(Note for readers: There is a short Children’s Message at the beginning, followed by the sermon for an adult audience)
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE
Do you know what month it is right now? Yes, it’s December! What special holiday do Christians all over the world celebrate in December? Christmas! Do you know why we celebrate Christmas? Yes, we’re celebrating the birth of Jesus!
December is a special time when we prepare ourselves for Christmas. One of the things we do to prepare is decorate! Do you know what this is? [point to bare Christmas tree]… Yes, it’s a Christmas tree! Right now, there’s nothing on it, but later today we will all get to decorate our Christmas tree together.
First, let’s just look at the tree... Our tree is not a real tree, it’s just made of plastic and metal… But it looks like a real tree… a special kind of tree called an “evergreen” tree… The word “evergreen” is 2 words that have been put together to make 1 word… the word “ever” or “always”, and the word for the color “green”… So evergreen trees are always green all year long… Other kinds of trees will lose their leaves in the Fall and Winter… but evergreen trees keep their small pointy green leaves all year.
We use evergreen trees at Christmas to remind us that Jesus came to bring us eternal life… Because of Jesus, we can live forever… If you believe in Jesus, and trust Him to save you from your sins, then you are like the evergreen tree… You get to live forever in heaven with Jesus.
But everyone who does not follow Jesus are like the other kinds of trees that lose their leaves in winter… They will face death and be separated from God forever. God doesn’t want any of us to be separated from Him… God loves us so much that He sent Jesus… and this is why we celebrate Christmas… Because God gave us the best gift we could ever hope for. So we have put this evergreen tree in the front of the sanctuary to remind us that Jesus came to bring us eternal life.
Let’s PRAY…
[Dismiss children… ADULT MESSAGE begins here]
Please open your Bibles to Romans 8:18-25… As we spend the next few weeks looking forward to Christmas… we will prepare our hearts and minds to focus on the true purpose of our celebration… Jesus! This morning, God has a message of HOPE for us!
Let’s read our text from Romans 8:18-25…
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
These are not Bible verses we would normally use as we prepare for Christmas… but I think God has some important truth in here for us today… an important message of HOPE...
In the beginning, there was perfect fellowship with God… Adam and Eve walked in the garden with God… there was no death or suffering… all of creation was perfect! But Adam and Eve chose to disobey God… sin came into the world… and with sin came God’s curse upon the land and upon mankind… Genesis 3:17-19…
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
With that in mind, look again at Romans 8:20-22…
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Creation was cursed because of Adam and Eve’s sin… and even the world is waiting expectantly to be restored to its perfect state… but notice how these verses say that the world was cursed, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it in HOPE… From the beginning, God had a plan… The situation seemed hopeless, but God did what He did… in HOPE!
God even then was already preparing the way for people to join Him again… Genesis 3:15…
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This was God’s curse on the serpent… on Satan… and is also God’s prophecy about Jesus… and so along with the curse, HOPE was also placed in people’s hearts… a HOPE that God and people would once again be together in perfect harmony… a HOPE that Satan and sin would be defeated.
God continued to reveal His plan over many centuries… through Noah… through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… through Moses and the Law… through the festivals… through their worship in the tabernacle… through His promises to King David… through the prophets…
All throughout the Old Testament, God kept HOPE alive in their hearts… God’s people would continue to look toward a better future… But they would continue to fall into sin… They would continue to turn away from God… They would struggle and suffer, but there was still HOPE… They waited with great anticipation for their Messiah… their King who would reign forever… their Savior who would set them free, and deliver them from their struggles… Jeremiah 33:14-18…
14 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. 15 “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’ 17 For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, 18 nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.’”
Then, after many centuries of HOPE in God’s promises, a baby is born to a virgin named Mary… He was called Emmanuel, “God with us”… Jesus is born! When people believed that Jesus was truly the Son of God, their HOPE burst out into JOY! But they were expecting a King… They didn’t understand that their HOPE cannot be complete until the penalty for sin has been erased… They didn’t understand that Jesus must first pay the price for our sin for us… 2 Corinthians 5:21…
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Christmas was only the beginning… The baby in the manger brought HOPE and LIGHT into the world… But only through His perfect, sinless life… and His death would the price for our sins be paid in full… HOPE was crucified on the cross… The HOPE for the world was dead!
But then, on the 3rd day, Jesus rose again from the grave… defeating death… erasing forever the penalty for sin that Adam and Eve brought into the world… HOPE was resurrected!
1 Peter 1:3…
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
We have now been given a “living HOPE”… But our HOPE is not complete yet… Sin and evil still exist on the earth… All creation groans… We ourselves groan… Let’s go back and read Romans 8:23…
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
We are still waiting… Our HOPE is still fixed on something in the future… Let’s keep reading in 1 Peter 1:3-5…
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our HOPE is now focused on the return of Jesus… He will return and make all things new… HOPE will become real… Our fellowship with God will finally be restored and made perfect again… The old will pass away… All things will become new… Our salvation experience is a shadow of what is to come… When we finally see Him face-to-face, then we will finally receive eternal life… We will be free from sin and pain and suffering… We will no longer be under God’s curse… but will live forever in God’s presence and in His blessing… 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 says…
1 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
As we prepare ourselves for Christmas, we remember HOPE… the birth of Jesus is the moment when HOPE became flesh and walked among us… when a great multitude of angels burst into praise, saying “Glory to God in the highest! Peace on earth, and goodwill to men!”
God has given us HOPE through Jesus Christ… We look at the evergreen tree at Christmas, and we remember that God is offering the gift of eternal life… That we can live forever in perfect fellowship with Him again… Because of His Son, Jesus… and we look forward in HOPE to the time when we will finally see Him face-to-face… and we will truly experience the fullness of salvation that has been HOPED for since sin first came into the world.
Have you accepted the GIFT that He has offered?
Let’s PRAY.
