Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World December 24, 2022
A Glaring Need
Genesis 3:1-7
Sometimes you can tell what a person’s glaring need is just by looking at them. A disheveled and smelly person needs a place to wash up after a rough night or prolonged transition to a new home. A person with red, puffy eyes and tearstreaked makeup needs a hug and a listening ear because something broke their heart. Sometimes, the need isn’t so glaring. An illness of the mind is made fun of or cast aside when it should be treated with professional help. Unspoken regrets from long ago need the liberation of forgiveness, yet never will because they remain a secret.
How glaring would you say our need for a Savior is? We know we need him because we have a problem with sin! Once Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, it’s been passed down through the generations all the way to us. Sometimes our need for a Savior is glaringly obvious, like when death claims another soul. Other times it’s explained away as typical behavior, like feeling shame over nakedness. Perhaps we make it worse when we desire to know good and evil from firsthand experience.
Regardless of how glaring our problem with sin is, it doesn’t change the fact of how helpless we are fix it. We need a Savior. That’s why we listen to Christmas’ good news of a Savior born to us. So we start with these verses from Genesis that tune our ears to our glaring need for a Savior and his birth on Christmas.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World December 24, 2022
A Gracious Promise Genesis 3:8-15
You’re known in your family as the last one last to give your Christmas gifts. After being razzed for years, you’ve decided to surprise them by being the first to give your gifts. You’ve kept an eye all year long for presents and been good about buying them right then and there. Thanksgiving comes and you’re already done shopping! So you go to the post office, send them off, and wait to hear how your family will react.
There’s a problem though! Turns out your gifts got misplaced. They’ll still arrive, but a week after Christmas. You know what’s going to happen next. No one will buy your excuse for late gifts. On top of that, your niece is going to be heartbroken. For the tickets you got her to see her favorite show while it was still in town will arrive too late.
How do you respond to the post office? With sympathy that understands how busy they are at this time of year? With disappointment and determination to move on with life? With anger as you leave a nasty review and demand a full refund?
We don’t respond in a gracious way when our plans go astray. Yet God does. After Adam and Eve ruined his perfect creation, he didn’t get even with them or start all over. No, he responded with a gracious promise. For he gives us the first glimpse of our Savior, the seed of Eve, who would crush Satan’s head and every trace of sin.
So let’s return to the Garden of Eden as we hear God’s gracious promise of our Savior born to us on Christmas.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World December 24, 2022
A Timely Prophecy Micah 5:2-5a
Things were not looking good for Israel during the times of the prophet Micah. Israel was in the crosshairs of much larger geopolitical enemies. Her leaders were not leading by example for they cared only for themselves and their cronies. For the average Israelite, there was only darkness on the horizon.
So God gave a timely prophecy to encourage his people in the midst of their troubling circumstances much like coach does with a half-time pep talk or your friend in need who is your friend indeed. What was God’s timely prophecy? How the little town of Bethlehem would be the Savior’s birthplace who would later grow up and rule over his people with peace. Though it may not seem like much to us, this timely prophecy was a ray of hope to the Israelites of this time. For it assured them that God hadn’t forgotten his people in the midst of their troubling circumstances. Nor would their current troubles continue for all time. For the Savior was coming to them in Bethlehem and replace their troubles with peace.
This timely prophecy also provides a ray of hope in the midst of our troubling circumstances. The fulfillment of our Savior’s birth in Bethlehem shows us that God hasn’t forgotten any of his promises for us nor will he. Since being born, our Savior has been ruling over us, his people, with the peace he alone brings: the peace that’s found in our souls through the forgiveness of sins and the eternal peace we’ll enjoy when we finally enter our home in heaven.
As we read this timely prophecy, let it be your ray of hope in the midst of all your troubling circumstances. For it promises you what is and will be yours from the Savior born in Bethlehem.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World December 24, 2022
A Historical Reality
Luke 2:1-7
Many of our Christmas celebrations require us to suspend our doubts: mythical figures and fantastical places; divided loved ones to be merry at last; ever-green saguaros speckled with snow. We’re happy and eager to suspend our doubts about these things because it’s Christmas! It’s what makes the magical season happen!
But you know what doesn’t require you to suspend your doubts? The birth of your Savior Jesus. At first glance, Jesus’ birth sounds like another Christmas story. An engaged couple traveling 90 miles as the crow flies because a faraway king decreed them to. An overbooked inn with only a stable left with vacancy. A virgin giving birth to her firstborn, a son.
