Like No Other
Christmas Eve 2021
Intro
So good to share this time with you.
As I’ve shared before, this night has long been a special night for me.
I still can recall the night of Christmas Eve when I was 16 years old. I had come to enjoy the Christmas holiday like most kids... and that included extended family.
But I knew there was more to the night.
I could feel the needs of a darkened world... and a peace that eluded any hope within it.
What had come that night... in the birth of Christ... was truly a light amidst the darkness.
Long after family gathering… driving down Sunset Blvd… (when your were 16...you just went out driving)... near midnight....and seeing a sign … Christmas Eve…Candlelight Service at midnight.
Beckoned with wonder
What I recall that night....is the deep realization that a light had truly come into a darkened world. God has brought the source of peace that defied the powers of this world.
Something had crept into the world to set it right.
A night that a presence entered our world… and took it back.
A night in which the eternal declares to this world that it there is a greater will and a greater work that will prevail.
As I drove home... the Christmas lights I had always loved...I enjoyed even more... as a beautiful picture of the light of God piecing the darkness.
What I felt that night has never changed.
And before we enjoy the symbols of that light... I want to invite us to look at this moment once again.
Christmas can become about so many things...that we may have to look through the outward to see him.
For some... through the wonderful...family and festivities...and presents to open.
For some... it may mean looking through some losses and loneliness.
Whatever circumstances may surround Christmas...I encourage us to look through the outward to see Christ.
And I want to dare us to really look... to look beyond the sentiments.
Strange as it may seem... this can be a time in which we can actually “turn away”... looking everywhere but at the one at the center. We can focus on gifts and parties and vacations.
We can look but keep our distance... perhaps cast the one born as simply a religious figure.
Or we can dare to look... and when we do... it may be a little uncomfortable...
If we dare to look.... we will see that he will not be reduced to just another religious figure....he will not be reduced to a sentimental figure to serve in the backdrop of a holiday....he will not be reduced to serve earthly political ideologies.
It’s an opportunity to dare and look closely.
The closer I look... the more I am I can see the how brightly he shines.
The more I can see that there is no one like him.
In Christ, we behold...
1. An Impact Like No Other
This earth has included some who may recognize as having special talents... some we call heroes...some who inspire us.
But when Christ was born.... something of another dimension was at hand.
Everything has declared that something of a far greater impact was at hand.
The prophets had not spoken of a mere religious teacher...but one sent from God to save the world... that he had come for all the nations.
Mary and Joseph knew he was not their child...not simply a son who would do great things...but was of God... to change the world.
On that night ... when the world was sleeping... the one who was born was unlike any other.
There is something about the child born that night that should cause every sound mind to stop and look ...because the obscurity of these lives and this place defies any natural explanation.
They were among a people who had been left on the sidelines of humanity... now on the outskirts of the vast Roman Empire... and even among their own oppressed people... this was but a young peasant couple from the most backwoods of regions.... told to go sleep among the animals. This child... this life... had absolutely no place or position of influence.
When he began to declare what God was doing... he traveled no further than a radius of 100 miles. [1]
He would be given no prominence.
He wasn’t even endorsed by the religious establishment.
But this seemed to be part of God’s plan.
Just as the prophecies has said... there would be nothing about him to demand attention... He would be so stricken that we would turn away from him and yet he would be lifted up.
Jesus himself had said watch what happen... I will be lifted up... a seed that is planted in the ground... bearing a kingdom that will never end. And these things were recorded BEFORE any understood him.
And now this birth of Jesus is the dividing point of all human history. Everything that has ever happened on this planet falls into a category of before Christ or after Christ.”
Even the historians who may not surrender their lives to him… would agree that he has impacted more lives than any other. Listen to what those in history have said,[2]?
H.G. Wells, who wrote, volumes on the history of the world ..and novels such as The War of the Worlds...honest that he was not yet a Christian...but was compelled to speak as a historian
“I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”? - H.G. Wells
“Jesus is the most influential life that ever lived on this planet. The influence appears to be mounting. No other life lived on this planet has so widely and deeply affected mankind.”?- Kenneth Scott Latourette, former President of American Historic Society
“All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that One Solitary Life.”?James C. Hefley, author
“I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.... Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame.”?Napoleon, military and political leader
“I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene....No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”?Albert Einstein, scientist
“Every generation produces geniuses worthy to be compared with those who have gone before. But it can be said of no one man, 'He stands alone; he has no rival; no equal; no superior.' But this is true of Jesus. Nineteen hundred years, instead of diminishing His greatness, have accentuated it.”?Editor, The Los Angeles Times
On this night... the world may try to set him on the sidelines ... to enjoy him as a safe and sentimental figure.
But if we dare look.... we will realize that prophecies were quite clear that the one to come was no mere religious figure... those drawn into that miraculous birth were quite clear that the night that Christ was born... it was an “everything has changed” moment.
