I’m going to introduce a few interesting billboards that I saw recently, but before I do, I want to point out that the mark of a good billboard/sign is that– 1) It should catch your attention and 2) It should give you a clear message.
In progression I showed a billboard from KitKat candy that had the hand of God come down from the sky; a bi-plane looking like it’s broken through the top of billboard; a seatbelt ad that has a man imbedded in the sign (he obviously wasn't wearing a seatbelt); a fitness billboard that has a fat man on the edge being so heavy that the sign tilts; a fishing tackle advertising a “minnow” with the words “Obiwan minnoba”; a sign from the Submarine Museum of Alberta Canada featuring a periscope running up from the ground to the top of the sign; a creative warning on another billboard about tailgating; and a sign from a College of the Arts that declares “This Is A Sign”.
Let me repeat: the mark of a good sign us that–it should catch your attention and it should give you a clear message. Our text today has a message that’s almost exactly like that last Billboard we showed: “THIS IS A SIGN!” The angel said… “And this will be A SIGN for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:12
There was something about the Savior being wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger that catches our attention and gives us a CLEAR MESSAGE of what God wants us to know about Jesus.
But first, we need to point out the importance of that word “Savior.” The Angel said “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOR, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) The SIGN that the angel spoke of, pointed to THE SAVIOR.
So, what does it mean that Jesus is our Savior? Well, Jesus came to save us from our sins. When the angel appeared to Joseph, he declared that Mary would have a son and “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Jesus Himself said “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32
When someone dies, folks will often say “they’ve gone to a much better place.” Or they’ll say “I hope they Rest In Peace.” But if that person died without Jesus, the place they’re going won’t be a “better place/heaven.
Our sins would rob us of heaven. It wouldn’t matter how nice we’ve been, without Jesus we wouldn’t rest in peace
Romans 5:8-10 explains how important this is: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
You see, this isn’t about God choosing to send people to hell, because everybody deserves to go to hell anyway. Ephesians 2:3 says that before we became Christians “(We) were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Someone once noted: “If you don’t follow Jesus, you’re not going to go where He went.”
So, we need to realize how important Jesus is to us. If we could go to heaven without Jesus, then Jesus didn’t have to die. And the announcement by the angel that Jesus was born to save His people from their sins … is a lie. If Jesus didn’t really come to save us from our sins, and we could do it all by ourselves, and we didn’t need His help - it was ALL a lie!
But it wasn’t a lie.
Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was literally… a matter of “life and death” - OUR life, OUR death… the eternal kind. We needed Jesus to be our Savior for, without Him, there would be no hope!
So, what is this about THE SIGN of Savior in Swaddling Clothes? What is it about this sign that God wanted us to understand?
Well the focus of the SIGN was “you will find a baby.” When we think of God, babies aren’t the first things to come to mind. Babies are cute, and innocent, and … comforting. But God doesn’t often come off that way in Scripture.
In Exodus 19:16-19 we’re told about the Israelites gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.”
THEN SCRIPTURE SAYS
“So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’” Hebrews 12:21
There’s something about being in the presence of a Holy God… that’s intimidating.
If, instead of being born as a baby in a manger, God had stepped down out of heaven with all His majesty and power, and appeared to them as the Almighty God, they’d have scattered in fear. God in His glory, would not have been approachable.
But babies… babies are different. The only fear people have of babies is that might drop them. They’re so fragile, and easily hurt that a lot of people handle them gently and feel a need to be protective of them.
And when a baby is born it seems like EVERYBODY wants to see them. In the story about the shepherds in the field, when the angels appear to them the shepherds are terrified. But after the angel tells them about the baby in the manger, the shepherds say “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” Luke 2:15
The shepherds might fear an angel… but not a baby! Babies are approachable. And this was a baby they just had to see. And that’s the first thing God WANTED US to see in the sign of the Savior Jesus came to be approachable.
One of the most famous verses in Scripture is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” But people often overlooked the next verse: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17
Jesus didn’t come down in power and might. He came as a gentle and fragile child. As God in the flesh (PAUSE) so that we’d know He meant us no harm.
Secondly, Jesus was a baby wrapped in… swaddling… clothes. Have I ever told you I have a new grand-daughter Luella? I was a little surprised the first time my daughter Naomi talked about having Luella in a swaddling garment.
ILLUS: For those of you not familiar with this type of thing – this (I showed a picture on the screen) is a “Swaddle Magic Blanket” sold by “swaddlemagic.com” for $45. I never realized this was a REAL thing! And I had no idea that mothers would use them today. And, not only did I NOT realize this was a real thing these days, I had no idea WHY mothers would use them. So I looked it up.
