Purchasing the Gift

Introduction: Myrrh Gift - sacrifice, effort, work. You have to spend time and think of the other person.

REVIEW

John’s Christmas story - not really a story. But John highlights something really important. John 1:10-13

God came to the world

John 3:13 NLT

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.

Spiritual chasm - Interplanetary travel. I’m never going to meet Han Solo, unless he comes here.

Flaming Sword - We can’t get there. (i.e. an audience with the president).

So, God came to the world: God came to the world. This is Christmas. Christmas is a celebration that God came to the world.

The world rejected him

John 3:19 NLT

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

John 3:14 NLT

And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

He was rejected - Many didn’t believe.

They loved the darkness.

What are you holding onto that is keeping you from accepting Jesus?

This rejection wasn’t just of his teaching, but of him and led to his death.

“Why you ready to die? You just a baby” - Lupe

He had to die, but he couldn’t die, so he had to take on a body that could die. BUT because he is eternal, he was able to overcome death and transfer that resurrection to everyone who believes in him. ~Athanasius (p. 69)

He did it willingly - that’s the amazing thing.

“On a hill you created, abandoned in darkness to die.

Those who accepted him get the gift.

John 3:16–17 NLT

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

In order for us to be personally tied to God and for the world to be restored to each other, Jesus had to first make a sacrifice: he had to be tied to the cross. The red ribbon represents Jesus, whose love

TWO THINGS:

Worship him - That’s Christmas!!

Tie yourself to the cross, willingly