Preparing Our Hearts For Christmas
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What should be our attitude toward Christmas? When you wake up on Christmas morning and you gather together with family and loved ones, what should be the theme of everyone’s heart? What is the goal of celebrating Christmas?
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, Good will toward men.
What was the goal of the angles in celebrating that first Christmas?
Was not the theme of the angles on that first Christmas morn glory and joy?
My goal this morning is to prepare our hearts for Christmas so that we might leave here this morning ready to rejoice and glorify our Savior this Christmas in a manner worthy of His name!
How?
Years ago I saw a documentary on our solar system. And in that documentary, there was a scene that gave you an incredible display of the scope of our universe. The scene started out looking at a person standing on a grassy hill, and then the camera began to zoom out. It panned back to reveal that person standing in a large park, and then that large park as part of a large city, and then that city viewed high up as if you were flying over it. Suddenly, the camera zoomed out to space you and viewed the earth as a planet, and then you flew past the moon, and past the rest of the planets in our solar system, and then you flew by stars until you got to the galaxy and then you saw a magnitude of galaxies as the image expanded to the farthest reaches of known space. And you hovered there marveling at the expanse and the complexity of the universe. Then much more rapidly the camera zoomed back- back past the galaxies and past the stars and past the planets and back to the earth and that park and that person and in that person’s hand was a leaf and on that leaf was a small drop of water and suddenly the camera zoomed into the water droplet on a molecular level. And incredibly you could zoom in to that one droplet of water about as much as you could zoom out to the extremities of the universe. It gave you a sense of scope like nothing else could. You felt awed and amazed and small all at the same time.
I want to accomplish something like this with the meaning of Christmas this morning. In this way- I want us to see the entirety of the eternal scope of God’s plan for us and for this world- I want us to see the enormity of the eternal plan of God in Jesus Christ for this world, then I want to zoom in close all the way to the birth of the babe in the manger, and then I want to zoom back out to eternity future- and at the end of it all, my hope is that our hearts would respond much like the angles did in Luke 2:14- Glory to God in the highest!
What we are really examining this morning is the gospel. Most people when they think of the gospel they think of Jesus’ death, burial, and his resurrection- but the gospel is so much more.
We are going to start zoomed all the way out- and we are going to view the gospel at the farthest reaches of God’s revealed will to us. We are going to think about the ultimate goal of the gospel and how that ultimate goal of the gospel should delight our hearts and cause us to respond in worship.
I. The ultimate goal of the gospel (the eternal kingdom) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior. (I Corinthians 15:24-28)
I. The ultimate goal of the gospel (the eternal kingdom) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior. (I Corinthians 15:24-28)
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
In your mind’s eye, zoom all the way out to the end of the revealed will of God. Zoom all the way out to the final fruition of the gospel, which is the eternal kingdom of God.
Scripture says, “then cometh the end.” This is the end or the goal of the gospel- when Jesus Christ our Savior delivers up the kingdom to God. This is when those who have received Jesus and believed in His name will rule and reign with the One who sits on the throne and the Lamb for ever and ever.
3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
This is the eternal life promised to us in the good news of the gospel. And this eternal kingdom of God, where sin if finally and forever removed and we are given eternal life- this everlasting kingdom is essential to the gospel. You must have an eternal kingdom and you must have believers living for all eternity with God or you do not have a gospel. The gospel would no longer be good news. The kingdom is essential to the Gospel, and Jesus Christ our Savior is essential to the Kingdom. You don’t have an eternal kingdom without a King to rule and to conquer. And it is Jesus who will bring everything into subjection and lay everything at the feet of the Father, so that God may be all in all.
This divine plan for an eternal kingdom should cause us to delight in our Savior Jesus Christ.
And what is the last enemy that Jesus will destroy? Death- death itself will be vanquished finally at the end.
Now, let’s begin to zoom back toward that first Christmas morn.
In order to vanquish death for all who believe, first we need One who has the power to overcome even death itself. We need one who has such power and such life in Himself, that not even death can conquer Him. We need One to personally overcome death, so that by virtue of being connected to His life we too have life. What event in the history of the gospel do we see our Savior personally defeating death? Answer: The resurrection.
II. The ultimate hope of the gospel (the resurrection) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (I Corinthians 15:20-22)
II. The ultimate hope of the gospel (the resurrection) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (I Corinthians 15:20-22)
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
OK, in your mind’s eye I want you to pan away from the eternal kingdom of God, down through the corridors of time, and I want you to land at Easter Sunday. I want you to picture the triumphant morn when Jesus split open the tomb, came back from the dead, and conquered death itself.
V. 20- But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
Christ is the firstfruits of those who will rise from the dead. He rose first, and because He rose, we have ultimate hope that we too one day will rise from the dead.
