See the Manger and Behold the Cross!

4th Sunday in Advent, 12/20/15
Hebrews 10:5-10


See the Manger and Behold the Cross!
I. Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice.
II. Jesus’ sacrifice sanctifies us.


We do it with almost every secular holiday. We try to remind the people of our country what the holiday is all about. Memorial Day isn’t just a three-day weekend. It’s intended for our citizens to stop and recall the lives that were lost protecting our freedoms. It’s my impression that a majority of our citizens don’t do that. That same problem exists with the Independence Day, although to a lesser extent. But it soars with Labor Day. How many people actually recall on Labor Day what we’re celebrating?

As regretful as that is, it pales in comparison to celebrating Christmas. I’m eternally grateful that all of us gathered here today celebrate Christmas for what it is—the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But for far too many people—maybe even some of your own relatives and family members—Christmas is simply a couple days for family time, gift-exchanging, and eating some of the best food of the entire year. And that’s tragic—eternally tragic!

You see, most people—if pressed—wouldn’t object to celebrating the birth of a child. That’s harmless. They can do so even if that birth means nothing to them. But remind them that this Child is their only Savior from sin, and you’re going to get more than a little resistance. In fact, you’ll face vehement objection.

The solution to this sad reality is for us to immerse ourselves in that very truth. As we’ve heard for the past three Sundays, Advent is the season in which we prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord Jesus. What better way to do that, then to behold this Child for who he really is—the Savior of the world? Today’s reading from Hebrews reminds us that the reason that the Son of God came to this earth in human flesh and blood was to die for the sins of the world. You can’t separate his birth from his death. Another way of stating the same thing is this: See the manger and behold the cross! May that saving truth serve to prepare your heart for celebrating his birth and his return to this earth on the Last Day!

Part I.

As this week draws to a close, literally billions of gifts will be exchanged and opened. There will be shrieks of, “This is just what I wanted!” and “How did you know that I’ve had my eye on this for months?” But at the other end of the gift-reaction spectrum is a statement like this, “I know that’s what I said, but that’s not really what I wanted.” You talk about causing confusion and frustration! The giver thought he or she had it just right, but that wasn’t the case at all. The receiver of the gift had misled them.

In reading today’s text from Hebrews there appears to be just such a contradiction in what was requested and what was actually expected. Listen again to what it states, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them (although the law required them to be made).” Flip through the pages of the books of Exodus and Leviticus and you’ll find detail after detail about sacrifices. Daily sacrifices. And these weren’t merely suggested by God; he demanded them to be made. He supplied meticulous directions for the people and their priests to follow. These sacrifices were the epicenter of Jewish worship life.

And then we read, “You did not desire”? Does this writer have it all wrong? How could God make pages of demands about sacrifices but not really want them? Why would he place such onerous demands on the people if he didn’t desire them to make them? Why would he stipulate that his people should bring him an animal sacrifice worth 1000s of dollars in today’s money and have them burn it up completely, if he didn’t really want it? We might conclude, “What a waste!” So, what is the writer stating?

He’s making the point that God never intended these sacrifices to forgive a single sin. Making a sacrifice—whether it’s an animal or some of the harvest of your fields, vineyards or fruit trees—does nothing to bring you forgiveness or remove your guilt before God. Nothing! So what good were they, as expensive as they might be? God intended every one of them to point the people ahead to the sacrifice that the Savior would make.

That’s the sacrifice that God desired because that’s the only sacrifice that removes sin and guilt. And that’s what Jesus was all about. The writer to the Hebrews quotes Psalm 40 in which we’re allowed to eavesdrop on a conversation between Jesus and his heavenly Father. Listen to it again, “Here I am. I have come to do your will.” The gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—repeatedly record Jesus stating that very thing. He was not here to do his own will, but the will of his Father who sent him. Jesus was on his Father’s mission—a mission he fully supported, but his Father’s mission nonetheless. Even as he knelt in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane just hours before his death, he was always willing to do things his Father’s way, not his own.

