A Sign Given By God
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’ (Isaiah 7:14); ‘…which means “God with us.”’ (Matthew 1:23b); (10) ‘But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (11) Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”’ (Luke 2:10-11)
There have been many great evangelists – Martin Luther, D.L. Moody, Billy Graham – but perhaps the one with the best reach of them all is… Linus Van Pelt. It may be hard to believe that a cartoon character, especially one that is typically at best a 2nd tier support character to the headliner Charlie Brown and his dog Snoopy, is one of the greatest and longest-lasting evangelists in Christendom.
However, one cannot dispute that for 60 years, every Christmas season, Linus has provided and continues to provide Charlie Brown, and all the kids, parents, and grandparents watching on their TVs throughout the decades the meaning of Christmas by reciting Luke 2:8-14. It is likely that many who have seen ‘Charlie Brown’s Christmas’ have not been Christians; if it was a ‘Billy Graham Crusade’ or an overt Christian program, some would have turned the channel.
But since it’s Charlie Brown they get the Gospel message from Linus about God’s Gift of Jesus to us as the Messiah to provide us Eternal Life through His Sacrifice and His Ascension as the King of Kings. Even in today’s ‘woke’ climate, Linus’ impromptu provision of the birth of Jesus can still be found on (of all things) commercial/main-stream TV, as well as video, streaming services, DVD, and YouTube.
But what is the message of Luke 2:8-14? Essentially, God sends an angel (likely Gabriel, the archangel associated with being God’s herald or announcer) to tell the shepherds that God has given them a Gift, their long-awaited Messiah. This Gift is one given out of love and compassion, not to harm us but to save us. The angel spells out what the Gift is (Jesus the Messiah), where the Gift could be found (the ‘city of David’ or Bethlehem), and how the Gift could be identified (baby wrapped up & in a manger or cave-stable). The Gift was also ‘advertised’ through the praise of the heavenly host (‘the choir’) to God and what it meant for the Gift to be given (peace) and who it was for (who believes and has Faith in Jesus; through Faith His favor will rest).
Christmas should always be to the Christian a time of joy and contentment. It is a time we should be comforted by the fact that God made a promise in a revelation to his prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 7:14, around 700 BC, and roughly 700 years later (most historians believe in the year 4 BC) the promise became fact when Jesus was born. Indications are Jesus (as God Manifested or God in Man’s Form) walked with people in the Old Testament times, like walking with Adam in the garden of Eden or wrestling with Jacob or joining the Pep Boys in the furnace in Babylon. (These are called Christophanies or appearances of Christ in the Old Testament.)
But the ‘mystery’ of the Gospel, as Paul alluded to several times in his Epistles or Letters, as given to Isaiah and others was revealed when Mary, a young girl/woman (likely a teenager between 15-18 years of age) was chosen by God to be the virgin surrogate to carry Jesus in her womb. The woman had to be a virgin because first, God said so to Isaiah, and second, the woman had to be pure. Remember all the acceptable sacrifices in the Old Testament were to be the first-born animal and without blemish or defect; there had to be the appearance of purity in order to be representative of God’s purity.
The virgin was without physical sin. Mary was human, so it can’t be said she never sinned at all, but she never did any ‘sins of the flesh’. The first-born animal may have also had unseen imperfections, but they looked pure so they were considered pure. God chose Mary as she was the purest of women to carry His Son, Jesus, into this world. In a sense, Mary was picked to be a sacrifice; her life would never be ‘normal’ after being selected Jesus’ mother.
Why did Jesus need to be born? I believe God wanted us to have a Savior who would have all the experiences we have; being born, growing up, perhaps being picked on, making friends, having parents that were sometimes challenged (who drove off and realized halfway home Jesus was left back in Jerusalem, and whose decision was to show off Jesus’ powers by having water made into wine at a friend’s wedding), being tempted, given the choice of being a Christian publicly, confrontation, hunger, cold, persecuted, falsely accused, and finally facing death.
We have a Savior who can say, ‘Been there – done that – got the scars to prove it’. Immanuel, meaning ‘God With Us’ (Matthew 1:23b), is more than just having Jesus physically present with us but having a Lord who has experienced every aspect of life we have to face. We can trust that the Lord knows what we are going through because He has gone through it, too. He is not only ‘God With Us’ but ‘God Going Through Life With Us’.
This Christmas, celebrate that we worship a God who knows what we go through daily, and has gone through it without sinning so He knows exactly what to do and more importantly what not to do!
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Note for my Word-of-the-Day readers: As we will be having the daily Advent devotionals for the month of December, from the 1st through the 25th (Christmas Day), I have, in prayer, decided this would be a good time to pause the ‘Word-of-the-Day’ and take a bit of a ‘sabbatical’ from the ‘Word-of-the-Day’ postings for the remainder of 2025. The Advent devotionals should be considered as your reading for the ‘Word-of-the-Day’, as I know many of you are daily readers. The daily Advent devotionals will begin posting on the MBC website on Sunday, 30 November (the same day the sermon series on ‘Advent & the Gift’ begins).
This will allow you to be focused on the Advent readings (yes, I did a couple of them, as did the other active and inactive MBC Elders, and the Pastor), and allows me to take time to recharge and regroup; with 600+ Word-of-the-Day postings over the last couple of years does have me thinking what’s left to post. My prayer is the Lord will refresh and provide more ideas for 2026!
I love each of you who read the Word-of-the-Day, and I pray you have a beautiful and blessed Christmas, not focused on the secular aspects of the holiday but on our Savior, who we celebrate for His Sacrifice of leaving His heavenly home and comfort to be with us and becoming our Sacrifice to give us the Gift of Salvation, saving us from sin and providing us Everlasting life with Him forever and ever.
