What do you want for Christmas? Is it something you want, or is it something you need?
As many parents try to teach their children, we don’t get everything we want, but we usually get what we need. Many times they are not the same.
Today I want us to look at 4 men in the Bible who met the Christ of Christmas and as a result they found, not what they wanted, but what they needed, and their lives were changed dramatically.
When Jesus lived here on earth, he saw a man who had been crippled for many years. The Bible tells us in John 5 that he wanted to be healed. He had been crippled for 38 years and for a long time, maybe the entire time, he had spent his days and nights lying on a hard cold floor surrounding a public bathing pool, known as the Pool of Bethesda.
There were 5 porches surrounding this pool and many crippled people stayed there because the Jews in that area believed that every now and then an angel would step into the water, and when the waters were troubled and began moving, then the first person to step into the pool would be healed.
The cripple of Bethesda wanted to be healed.
Or so he thought.
But did he?
That’s what Jesus asked him.
John 5:6 Jesus said to him, “Do you REALLY want to get well?”
Being well, and in good health, requires a lot of responsibility. When you are well, people expect you to work and earn a living. To become an active and responsible citizen of the community. To help others.
Jesus knew this, and so he asked the very piercing question, Do you really want to get well? And then he told him it was time for him to assume responsibility for himself, to get up, pick up his bed, and walk.
And because Jesus came as a Babe in a manger, this man received so much more than just physical healing. He received a special touch of the Master with power to witness for Him, even in the face of strong opposition.
It’s alright to pray for healing. That is a legitimate “want”, But the Christ of Christmas gives us more than that. The ability to witness. The ability to become a whole person. To be all we can be. To accept responsibility for our actions. To become a productive member of society.
The second man who got his wants and his needs mixed up was a little short guy we will call Zach. Actually, his real name was Zacchaeus.
The Bible says he was a tax collector, and tax collectors in those days were even worse than our modern day IRS agents. They were Jews who worked for the Romans. That in itself was bad enough, but to collect taxes from his fellow Jews for the Roman treasury was even worse.
So it took quite an incentive for a Jew to become a tax collector. The Romans knew that, so they had quite an incentive. They allowed the Jewish tax collector to take as much money as he could from every Jewish citizen and after he paid the Roman IRS what they required, he could keep the rest.
So Zacchaues had many wants. And he was busy making money to buy them. He probably lived in the biggest house in town. He probably had a new Suburban, and a new Hummer, and a new Cadillac parked in his 3 car garage, with a boat on one side of the driveway, and a large RV on the other.
He wanted a lot of things for Christmas. A new digital camera, and a DVD, and a plasma wall mounted TV with the biggest screen you could buy.
He was so busy fleecing his Jewish brothers and making money hand over heel that he really hadn’t had time to think about what he needed.
Until Jesus came to town. Jericho, that is. (Luke 19)
The Bible doesn’t tell us why Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus……how he found out about him, how much he knew about him. We don’t know that. The Bible just said he wanted to see Jesus, but he was short, and the crowd was big, and he wanted to see him so badly that he climbed up into a tree to see over the head of the crowd.
The same scripture which tells us that Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, and very rich, tells us that he was so desperate that he did a most undignified thing, he climbed a tree.
Zacchaeus had a “need” he hadn’t known about until then, and he didn’t even know what to call it, but when Jesus called him down from the tree and told him he was going home to eat with him that day, all Zack could think about was his sin of stealing from his people, and getting rich at their expense, and all of a sudden he was so sickened and ashamed of his lifestyle that he begged Jesus to allow him to get rid of his guilt by giving back everything he had wrongfully taken and even 4 times so.
Zack had a need. He needed to be saved. He needed to get right with God. He needed to get relief from his guilt. He needed to be welcomed back into his church family. He probably hadn’t been to the synagogue for years and if he did go, he was probably shunned by all his friends. He needed acceptance.
A lot of us have reached this point at some time in our lives. Some of you may be sitting here this morning with these very needs.
