SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father, Christmas brings up so many different things in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It is so wonderful in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00: We get to gather with people that we love.
SPEAKER_00: It's a time for us to celebrate and to give.
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, for many, Christmas reminds us of our loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reminder of loss and grief and the brokenness in our families and relationships.
SPEAKER_00: We carry lots in this room.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us are struggling with whether or not we even believe this at all.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that through your spirit, through your word, that you would meet each and every person and that we would have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ through his word and spirit this evening.
SPEAKER_00: You've brought us here.
SPEAKER_00: It's no accident that we're here to hear this word.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you would capture us in a new way with the beauty of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Really glad that you're here, especially if you're visiting with us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here on this Christmas Eve.
SPEAKER_00: We have been in our church for the last four weeks during the season of Advent leading up to Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: We have been walking through Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, and we have been unpacking the royal titles given in that verse to the coming and promised Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.
SPEAKER_00: His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight on this Christmas Eve, we're going to conclude our Advent series.
SPEAKER_00: We will not stay in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I want to show you what happened 700 years later, when this promise, this promised child, actually arrived into the world, when this prophecy in Isaiah chapter 9 became flesh, when the waiting was finally over and the rescue was here.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine tomorrow morning you were to get up and you were to find a beautifully wrapped package under your tree.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, what is this?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: There's no card, there's no name.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've had that happen to you before.
SPEAKER_00: And you open up the gift and you find something, you're not quite sure what it is or what it's for.
SPEAKER_00: You're grateful, yes, but you're also very confused.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine that same gift, but this time there is a card, and the card says, This is for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what it does, and this is why you need it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, suddenly that changes everything, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The mystery becomes clear.
SPEAKER_00: You move from confusion now to confidence.
SPEAKER_00: You know exactly why you have the gift and why you need it.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what God did 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: He gave the world a gift, a baby in a stable, laid in a manger, and God did not leave us guessing.
SPEAKER_00: He actually attached a name, and he attached a title, and the name and title explain everything.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 1, verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Martin read it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read one verse.
SPEAKER_00: She, Mary, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient Near East, the father had the privilege and the right responsibility to name the child, not here, not this child, because this was God's child.
SPEAKER_00: God was the father.
SPEAKER_00: And so God gets to name the child.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel appears to Joseph and he says, Name your son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout this series, through the royal titles, we've been unpacking what the names mean.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What does his name mean?
SPEAKER_00: Literally, the Lord saves.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God saves.
SPEAKER_00: And those two words, that title gets right to the very heart of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: And you could say this evening, it gets right at the very heart of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Because the title tells us who Jesus is and what he came to do.
SPEAKER_00: Again, lots we could unpack, but just notice who is Jesus, the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is the covenant name of God in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who spoke to Moses in the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who delivered his people from the Egyptians, the same God who promised a Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: We've been studying about for the past few weeks in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: That God has now come in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The one who spoke the world into his existence is born into a stable.
SPEAKER_00: The one who holds the world together is wrapped in swaddling clothes.
SPEAKER_00: The creator became creation.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God come?
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, Matthew 121 to save his people, not from their circumstances, not from discomfort or from our problems.
SPEAKER_00: He came into the world to save his people, to save us from our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so the assumption is very clear.
SPEAKER_00: We're sinners and we need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be honest, really honest here, just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We all know this to be true in our hearts because we know, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Don't you feel it that you are not what you were meant to be and who you were meant to be?
SPEAKER_00: We all fill this gap between who it is we want to be and who we actually are.
SPEAKER_00: And we try to fix ourselves and we try to improve ourselves and we try to hide the parts of our lives that cause us deep shame.
SPEAKER_00: But deep down we know.
SPEAKER_00: And Christmas reminds us that our biggest problem is not other people, it's not our circumstances, it's not even our past.
SPEAKER_00: Our biggest problem is our sin.
SPEAKER_00: Sin, our separation from God.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is that a change of address or moving to another state or getting a new job will not fix you.
SPEAKER_00: And will not fix what is broken in you.
