The Advent Candle Of Christmas Christmas Eve Service 2020 Luke 2:1-20
The Advent Candle Of Christmas
Christmas Eve Service 2020
Luke 2:1-20
Pastor Barry Kerner
There are many passages we could read for Christmas Eve, but this passage from Luke is one of my favorites. When I was a kid my Mom always read to us from the gospel of Luke on Christmas Eve, and we would start with these verses from Luke 2. We would read about Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem, about Jesus being born in the manger, about the angels appearing to the shepherds in the fields, about the shepherds visiting the baby in the manger and then going to forth to tell the whole town the glorious story that Jesus Christ is born. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas Eve before going to bed in anticipation of Christmas morning.
Let us read Luke 2 verses 1-20.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Well, it’s Christmas Eve, and we have gathered to celebrate in song, to worship in prayer and to focus on Christ at Christmas. One of our Christmas traditions here at Delphi Falls United Church is the Advent wreath. Each Sunday of Advent we light an additional candle on the wreath in anticipation of Christmas. That’s usually just a small part of our Advent celebration, but this Advent season we did something a little different.
For our Advent messages on Sunday mornings, we also used the various candles on the Advent wreath as the themes for our messages. For example, the first advent candle represents hope, so the first Sunday of Advent we looked at hope in light of Christmas and the Christmas story. The second candle represents peace, so the second Sunday we looked at peace and how it relates to Christmas. And then we did the same for the third and fourth advent candles which represent joy and love.
But you may have noticed there’s one candle left on the wreath, and that is the center candle, also called the Christ candle. The Christ candle is saved for last and lit on either Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. And so this being Christmas Eve we have lit all four outside candles as well as the center candle in celebration of Christmas.
The Christ candle is in the center because the Christ candle reminds us that Jesus is the center of Christmas. The four outer candles are all important, but they only make sense with Jesus at the center. Yes, Christmas is a time of hope, peace, joy and love, but once again, this is only because of Jesus. And so tonight I want us to look at Jesus as the center of Christmas, and how we only have real hope, peace, joy and love in our lives because of him.
First, there is no real hope without Christ
So, let’s talk about hope first. Jesus is the center of Christmas because there is no real hope without Christ. When we looked at the advent candle of hope, we saw that hope in Christ gets you through the waiting. We saw that hope in Christ helps you go the distance. And we saw that hope in Christ does not disappoint. (Romans 5:5) All real hope in the world is centered on Christ.
We also learned that the whole advent season is all about hope and anticipation. It’s about the people of the Old Testament waiting all those long years for Christ to come. And it’s also about us who are waiting and longing for Christ’s return. God promised to send Jesus the first time, and he did. God has promised to send Jesus a second time, and he will.
Christmas is all about hope because it’s all about Christ. Because God sent his Son into the world, you and I have hope. We have hope for today because Christ is with us. We have hope for tomorrow because Christ will never leave us. And we have hope for eternity, because Christ is coming back to take us to be with him forever.
Too many people live without hope today because they live without Christ. And so that’s the first reason Jesus is the center of Christmas, because all real hope is found in him. There is no real hope without Christ.
Second, there is no real peace without Christ
Jesus is the center of Christmas because there is no real peace without Christ. Once again, when we looked at the advent candle of peace we saw that Jesus brings peace with God – that Jesus came to save us from our sins so that we could be restored to right relationship with God. We saw that Jesus brings peace with self – that when you trust Christ, you enjoy a wonderful peace in your heart, a personal peace that is unlike anything you can find in the world. We saw that Jesus brings peace with others – that when you put Christ first and pray for your relationships, Jesus reconciles those relationships and allows you to live in peace with those around you. And then finally we saw that Jesus will bring peace on earth – that when Christ returns he will rule over this world in peace. All wars and conflicts will cease and even the world of nature and animals will be at peace with each other. All true peace in the world is centered on Christ.
Our world is sadly lacking peace today because our world is lacking Christ. The religious leaders of this world won’t bring you peace. The political leaders of this world won’t bring you peace. The pop psychologists of this world won’t bring you peace. All the drugs and medication in the world won’t bring you real peace.
Only Jesus brings true and lasting peace. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the Savior who came to bring peace between you and God. He is the coming King who comes to reign in peace over all the earth.
The angels who announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds out in the fields sang songs of peace on earth, goodwill towards men. And so that is a second reason Jesus is the center of Christmas, because Jesus brings peace. There is no real peace without Christ.
Third, there is no real joy without Christ
There is no real joy without Christ. When we looked at the advent candle of joy, we saw that Jesus brings the joy of salvation – that there is no real joy without salvation, and no real salvation without joy. We also saw that joy leads to proclamation – good news is for sharing – and that joy leads to praise. We saw that all true joy in the world is centered on Christ.
Once again, when the angels announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds, they not only sang songs of peace in the sky. They proclaimed good news of great joy for all the people. After the shepherds went to Bethlehem and found Jesus in the manger, they were so full of joy they ran out into the night to tell everyone that Christ was born. They couldn’t wait until morning! And they were so filled with joy in sharing that good news of Christmas that they returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
This world offers a lot of entertainment, a lot of excitement, a lot of thrills, but very little joy. Joy is deeper than happiness. Happiness is temporary and dependent on circumstances. But Jesus offers you a joy that transcends your circumstances. Christmas is not always a happy time for people. Especially if we have lost someone close to us, it colors the season for us. But Jesus offers you a joy that will sustain you even in your deepest sorrows. True joy doesn’t mean you will never be sad. It means that even in your saddest hours, God is with you, you can trust him, and therefore you can have joy.
And so that is a third reason Jesus is the center of Christmas, because Jesus brings a joy that is deeper than happiness and even deeper than our sorrows. There is no real joy without Christ.