Now, wait a minute- doesn’t Scripture talk about other people who were resurrected from the dead? And didn’t those other people rise before Jesus? How is it that Jesus is called the firstfruits if He wasn’t the first one chronologically to raise from the dead? Who else in Scripture was resurrected from the dead? Lazarus
Jesus was the first one to be raised with a resurrection body, with a glorified body, with an imperishable body, with an eternal body. No one else has been given that kind of body yet. But Jesus is the firstfruits. That means we have a hope that we will be given a glorious body like unto Jesus’ glorious body.
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
That is our hope. And our hope is fully founded in Jesus Christ our Savior.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The resurrection is essential to the gospel. If Jesus had not been resurrected from dead to give us hope of resurrected bodies there would be no gospel.
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
But in Jesus Christ our Savior, we have the hope of the gospel, the resurrection of our bodies, and because of that hope we ought to delight in Jesus!
So we started zoom way out at the reaches of eternity future where Jesus finally destroys death and established the kingdom of God.
Then we zoom along the corridors of time to the moment where Jesus defeated death at the resurrection and gave us hope of resurrected bodies.
Now in the eternal plan of the gospel, death cannot be destroyed and death cannot be defeated unless first, sin is dealt with. So, now I want us to zoom in to the moment in time when Jesus Christ overcame the curse of sin for us.
III. The ultimate power of the gospel (the crucifixion) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (Romans 5:6-9)
III. The ultimate power of the gospel (the crucifixion) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (Romans 5:6-9)
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for us- He died for our sins. No one else could have died for our sins. If anyone else had tried to die for our sins it would have been insufficient. V. 9 could not be in the Bible if Jesus had not died for our sins. Paul says in v. 9, that through His blood we are now being justified. Our justification is only possible because of Jesus died for us, because Jesus shed His blood for our sins. Our righteous God can only justify us, that is God can only legally declare us perfectly holy and just, fully free of sin- only because of Jesus’ blood.
We needed Jesus to shed his blood for us- that is for our sins. And because Jesus had to shed His blood for our sins, what does that imply about us?
It implies that we are all sinners, that we are all ungodly.
And it implies that we as sinners we are too weak to take care of our own sins- we are yet without strength, Scripture says.
It implies that the immense gravity of our sin. When we sin against a holy God the consequences are dire. They are so much so, that the only way for God to deal with our sins and justify us in His sight was by sending Jesus Christ to give His life for our sins. If our sins were no big deal, then Christ wouldn’t have had to die. We cannot pay for our own sins- God had to do that for us.
Christ became our sin bearer.
What does that imply about Christ? If Christ was the only one who could bear our sins, then what does a qualified sin bearer look like? I cannot bear my own sins, you cannot bear my sins, I cannot bear your sins.
Only Jesus can bear our sins, because only Jesus is qualified to do so. Why? Let me give you three reasons:
Reason #1- It takes a sinless person to bear our sins.
Reason #1- It takes a sinless person to bear our sins.
You and I already have sins of our own to pay for, therefore we cannot bear each other’s sin.
Question: Are there other sinless beings in the universe? Is Gabriel a sinless being? Are there other angels that are sinless beings? Yes- Jesus is not the only sinless being in the universe. OK, so could an angel have died for our sins? The answer is NO- only Jesus can die for OUR sins. Why?
Reason #2- It takes a human being to pay for the sins of other humans.
Reason #2- It takes a human being to pay for the sins of other humans.
An angel cannot die for humans because an angel is not human. Only another human can pay for human sin.
14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Why? Because Jesus had to be a partaker of flesh and blood, so that He could pay for our sins.
Well, I’m a human being so can I pay for the sins of other humans? No, I cannot- we have already established that- it not only takes a human, it takes a sinless human to pay for the offenses of other humans. Why?
How great is the offense of our sins toward God? The answer is- it is infinitely great because it is an infinite offense, because God is infinite.
Reason #3- The gravity of sin is determined by the value of the person unto which the offense of sin is performed.
Reason #3- The gravity of sin is determined by the value of the person unto which the offense of sin is performed.
Illustration:
I am looking forward to summer already. I am looking forward to the warmth and the longer days and the green grass and tress. One thing I never look forward to are the bugs. Inevitably, one summer evening I will get swarmed by mosquitoes. And when a mosquito lands on my arm and begins to bit what will be my immediate response? Smack. The bug is causing me pain- so I end the life of the bug. Is that wrong?
What if I go over to Matthew’s house and I open the front door and Shilo his dog comes to greet me. Now, Shilo is a great dog, but for the sake of illustration let’s say that she comes up to me and for whatever reason she bites my leg. She is causing me a considerable amount of discomfort. Can I do the same thing I did to the mosquito to the dog? Why not? The value of the life of the dog is greater than the value of the life of the bug.
Now it is the middle of the night, and my youngest son Timothy is crying and screaming and throwing a fit, and he will not settle down for anything. He is keeping me awake, he is causing me pain. What would you think of me as a person if I even entertained the idea of doing to my youngest son what I did to the bug? To even hint at such an act is monstrous. Why? Because the value of the life of my son is far greater than the life of the bug or the dog.
