Christmas 2020 5: The Gift of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: Isaiah 9:6
N: None
Opening
Opening
Good evening, and Merry Christmas! We are so glad you are here either in person or online on this Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We’ve almost made it to Christmas Day. If you have not felt the sense of anticipation for weeks if not months, then you’re probably not the parent of a young child—but you hopefully feel that anticipation now!
While many of us can’t wait until tomorrow morning to give and receive gifts, tonight we are going to reflect together on the gifts of Christmas as we journey toward the manger in Bethlehem and celebrate the arrival of Jesus, the ultimate gift of Christmas.
But before we tear into the wrapping, I have a question for each of us to consider: What are you waiting for tonight?
Maybe you’re waiting for family to arrive. Maybe you’re waiting for the delivery of a special gift—or perhaps a late package. Maybe you’re waiting for direction or healing. Perhaps you’re just waiting for me to stop talking so you can go have dinner! We’re all waiting for this crazy pandemic to be resolved… But whatever it is you are waiting for, I encourage you to set it aside and spend the next few minutes this Christmas Eve watching and waiting for the miracle of Christmas—the arrival of the God of the universe come to earth as a human baby.
There’s a great song that I just discovered this year by singer-songwriter David Wilcox called “Miracle.” It’s a song about the risk of missing Jesus because we are waiting for a miracle—or because we think the miracle should and will look different. The song, reflecting on the wise men and the star they followed, says,
Few will choose to follow
Out of all the star invites
Most will hide safe inside
With the lantern turned up bright
Waiting for a miracle
So tonight I invite you into the darkness, for it’s in that darkness that we most clearly see the light of Christmas and it’s where we experience the gifts Jesus offers this season.
What are you waiting for tonight that could take your eyes off the coming of the Savior? What is hindering your journey to the manger in Bethlehem? What expectation are you holding that may distract you from the true depths offered in Christ? What is keeping you from seeing the miracle?
Tonight I invite you to experience the greatest gift of all—the gift of God made flesh in Jesus Christ. I invite you to follow. Instead of waiting for a miracle, let’s step out into the darkness and allow the light of Jesus to shine in our lives as we accept the miraculous gifts of Christmas.
As a church we’ve spent the last four weeks journeying together through the season of Advent. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. Advent is not just an extension of Christmas, it is a season that links the past, the present, and the future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming.
During Advent, we’ve been lighting candles each week to remind us of aspects of Jesus’s coming to a world lost in darkness. Each flame represents a gift that Jesus brings to us. Tonight we will again quickly unwrap the gifts of hope, love, joy, and peace. And we will finish by lighting the fifth candle as we celebrate the gift of Jesus Himself.
1. The Gift of Hope
1. The Gift of Hope
The first gift we unwrap is the gift of hope. And while we often think of hope in the future, God’s gift of hope includes hope past, hope present, and hope future: not wishful thinking, but confident anticipation for a blessing to come.
I don’t know about you, but for me It feels like we’re in a state of perpetual waiting right now. The people of Israel knew all about waiting. Their entire history was marked by waiting. For thousands of years they waited and longed and expected God to fulfill His original promise to send them a Messiah who would set them free. Their prophets, including Isaiah, reminded them along the way that God had not forgotten, that He would still come through. As more and more time passed, the Israelites could look back at what Isaiah foretold:
6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
The people of Israel could have grown discouraged because they hadn’t seen the fulfillment of the Messiah yet. I’m sure many of them probably did, especially as generations came and went. Or they could have drawn renewed hope for the future in what God had promised in the past. We have the same choice.
The gift of hope reminds us of the promises and prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus’s coming. They show us that God was working all along, even when it was difficult to see and keep waiting. As we reflect on hope through Advent and at Christmas, we too can look back at God’s faithfulness in our lives and gain hope and confidence at what He will do in our present and our future.
For us, we get to look back on Christ’s birth, but the season of Advent reminds us to wait and expect His coming again, which is still future to us. We long for the time when all will be restored and made new. We experience the pain and suffering of today and wait in eager hope for the future when God will make all things right.
But what about today in the here and now, our present?
In the first chapter of Luke, the angel Gabriel foretold Jesus’s birth to Mary. What do you do with information like Mary received? How would you have handled that unexpected news?
Thankfully, Mary responded in faith and held fast to the very present hope of the promise of Immanuel, God with us. She chose to believe the angel’s message. She chose to hope that what was impossible would be possible and that the Messiah was coming—through her.
