Colossians 1:19-20

The Wonders of His Love

I grew up hearing Andy Williams (and now other artists) singing that Christmas ‘Is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.’

Honestly, for many people Christmas is not the most wonderful time of year.

Christmas is a time of remembering loss, seeing empty chairs around the family table. While Hallmark movies and Christmas cards point towards dreams fulfilled, many during Christmas are staggering under the weight of broken dreams and unrealized hopes.

I would suggest a better phrase for us to use than ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ might be ‘The Wonders of His Love’ (from Isaac Watt’s and George Handel’s ‘Joy to the World!’)

Colossians 1:19–20 HCSB

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven.

We are living in a culture that is cutting itself off from its past. Long standing statues and memorials are being torn down all across the country. How dare we honor and remember people whose standards don’t match our own ‘enlightened view’ of the world.

We need, according to those who really know the truth, to rewrite our history - to more accurately reflect the standards and convictions of our 21st century consciousness.

I would argue that a better course would be to do what Watt’s and Handel propose:

Celebrate the Wonders of His Love

read col 1:15-20

God was ‘pleased’

At significant moments in Jesus’ life He - and His followers - was reminded of God’s eternal pleasure. Mark 1:11

Mark 1:11 HCSB

And a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son; I take delight in You!

Matthew 17:5 HCSB

While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him. Listen to Him!

The nature of the relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit lies shrouded in mystery that we cannot comprehend. the glimpses we have of their relationship tell is at least this:

God is delighted in, takes pleasure in His Son.

Here in Colossians 1 Paul writes to explain how God’s pleasure in His Son provides for us that which we cannot provide for ourselves.

All The Fullness of God

The more I discover about God, the more I read about Him in His Word and in the writings of others who know Him even better, I am reminded of how much I don’t know.

A few years ago my daughter had the opportunity to stand on the beaches of Normandy where Allied troops landed in 1944. She brought back a small vial of sand as a commemoration. That tiny amount of sand can in no way capture the fullness of all that happened in those hours in 1944.

Jesus, however, having the same nature of His Father, is able in a way we can’t grasp to display the fullness of God’s character,

In Jesus we see God’s grace

Ephesians 2:6–8 HCSB

Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—

In Jesus we find all the treasures of God’s wisdom

Colossians 2:3 HCSB

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.

In Jesus we are given a full and definitive picture of God:

John 1:18 HCSB

No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son — the One who is at the Father’s side — He has revealed Him.

Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself

Listen to these words:

I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us.

I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice.

This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny.

what year do you think these words were spoken? Would it surprise you if I told you these were Abraham Lincoln’s words from a speech in 1838!

Some things seem to rarely change.

The need for reconciliation, for people to be set right with God, for the entire system of God’s creation to be set right is as real now as it has ever been.

Paul leaves nothing out.

“…whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Jesus death on the cross is the strategy God had always planned on using to bring His creation back to Himself.

People can read the NT book of Revelation in many different ways. Whatever else one might say, in that final book of the Bible we are given a vivid picture of what God will do to restore His creation to His original purpose.

Peace through the Cross

Christmas focuses on a baby, an infant who was born in Bethlehem as foretold by centuries of prophetic witness.

Most nativity scenes include Joseph, Mary, the new-born baby, some animals and shepherds (and no little drummer boy whose drumming would make sleep nearly impossible). Most have Wise Men in the scene, though they didn’t arrive till Jesus was likely 18 - 24 months old.

Rarely though do nativity scenes include a cross. Honestly, when the notion of peace comes to mind, a cross is the last thing we’d want to see.

A cross is a reminder of death. A cross is a method of punishment, not a token of peace.

Yet it was the cross that defined Jesus’ entire purpose. His entire life’s plan was to go to Jerusalem, to be betrayed by His own followers, to be arrested and tried by Jewish and Roman authorities.

The sole reason for Jesus’ miraculous birth, Holy Spirit empowered life, was aimed at the cross - an instrument of death.

The necessity of the cross is underlined by this reminder from the author of the letter to the Hebrews:

Hebrews 9:22 (HCSB)

According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

The Wonders of His Love

One of Jesus’ earliest followers shared these words:

John 3:16 HCSB

“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.

God’s love - expressed in clear and unmistakable terms -

- promised by an angel to both Mary and Joseph:

Luke 1:30–33 HCSB

Then the angel told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.

Matthew 1:20–21 HCSB

But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

- fulfilled in God’s pleasure to reveal Himself and provide reconciliation through this One whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

These next few days may not be the Most Wonderful Time of the Year for you.

Let’s make them days of celebrating the Wonders of His Love -

join with the shepherds as they marvel at the newborn baby - the One whom angels proclaimed as “a Savior [who] has been born for you...”

pause and worship with the Wise Men - at the place where the infant Jesus lay - not as One born to be a king, but as the One born King of Kings and Lord of Lords

refresh yourself in the assurance that this baby whose birth we celebrate enables us to come to know God more fully.

As Christmas approaches may our hearts and minds be filled with the Wonders of His Love!