TITLE: THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT
SCRIPTURE: ST. MATTHEW 1:18-23
This time of year is profoundly fraught with multi-layered meanings –
• Family traditions
• Economic success for merchants
• The winter solstice
• The pause between the end of the lunar year and the longer solar year
• Our year-end tendency to want to evaluate this year before embarking on another
All these things, along with a group of fictional stories like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer And Frosty The Snowman, find their way into our consciousness - our decorations - our gift-buying habits - our parties - and into our expectations. Our culture treats Christmas with massively sentimental attention.
• We watch Hallmark and Lifetime specials on TV
• We resurrect “A Christmas Carol” with its ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future
• We can even get sentimental over a puny little Christmas tree, like the one in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”
None of this is bad. Traditions instruct us, delight us, and remind us of our values. After all, aren’t we excited -- Today is after all the day. It’s finally here. This is the morning that our children and grandchildren have been waiting for, the morning when the mystery of all those enticing packages under the tree will be or have been revealed. How many have already opened your gifts?
Christmas is hard work and expensive!
• We celebrate Christmas because it is tradition and part of our culture
• God doesn’t command it, nor do we earn brownie points for doing so
• Is it really worth the effort?
For those of us who are Christ followers, if we are going to spend the effort and money, it seems that we should do so with purpose and not just follow tradition. And, it’s more fun when we celebrate because of gratitude as we remember God’s gifts to us embodied in our Christmas celebrations. I am sure you have some wonderful Christmas memories. I began to think a few days ago as I began to reminisce about Christmas’s past as to THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT.
• I remember in Panama, me and my siblings found new bicycles under the tree – it was an 80 degree day on that Christmas and we all went out riding for hours
• I remember when my dad was in Viet-Nam we stayed with my grandparents, my mothers’ parents (Dads’ parents lived few blocks away) when my brother and I found under the Christmas Tree a large battleship for each of us
• I remember my Sophomore Year in High School when I found my first electric guitar under the tree
• It was my Junior year in High School when I unboxed my stereo system – Mom and Dad sure regretted that in the weeks and months to come
• What about you?
• Have you ever thought about THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT?
For all the presents you opened this Christmas there are only a few that are truly life-changing, truly revolutionary.
• The smartphone is one of those revolutionary products
• When you look at an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter, you are looking at a revolutionary product
• Essentially, it’s a powerful computer, GPS, camera, music player, and more right in your pocket
• Having those things readily available has changed the way we live, interact with the world, and each other
• Some for the better and some for the worse
Take the camera for instance. Gone are the days where you have to remember to bring your camera or camcorder along to capture your families’ memories. If you have your phone, you have your camera.
• Or how about DIRECTIONS
• You no longer have to remember and rely on paper maps or printed directions from Google or Mapquest
• Now, you open an app on your phone, type in where you want to go, and you are on your way
• Most of the time you don’t have to worry about traffic because a lot of the mapping apps will route you around it
Some of the presents under your tree are life-changing. But what these presents, these gadgets are able to change about your life is usually limited.
• They can’t and don’t change your life completely
• That’s because they can’t change you from the inside out
The Christmas gift God gives, however, does.
• No need to worry if batteries are included or not
• It isn’t limited to external change
• Instead, it has the ability to change us from the inside out
• It has the ability to change everything about us through and through
God gave us the best gift we could ever receive, the most beautiful and holy of gifts. Whether or not His birth is on December 25, it is the celebration of the most important gift we have ever received. Christ was sent down to not only give us eternal life, but to bring us an image of who we should be. We are to walk as Christ has and live in His example. This Christmas we should remember the gift of God and the blessings He has brought us. We should remember Christ and the example which He set.
Jesus is the savior, the Christ. In other words -
• He is the One anointed, chosen, and promised by God to be the One who would save us from our sins
• The One who would repair our relationship with the Father and deal a death blow to Satan
• He is the One through whom God would make this world right again
Just as the Shepherds rejoiced that night seeing the Father’s Christmas gift, we too should be driven to praise and glorify God for sending Jesus. That’s because Jesus is our Lord and Savior who provides a new way of life.
The gift of God in Jesus Christ is a gift we celebrate at Christmastime because we receive the gift of unconditional love; every single one of us no matter our Condition - Affliction - or Disposition – every single one of us is God’s beloved, made worthy. Not worthy because of our own goodness, but worthy because the Word made flesh comes just to love us, no matter whether Sick – Healthy - Rich – Poor - Powerful - Meek.
What is even more amazing about this THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT is that –
• The Infinite - who became an Infant
• The Ancient of Days - who became a Child
• The Ever Blessed One - who became a Man of Sorrows, should condescend even further than Bethlehem’s manager, to be born in the stable of the human heart
• That this could really happen, is a wonder, is a marvel, is stunning, and is beyond our wildest imagination!
All the hopes and dreams of a dying world were cradled in Bethlehem’s manger on that first Christmas night.
