Sermon Tone Analysis

Advent 2010 #1

For Unto Us

Isaiah 9:6a

Luke 2:11

Christmastime is here …

I love this time of the year.

Though many in the world would like to see our celebration of this season minimized, even attach allegations of prejudice on this time, this is a wonderful, the MOST wonderful time of the year.

It can seem a barren time of year, the leaves are gone, the ground is hard and infertile.

Sometimes ice or snow covers the ground and it can be both beautiful and ugly, both blessed and dreadful, it can seem dreary and hopeless at the same time.

We do not know exactly the season or date at which Christ was born.

Initially in the 4th Century they celebrated, Birth, Magi, and his Baptism in the early part of January.

Eventually they began to celebrate Christmas on 25th December because that date had been a pagan celebration of the Sun winning over the darkness of winter.

So now the SON, S-O-N, had triumphed over the darkness of sin and they substituted his celebration for that pagan celebration.

So in the bleak midwinter, Jesus Christ has come.

When the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, when the night has gotten its longest and darkest, we celebrate the Son of God.

In Luke 2:11 the angels say /"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 lying in a manger."/

Those words take us immediately to Jesus, but they take us back further, as fulfillment of prophesy, to Isaiah 9.

This season I want to return to look at one of my favorite prophesies of the coming of Christ, Isaiah 9:6,7.

For the next month we will explore this passage as we celebrate this season of remembrance, proclamation, promise, and peace.

Today as we read from Isaiah 9, I wonder, do you find yourself in the midst of your own personal winter?

Are the leaves gone?

Does it seem that the ground has become hard and infertile?

Isaiah 9:1 says there will be /no more gloom for those who were in distress … /

9:2 says 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./

I find that interesting because David wrote in the 23rd Psalm about passing through the /"valley of the shadow of death"/ … But Isaiah says some of you are NOT just passing through, you are LIVING in the COUNTRY of the shadow of death.

Anybody know what it's like to live there?

Well, Isaiah says /"light has come"/

Isaiah 9:5 says, those of you who have trod through the battles and become soiled in the blood of battle can burn your battle clothes.

WHY? Let's read this familiar passage

*Read Isaiah 9:6,7*

Our Text today is simply those first words …

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given

We are looking at three important parts of the Story of Christmas today as found in this verse,

The first thing we see here is …

!

*1.

For To Us …*

We of course relate Christmas to giving of gifts and rightly so because God so loved the world that he gave his Son …

But Christmas is NOT just about A WONDERFUL gift being given to someone …

What if I told you that I heard that someone had given some needy person One Million Dollars?

You would think WOW what a cool gift!

But what if I had said that someone had given a gift of One Million Dollars to someone needy and that someone was YOU!

For … to US a child is born a son is given.

Look at each word

!! A. For

*… there is a purpose*

Because we are in darkness

Because we are living in the country of the shadow of death

Because we are in the midst of the battle for our very souls and eternity

Without the Child in the manger, Jesus Christ, there is NO expectation of deliverance, no promise of illumination

Without him there is no reason for hope

Because we are ALL in darkness

We are all under the sentence of death

We are all fighting a battle we cannot win

For that reason …

!! B. TO ---

means TOWARD; in the direction or movement toward someone or something

means function to indicate purpose, intention,

1.

We could NOT move toward God

2. we WOULD not move toward God

3.

So … God, in his love, grace, Sovereignty, made his move TO us.

But it was NOT just a Move of Direction - TO

It was a move in a direction with a purpose

and that was

!! C. US -

1. scripture says we are a little lower than the angels

2. we are the highest of his earthly creation

3. we are the ONLY part of his creation that has a relationship of redemption and reconciliation with him

4. We are the part of his creation that has broken his heart and that says that he loves us most deeply that he would long to provide a way to restore that relationship.

5. Lucifer, was his creation, and in pride was ejected from Heaven, and yet God made no way for Lucifer to return in relationship with him, nor the 1/3 of the angels that left with him

6.

Yet to US a child is born a Son is given; because though God's heart was broken by our sin, he longed to be made right with whosoever will come

7. God loves the trees, the birds, the animals, but this gift of his Son was NOT for them, it was for US.

Their restoration will ONLY be as a result of OUR restoration and reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus.

The Scripture is full of pictures of God reaching out TO US

Isaiah 65:1,2 /I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me.

To a nation that did not call on my name, I said 'here am I, here am I' 2 All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations - /

TO US

John 3:16 /For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life/

To US

1 John 3:1 /How great is the love that the Father has lavished ON US that we should be called the sons of God /

To US

Col 2:14 - /Having canceled he written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross /

To US

1 Cor 1:18 /For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God/

This is TO US

Because as we read in verse 2 we are in Darkness without Christ

This is GOOD NEWS to Us, that has the purpose of Great Joy

Luke 2:10,11 - /I bring you good news of great joy that will be fore all the people … a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord/

He is Born into the Covenant as one of us

He is Born to bring fulfillment of the covenant and establish a new covenant

For to Us …

!

*2.

A Child is Born*

A CHILD IS BORN

!! A. He was NOT a Spirit

1. Jesus, the Messiah, the fulfillment of this prophesy, the Babe in the Manger, the Man on the Cross … was NOT a Spirit on earth.

One of the earliest heresies taught by Gnostic, or special knowledge cultist in the first century, was this idea that Jesus wasn’t a real person but just a spirit in the image of a man.

That was a lie then and is a lie today.

2. While his birth was not normal, in that Mary was a virgin, He was born, and lived a full and normal life

3. So, he understands and experienced our limitations

Heb 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./

He was not just a Spirit or manifestation as Gnostics would have us believe, and