St. Luke's Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Sunday School Children’s Service – December 22nd, 2002

Dear Christian friends,

There are some events in the history of this world that just seemed to change the world we live in. This coming year the world is going to celebrate one of these great events in the history of this world. It was December 17^th, 1903 when Orville and Wilbur Wright came to the Outer Banks near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and flew the first powered manned flight in an airplane. That first flight didn’t seem like much at the time. It lasted only 12 seconds and Orville traveled only about 120 feet. To mark the centennial of this great event, they will be having a yearlong celebration. As I was thinking about this event and this celebration, it led me to see that there are many similarities between this great event and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Wright brothers attempted flights took place in a very isolated part of the country and there wasn’t much fanfare or hoopla surrounding that first flight. Also as Orville and Wilbur Wright were attempting these flights, I’m sure that they never dreamed how life changing this event would be. As we gather this morning to worship our Lord and Savior this Christmas season, we are reminded that our Savior came into this world without much fanfare or hoopla. He was born in a stable. Also I’m sure that many of the people who saw Jesus at his birth or soon after his birth didn’t really comprehended how great this baby Jesus would be and how much he would change this world.

As we gather this morning, we know very well what the birth in Bethlehem means to the world and especially to us. To help us as we once again celebrate Jesus’ birth, we will use a very familiar verse from God’s Word. We will use this simple verse to focus our thoughts to realize that we don’t need a special season or anniversary to celebrate Jesus’ birth, but we know and realize that Jesus’ birth is with us today and everyday of the year. Our theme for this morning will point us in this direction

Theme: God’s Love Brings Us Christmas Joy

1. Joy that God’s Son came to this earth
2. Joy that through God’s Son we have eternal life

The words of John 3:16 are words that almost everyone of us has put to memory from little on. Most of us can rattle these words off so quickly that the words just flow off of our tongues. How many verses from the Bible can we name just by chapter and verse and most people know exactly what we are talking about? There are not many verses that we know better than these words, "For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." But how many of you are wondering how this fits in with a Christmas theme? As you think about these words that flow so quickly off your tongues, you soon begin to realize that these words have lots to do with Christmas, and these words sum up so nicely the joy that we enjoy each and every Christmas.

"For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son." How can one truly appreciate Christmas and the first part of John 3:16 without pushing the rewind button in our spiritual lives? Imagine your whole life on a video tape and we are rewinding all the way back to when you entered this world. It doesn’t take us long to realize that one thing is very evident. No matter how cute or cuddly you may have looked during those first few hours and days of your lives, there was one condemning feature in every single one of us. On the inside our hearts were broken and corrupted with sin. This wasn’t just a mild tendency to do things that weren’t very nice. This sin that everyone of us was born with separated us completely from God and condemned each of our souls to hell.

We can’t truly appreciate Christmas and the events surrounding Christmas without realizing that God’s plan to save us revolved around the fact that someone had to be perfect where we are never perfect and someone had to enter this world to take the punishment for our sins. As we speak the words that God so loved us, we don’t do these words true justice unless we realize that God never was obligated to save us. There is and never will be something in us that draws out God’s love for us. God only in his perfect love sent his Son to be born into this world in the small town of Bethlehem. God sent his Son to take our place and be our Substitute. That is what Christmas is all about. God’s love and his perfect plan to save this world of sin was taking form as we witness this miracle virgin birth.

Until we realize why Jesus came into this world – namely because every single person in this world, past, present and future cannot get to heaven without God’s love and that ever single one of our sins condemns us in our sins and that we cannot in any single way get to heaven by ourselves, then and then only has God accomplished what he wanted. He has led us by his crushing Law to see why the words of John 3:16 and the events of that first Christmas in Bethlehem are so joyful for us as sinners.

Does anyone know why Orroli – a small town on the island of Sardinia near Italy made up of 2,748 people is so famous? Over the last decade 7 people from this small town have lived to be over 100 years old. With the oldest reaching 112 years old. In fact the entire island of Sardinia has the highest documented percentage of people who have lived past 100 years old. Of the 1.6 million people on this island at least 220 people have lived to 100 years old. Five of the 40 oldest people of all time have come from Sardinia. I think that anyone who wants to live for a long time should move to Sardinia.

And yet as we gather for another Christmas we realize that we as children of God have been promised a place where everyone lives more than 100 years. We have been promised a place where everyone lives forever. As we huddle around the manger in Bethlehem, we are soon led to realize that this baby has come to be great and wonderful. The events of that first Christmas are more amazing each and every time I think about them and study them. Haven’t you ever asked or wanted to ask God why and how? Why would the Son of God come and be born in a manger? Even more than that, why would Jesus the Son of God leave his place in heaven to be born as a human being in this world? How could that baby be both God and man – the perfect Savior? How could that baby have the power to take away all the things I have done that are sinful and condemning? And the list goes on.

That is why it is wonderful to take a step back and listen again to the last part of John 3:16, "whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? We won’t perish in our sins, because the Holy Spirit has led us to see that the baby in the manger would grow up perfectly and die perfectly on that cross on the hill outside the city of Jerusalem so that we would not perish forever in our sin. That is the reason why we have eternal joy. That is why we can live our lives in joy, no mater what is happening around us. That is why we will want to come to God’s house as often as possible to bring our praise and joy to our God who saved us. That is why we will want to bring regular offerings to our God to say thanks for all that we have been given by our God.

In just a few minutes the Sunday School children will share with us once again the simple facts of what it means to celebrate Christmas. These children whose hearts are filled with the love of their Savior know what it means that they will not perish, but have eternal life. That is why the words that flow out of their mouths will be more than just cute words, but they will be the eternal saving message of God’s plan to save us which can we summarized with these words, "For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Amen.