The Gift Of A Promise Kept

Amen. Thank you, Treg. If you would, please take your Bibles and open them up to the Gospel according to Matthew.

Matthew, you heard me right. We've been in the Gospel of John for the past, all of 2023.

But this morning, as we consider the birth of Christ, we're going to read the birth story of Jesus.

And our passage will be Matthew chapter 1, the whole thing. So pray for me as I read Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And if you found that in your Bibles, if you would, let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's Word.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,

and Ram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon,

and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,

and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz,

and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,

and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor,

and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud,

and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob,

and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations,

and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations,

and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,

before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,

Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife,

for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,

for he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.

And he called his name Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please take a seat, and I'll pray, and we'll begin.

And Lord,

this is the story, Father, of your promises.

It's the story of your promise of salvation to any who come,

and any who see Christ for who he is, the Son of God.

So we pray now, would you do the miracle of opening our eyes to behold him for who he is,

the risen King and the Lord of all.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Christmas is finally here.

Our season of waiting, Advent, is coming to a close,

and tomorrow morning, tomorrow all day long,

we celebrate the arrival and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, Christmas has always been a special time for me.

I remember when I was a kid, around November time,

the end of November, the sales flyers would begin coming in,

the catalogs would come in.

That was a thing back then.

And I would take them with my markers and pens in hand.

My sisters would pass the flyers around,

and we would mark off all the things we wanted to receive for Christmas.

And my parents made it abundantly clear.

We can ask for anything we want for Christmas.

We can put anything we want on our list.

Our list can be as long and elaborate as we want,

but no promises that we would actually receive any of it.

And now that I'm a parent, that makes a lot more sense to me.

I understand their position.

Our asking for it is not a contract, placing it, marking it off on a sales flyer,

noticing it in a store, saying that we want it is not a binding obligation.

No promises.

So I could wait, I could long, I could wish, I could hope,

but they made very clear, no promises that I would actually receive any of it.

Well, as we open up the gospel according to Matthew this morning,

we find ourselves in the exact opposite scenario.

Now, I want you to try to place yourself in the moments leading up to the birth of Jesus.

God Himself, all through the Old Testament, God Himself has been making promises.

He promised a seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent.

He promised a king like King David to come and to rule and to reign forever over His people.

He promised a Messiah to come and to save His people from their sins.

And yet, year after year after year after year has gone by without these promises being fulfilled.

You begin to wonder, when will He come?

When will these promises be kept?

When will God stay true to His Word?

Is this too good to be true?

Well, as we open up to Matthew chapter 1, Matthew, He tells us,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

No, no, no, no, no, no.

It's not too good to be true.

God has kept His Word.

The Messiah has come exactly as God has promised.

So here this morning in Matthew chapter 1,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

we're going to see three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.

Three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.

This is our outline.

If you take notes, this helps you follow along with the sermon this morning.

We'll see three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.

First, at Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the promised King.

You know, some of you probably are wondering why I took the time to read out all of those names this morning.

All right, I saw the looks you gave me.

All right, if you're pregnant, if you're expecting,

you can pluck a list, a name right off this list.

It's suggested baby names.

You can gain a few ideas there.

I worked hard on that, by the way, pronouncing this.

I learned that if you just act confident and read it,

and nobody knows the difference anyways, you just roll on.

But let's be honest.

Most of us, when we pick up the Gospel of Matthew,

when we read through the Christmas story,

we skip right past verses 1 through 17

and start right at the end of chapter 1 at the verse 18.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way.

We're like, okay, good, I understand this.

If we're honest, we don't really understand this list of names,

what it has to do with us.

We don't know how to pronounce them.

We don't know who half of these people are.

Not today.

Matthew, he does not just start in verse 18.

And so we need to understand,

well, why does he include this list of names here in verses 1 through 17?

Why does he do this?

Well, the short answer is that he is tracing the promises of God

through human history to their fulfillment in the birth of Jesus.

That's the point of this long historical list of names.

This is history.

