CHRISTMAS DAY

"Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people;" this, Lord Jesus, is what you commanded a heavenly host to tell the frightened shepherds of Bethlehem on the day of your birth. Oh, what exultation! what a sweet message! Not fear, nor sorrow but joy, great joy, should fill the hearts of men when your birth is announced. Oh, therefore, grant that in these days the Christmas message may take all fear and sorrow away and fill our hearts with joy. We do not beg of you a gushing stream, Lord Jesus, but one drop, only a little drop of true Christmas joy. Give that to us and we will be satisfied. Then we also will join in the hymn of praise sung by your holy angels, here today on earth at your manger, there some day in heaven before the steps of your throne from eternity to eternity. Amen.

The text. Luke 2:1-14.

In the new-born Savior, my dear hearers!

If ever there is a time when it seems to be most unnecessary, yes, foolish, to encourage Christians to be happy, then beyond a doubt the joyous Christmas season is that time. Who is he who is not happy? We see all churches filled with great numbers of worshipers clothed in festive garments; all, happy in countenance and clear of voice, join in one carol of joy after the other and with equal joy listen to the songs of their choirs. During this season we see that all dwellings, the poor as well as the rich, have become the homes of pure joy. During the Christinas season even many, who otherwise want to know nothing about Christ, speak to their children of the wonderful Christ-child, who brought them such beautiful things from heaven. So it seems as though the prediction of the Prophet Isaiah of the joy in the whole Christian world on the day of Christ's birth is again actually being fulfilled in the most glorious way even today, the prophecy, "They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil." Is 9:3b.

Indeed it is true, my friends, today every person has cause for rejoicing. The birth of Christ actually is mankind's, the whole world's great day of joy; it is that for the small as well as the great, for the poor as well as for the rich, for servants as well as for masters, for prisoners as well as for the free, for the sick as well as for the healthy, for the fortunate as well as for the unfortunate, for the greatest sinners as well as for the greatest saints, yes, for the unbelievers as well as for the believers. For thus shouts the first preacher of Christmas, who was sent by God from heaven to earth, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL PEOPLE."

Then right after that the heavenly host in full chorus sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will TOWARD MEN." There you see, my dear hearers, the invitation to rejoice is today issued to "all people," yes, to everyone who is a "man," therefore, to everyone of us, to you and to me; no one, not a single one of us here is excluded. Today through his heavenly herald God himself says to everyone of us, "Rejoice, everyone, rejoice!"

Yet, my friends, not every joy during the Christmas festival season is Christmas joy. In order that you not only rejoice but rejoice in the proper way, permit me in this hour to present to you

THE TRUE CHRISTMAS JOY

In so doing I will show you three things:

I. What the True Christmas Joy is,

II. How it Enters Man's Heart, and finally,

III. How Important it is that Every Harson Experiences This Joy in his Heart.

I.

My friends, if you want to know whether your joy during the Christmas season is the true Christmas joy then I can say that the answer depends first of all on the object, and secondly, the nature of your joy; in other words, over what, and how you rejoice.

If the object of your joy is chiefly this, that on this day you delight in a table set more richly than usual, or that you give your children all kinds of beautiful gifts and they now joyfully leap and sing around you, or that you give Christmas gifts to your friends and receive some from them, or that you see yourselves surrounded only by happy people and can hold a pleasant conversation with them, or that during these days you hear only happy sermons and sing nothing but happy songs, this is not the real true Christmas joy, even though you may feel ever so happy during the Christmas season. Why not? Because you are not happy at the right thing.

The first Christmas preacer has stated clearly what it is. After the angel of the Lord had said to the shepherds of Bethlehem, "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people," he immediately adds, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." V. 11. There you see that the object of the true Christmas joy is none other than this, that today "the Savior" is born unto us, who is at the same time God, "the Lord" from heaven itself.

