[Sermon Archive]

This Week's Sermon THE NATIVITY of OUR LORD 24 December 2010 "He's Here! He's Here!" Matthew 1:18-25 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The Church's most fervent hymn in Advent is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." It is traditionally sung during the last seven days of Advent as the anniversary of Jesus' birth approaches quickly. Its roots go deeply into the Old Testament and the Great "O" Antiphons speak of the longing of the prophets for the Christ to come.

1 O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear. Refrain

Refrain
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Text and Music: Public domain. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

"Emmanuel shall come" promise the prophetic voices. God himself shall come to teach mankind God's ways; he shall redeem us; he shall deliver us; he shall come and rescue prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death; he shall enlighten those who sit in this darkness and shadow of death; he shall come and save those whom God has formed out of clay; he shall open wide our heavenly home; he shall come and bind into one both Jew and Gentile, being their King of Peace.

Tonight the Church throughout the world proclaims, "He's Here! He's Here!" Immanuel has come! He was born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. God himself has come to lost humanity. He has entered our time/space continuum. He has come to be with us forever. Think of it! God himself has come to be with us. God in the flesh, our Savior, our Key of David who has opened wide our heavenly home! "He's Here! He's Here!"

We get excited at the arrival of someone important. We get ready. We prepare. The Church has been preparing for the past four weeks, sweeping clean our lives through confession and absolution, through repentance and forgiveness, and now the time has arrived! "He's Here! He's Here!" God himself has come to us!

While Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus lacks the scope and grandeur of Luke's more familiar account, it is Matthew who ties it to the prophecy of Isaiah:

Matthew 1:23 (ESV)
23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

Immanuel. God-with-us. Can there be any sweeter words than these? No, not unless you put them together with the angel's word to Joseph that this child conceived in Mary's womb by a word spoken by the Holy Spirit is also Jesus, which is Hebrew for Savior. Immanuel. God-with-us. Savior. Here is the God who has come to save his people by taking away their sins!

Already behind the manger stands the cross. The Jews knew that taking away sins involved the shedding of blood. The Old Testament ritual for atonement involved sacrifices. Sacrificial animals meant blood was going to be shed. There was death. The living animal died in the place of the sinner. Animals were substitutes for the people themselves. God had warned Adam and Eve that if they ate fruit of the forbidden tree death would result. It meant the death of the soul. It meant also the death of the body because man was created by God as body and soul.

The death of sacrificial animals was soon to be over because God had promised to make an end of it when the real Lamb of God came to take away sin for good. If animals could rejoice at this, they would! Perhaps what St. Paul writes in Romans refers to this:

Romans 8:20-22 (ESV)
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

"And heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing." [Joy to the World]. Paul speaks of a grand scope of things touching the consummation of all history and the coming of the glorious eternal kingdom of Christ when Eden is restored. "He's Here! He's Here!" And even the created order rejoices!

For us, the anticipation of this night often runs in another direction for the most part. We anticipate the giving and receiving of gifts, the climax of a long Christmas shopping season. Many have simply spent their time preparing for the annual festivities without much thought as to its eschatological meaning, that is, what it means in the final analysis, at the end of the age. These people will look for miracles in the feelings that they have for each other, for the spirit of conviviality and good will. Some of it will spill over into a desire for world peace, as if man were capable of producing it if only he tried harder to capture this spirit! Indeed, it would be a miracle, but it is not that miracle that we celebrate this evening. St. Bernard said that there were three miracles:

1) that God and man should be joined in this Child;
2) that a mother should remain a virgin;
3) that Mary should believe this mystery would be accomplished in her, that is, that Mary believed it. It was Luther who said that the Virgin birth "is a mere trifle for God," but that the biggest miracle is Mary's faith [Martin Luther's Christmas Book, Augsburg, p. 15].

That God and man should be joined in this Child is the essence of this holy celebration. God took humanity into himself explains the Athanasian Creed. God became man in Christ. God came to be with man, alongside man. God became a true man so the he could redeem humanity by offering up himself as the final payment for man's sin. This is what his name means. Jesus means Savior. He is the One born for the purpose of saving all mankind from sin, and if he has done that, it means that he has also saved mankind from death and hell.

