But Why?
Notes
Transcript
The older I get, the more I realize that three year old’s are a whole lot smarter than we give them credit for being.
What one question does a three year old ask all of the time?
Why?
We kind of program them to stop doing that - it makes us a little bit crazy them asking it over and over again.
But you know, that might be a mistake.
We may need to ask why a lot more often than we do.
When I was in school, we read a poem by John McCrae entitled “In Flanders Field.”
Anyone remember that?
In Flanders Fields, the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, thought poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae wrote this poem about World War 1 - a war he fought in.
He saw so many people get wounded and die.
And being a soldier he didn’t want the dead to die in vain.
“Take up our quarrel with the foe:” he says.
Keep up the fight.
Keep the fight going lest we all have died in vain.
World War 1 started on July 28, 1914 - at least that’s the official date - lots of things happened that set that “war to end all wars” in motion.
The governments involved thought it to be a quick and easy affair.
Go out - dig a few trenches - whip the enemy - and come home - everyone will be home by Christmas.
Only they weren’t.
The fighting was horrible.
McCrae wrote a letter to his mom:
“For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds ... And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way.”
I’m sure that letter comforted his mom.
It was a horrible war - it was the first war of the new, mechanized age.
Tanks were used for the first time.
Airplanes that had just been invented about 10 years before became killing machines.
Chlorine gas was used and mustard gas.
The men fought from trenches dug by hand that filled with water when it rained and then froze when it got cold.
By the end of the war, a scant 4 years later, 20 million soldiers and civilians were dead, 21 million more were wounded.
Why?
Because governments - governments - ordered farmers and factory workers, their barbers, their cabbies, their milkmen and their salesmen to fight.
To defend their country to the death if they had to.
But no one really asked why - until they did.
One night - one night the farmers and factory workers, the barbers and cabbies, the milkmen and salesmen - on both sides, asked why.
December 25, 1914.
The British heard singing coming from the German trenches.
Christmas Carols, popular tunes, “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
The Brit’s started singing with them.
The German’s put up a Christmas tree; they decorated it with candles.
A few intrepid men ventured out of the trenches into no man’s land and greeted the enemy.
More and more men cautiously stepped out from both sides, against orders by the way.
And the men who had been trying to kill each other moments before made a truce.
Men who, as Dr. Jay Winter said, realized that “wearing a uniform was a parenthesis in their lives,” they asked why.
So for the next 24 hours.
No shooting.
No killing.
Only friendship as German and British farmers and factory workers, barbers and cabbies, milkmen and salesmen, talked and laughed and remembered life back home.
For 24 hours.
They shared gifts they had received from back home.
There are even rumors they had a soccer game.
For a self-imposed, totally against orders, 24 hours they declared a truce.
Why?
Well, because it was Christmas.
Yes, we know, but why?
In a war, in anything, what makes one day different from the next?
Well, it’s Christmas.
It’s a time to be home, to see family, to celebrate life and love and friendship.
To eat and give gifts and party and rest.
But why?
Why do we do that?
Well, it’s a tradition.
Well, if it is mere tradition, then make a new tradition.
Traditions come and go with the times.
But they didn’t want a new tradition; they wanted THIS tradition.
Why?
Well, it’s because this is the day we celebrate Jesus being born.
And again, I get that - we all know that - we’d all answer these questions the same way.
But why?
Why this baby?
The BBC reports that the Population Reference Bureau estimates that over the course of all human history, over 107 billion people have been born.
107 billion.
And of the 107 billion, we celebrate Christmas because of one.
Because of one.
Why this baby?
Asking why is frustrating, isn’t it, but see, three year old’s understand, there is a lot of why that needs to be discovered.
Why this baby?
Because he was the Son of God.
He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is the Messiah.
I hate to break this to you but, of the 107 billion plus babies that have been born, Jesus isn’t the only one that made that claim.
There were many people - still are - that walk around and claim to be the Messiah - Do the names Jim Jones and David Koresh mean anything to anyone?
And the king of kings title?
People that we have studied in our End of Days series: Xerxes, Artaxerxes, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great and Cyrus II of Persia.
In fact, every Persian king of every age wore the title, King of kings and Lord of Lords.
The name means nothing - hundreds, if not thousands of people claimed that title.
It means nothing.
He healed people - so what?
There have been healers in every age.
He helped the poor - so does Bill Gates.
He opened people’s eyes to their potential.
Great, so does Dr. Phil, Oprah and Joel Osteen.
Because of him, I am free, I am saved, I am new.
And people have been saying the same thing about all kinds of spiritual and motivational speakers forever - they changed my life!
Why Jesus?
What makes Jesus “the one?”
George Sings: “He’s Alive”
Jesus is the one because He’s alive.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
I’ve had an experience I’m not sure how many of you may have had.
As a part of my job, I had to do a walk through of the venues we used and one of the venues was THE most popular nightclub in Las Vegas.
We went in mid day and all of the house lights were up.
And the place was dingy and it felt dirty.
The edgy “graffiti art” on the hallway to the restrooms looked like something you’d see on a box car.
Even the floor looked grungy.
But at night, in the darkness, with the lights down low and the mirror ball shooting sparkles of light all over the place, people were willing to pay $10,000 a night to sit beside the dance floor.
The darkness hides the truth.
But He delivered us from the domain of darkness - is that what Jesus did for you?
Did He cause you to see - to know what is real and what is not.
Is that why you follow Him.
When I was in my early 20’s I was very pro-choice.
I remember distinctly walked down a street with two friends defending our positions when one of then asked, “but what about the baby?”
