Stephen N. Collins
Millville – 12/21/08
simplechristmas
Part 4: Love All
[Cantata: Hope Has Hands]
Song: The World Has Joy Medley
-Joy. What is “joy?” What does it look like to have “joy?” How is someone who has “joy,” different from the rest of us? Isn’t it the same thing as just “being happy?” Because I don’t know about you, but I’m sure not happy all of he time. You know, the simplest definition of joy I’ve heard is that joy is constant even when happiness is not. Joy is strength for today and hope for tomorrow.
-So, how can we live lives that are full of joy? How can we live with the deep, abiding joy that we sing about? I mean, really, what’s there to be joyful about these days? There was a man in the Bible named Paul who talked about what brought Him joy:
Scripture: Philippians 2:5-6
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…”
-You may have never considered this a Christmas passage of Scripture, but it is. Verse 6 describes Jesus as “being in the form of God.” What does that mean? It’s the background for Christmas. Christmas loses it’s meaning if we don’t recognize the significance of the background. The backdrop of the manger where the baby Jesus lay was the Heavenly throne He once sat upon. “Being in the form of God,” means that Jesus was one with God’s nature.
-He is one with God. He is divine. He is pre-existent. It means before the manger scene, He is. It means before the shepherds and the wise men and Mary and Joseph, He is. It means before prophet Isaiah, He is. It means before Jacob, He is. Before Moses, He is. Before Abraham, He is. Before Noah, He is. Before Adam and Eve and the serpent…He is.
-It means that Jesus, this little, frail baby in the manger, is no ordinary baby. He is God in the flesh. Here’s what is said about Him later in the New Testament:
Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20 (NLT)
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.”
-The word “He” is used in some form in those 5 verses 13 times. Jesus. It’s always been about Jesus. It is right now, about Jesus. When we are dead and gone and even when the world has ended, it will still be about Jesus. He is King. Period. This is why we worship Him as God. Because He is. Because He is.
-Everything is His. And…He gave everything up. In the first chapter of John, the writer says that “the [eternal] Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelled among us.”
Songs: The Word Became Flesh
The Lord Has Been Kind
Beautiful Star of Bethlehem
Mary Rocks the Rock
-The Rock of ages. He owns it all and deserves it all. And He could have claimed it all by divine force, but verse 7 says:
Scripture: Philippians 2:7 (NLT)
“Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.”
-The King, the eternal Word, God is the flesh…emptied Himself of His divine rights and came from Heaven to earth. He went from King of creation to a poor, dirty little baby. He forfeited everything that was rightfully His to become one of us.
-My papaw, who’s been a pastor for over 50 years and read and studied this more times than I could ever hope to, has a real good way of putting this all into perspective, and I’ve never fully appreciated the depth of what He was saying until I was preparing for today. When He talks about what God gave up to send His son to be one of us, he says that “Heaven went bankrupt…for us.” Jesus, God in the flesh, went bankrupt. He gave everything He could possibly give…to become one of us.
-“He emptied Himself.”
-So, we come to this point in the story God is writing and the only thing left unsettled is this: Why?
-Why would the Eternal One choose to enter into time and space? Why would the Divine become mortal? Why would the Creator who breathed life into Man become a man? Why would the One who everything was made for go to the absolute extreme limit of self-denial?
-Why? One word.
-One word that describes who God is. One word that was the life mission of Jesus. One word that makes life worth living. One word that people write songs about. One word that we long to experience. One word that we hope for. One word that we yearn for. One word that never had a face until Jesus came.
-One word. Love.
-Why did the King give everything up? Love.
Scripture: John 3:16 – The best Christmas verse there is.
-Why did Jesus empty Himself? Because God loves the world. We exude a lot of effort talking about the evils of the world, but don’t ever, ever forget…God loves the world.
-He loves the poor. He loves the homeless. The dead-beat. The orphan. The adulterer. The homosexual. The liar. The thief. The murderer. The prideful. The lonely. The widow. The ugly. The dirty. The untouchable. God….loves…the….world.
-And you know what that means? God…loves…you.
-Because Jesus came, because of Christmas, these abstract ideas of love and good and joy and hope…have a face.
Songs: Hope Has Hands
Mary, Did You Know?
-Because Jesus came, because of Christmas, love is not just an idea anymore. Hope is more than just an abstract. Good is more than just an act. Joy is more than just a feeling. They’re a person. A person who came for you. A person who loves you. A person who wants a relationship with you.
-Will you respond, today? Will you acknowledge Him for who He is? Will you humble yourself, as Jesus humbled Himself? Will you step down off of the throne of your life and allow the true King to have control? We’re going to sing a song simply titled, “Come.” That’s all I ask you to do today, as we sing this song, grab a friend by the hand, come to an altar here, and come to Jesus.
Song: Come
-So, what does all this mean for us? How does Christmas change us? For the past 4 weeks, our focus has been on having a simple Christmas. And maybe for the first time you’ve really opened your eyes to what Christmas means. Or maybe during our time together, or maybe during one of our service events, you’ve rediscovered the heart of Christmas. That’s wonderful. But what will it all mean for you a month from now? Will Christmas still matter?
-It can. This doesn’t have to be a fleeting thing in your life or in the life of our church. This can a starting point. It can be a launching pad. I want to send you away today with 2 simple words that I sincerely believe God wants to be a mandate for your life and for our church: Love All.
-The Bible says we love because he first loved us. God sent His Son into this world that first Christmas because of His great love for the world. Let’s determine, from this day forward, that we will love as He has loved. Let’s allow a simple Christmas to become a simple way of life. A simple faith that doesn’t just stay in the church building, but overflows out of our love for what Jesus has done us.
Song: Go Tell the World Medley
-One of the ways we can love people is by sharing our faith with them and by inviting them to be part of this family of believers that we call our church. The ushers are going to be passing out one invitation to our Christmas Eve service to each person here. And my challenge to you is to think of the one person or the one family that you know could use a message of encouragement and hope this year. This Wednesday night, Christmas Eve, we will be have a Simple Christmas Eve service, and we want to fill this place with friends and family to focus on what Christmas is really about one more time before the holiday blitz. It’s this Wednesday night at 6 P.M. and we want to fill this place as we focus on the heart of Christmas.