"He's Here! He's Here!" And yet no one knew of it other than the shepherds who needed to be informed by the angels. The miracle of all the ages, the Incarnation, this Son of God taking on human flesh and blood in Mary's womb, happens quietly and humbly. The world does not notice that God has arrived. A couple of years ago presidential candidates came to our city. It would have been hard to NOT know that they were here. The red carpet was rolled out, so to speak. Media coverage included national as well as local coverage. Who didn't know that these candidates were here?

But Jesus, God in the flesh, came in the back door. He came without any fanfare, except the angelic chorus heard only by the shepherds. He first saw the light of day in a stable, surrounded by animals chewing their cuds or eating straw. A fitting reception, indeed! Yet, that is how God-with-us came. God came in the back door because his work was the work of a servant. While kings come in the front door, he came in the servants' entrance. He would be the sin offering for the world's sin. He would offer up his perfect life to the shame and horror of the cross, and in so doing, he would save us from our sins. He would make the payment to satisfy God's justice.

Man works hard at making peace sometimes. Think of how many years and how many presidents have tried to broker peace in the Middle East. No matter how times these attempts have been made and failure has resulted, they keep trying. It's a noble effort but the Middle East remains a few minutes from the flames of a horrible war.

Immanuel, God-with-us, has accomplished his mission of making peace with God. We do not have to hope that peace will be made because it has been made by Jesus. His death is the death of death. When he died, the perfect sacrifice was offered, once for all. His resurrection is the proof that God the Father accepted his sacrifice for our sins. He made peace with God. God's peace is announced to the world. As the Key of David, he has opened heaven once more so that all who are in him may enter there. The angel guards the way no more.

The great Christmas hymns speak of these wonderful things:

372 O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is
3 Thy light and grace
Our guilt efface,
Thy heav'nly riches all our loss retrieving.
Immanuel,
Thy birth doth quell
The pow'r of hell and Satan's bold deceiving.

Text: © 1941 Concordia Publishing House Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, number 100010193. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

375 Come, Your Hearts and Voices Raising
4 From the bondage that oppressed us,
From sin's fetters that possessed us,
From the grief that sore distressed us,
We, the captives, now are free.

Text: 1941 Public domain. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

380 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
3 Hail, the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris'n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Text and Music: Public domain. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

A week ago our children sang this lovely children's hymn:

392 God Loves Me Dearly
3 He sent forth Jesus,
My dear Redeemer,
He sent forth Jesus
And set me free. Refrain

Refrain
Therefore I'll say again:
God loves me dearly,
God loves me dearly,
Loves even me.

Text and Music: Public domain. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

And tonight we sing again our excited welcome to our Lord:

358 From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
8 Welcome to earth, O noble Guest,
Through whom the sinful world is blest!
You came to share my misery
That You might share Your joy with me.

Text and Music: Public domain. Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

"He's Here! He's Here!" Our Immanuel has not gone away. He has not left us. He has not abandoned us because he has promised always to be with us, even to the close of the age. He is here right now as his Word is proclaimed and his body and blood are distributed for the forgiveness of sins. Tonight is the real Christmas, the Christ=Mass, the Divine Service where Christ comes to us according to his flesh to forgive our sins anew, to refresh and nourish us. He remains God-with-us, not just for tonight, but forever. Risen from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, he fills all things with his divine glory. That divine glory remains hidden in such simple things like his Word, water, bread and wine. As he came humbly in the flesh at his birth, so even now he comes humbly in these common things. He still serves us. He's here especially now, in the Divine Service. That's what makes this Christmas, the presence of Christ in grace and mercy.

As St. Bernard said, and as Luther underscored, the real miracle tonight is that God the Holy Spirit has created faith in your heart to believe this great mystery. It is why you have come to this place, because you know that the Savior, your Savior, Immanuel, God-with-us, is here for you in grace and mercy, and because you know this and confess this, your heart is filled once again with this indescribable joy at what God has done. You join with the angels and archangels and with the saints of all the ages in singing:

Luke 2:14 (ESV)
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

Yes, "Glory to God!" "He's here! He's Here!" Jesus, your Savior, is here!

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.