Full of Grace

Introduction

Christmas is the greatest of holidays and the most difficult of holidays.

It is the greatest, because it is a moment of celebration. Lights, trees, presents, food, family, and joy are evident everywhere you go. For this very reason, it is the most difficult of holidays. When Christmas is filled with uncertainty, need, loss, mourning, and hurt, we don’t really feel like Christmas is for us.

“I can’t partake in this - the lights and the joy and the love. That is the farthest thing from what I feel this year”

Christmas is exactly for you.

John Piper // The fear that the few good things that make you happy are slipping through your fingers, and the frustrations that the bad things that you had about yourself and your situation can’t be changed - those fears and these frustrations are what Christmas came to destroy.

Christmas is for the man struggling with their depression in the most joyful time of year (and doesn’t really know why) - Christmas is for you.

Christmas is for the woman struggling with anxiety over the 10,000,000 things that need to be done in the next two weeks - Christmas is for you.

To the mourner who is going through their first Christmas without their loved one - Christmas is for you.

To the elderly who has faced year after year without your spouse - Christmas is for you.

To the sick or disabled who struggles everyday with pain and sickness that has changed the way you live - Christmas is for you.

To the father and mother trying to provide a good Christmas although money has been a little scarse - Christmas is for you.

It is for you, because the gift that supercedes all of those things - God, Himself, the Christ, came into the world for you.

Christmas is a holiday of God’s grace or it isn’t worth celebrating.

Explanation

English Standard Version Chapter 1

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word (capital W) is Jesus. The Bible tells us that the LITERAL WORD OF GOD, became a man and dwelt with us.

A Lifeway article recently released that stated that only 63% of Christians interviewed believed that Jesus existed before He was born on earth.

John 1:1 // In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

God, Himself, Jesus Christ with all of his glory, came into the world.

All of the grace and truth of God is in Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is God.

Can we take a moment and just marvel in the fact that God himself dwelt among us? What is this God like?

Full of grace and truth

Grace is to give something that is undeserved.

Why do we need grace?

The truth is that we are sinners. Because we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, we need a Savior.

The baby who came in a manger would be the man who went to the cross.

When we think about God, we think of anger. We believe that God is perpetually frustrated with our sin and has a hard time loving us.

The Bible says that Jesus is full to the brim with grace and truth.

In fact, Jesus is so full of grace that as he moves towards us, grace cannot help but to spill over into our lives.

His default position is not simply to show his grace to his people - but to give his grace to his people.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

Jesus is not stingy with grace, nor is he passive with grace. He gives lavishly, and he actively searches and gives.

Piper // “He is never in maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. he is sending pursuing, searching, and saving. That’s the meaning of Advent.”

There are no magic words or secret passcodes. No entry fees that he has not paid himself. We must simply come and cast our sin upon him so that he will save us.

Jesus has an endless supply, and he gives it without measure.

Last week, I started to run low on coffee grounds.

Until I could get to the store, I had to make a decision… weak coffee or less coffee? As a pastor, choosing the lesser of two evils is rarely ok… but in this instance, it was.

Jesus’ grace is never weak.

There is nothing that you can do and no sin that you can commit that is too far gone for the blood of Jesus cross to mend you.

Romans 5:20 // where sin increased, grace abounded all the more

Jesus grace never has to be rationed like it might run out.

When we have had a bad week, we often run from Jesus, thinking that if we wait a few days, our sin might be less or his grace might be more.

God doesn’t work that way. God gives his grace freely and fully.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

I have been preaching through the 10 Commandments. I know it will go down in history as the greatest Christmas sermon series ever, right?

The law of God, given to Moses, was meant to do several things.

It was given to show how humanity is supposed to flourish.

It was given so that the people of Israel could live in holiness before the Lord.

The law was also a burden. It could not be completely kept. It was a burden to show that man could not be his own salvation.

It was a dividing line between us and God.

In fact, if you have tried to do everything that I have told you to do the last 6 weeks perfectly, I am sure you have come discouraged.

The law grants a burden that we cannot carry, so that grace can take that burden.

Without the law, you would never know that you needed a Savior.

When we see how hard holiness is for our fallen natures, we can rejoice, because God is able to save and he desires to save.

Application

When you look at God or think about God, do you see Him as full of grace. No one can love you the way Christ loves you.

Do you want to experience the fullness of God’s grace? Ask Him is all that you must do. That fullness is for you

Invitation

Come, All Ye Unfaithful, Come // Against, O, Come All Ye Faithful // If Christ was only for the faithful, I could not come. But, because Christ is faithful, I can come.

Rest this year in his finished work for you.