Sermon(Lk 2:8-14): Jesus, the joy and peace of the whole world

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025991575

 

 

 

Scripture reading: Lk 2:8-14

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>> 8 And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; 11 for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” <<

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I don't know when the term 'fake (sham-product)' was used first. If there is a luxurious expensive article, someone makes the shams of the genuine article, and sells them at a lower price than the original article. Some people buy fakes at a cheap price deliberately and boast them to others as if they were genuine products. Fake goods are often found in the items handbag and watch. If you produce luxurious expensive goods which are easy to make, the fakes of them will appear and bother you. There is no reason for a man to make fakes if the original goods have a moderate price. By the way, there were many fake Jesuses in the world. Jesus is not a product, nevertheless there have been many fakes of Jesus because there were many foolish people who were easy to deceive. There have been some people in Korea who were self-proclaimed Jesus since the gospel was introduced into Korea. They are literally 100% ignorant, so they insist so. The real Jesus is >a Person in Trinity< who became a man. He had been the true God in all respects from eternity before he took the humanity to himself. He as the true God became a real man by adding the perfect human spirit and body to his being.

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Fakes were active also before like now. What with love for the country and what with others' recommendation, some people become (fake) saviors. Jesus warned his disciples not to be misled by those who would say, "I am the Christ!" This tells us the situation of the time of Jesus when there were many self-proclaimed Christs in the political chaos. Some of the fake Christs suffering from delusions of grandeur might have called themselves the Christ when no man thought so. However, the true Savior who will save people is not self-proclaimed or other-proclaimed, but God-proclaimed.

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If a man is ignorant and megalomaniac, he thinks himself to be the Savior. Someone mistakes himself for the real Savior after he was admired by many people when he met the Devil disguising himself as an angel of light and heard something from him, or when he received false wisdom and power from demons. These are the behaviors of the foolish men who are the victims of the deception of Devil, the father of all lies. They will be invited to the hell because they deceived themselves and others. My brethren, do not think yourself to be the Savior if you do not have any memories of the time before your birth, especially if you do not have the vivid memory that you had been the God before your birth. Jesus spoke of the eternal glory that he had with God the Father before Abraham and even before the creation of the world. I'm saying this because there are foolish people who mistake themselves for Jesus. Brethren, Jesus is the God!

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It was God himself who confirmed that Jesus is the Savior of the world. First, God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, who as a virgin would be pregnant, to say to her that the child to be born was Christ the Savior. If this only had happened, Mary might have thought, 'I have seen but a ghost.' By the way, according to today's text, an angel appeared to shepherds keeping watch over their flock in the field; and, while the glory of the Lord shining around them, the angel said to them, "Be glad because the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, is born." The shepherds saw and heard many angels beside the angel singing a holy hymn. The words of the hymn were 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!' The shepherds, who heard from the angel that a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger was the Christ, went to Bethlehem, the city of David, and found the baby there. These shepherds told Jesus' mother Mary what they had heard from the angel. “And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Lk 2:17-19)” But who knows? Is it not possible that the Devil, disguising himself as an angel of light, appears to the shepherds and lies to them, and they tell Mary what they heard so that Mary has a vain dream? Mary, who is still not sure if her son Jesus is the Savior, meets another evidence. As prescribed in the law, Mary circumcised Jesus and went to the temple of the Lord to offer God a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons because she had a son (Lk 2:22-24). Simeon, who lived in Jerusalem, had been instructed by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw Christ (Lk 2:26). He heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, "Go to the temple now, and you'll see the Christ," and when he reached the temple, he saw the parents of the child carrying out the ordinances of the law. And Simeon took up the child in his arms and praised God and said, “Mine (My) eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel. (Lk 2:30-32)” Now the parents of the child who have heard these words from him who fears God come to have some confidence in the child. “And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him (Lk 2:33).” In addition, the prophetess Anna came to the parents of the child and told them about him (Lk 2:36-38). That is, the fact that Jesus is the Savior was not confirmed by the megalomania of a human being nor by the encouragement of others but just by God's acknowledgment. The attitude of rejecting all the evidence is not right. Some people think, despite all the evidence, 'Nevertheless I think all is Devil's deception. How can the God become a man?' But the devoted life of Jesus on earth, his life for the glory of God the Father, and his divine power and resurrection tell us that the testimonies of many people of God at the time of his birth were true. If you can't believe that Jesus is the Savior even when you see Jesus' life and resurrection, then see the church that he established after his resurrection and the history of church, and also see the Christians who, having believed in Jesus, are freed from all sins, and live happily every day in the hope of the eternal life. Please believe, for the sake of yourself, that Jesus is the Savior, if your miserable life, which will be swallowed by the eternal death after wandering in the dark without the hope of eternal life under the pressure of heavy sin, is in stark contrast with the happy and confident life of the Christians.

