Christmas in June
Christmas in June
Ephesians 2:1-9
June 17, 2007
For a lot of people, Christmas is their favorite time of year. Is it for you? Why? Tell me why it’s your favorite time of year!
I know that, for me, Christmas is my favorite tie of year. Nothing else is remotely close. Why is that, you may ask? Obviously, it’s a time to get together with family and friends to celebrate, but it’s much more than that. It’s not the celebrating that’s important, but who it is that we’re celebrating. We celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and need to take time to reflect on all of the implications of His birth. It is an awesome time! It’s sobering to realize that the whole meaning of my life is wrapped up in this baby born on Christmas Day.
Our passage of Scripture this morning reminds me of Christmas. It may not be immediately evident what it has to do with Christmas, but bear with me as I explain. This Scripture is one of many “before and after” biblical passages – what you were before and what you are now. Let’s look at it now. Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 2. I’ll begin reading in verse 1: ”And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
In my last two messages I’ve tried to be obedient to Scripture; to warn you that without God there is no hope.
Without God you are separated from Christ, alienated from God, and strangers to the promises of God; there is no hope without God.
Remember that! Don't ever forget it. Once we forget our need for a Savior, we will not cherish him. If the motto of university faculties is "Publish or Perish," never forget that the motto of the Christian church is "Cherish or Perish." We are not been playing games with optional matters. This is essential.
If I do not cherish Jesus as my Savior, I do not have him as a Savior. He loved me enough to die for me. He deserves my love. Let’s look at a few “love passage, passages which tell us what our Savior has done for us: You’ll find these verse on your insert. Lat’s start with the first one:
Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” He loes us and has only our good in mind. If we love Him we are recipients of His favor.
1 Corinthians 2:9 says, "THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM." What has God prepare for those who love Him? Ephesians 1:3 says it all:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
2 Timothy 4:8 tells us of another blessing which is ours in Christ: “there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. " We are promised rewards once we get to heaven, but while we are still here, His grace is sufficient, isn’t it? 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."
Paul says in Ephesians 6:25: "Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. "
If we do not cherish him as a Savior, we do not have him as a Savior. And if we do not know and feel our need for a Savior, we will not cherish him. He loves us, His people and deserves our love in return.
Now, we’re going to look at why we need a Savior
Paul longs for us to cherish Jesus Christ, and I long for you to cherish Jesus Christ today (and some of you for the first time!). Current surveys of Evangelical churches reveal that, on average, 35% of the people attending on any given Sunday are unsaved. I have no reason to believe that we are any different. That’s a shocking statistic! The greatest desire of my heart is that I can look out across this room one Sunday morning secure in the knowledge that everyone I see is a born-again believer. That would be the best Christmas gift this church could give me So, the question you need to ask yourself is this: Have I been born again? Ask yourself, do I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life? Am I growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior? Do I have a hunger for God’s Word? Do I desire to spend time with God in His Word and in prayer? Will I pass up other events in order to be here in God’s house with God’s family? Is there anything more important than my relationship with Jesus Christ? Anything at all? Jesus Christ is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all! What’s your answer? Do you know whether or not you’re saved? If you don’t know, please come and see me after the service or get hold of me during the coming week. This is the most important issue you will ever face, so don’t gloss over it. I don’t want to belabor the point, but each of us must make a decision now. Now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 puts it this way: “ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU." Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION" By not consciously making a decision, you already have made one. So, I’ll leave it at this. I look forward to fellowship with each one of you in heaven for all eternity – I hope you don’t disappoint me!
Because of Paul’s longing for us to cherish Jesus, Paul wrote three things in Ephesians 2:1–3 about our need for a Savior. Let’s check them out now: Verse 1, we need a Savior because of our corruption in sin. Verse 2, we need a Savior because of our captivity to Satan. Verse 3, we need a Savior because of our condemnation to hell. We are dead in sin, captive to an alien power, children of wrath without God.
Imagine yourself in any crisis in the world—captive in a high school classroom, streaking to earth in a crashing jet, frozen ten hours in a bank of snow - whatever crisis you could imagine, I tell you on the authority of God's Word your condition right now in this room and at this moment is more critical and more urgent and more threatening without a Savior than any crisis you can imagine.
No one in the world is going to tell you this. Only God and his messengers care enough about you to warn you to flee from the wrath to come. And, as one of those messengers, I have warned you. And now may God give every one of us the grace to cherish what comes next.
