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Thursday, December 24, 2015

Christmas Eve



Isaiah 7:10-14 & Luke 2:8-16 - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2015
This Shall Be A Sign Unto You
Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:10-14)
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What is the purpose of a sign?  Why does God give so many signs in the Bible?   It is because God wants you to be sure of what he has promised.  He wants you not to doubt his mercy and grace, and his goodwill and favor toward you in Christ your Savior.  He wants you to be certain of it and to regard him as your loving Father in heaven who does not condemn you, but blesses you and keeps you, since it was to this end that he sent his only begotten Son to be born for you, to live for you, and to die for you.  He wants this confidence for you because he loves you very much.  He wants you to be firm in your faith for at least these two reasons:

The first is very obvious: because it is only by faith in his word that you will be saved from your sin, from death, and from eternal punishment in hell.  Only faith receives the salvation Jesus gives.  But the second reason why God wants you to be firm in your faith is often overlooked and neglected.  There is more to God’s love for you than what will eventually become of you when you die.  God is concerned about your current life as you live it now.  God wants you to be firm in your faith because he does not want you to be afraid now, or to carry on in misery now while you live here on earth.  He wants you to be full of joy and gladness tonight.  Such joy is found only where he strengthens your faith in his holy word.  This joy begins now and lasts forever. 
It begins now.  What he gives you now is what you will have in heaven. God wants you to begin enjoying this treasure before you get there.  God’s concern for your present circumstances and current state of happiness is nowhere made more evident than when we celebrate Christmas, that pivotal moment in history when God so condescended toward man that he assumed our flesh and blood in the womb of a lowly virgin and laid himself to rest in a manger.  He who lived from eternity in heaven came down in time to live on earth.  It was because of this birth that God sent angels to insignificant shepherds telling them not to be afraid of God – not now; not ever again – because the God who has come to you will also bring you where he has gone. 
Yes, God wants you to know that your eternity is safe with Christ.  Of course!  But he demonstrates this desire for your eternity by letting you know that your today and your tomorrow are safe as well.  What love he has!  After all, what worse pain or sorrow can there be on earth than to be unsure of how the eternal and righteous and almighty God in heaven thinks of you?  Not just what he will think of you – what he does think of you. 
Imagine the uncertainty and doubt a young man has who must live without his beloved, who must go without seeing her or hearing her voice, who must wonder while life goes on whether she still thinks of him fondly, or if he has faded into a quaint memory that she rarely thinks of anymore even as she gives her affection to another.  What pain, what fear – the kind that we can all relate to – the kind of pain you feel in your heart and in your gut and that clouds your mind.  It is the pain of doubt.  Yet how much greater is the drama within the sinner’s heart who must carry on in life unsure of where he is headed, unsure of what God is going to do with him, in doubt as to whether God is angry or genuinely pleased! 
To doubt God is a sin to be sure – a sin that needs to be repented of and pardoned.  But, dear brothers and sisters, it is a sin that our God is eager to bear with in patience and kindness.  It is a sin that he especially wants to free you from even now – not only for the sake of your eternal welfare, but also for the sake of your current happiness.  He wants you to be saved from hell.  Absolutely!  He also wants you to be saved right now from the fiery darts of the devil who tortures souls by tempting them to doubt God’s word.  What worse pain can you feel than to be unsure of God’s love for you? 
So now consider what greater joy you can have than to be absolutely sure.  Absolutely is a strong word.  100%?  Really?  Who can have such certainty?  Who does?  Only God.  The confidence you desire is not one that you can develop on your own.  It must come from outside of you.  And it does.  What kindness God shows in giving signs, therefore, since this is exactly what they are for.  They confirm the truth of his word. 
How precious, after all, a small token of love would be for the young man who has begun to doubt his sweetheart: a letter, a scarf, a picture.  What joy and relief such a sign provides.  So also, this is why God gives us signs.  They are not mere sentimental tokens of summer love.  They are sure and clear promises of eternal love – a love so genuine and holy that it extends deep into the coldness of sin’s dark winter to rescues us.   He rescues us from eternal woe by rescuing us from our present doubts. 
What God thinks of you matters.  We can distract ourselves from this.  We can imagine that other things are more pressing and will give more pleasure in the here and now.  But these diversions are lies that will be exposed in the end and leave sinners disappointed.   And we know it.  To lack peace with God is the worst.  That is why Christ draws you here with his promise to give you just that, peace with God. 
God tells you things.  He tells you that certain things are true – certain things that you cannot see or feel – things that are contradicted by everything you can see and feel.  He tells you that you are his own dear child, washed clean and made holy in the blood of Christ.  Can you feel it?  What experience proves it?  Have you lived like a child of God?  Is your holiness evident?  Or do you know what impure thoughts you have indulged?  Have others witnessed or even felt the brunt of your sin?  Can you not fix it?  Do you not feel and see the exact opposite of what God says is true? 
