Amen. Thank you, Treg. If you would, please take your Bibles and open them up to the Gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew, you heard me right. We've been in the Gospel of John for the past, all of 2023.
But this morning, as we consider the birth of Christ, we're going to read the birth story of Jesus.
And our passage will be Matthew chapter 1, the whole thing. So pray for me as I read Matthew chapter 1.
And if you found that in your Bibles, if you would, let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's Word.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
and Ram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon,
and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,
and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz,
and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,
and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor,
and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Akim, and Akim the father of Eliud,
and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations,
and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations,
and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
And he called his name Jesus.
This is the word of the Lord.
Please take a seat, and I'll pray, and we'll begin.
And Lord,
this is the story, Father, of your promises.
It's the story of your promise of salvation to any who come,
and any who see Christ for who he is, the Son of God.
So we pray now, would you do the miracle of opening our eyes to behold him for who he is,
the risen King and the Lord of all.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, Christmas is finally here.
Our season of waiting, Advent, is coming to a close,
and tomorrow morning, tomorrow all day long,
we celebrate the arrival and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, Christmas has always been a special time for me.
I remember when I was a kid, around November time,
the end of November, the sales flyers would begin coming in,
the catalogs would come in.
That was a thing back then.
And I would take them with my markers and pens in hand.
My sisters would pass the flyers around,
and we would mark off all the things we wanted to receive for Christmas.
And my parents made it abundantly clear.
We can ask for anything we want for Christmas.
We can put anything we want on our list.
Our list can be as long and elaborate as we want,
but no promises that we would actually receive any of it.
And now that I'm a parent, that makes a lot more sense to me.
I understand their position.
Our asking for it is not a contract, placing it, marking it off on a sales flyer,
noticing it in a store, saying that we want it is not a binding obligation.
No promises.
So I could wait, I could long, I could wish, I could hope,
but they made very clear, no promises that I would actually receive any of it.
Well, as we open up the gospel according to Matthew this morning,
we find ourselves in the exact opposite scenario.
Now, I want you to try to place yourself in the moments leading up to the birth of Jesus.
God Himself, all through the Old Testament, God Himself has been making promises.
He promised a seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent.
He promised a king like King David to come and to rule and to reign forever over His people.
He promised a Messiah to come and to save His people from their sins.
And yet, year after year after year after year has gone by without these promises being fulfilled.
You begin to wonder, when will He come?
When will these promises be kept?
When will God stay true to His Word?
Is this too good to be true?
Well, as we open up to Matthew chapter 1, Matthew, He tells us,
No, no, no, no, no, no.
It's not too good to be true.
God has kept His Word.
The Messiah has come exactly as God has promised.
So here this morning in Matthew chapter 1,
we're going to see three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.
Three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.
This is our outline.
If you take notes, this helps you follow along with the sermon this morning.
We'll see three promises kept in the birth of Jesus.
First, at Christmas we celebrate the arrival of the promised King.
You know, some of you probably are wondering why I took the time to read out all of those names this morning.
All right, I saw the looks you gave me.
All right, if you're pregnant, if you're expecting,
you can pluck a list, a name right off this list.
It's suggested baby names.
You can gain a few ideas there.
I worked hard on that, by the way, pronouncing this.
I learned that if you just act confident and read it,
and nobody knows the difference anyways, you just roll on.
But let's be honest.
Most of us, when we pick up the Gospel of Matthew,
when we read through the Christmas story,
we skip right past verses 1 through 17
and start right at the end of chapter 1 at the verse 18.
Now, the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way.
We're like, okay, good, I understand this.
If we're honest, we don't really understand this list of names,
what it has to do with us.
We don't know how to pronounce them.
We don't know who half of these people are.
Not today.
Matthew, he does not just start in verse 18.
And so we need to understand,
well, why does he include this list of names here in verses 1 through 17?
Why does he do this?
Well, the short answer is that he is tracing the promises of God
through human history to their fulfillment in the birth of Jesus.
