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Christmas Eve - The Mystery of that Holy Night

It is Christmas Eve day, a Sunday, in fact the 4th Sunday and so the final day in Advent this year.  My wife asked me, "how do you feel about Advent this year, have you enjoyed it?"  She knows that Advent is my favorite time of the year.  I could not help but reply back that I have enjoyed it but feel it is over way too early.  Perhaps that is the key, and the question, "why does Advent have to end?"

For those of us who celebrate Christ and live for him, it doesn't have to end.  Advent means "arrival, coming" and we celebrate Jesus' entrance into the world as a baby born to a Virgin who was conceived by the Holy Spirit - an action that mirrors creation itself when God's Spirit hovered over the emptiness and spoke creation into existence.
Advent is Immanuel - God with us.  Jesus came into the world as a baby...a child is born (human)...a son is given (deity).  The Mystery of that Holy Night is that God invades the world through the weakness of ordinary humanity.

This morning I will teach from Luke 2....is it the most taught section of Scripture?  Probably for me it is.  I never tire of the simplicity, concise language...in just 2 verses Dr. Luke describes it: 

Luke 2:6-7
6  And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
7  And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Just 43 words, 2 verses to say to the world, a Savior has come.  Mary, Joseph, traveling to Bethlehem...a little village of no consequence.  They a young couple of no significance.  She a Virgin who is 9 months pregnant traveling on a donkey "full of child".  They arrive and she is in labor, and then it happens...Luke describes it in 2 simple verses. 
Immanuel, God is with us.
It is the beginning of the end... of the stronghold of Sin... the weary world can rejoice...and turn from their lostness to a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

This day, at this place, during this time is repeated over and over in the hearts of those who ask Him into their own heart...it is a Holy Night.

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth; 
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 
'Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;

Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices
O night divine!  O night when Christ was born.
O night, O holy night, O night divine.

Christmas Eve - Peace to you and your household

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