Christmas Day 2022

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CrossPointe Community Church
P O Box 126
Chippewa Lake, OH 44215

A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Alan Robbins

Please join me in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father,

On a stary night and when I look up at the expanse of our universe…I think back some 2000 years ago. Within the Galaxy of Milky Way, Our Solar System
3rd planet from the Sun… planet Earth, Northern and Eastern Hemisphere, Continent of Asia, Western area of Asia known as the Middle East, The Biblical Country of Judea, Town of Bethlehem, An out-building of an “Inn” …that was full, Baby Jesus Christ, the son of God, was born to Mary & Joseph.

Now I think some 2000 years later, on this Planet Earth, Northern Hemisphere, Continent of North America, Country of United States of America, State of Ohio, County of Medina, Township of Lafayette, Village of Chippewa Lake at 7230 Lake Road, Cross Pointe Community Church is located on this Christmas Day, a group of believers in Jesus Christ meet to celebrate his Birth, his love and look forward to an everlasting life in Heaven.

In these things I pray…Amen

SCRIPTURE

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
John 1:1-5, 10-14

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing Him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.
Luke 2:8-20

SERMON

Good News

Randy K’Meyer

The Collins English Dictionary has just revealed its 2022 word of the year to be “permacrisis.”

“Permacrisis” is a noun defined by the U.K.-based publisher HarperCollins as “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.”

A blog on the Collins Dictionary website noted that the term rings true because of the war in Ukraine, climate change challenges, political instability, and the surge in inflation. It goes on to say the term embodies the “dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another,” as people wonder what new horrors might be around the corner.” ¹

Anyone ready for some good news? And I mean perma-good-news?

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the
people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11

That’s the best perma-good-news that has ever been announced . . . ever, ever, ever; end of discussion . . . period!

Allow me to remind us all why that is so.

First, because of the sheer astonishment, surprise, wonder, even unbelievableness of it.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
Luke 2:6-7

Max Lucado writes:

The sheep corral, filthy as only an eastern animal enclosure can be, reeked pungently with manure and urine accumulated across the seasons. Joseph cleared a corner just large enough for Mary to lie down on the ground. Birth pangs had started, she writhed in agony on the ground. Joseph, in his inexperience, and unknowing manner did his best to reassure her. His own outer tunic would be her bed. Perhaps there was a saddlebag nearby for her pillow. Mary moaned and groaned in the darkness of the sheep shelter. Joseph scraped away the dust and dirt from one of the hand hewn mangers a feeding trough carved from soft limestone rock. There as best he could he arranged a place for Mary to lay the new born babe all bundled up in swaddling clothes. ²

A more lowly or humble birth cannot be imagined. Think of it; for the first time on earth, God’s voice comes through a human throat. Think of it; the first scent that came to his nose was manure and urine.

It’s the ultimate act of vulnerability! God; the omnipotent, the omnipresent, all knowing, invincible God laid in an animal’s feeding trough! It’s outrageous . . . it’s scandalous . . . it’s shocking . . . it’s beyond words.

Just ask Paul as he struggles to find an appropriate word in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 15: “Thanks be to God,” he writes, “for His something gift.” Wait, what word can I use? He quickly files through his vocabulary . . . he’s a brilliant scholar, but he can’t find the right word. He thinks back to what his companion Luke told him about God being born to Mary in a sheep corral in Bethlehem. “Thanks be to God for (pause) . . . there is no word! So he coins a compound word that isn’t found in any other place in the Bible. A unique word that is translated by the Berkley Bible as ‘unspeakable.’ Weust’s translation as ‘ineffable,’ the New English ‘gift beyond words,’ The Living Bible ‘too wonderful for words,’ The Amplified ‘precious beyond telling,’ The Message ‘no language can praise it enough,’ AT Robertson ‘wonder beyond description,’ Alfred Plummer ‘incapable of expression by speech,’ NASB ‘indescribable, indescribable, indescribable.’

It’s the perma-good-news because it is indescribable in and of itself.

But it is also the perma-good-news because of its impact on humanity.

For ever since that momentous event, the children of men and women have been enabled through their faith in that good news to become children of God.

We needed a Savior . . . someone to die in our place . . . to pay the penalty for our sins so we could be forgiven . . . so that we would be made right with God. That’s what this indescribable vulnerability is all about. To put it crassly, God was born to die.

