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Celebrating Advent - December 23

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Sing: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Reading: Luke 2:10-14

 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Summary (for your preparation): Jesus is the Savior who would save his people from their sins. This bears repeating, Jesus is the Savior who would bring his people into peace with the living God. Sin has brought with it many horrible consequences but none are greater than separation from the living God! Being at peace with God is the point of human existence, the very thing sin ravages. The gift of salvation in Christ is that we who are enemies of God can now be at peace with him, that he might be pleased with instead of righteously angry.

Throughout history, and you, me and our children are no exception, Jesus is trusted for the wrong reasons. In the time of his birth the situation was ripe for a Davidic-like leader to rise up and conquer the Roman empire, releasing God's people from it's tyranny. While this is an understandable and even noble desire, it isn't the salvation that Jesus brings. Many people struggled mightily with sickness and needed healing, so they went to Jesus. Thus, it is widespread in Jesus' ministry that people went to him for healing, but not to be with God.

Can we be guilty of this in our own way? Yes, we can. In the words of John Piper, God himself is the gospel. This means that fellowship with the living God is the goal of the gift of good news. To the extent that you are trusting in Jesus for anything other than forgiveness of sins and peace with the living God, you are not trusting in the salvation that Jesus brings and he offers you no real good news. However, if you are trusting in Jesus to be right with God, he will never let you down.

No matter what the circumstance in your life you are able to join in the song of the angels as they visited the shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Hallelujah, heaven's peace has spanned to this earth, where sinners are and severed from God. Jesus has bridged the two and brought us peace with the living God.

Teaching Tip: The earlier your children can understand the true nature of what makes the news Jesus brings to be good the better off they are. There are some barriers, no doubt. For instance, we give gifts, associating God's blessing with material advancement. It is difficult to impress to a child that peace with God is superior than their gift. It can be done, however. Ask them to imagine receiving the perfect gift but in order to do so it would mean that their parents would not be able to speak to them and love them and bless them and support them. Would you rather have the gift or the relationship? Assuming they chose correctly and said relationship you can help them connect this to how many people would rather have nice gifts instead of having peace with God. 

Questions/Responses:

Imagine you could have the perfect gift. What would it be?

Now imagine that if you received it then mom and dad could no longer be nice to you. This means they couldn't tuck you in, they wouldn't talk to you, they would only be angry at you all the time, they wouldn't be there to help you or hug you or give you advice. Would you still want the gift? No, probably not...

 That is right. You would rather have peace with your mom and dad who will love you and care for you, right? Right

 The angels announced something to the shepherds. What was it? That Jesus a Savior was born. 

 That is right. A Savior is someone who saves someone from something. What does Jesus save us from? Jesus saves us from our sins and God's righteous anger toward our sins. This righteous anger is known as his wrath.

 The angels were praising God for something in verse 14. What was it? They were praising God for the peace that he brings to the earth with the people that he is pleased with!

 You mean God and man can be at peace? Why were they not at peace in the first place? God and man were not at peace because man sinned against God and became enemies of God. 

 Who is God pleased with? Is it those who do nice things more than they do bad things? No, we can not earn God's favor by doing good things. God is only pleased with us when we turn from our sin and put our trust in Jesus. When we are in Jesus, God forgives our sin and we are no longer enemies of his. In fact, we are children of the living God who can enjoy his blessings!

 Why were some people trusting in Jesus when he was born? They thought he was going to defeat the Roman Empire, which was an evil empire who didn't love God. Many people didn't care about being at peace with God, they just wanted Jesus to deal with this problem

 Is this the right reason to trust in Jesus? No, this is not part of the good news that the angels announced. They announced that the Savior would save people from their sins and find peace with God. They never said that Jesus was going defeat the Romans.

 Is it important that we trust in Jesus for the right reasons? Yes, if we are not trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God then we really are not trusting in Jesus. 


Prayer and Ending

Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank you for the angels who announced the birth of Jesus. We repent of the ways we have only trusted in you for personal benefit rather than having peace with you. We pray for your forgiveness for the way we have hurt you and mis-used the gospel to mean something that you never meant by it. We pray you would give us eyes to see that as long as we have fellowship with you and are at peace with you, we have everything we could ever want, no matter the circumstance. AMEN

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