Ephesians 2:6-9 The Gift of Christmas #1
Well as we all know Christmas time is here on us again, and for many folks, mostly the ladies it hassles time as they are busily hurrying about trying to get their gifts bought up for all her loved ones.
It seems that the focus of Christmas has been lost amongst gifts. The joy of the season has become the joy of giving and receiving gifts to a lot of people.
Without the true meaning of Christmas it is all in vain.
There is a gift that we can share this Christmas that is greater than any other gift anyone could give, and that GIFT is the true gift of Christmas.
The gift that God gave us, the Gift of Jesus.
John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ephesians 2:6-9 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
2 Corinthians 9:15 15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
I. The unspeakable gift
A. Christmas is a time of gifts. And that means Christmas is a time of shopping. Ever since the wise men from the east showed up at the stable carrying gold, frankincense, and myrrh, people have been exchanging gifts at Christmas.
Of course, it’s much more complicated today than it was for the wise men. For one thing, they didn’t have to contend with shopping malls, all packed full of shoppers running over each other.
The magi didn’t have to worry about sizes, or colors, or return policies. They had just plain old gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Well, this year, just like every year, millions of people, both children and adults, will open millions of gifts. Some won’t fit. Some will be the wrong color. Many will be returned or exchanged.
A lot of gifts that people receive just get thrown in the closet and never used and possibly may become another person’s gift next year.
· But there’s one gift that meets everyone’s need, one gift that will never wear out, never break or need repairing. A gift that is appropriate for a small child, or a teenager, or an adult, or a senior adult. Boy or girl, man or woman, it makes no difference.
The gift we all need, the most valuable gift of all, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one that this whole season is about. On Christmas, we celebrate the fact that God gave us the gift of His own Son, Jesus Christ, so that through faith in Him we- ----- could be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life.
This gift of Jesus is worth more than any other gift you have ever been given. It is a gift of a great price.
A gift that cost God his Son, and Jesus his Life.
It is the most important gift you will ever receive and you will cherish it forever.
Knowing Christ and what He has accomplished is worth more than anything else in God’s gift to us, His Son Jesus, is worth more than anything else we could ever possess.
Christmas is all about this gift. The Gift of Jesus. He is the Gift of Christmas.
Jesus came to seek and save those, which were lost. He came for the residue of man. Jesus came to minister to the poor, the wounded, the hurting, and the outcasts. He loves each and everyone.
Paul said in 1st tim. 1: 15This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;
Jesus was not recognized for who he was because of his ministry. Most Kings cater to the rich and wealthy and influential, but Jesus was the direct opposite. Jesus came for the whosoever of the Earth.
For the woman with the issue of blood, for the crazy demoniac who lived in the tombs, for the harlots, and the lepers.
· His ministry is best described in Luke when he read from the prophecy of Isaiah in the synagogue
Luke 4:17-21 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
That was his ministry right there. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The year of restoration. The year of healing. The year of peace.
No matter how rough it seems to get, though all Hell breaks loose, he is our peace of mind. He is the “peace that passes all understanding”.
Jesus said what you have been looking for, what you have been waiting for is here. I have come to deliver you.
There are people all the time that go through horrendous trials but never loose their smile and joy. People who sing while they are martyred for his namesake.
That is the peace that only he can bring.
If you don’t have peace, there is only one place in this world to find it and that is in Jesus Christ, The gift of Christmas
A. When we think of Holy we think of angels. We think of perfection.
B. As we get older day-by-day we find out that everything is corruptible.
We put our faith and trust in many things that always seem to let us down.
This world is fallible and everything of this world is fallible.
All down through the years and ages people have followed men and their own versions of God and whatever they could find to bring piece of mind, only in the end to come up with questions, doubts and pain.
Jesus is Holy. He is sinless. He was the perfect man and he will never let you down.
He will always be there when you need him and he is the same yesterday, today and forever
though people let you down, Jesus never will. His word does not change and his ways do not change.
We can always put our trust in him, “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother” proverbs. 18: 24
When the heavenly host of angels came to the shepherds to announce Jesus’ birth, they said’ “Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward men”
· Before Jesus there was no hope. Before Jesus, peace was hard-pressed
To find, but when he was born, the angels declared, “Peace on Earth” Peace is Here. The Holy One has arrived.
Finally we have found a hope, a peace, a God that we can put our trust in and rest assured he would always be there.
The gift of Christmas. Jesus. The Holy one
Jesus is also the True Redeemer.
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
He came to wash away all of our sins in His Holy and Precious BLOOD.
To redeem someone actually means to “buy out of slavery” or to “free from the slave market”
according to law, a slave could only be freed by a King. Redemption is the work of a King. Christ is our King and the King and he redeemed us from sin.
He bought us from slavery; he freed us from the slave market.
Jesus came to this Earth because man had no other hope. He came to redeem us from our sins and he did. He paid for all the sins of the world whether you accept him or not.
You can to be cleansed from all your sins. All it takes is asking Him with a sincere heart and he will do it. No matter what you have done, God forgives. He will cast all your sins away never to be remembered again.
Its as though He erases your sins and give you a clean slate. This is the gift of Christmas. The redeemer. Jesus
John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
How different the world would have treated this baby boy if they would have only knew that it was God lying there in the manger. The creator of the Heavens, the one that holds the universes in the palm of his hand. The ONE that breathed life into Adam.
JEHOVAH GOD.
Jesus is the great I am, He was, He is and is to come. He is Omniscient,* Omnipresent * Omnipotent* He is God.
He is not a made up version of God. He is not a figment of our imagination, He is God. He created everything. He controls everything.
He is huge and is very protective of his children. Who are his children? Us. We are his children and he will protect us, he will provide for us, he will bless us and he will love us.
The Bible says that even as Earthly fathers give their children good gifts, so much more does your father in heaven want to give you gifts.
God is bigger than any of your problems, bigger than any of your trials and tribulations. We can stand & rest assured that we serve the one true God.
. The I am, that I am. Our protector, our provider. He is the gift of Christmas.
The gift of Christmas.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus is the great I am but he is also the Son of God who was born of a virgin and became flesh. He came to comfort and redeem us, but he also came to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Satan controls this world. God gave Adam dominion over the Earth but when Adam disobeyed God and sinned, he lost that power to Satan.
So now Satan controls all this sinful activity of the world. He is the prince*(ruler) of the powers of the air.”
Before Jesus; animal sacrifices only served to cover sin. The blood of animals could only cover or hide it. There was no freedom from sin, no power over sin and definitely no power over Satan.
So Jesus came to become the spotless sacrifice not to cover sin, but to cleanse us from it.
If something is only covered means that the something is still there, the BLOOD of Jesus cleanses and washes away all sin; its not just covered, but washed away.
Through the blood of Jesus, the works of the Devil cannot stand.
The Son of God is all Power. The gift of Jesus. The gift of Christmas.
