‘Just Jesus’ Christmas Day Sermon Outline / 1
How to Use This Outline
The emphasis of this outline is on the exegetical material for the chosen passage. The emphasis of this sermon is on the following issues:
· Christ has come, this is good news!
· This good news brings great joy!
· This good news brings glory to God!
· Giving glory to God brings peace (shalom) to us!
The outline will need to be customised and contextualised by each Corps Officer for the congregation to whom the sermon will be preached:
· Adding appropriate illustrations that will connect with the specific congregation
· Modifying language to be appropriate to the socio-cultural setting of the Corps
· You may also wish to make the application more specific to your context.
PowerPoint slides have been provided for the following:
1. Title Slide – Introducing the Sermon
2. Scripture Slide – Luke 2:10a
3. Scripture Slide – Luke 2:10
4. Scripture Slide – Luke 2:14a
5. Scripture Slide – Luke 2:14
6. Scripture Slide –2 Peter 3:9
Scripture
The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department‘Just Jesus’ Christmas Day Sermon Outline / 1
Luke 2:1-20 (NRSV)
1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The Salvation Army: Australia Southern Territory: Mission Resources Department‘Just Jesus’ Christmas Day Sermon Outline / 1
Sermon Outline
Introduction
1. Read Luke 2:1-20
2. It’s a great story isn’t it? In good Aussie fashion the two main characters of this story are a pair of unlikely heroes. A tradie (carpenter) from Woop Woop and his pregnant wife. On a donkey no less. They can’t find anywhere to stay so she ends up giving birth in a stable. This would be like being pregnant, breaking down on a back country road and giving birth in a shearing shed today. Then there are some more pretty ordinary blokes out in the countryside looking after some sheep. Being a shepherd wasn’t a high class job, we’re talking in the class of someone who’s job is unblocking sewerage… Both jobs make you “unclean”. In those days it was a religious thing, today… probably just the stench! So imagine their surprise when some angels show up and start telling them this amazing news that God’s Son, Jesus had been born, and He’s the one God’s appointed to save the world! You’d think angels would be sent to talk to the religious people, but no, it was to a bunch of ordinary working blokes on the side of a hill out the back of nowhere.
3. It can be easy for us to lose sight of the significance of this story. It can be easy for it to seem like a lovely story, a great myth. We have all these lovely Christmas cards with really sweet pictures of the nativity, which look nothing like real life. They are covered in this cloud of mythos, a haze that obscures what was really an amazing historical event. The birth of God into the world as a human being, fully God and fully human. As Christians we believe this is literally true, not just a lovely story that we’ve been telling ourselves for two thousand years with a few abstract but spiritual lessons we can learn from it.
4. If you’ve been with us for the past few weeks we’ve been unpacking the significance of Jesus’ birth for us. Why does it matter that God became a human? We’ve seen that Jesus is the source of our spiritual nourishment, the answer to our deepest hunger. We’ve seen that Jesus came to swallow up death, to bring an end to injustice and unrighteousness. He is the expression of the love of God the Father. He bestows on us the spiritual blessings of holiness, adoption as God’s children, acceptance, redemption, the knowledge of the mystery of God’s will, and an inheritance that He still has stored up for us. The love of God expressed in Jesus empowers us to love God and to love others. His perfect love means that we are not afraid of God or of His judgement. This is why Jesus’ birth is worth celebrating every year. So today we’re going to unpack this story, which is so familiar, but has on-going significance for all of our lives, every day. We’re going to look at four things the angels said…
Good news
1. “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news…” (verse 10). Good angels are messengers of God, they relay to us what God has said. So when an angel says, ‘don’t be afraid, I’ve got good news for you’ that’s the message straight from God to you. God actually doesn’t want you to be afraid of Him, or of what He has planned for you. He’s a good God, He loves you. He’s not waiting for an opportunity to strike you down with a lightning bolt. He has “good news” for you.
