Christmas 2025 - The Cradle, the Cross and the Crown of Christmas

Christmas Day 2025

Let’s come and adore Him in the cradle. Read Luke 2:1-20. No Christmas celebration is complete without the reading of Luke 2. We join the shepherds who came to adore the Christ Child. We concur with the angels who proclaimed, “Glory to God in the Highest.”

 The event described by Luke had been prophesied nearly six hundred years earlier by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” The virgin was Mary. The name Immanuel is at the heart of the Christmas story. The name means “God with us.” This was a prophecy that God Himself would be born as a human baby. He would come as the God-Man. The great mystery of Christmas is that the baby the shepherds found in the manger was none other than God.

 The centerpiece of all the Christmas prophecies is Isaiah 9:6. Isaiah gives us the most complete explanation of who this baby really is. This baby is to be adored and worshiped because He is God in human flesh. He is Immanuel – God with us.

Turn over to Isaiah 9:6. It says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” These are truly remarkable names, or titles given to a baby. But this was no ordinary baby. This was the long awaited Messiah.

Consider the rich truths in this one short verse and the attributes given to this extraordinary child in the cradle. 

Son of Man

“A child will be born to us” is a statement about His humanity. He began life like any other human—as an infant. He was born of a virgin. He lived in subjection to human parents. He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52) Isaiah doesn’t say more about this here, but we know from the New Testament that as a man Christ experienced every temptation common to humanity, but He never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). As a man, He felt everything we feel, He hurt like we hurt, wept like we weep, and in His death He even felt the weight of sin as He took ours upon Himself. Because He is fully man, He can sympathize with us in our weaknesses. He is called the Son of Man because He became one of us. God became a man.

Son of God

“A son will be given to us” speaks of His preexistent deity. By saying “given,” not “born,” Isaiah reveals that Jesus existed before His birth. He was already God, the second Person of the Trinity, before He was given to us to be our Savior (Philippians 2:6-7). He came as the Son of God—God in a human body—to conquer sin and death forever. He is the perfect Son of God, the promise of the ages, the Holy One of Israel, the desire of nations, the light in darkness, the only hope for our lost world. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.

 This is the most fascinating of the realities of the Christmas story. God became man. Read Colossians 1:15-20. John’s gospel gives us the story of Christmas from God’s perspective. Read John 1:1-5, 14.

King of Kings

“The government will rest on His shoulders” looks beyond that first Christmas to a time still in the prophetic future when Christ shall reign over a literal, earthly, geopolitical kingdom that encompasses all the kingdoms and governments of the world (Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 2:44). In that day, the government of the whole world will rest on His shoulders, and He will reign as sovereign over a worldwide kingdom of righteousness and peace. In the meantime, His government operates in secret. His kingdom and sovereign rule are manifest within those who trust Him as their Lord (Luke 17:20-21). Behold this wondrous Child! This baby is our King. He is the King of glory.

Wonderful Counselor

“His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.” Messiah’s kingdom has the answer to the world’s confusion. During His incarnation, Christ demonstrated His wisdom as a counselor. When people came to Him, He always knew what to say, when to reach out to a seeking heart, and when to rebuke an impetuous soul. The testimony of those who heard Him was, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks” (John 7:46). Christ is the source of all truth (John 14:6), and it is to Him that we must turn to make sense of life’s confusion. Jesus is the Counselor who knows everything. He knows all about you; He knows the needs of your heart; He knows how to answer those needs. And He always gives wise counsel to those who will hear and obey Him.

Mighty God

The King is the Mighty God and His kingdom is free from all chaos. “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), which means chaos is antithetical to who He is. Christ the King loves to step into a life of chaos and not only provide wonderful counsel, but also display His divine power by bringing order. He not only tells His subjects what to do as a wonderful Counselor, but He can energize them to do it—because He is the Mighty God. In Jesus we have a sovereign Master who can forgive sin, defeat Satan, liberate us from the power of evil, redeem us, answer our prayers, restore our broken souls, and reign over rebuilt lives, bringing order to chaos. This child is Mighty God.

Eternal Father

The phrase in Isaiah 9:6 is literally translated, “the Father of Eternity.” Christ is Creator of heaven and earth. According to God the Father’s own testimony, the Son—Jesus—was the Person of the Godhead who created time out of eternity and fashioned the universe from nothing (Hebrews 1:10-12). Nothing is too difficult for the Creator and Sustainer of everything. Infinity and all its intricacies are nothing to Him who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and Last, the Beginning and the End—the Father of Eternity. He declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He is in complete and sovereign control, He sees the end of everything, and He guarantees that all things will work together for the ultimate good of all His kingdom’s subjects (Romans 8:28).