He's tracing the promises of God through human history to their fulfillment in Jesus.

You see, the good news for Christians,

we believe the Bible is not just a storybook.

It's not just a collection of moral stories or fables or mythical stories.

It's not just a collection of good examples and ideas.

We believe the Bible is actually rooted in history.

What we read about here in the birth of Christ happened.

I remember hearing a story,

a missionary shared a story with me years ago.

I wish I could remember exactly who it was.

But they were living amongst an unreached people group

and they were translating the Word of God into their native tongue.

And they were trying to share the story of the gospel with them.

And after years of laboring amongst them,

after years of sharing the gospel with them,

they finally had a copy of the Gospel of Matthew

translated into their native tongue.

That's amazing.

That's amazing work.

They were able to hand them a written copy in their language of the Gospel of Matthew.

Well, as these people began to read,

to the missionary's surprise,

they came back to them urgently.

As you could tell, they were stirred up.

They were shocked.

And they said,

What is this list of names here at the beginning of this book?

I said,

All these stories,

you're telling me that Jesus is actually real.

That He actually is a historical figure.

That all these stories that you're telling me about His life and His death and His resurrection,

that these are true?

I said,

Yes, of course.

These are true.

And it was there because of this long, elaborate list of names here at the beginning of Matthew

that they came to believe everything else that they had been told concerning Jesus.

And so let's look at this list of names here

and try to understand why Matthew includes this here.

You might notice, if you're a historian,

you would notice that this list is not exhaustive.

He is selective in who He includes.

It's intentional.

And we do the same thing.

Okay?

The critics like to point that out,

that not every generation is listed here.

That's intentional.

If you're related down the line to a former president of the United States,

you don't lead off with Grandpa that nobody else knows.

Right?

He's not listing out everybody.

He's listing out those who are significant for the story that He's trying to tell.

And He highlights two people in particular here in the beginning of the genealogy.

Who are they?

Abraham and David.

Abraham and David.

He says this baby is the son of Abraham.

In other words, he is Jewish.

Father Abraham.

You know the story.

Of course, he's the guy in Jewish history.

He's the beginning.

He's the one to whom God made the incredible promises.

All of Israel, all of the Jewish people,

are descendants of Abraham physically.

And it was to Abraham that God made the promises in Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12:1–3

verses 1 through 3.

He says,

Now the Lord said to Abraham,

Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you,

and I will make of you a great nation,

and I will bless you and will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

and him who dishonors you I will curse,

and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Do you hear all those promises God made to Abraham?

God promised Abraham offspring,

an old man well beyond the years of childbearing.

He promised land.

He promised blessing.

And he promised blessing through Abraham to the rest of the world,

to the nations.

This is the Jewish hope and desire

that these promises would be fulfilled.

Well, Matthew wants us to know this Jesus is in the line of Abraham.

He is included in the promise.

He's a son of Abraham.

But not only this,

he also says he's a son of David.

You see that there in verse 1.

You see it again in verse 6.

And then in the summary statement in verse 17,

he wants to make sure that we understand Joseph is a son of David as well.

Well, Matthew is really trying to highlight this for us.

He wants us to know.

He's emphasizing for us.

This Jesus is not just a Jew descended from Abraham.

He is a Jew descended from David.

In other words,

he's establishing for us that this baby

has a legal claim to the throne of David.

Now, our ears ought to perk up when we hear that.

If we were a Jew reading this gospel,

our ears would perk up when we hear that he is a son of David.

Because all of them were waiting for the fulfillment

of what God had promised to David.

In 2 Samuel chapter 7,

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

the chapter that we read earlier this morning,

it says,

This is a promise of a forever reigning king.

And it's through this king,

we understand,

through this king,

this promised son of David,

that all of the promises made to Abraham

will be fulfilled.

See, the rest of the Old Testament,

from this point onward,

is leaning forward,

is asking forward,

is asking the question,

Who is this promised son of David?

Who is this king who's coming?

When will he come?

When will his throne be established?

