Midweek Advent Three – Pr. Anderson sermon
1 John 1:1-4, Matthew 1:18-25 “Creche (Nativity) – The Incarnation of God in Christ”
December 17, 2025 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room And heav’n and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ, While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains Repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness And wonders of His love. Amen (ELH #138).
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
Is there anything special about the place where you were born that you can remember? Of course, you would have to be told if anything special happened since you wouldn’t remember yourself. Maybe your birth was just a plain birth in the hospital, but you remember something special about your child’s birth. We live in an age where the hospital can be taken out of the equation as people are searching for a more intimate way to have the birth like a home birth. While the thought of where and how we are brought into the world fades from memory, and for many it doesn’t matter, it is something we should recognize as important. A miracle took place for us to be here. The miracle of life. While it is a great thing for a baby to be brought into the world, our birth is also associated with something else. We know from Scripture that with our birth, our sinful nature is also born. And there is only one way to live with this knowledge of sin. St. John writes how he saw something special during his life. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. They saw, touched, and spoke to the Word of life who prepares our hearts with His precious nativity, His great incarnation.
And this incarnation that the world didn’t deserve, it is written down for all to see how truly special this act is. From the Garden of Eden, that had gone from being this perfect place to a place of sin, the light shone bright with the announcement of the birth of a Savior. Fast forward in time and the apostle John writes about what he had seen and heard. Many waited for this precious nativity as John writes, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. They had done the research. They had listened to Jesus’ every Word and John concludes as he did in the beginning of his Gospel, that the Word of God who was with the Father from all eternity had finally come into the world, the man Jesus Christ. And as John clings to the life he has, he writes how he wants everyone to know this great account, that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. With this knowledge and most importantly with this faith in God keeping His promises, we are united with all believers, from all ages, all the way back to that original and great nativity promise in the Garden.
As the depth of this nativity takes us back in time to its original promise, this great event also does something else. St. John continues, indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. This is what is at stake with faith in the nativity of the Word made flesh. It is not just a fellowship of believers, but a fellowship with God. And as we rejoice in this knowledge of God’s mercy, we are in a time where the truth is starting to have no meaning. As the world tries to get under our skin on what should be basic fundamentals, this shouldn’t make us that upset. To confessed what we just confessed, to have this awesome fellowship with God, means we already accept the fact that the world hates to hear the truth. It hates to hear about the Word made flesh. And as the world tries to distract us with all sorts of fictions, when we get cornered because we believe in the greatest truth of all, sometimes our mouths can find themselves shut.
The question is why? What are we afraid of? John tells us why he has written this all down, watching all of his brothers die for this truth. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. We are to have great joy being united together in faith in Christ our Lord and what He has done for us. We know it is difficult to have joy in this sinful world. It tempts us to think that we are all individuals, we are all on our own. This is to distract us from what and who we see around us, our brothers and sisters in Christ. All of us have been born into the same sinful world. All of us have sinned against God. All of us find joy in the truth of the nativity of our Savior. All of us find joy in our sufferings together in fellowship, as our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. He takes on all of our sins and failures in His blessed incarnation.
And the blessed incarnation had its own drama like ours, but in the kept promises of God we see how it works for the good of all. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Here is the greatest truth Joseph was tested to believe. He has found out his new wife is now with child. And though they are married, he knows it’s not his because he has not brought her into his home. What at surface level looks like tragedy, for this great nativity is simply not the case. For a people who thought their prayers were never going to be answered, their hearts would not see coming the greatest blessing of the Word made flesh. This is the exact truth needed to prepare the hearts of men. In what can only be seen as lowly, God incarnate is found not with great pomp, but with a virgin mother and a humble father from the line of David.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. While Joseph does not know what is happening yet, he knows what will happen to his poor wife once this is found out. A true adulterous relationship would be deserving of death. Having been born in sin, all mankind deserving the spiritual, eternal death and punishment of hell with the worst punishment of all, being completely separated from God. In our struggles to profess the truth, Joseph for the opposite reason, is going to search for a way to quietly keep something bad from happening to Mary. Joseph mirrors what God does for the world in this great event. The Father with no great pomp, with no reason to be merciful and knowing all of our sins we have committed against Him, doesn’t abandon us and quietly sends His One and only Son into the world. Quietly under Bethlehem stars, the Word made flesh, the incarnate Son of God, is found in a lowly nativity.
And in this lowly nativity, as John with joy wrote, Joseph now hears the Words of God’s promise kept and will soon see the blessed fellowship he has with His heavenly Father. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The blessed child of promised ages will be born into Joseph’s arms, For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9). Tied to time, grace, and promise, the baby Joseph will soon have in His arms, unites you to Himself and the Father in this lowly nativity to save you from all of your sins. The birth of Christ Jesus is the nativity you will always know and have joy in. The truth and joy for the world, joy for your heart, and joy you see and hear through the Means of Grace brought to you by His life and death on the cross.
In this world of anti-truth, the cross stands firm, finding its lowly beginnings in a manger bed. Brought into the world exactly like you, except conceived with no sin. The greatest birth and miracle of all. Knowing your mouth may be tempted to be closed because of pushback on this truth, the heavenly eternal Word entered this life to not condemn you, but in the definition of His name, to save you. The truth and Word defend you and prepare your hearts. With your hearts prepared by the incarnate Word, you see Joseph make his stand with faith and take Mary home to be his wife. You hear the joy in John’s words of the truth He witnessed with his eyes, ears, and hands. A truth he proclaimed like all of his brothers who died for it. A joy you all have in fellowship together, because it is the truth you get to confess and hold on to in your prepared heart. The blessed nativity that brings you joy for ages to come because, this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). With you now, with you forever. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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