That's the point of this long historical list of names.
This is history.
He's tracing the promises of God through human history to their fulfillment in Jesus.
You see, the good news for Christians,
we believe the Bible is not just a storybook.
It's not just a collection of moral stories or fables or mythical stories.
It's not just a collection of good examples and ideas.
We believe the Bible is actually rooted in history.
What we read about here in the birth of Christ happened.
I remember hearing a story,
a missionary shared a story with me years ago.
I wish I could remember exactly who it was.
But they were living amongst an unreached people group
and they were translating the Word of God into their native tongue.
And they were trying to share the story of the gospel with them.
And after years of laboring amongst them,
after years of sharing the gospel with them,
they finally had a copy of the Gospel of Matthew
translated into their native tongue.
That's amazing.
That's amazing work.
They were able to hand them a written copy in their language of the Gospel of Matthew.
Well, as these people began to read,
to the missionary's surprise,
they came back to them urgently.
As you could tell, they were stirred up.
They were shocked.
And they said,
What is this list of names here at the beginning of this book?
I said,
All these stories,
you're telling me that Jesus is actually real.
That He actually is a historical figure.
That all these stories that you're telling me about His life and His death and His resurrection,
that these are true?
I said,
Yes, of course.
These are true.
And it was there because of this long, elaborate list of names here at the beginning of Matthew
that they came to believe everything else that they had been told concerning Jesus.
And so let's look at this list of names here
and try to understand why Matthew includes this here.
You might notice, if you're a historian,
you would notice that this list is not exhaustive.
He is selective in who He includes.
It's intentional.
And we do the same thing.
Okay?
The critics like to point that out,
that not every generation is listed here.
That's intentional.
If you're related down the line to a former president of the United States,
you don't lead off with Grandpa that nobody else knows.
Right?
He's not listing out everybody.
He's listing out those who are significant for the story that He's trying to tell.
And He highlights two people in particular here in the beginning of the genealogy.
Who are they?
Abraham and David.
He says this baby is the son of Abraham.
In other words, he is Jewish.
Father Abraham.
You know the story.
Of course, he's the guy in Jewish history.
He's the beginning.
He's the one to whom God made the incredible promises.
All of Israel, all of the Jewish people,
are descendants of Abraham physically.
And it was to Abraham that God made the promises in Genesis chapter 12,
verses 1 through 3.
He says,
Now the Lord said to Abraham,
Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you,
and I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you and will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and him who dishonors you I will curse,
and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Do you hear all those promises God made to Abraham?
God promised Abraham offspring,
an old man well beyond the years of childbearing.
He promised land.
He promised blessing.
And he promised blessing through Abraham to the rest of the world,
to the nations.
This is the Jewish hope and desire
that these promises would be fulfilled.
Well, Matthew wants us to know this Jesus is in the line of Abraham.
He is included in the promise.
He's a son of Abraham.
But not only this,
he also says he's a son of David.
You see that there in verse 1.
You see it again in verse 6.
And then in the summary statement in verse 17,
he wants to make sure that we understand Joseph is a son of David as well.
Well, Matthew is really trying to highlight this for us.
He wants us to know.
He's emphasizing for us.
This Jesus is not just a Jew descended from Abraham.
He is a Jew descended from David.
In other words,
he's establishing for us that this baby
has a legal claim to the throne of David.
Now, our ears ought to perk up when we hear that.
If we were a Jew reading this gospel,
our ears would perk up when we hear that he is a son of David.
Because all of them were waiting for the fulfillment
of what God had promised to David.
In 2 Samuel chapter 7,
the chapter that we read earlier this morning,
it says,
This is a promise of a forever reigning king.
And it's through this king,
we understand,
through this king,
this promised son of David,
that all of the promises made to Abraham
will be fulfilled.
See, the rest of the Old Testament,
from this point onward,
is leaning forward,
is asking forward,
is asking the question,
Who is this promised son of David?
Who is this king who's coming?
When will he come?
When will his throne be established?