Because of the birth and life and death and resurrection of Jesus, we can have hope in our present, no matter what our struggles and circumstances may be. Our present hope in Jesus doesn’t stop the storms of life. It doesn’t change the immediate situations we face. But as Hebrews 6:19 describes:
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
Like an anchor holds a ship steady against the wind and the waves, our hope holds us firm and secure in the midst of life’s storms. Let this season be one of secure hope in the midst of whatever storms you face.
God is at work. He has delivered on His promises past, and He will make all things right in the future. In the present, our hope lies in the fact that the baby who was born in a stable in Bethlehem has come and He will return again. In the meantime, He is with us, filling us with hope.
2. The Gift of Love
2. The Gift of Love
As I mentioned on the Sunday that we unwrapped our second gift, the Gift of Love: Christmas Eve is the most popular day of the year to get engaged. In fact, December is the most popular month to get engaged. Christmas is the season of love. I even know someone who just got engaged this month!
That’s actually quite appropriate. The story of Christmas is really the continuation of God’s love story with the world that began at creation. When we unwrap this gift, we are challenged to accept, experience, and share His love.
If you’ve spent any time at all in church, you’ve probably heard John 3:16:
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Many of us have heard it so much that we’re in danger of overlooking its depth and power. Its message is the core of what we believe. And as we unwrap the gift of love tonight, it makes sense that we start here at the center: God loves the world. God loves you and you and you and each of us. That’s why He sent His Son, Jesus. That’s why He gave His Son to pay the ultimate sacrifice for each of us. That’s why we can accept His love and be made right with Him in forgiveness and for an eternal relationship that goes beyond this limited life on earth.
It’s why we can experience His love in the Advent and Christmas season and beyond. See, it’s easy to be distracted by all the things that need to be done for this holiday. It’s easy to read the headlines and wonder if love really can overcome the darkness and hate in our world.
But it’s important to remember that God invites us to bring all of our cares and concerns to Him. God does not ask us to ignore those things in order to experience His love. We don’t have to rid ourselves of hurry or worry. Instead, He invites us to surrender the deepest hurts and pains of our lives to Him and allow Him to fill us with His love. And the good news is that the love He gives through His Son Jesus Christ is enough—enough to carry us through our darkest doubts or pains and lead us to healing.
The love of Christ is a fierce and powerful love. Paul described it this way in Romans 8:38–39:
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As we welcome Jesus into our world, this is the love we can experience in new and deep ways. As God’s love works in us and through us, it transforms us. It fills us, and it overflows from us to others. The beauty of God’s love is that sharing this gift doesn’t leave us with less; it leaves us with more.
John described the process for us:
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
This is the gift of love we celebrate at Christmas. It is God’s ultimate gift for us to receive and experience and share. May we experience God’s love in new and deeper ways this season and always.
3. The Gift of Joy
3. The Gift of Joy
The third gift we unwrap is the gift of joy. It’s a giant gift in a small package, and it’s more than just a feeling. The coming of Jesus creates a joy that causes all of creation to celebrate, like we read from Psalm 96 earlier.
But what if you just don’t feel joy this season? There is plenty of expectation, busyness, stress, and darkness in our world to rob us of joy this Christmas season. How can you receive this gift of joy even in the midst of suffering, loneliness, pain, grief, stress, boredom, or busyness? Even in the midst of a pandemic? Even when this year is just so different? Let’s look briefly together at how we can anticipate, recognize, and choose joy.
A couple of characters in the Christmas story show the way for us. The shepherds are a good example of anticipating joy. Now, initially they were oblivious, just on the clock in the fields doing the normal grind when the sky lit up with angels and a message about the Messiah. Pretty unexpected stuff. But those shepherds didn’t immediately feel joy—they felt scared! Luke told us:
9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.
The angel first addressed their fear, then helped them move beyond it to receive the message of joy that the Savior, the Messiah, the one Israel had anticipated and waited for so long, had been born. By the end of the night, those shepherds got it. Verse 20 tells us that after they saw Jesus, they gave God glory and praise as they returned to their fields.
Elsewhere, there were the wise men who saw a star in the sky and paid attention. They recognized joy and traveled a long way to find the one whose birth was announced by the star. They encountered hardships along the way. But they kept seeking even when things went wrong. Through their journey, their response was joy and worship. Matthew 2:10–11 says:
10 When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
It can be hard to recognize joy in our lives sometimes, especially because it doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. We want joy to be free of worry and hardship, but James told us that joy can be found in the midst of, and sometimes even because of, hard things:
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
How do we do that? We begin by choosing paths toward joy, through gratitude, obedience, and continual abiding in Christ. And as we do so, we open ourselves to be shaped and transformed by God—and to encounter joy as a result.