Though it may sound like another Christmas story, Jesus’ birth is the opposite for it’s a historical reality. It occurred in actual places and with real people. The miraculous happened alongside the everyday and mundane. Luke chapter 2 records a historical reality, not a fictitious tale.
Because our Savior’s birth is a historical reality, we read it as such. With belief that the facts happened exactly as described by those who were there. With confidence that God will accomplish everything he promises. With thanksgiving as we read what truly happened on Christmas: our Savior born to us.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World
An Extraordinary Announcement
Luke 2:8-14
December 24, 2022
Your phone rings and it’s a number you don’t recognize. However, it has a 520 area code so you decide to answer it. You say hello and the person on the other line says, “Good morning! You’ve been selected to win $100. Just tell us your favorite radio station and, if it’s us, you’re $100 richer!” Do you believe the extraordinary news? You come from a large family and your siblings lives all over the map. Every year, you invite them to celebrate Christmas with you knowing they can’t make it but wanting them to be included. This year, your favorite sibling RSVPed “attending.” Do you believe the extraordinary news?
The shepherds out in Bethlehem’s fields asked themselves the same question after hearing the extraordinary news that the angels announced. Their longed-for Savior was in Bethlehem, within walking distance? Christ the Lord was a newborn infant, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in an animal’s food box? Peace and good will from God himself are upon sinful humans like us?
What the angels said 2,000 plus years ago is just as extraordinary today. For the child born in Bethlehem is none other than our own Savior. Christ the Lord not only came down to Earth, but took on human flesh to be like us. Peace and good will from God himself are now upon us all because of what Jesus did as our Savior.
So let’s listen the angels’ extraordinary announcement as they declare the wonderful news of Christmas.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World
A Joyful Reaction
Luke 2:15-20
December 24, 2022
Sometimes, you just can’t help but show the joy that’s inside you. It’s easy to spot newlyweds who show their joy at every annual event because it’s all new to them as a married couple. When the medical test comes back negative, your fears and concerns melt away and are replaced with joyfully telling all the good news. When you find that perfect gift for the person who’s so hard to shop for, you cannot wait to give it to them and see their face when they open it.
The shepherds couldn’t help but show their joy when they saw the baby born on Christmas Eve. And it wasn’t because they got to see a cute, cuddly baby. It’s because of who he is: their Savior born for them. After seeing their newborn Savior, they returned to the fields and watched over their sheep. As they passed by people on their way, they joyfully told everyone the good news of what the angels said, who was born in Bethlehem, and what it meant for them as God’s forgiven children.
The shepherds’ joyful reaction can also be ours. Because when we go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has done, do you know who we see lying there in the manger? Our Savior who lived, died, and rose for us. Our Savior who makes us right with God himself. Our Savior who freely takes our sins away and opens the door to heaven for us.
As you walk out of here this evening, don’t be surprised if you have a joyful smile on your face. For you’ve heard and seen the same that the shepherds did in Bethlehem as we hear about from Luke.
Pastor Tim Patoka Christmas Eve
A Savior Is Born: To Change the World
A Glorious Result
Titus 2:11-14
December 24, 2022
How long will Christmas remain in your home? Until the tree and decorations come down and the carols are put away for another year? Will it come to a screeching halt when everyone leaves and life resumes its normal? Or will Christmas live on long after most people have moved on to the next season?
While Christmas will eventually leave our homes, the glorious result of our Savior’s birth remains forever. That’s because this glorious result comes from what is ours because Jesus is our Savior. Our verses from Titus tell us what this glorious result is: God’s grace appearing and bringing salvation to all people; God’s chosen people, purified from sin and redeemed from its captivity; God’s children, trained to reject sinful habits and to model godly lives as they wait for their Savior’s glorious appearance. Anyone who celebrates Christmas for the reason found in Bethlehem’s manger will share in this glorious result long after Christmas has left your home. And I pray that this includes you.
You see, Christmas is just the beginning of what Jesus did for you as your Savior. There’s so much more he’s done since his birth in Bethlehem that he wants you to know and believe in all the more. And I invite you to do just that. Join us tomorrow at 10am when we see how our Savior is born to dwell among us. If you already have a church home, continue to worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. If you don’t have one, then consider our invitation to have Grace or our sister churches be that church home for you.
Regardless of how you continue to grow in faith and knowledge in your Savior Jesus Christ, know that you will share in this glorious result that all starts with our Savior’s birth.