Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: Christmas Treasures Worth Pondering

Theme: What is so Special about Christmas

Series: Grasping the Truths of Christmas

“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

(Luke 2:19)

There is much in “Grasping the Truths of Christmas” that is worthy of pondering

On the twenty-fifth of this month much of the United States will close their stores, business offices will be closed and very few people will be traveling in comparison to the normal day of the week.

Christmas has even provided a day off for those who reject the worship due to Christ, the Savior of the world.

The response of most today, even church attendees, is no where near like those who heard the proclamation of the birth of Christ on that first Christmas.

However, to Holy Spirit-illuminated Christians there are treasures worth pondering in their hearts.

They become like Mary, who in the midst of all the excitement, took time to ponder.

The Bible says, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

(Luke 2:19)

This passage of Scripture is the beautiful picture of a humble trusting heart that is after God.

Mary had been told that her child was truly of God.

The angel Gabriel said to Mary, “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.” (Luke 1:35) Both Joseph and Mary were told that they were to name the baby, conceived through the Holy Spirit, Jesus.

(Matthew 1:20-21; Luke 1:31,35) Mary and Joseph no doubt talked about their visits from the angel with each other over the several months of her pregnancy, therefore, she knew more than anybody that baby Jesus was the Messiah, (Messias) the Christ, (Chriastos) meaning “the anointed One” or the “anointed.”

(The New International Dictionary of the Bible)

We live in a time which names mean very little or nothing.

However, Joseph and Mary lived in a time when names meant something and almost everyone knew what they meant.

I am convinced they knew why they were to name the Son of God, Jesus, (Iesous) meaning “Savior.”

(The Complete Word Study Dictionary) As a matter of fact the angel, in a dream, told Joseph that he was to give the son born to them the name “Jesus” “because he [would] save His people from their sins.”

(Matthew 1:21)

Mary “pondered” (sumballo) meaning to consider, putting one thing with another in her mind while considering the circumstances and all that has been said and then holding them in her heart.

(The Complete Word Study Dictionary; Vines Amplified Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words; Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon)

I would propose to you there is much in “Grasping the Truths of Christmas” that is worthy of pondering, worth meditating on, and holding within the child of God’s heart.

If you are a child of God, then the Holy Spirit has come into your life and has given you revelation and illumination about Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Holy Anointed One, the Savior of your soul.

There is much for you to ponder on this Christmas.

What is so special about Christmas?

Is there relevance in Christmas?

What is the reason for and the result of Christmas?

Many do not know the “Relevance of Christmas”

There are three truths that the Holy Spirit of God wants you to ponder on today.

Many do not know the “Relevance of Christmas.”

“Relevant,” means having to do with the case at hand.

The Apostle Paul writes about the case at hand, Jesus Christ, “…being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

(Philippians 2:6-8)

On June 6, 1944, a date known ever since as D-Day, a mighty armada crossed a narrow strip of sea from England to Normandy, France.

Simultaneously U.S., British, and Canadian forces landed on five separate beachheads.

By the end of August 1944, just three months later all of northern France was liberated, and the invading forces reorganized for the drive into Germany, where they eventually meet with Soviet forces advancing from the east to bring an end to the Nazi grip on western Europe.

That was big news regarding the results of World War II.

Just a little over 2,000 years ago, bigger news came through the angel announcing the birth of Christ, when God in the flesh came, walked on this war-torn earth during it’s battle with man’s sinful flesh, the world’s view and Satan.

Sin always holds a multitude in its grip.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit invaded and broke that grip by Jesus coming on the first Christmas.

Jesus, being God and man, made the way to take on the sins of the world upon Himself, pay the ultimate price on the Cross of Calvary, be raised from the dead thus, getting victory over sin and death and liberating all who accept Him as personal Savior and Lord.

One truth worth pondering in Christ’s coming is that He “emptied Himself” or rather “made Himself nothing” and became man.

This was not “the humility of Christ,” but rather what theologians refer to as the “humiliation of Christ.”

(The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible; Thru the Bible)

Let the Holy Spirit place this deep within your heart, the Lord of the universe – He who existed in eternity and perfection, in glory and majesty, in dominion and power stepped down and came to walk this guilty sod, which is so full of sin, so He could take on the humiliation of sin.

Ponder these Biblical truths about Christ being man:

1.)

The Lord, whom we are to serve for eternity came to serve us.

As a matter fact one of His purposes in coming was to show all what God is like.

He taught that Christians are to become His disciples and He said, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors.

But you are not to be like that.

Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?

Is it not the one who is at the table?

But I am among you as one who serves.”

(Luke 22:25-27)

2.) The Lord, whom we are to love, came and showed the ultimate love for us.

Jesus said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

(John 15:12-13) There is a truth proclaimed often this time of the year, “Christ was born to die” and He commands us to have the same measure of love for our brothers in Christ as He showed for us.

The beloved John caught the truths of Jesus’ teaching.

We read in 1 John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

(1 John 3:16)

3.) The Lord, whom we are to seek with all our hearts so that He may be found, came to seek that which was lost.

While in the home of the tax collector, Zacchaeus, the Lord said, “Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

(Luke 19:9-10) This passage of Scripture expresses the heart of Jesus’ ministry.

Those who are bound by the flesh, the world and Satan’s lies are always looking for something and are not listening for the call of the Lord upon their souls.

However, He left the abode of God, heaven, to seek that which is lost and offer fellowship to those who will let Him into their hearts and lives.

Jesus came for a specific reason

Christ coming to earth is worth pondering in the hearts of Christians.

Jesus also came for a specific reason.

Many people and church attendees today form their views of the true God much as the pagan mythologist did.

Their view of God is the product of their own experiences or the experiences they have heard recounted by others and is not formed by seeing God’s inerrant revelation of Himself in the Scriptures.

(Dr.

Jim Berg, Created for His Glory)

The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning… 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.”

(John 1:1-2,14)

This is the basic statement of the Incarnation, for Jesus entered into this earth through the gateway of childbirth and took up residence among men.

His incarnation was the full manifestation of grace and truth because it was the greatest possible expression of God’s compassion for people and the most perfect way of conveying truth to their understanding.”

God’s personal revelation of Himself in Christ has no parallel elsewhere, nor has it ever been repeated.

(The expositors Bible Commentary; Barnes Notes) The incarnation is often very hard to fully explain in just a phrase or sentence.

Paul Harvey took time to tell the story of a man whom the Lord gave a glimpse of one of the purposes of the incarnation.

On a raw winter night a man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door.

He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth and light that was inside, beat in vain against the glass.

Touched, the farmer bundled up and trudged through the fresh snow to open the barn door for the struggling birds.

He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them into the barn.

But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, hid in the darkness.

He tried various tactics; circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they would flutter into the barn on their own.

Nothing worked and the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help.

He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window.

As he stared, a thought hit: “If only I could become a bird – one of them – just for a moment in time… I could lead them to warmth and safety.”

Meditating on this thought he grasped a principle of the incarnation.