WORSHIP VIDEO LINK
WORSHIP AUDIO LINK
SERMON AUDIO LINK
BULLETIN
SERMON TEXT BELOW
Christmas Day 2024
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
December 25, 2024
John 1:1-14
Sermons online:
Text and Audio: immanuelhamiltonchurch.com click “sermons”
Text: pastorjud.org
Audio: pastorjud.podbean.com
itunes: bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio: bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship
What a wonderful place to be this Christmas morning with the music, the singing, the candles, the decorations. How magnificent to gather together on Christmas with fellow believers to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a morning filled with anticipation, wonder and promise.
As you entered into the church from outside you entered into a different world, a world very unlike normal life.
Out there is a world of broken promises. Children promise to be good and they can’t do it. They promise to clean their rooms and do their homework and take care of the dog.
Dad promises to be home more, to spend more time with the family.
Mom promises to take the time to gather the family for a home-cooked dinner at the table and to not to lose her temper.
Drug addicts and alcoholics promise that they will stop using.
Bosses promise that raises and improvements will be coming.
Friends and family promise that they’ll visit more.
Each new calendar promises a better year to come. Over and over the world promises a life of ease just around the corner.
As families gather for Christmas there is the promise of joy and unity, but too often family gatherings turn out more like National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation with the family bickering and sniping.
There are all the promises that you have made to others that you are not able to keep and the promises you have made to God. Promises to be a better person, to come to church more, to read the Bible more, to pray more, to clean up your language, to stop returning to that same, old, repetitive sin.
You come in here from a world of broken promises; promises made to you…promises made by you.
The men in the fields outside Bethlehem 2,000 years ago live also in a world of broken promises. Their people are God’s chosen people and yet they live under Roman oppression. Before that it was the Greeks and before that the Persians and the Babylonians and the Assyrians and the Egyptians. Will they ever really be free?
The men are shepherds; simple shepherds. It is hard and lowly work to lead and guard sheep. Nobody really ever notices you. Shepherds are thought to be rough characters; not the kind of guys you would want to date your daughter.
These shepherds are watching sheep in a field near Bethlehem, perhaps a field where King David watched sheep when he was a boy. God made a promise to David, the great king, and the shepherds know the promise well. 2 Samuel 7:8–16 (ESV) 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel….. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” Another broken promise. There has not been a descendent of David as king for over 600 years. Will Israel ever have another?
The shepherds, like you, live in a world of broken promises. They struggle and risk their lives to eke out a living. And the promise of an easier life with the start of each new season disappears with danger and hard work.
They have been promised a Savior, a Messiah who will come to rescue them. But this is an old promise; many generations have come and gone. Hundreds of years have passed since the prophets Isaiah and Daniel and others wrote about the one to come. Isaiah wrote… Isaiah 9:6–7 (ESV) 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
The shepherds are out in the field taking turns watching the sheep and trying to sleep on the ground. It is night, and it is dark and it is quiet except for the sound of the wind and sheep bleating in the moonlight. Sitting there staring out into the darkness, what are they thinking about? Are they thinking about women, drinking, debts to pay? Are they troubled by broken promises? When it is their turn to lie down does their conscience and the hard ground make it difficult to sleep?
Without warning, the night suddenly turns to day and there is someone…something…with them. An angel of the Lord, probably Gabriel, appears before the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shines around them. The shepherds are all now alert and awake and afraid. They tremble with terror. Is this the end? Has God sent this angel for judgment? They must be fearfully asking themselves, “Are we now going to pay for all our rough living?” “Do not be afraid.” The angel says. That is a relief. He does not come in judgment.
“Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all people.” At this point you wonder if the shepherds can even think straight to ponder that such good news for all people is being brought to them…lowly shepherds in a field.
If the angel came today who would receive the news of Jesus birth in the middle of the night? Maybe convenience store clerks, or those stocking shelves at the supermarket, or nursing home aides.
Two thousand years ago the angel came to shepherds with the good news. And what is the good news? Why has the angel come? “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
The promised Christ is here? The promised savior is here? Born this day? Unto us? Sinful shepherds? A savior?
This would be a hard message to believe, except that is being told them by an angel of the Lord right there with them and he is shining in the light of God’s glory.
The savior is here! The Christ; the Messiah has been born. How amazing! How glorious! The shepherds, bathed in the light of God’s glory, marvel at the news. Their lives have come from a dark field of broken promises to reveling in the light of God’s glory and the fulfillment of His promise. And then the angel tells them how to find the baby.
“This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger.” How strange. Why is the savior lying in a feed trough?
But no time to think about that, for then the with the angel there is a heavenly battalion praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among the people of his good pleasure.” Peace to his people on earth. You, shepherds are not the abandoned ones; you are highly favored of God.
The angels went away from them into heaven and everything is dark and quiet again, the shepherds look at each other for a moment to make sure that they had all seen the same thing. And then they say, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” The shepherds become the sheep and go to search for their shepherd. The shepherds go to the city of David to meet the newborn King of the Jews.
The shepherds leave their sheep and go quickly to Bethlehem and find Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Now we often picture the manger as a rough wooden feed box, but very likely, the manger was a hollowed out stone. As we picture Jesus, lying swaddled in that borrowed manger, it brings to mind his destiny of being wrapped in cloth and lying on a stone slab in a borrowed tomb -- dead because of our sin. For that is why he came. We can’t help to see that because we know the story, but the shepherds don’t know and this morning we simply share their joy at seeing the Savior.
At seeing the baby just like the angel had said, the shepherds tell everyone about what the angel told them. This baby is the savior! This baby is the Christ! This baby is the long awaited Messiah! God has kept his promise.
The people with Mary and Joseph and Jesus marvel at what the shepherds say. The shepherds’ story is almost unbelievable. But Mary treasures these words in her heart to ponder what they mean.
The shepherds return to the fields glorifying and praising God over all that they had heard and seen just as it had been told them.
The angel didn’t steer them wrong. God did not steer them wrong. He kept his promise. The savior has come to save his people.
The shepherds began their night in the world of broken promises, but conclude their night wrapped up in God’s promise and the peace of God.
You came in here this morning from a world of broken promises. You gathered here with fellow believers to hear that God has kept his promise. The savior has come to free you from your sins; to free you from your broken promises and to give you a place in His kingdom, which has no end. There is good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born the savior, Christ the Lord. Amen.