Fourth, there is no real love without Christ
The fourth reason Jesus is the center of Christmas is that there is no real love without Christ. When we looked at the advent candle of love, we saw Joseph’s love for Mary as he looked out for her best interests even when he thought she had been unfaithful to him. We saw Mary’s love for Jesus as she wrapped the baby in swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger. We saw God’s love for sinners in sending his own Son into the world as a sacrifice for our sins. And we saw our love for others which is a natural response to God’s love for us.
When we say that there is no real love without Christ, we’re not saying that you can’t love your family or be loving towards others unless you’re a Christian. There are many people who do not follow Christ who are still very loving people. But what we are saying is this: whether you realize it or not, your love for others is only possible because of Jesus, because Jesus is the Son of God. And you cannot experience or express fullness of love without Christ.
The Bible tells us that God is love, and that all love comes from God. (1 John 4:7-8) Before God ever created the world, there was God and there was love. God loved his Son Jesus, and Jesus loved God the Father. God and Jesus both loved the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit loved the Father and the Son. God is love because from all of eternity there has always been a perfect relationship between the three persons of the Trinity – one God, three persons in a perfect relationship of harmony and love.
When God created the world, that love God has for himself in the persons of the Trinity spilled over onto us. It’s like tracing a stream back to its source. You hike through the woods following the stream for hours until you find the lake or spring that is feeding the stream. When you see any act or expression of love in this world, and you trace it back to the source, you will always find God. God is the source of all love in this world. Every act of love in this world finds its source in him. God is love, and all love comes from him.
The story of Christmas is all about love, because Christmas is all about Jesus. The Bible says: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)
The baby born in Bethlehem grew to be a man. He lived a perfect life with no sin. He went to the cross and died a horrible death. And the Bible tells us why he did all this. He did it for you and for me. God sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That’s why he came. That’s why he lived. That’s why he died. And that’s why he rose again – so he could be our Savior forever and rescue us from sin and Satan and death.
This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his Son. And so that’s the fourth reason Jesus is the center of Christmas, because God is love, and all love comes from him. There is no real love without Christ.
Let me close with an illustration to help us pull all this together. I’m not sure how many of you have log burning fireplaces but there’s something about a fire in the fireplace that is so soothing, so pleasing, especially around Christmas time. Years ago I found a channel and would sometimes turn the TV on to the “Fireplace Channel.” That’s right, there is an actual channel which simply broadcasts a fire in a fireplace on your TV screen twenty-four hours a day. It gives you the feel of a fireplace in the home.
What is it that people love about a fire in the fireplace? It’s the whole experience, isn’t it? The light that the fire sheds, the warmth that the fire brings, the scent of the burning wood and the crackling of the embers – these all combine to make it such a beautiful experience. But you can’t have all those things without the fire. The things we love about the fire come from the fire, and the fire is at the center of the light, the warmth, the scent and the crackling.
It’s the same with Christ at Christmas. We all want hope, peace, joy and love, but some people seem to want them without Jesus. It’s like wanting the light, warmth, scent and crackling of the fire in the fireplace without the fire. It doesn’t work that way. Just as the fire is central to all the good things about the fire, so Christ is central to Christmas. Hope, peace, joy and love come from him. He is the center, and we only enjoy the good things of Christmas because of him.
And so as you watch the Christ candle burning this evening in the center of all the other candles, remember that Christ is central. He is the reason for Christmas. He is the one who brings true hope, peace, joy and love for us all. And so let us draw near to him to worship, to praise, to follow and believe. O come let us adore Him! O Come Let Us Adore Him! O COME LET US ADORE HIM! HE IS CHRIST THE LORD!!!
The Advent Candle Of Love Matthew 1:18-21 with Pastor Barry Kerner
The Advent Candle Of Love
Matthew 1:18-21
Pastor Barry Kerner
Today is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and we have been working our way around the various candles of the Advent Wreath. We saw earlier in this series that the four candles around the outside of the Advent Wreath correspond to the first four fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience ….” (Galatians 5:22) The four candles around the outside of the wreath stand for hope, peace, joy and love. Hope and patience relate to each other, and so as we work our way around the Advent Wreath at Christmas, it’s good to know we are also working our way backwards through the first four fruit of the Spirit.
Love comes first in the fruit of the Spirit because love is the primary fruit of the Spirit. It is the most important fruit of the Spirit and encompasses all the rest. Love comes last in the four candles around the outside of the Advent Wreath, because love is also the most important of these, and in Advent we are working our way towards the most important aspect of Christmas, which is God’s love for us in Christ.
We will be looking at a number of Scriptures this morning relating to love at Christmas, but we will start with this passage from Matthew 1 verse 18-21.
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
As we have seen, hope is an important part of the Christmas story. Peace is an important part of the Christmas story. Joy is an important part of the Christmas story. But now we come to love, and love is the most important of all.
The Christmas story is all about love, and so we are going to look at four aspects of love at Christmas this morning. We will look at 1) Joseph’s love for Mary, 2) Mary’s love for Jesus, 3) God’s love for sinners, and 4) our love for one another. There would be no Christmas without love, and all four of these are important parts of the Christmas story
We’ll begin with Joseph’s love for Mary, an incredibly important part of the Christmas story. You might say, “Well of course he loved Mary. They were engaged!” And yes, they were engaged to be married, but that didn’t necessarily mean that Joseph loved her. In that day and time people often got married for reasons other than love. Marriages were typically arranged by the spouses’ parents. Many times marriage was viewed more as a social or economic relationship rather than romantically based.
So how do we know Joseph loved Mary? We know because of his response when Mary was found to be pregnant during the engagement, before they were married, before they had come together as husband and wife. As far as Joseph knew, Mary had been unfaithful to him and slept with another man. Joseph must have felt completely betrayed by this and would have every right to be angry and upset with her.