Whoever not only gladly hears a sermon at Christmas time, but above all rejoices in the fact that God did not cast fallen man away as he well could have but took pity on us and gave us a Savior, a Deliverer, a Redeemer; whoever rejoices at Christmas time over the fact that out of incomprehensible, deep love to us poor sinners God even commanded his only begotten Son himself to become a child, in order that he might make the sons of men God's own dear children; whoever rejoices during the Christmas season mostly over the fact that the eternal Son of God humbled himself so deeply in order to rescue us from the depths of the misery of our sin, that he let himself be born of a poor maid in a dark dirty stall among the animals, let himself be wrapped in poor swaddling clothes, and, instead of being laid upon a soft couch, was laid in a hard crib of hay and straw; whoever rejoices at Christmas time over the fact that the holy angels, who once prevented fallen man from entering the Garden of Eden, but now after God's Son has become a man have again become man's friends and brought him the joyful message of the birth of his Savior; whoever rejoices at Christmas time over the fact that the heavenly hosts celebrated Christ's birth in song with the words, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." that thus through Christ's birth God has regained the honor of which we men robbed him, earth that peace with heaven which was lost, and men God's good will which was trifled away; whoever rejoices at Christmas time over the fact that Satan, who intended to separate man from God forever and drag him along down into hell, did not win but lose and was forever conquered through the incarnation of the Son of God; whoever rejoices at Christmas time that through Christ's birth all evil which man did was again corrected, all the guilt of man's sin was erased, for all men a righteousness was earned which avails before God, all men again have a dearly bought salvation, and for all men

heaven is again open; I say, whoever rejoices at Christmas time above all over these things, his joy has the correct object, his joy during the Christmas festival is the true Christmas joy.

Perhaps many of you will now say, It is true, God knows it, the Christ-child himself actually knows what my chief joy this Christmas season is; but alas! the nature of my joy is wrong; for when I think of how great God's love is which is revealed in Christ's birth and just how unworthy I am of this love, I feel ashamed at the littleness of my joy in his birth. Ah, my eyes should shed tears of joy today; my heart should be as excited with joy as the sea, my heart should overflow in praise to God, my feet should hop and skip for great joy as David's did before the ark of the covenant; but, sad to say, my joy over the Christ-child is merely like a little spark glowing under the ashes of all kinds of cares and doubt.

Oh my dear friends, if you complain thus, just be consoled! Indeed, it is something precious if at Christmas a Christian can rejoice as Mary did, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior." Lk 1:46. 47. It is indeed something precious if at Christmas a Christian can say with Paul, "I am exceeding joyful.". 2 Cor 7:4. However, God does not always give men such joy. Only seldom is that the true nature of our Christmas joy. To be sure, the holy pure angels rejoiced thus; but of such boundless joy on man's part on the day of the birth of the Savior we read nothing. The only thing told about the shepherds of Bethlehem is that after they had heard the angel's message, they "came with haste" to Bethlehem, that therefore their joy was simply based on the Christ-child; that and nothing else was the magnet which drew them to Bethlehem.

See my dear hearers, if that and that alone is also your joy, if after you have heard the Christmas message you also in spirit hurry to Bethlehem, if you cannot see enough of the Christ-child nor wonder sufficiently over God's love as it is revealed in him, and if the dark stall in which the incarnate Love of God is lying is more glorious and precious and many thousands of times more dear to you than all the magnificent palaces of the rich of this world, then this little drop of joy is the true Christmas joy and in God's eyes is already a powerful river which finally will empty in the immense sea of the joy of eternal life.

II.

The important question now arises, How does such a joy enter the human heart? Let this be the second point, which by God's grace I will now show you.

How the true Christmas joy may enter man's heart can best be learned from the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were the first human beings to whom the birth of Christ was announced. What is the first thing which is told us about them in our Gospel? When the angel with the glory of the Lord shining around him appeared to them, we read, "And they were sore afraid." How remarkable! Never in all the world did they think that the angel would bring them a message of joy; they thought that he had come to frighten them. Undoubtedly they thought, Alas, that is a holy angel and we are sinners! He is a messenger of the great God; alas, we have transgressed his holy commandments so many times and insulted and angered him so often! Woe is us! woe is us! whither shall we flee in order to hide from him?

But what did happen? The angel opened his mouth, and lo! not terrifying but the most blessed of all words crossed his lips. He says, "Fear not: for, behold. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger." Vv.10-12. In speechless astonishment

the shepherds listen to that. The words, "Unto you, unto you is born this day a Savior," enter like heavenly dew into their fear-filled souls; this word enlightens their understanding, moves their will, and even engenders faith in their hearts; and behold! their fear has suddenly all disappeared from their hearts and joy, great inexpressible joy enters in.

