Christmas Explained

Why is Christmas a big deal? There are many in the world who do not see the birth of Christ as a cause for joy. But the New Testament makes a big deal about it. We have quite detailed descriptions of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s and Matthew’s gospel. The first chapter of John’s gospel give a more theological/philosophical account of his birth — “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” The New Testament letters contain references to the birth of Christ (e.g. - Phil. 2:8, “being born in the likeness of men,” Gal. 4:4, “God sent for his Son, born of a woman...”). In the church we make a big deal about Christmas. But we must be clear about why it is such a big deal.

Today’s passage is helpful for understanding the importance of Christmas. It is part of a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. This man had taken note of Jesus’ miraculous power and came to him to ask for an explanation. In reply Jesus explained the significance of what we celebrate at Christmas.

At this point you may be thinking, “Randy, where do you get that? I don’t see Christmas in this passage.” So let me point them out to you:

“…he who descended from heaven, the Son of man...” (13).

“…God… gave his only Son...” (16).

“…God… sent his Son into the world...” (17).

“…the light has come into the world...” (19).

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, these were the things that happened. The Son of man descended from heaven, God gave his only Son, God sent his Son into the world, the light came into the world. And in this passage Jesus explained what God was doing by sending His Son into the world.

This is Jesus explanation of Christmas. Who better to explain the birth of God’s only Son than God’s only Son.

From these words of Jesus we can discern God’s motive, His goal, and His plan for sending His Son into the world.

1)God’s motive for Christmas: Love

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son...” (16).

God gave his only Son because he loved the world. Unless we believe that God loves the world we have no inkling about Christmas. The only explanation there can be for the birth of Jesus is the truth that God loves mankind.

Unfortunately, our understanding of love might be distorted because we live in a culture with distorted notions of love. We hear the word “love” and think of a sentimental or romantic emotion. And those ideas of love are usually a reactive form of love - love as a response to the loveliness of the object of love. We “fall in love” in response to the beauty we see in the one whom we love. But that isn’t the way it is with God’s love.

I like the way Charles Spurgeon said it in a sermon he preached on this passage on July 26, 1885. He said:

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XXXI Immeasurable Love (No. 1,850)

Whence came that love? Not from anything outside of God himself. God’s love springs from himself. He loves because it is his nature to do so. “God is love.” As I have said already, nothing upon the face of the earth could have merited his love, though there was much to merit his displeasure. This stream of love flows from its own secret source in the eternal Deity, and it owes nothing to any earth-born rain or rivulet; it springs from beneath the everlasting throne, and fills itself full from the springs of the infinite. God loved because he would love. When we enquire why the Lord loved this man or that, we have to come back to our Saviour’s answer to the question, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” God has such love in his nature that he must needs let it flow forth to a world perishing by its own wilful sin;

The first question anyone who would truly celebrate Christmas must ask himself is, “Do I believe that God loves me?” And before giving a quick answer to that question, let’s understand the implications of our response. If our answer is “No, God does not love me,” then Jesus was either a deceiver or Himself deceived. He said that God loved the world. To deny what he said is to think ourselves more knowledgeable about God than him. And if we know God better than Jesus, we have no reason to pay any attention to anything he said. To deny God’s love is to reject Jesus.

If our answer is that we believe what Jesus proclaimed as the truth about God’s love, it means we must find our assurance of that love, not in the present, but in the past. If we believe that God loves the world we must base that belief on the events that began with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, not on the events being broadcast on the nightly news. God didn’t show His love for the world by abolishing wars and disasters and diseases. He so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

Christmas is a big deal because, without it we would have no real proof of God’s love.

2)God’s goal for Christmas: Salvation not Condemnation.

Jesus stated God’s goal negatively and positively in these verses. Verse 17 gives both sides of what God was doing through the birth of his Son, beginning with the negative:

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world...” (17).

Let’s pause with this phrase for a moment. If condemnation wasn’t God’s goal, why did Jesus even mention it? This is the danger we’re in. We deserve God’s condemnation. Indeed, as verse 18 makes clear, we are condemned already. We exist with the sentence against us already pronounced and awaiting execution of that sentence. Verse 19 says that we actually choose condemnation. The light has come into the world, but men preferred the darkness. We have willfully placed ourselves in peril of God’s condemnation

But God’s goal was not to condemn the world. To say it another way, it was his goal to not condemn the world. The positive statement of it comes in the last half of the verse:

“…but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (17).

God’s goal was to give an option to us. Without God’s love, and without the sending of his Son, there was no option. Without Christmas, the only possibility was that we live our lives and then be condemned to hell for eternal torment.

