Christmas Eve 2022

Well Merry Christmas.

Welcome whether you're one of our regular folks or uh you're here visiting or you're family of somebody and you you ended up here and I also know that's very possible that you might not want to be here and you were just told by your family that you were coming.

And we'd love for you to know that we love that you are here.

So at least you have that during these painful 15-minute sermon that you're about to get.

We're glad you're here.

The past few weeks, our family's been getting Christmas cards, like so many of you, and our girls, what we do is our girls take the Christmas cards and then put them, tape them up on a door in our den, and so we can see them over the weeks.

And uh we'd love to see the very popular family beach pick, you know, is a popular one, and we'd love to see that.

And our family, we went the very popular route of uh in the field with the autumn leaves behind us.

That was our card this year.

Uh, but one card beat everybody else's card, if it was a competition, which some of us know it sort of is, but we won't admit it.

One card beat everybody else, and this is the card, at least, that came to our house that beat everybody else's card, right?

Because this card just has good news.

I mean, this is just a good news card, and a baby's gonna beat uh, you know, you know, autumn leaves.

I mean, it's a baby was born.

This is amazing.

So, Ben and Sarah, a young couple in our church, they had their first baby, baby Trey.

And so this is his announcement.

It's good news.

I mean, I know your son plays club soccer.

That's fantastic, that's amazing.

That's amazing.

That's amazing information.

I love learning that this Christmas.

But a baby does win.

I mean, a baby born is amazing, amazing.

It's just good news.

A baby announcement is something that's already happened.

That's what news is.

It's an announcement of something that's already happened.

This baby happened to the world, is what happened.

And we come today to remember a baby that happened to the world.

And that's just good news.

A gift that happened to the world.

Our reading today was Luke 2, 1 through 14.

I'm going to reread just verses 8 and 11 as we ponder our text.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over the flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Let's pray quickly before we try to make some sense of this.

God, we come before you in these moments.

Open our hearts, soften our hearts.

For so many of us, we come in from a busy day, a lonely day, maybe a complicated day, and we have busy hearts.

And so would you just help our hearts to quiet in these moments that we might hear something from you?

And would you have mercy on us, especially the one who speaks.

Amen.

Point number one is this the story of Jesus is good news for weary souls.

Now, if you're around our church, you know that's pretty much one of my three points every single Sunday.

It's just like one point is just repeated over and over again.

The story of Jesus is good news for weary souls.

The beginning of the Christian faith, that's what it was called.

Gospel.

Gospel means good news.

That's just what it is.

You've heard good news, you got the job.

That was amazing news when you heard that.

You you passed the class.

The boy likes you, the girl likes you, you remember that.

That's amazing news.

And because it was good news, great joy rose up inside of you.

Now, it's also possible that you've been in churches, maybe you've been around Christians, maybe you're handed a Christian book and you read that book or you went to that place and you finished it and you thought to yourself, that doesn't seem like much joy.

In fact, I feel pretty beat down, feel exhausted, maybe even feel condemned.

It's all very possible if we receive any sort of message like, if only you get a little bit better, then God will accept you or love you.

If only you could perform a little bit more, you might also be worthy or whole or a good Christian.

Rather than good news of great joy for all the people.

The news is good for our weary souls because it's news, not advice.

It's not something for us to do.

It's something done and accomplished outside of us and given to us.

This is the act of the incarnation.

God pursuing us, God coming toward us when we haven't merited anything.

A baby happened upon the world.

This frees us from being performers and pretenders, and it frees us to learn to become receivers and worshipers.

The beginning of verse 10 calls us to move from fear to behold.

Fear has been our response to God since the beginning.

In the garden, you remember in Genesis, Adam and Eve they rebelled, they chose their independence from God.

And then they saw that they were naked, where I'm from, it's naked.

I don't know if you're from the same place I'm from, but it's naked where I'm from.

They were never ashamed before this.

And all of a sudden everything changes.

And the questions begin in their heart and their mind.

Questions that you and I still have today.

If God knew me, if God saw me, if he really knew me, could he possibly love me?

And so they respond to that and they go and they make their little jungle book clothes and they clothe themselves up, and they go on to run and hide from God.

My mentor Scotty Smith, he says this apart from the garments of God's grace given to us freely in the gospel, we'll reach for the rags of some feudal covering.

Shame has to do with being seen, and we are convinced that being fully seen by God would destroy us.

To be seen as we really are is just too much to fathom.

Our guilt and shame demand a payment we can't pay.

And that's why we need the garments of God's grace to us.

We need a gift.

All of a sudden, those two they heard the Lord walking in the garden, and you remember what happened, something that had not happened earlier, and that was that they ran and they hid.

They hid from the one who loves them, they hid from the one who wants to provide for them.

And the Lord pursues them in the story, and the Lord says, Where are you?

Where are you?

So he's pursuing them, and they are covering, and they are running and they're hiding.

So it's no surprise when the Lord shows up to these shepherds in the field, an angel has to say, Fear not.

Behold.

Like you don't have to be afraid of God.

Remember, last week we talked about the word behold.

Behold is to pause, gaze, not just get to work for God, but be astonished by God and His love for you.

Point number two, two-point sermon.

It's my Christmas gift to all of you.

Two-point sermon.