Now Joseph had several options here. He could go ahead and marry her anyways, knowing that the child wasn’t his own. However, that would have gone against his convictions as a man committed to God and God’s ways. No matter how much he loved Mary, he needed to put his relationship with God first.
He could have dragged her before the tribunal and had her tried for adultery. This would have been a vindictive move. At the very least Mary would be publicly disgraced, or even worse, she could be sentenced to death by stoning.
But what did Joseph do instead? We read in Matthew 1:18-19: “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”
Joseph chose a third option. Instead of marrying her in defiance of God’s commands, instead of bringing her before the judges in an act of revenge, he thought about what was best for Mary in this situation. And so he decided rather than expose her to public disgrace, he would divorce her quietly. Sure people would still know and talk about her. That was unavoidable. But at least she wouldn’t go through the public humiliation of a trial.
Joseph had several options open to him, and he chose the way of love. He chose the way that would bring the least amount of shame and attention to Mary. As 1 Corinthians 13:7 tells us, Love always protects. Joseph chose to protect Mary, even when he thought she had been unfaithful to him. Joseph’s love for Mary is our first example of love at Christmas.
And then secondly, we have Mary’s love for Jesus. We read in Luke 2: “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” This, of course, is the center of the Christmas story, the actual birth of Christ that first Christmas Eve. Mary gives birth to her firstborn, a son. She tenderly wraps him in swaddling cloths and lays him in the manger.
There is a natural love between every mother and the child she bears. The child has been inside her for months. She has given life to this child. For nine months she has nourished the child with her own body. She has felt every move, every kick, every turn. She has dreamed and imagined what this child would look like. She has gone through the long months of pregnancy, the hard sacrifice of labor, the excruciating pain of childbirth, and now she holds her newborn child in her arms. How could she not love this beautiful new human being who has come from her own body?
Mary’s love for Jesus is also indicated in other ways by Scripture. For example, after the shepherds visited Joseph and Mary and then went into the town spreading the word about Jesus, we read in Luke 2:19 that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
The word translated “treasured” in verse 19 is a word that means “to preserve” or “to keep in mind” or even “to keep thinking about something so that you won’t forget it.” The word translated “pondered” is a word that means “to bring together” or “to think deeply or reflect on something.” Together these words tell us that Mary didn’t want to lose a single memory of all that happened that night. She kept running through the events over and over again in her mind so she wouldn’t forget. She thought deeply about these happenings, bringing all the individual memories together and wondering what it all could mean. Mary’s love for Jesus was reflected in her very thoughts about him. Her thoughts were captive to Christ, and she made every effort to remember every detail as she sought to understand the meaning of his birth.
Her love for Jesus is also revealed by the words Simeon spoke over Jesus and Mary in the temple. We’ve met Simeon before in this Advent series. Remember Simeon? God had promised Simeon that he would not die before he saw the Messiah. God’s Spirit moved Simeon to enter the temple courts just as Joseph and Mary were bringing Jesus into the temple to present him to the Lord. Simeon took Jesus into his arms and prophesied over him, and we looked at that prophecy earlier in this series.
But then Simeon also spoke to Mary. We read about this in Luke 2:34-35. “Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: ‘This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’”
In effect Simeon told Mary that there were difficult days ahead for her son, Jesus. Mary didn’t know how difficult at the time, but Simeon gave her forewarning when he told her that a sword would pierce her own soul, too.
True to this word of prophecy, Mary suffered greatly as Jesus grew to be a man. Jesus was no ordinary son. He belonged first to his heavenly Father – as he reminded Mary in the temple when he was twelve years’ old found in Luke 2:49-50. He operated on his own time table, not hers – as he made clear to her at the wedding in Cana found in John 2:4. When Jesus’ ministry attracted such great numbers that he and his disciples could not even eat, his family thought he was out of his mind and went to take charge of him. And when it came time for Jesus to die, Mary was there at the cross. In John 19:25, John tells us she was near the cross as she watched her son suffer and die there in shame.
So yes, Simeon’s words were absolutely and brutally true. A sword would pierce Mary’s own soul, too. Why? Because her son was destined to suffer and die, and she loved her son deeply. That’s the second aspect of love that is part of the Christmas story – Mary’s love for Jesus.
This brings us now to the third aspect of love at Christmas – God’s love for sinners. And this is really the heart of the Christmas story. The Christmas story is all about love. Joseph’s love for Mary and Mary’s love for Jesus are both important parts of that story, but they are not the most important. The central message of love at Christmas is God’s love for sinners.
This is evident from the angel’s words to Joseph about Mary in Matthew 1:21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Why was Jesus born into our world at Christmas? It’s all in his name! The name Jesus means “Savior” or “salvation,” and Jesus was born into our world to save his people from their sins.
We read in John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The greatest gift ever given at Christmas was the gift of God’s own Son. God gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus did not merely come into the world. He was sent into the world. God the Father sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
If you ever doubt that God loves you, just look at his Son, Jesus. Look at Jesus the child born into the world as a baby at Christmas. Look at Jesus the man, teaching the people, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing diseases and sicknesses among the people. Look at Jesus the Savior, suffering and dying on the cross for your sins to bring you to God. Look at Jesus the King, risen from the dead, ascended to heaven, coming back for you to take you to be with him that you also may be where he is forever.
Nothing can ever separate you from God’s love for you in Christ. As Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Christmas story is all about love, but the most important part of the story is God’s love for sinners. God so loved the world, he gave us his Son so that we would not perish but have eternal life.
We’ve looked at Joseph’s love for Mary, Mary’s love for Jesus, and God’s love for sinners. But there is one more aspect of love at Christmas that we do not want to leave out. And that is our love for one another.