When will the son of David come?

Now, Matthew says,

The promised king is here.

His name is Jesus,

the son of Abraham,

the son of David.

He is the one we've been waiting for.

You know,

if you're here with us,

if you're a guest with us,

you might wonder,

why in the world do Christians talk so much about Jesus?

And why do we make such a big deal about this man,

Jesus?

Why do we celebrate Jesus at Christmas time?

Why do we talk so much about him?

It's because we believe that Jesus is the one whose throne will never end.

We believe that Jesus is Lord over all the earth.

We believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise to David,

that he is the king who will reign forever.

That he's the one who defeats all of our enemies,

not just physical enemies.

That's far too small.

That Jesus is the one who defeats all of our enemies of sin and of death and of the devil.

He's come to reign and to rule.

And we believe that Jesus,

King Jesus will come again to reign and to rule forevermore.

That's what we celebrate at Christmas time.

The king has come just as God promised.

And we believe that this king,

this king Jesus,

he's the one through whom all the promises made to Abraham come to all of us by faith.

You see,

the promises made to Abraham are not exclusively Jewish.

Not physically,

at least.

We understand from the rest of the New Testament,

Paul says in Galatians chapter 3,

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

Those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham,

the man of faith.

These promises are extended in Christ

to any who have faith in the promised Messiah.

So that he says again in Galatians chapter 3,

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

in Christ Jesus,

the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.

And what a gift,

church.

And what an undeserved,

miraculous gift

to be included in the people and the promises of God.

Not by birth,

and not by what we've done,

not by our goodness,

but by grace alone,

through faith in the promised Messiah.

This is incredible grace.

And the gift of Christmas

is not for those who are worthy to receive it.

In fact,

Jesus' own family line shows us that

he has come to redeem sinners like us.

This is what we see in our second point this morning.

Second,

at Christmas,

we celebrate the arrival of the promised Redeemer.

The promised Redeemer.

I want you to notice something else about this list here,

which is that it is not pretty.

This is a messy history.

If I were going to present my family line to you this morning,

I would probably scrub it a little bit

and not share all the dirty details of my family.

I would want to edit a little bit.

But that's not what Matthew does.

This genealogy,

I want you to see,

it's filled with people and circumstances

and stories that are completely messed up.

This is shameful and it's messy.

It's sinful.

It's interesting.

The story of the birth of Jesus

and the messiness of this story

is highlighted through four women

that he includes in this genealogy.

Five, actually,

if you include Mary,

but we'll focus on four here.

You should know that it was not at all normal

for anybody to include women in a genealogy in this time.

Typically, the normal pattern was just to list out the fathers.

But Matthew,

he swerves from that pattern a little bit

to draw our attention to four women in this list.

Did you notice them?

Why would he do that?

Why would he do that?

Why would he swerve from this cultural pattern?

Well, for one,

I think that this highlights

the new countercultural dignity

given to women

through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Women are not a second-class citizen

in the kingdom of heaven.

They are fellow heirs alongside men,

co-heirs with Christ.

They are fellow image bearers of God.

Yes, they are made distinct and different.

We are made differently from one another

in ways that we don't have time to talk about this morning.

But we are equal in shared dignity,

value, and worth in the kingdom of God.

That was not usual in this culture.

This was not the norm.

But here is Matthew

drawing our attention to four women

in the story of Jesus.

And yet,

these four women are not the ones that we might choose.

If you and I were writing this list,

these four women

are not the ones that we would pick out.

He lists Tamar,

Rahab,

Ruth,

and Bathsheba.

Are you familiar with these stories?

Tamar,

Rahab,

Ruth,

and Bathsheba.

He lists Tamar first.

He says in verse 3,

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah

by Tamar.

What's the big deal?

If you want a little Christmas Eve devotional reading,

go home and read Genesis chapter 38 this afternoon.

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

And you'll see

that Tamar

prostituted herself

to her own father-in-law.

And that's how she bore Perez and Zerah.

