But what does this mean?
That was a question I had to answer
hundreds of times growing up.
Because I grew up in the Lutheran church.
And if you know anything about Martin Luther,
he loved to ask that question.
In fact, when he wrote this little book to help parents
teach their kids the basic truths of the Bible,
he would ask again and again and again and again and again the question,
"What does this mean?"
He didn't just want children, or anyone in the Christian church,
to memorize the Ten Commandments.
He wanted us to know what they mean.
And it wasn't just enough to recite the Lord's Prayer day after day or week after week.
He wanted us to know what each line and phrase
actually meant.
And the Apostle's Creed was great.
To believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But it doesn't mean much in your practical life unless you know what it means.
And that's why this Christmas I want to ask you that question again
and again and again and again and, a fifth time, again:
What does this mean?
Because the most beautiful passage of the Christmas story,
in my opinion, comes in Luke, chapter 2,
verse 11.
It says this:
But, what does that mean?
What does it mean to be a Savior?
That he was born?
To you.
He's the Messiah and the Lord.
Well, this week I want to unpack those five words and phrases
so we really appreciate the power and the punch
and the beauty of the Christmas story.
So, let's start with that first word.
Today, in the town of David, a Savior
has been born to you.
What's a Savior?
I ask that question often in Bible classes and I almost always get the same answer:
"Uh, Pastor, it's someone who saves."
[Laughs]
Yeah, but what does this mean?
And here's my simple answer.
A savior is someone who rescues
from danger.
Like, if you're unconscious in the pool and you're about to die,
the lifeguard who jumps in is a savior.
They rescue you from danger.
If you're passed out in a burning building
and the firefighter busts through the door
and carries you out over his shoulder,
that person is a savior.
They've rescued you from danger.
And when the angels spoke to the shepherds on that first Christmas,
they said a savior has been born to you.
That Jesus would be the one who'd rescue us from danger.
But what's the danger?
Here's where I want to just push you to think a little bit more deeply.
The danger, according to the Bible, is sin.
Okay, but why is sin so dangerous?
Because it separates us from God.
Okay, well, why is that so bad?
Because if you're separated from God you go to hell.
Okay, but why is hell so bad?
Well, because God's not there.
Okay, well, why is that so bad?
And there's the real danger.
Do you know that in hell, there is no happiness?
There's no comfort.
There's no friendship.
There's no laughter.
No one is healthy.
No one feels secure.
No one is out of danger.
Everyone feels guilty, ashamed,
angry, bitter, aggressive.
There is nothing good.
And that is why sin is so dangerous.
If one sin makes us worthy of
being separated from God, because the wages of sin is death.
And what you and I need more than anything in the world
is a savior.
Someone who can rescue us from danger.
But, here's the good news.
Today, in the town of David,
a Savior has been born to you.
There's this great song by my favorite Christian band, Rend Collective.
It's called "Rescuer".
It's about our Savior, Jesus.
And whenever they sing the chorus, "He's our Rescuer."
They raise their hands in the air and they shout and they celebrate
and they praise God.
And maybe this Christmas you could do the same thing.
A Savior has been born to you.
One who rescued you from sin and all its consequences.
One who saved you to be with God forever.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, you are our rescuer.
There is no danger when we face death.
There's no more danger of hell.
There's nothing that sin can do to condemn us
because you rescued us from it all.
I pray this Christmas,
no matter what the presents, no matter who the people are that surround us,
we would remember that you are in our lives and that you are our Savior.
You're exactly what we need.
So we pray this today with joy, in your name.
Amen.
But, what does this mean?
That's the big question we're wrestling with
during this Christmas season.
We've been looking at one of the most famous verses
in the Christmas story.
Luke, chapter 2, verse 11 says,
And you're going to be insulted by my question today.
But I want to talk about the word "born."
What does that mean?
[Laughs]
Well, obviously, we know what it means.
It means that Mary pushed
and Joseph panicked.
And Jesus popped out.
That's what it means.
Well, I know that's what it means.
I don't need to repeat my middle school health class.
I mean, what does it mean that a Savior has been born?
That God has been born?