The Bible makes a clear and unbreakable connection between God’s love for us and our love for each other. We read in 1 John 4:10-11: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Notice God’s love comes first. God’s love always comes first. God’s love in creating the world; God’s love in promising a Savior; God’s love in sending his Son into the world; God’s love in Jesus dying on the cross for your sins. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
God’s love always comes first. But then our love should follow. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) Our love for others should follow, not merely as an obligation, but as a natural outflow of God’s love for us. If God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you, how can you not love others in return? And if God loved others so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for them, how can you not love them as well?
And so Christmas is not only a reminder of how much God loves you, but also how much you should love other people. Is there someone you need to help this Christmas? Is there someone you need to reach out to this Christmas? Is there someone you need to forgive this Christmas?
God showed his love for us at Christmas by sending his Son into the world as a sacrifice for our sins. How will you show your love to others this Christmas?
The Advent Candle Of Joy Luke 2:8-12 with Pastor Barry Kerner
The Advent Candle Of Joy
Luke 2:8-12
Today is the third Sunday of Advent, and we are working our way around the various candles of the Advent Wreath. We have seen that the first candle represents hope, and the second candle represents peace. Today we come to the third candle on the wreath.
Now you may have noticed that one of the outside candles is a different color from the other three. There are three purple candles around the outside of the wreath and one pink candle. The pink candle is the third candle of advent which represents joy.
The traditional reading for the third Sunday of Advent comes from Philippians 4:4 which says: “Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again, rejoice!” As a result, the third Sunday of Advent was set aside as a special Sunday, often called Gaudete Sunday after the Latin word for “rejoice.”
We will be looking at a number of Scriptures this morning relating to Christmas and joy, but we will begin with these verses from Luke 2:8-12
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
One of the things people love about Christmas is that it truly is a joyful season. All season long we celebrate with music and song and lights and decorations. We celebrate by getting together with family and friends and by exchanging gifts. It is a joyful time of year.
But I can’t help feeling that sometimes the world hijacks their joy in the season from the true joy at the center of Christmas. Because when you come right down to it, the real joy at Christmas comes not from the lights and the decorations and the music but from the meaning of Christmas.
At the heart of Christmas is the astoundingly good news that Jesus Christ was born as a Savior into this world. From beginning to end the Christmas story is punctuated with various outbursts and moments of joy, and they all center around the birth of Christ. You can’t get away from it. You can’t get around it. You can’t spell Christmas without Christ, and you can’t enter into the true joy of the season without Jesus.
This morning I want us to consider three truths about joy at Christmas. 1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. 3) Joy leads to praise. All three of these truths are found right in the very Scripture passages which tell us the Christmas story, and so all three of these truths together capture the true meaning of joy at Christmas.
First, Jesus brings the joy of salvation
First of all, Jesus brings the joy of salvation. Now Jesus brings joy in so many areas of life, but the joy that is especially associated with Christ’s birth is the joy of salvation. We already saw last week that Jesus’ very name means salvation, and this week I want us to see the connection that the Bible makes between salvation and joy.
For example, we read David’s prayer to the Lord in Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” David wrote this Psalm after committing adultery with Bathsheba. David had sinned greatly against God, but he still understood the connection between salvation and joy. He repented of his sin. He asked God’s forgiveness and asked God to restore to him the joy of his salvation.
We find the same connection between salvation and joy in Isaiah 12:3 where Isaiah writes: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” What a beautiful image! In this passage Isaiah is prophesying about the second coming of Christ, which as we have seen is a large part of the focus of the Advent season. Advent not only reminds us of Christ’s first coming, but also helps us as we anticipate Christ’s second coming.
Last week we looked at Isaiah 11 where we saw that when Christ returns he will bring peace on earth, a peace that includes not only peace among the nations but extends even to nature and the animal kingdom. Now Isaiah follows that up with Isaiah 12 by speaking of God’s salvation and the joy that accompanies his salvation.
There is no true joy without salvation, and there is no true salvation without joy. The two go together, and they especially go together in those Scriptures which tell us the Christmas story.
For example, we read in the gospel of Luke how when Mary was pregnant with Jesus she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth was also pregnant at this time with John the Baptist.
We read in Luke 1, “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
I love this scene. Mary enters the house, and John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, starts jumping for joy! Why? Because as Elizabeth put it, Mary was the mother of her Lord! Jesus is Lord, Mary was Jesus’ mother, and John was in close proximity with Jesus who had come to bring salvation for his people. And so John begins jumping with joy in his mother’s womb.
And you might wonder, how is that possible? Well, it’s because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You have two of the members of the Trinity here in one house. You have God the Spirit filling John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb and God the Son growing as a child in Mary’s womb.
Now the Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify Jesus as Savior. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit’s job is to get excited about Jesus! And so when Jesus enters the house in Mary’s womb, John the Baptist who is filled with the Holy Spirit gets excited about Jesus because the Savior has come.
Another great example of Jesus bringing the joy of salvation is the wise men in the gospel of Matthew. They traveled a great distance just to see the Messiah and to worship him. They had seen his star in the east, but they didn’t know exactly where he was to be born, so they stopped in Jerusalem along the way to ask King Herod for additional information.
We read in Matthew 2, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”
Once again they rejoiced to find the place where Jesus was born. Why? Because Jesus was the Messiah who had come to bring salvation to his people.
Salvation and joy belong together, and joy and Christmas belong together, because Jesus came at Christmas to bring us joy, especially the joy of salvation. So that’s our first point this morning. Jesus brings the joy of salvation.
Second, Joy leads to proclamation
Joy leads to proclamation. Jesus brings the joy of salvation, and that joy leads us to share the good news of Jesus with others. We find this truth demonstrated for us in the story of the angels and the shepherds.