As we celebrate Christmas, we know that Christ, the Messiah, has come. This we can celebrate and rejoice over. We know there is more to come with His eventual return. This we still must anticipate. But let’s experience Christmas as a time of gratitude, obedience, and abiding in His love as we anticipate the joy He brings.
4. The Gift of Peace
4. The Gift of Peace
The fourth gift we unwrap is the gift of peace. Peace means “freedom from disturbance; quiet and tranquility.” But it is often in situations that are exactly the opposite or peace that we most recognize our need for peace and the power of the peace God provides. This is the world Jesus came to. That first silent night was not actually very silent. The world was not at peace. There was a divide between God and people, there was conflict among families and nations, and there was unrest in the hearts of many. But in the midst of that, Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.
He brings us first and foremost peace with God. Through Jesus is the only way we can be restored to relationship with God by the forgiveness of our sin, which separates us from God. This eternal restoration and peace with the Creator is the greatest gift we can receive in any season. And it is available to us all.
When we do encounter Jesus and relate to Him, we also experience peace within our here and now. The apostle Paul told us: (Start with “The Lord is near.”)
5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
His peace goes beyond understanding. It shows up in situations where it doesn’t naturally make sense, and it holds and guides us through our worst nightmares or our most stressful seasons, holiday or otherwise. The peace of Christ is strong and powerful. It guards our hearts and minds, and it is stronger than whatever difficulty we face.
But we must remember that God gave the gift of peace in the form of a person—Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Jesus’s presence with us is the reason we do not need to be anxious. He is Immanuel, God with us, who offers us the gift of peace beyond understanding that guards our hearts and minds in Him. And as we practice prayer and petition and thanksgiving, we do so not as a peace recipe, but in order to connect with Him. Peace comes as a result of the transformation we experience as the Holy Spirit shapes our perspective and realigns our heart. Our troubles may rage on, but the Spirit gives us new eyes to see and the peace of Christ guards us and calms us and changes our outlook. He is the one who gives us peace to come, with the promise that He is with us. He told us in John 16:33:
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
There is a peace today, and there is a complete peace that is yet to come. In the time between, we trust in Jesus’s promise that He has indeed overcome the world. And in the meantime, we return to Jesus, the ultimate Christmas gift from God to the world.
5. The Gift of Jesus
5. The Gift of Jesus
Thank you for taking the journey toward Bethlehem and unwrapping the gifts of Christmas along the way. As we arrive at Christmas Eve, we celebrate the baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger, and we know that He is the true gift of Christmas. All the other gifts of hope, love, joy, and peace come from Him and are found in Him. He is . . .
The HOPE bringer
LOVE come down
The JOY giver
The PEACE maker
As we have noted throughout the night, Jesus is the bringer of eternal life and relationship with God. He is the giver of life to the full, as He described in John 10:10. He is the way, the truth, and the life, as He described in John 14:6. He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, as He described in Revelation 22:13. He is everything. He is the miracle so humble that many miss it. He is the gift who entered that dark and normal night two millennia ago as a fragile infant, one of us. But He is the God so loving and powerful that He willingly stretched out His arms on a cross later in life to carry our sin and shame and burden and death in order to give us a way to Himself. Jesus is the greatest gift of Christmas and in fact, the greatest gift of all eternity.
As we celebrate the gift of Jesus this Christmas, may we be filled with hope, love, joy, and peace so we can live life to the fullest. Here, where our Advent journey ends, a new journey begins—a journey of worship. It is our act of worship to receive the gifts of Jesus this Christmas, and we can respond by bringing our own worship to Him. Like Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, and the wise men, we rejoice at His coming and we worship Immanuel, God with us.
Together we have watched and waited. We have stepped into the darkness and followed the light. We have received the gifts of Christmas. Tonight as we light the final candle in our Advent display, let us worship the King.
The light of the world has come to earth and is reaching out to you, extending hope, love, joy, and peace. Will you experience the miracle? Will you receive God’s gift, His one and only Son, born to set you free? Will you give your heart to Him this Christmas in worship and in wonder? Surrender your life to Him tonight in faith, trusting in Him to save you.
PRAY
Have the deacons come and light their candles from the Christ candle, while Silent Night begins.