When will the son of David come?
Now, Matthew says,
The promised king is here.
His name is Jesus,
the son of Abraham,
the son of David.
He is the one we've been waiting for.
You know,
if you're here with us,
if you're a guest with us,
you might wonder,
why in the world do Christians talk so much about Jesus?
And why do we make such a big deal about this man,
Jesus?
Why do we celebrate Jesus at Christmas time?
Why do we talk so much about him?
It's because we believe that Jesus is the one whose throne will never end.
We believe that Jesus is Lord over all the earth.
We believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise to David,
that he is the king who will reign forever.
That he's the one who defeats all of our enemies,
not just physical enemies.
That's far too small.
That Jesus is the one who defeats all of our enemies of sin and of death and of the devil.
He's come to reign and to rule.
And we believe that Jesus,
King Jesus will come again to reign and to rule forevermore.
That's what we celebrate at Christmas time.
The king has come just as God promised.
And we believe that this king,
this king Jesus,
he's the one through whom all the promises made to Abraham come to all of us by faith.
You see,
the promises made to Abraham are not exclusively Jewish.
Not physically,
at least.
We understand from the rest of the New Testament,
Paul says in Galatians chapter 3,
it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
Those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham,
the man of faith.
These promises are extended in Christ
to any who have faith in the promised Messiah.
So that he says again in Galatians chapter 3,
in Christ Jesus,
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles.
And what a gift,
church.
And what an undeserved,
miraculous gift
to be included in the people and the promises of God.
Not by birth,
and not by what we've done,
not by our goodness,
but by grace alone,
through faith in the promised Messiah.
This is incredible grace.
And the gift of Christmas
is not for those who are worthy to receive it.
In fact,
Jesus' own family line shows us that
he has come to redeem sinners like us.
This is what we see in our second point this morning.
Second,
at Christmas,
we celebrate the arrival of the promised Redeemer.
The promised Redeemer.
I want you to notice something else about this list here,
which is that it is not pretty.
This is a messy history.
If I were going to present my family line to you this morning,
I would probably scrub it a little bit
and not share all the dirty details of my family.
I would want to edit a little bit.
But that's not what Matthew does.
This genealogy,
I want you to see,
it's filled with people and circumstances
and stories that are completely messed up.
This is shameful and it's messy.
It's sinful.
It's interesting.
The story of the birth of Jesus
and the messiness of this story
is highlighted through four women
that he includes in this genealogy.
Five, actually,
if you include Mary,
but we'll focus on four here.
You should know that it was not at all normal
for anybody to include women in a genealogy in this time.
Typically, the normal pattern was just to list out the fathers.
But Matthew,
he swerves from that pattern a little bit
to draw our attention to four women in this list.
Did you notice them?
Why would he do that?
Why would he swerve from this cultural pattern?
Well, for one,
I think that this highlights
the new countercultural dignity
given to women
through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Women are not a second-class citizen
in the kingdom of heaven.
They are fellow heirs alongside men,
co-heirs with Christ.
They are fellow image bearers of God.
Yes, they are made distinct and different.
We are made differently from one another
in ways that we don't have time to talk about this morning.
But we are equal in shared dignity,
value, and worth in the kingdom of God.
That was not usual in this culture.
This was not the norm.
But here is Matthew
drawing our attention to four women
in the story of Jesus.
And yet,
these four women are not the ones that we might choose.
If you and I were writing this list,
these four women
are not the ones that we would pick out.
He lists Tamar,
Rahab,
Ruth,
and Bathsheba.
Are you familiar with these stories?
Tamar,
Rahab,
Ruth,
and Bathsheba.
He lists Tamar first.
He says in verse 3,
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah
by Tamar.
What's the big deal?
If you want a little Christmas Eve devotional reading,
go home and read Genesis chapter 38 this afternoon.
And you'll see
that Tamar
prostituted herself
to her own father-in-law.
And that's how she bore Perez and Zerah.
It's not a pretty story.
