Jesus, the Heart of Christmas

Here we are… on the eve of celebrating the greatest gift the world has ever received!

Christmas is an incredibly special time of year. When you stop and think about it… our nation does great care in recognizing this season

People travel to be with friends and family

Gift exchanges are common as expressions of love and appreciation

Decorations adorn the houses and homes. My personal favorite is the house in Pburg that is covered in lights… but the neighbor steals the show… literally… with his sign that is pointing to the huge display that simply reads, “ditto.”

Christmas trees go up, stockings are hung.

Christmas music fills the air waves.

TV commercials and special movies show highlighting the season.

Christmas truly is a unique season for sure! And with all that is going on… we especially do not want to forget what is at the heart… or rather WHO is at the heart of what this is all about. His name is Jesus… and He is the reason for the Christmas season.

And we are here to honor Him tonight. And we are going to do so in a very special way.

The Christmas season is only possible to fully embrace when we come to know that the heart of this holiday is found in the incarnation of God. God so loved his creation that he went to great lengths to rescue it by sending his son in the flesh to suffer and die. The story of God’s love begins in a cradle, but it ends on a cross.

We know the story well. And Jesus sums it up very well in perhaps the most well-known passage of Scripture in all the Bible - John 3:16

John 3:16 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God did not withhold, God GAVE. And He gave because of His enduring love for us.

And God knew full well that giving Jesus meant it would cost Him the life of His Son. Jesus is the greatest gift we could have ever asked for… and in giving His Son, God made the ultimate sacrifice for our behalf.

There is much to behold throughout the Christmas season… but I pray we never lose sight of the most important part of this amazing time of the year.

I pray we never forget what that night might have looked like

PLAY VIDEO - God With Us

I also pray we never forget what that night… means for us. He is Immanuel… God with us. And the fact that He came… changes everything!

THE HEART OF GOD IS REVEALED THROUGH THE ARRIVAL OF JESUS

Jesus is the light of God breaking through the darkness of this world. He came to BE WITH US… and His sacrifice gives us opportunity to have our fellowship with God restored.

The fact is we are all longing to feel like we belong—like we are loved just as we are—like everything is as it should be. However, our longing meets the reality of the world we live in.

All around us is brokenness, and many of us feel like we are alone. There is a reason why we often feel like we don’t quite fit. There is a reason why it seems like there is a void within. It is because this world is not our home. We were made for something more. God’s heart is for us to awaken to this fact.

We were not made for sin. We were not made for darkness. We were made for His glory, to be in fellowship with our heavenly Father. Sin broke this reality and bound us to the consequence of death.

Jesus came… to break those chains that bind us. Jesus came to set our hearts free.

The arrival of Jesus was to save people from their sins.

The world makes Christmas about so many other things, but its true meaning falls squarely on God’s dealing with our greatest limiting factor.

Sin is any way that we miss the intention God had for the world when he created it. Greed, gossip, unfaithfulness, hatred, racism, etc. all fall short of the glory of God.

All of us have been subject to sin’s evil influence and have felt the effects of sin’s rule and reign. God’s heart of compassion moved Him to send Jesus as the way of rescue for the world.

The arrival of Jesus was so God could be with us.

Jesus was given the name Immanuel which means God with us. This was a revolutionary thought at the time of Christ’s birth.

Every culture surrounding Bethlehem saw their gods as angry deities who punished and corrected their subjects from afar. But this God so loved his broken creation that he wanted to come near.

He became one of us, with flesh and blood, to mourn when we mourn, hurt when we hurt, and weep when we weep. God identifies with us so that we are given the opportunity to identify with Him.

We needed Jesus. We need Jesus. Someone once said it this way:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

A savior is one who eliminates any barrier between us and God. Our Savior laid down His life for us. Our Savior leads us to forgiveness through repentance. Our Savior offers us eternal life through His resurrection from the grave.

We can be forgiven through Jesus, redeemed through Jesus, set free through Jesus, and victorious through Jesus!

Because of God’s great love for us, he sent Jesus; but often we forget, Jesus agreed to come. God sent Him, but Jesus came. When Jesus came, he so clearly lived with an unwavering commitment to his purpose. In other places, he says himself that he came to “seek and save the lost.”

JESUS LEFT HIS HOME TO SHOW US THE WAY HOME

Jesus gave up the splendors of heaven to walk in the brokenness of earth. Jesus laid aside his divinity to put on humanity. He did it all for one reason and that was to make a way for us to return home to God.

Far too many are living their lives with no direction, carelessly making decisions that put us in danger and keep us far from God.

Christmas is God’s way of pointing us back to the place where we belong. Christmas is God’s way of leading us by his grace to our eternal family. We don’t have to live our lives lost and broken because God’s great love has made a way.

John says the key to finding our way back home is belief in Jesus. When we believe in him, Jesus saves us from perishing or being lost forever, and we are given a new life that will last into eternity in our true home that is heaven.

The Greek word for believe is pisteuo, which means “to be persuaded by someone or have a confidence in someone.” A belief in Jesus is more than an intellectual exercise. Belief in Christ is to be so persuaded and confident that our lives are transformed, and our words, actions, and thoughts become governed by the Spirit of God by our faith, hope, and trust in him. This is why Jesus came to rescue us. He does the work when we submit to him.

And it’s a GOOD work… a restorative and transformational work!

It is a work that takes a person from a position of death to life! It is a work that fills the void, a work that reconciles us back to God!

It is a work that started in the manger, and moved to the cross. Jesus COMPLETED the work meaning He paid the price IN FULL!

How awesome is that!!!! He not only leads us home… He made the way when He paid the way with His blood!

BELIEF IN CHRIST ALLOWS US TO LIVE TODAY AS WELL AS FOR ETERNITY

At the heart of Christmas is Jesus’s invitation to join him and experience the full life that is available through him. The mission began thousands of years ago in a small Bethlehem town but continues on to this very day. Of all the gifts you could possibly receive and give over the coming days, this gift is by far the most valuable because it can save your soul.

Jesus gave His life, that we might have life to the full or life more abundantly. Jesus was broken on the cross that we might be made whole again.

God did not create any of us to perish. God does not want anyone to face that very real consequence of sin. The world may have turned its back on God, but God did not turn His back on the world… instead He LOVED and continues to love the world.

God’s love is not a thing of the past, it is a very present reality that extends for all eternity. And in His love, He gave His Son for you.

This baby that we honor and worship tonight, became our Savior who fought and won the battle we could not fight. And now, He invites us to victory through the work He has done. Are you ready to receive it?

PRAYER - salvation

Tonight, we want to continue to say thank you for the new life we have in Christ by remembering the price Jesus had to pay.

Communion is a time of remembrance. It is a time of recalling the work that had to be done… that was done through love… and that opened the door for our forgiveness of sin. Jesus truly paid it all. He came to give all that He could give so that we might have eternal life.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

These elements we hold represent what was given on our behalf.

Pray for the bread

Pray for the Cup

Jesus is the light of the world. He brought new life to our darkened and broken circumstance. We would be lost without His light and love.

These evening, we light the candles and we honor Christ who is the light of the world. Join us as we sing praises to His name and honor our King.