Christmas Service 2019

Good Morning…Welcome to New Hope…Merry Christmas

My name is Shane and it’s a privilege to be one of the pastors here at the church. We’re so glad you’ve chosen to be with us this morning. We believe it’s a great day to be in church. We believe everyone needs to be connected to a local church. We believe it’s God’s plan for us, and for a world that needs to hear the message of Hope found in a relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ.

Today is week #4 of our Advent series. Advent means “Arrival” or “Coming”, and so we celebrate Advent as the time of preparation leading up to Christmas. So we talk about words that describe the Christmas season - such as PEACE, JOY, HOPE, and this morning our talk is about LOVE.

So this morning I’d love for you to turn to the New Testament book of John. So the Bible is split up into 2 parts - Old Testament & New Testament. The first 4 books in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, are called the Gospels. They are simply accounts of the life of Jesus - seen through the perspectives of Matt, Mark, Luke, & John.

As you are getting to the book of John, chapter three, let me give a little context to what’s going on.

According to John’s account...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone

The Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and fathfulness

The Word was God in flesh…Immanuel…His name was Jesus

In John’s account, there’s a pretty good gap between the time of Jesus’ birth and when he began his earthly ministry - somewhere around the age of 30

It begins with Jesus finding some disciples willing to follow him - Andrew, Simon (Jesus called Peter), Philip, & Nathanael

The next day there’s a wedding celebration attended by Jesus, his momma, and the disciples. The wine ran out and for the very first time Jesus’ power is on display. He had some servants fill 6 jars with water. He told them to dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies. Turns out that Jesus miraculously converted the water into wine.

As it became closer to the time for the Passover celebration, Jesus made his way to Jerusalem. And what he found in the temple angered him. There were crooked people taking advantages of those who had come for the celebrations and needed to purchase an animal for the necessary sacrifice. He tuned over the tables and drove everyone out of the temple.

He was noticed by a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus made his way one evening to find Jesus and have a conversation with him. Nicodemus realized that there was something different about Jesus. His miraculous signs were enough evidence for him to know God was with Jesus.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again (anew), you cannot see the Kingdom of God. Logically, Nicodemus responds and says, “I’m an old man. How can I go back into my mother’s womb & be born again?”

Jesus says, “Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. The wind blows where it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

And it’s shortly after these words, this dialogue with the Jewish leader, that the most quoted verse in all of the Bible is spoken by Jesus. It’s so famous that you see people holding signs of it in the stands at ball games...

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

16“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

“[For this is how God loved] the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Worldly love gets

17God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.Worldly love gets

For this is HOW...

Often times we can look at the Bible as simply a repository of information. We can say to ourselves, “Huh…that sounds interesting. In fact, that’s amazing.” But we can be challenged with the realization that it all sounds good on paper; looks good on a screen saver, is flashy on a bumpersticker, but HOW in the world can you see it play out in your life? Words like PEACE, JOY, & HOPE. We can read about them in the Bible, but how do we experience them? How do we realize them in our lives? How do they become a reality for us and our families?

The cool thing about this verse is that it tells us. It explains the HOW. “For this is HOW...”

God LOVED...

These are two of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible. It not only defines who God is, but also describes what God does. God not only LOVED (past tense), but He continues to love. In fact, He never stops loving you and me. He has loved you since before the foundation of world. He is a God of LOVE and it is unconditional.

the WORLD...

The Greek word here is cosmos / universe. God is creator and sustainer of all things, and therefore He loves all things that He created. In the creation account in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, as God was creating all things, we find at the end of each day that God saw what He created as “good”.

Now we’re going to get more specific and relevant here very quickly, but it’s important to understand that God loves the WORLD and everything in it. And He loves it so much that He did the thing that every other person thinks to do when they love someone or something...

He GAVE...

God does something incredible here. He loves…therefore He gives. The result of his tremendous act of love is to give. God is an incredibly generous God.

This answers the HOW question at the beginning. He loved! How did He show His love? How was His love manifest/made known? How do we know that He really loves us? Because He gave.

his ONE and ONLY Son...

This fact makes it almost unbelievable. Let me ask you - if you have children or grandchildren - How many of you would be willing to give up one of them for someone else? Even if you have more than one. Maybe I’m willing to give him up…I have 2 others ;-)

But Jesus is God’s one and only Son.

so that EVERYONE...

Everyone - No one is excluded in this word everyone. God means all people; big, small, black, white, male, female, naughty, nice.

But there is a requirement; there’s something you have to do...

who BELIEVES in him...

Believe - put your faith, trust, confidence in the person of Jesus as the one who died on the cross to be the sacrifice for your sins

Simple

will not perish but have ETERNAL life.

It’s a beautiful thing to think about eternal life. Spending eternity with God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Angels, God’s family in heaven praising Him. No more tears, no more sin, no more pain.

Worldly love GETS

Godly love GIVES

Here’s what I’d love to leave you with

Worldly love GETS

Godly love GIVES

If you’ve never experienced or received God’s love - it’s available right now.

If you have experienced it, may I encourage you to emulate God’s heart and do the same. Be a giver instead of a getter this Christmas season.