When it comes to Christmas there is always an expectancy to hear the Christmas message to hear the prophecy of Isaiah and Luke’s account. These have become staples in the church this time of the year. But since this is the Sunday Night crowd and as I look out among you I am confident that you know the story.
You know about the Shepherd’s in the field, that there was no room in the Inn, you know that there were three Wiseman baring gifts.
Before I go any further let me set this sermon up with a video... Now if that father who gave his son that piece of molded plastic that probably has long been forgot how much more can God do for us?
I fear that the message has lost its meaning it is as much expected as the reciting of the 12 days of Christmas, the placement of a manger has become décor just like Santa and a lit tree.
There are two Sundays in a year that churches everywhere see an increase in attendance. Today being one of those days, the Sunday before Christmas and the other Easter Sunday. It is funny how people will only come to church on these days, for Christmas they come to hear a message on the birth of Christ and in several months they will come back to hear about His death.
In essence people come to church on Christmas for a baby dedication and then will come back on Easter for a funeral!
What so many are missing out on is He is no longer in a manager nor is He in the tomb, but at the right hand of God, and for the child the God He is as close as your heart.
I have tried to figure out why it is that people love to go to church on these two days, is it an obligation, tradition, or could it be convenience; is it easier to come to church on the occasion of birth and death. Does it make it easier to see our judge as a baby and corpse?
Maybe people like the Christmas message so much because they are surrounded by the imagery of a savior as a baby. Maybe baby Jesus makes for a better savior because they have control over Him, they only have to see Him once a year and when they do He is this sweet precious little baby. They set Him where they want Him; they can place Him anywhere in the house on the mantel, coffee table, or end table, but never in the heart. The only words they hear from His mouth are coos.
As you might have guessed this is not going to be your traditional Christmas message. I love this time of year I always have as a child.
This is still a Christmas message, just not the traditional message. On this Sunday before Christmas I want to talk to you a little while about “The Giver that Keeps on Giving”.
I. What does Christmas mean
This is truly a special time of year where it seems like everyone acts a little better. Maybe it’s the music and the atmosphere we try to set one of “Peace on Earth”, whatever it is there is no denying this season does something to people.
Turn on the TV and you will find holiday movies that carry a heartwarming message of love and hope that is unless you are watching a “Lifetime” Christmas there you get an abusive message of despair and melancholy. But beside that little thorn in every mans side you find some kind of encouragement that there is something truly special about this season.
I heard a preacher ask his congregation what would have happened that night in Bethlehem if the promise of a Savior would have never been made. He went on to answer that the shepherds would have stayed in the field, the Wiseman would have never made their journey baring gifts, and a carpenter and a young women would have continued to celebrate their marriage. He talked a great deal about the imagery we have come to expect concerning “the Christmas Story” and no not the one about the little boy and his red rider BB gun, and how it would have made life so much different.
I applaud him for his effort and I understand what he was trying to say but to be correct had God never made the promise that he would give us a Redeemer, life as we know it would not exist. There would be no Bible containing 66 books rather should one have survived it would only have less than 6 short chapters. Everything would have ended at the flood, there would not been any reason to preserve man; Noah would not have a linage to preserve, because God will have never told Adam and Eve and the serpent that he would put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The first prophecy of the Messiah would never have been given there would have been no hope; it is possible to say that Seth would have never been born, Enoch would never be translated, it is also possible that the flood would have taken place even sooner and all mankind would have been lost.
II. Giving
At this time of the year there is a lot of talk about giving. This is the time when we ask, “How much and how often should you give to the Salvation Army with the bell ringers and the hanging pots? What to get your wife for Christmas? Whether to shop on the Internet or buy in person? How much do we spend on a gift and if I find something for $10 that was originally $80 does that count as going over the limit?” It can all seem to feel like give; give; give. For the most part people at this time of the year want to make sure that they give the best present they can.
The word “GIVE” can be found some 811 times in the Bible. God started the giving. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God…God started the giving by not only creating us, but also everything. Genesis 1:29-31 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it will be for food. Also to every beast of the earth, to every bird in the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food’; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God gave us everything and He didn’t just say it’s good, He said it was VERY good. So what God gave us was all good, and any bad that we have in this world is a result of our own mistakes. God gives us everything. It’s all His money. Your name may be on the deed of the house or the title of the car. But God gives it all to you. Not only did God start the giving but …
What God gives is eternal
He is no Indian giver. The things we receive here will tear up, they will rust, they will fade, and they will not last forever. But Jesus told the woman who was at the well in John 4:13-14 “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but who ever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life”.
God wants nothing but the best for us. He wants us to have joy. Not just some of the time, but all the time. He wants us to have peace. His will is nothing but the best for us. And what He gives us has no expiration date on it; it is eternal.
2Co 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
III. The Gift
All of these things are needs based things not wants. God Supplies all of our NEEDs. Ask and God will Supply your needs. So the real question to ask this season is not what do you want, but what do you need? Even better, is there someone around you that has a need?
You hear it every Christmas from the church…Christmas has become too commercialized…Jesus is the reason for the season…Its not about what you get it is what you give…and the list goes on. It seems to me that we Christians are becoming just as guilty as the non-Christians when it comes to missing the meaning of Christmas.
While it is true that the first day after thanksgiving is called Black Friday on wall street in reference to it is when many retail stores make it out of the hole…It is true that often “the world” misses the point of Christmas…We are often just as guilty. We get so busy complaining about the world, missing the point we turn it into a time of negativity instead of an opportunity to remind people of the hope of Jesus.