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The birth of Jesus is God's good will toward man. “And on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased! (v. 14)” Man is created in the image of God. Man is a personal being. Man is a creature that can communicate with God. Man is a creature that knows friendship, love, appreciation, worship of the Absolute. God created man and was exceedingly delighted. The God came to humans with fluttering heart 2,000 years ago, as one day a young man couldn't suppress his infinite love for the beautiful virgin living in a neighboring village and courageously approached her and confessed his love to her. He (the God) was Jesus. Jesus is not a man who is exalted to God but the God who has become a man. God, who liked humans and became a human, who liked humans and wanted to redeem them from their sins by being a ransom for them, and who showed the God to humans that wanted to see him. Meeting is the fruit of love, goodwill and favor. If you love, you meet each other. You are stupid if you do not meet a woman when you love her. You are a fool if you do not meet her when you are loving her and when you can meet her. God met humans because he loved them. If God's feelings count, so do human feelings. If man has to approach God for love, God also must come to man for love. Love is not unilateral but bilateral. God, who said to men, 'Come to me, pray to me,' also appeared to men. So love makes both parties equal. No matter how high God is, he can not force humans to be his love. It is like this case: A king is so noble, but he must gain even the consent of a humble country woman if he would win her heart. He (God) became a human in order to meet humans really. Of course there are some who do not recognize him as the God and believe in him as the Savior because he has become a man. Nevertheless, he can get the human love of the humans by being a man. Jesus said to his disciples, "You are my friends." How can God be called men's friend? He humbled himself to get the love of humans. Jesus Christ, who is the God that became a man, was loved by Mary with the love of mother, by his fellow friends in Nazareth with the love of friend, by the disciples with the love and respect of disciple. He was served by a woman, who washed his feet with her tears. He was able to die on the cross for the sins of mankind because he was a man. God of love had to become a human in order to do love. How can he concretely do love without being a human being? The birth of Jesus shows the interest, love and favor of God toward man. Jesus the God became a man to meet you.

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The birth of Jesus is for our peace. “On earth peace among men with whom he is pleased! (v. 14)” Always, before and now, the world is not in peace. Because everybody wants to be higher than others. Because everybody wants to be a king. Because all want to pursue their own interests. How noisy and they are and how fiercely they fight in the National Assembly because of the presidential election these days! Why? Is there anyone who would yield the presidency to another? There is not such a man in the world. Even Christians do not easily concede to others with love if they are in real politics. Because you can not engage in politics alone. Some people are forced to go the way of the world because of the group profit as if they were dragged. Confrontation between countries causes war. If a nation has some power, it naturally swallows neighboring countries, and it even sends expeditionary forces thousand miles away to seek national interests. That is political ethics of the world. The world is not peaceful because of sin. No one turns away from sin, and no one readily forgives. The world does not have peace because of poverty and disease. Above all, the world is in no peace due to death. When everyone thinks of death, peace suddenly disappears from him. But Jesus was born in Bethlehem to grant us peace. He came down to the world to get rid of mutual hatred, death, and the burden of sins of men. He who receives him in the heart, strangely, enters into the world of peace. Because he enters in the reign of God, the kingdom of God, then. Because Jesus loves us and he is much greater than the world. We can enjoy peace just when thinking of him. It is because he, who is infinitely bigger than the world, loves us and because he is our Lord. >To be his disciple or his servant< gives us more happiness and peace than >to be a king of the world<. We are peaceful even when we just think of him because we have eternal satisfaction and happiness in him. All the evil forces that are trying to hurt us have all knelt before the mighty power of our Savior Jesus. We have no reason to be afraid of our enemies. We only need to confess him as our Lord and to accept his forgiveness, comfort and peace.

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The birth of Jesus is the glory of God. For thousands of years, God had heard from humans, "When will you send us the Savior?" When the advent of the Savior was delayed, the people of the world called the God an irresponsible God, a heartless God, and a powerless God. The birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of the faithful God. Humans' gratitude is the glory of God. The gratitude of man is the ｅxpression of his gratitude for God's grace. God's grace is forgiveness of sins and eternal life. God's grace is to accept man as his child. The birth of Jesus is the execution of the grace of God. God, the Creator of the human beings, is glorious when they are happy and perfect without any blemish. Because Jesus has removed all your miseries, tears, and sinful stains, you are fully restored to the image of God so that you yourself can be the glory of God. The birth of Jesus means the death of sin and death. His birth is the restoration of righteousness, the death of death, and the beginning of eternal life. The birth of Jesus tells us that the real God is the God of love, mercy, and compassion toward man. Your glory lies not in your worldly title or bank balance, but in the cleansing of your sin, and in your being son of God and bride of Jesus. Christmas is a day for God's and your glory.

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Look at the baby Jesus in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. He is the God Immanuel who is with us. As he is a baby, the God can not even walk! God of Immanuel earnestly needs the help of man. God of Immanuel could be the Savior of all mankind not only by his cross but also by all the hardships and patience of the couple Joseph and Mary who accepted him as a member of the family. All of us, too, must warmly welcome him as our Savior. And we have to introduce him who is the light of the whole world to those who still do not know him and live in despair in the dark. Let's shout to the neighbors like this: "Be glad. The Savior is born!"

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I wish you all the grace and blessings of Christmas.

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Chong Tack Kim

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                                       - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -