Like No Other

Like No Other

Christmas Eve 2021

Intro

So good to share this time with you.

As I’ve shared before, this night has long been a special night for me.

I still can recall the night of Christmas Eve when I was 16 years old. I had come to enjoy the Christmas holiday like most kids... and that included extended family.

But I knew there was more to the night.

I could feel the needs of a darkened world... and a peace that eluded any hope within it.

What had come that night... in the birth of Christ... was truly a light amidst the darkness.

Long after family gathering… driving down Sunset Blvd… (when your were 16...you just went out driving)... near midnight....and seeing a sign … Christmas Eve…Candlelight Service at midnight.

Beckoned with wonder

What I recall that night....is the deep realization that a light had truly come into a darkened world. God has brought the source of peace that defied the powers of this world.

Something had crept into the world to set it right.

A night that a presence entered our world… and took it back.

A night in which the eternal declares to this world that it there is a greater will and a greater work that will prevail.

As I drove home... the Christmas lights I had always loved...I enjoyed even more... as a beautiful picture of the light of God piecing the darkness.

What I felt that night has never changed.

And before we enjoy the symbols of that light... I want to invite us to look at this moment once again.

Christmas can become about so many things...that we may have to look through the outward to see him.

For some... through the wonderful...family and festivities...and presents to open.

For some... it may mean looking through some losses and loneliness.

Whatever circumstances may surround Christmas...I encourage us to look through the outward to see Christ.

And I want to dare us to really look... to look beyond the sentiments.

Strange as it may seem... this can be a time in which we can actually “turn away”... looking everywhere but at the one at the center. We can focus on gifts and parties and vacations.

We can look but keep our distance... perhaps cast the one born as simply a religious figure.

Or we can dare to look... and when we do... it may be a little uncomfortable...

If we dare to look.... we will see that he will not be reduced to just another religious figure....he will not be reduced to a sentimental figure to serve in the backdrop of a holiday....he will not be reduced to serve earthly political ideologies.

It’s an opportunity to dare and look closely.

The closer I look... the more I am I can see the how brightly he shines.

The more I can see that there is no one like him.

In Christ, we behold...

1. An Impact Like No Other

This earth has included some who may recognize as having special talents... some we call heroes...some who inspire us.

But when Christ was born.... something of another dimension was at hand.

Everything has declared that something of a far greater impact was at hand.

The prophets had not spoken of a mere religious teacher...but one sent from God to save the world... that he had come for all the nations.

Mary and Joseph knew he was not their child...not simply a son who would do great things...but was of God... to change the world.

On that night ... when the world was sleeping... the one who was born was unlike any other.

There is something about the child born that night that should cause every sound mind to stop and look ...because the obscurity of these lives and this place defies any natural explanation.

They were among a people who had been left on the sidelines of humanity... now on the outskirts of the vast Roman Empire... and even among their own oppressed people... this was but a young peasant couple from the most backwoods of regions.... told to go sleep among the animals. This child... this life... had absolutely no place or position of influence.

When he began to declare what God was doing... he traveled no further than a radius of 100 miles. [1]

He would be given no prominence.

He wasn’t even endorsed by the religious establishment.

But this seemed to be part of God’s plan.

Just as the prophecies has said... there would be nothing about him to demand attention... He would be so stricken that we would turn away from him and yet he would be lifted up.

Jesus himself had said watch what happen... I will be lifted up... a seed that is planted in the ground... bearing a kingdom that will never end. And these things were recorded BEFORE any understood him.