Speaker 1: I wonder if you've ever been stuck and needed someone to save you.
Speaker 1: I was home alone once when my back gave out and started spasming.
Speaker 1: I wound up helpless on the floor.
Speaker 1: It wasn't serious, but it was so painful I couldn't move, couldn't do a thing, I couldn't even roll over.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, my phone was just within arm's reach and I was able to call an ambulance.
Speaker 1: Thank you, paramedics, for saving me.
Speaker 1: The angel said to the shepherds that Jesus the Savior was born.
Speaker 1: What did they mean by Savior?
Speaker 1: Who did he come to save?
Speaker 1: And from what you know, a lot of people look for political saviours, military saviours.
Speaker 1: We do now.
Speaker 1: They did back then, and perhaps that's what the shepherds were looking for a political saviour.
Speaker 1: The Jewish people of Lom expected a messiah who would come and save them from the various empires that oppressed them.
Speaker 1: So, 600 years before Christ, the Babylonians had conquered Israel, then came the Persians, then the Greeks and finally the Romans.
Speaker 1: And after centuries of foreign rule, the people of Israel felt like slaves in their own land and they just wanted to be free.
Speaker 1: They wanted a Messiah to come and save them.
Speaker 1: But Jesus came to save them and us from an even bigger problem than Rome.
Speaker 1: Now you might wonder what could be worse than an oppressive empire.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we find ourselves under the rule not of an empire, but of compulsions or habits or desires we don't really want but can't seem to resist, not consistently.
Speaker 1: Now it might be something as innocent as that second bowl of ice cream that we know we're going to regret when we step on the scales the next day.
Speaker 1: Might be something a bit more shady, like looking at those images on the internet.
Speaker 1: People say it's okay nowadays, but it still feels you're leaving grubby.
Speaker 1: It leaves you feeling grubby.
Speaker 1: Or it might be more serious, like the rage that causes us to lash out at a loved one because we're frustrated.
Speaker 1: Later on we regret it, but we just can't help ourselves.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we try to resist and sometimes we just justify ourselves.
Speaker 1: But don't we all have thoughts or habits or shame or guilt or consequences that we wish we could be free from?
Speaker 1: And that's what the Bible calls sin.
Speaker 1: Is sin really worse than being ruled by an oppressive empire?
Speaker 1: Would the Ukrainians today say that sin is their own?
Speaker 1: Sin, at least, is worse than what's happening to them being invaded.
Speaker 1: The problem is, sin harms us at the deepest levels of our soul in all kinds of ways and, as we see around the world, it leads to harm to other people as well, harm like exploitation, broken relationships, even war and evil.
Speaker 1: And so sin is why we even have oppressive empires.
Speaker 1: Now we might try to downplay sin as no big deal, particularly when it's my sin.
Speaker 1: My sin's not as bad as other people's sin, of course.
Speaker 1: But you know, sin is a little bit like alcohol to a driver it seems harmless at the time until they run through a crowd of people and the consequences are horrific for everyone involved.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't even have to be as drastic as that.
Speaker 1: You know, this Christmas people are going to buy all sorts of cheap crap, frankly to fill stockings that will soon be forgotten.
Speaker 1: Where does all of that stuff come from?
Speaker 1: Well, often it comes from exploiting our earth and, even worse, exploiting the poor.
Speaker 1: And you see, sin lurks in the shadows, in all kinds of disguises, and then sin locks us up in a prison we can't escape, no matter how hard we try.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, it leads us into conflict with God, and that's serious, because it doesn't just affect us and our relationships and other people.
Speaker 1: It affects us and sometimes them for all eternity.
Speaker 1: God is a loving father.
Speaker 1: He wants to welcome us all as his children, but he's also the final court for justice in the cosmos and, with all the injustice and harm that sin does, it's not something he can just let go.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about this.
Speaker 1: I want God to forgive my sins.
Speaker 1: Right, you want God to forgive your sins.
Speaker 1: Do we really want God to forgive the sins of those who harm the people we love?
Speaker 1: We really want God to forgive the sins of those who harm the people we love?
Speaker 1: So how can we break free of sin?
Speaker 1: Problem is, if we try to run from sin, usually we become fugitives, hiding the truth from ourselves and from others.
Speaker 1: So we try not to get caught, but you know what?
Speaker 1: Mostly we're just like me, lying on my lounge room floor, helpless and unable to move.
Speaker 1: We can't escape.
Speaker 1: Sin is a prison.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty bleak picture, isn't it?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to be so negative at Christmas, but the good news of Christmas only makes sense if we understand the bad news of why we have Christmas in the first place, if we understand the bad news of why we have Christmas in the first place.
Speaker 1: When I did my back in, I needed someone to take me to hospital.
Speaker 1: Thankfully, I wasn't there for very long, and that's really what Christmas is all about.