I think the real question is “What do you need for Christmas?” – Need, not want – for there are many things we want but there is one thing we absolutely need. We need God. You and I need God; because God is love – and we need love – we need to know that we are loved unconditionally. You and I need God, because God is life – and we need life – abundant life, life in its fullness. You and I need God; because God is peace – and we need peace – the world so desperately needs peace – the peace that passes all understanding, which only God can give. St. Augustine had it right when he said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.”
Hear the good news of Christmas (Luke 2:10) God is with us in Jesus Christ – the Babe of Bethlehem, but also Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace. And tonight this God invites us to bring him all our problems and pains, all our anxieties and inadequacies, all our frustrations and fears – for this God, who loves us so much, wants to give us himself.
This is the message I want to share during this season of hope. This is the message the world needs to hear. They do not need Christians in their face looking like Rudolf’s nose so bright lecturing them on how they have missed it. Often it is the quietest voice that stands out.
Often it is the unassuming that makes the difference. In the gospel of Matthew; Jesus told the crowds from the mount “The meek shall inherit the earth.”
This reminds me of a story I heard about a lady who frantically rushing around the mall was trying to finish last minute Christmas shopping. She along with everyone else was trying to find the “hot Gift of the season. She hurried about in the store dragging her little girls behind her. FINALLY she succeeded in finding the gift. She snatched the last one just before another person reached for it. Feeling victorious she rushed to the elevator; as the car doors opened to the elevator there was the rush of people getting off and the simultaneous rush of people getting on. The lady grabbed her daughter’s hand, shouted for her to come on and she shoved her way in. As the doors closed someone shouted “Whoever got this Christmas thing started needs to be shot! A Quite voice from the back of the elevator said” Don’t worry…they already crucified Him. An awkward silence filled the elevator.
Jesus came quietly in the middle of the desert in an unassuming way. The world at that time was watching the eastern sky for their promised “Messiah” who would come and “rescue” them from the world. They were expecting a King to rise up and conquer their enemies in the name of God. They were expecting the rivers to run red with the blood of their enemies as their savior rose up took charge! They were all busy pointing fingers at each other that Christmas too. Of course it was not called Christmas then. But they were doing much the same thing we are doing today fighting wars, fighting with their brothers, neighbors, and people who believed differently from them.
Then it happened the angels appeared, the star appeared, the wise men came, and Jesus was born. Their messiah had come but they missed it! They had been given a gift from God himself but they were blind to it. They were so busy rushing around doing their own thing they missed the very one they had been waiting for.
The event of Christ birth was so important that literally separated history! Yet, to this day many including Christians still miss the point. God sent Jesus to give us one Gift that begets many Gifts. The Gift was Jesus, who begot grace, which, allows for salvation, which provides for joy and peace. -The joy that is resultant from the knowledge that no matter what comes your way there is always another beside you. The Peace that can only come from the presence of The Holy Spirit in your soul, in your innermost being that comes from knowing that you were such a precious individual, that the creator of the entire universe humbled himself, stepped of the throne and came not as a conqueror, but as a baby in a manger, born to a 13 year old girl and a carpenter. His first bed was an animal’s feeding trough that we conveniently call a manger. Jesus did not arrive demanding that people worship him. He simply asked them to listen and to trust Him. Eventually He required that they kill him.
IV. The Reason
Matthew 1:20 says the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
This Christmas I know we talk a lot about giving and receiving from friends and family, but on this Sunday before Christmas the Lord wants to give to you, He wants you to receive.
Since the book of Genesis the Lord has being giving…He gave life then and guess what He is still giving life now; Jesus said I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
2000 years ago the “House of Bread” received a supply that would cover all mankind throughout the ages. (Joh 6:35) “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst”,
(Joh 6:51) “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”(1Co 10:17) For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
Jesus said “man shall not live by bread alone…” He was saying food want cut it, if you want life you got to take of my bread.
What God gave was the ultimate gift. He gave His Son. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
But God gave His only Son, not just for the good people. Not just for the ones who in your minds would deserve it. But as the Bible says, “WHO EVER”. He died for everyone.
But God willingly gave His Son. He knew what was going to happen to Him. He knew that He would be rejected, beaten, and nailed to a cross and hang there and face the most brutal punishment that was known to man; Death by crucifixion. So God gave the ultimate gift. And finally…
Mt 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator, if our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist, if our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist, if our greatest need would had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer, but our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
He came from a mansion to manager, from the streets of gold to a stable cold, from royal robes to swaddling clothes, from His Father’s world to a Jewish girl, from the angels’ praise to the shepherds’ gaze, from that city afar to a wise man’s star, from perfection to rejection, from the throne room of God to the stable’s sod, from all that’s good and pure and holy to all that’s base and vile and lowly, from His humble beginnings to His sacrifice on the cross, He took a crown of thorns and made it a Crown of Glory for you and me.
Every time I thought I couldn't go on, take it anymore, get up and fight again, I would take some bread, when I needed joy, I would get some bread (etc.) "My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus"
This Christmas the Lord is saying to His church; to you, here I am from the “House of Bread” I give to you. Just like sister Ruth, the Lord is laying handfuls on purpose for you; just look around you church open those eyes and beyond the Glory of the Lord. We have our Redeemer!
