Matthew 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
We are preparing to celebrate the birth of the Son of God, Jesus, Immanuel – God with us. I want us to think this morning about what may seem initially to be a very strange question. Jesus was Immanuel – God with us. But WHICH God? Which God is with us? I ask the question because it is one which many Christians never seem to think about. But it was a central question for the writers of the gospels, especially for Matthew who records so many details surrounding the birth of Jesus and its significance. Jesus is God with us – but which God? Why, the Jewish God of course! The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of Moses, the God of David, the God of Israel, the ONLY true God. NOT one of the many Greek Gods, NOT one of the Roman Gods. Not one of the gods of Egypt or Mesopotamia or any of the Eastern mystery religions followed by millions two thousand years ago. NO – the God who became flesh was ISRAEL’s God, Yahweh, THE LORD, the great I AM.
We are talking about the God who brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt and struck down the Egyptians with the 10 plagues as punishment for their false gods. The God who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross. The God who fed them with Manna in the wilderness for 40 years and who gave Moses the 10 commandments for his chosen people to live by. THAT is the God who became a human being born in a stable and laid in a manger in Bethlehem.
GENEALOGY – Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham
1:1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
This may seem to us to be a strange way to start a biography. But Matthew begins his gospel with a most important fact. Jesus was a Jew. These days many people are interested in genealogy, find my past, what are my roots? Matthew wants us to know what Jesus’s roots were. Jesus was a Jew – that was his ancestry. And Jesus was not just any Jew – but a very special Jew. Matthew names Jesus as Son of David, Son of Abraham.
Jesus was a descendent of Abraham – the first of the Patriarchs, the heir of God’s promises.
Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Jesus was a descendent of Abraham – very many Jews were. But more than that, Jesus was also a direct descendent of David, the greatest King Israel ever had.
And Matthew wants everybody to know that as a descendent of Abraham and a descendent of David, Jesus had a place in history.
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
From the call of the Patriarchs to the reign of David to the time of exile to the birth of Christ, Jesus had a destiny in God’s masterplan of salvation.
Matthew 1:20 An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
He would be called Jesus because he would save His people from their sins. And who were “his people”? Why, the Jews of course. Not Gentile sinners like us, but God’s chosen people Israel. Immanuel was God with us. Which God? The God of Israel. The God of Abraham and the Patriarchs. The God of David and of Moses and of the Exiles. That God! We know that is true because everything that was going to happen had already been foretold long ago by God’s messengers, the prophets of Israel.
FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
Jesus would be Immanuel, God with us. Stories said that false Greek gods and false Roman Gods could APPEAR in the guise of human beings – but only the God of the Jews, the one true God who had created human beings in his own image, only HE could actually become human and be born as a baby. And this baby would be the fulfillment of God’s promises to send his Messiah, his Christ, his chosen one, to his people. So the baby would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
Matthew 2:5 When Herod had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’”
The prophet Hosea had foretold that early in his life, Jesus and his family would have to escape and become refugees in Egypt.
Matthew 2:14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
And as we will see in a few minutes, it was also foretold that the birth of the Messiah would echo the grief the Israelites had experienced when Jerusalem was destroyed and the whole nation taken into Exile in Babylon.
So many elements of the Birth of Jesus happened in fulfilment of prophecies in the Jewish Scriptures which we know as the Old Testament. But then later on Matthew’s gospel also records other events which were foretold in the same Scriptures, and Matthew spells out many of those prophecies for us, starting with the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry.
Matthew 2: 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: 15“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
Jesus’s ministry of healing was prophesied beforehand.
Matthew 8:16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
Jesus’s teaching in parables was foretold.
Matthew 13: 34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”
Matthew tells us that Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was a fulfilment of prophecy in Zechariah.
Matthew 21: 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5“Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
At so many points, the life of Jesus was foretold in the Jewish Scriptures, in the words of the prophets of the God of the Jews. Immanuel was God with us. Which God? The God of Israel and all the prophets of Israel. Even though they were not Jews, the wise men came looking for Jesus among the people of Israel, in Jerusalem,.
THE VISIT OF THE MAGI
Those wise men were the first non-Jews to worship Jesus. Quite possibly they were the first non-Jewish Christians. But who had they come to find?
Matthew 2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
So they came to the palace of Herod, king of the Jews, to find the new born king. They brought gifts fit to honour a king – but whose king? The King of the Jews of course.
Jesus was a Jew. Because of that fact, many Jewish families would suffer.
Matthew 2:16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
There is a story not often preached on. It is a story with curious echoes. Most importantly, the slaughter of the innocents reminds us of the attempts Pharaoh had made to kill all the Israelite boys born in Egypt at the time of Moses. Following in the footsteps of Moses, Jesus escaped to become the Saviour and Liberator of God’s chosen people Israel.
So Jesus was Immanuel – God with us. But WHICH God? The God of the Old Testament. The God of Abraham and the Patriarchs. The God of Moses and David – and indeed of Herod. Herod wasn’t only trying to kill a rival for his throne. Herod was trying to kill the Saviour God had promised to the nation of which Herod was King. Herod was trying to kill HIS Messiah, His Lord, His God.
Because that was the God who became flesh as Jesus Christ. That was the God who became a human being to die for our sins. Some Christians ignore the Old Testament because they think it only applies to the Jews. Some people think the Old Testament is irrelevant now we have the New Testament, now that Christ has come. But the Old Testament can never be irrelevant, because it speaks to us of the SAME God who became flesh in Jesus Christ. Some people think that Jews and Christians worship different Gods. Even some Christians think of the God of the Old Testament as somehow angry and vengeful whereas the God of the New Testament is all love and compassion. If you think that God in the Old Testament is different from God in the New Testament then think again because it is the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh the God of the Jews, who became flesh and lived among us as Jesus the Christ, the Jewish Messiah.
Sometimes people will ask us, what was so special about Jesus? What was so special about His birth? We can talk to them about Jesus’s life and His ministry – about his wonderful miracles and his amazing teaching. We can tell people about Jesus’s death on the cross for our sins and about the greatest miracle of all, his resurrection from the dead. We can talk about his miraculous virgin birth. But we can also tell people that Jesus did not just appear out of nowhere. Two thousand years of Jewish history were preparing for the incarnation of the Son of God. We can count more than four hundred prophecies in the Old Testament which Jesus fulfilled during his life, starting with the prophecies surrounding His birth which we have thought about this morning. Jesus was born and lived and died to be the turning point in the marvellous plan of salvation which began when the God of Israel called Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, and then Moses, and then David. It was the God of Israel who became flesh and lived among us, and died to save us.
But then of course, John’s gospel points us to the ultimate sadness of the Christmas story.
John 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah, the promised Saviour of Israel. And his own, God’s own chosen nation, rejected him. Yet at the same time here is the Good News of Christmas.
John 1: 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The eternal and divine Word became Immanuel, for us and for our salvation. Bow down and worship – for THIS is your God.

