Sundays: 9:00 AM Sunday School | 10:30 AM Worship Service

Watch Live

|

Contact

|

App

|

Sermon

The First Christmas

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
Matthew 1:18-25

Now Playing

Watch Video Save MP3
Reading Tools:

Aa

Auto Transcript

Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This passage from Matthew 1:18-25 reveals why the birth of Jesus is so wonderful after centuries of waiting. The arrival of the long-promised Savior is not merely a holiday tradition but the fulfillment of God’s ancient promise to rescue humanity from sin and death. Four truths about Jesus make Christmas truly worth celebrating: He is fully human, fully God, the promised King, and the Savior who saves His people from their sins.

Key Lessons:

  1. Jesus is both fully human and fully God — conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy of “Emmanuel, God with us.”
  2. Humanity’s rebellion against God from the very beginning left us guilty and unable to cover our own sin — no amount of good works, rituals, or religion can make us acceptable to God.
  3. God promised a Savior from the earliest moments after the fall, gradually revealing more details through the centuries until Jesus finally arrived at the perfect time.
  4. Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection accomplished everything needed for salvation — His perfect righteousness is credited to all who believe, and nothing can be added to His finished work.

Application: We are called to repent — turning from sin, self-rule, and self-righteous attempts to earn God’s favor — and to believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior. True faith will bear fruit in new obedience, desire for God’s Word, commitment to the church, and following Jesus for the rest of our lives.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why is it important that Jesus is both fully human and fully God, and how does each nature contribute to His ability to save us?
  2. In what ways do we still try to cover our guilt with “fig leaves” — our own good works, rituals, or self-justification — rather than trusting in Christ’s finished work?
  3. The angel said Jesus would save “His people” from their sins. How does understanding that we become part of Jesus’ people through repentance and faith change how we approach Christmas?

Scripture Focus: Matthew 1:18-25 reveals Jesus as fully human, fully God (Emmanuel), the Messianic King (son of David), and the Savior (Yeshua). Genesis 1-3 provides the backdrop of creation, the fall, and God’s first promise of a savior in Genesis 3:15. Isaiah 7:14 prophesies the virgin birth, and Mark 1:15 records Jesus’ own call to repent and believe.

Outline

Introduction

Let’s pray as we look to hear from God.

As we want to focus on this wonderful moment and event of history.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your son. I pray God that you would remove distractions from us now both externally and internally that we would focus on your word, hear it and be transformed by it. For your people, God, may they be warmed to new worship and obedience.

To those that do not yet know you, may they repent and believe. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, it’s finally come. Tomorrow is Christmas. One of the most anticipated days in America.

Or at least for America’s children.

I know we have some children here with us tonight. I wonder for the children. Maybe you are right now torn between wanting to go to sleep as soon as possible so you can wake up to Christmas or not being able to go to sleep at all because you’re too excited for tomorrow.

Maybe some of you adults here are also eager for Christmas Day, but not so much for presents as just for sweet time with friends and family.

Maybe there are some adults here who just can’t wait to get Christmas over with. There’s been too much preparation, too much spending, too much hype. Let’s just do it and then move on.

There are many reasons that we Americans anticipate Christmas Day.

Imagining the Wait for Christmas

But imagine if you didn’t know precisely when Christmas Day would come.

You knew that it would come, but you didn’t know when. You knew you were getting closer, but you didn’t know the actual day. Could it be tomorrow? Could it be next week? Could it be next month? Next year, 10 years from now, a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now.

In a way, this was the situation of the whole world before the first Christmas. Knowing Christmas was coming, eager for Christmas to come, yet not sure when it would, and sometimes wondering whether it would.

“This was the situation of the whole world before the first Christmas — knowing Christmas was coming, yet not sure when.”

This Christmas Eve, I’d like us to look at a Christmas passage in God’s Bible and then think about why Jesus being born after centuries of waiting is so wonderful.

Reading the Passage: Matthew 1:18–25

Please pick up a Bible or open your Bible app and find your way to the New Testament book of Matthew. We’re going to look at Matthew 1:18-2 tonight in a message that I’m calling “The First Christmas.”