• Those little hands that clasped the straw in His manger’s crib were soon to touch and open blinded eyes - to unstop deaf ears - and to cleanse the lepers
• The cooing voice of the baby Jesus was soon to be lifted to command demons to depart - to calm the troubled seas - to teach men and women the way to eternal life and to raise the dead
• Those tiny feet were soon to take Him to the sick and needy and finally to be pierced on the Cross of Calvary
Bethlehem’s manger became the link that bound a lost and dying world to a loving, living God. The Bible says – in ST. JOHN 1:14 “THE WORD BECAME FLESH AND MADE HIS DWELLING AMONG US . . .” Because of this, we should no longer feel alienated from God; that we are existing on a dark sphere called earth, whirling through space, while God is in some far distant corner of the universe. Christmas means that God is interested in the affairs of people; that God loves us so much that He was willing to give His Only Begotten Son. The Bible says it like this in ST. JOHN 3:16 “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.”
Christmas is a time of joy. However, we must ensure that it is not a pagan joy generated by the expectation of exchanging gifts or engaging in revelry.
• The real happiness of Christmas is in the fact that Christ was born, that “. . . GOD WAS RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF IN CHRIST . . .” II CORINTHIANS 5:19
• Millions of people will have fun this Christmas season
• My big question is - “Will they know the true joy that Christmas can bring?”
• They really cannot know it, without knowing the One, Who is the Source of Joy
As you celebrate Christmas this year with your loved ones amidst all the gifts and traditions, I challenge you to view Christmas from a different lens. Yes, it will always carry the same meaning, but in different seasons, God always has different lessons.
• Think of Christmas as God’s gift of a new promise to us
• A promise of a light at the end of the tunnel!
• Though 2022 has been long and challenging in many different ways, I feel it is time to rise up with shouts of victory and shine bright for all the world to see
• This is referenced in ISAIAH 60:1 where it declares, “ARISE, SHINE, FOR YOUR LIGHT HAS COME, AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD RISES UPON YOU”
• I cannot help but be overjoyed when focusing on the many wonderful things that God has done this year, and the things to come!
The gift of God was the gift of all gifts!
• The Savior!
• The Redeemer!
• The Deliverer!
Without this gift we had no hope. We were doomed to die in our sin, forever separated from God. Now, we can approach Him boldly, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus the Savior.
• Let us gratefully and humbly receive this Eternal gift from God
• We can shout in praises and thanksgiving daily
• The Savior has been given freely to the World
• THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT
At Christmas, we celebrate the Almighty, Glorious God became a man, taking on the limitations of time and space, that we might behold and receive His Glory. Gaze at – with rejoicing that divine stepped out of eternity onto this world of sinful men. Every Christmas is a reminder of God’s Eternal Love – for me, for you, and for the whole world. Christmas provides a wonderful opportunity for us to join with God in giving to the world. The most precious gifts we can give to Our Family - Our Children - Our Friends - Each Other and even those whom we do not know, our enemies, are those gifts that let others share in God’s Gift – His Savior - His Glory - His Peace - His Beloved Son – so that whosoever believes shall not perish, but to have Eternal Life.
THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT. We surely are not worthy of receiving any gift from this great God.
• He is King of Kings
• He is Lord of Lords
• He is Mighty
• He is Powerful
• He is Worthy of all Praise
We, by contrast, are nothing.
• We are lowly
• We are insignificant
• We are transitory — here today and gone tomorrow
• We are insignificant, except as God bestows significance upon us
God created everything, He gave life and breath to everything, and He sustains everything, even now. We live and breathe by the very will and sustaining power of God. He certainly owes us no gift; it is we that owe our God our Gift. A gift by definition is ''SOMETHING BESTOWED [OR GIVEN] VOLUNTARILY AND WITHOUT COMPENSATION.'' When you think about a gift, you become mindful that it is not the intention to get something in return, but rather to see the joy it brings to the receiver. Even the Word of God tells us in ACTS 20:35 ''...IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE, THAN TO RECEIVE.''
The real message of Christmas is not the gifts that we give to each other. Rather, it is a reminder of the gift that God has given to each of us. During every Christmas season, we hear one word more than any other. It’s “THE NAME OF JESUS.” It’s “a gift”
• God has given the world the gift that is so perfect nothing compares
• Many people think that gift giving at Christmas was started by the Wise Men when they brought gifts to the baby Jesus
• But it was God who gave the first Christmas gift – THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT
--I still do enjoy the presents, the music, the decorations, and everything else that the Christmas season brings
--But now I have found that the best gift of all was given to me in the beginning — that of Jesus Christ
--I am able to celebrate this time of year in a much more significant way
--I pray we have all been reminded about what Christmas really means
--I pray we have all been strengthened in our faith, looking to the Lord as the one who casts out fear, who brings great joy and peace that passes understanding, and who calls us to worship Him and tell others of the salvation He offers in Christ
--I will remind you once again that the meaning of Christmas may perhaps best be summed up with these well known words from John’s Gospel --
“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE”
--THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT
