Text:\u00a0 Luke 2: 9-11 \/ Christmas Eve -2014<\/p>\n
Angels.\u00a0 Do you ever wonder about them?\u00a0 We sing: Angels we have heard on high. Hark the herald angels sing. Angels.\u00a0 God\u2019s word tells us something about these mysterious spirit beings.\u00a0 They serve us in ways unseen.\u00a0 They protect us in ways we don\u2019t always recognize.\u00a0\u00a0 And if you know your Bible, you can\u2019t help but notice how angels always seem to show up at critical times.<\/p>\n
What are the angels doing tonight? I have to think some of them are watching us.\u00a0 Why? \u00a0A long time ago they came to shepherds.\u00a0 They brought them this news of great joy.\u00a0 And now I have to think they\u2019re watching us and wondering.\u00a0 What will they think of this good news?\u00a0 Some of us have heard this good news for many years.\u00a0 We\u2019ve come to church for many Christmases.\u00a0 Will it still be special to us this evening? Then there are those of us hardly know this message.\u00a0 In either case are the angels wondering, what we will they think this night?\u00a0 Are they wondering:\u00a0 Will this be good news of great joy for these people?<\/p>\n
I was just a kid. In fact, I was the only child in the house. I had my very own mom and dad who I did not have to share with anyone. But then one day, they brought someone home.\u00a0 My baby sister.\u00a0 And I wasn\u2019t too sure how I felt about it.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad now, but I wasn\u2019t so sure about this little one born to<\/strong> my family.<\/p>\n Now think about this little one born so long ago to Mary.\u00a0 We hear Luke tell us the story every year.\u00a0 Even so, it can\u2019t help but touch us in some way, even those who are not so sure about this Jesus stuff.\u00a0 But it really doesn\u2019t sink in until you realize this, unless you take this to heart.\u00a0 What the angel said to these shepherds is true for you as well.\u00a0 This very special Child was born to you<\/strong>.\u00a0 That\u2019s the good news for this night that I am so very happy to share:<\/p>\n Born to You\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture the scene.\u00a0 You are out in the fields.\u00a0 It\u2019s very dark except for the fire that barely keeps you warm.\u00a0 It\u2019s very quiet except for the occasional bleating of a sheep or its lamb.\u00a0 When suddenly and I mean suddenly an angel of the Lord stands before you.\u00a0 How do you know?\u00a0 A subtle hint.\u00a0 You are surrounded by a brightness that makes the night like day.<\/p>\n You\u2019re afraid.\u00a0 Of course you are!\u00a0 What sinful human being wouldn\u2019t be who found himself in the presence of a holy angel of God.\u00a0 Yes you\u2019re afraid.<\/p>\n But shaking fear was the total opposite of what this moment was about.\u00a0 He tells you so.\u00a0 Then He uses a word that signals something important. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t come across in our English version.\u00a0 But you may remember it from your King James.\u00a0 Behold! Look pay attention now. Behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.\u00a0 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.\u00a0 He is Christ the Lord.<\/p>\n A Savior<\/strong>. Most of us can think things we might wish to be saved from.\u00a0 These Jewish shepherds lived in a land under the cruel oppression of a Roman occupier.\u00a0 They were also poor, looked down upon.\u00a0 What about you and me? \u00a0We might wish that someone would swoop down and save us from: That troubled relationship, that sky high debt we\u2019ve racked up, that physical or emotional pain that is relentless, and yes that cancer.<\/p>\n But this Child came to save us from something bigger. \u00a0He is a Savior from the messed up direction of my life.\u00a0 I think of my life without him.\u00a0 I did what I wanted but I was far from free.\u00a0 My life was full of stuff and gratification but I was empty.\u00a0 Yes I thought of others, but only in terms of what they could do for me.\u00a0 It was all about me.\u00a0 Not you, not God.\u00a0 Jesus saved me from that messed up direction.\u00a0 His grace saved me to care, to love, to serve.\u00a0 And of course, He\u2019s not done by far.\u00a0 He\u2019s still saving me.<\/p>\n But this Savior is far more than that. \u00a0He is a Savior from the messed up direction of my life in a much bigger way.\u00a0 For what was that direction?\u00a0 What was yours? Where were we heading without this Child.\u00a0 To a day when we would stand before God with a mile long list of the ways we have wiped our feet on God\u2019s will for our lives. Where were we heading?\u00a0 A day when we would hear God say to us: Go away.\u00a0 Go away forever.<\/em><\/p>\n This Child came to save you and me from that.\u00a0 He came to put us on a new road that doesn\u2019t bring us to a dreadful dead end.\u00a0 His coming is about hope, hope that is real.\u00a0 It about a gift that you won\u2019t find under a Christmas tree. It\u2019s found only in one place, in that manger.\u00a0 A\u00a0 Child. A Child who came to live for you.\u00a0 A Child who would lay down his life for you and me.<\/p>\n So this Monday I will stand before a family and friends at a funeral.\u00a0 There will be sadness. \u00a0They\u2019ve been through a long night of seeing their father and grandfather fade away.\u00a0 But of this they can be glad. He is with the Lord.