Make Room: The Rescuing Love of God

Key Elements

In John 3:16-19, John communicated the true meaning of Christmas that God sent His Son Jesus to provide salvation for the world presenting all people with the choice of believing in Him as Savior and Lord and living in a relationship with God or not believing in Him and living separated from God now and in eternity.

Main Idea: Because God has poured out His perfect love by sending His Son into our dark world to rescue us, Advent invites us to make room for that love-receiving it with open hearts and reflecting it through surrendered lives.

I want my audience to intentionally make room in their lives this Christmas season for the rescuing love of God by reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas that Jesus was born to be the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we could in turn love others.

Intro

Every year at this time, something mysterious happens in many homes across America. The moment Thanksgiving is over and Christmas officially begins, the Hallmark Channel becomes the most-watched network in the house. Husbands disappear or, if some of us would be honest, we’re right there as well. Wives gather blankets and mugs of hot chocolate. And suddenly everyone is emotionally invested in whether a big-city executive will fall in love with a small-town baker who owns a struggling Christmas themed cupcake shop. And let’s be honest, every Hallmark Christmas movie is the same. We think they’re different, but they’re really not. The story always goes something like this: A woman from the city returns to her charming hometown-usually named something like “Mistletoe Falls” or “Snowflake Junction.” She’s engaged to a guy who hates Christmas for some unknown reason. And within 48 hours she meets a flannel-wearing man who chops his own firewood, rescues puppies, runs a Christmas tree farm, and apparently has never heard of Amazon. At first, she can’t stand him. But somehow, by the end of the week, they’re decorating cookies together, saving the town Christmas festival, drinking hot chocolate, and falling deeply in love-all before the snow falls on cue during the final scene as they kiss. And that’s the storyline of every Hallmark Christmas movie-they always find love. And we watch them religiously this time of year even though we know how they are going to end because there’s something in us that wants that kind of story. When it comes to love, we want a love that pursues, we want a love that lasts, we want a love that shows up just at the right time.

But the truth is life doesn’t always follow that predictable storyline. Our relationships don’t resolve in two hours. Our hearts don’t heal just in time for the credits to roll. And most things in life can’t be fixed over a mug of hot chocolate. You see, when we think about love we usually tie it to how we feel. Love for us is a warm, fuzzy feeling that we tie to specific people in our lives. It’s sentimental and emotional. And the danger of that feeling of love is that it can ebb and flow. But the love we are focusing in on today on this fourth Sunday of Advent is different. It’s not a love that is sentimental or seasonal, but it’s a love that is sacrificial and eternal. It’s a love that comes directly from the heart of God. And it’s a love that is perfectly expressed in our text today found in John 3:16-19. For it’s here that we see God’s love for us on full display. It’s God who refuses to leave us in the dark. It’s God who steps toward us because He loves us. It’s God who comes near to us in the sending of His Son Jesus Christ.

And this morning, this Sunday before Christmas, as we conclude our sermon series entitled Make Room, this love of God for us is what we want to focus on. For it’s here in John 3:16-19, verses we’ve probably heard a thousand times, that we see what love truly is. And today, I want us to hear these familiar verses with fresh ears as we let them reshape how we prepare our hearts for Christmas.

John 3:16-19....

So, on this fourth Sunday of Advent as we focus in on God’s love for us, here’s what I want us to see: Because God has poured out His perfect love by sending His Son into our dark world to rescue us, Advent invites us to make room for that love-receiving it with open hearts and reflecting it through surrendered lives.

Message

Now, our text today in John 3 falls in the context of a conversation that Jesus is having with a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he was a Jewish religious leader but there was something different about him. He’s curious about Jesus. And in his curiosity, he comes to Jesus at night, it says, and he begins to ask Him some questions. And these questions, one by one, lead he and Jesus deeper and deeper into spiritual truths about how a person is saved, “born again,” as he puts it. And it all leads to our text today where Jesus lays out for Nicodemus exactly why He has come, the whole purpose of Him being born, being sent by God to earth. And it’s in these four verses, that Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that night and He reveals to us today what Christmas is, why Christmas happened, and how Christmas changes everything for us. You see, Christmas can be summed up in one phrase-God loves us. God loves us. It’s three simple words, but it is packed with so much life changing meaning. And when we come face to face with this rescuing love, it brings on a whole new meaning for Christmas as well.

