The Bible says, “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. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17)
God tells us 3 things at Christmas:
(1) He is WITH us, (2) He LOVES us, and (3) He is FOR us.
• He is not out to condemn us, although it is just and fair for Him to do so. We are sinners, we have rejected God. But He has chosen to come for us.
(1) GOD IS WITH US
God exists. God wants us to know He exists, and He is our God.
• This is not something for you to decide on, it is something for you to accept.
• We cannot choose and decide what is true. We can only discover and accept the truth.
• In science, we study what is there and accept it. We cannot change nature. We simply discover what is present, what is real and what is true.
Many things we do not decide, God decides.
• You did not decide to be born in Singapore. You did choose to be male or female.
• This is the reality presented to you, and you accept it and live with it.
God reveals Himself through the Scriptures, and then in a clearer way, through Jesus Christ when He steps into our world.
• Even before Jesus’ arrival, He has already started revealing this event to the prophets. We have over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament pointing to Christmas.
• And then He came, and we are called to trust the truth as it is revealed.
No man can know God unless God chooses to reveal Himself. And this is what He did at Christmas.
• Jesus says, “No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only he has seen the Father.” (John 6:46)
• When one of His disciples Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
• God did not leave us in the dark, guessing or speculating, nor did He want us to be our own god or invent our own gods.
God did not create this world, left it running and went into hiding.
• If that is true, the He is with you today. You may not see Him or feel Him, but that won’t change the truth.
• Your senses can only discover the truth but not change it. No wonder He needs to take on human flesh, He needs to come.
With Christmas, we now know who God is. You don’t have to search for Him; He has come.
• The Bible says His name is Immanuel, which means, “God is with us.” God says, “I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.”
• It has nothing to do with how you feel. The truth is, God exist, He loves you and He is with you today.
One of the ancient kings of Persia loved to mingle with his people, but he has to do it in disguise because people will recognise him.
Once, dressed as a poor man, he descended to the village, and visited a tiny cellar where a fireman, seated on ashes, was tending the furnace. The king sat down beside him and began to chat. At meal time the fireman produced some coarse bread and a jug of water and they ate and drank.
The king went away but returned again and again, for his heart was filled with sympathy for the lonely man. They became very good friends as time passed.
At last the king thought, “I’ll tell him who I am, and see what gift he will ask.” So he did, but the fireman didn’t ask for a thing.
The king was astonished and said, “Don’t you realize that I can give you anything—a title, a house?”
The man gently replied, “I understand your Majesty. You have already given the greatest gift a man could receive. You left your palace to sit with me here in this dark and lonely place. You could give nothing more precious. You have given yourself and that is far more than I could ever deserve.”
Do you feel lonely sometimes? Do you feel that you are alone, or no one really understands you? Well, the truth is you’re not.
• God says He is with you and He will never leave you. He wants you to know that. God says He knows you and He loves you.
• You need Him in your life. The reason you feel lonely and lost is because you are not connected to God.
• Jesus comes so that you cannot be connected again with God. So that you can have life and have it abundantly.
You need to put your trust in Jesus Christ. This is the message of Christmas.
• When you trust Christ as your Saviour, you’ll be reconciled with God.
• You don’t have to face anything in 2010 by yourself. You can, but you don’t have to, because the Lord says, “I’ve come.”
• When He is here, you do not need to fear. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to be anxious about what’s going to happen, because He’s in control.
• He is God and not you. You need to accept God’s gift at Christmas.
(2) GOD LOVES US
God wants you to know that you are on His mind. He cares about you.
• You are not a number among the millions on earth. You have a name and the Lord says He calls his own sheep by name (John 10:3).
• You are made in the image of God. You have a mind that can think, analyse and design, a mind that can recall the past and learn from it; a mind that can look into the future and plan for it.
You are valuable in God’s eyes and He loves you.
• Love arises from the keen sense of the value and worth in the object of our love. The value is not external; it’s inherent in you. You are made in His likeness.
• You love your son not because of his results at school, not because of his IQ or EQ, not because he is able to sing, dance or write, not because he has good looks.
• You love him simply because he’s your son. His value lies in this, not in his achievements or abilities or talents or looks.
God loves you not because we are good. He loves because we are made by Him and reflect His beauty.
• In fact, we are actually sinners. We’ve rebelled against God. Yet God says He loves you, enough to come looking for you.
• How can I be sure of that? We’ve got to look at what He did, because it would be in His actions that I gain more clarity on what God means when He says, “I love you.”
• The Bible says, He sent His Son Jesus into this world. Christmas is God’s way of saying to us, “I love you.”
You are created as an object of God’s love. God made you to love you. It’s the only reason you’re alive.
• If God didn’t want to love you, you wouldn’t be here today. You could very well be a speck of dust on an isolated planet called earth.
• God made you to love you. And He loves you on your good days as much as your bad days. And He loves you when you feel it, and He loves you when you don’t feel it. He loves you when you think you deserve it, and He loves you when you think you don’t deserve it.
