The Saviour Is Born For Us

Theme: The Saviour is born for us

Text: Is. 62:6-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke. 2:8-20

On this very important evening we have gathered here to join many other people all over the world to remember and celebrate God’s most important and greatest gift to us. On this special evening our hearts should be filled with unspeakable joy and thanksgiving. If the angels could rejoice singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favour rests” how about us? We are the ones whom God has favoured; we are the beneficiaries of this great indescribable gift. It is an indescribable gift as it embraces and meets every human need. It is God’s gift of His Son Jesus Christ; a gift too wonderful for words. It is God’s gift of salvation for the whole world. Jesus Christ was born to save us, to reconcile us to the Father, and to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of light. He was born to deal with all the consequences of sin, heal us and make us whole to restore our fellowship with God and with one another. For Jesus Christ to be our Saviour meant that He had to leave His throne in glory and come to earth as a man. He was ready to give up all the splendour of His heavenly dwelling place for a place here on earth. He as God was ready to do for us what we are not ready to do for our fellow human beings. Just think about moving and almost all of us have moved during our life. Some people move when they get married and others move because of their jobs or when they find better houses even if it is in the same neighbourhood. But most frequently people move when they build their own houses. Sometimes people also move because they can no longer afford the cost and need a cheaper place. Unfortunately there are many people today without homes. We pass by them everyday on the streets and it has become such a common sight that we are no longer concerned about their plight. Would you give up your home to live under the conditions these people live under just to help them? This was what God did. God left His home and came to live among us. He took on flesh and became one of us.

God had to become one of us because we needed a Saviour. When God created man he was a perfect being and it was God’s intention for him to stay that way. But God gave man, created in His own image, a free will to make his own decisions. He was placed in a perfect environment called the Garden of Eden and given only one commandment to obey - not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam, the father of us all, chose to disobey that one commandment and through Eve, he rebelled and sinned against God. By choosing to depend on themselves was to reject the sovereignty and authority of God and God gave them the independence they wanted; an independence that separated them from their source of life. They, not God, were the cause of the separation. Their sin not only affected themselves, but it affected the world and even the whole Universe. Yet God promised salvation, deliverance and the restoration of true peace. God in the moment of man’s failure, promised a Saviour. He promised one who would undo the effects of sin and restore peace with God.

Christ came into the world for the salvation of all mankind. How amazed the angels must have been when they saw the Creator born as a creature, the Word coming as a speechless baby, completely dependent on others so that man could be reconciled to God? As the Lamb of God He was born in a stable and the first ones to hear the news were shepherds in the field. Perhaps these shepherds were caring for the flocks that would provide the sacrifices for the temple services and it was their duty to inspect the sacrificial lambs and make sure they were without blemish. The Lamb of God, born of the Virgin Mary, was without blemish, the perfect sacrifice for the salvation of the world. Our reconciliation with God is the basis of our peace. The Jewish word for peace, shalom, means well-being, health, prosperity, security, soundness and completeness. Shalom was what the people needed as life was difficult at that time just as it is today. Taxes and unemployment were high, morals were deteriorating and they were under foreign occupation. Roman law, Greek philosophy and even Jewish religion could not meet the needs of men’s hearts. So God sent His Son, the only one who could meet that need. Jesus gave up eternity to come to a hostile earth so that we could be reconciled to God and experience peace. As we celebrate Christmas have we been reconciled to God? Have we invited Christ into our hearts? Today is a day of great joy. Let us welcome Jesus Christ, our Saviour, into our hearts and into our lives.