Notice that this salvation is “through him” (referring to the Son God sent). The alternative to condemnation is not some general pronouncement by God that He’s not going to condemn us. We are either saved through the Son God sent into the world, or we are not saved. God’s goal is to save us through Jesus. He sets terms for the salvation he makes available. And his terms are that we look to the Son he sent to be our Savior.

Christmas is a big deal because it focuses our attention on the arrival of the only Savior available. Remember what the angel announced to the shepherds on the day of Jesus’ birth — “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior...” God didn’t send a baby into the world. He sent the Savior who first appeared in the form of a baby. Babies are adorable. They are cute, cuddly, and fascinating. But we miss the point of Christmas if all we do is coo over an infant in a feeding trough. Jesus was that, briefly. But he didn’t come to give us another baby to coo over every December 25. The goal was to save us because we desperately need salvation.

3)God’s plan for Christmas: That the One who descended from heaven be lifted up.

Verses 13 to 15 are about the plan by which God intended to achieve His goal of saving condemned sinners. It begins in vs. 13 with a descent from heaven to earth:

“No one has ascended into to heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” (13).

The term “Son of Man” here isn’t a reference to Jesus’ humanity. He was fully human. But that’s not what he was referring to in this passage. He was referring to the term used in the OT prophets to foretell the coming of the Messiah. And it was Jesus’ favorite way of referring to himself.

The arrival of the Son of Man involved a descent from heaven. That’s what happened when the virgin Mary gave birth to her firstborn son in Bethlehem. The OT prophecies of the Messiah’s coming were fulfilled in Jesus birth.

But the story didn’t end in Bethlehem. Verse 14 refers to an obscure event from the time of the Exodus:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (14).

The event Jesus spoke about is recorded in Numbers 21:4-9. We won’t take the time to read it. I’ll leave it as homework for you. In their time in the wilderness the people grumbled against God. In response He sent poisonous serpents into their midst. It was a display of his wrath at their sin. So the people cried out for salvation. God told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole, set it up where the people could see, and if they were bitten by a snake, they would be healed if they looked at the serpent on the pole.

Jesus said that the Son of Man came so that something just like that could happen. The Son of Man “must be lifted up” like the serpent in the wilderness. He was using the mental picture of that OT incident to describe what was going to happen to him. The serpent was attached to a wooden pole and lifted up where people could see it. The Son of Man would be attached to a wooden pole (a Roman cross) and lifted up for public display so that people might be saved from God’s wrath at sin.

We cannot understand Christmas correctly if we separate it from Jesus death on the cross for our sins. Jesus did not come to be a baby in a manger. He came to be a Savior who died for the sins of man attached to a wooden post. Many of us have the habit of reading Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth on Christmas day. It’s such a quaint scene and easy to feel sentimental about. But the danger of doing that is that we might miss the point. The manger scene was the beginning of a life aimed with deadly accuracy at Calvary’s cross.

This was the plan of our loving God for the salvation of people who deserve eternal condemnation because we have stubbornly rejected him: He sent his only Son into the world to be nailed to a cross for our sins so that there would be an alternative to condemnation for us. That is God’s reason for Christmas.

Christmas is a big deal because the eternal plan of God for the salvation of mankind depends on the sequence of events that began with Jesus birth in Jerusalem and reached their culmination in his death and resurrection as a grown man.

Conclusion: How shall we celebrate Christmas?

Did you know that Jesus, in this explanation of Christmas, told us exactly hos God wants us to celebrate Christmas? In fact, he repeated it over and over:

“…that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (15).

“…that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (16).

“Whoever believes in him is not condemned...” (18).

“…but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (18).

Did you get the point? The celebration of Christmas which pleases God is to believe that his only begotten Son is our Savior. If we do not believe in Jesus as our Savior we do not celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, no matter how much churchy stuff we might pack into the season.

Did you notice there’s no mention of decorations, baking, greeting cards, pageants, nativity sets, gifts, parties, or feasts in Jesus’ explanation of Christmas? Christmas is not really about all the things we’ve made it so much about! I had a conversation recently with a member of our congregation who is well-experienced in life and faith. We were talking about the changes to our way of doing Christmas being necessitated by current government restrictions. This dear, wise child of God said something like this to me: “You know Pastor, every year I hear people say, ‘Let’s keep Christ in Christmas.’ Maybe with all that’s been taken away this year our Christmas will actually be about Jesus.”

That was one of the most profound statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time. That saint gets it. Christmas is about Jesus and nothing else. When all the distractions have been stripped away, here is what it is all about: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That’s why Christmas really is a big deal

Amen.