficult to locate temporally; some of the descriptions seem like past events, some present, and some in the future. This tension captures the “already” but “not yet” of the Kingdom of God.
Three aspects of the rule and reign of the Messiah are seen in these verses:
1.The Nature of His Rule (5:4a)
He will rule like a shepherd (cf. John 10:11), caring for his flock in toughness & tenderness.
2. The Extent of His Rule (5:4b)
He will be great “to the ends of the earth,” the vision that is realized fully at the end of the Scriptures (cf. Rev. 7:9ff)
3. The Results of His Rule (5:5a)
His people will “dwell secure” because “he shall be their peace.”
Are you at peace this Christmas season? Is your soul at rest? True peace will not be found in temporary things or in better circumstances; it can only be found in him. Christmas forces us to ask: Is Jesus your King? Is Jesus your peace?
The Son Born and Begotten
Matthew 1:18-25
The Son Born and Begotten.
Matthew 1:18-25
December 9th, 2018
The Promised Serpent-Crushing King
Genesis 3:1-15
Though we have rebelled and are in bondage, God has promised to defeat evil through a serpent-crushing offspring.
Genesis 3:1-15
December 2nd, 2018
The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why - G.K Chesterton
Advent (from the Latin adventus) means “coming” or “arrival,” and is the season leading up to Christmas, where we celebrate the arrival of Jesus Christ. It is designed to be a season of waiting and anticipation.
This season allows us to embrace the fact that we live between two advents. This season ought to deepen our appreciation for the first advent of Christ while increasing our anticipation for his promised return.
Main Idea: Though we have rebelled and are in bondage, God has promised to defeat evil through a serpent-crushing offspring
I. THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTMAS (3:1-13)
The serpent is connected explicitly with the Devil and Satan elsewhere in Scripture; “The great dragon, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” ~ Revelation 12:9
Satan leads Eve to question God’s goodness, to doubt His word, and to believe in a half-truth. This same progression of sin happens in our lives continually.
Sin immediately brings three things into the world:
1. Shame (3:7)
2. Fear (3:8-10)
3. Separation (3:11-13)
Christmas confronts us with a problem: things are not the way they are supposed to be! This season forces us to take stock of how we have participated in this breakdown, and to lament to brokenness experienced in all of creation.
Christmas tells us loud and clear that we can’t get out of this mess ourselves. We need a rescuer. We need someone to make this right and to save us from ourselves.
II. THE PROMISE OF CHRISTMAS (3:14-15)
The story of the whole Bible is contained in these two verses. In the midst of the tragedy of Genesis 3, God makes a series of promises that provide hope:
1. God curses evil (3:14)
God deals immediately and swiftly with the source and head of evil. He curses the Serpent to a life of humiliation on his belly and eating dust all of his life.
2. God will stir up enmity (3:15a)
Enmity is the idea of “hostility” in warfare. This is actually a grace to us because it means that God will not leave us alone. He won’t let evil go unchecked. He will stir up discontentment within us for evil and sin.
Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet - Thomas Watson
3. God promises to send a serpent-crusher (3:15b)
This is often called the “proto-gospel,” the first telling of the good news about Jesus in all of the Scriptures.
There is a “mutual affliction” that takes place here: the serpent will bruise the heel of the offspring (singular) of the woman, but he will crush his head.
Jesus comes as the long-expected fulfillment of this prophecy: at his crucifixion, his “heel is bruised.” But in his death and resurrection, the serpent’s head is actually crushed.
Hebrews 2:14-15: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he (Jesus) himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,cand deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”
The church today participates in the destroying of the devil by placing their faith in the gospel of peace: Romans 16: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
“Joy to the World” captures the beauty of the Christmas for us:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessing flow
Far as the curse is found
Though the curse is found everywhere we look right now- our long-expected King has come and is coming to make his blessings flow “far as the curse is found.”