There you see, my friends, that, that and no other is the manner in which true Christmas joy comes into a man's heart. It does not consist in trying to put oneself into a happy frame of mind. As one cannot add precious wine to a vessel already overflowing with water, neither can true Christmas joy enter a heart filled with self-made joy. As it was with the shepherds, its constant precursor is fear, fear of God's displeasure because of our sins. If such a fearful heart then hears the Christmas message, "Fear not; for unto you is born this day a Savior." what an impression this makes upon it! Such a heart can do nothing else; it believes this message and then the true Christmas joy sweeps with this faith into his heart like a mighty tidal wave.

Blessed are you, therefore, who perhaps on the morning of the greatest festival of Christendom arose and came with a heavy heart into our little church; yes, I say, happy are you. For do not think that you have been given a joyless sorrowful Christmas season. No, do just this one thing: pay close attention to the Christmas message, "Unto you, yes unto you, is born this day a Savior;" this will by itself kindle faith in it in your heart, make it easy to drive out all fear, and fill it with joy upon joy. And you who already awoke this morning with joy over the new-born Savior and have assembled here in this joy, Oh, do not only thank God for this great grace but listen so much the more eagerly to the little word "you, you," and turn it into "me, me;" then the secret glow of your today's Christmas joy will become a bright flame. Oh, blessed, blessed are you who today celebrate Christmas that way!

III.

My friends, is it really so important for every person, and that means also all of us, to experience the true Christmas joy in our hearts? Yes, indeed. And that is the third point about which you will permit me to add a few words.

My main basis for the importance of the Christmas joy is this one, because joy and not sorrow is the ultimate goal which has been set by God for all men in time and in eternity. Oh, yes, the earth nowadays is not a valley of joy but a vale of tears. That, however, happened not because of God, but by his sins man himself has turned this beautiful world into a place of sorrow. If man would not have fallen from God, the world would have been and remained a place of pure joy; after a short period of testing, he would have crossed over into the place of perfect eternal joy, into heaven. For man was not created by God for sorrow but for temporal and eternal joy. And as God, this eternally overflowing fount of all joy, created man alone for temporal and eternal joy, so the Son of God redeemed man so that he could again receive this temporal and eternal joy. That is also why the first messenger who was sent by God to tell men of the birth of their Redeemer had to say to them, "Fear not; for, behold, 1 bring you tidings of great JOY." The purpose of the Christmas festival is not that we are not to forget that Christ was born, but above all that we Christians should be awakened to joy over the Christ-child. Whoever has, therefore, celebrated Christmas without being awakened to rejoice over the Christ-child has celebrated it in vain.

Come, then, my friends, come, rejoice! Or, why do you not want to rejoice? Certainly, not because you are sinners? Oh, you fools! That is the very reason why you should rejoice; Christ was born in Bethlehem for just one reason:

for the sake of sinners. If men had remained in their implanted innocence, and not become sinners, God's Son would not have had to come from heaven. Just because you are sinners, you have reason to rejoice.

Or, do you perhaps think and say that you cannot rejoice over the Christ-child because you are oppressed by the misery of this life? Oh, you fools! That is the very reason why you should rejoice; you should be able to say, The world indeed holds no joy for me, yet I am happy; in the Christ-child I have a joy which supplies everything I lack, so that I can in all my misery say with that Christian poet,

What should cross and trial grieve me?

Christ is near With His cheer;

Never will He leave me.

Who can rob me of the heaven

That God's Son For my own

To my faith hath given? (523,1)

Or perhaps you do not want to know anything of the joy over the Savior, because your heart clings to the joy of this world? you who perhaps this very moment hear the sermon with merely half of your mind, because you, - I mean especially you young people - are thinking of the joys of the world to which you will surrender yourselves today? Oh, you fools! The joys of this world are vain; they vanish away in misery and death like colorful illusions and finally change themselves into eternal heartache; but the joy over the Savior remains even in misery, and death, at such times shows its blessed power, and finally changes itself into eternal salvation.

Well, then, my dear hearers, take the Child at Bethlehem out of its manger today, in spirit lay it in the arms of your faith, and press it to your heart. What will happen? He will laugh at you in a friendly way. Oh, return that laughter; that is all which this Child asks of you. Then your Christmas joy will not be extinguished with the lights of Christmas but will continue to shine on in your hearts, accompany you through your entire life, turn all its bitterness, yes, even bitter death itself, into something sweet, and will finally lead you into the place where there will be fullness of joy and pleasures at God's right hand forever more. Amen.