The Gospel of Luke shows Mary's perspective:
"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!... Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS." (Luke 1:26-31)
"So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:6-7)
So Mary heard, Joseph heard, the shepherds heard, King Herod heard, wise men a thousand miles away heard... that the Savior was born. Then St John pulls back the curtain and tell the same story, from heaven's perspective:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1, 14)
All of that is the WHAT of Christmas:
Christmas is the day when God became human without ceasing to be God. He came, the Bible says, to dwell among us.
Actually, this phrase "dwelt among us" literally means, he came to "pitch his tent" among us. To live where we live, to camp out where we camp out.
He left the palace of heaven for a manger—and then, for the mess and ache inside your heart. Who does that? Only a Love worth finding, greater than anything you've ever known. That is the WHAT of Christmas.
That also explains the WHY of Christmas:
He came so he could SAVE his people from their SINS.
A holy God dwelling among sinful people would be a contradiction. So Christmas launched the solution to that contradiction.
And then John continues with the HOW of Christmas.
"He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." (John 1:11-12)
There is a kind of formula in this text for the true meaning of Christmas. I want to come back to that.
But do notice that when he came, some did not believe him. Some did not receive him.
When Jesus came, there was no room for him in the Inn.
There's a lesser known Christmas carol from 1864 with these beautiful lyrics:
Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem's home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.
(Emily E. Elliott, 1864)
I believe that there are reasons why you're here today that you don't even know.
Somebody loves you. Somebody's been praying for you.
God is calling you home.
So my goal for this talk today is to explain what it means to make your heart Christ's home.
And this is a little heads up. I'm not just going to explain what it means, I am going to invite you to receive him for yourself today. Don't worry it won't be weird. I will not single you out. But at the end, I want to walk you through a prayer in which you personally and officially receive Jesus.
And this takes me back to the formula I mentioned.
The formula has four parts, and they all come from this statement:
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." (John 1:12)
The formula goes like this:
Him + Believe + Receive = Become
I'm going to take these factors one at a time because this is really the heartbeat of what Christmas is all about