The Good News!
Let’s look again at verses 4–7:
” But God (I love that phrase, But God, it is God’s Christmas present to me and you. But God), being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. .”
Did you hear that?
We were dead in sin, BUT GOD made us alive.
Brothers and sisters, this is good news! Do you believe it? Does it sound impossible?
Nothing Is Impossible for God
Isn't one of the greatest truths of Scripture the word of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:34?
"Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" "
"How can I have a baby? I have no husband. I'm a virgin." That's right Mary, it’s impossible, you can't. But now learn the most important lesson in the universe. A virgin can't produce a baby. BUT GOD can! Look at Luke 1:37: "For nothing will be impossible with God."
O that men would reckon with God when their plight is impossible! You say, I am dead. No hope. No hope. You say, I am captive. No hope. No hope. You say I am hell-bent and doomed. No hope for me. No hope. Well, read on! BUT GOD! BUT GOD! Yes, dead. Yes, captive. Yes, doomed. BUT GOD!
Reckon with God and His Promises in the Word
Consider now what the Word of God says concerning those who trust in him. Look at the chart at the bottom of your bulletin insert.
We will put verse 3 over against verse 7—we were children of wrath, but God promises endless kindness.
We will put verse 2 over against verse 6—we were enslaved to the spirit of this age, BUT GOD freed us to sit with Christ in heaven.
And we will put verses 1 over against verse 5 —we were dead in sins, BUT GOD made us alive with Christ.
1. Kindness in the Place of Wrath
First, Let’s look at each item on that chart more closely.
In verse 3 at the end it says that we “were by nature children of wrath". By nature we were so rebellious against the law of God that we were suitable objects of God's wrath.
Jesus' Merciful Warnings of Hell
Every Christmas when I sit contemplating the Christmas story, I cannot help but think of hell. It isn't fire and brimstone preachers who put these images in my mind. It is Jesus Christ Himself!
He's the one who warned the church most vividly to cut off your sinning hand rather than go with two hands to hell (Matthew 5:30). He is the one who said that all evildoers will be thrown into a furnace of fire (Matthew 13:42); that the goats on his left hand will go into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:32-33,46); that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). Check it out. I’m not making this up to scare you. Jesus said it! It is writte, therefore I believe it! Again and again he warned that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). And these are not the hostile harpings of a passionate preacher. They are all evidences of God’s mercy
God's Merciful Promise
But now, in typical biblical fashion, after the merciful warning in verse 3 comes the merciful promise in verse 7. For those who trust Christ, God commits himself to the following promise. Look at verse 7 on the chart again:
“. . . so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. “
Notice how Paul piles up words to make a deep and lasting impression on our hearts. God's settled promise is to be gracious to those who are in Christ Jesus. And lest we miss the sweetness and gentleness and gladness of the word "grace," he adds the words, "in kindness toward us." Now ask yourself this question: If there were one person in all the universe the benefits of whose kindness you could choose, who would it be? Would it not be God? What better Christmas gift than the gift the Bible describes as “the unspeakable or indescribable gift” in 2 Corinthians 9:15. You might be able to think of a thousand things that would be kind gifts to you. But then your imagination would run out. But God's imagination will never run out. Who else but God could conceive a gift like CHRIST? What an amazing gift!
Help for Faltering Imaginations
And to further make God’s promise clear Paul uses the word "riches." God's promise is to spend the "riches of his grace in kindness on us." And then to assist our faltering imagination he adds the word "immeasurable" or "surpassing" or "incomparable." How rich is God? I read somewhere recently that Queen Elizabeth is worth about four billion dollars. Now if you got a letter in the mail from Queen Elizabeth which said that she had taken an oath by the blood of her son to spend her riches to show you as much kindness as she could for the rest of your life, wouldn't you get excited? And her wealth compares to God's like a grain of sand to the Sahara Desert.
But that's not all. She could only show you kindness for a few years—ten, thirty, sixty maybe. How long is God prepared to show kindness to you? But look what Paul says God intends. "That in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." How long is an age? And how many ages are coming? Well, the answer is simple: all of them that lie in the future are coming. So it doesn't matter how long one of them is.
Do you know why Paul had to say it this way? Because that's how long it will take God to run out of fresh ideas about how to show you kindness. When eternity ends, God will have run out of ways to show you kindness. Now tell me, when does eternity end?
