Christmas: Silent Treatment

Christmas Eve: 2007

Silent Treatment

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

Dec. 21/23/24, 2007

[secs of silence]. Did you enjoy that silence? Most of us don’t. We are not comfortable with silence in general, but especially in relationships. Has anyone ever given you the silent treatment? Gotten upset or something and just went quiet on you, won’t talk. From some people, you probably don’t mind the silent treatment—like the IRS or the principal’s office. They can be silent forever and we’d be fine, but not from people we love.

A couple of times I’ve decided to give Christy, my wife, the silent treatment, because I was hurt and upset and acting like a baby—and it didn’t work. She was happy as a clam, and I had to tell her I was giving her the silent treatment. That’s no good. But if she ever does that to me, it just kills me. I can’t handle that. With people you love, silence separates. Silence hurts. Silence is uncomfortable.

Have you ever had times in your life where you feel like God is giving you the silent treatment? You can remember times in your life where God seemed so close, and you were growing spiritually and felt really tight with God. But then this period of time happens where it seems like God just isn’t there for you…like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling back to you, or God has just gone quiet.

I remember a time like that in my own Christian life when I was in college. My mentor at the time was a very godly woman named Miss Helen, and I used to meet with her every Monday night. She was in her late 70’s when I was in college, and she was the one who really taught me what it meant to have a close relationship with God. I shared with her about how it seemed like God was distant, giving me the silent treatment. I had confessed whatever sin was in my life that I knew about, and I was confused why God would seem so distant when at other times he had seemed so close. The silence had gone on too long, uncomfortably long, and I was discouraged. She listened to me, then when I was finished, this big smile took over her face. She said, “Jeff, you are growing up, that’s all.” When I asked what she meant, she said, “When a person is a baby, a parent has to be there all the time for that child to feel secure, to be cared for. When the baby cries, you respond quickly and you reassure frequently. That’s what a loving parent does. But as the child grows up, you can’t keep doing that or the child won’t grow up. Sometimes, even though it is hard, you just have to let the child cry. You have to let the child grow up. You are still there, but you don’t respond the same way. God is just letting you grow up. Silence grows you. Doesn’t mean God isn’t there any more or doesn’t care any more. And, the great news is that he won’t stay silent forever. So, when he is silent, just stay faithful. Continue to relate to him, pray, read his Word, and live out the life he has for you, and let him grow you in silence.” That reframed everything for me, and I’ve seen times like that in my life where I realize that often God’s silences are purposeful and that he indeed does not stay silent forever. Some of you may need to hear that right now. There are times where God let’s us experience his silence.

However, the really great news that we celebrate at Christmas is that ultimately God has chosen to speak, not stay silent, and do so in a very dramatic way. What we celebrate at Christmas is God’s decision to connect to us, to communicate to us, to come to us. Yet, when Jesus came, it was after a very long silence in his relationship with the people of God in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel.

Leading up to Jesus birth was a period of 400 years often called the “400 silent years,” because in that time God was completely silent. Throughout his history with his people, he communicated consistently and regularly in many ways, through prophets, sometimes directly to people, through miracles, through books of the Bible that were penned. He kept in constant contact. Sometimes his people listened and responded, most of the time they really didn’t…but he stayed in contact. When they continually refused to respond to his prophets though, he went silent. And for 400 years, there were no prophets, no books of the Bible written, no miracles, no contact…nothing. 400 years of silence. In that time also, the nation was in captivity. As we learned if you were here last week, they refused to listened to God and as a result ended up being taken over by Assyria, followed by Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. For almost 800 years leading up to the birth of Jesus they were in captivity, and 400 of those years they heard nothing from God. They had the old promises and the old prophesies, but no new contact. 400 years of silent treatment.

But God does not stay silent forever, and he did not. In fact, when he broke the silence he did so in the most dramatic of ways. He didn’t just send a prophet or pen a letter or do some miracle. He decided to come to this planet himself. That’s what Christmas is about. Hebrews 1 talks about this:

Slide: __________ ) Hebrews 1: 1-3

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. In the Old Testament days, God spoke through other people, such as the prophets. But he decided to break the 400 years of silence by doing something far bigger than that. He decided to come himself, God the Son, to connect to his creation. He came himself.

And that is far better. I remember when I was in middle school, having girlfriends and we would communicate with each other through middle men, through friends. A friend would come and tell me, “So and so likes you.” And then I’d have to respond, either that I liked her or not. So, I might say, “Tell her I like her too and ask her if she wants to “go” with me.” That’s the way we used to say it then, and if you are that age and wonder why we said it that way it is because we were stupid back then. The same thing happened if you wanted to break up. You’d send a friend to go tell her friend, and that’s just the way it worked, but there was always something lost in the translation. That’s not the best way to relate to somebody, through other people. Same with God. He decided to come and just relate himself, not through anybody.

