A Lot of Christmas Presence

Our text this morning is John 3:16. Perhaps we are so familiar with this verse that we miss what it says about God’s love. He so loved the world that He gives. He gives us His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

God, the true God, is not like the pantheon of Greek or Roman gods who may have sent one of his many sons to die as a sacrifice. God sent His only son. He sent Emmanuel - God with us.

God is the greatest gift.

If God were to truly give us the greatest thing then He could only be giving us Himself.

God sent His precious Son to die. John 15:13 (ESV) — 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

God gave Jesus up to suffer. God gave Him up. What does this teach us about giving?

Romans 8:32 (ESV) — 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Romans 5:8 (ESV) — 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:9–11 (ESV) — 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

What Is The Gift of Christ?

Light Jn. 3:19, Great Hight Priest, Mediator, King, Brother, Servant, Lord, Truth, Bread, Wine, Head of The Church, Redeemer, Friend, Counsellor, Wisdom, and all good things.

All is grace and gift. God is luxurious, opulent, grand in heaps of grace.

What does this teach us about giving?

Does God give in order to receive from us?

Psalm 50:10–15 (ESV) — 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

God does not need our gifts, but He is honored by our giving - particularly our thanksgiving, appreciation, and (this keeps coming up lately) our contentment in Him.

Sixpence None The Richer

“Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense his own already ... It is like a small child going to its father and saying, 'Daddy, give me sixpence to buy you a birthday present.' It is all very nice and proper, but only an idiot would think that the father is sixpence to the good on the transaction.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

God does not need our bulls or goats or tithe or institutions. He delights in our genuine affection and thanksgiving. He has given to us freely. We give back to Him freely.

James 1:17–18 (ESV) — 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Giving and Receiving

Acts 20:35 (ESV) — 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

This season, and God’s word and example, teach us the true nature of love and the true nature of giving. We are to do so as an act of grace and not reciprocity.

We are not to give in order to get. But the irony of that is that you end up getting. Jesus says it is more blessed to give than to receive. You give but it comes back to you in blessing - which is receiving.

You give like a seed in the ground and you reap a whole garden.

We often calculate what we are willing to let go of in order to receive. When we purchase something, we figure that x product is worth more to me than the money so you buy it. The seller sees your money as worth more than the product and you both are served. But this shouldn’t be the math with our giving. We aren’t to give ‘forgiveness’ or kindness or gestures to others as gifts only because we have calculated that the cost of service is less than what you may get back. We are to give with no reciprocity in mind. We are to be like God who gives freely. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

God gives. He acts. He resolutely decided to bless. And may God make us like Him in this way.

How Did God So Love The World?

Romans 5:6–21 (ESV) — 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let’s rejoice in gratitude for the magnificent gifts of God

Always Christmas and Never Winter

Let’s worship in selfless giving this Christmas season and in life. When the kids first come to Narnia it is described as winter but never Christmas. But then a strange event seems to happen when the kids run into Santa who gives them gifts (swords, bows, etc.). It seems like an odd addition to the book - a quirky service to the kids. But Lewis was trying to say that Aslan had finally come. Christmas was coming and the winter was passing. Gifts were being given, flowers were in bloom, and the eternal winter was over. And so it is with our Christian life. We are in the dawn of a new reality. Christmas has come and with it has come magnificent gifts. And we now live a life of rich thanksgiving and generosity.

Repentance

Maybe you think that God is miserly and withholds good from you. You have become blind to his grace that is piled up all around you but all you can see are your other desire.

Maybe you have become uncharitable. Maybe it is within your power to freely give a compliment or an encouragement but you can’t. You won’t give those blessings away because you may not get anything back. You won’t give those blessings away because it may seem that you are letting them off the hook for some other infraction that they need to be reminded of.

Maybe you cannot give money away because you are devoted to your own stuff. Maybe the guys seems unworthy of your charity - he may squander it. Were you worthy of Gods?

Reassurance

Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.