Main Idea: Jesus is the hope of deliverance from the burden of a broken life.

During the first full week of December three expert and accomplished climbers attempted to climb the northern face of Mt. Hood in Oregon. Kelly James, Brian Hall and Jerry Cooke were all skilled in mountain climbing and felt well prepared for their attempt up that side of Mt. Hood. However, after reaching the summit on December 8 the weather became their greatest adversary. A tremendous storm came in packing 100 mph. winds and blizzard conditions. Kelly James made a cell phone call December 10 telling his family that they were in trouble. Soon rescue teams were thrown into action to try to rescue the climbers, however bad weather continued to prevent their attempts. This past week Kelly James body was found in a snow cave and rescuers found traces of where the others had been. It is believed the other two were literally blown off the mountain by the tremendous force of the winds. ("Officials: Climbers may have fallen, died," AP, Dec. 19, 2006)

What I found it interesting, though, was that the stories of three climbers missing on a mountain was the lead story on the daily news shows, newsmagazines and newspapers. I mean it wasn’t as if someone forced them to make that climb. It was their choice. In fact, one other climber said, "They were just pushing themselves to their farthest frontiers. That’s when people are at their best." So the truth is they knew the risk so why were we so concerned about their fate? The reason is because even though they were at their best, they faced something that was greater than their skills or abilities and needed someone to rescue them. It is part of our human nature to want to rescue someone in trouble regardless of their worth, decisions or choices. When someone needs saving, someone needs to try to rescue them because without deliverance they will die.

Two thousand years ago God looked out on a world that needed saving. The human creation that populated this planet was without hope of ever being able to deliver themselves from the sin, injustice, hatred, violence, war, evil and rebellion that defined them. He had chosen one group of people to be his voice of sanity, reason and moral guidance but they themselves had devolved into the same sin, injustice, hatred, violence, war, evil and rebellion as everyone else on the planet. He knew without someone to deliver them, rescue them, save them, they would destroy any hope of humanity having a relationship with him, a relationship for which he ached and for which he longed.

So, he invited a teenaged Jewish girl named Mary and her soon-to-be husband Joseph to play the key role in his sending a deliverer to rescue people from the burden of their broken lives. He would borrow Mary’s womb and a child, a boy, would be born to Mary. This child would be the way God would chose to deliver all of humanity from the tragic choices of their lives, choices from which there was no escape, choices that had broken all hope of relationship with a God who made them and loved them.

While the world slept, a deliverer was born in an animal feeding trough in an insignificant village called Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph were no doubt thrilled but who else would know? Unknown to them, at the time God sent angels to announce to keepers of sheep, shepherds of all people, that this deliverer had come. The angel would say, " Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:10-12)

After seeing the child, the shepherds would leave amazed, telling everyone within earshot and eyesight what the angel had said. Mary, the mother, gathered all of these emotions in her heart and locked them away so that she might draw them out from time to time and hear their song once again. Their hope of a deliverer had finally come and now the world was a different – or was it?

Thirty years would roll by and nothing would change. Armies that forced them into submission still ruled them. Any hopes of being free to simply earn a living were chained by the control of unjust authorities. Those who abused their trust exploited their faith, which was the anchor of their soul. All of these things, as well as the failure of human choices, broke their dreams and they kept looking for the one who would deliver them from the hopeless burden of their broken lives.

Then a day came and the child from the manger had become a man. He had left the carpenter’s trade of his father and had begun to tell the world that a revolution was beginning. The announcement of that revolution began in a synagogue in Nazareth with these dramatic words, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors…" (Luke 4:18) He had come to declare that the days of humanity being crushed by forces or powers beyond their control had come to an end. He had come to tell those whose lives were so broken they seemed hopeless that there was hope. He could say this because of who he was and because of the name his mother said God had given her, Jesus, which means "God delivers."

The words that Jesus chose in this last sentence are very important and they paint a very graphic picture of the helplessness and hopelessness that the world faced. The word "downtrodden," which the King James translates "bruised" described someone whose life was so broken it was irreparable. The verb tense means someone who was so broken and beaten down by life that nothing would be able to change that. The phrase "will be freed" or "to set free" or "to set at liberty" means to deliver, rescue or forgive. It means that the deliverance will come at once and cannot be reversed. The word "oppressors" describes someone who crushes or burdens another by abuse of power or authority or someone who has burdened another spiritually or emotionally. Jesus’ words illustrate a person whose life is broken beyond hope of repair due to the burdens that another has placed on them and that he is the deliverer whose deliverance is absolute and final.

What was the oppression that Jesus and others would have faced? For one, there was political oppression. That oppression is seen in the words that open Luke 2:1, "At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire." Jesus and all those who lived in Judea were under the rule or authority of Rome. Rome controlled your choices not you. Rome also controlled your resources. We know that the reason Joseph led Mary to Bethlehem was because of a forced taxation of all those under Rome’s power. The oppression of taxation was breaking them financially. They also faced oppression spiritually. The Jewish religious leaders had taken the laws of Moses and had so manipulated them until a person’s relationship with God was one based on fear, guilt and rules that no one could possibly keep. They were not free to relate to God without the control of another. All of this oppression left the people broken emotionally. This is not to get all "Oprah" on you but the people were left with a despair from which they had no hope of deliverance.

