A couple weeks ago, NASA landed their 8th Mars lander, InSight, on the surface of Mars and started a photoshoot. They kind of look like selfies on Mars to me. They were thrilled at a successful landing - the first of its kind in a few years. It cost a lot of money, and NASA hopes to learn a lot from the project.
That trip took over 6 months - 300 million miles. That’s so far away, it takes a radio wave somewhere from 5-20 minutes to travel back to earth, depending on the planets’ positions. In our solar system, Mars is the planet that orbits 2nd closest to us. Still, at its closest to us, it takes over 3 minutes for light to travel between us - an average of 12.5 minutes.
That’s a long way away from us. Just consider that for a moment. Now, how far away is Heaven? Even farther, I’m pretty sure. NASA has sent probes as far away as Pluto. The Hubble telescope has looked into deep space. Still, haven’t seen Heaven.
So, we can say it’s far away, but it’s still tough to say where it is.
Have you ever tried to explain to a child where Heaven is? How do you do that? Sorry, no, it’s not “a place on earth” and we aren’t going to find that there’s a stairway to it.
I’m sure of some places where Heaven is NOT. For example, I was on a short-term mission trip to Haiti. Heaven is not in the place that sounds a lot like Hades!
Heaven is not inside the Crimson Ridge store nor in a Hallmark Christmas movie, despite what some might try to tell you. In fact, Heaven is definitely not out driving around on the streets this time of year!
Heaven, I’m also pretty sure, is not in KS.
It’s easy to say where it isn’t, because none of us has ever seen it. I’m afraid that makes it seem even farther away.
Still, Heaven’s an actual place of some kind. The Bible refers to it as “The 3rd Heaven.” Paul writes in 2 Co 12 about being taken there. Jesus says He’s preparing “a place” for us and will come and take us to be with Him. In fact, God is there right now. One way we can talk about the location of Heaven is to say “it’s wherever God is.” And that’s a problem for a lot of people today. God is in Heaven, and wherever that is, it’s far from here, which sounds a lot like God is far away too.
“God far away” sounds a lot like God who can relate to me. The farther away He is, the more impersonal He becomes. I can’t see Him. I can’t know Him, if that’s the case. That’s a problem.
The answer to that problem comes by way of a gospel that really doesn’t tell about the birth of Jesus. John was the last gospel written. The birth of Jesus had already been told by Matthew and Luke. So John begins before Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem - in the beginning, and he’ll refer to Jesus by a different name: “The Word.”
John 1:1-9
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
(prayer)
God may seem a long way off. What if God came here? Where would He go? I would expect Him to immediately visit all the important people of the world - presidents, kings, and prime ministers. That leaves you and me out…again. But what if He not only came here, but He came here and visited among the folks? That’s exactly what He did! That has been the design of His plan all along. In fact, it explains why the story of Christmas is so full of peculiarities. So, I want to give you a one-line summary of this message today, and just leave it hanging out there until we get to the end. Here it is:
When the Son of God is born as man, we’ve already seen His plan.
Last week, we looked at a prophecy in Isaiah 9 about the arrival of a great light. That prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus - not by just His birth, but by all that followed. After He grew up, in Mt 4…
Matthew 4:12-17
When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
When Jesus came, it was “the kingdom of Heaven” coming near to mankind. God wasn’t far away. He was Immanuel - God with us. So where does God visit?
He wasn’t born in the religious center of the nation, and He spends most of His time away from it - even visiting cities of the Samaritans who hated the Jews. Oh, He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath, and He often goes away to lonely places to pray, but He also gets with crowds and with small groups. He shows up at a wedding feast, at a tax collector’s house, and at the house of friends in the scrubby little town of Bethany. He’s walking on the roads, along the seashore, out in a boat, attending the festivals. He’s openly and deliberately associating with people who are otherwise ignored and avoided. He’s taking the light into darkness.
His enemies took advantage of those associations.
Matthew 11:19b
…they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”
Well, part of it was true. Jesus was a friend to tax collectors and sinners. Jesus ate with sinners, spoke with sinners, and changed the hearts of sinners. The Pharisees weren’t doing that. The Jewish community as a whole wasn’t doing that.
But when a great light came, it didn’t come just to shine on a few elite dignitaries. He came to Galilee of the Gentiles - people living in darkness. And they weren’t people who were just “passing through” the land of darkness. When Matthew quotes Isaiah here, the phrase “walking in the land of darkness” he adjusts the phrase to “sitting in the land of darkness.” The conditions are even darker than when Isaiah wrote 700 years before. These were people who had dug a foundation and built a brick house in the land of darkness.
…But Christmas happened. A great light came to shine. Jesus certainly didn’t stay where He was born. He didn’t stay where He grew up. He left Nazareth, and began to travel to the people.
This is how God dealt with people who were far gone - He sought them out, came to visit them where they were. Do you see it?
That’s great news for people who seem far away from God. The Kingdom of Heaven came near. A great light dawned. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Listen, it doesn’t matter who you are this morning; doesn’t matter what you’ve done or what’s been done to you; doesn’t matter where you’ve been; doesn’t matter what you’ve said; doesn’t matter what you’ve seen or heard. Jesus came to shine the light of life in the darkest of places. You may be living there right now. What was it Jesus said? Oh, yeah: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” No more excuses. No more saying that train never passes by here, or that you missed that train, or that you can’t afford what it costs. Your way has already been paid. Your place has been reserved.
You just have to get on board!
Now, for all of you who are on board already, I want you to consider something.