Many Christians have a mistaken idea about Christmas. They think that we are celebrating the time when the Almighty God became a man for us and for our salvation. That’s almost right, but it is not completely right. It is true that the Word did indeed become flesh for us, Immanuel, God with us. But God did not become a man.
Luke 2 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 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.
If we want to be accurate, the Bible does not say that the Son of God became a man. It tells us that the Son of God was born as a baby and laid in a manger. The Babyhood of the Son of God. The legends told that some Greek gods took human form as adult human beings. But at Christmas the Son of God did not become a man. He became a baby. And there’s a difference.
Jim Packer wrote, “The divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wiggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this; the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think of it the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.”
Isaiah prophesied, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) Immanuel – God born as a human being. But not just as a human being, but as a tiny baby.
This was what the angel Gabriel had told Mary beforehand.
Luke 1 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Son of God would become a human being by being born as a baby to his mother Mary. And so it unfolded.
Matthew 1 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
God became a human being. Just think about what God is like. And then think what that meant when God to enter this world as a tiny baby.
1. God is Omnipotent – all-powerful, Almighty. Born as a vulnerable helpless baby.
2. God is Omniscient – all-knowing. Yet the Son of God became a tiny baby, without speech or language – “the Word without a word.”
3. God is Omnipresent – everywhere all the time, yet Jesus was confined to one time and one place as a baby laid in a manger.
4. God is Eternal – outside space and beyond time, yet was born as a baby, limited to living out the span of a human life, a life which would be limited by death.
5. God is Holy – yet he entered the world polluted by human sin as a helpless baby, opening himself to be hurt by human greed and pride and selfishness and jealousy and hatred.
He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable, And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor and meek and lowly Lived on earth our Saviour holy.
6. God is All-loving – God IS love and entered a world where true love is in very short supply, to live a life of love and sacrifice, starting as a helpless baby.
7. God is Transcendent. In every way God exceeds, goes beyond, rises above, excels over , surpasses ANYTHING we can begin to imagine.
Even if we ever do have a faint glimmering of what God is like, we can never describe it, because human language does not begin to have the words to describe the Divine! Human language is limited – and religious language has become devalued. Consider a word like “awesome”. It used to mean “awesome” – inspiring us to awe and wonder – now it just means mildly interesting. Especially in this age of media and trivia, language has been wasted. Words to describe the really big or really great have been trivialised. There are some words we could use but nobody knows what they mean any more. “Ineffable” means indescribable, inexpressible, beyond words, overwhelming. People have lost the language which used to be used to describe the indescribable. Some people attempt to make the deep things of God accessible to folk who are new to Christian things by only using words which everybody can understand. But that reduces the awesome God we are describing to our everyday human level. So I can say without fear of contradiction that, WHATEVER ideas you have about God, your God isn’t big enough! Your ideas about God aren’t great enough! God is infinitely beyond our knowing – beyond even our imagining.
Yet here is the miracle of Christmas. That indescribable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, holy, loving, transcendent God was born as a tiny human baby. God with us! God into man cannot go – yet has gone!
Lo, within a manger lies He who built the starry skies,
He who throned in height sublime Sits amid the cherubim.
Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
So let’s think a bit more about the Babyhood of the Son of God. However young an infant, or a toddler, or a child, or a teenager, or an adult in their twenties, Jesus was once exactly that age. And it can’t have been comfortable being born so many years BP, before Pampers. Everything all of us experienced growing up, from our earliest memories, Jesus also experienced. Even the teenage rebellion of disappearing on the way home from Jerusalem only to be found in the Temple, his Father’s house. Jesus had to grow up just like every human baby has to grow up.
There are many great joys in the privilege of being grandparents. We get to watch our grandchildren grow up stage by stage, usually without being overwhelmed by having to care for them moment by moment and day by day. Our granddaughter Ellie is four and three quarters and our grandson Mark is two and a quarter. We have had the joys watching them learning to feed themselves, learning to take their first steps, learning to talk, learning to play games, learning to build with duplo and lego, learning to draw and to read and to write and to do jigsaws. Even watching them learning to pick themselves up if they ever fall over. We can see how their vocabulary and their understanding and their sense of humour is growing day by day and week by week. And Jesus had to grow just as Ellie and Mark and all other children are growing.
For he is our childhood pattern. Day by day like us he grew.
He was little, weak and helpless. Tears and smiles like us he knew.
And he feeleth for our sadness. And he shareth in our gladness.
Luke sums up Jesus growing up to manhood in just one verse.
Luke 2 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.
J.B.Phillips And as Jesus continued to grow in body and mind, he grew also in the love of God and of those who knew him.
The Babyhood of the Son of God. Jesus experienced all the joys and all the sorrows we did growing up. Just one example, something I have never thought about before – we know that Mary’s husband Joseph had died before Jesus began his public ministry, although he was still alive when they went to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12. We cannot be certain, but it is possible that Joseph died while Jesus was still a teenager or a young man. As he was growing up, Jesus had to experience and learn about grief. Not just at the cross but from a young age, Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Jesus was fully God. But at the same time he was fully human. And Jesus was also a typical human being. He began his life as a refugee. He grew up poor, not rich. Jesus’s life was as precarious as anybody’s growing up in a rural community, living before electricity and running water and modern medicine. Jesus was one of a marginalised people – powerless, not powerful. He lived most of his life in obscurity in a back of beyond village nobody would have heard of.
v.1 HE walked where I walk, He stood where I stand, He felt what I feel, He understands.
He knows my frailty, Shared my humanity, Tempted in every way, Yet without sin.
God with us, so close to us. God with us, Immanuel!
v.2 One of a hated race, Stung by the prejudice, Suffering injustice, Yet He forgives.
Wept for my wasted years, Paid for my wickedness, He died in my place That I might live.
God with us, so close to us. God with us, Immanuel!
The Son of God became Immanuel, God with us. But Jesus would not enjoy any special protection in this cruel world. He would share in all its sufferings, the sufferings of the exploited, mistreated, ignored and marginalised people who have always made up the vast majority of the world ever since the fall. However hard our own lives may be, Jesus Christ the suffering servant lived a much more typical human life than any of us ever will.

In the third century Athanasius of Alexandria wrote this. “Christ became what we are so that He could make us what He is.” From the very first day of his birth, Jesus had to share all the misery and all the suffering of humanity so that at the end by His death on the cross he could redeem humanity. He shared our humanity so that we could share His divinity.
The Babyhood of Jesus. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us why it matters for us that Jesus should share all of our human experiences, even from birth through childhood and adolescence into adulthood.
Hebrews 2 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 4 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Jesus has been tempted in every way as we are. The word temptation carries two related meanings. It means being tempted to sin but it also means facing a trial or a test of any kind. All through his infancy and childhood and teenage years, Jesus went through all the kinds of experiences which that word embraces. Temptations, trials, persecutions, tests of our faith, Jesus has faced all of these and come out victorious! Jesus is “not unable” to sympathise with our weaknesses. Jesus understands completely. Because when God became a human being in Jesus Christ, He shared all our experiences of life from that very first day as a tiny baby. Whatever our situation: He knows what it’s like! That is why Jesus is able to help us whenever we need his help.
6 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The Message translation puts it this way.
“Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”
Oswald Chambers wrote, “The tremendous revelation of Christianity is not the Fatherhood of God, but the Babyhood of God—God became the weakest thing in His own creation, and in flesh and blood He levered it back to where it was intended to be. No one helped Him; it was done absolutely by God manifest in human flesh. God has undertaken not only to repair the damage, but in Jesus Christ the human race is put in a better condition than when it was originally designed.” (in The Shadow of an Agony from the Quotable Oswald Chambers).
The Babyhood of the Son of God. The greatest surprise in the world remains that God chose to become a baby. We should never ever get over this surprise! The human life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, did not begin as an adult when he started his public ministry. Jesus took 30 years to get to that point. The Son of God became a human being as a tiny baby. So today we rejoice as we celebrate the Babyhood of the Son of God. Bow down and worship – for this is your God!

