A Christmas Promise Series

A Christmas Promise

Luke 1:1-20

December 1997

Introduction

I. A Christmas Wish

A. The wish is made

This past week there was a wonderful Christmas movie on called a Christmas Wish. It is the story of a grandson who returns home to temporarily run the family real estate business after his grandfather’s death. The grandson was raised by his grandparents after his mother and father were killed in a car accident. At the Thanksgiving celebration, the grandmother has a request and it is the only gift that she will accept for Christmas. The grandfather kept journals for many, many years and there is a woman mentioned in the journal. Her name was Lillian and the grandmother did not know who she was and asked the grandson to find Lillian.

B. The search begins

The grandson reluctantly agrees to search for Lillian and begins the search. As he asks old friends and business associates about this mystery woman; the response was always the same, no one knew Lillian. The harder the grandson searched the more difficult the search become. Until he discovered a Christmas tradition that his grandfather would always keep. The grandfather would go to visit a nursing facility every Christmas eve.

C. Lillian is found

An administrator tells the grandson about his grandfather and his visits to Lillian at Christmas. Lillian had been a long term resident in the home and the grandfather had come to see her every year. The grandson asked what had caused her to become a resident. Lillian had been in the home since she has been in a car accident that killed a young couple; the grandson’s parents. The reality was that Lillian was lost, alone and dying all because of one careless act

II. God has a Lillian as well

A. Lillian is a lot like us

There are a great deal of similarities between Lillian and our world. You see we have been alone. We have been lost. We have been suffering and we are in the process of dying. Every person suffers in this life and many times our suffering seems senseless and without reason. There is a reason for our suffering and like Lillian, it started with a careless act. God created our world in a perfect way but it did not and could not remain that way because of the disobedience of Adam. It was the fall of humanity that brought suffering into the world.

B. God made a Christmas promise

God saw the rift that was created by the fall of Adam. God knew the rift had to be healed and so He would heal the damage Himself. He would give the opportunity for humanity to have a right relationship with Him once again. God had the desire to see Himself reunited with His wayward people. God made a promise to send a Messiah to deliver humanity.

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I. Enter God in flesh

A. The grand entrance

We would expect for God to enter the world in a grand and glorious fashion. After all he does do great and miraculous things. It was God who parted the Red Sea and led His people by pillars of smoke and fire. It was God who revealed His glory to Moses and had to place Moses a protective position. We can honestly say that when God does something He makes it known to his people.

God came in flesh by the way of the manger. The one and only, all knowing, all powerful and ever present God came to earth in flesh and was born of a woman. The King of kings and Lord of lords was placed in a manger.

B. The entrance that fooled many

God did not come into the world to reveal what he looked like. Jesus came to reveal the love of God to a dying world. Jesus came to reveal the mercy of God by leaving His glory and coming to earth. Jesus revealed the grace of God by dying in our place.

II. Why do we need God?

A. Why did we need God to enter the world?

God’s desire was to restore the broken relationship between Himself and humanity but we could not accomplish that on own. The simple fact of the matter is that we needed help and the only one who could help us was God Himself.

Jesus came to fulfill the promise of God to deliver his people. Jesus was the completion of the divine plan to bring humanity back into relationship with God and to bring the needed atonement for the fall of Adam.

B. Our need demanded that God send Christ

The existence of sin has placed us in bondage and it is a bondage that we ourselves cannot break. Sin has leveled upon us a debt that we cannot pay. The manger serves as a reminder of exactly how much God loves each and every one of us. The manger is a reminder of our need and what God did to cancel the debt we owed.