Have you ever heard of Tom Southerland? Several years ago Shiite Muslims in the Middle East held Tom Southerland captive for four years… much of his time was spent solitary confinement. During his imprisonment, Southerland could hear a radio that the guards had. It was tuned into the BBC channel. Every day he would listen intently to the newscast, hoping and praying he might hear his name, hoping and praying that the newscaster would talk about him and tell the story of his imprisonment and his innocence. But his name was never mentioned so he assumed that nobody in the United States even knew that he was being held hostage.

Finally, after 4 years of captivity, Tom Southerland was released. His wife, Jean, was flown to the area so they could be reunited. They were so excited to see each other. A few days later, they flew home together to San Francisco. As they were getting off the plane back home, Tom Southerland was amazed to see that there were lights, television cameras, reporters, people holding signs, and a huge crowd at the airport. Tom turned to his wife and said, "Jean, look at all these people! There must be a celebrity on the plane with us. Look around and see if you can spot who it is." And Jean said, "Honey, they are all here for you! It's you! This is all for you!"

When his wife told him that, Tom Southerland started crying and he couldn't stop. He sobbed like a little boy. He couldn't believe it. He said, "I thought everybody had forgotten about me. I didn't think anybody knew I was in captivity. I felt completely abandoned. I didn't think anybody cared. Thank God I was wrong."

The shepherds at the first Christmas must have felt something like that. Society had made them social outcasts. They were considered unclean physically and spiritually… and they must have felt abandoned and forgotten. They must have felt like nobody really cared about them. But then they found out on that first Christmas night that, thank God, they were wrong. Somebody did care! The One who counts the most did care! He was there for them! Of all the people on the face of the earth, the Angel of the Lord appeared to them! For the first time, they experienced real JOY! The kind of JOY, I think, that we all are looking for…

Because it's not the kind of joy we were born with, either. Spiritually speaking, you and I are also outcasts. We are also unclean. We are the most unlikely people that God would ever bring good news to. Doesn't your conscience convince you that you have some issues? Doesn't it make it certain that you aren't a perfect person? You make mistakes, don't you? You and I can be some pretty self-centered people. We can be pretty dishonest. We also can live in a way that doesn't bring a whole lot of JOY to our Creator!

And if your conscience hasn't convicted you of that, listen to God's Word: "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Rom 3:23) "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." (Jam. 2:10) "Your iniquities have separated you from your God;" (Is.59:2) And "…the wages of sin is death." (Rom.6:23) God has made it pretty clear that you and I have failed his demand of perfection, and that if He really is a just God who wants what is right, we must be punished for that. But it isn't His fault! It is our fault! Our sins separated us from Him! There isn't a lot of JOY in that, my friends! Not for us! And not for God!

But the shepherds found a reason for JOY on Christmas night, and so do we. The story is told of a preacher who really got emotional during his sermons. One Sunday morning, as this minister was shouting and pounding the pulpit, he began to look around the congregation for someone to single out. He spotted a family in the front row, a father and mother with 5 kids squeezed between them to be sure they would behave in church.

The preacher pointed dramatically to the father and said: 'You there! Do you have faith?' 'Yes, I have faith,' the man answered. The preacher said, 'If I put a 2x4 board down there on the floor, do you have enough faith to walk across it?' 'Yes, I could do that.' 'But,' said the preacher, 'what if I took that same 2x4 board and placed it across the top of the two tallest buildings in New York City… would you have enough faith to walk across it then?' 'No, I don't have that much faith,' the man answered. 'But what if somebody were standing on the other end,' said the preacher, 'and dangling one of your children off the side… would you cross the board then?'" The father turned and looked down the pew at his 5 kids, and said, "Which one?"

I'm not sure if he was serious, but the point I want to make is this: Our Father God does not say, "Which one?" He doesn't say, "Which one should I lay my life on the line for?" God so loves the world… He wants to bring us ALL into the circle! He comes with the open arms of grace - underserved love - for all of us. To each one of us, He says, "You are valued. You are included. You are wanted. You are precious to me. This is for you." And He did that, not by just sweeping what we have done under the rug. He took it out on his Son. Instead of taking it out on us. The mercy is indescribable! We can only stand trembling in thanks!

