Sermons on Christmas
This month, we have focused on the themes of Advent—hope, peace, joy—and today we will be looking at love. It is difficult for us to understand the love that God has for us… the love that He demonstrated through the gift of His Son, but God’s love is a theme we find throughout Scripture. As we’ve considered these themes of Advent, we have focused on the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. These prophecies of the promised Messiah were written over 700 years before their fulfillment. We will look again to the prophet’s writings in a few minutes, but first I want us to focus on the writings of another of the Old Testament books of prophecy—the Book of Lamentations.
As we enter into this third week of our Advent studies, let’s pause for a moment to remember that advent refers to the coming of or arrival of the Messiah. While looking at the prophecies that foretold of His coming, we have seen several, overarching themes that have arisen. The first week, we talked about hope, and that hope is to be found in nothing other than Jesus Christ. The second week, we considered the concept of peace, and determined that only Jesus is able to provide us with real lasting peace. Today, we are going to focus our attention on the concept of joy.
If I were to ask for a show of hands, I wonder how many of you could honestly say that your life could be described as peaceful… We sing the words—“Silent night. Holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace.”—but do we even know what peace looks like? As we continue our sermon series—Anticipating Advent—today, we will once again be looking at the writings of the Prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 2:1-5, there is a prophetic poem that addresses the future of Judah and Jerusalem. This poem “shows that when God restores Jerusalem and the family of Abraham, all people will be drawn to the Kingdom of God, resulting in peace among all nations.” Isaiah predicted that there would be a king—like His ancestor, David—that would bring peace to all nations. And in Isaiah 9, the prophet describes the arrival of this king.
The sermon series that we are starting today is a four-part series called “Anticipating Advent.” Today, we will be looking at the concept of HOPE as it relates to the prophesied arrival of the Christ child. Over the next three weeks, we will look at PEACE, JOY, and LOVE respectively. The Bible reading plan that I am inviting you to join will follow along with these same concepts.
Herod was a cruel and diabolical man. He was incredibly jealous and hopelessly suspicious of everyone. He was threatened by everyone and everything, and so he spent his entire life plotting the murder of people. There are accounts of multiple times when he killed someone (or groups of people) because they were somehow seen as a threat to him. His victims even included one of his wives and several of his own children. Herod had a lust for power, a constant suspicion, and an insane eagerness to avenge himself that enslaved the man all the days of his life. He was a cruel and bloodthirsty tyrant. I share all of this with you today to give you a glimpse into the heart of this evil man—his mindset and his character—so that we can better understand his role in the nativity narrative.
Some of you are thinking… Christmas is over! Why are we still talking about Christmas? Well, the nativity narrative includes events that occurred after the birth of baby Jesus. So, this week and next, we’re going to be looking at the final two characters in the Cast of Christmas—the Magi and King Herod.
We do not know everyone who knew the reason for Mary’s sudden departure to go stay with her relatives near Jerusalem, but we assume that Joseph was aware of what was going on. But what was happening with Joseph during these three months that Mary was gone? What was he thinking? How did he feel? I cannot answer these questions definitively, but we can deduce some aspects of the situation back in Nazareth based off of what we learn in Matthew 1. Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, had made a difficult decision for his life and future; and God chose to intervene by sending one of His messengers to inform Joseph of vital details about the situation before it was too late.
While waiting for her wedding day, an angel appeared to Mary to explain what was about to happen to her. When the angel spoke to her, he said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” Mary was a recipient His grace. God pursued her with His grace! So today, we’re going to focus in on the interaction Mary had with the angel, Gabriel, and with her cousin, Elizabeth, from Luke 1. We will look specifically at Mary’s character and the struggles that she experienced—social, mental and emotional struggles—as she carried the Promised Messiah.
One of the things that I hope to go see one day is the world’s most famous geyser, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. This geyser faithfully erupts about 20 times a day. As we think about the concept of faithfulness, I want us to think about how that no matter what is going on in your life, if we want to truly be faithful to the Lord then we need to be faithful in every situation. In Luke 2:22-40, we will spend some time looking at each of the characters in this story to see how they demonstrated their faithfulness to God.
Luke 2:1-21 is probably the most popular book of the Bible during December because it is the story of Jesus being born. It also mentions another authority, an earthly authority named Caesar Augustus. Through conflict and struggle, Augustus ascended to the title of Emperor, while offering the world his version of peace and joy. God sent His only son Jesus to the world as a baby, bringing true joy and true peace.