If you’d like to use the Bibles that we provide here in church, you can open that up and turn to page 957.

This is the Apostle Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus.

“This is the Apostle Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus.”

Please follow along as I now read our passage, Matthew 1:18-2.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when you consider this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

Four Observations About Jesus

From this passage, we can make four observations about Jesus that make his Christmas arrival so wonderful.

I want to share these observations with you. The first three are pretty straightforward, but the last one will require some more in-depth explanation.

“Four observations about Jesus that make his Christmas arrival so wonderful.”

1. Jesus Is Fully Human

First observation we can make from this passage is that Jesus is fully human.

Number one, Jesus is fully human.

Jesus is not an angel or a spirit who came to earth and only looked like a human being or temporarily was a human being.

No, we can see from verses 20 and 25 of our text that Jesus began, grew and lived just like any other human being. Jesus was conceived. He was carried in his mother’s womb and he was born as a human baby.

“Jesus was conceived, carried in his mother’s womb, and born as a human baby.”

Thus in verses 20 and 25, Jesus is appropriately called a child and a son because he is human.

2. Jesus Is Fully God

Yet a second observation we should make from this text is Jesus is fully God. He is fully human, but number two, Jesus is fully God.

The unusual circumstances of Jesus’ conception prove that Jesus is more than a mere human. In verse 20, we learn that Jesus was not conceived by a human father, but instead by God’s Holy Spirit.

We also learn in verses 22 to 23 that this resulting virgin birth is not some random kind of cool miracle, but the fulfillment of a striking prophecy given by God through his prophet Isaiah 700 years earlier.

That prophecy, by the way, is Isaiah 7:14. Matthew quotes it in verse 23.

The Prophecy of Emmanuel

Crucially, Isaiah’s prophecy clarifies that the future child born of a virgin will be called Emmanuel, a name which Matthew helpfully translates for us as God with us.

Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23: “The virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel — God with us.”

Why the name God with us? Because by this Holy Spirit conception, Jesus is literally God with us. He is the second person of the trinity, God the son come to earth in human flesh.

Thus Jesus is fully human and fully God, and he was born on Christmas.

3. Jesus Is the King

A third observation from this passage we should make is Jesus is the king. Number three, Jesus is the king.

In verse 18, we see the title used with Jesus’s name. And that title is Christ.

What does the title Christ mean?

Christ simply means anointed one. And it is the equivalent of the Hebrew Old Testament title Messiah.

Messiah is a title that came to refer to a special God-appointed Jewish king who would one day arrive. This Messiah would then set up a righteous kingdom in Israel from which he will rule the whole world for God. We actually read earlier in the service a prophecy from Isaiah 9 that was talking exactly about that.

Matthew says that Jesus is that promised Messiah King because he calls him Christ.

“Matthew says that Jesus is that promised Messiah King because he calls him Christ.”

More than that, Matthew establishes Jesus’s connection to the proper line of royal inheritance.

The Son of David

In verse 20, you notice the angel refers to Joseph as Joseph, son of David.

Is that descriptor son of David significant?

Absolutely. Because David was the ancient Jewish king to whom God promised that David’s offspring would rule Israel forever.

In other words, to be the rightful king, the coming Messiah had to have a legal claim to Israel’s throne by Davidic descent, by Davidic inheritance.

As Joseph’s legal firstborn son, Jesus had that claim.

“To be the rightful king, the coming Messiah had to have a legal claim to Israel’s throne by Davidic descent.”

Thus, we learn from Matthew that Jesus is the king. He is the king that God sent to rule Israel and the world.

4. Jesus Is the Savior

We can make one more observation from this passage.

Jesus is the savior.

Number four, Jesus is the savior.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus’ name is Jesus?

Verse 21 tells us she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

You see, Jesus is just the English way of saying the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means salvation.

Appropriately named, Jesus is the savior sent from God to save his people from their sins.

“Jesus is just the English way of saying the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means salvation.”

And how long the world waited for such a savior. He finally arrived that first Christmas.

Now, you might ask, “But pastor, what do you mean the world was long waiting for a savior from sin?” Well, to answer that question, we must go back to the beginning.

Literally.