Speaker 1: The good news of Christmas is that Jesus came to save us and heal us from sin, so that we can have a life of love and joy and freedom and hope.
Speaker 1: That's why the angels called him the saviour.
Speaker 1: How does he do that?
Speaker 1: Well, the story of Christmas isn't just about a baby, not just any old baby.
Speaker 1: It's about God entering our world in human form.
Speaker 1: That's who the Christmas story says Jesus was.
Speaker 1: God became a baby in Mary's womb, which is as mind-bending as it sounds.
Speaker 1: The good news begins with Christmas, but it actually ends with easter.
Speaker 1: Being divine, jesus was the only person who never sinned and who never deserved to be punished for sin, and yet, when he grew up, he died an unjust death.
Speaker 1: He was charged and punished for sins he never committed.
Speaker 1: So how's that good news?
Speaker 1: Well, in Australia, a lot of our native plants can only propagate when a seed falls to the ground and is burned by fire.
Speaker 1: Pretty drastic.
Speaker 1: But from that process comes new life, and Jesus said he was like a seed.
Speaker 1: He died, but he didn't stay dead.
Speaker 1: He rose from death to life, and this is how Jesus conquered sin and death.
Speaker 1: So we can be set free and have new life, being sinless, not having anything.
Speaker 1: He deserved to die for himself.
Speaker 1: Jesus could be the fall guy who was punished for our sins In death.
Speaker 1: He infiltrated the ultimate prison, grabbed the keys and unlocked the prison doors.
Speaker 1: He became the doctor who cures us of the sin of disease.
Speaker 1: And that's the great news of Christmas.
Speaker 1: The Saviour has come.
Speaker 1: He's come to rescue us, our relationships and our world.
Speaker 1: So how do we find that freedom in Jesus?
Speaker 1: Well, when the angels left, the shepherds didn't waste any time going to look for Jesus, and it wasn't hard to find.
Speaker 1: Bethlehem isn't a big village.
Speaker 1: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: Then there wouldn't have been too many babies born.
Speaker 1: Maybe Jesus was the only one, and even if so, I mean there's not too many babies laid in a manger which is an animal feed trough.
Speaker 1: It's the last place you'd expect to find the saviour of the world and, in fact, the wise men.
Speaker 1: They went to Jerusalem expecting to find Jesus born in a palace.
Speaker 1: But Jesus didn't come to the rich and powerful, he came to the poor and the humble.
Speaker 1: Jesus' mum wasn't a princess, she was a peasant girl.
Speaker 1: The angels didn't visit kings or priests, they visited simple shepherds.
Speaker 1: The circumstances of Jesus' birth were very unusual, but he wasn't hard to find.
Speaker 1: In fact, god kind of made it easy, at least for the poor and humble, like the shepherds, but they still needed to leave their flocks and go and seek him.
Speaker 1: And you know, god still makes it easy for us, but we still need to go and seek him.
Speaker 1: So how do we do that?
Speaker 1: Well, we seek and find Jesus through faith, by believing the message of Christmas that God in the flesh has come to save us from our sins, and not just us.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, one day, our world.
Speaker 1: He promises that if we seek him with a sincere heart, we'll find him.
Speaker 1: He pulls us off the floor, sets us free from sin and gives us a new life so we can know and love God and others and do good, and so that we can experience God's love, because sin not only stops us or keeps us in a prison.
Speaker 1: That prison keeps us separated from experiencing the love that God wants to pour out on us.
Speaker 1: The angel's message to the shepherds is an invitation to you and me as well, and so the question for us is will we come and seek him?
Speaker 1: And if you'd like to do that, just as a first step, I invite you to pray this prayer with me.
Speaker 1: You can do it silently or go away and think about it.
Speaker 1: The prayer is something like this Lord God, I admit I have sinned and I do need a saviour.
Speaker 1: I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins and rose from death so I can be forgiven and have new life.
Speaker 1: I turn away from my sins now to follow Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
Speaker 1: Please forgive me, set me free and give me new life in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: If you prayed that prayer for the first time, if you'd like to ask more questions about it, you can grab me after the service.
Speaker 1: We're going to sing a couple more carols first, or you can visit our website We've got some information there or talk to someone you came with.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you for the message of Christmas, the good news that Jesus has come, that God has entered the world and become one of us, not among the rich and powerful, not among the mighty, but among the weak, the oppressed.
Speaker 1: You identified with us, but you also used that weakness to overcome the power of sin.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you.
Speaker 1: I pray that you will set us free.
Speaker 1: Lord, may we experience the overwhelming love, joy, peace, hope that you have for us because of Christmas.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you, team.
Speaker 1: We're going to sing a few more carols now.
Speaker 1: We're happily here.
Speaker 1: We're used to singing only once after this this is Christmas.