SERMONIC / WORSHIP THEME
Opening Statement: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . .”
So begins Charles Dicken’s classic work, A Tale of Two Cities. The French revolution had brought the worst of times and the best of times to both France and England. Dicken’s words were truly descriptive of the mood of the world. But these words can also be spoken about our time. There is so much to be gloomy about.
Illustration: I was in one of my melancholy moods last week while driving on Rt. 48. If our American civilization experience is consistent with all other civilizations, there will come a day when another civilization will be conducting excavations in what used to be known as America. If our life experience is consistent with the life experience of millions of others, there will come a day when death will wrap its arms around us in a grasp that we cannot escape from. If our sun is consistent with all other stars, there will come a day when it will burn out and our solar system will be driven into a deep freeze where life can no longer be sustained.
Transition: How do I shake off this atmosphere of gloom?
Explanation: Christmas. Not the kind that we’re used to here in America. A Californian doctor has given a health warning about the stress it causes! The Christmas Season is marked by more emotional stress and more acts of violence than any other season of the year! Christmas is an excuse to get drunk, have a party, spend money, over eat, and all kinds of other excesses. The kind of Christmas we need is a God-kind-of-Christmas. You see, into this gloomy world, filled with hopelessness and despair, God sent a baby. When God really wants to get a message through, a message that will penetrate the hopelessness and gloom of humanity, He wraps it up in a person. I like to call this person "Christmas Hope."
Explanation: Realizing that we did not have the power to defeat death; realizing that human civilization eventually would self-destruct due to man’s sinfulness; realizing that science and the natural universe would eventually terminate life, as we know it; and realizing that we were separated from our Creator with no moral or spiritual power to be restored to Him, God sent to us "Christmas Hope." And, surprising enough, he cried. He grew. He laughed. He listened to our stories. He lived in our towns. He ate what we ate. He got to know us. He discovered our fear of death and he wept with us as we buried our loved ones. He saw the beautiful world that we live in, as well as the temporal, passing nature of the world in which we live. And into this hopelessness and uncertainty, a light shined on planet earth.
Title: Christmas Hope
SERMON
Text: Isaiah 9:1,2; Matthew 4:12-16
Exposition: Isaiah 9 is a strong Messianic passage. Isaiah wrote about a day that would come when a child would be given to Israel (9:6) and his name would be Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Even though Israel was going into Assyrian captivity, Isaiah promised that a Messiah would eventually rule on David’s throne.
Isaiah 9:1 The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. In earlier times he humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali;
Comment: Zebulun and Naphtali were sons of Jacob. They along with the other sons of Jacob were allotted land in Israel during the time of Joshua’s conquest of the land. The statement probably alludes to the Assyrian conquest of Israel in ca. 734-733 BC when Tiglath-pileser III annexed much of Israel’s territory and reduced Samaria to a puppet state.
but now he brings honor to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. [Prophetic Perfect: past tense of future events] 9:2 The people walking in darkness see a bright light; light shines on those who live in a land of deep darkness.
Comment: This particular region was blessed on one hand with a major travel route that ran through it. This brought commerce and economical blessings. However, it was also a land of much blood shed and war. The geography of the land would allow armies to travel through this area easily, and so those who lived there, lived in the shadow of uncertainty, mainly because of a travel route that would accommodate rogue nations.
Illustration: I understand that one of the initial reasons why our vast interstate system in America was built was for security and military purposes. It would allow us to move equipment quickly in a time of war or crisis. This was similar to what other nations thought about this area.