It's not a pretty story.

Why would Matthew go out of his way

to draw our attention to this story,

to put her name in Jesus' family history?

He lists Rahab

in verse 5.

He says,

Salmon was the father of Boaz

by Rahab.

At least Tamar was Jewish.

Rahab was a Gentile prostitute.

And yet,

if you know the story,

if you remember the story,

the Lord redeemed her

from her life of prostitution.

He plucked her up

out of her home,

out of her people,

saved her from the judgment of God,

gave her a place

with the people of God,

is a beautiful story of redemption.

And then he lists Ruth.

He says again in verse 5,

Salmon,

the father of Boaz

by Rahab,

and Boaz,

the father of Obed

by Ruth.

Now,

what in the world

is wrong with Ruth?

She's the virtuous woman.

I agree.

She's a wonderful example

of virtue,

a wonderful example

of God's providence

and redemption.

And yet,

Ruth is not a Jew.

Ruth is a Moabite.

She has no natural claim,

no birth claim

to any of the promises

of God made to the Jews.

She's a Gentile.

She's a foreigner.

It would be unthinkable

that the king of the Jews

would come from

a Moabite woman.

And yet,

it's exactly

what Matthew

tells us.

The story of Ruth

is a story of God

providentially working out

all the details

of the world

to bring about

this promised

redeemer

through

an obscure

Moabite

widow.

Why does he do

things like this?

Why does God

choose to do

things like this?

God has brought about

his promise

in the most

unthinkable way.

The Christ has come

from a line

of misfits,

rejects,

sinners,

not those

who you and I

would choose

to be a part

of the story.

And still,

it gets worse.

Tamar,

Rahab,

Ruth,

and then in verse 6,

David was the father

of Solomon

by the wife

of Uriah.

That would be

Bathsheba.

You know this story.

This one might be

the messiest

of them all.

David took

Bathsheba,

another man's wife.

He slept with her

while her husband,

Uriah,

was off at war.

She conceived a child

and then to cover it

all up,

he had her husband

killed.

This is a story

of murder,

of deception,

of adultery.

This is one scandal

after another,

one failure

after another,

one sinner

after another.

This seems like

this conversation

shouldn't have left

the dinner table.

And Matthew

wants us to know.

He clues us

in

to the messy

history

of the line

of Jesus Christ.

He does not

cover it up

that the Messiah

is a descendant

of messy,

sinful people.

The royal line

of promise

is polluted

with sin

and shame.

that the Christ

has come

from a line

of misfits,

rejects,

sinners,

and again,

not those

who you and I

would pick out

to be a part

of the story.

Why?

Why

does Matthew

tell us this?

Well, for one,

if you are embarrassed

by your family,

take heart,

it could be much worse.

If you gather

with your family

tomorrow morning

and you look around

the room

and say,

these guys

are just a mess,

I have good news

for you,

you're in good company.

But more importantly

than that,

the fact that

the Son of God

came from

this messed up

family line

is a clear sign

to us

that Jesus

is not

turned away

by your mess.

Jesus came

to redeem

our mess

when the Word

of God

became flesh.

That's what we celebrate

at Christmas,

church.

When the Word

of God

became flesh,

He wrapped

Himself up

in our messed

up sinful story.

He stepped down

from the throne

of heaven

to enter

into our mess,

to enter

into the chaos

of our lives,

to enter into

our shame

and our guilt

and the sin

of our messed up

lives in order

to redeem

us from it.

that's the gospel.

That the Holy

Son of God

became sin

for us

on the cross

so that in Him

messed up sinners

like us

might become

the very righteousness

of God.

What a gift.

You know,

if you're

struggling with

a particular sin

this Christmas season,

if you're

lost

in the wages

of sin

this Christmas

season,

if you're just

dealing with the effects

of living in a sin

cursed world

this Christmas season,

if you're walking

through grief

or despair

or sadness

or loneliness,

I want you

to bring that

to Jesus.

There is not

a mess

in this room

that would

surprise King

Jesus.