“Mom gets a choice, but what about the baby?”
A baby created in the image of God by a mom who had a choice long before she had to consider abortion.
God created the world with a man and a woman together for life creating new life to fill the earth from that union.
There is the choice.
I struggled for a while - but light had pierced the darkness.
Has this happened to you?
I bet it has - you read the Bible and something you’ve read a bagillion times suddenly comes to life.
Revelation 22:4-5 “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
Do you remember what we said when we studied that verse?
That this is the “end” of the Bible - the next verses are epilogue.
So the Bible ends with “they will reign forever and ever,” and do you remember how we reworded that?
“And they shall live happily ever after.”
I cannot express to you the inexpressible joy that has given to me.
I read those words and said this very thing to a woman this week who is dying.
Because those are words of hope and peace.
I see - I’ve not hidden it from you and don’t plan on hiding it - I see our country and our world changing dramatically away from Jesus.
I fear what my precious children will have to face - they will be required to be so much wiser than me and so much more bold than I have been.
But the light came - and I realized that just as I was born for a time such as this - they too are born for the a time such as theirs.
And in the end, “they shall live happily ever after” seeing Jesus face.
The one not called the light of the world - but the one who is the light of the world.
Why do you follow Jesus?
Do you follow Him because in Jesus we “have redemption, the forgiveness of sins?”
Some of you have lived through - some of you are living through right now - heartbreaking things.
Some of the things you’ve lived through, you chose to live through them.
Oh at the time you thought what you were doing would be the best thing ever - until it wasn’t.
And you not only hurt a bunch of people.
You hurt yourself - and that’s not worse but it ranks right up there.
Maybe you’ve never stared in the mirror thinking that you were so much better than this - maybe that’s not your why.
But it’s someone here’s why - and you know what I am praying for a few of you, possibly watching on live stream - I’m praying the Lord’s hand weigh so heavy on you that you fell like you are being suffocated so you’ll stand in front of that mirror thinking - knowing that you are so much better than the choices you are making.
Because I know - and it’s why some of you are here today - we know that in Jesus - not the baby, but the risen Lord - we have forgiveness of sin - of those sins.
We have redemption.
We do matter - our lives account for something.
Because He has washed away our pain, our hurt, our sorrow, our guilt, our shame, our despair.
And He gave us a second chance - a new life.
That’s an excellent why to follow Jesus.
Maybe your why is because He is the only thing holding you together.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
I’ve been so high minded about this verse.
I see Jesus holding all of creation together.
He’s the unexplained dark matter in the universe - the unseen thing that makes the universe work with a certain order.
He’s the gravity that holds our feet to the ground.
The force that keeps atoms from exploding.
That keeps the earth in orbit around the sun in just such a way that we can bask in the warm summer sun and enjoy the cold, brisk winds of winter.
That’s poetic and beautiful.
But maybe that’s a little highminded for where you are.
Maybe your why for following Jesus is simply that you are hanging on by a thread, and he’s the one who keeps the thread from breaking.
The stress of single parenthood and a deadbeat spouse.
Of working in an environment that is hostile and caustic, day in and day out, but you can’t leave because there are mouths to feed and bills to pay.
The relentless voices of your past that shout out how bad you are every time you make the simplest mistake or suffer the slightest embarrassment.
Or maybe its the sobriety that you fought so hard for, that you can readily look back and see the Lord’s hand in, but life is so hard and temptation is everywhere.
And if it wasn’t for Jesus - not the sentimental baby, but the warrior who flipped tables and will destroy His enemies by the breath of His mouth.
The risen Jesus - who leans in to you and almost whispers into your ear - surely whispers into your spirit - you are mine and we will make it.
I promise.
And I do promise - because He will give you the power to take a step and then another step and then another step.
And it may seem like you are wading through hell with every step but one day - one day it will be over.
And you will see for yourself the fullness of God in the one who held you together.
Not the baby - but the risen Lord.
There is another why I want us to see.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
I have a friend - she doesn’t mind me sharing a little of her story.
She was so alienated and hostile in mind - doing decidedly evil deeds.
Not alienated and hostile in an angry, violent sense - but alienated - from her parents, from her relatives.
From how she was raised, from the Lord.
Liberated - doing what she wanted to do the way she wanted to do it when she wanted to do it with whom she wanted to do it.
Her acts were such that good, clean Christian folks had bushels and baskets of pejoratives that they could hurl - and probably did hurl at her to our shame.
But Jesus wouldn’t let her go.
And in a simple, literal, do I turn left at this intersection or do I turn right moment, the risen Jesus wooed her to turn left.
And she was reconciled to him.
And now she is holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
Because Jesus washes our sins away.
But sometimes you still feel dirty, and you should.
It takes a lifetime to wash all of the mud off our our bodies.
If you are real, you know that.
You and I still have mud caked to the soles of our feet, tracking mud all over the sanctuary of our lives.
And that’s OK.
Just follow Jesus - the best you can - just follow Jesus.
Over the next couple of weeks we’ll sing songs and share gifts and eat and laugh and love each other.
But it’s not because of a baby in a manger.
It’s because that one particular baby “increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.”
It’s because Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
It’s because Jesus made up His mind to suffer whatever was necessary - including taking our sins into his perfectly sinless mind and body.
He died at our hands.
He was raised to new life by the power of the Father Himself.
He sits today at the right hand - the position of prominence and power - He sits at the right hand of God.
But He is not removed from us.
His Holy Spirit is here.
Leaning in, whispering, holding together, saving.
You
And me.
That’s why this baby matters.
The question is, why do you follow this baby?