If the story of Jesus were to be “adapted” to now instead of 3-4 BC, where would He go? You know, Christmas story, take 2.
Where would you look Jesus to arrive? Think of some obscure country, in an obscure little village, where the people have little hope of a future, and where they scrape every day just to get by. Fancy hospital with delivery suites? Nope. Nice hotel room with a roll-in baby bed. Nope. Wise men coming from Washington to honor Jesus? Very unlikely! In fact, to be like the Christmas story really was, Jesus would have to be snuck away to some far-off country under cover to escape a hostile government.
Then, when he grew up, where would you find Him, say in IL? It seems like most of the interaction that Jesus had with the religious elite of His day was public debate.
When Jesus came to Rockford, IL, where would we find Him? I expect we’d find Him in parts of town we usually don’t frequent. I expect we’d find Him in very public places, explaining about the Kingdom of God and inviting all people to be a part of it, regardless of their background, their status, their mess-ups in life. I think we’d find that God was sending a great light into dark places where it would shine very brightly. I know, we’re just imagining here. But when He really did come to earth, that’s kind of the way it was, wasn’t it?
So, here we are, the Body of Christ that’s currently in the world - sometimes we talk about being “the hands and feet of Jesus.” That’s what we mean by that, isn’t it? Jesus’ physical body is no longer here, and He has left us to carry on His work. His HS lives inside of us, and when we physically act, it’s as if the very physical body of Jesus were at work again. The “hands and feet of Jesus” - where would they walk? Whom would they serve?
I suppose that they would go places like Jesus went places. I suppose that, yes, they would gather with the believers on Sunday, and that they would often seek out lonely places to pray, but that they would also get with crowds and small groups. I supposed they would show up at wedding parties, at the houses of political hacks, and in the house of friends in little Podunk towns. I suppose they would be on the roads, along the shorelines, out in a boat, and attending festivals. I think they would be out openly associating with people who are otherwise ignored and avoided. I’m pretty sure they’d be taking the light into the darkness.
I like what Aaron Chambers wrote, that “Inviting people to church is good, but inviting ourselves into the world is better!”
So I want to put that smack in the face out there for all of us who claim to be the Body of Christ today. I keep encouraging you to invite your friends and family to CCC this season because that is the time most likely that people will agree to come with you. Christmas Eve, 5 pm, right here, for just 45 minutes we plan to gather together and have a “very Christmas-y” time, and we also plan to tell anyone who’s there about the great news of salvation through Jesus Christ! But more than that, I wonder how we’re doing at inviting ourselves into other peoples’ world.
It seems to me that the most authentic and credible way for us to invite people to new life in Jesus Christ is to act like He did and shine His light in places that are otherwise dark.
Philippians 2:14-16a
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
You can figure out what this looks like. For a lot of us, it may just be going next door to neighbors that we haven’t made an effort to know. Don’t be scared! Most likely they’ll be so freaked out that you showed an interest that you’ll have the advantage of the element of surprise! Maybe it looks like contacting a family member you’ve been estranged from for years over something that happened way back when. Maybe it’s about just showing up in places that you usually avoid just because they’re uncomfortable.
Is it that bad - to show up and share the news that Heaven came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ?
Conclusion:
January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport. Right after takeoff, the Airbus A320 flew through a flock of Canadian geese just NE of the George Washington Bridge. Shortly after the strike, it lost power in both engines. In a matter of about 40 seconds, the pilots determined there was no way the airplane would reach any airport to land. Pilot Chesley Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles quickly agreed to attempt an unconventional move - they would attempt to ditch the aircraft on the Hudson River just off Midtown Manhattan. So they turned, to line up with the river as they glided downward. At 3:31, at 140 mph, the plane landed on the surface of the water. Flight attendants went to work, directing the passengers out onto the wings and the inflatable escape slides. A panicked passenger opened a rear door, allowing the 41 degree water to pour in, along with a hole in the fuselage and cargo doors that had opened. The plane was slowly sinking. People were instructed to climb over the seats as they worked their way forward and out onto the wings. One passenger was in a wheelchair. Meanwhile, boats on the river were coming to rescue people as the current caused the plane to drift. Once all the passengers and crew were safely out, as the plane continued to take on water, Captain Sullenberger did an amazing thing: He walked the cabin, not once, but twice, to confirm that everyone was safely out. All 155 people on flight 1549 survived, with very few serious injuries.
Sully goes down in history as a hero, not just for excellent piloting and coolness to make an important decision, but also as the captain who went back through to make sure everyone was off the plane.
You wouldn’t normally see the captain walking the aisles of an airplane. He had already done an excellent job of averting a fatal crash. His crew had done an exemplary job of evacuating the plane. But this was a life-and-death situation. Sully took responsibility for making sure everyone was off.
Many people wouldn’t expect that God would come visit His creation as one of them, either. He already created us. He isn’t intrinsically obligated to us, or any one, in any way at all. But this is a life-and-death situation. Heaven came near, and Jesus took the responsibility for making sure that that road to life was opened for every person.
Remember that single thought I told you about at the beginning?
When the Son of God is born as man, we’ve already seen His plan.
Here’s what I mean by that, if you haven’t heard it yet - God’s plan has already been set into motion. It’s a plan for the rescue of lost people, where God comes to earth and deals with our lost condition head-on. When you see Jesus born as a baby, when you see God with us, you’ve seen God’s action plan.
It’s also a plan of action for us to follow - a plan where we come near to those who need to know about the way to be saved.
Maybe you made that easy by coming here today. So, now we want to invite you to accept the greatest gift you can receive this season…