By the gift of Christ, we transform from hiding in fear to treasuring in peace.

From hiding in fear to treasuring in peace.

My favorite gift as a kid, I still remember getting this Christmas gift.

Maybe you have that one gift you remember as a child.

Well, this is that one gift I received as a little boy.

I received a battery-powered policeman motorcycle.

My mom dug out the pitcher.

There I am.

And I loved that motorcycle.

Oh, I can still remember that motorcycle.

You couldn't take me away from that gift.

I mean, that gift transformed me.

It did.

I wasn't just a I wasn't just a like a little boy in suburb America.

I was a powerful motorcycle man.

As you can tell, I mean, look at me there.

I'm intimidating.

The gift did this to me, right?

The gift was so lavish.

I mean, that gift was so lavish.

So powerful.

It didn't demand anything of me, and yet it changed everything about me.

This is the power of grace.

This is what the gift of Christ is to us.

The gift was put upon us.

Do you remember the in Christ list we've been looking at this year?

We've looked at it three or four times.

And I want us to just ponder how lavish this gift of Christ is.

I'm going to read over this list.

People love when I read lists in the middle of sermons.

They just love things.

It's fascinating, fascinating sermon material.

Listen how lavish this gift is.

In Christ, we are always forgiven and always righteous.

Jesus is your righteousness.

In Christ, we have secure, forever acceptance and peace with God.

Jesus is your peace.

In Christ, we are never alone and have endless companionship.

Jesus is your friend.

In Christ, we are liberated from performancism to live by the Spirit and freedom and love.

Jesus is your freedom.

In Christ, we are relieved of judgmentalism and empowered to live with love toward others.

Jesus is your source of love.

In Christ, we are both deemed godly and becoming godly.

Jesus is your empowerment toward holiness.

In Christ, we have a heavenly home prepared for us when our days on earth are over.

Jesus is your home.

What a lavish gift.

That all begins with a baby born.

A gift that happened to the world.

Carl Barth, a Swiss theologian in the early 1900s, in a writing called The Miracle of Christmas, he reminds us that Joseph contributes nothing to Jesus' coming, which is very typical if you think about it.

My wife, over the last six weeks, she has hunted down and bought like 78, 93 presents, I don't know, somewhere in that range.

Wrapped them all.

I bought two and had my nine-year-old wrap them.

So I haven't wrapped any presents yet.

I'm just keeping that streak alive, and probably very similar to the balance of uh input going on in many of your marriages.

Contributed nothing.

Joseph contributes nothing.

He's just kind of absent.

Joseph is absent in causing Jesus.

Jesus happens to him, to his life.

Here's how Bart words it: The miracle is done upon man.

It is man who is the object of sovereign divine action in this event.

God himself and God alone is master and lord.

This cannot be stated strongly enough, exclusively enough, negatively enough against all synergism and even monism.

Grace is always despite and not because of the human condition.

God's gracious action is never consequently, but always nevertheless.

It is life from the dead and the justification of the ungodly, not the reward of the righteous.

Which is amazing news.

If you've ever been beat down, you're exhausted or worn out or broken or just messed up.

Or you can't get it all together.

It's amazing news.

Last Sunday the World Cup ended.

Remember that was the big soccer tournament.

Remember that?

Last Sunday it happened.

Argentina beat France to win.

So I hear.

I was in church.

And a penalty shootout at the end of the game.

It was tied three to three, and then the shootout happened, and Argentina won four to two.

And the team's leader and hero, all-time great, is it Lionel Messi?

Lionel?

Before I front, Lionel.

That's what that's Southern.

Lionel Messi is the hero.

And he he's the hero, right?

I mean, the team, the fans, the world, I mean, we are exalting this guy.

He's an all-time great, this guy.

I mean, what a victory.

Now, I found myself thinking back about the 2020 Eurofinals.

I know you were thinking about that same game this week.

England versus Italy.

It also went to a penalty shootout.

And 19-year-old Sokka, S-A-K-A, he misses a crucial kick at the end of the game, causing England to lose the game.

And at the end of the game, when the game's over, England's manager, he walks on the field.

And this is what he does.

He wraps him up and he holds him.

A guy who has merited nothing receives this sort of grace and love.

Now, I would love to always be the winner and the hero.

But I'm not.

None of us are.

None of us always have our acts together, right?

I can't quite live up to my own standards and hopes, and I certainly don't live up to God's standards and hopes, and can't quite hold it all together all the time.

I'm just not where I thought I would be at age 43.

It's like we say every single week in our church, we are more broken than we originally thought, but we are more loved by God and Jesus than we ever dared to dream.

And we see it in incarnation and his birth.

God's action toward us as we are the object.

He is happening toward us.

He breaks into our need.

It's exactly what we need.

We need a pursuit, God's pursuit of us.

A pursuing God who breaks into our need and he wraps us up even when we lose the game, not just when we win the game.

Out of mercy and grace, God moves toward us in the gift of Christ.

And this gift is so lavish and so sufficient.

This life of Jesus to fulfill the law, all the righteousness we don't live up to, the work of the cross, our sin put upon him who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God.

That gift is put upon you.

So we get to become receivers and worshipers.

Let's pray together as I pray the historic colic prayer for Christmas.

Let's pray.

Oh God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ.

Grant that we who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our judge, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.