SPEAKER_00: A new relationship will not ultimately satisfy you.
SPEAKER_00: More success and more money will not fix in silence the nagging sense that something is wrong, that we can't save ourselves, and that we need total rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I know that sounds heavy here on Christmas Eve, but please understand if we don't get that, then we don't get Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: If we miss that, we miss Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole reason that he came into this world, friends, Christmas is not just about comfort, it is about salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the shepherds in the fields on the first Christmas night.
SPEAKER_00: This will be a sign to you.
SPEAKER_00: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, Luke chapter 2, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: A sign for what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you keep reading, that a savior has come.
SPEAKER_00: To you this day is born a savior who is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And what is stunning is that the sign of God's rescue is not a mighty warrior with a sword or a king leading an army, but rather a helpless baby, a vulnerable child in a stable.
SPEAKER_00: There's a story in the old TV show, The West Wing.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the characters tells this parable.
SPEAKER_00: Leo tells this parable about a guy who's walking down the street.
SPEAKER_00: He falls into this hole, and it's so steep that he can't get out of the hole.
SPEAKER_00: And so he needs help.
SPEAKER_00: And so people are passing by, and a doctor passes by above him, and he starts, help, help me.
SPEAKER_00: And the doctor writes a prescription and throws it down into the hole.
SPEAKER_00: And then next, a priest walks by and he starts yelling, help.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the priest offers up a prayer and throws it down and walks on.
SPEAKER_00: A friend then appears and he's saying, Hey, help me out.
SPEAKER_00: The friend actually jumps down into the hole with him, and the man says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Are you crazy?
SPEAKER_00: Now we're both stuck down here.
SPEAKER_00: And the friend says, Yeah, but I've been down here before, and I know the way out.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news of Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not just pass us by.
SPEAKER_00: He did not just shout down instructions from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't lob down a prescription and some good advice.
SPEAKER_00: He jumped down here with us.
SPEAKER_00: He came in a stable in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, entering into our darkness and brokenness and sin.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows the way out.
SPEAKER_00: Even better, he is the way out.
SPEAKER_00: And he brings us out through living the life, the perfect life that we could never live, and dying the death that we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes Christianity so unique.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes Christianity different from every other world religion and philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: Every other religion says, follow these rules and you can reach God.
SPEAKER_00: Just do these steps.
SPEAKER_00: That is terrible news.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can never do enough.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Christianity is that you are made right with God, not through following all of these steps and rules, but you are made right with God through a person.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, who came into the world to do what you could never do for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: All the four names in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6 point to one reality: salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Your rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful counselor guides us out of the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Mighty God breaks the power that sin has on us.
SPEAKER_00: Everlasting Father adopts us into his family.
SPEAKER_00: Prince of peace reconciles us with God.
SPEAKER_00: And this name, this one name, Jesus, declares it all and sums up all of those titles.
SPEAKER_00: God saves.
SPEAKER_00: To us, a child is born.
SPEAKER_00: To us, a son is given.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, given is born.
SPEAKER_00: This is a gift, not a reward for our righteousness, not something that we earn.
SPEAKER_00: It's yours to be received.
SPEAKER_00: And please don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: Two words.
SPEAKER_00: For us.
SPEAKER_00: Christ was born for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just die, he died for you.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't wasn't just raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He was raised for you.
SPEAKER_00: See how personal this is?
SPEAKER_00: And it makes all the difference in the world.
SPEAKER_00: All you need this evening is need to admit that you need to be rescued, that you need to receive Jesus' grace.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you came this evening and you were hoping for comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus offers you comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you came tonight out of duty and out of tradition.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus meets you there too.
SPEAKER_00: But all of us, every single one of us, needs rescued.
SPEAKER_00: We need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: That is what we most need.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus came to do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Christmas is such a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Will you come to Jesus this evening?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: We confess that often this story has become so familiar that we just simply go through the motions and we're not moved by it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking that you would move us this evening by what we've heard tomorrow as we think about what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would shape us through this story.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray for those here that might not know you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray you'd give them faith, give them eyes to see and ears to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.