How is it possible that Jesus, who is divine, was
born of a woman?
What does that mean?
My short answer is,
"I have no idea."
I mean, how can God,
who can't be contained in the galaxy, in the universe,
how can he be contained in the womb?
And then be born into this physical world?
Like, my three-pronged brain just can't
make that work logically.
But the Bible does tell us a little bit of what that means.
That because Jesus was born, however it happened,
it means that he gets it.
It means that Jesus,
for all of his existence, hasn't just been up in heaven
like, wondering what's it's like to live on earth.
It means he gets it.
And that's such good news, isn't it?
I've been a pastor for about eleven years now.
And I've really learned, after years and years of counseling,
that what people want more than anything from me
is not that I have a Bible passage to fix it.
But that I have a heart that gets it.
Like, if I can empathize,
if I can suffer with them,
if I know that marriage is difficult
or suffering is difficult.
Or we have spiritual questions.
Like, when people leave my office,
even if I never say the right thing, if I get it,
they feel so much better.
And they say things like, "Pastor, I'm so glad I came to talk to you."
And I smile because I haven't said anything intelligent.
Sometimes I've barely said anything at all.
And this Christmas I want you to know that because Jesus was born,
he gets it.
He gets what it's like to come into a complicated world.
He knows what it's like to be part of a family that doesn't always understand him.
He knows what it's like to be betrayed by a friend.
To be abandoned by people he thought he could trust.
He's been a victim of injustice.
He's been slandered and accused.
Misunderstood.
People have assumed his motives.
He gets it.
And so when you pray to him on those days that life is tough,
you don't pray to a Jesus
who has to scratch his head and say, "Huh, that sounds bad."
But a Jesus who looks you right in the eye and he nods
and he says, "I get it."
Maybe the best passage to explain what this means
comes from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews
Hebrews 4, verse 15 says,
So, when you think about the Christmas story,
when you see little Jesus there in the manger
as you drive home past another manger scene,
I want you to smile and remember that your Savior gets it.
That's what that means.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, thank you so much that you understand us.
No matter what kind of suffering or pain we're going through, you,
you get it. You know what it's like
and you care.
You're a compassionate God.
And your heart is full of empathy.
You understand us and you want to make things better.
Help us to remember what kind of compassionate Savior you are.
Help us to remember that you're not just a rescuer.
You are the Savior who was born for us.
And so we pray with great hope.
We know that we can draw near to you because of what you've done.
And we know that you get it.
We thank you so much for this.
In your beautiful name.
Amen.
I know a Christian who was once so ashamed of his sin
that he thought his pastor would skip him at communion.
This man was a teacher I had back in my college days and
he told the story that he struggled so intensely with sin
that he was convinced, like in the middle of the message,
somehow his pastor would make eye contact with him
and just shake his head in disgust.
The shame and the guilt was so bad, he actually would
kind of hide.
Picked a special place in the church
where the pastor couldn't see him while he was preaching.
But then communion would happen.
And the usher would tell this man to go forward.
And he'd go up to the communion rail and he would kneel down.
And he was convinced that the pastor would, once again, look him in the eye
and just skip him. Like, he wasn't worthy to receive such a great gift.
But, guess what?
The pastor didn't.
Instead the pastor said, "Take and eat.
"This is the body of Christ given
"for you."
And I love those two words so much.
I love that about communion.
And I love those words when it comes to Christmas.
This week we've been unpacking this beautiful verse,
Luke, chapter 2, verse 11.
It says:
To you.
Well, what does that mean?
Well, it means to you.
It doesn't mean to them.
It doesn't mean to us, generically.
It doesn't mean to the world.
It means to you.
It means that Jesus, the Savior, the rescuer from sin was born.
He came into the world to understand you.
And, even more, to give his life for you.
And that wasn't for other people.
It was actually
for you.
And the best proof is right here in Luke, chapter 2, the shepherds.
These third shift, common workers.
Guys who might not have had the best reputation in the first century.
The angels said, "Today in the town of David, shepherds,
"a Savior has been born to you."
And I want you to believe that too.
The easiest thing in the world is to think that the good news of Christianity
is for other people, but not you.