I like the way Max Lucado puts it:
“God is crazy about you. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your picture would be in it. Whenever you would talk, He would listen. And you might go days without thinking of Him, but there would never be a moment when He would not be thinking of you.”
His love isn’t based on what you do. His love is based on who He is – “For God so loved the world.”
• His love is based on His character, not your performance.
• You can’t make God stop loving you, because His love isn’t based on what you do. It’s based on WHO He is.
• Jesus says, “I love you this much, and He died on the cross for you, to pay the price for the forgiveness of your sin.”
(3) GOD IS FOR US
Jesus says, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.”
God wants you to know He is for you today, not against you.
• Many people are afraid of God. He must be holy, righteous and just, which is correct.
• Now that’s the problem – we are not good enough. We know we are not good enough. It’s call guilt. Rom 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• Guilt separates us from God. “If I get close to God, He’s going to scold me. He’s going to remind me of all the things I’ve done wrong. He’s going to tell me I’m not good enough.”
God knows about that. And that’s why Jesus has to reassure us, that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world.”
• He came to save it. “I didn’t come to scold you. I came to save you. That’s the good news of great joy (the angel proclaimed to the shepherds).”
• And if God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) Who can go against Him?
A young girl once found a scrap of paper that has this verse of the Bible, but it was torn. It said, "For God so loved the world that he gave..." Previously this girl had come to know God as someone fierce and judgemental.
She took this piece of paper and went home smiling. Her mother noticed a change and asked why she was happy. She showed her the scrap of paper and the mother asked, "What did he give?"
The girl replied, "I don't know, but if He loved us enough to give anything at all, we needn't be afraid of him anymore. This God is good…"
If you know Him today, you would say the same. You know what God has given us.
• Jesus came to save us, not to scare us. That’s not God’s intention.
• You look at the Bible. Each time God speaks to His people, either in visions or through His angels, the most common first words are: “Do not be afraid.”
• At Christmas time, He said that to Mary, to Joseph, to the shepherds in the field.
• Do you know that there are 365 “fear not’s” in the Bible? That’s one for every day of the year. God is saying, “Get the message! You don’t need to be afraid.”
That’s the good news. And that’s why we celebrate at Christmas.
• The angel says, it is good news of great joy for all people (Luke 2:10).
• You know what all people mean? It means regardless of race, language, religion or nationality. God loves all people and longs for them to return to Him.
A man, disappointed with life, put up this sign in his room, in large capital letters, “GOD IS NOWHERE.” A Christian friend came to his room. He saw the sign and shifted the W and H apart. He tells him, “GOD IS NOW HERE.”
At Christmas, God came for you. Would you accept God’s gift of salvation today?
Once upon a time there was a little girl whose parents had died. She lived with her grandmother in a small room on the second floor. One night a fire broke out in the house and the grandmother died while trying to rescue the little girl.
The fire spread through the house very quickly and the first floor was soon engulfed in flames. The neighbours tried to enter the house but were blocked by the flames. They could hear her cries in the upper room but were at a lost what to do. Before the firemen could arrive, one man suddenly appeared with a tall ladder and decided to reach for the window. He climbed up, broke a window and disappeared into the house.
After a few anxious minutes, he soon reappeared at the window with the little girl in his arms. He brought her down just as the ambulance arrived and took her quickly to the hospital. The little girl survived, but the man who saved her disappeared into the night.
A few months later, the little girl went before a judge who has the responsibility of placing her in a foster home. She had no living relatives, so it was up to the court to find her a proper home. The judge interviewed prospective guardians who are keen to take her in.
The first person requesting custody of the child was a schoolteacher. “I can give her a good education. I’m a teacher, and she will learn a lot from me and she will have a good future.”
Next was a rich woman who said, "I can give this child anything she needs or wants. I will provide her with the finest clothes and send her to the best schools. If she lives with me, she will have whatever her heart desires."
A few others were interviewed, each explaining why it would be to the little girl's advantage to live with them.
"Does anyone else have anything to say before I make my decision?" asked the judge.
Just then a man came forward from the back of the courtroom. He walked very slowly and with a slight limp. From his old clothes, it was obvious that he wasn't rich or well-educated. When he got to the front of the room, he stood directly in front of the little girl and held out his arms. His hands and his arms were terribly burned and scarred.
The girl ran and hugged the man. He was the man who saved her.
At that point, the judge said, "I think I've just made my decision." And the court was adjourned.
There is an old hymn that says, “O how I love Jesus, because He first loved me!”
• [Hymn 388: O How I Love Jesus – let’s sing stanza 1 and 2.] Let us pray.
If you want to accept Jesus as your Saviour, repeat these words in your heart after me.
“Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you for coming, and saving my life. I know I am a sinner and I need you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sin and I now trust you as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for giving me eternal life. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.”
