Week 5 - Christmas Service - Jesus is the Heart of Christmas

SLIDE: Scripture

John 3:16 (NLT)

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

SLIDE: This is the Word of God, for the people of God.

SLIDE: Prayer of Christmas

Prayer: “It’s finally here Lord, the day we’ve been waiting for. The time has come to look upon the manger once again and recognize the amazing grace and miracle present in the birth of Christ. Thank you for Christmas Lord, thank you for Jesus, and thank you for the gift of salvation.”

Amen

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 // John 3:16

SLIDE: Sermon Title

Introduction

For those of you joining us on the internet this is Curry’s Chapel Church in Greenfield, Indiana. And I am pastor Rich Bailey. Thanks for joining us.

Welcome Home!

Merry Christ-mas, church. The time has finally come, it is Christmas. Today we join a long line of Christ-followers who have, for centuries, remembered the arrival of God through the birth of his son, Jesus. I get the sense that many of us in the room today need to be reminded of the wonder of this of His arrival and the hope, peace, joy, and love that it ushers into our busy, hectic, distracted, and chaotic lives.

SLIDE: Jesus is THE HEART of Christmas

Jesus is the heart of Christmas. It is all about him, and it is all for him. In order to fully embrace Christmas, we turn our attention toward him.

Story: One of the things I loved most about Christmas was when my family and my mother’s favorite sister’s family came together. We would do most Christmases after my father retired from the Army. When I think of being at my Aunt’s for Christmas, I always think back to what that was like with my cousins. My Aunt Jane always had a beautiful tree and decorations around the house. It was her thing, as she had her own interior decorator business. Typically, there were fresh-baked cookies in the kitchen, a cheese log an d other goodies somewhere nearby. My cousins and I would have a chaotic blast with one another. We would have so much fun building snow forts, sledding down hills, and playing board games. The house was loud. It was wild. It was fun. Being home for Christmas felt like a big festive hug. There was no pressure to be anything. We could just exist. We were home for Christmas.

Many of your experiences of Christmas are similar. For some, home was a place to belong. It was a place where you knew that no matter what was going on in your lives, no matter what you brought in with you, you were loved.

But some in the room this morning did not have that kind of Christmas experience. Maybe for you, being home for Christmas was not something that was accompanied by warm feelings and happy memories. Maybe the idea of being home for Christmas actually brought with it a lot of pain and anxiety. Home did not feel like a place where you belonged but a place where you felt like you did not fit. This is more the experience I had in those years when we did not go to Aunt Jane’s. My parents were usually drunk, and I dreaded Christmas at home.

Both experiences are valid. And I think both experiences teach us something about the tremendous joy of celebrating the birth of Jesus and the overwhelming love of God.

Main Teaching

THE HEART OF GOD IS REVEALED THROUGH THE ARRIVAL OF JESUS

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.

SLIDE: We are made for something more...

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.

The Christmas story appears in the beginning of the Gospel accounts in the New Testament. Each one has a little bit different focus and bend, but the book of Matthew is very intent on revealing Jesus being the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s heart and desire for his creation.

Read Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18–25 (NLT)

18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. 20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ” 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

It took an angel speaking to Joseph in a dream to convince him that Mary’s pregnancy was not a reason to call off their wedding. Rather, Mary’s pregnancy was something that was divine and would change the world forever. The author tells us two very important pieces of information in this passage that reveals the heart of God for us and the heart of Christmas for the world.

SLIDE: The Arrival of Jesus #1

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.

ADVANCE:

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.

SLIDE: The Arrival of Jesus #2

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.

ADVANCE:

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.

SLIDE: What is a Savior?

A savior is one who eliminates any barrier between us and God. A savior welcomes us into a safe place alongside a God who loves us.

This love of God is spoken of in a passage that is a bit of an unconventional Christmas narrative. The book of John gives us a new perspective of what took place in Bethlehem on that Christmas night.

Read John 3:16

John 3:16 (NLT)

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

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.

Story: OKAY, first off let me admit that I am a man. And I have found that most of us men don’t like to ask for directions. As a result of that when I would get lost in travels I would resist the thought of asking for directions. It seems that if I asked I would seem the fool. As a result, maybe I would wonder around with no correct direction. But I learned that it is by far to ask for directions seem to be a fool, rather than to go around aimlessly and prove that I am a fool.

I can’t tell you how much better it now days to have GPS. I thank God for GPS. With GPS if I get lost I can put the blame elsewhere.

SLIDE: God’s GPS

Far too many of us are living our lives with no direction, carelessly making decisions that put us in danger and keep us far from God. Christmas is God’s GPS, and a way of pointing us back to the place where we belong.

ADVANCE:

Christmas is God’s way of leading us by his grace to our eternal family.

ADVANCE:

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, we save ourselves 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.”

SLIDE: Confidence in Jesus

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 dictated by our faith, hope, and trust in him. This is a work of the Spirit of God and not something we can do on our own. This is why Jesus came to rescue us. He does the work when we submit to him.

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 that small Bethlehem town but continues on to this very day. Of all the gifts you could possibly receive or give, this gift is by far the most valuable because it can save your soul.

Conclusion

SLIDE: Today’s Call

And that is the call today. Will you join Jesus in his work in the world of rescuing all of creation? Will you trust him with your life and un-apologetically believe in him? God so loved the world that he sent Jesus in the form of a vulnerable baby to begin a powerful movement that is still active today. What began in an unassuming cradle led tragically to a Roman cross, but it ended victoriously with an empty tomb.

I want to invite you to pray this believer’s prayer with me to receive the gift of God in Christ.

SLIDE: Prayer 1

Please read the prayer on the screen with me.

PRAY:

Lord Jesus, for too long I have wandered lost in my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I ignore your invitation to join you.

SLIDE: Prayer 2

By faith, I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth.

SLIDE: Prayer 3

I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life.

SLIDE: Prayer 4

I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior.

Amen.