For weeks if not months now we have been surrounded by Christmas music. It’s our acoustic wallpaper. Have you noticed how most Christmas pop songs are just about Father Christmas or Santa Claus or a romanticised ideal of having a happy time at Christmas? But you may be able to think of just a few which get closer to the true meaning of Christmas. Some very well-known songs are about a longing for peace.

e,g, John Lennon and Yoko Ono – Happy Christmas – war is over (1971)
“A very merry Christmas And a Happy New Year,
Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
War is over If you want it War is over now”

Jona Lewie’s 1980 song, Stop the Cavalry
“Hey, Mr. Churchill comes over here To say we’re doing splendidly
But it’s very cold out here in the snow Marching to and from the enemy
Oh I say it’s tough, I have had enough Can you stop the cavalry?”

The other evening I caught a bit of programme of the greatest ever Christmas songs and I watched Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing their version of Little Drummer Boy back in Crosby’s 1977 television special, Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. You may remember the version Terry Wogan and Aled Jones recorded for Children in Need a few years back.

Bing Crosby sings the traditional song.
“Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
A new-born king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum

Then David Bowie joins in, singing new words.
“Peace on Earth, can it be
Years from now, perhaps we’ll see
See the day of glory
See the day, when men of good will
Live in peace, live in peace again.
Peace on earth – can it be?”

Christmas peace. Of course there wasn’t much peace around at the first Christmas. Not for a heavily pregnant mother making a long and tiring journey when she was about to give birth. Not when there wasn’t space in the guest room and she had to spend the night in the part of the house where the livestock were sheltering. Not for a baby conceived outside of marriage. No peace when the family with the new-born baby had to escape to Egypt and the infant grow up in exile. There was very little peace in the Christmas story.

And if you look at the way most people celebrate Christmas, it’s hardly a season of peace! Every year there is the busyness. All the shopping and the queueing, chasing around for all the presents. The challenge so many people set themselves of having the “perfect” Christmas day, getting all the food just right and with the pressure to make sure that everybody especially the children have a happy time.

I wonder if you have seen the 1996 film Jingle All the Way. It stars the Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger as a father determined to get this year’s must have toy, “Turbo-Man” as a Christmas present for his young son. Unfortunately the toys are in short supply and the film is the story of one father’s rollercoaster quest to buy his son’s dream toy, in fierce competition with another equally committed father. The happy ending is spoiled when it emerges that in all the panic to get his son’s gift, Arnie has forgotten to buy a present for his wife! The film is very funny but also very sad, because it is too perfect a picture of real life for so many families at this time of year!

For very many people, this Christmas is even less peaceful than usual. Some are suffering from Covid, or from the after-effects of Covid. Some will unexpectedly be spending Christmas in hospital. Some will be grieving and mourning for loved ones who have died since we last had a “normal” Christmas. Some have had to scale down their celebrations because they have lost their jobs. Covid omicron has forced many families to change their plans. And many people are anxious and afraid, of becoming ill or of what restrictions might be coming our way from the Government in the New Year. We all need to receive God’s peace for ourselves especially this Christmastime.

Peace on earth – can it be? The first Christmas may not have seemed very peaceful. And Christmas today does not often seem a very peaceful time. But peace is indeed at the heart of the Christmas message. Peace was the message of the Angels to the shepherds.

10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’
Peace on earth because God’s favour rests on us. The birth of the Son of God will bring everlasting peace to the world. The Peace foretold in Isaiah 11 where
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

The Peace which Jesus brings is not just an absence of conflict, although that would be nice! God’s peace is wholeness, tranquillity and contentment. God’s peace is not only reconciliation between men of war. More important than that, Jesus brings us peace with God, reconciliation between God and human beings. God will remove the barriers which keep sinful human beings apart from the Righteous and Holy God. Peace on earth will come because everybody knows God.

Hark! The herald angels sing: ‘Glory to the new-born King!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!’

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Jesus the Prince of Peace will bring us everlasting peace. This gift of peace is the heart of the Christmas message. The peace of Christmas is the peace which comes from our relationship with God. We need to make space to experience this peace for ourselves. We could read one of the accounts of the nativity in Matthew’s Gospel or Luke’s Gospel. You might even like to sing a carol or two by yourself and spend a bit of time in prayer some time today.

And as we enjoy all the blessings of God’s peace we should also share the real meaning of Christmas with other people so they can receive God’s peace for themselves too. Through the Christmas cards we send and the presents we give. Through our decorations and lights. Through singing carols and helping our friends to understand the carols they already know. Through acts of loving kindness and taking care of our neighbours. And just by wishing friends and strangers a happy and joyful and peaceful Christmas. We should share God’s peace with others.

Let me give you a parable. Quite a few years ago now it was 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon a few weeks before Christmas at Lakeside Shopping centre. I was surrounded by people who mostly were not enjoying their Christmas shopping experience. People rushing from place to place. Grumpy children. Stroppy children. Stressed mothers. Some families really enjoying their Christmas shopping outing but more really not enjoying themselves at all!!

I was sitting in the window seat in Starbucks (back when it used to be upstairs) writing a sermon. And somebody tapped on the window. I turned to see that I was being greeted by a 5′ furry teddy bear. Because it was the other side of plate glass I couldn’t hear what the bear was saying and the bear couldn’t hear me. And as you can imagine, it is quite hard to lipread a 5’ furry teddy bear. So the bear just waved at me, I waved back. The other customers in the café and the people walking along outside thought both I and the bear were completely crazy. But just for a few moments I smiled at the bear and the bear smiled back at me and it really did feel a bit more like Christmas. Because the bear wasn’t in any hurry to go anywhere. Nothing was going to deter that bear from its mission to spread joy and happiness at Christmas. Then the mother at the next table started screaming at her badly behaved child and I went back to wondering if anybody really experiences the peace of Christmas at Christmas?

For years that 5’ furry bear used to spend December at Lakeside cheering people up. How much more should Christians take every opportunity, not only to experience God’s peace at Christmas for ourselves but also to share the peace of Christmas with everybody we meet!
14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’

It’s finally beginning to feel a lot like Christmas now. Not just with all the carols and Christmas songs playing everywhere, but especially with all the Christmas lights shining and twinkling so brightly. Our road has risen to that challenge especially well this year, with reindeer and snowmen and gingerbread men and icicles as well as lights flashing in all colours.
This fashion of lighting up the outsides of our houses at Christmas time may be relatively new, but Christians have been lighting candles at Christmas for almost two thousand years. Some people think we do this to remember the star of Bethlehem which lit the way for the Wise Men to find their way to Mary and Joseph in the stable. But of course the real light of Bethlehem was not the star but the baby in the manger.
Silent night, holy night! Shepherds first saw the light,
Heard resounding clear and long, Far and near, the angel-song:
‘Christ the Redeemer is here, Christ the Redeemer is here.’
Jesus was the light the prophets had been looking forward to. God himself is light. God spoke into the darkness and there was light. Adam and Eve’s disobedience had brought the darkness of sin into the world. But in many places the Old Testament pointed forward to the one who would bring God’s light shining into the darkness once again.
Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. ….
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

Isaiah 42 6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Jesus Christ himself was the fulfilment of all those wonderful promises. He did not just bring God’s light. Jesus himself WAS the Light of the World. Jesus was the Son of God, the Word of God and the creator of everything that exists.
John 1 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Jesus himself first brought life and light into the world. And he was the light shining in the darkness.
God of God, Light of light, Lo, He abhors not the virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten, not created:
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.
There is a great truth. However dark darkness may become, it cannot extinguish even the tiniest light. And this message of light in the darkness is one the world really needs to hear this Christmas time. For all kinds of reasons the world is feeling like a very dark place to very many people, especially this year. We need to celebrate the light which shines in the darkness and the darkness can never put it out.
John’s Gospel explains the mystery of Jesus’s birth like this.
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. ….

When Jesus came into the world he did not just bring light. He WAS the light.
On two separate occasions Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world.” And he made this wonderful promise to his followers.
John 8:12 … “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus was the light of God shining in the darkness, bringing life and wisdom and holiness and peace.
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail, the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings,
Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born king!
So we light our candles and switch on our Christmas lights to celebrate the Light of Christ coming into this dark world. For the time being the light is shining in the darkness. And we must allow that light to shine through us. Jesus said to his followers, “You are the light of the world.” But one day the light of Christ will be the only light we need. The book of Revelation gives us this wonderful pictures of heaven.
Revelation 21 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
In the heavenly country bright Need they no created light;
Thou its light, its joy, its crown, Thou its sun, which goes not down.
There forever may we sing Hallelujahs to our King.

No more sun. No more stars. We won’t need candles or twinkling Christmas lights any more.
Revelation 22 3 … The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.
May the light which shines in the darkness, which brings life to all human beings, shine brightly into our lives this Christmas time.

O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM, How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight.

This morning I want to take our thinking right back to the very beginning of the Christmas story. Not with the manger in the stable in Bethlehem – that was the end of the Christmas story. Not with Mary’s long journey on a donkey, not even with the announcement of Jesus’s birth when as the angel Gabriel visited Mary foretelling the miraculous event.
The story of Christmas did not begin on earth at all, but in heaven at the very throne of Almighty God. Christmas began in a dialogue we could never comprehend between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And to get the full story of Christmas we need to start at that very beginning, which is why our Christmas text this morning is 2 Corinthians 8:9.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.”
In this single sentence, the apostle Paul sums up the whole story of Christ’s incarnation and the way God brings us salvation.
“…though He was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.”

Here is the story of Christmas. And Paul begins, as does John’s Gospel, not with the baby in the manger but with the cosmic Christ.
THOUGH HE WAS RICH
The person Paul is talking about is Jesus of Nazareth, but that person had existed long before the baby was born, long before even time began.
Who was that person? He was God the Son. John’s Gospel gives him the title, “the Word”.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
And what had that person, the Word done? He had created all things, absolutely everything.
John 1:3-5 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
Evermore and Evermore
There are many prophecies about the Messiah in the Book of Isaiah
Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
THAT is the person we are talking about as Christians – the Word of God, God the Son. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. If our thoughts about Christmas don’t begin in heaven with the Cosmic Christ, we have missed half the story!
Though He was rich
YET FOR YOUR SAKES HE BECAME POOR
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
In the manger we find the Word without a word – not so much squeezing a quart into a pint pot as squeezing an entire OCEAN into a pint pot!
The ancient Christian hymn quoted by Paul in our reading this morning puts it this way.
Philippians 2:6-7 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
New Living Translation 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
Christ chose not to cling on to His divinity but that doesn’t mean He ceased to be God. He remained fully God as well as being fully human. There was no loss of power or glory – just a change of status as the king of kings and Lord of Lords became a tiny human baby. Think about the poverty of Christ’s birth and his childhood. Born in a filthy stable, not a palace. Brought up as a refugee in Egypt and then in an insignificant village in the back of beyond called Nazareth. One of a despised race, in a country ruled by an occupying army in the shadow of the mighty Roman Empire. Think of the shame for Jesus, being conceived before his mother Mary was married. Humanly speaking, Jesus grew up poor.
But there is a second side to the poverty Jesus experienced, summed up in a simple sentence, “Christmas is a Son away from home.” Christmas is not just about the birth of a baby. It is about the Heavenly Father saying goodbye to His only begotten Son. God the Son embraced poverty at the incarnation, but so also did God the Father by sending His Son into the world, the Son who had been once with the Father since before time began.
Have you ever said goodbye to somebody you love, maybe at a station or an airport? That is the kind of poverty the Godhead experienced at the incarnation – poverty of relationship as the Son distanced Himself from the Father and the Spirit to become a tiny baby laid in a manger. That is how much God loves us!
And just why did God the Son leave all the glory of heaven and the presence of the Father and the Spirit? Not for their benefit, but for ours.
Though Christ was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor
SO THAT THROUGH HIS POVERTY YOU MIGHT BECOME RICH
The riches Christ has are not material but spiritual. So the riches He brings to us are not material but spiritual.
Galatians 4:4-7 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
As Christ shared the poverty of the human separation from God, so he shares with us the riches of a relationship with Almighty God as our Father. God the Son became a human being so that men and women could become God’s children too.
John 1:11-13 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Christ makes us rich by making us children of God. Christ became what we are, so that we might share in what He is.
2 Peter 1:3-4 3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For a time God the Son let go of the relationship he had enjoyed with Father and Spirit since before time began, so that men and women like you and I can share in that relationship. That is the heart of the message of Christmas, Son separated from Father in order to reconcile fallen human beings with Creator God.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.”
Message: Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich.
This is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. So how should we respond to that amazing grace which comes to us through Jesus? Three simple things.
GENEROSITY
The context of 2 Corinthians 8:9 is all about generous giving to meet the needs of other Christians. There are lots of opportunities to give at this time of year. Giving to the work of the church and to Christian mission, and giving to those who are poor or needy, homeless or marginalised. Now is a good time to remember the work of CHESS and Chelmsford Food Bank. Christmas reminds us just how much God loves us, God who loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not die but have eternal life. Since God loves us so much, we should be generous to people in need out of deep gratitude for all God has done for us.
2 Corinthians 8:7 But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
Generosity and HUMILITY
The context of Paul’s words in Philippians about Christ emptying himself is an appeal for humility.
Philippians 2:2-7 Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing,
“He came down to earth from heaven, Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable, And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor and meek and lowly Lived on earth our Saviour holy.”
In His earthly life, Christ showed God’s love for the lost, the outcasts, the tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the criminals, the drop-outs, the “sinners”. Jesus was never too proud to help real people with real problems. Nor should we be. The Poverty of the Son of God challenges us to humility and humble service.
Generosity, humility and REJOICING
The message of Christmas is,
Luke 2:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

“Joy to the Lord, the World rejoice, Let earth receive Her King.”
Jesus Christ the Son of God was rich, yet He became poor. He became a human being, a baby laid in a manger, so that we might share in the riches of His relationship with the Father and become God’s children too. This is the message of Christmas which fills us with joy when we come to know God as our Father, just as the shepherds were filled with joy, glorifying and praising God! Generosity, humility and joy!
Though He was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich.”

