12/24/23 - Christmas Eve at Illuminate - Luke 1-2 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Have you noticed that Christmas has become the world’s largest secular holiday? Sadly, the story of Jesus’ birth goes unnoticed and yet the story itself is remarkable. It’s like someone who lives in Arizona and yet never visits the Grand Canyon thinking, “It will always be just a few hours away and when I get time, I’ll make it there.” There’s this incredible place of natural beauty and yet never experienced even though it’s in our own backyard! That’s the way many people treat the birth of Jesus. “Someday, I’ll think more critically about the most talked about and written individual to ever walk the planet. The story will always be there so I’ll explore it when I have time.” This weekend I’d like to bring us to the manger and into the sights and sounds of what took place 2000 years ago.

 

Actually, I’d like to take us farther back in time. 

 

Seven hundred years before the days of Mary and Joseph there lived a man named Isaiah. He was from the same region where Jesus was born. God speaks through Isaiah and gives remarkable insight into future events…

 

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 7:14 

 

Immanuel means, “God with us.” Shockingly, the prophet tells us that Jesus is God in human form and will dwell among humanity.

 

Many people have very little tolerance for Christianity because it is seen as exclusive and intolerant. The idea that Jesus is the only way to God and only through him can you achieve eternal life appears to be extremely narrow minded. The fact is, Christmas is the cause of irritating exclusivity. You see, every other religion believes that if you just follow their founder’s moral teachings then you will gain something better in the life to come. Morality and goodness is the path to God. Christianity says that’s not possible. Your situation is so desperate that morality and goodness will never be enough. Oh, and the reality is, you’re not actually as good as you think you are. So someone has to be good for you.

 

Suddenly, Christianity doesn’t seem so exclusive does it? Because God did for you what you couldn’t do for yourself. This is the meaning of Immanuel, God WITH us. This shatters many people’s view of Him. They think God is distant and far off and only mildly interested in human affairs. Christmas gives correction to that. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul, For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6

 

In other words, God gives light in the darkness by sending Jesus to be THE light who is the very representation of God himself. Now that is something to celebrate!