Luke 2:1-20
The Love of God
Open your Bible to…
1John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
1John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Pray
Intro
√ Some Christmas humor – Christmas carols for the psychiatrically challenged!
Schizophrenia:
“Do you hear what I hear?
Dementia:
“I think I’ll be home for Christmas!”
Narcissistic:
“Hark the herald angels sing about me!”
Manic:
“Deck the halls and wall and house and lawn and streets and stores and office and town and cars……”
Paranoid:
“Santa Claus is coming to get me!”
Obsessive compulsive disorder:
“Jingle bells, Jingle bell rock, Jingle bells, Jingle bell rock, Jingle bells, Jingle bell rock, Jingle bells, Jingle bell rock, Jingle bells, Jingle bell rock,…”
Alright, back to our study!
√ The love of God
Amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the Season, the bright lights, ornaments, and presents, the main point of Christmas is easy to miss!
Even the person who knows something of the Christmas Story, the Baby in the Manger, the Wise Men, the Virgin, and all of the Angels…
…can still miss the main point of the story.
What is the main point?
That Christmas is primarily a love story, the celebration of God’s great and enduring love for all of us as made known by the extravagant gift that He gave to us that first Christmas!
The gift ~ His greatest treasure, His Son!
Through His gift of Love we discover at Christmas that God truly loves us!
Ap. How can I be sure that God loves me?
Because by His birth that we celebrate at Christmas time He communicates through His action that He loves us…
He came to us
He humbled himself for us
He gave Himself for us
He kept His promise to us
We can be confident then that His love for us is real because He proved it when His Son was born that first Christmas morn!
He came to us! (vs. 1-7a)
Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
Luke 2:2 This
census first took place while Quirinius was governing
Luke 2:3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Luke 2:4 Joseph
also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Luke 2:5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
Luke 2:6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
Luke 2:7a And she brought forth her firstborn Son…
√ He came to us!
The fact of Jesus’ birth reveals something of His great love for all us…
…that is, He left heaven to come to us!
The Lord didn’t require us to come up to Heaven to receive His love.
Something that we couldn’t do even if we tried.
Rather, He left Heaven to come to us.
The point is that He initiated a relationship with us. By so doing He demonstrated the depth of His love for you.
Ex. Love relationships
Think about human relationships and how people communicate that they love someone.
To start a relationship requires that one of the two people initiate it!
Someone, usually the guy, has to leave his comfort zone, put his heart on his sleeve and approach the girl that he would like to have a relationship with.
In so doing he communicates his love for the girl because he made the first move…
…he came to her.
Ex. Not so easy!
What I just described sounds so easy on paper! The reality however is that it’s anything but easy!
Since the dawn of human history people have stressed out over, worried about, and just about had a heart attack, thinking about initiating a relationship!
In fact can be such a stressful thought that many people never take the risk!
Risk? Oh, yeah there’s a lot of risk for the person who initiates a relationship!
Rejection!
Humiliation!
The truth is that there is no guarantee that the person to whom you express your love will respond in like manner.
They may laugh at you.
They might say something awkward like…
“I don’t think of you that way ~ I think of you more like a brother…”
My point is that the person who initiates a relationship demonstrates their love because they were willing to risk rejection and humiliation.
√ God’s love for you
When we consider the birth of Jesus we find that same principle in operation.
That is, one way that we can be sure that God loves us is that He initiated the relationship!
He chose to leave the glory and majesty of heaven and visit us here on Earth to personally offer us a relationship with Him!
With no guarantee that we would love Him back!
So, you can be sure that God loves you because He came to us!
He humbled Himself for us (vs. 7b)
Luke 2:7b …and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
√ He humbled Himself
I think we’d all agree that God could have had His Son born anywhere that He wanted.
So why would He chose a stable for the most important birth in the history of Man?
Why would He allow Joseph and Mary to put His Son into a manger?
Think about it!
A stable ~ some of you have animals, horses, cattle, etc. You know what happens in stables!
No matter how hard you try to keep it clean the animals keep making it dirty! It’s a place where you have to watch where you step!
A manger ~ that’s a nice name for a feeding trough. It’s a rock that’s been hollowed out, it’s covered with animal spit, it’s been licked by a hundred different animals, and stained by the feed.
Not the kind of “crib” you’d want to put a newborn baby into!
Not the place I’d want my baby born! In fact, if Jesus was born today DHS would probably arrest Joseph and Mary for child endangerment!
So, why would God chose a stable and a manger as the delivery room for His Son?
√ He made Himself approachable
Because through the humble surroundings of His birth, God made Himself approachable through the Person of His Son.
If God had chosen instead to send His Son to the earth in all of His glory, power and majesty we would not have dared to come near to Him.
Even if He invited us to approach Him we’d be too overwhelmed to come!
Ex. John seeing the Glorified Christ ~ Rev. 1
John fell at His feet as he could not endure the Glory and Holiness of Jesus in His Glorified state!