Deitrich Bonhoeffer once said, “If Jesus is not true God how could he help us? If he is not true man, how could he help us?” There are two equal and opposite errors people can make when they are thinking about Jesus Christ. The first is to think that because Jesus was completely human he couldn’t really have been divine – He was a man but He wasn’t really God. That is the mistake philosophers and theologians tend to make and bishops make the headlines for saying. But the opposite error is much more common I think. Ordinary Christians have no problems believing that Jesus is God. The difficulties come when we think about Jesus who was God also being human. People end up thinking that because Jesus was God he couldn’t have been a human being just like you and me. Just how human COULD Jesus the Son of God have been? That is our question for this morning. How human was Jesus? Most of us are happy to take it on faith that
JESUS WAS FULLY GOD
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus was “the Word”, God, the embodiment of the whole of the Old Testament of Law and Prophecy and Wisdom
John 114 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So “the Word” became a human being, became a human body, became a human person.
The Message translation puts it this way.
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out,true from start to finish.
This was the fulfilment of the promises the angel made to Mary about Jesus’s birth.
Luke 1 30 But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,
V 35. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
So Jesus was truly and entirely God. Here was the promise the angel made to Joseph.
Matthew 1 23 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).
Jesus was God with us. Not God looking down from heaven, aloof and safe from the perils of the world, but God who is “one of us” and “one with us.”
For more than a thousand years the Israelites prayed in their daily prayer the Shema, “Hear O Israel the Lord your God, the Lord is one.” Yet writing to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes this about Jesus,
Romans 9 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Paul the Jew came to call Jesus, “Christ who is God over all, forever praised.” Because Jesus was indeed FULLY GOD. But at the same time
JESUS WAS FULLY HUMAN
There was something entirely unique about the way God created human beings. The Bible tells us that people are created “in God’s image,” to be like God. So it was that, from all the creatures, it was a human being that God could become.
John 114 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God Himself was born as a human being! Paul begins the explanation of the gospel he preached in his letter to the Romans like this.
Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have the proof that Jesus was the Son of God because he was raised from the dead. And we have the proof that Jesus was a human being because he was descended from great King David. Matthew’s Gospel traces the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham to Christ, to demonstrate that Jesus is related to every Jew who ever lived. And in Luke’s gospel the genealogy runs from Adam to Christ to emphasise that Jesus is related to every person who has ever lived! We may wonder what those lists of names are there for. They are there to demonstrate the humanity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus was a descendent of Adam and a descendent of David, just as human as any of us.
Even in the first century, a heresy arose called “Docetism.” This was the false teaching that Jesus wasn’t really human, he had just appeared to be human. You can find the same mistake today in some of the cults and some New Age teachings. The false idea that Jesus was God but because God is infinite and holy and and eternal and transcendent, Jesus could not possibly be associated with created beings, especially not sinful humans like us. Parts of the New Testament were written to contradict this heresy and stress that Jesus was indeed completely human.
1 John 4 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
Jesus was fully human, just like you and me in every respect! The letter to the Hebrews makes this very clear.
Hebrews 214 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. … 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
It was necessary for Jesus to be completely human so that he could accomplish salvation for human beings.
Hebrews 4 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
It was vital that Jesus was fully human for Him to be able to represent us before God and help us even now.
The fourth century theologian Gregory of Nazianzus explained it this way. “What Christ has not assumed He has not healed.”
And not only was Jesus fully human.
JESUS WAS TYPICALLY HUMAN.
In some respects you and I are not typically human. Living in the Western World in the 21st Century our lives will be longer and safer and more comfortable in every way than those of our grandparents, or their grandparents, or the vast majority of human beings who have ever lived and certainly anybody who lived in Bible times! Jesus was much more typical of ordinary human beings than we are! Jesus began his life as a refugee.
Matthew 213 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Jesus would have felt more at home in the war zones of Syria and Yemen or parts of Africa than in North Springfield. At Christmas time it is good to remember folk around the world less fortunate than ourselves, because Jesus shared their experiences of life more than He shared ours.

JESUS WAS POOR NOT RICH

We have comfortable secure homes. We have enough to eat and better health care than any previous generations. Compared to billions of people in this world we are very rich. But the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. Jesus would feel more at home amongst homeless people than amongst home-owners.
2 Corinthians 8 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Jesus embraced not only spiritual but also literal material poverty. Again the Message translation: You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—in one stroke he became poor and we became rich
JESUS WAS POWERLESS, NOT POWERFUL
We have so much control over so many aspects of our lives. So many millions have no control at all because they are slaves or refugees, or indeed a hundred years ago simply because they were female. For most of His life Jesus was obscure and marginalised.
Matthew 223 (Joseph) went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
You might have wondered where in the Old Testament the prophets mentioned Nazareth. And the answer is, nowhere. Nazareth was an obscure and insignificant little village. And the Old Testament had made clear that the Messiah would emerge from the back of beyond. Jesus was a nobody from a one-horse town, with no breeding, no respectability, and an accent which would mark him out as uncultured and unrefined – just one of the plebs. Jesus would feel more at home among the exploited and downtrodden peasant farmers of the third world than He would in any city today. Jesus was just a typical human being.

JESUS WAS NOT CUSHIONED – JESUS SUFFERED JUST LIKE WE SUFFER
The prophet Isaiah foretold so many aspects of the birth and the ministry of Jesus as we thought about last week. But Isaiah also foretold the ways Jesus would suffer.
Isaiah 53 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

The Son of God would have no special protection in this cruel world. He would share in all its sufferings, the sufferings of the exploited, mistreated, ignored and marginalised people who have always made up the vast majority of the world ever since the fall. Jesus would be the victor, but first he was the victim. However hard our own lives may be, Jesus Christ the suffering servant lived a much more typical human life than any of us ever will.
In the third century Athanasius of Alexandria wrote this. “Christ became what we are so that He could make us what He is.”
Jesus had to share all the misery and all the suffering of humanity so that by His death on the cross he could redeem humanity. He shared our humanity so that we could share His divinity. And because he has suffered with us, Jesus understands all our problems. He has faced all the challenges of life which we face.
Hebrews 4 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Jesus can save us and Jesus can help us. All we need to do is ask. He is only ever a prayer away. So how human was Jesus? Fully human! Completely God and completely man! Immanuel – God with us! Bow down and worship, for this is your God!

