St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Christmas Day – December 25^th, 2002

Dear Friends of the new born Savior,:

"I bring you good news of great joy." This was the angel’s introduction as he delivered his great message from heaven on Christmas day, the first Christmas the world had ever seen. Christmas was intended to be a day of joy, of universal joy. No other day in the year is looked at with such joy by both young and old as Christmas day. No other festival of the Christian Church causes so much gladness as does this wonderful festival, which, by the grace of God, we have again been permitted to celebrate once again today. Today the whole world seems to be turned into a sea of gladness. Faces beaming with joy are seen everywhere. Mankind for once seems to forget his own precious self and to find pleasure in making others happy. Tokens of love are exchanged among friends. Parents desire to see their children happier on this day, and children desire to see their parents joyful. Brothers and sisters under the Christmas tree more than on any other occasion are made to feel that they are members of the same family. Thus has Christmas come to be a day of joy, a day of ongoing happiness, a day in which almost everybody feels that he should be happy and make others happy.

But this time-honored custom of giving and receiving gifts, though nice in itself, is not the foundation nor even a small glimpse of that joy the angels spoke of. The angels did not say, I bring you good news of great joy, therefore this day shall be a day of showing others love and kindness. No, he says, "Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." The true reason for joy on Christmas day is to be found in the fact that a Savior was born to us this day. This is the great message of the day. Let us consider then, with the aid of God the Holy Spirit,

The angel's message begins with one simple word, "Today". "Today a Savior has been born to you." What does that mean when you hear the word, "Today?" The angel obviously meant to say nothing more than that now was the hour of fulfillment of all those divine prophecies concerning the coming Savior from the beginning of the world. That promised Deliverer did not come some time ago and remain unknown, nor is He to be expected in some future day, but now, this very day, He came. To convince the shepherds the angel gave them a special sign. He said, "This will be a sign to you, You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." This was indeed a sign by which the shepherds could not be misled. That a new-born infant should be lying in a manger was a most extraordinary thing, and if that night some other child was born in Bethlehem, it was surely in a more comfortable bed than Mary's son.

"Today a Savior has been born to you." It is this day that is important for those who believe in Him. The moment the sinner is led to believe in Jesus, the Savior is his and all the blessings of the Savior are given to them . An intelligent man asked someone a question, "Why do you still say, "Today a Savior has been born" even though it is a fact that Jesus was born centuries ago?". The man answered, Aren’t you in need of a Savior Today? For the reason we need a Savior everyday, we must have a Savior that is with us always.

Let this day then be for you the day of Christ's birth, the day in which Jesus is born again in your heart. Today, when you hear His voice, don’t close your heart. Let this day be a day of rejoicing in the Savior. And when we can no longer say "Today" there will be an endless day, a day of glory, of happiness and bliss, a day in which we shall unite with the angels and sing glory to our God and Savior for ever and ever.

"Today a Savior has been born" says the angel. Could the prisoner on death row receive better news than to be informed that the governor’s messenger has arrived with a pardon? Could the shipwrecked man who is about to sink into the depths of the sea receive better aid than to be grasped by a strong hand and lifted into the boat?

Now, we are all like the prisoner and the drowning, man. We are sinners and are lost and condemned. By the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden the whole human family was corrupted with the filth of sin and made unrighteous in the sight of God, who condemns all sinners to the fires of Hell. Hell and damnation is our inevitable doom because we have sinned. As sinners we should be afraid of God and his wrath and punishment, but now we have a Savior, a Savior by divine assurance, a Savior to deliver us from everlasting death. Could we ever hear better news than the words that a Savior has been born? Here is the Savior who saved us from the greatest enemy we have, sin and the consequences of hell that we deserve for our sin.. How can we ever thank God enough for sending a Savior? How could we ever praise God enough for sending a Savior? How could thank our God for that Savior, who is God Himself, who could never save us from eternal death if he were not God.

Or do you doubt that the Babe of Bethlehem is the Savior that came down from heaven? Look into our Christmas Gospel and all doubts will disappear. We read, "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone we to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child."

What a wonderful child! For the sake of this child the whole world is set in commotion. God leads one of the greatest living rulers, Caesar Augustus, to issue a decree of taxation that affects the whole world. Under the Roman rule the people must return to the city or place of their birth to be taxed. And why all this? That Mary and Joseph should go to Bethlehem and that the child Jesus should be born in the city of David . Yes, what a wonderful child! Not only the world, even the heavens were set in commotion for the sake of' this child. The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem to bring them the good news of the Savior's birth; and "suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rest." What more evidence do we want that this child is the Savior? Could God do more than to set heaven and earth in commotion to make us understand the importance of the great event in the holy night?

Let us continue and look at the next word in the angel’s message. He says, "Today a Savior has been born," Luke writes it this way, "While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." There was no bed or cradle for Him; He was laid in a manger. And the fact that He was laid in a manger tells us more about where he was born. He must have been born in a stable, where mangers are kept and animals are fed. He was born. Listen to that again! The Savior of the world was born What joy and happiness is contained for us in these few words. Imagine if God had come down from heaven in His glorious majesty to deal with us as sinful people. Could we stand before Him? No; we would have to cry for the mountains to fall upon us, and for the hills to cover us. But now God is born; the Word is made flesh; God has taken on human flesh. God has taken upon Himself our human nature; God has become our brother.

Could there be a greater evidence of God's love to man? Could God show more plainly that He desires our eternal happiness than by giving us His own Son, in our own likeness, in our very nature, in all respects the same as us with the exception of sin? What was the purpose of all this? Why did God become man? That he might work out that righteousness which God requires of man and which no man can do, that in our place as our substitute, He might fulfill the commandments and pay for all our sins by a painful suffering and terrible death. The Babe of Bethlehem is our Redeemer, who reconciled us to God, in whom God has showed His great love to all sinful people. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." No better illustration could be given of this great passage from God’s Word than the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem

But the trouble is that so many do not believe in Jesus who was born in Bethlehem. The sinner who is conscious of the greatness of his guilt might say, There is surely no help for me. Others may rejoice in the Savior and joyfully kneel at the manger of the heavenly child. As for me, I have no right there, I must stay away. But what does the angel say in his message? He says, "Today a Savior has born to you." Who does he mean? He was addressing the shepherds. Did he mean just the shepherds? Or, since the shepherds were members of God's chosen people, of the Jewish nation, did he mean to say that unto the Jews alone a Savior was born? No, the angel himself explains these two little words, "to you," when he says, "Do not be afraid. I bring good news of great joy that will be for all people." To whom, then, is the Savior born? All people! Do you as sinful people hear those simple words? To all people, that is, to all that ever lived on the face of the earth from the first man, Adam, unto the last man that shall be born before the coming of the day of judgment, to Jews and Gentiles, Christians and non-Christians, saints and sinners.

This Savior is for you and me. Let your sins be as many as the sands on the sea-shore and as black as night, the Babe of Bethlehem extends also to you His little hands and bids you rejoice in the full forgiveness of your filthy, sinful actions. You have as much right to this heavenly child as the greatest saint. For this child is the Son of man, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World. He is the payment for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. And if you have done so many sins and have shown yourself to be unworthy of God's love, come, let not the greatness or the multitude of your sins keep you away from the manger. Come and say, O heavenly Child, I can hardly believe it, but it is true, yes, it is true and certain, You are mine also, my brother, my God, my Savior, for you were also born to me. What better message can we hear than the words of the angel, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." Amen.