The Meaning of Christmas
Let’s go back to my Christmas musings. I told you I think of hell at Christmastime, didn’t I Why? What is the true significance of Christmas? Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who would value the riches of his kindness forever. Are you one of those? How can you not be one of those, when you compare the wealth of God with the wealth of Queen Elizabeth?
We were by nature children of wrath, BUT GOD has promised us eternal kindness instead.
Now let’s move to the next two verses on our chart. According to verse 2 we all once followed the course of this world. We were in step with the times, in tune with the world, at home with the spirit of the age. The reason for this is that Satan is at work; he is a supernatural reality called the prince of the power of the air, and he has easy access to the hearts of the disobedient. And so he easily keeps their behavior in his approved channels—sometimes moral, sometimes immoral, but always self-centered. Satan blinds minds to the glory of Christ and so protects his captives from the rescue operations of the church.
That condition is hopeless for us to change —just as hopeless as a virgin trying to give birth to God. What hope is there? BUT GOD (look at verse 6) "raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places."
Now what does that mean? We are all right here in this room, aren't we? Is this heaven? Are we sitting with Christ right here in the heavenly places ? Are we? What did Tony Bennett mean years ago when he sang, "I left my heart in San Francisco"? Well, he meant that San Francisco still holds his affections. San Francisco is always pulling him back. San Francisco governs his tastes. He may look like he is in Chicago. But Chicago has no claim on his affections. It's a foreign land. He is not interested in being like the natives of the windy city.
That is the way it is with us when we become God’s children. God takes our heart and puts it in heaven with Christ. Colossians 3:3 says, "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." So just like it is with Tony Bennett and San Francisco, so it is with us and heaven. It's heaven that holds our affections. It's heaven that's always pulling us upwards; it's heaven that governs our tastes. We may look like we are in the world. But the world has no claim on our affections. It's a foreign land. We are exiles and aliens.
In a word, when you are converted, God frees you from the spirit of the age and the god of the age mentioned in verse 2. It's as though you had been kidnapped and brainwashed and made to think you were really a citizen of the enemy’s territory. And then the king's intelligence finds you and shocks you out of your stupor, and you suddenly realize that what the enemy has to offer would never satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. Your heart is back in the homeland. But then the king says stay for now in enemy territory, and, though it may be dangerous, live like an alien in this world. Be in love with the homeland – heaven , and when you finally come home, bring as many with you as you can.
Don't you really want to be FREE from the spirit of this age? You are free! You are in the world but not of the world. Although you are a captive to your physical body, remember it is a temporary residence. Your permanent residence is at the right hand of God as co-heir with Christ.
The Meaning of Christmas
Let’s go back to my thoughts at Christmas, as they should be your thoughts too. This is the true meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who are free from the prince of this world and the spirit of the age.
Once we were captive to an enemy, BUT GOD rescued our hearts and put them in heaven and made us free from Satan's tyranny.
Now look at the next two verses on your chart – verses 1 and 5.
According to verse 1 I was dead in my trespasses and sins. That is, I was spiritually impotent. The corruption of sin was so deep that I had no spiritual inclinations at all. I may have been an open tombs of immorality, or I may have been a whitewashed tomb of religiosity. But there was no spiritual good within me.
BUT GOD, when he walked by my open grave, instead of turning away from the stench, said to his Son Jesus, "I want that Dave alive. Will you die for him?" And Jesus said yes. And that's how I got saved. And that's how you got saved—or can get saved.
And that's the meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who are spiritually alive and holy.
O that we might all reckon with God this Christmas in June! What can we do to have these riches? Verse 8 points the way, turn to it now: "By grace you have been saved THROUGH faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." Fortunately for us, we don’t have to wait for Christmas to receive God’s richest gift – we can have it right now! And we don’t have to work for it!
There is only one possible way to receive eternal life—through FAITH in Christ. "By grace are you saved through faith."
And here's what that means. It means that from here on out you will trust in your heart that the death of Christ has covered all your sins, and guaranteed all the promises of God on your behalf.
By grace are you saved through faith. So I urge you all to trust Christ. Trust him with your future—all the way to eternity.
For he is a great God of wonders! He makes the dead to live. He sets the captive free. And He will spend eternity lavishing the riches of his kindness on those who trust him
We have a few months yet before Christmas, so meditate on these thoughts over that time so that when Christmas comes you will better appreciate its true meaning. It is a very special day, but often not for the reasons we think.
Let’s pray.