For example, we read in Luke 2, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Notice the news about Jesus’ birth is not only news, it is good news! And it is not only good news, it is good news of joy! And it is not only good news of joy, it is good news of great joy! And it is not only good news of great joy, it is good news of great joy for all the people! But how will all the people know about this good news of great joy unless we share it with them?
We share good news with each other all the time. When something good happens, we talk about it with our friends at work or at school. We post it on Facebook. When the good news is the birth of a baby, we especially share it with others, don’t we? We take pictures and send out birth announcements. We are filled with joy at the birth of a child, and that joy naturally leads to proclamation. We want everyone to know and share in our joy.
Well, if we tell everyone about the birth of our own babies, how much more should we proclaim the birth of God’s Son! Good news is for sharing, and there is no better news than the news the angels shared with the shepherds that first Christmas Eve: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
So what did the shepherds do after they received this good news of great joy that was for all the people? Let’s find out! Picking up the story in Luke 2:15:
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
When the shepherds heard this good news of great joy that was for all the people, first they checked it out for themselves and found everything just as the angel had told them. And after they had checked it out for themselves, what did they do? They spread the word to others. Why? Because good news is for sharing! This was good news of great joy for all the people, and it would have been wrong for them to keep it to themselves. Joy leads to proclamation.
Third, Joy leads to praise
1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. And then thirdly: 3) Joy leads to praise. We find this truth demonstrated for us in two examples from the Christmas story. The first example is Mary after she hears the words of prophecy from Elizabeth that we looked at earlier in the message. Mary was filled with joy and wonder as her cousin Elizabeth spoke words of blessing and favor over her and the child she carried in her womb. Her joy could not be contained, and so then she burst out in a song of praise.
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name.”
We often call this “Mary’s Song” or “The Magnificat,” as Mary magnifies or glorifies the Lord for choosing her to be the mother of Jesus. And notice that this joy still has to do with salvation. Mary rejoices in God her Savior. She is filled with joy at God’s goodness to her, and her joy bubbles over into praise.
And then we find this same pattern also with the shepherds when they returned from sharing the good news of Jesus with the people in the town. We read in Luke 2:20, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”
Joy leads to proclamation, so they went out and spread the word about Jesus and his birth. But joy also leads to praise, and so they returned glorifying and praising God. God chose them to be eyewitnesses to the birth of Christ, and they would never forget the things they had heard and seen that night, which were just as they had been told.
I’d like to close with these thoughts. The third candle, the pink candle, the advent candle of joy reminds us of these three important aspects of joy relating to Christmas. 1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation. 2) Joy leads to proclamation. 3) Joy leads to praise. And these three aspects of joy at Christmas also become three application points for us as we respond to the message this morning.
First of all, Jesus brings the joy of salvation. Do you know Christ as your Savior? Do you know the joy that comes from having Christ as your friend and having your sins forgiven? Do you know the joy of being restored to right relationship with God through Christ the Savior? The message that the angel gave to the shepherds that first Christmas night is just as applicable to you two thousand years later, right here, right now: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) There is no true joy without salvation, and there is no true salvation without joy. Jesus is the reason for the season, and if you have never trusted Jesus as your Savior, then you are missing out on the true joy of Christmas.
Secondly, joy leads to proclamation. If you do know Jesus as your Savior, then you need to spread the word! How many people have you told about Jesus this Christmas season? You don’t need to be a trained theologian to share Christ with others. Just tell them that Christmas is all about the birth of Christ who came to be our Savior. Tell them Jesus died on the cross for their sins so they could be forgiven. Tell them Jesus rose from the dead and that he is alive today. Tell them Jesus is coming back to bring peace on earth. That’s all very good news, and remember, good news is for sharing. If you know Jesus as your Savior, then you know the joy of salvation, and joy leads to proclamation.
And then finally joy leads to praise. Praise God every day for your salvation. Praise him for his amazing grace. Praise him for his great love in sending his Son, Jesus, to be your Savior. Praise him for his goodness and kindness in forgiving your sins. Praise him for the miracle of the incarnation at Christmas, that God the Son took on human flesh and was born into our world as a little baby. Remember Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
And so let me encourage you this morning, with great joy draw great buckets of praise from the great reservoir of blessings that God has given you in your salvation.
Are you filled with joy this Christmas season? You should be! Because God is good, Christ has come, and salvation is yours for the asking. Christmas is all about joy, because joy comes from Jesus, and Christmas is all about him.
The Advent Candle Of Peace Luke 2:1-14 Pastor Barry Kerner
The Advent Candle Of Peace
Luke 2:1-14
Pastor Barry Kerner
This is the second week in our Advent Wreath series. Last week we looked at the Advent Candle of Hope. Today we will look at the Advent Candle of Peace. Peace is one of the nine fruit of the Spirit that we find listed in Galatians 5:22 where it tells us that, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience ….”
Now I want you to notice something here. The order of the advent candles is the same order as the first four fruit of the Spirit, only in reverse. The first four fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace and patience. The advent candles when you reverse the order are love, joy, peace and hope.
We saw last week that hope has to do with patience and waiting. For example we read in Romans 8: “If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” And so as we go through the order of the advent candles this season, understand that we are also working our way backwards through the fruit of the Spirit to the primary fruit of the Spirit, which is love.
But today is the second Sunday of Advent, and so today we are looking at the candle of peace. And what better place to begin than the angel’s pronouncement of peace to the shepherds on that first Christmas Eve.
Let us read Luke 2:13-14, 1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
One of the things I love about Christmas is the nativity scenes. And one of the things I love about nativity scenes is that they are so peaceful. It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful looking scene than Joseph and Mary with their newborn child surrounded by sheep and shepherds under the midnight sky. We even sing about it one of the most peaceful Christmas carols ever written: “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.”