So to his death he went. But not simply the death of a prophet who held such promise just months earlier. It was the sacrifice of the God-man. It was the sacrifice his Father demanded as the payment for the sins of the world. What all those millions of sacrifices the Jews had offered for more than 1,000 years could not do and God never intended them to, the sacrifice Jesus made accomplished. The reason that Jesus came into this world as the Child of Bethlehem was to sacrifice himself as the Savior of the world. It was exactly the sacrifice the Father wanted.

See the manger and behold the cross! Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice.

As I stated when this sermon began, we’re happy to celebrate the truth that the Child of Bethlehem is also the Savior of the world. We’re all too aware that he came to this world to sacrifice himself for us. But I need that reminder and so do you. I need that reminder because I daily battle a sinful flesh which thinks far too much of itself. My sinful pride can’t stand the thought that I’m not good enough for God, that I need a Savior, that my own efforts at goodness are worthless to the holy God. And when I’m not battling sinful pride, I’m trying to bury my own guilt. I’m ashamed of what I’ve said and done. My secret sins are fully on display to the all-knowing and all seeing God. Makes you want to dig a hole and hide, doesn’t it? Don’t do that. Instead see the manger and behold the cross. That Child lying there is a miracle Child in every sense of the word. He is God with us—God in human flesh and blood. He came to sacrifice that flesh and blood for my sinful arrogance and my damning guilt. Mine and yours as well. What pardon and peace that gives! Don’t just see the manger; behold the cross too—the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Part II.

Have you ever dreamed of having your name on the front of a church? Most of you—if not every one of you—are saying to yourself, “Ah…no Pastor. Never have. In fact, I don’t think I would want to.” There are churches with the names of people on them—men like Paul and James and Peter and Mark. But they were saints. So are you. Not convinced of that? Listen to the closing verse of our text, “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” It says, “We have been made holy.” The Bible term for that is that we have been sanctified. That means you’re just as much a saint as Peter, James, John or Paul.

That’s the truth because, as the writer tells us, Jesus came to do the Father’s will. God’s will is for all people to be saved. Jesus accomplished that will by always obeying his Father and by sacrificing himself on the cross for the sins of the world. That sacrifice sanctifies you. It makes you holy.

That happened when God declared you not guilty or innocent. As sinful as we are, God declares all our sins to be forgiven. He can do that because Jesus sacrificed himself for the sins of the world. That declaration of innocence—that justification—became yours personally when the Holy Spirit brought you to faith.

When he did that, he sanctified you. He made you holy. He set you apart from the unbelieving world and made you a member of his Church in which you have forgiveness and eternal life. As someone who has been set apart, you now have the power to live to the glory of Jesus each day of your Christian life. In fact, your God has planned good things for you to do in your life as a Christian, things that will extend his kingdom to others and things that will help your neighbor. What’s more, God planned those things for you to do in eternity. The very things you’ll do today, God knew about and planned before the creation of the world. Boggles the Christian mind, doesn’t it? The life you’re living right now today was made possible because of that Child of Bethlehem.

See the manger and behold the cross. Jesus’ sacrifice sanctifies us.

If you’re anything like the rest of us, more than once you’ve asked yourself, “Am I doing what God wants me to with my life?” The corollary to that question is this one, “And if I’m not, how can I expect to find happiness?” And you conclude that you can’t. You’re seeing the manger but missing the cross. The sacrifice of Jesus sanctifies you. That puts the word “saint” before your name. That means that what you’re doing with your life as a child of God is just as pleasing to God as the lives of the saints of the Bible. Beholding the cross when seeing the manger isn’t some seasonal twist to looking at your Christian faith. It’s practical every moment of your Christian life. It frees you to serve your Lord and neighbor out of love for Jesus. It fills you with joy and confidence knowing that you have sainthood status before your God through none of your merits but solely through the merit of Christ, the Child of Bethlehem.

Don’t miss your golden opportunity this week. See the manger and behold the cross. Amen.