The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Baby Jesus

The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Baby Jesus
Date:  December 24, 2025
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Luke 2:1-20

            When we began Advent, we started with a new sermon series entitled, “Word of God Speak.”  There were 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Theologians have titled this time the Silence of God.  During this time, there is no record of God speaking to prophets, leaders, or individuals.  God spoke to no one.  God has been speaking from Genesis to Malachi, then nothing for four hundred years. 

            Then God had a divine appointment with an elderly priest serving in the temple in Jerusalem.  This elderly priest’s name was Zechariah.  While Zechariah was alone in the temple burning the incense, God sent the angel Gabriel to tell him that even though he and his wife were past childbearing age that she would become pregnant and give birth to a son.  Gabriel told Zechariah to name the boy John.  John would be a special child.  He would have the Holy Spirit living in him from birth.  John would have a special ministry.  He would prepare people’s hearts to receive the Messiah, Jesus. 

            God had another divine appointment for a young, peasant, virgin girl named Mary.  Mary is betrothed to an older man named Joseph.  God sent the angel Gabriel to the small, off the beaten path village in Galilee, Nazareth, for this divine appointment.  The angel Gabriel told Mary that she was highly favored, the Lord was with her, and she was blessed.   These same points are true of all believers in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  We are highly favored by God.  God is always with us.  We are blessed by God.  Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. 

            Now, how would you feel if you were Joseph and find out that the woman that you are engaged to is pregnant and not with your child.  Joseph wrestled with what to do about this situation.  He could have Mary publicly humiliated and even stoned to death, but Joseph was a man of faith.  He decided to quietly divorce Mary.  So, he went to sleep on his decision.  He did not get much sleep until God sent an angel to him in a dream.  The angel confirmed what Mary had told him.  She was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  The child would be the Messiah, Jesus.  The angel gave instructions to Joseph to take Mary as his wife, but not to consummate the marriage until after the child was born. 

            God has spoken to Zechariah and Mary face to face with the angel, Gabriel.  God spoke to Joseph in a dream.  Let us learn another way that God speaks to us through His Son, Jesus.

            Let us pray.

            Let us look at what the angel said about Jesus.  Please open your Bibles to Luke 2:10-12.  In your Pew Bible, you will find this scripture on page 1591. 

            The angel said that Jesus is to be called Savior.  Savior means to rescue someone from danger.  The Israelites living under Roman occupation thought that the Savior should rescue them from the Romans.  We might think that we need a Savior to rescue us from bankruptcy, failed marriages, bad investments, paying off credit card debt, sickness, or disease, and you can add your reason for needing a Savior.  This was the problem that the Israelites had, and we all have.   We have the wrong reason for a Savior. 

            God knows what kind of Savior all of us need, a Savior to rescue us from sin.  In Romans 3:23, the Apostle Paul confirms this fact.  None of us can save ourselves from our sins.  You can go to the library and take out all the self-help books and none of them will show you how to save yourself from your sin.  The self-help book that you need is right in your hands, the Bible. 

            The Bible tells us that what we could not accomplish, the salvation from sin, God accomplished through His Son, Jesus, Romans 6:23.  Jesus gave His life for each one of us by dying on the cross.  God placed our sins, past, present, future on His Son.  Jesus’ death was the atonement to pay the penalty for our sins.  Jesus came to save us. 

            In John 3:16-17, we are the told this is reason that Jesus came to be born as one of us.  This is the reason that we celebrate Christmas.  It is not because of the beautiful Christmas tree adorned with lights and ornaments.  It is not because of the Christmas cookies.  It is not because of the Christmas presents.  It is not because of the Christmas music.  It is not about the Christmas movies.  It is all because of Jesus the Christ’s birth. 

            All over the world the birth of this baby, born in a minor settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem in a manger to poor peasant wife and husband, is celebrated.  People who do not even know about Jesus celebrate His birth.  Can you imagine that?  Business, government offices, schools, and other institutions all agree to close to celebrate His birth.  Even those institutions that will not allow a manger scene to be put up celebrate His birth.  Imagine going to a birthday party and you do not know whose birthday it is? 

            The ironic thing about all of this is that when Jesus was born, very few people knew about it.  If God had not sent the angels to a group of shepherds, there would have been very little fanfare.  As it was, there was not a whole lot of people who showed up at Jesus’ birth:  Mary, Joseph, the farm animals, and the shepherds.

            How did they recognize that this was the Savior?  “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Now the last part, I understand.  How many babies are born and placed in a farm animal’s feed trough?  That I would think would be a dead giveaway that this baby is the Savior.  Why would the angel mention “a baby wrapped in cloths?” 

            This was to symbolize that the baby they are looking for is a newborn.  The principle of wrapping a baby in cloths, or swaddling clothes (in some interpretations of the Bible), is to create a transition for the baby from the womb (a very snug place) to the outside world.  It is still used today.  A baby from the womb is washed and quickly wrapped tightly in a blanket, so that the baby feels warm and snuggly.  This was the sign that they had found the Savior. 

            When the shepherds said in verse 15, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about,” they would know which baby was the Savior.  The baby would be a newborn wrapped in cloths and lying in an animal feed trough.  Instead of waking up sleepy Bethlehem, they would go to the stables and barns in the village.

            There they would find the Savior of the World, wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.  This is why we celebrate Christmas.  An angel would not suffice, a lamb would not suffice, only the Son of God would give us forgiveness for our sins. 

            I like the quote by Roy Lessin, a Christian author and co-founder of Day Spring, the largest Christian greeting card company. 

            “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.

            If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

            If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. 

            But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior.”

            God continues to speak to us through His Son and Holy Spirit.  Let us listen to God and do what He says.  Amen.