OPEN: Santa Claus has come into the 21st century – he has an email now. Apparently you can email Santa at Emailsanta.com. It seems they get over a million emails a year, and among those emails are these intriguing comments:
• A boy named Jon wrote: “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a chimney... I’ll leave the cat flap unlocked for you, but please watch out for the litter box!”
• Alex, 8 – “Thank you for the remote control car last year, even though it broke the day after. I know you tried, and that’s what counts.”
• A young boy named Art wrote: “I’m sorry for putting all that Ex-lax in your milk last year, but I wasn’t sure if you were real. My dad was really mad.”
• Christian emailed Santa saying: “Mommy and Daddy say I have not been very good these past few days. How bad can I be before I lose my presents?”
• Kayia, 9 “Pleease! Don’t bring me any new clothes.”
• Rosanne, 11 “Do you know Jesus is the real reason of Christmas? Not to be mean, but he is.”
(Readers.Digest Dec. 2010/Jan. 2011 p. 181)
Did you know that Jesus the real reason for the season?
Well, of course you do, that’s why you’re here.
But do we know why He’s the reason?
The night that Jesus was born, an angel appeared to the shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. “And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.’” Luke 2:10-11
The Angel had ONE message to deliver: The Messiah had been born.
But WHY did the angel say Jesus was born?
(He is born to be a savior.)
“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour”
Now that’s a simple Christmas kind of statement. But - behind that simple phrase - is a whole wealth of insight. For example: The fact that Jesus came to be my savior” means that He came to be my rescuer. My hero. My knight in shining armor.
I NEED HIM!!
One Christmas Card said it this way:
"If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us a financial planner.
But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior."
The Bible says I NEEDED Jesus.
He saved me!!!
But now, the question is: What did He save me from?
The angel that appeared to Joseph told him that Mary would “… give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people FROM THEIR SINS." Matthew 1:21
What does that mean?
ILLUS: Well, if you were to ask most people if they were going to heaven when they died, what would they answer?
(“I hope so.”)
That’s right.
But do you know what do they mean by that?
They mean that they KNOW they’ve done enough bad things in their lives.
They KNOW there would be NO WAY they could deserve heaven.
And soooo… their hope is that they can do enough GOOD things to outweigh the bad.
The point is: When people say they “hope they’ve done enough” to be saved, they’re acknowledging that they have sin in their lives… and it has to be paid for.
(I have to do enough good to counter my bad deeds. I need to pay off my sins.)
It troubles them that they have sinned.
It troubles them that they have failed.
But they somehow come to believe they can fix that because they’re really not all that bad a person.
But their sin bothers them.
It reminds them they aren’t worthy to go into the presence of a holy God.
It reminds them that they’ve done things they hate. Things they’re ashamed of.
And it reminds them that they’re not entirely the NICE person they’d like to think they are.
And sin will remind them of their guilt - at the most inopportune moments. They’ll be enjoying a meal, taking a shower, or a taking a drive in the country - and all of a sudden, something will remind them of what they’d said/done/thought.
And suddenly their shame, guilt and embarrassment sweeps over them in a wave and leaves them feeling self-hatred and anger.
OPEN: It’s kind of like the comic strip Peanuts = Lucy is playing baseball and explains to Charlie Brown why she dropped a catch: "Sorry I missed that easy fly ball, manager. I thought I had it, but suddenly I remembered all the others I’ve missed, and the past got in my eyes.”
(pause) The past got in her eyes.
That’s part of the pain of sin… the past gets in our eyes.
We can’t remove it.
We can’t fix it.
We can’t undo it.
It hangs around our necks like rotting flesh and reminds us we have failed. It proves how wicked and evil we can be… and we don’t like that! It frustrates us!
But then… the Bible tells us about Jesus.
Jesus was born to change all that.
Jesus was born to save us from the shame of my sins.
Jesus was born to remove the guilt of my sins.
Jesus was born to PAY for my sins so that God says they no longer exist.
In Jeremiah 31:34 God promised that when He would create a new Covenant (that Jesus came to establish) "… I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
Isaiah 1:18 promised "…Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow...”
And that’s exactly what 1 John 1:7 says: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
How did Jesus do that?
How did He remove my sins and purify me?
Well, He did it by paying for my sins.
Ephesians 1:7 tells us that “In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins…”
We’ve been “Redeemed.
We’ve been “BOUGHT” with His blood.
Throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly drove home the fact that the sin had a price. That price was death. God was telling us that sin was a terrible thing… and it brought a terrible result.
Romans 6:23 said it this way “… the wages of sin is death…”
But God’s law allowed that those sins could be forgiven if something else…or someone else… died for that person’s sins. Hebrews tells us that “In fact the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Hebrews 9:22
Something - or someone - could die to fix our sins.
To pay for our mistakes
To change our destiny.
Back in the Old Testament people sacrificed sheep and goats and bulls to gain forgiveness. But everybody sensed that wasn’t nearly good enough. After all – the animal hadn’t done anything wrong. And it hadn’t even signed up to take their place.
But when Jesus came… that all changed.
Jesus came to die.
Jesus came to volunteer to take my place on the cross.
Jesus came to be my Savior.
As John 3:16 says: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
That’s the simple message of Christmas.
BUT… wait a minute.
I thought the message of Christmas was that there was this little baby boy born in Bethlehem. If the Gospel message was all about Jesus coming to die on a cross for my sins why on earth would the Gospels even bother to tell me a story about:
· Shepherds
· Wise men
· Angels
· Mangers filled with sheep and goats and cattle?
