Setting and Substance of the Message

The point: Exercise Christian liberty in deciding whether or not to place peculiar significance on Christmas Day, ensuring any celebration is consistent with Christian standards.

Martin cites an author who found 136 different scholarly opinions on the precise day of Jesus' birth, illustrating the lack of biblical evidence for December 25th and the futility of pinpointing the exact date.

Now it may come as a shock to some of you to be informed that there is not a shred of evidence in the Bible to establish December 25th as the day on which the Son of God made his entrance into the world. There is not a shred of evidence in the Bible to establish that there is any relationship between December 25th and the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore, the issue of precisely when our Lord was born has been debated by scholars throughout the centuries with no real resolution of the problem. One author said, "...cites no fewer than 136 different opinions as to the precise day on wh...

4:13 - 5:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the context of the angelic announcement: the recipients were humble shepherds near Bethlehem, during the Roman census that brought Mary and Joseph there…

Martin compares livestock in biblical times to modern stocks, bonds, and gold, to illustrate Joseph's poverty when he offered two turtledoves, the offering for the poorest.

And Joseph, being a poor man, and we know how poor he was when he came to offer the offering required by the law, he brought the offering that was marked out for the poorest of the poor in Israel. He couldn't bring a lamb. He brought two turtledoves. And livestock was to people in that day what stocks and bonds and gold are to people in our own day.

18:48 - 19:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And here these shepherds are in the darkness of night, pupils fully dilated, and suddenly there is like a flash of lightning but sustained in its brilliance. There's an angel and surrounded by this glorious blinding ligh…

Martin explains the Greek word for 'sore afraid' as 'mega-fear,' drawing an analogy to modern terms like 'megavitamins' or 'megabucks' to emphasize the intensity of the shepherds' terror.

That's right. That's exactly what it is. We hear about megavitamins. They just take the Greek word for great and put it in front of vitamins, transliterate it.

27:14 - 27:24 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins to unpack the angel's message in Luke 2:11, focusing on the announcement of a 'unique person.' He explains that 'Christ the Lord' signifies the enfleshed Jehovah…

Martin quotes Spurgeon, who called the angel the 'first evangelist of the new era,' highlighting the evangelistic nature of the angel's message of good tidings.

and to cause the human heart bowed down with guilt and shame and tasting of gall and bitterness to leap for joy and to know the sweetness of God's grace. Now what is the substance of that good news of the angel? As Spurgeon said, we have here the first evangelist of the new era is an angel. And the very word for evangelism and evangelize is the word here where he says, I bring you good tidings.

29:24 - 29:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop being afraid, for the angel's message is not one of judgment but of good news and great joy.

Martin quotes lines from a hymn ('Veiled in flesh the Godhead see...') to beautifully summarize the mystery of the Incarnation and Christ's identity as Emmanuel, God with us.

I will forever join myself to humanity in what the theologians call the hypostatic union, that great mystery that the second person of the Godhead, the eternal Word, takes to Himself a true humanity, a true soul, and a true body, so that we have in this person that great mystery, God with us, in the language of the hymn that we often sing, veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. And that's the good news. As the angel announced by the angel that a unique person has been born. And you see there is no hope for lost mankind a...

37:13 - 38:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest with your conscience about your sins and guilt, and recognize the need for a Savior.

Martin describes a painting where the stable beams cast a shadow of a cross upon the manger, illustrating the theological truth that Christ was born to die, and that the cross is central to the meaning of his birth.

who was raised from the dead the third day and now offers pardon and peace to all who will come to him. I don't have too much appreciation for most Christmas art not because I don't appreciate art but because it distorts the Bible record and anything that distorts what the Bible says I don't like it. But I'll never forget one painting that I saw that could well have been the situation if our Lord was not born in a cave stable but in one constructed of wood then that would have been a rude construction with exposed beams and this particular artist drew the manger scene and as I recall it he did...

52:16 - 53:40 Read in full sermon