NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766

December 22, 2002
Sermon: "Jesus Will Set Us Free From Sin"
Scripture: Matthew 1: 18-25
Reverend Larry Gerber

As we enter the week of celebration of our Saviors birth, we must ponder in our
own hearts, the very thoughts of Joseph. We must revisit his dream. We must also
revisit the words from Isaiah 7: 10-17: Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, Ask the
Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.
But Ahaz said, I will not ask; I will Not put the Lord to the test.

Then Isaiah said, Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the
patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: a young woman will be with child and will give birth to
a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows
enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough
to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be
laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your
father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah.....

As Christians, we follow the promise made in Isaiah, through the fulfillment in
Jesus, who will save his people from their sins, and through whom by his
resurrection from the dead...we have received grace. The line stretches from the
Immanuel of the prophet™s promise to our rising from prayer as forgiven people.
It is our lifeline.

In Matt. 1:21, the author mentions that the one who is conceived by Mary will be
called Jesus, and he will save his people from their sins. He thought it appropriate to
mention Jesus™ redemptive mission just before he made the account of Jesus™ birth!

In the book of Isaiah, the Lord , on his own initiative, gave Ahaz a sign: A young
woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (which
means - God with us. That was some 730 years before the birth of Jesus. As
Christians, we connect the two stories, and we accept Jesus as the one whom God
spoke of so long before his birth.

We cannot see the reading of Isaiah as a prediction of the birth of Jesus, but as the
beginning of a long line of heirs from King Ahaz, through King David, reminding
them that God is with them, and the enemy will not defeat God™s people.

The Isaiah passage neither affirms, nor denies the virgin birth. It simply begins with
the affirmation of God, that I am with you, I am Immanuel. The main point of
connecting the Isaiah passage with the Christmas story, is to emphasize the faith of
ancient Judah that the Lord did not and would not abandon his people. Despite the
unfaithfulness of Ahaz, God was still with them. Such faith is part of the deep
taproot of both he good news in the New Testament and the grace in your
experience and mine in AD 2002.

God still reminds us that He is with us, even if we are not with Him. The Christmas
story of a babe born of a virgin, in a manger, because there was no room in the Inn,
is as apropos today, if not more so, than 2002 years ago. The promise made through
the prophecy of Isaiah, came to its fullest over 700 years after the prophecy, but
again, I cannot emphasize enough, that God never gave up on His Chosen People,
even in light of the King™s unfaithfulness, weather it be Ahaz, or David.

Today we celebrate the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy. Unto us a child is born,
the Savior. The one who will set us free from our sins. The reality of life hits us
square in the face. The God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and Ahaz, and
David, and...... never forgot His people, even when they went astray. We, like our
ancestors, have gone astray, but He still brings us signs of comfort and joy, of peace
on earth, and good will toward all mankind.

We are reminded each Christmas that there was a baby born in a manger, in the little
town of Bethlehem. How still we see him lie. The news has spread through the
whole wide earth, and the faithful are to come and see what God has done. So, we
take the annual journey to the Bethlehem of our hearts. We seek re-assurance that
God is still with us - Emmanuel, the one who save us all from sin. He enters in, and
we pray that He will be born in us today.

If we journey to the manger; if we see the Christ Child; if we accept Him as the
Messiah, if He is Emmanuel - God with us; and if He is the One who will rule the
earth, we must go beyond the cradle, through His ministry, to His Cross, through the
grave, and into the experience of His resurrection, in order for the journey to be
complete

From King Ahaz, through King David™s royal city, into Bethlehem, and through out
Judea and all the earth, to the height of Calvary, and into the depths of the grave, we
must walk the walk that Jesus walked. We will then be from all our sins, and the
Christ Child will enter in, and be born in us this day.

A young woman gave birth to a child some 730 years before the birth of Jesus. It
was the beginning of the lineage of David. God was with the unfaithful Ahaz. God
was with the unfaithful King David. And God was with the people of Judah on the
night of the birth of Jesus. The lineage was not broken, but rather, God™s promise of
faithfulness to an unfaithful people did not falter. In the birth of Jesus, His promise
was fulfilled: Jesus™ birth, life, death, and resurrection offers God™s unmerited love
to us, even on this very day, 2000 years since his birth. Through Christ, God
fulfilled that belief in a way that could reach across all centuries, to all people, in all
places. That is our belief as Christians; that is our heritage.

We are not peace in the world today. We are about as far away as we could be. The
world is not much different than before Jesus birth. Sin abounds. War, and threats of
war are on the increase every day.

In the Christmas story, everyone who came to the manger, turned from
pre-occupation with self to reaching toward the Christ child in adoration and love.

Hard heartedness and self-centeredness still abound. Evolution and historical
progress and break throughs have not removed the plague of sin. At the heart of the
brokeness in our families, in our own country, and in the world, is the
misunderstanding of how God intends for us to live in relationship with others. The
failure to understand results in a lack of compassion.

Jesus was born in an unsettled and corrupt world. We live in a world that has not
changed much over the 2000 year span. The Christian faith holds that God cares
about who we are, what kind of persons we become, and what we make of the gift
of life. God has set before us the ways of life and health and peace. God beckons us
away from sin, hard-heartedness, and self-centeredness. Through the Christ child,
we are offered compassion that sets free from sin.

Let us once again focus on the meaning of Jesus™ birth, and how our faith can shape,
and reshape our life. We can make a difference in the world one person at a time.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
......closing hymn: The First Noel

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766