Why did God bother even sharing that? Why waste the ink and paper?
Well… God shared it because it was important!
First – Jesus had to be an infant because – He was needed to be both God and man.
Philippians tells us that Jesus “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:6-7
In other words, before Jesus was born in the manger… JESUS WAS GOD.
But when He came down to earth to be a baby in that manger He stripped Himself of His Godhood (He took it off like an coat He’d hang in the closet) and He allowed Himself to become a mortal.
But in order to be mortal He had to be born of a mortal woman. That’s why the Bible tells us He was born of a virgin. here was no earthly father, because then He would have been just another man.
Matthew 1:18 tells us “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”
That’s odd! Why would God do it that way?
Because Jesus had to be both man AND God. Mortal AND divine.
Why? – because Jesus came to be our Savior. To be our substitute. To die FOR us. But while God would be the only one pure enough to die for us… Gods don’t die. And while mortals CAN die, no mortal man could ever be the sinless sacrifice the law required to pay for our sins.
No ordinary man would be pure and holy enough to take our sins and die for us.
ILLUS: Allow me to use a somewhat imperfect illustration to help us understand that.
Let’s say you are in the hospital and you’re scheduled for a serious surgery. And in walks the surgeon. She’s a 2nd year nursing student. How many of you would want a 2nd year nursing student to perform surgery on you?
Of course you wouldn’t. You want a 40-year-old surgeon with 90 years of experience! There’s no way an unqualified surgeon to use a scalpel on you.
Now, let’s change the scene: you’re in for surgery and in walks the surgeon. He’s got the experience. But the moment he walks in the door you know… this man is a pig farmer. He smells of pigs, he’s got pig manure on his shoes, his hands haven’t been washed in a few days. And he’s going to go into surgery like that. Are you going to want him to operate on you? (No). But why not? (He’s not clean)
What you want is doctor who is qualified to do the surgery, but clean and pure enough to do it safely. In the same way, Jesus was both mortal enough to die (qualified) and divine enough (pure) to pay the price.
So first, Jesus had to be born an infant to prove to us He was both God and Man.
2ndly, Jesus came as a baby in Bethlehem because…that’s the message God wanted to give.
God could have chosen any number of other ways to introduce Himself.
He could have lit up the night in majestic splendor, as opened up the skies and visibly stepped down from His throne. He could have put such a light and sound show that everyone would know: THIS IS GOD!
When Moses and the people of Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai to receive the 10 commandments
“Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him...
When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die." - Exodus 19:18-19; 20:18-19
If God did that when He gave the people the 10 commandments… why didn’t He do something like that when Christ was born?
Answer: He didn’t want to.
When God gave Israel His 10 commandments, His purpose was to prove His power.
But with the coming of Jesus, God wasn’t attempting to prove His power. He was intending to prove His love.
Jesus didn’t come to put us in our place.
He came to lift us up out of that place
Thus, everything God did that day spoke of a Messiah who would be approachable.
I mean, what’s more non-threatening than a little baby in a cradle? Everybody seems to love babies. And babies don’t pass judgment. They don’t point fingers in anger. They hold out their arms and want to be held.
And to whom did God send His first announcement about Jesus’ birth? The angels didn’t go to the Kings and rulers. The Wisemen. The Religious leaders. The angels appeared to Shepherds out in the field, common laborers who smelled like sheep. These were not people you invited to swanky parties… let alone to the birth of a King. But again, God was telegraphing His message: Jesus was going to be someone that common people could touch.
ILLUS: Max Lucado said it this way:
“The tongue that called forth the dead was a human one. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were callused and dirty. And his tears... oh, don’t miss the tears... they came from a heart as broken as your or mine has ever been.
So, people came to him. My, how they came to him! They came at night; they touched him as he walked down the street, they followed him around the sea; they invited him into their homes, and placed their children at his feet.
There were those who mocked him, who were envious of him, who misunderstood him and there were those who revered him.
But there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.
REMEMBER THAT.
Remember that when you see the nativity scene with a helpless infant drawing shepherd and wise man, manger beast and celestial angel, all in an unthreatening atmosphere that was to mark his entire life, even when that life was eventually slain on a desolate hill in Judea. Remember. For man seems always to build barriers between himself and God, but Jesus builds bridges.”
(Max Lucado "God Came Near")
CLOSE: I want to close with this story told by Stan Cole about a missionary team that had been invited to Russia to teach Christianity. It was Christmastime, and as they taught the story of Christ’s birth at an orphanage, everyone listened in amazement. None of the kids or the staff had ever heard it before.
One of the missionaries wrote: "We gave the children some materials and instructed them to create the manger scene that they had just heard about. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat; he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project.
"As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. I called for a translator to ask why. Looking at his completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib his own ending to the story.
"He said, ’And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mama and no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him forever.’
"Putting his hand over his face, Misha’s head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. He had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him forever."
That’s the simple Christmas story.
It was a story of how God stepped down from heaven and made Himself accessible to common people like you and me. God has already done His part in reaching out to us in love. The question this morning is: how will you respond?
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?
Do you recognized that you are a sinner needing a Savior?
Are you willing to confess Him as your Lord and Master?
If so, the final step is to allow yourself to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rise up to be a new creature in Christ.
What will be your decision this morning?
INVITATION.