Why would Matthew go out of his way
to draw our attention to this story,
to put her name in Jesus' family history?
He lists Rahab
in verse 5.
He says,
Salmon was the father of Boaz
by Rahab.
At least Tamar was Jewish.
Rahab was a Gentile prostitute.
And yet,
if you know the story,
if you remember the story,
the Lord redeemed her
from her life of prostitution.
He plucked her up
out of her home,
out of her people,
saved her from the judgment of God,
gave her a place
with the people of God,
is a beautiful story of redemption.
And then he lists Ruth.
He says again in verse 5,
Salmon,
the father of Boaz
by Rahab,
and Boaz,
the father of Obed
by Ruth.
Now,
what in the world
is wrong with Ruth?
She's the virtuous woman.
I agree.
She's a wonderful example
of virtue,
a wonderful example
of God's providence
and redemption.
And yet,
Ruth is not a Jew.
Ruth is a Moabite.
She has no natural claim,
no birth claim
to any of the promises
of God made to the Jews.
She's a Gentile.
She's a foreigner.
It would be unthinkable
that the king of the Jews
would come from
a Moabite woman.
And yet,
it's exactly
what Matthew
tells us.
The story of Ruth
is a story of God
providentially working out
all the details
of the world
to bring about
this promised
redeemer
through
an obscure
Moabite
widow.
Why does he do
things like this?
Why does God
choose to do
things like this?
God has brought about
his promise
in the most
unthinkable way.
The Christ has come
from a line
of misfits,
rejects,
sinners,
not those
who you and I
would choose
to be a part
of the story.
And still,
it gets worse.
Tamar,
Rahab,
Ruth,
and then in verse 6,
David was the father
of Solomon
by the wife
of Uriah.
That would be
Bathsheba.
You know this story.
This one might be
the messiest
of them all.
David took
Bathsheba,
another man's wife.
He slept with her
while her husband,
Uriah,
was off at war.
She conceived a child
and then to cover it
all up,
he had her husband
killed.
This is a story
of murder,
of deception,
of adultery.
This is one scandal
after another,
one failure
after another,
one sinner
after another.
This seems like
this conversation
shouldn't have left
the dinner table.
And Matthew
wants us to know.
He clues us
in
to the messy
history
of the line
of Jesus Christ.
He does not
cover it up
that the Messiah
is a descendant
of messy,
sinful people.
The royal line
of promise
is polluted
with sin
and shame.
that the Christ
has come
from a line
of misfits,
rejects,
sinners,
and again,
not those
who you and I
would pick out
to be a part
of the story.
Why?
Why
does Matthew
tell us this?
Well, for one,
if you are embarrassed
by your family,
take heart,
it could be much worse.
If you gather
with your family
tomorrow morning
and you look around
the room
and say,
these guys
are just a mess,
I have good news
for you,
you're in good company.
But more importantly
than that,
the fact that
the Son of God
came from
this messed up
family line
is a clear sign
to us
that Jesus
is not
turned away
by your mess.
Jesus came
to redeem
our mess
when the Word
of God
became flesh.
That's what we celebrate
at Christmas,
church.
When the Word
of God
became flesh,
He wrapped
Himself up
in our messed
up sinful story.
He stepped down
from the throne
of heaven
to enter
into our mess,
to enter
into the chaos
of our lives,
to enter into
our shame
and our guilt
and the sin
of our messed up
lives in order
to redeem
us from it.
that's the gospel.
That the Holy
Son of God
became sin
for us
on the cross
so that in Him
messed up sinners
like us
might become
the very righteousness
of God.
What a gift.
You know,
if you're
struggling with
a particular sin
this Christmas season,
if you're
lost
in the wages
of sin
this Christmas
season,
if you're just
dealing with the effects
of living in a sin
cursed world
this Christmas season,
if you're walking
through grief
or despair
or sadness
or loneliness,
I want you
to bring that
to Jesus.
There is not
a mess
in this room
that would
surprise King
Jesus.