\u00a0 And he\u2019s never been better<\/em>.\u00a0 That\u2019s the good news from this night I am so happy to share.\u00a0 Born to you\u2026A Savior. <\/strong>\u00a0He is Christ the Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n Christ.<\/strong>\u00a0 That\u2019s another very special part of this good news of great joy.\u00a0 Christ.\u00a0 Some think of it as Jesus\u2019 last name.\u00a0 It is not.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a name.\u00a0 It\u2019s a title.\u00a0 Jesus THE Christ.<\/p>\n You may know that Christ is the Greek Word for Messiah.\u00a0\u00a0 Both words mean the Anointed one.\u00a0 You see, anointing was an Old Testament ceremony.\u00a0 You anointed a king or a priest into office by pouring olive oil on his head.\u00a0 So there were many anointed ones in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n But God had promised one very special anointed one.\u00a0 He would not be anointed with olive oil, but with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And he would be more than just a king or a priest or a prophet.\u00a0 He would be a prophet who would preach good news that would heal broken, fearful hearts.\u00a0 He would be a priest who would offer a sacrifice for the sins of all. Himself.\u00a0\u00a0 And he would be a king who would win a great victory for his people over their worst enemies and rule them like a good shepherd.\u00a0 So I hope you can see why God\u2019s angels filled the sky with praise this night.\u00a0 I hope you can see why the Shepherds wasted no time going to see this Child.\u00a0 Born to you, the Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n Christ the LORD<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 Have you heard people use the expression. the Miracle of Christmas?\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard it used to describe all kinds of things:\u00a0 a change of heart in the worst of enemies that twinkle in the eyes of little children.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard it used when a person in desperate need gets a liver or kidney transplant this time of year.<\/p>\n But now let\u2019s sit back and consider the true miracle.\u00a0 He is Christ the Lord<\/strong>. In the Bible the Greek Word for Lord is used sometimes as a title as respect. But other times it is the very special name God gave to himself so his people could know him.<\/p>\n The question is:\u00a0 how does the angel use it here? If you read through this gospel of Luke we see that name used 17 times in the first chapter.\u00a0 In the second chapter, it\u2019s used two times.\u00a0 Every time it is the name of God.\u00a0 Then we come to this third time.\u00a0 He is Christ the Lord.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take a great scholar to figure out what the ANGEL is telling us today.\u00a0 This Child born of MARY. This Child born to you<\/strong> was and is God.<\/p>\n You\u2019d never know it by the looks of things. The child has to be nursed, have his diapers changed.\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t come to us with unmistakable proof. \u00a0The angel merely speaks his word and so do I.\u00a0 A word that can only be accepted by faith.\u00a0 He is Christ the Lord.<\/p>\n Yet the heart that sees this Child through those eyes of faith knows the joy and amazement of Christmas.\u00a0 For it\u2019s about God\u2019s love. That he would come down to us in this messed up world and become our brother to live for us and die for us.\u00a0 Become our brother to make us God\u2019s children.\u00a0 That is the true miracle of Christmas.\u00a0 Born to you, Christ the Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n So maybe the angels are watching us this night.\u00a0 What we will they see?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Some of you will see a movie this Christmas season.\u00a0 Unbroken.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read the book, not seen the movie. It\u2019s a about a man named Louis Zamperini.\u00a0 He grew up as a tough kid.\u00a0 He became an Olympic athlete.\u00a0 He went to war, was captured and was horribly mistreated for years.\u00a0 I am sure the movie will depict Louie as a hero and he was.\u00a0 But Louie would tell you his hero is somebody else.<\/p>\n You see when the war ended and he came home, his life became a mess of drinking and unresolved anger.\u00a0 His marriage was all but over.\u00a0 One day his wife convinced him to go to a Billy Graham crusade.\u00a0 He grudgingly agreed.\u00a0 The first time he got up and walked out.\u00a0 But for some reason he went back another day.\u00a0 And something happened.\u00a0 Something I pray happens for all of us this night.\u00a0 Jesus was born in his heart.\u00a0 The Lord Jesus born to you and me years ago.\u00a0 I pray He is born in you this night.\u00a0 Then the angels will smile.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Luke 2: 9-11 \/ Christmas Eve -2014 Angels.\u00a0 Do you ever wonder about them?\u00a0 We sing: Angels we have heard on high. Hark the herald angels sing. Angels.\u00a0 God\u2019s word tells us something about these mysterious spirit beings.\u00a0 They serve us in ways unseen.\u00a0 They protect us in ways we don\u2019t always recognize.\u00a0\u00a0 And if you know your Bible, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":571,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI.\u00a0 A Savior
\nII.\u00a0 Christ the Lord<\/strong><\/p>\n