Christmas - The Christmas Continuum Series

THE CHRISMTAS CONTINUUM

How Christmas Lives On

12-18-11

Pastor Dan Little

adfontes.djl@gmail.com

The Christmas Continuum

There are two passages among the many verses we have read from Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus that I want to highlight on this Christmas morning.

First verses 10 & 11

Here the angel is announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Luke 2:10 "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ESV

UNTO YOU A SAVIOR HAS BEEN BORN.

Which is to say this child is will be every bit human, but He will not born from your human efforts. He is born unto you entirely by the will and plan of God.

Second passage is found in verses 29-32

The old priest and prophet Simeon took one look at Jesus and said;; Luke 2:29 "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." ESV

I HAVE SEEN YOUR SALVATION.

Christ is God, and as King and Lord God has mightily manifested his intolerance of sin. Not by destroying sinners, but in a way we would have predicted—in a way that Paul describes as

The mystery of God’s will Ephesians 1:9 ESV.

God in the human Jesus has assumed our dishonor and empty headed pride in himself in order to destroy its false claim on humankind.

What does that mean? It means that God in His mercy has embraced us at our worst. The immortal has become mortal in order to give us his immortality.

Perfectly Holy Jesus has taken our sinful life to its embarrassing and ignoble end and given us a new beginning—eternal life with the Father.

• We are not suffocating under God’s angry foot trying to appease Him.

• We are not trying to rise above our need of God by means of technology, or even by means of just using godly principles while ignoring any relationship with God.

• We are not seeing God as a means to get everything we want.

• We are not seeing ourselves as people who have to give God everything He wants as to earn a high place in heaven.

• We are in Christ who was raised from the death of sin to become our salvation. We are living in a flood of filth and sin and brokenness, a cesspool of decay, but we are in Christ as surely as Noah and his family was in the ark which bore them safely through the flood.

We are raised with Christ healed and whole, and God is sharing his glorious life with us!

Simeon said, Lord, I have seen YOUR SALVATION

Jesus was not one of many candidates of whom a committee of men finally said “This one will do. Let’s groom him for the Messiah job.”

He was not someone’s idea about a new religion. If your eyes have been opened to see Jesus you are looking directly into the face of God, directly into His love and provision—into the very source of your salvation.

Jesus is God’s salvation come from heaven, God’s plan A there is no plan B.

Jesus was born with work that was his to do.

• Jesus’ first work was to be an obedient and loving son to Mary and Joseph. (see Luke 2:51)

• Then it was to learn from Joseph the carpentry trade.

• Then there came a moment in time when the greatest prophet ever to live pointed Jesus out in a crowd and said; This is God’s Lamb, he said. He will to remove take away sin.

At Jesus’ request John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the same water where people were seremonially washing away their sinful practices. Jesus waded fright into that water, and as He was immersed in the broken lives of repenting men and women He was also immersed in the Holy Spirit who came down upon Jesus in a visible form in order to empower and equip Him for the work He was to do for the rest of His life—work that would finally take Him to the cross, the grave, the resurrection and His ascension.

To Jesus God spoke from the heavens saying YOU are my beloved Son

To the people who saw His baptims God spoke from the heavens saying THIS is my beloved Son

It is not enough that Jesus be assured of His true identity. We also must be assured of His identity if we are to follow Him.