Christmas

1  The Word was pleased as Man with man to dwell.

Everyone in the world is looking for God.

Some deny it,

but there is still something

to which they give their greatest devotion.

There is always something or someone,

in which we place our greatest fear, love, and trust.

Where do you find your God?

Your answer has a great effect upon your life:

your spiritual life, and your eternal life.

Psalm 19 says: The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

The Creation itself is evidence of our Maker.

St. Paul wrote about the Gentiles who did not have God’s Law, yet by nature did the things in the Law.

So our own consciences are evidence of our God.

Most people read the Bible and consider it to be

a rule-book, instructions for how to please God

and reach eternal life.

We can look for God and find Him in many places.

But there is one place where He wants you to know Him, because only when you know Him there,

will you have the forgiveness of sins, peace of heart amid the sorrow of this world, and eternal rest that so many hope for.

I warn you: finding Him here is a stumbling block to some,

who insist that God must fit

whatever makes sense to their reason.

But please, hear Him out. You will not be disappointed.

Those who wish to have the spiritual blessings of God,

must find and worship Him as the infant born of Mary,

swaddled and laid to rest in a manger, in Bethlehem, a little more than 2,000 years ago.

Anyone who will not find his god there, in the manger,

will never be certain that God loves him, nor will have the forgiveness of sins, nor eternal life.

Jesus said,

Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.

Indeed, we are blessed beyond measure. He is the Word of God made flesh.

The Word was pleased as Man with man to dwell.

So that His own world did not know Him. So that His own people might be born of God.

2  John 1:1–14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

2.1  So that His own world did not know Him.

For your god to be the true God,

He must be this little infant Jesus.

He doesn’t look like a god.

Even after so many years, people deny that He could have been

conceived by the Holy Spirit.

That kind of thing doesn’t happen. But it did.

So this God of ours is hidden behind His humanity.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail th’incarnate Deity!
Pleased as Man with man to dwell;
Jesus, our Immanuel.

When He was born, it caused quite a stir

among the angels, between Mary and Joseph, among the shepherds, and the people around Bethlehem who heard it.

It also caused a stir a bit later

when the magi had visited Herod the Great,

king of Judea under Caesar Augustus.

Herod believed enough to fear this child,

to fear that he would challenge Herod’s kingship.

But Herod did not believe that the child was God-in-flesh.

We’re not told of any others who knew about Jesus’ birth.

Or who cared.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

You’d think that an event like the birth of our Creator

would have the whole world’s attention.

Why didn’t it?

Because it pleased God

that Jesus should be born in great humility.

Jesus was pleased as Man with man to dwell.

He was also pleased to do this

without the use of His full glory and honor.

He had been in the form of God,

possessing all of the divine traits and qualities

of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Phil. 2:7)

What a disguise!

You may have heard stories about princes and princesses

who disguise themselves and live for a while among their subjects,

to know what their lives are like.

But if you washed their faces, removed their wigs, and such:

many would recognize their prince or princess.

But when the Son of God came to earth,

He clothed Himself in more than make-up and a costume.

He claimed a human nature as His own,

and humanity has been an essential part of Him ever since.

There’s no mask to lift, no wig to remove, no makeup to wash off.

Mary’s baby is truly a human infant:

diapers, burps and all.

Mary’s baby is just as truly the Son of God.

It was the perfect disguise,

because it was no disguise at all.

Jesus is a human being.

The divinity of Jesus could be known only one way:

by believing the message about Him.

Even if you had been with Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem,

you still could not have known your God

without faith in His Word.

The shepherds heard the Word of God from the angels,

and so they recognized their Savior and God

by following that Word and believing it.

The same goes for Mary and Joseph.

We also have God’s Word.

It identifies that baby for us:

Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God the Father. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

If you want to know the true God,

if you want to know Him in His grace and mercy,

instead of only His almighty wrath,

then receive the Word of God concerning Him.

Our text and Gospel lesson tells us

that the Word of God became flesh, and dwelt among us.

The human author, John, actually saw Him with eyes of faith:

we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Don’t be offended that faith is needed to know Him truly.

Instead, believe the Word from heaven, and know that the little baby boy

is almighty God, come to save you.

2.2  So that His own people might be born of God.

The Word was pleased as Man with man to dwell,

so that His own people might be born of God.

God doesn’t want anyone to perish in our sins,

and yet He must remain perfectly just and righteous.

So He set about to bear the world’s guilt in our place,

suffering Himself,

the death that justice demands from us.

Through this exchange,

He is cursed for our sins,

and we are justified for His righteousness.

The Law is upheld, and every sin is punished.

But we who were guilty:

are redeemed and released, adopted as God’s children, and given heaven as our inheritance.

Though we were born into sin, for death,

God arranged to give us a new birth into righteousness, for life.

One thing was needed to make this happen:

our Substitute under the Law.

So you see why the Son of God became a man. He was born to live our life as we should have lived,

and to die our death as we deserve to die.

The great miracle of Christmas made it possible.

Our Maker was born on this earth,

and many who heard the message did not believe it.

Even many Jews, who had no excuse at all, did not believe it: He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Yet the facts do not depend upon whether anyone believes:

Jesus Christ was truly born,

both our brother and our God.

He also completed His task on earth,

so our brother is now also our Redeemer.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

He grants us this new birth through water and the Spirit:

Baptism truly saves us, through faith in His Word.

It’s the watery womb,

where the Holy Spirit’s power gives us new birth.

In holy Baptism, God joins us forever to the cross of His Son,

whose death becomes ours, as we are adopted as sons forever.

There’s a part of every one of us

that would like to think this all proves we’re good people.

God wouldn’t go to such trouble,

unless He could see some spark of goodness in us, something worth saving, right?

Wrong!

It wasn’t anything in us that prompted God’s love.

He was motivated only by His own gracious nature.

Whenever we’ve thought that God loves us because of us,

then our faith was misplaced, and we were not even Christians.

Our salvation is only in God,

only from God,

and only through Jesus Christ, who is both God and Man.

This is a deep comfort for us.

In our weakness, we stumble to temptation, we grow weary and faint, we have doubts.

But Jesus is not weak: He is the Son of God.

He overcame temptations. Even in His weariness, He overcame through the cross. Never once did He doubt.

Since our redemption was all accomplished by Him,

and not even the smallest part because of us,

we can be fully certain that we also are redeemed.

This, my dear friends, is the blessing of Christmas.

The Word was pleased as Man with man to dwell,

so that His own people might be born of God. We are His people.

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!