Is the value of the God’s life greater than the value of the life of human beings? The answer is yes. How much greater? The answer is infinitely greater.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.
Who did David sin against in this context? Bathsheba, Uriah, Joab, Israel the nation. Yet, unto Whom does Dave beg for forgiveness? Why? Why does He say, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned”? Didn’t David also sin against other people? So why does He only have God in view in Psalm 51:4?
The answer is that the wrong that David commited against God was infinitely greater than the wrong he commited against mere people.
Every time we sin we sin against an infinite God it requires an infinite punishment. That is why I cannot pay for your sins. I have sins of my own and it would take me an eternity to pay for my own sins, let alone yours. That is why there exists an eternal lake of fire. Because, those people that reject God’s gift of salvation have to pay for their own sins for an eternity because they have offended an infinite God.
And this is why Jesus is the only one qualified to pay for my sins. It takes an infinite person to pay for the offenses commited against an infinite God. If Jesus was finite we would have to wait for an eternity while He paid for our sins. But, because Jesus is an infinite sinless human, he could take all of the infinite offenses of all of the humans of all time and instantly pay for our sins through His blood.
The ultimate power of the gospel (the crucifixion) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior.
So God’s glorious plan of the gospel involves an eternal kingdom where we experience every lasting life, in order to do that Jesus had to destroy death, in order to do that Jesus had to personally defeat death in the resurrection, in order to defeat death Jesus had to deal with sin, and in order to do that Jesus had to die for our sins.
And he was the only one qualified to do it. Why?
Because Jesus is the a sinless infinite person. How many sinless infinite persons are there? Trick question. I didn’t ask how many infinite sinless beings there are, I asked how many infinite sinless persons there are. There is only one sinless infinite being- that is God. But God is also three sinless infinite persons- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the infinite plan of God, it was the second person of the Godhead that was chosen to bear our sins. Jesus is the only one qualified to bear our sins because He is the infinite holy God. This is essential to the gospel. Jesus must be God or we do not have a gospel.
But Jesus must also be man. Only a human being can pay for the sins of other humans. So Jesus had to be not only God, He also had to be man. Jesus must be both God and man. If Jesus never took on human flesh we do not have a gospel.
So one more time we zoom in closer to God’s eternal plan. I want us to zoom to the moment when Jesus became human in order to fulfill the eternal plan of God.
IV. The ultimate wonder of the gospel (the incarnation) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (Luke 2:6-14)
IV. The ultimate wonder of the gospel (the incarnation) should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior (Luke 2:6-14)
6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
This is the Scriptural account of the Incarnation. The word, “incarnation” literally means “in-fleshed.” And it is talking about the moment when Jesus Christ took on Himself human flesh and became the God Man. How do you get a God Man?
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
The only way you get a God Man is if the Holy Spirit somehow miraculously conceives in Mary, who is a virgin, a child. The only way you get a God Man is through the virgin birth of Jesus. If you don’t have a virgin birth you do not have an infinite sinless person who is also human. If you don’t have a God Man you don’t have a gospel. So, the virgin birth is essential to the gospel. Without Christmas we don’t have a gospel. Without Christmas we don’t have a God Man, without a God Man we do not have a qualified sin bearer, without a qualified sin bearer we do not have someone who can personally conquer death, then we do not have one who can destroy death, then we do not have an eternal kingdom of God were we live forever with God.
So Christmas becomes the exact moment in human history where God enters into human history and puts his eternal plan of redemption in motion that was formed before the foundation of the earth. This moment had been foretold throughout the Old Testament. But on that night long ago when the little babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger- God set in motion his plan of redemption that would sweep all the way into eternity.
So we have zoomed all the way from eternity future back to the moment of the incarnation. Now, I want to in a rapid succession zoom all the way back out to eternity future.
And there is perhaps no better text than Philippians 2
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
The plan of God from eternity past- Zoom forward
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
The moment of the incarnation- Zoom forward
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
The moment of the crucifixion / and implied the resurrection- Zoom forward
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Zoom all the way out to the eternal kingdom of God.
This morning I wanted us to see the entirety of the eternal scope of God’s plan for us and for this world.
In this way:
The ultimate wonder of the gospel- the incarnation- leads to:
The ultimate power of the gospel- the crucifixion- leads to:
The ultimate hope of the gospel- the resurrection- leads to:
The ultimate goal of the gospel- the eternal kingdom
And seeing the entirety of the scope of the gospel- all of it should cause us to delight in Jesus Christ our Savior.
Which hopefully has prepared all of our hearts for this coming Christmas morning. When we wake and gather as a family for Christmas- what should be the theme or the goal of everyone’s heart?
13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Or we could zoom all the way to the end of God’s plan:
12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
This Christmas may your hearts be filled with wonder, and joy, and adoration, and glory, and worship for Jesus.
May your hearts be filled with wonder and joy when we celebrate not just the birth of Jesus, but the entirety of the scope of the gospel!