You know the Christmas story. He was with God in the beginning. He was God. Through Him, all things were made. Jesus was there. The angels, also there, watched and shouted for joy as the Almighty, 3-in-1, spoke the physical realm into existence out of nothing, all for His glory and pleasure; a perfect creation. Even the angels themselves are a part of God’s handiwork, and they are continually around His throne, amidst the flashes of lightning, the roar of thunder. They are there, giving a voice to what is true about God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty Who was and is and is to come!” It seems that one of their major purposes is to shout about the inescapable majesty of God – His glory and honor and power and wisdom and wonder. They are there as God pronounces His creation is good; and there is peace on earth. And they are there as one of their own, the enemy, convinces the man and woman to disobey, and the creation is flawed; and peace on earth is gone. Surely God could have just put an end to it. Surely He could just banish Satan from even visiting the created world, but God allows it instead. The angels don’t understand it. Do you? Still, they continually announce the perfections of the only wise God whose wisdom is constantly being displayed in the heavenly realm. There is coming a day, He says, when the serpent’s head will be crushed and God’s creation will all be made right again. There will once again be peace on earth. But right now, there isn’t. He restarts creation after a worldwide flood. He begins a unique nation of people to be His own. With power and judgment, he marches them out of Egypt and into Canaan. The Lord is going to come and make things right. His prophets predict His arrival to earth. All Heaven itself holds its breath as the Son finally rises and prepares to leave. How would He strike wonder in peoples’ hearts? How soundly and powerfully will he dash the enemy to his doom?
Wait! What has happened? He’s gone from Heaven, but His glory isn’t. It’s left behind, like an empty shell. Instead of going to earth to rule with an iron scepter, God Almighty, The Ancient of Days, has poured Himself into a human body – the tiniest, most helpless of them. He doesn’t wear the splendor of Heaven. He’s clothed in human flesh. Weak. Dependent. His delicate life is bound to earth and by earth, voluntarily exiled away. The angels will announce His birth when it comes. They will minister to Him directly on occasions. But what the angels will not do is understand why the Creator’s plan involves emptying Himself in the form of Jesus, and laying aside His glory to live among man. Peter says, “angels long to look into these things.” They know God will be exalted. They know the enemy will be cast down. But this? What is this, and, why?
Here’s why: you have a personal problem.
Have you ever used that phrase? It’s what we say so we don’t disclose something that’s delicate or embarrassing. Or, it’s a way of saying you don’t want to talk about it: “I have a personal problem.”
That’s why there’s a Christmas story. It’s why Jesus came to earth, and it’s why Jesus came to earth the way He did. We celebrate Christmas each year because our need is personal.
1. Your Need is Personal
When I say you have a personal problem, here’s what I’m talking about.
It’s something you earned on your own.
You didn’t inherit it.
It’s not like my gall bladder. You see, I have an expiration date on my gall bladder. I’m pretty sure I do, because both of my parents had to have theirs removed. Now, I don’t know what that date is, but it’s there, and it’s there because of my parents. I can’t do much about it. I inherited it.
But, every time I get angry, that’s mine. Every time I give in to lust, that’s my choice. No one chose that for me. Every time I choose not to care about someone, that was me. My bad. Not my dad’s, not my mom’s, not my crazy uncle’s. Every moment that I waste time or allow my time to be wasted, that’s my fault. Oh, sure, there may be things about me that tend to push me that way, but the bottom line is, I have created a personal problem in my life called sin, and so have you.
Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
It’s not corporate. You don’t have it just because of the nation you belong to or the group you’re part of.
Remember in 2nd grade when someone would act up and the whole class wouldn’t get to go out for recess, just because of the actions of 1 or 2 classmates? That always bothered me. Nope. Your sin problem is personal. It most certainly affects others, and others’ sins affect you, but it’s still your personal choice that earns you the title of sinner. It’s mine that does that for me too.