Not after what you said.
Not after the argument you got into.
Not after the choice you made.
Not after the baggage that you bring into this relationship with God.
It's so easy to think that the angel didn't actually say that.
But, he did.
Grace is for you.
And forgiveness is for you.
Because Jesus was born
to you.
So, the next time you hear this Scripture read,
maybe at your next Christmas service,
maybe when the children recite it in the Christmas program
or the pastor reads it from the front of the church,
I want you to smile and maybe put your hand over your heart.
And say, "Yes."
To you.
Because it's to you and for you too.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, thank you for loving us.
And not just other people.
Thank you for being so all-inclusive with your love
and your promises of forgiveness.
Thank you that, at the end of this day, no matter how strong or weak it is,
we don't ever have to wonder or doubt if we're forgiven or loved.
Because you appeared to the shepherds and you promised them incredible love and grace.
Thank you, God, for simple scriptures like John 3:16.
That you so loved the world.
And we know who's included in the world.
Let this personalized forgiveness be powerful in our hearts.
Help us to believe it and to send your Spirit so that we could hold on to it.
Those two words would mean everything to us.
I thank you, Jesus that you came in as the Savior of the world.
Bless us all in your wonderful name.
Amen.
My daughters are pretty amazing at memory work.
Well, kind of.
[Laughs]
My two girls go to a Christian school, so they come home with all these Bible passages
that they have to memorize, which I love.
And it is shocking to me and my wife how good
those little brains are at retaining information.
I mean, day after day and week after week and month after month
they can recite passage after passage after passage.
Until I asked them this question.
"But, what does this mean?"
I mean, I love the fact that my kids are memorizing parts of the Bible but it doesn't
mean too much for our daily life unless they know what it actually mean.
And when I ask that question, they tend to look at me like,
like Bambi in the headlights of a semi.
And I don't want you to have the same look when it comes to Christmas.
Because there's this incredible passage
in the Christmas story from Luke, chapter 2.
It says,
And so we have to be able to ask ourselves,
"Well, what do all those words mean?"
So, we talked about a savior which is a rescuer.
That Jesus was born and so he gets it.
He understands us.
That he was born to you, not to other people.
But to us, personally.
And today I want to wrestle with the word "Messiah."
What does the word Messiah mean?
Well, Messiah is a Hebrew word that means the same thing as "Christ"
in the Greek language.
Okay, but what does "Christ" mean?
Well, Christ literally means, "The anointed one".
That's the same thing as Messiah in Hebrew.
It's saying that Jesus, the anointed one,
has been born to you.
Okay, but what does that mean?
What's an anointed one?
Well, this is where reading the Bible cover to cover can really help.
In the Old Testament, when a new king or a new priest
was chosen to watch over the people,
was chosen to watch over the people, they would be anointed with oil.
they would be anointed with oil.
Like, oil would be poured out over their heads.
It was kind of a weird, sacred ceremony to let everyone know that
this was the set apart,
selected, chosen one.
Might be the best way in the modern language to really understand that.
The Messiah, the Christ is the chosen one.
And so when the angels said to the shepherds,
"Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.
"He is the Messiah."
They were declaring, "This is God's chosen one."
The one chosen to save, to forgive, to die on the cross
and rise from the dead to make you right with God.
And that's why actually being called a Christian is an incredible thing.
You know, if Christ means chosen one, then Christian,
literally means a little chosen one.
Which is what the Bible says about you.
That if you're a believer in Jesus, if you follow this Messiah
that you have been chosen, set apart by God for a sacred purpose.
Listen to this great scripture from 2 Corinthians, chapter 1.
It says,
God set us apart.
He anointed us with the Holy Spirit.
Which is incredible news, isn't it?
Like, when you're a chosen one,
when someone chooses you for a date,
when someone chooses to comment on a social media post,
when your boss chooses to give you the promotion.
Like, you know how good it feels to be chosen.
So, think about this.
You've been chosen by God.
If you're a Christian,
you're connected to Christ.
And that means, just like Jesus was chosen to be the Savior of the world,
you have been chosen to be saved
by that Savior.