God loves us, and in that love for us, we see that...

1. God came to us. (vs. 16)

John, in his gospel, begins with God. God is the initiator. He is the One who moved towards us. In all of our rebellion and brokenness, God in His love for us came to us. And think about the world that Jesus was born into. The Roman Empire ruled with an iron fist. Violence for them was entertainment. The religious leadership in Jerusalem had turned their faith into a way to profit off of the people and to oppress them with the burden of impossible rules they had to keep. The poor in society were being crushed and the marginalized were being forgotten. Suffering was everywhere. And it’s into that world that God sent His Son Jesus. It’s into that darkness that John tells us the Light of the World, the Son of God was born for us. And why? Because He loves us.

You know, it’s interesting what the words I Love You can do to us. The first time someone you’re dating says those words, your heart wants to explode. You’re so excited. But those words being said are not the only way we know someone loves us. Because, we can tell someone we love them multiple times a day; but it’s when we show them we love them by doing something for them, that that love is solidified.

John says in vs. 16, “For God so loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son,...” God demonstrated His love for us by sacrificing the life of His only Son on the cross. And this is the love we celebrate at Advent. We lit this candle today to remember the rescuing love of God for us that happened on that first Christmas. A love that came looking for us, that pursues us, that invades the darkness of our world. It’s God saying, “I love you so much that I gave my only Son to rescue you.” And it’s not conditional on our performance, it’s not waiting for us to do better; it’s a love that came looking for us while we were still in the darkness and struggle of our sin. Everything in history had been leading to this one moment. And on that first Christmas, that first Advent, God stepped into humanity and the salvation of the world was initiated by the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.

And this Christmas, God calls you and I to make room in our hearts and lives for this love that He has shown us by sending His Son Jesus for us. And to realize that we are deeply and unconditionally loved by God. Christmas is God saying to the world and to you and I individually “I see you in your brokenness, I see you in your longing for something better, I see you in your sin and I’m coming to you.” It’s pursuing love. When we could not do anything to get to God, because of His love for us, He came to us.

At Easter, we celebrate the cross, we celebrate the empty tomb. At Christmas we celebrate the cradle, we celebrate the manger. But the truth is this, without the cradle, without the manger of Christmas, there’s no cross and there’s no empty tomb. Jesus, the child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger, symbolizing at lamb who was preserved for sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem, was the Lamb of God who would one day go to the cross to take away the sins of the world. And because of Christmas, God sending His Son Jesus for us, salvation is possible for you and for me. Forgiveness is possible for you and for me. And eternal life in heaven with God is our hope and our future if we place our faith and trust in Him as Savior and Lord.

God came to us. And...

2. God came for us. (vs. 16-17)

“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.” John 3:16.

And this is the Why. He came for our salvation not our condemnation. Because God desires a relationship with all of us. That’s why He created us. That’s why He takes the first step by sending His Son Jesus for us because He wants a relationship with us now and He wants a relationship with us forever. It’s true life like we’ve never known. It’s living with a purpose of pointing others to that same kind of life. It’s God walking with us and transforming us day by day.

You see, in this life God has chosen to love us by sending His son Jesus for us, but we must choose to love Him in return. Because that’s the difference between life and death, between salvation and condemnation, it’s placing our faith and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. So many of us have this concept of God as this condemning judge. This being who is just waiting for us to mess up so that He can pronounce judgment on us and bring condemnation on us. But that’s not what scripture says. Why did God send His son that first Christmas? John tells us in vs. 17,...

The Jewish people were looking for a Messiah who would be a King, a military leader, who would come and condemn the Romans and set His people free from the oppression they were under. But that’s not why Jesus came. He did not come to condemn because the reality is we were condemned already. We can go back and read in the Book of Genesis, from the very moment that Adam and Eve sinned, the moment they thought they knew better than God, the result was condemnation. Sin came into the world and every human being from then until now has been infected by sin.