He's not waiting

for us to clean

ourselves up

to come to Him.

No, no, no, no, no.

Remember what

Christmas is about.

God Himself

came down

to us

and stepped

into our mess

to save us

from our sin.

If you truly

understand the person

in the heart

of Jesus,

we would never

say anything like,

well, I just need

to clean myself up

a little before

I come to Him.

I just need

to clean myself up.

My life's too

messed up right now

to get serious

about God.

I need to pull

myself together

first.

No.

You are invited

right now

to bring all

of your mess

and drop it

in His lap.

He's the friend

of sinners.

Charles Spurgeon,

he says it like this,

he says,

Jesus is heir

of a line

in which flows

the blood

of the harlot Rahab

and of the rustic Ruth.

He is akin

to the fallen

and the lowly

and He will show

His love

even to the poorest

and the most obscure.

He's the promised

Redeemer,

church.

And third,

finally,

see at Christmas

we celebrate

the arrival

of our promised

Savior.

And now we enter

into some familiar

territory.

Starting at verse 18.

It says,

Now the birth

of Jesus Christ

took place

this way.

When His mother Mary

had been betrothed

to Joseph,

before they came

together,

she was found

to be with child

from the Holy Spirit.

And when you understand

the family history,

this makes a lot

more sense

that the birth

of Jesus

would come this way

to an unwed

pregnant mother.

This is another scandal.

But the difference,

of course,

is that this scandal

is without sin.

Joseph and Mary

were betrothed

to be married.

Oftentimes,

weddings in this culture

were prearranged

by the parents

when the children

are young

and they called

that engagement.

It's not quite like

our engagement

in our culture.

And then they become

betrothed

to one another

when that engagement

becomes legally binding.

And so they're called

husband and wife now

for about a year

before they actually

get married

and come together

as husband and wife.

It's confusing,

I know.

But the point is

that Mary and Joseph

were betrothed,

legally bound

to one another.

But they had not yet

come together

as husband and wife.

And Mary

comes with some

surprising news

for Joseph.

Surprise!

I'm pregnant!

And Joseph,

as you and I

probably would do,

he was surprised

and he wanted out.

I can't blame him

for that.

But it says

he was a just man

and he wanted

to honor Mary

so he planned

to divorce her quietly.

But an angel

of the Lord

appears to him

and gives him

some more shocking news

to change his mind.

He assured him,

Joseph,

son of David,

do not fear

to take Mary

as your wife

for that which

is conceived in her

is from the Holy Spirit.

Now this is a miracle.

And without going

into too much detail,

I'll just say

that's not how

babies are born.

That's not how

babies are made.

My children are young

but they know enough

to know that

babies come from

having a mommy

and a daddy.

You need both

of those elements

in some way,

shape,

or form.

Out of all the millions

of babies born,

this is the only one

in the history

of mankind

that did not have

both mom and dad

in some way.

He was begotten,

not made,

as the Nicene Creed

tells us.

Just as was promised,

700 years before

he was born

in the book

of Isaiah.

He says he was

born of a virgin.

Verse 23,

Behold,

the virgin

shall conceive

and bear a son

and they shall

call his name

Emmanuel,

which means

God with us.

Why does this matter?

I wonder if you

really understand

the depth

of why the virgin birth

is such a significant

part of the promise

of God.

He wrote about it

700 years before

Jesus was born.

It happened just

as he promised.

Why is the virgin birth

such an essential

part of the Christmas

story?

It's not just because

a virgin birth

is extremely unusual.

It's much more

than that.

If Jesus is not

born of a virgin

just as God promised,

then he cannot

be the promised

Savior.

Put it another way,

the virgin birth

is what makes

possible the promise

of verse 21.

She will bear a son

and you shall call

his name Jesus

for he will save

his people

from their sins.

It should be obvious

to us,

but a sinner

cannot save us

from our sins.

This was the problem

with the Old Testament

priesthood,

was it not?