Eyes like fire, feet like bronze…
So, in His wisdom God chose for His Son to be born in such a humble place that no one would ever hesitate to respond to His invitation to meet with Him.
Ex. Intimidating people
I find myself intimidated when I’m around really wealthy, or famous people, or a very attractive person because…
I grew up in a poor family.
I’m not famous
I’ve never been accused of being attractive
So, I find it hard to approach people who are rich, famous, and or beautiful because I become self-conscience and worry that I don’t have anything within me that would make me attractive to those kind of people.
After all, who am I that such a person would want a relationship with me!
How much more intimidating is God in all His glory!
Even the richest person on the planet, the most famous, and the most attractive…
…would not feel worthy in the presence of His glory to think for a moment that they could come near to God!
So, He chose to humble Himself, coming in the form of a Man, born to poor parents in the most humble “delivery room” you imagine…
…so that no one would be intimidated about approaching Him.
The Bible tells us that…
Phil. 2:5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.
Phil. 2:6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.
Phil. 2:7 He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.
Phil. 2:8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.
So, you can be sure that God loves you because He humbled Himself for us!
He gave Himself for us (vs. 8-14)
Luke 2:8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Luke 2:9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
Luke 2:10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
√ He gave Himself!
Note the message of the angles to the shepherds in vs. 10 & 11….
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy which will be to all people. For
there is born to you this day in the city of
That is, the angels were telling the shepherds (and us) that God has given a gift to the world.
The recipients of the gift?
“to you” ~ you!
The gift?
“a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” ~ Himself!
While we celebrate His birth at Christmas, the message of the angels to the shepherds looked forward to the purpose for which Jesus was born…
…to become our Savior by dying in our place on the Cross.
Jesus makes that clear in John 3:16…
Joh. 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
When God the Father gave
us His only begotten Son the Bible tells us that He was actually giving Himself for us in the body
of a
Paul wrote…
2Cor. 5:19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. (NLT)
That is, by giving Himself for us He gave us the one gift…
That no one else could give.
That every person needs.
That is timeless in style.
That is always useful.
That is of greatest value.
…and in so doing has proved He loves us!
√ A gift of love
When you and I give a gift to someone it is usually with the intent of demonstrating our love for that person.
Ex. An engagement ring
God’s gift of love was of significantly greater value, He gave His life for us!
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Paul, a man who did everything he could to fight against Jesus discovered by personal experience just how great God’s love was for him and wrote…
Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates (“proves” His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Paul knew that was true by personal experience!
Ap. How about you?
Do you know that God loves you?
Do you see Jesus crucified for you!?
You can be sure that God loves you because He gave Himself for us!
He kept His promise (vs. 15-20)
Luke 2:15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
Luke 2:16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Luke 2:17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
Luke 2:18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
Luke 2:19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
√ He kept His promise
When we speak of the promise of Christmas most folks would immediately think of the New Testament Gospels where we read of…
A home in
A field in
But, the reality is that the promise of Christmas came long before there was a people called the Jews, a book called the Bible, and even before their were prophets through whom God spoke!
When did He make the 1st promise of Christmas?
In the Garden!
Gen. 3:14 So the LORD God
said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the
field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your
life.
Gen. 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”
Here is the first promise that God made to Men. God’s promise to Adam and Eve and all who follow God was that He was not going to leave Mankind on the “naughty” list.
Instead God promised to send a Savior, the Christ Child, the gift of Christmas…
…to save us from our sins and place the names of those who would trust in Him on the “nice” list.
When did God give this promise?
About 4,000 years before that 1st Christmas!
My point?
That while from a human perspective the time lapse between the promise of Christmas and the coming of Christmas might suggest to that Christmas would never come…
…the fact is that it did!
God kept His promise to Mankind because He loves us and in spite of the fact that we have not kept our promises to God…
…He loves us so much that He kept His promise to make a way for us to be reunited in His love!
Ap. Real love keeps its promises
The reality of one person’s love for another is made evident by the keeping of promises.
Ex. Our wedding vows
Keeping our wedding vows is an indication of our love for our spouse.
If a husband or wife is not faithful to those vows most of us would understand if the innocent party chose to not keep their promise any longer (i.e. seek divorce).
But, when a man or woman chooses to stick with a spouse who has been unfaithful…
…that demonstrates a greater love than most of us possess!
How much more then can we be confident that God loves us!
Human beings have failed Him on a daily basis since the Garden, rebelling, hating Him, blaming Him for the evil consequence of our own sin…
…yet His love for us was so great that He kept His promise to send a Savior and restore our relationship (marriage) with Him!
You can be sure that God loves you because He kept His promise to us!
Close
√ The love of God
Christmas reminds of God’s great love for all people because His birth that we celebrate communicates through His action that He loves us…
He came to us
He humbled himself for us
He gave Himself for us
He kept His promise to us
So, we can be confident that His love for us is real because He proved it when He was born that first Christmas morn!