December 22, 2024
The Perfect Gift
Luke 2:8-15
Christmas is finally here, and as we finish up our series on the family tree of Jesus, we are going to focus on the most important part of the genealogy listed in Matthew 1, and that, of course, is Jesus, the true reason for Christmas. This morning, I want to start with the reading of the true story of Christmas as recorded in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 2:1-20.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “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. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
This is Christmas, encapsulated in just a few verses and even though we might recognize the true meaning of Christmas in our lives, we must admit that we have added many things to our Christmas’ celebrations as well. One thing that you might have noticed is that many of those things that we have added to Christmas, even though many of them are not inherently bad, do not bring us any sort of peace as we celebrate Christmas, especially the type of peace that was sung about by the angels who were announcing the birth of Jesus. This morning, I want us to turn aside from the things that might be bringing us stress this Christmas and focus on the perfect gift of Christmas. Now I know that some of your blood pressures went up just a little when I mentioned “the perfect gift”. Medical studies have shown that the quest for the ever-elusive perfect gift is the #1 stress producer for people around Christmas time. 3 out of 4 people say they have experienced this kind of stress while trying to find that perfect gift, but that’s not the type of gift that I’m talking about here, but rather we are talking about the perfect gift that God gave us that comes in Jesus Christ.
Now speaking of perfect gifts, I want to ask you a “perfect gift” question that hopefully has no stress involved. If I were to ask you to describe your idea of the perfect Christmas gift with just 3 words, how would you describe it? Would you say it was something heartfelt, thoughtful, and useful? How about sentimental, practical, and personalized? Cozy, warm, and comforting? Or maybe it would be something fun, exciting, and adventurous. All of us have a different answer to what the perfect gift would be for us and hopefully you’ll share this answer with someone who might be having a stressful time shopping for you this year, but the reason I asked this question is because when it comes to the perfect gift of Christmas, God chose only 3 words to describe this gift in the birth announcement of Jesus that was made to the shepherds. And it’s those three words that I want to look at this morning, to help us to understand why Jesus is the most perfect present ever given.
The Perfect Gift is the Savior - Luke 2:10-11a
But the angel said to them, “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
Have you ever gotten a gift that you had no idea what you were going to use it for? A gift that causes your first response to it to think, “Well it’s the thought that counts”? Maybe you've gotten a jar of dehydrated water, a fish training kit, or can of sunshine and while you appreciated the thought that was put into the gift, you have no clue what you are going to do with it. The perfect gift that came on Christmas is not like that at all, nor is it the perfect gift for just a certain group of people. I’m sure you’ve seen the advertisement that tells you a certain product is the perfect gift for a certain group of people, like an expensive set of knives being the perfect gift for the family member who loves to cook. When Jesus came, He came as the perfect gift for everyone. He is not just a novelty that will bring you a moment of joy then cause you to set it aside to be forgotten. Nor is He a gift that is only perfect for a certain group of people like the religious or the “truly bad” people. When Jesus came to earth on that first Christmas, He came as the perfect gift for all of mankind, because He came to be our Savior. Those of us who have been around church know what Savior means, but for many people when they hear that Jesus came to be their Savior, they have questions. They ask, “What are we saved from?” and “What are we saved for?” I want to answer those as we look at why Jesus as Savior makes the perfect gift for everyone.
For a Savior to meet everyone's needs and be the perfect gift, that means that every person you ever meet, including yourself, is in some sort of trouble and needs to be saved from it. That’s exactly the position we are all in, we have all sinned against God and that sin that we voluntarily commit takes us away from God sliding down a slope that we cannot get back up from and the further we slide down that slope, the more we experience the brokenness and death that sin brings into our world as well as all our lives. We can try to slow our descent and maybe sometimes we can slow down just a bit, but no matter what we do we can’t get back to where God is, and we are going to have to suffer the consequences of that slide into sin. Because of sin, we all need to be rescued, and Jesus came to do just that, Jesus came to save you. He saves us from our sins by offering us forgiveness of our sins (Acts 10:43), He saves us from the punishment of our sins and the wrath of God’s condemnation by justifying us with His blood (Romans 5:9), He saves us from eternal death by providing us eternal life (John 3:16), He saves us from that slippery slope of sin by setting us apart on His path, empowering us, and sanctifying us to His work (Titus 3:3-8). There is no doubt that when we look at the truths of Scripture and compare them to the truth of the lives lived out that we will see we are in desperate need of a perfect Savior and Jesus came to be just that, but Jesus did not come to simply save us from something, He saved us for something. Romans 5:10-11 tells us that we are saved to have a relationship with God who loved us so much that He sent His son to save us. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we are saved to be able to approach God as our heavenly father any time we need. Ephesians 2:5-10 tells us we are saved so that we can have a promise to hold onto for our futures, a promise that when we breathe our last we will be with God, we are saved so that we can worship God, enjoy God, and be loved by Him forever and then also be an example to others that Jesus can save them as well! Despite all of this as a description of the perfect gift who is Jesus, God has two more words to describe this gift to us.