He's not waiting
for us to clean
ourselves up
to come to Him.
No, no, no, no, no.
Remember what
Christmas is about.
God Himself
came down
to us
and stepped
into our mess
to save us
from our sin.
If you truly
understand the person
in the heart
of Jesus,
we would never
say anything like,
well, I just need
to clean myself up
a little before
I come to Him.
I just need
to clean myself up.
My life's too
messed up right now
to get serious
about God.
I need to pull
myself together
first.
No.
You are invited
right now
to bring all
of your mess
and drop it
in His lap.
He's the friend
of sinners.
Charles Spurgeon,
he says it like this,
he says,
Jesus is heir
of a line
in which flows
the blood
of the harlot Rahab
and of the rustic Ruth.
He is akin
to the fallen
and the lowly
and He will show
His love
even to the poorest
and the most obscure.
He's the promised
Redeemer,
church.
And third,
finally,
see at Christmas
we celebrate
the arrival
of our promised
Savior.
And now we enter
into some familiar
territory.
Starting at verse 18.
It says,
Now the birth
of Jesus Christ
took place
this way.
When His mother Mary
had been betrothed
to Joseph,
before they came
together,
she was found
to be with child
from the Holy Spirit.
And when you understand
the family history,
this makes a lot
more sense
that the birth
of Jesus
would come this way
to an unwed
pregnant mother.
This is another scandal.
But the difference,
of course,
is that this scandal
is without sin.
Joseph and Mary
were betrothed
to be married.
Oftentimes,
weddings in this culture
were prearranged
by the parents
when the children
are young
and they called
that engagement.
It's not quite like
our engagement
in our culture.
And then they become
betrothed
to one another
when that engagement
becomes legally binding.
And so they're called
husband and wife now
for about a year
before they actually
get married
and come together
as husband and wife.
It's confusing,
I know.
But the point is
that Mary and Joseph
were betrothed,
legally bound
to one another.
But they had not yet
come together
as husband and wife.
And Mary
comes with some
surprising news
for Joseph.
Surprise!
I'm pregnant!
And Joseph,
as you and I
probably would do,
he was surprised
and he wanted out.
I can't blame him
for that.
But it says
he was a just man
and he wanted
to honor Mary
so he planned
to divorce her quietly.
But an angel
of the Lord
appears to him
and gives him
some more shocking news
to change his mind.
He assured him,
Joseph,
son of David,
do not fear
to take Mary
as your wife
for that which
is conceived in her
is from the Holy Spirit.
Now this is a miracle.
And without going
into too much detail,
I'll just say
that's not how
babies are born.
That's not how
babies are made.
My children are young
but they know enough
to know that
babies come from
having a mommy
and a daddy.
You need both
of those elements
in some way,
shape,
or form.
Out of all the millions
of babies born,
this is the only one
in the history
of mankind
that did not have
both mom and dad
in some way.
He was begotten,
not made,
as the Nicene Creed
tells us.
Just as was promised,
700 years before
he was born
in the book
of Isaiah.
He says he was
born of a virgin.
Verse 23,
Behold,
the virgin
shall conceive
and bear a son
and they shall
call his name
Emmanuel,
which means
God with us.
Why does this matter?
I wonder if you
really understand
the depth
of why the virgin birth
is such a significant
part of the promise
of God.
He wrote about it
700 years before
Jesus was born.
It happened just
as he promised.
Why is the virgin birth
such an essential
part of the Christmas
story?
It's not just because
a virgin birth
is extremely unusual.
It's much more
than that.
If Jesus is not
born of a virgin
just as God promised,
then he cannot
be the promised
Savior.
Put it another way,
the virgin birth
is what makes
possible the promise
of verse 21.
She will bear a son
and you shall call
his name Jesus
for he will save
his people
from their sins.
It should be obvious
to us,
but a sinner
cannot save us
from our sins.
This was the problem
with the Old Testament
priesthood,
was it not?
