Beyond Baby Jesus Series

INTRODUCTION:

Today people around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus. For most people Christmas is all about baby Jesus. All go to church, worship, and are grateful to God for sending his son Jesus Christ into this world. Then they go back home and it is all about them. What does Jesus mean to you? Is your knowledge of Christmas limited to the baby?

This morning we are going to go beyond baby Jesus and see what Jesus is all about in our lives.

Christmas is a time of giving and people spend a lot of money on buying gifts. The gifts are then wrapped beautifully and given to our loved ones. Some gifts are expensive whereas some are less expensive. Sometimes it may not be a costly gift but may be precious; it all depends on who is giving you the gift. Whatever the gift is, it is always a great feeling to receive a gift.

Well, the baby boy born to Joseph and Mary was a gift of God for the entire mankind. The Bible mentions Jesus as the indescribable gift of God.

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! Jesus is a gift.

Illustration:

A gift is basically significant for two reasons. One is what is your relationship with the person who gives you the gift? How well do you know that person? The second significance is the gift itself. What is inside the beautiful wrapper? How useful it is to you?

Well, we are going to see the gift of Jesus in these two aspects; the source of this gift, our relationship to him and the real gift itself.

In John chapter 3 we find a religious man called Nicodemus. He was a popular religious man who had a burning desire to know about Jesus. The Bible says Nicodemus came at night to see Jesus. We do not know why he chose to come at night; maybe he feared people seeing him with Jesus, or maybe he wanted to avoid much crowd or he had security issues to deal with. But as Nicodemus was talking to Jesus, Jesus explained what he has in offer for mankind.

John 3:15-16 15 That everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus Christ is a gift. Now let’s look at the source of this Gift.

Who gave this gift? What is the source of this gift?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world ….. God is the source of this present. Do you know that God has given a precious gift for you? The God of the universe, the God who created everything has given you a personal gift, Jesus Christ.

Why did God give you a gift?

What was his motivation?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world …..The motivation for God to give Jesus is his love for you.

How much does God love you?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world …..It is not that God just loves you, God loves you so much. His love towards you is deep, unconditional, and sacrificial love.

If you are sitting here feeling rejected, broken, lonely, depressed understand God loves you. Maybe the ones who loved you or whom you loved have gone away from you. You may think there is no one who cares for me, I wish there was someone who loved me. God loves you.

God loved us to the point that there was an action to show his love. The action is that he gave his one and only son into this world and whoever believes Jesus has eternal life.

So far we had been talking about the gift of Christmas. The source is God the Father giving us Jesus Christ. But what is inside this gift box?

Illustration:

Last week we received a gift from one of our friends in Arunachal Pradesh. We had to go collect if from a common friend of ours. When we saw the gift we were surprised, it was 4 feet long and 2 feet wide, the biggest gift we have ever received. We brought it to the car and right from that time we were curious to know what was inside. Driving back home we were growing impatient and I started feeling the gift, Sam lifted to see its weight but still, we did not know what was inside. We finally reached home and the first thing we did was to open it. It took 5 minutes to cut open the ribbon and the lovely pack but all of us stood speechless to see what was really inside.

We know Jesus is the gift of God. But knowing him as the gift is just keeping the gift without unwrapping it. Many feel what is inside is eternal life. Yes, eternal life is a major part of the gift of God but that is not all.