12.24.21 1 John 4:9
This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him.
Enjoy the Gift of Life in Jesus this Christmas
Every Christmas we usually participate in a white elephant gift exchange of some sort, and half the fun is seeing the reaction on the person’s face as they open up the present to see what is actually inside. Most of the time the purpose of the gift is to just get a chuckle out of someone, and that’s about it.
Regular Christmas gifts are different, of course. You want to give someone something that they WANT or NEED. Yet you still want it to be a surprise. Half the fun of Christmas presents is in the mystery of not knowing what is inside. Sometimes, I might change things up by wrapping something in a bigger box or adding a bit of weight to it so they can’t guess or know right away.
When we celebrate the gift of Christmas, the gift of Jesus, it is so much different. It isn’t about what people typically ask for from God, like money or riches, romance or health. It doesn’t happen in a warm and comfortable living room with nice shiny wrapping paper. It happens in a cold, dark, and dying world, in a smelly cattle stall. It is given in the midst of heartache and pain, to people who have fallen for the devil’s lies and become selfish and evil; people who are living in a world of sickness and death and loneliness. Christmas isn’t about what we want or what WE think we need with gifts of entertainment and fun. It isn’t to make our lives better or more comfortable for a little bit. It’s given to change our lives.
Here’s another thing. At the original Christmas we don’t choose one of many presents to unwrap. We don’t have to unwrap a thing. God reveals it to us. It’s one present for all of us. And He wants us to know that this gift is the personification of His LOVE. Usually gifts are objects that are purchased at a store, built by someone else, perhaps purchased quickly, at the last minute. In the classic movie “Christmas Vacation,” Aunt Bethany had some form of dementia, so she wrapped her cat in a box. The cat wasn’t too thrilled to be in there. Not this gift.
This is how God’s love for us was revealed. Before His gift came, He had some pretty specific hints of what His present would be and where we could find it throughout the Old Testament prophecies. What does He give us? He wraps Himself in the flesh and sends Himself into our world in such a humble way, through the virgin Mary, being born in a cattle stall and placed in a manger. God comes into our world in a weak and vulnerable way, so that we can see Him, hear Him, touch Him, and hold Him. God puts Himself in the box. He calls out to the shepherds and says, “Look what I’ve brought you. Look at what I’ve become for you. Here I am.”
One of the most emotional songs that I love to listen to at Christmas time is a song by Josh Groban called, “I’ll be Home for Christmas.” What is especially emotional is that he intersperses audio messages of mothers and fathers who are serving overseas, who can’t be home with their own children for Christmas. The spouse, parent, or children would love nothing more than to see their family member at Christmas. Maybe you are the same way this year as a consequence of sin and death. Think then about what God does for us! At Christmas He comes into our miserable and dying home! He takes on our flesh. He makes Himself physically vulnerable. He comes here knowing that He will die a miserable death in the process. We can then see the unseeable, and actually feel and hear how gracious and merciful He really is as He speaks and cares for us in the flesh.
In a little stable, far across the sea
was the baby Jesus, born for you and me.
If I asked you to remember ANY of the gifts you received last year, how many of you would remember any of them? But every once in a while you receive something special, a unique gift that really catches your attention. It isn’t always that special looking or expensive either. I still have a book by C.S. Lewis that one of my favorite professors at the Seminary decided to give me, which he thought I would like and personally signed with a note. I could have bought that book on Amazon for 10 or 15 bucks maybe. But this one is special because it was HIS and he personally signed it and gave it to ME. What makes this gift of Jesus unique? It is personal. It is one of a kind. It is precious to God. It’s alive, and it’s beaming with life! It is the Creator of life!
God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world. Begotten is kind of a strange word. Begotten doesn’t mean “born.” We don’t use it in English other than when we confess our faith according to the Creed. That’s a good thing, because it’s a rare word in the Greek as well. Only begotten, in the Greek, is the word monogenes. Mono means one. Genus is a kind or a species. Monogenes. The only one. Another interesting place it is used is in Hebrews 11:17 in reference to Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac. It says, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac. This man, who received the promises, was ready to offer his only son.” Now, Isaac wasn’t the only son that Abraham had. Ishmael was his oldest son, born of Hagar. After Sarah died Abraham had six more children through Keturah. Isaac was the only son born as a result of a promise, who was born miraculously through the formerly dead womb of Sarah. So it’s fitting that Jesus, the one and only, would come through Isaac, the one and only. Jesus too was a “monogenes”, a one of a kind.
How so? The One who created the world, becomes a part of His world, a part of humanity. The same, but different. One of a kind. He existed before Creation, so He is not created. We have a beginning, Jesus does not. Just as the Father is eternal, so is the Son. (You can’t have an eternal Father if He doesn’t have an eternal Son.) We are born in sin. Jesus was born without sin. One of a kind. Even within the Trinity, this Person of the Trinity is unique. Only the Son took on flesh. Fully human, yet fully God. One of a kind. The ONLY-BEGOTTEN Son of the Father. This is an integral part of His gift, the One and Only-ness of it all.
