[Machine transcription]
And when the shepherds saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
You may be seated.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, Merry Christmas.
And I bring you tidings of comfort and joy.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
That, by the way, is, I think, my new favorite Christmas song.
song, God rest ye merry gentlemen. I told it to Jonathan this week and he says, now
wait a minute, pastor, that’s not in the hymnal. But that’s⦠we’re not singing
it tonight, but I’m going to tell it to you. God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing
you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from
Satan’s power when we were gone astray. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
I think the reason why this is my favorite is because it came on the radio right after
the sermon that I was listening to on the news. I think I was going to remind you all
that I’m not the only one that preaches to you, that when you listen to the news or when
you read the newspaper or watch TV, this is also a sermon. So we’re hearing preaching
all the time, preaching the news, and normally it’s not the good news, it’s normally the
bad news, especially the last two years. It seems like the⦠there’s been a sermon series
on COVID, and we have a new verse to talk about, Omicron, and I think that we should
be thankful for that in this way. I think when we listen to the news, it reminds us,
and this has been helpful, it reminds us every day that we’re going to die. Now,
Now that might not be what you want to be reminded of every day, but it seems like we
forgot that.
I mean we should know this about ourselves that we’re going to die.
One day we’ll breathe our last.
One day our heart will stop.
One day the bell will also toll for us, but we forget this and so it’s helpful.
We should thank the preachers on the TV for reminding us that we’re going to die.
We should also thank them for reminding us to be careful.
That’s good.
But I’m afraid that the⦠the preachers on the news go a little too far.
They push past care and they are preaching to us so that we might worry.
They try to push us into distress or into fear or into dismay.
I’m convinced of that because I was listening to the sermon about the Omicron and I was
trying to figure out why they skipped so many Greek letters.
And I think I’ve got it figured out.
Now this is my own theory.
Please, if there could be some scientific reason,
so if there’s an actual reason that’s not a joke
that I’m about to tell.
The vicar said, this is a series of like six dad jokes
coming right in a row.
So I’m just warning you.
I think the problem with Delta
was that it sounded too friendly.
You can fly on Delta to Cancun after all.
Epsilon sounds like a breakfast cereal.
Zeta sounds like a video game character.
Iota sounds like no big deal at all.
Well, lambda sounds like the stuffed animal that’s made of a lamb and a panda kind of
put together.
If you called it moo or noo, it would just sound funny.
And so you had to go to a more ominous sounding letter.
And what more, what letter in the Greek alphabet sounds more ominous than omicron?
That’s the, that’s the machine sent from the space aliens to destroy us all, omicron.
And I think that’s the idea.
Well, you have to be afraid.
No, no.
God rest you, merry gentlemen.
Let you good gentlemen and good gentlewomen be at rest.
Let nothing you dismay.
There’s nothing at all to worry about because Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day
to save us all from Satan’s power when we had gone astray.
So, tidings of comfort and joy.
We want to hear that comfort and joy, especially in the preaching of the angel sermon.
I noticed something in the Christmas text that I had never seen before this year.
It’s an astonishing thing that the shepherds who are there in the fields watching their
flocks by night, and then the angel, remember the angel probably Gabriel, comes to them
and says, good tidings I bring for you of great joy.
And then the other angels are,
it seems like they’re like behind the curtain
watching Gabriel give this news
and then they just can’t hold back
and they sort of break forth in singing,
Gloria in a Celsius, and the shepherds go
and they see Jesus, the baby,
with Mary and Joseph in the manger.
And then they leave and what are they talking about?
They’re not talking about the baby.
They’re talking about the angels.
They’re talking about the sermon that the angels gave.
Now we know that the real action is in the manger, but the thing that matters is the
preaching because that tells us what that baby is going to do, who that baby is and
why that baby matters.
So we want to hear those three things.
Who is the baby?
What will the baby do?
And why does it matter?
There, that baby is none other than Christ the Lord.
This is what the angel says, to you who was born this day in the city of David, a Savior
who is Christ the Lord.
Jesus, who is true God and true man, begotten of the Father before all worlds, and born
of the Virgin Mary, is our Lord.
The eternal God is now in the flesh and has a birthday.
And we know what He’s come to do.
He’s come to save us.
For unto us is born a Savior, Christ the Lord.
Jesus is on a rescue mission.
He is born because we need more than anything else this birth.
He is born because we need to be rescued.
And what is the meaning of it?
Your salvation and your joy.
Three times the angels hammer this message in so that we cannot miss it.
The angel says,
”Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all people.
For unto you is born this day
in the city of David,
a Savior who is Christ the Lord,
and this will be a sign for you.”
Dear saints, the action
happened a long ways away
and a long time ago
in the manger in Bethlehem,
And but it is still for you, for your life, for your hope, for your peace, for your deliverance.
I think I was talking about someone, I was visiting someone this week, and we were talking
about this as we were considering the preaching of the angels, and I said, if you think about
it like this. If I told you that there’s $3 million in the bank, you would say, well,
that’s nice, I guess. I don’t know why you’re telling me. I thought there’d be more. But
if I said, there’s $3 million in the bank for you, that is a different kind of sermon.
And this is what the angel preaches to the shepherds and to you and to me this night.
And that one in the manger, that one in the lap of Mary, that one walking on the water,
that one healing and teaching, that one beaten and spit upon, that one nailed to the cross,
that one laid in the grave, that one risen and seated at the Father’s right hand, that
That one is, dear saints, listen, that one is for you.
He is your Savior.
So that by His humility, you might be glorified.
By His poverty, you might be made rich.
By His manger, you might have a home in heaven.
By His flesh, you might inherit His Spirit.
By His being struck, you might be comforted.
By His suffering, you might have peace.
By His mockery, you might be accepted.
lifted, by His sacrifice you might be forgiven, and by His death you might have, you do have
life forever.
So behold, I bring you tidings of comfort and joy.
Tidings of comfort and joy.
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan’s power when
we had gone astray. May God grant us this peace. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
