God’s Promise Was to Save Us, Not Simply Inspire Us
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he announced news unlike anything the world had ever heard: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30–33). This was not merely the announcement of a child, but of a King—a King whose reign would never end. For the first time in history, God took on human flesh.
Immanuel became tired like us, hungry like us, exhausted like us; in every way Jesus became like us, yet without sin. He was born so that we would have One who could truly sympathize with our weaknesses, so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:14–16). The angel didn’t tell Mary she would give birth to a teacher or a moral example, but to a King and a Savior; One who would be call “Son of the Most High” and whose Kingdom would never end.
What Gabriel told Mary tells us something important about ourselves—our greatest problem isn’t ignorance, weakness, or circumstance, but sin. Our greatest need is redemption.
We spend our lives trying to fix what’s broken, but Christmas declares that God came to do what we could not—to save lost sinners. This is why Jesus said: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
God Came to Us When We Could Not Come to Him
On the night Jesus was born, God did not summon kings, dignitaries, or celebrities; He invited shepherds. To the poorest of the poor, the angels declared, “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 then heaven itself erupted in praise: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the shepherds arrived at the manger, they beheld something staggering—the Word of God in human flesh.
John tells us that all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. The power that created the universe lay wrapped in swaddling cloths; the One through whom the heavens were made was sleeping in a feeding trough. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Some people walk into Christmas Eve feeling unworthy, unseen, or spiritually distant. The shepherds are proof that with God, it does not matter how far you are from Him, for He is the God who meets sinners where they are—to save them, to redeem them, and to bring them out of spiritual death into new life.
We have a God whose mercy, love, and grace are far greater than our worst sins and any distance we imagine exists between Him and us. As Scripture says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Jesus Entered Our Darkness to Deliver Us from It
The darkness Jesus entered was not merely the darkness of night, but the darkness that has covered the human heart since Eden. Ever since Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, humanity has lived outside—outside the place of God’s immediate presence, outside in the wilderness of thorns and sweat, pain and death. Though the Creator came into the world He made, John tells us the world did not recognize Him, and even His own people did not receive Him. What the world needed most stood in its midst, and it hardly noticed. Yet this is the wonder of Christmas: God came anyway. The promised Savior entered a world marked by sin and sorrow to bring light where only darkness reigned.
Christmas speaks to our guilt, our grief, and our weariness—and it does more than speak to them; it swallows them up by the light of the life of Jesus.
Some of you are carrying grief, regret, despair, and hopelessness into this room. The message and promise of Christmas is that unto us was born a Savior who steps into the darkness to conquer it.
Jesus Came for Those Who Know They are Far from God
The message to the shepherds was simple and clear: “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” (Luke 2:10-11).
Jesus was born to redeem sinners who were and are real people: real broken people, real guilty people, real overlooked people, and real people living in shame. The Bible shows us this even in Jesus’ family tree—God-usurpers like Adam, schemers like Abraham and Sarah, the guilty like Judah, the exploited like Tamar, prostitutes like Rahab, widows like Naomi, outsiders like Ruth, adulterers and murderers like David, and the grieving like Bathsheba.
When you look at Jesus’ family line, you don’t find a list of heroes—you find a gallery of grace. Broken marriages, moral failures, exploitation, grief, and loss. And God placed them there on purpose, to show us the kind of people Jesus came to save.
Jesus came for people like them, and He came for people like us. He came to break the chains of sin and death, to reverse the curse, and to make peace by the blood of His cross.
And that brings us to the most personal question of Christmas: what do we do with this Savior?
Christmas is an Invitation, Not Just an Announcement
John tells us that “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...” (John 1:10-12). Then, John wrote one of the most astonishing sentences ever penned: “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us....” (v. 14). Literally, He made His home with us.
God chose to reverse the curse not by removing us from the world, but by entering it—by dwelling among us in the person of His Son. Why? So that we might finally come home.
I don’t know where you are tonight or what you’re carrying; I don’t know the pain you carry or the disappointments that weigh on your heart, but I do know this—Jesus came not to condemn you, but to make you whole.
This Christmas Eve, the invitation is simple: come to the Light, come to the Word made flesh, come home. Jesus must be received by faith, not merely admired from a distance.
This Christmas Eve, the invitation is simple: come to the Light, come to the Savior, find your light and life in Him.
Conclusion
In just a moment, the lights in this room will be dimmed, and one small flame will be passed from candle to candle. And as that light spreads, I want you to remember this: the darkness was not overcome by noise or force, but by the Light of Christ. That is how God came to us—not with spectacle, but with a child; not with condemnation, but with grace.
Jesus entered our darkness to save us. This news is called the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is how the apostle Paul described this News and promise of Christmas: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).
And tonight, as the light moves from one person to the next, may it remind you that no darkness is too deep, no past so bad, and no heart too far gone for the Light of the gospel of Jesus Christ to overcome. As John 1:5 promises: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
