Jesus is the Heart of Christmas

Matthew 1:18-25 & John 3:16-17

Write Up: To fully embrace the Christmas season, we must understand that its heart 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 ends on a cross.

Think: God sent Jesus to earth, knowing that it would cost him his life. He made that sacrifice for us. His birth and life are defined by his and our future.

Feel: God sees me as worthy of the sacrifice of his son.

Do: Receive the gift of salvation by trusting in the love of God demonstrated in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Story:

One of the things I loved most about Christmas Eve was when my family came together. When I think of being home for Christmas, I think of being with my family, enjoying good food, hugs, hot chocolate, and holiday movies. (like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Die Hard) 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 Christmas experiences are very 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 life or 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 accompanied by warm feelings and happy memories. Perhaps the idea of being home for Christmas 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.

Either experience is part of the human condition. Both can teach us something about the tremendous joy of celebrating Jesus's birth and God's overwhelming love.

1. THE HEART OF GOD IS REVEALED THROUGH THE ARRIVAL OF JESUS

The fact is we want to feel like we belong—that 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. God wants us to know we were made for so much more.

It was much the same way for many when Jesus was born.

The Gospel of Matthew intends to reveal Jesus as the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s heart and desire for his creation.

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. Instead, Mary’s pregnancy was divine and would change the world forever.

Matthew reveals this God reveals his heart in all this:

a. The arrival of Jesus was to save humanity from sin.

The world makes Christmas about so many other things, but its true meaning lies squarely in God’s dealing with our greatest limiting factor. Sin is any way that we miss God's intention for the world when he created it.

All of us have been subject to sin’s destructive influence and have felt its effects within us and all around us. God’s heart of compassion moved Him to send Jesus as the way of rescue for the world.

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

The prophets identified Jesus as Immanuel, which means God with us. This was and is a revolutionary thought. Many cultures now as well as then see gods as self-centered and often destructive deities who punish and correct their subjects from afar.

But this God so loved his broken creation that he desired 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. And we need Jesus.

We desire to be loved and forgiven, set right with those we love, and God gives us that.

Jesus was sent as a savior who eliminates any barrier between us and God. A savior who welcomes us into a safe place alongside a God who loves us.

Transition: The book of John gives us a new perspective of what took place that night in Bethlehem.

John 3:16-17

John wrote it what because of God’s great love for us, he sent Jesus, but we often forget that Jesus agreed to come. God, the Father, sent Him, and Jesus came. When Jesus came, he lived with an unwavering commitment to his purpose.

2. JESUS LEFT HIS HEAVENLY HOME TO MAKE HIS HOME AMONG US & SHOW US THE WAY HOME

Jesus gave up the splendors of heaven to walk in the brokenness of earth. He did it all for one reason: to make a way for us to return home to God.

Many of us live our lives with little to no real direction, making snap decisions that put us and others in danger and keep us far from God. Christmas is God’s way of pointing us back to where we belong and, by his grace, leading us back to our eternal family.

We don’t have to live lost and alone; Jesus shows us the way. John says the key to finding our way back home is belief in Jesus. In Jesus Christ, we are given a new life that will last into eternity with Christ.

However, belief in Jesus is more than an intellectual exercise. Belief in Jesus Christ means being so persuaded and confident that our lives are transformed, and our thoughts, words, and actions become conditioned by our faith, hope, and trust in him.

This is a work of the Spirit of His Spirit within us and not something we can do alone. This is why Jesus came to rescue us.

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

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

Will you join Jesus in his work of rescuing all of creation? Will you trust him with your life and unapologetically believe in him?

God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus as a vulnerable baby to begin a powerful movement that is still active today. What began in an unassuming cattle stall led to a cross, but it ended with an empty tomb and a Risen Savior.