Sermon Central
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Faces At The Manger
Contributed by Isaac Butterworth on Dec 8, 2014 (message contributor)
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1. Christmas Interruptions: Joseph
Contributed on Dec 8, 2014
Christmas interrupts the unraveling of your life. Your fears, like Joseph’s, are unfounded, and for the same reason: The child in Mary’s womb!
You’ve got to see this first Christmas from Joseph’s point of view. I mean, his heart was full of anticipation over his recent engagement to Mary. His head was no doubt filled with images of what his life was going to be like, and he saw nothing but blue skies and smooth seas ahead. ...read more
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2. Christmas News: The Angels
Contributed on Dec 8, 2014
We need to be seized once more by heavenly realities – just as Zechariah was. We need to experience something like a shock to our smug certainties that whittle God down to a manageable size and leave us underwhelmed by the mysteries of eternity.
Angels have fallen on hard times these days. Hardly anyone thinks about them anymore…except at Christmas, of course. But even at that, people don’t much believe in them. Although…I knew a woman – a member of this church at one time: She told me that she had actually seen an ...read more
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3. Christmas Grace: The Shepherds
Contributed on Dec 15, 2014
This Child, this Christ, would be prophet, priest, and king -- showing God's way, ruling His people with compassion, and offering Himself as the sacrifice for their sins.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then the angel of the Lord stood before 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; for, see – I am ...read more
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4. Christmas Journeys: The Magi
Contributed on Dec 27, 2014
We ought to take our cue – not from Herod, who rejected God’s gift of Jesus – but from the wise men, who received it with glad and thankful hearts.
This is the last of our series on the theme of Faces at the Manger. We started with Joseph, remember, and we continued with the angels, the shepherds, and Mary, the mother of our Lord. And now we conclude with the wise men, or the magi, as they are sometimes called. Technically, they did not ...read more