A sinner

cannot bear

the sin

of the people

of God

because he's too busy

bearing his own sin.

A sinner cannot

take away

our sin

and shame.

He cannot

bear the wrath

of God

against others' sin

because he's too busy

bearing it

against his own sin.

A sinner

can't defeat death

if he's earned it

for himself.

You get the picture?

If Jesus

is just another sinner

born the same way

as you and I,

as every other sinner

in the history

of mankind,

then he dies

the same way

as you and I

and we die

without hope.

But that's not

what happened,

is it?

Matthew says

Jesus was born

of a virgin,

which means,

here's the point,

he does not

inherit

original sin.

I'll say that again.

Because Jesus

is born

of a virgin,

born not

by ordinary

generation

like you and me,

he does not

inherit

original sin.

Do you get it?

Do you see

the significance

of this?

See,

every one of us,

all of us

who are naturally

descended from Adam,

key word,

naturally,

every one of us

are natural

born sinners.

All of us

naturally

inherit

Adam's guilt,

inherit

Adam's sin.

We are born

into a state

of sinfulness,

all of us.

All of us

but one.

And no one

is righteous.

No,

not one,

we're told.

We're all born

naturally

into this

curse of sin.

Even Mary,

now I know

our Catholic friends

disagree on this,

but nowhere

in Scripture

does it say

ever that Mary

was sinless.

She's born

into this mess

just like we are.

There is one

and only

one exception,

the promised

Savior,

Jesus Christ.

And what we

celebrate at Christmas

is the birth

of a sinless

human being.

The true

and better

Adam who will

succeed where

Adam had failed.

Who will bring

life where

his sin

brought death.

Who will save

his people

from our sins.

Who will be

Emmanuel,

God with us.

See,

Jesus,

he saves us

from our sins

by doing what

none of us

could ever do.

He lived

perfectly

in our place.

And then he died

as a perfect

substitute,

a perfect

sacrifice

in the place

of sinners

so that

he might

give us

what he has

earned

by undeserved

grace

through faith.

This is what

Paul tells us

in Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5.

He says,

The free gift

is not like

the trespass.

For if many

died through

one man's

trespass,

Adam,

much more

have the grace

of God

and the free

gift by the

grace of that

one man,

Jesus Christ,

abounded

for many.

And the free

gift is not

like the result

of that one

man's sin.

For the judgment

following one

trespass brought

condemnation,

but the free

gift following

many trespasses

brought justification.

For if,

because of one

man's trespass,

death reigned

through that

one man,

much more

will those

who receive

the abundance

of grace

and the free

gift of

righteousness

reign in life

through the

one man,

Jesus Christ.

church,

this Christmas,

as you go to

bed this evening,

as you wake up

tomorrow morning

with your head

spinning with

gifts and

presents and

meals and

family and

everything else,

would you reflect

for just a

moment on the

glorious promises

of God for you

in Christ Jesus?

Jesus,

we're told that

this promise is

for you and

your children and

all who are far

off,

everyone whom

the Lord our

God calls to

himself.

I pray that

you will rest

and remember

the glorious

gift of a

promise kept

in Jesus

Christ.

That no matter

how deeply

you have sinned,

the good news

of Christmas is

the promised

Savior has

come that all

who call upon

the name of

the Lord will

be saved.

And that no

matter your

past, your

failures, your

history, your

mess, the

good news of

Christmas is

that the

promised Redeemer

has come.

And that no

matter how

long you have

served the

kingdom of

this world, the

good news of

Christmas, church,

the promised

King has

come and he

will come

again.

Let every

heart prepare

him room and

heaven and

nature sing.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank

you for the

gift of a

promise kept.

Father, we

thank you that

every word of

the Lord

proves true.

We thank you

that all of

the promises of

God find their

yes and their

amen in the

Lord Jesus

Christ.

And that by

the miracle of

your grace,

even sinners

like us can

enter in and

receive the

promises of

God through

faith in

Christ.

We love you,

Lord, and we

pray this in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.