The Gift of Christmas

Title-

Passage-

Introduction-

On occasion my wife and I watch antiques roadshow on PBS

It’s fascinationg that someone can have something passed down to them or gifted to them and have a sense that the item is woth a lot but never realize just how much its worth.

In 2004 a man brought a pocket watch that was a family heirloom and said it had been appraised in the past at $6000…he was shocked to hear that they appraised ot at $250,000 but delighted I'm sure when he sold it at auction a few years later for over $1.5 million.

Another girl who was headed to college was given a picture by her grandmother

The picture hung above her grandmothers bed for years and years.

THe girl was annoyed by a mosquito that had found it’s way inside the glass so she went about cleaning it out

She also found two appraisal tags and realized it was an original painting, not a picture

She brought it to antiques Roadshow and it was appraised for $300,000.

Main truth-

We have given a priceless gift…we have been given the gift of salvation

But the reality is that we are living like a lot of the people on this PBS show

We don’t live like we know the true value of Jesus in our lives

In these verses John is going to share the truth of the value of Jesus in our daily lives

Transition #1-

What is being taught? (Explain the passage and draw out the 1st century truth)

So lets spend a few minutes looking verse by verse at what John is telling his readers

Verse 4a- Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law

The one who live according to sin is guilty of the lawlessness

The one who “commits”…in other words the one who shows certain behaviors especially behaviors that become defining

That one, in the literal sense, commits lawlessness

They are living as if there is no law and no law giver

Verse 4b- for sin is the transgression of the Law

John is challenging his readers to understand that sin is more than an oopsie, or a mistake

Each time a sin occurs it is lawlessness against God

THe word “transgress” here is anomia....the word nomia is the word for law and an a prefix means to be without

So that person is living without an understanding that there is a law

John is saying then that sin is lawlessness

Hold on with me here for a bit

Verse 5a- Ye know that he was manifest to take away our sins

“He” refers to Jesus and Jesus was manifest…He was revealed as the one to make it so that we could stand before the law as if we never offended it

That is what John means by “to take away our sin”

Jesus cane to take away our sin…our failures, our faults, our errors

The common illustration is that of archery

To hit the bulls-eye is to be deemed sufficient

To hit anywhere else is to miss the mark

Jesus came to right our missing of the mark

How could Jesus do this?

Verse 5b- in Him was no sin…again John is pointing our Jesus’ sufficiency to be our sacrifice

Verse 6a- Whosoever abidith in him sinneth not

I like Weirsbe’s paraphrase of this...”Whoever abides in him does not practice sin”

In other words they do not have a consistent and perpetual habit of sinning and not feeling the guilt of their sin

Verse 6b- Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him

The ones who can sin, enjoy it, and do it again....over and over again. They have not seen Jesus....Jesus has not revealed himself to them

Verse 6c- neither know Him

Since they have not seen Him they don’t know Him

It comes down to what is going on inside you

Your thoughts, emotion, and your will

Here John is more or less saying whoever practices sin

There is a differentiation in the Bible between sin and sins

When John is referring to sin he is referring to the root

When he refers to sins he is pointing out the fruit

We all at times will display the fruit of sin because we have not yet been glorified…3:2

But the question is are we living under the control of the roots of sin or by the truths of the Holy Spirit of God

Transition #2-

How do we understand this in our context? (Bridge 1st century truth to today)

What John has been writing about in these two verses would today fall under the term “transformation”

John here is really dealing with the truth that if you know Christ you will be living in sin less and committing sins less

You will be feeling the grief of sin more

You will be repenting and seeking restoration more and more

Probably one of the few situations that as you become more mature in it you feel less worthy

The more you understand about the Lord and our sin the lower down the totem pole you feel

One of the misunderstood parts is that John is not setting forth perfection

He is setting forth a forward progression toward Christlikeness

There may be times we are sprinting toward Christ and others where we feel we are fighting through 4 feet of snow

It comes down to who has our hearts allegiance

Is it Jesus?

Then live like it

What John is sharing here was not intended to just make his hearers feel better, John intended for the message to ultimately compel them to live better

Live a life according to the moral standards of God

Transition #3-

How do we live this out in our context? (Application of the biblical truth to us personally)

All of this brought me to a series of questions

1- Having studied these verses what ought I to be thinking?

I ought to be in constant remembrance that Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again so that I might be able to live a life that meets the moral demands of God

I fall short at times, but based on His sacrifice I can have that relationship reconciled again

*This Christmas we need to remember that Jesus didn’t come to the manger just so we could get to heaven but also came so that we could live a moral life until we get there

2- How should my heart change

Biblical the heart is the immaterial side of man outside of our thinking

Our thinking directly impacts our heart so the first and most important question is How ought I to be thinking? the next logical question is what ought to change in my heart?

I ought to grieve over sin the way that God does

God doesn’t see am oops or a “mistake”…He sees a missing of the required moral standard and the need for judgment

We do everything possible to lessen the reality of sin and we need to start feeling sin for what it is

It is our moral insufficiency and it grieves God and it ought to grieve us

The sins of others ought to grieve us as well

3- How ought this to ultimately change my life as a whole?

To encourage or attempt correction in the life of a fellow believer

To pray and witness to unbelievers

To be in constant communion with God over sin, temptation, forgiveness, and restoration

To be drawing closer and closer to the Lord each day

CS Lewis is known for saying "If you want to get warm you move near the fire. If you want joy, peace, eternal life, you must get close to what has them."

We should be working, reading, meditating, serving, and striving to be drawing nearer and nearer to our Savior

Conclusion

What a gift we have been given in the revelation of the coming of baby Jesus

Now is the time to understand and apply the truth that Jesus came for a bigger purpose than heaven

He came to give us the gift of now

Let’s live in light of these truths and live a life pleasing to the Lord in the now.

Let’s live like Jesus is as important to my daily life as he is to my heavenly hope.

Closing song-