Prince of Peace

In Messiah’s kingdom there are no conflicts because He is the Prince of Peace. He offers “peace from God” (Romans 1:7) to all who receive His grace. He makes “peace with God” (Romans 5:1) for those who surrender to Him in faith. And He brings the “peace of God” (Philippians 4:7) to those who walk with Him. As we read in Luke’s gospel a few moments ago, the beginning of His earthly life was heralded by angels who pronounced peace on earth (Luke 2:14). There never really has been peace on earth in the sense we think of it. Wars and rumors of wars have characterized the entire two millennia since that first Christmas, as well as all the time before it. The announcement of peace on earth was a two-pronged proclamation. First, it declared the arrival of the only One who ultimately can bring lasting peace on earth (which He will do when He returns to bring about the establishment of His earthly kingdom).

But more importantly, it was a proclamation that God’s peace is available to men and women. The words of Luke 2:14 emphasize this: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” God is pleased with the people who yield their lives to Him. When the angels proclaimed peace on earth, they were speaking primarily of a very personal, individual application of God’s peace that comes from a firsthand knowledge of the Prince of Peace.

O come, let us adore Him, as the child who was born, as the Son who was given, as the King upon whose shoulders the government will rest, as the wonderful Counselor, as the Mighty God, as the Eternal Father, and as the Prince of Peace. Come. Adore Him.

The world will join with us this week in the celebration of Christmas. The vast majority are satisfied with Jesus as an infant. A baby in a manger poses a threat to no one. But Jesus as God is a different story. A baby who is God demands to be worshiped. A baby who is God deserves to be worshiped and obeyed. O Come let us adore this baby in the cradle.

But let us turn now to worship the God-Man Jesus Christ on the Cross. This tiny baby was born to die. His tiny hands would grow to the size of a man’s hand, only to have spikes driven through them. His tiny feet would one day have a large spike driven through them as He would be nailed to a cross. His tiny forehead would have a crown of thorns pressed into it. His little back would one day be shredded as Jesus was scourged with a whip. His tiny side would be pierced through by the spear of a Roman soldier.

Isaiah prophesied of this work as well in the 53rd chapter. Read the chapter.

As Isaiah tells us, that He was despised and forsaken by men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Our griefs He Himself bore, our sorrows He carried. He was smitten of God and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Our chastening fell upon Him. By His scourging we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. 

It is by His death that we have redemption. It is through the sacrifice of God’s Perfect Lamb that we have forgiveness and eternal life. It is not appropriate to celebrate the Christ of the cradle without also remembering the Christ of the Cross. That is why we share the elements of the Lord’s Table. As we partake of the Lord’s Table today, come, let us adore Him. Let us adore Him as our Substitute on the Cross.

Your adoration must include a close and careful look at your own heart. If you see the Crucified Lamb of God, you must see why He is there. He died for you. He took the punishment you deserve for your sin. If you are still living in sin, you must repent, or do not take the elements of the Lord’s Table. 

Read 1 Cor. 11:23-32. To partake of these elements in an unworthy manner is to do so ritualistically, without careful consideration of what these elements represent. We also could partake in an unworthy manner if we are indifferent toward the sin in our lives and unrepentant, or if we have a spirit of bitterness against someone, or some other ungodly attitude. Take a few moments, while the elements are being distributed, to examine yourself. Let the elements pass you by if you are not partaking in a worthy manner.

Have the elements of the Lord’s Table distributed. As the elements are being distributed I want to read the account of the crucifixion from Luke’s gospel. Read Luke 23:33-49. 

The container with the unleavened bread you hold in your hand is a simple piece of unleavened bread. It is what that bread represents that is important. It represents the body of the perfect Lamb of God. A body that never sinned. A body that was broken for us. A body that began as a tiny, helpless baby in a cradle, but became a man, a perfect, sinless man, who was then falsely accused and nailed to a cross in order to suffer the punishment we deserved. O come, let us adore Him. Eat the bread.

The cup of juice is nothing more than the fruit of the vine. But it represents the blood of God’s perfect Lamb. It was His blood, a fountain flowing from Immanuel’s veins, that washes away all our sins and makes us as white as snow. We will stand in the presence of holy God clothed in sinless perfection because of the power in the blood of Jesus. Drink the cup. O Come let us adore Him.

We come and adore our Lord Jesus Christ in a cradle. He left the cradle and proceeded to the Cross. We come and adore Him on the Cross. He left the Cross and He went to the right hand of the throne of God. This same Jesus will come again. The Christ of the Cradle and the Christ of the Cross is the Christ who will be crowned King of all creation. I know I am looking forward to His coming where we will adore Him face to face.

Our celebration of Jesus at Christmas should take us to the cradle, to the Cross, and even to our Lord’s coronation. I want to read a brief excerpt from the Revelation. Read Revelation 19:11-16.

My friends, I invite you to come and adore Him. We should come and adore Him in the Cradle. We should come and adore Him on the Cross. We should never forget that one day we will come and adore Him as the reigning King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Close by singing the chorus of “O come all ye faithful.” “O come let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” Hymn 145.