That's really great news.
And that is what Christmas means.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, our week would be transformed if our boss,
or someone in our family chose
to reach out to us in love.
If they chose to give us that promotion,
chose to give us that gift, we'd talk about it.
It would be such good news.
So help us to believe the fact that you have chosen us is even better news.
You chose us to be saved.
You chose us to be part of your family.
You chose to cleanse us and forgive us and make us right with you.
You chose to give us a place in heaven.
And so we rejoice in the Christmas story.
We rejoice in everything that it means for us.
Help it sink deeper into our hearts this season more than ever before.
We pray this all in the name of your chosen one.
And as your chosen ones.
Amen
Do you believe that Jesus is your Lord?
Well, that depends exactly what that means.
All this week, we've been asking that question time and time again.
But, what does this mean?
We've been unpacking this great verse from the Gospel of Luke.
And we celebrate that and we sing that and we
recite that in Christmas programs
and we say Jesus is my Savior and my Lord. But,
what exactly does that mean that he is the Lord.
You know, "Lord" isn't a word that we use very often in our days.
It's like you go to work on a Monday morning and you see your
middle-manager or your supervisor and say,
"Good morning, my lord."
[Laughs]
Although you should. I'd like to hear how that turns out.
But that's kind of the idea.
A lord, literally, is someone who has authority.
It's someone who gets the last word.
They get to make the final call.
You know, we might have different opinions, different preferences,
but the lord, in a relationship, is the one who gets
the last word.
And so if we, as Christians, say we believe that Jesus is Lord,
essentially what we're saying is that
he gets the last word.
We might agree with him.
We might see his wisdom.
We might trust him.
We might not.
But he always gets the last word.
And we agree to follow him.
And that's actually the difficult part of Christmas.
I mean, Jesus wasn't just born to be a Savior,
a rescuer from sin.
He was chosen
to be our Lord.
And if there's one thing that I know about my heart,
and I'm guessing it's true for your heart too,
is that we don't normally like people getting the last word.
We don't like it when people tell us what to do.
And I see the proof every single Wednesday.
I play in an old guy's soccer league.
Like, 35 and older.
We're trying not to pull a hamstring and survive to go to work on Thursday morning.
But do you know who's disrespected week after week and game after game?
The lord of the field.
The referee.
He's been given authority by the league
but does anyone respect his authority?
Does anyone really submit to his decisions when they don't agree?
No. People complain and scream over a league that,
that means nothing.
Which proves that there's a real problem in the human heart.
So, why would you believe in Christmas?
Why would you believe in this
Savior who has been born?
Not just to be your Messiah, but to be your Lord?
And the simple answer is because you've read the rest of the story.
Because if you know that Jesus was born in a manger but he didn't stay there.
He lived a perfect life.
And then he went to a cross to forgive you of your sins
so that he could be your Savior.
To be your rescuer.
If you know that Jesus used his last word, all his cosmic authority,
not to condemn you or judge you,
but to forgive you and save you.
Well, then you take a deep breath
and you trust him as Lord.
That whatever you think about relationships or marriage or work
or politics, you'd submit your decision
and say, "Jesus, if you gave up everything for me.
"If you used your authority like that,
"I can trust you."
And you worship him not just as a rescuer and Savior,
but as the Lord of love.
That's what the word, Lord, means.
Let's pray.
Dear God, we thank you for this incredible passage.
We thank you for your forgiveness and for rescuing us from sin.
We thank you that you were born into this world so that you understand our situation.
And you were born not just for other people, but for us.
We thank you, Jesus, that you were the chosen one.
And because you were chosen, we've been chosen by God too.
And we thank you that you're the Lord.
You're a leader that we can trust.
We let you get the last word and we believe it's the best for us.
Because you're God.
And, even more than that, you're a God of incredible love.
Please bless us,
our families, our friends, our churches this Christmas.
Bless our nation and our world that more and more people would call upon you
as you really are, Savior and Lord.
We ask this is in your incredible name.
Amen.
For more infomation >> This was 2018 (bladingReel) - Femke van Velzen - Duration: 2:07. 
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