As C.S. Lewis said so pointedly,
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”?- C.S. Lewis, author
The impact of this life is unlike any other. And that relates to this point
In Christ, we behold...
2. A Revelation Like No Other
He is not simply another source of human ideas or inspiration...because his very nature was that which connected heaven and earth.
What we gather around tonight... is not that which claims to be a brilliant idea... or insight...but far more boldly... the very intersecting of creator and creation.
The birth of Christ is itself filled with awe...because it was prophesied and understood to be the creator and source of all that exists.... entering the life of the created... the incarnation of God... God nature being united in human nature.
God who is spirit... cannot be bound within our created existence... God who is infinite cannot be fully grasped by we who are finite.
But in Jesus... He makes Himself known... as the Scriptures explain...
John 1:14,18
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
...No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
As the Scriptures express in the Book of Hebrews...
Hebrews 1: 3 ?The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
The exact representation of God’s being.... the radiance of His glory and goodness.
What does this mean for us?
When I can’t understand the vast nature of God... I can look at Jesus.
When I see suffering... I can look at Jesus...and see divine compassion. I see the heart of God.
When I see injustice... cruelty.... I look at Jesus being crucified for my own sin... and I know where God is.
This means that if I am disappointed and cynical by what I see in those who claim his name... even in myself... I can look at Jesus... and remember he alone is the exact representation of God.
It is a reminder that we are just finite creatures who can’t presume to understand the infinite.
Our opinions are not the ultimate source of truth.
The one who was born on that night... he is the intersection of heaven and earth.
And in that revelation...
In Christ, we behold...
3. A Power Like No Other
God coming in the gentle nature of a new human life... never ceases to capture something profound.
The creator entering creation.
The eternal amidst the earthly.
The majestic amidst the mundane.
The reality that what lay in that manger represented what was larger than the whole world outside.
Our cultural focus on the manger is a fine scene to reflect on.
But if we dare to look at what was unfolding...it is the ultimate confrontation between the power of God and the powers that seek to rule this world.
He is being born into a time at which arguably the most powerful empire to have ever reigned on earth...the Roman empire....ruled.
And it was clear that the one born that Christmas night represents a new order in the world. This is why King Herod ...felt threatened and sought to kill the child.
And as a result... the child is now a powerless peasant refugee.
The religious establishment... had become corrupt... seeking to have whatever prestige and power they could force upon the people. They too were exposed... and realized that they were losing their power over the people.
God chose to come and confront the pride and power of human force...but rising from the powerless... the peasants.
He came to set forth a new kingdom.... a kingdom that defies human force.
In the birth of Christ... the powers of this world are being defied. They are being served notice.
Human force will not prevail.
The pride that seeks to declare itself over others will not prevail.
Here is the birth of Christ...the life of Christ....and the death of Christ....we see a greater power.
It is the power to use strength not to harm but rather to reach...to serve...and to save that which is weaker.
Like the king who wanders out among peasants... and serves them.
Superhero who gives up their power in an act of sacrifice to save others.
It appears as choosing weakness... but it actually an act of greater strength that reveals the limits of human force.
The power of force and fear//// will not overcome the power of love and sacrifice.
Even as the world looks towards the conflict of human powers between the US and China...
I am reminded of China’s own presumption of force.
“When the Communists came to power in China in 1949, they expelled all the foreign missionaries. Back then there were 700,000 Christians. For decades no one knew what was happening to the church or if it even survived. But by 1980 there were at least 10 million Christians in China. Today there may be as many as 100 million.”
As was spoke long before through the prophet Isaiah,
Isaiah 9:7 ?Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
And we hear again in the words spoken to Mary...
Luke 1:31-33?You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. ... his kingdom will never end."
His kingdom will never end.
It is not that which can be controlled or co-opted by any earthly power. It is the Kingdom of God.
In the midst of all the political conflicts... the one whose birth we celebrate is the ruler of all the kings and presidents and chiefs and premiers and governors and prime ministers.
When Jesus rose from the dead, God exalted him and gave him a "name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow," and that includes all the rulers and kings of the earth. [3]
Jesus has a kingdom. He is building it in human hearts around the world.
True power is not that of coercion... and control...but of love.
It is love that rules the universe.
It transforms the use of power...restores the use of power. [4]
The greatest power is not that which seeks to control...but to care.
If we dare to look closely... we will see the love we ultimately need...a love that will find a way to come close without harming me.
Look at those who experienced that first night.
Look at the young mother...holding the embodiment of the source of all creation. She is not looking into the eyes that reflect mere weakness...but of the power that has chosen to be vulnerable.
Shepherds struck by a great light...but not destroyed or blinded.
It is the greater power of sacrifice.
And it the power that came for us.
Romans 5:7-8?Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
That is true power.
And this leads to one last point...
In Christ, we behold...
4. A Love Like No Other
At the core of our very existence... lies the deeper questions of whether we truly belong... and whether we truly have significance.
We can never know what it means to be fully loved apart from the source who created us.