If you like, turn back with me to the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, chapters 1-3.

If you’re not comfortable flipping around the Bible, don’t worry about it.

You can just listen and pay attention as I refer to certain verses and certain subpoints will appear on the screen for this fourth point: Jesus is the savior.

We Owe God Complete Love and Obedience

That first subpoint is we owe God complete love and obedience from the beginning. Mankind, which is all of you, we’re included. Every one of us here has owed God complete love, worship, and obedience. Complete. Nothing left out.

There is only one God and he created us and our whole universe.

“Every one of us have owed God complete love, worship, and obedience. There is only one God and he created us.”

The Bible says that we all know deep down that God created the world. We can tell from the fact of creation’s existence. It had to come from somewhere. We can also tell from the glory of God in creation, its beauty, its order, its complexity.

God made the entire creation and he made it very good and he gave mankind an exalted place in that creation.

Created in God’s Image

Look at or listen to Genesis 1:26-27. Genesis 1:26-27.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female he created them.

God made us in his own image and then gave us dominion over his world as underrulers.

Genesis 1:27: “God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female he created them.”

He also blessed us and provided generously for us.

The Command and the Choice

But he did require of us through our first parents that we depend on him and his words. If you go to Genesis 2:16-17, we see this.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden, you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.” People sometimes wonder, “What’s with God’s random rule about not eating the forbidden fruit? What’s God against fruit?” It was never about the fruit itself, but about what eating or not eating the fruit represented, what it communicated. Choosing not to eat the forbidden fruit, to obey God’s command, and at the same time choose instead to enjoy the abundance that God has already provided—our parents would be saying to God, “God, I trust you and I always want you and your way.” But in choosing to ignore all the good that God provided and to eat the forbidden fruit instead, our parents would be saying to God, “God, I don’t trust you and I’m going to choose my own way.”

Are we not faced with the same choice every day, multiple times a day? Will we trust God, love him most, obey him as we ought?

“Are we not faced with the same choice every day — will we trust God, love him most, obey him as we ought?”

Or will we doubt God, love ourselves, love the world’s treasures most, and disobey him?

Well, what did our first parents choose? Through them, what did we as mankind choose?

4B.

We Have Rebelled and Must Be Judged

We have rebelled and must be judged. We have rebelled and must be judged.

Encouraged by Satan, our parents pridefully rebelled against God and plunged us, their descendants, into the same revolt.

“Our parents pridefully rebelled against God and plunged us, their descendants, into the same revolt.”

Now look at Genesis 3:6.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

To this day, each person is participating in the war for independence from God our first parents started.

Maybe your rebellion against God has been more obvious than for others, or maybe it has been more secret.

The Universal Reality of Sin

But as the Bible says, all of us, everyone here included, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

In our thinking, in our words, and in our actions, we do not meet God’s standard, but wholly miss the mark.

Romans 3:23: “All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

God commands us to love others, to love even the most difficult people. But we often hate others and angrily judge others.

God commands us to be content with whatever he’s given us. We often lust and covet what does not belong to us.

God commands us to speak only helpful truth, but we often lie and use careless and dirty words.

Fundamentally, against God’s commands and against what our good God deserves, we do not love God with all our hearts and we do not love our neighbors to the same level that we love ourselves.

This missing the mark, this disobedience to God’s character and commands, this rebellion, the Bible calls sin.

When our parents sinned, they became sinners and passed that fallen spiritual nature to us. We too are sinners both in heart and in life. And thus we stand guilty before our creator God.

This also is a truth we all know deep down. The Bible says that God imprinted his law on our hearts via the conscience. Our whole lives are spent trying to quiet our consciences for the wrong that we know we do.

You can say you don’t believe in God. You don’t believe in the Bible. You don’t believe in right or wrong. Yet your conscience will bother you and you will have to try quite hard to quiet it.

Inadequate Coverings for Guilt

Now many people try to remove their sin guilt by works, by prayers, by good deeds, by religious rituals.

But this is to do just like what our parents also did in vain after they sinned. Look at the next verse, Genesis 3:7.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

In their first innocence, our parents had no reason for shame and nakedness.

But after their rebellion, after their minds became polluted with sinfulness, their nakedness became something shameful to cover. A new symbol of their guilty vulnerability.

Yet, how did they try to cover their guilt? With flimsy, quickly decaying fig leaves. Those weren’t going to last. You have to keep on replacing those and those aren’t going to be a very good covering. They were no adequate covering at all.

And neither are the good deeds, the religious works and rituals for any of those who seek them.

When God’s judgment standard is himself, is his own perfection, no heap of flawed works would ever satisfy him, no matter how high that heap could be.

“When God’s judgment standard is his own perfection, no heap of flawed works would ever satisfy him.”

Rather, the Bible says that even the righteous deeds of sinners are like filthy rags before God.

And the Bible says in another place that he who breaks one of the commands of God will be considered guilty of breaking them all. You are no longer perfect.

The Penalty of Sin Is Death

What then is the outcome for the guilty human race?

What is the penalty for our sin?

God warned our parents of that penalty before they had even sinned. Going back to Genesis 2:17, the latter part of it says, “For in the day that you eat from it the forbidden fruit, you will surely die.” Death is one of the most tragic and hateful realities of our current world.

Death is the most obvious sign that we are not okay. The world is broken.

Yet, where did death come from?

It was not from God’s original very good creation design.

But death came as the dreadful penalty for sin.

Death, as another part of the Bible says, is the wages that we sinners have earned. The wages of sin is death.

Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death.”

You see, the one true God is infinitely holy, just, and good. Therefore, he could never wink at evil. He could never sweep sin under the rug. No, he hates sin and all who practice it.

Sin makes God infinitely angry. Thus, he has prepared the most severe sentence possible for sinners, which is death. And not just physical death, but eternal death and a place of conscious torment that the Bible calls hell.

The Bible describes hell as a place of darkness and burning and no escape. Hell is not like many people think of it. It is not the party house for rebels, nor is it the luxurious lair of Satan. Hell is where God’s infinite holy anger is poured out on sinners for their infinite offense to him by sin.

Now, at this point, you may say, “Pastor, what you’re describing is just depressing doom. Thought you said Christmas was supposed to be happy.” Oh, Christmas is very happy when you realize the rescue it represents for doomed sinners like us.

We come now to 4C.

God Promised a Savior from Ancient Days

God promised from ancient days a savior.

The account of the fall comprises Genesis 3. The most amazing part of this account is a prophetic word that God says to Satan the serpent in Genesis 3:15.

God says, “And I will put enmity between you, the serpent, Satan, and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” What is this?

This is a promise of God of graciously rescuing the human race from the doom to which Satan led it.

“This is a promise of God graciously rescuing the human race from the doom to which Satan led it.”

How so?

Well, first, God promises that despite the woman’s sin, she would have seed. That is, she would have descendants. God would not immediately judge all humanity with death, but allow the human race to continue.

Second, God promises to put hostility between the seed or the descendants of Satan and the seed or the descendants of the first woman. This is to say, among mankind, there would be those who followed Satan’s ways. They would be his children. And there would be those that God causes to follow his ways in opposition to Satan and in opposition to Satan’s spiritual children.

Third, God promises that one from the woman’s seed would one day crush Satan. Crush Satan himself while suffering only a minor injury in return. A bruise on the head—that’s a mortal blow. Bruise on the heel. It hurts, but you recover.

In other words, from the beginning, God promised a coming human savior to destroy Satan and to destroy all the dreadful works that Satan had wrought against mankind.

In short, God promised a coming rescuer from mankind’s sin.

God’s Hint of Rescue in Genesis 3

Yet, how could mankind be rescued?

How could polluted sinners ever be made clean again?

How can you fix imperfection? You can’t add more to it. It’s still imperfect.

God did not fully explain how this rescue would happen, not in the beginning. But he did give a hint, and something else he did.

Remember those inadequate fig leaves that our first parents made to cover themselves? Well, look down at Genesis 3:21.

It says, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” God did what our parents could not do for themselves.

“God did what our parents could not do for themselves. He made adequate coverings for them.”

He made adequate coverings for them. Adequate coverings for their sin and shame.