We all long for peace in our lives, and yet peace is sadly lacking in our world. People are full of worry and anxiety. Relationships are full of conflict and stress. The world is full of conflict and wars.
But that’s where Jesus comes in. Because Jesus is not only our hope at Christmas, he is also our peace. And it is only in Christ that we will ever truly obtain peace on earth.
As someone said: “There will never be agreement at the peace tables of the world or rest in the individual heart until the Prince of Peace reigns supreme in the hearts of men.”
So that is what the Advent Candle of Peace is all about today. Part of the Christmas story, part of the Christmas message is that Jesus brings us peace. We will be looking at four aspects of the peace that Jesus brings this morning. 1) Jesus brings peace with God. 2) Jesus brings peace with self. 3) Jesus brings peace with others. And 4) Jesus will bring peace on earth.
First, Jesus brings peace with God
We’ll start with the first one – Jesus brings peace with God. We read in Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Notice that we are not naturally at peace with God. The Bible tells us our sins have separated us from God, and it is only through Jesus and faith in him that we are brought into a relationship of peace with our God and Creator.
When God first sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, he sent Gabriel with a message of peace. We read in Luke 1:26-30: “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.’”
Mary was troubled at the angel’s greeting, but the angel spoke words of peace and assurance to her, telling her not to be afraid because God was with her and she had found favor with God. You might wonder how did Mary find favor with God? The only way any of us find favor with God. She had faith in God and in his promise of the Messiah to come. Like so many Old Testament believers before her, she had faith in Christ before Christ even came. And now God had chosen her to be the vessel through which his Son would enter the world.
God also sent an angel to Joseph, Mary’s husband-to-be. And the angel told Joseph in Matthew 1:21: “She [Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name “Jesus” actually means “salvation.” Jesus was given this name because he was the promised Savior who came to bring us peace with God by saving us from our sins.
When John the Baptist was born three months before Jesus, John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied about John. And in his prophecy he spoke about how John would go before Jesus preparing the way for this One who would bring us peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins. Hear Zechariah’s words about John the Baptist in Luke 1:76-79, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins … to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
How did Jesus do this? Why is it that everyone who puts their faith in Jesus finds peace with God? It is because of what Jesus did at the cross. Jesus was born into this world to die on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be restored to a right relationship of peace with God. As we read in Isaiah 53:5: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
That’s the first and most important thing the Advent candle of peace reminds us at Christmas. Jesus brings peace with God.
Secondly, Jesus brings peace with self. Sin not only separates us from God. Sin also brings separation within our own being. We are conflicted beings. We are constantly fighting anxiety and stress and inner turmoil. We desperately need inner peace, and Jesus came not only to bring peace with God but also personal peace within ourselves.
Last week we looked at a man named Simeon. God had promised Simeon that he would see the Messiah before he died, and, wouldn’t you know it, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go into the temple courts just as Joseph and Mary were bringing the infant Jesus into the temple. We read in Luke 2 that Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people.”
Simeon is a wonderful example of Jesus bringing personal peace. We sometimes talk about our bucket lists, all the things we want to do or accomplish before we finish our lives here on earth. Well, apparently Simeon only had one thing on his bucket list – he wanted to see the Messiah before he died. And when he finally did, when he finally saw Jesus – that was all he needed. He praised God saying, “You now dismiss your servant in peace.” Simeon embraced Christ, and he was at peace within himself.
When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you not only receive peace with God. You also receive the peace of God to help you through the difficult circumstances of life. When you know Christ, everything can be going crazy around you, and you can still be at peace within yourself.
Philippians 4 instructs us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Notice that this wonderful peace of God is only available in and through Jesus Christ. The Bible says the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Hear these beautiful words of Jesus from John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Jesus not only brings peace with God. He also brings peace with self.
And then thirdly, Jesus brings peace with others. We have a wonderful example of this early in the Christmas story. When Joseph first heard that Mary was pregnant, he considered breaking off the engagement. He must have been terribly hurt and confused thinking that Mary had been unfaithful to him. But then we read in Matthew 1:20, “After he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’”
If Mary was pregnant with any other child, Joseph would most likely have broken the engagement. But this wasn’t any other child. This was Jesus, and he was conceived in her from the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus, even before he was born, brought peace between Joseph and Mary and kept their marriage from coming apart.
We go through many challenges in this life, and one of the most difficult is when our relationships are in turmoil. That’s when we need to ask Jesus – the Prince of Peace – to come and bring us peace in our relationships, to intervene, to reconcile and to restore.
We read this about Jesus in Ephesians 2:14, “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” Jesus came to break down the barriers, to bridge the gaps, to bring people together and to restore peace to our damaged relationships.
As believers in Christ, we are called to follow in his footsteps. As Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.” Jesus truly brings peace with others.
Fourth, Jesus will bring peace on earth
1) Jesus brings peace with God. 2) Jesus brings peace with self. 3) Jesus brings peace with others. And then finally, 4) Jesus will bring peace on earth. The angels who announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds that first Christmas Eve also proclaimed the peace that Jesus would bring to our planet. We read in Luke 2: “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’”
This is a peace that was prophesied back in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. We read this wonderful prophecy about Jesus back in Isaiah 2:4, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”
Some people might ask, “How do we know Isaiah was talking about Jesus bringing peace and not just God in general?” Well, you flip forward a few chapters to Isaiah 9 and we find these words about who will ultimately bring peace on earth: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”
This is a clear prophecy about Jesus who was born as a child, who will be called Prince of Peace, and who will one day rule in peace over all the earth.
But it gets even better than that, because this peace on earth will not only bring an end to war among the nations. It will even extend to nature and the animal kingdom. We read in Isaiah 11:6-9, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Jesus truly is the Prince of Peace.