We can spend our whole lives trying to have other human lives satisfy that question... but such love is rooted in the very source of our existence.
Only God’s love can meet us in the most intimate part of our being.
Only God’s love is eternal and never-ending.
Christ came to make it possible for we who were created to reflect God’s nature... and who were given life by His spirit... to be restored into the love of living as God’s children. He came to share the joy of living in that same unending love that he had with the Father in heaven.[5]
Jesus said,
“Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you. ... I have told you this so that you will have the same joy that I have. I also want your joy to be complete. - John 15:9,11 (NIrV)
Jesus wants to share his joy with you...the joy of living in unending love.
He comes to us as orphans. He knows that regardless of our earthly families... we were created to belong forever in the source of our very existence.
And that is what Jesus came to make known.
In the birth of Christ, God reveals that God is infinitely personal... and present.
In fact... He is more truly personal than we ourselves.
For we use our feeble force of wills to demand our independence.
He has chosen to make Himself vulnerable to reach us...and he is now present.
Some children were asked what love is. After many great responses, one little boy said,
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
> Tonight is an opportunity for each of us to stop…and listen.
It’s an opportunity to dare and look closely....and see that he is like no other.
If we dare to look.... we will see that he will not be reduced to just another religious figure....he will not be reduced to a sentimental figure to serve in the backdrop of a holiday....he will not be reduced to serve earthly political ideologies.
He is distinct. And he shines brightly against the backdrop of this world.
He is the king... who has come for us.
PRAYER
Transition to candlelight carols:
John 1:4-5
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.
Notes:
1. From a secondary source, it is noted that: The city of Capernaum (which was basically Jesus’s base of operations during His ministry) had a population of approximately 1,500 people. The city of Nazareth where Jesus was raised had a population of only about 400 people. The largest cities around the Sea of Galilee would have been Tiberius and Sephora, but these were Roman cities built by the Romans and not primarily populated by the Jews of the area. Those cities had a population of approximately 10,000 to 12,000 people, which would make them the largest cities in the Galilee area where Jesus ministered. But surprisingly we have no evidence from Scripture that Jesus ever visited either Tiberias or Sephora.
In fact, since the writers of the Scriptures can be trusted to be entirely accurate due to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that the ministry of Jesus was predominately in the tiny towns and villages that surrounded the Sea of Galilee,,, where Jesus spent roughly 90 percent of His ministry. The small arc of about 13 miles would have been comprised of little towns and villages approaching the edge of the Sea of Galilee.
2. Most of these quoted statements on the influence of Christ as well known. These and more can be found here. Even more here. One may also enjoy: Nobody has changed lives the way Jesus has.
Found here). LA Times also cited in Behold the Man, by Taylor Bunch. Other quotes include:
“Jesus is not one of the group of the world’s great. Talk about Alexander the Great and Charles the Great and Napoleon the Great if you will…Jesus is apart. He is not the Great – He is the only.”
- Carnegie Simpson, historian
Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardour of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ of old.?Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author
A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.?Mahatma Gandhi, leader
If ever the Divine appeared on earth, it was in the Person of Christ...the human mind no matter how far it may advance in every other department, will never transcend the height and moral culture of Christianity as it shines and glows in the Gospels.?Goethe, writer
All that is best in the civilization of today, is the fruit of Christ’s appearance among men.?Daniel Webster, politician
Jesus Christ cannot be adequately understood in terms of any category applicable to man...He is a category by himself.
George MacDonald, author
'He stands alone..
The very virtues of civilized world as we know it... arose from the light of this life... no claims of superiority by any life over another could stand.
In the light of this life, no life could be dismissed.
In the light of this life, our world is not just passive to the whims of wishes of mythological gods...nor to some mysterious magic ...but to one true source of all creation... who has set the world with order.... order which can be observed and to which reason can be applied... and use to care for the world.
Our cultural memory may have forgotten how we arose from the rule of kings and lack of value for the weak... so that one can try to simply set Jesus to the sidelines. Try as we might... he is the foundation on which we dare to hope in.
3. In regards to the supremacy of Christ’s kingdom, we also read:
Daniel 2:20-22 (NIV) ?20 and said: "Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are his. 21 He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. 22 He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.
Luke 2:34-35 (NIV) ?34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
In Revelation 19:16 Jesus is given the full title “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 17:14 switches it: “Lord of lords and King of kings”). The title indicates someone who has the power to exercise absolute dominion over all His realm. In the case of the Lord Jesus, the realm is all of creation. In John’s vision, Jesus is returning to judge the world and establish His earthly kingdom, as He predicted in Mark 13:26.
4. Philip Yancey writes, “[Jesus] invoked a different kind of power: love, not coercion.”? “Power, no matter how well-intentioned, tends to cause suffering. Love, being vulnerable, absorbs it. In a point of convergence on a hill called Calvary, God renounced the one for the sake of the other.”?From Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
5. When John summed up the coming of Christ, he said,
To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. - John 1:12-13 (NLT)