And how did God do it? Well, presumably, as these are animal skins, God did it by the sacrifice of an innocent animal. An animal dying for their covering.

So though mankind sinned and fell under the holy punishment of God for sin, God also promised almost in the same moment to send a savior.

But when would this savior arise? When would the divine rescue that we all needed be accomplished? That has been the great question of history. That has been the great longing and expectation of the cosmos.

Progressive Revelation of the Coming Savior

In God’s mysterious wisdom, he did not send the savior right away, but he did gradually reveal more about this coming savior through the centuries. This is chronicled in the Bible. Different words of revelation, different accounts telling us more about the coming savior.

For instance, according to Genesis 12:3, the Savior would come from the seed of Abraham to bless all families of the earth. According to Genesis 49:10, the Savior would come from the seed of Judah to rule the world as king. According to 2 Samuel 7:16, the Savior would come from the seed of David to rule Israel forever. And according to Isaiah 53, the Savior would be rejected by his own people, die for their sins, and rise again.

Now friends and brethren, at last, after the perfect amount of time that God determined, the Savior promised from ancient days and revealed more and more through the centuries of history has come.

“At last, after the perfect amount of time that God determined, the Savior promised from ancient days has come.”

We know that this one is the savior that God promised from ancient days because he identified him as such. Going back to Matthew 1:21, listen again to the words of the angel to Joseph.

“You shall call his name Jesus, salvation, for he will save his people from their sins.”

What does this mean? Dear friends and brethren, we come to point 4 D.

Jesus Saves Believers from All Their Sins

Jesus saves believers from all their sins.

Jesus had to come as a man to intercede for mankind as a new human representative. Yet Jesus had to come as God so that he had the righteousness and the power to overcome sin and death. No mere human could do that, and this is exactly what Jesus did.

“Jesus had to come as a man to intercede for mankind and as God so he had the power to overcome sin and death.”

Jesus came as a human baby. He grew up and lived a perfectly righteous life. He loved God and neighbor perfectly every moment in his heart and in his behavior. None of us could do that, but he did it.

The Substitutionary Death and Resurrection

Then Jesus died a substitutionary death on behalf of his people, for his people.

In a moment of mysterious divine exchange, Jesus took on himself all the sins of his people that they had already done or would ever do.

And in the same moment, he gave Jesus gave his perfectly righteous record to his people. He took on their sins as if he had done them and he gave them his record as if they had done it while dying on the cross. Jesus suffered once and for all the penalty of his people’s sins, which is what we’ve already covered: hell. Eternal hell.

Jesus suffered eternal hell on the cross in place of his own.

“Jesus suffered eternal hell on the cross in place of his own.”

And unlike any mere human being, he could finish an eternal punishment, which is what he did. And when he was finished, he made his people perfectly acceptable to God, his father, clothed in his own righteousness.

Nothing Can Be Added to Christ’s Work

And this means that nothing needed to be added to what Jesus did. No good works, no prayers, no rituals, no baptisms could be added to the perfect life that Jesus had already given to his own to make them acceptable to God.

“Nothing needed to be added to what Jesus did — no good works, no prayers, no rituals, no baptisms.”

Jesus did die. He was buried and he remained in a tomb three days, but then he rose bodily from the dead.

Amen.

He is indeed the seed who crushed the serpent’s head while suffering only a bruised heel. Even if the son of God should be killed, Satan cannot contain him. He rises from the dead.

By rising from the grave, Jesus proved that God accepted Jesus’s substitutionary sacrifice. Furthermore, because he is alive and at God’s right hand today, Jesus also proved that his people have eternal life in him and will be with Jesus forever.

Now, isn’t this wonderful news? Isn’t this what God accomplished? What God lovingly accomplished by sending Jesus? Is that not worth celebrating?

Jesus is the long-awaited savior.

Who Are His People?

But notice one other detail of Matthew 1:21.

In Matthew 1:21, the angel says he will save his people from their sins. The angel does not say that Jesus will save everyone but only his people.

Who are his people? Are his people the Jews? Not ultimately, because many of them, most of them, never turned to accept him.

Rather, the Bible says that you become part of Jesus’ people when you repent and believe in him.