That in itself is amazing, but how he did it is really amazing. Philippians 2 tells us about how he came:

Slide: __________ ) Philippians 2: 6-7

[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Jesus, as God, the second person of the trinity, sat in honor on the divine throne, with angels all around, in a perfect environment, revered as God. But he chose to leave all that behind, and come to this planet, and take on humanity, as a helpless little baby, born to a poor no-name family, in a borrowed, stinky stable on a pile of hay in a feed trough. That baby was God, but there was no fanfare, no trumpets, nothing. He decided to come as a regular guy, as approachable as the guy who lives next door. Think about it. God was in the body of a baby. People picked him up and made baby noises (make some). People changed his diapers, burped him. There were no exalted titles; people just called him a common name, Jesus. He was completely unassuming. Hardly anyone knew who he was, that this was the one who created them.

He broke the silence by coming himself as a little baby born to a regular family, and he grew up like regular people grow up…a regular guy. But of course, he was not just a regular guy, and he came with a purpose. He came to connect to his creation and to make a way for creation to connect to him. Between God and man was this problem called sin, and the just punishment of that sin. God wanted to save us from both sin and its punishment, and that’s why he came and broke the silence. So, Philippians 2 continues:

Slide: __________ ) Philippians 2: 8

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Jesus came to take the penalty for sin that you and I deserve, to remove the barrier of sin between us and him. He came to not only speak but to save. Around the birth of Jesus, in Matthew 1:21, we read,

Slide: __________ ) Matthew 1:21

“[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." On Jesus’ actual birthday another angel told the shepherds outside Bethlehem,

Slide: __________ ) Luke 2:11

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11).

Jesus came with a purpose, to make a way for us to connect to him by removing the barrier and guilt of our sin. He came to sacrifice his own life for us, which is what the cross was about. But God raised him from the dead, and for all who are willing, he stands ready to remove the barrier of our own sin so that we can begin a relationship with God.

That’s what Christmas is about. It is about a God who decided not to be silent, but to break the silence by coming here himself and making a way for us to have a forever relationship with him. Many of you are new in our church, and we are so glad you are here, and one thing you need to understand is that Christianity is not about a bunch of self-help principles or positive thoughts. It is so much more than that. Christianity is about a real relationship with the living God who wants to transform our lives and through us bring transformation to lives around us.

Jesus came to make a relationship with God possible, and he offers a transforming relationship with God as a gift. You and I had no way to pay for it, we couldn’t be good enough to make up for our bad, for our sin, and we don’t even have to try. Jesus died to pay the penalty that you and I deserve and to open the door to a forever relationship with God. The Bible says, “The Bible says of that gift,

Slide: __________ ) Ephesians 2:8,9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (eph 2:8-9). Like any gift, all you have to do is receive it. You can’t earn relationship with God. You can’t be good enough to deserve it yourself. You can’t be so bad that he wouldn’t offer it to you. He is holding it out right now. Perhaps this Christmas, today, you might choose to receive that gift (explain how briefly and give opportunity).

He came to break the silence. He never stays silent forever. And for those of us who know him, who know the story, he asks that we break the silence…that we let other people know how they can come to know God through Christ. Just as he lighted the darkness by his presence and broke the silence, he asks us to do the same thing.

To remind us of that, we have a tradition around here on Christmas Eve, and this year, for all of our Christmas services, to light a candle, to remind us that just as he came to light the world, he now asks us to do the same thing. Jesus said,

Slide: __________ ) John 12:46

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” He came to light a dark world, to point the way out of the dark and into a relationship with God. He later said, now I am sending you as light to this world. In Matthew 5, he tells us to let our lights shine before others that they see our good works and glorify God in heaven. In Acts, he says that we are a light to the nations, and that our job is to go and light dark places.

So, when you see candles here tonight, and when you go home and light candles tonight and tomorrow, remember that Jesus asked you to be light. He asked you and me to live missionally, to go to dark places with God’s love and truth and point the way to him. That’s why we are going to light all of our candles from the Christ candle today. Please remember when your candle gets lit, you bend the unlit one…the lit one always stays upright. That keeps wax from getting everywhere. Okay—lit one, always stays up. Unlit one is free…can move around and get lit…but then it becomes lit…now has to stay upright. Jesus came to light the way to God, let’s be faithful to show others that way and thank him that he did not stay silent forever. He did not leave us in the dark.

Candle Lighting.