You need to be saved. You need to invite Jesus into your heart. You need to repent of your sins and you may need to restore something you have stolen. You may need to be reconciled to someone you have wronged. You want to be a part of the church family again. You want very much to be accepted.
Because of the gift of Christmas, all of those things are available to you – for free. Is that what you need this Christmas?
In Acts 9 we read about another young, intelligent, educated Jew by the name of Saul. Saul had lots of power, and all he wanted for Christmas was more power.
He had become a very powerful figure in the Jewish opposition to the new Christians. He hated them. He writes later that he hated them so much that he had persecuted them, arresting them as they met to worship, throwing them in jail, beating them up, and even killing some of them. And he wanted to do more of it. He wanted more power and control over them.
Listen to this passage from Acts 9: “Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath. He was eager to destroy the Lord’s followers so he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them--both men and women--back to Jerusalem in chains.”
More power, power to arrest, power to destroy, power to kill
But what Saul needed was to meet Jesus Christ himself – face to face. And so, on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him as a blinding light which knocked him off his horse and threw him down on the dusty road, and spoke to him.
Saul was instantly converted to Jesus Christ and became the man we know as St. Paul, the greatest Christian preacher and evangelist who ever lived – the author of most of the New Testament. And he found real power, not the kind he thought he wanted, but the kind he needed.
This man Paul later wrote in Romans 1:16:For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
In closing, let’s look at a disciple named Peter. Peter had known Jesus intimately, had been one of the top 3 in the group of 12, had been in the inner circle with James and John. But he failed Jesus at a time Christ needed him the most. He betrayed Him, cursed His name, and abandoned Him.
Christ had called him once to leave his fishing boats and business and become a fisher of men. But Peter felt like he was the biggest failure of all time. He felt like he had lost his calling, and his ministry, and was of no further use to Christ.
In John 21, we read that Peter got together with his buddies, and said, “Come on guys, I want to go fishing.”
That’s what Peter thought he wanted. To go back into the business world and forget about his 15 minutes of fame with Christ. To get back out on the water where he felt like a champion and not a failure.
But because of Christmas, Peter’s life was about to take an entirely different turn. Jesus appeared on the seashore and interrupted the little fishing party.
He asked them if they had had any luck. He knew they hadn’t. He knows every fish by name and just exactly where they are in the water. He who had power over the wind and the waves certainly had power over the fish in the waves.
So he did a replay of that first day when he met Peter. He told him where to put out the net to make a big catch. And it was the same this time as it was 3 years earlier. They found so many fish in their net that the nets broke before they could haul them in.
And Peter found out he really didn’t want to fish for food anymore. He still needed to be in ministry, to catch men and women and boys and girls for the Lord.
Jesus used a series of 3 repetitive questions to bring this thought home to Peter.
#1 He said, Peter, do you love me (agape)? Unconditional love. Love that will bring you to serve me no matter what the cost, or how the world treats you, or what the end results might be.
Peter replied he loved him, but he didn’t use the same Greek word for love as Jesus did. He used the word for friend, that he loved Jesus- just as a friend.
#2 Jesus asked him again, the same question, the same way, the same Greek word. Peter replied as before. He just wasn’t ready to make a commitment.
#3 Jesus asked a third time, but this time He used Peter’s word for love, the love of one friend for another, and Peter realized how deeply he had hurt Jesus, and how much he needed to be back in full fellowship with the Master, to be back in ministry, back in full time service.
Peter started out that day wanting to go fishing, but he ended the day needing, and receiving a second chance.
How about you this morning?
Have you failed the Lord? Have you betrayed Him, forsaken Him, abandoned Him? Do you need a second chance? Or a third, or even a fourth.
It’s Christmas. Jesus wants to give you what you need.
And you need God.
Whatever is going on in your life, you need God.
Whatever you think you want, you need God.
Whatever you’ve been searching for, you need God.
And He’s here this morning. Waiting on you to ask him. Waiting on you to come and pray and ask him into your heart, or for a second chance to serve Him.