WISE MEN SEEK HIM STILL
There weren’t three of them, and they weren’t Kings. Ancient traditions actually suggest there were twelve of them, twelve Magi, twelve Wise Men. We remember them because they travelled that very long and hazardous journey, just to find Jesus.
Psalm 14:1 tells us, “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” At the first Christmas these Wise Men certainly weren’t fools! They knew that God exists and they came looking for him. And if anyone today is looking for God they can find Him in exactly the same place and the same person — in Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If you are not sure there is a God or if God really exists — look at Jesus. Look at his miraculous birth. Take a good long look at his life. Think about his teaching. Look at his miracles. Look at his death. Look at his glorious resurrection. God does exist. His name is Jesus.
Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10 both say, “Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom.” Those Wise Men respected God. They held God in awe — they feared God. And so the Bible tells us in Matthew 2:11 that this is how they reacted when they came into the presence of baby Jesus.
“On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh.”
“We have come to worship Him,” they said. No wonder Herod was furious. You pay respect to a king, you serve a king, but you only worship God! But the Wise Men had recognized who Jesus is, the Son of God, so they gave Him the honour and glory and praise and worship which is his right! And it is the same today, two millennia later. History has seen many great philosophers and moral teachers, and many great leaders, but the whole world counts its years from the birth of Jesus Christ. This is because, out of all these great figures through history who receive our admiration, only one is worthy of our worship and our praise, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
“Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of frankincense and of myrrh.”
THE GIFTS THE WISE MEN BROUGHT

GOLD — a fitting gift for a King. But the baby in the manger was much more than just a human King. He was no less than the King of heaven. Jesus was called Emmanuel which means ‘God with us’, God born as a human being to bring the world back to Himself.
FRANKINCENSE — a fitting gift for a priest, someone who represents men and women before God. There is no-one better to bring us to God than Jesus the Son of God. And no-one else is able to bring us to God but Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
MYRRH — a very strange gift indeed — the pain-killing medicine used to anoint bodies for burial. Yet myrrh was a fitting gift for Jesus the Saviour who himself said that he “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as the ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45) dying on the cross so that we could be forgiven.
No wonder the Wise Men bowed down to worship that tiny baby. He was Jesus, the King, the Priest and the Saviour. The Wise Men made their long, hard, dangerous journey to follow the star that brought them to the stable to worship Jesus. Their gifts were only tokens of their allegiance and their obedience. They laid down their lives with their gifts. And that same Jesus Christ is worthy of the same response from us today — our worship, our trust, our commitment.
The Saviour of the world can still be found. Wise men and women and children seek him still.
What gifts can we give to God in 2019?
I can … (things you can do)

I am … (things about you)

I have … (things you have)

I will … (things you want to do to please God)

Let us all offer our gifts to God in 2019

Here is our short thought from Christmas morning.

Luke 2 . 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 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.

Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room in our lives for Jesus.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. But it is so easy to forget whose birthday we are celebrating. We send each other cards and give each other presents. We have a big party dinner – but whose birthday is it??

God can be squeezed out of Christmas. We can be too caught up in the tree and the decorations and the lights and the tinsel. Or in the cards and the presents. Or in the turkey and the sprouts and the Christmas pudding and the mince pies.
Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room in our lives for Jesus.
THOU DIDST LEAVE THY THRONE and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home there was found no room For Thy holy nativity:
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus! There is room in my heart for Thee.

It is great when we make space for Jesus at Christmas. It is so good to remember whose birthday we are celebrating. But it is even better when we remember Jesus all year around. God longs – and deserves – to be at the centre of all our lives, all the time.

Years ago there was an ADVERT – “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas.”

Even more true – God is for life, not just for Christmas
Jesus can so easily be squeezed out of our lives. Busy jobs. Busy family. Sports and hobbies and entertainments can all get in the way of us following Jesus. The inn did not have any room for Mary and Joseph, and lots of people don’t have room for Jesus in their lives either.
Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room in our lives for Jesus.

Words from IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER (it’s CAROL 10 on the sheets)
What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him— Give my heart.
She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room in our lives for Jesus.

If you search the internet for Christmas Commandments you will find all kinds of wonderful lists online to help you get the most out of Christmas.

“10 commandments for a calmer Christmas.” Don’t seek perfection. Love yourself. Don’t try to keep everybody happy. Ask for help. Be grateful Don’t overcommit yourselves. Don’t compete with your neighbours.

“10 commandments of Christmas morning.” Wake up before the kids to enjoy a moment of calm before the storm. (I’m not sure the person who wrote that was actually a parent!)
Each person is responsible for keeping track of their own presents, gift cards and cash
Parents and grandparents – proudly wear or display any gifts given to you by your children! But NEVER compare gifts with other people on Facebook or Instagram! And don’t forget to send Thank You cards

“10 Christmas food commandments” Don’t try to serve up Delia Smith’s perfect Christmas dinner. Not even Saint Delia’s turns out like that when she cooks it on Christmas day. Same goes for Nigella, And Jamie Oliver. And even Mary Berry. You don’t need 17 vegetables. Brussel sprouts are optional. Nobody has to wear a silly hat if they don’t want to. And you are allowed to eat trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day. It’s Christmas!

If you need them you can also easily find 10 Commandments for Christmas cards””10 Commandments for Christmas Lights” “10 Commandments for Christmas Decorations.” “10 Commandments for the perfect Christmas tree.” But to help us all remember the real meaning of Christmas, let me offer you my 10 Christmas Commandments which I have gleaned from different places over the years.

1. You shall not leave “Christ” out of Christmas, making it “Xmas.”
For centuries people have written Christmas as Xmas. But when they started doing this, they weren’t using the letter X but rather the same shaped Greek Letter chi which is the first letter of Christ in Greek. In fact from the earliest days of the church they usually put what looks to us like a letter P crossing the middle of the X and that was the Greek letter rho or R. Together that made the chi rho symbol, which are the first two letters of Christ. Over the years that got simplified to an X. But it’s not Xmas, it’s Christmas. It’s not Xmas – not X the unknown in some equation we have to solve, not X something mysterious and scary from the X-files. Not X a mistake we’ve crossed out. It’s Christmas!

Many years ago a christening was held by a very wealthy European family. Many guests were invited to the home for the occasion and came in the very latest fashionable garb. Their wraps and coats were carried to a bedroom and laid on the beds. After all the usual of conversation and commotion, they were ready for the christening ceremony and someone asked, “Where is the baby?” The nurse was sent upstairs to look and returned in distress. The baby was nowhere to be found! After several minutes search someone remembered that the child had last been seen lying on one of the beds, and after a frantic search the little child was found smothered dead under the wraps of the guests. The whole reason why they had come had been forgotten, neglected, and destroyed! This Christmas many will forget, neglect and even destroy the Christ child! He is smothered by the tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbon, and make-believe that surround the festive occasion . “There was no room for them in the inn.” Let’s not crowd Christ out of Christmas. It’s not X-mas, it’s CHRISTmas – there wouldn’t be a Christmas without Christ. You shall not leave “Christ” out of Christmas, making it “Xmas.”

2. You shall prepare your soul for Christmas.
Don’t spend so much on gifts that your soul is forgotten. Christmas is meant to be a religious celebration – not a secular orgy.
George Bernard Shaw wrote this: “I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas in these articles. It is an indecent subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject; a wasteful, disastrous subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blasphemous, and demoralizing subject. Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press; in its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred; and anyone who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages.”
HOW TRAGIC that Shaw threw out the baby with the bathwater. He saw the secular ways Christmas was celebrated and totally missed the spiritual reality. Don’t throw out the baby this Christmas. You shall prepare your soul for Christmas.