Explanation: The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali was home to the “I-74” of the Middle East. Consequently, vast military machines from Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia moved through this area to position themselves to conquer their world. And, unfortunately, this meant a great deal of heartache for the residents of this region for many years. Civilization in this area was always on the brink of destruction. Death was close by. Darkness hung over the region. But Matthew recognized that a new day had dawned for this entire region in the person of Jesus. In the place where pain and suffering were first inflicted upon God’s people (Assyrian Captivity), this same place is the location where Jesus officially began his public ministry and thus transformed this gloomy area into the most exciting thing the world has ever seen. God came to live in our darkness! Fresh from his baptism and temptation, Matthew wrote this about Jesus in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:
Matthew 4:12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been imprisoned, he went into Galilee. 4:13 While in Galilee, he moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 4:14 so that what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled: 4:15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 4:16 the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and on those sitting in the region and the shadow of death a light has dawned. 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach this message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Comment: This passage and the Isaiah passage are all about reversal. Christmas is all about reversal. Christmas is about taking our places of discouragement, our places in life where our sin has stung us the most severely, and letting Christmas Hope move in to that very spot and live in our neighborhood of deepest failure. When Christmas Hope moves into our places of pain, darkness is overcome by Light! Uncertainty is overcome by stability! The prospect of death is defeated by Life! Devastation gives way to glory and honor. An atmosphere of gloom dissipates with Light that has come flooding in. This is Christmas Hope! Humanity has experienced reversal! Jesus moved into our neighborhood. We have been located and delivered from our despair and sin.
Application: What about you? What about this Christmas Hope and your life? It’s time for reversal. This atmosphere of gloom must end. As soon as Jesus got to our place and region of pain he said to “Repent. Change your mind about the way you’re living, what and who you believe in, and the role that the Savior will have in your life.” This is the beginning of Christmas Hope!
CONCLUSION
Illustration: John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago writes about a student named Tommy in his Theology of Faith class:
Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university
students file into the classroom for our first session
in the Theology of Faith. That was the day I first saw
Tommy. His hair hung six inches below his
shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy
with hair that long.
Tommy turned out to be the "atheist in residence" in my
Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to,
smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an
unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each
other in relative peace for one semester, although I
admit he was, for me at times, a serious pain in the
back pew. When he came up at the end of the course to
turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical
tone, "Do you think I’ll ever find God?" I decided instantly
on a little shock therapy. "No!" I said very emphatically.
"Oh," he responded, "I thought that was the product
you were pushing."
I let him get five steps from the classroom door, then
called out, "Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find Him,
but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!"
He shrugged a little and left my class and my life. Later
I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful.
Then a sad report came. I heard Tommy had terminal
cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see
me. When he walked into my office, his body was very
badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as
a result of chemotherapy, but his eyes were bright,
and his voice was firm.
"Tommy, I’ve thought about you so often. I hear you
are sick," I blurted out.
"Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs.
It’s a matter of weeks."
"Can you talk about it, Tom?" I asked.
"Sure, what would you like to know?" he replied.
"What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?"
"Well, it could be worse."
"Like what?"
"Well, like being fifty and having no values or
ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze,
seducing women, and making money are the real
’biggies’ in life."
"But what I really came to see you about," Tom
said, "is something you said to me on the last
day of class." "I asked you if you thought I would ever
find God, and you said, ’No!’ which surprised me. Then you
said, ’But He will find you.’ I thought about
that a lot, even though my search for God was
hardly intense at that time.
"But when the doctors removed a lump from my
groin and told me that it was malignant, that’s
when I got serious about locating God. And when
the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I
really began banging fists against the bronze doors of heaven,
but God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened.
Well, one day I woke up, and instead
of throwing a few more futile appeals over that
high brick wall to a God who may or may not be there,
I just quit. I decided that I didn’t really care
about God, about an afterlife, or anything like that.
"I decided to spend what time I had left doing
something more profitable. I thought about you and
your class and I remembered something else you had
said: ’The essential sadness is to go through life
without loving. But it would be almost equally sad
to go through life and leave this world without ever
telling those you loved that you had loved them.’ So,
I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading
the newspaper when I approached him."
"Dad."
"Yes, what?" he asked without lowering the newspaper.
"Dad, I would like to talk with you."
"Well, talk."
"I mean . . . it’s really important."
The newspaper came down three slow inches. "What is
it?"
"Dad, I love you. I just wanted you to know that."
"The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father
did two things I could never remember him ever doing
before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked all night,
even though he had to go to work the next morning. It
felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears,
to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me."
"It was easier with my mother and little brother.
They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other,
and started saying real nice things to each other.
We shared the things we had been keeping secret
for so many years. I was only sorry about one
thing-that I had waited so long. Here I was,
just beginning to open up to all the people I had
actually been close to."
"Then, one day, I turned around and God was there.
He found me. You were right. He found me even after
I stopped looking for Him."
Application: When we had stopped looking for God, God found us at Christmas. That is Christmas Hope.