2. It should be no surprise to anyone if I say the world is pretty messed up. Things do not go right a lot of the time. We have all been hurt by other people, and we’ve all hurt other people as well. Often this is a cycle, you hurt me, so I hurt you… and so it goes on and on…
3. The “good news” the angels came to share is the “but”. The world is messed up, you and I are messed up, but “don’t be afraid, I’ve got good news for you”. That good news is Jesus. He is God’s response to a world gone wrong. God could have wiped us all off the face of the planet, but instead He sent Jesus. Jesus is God. So are the Father and The Holy Spirit. They are one God, in three persons. When the Father sent Jesus, God himself came to live with us, as one of us. God did not stay far off and distant, untouched by our suffering, instead He came to live in it with us and to give us His life. That’s good news.
Great joy
1. The angel went on, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people” (verse 10). Now joy is not a word we use much outside of church, so it can sound a little pious… What does it actually mean? It means, “great happiness, pleasure, amusement, animation, bliss, charm, cheer, comfort, delight, diversion, ecstasy, elation, exultation, felicity, festivity, frolic, fruition, gladness, glee, good humour, gratification, hilarity, jubilance, liveliness, luxury, merriment, mirth, rapture, ravishment, refreshment, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, solace, treasure, treat, wonder”. Sound like fun?
2. This is the way God feels about Jesus. It’s also the way he wants us to feel. In Jesus, God has come to live with us, and He thinks that’s worth throwing a perpetual party about. And the angel said this was good news of great joy for all the people. So it’s a big party! And when you think about it, God sending Jesus to deal with what’s messed up in me, you, and the rest of the world, is worth having “great joy” or an eternal party about. Have you noticed that when humans try and fix what’s messed up, we might make an incremental improvement, but a bit down the track someone else will find a way of messing it up again? Or there will be an unforeseen downside? But when God sorts something out, it’s quality work and it stays sorted out. That’s worth celebrating!
Glory to God
1. It seems the party broke out pretty quickly after that… A few verses later we’re told a “multitude of the heavenly host” (lots of angels) appeared, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven” (verse 14). When you grab hold of “the good news” of Jesus, “with great joy” the result will be turning towards God in praise, giving him glory and worshiping Him.
2. What does giving glory to God look like? Well, the party is a good start. It’s celebrating who He is, thanking Him for what He’s done. It’s acknowledging that it’s because of Jesus, and how awesome He is that we can have relationship with God; not because we are good people, but because He’s a good God. It’s not taking any credit for our relationship with God, but admitting that the credit belongs only to God. Did you know that even Jesus’ name means “God saves”? Just to say his name is to acknowledge who He is, and what He’s done.
3. This right here is the heart of what Christians mean when we talk about repentance. It’s turning from self-glorification to glorifying God. It’s a change of heart, change of mind. It works itself out in behaviour, but by the time that happens, it’s because you want to change your behaviour, not because you think you have to.
Peace among those He favours
1. But there’s still more... The angels continued, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours” (verse 14). Peace... Now doesn’t that sound lovely? Who wouldn’t like a bit more peace in their life? But in the bible “peace” refers to more than just the absence of turmoil or strife. The word “peace” refers to a state of wellbeing in every aspect of our lives; it includes harmony, security, serenity, right relationships, wholeness, health, prosperity, and even success. That peace starts with getting our relationship with God right; everything else flows out of that.
2. God is the source of peace and offers peace to those who trust him. That’s all that God requires of us, to trust in Him and trust in what He has done for us through Jesus. What does trust look like? Well we’re not just talking about mentally agreeing with the idea that God is trustworthy. Have you seen a parent with a young child? That parent is the world to that child, and the child implicitly trusts them. Have you seen the giggles and delight when that parent swings that child around in their arms? The child trusts their parent and knows that there is no way anything will go wrong. That’s the kind of trust we’re talking about, putting your heart and soul into God’s hands and enjoying it!
Conclusion
1. Many of you adults are probably feeling a little cagey at this point, “but what about all the things in the world that are so awful, where’s the peace, the “wholeness” in that?” And that’s where we have to remind ourselves of point 1, yes the world is messed up, “but”... there’s the good news of Jesus. And the reason that not everything has been sorted out yet (because that’s what we mean when we talk about judgement day), is because God is giving everyone time to hear the good news of Jesus, have great joy, turn to him and give Him glory and receive the peace that He is willing to give each of us. So the wait before everything is sorted out is in fact more of God’s love towards us, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NRSV).
2. Invite people to the Mercy Seat / Response