Christmas Brings... Series

Christmas brings… Love

Luke 2:1-20

Prayer-

Introduction-

A big thank you to Mandy and Aaron for sharing this morning.

We have come to the last Sunday of Advent and Tomorrow we will see Christmas Eve come in wither we are ready or not. We have tried to look at Christmas with fresh eyes and an open heart, to see hope, joy, peace and love that comes from Christmas.

You cannot have Christmas without Christ. It would just be mass chaos.

The Christmas story tells us of great love that God the Father had for us in sending His Son Jesus here for us.

If Jesus never came, He could have never went to the cross, and if He never went to the cross, we could not experience salvation or the redemption of our sins. You cannot have one without the other.

The plan of Almighty God and the love that He has for us cannot be put into just words, it was shown by His actions.

Paul Trip says

“Allow yourself to be confronted by the Christmas story’s message of desperate need. It is the only explanation of why Jesus had to come.”

Love came down from heaven for you and I

The plan of God was to use a willing Mary and Joseph.

To be in Bethlehem for the census, to experience no room in the inn, To the angels appearing before the shepherds.

All God’s love and His plan of redemption.

If you think that was a coincidence, then you probably believe that we evolved by freak chance of evolution instead of creation by an all powerful God.

God’s plan played out to shepherds- God what were you thinking?

The lowest on the food chain of the time.

The ones that the religious hated because they were unclean to even step foot into the great temples.

He chooses them, “those people” to show the greatness of God coming to earth.

For them to be able to be in their fields when all heaven breaks out is song and praise for the coming King!

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

The highest heaven! Heavenly angels begin praising God for putting His plan in action! And the favor of God rested on the shepherds- ones the world despised, the unlikely choice by the well to do! The peasants by the worlds standard had found favor with God!

What did the shepherds do once they experienced these things with God?

Where life suddenly changed and they had to respond one way or another

Let’s go see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

They hurried off and found baby Jesus!

They found the baby lying in a manger just like the angels said- and they worshiped Him! They experienced Him for themselves.

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child.”

They found Jesus and they spread the good news!

You will never be able to say you don’t know what to do with Jesus or I do not know what my purpose is- share the good news!

Experience the love of God and go tell it on the mountains that Jesus Christ is Lord!

They were never the same again! You cannot experience God and be the same! His love is unending and all powerful!

Illustration

Preacher Francis Chan was doing a wedding for a couple in his church. The bride had lost her husband to death and was left with a 26 year old child that had the mental capacity of a 6 year old to raise by herself. She was self conscious that any man would want her with the special needs of her daughter. She could not believe that it was about to happen. The preacher went through all the vows and rings and before he pronounced them husband and wife, the groom asked the daughter to come up that he had a ring for her too. In this marriage, he was pledging himself to her also. The little girl could not believe it, she just kept saying I love you, I love you! There was not a dry eye in the place! Francis Chan said after getting composure that that was the best illustration that he could ever experience showing the love of God. The bride confused that such a person would want them with all the challenges they have and the 26 year old mentally challenged girls expression of love for such a person to do that- to take them as they are and love them unconditionally! That is God’s love! We should be in awe that He loves us and expressing our lives back to Him. Not because we have too, but because we want to.