Today's Sermon:

"What’s in a Name?"

I. Miracle:

“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.”-C.S. Lewis, “The Grand Miracle”

II. Mystery:

“Jesus knows how you feel. You’re under the gun at work? Jesus knows how you feel. You’ve got more to do than humanly possible? So did he. You’ve got children who make a ‘piranha hour’ out of your dinner hour? Jesus knows what that’s like. People take more from you than they give? Jesus understands. Your teenagers won’t listen? Your students won’t try? Your employees give you blank stares when you assign tasks? Believe me, Jesus knows how you feel.”-Max Lucado

III. Message: Christ as Savior of Mankind

“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Way be tired on His journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.”-Augustine

“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God….The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity- hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory- because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message the world has ever heard, or will hear.” -C.S. Lewis