“You become part of Jesus’ people when you repent and believe in him.”

This is the final point of my message today for E.

You Must Repent and Believe

Since this is true, you must repent and believe in Jesus for salvation.

Jesus himself says this in Mark 1:15. Jesus says, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”

What does it mean to repent?

When you think repent, think turning. To repent means to turn from your rebellion, to turn from everything that you are or that you do that dishonors God in your heart. If you truly repent, you give up your sin. You give up your self-rule. You give up all self-righteous attempts to earn God’s favor or to earn his salvation, and instead you believe the gospel.

“To repent means to turn from your rebellion — you give up your sin, your self-rule, all self-righteous attempts to earn God’s favor.”

What is the gospel?

The gospel is just a word that means good news. And what’s the good news? It’s everything that I’ve shared with you tonight. It is the true message of Christmas.

Jesus is fully man. Jesus is fully God. Jesus is the king. Jesus is the savior who saves his people from their sins. That is the gospel.

Amazingly, God promises in his Bible that if you simply believe in Jesus as I have explained him and proclaimed him from the scriptures, you will be saved.

Faith alone in Jesus is how God makes you a part of Jesus’ people and therefore part of those who are granted eternal life in him.

The Fruit of True Faith

Now, true faith will have a transformative effect.

Those who truly believe will begin to bear good fruit of that belief in new obedience to God. If you truly believe, you can’t just move on and pursue sin and idols with the rest of your life. No, you pursue Jesus. You pursue God. You want to know God’s word. You want to be with God’s people in church. You want to get baptized. And you want to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior for the rest of your life.

Those are the fruits of true faith, yet it is faith alone that saves.

“Those are the fruits of true faith, yet it is faith alone that saves.”

So friends and brethren, do you have such faith? Have you repented and believed in Jesus? Because if not, tonight is the night. Repent and believe in Jesus. I’m not merely saying that to you. God is saying that to you. Jesus is saying that to you from his word.

Repent of your sin. Turn from your sin and believe in Jesus and you will be saved. Not you might be saved. Not you hopefully will be saved. You will be saved.

The Invitation: Let Christmas Be True for You

The world waited long enough for the first Christmas.

But what about you?

Have you experienced the first Christmas spiritually? Has Jesus come for you as savior?

Let Christmas be true for you this holiday. Let Christmas come for you this holiday by doing as Jesus commands.

“Has Jesus come for you as savior? Repent and believe in the gospel.”

Repent and believe in the gospel.

And then when you do what you can do, you can join the rest of God’s people in that worshipful wonder in what God has accomplished.

Thousands of hundreds of years go by and the Savior we all waited for and needed has finally come.

It is time to celebrate and worship such a savior.

Closing Prayer

Allow me to close in prayer in response to this message.

Lord God, I think now of that scripture that says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Among us humans, it doesn’t make sense to die for wicked people. For a good man, maybe somebody would dare to die. But for a wicked man, for a wicked woman, for a wicked boy, for a wicked girl, who would die for such a one?

Would a holy God die for such a one and not judge such a one? What does your scriptures reveal? Something we couldn’t believe unless we were told. Yes, in love you chose to die for sinners.

The perfect dying for the imperfect. The lovely dying for the unlovable.

And Lord Jesus, this required you taking on human flesh. And that’s what you did. We needed a human to save us and we needed God to save us. And you were both in yourself.

Thank you for coming. Thank you, Father, for sending him. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for applying his work and allowing Jesus’ spirit to reside in your people even now. I pray, God, that for those that know you, they would be filled with greater joy, peace, and zeal for you as they remember this truth. And I pray, God, for those that don’t yet know you that you would open their eyes, shatter their hearts, so that they no longer secretly or overtly say, “I’m sorry, God. I’m the Lord of my life. Back off.” They would instead fall down before you and say, “Please forgive this rebel. I don’t deserve your mercy, but I know you extend it in Jesus Christ.” Oh Lord, for every heart that says such, you promise full forgiveness. I pray that that would happen for any who hear this message and do not yet know you tonight. Thank you for that first Christmas. Amen.

Share this sermon:

More from Special Sermon