Pastor Matt Carter puts it this way, “The moment sin entered the world through the choices of Adam and Eve, from that point forward, human history is a series of funerals.”

And no amount of ingenuity or effort would ever bring salvation and forgiveness of sin. From that moment, we all have been drowning in a sea of sin and darkness and we needed someone to rescue us. Enter Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, at Christmas. And although we deserved condemnation because of our sin, because the love of God for us is greater, God sent His Son not to condemn us but to save us. And making room in our hearts for this love of God means we have to make a choice. We have to choose to surrender and we have to choose to trust Him with our lives. And it’s all based on believing in Jesus. You see, the difference between life and death for all of us is believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. That child who was born in Bethlehem, who would live a perfect life, who would eventually give His life for all the world on the cross, but on the third day would be raised from the dead, this child has the power to transform your life. But it takes you and I yielding our allegiance to Him and placing our trust in Him as our only hope for salvation from sin and death.

And making room for the love of God in our lives means opening our hearts to Jesus in honest and humble trust.

God came to us, God came for us, and...

3. God came to heal us. (vs. 18-19)

And this is the result. This is how Christmas changes everything for us. As we open our hearts to Jesus in honest and humble trust, here’s what happens…(vs. 19)

When Jesus, the Light of the World, comes into our lives, He exposes things. He illuminates the dark corners we think we’ve been hiding. And as human beings, that’s not something we are drawn to. Because we think if God sees all of us, how could He love us. But the truth is He sees all of us anyway. He knows our hearts and He knows our deeds. Here’s what we have to remember: As we draw near to God, His exposure of us is not to condemn us but to heal us.

It’s just like a doctor when we go for a checkup. When a doctor examines us they take a light and the look in our ears and down our throats and they examine our skin. They’re not doing it to shame us, they are doing it to diagnose us and offer something that will heal us.

Jesus, the Light of the World, exposes the darkness in us, He reveals our brokenness, not for the purpose of condemning us but for the purpose of rescuing us. And that’s ultimately what we celebrate at Christmas; and that realization is how Christmas changes everything for us. We love Christmas for the lights and the trees and the gifts and all the fun seasonal things it brings. But beyond all of that, Christmas is about the Light of the World entering our darkness and bringing us a rescuing love that comes straight from the heart of God to us.

Closing

And what an incredible reason for us to celebrate Christmas. What an incredible reason for us to slow down and worship Jesus. It’s everything these candles represent that we have been lighting during these weeks of Advent, these Sundays leading up to Christmas. It’s Jesus, the Light of the World, coming to us. And that’s who this center candle represents. It’s Jesus, who gives us hope and peace and joy and has shown us rescuing love. And one day, He will return for us who have believed in Him as Savior and Lord.

God loves us-He came to us, He came for us, and He came to heal us. Will we make room in our hearts and lives for the rescuing love of God?

Today, we want conclude our time together, by giving all of us an opportunity to respond to the rescuing love of God for us. With heads bowed and eyes closed, if you’ve never surrendered your heart and life to Jesus as Savior and Lord, then today is your opportunity to take that step. Right where you are sitting, just call out to God and tell Him that you realize you need Him today to save you and forgive you. That you turn from the way you’re living and you turn to Him believing in Jesus as the Son of God. And that you want to live the rest of your life following Him. Then tell Him thank you for saving me. (At the end of our time together this morning, the staff and myself and our prayer team will be out in the Commons and if you made a decision to follow Jesus for the very first time, please come share that with us so that we can pray for you and celebrate with you.)

Jesus is the Light of the World who has entered our darkness. I would ask the staff to come forward this morning and our deacons as well. In the center of the Advent wreath is the Christ candle. It represents what we’ve been talking about today that Jesus has come to rescue us. And as we light our candles this morning and you light the candle of the person next to you, we celebrate God’s love for us and we lift high the name of Jesus celebrating Him coming for us at Christmas. Lets worship together this morning.