The Perfect Gift is the Messiah - Luke 2:10-11b
But the angel said to them, “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 word Messiah is an Old Testament Hebrew word that we get the New Testament Greek word Christ from; both of those words mean anointed one. In the Old Testament the Messiah was the promised one who would deliver and save the Jewish people and in the New Testament it was a title given to Jesus to show that He was the fulfilment of that promise, but it wasn’t to save them politically or even physically, but as we have seen Jesus Christ came to save us all spiritually from our sins. There is a little more to the idea of being anointed in Scripture than just one who saves or delivers. When someone was anointed in the Old Testament, they were set apart for a specific duty. We see that Elijah anointed Elisha to be a prophet, Aaron was anointed in the book of Leviticus to be the first High Priest of Israel, and we see Samuel anoint both Saul and David to be King over Israel. As the Children of Israel would have been looking forward to the arrival of the Messiah, the Jewish people were also looking for someone who would fulfill the role of prophet, priest, and king as well. When Jesus came, He came as the Christ, He came to fulfill all three roles once and for all. Jesus was referred to as a prophet many times in Scripture (Luke 7:16, Matthew 21:11, John 4:19), and like a prophet He taught the Word of God because He was the Word of God (John 1:1), He did numerous miracles, and He predicted the future concerning His death, burial, resurrection and return. Although Jesus met the qualifications of a prophet, He was more than just a prophet, He was also a priest.
In the Old Testament, priests were a mediator between God and man, and this is exactly how Paul describes Jesus in 1 Timothy 2:5 when He says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus”. The writer of Hebrews goes into depth to show us that Jesus is the fulfillment of both Priesthood, that He was the end of both the Aaronic and the Melchizedek Priesthood. These priesthoods were both just a foreshadow of the coming Messiah, the coming High Priest but again, Jesus didn’t come just to be prophet and priest, Jesus was also King. We sometimes say that the manger was the first king sized bed, and while we might say that in a lighthearted way, it’s the truth. The King of all Kings was born that day in Bethlehem, He was king because He had the right to be the true heir to the earthly throne of David because He was from David’s bloodline, He was King because He was the one who had all authority on Heaven and Earth given to Him, He is the King because He is one that every knee will bow to at His return when He sets up his earthly throne during the Millennial Reign that we are told about in the book of the Revelation. Usually when we see people who are anointed for a specific office in the Old Testament their offices usually never overlap, but all three are not only seen in Jesus, but they are seen supremely in Jesus. He is the ultimate prophet, priest, and king, He is the Messiah, the Christ, that people have waited for all of eternity.
The Perfect Gift is the Lord - Luke 2:10-11
But the angel said to them, “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.
The final word that God gave the angels to describe the perfect gift of Jesus, was that this newborn baby was not only the Savior of the world, not only was He the long-awaited Messiah, but He was also Lord. In Luke’s time a Lord was someone with authority over others, a master or ruler of some kind. With the title here, we do see that definition apply as well, especially since Jesus was the Messiah, the King of all Kings, but we also see that when this title is used for Jesus it also denotes His divinity. This title of divinity is first seen predominantly after the resurrection when Jesus appears to the disciples and doubting Thomas is provided evidence that He is in fact alive, and Thomas proclaims that Jesus is “My Lord and my God!”. From that point on the title “Lord” was used over and over by the apostles to show everyone that Jesus was in fact God! Peter even used this phrase in Acts 2:36 when He preached for the first time on Pentecost and proclaimed, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” When the angels proclaimed that Jesus was Lord, they were proclaiming this is “Emmanuel!” God has entered His creation, God is now with you, He is coming to deliver you as the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ, He is coming to save the world from their sins! This was indeed the most perfect gift ever, but with it being a gift there is still something that must be done.
To enjoy a gift and experience the benefits it brings two things must happen, first the gift must be given and secondly the gift must be received. We all know that is how a gift exchange works, but it’s the same transaction that must take place with the perfect gift that is Jesus. He freely gave himself as a gift for us, but we must receive the gift from Him to experience the blessings He brings. Yes, Jesus is Savior! But is He your Savior? Yes, Jesus is Messiah, The Christ, but is He your Prophet, is He your High Priest, Is He your King? There is only one way to accept the gift of Jesus and that is to make Him your Lord. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. That’s how you accept the gift of Jesus, by making Him your Lord. When we say that “Jesus is Lord” we are committing ourselves to Him, to follow Him, to obey Him. Surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus is how we accept the gift of Jesus, it’s the only way. Have you ever accepted the most perfect Christmas gift ever? Merry Christmas!