Or we can do what our Bible text says. "Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment, He has turned back your enemy." Along with Zephaniah, we can break into a song of praise! He calls us to join him in praising the Lord! He says our hearts should be filled with joy and gladness and our mouths should overflow with praise! Why? "The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy." Scripture says, "The wages of sin is death," and "The soul who sins is the one who will die." (Ez. 18:4). If punishment is gone, and if that great enemy of ours, death, has been removed, and what remains of it is simply a sleep of the body until the resurrection, then sin and the guilt we feel must be gone as well! REJOICE, fellow undeserving friends! We have a gracious God!

Steven Spielberg's movie, "Schindler's List," is a graphic, shocking depiction of the 20th century's most staggering horror - the methodical, brutal extermination of millions of human beings in those Nazi death camps of World War II. Oskar Schindler was a most unlikely hero, but through the efforts of this one man, some 1200 persons were saved from certain death. He put them to work in his factory where he could protect them. One of the most powerful moments in the movie is when Oskar Schindler is in conversation with the commander of the labor camp in Krakow, Poland. They are talking about power, and the commander (in his swaggering way) brags about the authority he has over these people. A man comes before him and he has the absolute authority to kill that man if he so chooses… and the commander has been in the habit of doing just that… killing people brutally right and left with no conscience at all. But Oskar Schindler says, "Oh no, Commander, you are wrong. That is not power. Anyone could do that. But to have a man come before you and to say, 'I could take your life if I so choose but no… instead I pardon you! I pardon you!' That, Commander, is power!"

Indeed. Power…real power is found in forgiveness… and that's the Christmas gift God offers us in Jesus. Martin Luther once became so frustrated with the evil he saw going on around him that he shouted, "If I were God and saw people acting the way they do, I would smash the world to bits!" We might have, but not so with God. God comes into the world offering the gift of forgiveness: "I pardon you. I forgive you. I want to reclaim you."

That is exactly what He did. Isaiah, the prophet that foretold much about the coming Savior, said about Him, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." (53:5). The punishment our sins deserve was placed on Christ. Regarding the new covenant that God would establish in Christ, the Lord asserts through Jeremiah, "I will forgive their sins wickedness and remember their sins no more." (31:34). Zephaniah can say what he says in verse 15 because the Lord, in his mercy, has taken away the sins of the world. They are removed in Christ, and the terrible consequences of our sins have been removed as well. Death and hell are no longer a threat to the one who clings to Christ in faith. Those enemies have been removed forever by what Jesus has done for us!

A little boy named Paul, who is 4 ½ years old now, said to his mother, "Momma, I love Christmas almost as much as I love you." His mom said, "Well, tell me Paul, what do you love about Christmas?" And Paul answered, "I love the lights. I love the presents, and Mom, there's one more thing, and you are going to like this best… most of all I love the Baby Jesus." Paul was right. His mom did like that best, because she has taught him that Jesus is the reason for the season. In Jesus, we are assured that God is with us!

You see, when sin is removed, God is present among us with his protecting power! Isaiah told us, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear." (59:2). The holy God hates sin, and He will not dwell among a sinful people. But when sin is forgiven and its guilt has been removed by Jesus, there is no reason why the Lord must stay separated from you and me any longer! So, Zephaniah assures us: "The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you." He is with us, protecting us from harm, from evil, comforting us in our fears and anxieties, and empowering us to serve and thank Him!

The gift of Christ is the best Christmas gift of all! Hands down! Patrick Henry understood that and he expressed it in the way he closed his will. He said, "I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one more thing that I wish I could give them and that is Jesus Christ… If they had Christ… and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich indeed; and if, they had not Christ… and I had given them all the world, they would be poor."

Remember how Tom Southerland thought he had been forgotten and that nobody cared, and his plane landed in San Francisco and he saw all the people and the lights and the cameras… and he thought there was a celebrity on board the plane… and his wife said to him, "It's you! This is all for you." Well, that's what I want to say to you this morning about Christmas… it's all for you! Everything God was doing at Christmas was for you! REJOICE!

Did you hear what our text said? Verse 17: "The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Believe it or not, God actually rejoices with songs on his lips when you are living in his presence! When you are trusting in Him! He rejoices over you! We are the ones who should be filled with joy and singing, because we have the privilege in Christ of living with God for eternity. But the Lord is just as happy as we are! He is happy, because the goal of his work of redemption, saving us, has been reached! He is joyful because the purpose of his creation - that mankind might live in his presence forever - has been realized! God is rejoicing over you! Let's rejoice! Amen.

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