The Christmas flower, the ‘poinsettia,’ is a member of the same family as a plant called the ‘crown of thorns.’ A reminder that Christmas is related to Good Friday, that the baby Jesus became our Savior and Redeemer through His suffering on the cross.

Or as Paul so sublimely puts it in the fifth chapter of Second Corinthians
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Co. 5:21).

And we dare not neglect to mention that the salvation provided by God on our behalf not only saves us from our sins, but also, from that future event which awaits us all.

I am speaking, of course, about the day these bodies we inhabit cease to function. On that day, we will be gloriously reminded of: “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty he could make you rich” (II Co. 8:9).

If that wasn’t enough, this perma-good-news is able to sustain us, even in the bleakest of times.

On Christmas Eve 1914, British and German forces were dug in their trenches across from one another with what they called ‘no man’s land’ between them. The following is an excerpt from a letter written by one of those British soldiers:

The Germans had placed a few small Christmas trees in front of their trenches. And we heard them begin to sing, Stille nacht, heilige nacht.” When the song was finished, the men in our trenches applauded. Yes, British soldiers applauding German soldiers. Then we began to sing, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and they joined in singing it in Latin. British and Germans soldiers harmonizing across no-man’s land. I thought that nothing could be more amazing, but what came the next morning was more so. First it was one of our guys who stood up with hands up and began to tentatively walk into no-man’s land. Then it was one of their men climbing out of their trench and before we knew it over 100 soldiers and officers were greeting and shaking and hugging men we’d been trying to kill just a few hours earlier. Even those who could not converse were exchanging gifts; our tea for their coffee, their gram crackers for our chocolate. Some even began to play a football match. Reflecting upon this Christmas miracle, I asked myself, What would cause two opposing armies, fighting to the death, to lay down their arms and embrace each other as friends? ³

I’ll tell you what. The indescribable gift that was born at Christmas! The gift of grace and forgiveness and peace and love. The gift that assures all those who put their faith in Jesus that His love even overcomes our greatest enemy . . . death.

Perhaps one way of appreciating it more is to imagine what it would be like if that long-ago night had never occurred.

A Christmas card was once published with the title: If Christ Had Not Come. The card represented a pastor falling into a short sleep in his study on Christmas morning and dreaming of a world into which Jesus had not come. In his dream, he found himself looking through his home, but there were no stockings hung by the chimney with care, no Christmas tree, no lights, no presents. He looked out the window and noticed that his church building which had been located next door to the parsonage was not there. The doorbell rang and a young boy asked the preacher to visit his sick and dying mother. When he reached their home, he sat down next to her bed and said, “I have something wonderful to share with you from my Bible.” But when he tried to turn to Luke to read the Christmas story, he saw that his Bible ended with the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi. There was no Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John; no message of God’s love or forgiveness, or especially in this particular case, no good news of victory over death. And when he stood next to her coffin a few days later, he had no hope to offer, no promise of eternal life, no hope of heaven.

However; Jesus was certainly born in Bethlehem and this good news has changed and continues to change everything.

Betty Banner lived on a farm in the mountains of Virginia with her husband and two children and for many years her mother made her home with them. But one morning, mother woke up completely disoriented, and during the years that followed, she became progressively worse with Alzheimer’s, and her ability to communicate waned to nothing. Her daughter felt numb about her mother’s condition; as though she was lost to everyone and it seemed to her to God as well. On Christmas Eve, a group of high schoolers from their church came by
to sing Christmas Carols. Three of the kids went in to see grandma. One of them leaned over, “Grandma, it’s Christmas.”
No response.
“Grandma, do you know that it’s Christmas?”
Then it happened; quite by surprise, grandma’s eyes flew open and it was as if the light was turned on behind them. An angelic smile spread across her warm features and then in a strong, normal voice, she replied, “Oh yes, It is the birthday of my Savior!”

Everyone eagerly gathered around her bed and began to ask questions. “How do you feel? Are you all right? Do you want something to eat?”

But it was over. Those were the last words Grandma ever spoke. But they were enough to bring peace and joy again to a troubled daughter who had somehow allowed herself to forget that the greatest gift ever given was the gift of God’s Son.

But we’re not going to forget. Because He has touched our hearts and our lives with His grace and we will never be the same again.

Merry Christmas. Joy to the World.

1 Greg Cannella, Collins English Dictionary Reveals its 2022 Word of the Year, CBS News (11-1-22) https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/december/permacrisis.html

3 https://www.hotsermons.com/sermon-illustrations/sermon-illustrations-christmas.html