Christmas Eve 2022 Message

The Need to See Again

Merry Christmas. It is a joy to bring this message to you this evening as we once again celebrate Christ’s coming to earth.

I have been a part of many Christmas eve services, and nearly all of them I have had some inside role. I grew up as a pastor’s kid. So Christmas eve was always split between my dad stressing over the Christmas eve services, and us not-so-patently waiting to open the lego set that we just knew was under the tree. Christmas eve almost became the “thing to get over with” so we could get on with crackers, cheese, and trying to build my new lego set without the instructions only to fail and have to start over. If you can’t tell, Legos were the essence of my childhood.

Regarding Christmas eve, the reason for the season as we say, and wanting to “get the service over with” so we can get on with family and presents… I wonder if I’m not the only one.

See we have a tendency - a tendency for beautiful things to become normal, and for normal things to become trivial or unnoticed. The familiar becomes meaningless. The Gospel of Christ can become so routine that we fail to really look at it. Our mistake is thinking that it is the thing that becomes boring, rather than realizing that it is our attention span that truly is the problem. We lose sight of the Gospel when we think we have seen all there is to see, and we move on. The familiar becomes meaningless.

As we spend a few short minutes thinking about this familiar scene of baby Jesus lying in a manger, I implore you to look again. To allow the scales to fall off of your eyes. To believe that you have not seen all there is to see. To be open to receiving something new in what we think is familiar tonight. Do not allow the familiar to become meaningless. Look again. Let’s explore this story again together.

Who is God?

The story of Christmas can be summarized by a single word: Immanuel. Which means, “God with us.” So this raises the question, who is God? A few years ago, two Baylor University sociologists set out to find what Americans tend to believe God is. Their findings usually fell into four categories based on two spectrums: Whether God was Engaged or Disengaged, and whether God is judgmental or nonjudgmental.

- 31% believe in an authoritative God who is both engaged and judgmental. These Americans see God as a caring father figure who can also become angry and act on his anger.

- 24% believe in a benevolent God who is engaged and nonjudgmental. These Americans see God as “a kind of all-powerful and ever-present life coach.”

- 16% believe in a critical God who is disengaged and judgmental. “These believers think that God’s displeasure will be felt in another life but that divine justice will not be meted out in this world.”

- 24% believe in a distant God who is disengaged and nonjudgmental. “They view God as a cosmic force that set the laws of nature in motion but does not really ‘do’ things in the world or hold clear opinions about our activities or world events.”

Who do you believe God is? And how do you know? Usually we find ourselves believing things about God based on our experiences in the world.

You may have felt abandoned by him while enduring all kinds of pain.

You may have felt judged by him if you did something you knew God would disapprove of.

You may have thought God simply doesn’t care about you, so why should we care about Him?

You may have grown up in a legalistic home, but later in life you fell in love with God and felt secure in His love, but now are confused and annoyed when church people talk about obedience. “God loves me no matter what!” you’ve thought, “Talk of obedience is just more legalism.”

No matter where you fall, one thing is for sure, our view of God will determine our response to Him. Whether we worship him, whether we follow his commands, and how we interpret the story of Christmas.

The truth is, Jesus (being fully God and fully man) does not fit perfectly into any one of these boxes. When we try to force Him to fit into a box, we must simply ignore or downplay other truths about who he is and what he has done. Yet, it is the most important question we can ask: who is Jesus? A big answer to that is found in our passage for tonight, John chapter 1.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 1:1–5.

Jesus is the Creator

At the beginning of time, Jesus was there. Before time, space, and matter was, Jesus existed. When all that we know as nature began, it was through Jesus that it was made. Jesus did not begin existing in the manger, Jesus stepped into the creation that he had made.

Second.

Jesus is the Life-Giver

John calls this life a “light of men.” and that “darkness cannot overcome it.” This foreshadows Jesus death and resurrection. No severity or seeming finality of death can restrict unlimited life, no present darkness or hopelessness can snuff out penetrating light. The life of Jesus is good. He is the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful. And this life comes with the sweet smell of hope when everything around us seems to be breaking down.

John goes on:

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 1:9–14.

Third

Jesus is the Adopter

Jesus took on human nature for the purpose of restoring humanity to himself. Through His love, he sought after us. When the spark of God’s plan seemed to go out, Jesus was about to make his appearance. Not riding a chariot, but from the care of a teenage girl and her fiance’. Jesus came in humility, in a small stable. But His coming marked the beginning of his plan to bring back all who would believe into God’s family. Jesus pursues, he loves, he rescues, he adopts and readys a seat for us at his dinner table.

This is who Jesus is.

Think back to those four quadrants. You can see how Jesus does not fit perfectly into any of those. The one true God made manifest in Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago blew apart our conceptions of who God is and what He does. This God, Jesus, the true God, is worth following, loving, and worshipping. For He is the Creator, Life-Giver, and Adopter.

Two Encouragements

In closing, I want to offer two encouragements.

First,

Look for Jesus and you will find Him already at work in your life.

In the same way that Jesus did not make a grand appearance, but a humble one, very often the ways that God is working in your life is subtle. Pay attention. Look for him. Look for how he provides, how he is directing you, how he is convicting you, how he is shaping you, how he is in the midst of suffering and joys.

Even when you are not looking, Jesus is at work in your life.

God’s work in and around us, thankfully, is not completely dependent on us paying attention. Sometimes God sends an angel to two teenagers to tell them of the coming King. Sometimes God sends a host of angels to disrupt a quiet hillside startling sleeping shepherds. Sometimes God sends a star that draws wise men to himself. Sometimes, in the midst of political chaos like Roman oppressive rule, when everyone thinks the light die out… the spark has just begun. The is the significance of “Immanuel.” God comes down, even when we aren’t looking.

Immanuel—God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our daily work, in our punishment, in our death, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph and Second Advent splendor.

Charles Spurgeon

Response

In closing, I want to ask you a question: have you been made a son or daughter of the King? If not, what are you waiting for?

When we hear of a dear friend that will be moving away soon, what do we do? We try to schedule a time to get together, maybe one last time before they move. But was that appointment going to happen if we did not know of the looming move? Perhaps. But how many of us, thinking we have time to spare, delay the most important things such as friendship? But when we feel the sense of urgency, the deadline, we move quickly.

How much more important is our standing before God? Jesus first came as a baby in a manger, but he will soon come again as a King with a sword in his hand. On that day, will there be great fear or great joy? Will you be found having not received God’s grace and mercy, or will you be finally seeing one who adopted you into his family?

On this Christmas eve, do not believe that the greatest gift you can receive is under your tree, it is right here in the Gospel of Grace.

Will you receive it?

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

(Pray)

Now we are going to respond by lighting the candles, representing the light of Christ come into the world for us, as we sing our closing songs.

(Light ushers candles)