But it gets even better than that! Because the Bible tells us that Jesus will not only bring peace on earth but will bring peace to the whole universe and that he will reconcile all things to himself in heaven and on earth. We read in Colossians 1, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
I’d like to close with these thoughts. This verse in Colossians 1 brings us right back to where we started. The reason Jesus brings peace with God, peace with self, peace with others and peace on earth all goes back to the cross. Without the Jesus shedding his blood on the cross, there would be no peace. And without Jesus being born as a baby at Christmas, there would be no cross.
Do you have peace with God this morning? Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins so that you could be forgiven and restored to right relationship with God. If your faith is in Christ, then you have peace with God.
Do you have peace with your self this morning? If your faith is in Christ, then Jesus has not abandoned you but has come to live in you by his Holy Spirit. And he offers you his peace. In John 14:27 Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Do you have peace with others this morning? If your faith is in Christ, then he has given you all the resources you need to do your part in living in peaceful relationships with those around you. And after you have done your part, you may ask Jesus in prayer to work in the other person’s heart that you may live in peace.
Do we have peace on earth this morning? Oh, how I wish we did! We do not have peace on earth yet, but we have the promise of peace on earth to come, and God has never yet broken a promise.
In Luke 2:14, the angels proclaimed to the shepherds that first Christmas Eve: “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men!” Those words of promise still ring in the air this Christmas season as we worship and adore the Lord Jesus, our Savior, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace.
Let us pray.
Sunday Message: The Advent Candle of Hope Matthew 1:22-23 Pastor Barry Kerner
The Advent Candle of Hope
Matthew 1:22-23
Pastor Barry Kerner
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The Advent season comprises the four weeks before Christmas. It is an old tradition dating at least as far back as the 400’s when the early church observed a period of preparation leading up to Christmas.
Advent is a time when we prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. The word “Advent” means “to come,” and the Advent season focuses on remembering Christ’s first coming at Christmas and then also anticipating Christ’s second coming and soon return.
This Advent season we will be sharing a series of messages exploring the various themes represented by the five candles on the Advent Wreath. Although candles have been used in churches for a long time, the Advent Wreath is a fairly recent tradition in church history. The first Advent Wreath was invented by a German pastor back in 1839. He made it out of an old wheel cart he had lying around. It actually had twenty-eight candles – twenty-four small red candles around the rim interspersed with four larger white candles.
The pastor devised the wreath to satisfy the children at the mission school who would ask every day, “Is it Christmas yet?” And so they would light a new candle each day to help them count the days until Christmas. The larger candles were lit on Sundays and the smaller candles on the days in between.
As the tradition spread the smaller candles were discarded in favor of a wreath with just the four larger candles and a fifth candle in the center. Many families and churches continue to use some form of Advent Calendar to help count off the days until Christmas. The four outside candles are lit on each successive Sunday of Advent while the center candle is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. There are various interpretations of the candles but the most common scheme is where the first candle represents hope, the second candle peace, the third candle joy and the fourth candle love. The fifth and center candle, of course, represents Christ who should be the center of our lives.
Even though the Advent Wreath is a fairly new tradition in church history, these themes of hope, peace, joy and love stretch all the way back to the first Christmas and beyond. They are deeply rooted in Scripture, and so it is very appropriate that we take some time this Advent season to reflect on these various themes in light of Scripture and the Christmas story.
The first candle represents hope, and so today we will look at how hope in Christ relates to Advent and Christmas and to our own lives today. We will be looking at a variety of Scriptures throughout the message, but we will begin with this passage of hope fulfilled from Matthew 1 verses 22 and 23.
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
The first Advent candle represents hope. Hope is an important theme relating to Christmas, and especially relating to the Advent season leading up to Christmas. Our world is in desperate need of hope. Many people today live without hope or have given up hope. But Christ came at Christmas to bring you hope, and that is what we want to see in the Scriptures this morning.
We are going to look at three aspects of hope this morning relating to Christ and Christmas.
1) Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting.
2) Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. And
3) Hope in Christ does not disappoint.
First, Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting
First of all, hope in Christ gets you through the waiting. The Advent season is all about waiting. It’s a time when we remember the long period of waiting that preceded the first coming of Christ, and also a time when we reflect on our own season of waiting for the second coming of Christ.
That first period of waiting stretched all the way from Genesis to Matthew, from Adam and Eve to Joseph and Mary, from the Garden of Eden to the manger of Bethlehem.
The first signal of hope during that long period of waiting came shortly after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Adam and Eve both disobeyed this command from God, bringing death not only upon themselves but upon the entire human race to come.
When God appeared in the garden pronouncing judgment on the serpent, the woman and the man, all seemed bleak – except for a word of hope tucked away in God’s judgment upon the serpent. God told the serpent in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The serpent and his offspring represent Satan and all who follow in Satan’s path. The woman and her offspring represent Eve and all those who love and follow God. And indeed there has been enmity between Satan and those who follow God ever since the garden.
And yet even in this word of judgment there was a beacon of hope for the people of God. Because even though the woman’s offspring at first seems to represent many descendants of Eve, Genesis 3:15 focuses on one specific individual descended from Eve who will triumph over Satan and the evil he has brought on mankind. Satan will strike his heel, but this special individual will crush Satan’s head, bringing an end to Satan’s rule of misery over humanity.
These signals of hope in the form of prophecies continued throughout the Old Testament period. In Genesis 12:2-3 God called Abraham and promised him: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God fulfilled this promise by bringing the nation of Israel out of Abraham, and through the nation of Israel, God continued to give promises about this special individual who would bring blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Through the long years of waiting the prophecies became more and more specific focusing on the Messiah who would come as prophet, priest and king to rescue his people.
Around the year 700 B.C. we come to the prophet Isaiah who told the King of Judah in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” This was the clearest prophecy yet that the promised offspring would come and deliver his people.