A sinner
cannot bear
the sin
of the people
of God
because he's too busy
bearing his own sin.
A sinner cannot
take away
our sin
and shame.
He cannot
bear the wrath
of God
against others' sin
because he's too busy
bearing it
against his own sin.
A sinner
can't defeat death
if he's earned it
for himself.
You get the picture?
If Jesus
is just another sinner
born the same way
as you and I,
as every other sinner
in the history
of mankind,
then he dies
the same way
as you and I
and we die
without hope.
But that's not
what happened,
is it?
Matthew says
Jesus was born
of a virgin,
which means,
here's the point,
he does not
inherit
original sin.
I'll say that again.
Because Jesus
is born
of a virgin,
born not
by ordinary
generation
like you and me,
he does not
inherit
original sin.
Do you get it?
Do you see
the significance
of this?
See,
every one of us,
all of us
who are naturally
descended from Adam,
key word,
naturally,
every one of us
are natural
born sinners.
All of us
naturally
inherit
Adam's guilt,
inherit
Adam's sin.
We are born
into a state
of sinfulness,
all of us.
All of us
but one.
And no one
is righteous.
No,
not one,
we're told.
We're all born
naturally
into this
curse of sin.
Even Mary,
now I know
our Catholic friends
disagree on this,
but nowhere
in Scripture
does it say
ever that Mary
was sinless.
She's born
into this mess
just like we are.
There is one
and only
one exception,
the promised
Savior,
Jesus Christ.
And what we
celebrate at Christmas
is the birth
of a sinless
human being.
The true
and better
Adam who will
succeed where
Adam had failed.
Who will bring
life where
his sin
brought death.
Who will save
his people
from our sins.
Who will be
Emmanuel,
God with us.
See,
Jesus,
he saves us
from our sins
by doing what
none of us
could ever do.
He lived
perfectly
in our place.
And then he died
as a perfect
substitute,
a perfect
sacrifice
in the place
of sinners
so that
he might
give us
what he has
earned
by undeserved
grace
through faith.
This is what
Paul tells us
in Romans
chapter 5.
He says,
The free gift
is not like
the trespass.
For if many
died through
one man's
trespass,
Adam,
much more
have the grace
of God
and the free
gift by the
grace of that
one man,
Jesus Christ,
abounded
for many.
And the free
gift is not
like the result
of that one
man's sin.
For the judgment
following one
trespass brought
condemnation,
but the free
gift following
many trespasses
brought justification.
For if,
because of one
man's trespass,
death reigned
through that
one man,
much more
will those
who receive
the abundance
of grace
and the free
gift of
righteousness
reign in life
through the
one man,
Jesus Christ.
church,
this Christmas,
as you go to
bed this evening,
as you wake up
tomorrow morning
with your head
spinning with
gifts and
presents and
meals and
family and
everything else,
would you reflect
for just a
moment on the
glorious promises
of God for you
in Christ Jesus?
Jesus,
we're told that
this promise is
for you and
your children and
all who are far
off,
everyone whom
the Lord our
God calls to
himself.
I pray that
you will rest
and remember
the glorious
gift of a
promise kept
in Jesus
Christ.
That no matter
how deeply
you have sinned,
the good news
of Christmas is
the promised
Savior has
come that all
who call upon
the name of
the Lord will
be saved.
And that no
matter your
past, your
failures, your
history, your
mess, the
good news of
Christmas is
that the
promised Redeemer
has come.
And that no
matter how
long you have
served the
kingdom of
this world, the
good news of
Christmas, church,
the promised
King has
come and he
will come
again.
Let every
heart prepare
him room and
heaven and
nature sing.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank
you for the
gift of a
promise kept.
Father, we
thank you that
every word of
the Lord
proves true.
We thank you
that all of
the promises of
God find their
yes and their
amen in the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
And that by
the miracle of
your grace,
even sinners
like us can
enter in and
receive the
promises of
God through
faith in
Christ.
We love you,
Lord, and we
pray this in
Jesus' name.
Amen.