The problem with sin is that it separates us from God. What ought to be a peaceful and happy relationship has been made into something else by our sin. The soul who sins is the one who will die. That’s pretty straightforward – me for my sins, and you for your sins. It’s a personal problem we each have, and no one else can take credit for it.
Will you take just a moment to look into your heart of hearts this morning? Close your eyes for just a moment and think about something you wish you hadn’t done; words you wish you hadn’t spoken; thoughts you wish you could erase; something you know you shouldn’t have looked at; something you shouldn’t have taken. Do you own that, or have you been trying to credit it to someone else?
“I was born this way. I was brought up in a rough home. I hear this kind of talk all the time. I’m surrounded by temptations.”
It’s time you took ownership of what’s yours. Your sin problem is a personal problem. No one else can give it to you. No one else can take credit for it.
The soul who sins is the one who will die.
I’m going to go way out on a limb this morning and bet that you’re here today because you need something, and it may just be that you realize that it can be found only in Jesus. Christmas is good news. Your need, because it’s a personal need, can be met only through a person.
2. Your Need is Met Through a Person
Personal needs are met by other persons!
Not a policy.
When you accept Jesus, you aren’t just signing some new law and promising to keep it. Sometimes my dad, when he was introducing himself to someone, would tell them he was in the “life assurance business.” He was talking about how he was in the ministry to help people be assured they could live forever! He wasn’t talking about some contract with signatures. That’s about as valuable as the paper you print it on.
Not a Ceremony.
Taking on the problem of sin in our lives isn’t going to be done by some ceremony. The Jews in the OT had plenty of ceremonies and rituals. If that was all they needed, they would have been just fine with that alone. But,
Hebrews 10:4
…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Not only did those sacrifices not really help with the problem of sin, but without the right heart behind them, they were even disgusting to God.
Isaiah 1:12-14
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-- I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
I’m afraid that for too many people, Church is about ceremony. Each week, you go through some ceremony, and that takes care of the problem of sin. Does it, really? God says He’s looking for something else from people.
Not a corporation
The problem of sin in our lives isn’t going to be cared for by being in the right corporation. What I mean by that is that you can go to any church you want to, that’s not meeting the need. You can slip in and out of a church, week after week, and never address the true need in your life that needs to be met.
And there are some people who take that approach. This year, they’re at this church, until it just doesn’t feel like it used to. So, they move on. Maybe the next church will help them feel better about themselves. And they go from place to place, from program to program, searching for the fix for their problem. But they don’t find it, because it’s a personal problem.
No, your need is met only through a person – the person is Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:13-18
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Can you imagine an “impersonal Christmas”? Every gift you receive is from no one in particular. Every gift you give is addressed to “no one in particular” and even says it’s from no one in particular.
All of the stories of Christmas would have to have the people of the story erased. No Mary, no Joseph, afraid to take her on as his wife, no angel making announcements, no shepherds in the field, no evil King Herod, no innocent baby boys put to death, no wise men from the East.
Imagine Isaiah 9:
For to us an idea is born, to us a plan is given. It will be called wonderful idea; mighty good; everlasting contract; plan of peace.
Before He was born, it was prophesied that Jesus would be called “Immanuel,” which means God is with us.
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
God with us. Immanuel. Why does God make such a big deal out of that? Because it is a big deal!
There was a TV show that debuted a few years ago called “Undercover Boss.” It was a fairly simple plot: some company CEO or owner would change his or her appearance and then go to work on the lowest of entry level jobs for the very company they were running. There, disguised as a regular Joe, they would find out who was truly a good employee, and who needed to be corrected or let go. Most often, they would discover someone who was doing an outstanding job and give that person a raise, or promotion. And what I found interesting the couple times I saw part of it was the way the employee would respond to finding out that his or her boss had taken on an average person’s position and worked at it. It’s a really big deal for a CEO with a multimillion dollar income to be working on the sweaty assembly lines alongside the “common folk,” and they would often have tears of joy just because they were convinced their boss really cared about them.
