Deo Gloria
December 24, 2025
Message for Christmas Eve
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Titus 2:11-14
Theme: The Grace of God Has Appeared!
Back on November 11th people here in Belle Plaine and all across the country for that matter got to see a very rare and beautiful site: the Northern Lights. The evening sky lit up that night with a spectacular display of red and green and white. Here are a couple pictures that I took that evening. Often times, when the Northern Lights do appear, the colors are muted, if there is any color at all. And the lights are often difficult to see because of clouds or because of the light from the cities to our north. But not that night. That night the colors were bright and vibrant and lit up the sky like a Christmas tree. It was an amazing sight to behold.
On this night many centuries ago, a young man and woman, along with a few shepherds, got to see an even more rare and beautiful sight: the grace of God. Yes, the grace or the love of God, which the prophets had often spoken about and which had been described in the Old Testament Scriptures, actually became visible. It appeared in human form. It appeared in the person of a little baby, who was lying in a manger.
Now granted babies are wonderful blessings. And as any parent will tell you, their baby is very special. But how could a baby be the embodiment of God’s grace? Because that baby was more than special. He was divine. He was the Son of God in human flesh. As we heard in the sermon this past Sunday, that baby was to be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” Stop the presses. Could that really be true: that the one who made the universe had now become part of his universe, that the mighty God was now a helpless infant, that the Son of God now was wearing diapers? Yes, I know it’s hard to imagine, but it’s absolutely true. The God of heaven took on human flesh and blood. He became one of us and was born as a baby in Bethlehem so that he might serve as our Savior.
This is where God’s grace comes into the picture, his undeserved love for people like you and me. You see, we were on the wrong path. We all were. Instead of choosing God’s ways, we often choose our own ways. Instead of doing what’s good and right and loving and kind, we often do what’s sinful and wrong and selfish and hurtful. Instead of loving God first and foremost in our lives, we love ourselves first. We ignore God. And we hurt others. Even at Christmas time we do things like that. We say mean and hurtful things to our brothers and sisters, to our spouse and our children. And even though we’re supposed to be celebrating Jesus’ birthday, we don’t even invite him to be a guest at our family Christmas dinner. It’s called sin. And sin separates us from God. It not only creates problems in our family relationships, it creates a huge problem in our relationship with God. God is holy. He is sinless. He cannot stand sin. If we’re going to live with him in heaven someday, then we need to be holy. We need to be sinless. And the problem is we’re not. So instead of being on the road to heaven, we’re actually on the road to hell, doomed to spend eternity separated from God in hell.
And that’s exactly what would happen except for one thing: the grace of God, the love of God that appeared in a manger so many centuries ago. Think of it like this: Let’s suppose you had a friend. You love the guy but sometimes he does really dumb things. Like one day he was late for work so he was driving really, really fast. And he blew through a stop sign going 80 miles an hour. Only a police officer saw him and pulled him over. So now he has to go to court and he’s facing a fine of $1,000 or 10 days in jail. Naturally, you’re kind of upset with your friend for being so stupid, but you do love him and you don’t want to see him go to jail and you know he doesn’t have the money. So you go to court with him and you offer the pay the fine for him. So even though he is guilty, your friend doesn’t end up going to jail because you paid his fine, and he gets to go home free instead.
That’s what God, in love, has done for you and me. We are guilty in his sight, guilty of doing far worse than blowing through a stop sign at 80 miles an hour. We are guilty. And we deserve to go to jail for the rest of forever. But God doesn’t want us to go to jail, to spend the rest of forever in hell. He loves us too much. So because he loves us, he sent his Son to pay the fine for us, the suffer the punishment we deserve, so that we might be spared, so that we might be forgiven. That explains why the Son of God was born as a baby in Bethlehem. It also explains why he suffered and died on Calvary’s cross. He paid the fine for you and for me, so that we might not go to jail, but might enjoy eternal life with him in heaven. And in light of what Jesus has done, God has made this gracious and wonderful promise: that whoever believes in Jesus as their Savior shall not perish, but shall have eternal life.
That’s love, that’s amazing love, that’s God’s amazing grace for you and for me and for all. And tonight once again we celebrate the fact that many centuries ago, God’s grace appeared in a little village called Bethlehem. It appeared as a baby, lying in a manger. Amen.