There were still many centuries of waiting to come, but these prophecies and others like them continued to give the people hope. These were long and difficult days for the people of Israel, and yet their hope in the Messiah, the Christ to come, helped them through the waiting.
And it’s the same for us today. We all go through periods of waiting in our lives, and we need hope to get us through the waiting. Waiting is never easy, and whatever you are waiting on today, I want you to know there is hope in Christ. Whether you are waiting on God’s direction or a job offer or an answer to prayer or a response from someone you love – whatever you are waiting for this morning, there is hope in Christ, and the candle of hope reminds us that hope in Christ will get you through the waiting.
Second, Hope in Christ helps you go the distance
Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting, and hope in Christ helps you go the distance. An important part of the Christmas story has to do with the Magi who traveled to see Jesus some time after he was born. The Magi were pagan magicians or astrologers who studied the stars and interpreted dreams. We find early instances of Magi in the book of Exodus with Moses in Egypt and then again in the book of Daniel. We are not told how many Magi visited Jesus, but later traditions speak of either twelve or three.
We read about the Magi in Matthew 2: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and in Mathew 2:1-2 we find them asking, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
The Magi are important for a number of reasons. They were a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy which spoke about nations and kings coming to Zion to worship the Lord found in Isaiah 60:3. Their coming to Christ was a foreshadowing of the gospel going out to the Gentiles and far away nations found in Matthew 28:19. And, the gifts they brought for Christ were gifts fit for a king, befitting the birth of Jesus who is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
But what I want us to focus on this morning is the distance they came to see Christ. Matthew tells us that they came from the east, so they were most likely from Babylon or Persia. Either way they had to travel a great distance, perhaps as many as one thousand miles, over difficult and dangerous terrain in order to come and see Christ. What would prompt them to make such a journey?
And the answer once again comes back to hope. They asked Herod, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:1-2)
Now you might wonder how they would connect this star with the birth of the Messiah. As Magi they would have been very interested in stars and prophecies, and of course they would have access to the Old Testament Scriptures because of the Jews who had been exiled there centuries before. Perhaps they focused on the prophecy of Numbers 24:17 which said: “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”
This prophecy connected a star with a scepter or king of Israel.
But, however they knew, the star signaled to them that the Messiah – the Christ – had been born, and it was this hope in Christ that helped them go the distance to worship the newborn king in Israel.
It is hope in Christ that helps us go the distance in life, too. We all go through trials in life, and it’s easy to get discouraged. That’s when it’s so important to remember that God is with you, that God will help you, that God has a purpose for you in your trials, and most important of all, that eternal glory awaits you in heaven.
As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Therefore we do not lose heart…. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” How did Paul keep going when the going got tough? He had hope for the future, and hope in Christ helps you go the distance.
Third, Hope in Christ does not disappoint
1) Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting.
2) Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. And
3) Hope in Christ does not disappoint.
As Romans 5:5 tells us: “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
The Christmas story is full of shining examples of people who put their hope in Christ and were not disappointed. We have already looked at the Magi who traveled such a great distance to see Christ. Imagine if they went all that distance and Jesus wasn’t even there. That would have been disappointing! But their hope was not disappointed. They found Christ in Bethlehem, just as it had been prophesied.
There are so many other examples as well. Remember that prophecy from Isaiah about the virgin who would give birth to a son? That prophecy was fulfilled when the virgin Mary gave birth to Christ that first Christmas evening. We read in the gospel of Matthew: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:22-23)
How about Mary? Mary was told by the angel that she would give birth to the Savior. Every pregnancy is a time of waiting and expectation and hope, and in this respect Mary’s pregnancy was no different. And so we read in Luke 2:5-7, “[Joseph went to Bethlehem] to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
Mary had hopes for that baby when the baby was born and she held that newborn infant in her arms and wrapped him in the cloths and laid him in the manger. Mary’s hope in Christ was not disappointed.
And then there is Simeon, a man from Jerusalem who was waiting for the Messiah to come. We read in Luke 2:25-32, “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
God told Simeon he would see the Messiah before he died. And at the precise moment that Joseph and Mary were bringing Jesus into the temple, the Spirit moved Simeon to go into the temple, too. Simeon put his hope in Christ, and he was not disappointed.
And then there is the prophetess Anna. We read about her in Luke 2:36-38, “There was also a prophetess, Anna…. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Anna lost her husband probably when she was still young, and she lived many years as a widow, but she put all her hope in God, and her hope was not disappointed. She also saw Christ in the temple.
And then remember that Advent season is not just about those who waited for Christ’s first coming, It is also about us who wait for Christ’s second coming. When Christ returns he will banish all evil, he will make all things right, he will restore the earth, we will see Christ face to face, and all our hopes will be fulfilled.
As we read in Romans 8:23-25: “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
When you put your hope in Christ, you will not be disappointed. As Romans 10:11 says: “Anyone who trusts (puts their hope) in him will never be put to shame.” If you put your trust in other things, they will disappoint you – whether you put your trust in people, or in possessions, or in future plans you have made – other things will disappoint you, but not Christ. Jesus will never disappoint you. Hope in Christ does not disappoint.
I’ll close with this thought: The Christmas season is a wonderful season for so many reasons, but one of the most important reasons is the hope that Christ brings to a lost world. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That means he came to save you and to save me. Jesus was born into this world at Christmas so that he could grow to be a man and die on the cross for your sins and mine.
So if you are discouraged this morning – if you are tired of waiting, if you feel like giving up, if you’ve faced too many disappointments in life – then let me point you to Christ and the hope that is found in him alone.
Hope in Christ gets you through the waiting. Hope in Christ helps you go the distance. Hope in Christ does not disappoint. Put your hope in Christ today and every day.