No one trusts a boss that doesn’t seem to know or care about what his employees do. No army trusts and follows a general who stays behind and just sends his troops ahead into battle. No one trusts someone who is so separated from your life that you would say to him, “You were never really one of us.” But Jesus brought peace between Himself and us by being one of us.
Now do you see why Immanuel is such a big deal? Do you see why it’s so significant that Jesus Christ left Heaven, emptied Himself, and came and lived among us on earth?
Christmas is personal! Take Christ out of Christmas and all that’s left is the “mess.”
Some, from there, let’s look at one more part of how our problem is fixed…
3. Persons Involve Relationships
Since all of what we’re talking about here involves people, we’re really looking at the importance of relationships.
Part of the genius of Charles Dickens’ old story A Christmas Carol is the way Ebenezer Scrooge was cured of his…Scroogy-ness. Remember how, in that book, the spirits took him around and showed him mostly people – and it began to put faces and stories with what Scrooge had referred to as “the surplus population.” It made it all personal.
So Jesus got personal
When Jesus said, “Ask whatever you will in my name…” it means being representative of a person. Jesus was a person, not just something you blurt out at the end of a prayer.
Jesus was a person Who said and did things, so when you say you’re doing something in the name of Jesus, it means that you’re some kind of reflection of what Jesus said and did. There is a meaningful relationship between Him and you.
So your response is personal, and it’s to a person
If you’ve heard nothing else up to this point, please start now. This is of the utmost importance:
Your response is something only you can do. It’s not something your parents did for you when you were a baby. I’m glad if your parents intended for you to know the Lord, but the fact that you’re even listening to this message today shows that it’s not your parents reaction that you control. It’s yours.
The Church can’t be responsible for your response. Please don’t call me up and ask what we believe. What do you believe? Please don’t say, “What is the church going to do about my marriage, my children, my worship life, my relationship with God?” What are you going to do about those things?
Listen, one day you’ll stand before the judgment throne of God, and it will be just you and God. God won’t be asking you, “OK, what did your parents do so that you’d be in church?” He won’t be asking, “Well, where’s the church? Aren’t they going to speak on your behalf?”
Won’t everyone else has to say won’t matter then. This is a personal matter!
On that day, there’s only one Help that will be enough – it will be your relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s personal. Your response is to Him – a person – not to a set of rules, not to some concept, not to the Force, not to a club, a cause, or a movement.
Genesis 49:10, Jacob is blessing his sons before he dies. He gets to his son Judah and he utters a prophecy. It’s full of imagery, and its translation is even a little uncertain,
Genesis 49:10
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.
Or as some translations have it,
The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and the obedience of the nations is his.
No matter how it’s translated, it’s clearly a prophecy about Jesus. I lean toward translating this as the proper noun “Shiloh.” Shiloh means “peace,” literally, but it’s really talking about a Person – Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
According to the latest Pew research, 89% of the people in the US claim to believe in God in some form. That’s a lot of people. But start asking them about if they believe that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus should be followed and worshiped as God, and the questions suddenly get personal. Lots of people want God but not Jesus in the scene, because once I accept Jesus, this all gets personal, doesn’t it?
God, for a lot of people is “out there” somewhere, far away. That distance makes it easy to mold God to fit my own image of Him. It makes it easy to not feel like He knows what’s going on in my life.
But the moment I begin to talk about loyalty to Jesus, here and now, I’ve gotten personal, haven’t I?
So what if Jesus was taken out of the scene? Well, that would sure make Christmas hard, wouldn’t it?
Also, Ephesians 2 would be really tough to read now:
Ephesians 2:13-18 13 But now in [no one] you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of [no one in particular]. 14 For no one is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. Since there was no one doing this, there was no purpose to create one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which no one put to death their hostility. 17 No one came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through no one do we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Jesus is God with skin. He is God in-person, ready to address our greatest problem. It takes the Person to fix it.