Yet God says that by faith in Jesus who bore your sin you stand righteous before him.  Can you see or feel this righteousness within?  You cannot.  You see and feel the very sin that God tells you is forgiven.  What God says about you and about the current state of affairs between you and him are completely contrary to what you experience and feel and see. 
And this is as it should be.  Because you do not verify whether God is telling you the truth based on how you feel.  You do not determine whether you really are forgiven and justified by looking to see how sin-free and righteous you are.  Anyone who does this deceives himself and the truth is not in him.  Rather, you listen to what God says.  He speaks truth.  He confirms what you feel, to be sure.  Yes, he sharpens it even.  God teaches you what you by nature have some inkling of – that you are a poor sinner who falls short of his glory and who merits the death that creeps up on you.  And to this you say Amen.
But God does not leave you with such bitter truth.  He gives you the saving knowledge of Christ your Savior – the same saving knowledge he once gave to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is the saving truth he gave to David and so many prophets and kings that, though you feel your sin and have come to know and hate what God knows and hates within yourself, yet despite this there is One who bears your sin in your place.  There is One who has no sin of his own.  He is your God who took on human flesh and blood to do what sinful flesh and blood could not do.  He was born innocent for you who were born guilty.  He was obedient where you were rebellious.  He loved where you hated, forgave where you held a grudge, and blessed where you cursed.  And he who pleased his Father where you did not also shed his blood in pain and sadness so that you might not.  He takes your place.  He comes lowly to you in order to exult you with himself.  And doing so, he reveals to you his Father’s heart, full of grace and pardon.  He remembers his promise even now – his promise to forget your sin by forgiving it. 
But he shall not forget you – even now.  God knows your weakness.  That is why he sent his Son to join you in it.  He knows your doubt.  That is why he sent his Son to give you certainty.  And so that we might rely on this alone, he gives us signs.  His signs do not point to some place we must still go.  His signs point us to where he has already come to us. 
In Baptism, by simple water, he gives what he says is yours.  You do not feel washed and clean.  But your Baptism says you are.  You do not see your inheritance.  But your Baptism says that Christ’s birth is yours, his death is yours, his resurrection is yours, what he now owns and holds forever is yours.  This is what it means for Christ to remember you in his kingdom.  What a glorious sign! 
You do not feel eternal life within.  You feel death.  But in his holy Supper Jesus gives you his very body and blood that lives and cannot die.  It is the body and blood of God your Savior that once hid his glory in a manger, revealed it on the cross, and now shares it with you in bread and wine.  As certainly as our Father in heaven was pleased to see this holy body bear your sin and this innocent blood trickle down as payment, as certainly as he was pleased to raise it from the dead since all sin had been paid for, so just as certain can we be that he gives it to us in order that we might know and see what God knows and sees.   He sees what he here reveals to you: the body and blood that we eat and drink is the very body and blood that pleads in heaven for us.  What a glorious sign! 
These signs, these sacraments, teach us where to find the truth when we don’t feel or see it on our own.  They direct our minds and hearts away from what we experience.  They ground us firmly where God forgives and puts an end to all doubt.  God wants you to be certain.  God loves you.  That is why God gives signs. 
Ahaz refused to ask for a sign because he had already made a treaty with another king.  He pretended to trust God.  But he only mocked him.  He found all the confidence he desired in the peace that he himself had made.  So also many today will refuse to make use of God’s signs.  They are content with what little certainty they have, which is no certainty at all, because they are content with what they have arranged.  Having made peace with doubt, they remain at war with him who alone gives true peace with God.  
But his peace is still found in the sign that stood against Ahaz, in the sign that stands against all who would refuse God’s signs and sacraments and rely on themselves.  But dear Christians, today is Christmas Eve, the night of our Savior’s birth.  God’s sign does not stand against you.  His sign stands for you.  It stands fulfilled in the sign the angels gave to the shepherds.  A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel, that is, God with us.  Tonight is born to you in the city of David Christ the Lord.  God is with you.  He is your Savior.   Do not be afraid.  Simply follow the signs.  There you find your certainty, there you find your true Shepherd – where doubt and sin and fear are cast out by perfect love – perfect Love wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.  He comes not to condemn.  He comes to rescue.  He loves you. 

Follow the signs.  He sends not mere tokens of his promise.  He comes to you himself.  He is your God.  He is your Brother.  He is with you wrapped in his word, made visible by the signs and sacraments of the New Testament.  Even now.  And as surely as this poor baby in lowliness gained the victory over sin, hell, and Satan, so he remains with you today in your lowliness to gain the victory over all your doubt.  The divine and certain Word that once made his bed in a manger now makes his home in your heart.  Do not lose heart.  Be courageous to say Amen to what your God says is yours.  “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  He who has joined your flesh and blood forever joins also your day-to-day.  Come what may, he loves you.  In him you are safe.  Amen. 

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