So, the result of oppression—political, economic, spiritual and emotional was to feel "down trodden." Lives filled with broken hearts, broken dreams, broken bodies, broken spirits and broken hopes. Yet, in spite of their hopelessness, they waited for a deliverer to come and fully and finally set them free from all of their oppression.

Yet did Jesus relieve all their political oppression? No, because he told Peter who tried to defend his arrest by the Romans, "Put away your sword" (Matt. 26:52). Did Jesus relieve all their economic oppression? No, because he would say, "Give to Caesar what belongs to him." (Matt. 22:21) Did he relieve all their spiritual oppression? No, because he would say, "I did not come to abolish the law…" (Matt. 5:17). Did he relieve all their emotional oppression? No, because he would himself weep over the brokenness of people. (Matt. 23:37). So how would his coming be "good news" for the downtrodden?

The answer lies in the words of the angel to the shepherds, "I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the City of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:10-11). For all eternity Jesus had been designated as the deliverer, the rescuer, the Savior for the oppression from which no one else could bring. The oppression of others left humanity with broken spirits, broken dreams, broken trust and broken hearts. While he came to rescue us from all that brokenness, the greatest rescue he came to give is to rescue us from our own lives broken by our own sinful choices.

There are other "saviors" who could deliver people from political oppression. There are other "deliverers" who could bring justice to a people’s economic status. There are plenty of "rescuers" who offer so-called "spiritual" freedom. There are still others who promise happiness in the face of life’s tragedies. But there is only one who can repair the deep brokenness of sin that I have brought upon my own life. Others may free me from other kinds of oppression that break and burden my life but only one can mend the brokenness between God and me. His name is Jesus and he has come to be our deliverer from the one thing that oppresses us for which there is no other Savior. He, the angel would tell Joseph, " will save His people from their sins."

Whatever you want Christmas to be, the one thing that God says about it is that it is the story of salvation for people broken by sin. Somewhere in all the cultural clutter, emotional sentimentality, is the stark naked truth that our own sins were sending us to hopeless eternity in hell and God sent us a Savior. That Savior, the angel said, is for "you" personally. The Savior is for you with all of the broken things in your life, he is for you. That Savior is for "all the people." He is for every person from every nation, tribe, people and language. That Savior is the Savior now. The angel said, "Today…there has been born for you a Savior…." Make Christmas whatever you want but the truth is that Jesus is the only hope for deliverance from the burden of your broken life, a life broken by your own sin.

Tara Conner, the reigning Miss USA, found herself in need of a savior recently. Of all the people who came to her rescue it was none other than Donald Trump, who is more famous for his statement, "You’re fired," than the words, "You are forgiven." It seems Miss USA had been involved in quite extensive behavior unbecoming to the name of Miss USA. Things like underage drinking, illegal drug use, flagrant promiscuity among other infractions had jeopardized the crown Miss Conner wore and tarnished the image of Miss USA. Donald Trump, who owns the pageant as well as the free apartment given to Miss USA, had threatened to "dethrone" her. Trump, who himself is not exactly a paragon of public morality made a very "unTrumplike" decision—he gave her a second chance. Miss Conner had no hope of being forgiven for her actions, especially by Donald Trump, yet she was. She said it was her "personal demons" that brought her to the point of self-destruction. The only thing that saved her was grace, forgiveness, from a most unlikely person.

Tara Conner was free from every thing that could have burdened her life but the burden of herself. For freedom from herself, she needs a savior, and it’s not Donald Trump. So do you. You can be free from all other kinds of life’s burdens but there is only one who can free you from your sin. His name is Jesus and he is your Savior. Without his salvation you have no hope of deliverance from the burden of your broken life. Yet the good news is that for every person there is a second chance. You can be free. There is hope in the salvation of Jesus Christ. That is why the message of Christmas is good news: There’s hope for freedom from the "personal demons" that will destroy us.

Was the baby in the manger our Savior? Yes, but not as a baby but as a man who would die on a cross as God’s sacrifice for all our sin. He would be called by those who knew him best "…the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."(Jn. 1:29) Andrew Peterson has a song that says this so well. It’s called, "Behold the Lamb of God"

Behold, the Lamb of God

Who takes away our sin

Behold the Lamb of God

The life and light of men

Behold the Lamb of God

Who died and rose again

Behold the Lamb of God who comes

To take away our sin

Broken hearts—behold our

Broken hearts

Fallen far—we need you

Behold the Lamb of God

Son of God—Emmanuel

Son of Man—we need you

Behold the Lamb

The hope of man

Behold the Lamb of God.

It would be this one who Mary and Joseph named Jesus who would take away all of our sin. Today, regardless of how free you think you are, if you are not free from your own sin, you have no hope. There’s good news, though; you have a second chance in Jesus. There is hope for deliverance from the burden of your broken life. All that you need to do is ask. That is a revolution of life that no one else can give. Good news! There’s Hope!

Sunday, December 24, 2006 a.m.

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org