ILLUS: Swaddling protects your baby against their natural startle reflex, which means better sleep for the mother and child. It helps the baby sleep longer and better. And it helps prevent SIDS by keeping the baby on his back while he sleeps. (https://intermountainhealthcare.org) A blanket… wrapped snuggly… around your baby's body can resemble the mother's womb and help soothe your newborn baby. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that when done correctly, swaddling can be an effective technique to help calm infants and promote sleep.
Now, isn’t that nice?
But, why would JESUS need swaddling clothes? Jesus was God in the flesh. You wouldn’t think He’d have a “startle reflex”, or be in danger of SIDS, or even need any help sleeping. HE’S GOD!!!!
But what I found interesting is that the angel said: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in SWADDLING clothes and lying in a manger.” But the angel could have just as easily said: You’ll find a baby in a manger (that’s a feeding trough). He could have left out the swaddling thing. I mean, it’s not like there’s too many babies lying in feeding troughs in Bethlehem. But the angel tells us that that’s part of the sign … swaddling clothes.
But Why? Why would THAT be a mark of Jesus as our Savior?
Well, because EVEN at His birth, Jesus was just like us. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death.” And Philippians 2:6-8 tells us that “though (Jesus) was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Jesus became MORTAL (just like us) even when he was a baby.
But why did He have to become mortal? He became mortal so that He could die on the cross and destroy the power of death.
You see, all of us have sinned… and the price of our sin is death. Romans 6:23 tells us “The wages of sin is death.” OUR death! UNLESS someone else would take our place. But the problem is, no one else could take our place in death because everybody has sin in their lives. They’d need someone to die for them!!!
NOBODY would be able to be the type of sinless sacrifice we’d need, unless GOD were to die for us. But, by definition, God can’t die - unless, He were to become mortal just like us.
And that’s what this sign was all about: Jesus was God in the flesh, born to become mortal, born to die for you … and me. Mortal even as a child wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Now, that leads me to one last thought. Jesus came to die. And when He died, He was buried in a borrowed tomb, a lot like this one (we showed a pic of a Jewish tomb that revealed stone slabs for bodies to be laid). It almost looks like a small cave – carved out of stone. And along the back wall there are stone slabs where the dead body would be laid.
BUT, how does that apply to the manger? Well, when you sent me to Israel a few years back I discovered that many scholars are convinced they know where Jesus was born. And it wasn’t in a wooden barn. It was a cave which is now called the Cave of the Nativity. And many of scholars are ALSO convinced that Jesus was NOT placed in a wooden feeding trough. His manger probably looked more like this (we showed a pic of a stone “manger.”
One writer noted that: “The place where Jesus was born was probably… a cave for keeping animals, especially sheep, and in this cave would have been a carved out stone for watering them, and this watering trough was called a manger. Baby Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a stone watering trough for his bed. For those who first heard these stories and knew the culture, this would sound eerily like the tomb in which he was placed in death!” (Phil Ware, 12/18/11, heartlight.org)
Think about it.
* When the buried Jesus, the wrapped His body in linen
* When Jesus was born, His body was wrapped in swaddling clothes
* When Jesus was buried, they placed His body in a cave-like tomb.
* When Jesus was born, many believe it was probably in a cave
* When Jesus was buried, they placed His body on a stone slab.
And when Jesus was born, Mary probably placed His body in a stone slab that had been chisled out to care for the cattle and sheep.
In other words, everything about the Savior, wrapped in Swaddling Clothes and laid in a manger - pointed to what Jesus came to do for us. And ultimately it pointed to a savior who had to die, and be buried in a borrowed tomb, on a stone slab that looked a lot like the stone manger He was laid in as a baby.
CLOSE: But, here’s the deal… you don’t have to know all that in order for Jesus to change your life.
ILLUS: One of our missionaries, Gene Dulin, told of standing in front of store-front in Austria, looking at a hand carved nativity scene. The figures were a bit larger than life size and was one of the most beautiful that he had ever seen. As he stood thinking about the meaning of the nativity, a grandmother stopped with her 3 year old grandchild. She stooped over and began talking with the child. She pointed to Mary, then to Joseph, and to the baby. And Dulin said he couldn’t understand her language, but he knew she was telling the story of Jesus to her grandchild. Gene Dulin then stated: “For 2000 years parents and grandparents have passed on the story of Jesus. It has changed millions of lives and the whole world.”
That’s what the sign of the baby was all about.
INVITATION