3. You shall not let Santa Claus replace Christ, robbing the day of its spiritual reality.
Hundreds of years ago, there lived a man named Nicholas (later known as St. Nicholas) who gave to others because he loved Jesus. He was born in A.D. 280, and when he was still just a boy his parents died, leaving him great wealth. Early in his life he devoted himself to serving God. Later, as a bishop in Asia, he gave away much of his wealth to the poor — especially to children. When he was persecuted and imprisoned, he always shared his meager provisions with the inmates. He believed that giving to the needy was the same as giving to Jesus. So from St Nicholas we get Santa Claus, Father Christmas.
But don’t be mistaken. Father Christmas was not God born as man – it was Jesus Christ who was “Immanuel, God with us.” Santa Claus never died for anyone! That was Jesus, so named because he would save his people from their sins, dying on the cross so that we could be forgiven. You shall not let Santa Claus replace Christ, robbing the day of its spiritual reality.
4. You shall not burden the shop girls or the postman with complaints and demands.
Somebody wrote this about Christmas. “Could Satan in his most malevolent mood have devised a worse system than where several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop clerks collapse with exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the Western world is made ill from overeating—all in the name of the lowly Jesus?”
Why is it that so many people are more impatient and bad-tempered and irritable in this season of good cheer than at any other time of year? As Christians we should set an example of what Christmas is really about.
HOW ARE YOU DOING with the Advent of Kindness we talked about a couple of weeks ago in our Family Service?
Smiling and thanking somebody who serves you and wishing them a happy Christmas?
Letting somebody in front of you in the queue in the shop or out in the traffic?
Smiling at a stranger?
Offering to help somebody?
Getting in touch with an old friend or relative?
Hiding a happy note for somebody to find?
Doing something unexpected for somebody?
Feeding the animals?
Embrace the Advent of Kindness. Just be nice to people!
You shall not burden the shop girls or the postman with complaints and demands.

5. You shall give yourself with your gift.
This will multiply the value of the gift a hundred fold, and the person who receives it will treasure it forever. An African boy listened carefully when the teacher explained why it is that Christians give presents to each other on Christmas Day. “The gift is an expression of our joy over the birth of Jesus and our friendship for each other,” she said. When Christmas Day came, the boy brought the teacher an amazingly beautiful sea shell. “Where did you ever find such a beautiful shell?” the teacher asked. The boy told her that there was only one spot where such extraordinary shells could be found–a certain bay several miles away.
“Why, it’s gorgeous,” said the teacher. “But you shouldn’t have gone all that way to get a gift for me.” His eyes brightening, the boy answered, “Long walk part of gift.” You shall give yourself with your gift.

6. You shall not value gifts received by their cost.
Even the least expensive may signify love, and that is more priceless than silver and gold. We can become preoccupied with what we receive at Christmas. We thought about that in our Family Service as well. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” “You’re far happier giving than getting.” (The Message Acts 20:35)
There was once a family that celebrated Christmas every year with a birthday party for Jesus. An extra chair of honor at the table became the family’s reminder of Jesus’ presence. A cake with candles, along with the singing of “Happy Birthday” expressed the family’s joy in Jesus presence. One year a Christmas afternoon visitor asked the five-year-old girl, “Did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?” After a moment’s hesitation, the girl answered, “No, but then it’s not my birthday!”
You shall not value gifts received by their cost.

7. You shall not neglect the needy.
Share your blessings with many who will go hungry and cold unless you are generous. The examples of St Nicholas and of Good King Wenceslas encourage us to give not only to our family and friends, who themselves are giving gifts to us, but also to give to strangers, to the poor and needy who can never give us anything in return. It is more blessed to give than to receive. If everybody were to give to Chess or to the Food Bank or to Open Doors just a fraction of what we spend on our own Christmas celebrations, even just a few pence out of every pound we have spent on cards and presents and decorations and food and drink, then many poor and homeless people and orphans would have a much happier Christmas!
Again we thought about this in our Advent of Kindness. How are you doing with
Donating a Christmas present to a charity?
Giving some old clothes to a charity?
Passing on old books to charity?
You shall not neglect the needy.

8. You shall not neglect your church.
Our church services highlight the true meaning of the season. The most important thing any of us can do to celebrate Christmas is to make time to worship Christ. So much more important than the presents or the dinner or the TV programmes, all of which can so easily be a disappointment to us. Jesus is the reason for the season. So remember to make time to pray, to come to church to worship, to give thanks to God for Jesus this Christmas. Something we have always done as a family is gather around the piano on Christmas Eve and sing some carols together. You shall not neglect your church.
9. You shall be as a little child.
Jesus said, You won’t be ready to enter into the kingdom of Heaven until you have become in spirit as a little child. Adults can be so detached, so critical, so cynical. Children still have the capacity for excitement, for joy, for wonder, for awe, for adoration. Children still have the ability to sing with the angels, to rejoice with the shepherds, to worship with the wise men. You shall be as a little child.
10 You shall give your heart to Christ.
As well as Christmas trees and baubles and tinsel, decorate your house with Christian symbols to remind you of the real meaning of the celebrations. Remember that the original reason for festive candles and lights was to remind us of the birth of Jesus, the light of the world.
So make sure that Jesus is at the top of your Christmas list. That’s the very best way we can thank God for the gift of His Son Jesus Christ, who came reveal God to us, to show us how to live and to die so we could be forgiven and receive God’s free gift of eternal life, life in all its fullness. We need to give ourselves to Him who gave Himself for us, to accept His love by trusting and loving and serving Christ in return.
The carol puts it like this.
Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.
And Christina Rossetti wrote these lines in her poem, “In the bleak midwinter”
What can I give him, Poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give him; Give my heart.
You shall give your heart to Christ this Christmas.

So here are my 10 Christmas Commandments.
1. You shall not leave “Christ” out of Christmas, making it “Xmas.”
2. You shall prepare your soul for Christmas.
3. You shall not let Santa Claus replace Christ, robbing the day of its spiritual reality.
4. You shall not burden the shop girls or the postman with complaints and demands.
5. You shall give yourself with your gift.
6. You shall not value gifts received by their cost.
7. You shall not neglect the needy.
8. You shall not neglect your church.
9. You shall be as a little child.
10 You shall give your heart to Christ.

Mary’s song of praise – the Magnificat. If we were good Anglicans we would say those words together every week as part of our worship. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Saviour Jesus Christ, Mary’s song of praise helps us to understand how Christmas fits into God’s wonderful plan of salvation.
The birth of Christ was the end – not the beginning

54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers.”

In Luke 3 the genealogy of Christ goes all the way back to ADAM!

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, their sin had consequences for all human beings ever since. But God’s words of judgment at that time also contained a promise. This is what God said to the serpent, the devil.