Jesus was unique in WHO He was, and He was also unique in WHAT He was born to do. We are born to die as a consequence of sin. But Jesus was born to die in order to PAY for sin. Verse 10 says, This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The word for “atoning sacrifice” in the Greek is “ilasmon.” It basically means to pay a price to someone who is owed something, to placate their anger.
In the Old Testament, God pictured this by having the blood of an animal sprinkled on top of the Ark of the Covenant. It was put on the “mercy seat.” It was the blood that would cause God to be merciful and not enact justice on someone who deserved to be punished for breaking the law, willingly or ignorantly. This is what Jesus was sent into this world to take care. To be the One, the ONLY One who would be blamed for our sins. That poor child is going to get sacrificed. But that poor child, coming from eternity, volunteered to take on that flesh to do that very thing. This child would be the personification of God’s love, how we’d see it in action. This package in the manger is God’s love in the flesh.
I think about that living type of a love. 11 years ago we bought Sophie as a family gift. I didn’t think about how heartache that little ball of fur would cause this past year, as her hind end would go out, and we’d have to take her to the vet this past fall and watch her be put down. I had to drive her there with my family. I had to make the choice, along with my wife. I never want to have to go through that again. It felt like I was betraying her. But you don’t think about that when the dog is just a puppy. It’s just a puppy.
Then I think about Jesus. God knew exactly what would happen to this baby. Jesus, of course, was no pet, and He wasn’t put down because of bad health. He, God’s one and only Son, was sacrificed because of God’s wrath, under our jealousy and wrath too. He had to put Himself there on the cross, and the Father had to make the Son suffer. Why? Because of His love for us - to be able to create a way to forgive us. God KNEW what was at the end of the road in humility on this earth. This is what He sent His only begotten Son to give us: His death on the cross, for us. Why would He do that for me and for you? Only because of God’s unconditional LOVE!
But what does that love actually GIVE us? John says, “so that we may live through him.” If there’s anything that life has taught us over the past year and a half is that life is precious and it is fragile! Think of the two parts of humanity, body and soul. We’re all born physically alive, bound to die, and it could happen any day. Nobody escapes it on this side of heaven. But on the inside, we have LIFE. We know that because of Jesus we get to live after we die in heaven. We know our bodies will rise from the dead. We know that we are forgiven and loved, because of what that Baby in the manger did for us. We have the joy of knowing that when our loved ones die, we get to be with them again. How? THROUGH HIM. That’s it. He’s the only reason we have life here and now and there and then - through faith in JESUS - and what He did for us. This is what it means to have LIFE.
Satan doesn’t want you to see life this way. “Here, look at the Covid statistics. See how many people are DYING! You’re not safe! Here, see potential war in Ukraine. Here, see what China might do to Taiwan. Look at the gas prices. You can’t afford this! Look at the divorce ratio. Look at your failed marriage. Look at your health. Look at your bank account. Look at your failure of a life. God doesn’t love YOU. You might as well die right now. Throw yourself in the river. Give up.”
That’s Satan talking. What did Jesus say to Satan in Peter, when Peter was trying to convince Jesus NOT to die? Get behind me Satan. I’m not going to live my life that way. I have a God who protects me. I have a GOD who BECAME me. I have a God who COVERED me in His blood. I have a God who CONQUERED sin and death. I KNOW He loves me, because of Bethlehem. I have a God who promises to bring me to heaven, not because of my successes or failures, but because of that little baby in Bethlehem. He loves ME. He wants ME. He saved ME. I am not going to live my life in fear and anger and sadness. I have the ONE and ONLY! I will find life in the midst of death, joy in the midst of sorrow, in Jesus. I will not live my life in fear. I will not give up. I’m still here, so you must have a purpose for me in some way. I will take life one step at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time, and try to LIVE it to the fullness of your glory. Why? Because YOU LOVE me.
It was about 17 years ago that my wife came jumping onto our bed with a surprise announcement at maybe around 1:00 in the morning. A test strip had two lines instead of one. This was no white elephant. It was another gift of flesh. Our lives would change one more time. Maia was already out of diapers, about three years old. One more life to add to the journey. Oh boy! Here we go again. I wasn’t getting any younger. But God has given me strength, and God has blessed us tremendously, in spite of the work, with five extra lives in our house. Every one is an adventure. I thank God for those gifts of life.
It was about 2,000 years ago that the angels came flying into our world with a much greater announcement. This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. The Holy Spirit has led you to Bethlehem and revealed to you the greatest gift that has come into your life and your world: God in the flesh. He’s opened to you the God of mercy and grace, sacrifice and forgiveness. He’s opened heaven and hope to you through faith in Christ. He’s given you a reason to live, and even a hope to die, so that you can live in heaven with Him and your loved ones in Christ. What a precious gift, the gift of life, in Jesus. You have it, free of charge, life in the flesh. Enjoy it this Christmas. Enjoy Him this Christmas. Amen.
