Page 44 - 2018 AdventDevo-Flip book

The Fourth Sunday of Advent
The Impossible Truths of Christmas: Savior
“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born
today in Bethlehem!”

Scripture: Luke 2: 8-12, John 3: 16-17

I cringe whenever I see someone wearing a “Jesus Saves” tee-shirt. At
sports events, the camera always focuses in on at least one guy jumping
up and down like a crazy man in that tee-shirt. It’s embarrassing…and
I’m not sure it really attracts folks.

But the reality is: God saves us. That’s the bottom line. We are not a
people who normally see ourselves in need of rescue. We see ourselves
as self-sufficient, doing fine, thank you very much. But Jesus’ very name
reveals his purpose: “Jesus” means “God saves.” He was born to us and
for us because above all things, we need rescue. He saves us from our-
selves, from our mistakes and failures, from our wanderings and tempta-
tions to be so much less then we were created to be. He saves us from
that very un-Christmassy word: sin. He saves us for new life in him.
God saves us, because that’s what God does. God told Moses, “I have
come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring
them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing
with milk and honey…” Then 1500 years later, in a land occupied by a
Roman army under the thumb of a crazed Caesar Augustus, God heard
his people’s cries and saved them through Jesus.

And God still saves us today. Jesus – from manger to cross - saves. He
saves us because he loves us. He saves us because he never gives up on
us. The impossibly wonderful truth of Christmas is that Jesus came to
save us. That’s the bottom line.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)
Pastor Becky