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

There is the promise – the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent’s head. God’s wonderful plan of salvation didn’t begin with the first Christmas. It began with Adam and Eve! As humanity wandered further and further from God the earth was polluted with violence. God purposed to wash everything clean in the FLOOD – but in his mercy God spared Noah and his family. And then God set his blessing on just one man and his descendants – ABRAHAM

12 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God promised to Abraham a land of his own, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Promises repeated to Abraham’s son Isaac, and his son Jacob. Mary realised that the birth of her son Jesus would be the fulfilment of all God’s promises to Abraham.

54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers.”

The mention of Abraham is significant for another reason. Abraham’s son Isaac was born as a result of a miracle. Abraham and Sarah were much too old to have children, but God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham believed God’s promise. And Mary believed the angel’s message that she would have a child even though she was still a virgin. Mary had faith in God in exactly the same way as Abraham had done.

500 years would go by and Abraham’s descendents would find themselves living as slaves in Egypt. So God raised up his servant Moses to lead his chosen people out of slavery and into the promised land. By great signs and wonders, by the ten plagues on Egypt and the Passover and the parting of the Red Sea God brought his people out of Egypt and gave them his covenant and His law, the Ten Commandments. They would be His special people, He would be their God and they would live under his blessing in the Land He had promised to Abraham.

Hundreds more years would pass and God gave Israel a special King, King David. And God renewed His promises to David
2 Samuel 7:8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. …. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’ ”

So it was that God’s plan of salvation unfolded over centuries and millennia. The birth of Christ was not the beginning of God’s plan of salvation but it’s culmination – the fulfilment of countless promises – the end of the preparations – the beginning of the end. We have 16 more days to wait until Christmas – the people of God had been waiting for Christ’s coming for 2000 years!!

No wonder Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was filled with praise!
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Christmas has become so secularised. Most of the festivities at Christmastime ignore the birthday we are celebrating. They have lost their religious content. But if Christmas has lost its CHRISTIAN content, it has even more lost its JEWISH content. We forget that Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah. He came first and foremost as Saviour of the Jews. And Christ came as part of God’s grand plan of salvation which Mary’s song of praise rightly remind us about.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers.”

The birth of Christ was the fulfilment of God’s promises

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

Jesus’s coming was the culmination of God’s plan of salvation. And it was the fulfilment of literally hundreds of prophecies which had looked forward to the Day when God would come to save His people! So many parts of the Old Testament pointed forward to the coming of Christ. All Jews looked forward to the day when God would act as King, punish those who were not His chosen People and establish His Kingdom in the world. The Messiah, God’s “anointed one” would be God’s agent to bring in His Kingdom. Many parts of Isaiah formed the basis for Jewish Ideas about what God’s Kingdom would be like when Messiah comes.

We have been thinking in our evening services about the promised of salvation in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Promises of God’s blessing coming from his holy mountain Mount Zion and his Holy City Jerusalem. Promises of the Messiah’s Banquet. You can catch up with those sermons online on the blog – the web address is on our service sheet. We can build up a picture of the kind of Saviour the Jews were expecting from these parts of Isaiah.

Isaiah 42:1-7 1 ¶ “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I
delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. …
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

And Isaiah promised that salvation would come through the child of a virgin. Mary knew that her unborn son would be the fulfilment of all those promises.

Isaiah 7:13-14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be
with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Some people point to the fact that Jesus’s birth fulfilled so very many Old Testament prophecies and they use that fact to prove that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. They point to the Virgin Birth and use that as proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be, the Saviour of the world. I would rather look at things the other way round. I would rather start from the person Jesus was and the things that He did. I would prefer to start with Jesus’s words of wisdom and his miraculous deeds which reveal His holy character. I would prefer to look at the historical fact of His glorious resurrection from the dead! These prove to me that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, much more than any prophecies about His birth. And these prove to me that the Bible account of the Virgin Birth is true. Since Jesus’s life is astonishing and unique, we would be very surprised if his birth had NOT been very special and different.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

So Christ did not just appear to be Saviour of the world out of nowhere! The birth of Jesus was the climax in God’s masterplan of salvation which had been unfolding for hundreds of generations! And that birth and even tiny details of the birth were foretold not only by Isaiah but by Jeremiah and Micah and Hosea and in so many places in the Old Testament.

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

Mary’s song of praise the Magnificat reminds us Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all of God’s promises to Abraham and to the Israelites and to David. Christ fulfils the Old Covenant and brings a New Covenant, sealed not with the sacrifices of animals but in His own precious blood. At His first coming Christ has fulfilled so many of the prophecies of the Old Testament and all the remaining prophecies will be fulfilled at his glorious Second Coming!

But then Mary’s song of praise also reminds us of another very important truth about Christmas.
The birth of Christ was Good News for the Poor

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

Christ comes to turn the world upside-down! OR more accurately, to bring justice to an upside down world by turning it the right way up again! This was also what God had promised through the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 11:1 ¶ A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and of
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the LORD- 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
Decisions for the poor of the earth! In many ways Mary’s song of praise echoes the song of another celebrated mother from the Old Testament. Hannah was the mother of the first great prophet Samuel. Samuel himself was a miracle baby. Hannah was infertile but God gave her a son. So in some ways Mary herself was similar to Hannah. And Hannah sang a song of praise to God which we read in 1 Samuel chapter 2 which also focussed on God’s salvation coming to the poor and the weak.
4 ‘The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more.
….. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.
8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and makes them inherit a throne of honour. ‘For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; on them he has set the world.
9 He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.

God shows special care for the poor and the weak and the marginalised and the powerless. Hannah sang about that good news and then so did Mary.

In Jesus’s first sermon, at Nazareth, He quoted from Isaiah 61
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

That was the thing that really annoyed respectable rich Jews about Jesus. They wanted to keep the blessings of God’s Kingdom for themselves, but Jesus offered those blessings to everybody. Tax collectors, prostitutes, even Gentiles (those who were not Jews at all), received God’s love and forgiveness rather than the religious but self-righteous Pharisees. Good news for the poor and the blind and the prisoners. I learned something new this week which I had never noticed before. After that sermon in Nazareth, we don’t find Jesus returning to his home town anywhere else in the Gospels. That message about God’s good news being for the poor was so unpopular that Jesus burned his bridges preaching it! He couldn’t go back home again. This message about God caring for the poor was so controversial!

Luke 6 – Luke’s record of the Beatitudes
20 Looking at his disciples, (Jesus) said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh …..

The birth of Christ is good news for the poor! So it is good to remember the poor at Christmas. We help in a number of ways from Operation Christmas child to Open Doors through to CHESS and the Food Bank. And a number of the ladies of the church have been making up parcels and giving them to homeless folk around the town. If you want to know more about that talk to Shilpi and Pauline and Jo. Wonderful work! At this time of Christmas it is important to remember that we have so much and many others have so little. Perhaps the real reason Christ is squeezed out of Christmas by so many people is that they think they have no need of him. Riches can blind us to the mystery of the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Are we the hungry Christ comes to fill with good things? Or are we the rich He sends away empty? The Christ who was born as the fulfilment of God’s masterplan of salvation and in fulfilment of so many prophecies is the Christ who came for the poor and meek and lowly. We remember him and honour Him as we remember them and honour them at Christmas time.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

“With the poor and meek and lowly, lived on earth our Saviour Holy.”