This past week we exchanged gifts amongst our own family and to tell you the truth we just couldn’t wait to see the look on our little girl‘s faces. Denise had spent almost 4 months tracking down every type of care bear in existence for our youngest girl Carrie, and with all that hard work involved in the searching for and all the money we spent on those silly bears, we couldn’t wait to see her reaction when she opened all those bears. Yet amazingly enough, she hardly noticed the bears when she opened the gifts…because… she was to engrossed with the wrapping paper. She was throwing the paper left and right, giggling and having the time of her life. My thoughts were…think of all the money I could of saved if I just would of bought a roll of wrapping paper instead of all those bears.
But you know, hard as it is to believe, it’s easier than you think to get so caught up in the wrapping of a gift that you tend to neglect the gift itself. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been going through a sermon series entitled the gifts of Christmas…and all these gifts we’ve covered are great…the joy, the peace, but they are just the wrapping of the ultimate gift, the gift of Jesus Christ. It’s so easy to get so caught up in the lights and the carols of the holiday season that we miss the significance of the event itself. Unto you this day is born a savior and He shall be called Emmanuel “God is with us” God had come near. John put it this way, “The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” Never has anything compared to this one event.
Larry King, the renowned talk show host, was once asked if you could interview one person from all of history who would it be and what would your question be. His answer was Jesus Christ. And he said, “I would ask him if he indeed was virgin born, because if He was it would define history for me." The birth of Jesus Christ is indeed the most significant event in all of history, but what is it that makes this day so significant. What is it that Christmas does for us. What does it mean for the word to be made flesh?
Well the first thing it does for us is this, it allows us to see who God is and what God is like. John 1:18 (NCV) says, “ No one has ever seen God. But God the only Son is very close to the Father, and he has shown us what God is like.” You know, there aren’t to many people out there who are still devout atheist. Those who are tend to have a rough time this time of year. I heard that there was an atheist Christmas special coming on TV here soon, it’s called “Coincidence of 34th Street”. But Atheism believe it or not is on a decline. Most can look at the careful precision of creation and can instinctively know that there is a Creator. Is there a God is not the question that is being asked but rather who is God and what is God like? Nature can tell us a lot about God, about His power, His beauty, but it can’t tell us about His personality, or His immense love for each and every one of us. But when we look at Jesus, we see God for Jesus is God. John 1:1 says, “In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So the question we need to ask is who is this God? What is He like? Because instinctively we know that we have violated His rules, abused his property and we are at His mercy. Some people say that God is a vindictive God and will say, “God’s going to punish you.” or others will go to the opposite extreme and view God as some doting grandfather and they say, “don’t worry God’s going to forgive everybody no matter what”… but truth be told it’s all human speculation. But Jesus came to earth, , to reveal to us what God is like and He says, “I am God’s Son, He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” And that title right there , the title of Father, is so revolutionary in other religions and it says a great deal to me about who God is and what God is like. When you think of God, think of a loving Father. Jesus said for us to address God as “Our Father.”
You know a person’s title can tell us a lot about who that person is. If you were to have asked me 9 years ago who Denise Dean was I would have told you she was a pretty girl in church. If you asked me a few months later, I would have told you she was a pretty girl in church who couldn’t keep her eyes off me. And as my relationship with her evolved so did my names for her. At first she was an acquaintance , then a friend, then a girlfriend, then she became my fiancé, my wife. Now she goes by many names, she’s my confidant, the mother of my children, she’s my boss…umm…a very attractive boss. But as my relationship changed with her I gave her more and more names.
Well as God revealed Himself more and more to His people, the more names He went by… in fact there were over 80 different names in the Old Testament alone. Initially He was known as Elohim, which means strong One or Creator. When God revealed Himself to Abram, Abram called Him El-Shaddai, which means “The All-Powerful God.” Later when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the angel stopped him as the knife was coming down, and Abraham looked and saw a lamb in the thicket, and he called God, Jehovah-Jirah…which means “The Lord will provide.” . He was also known as Jehovah-Shalom which means God of Peace, Jehovah-Rophe (The Lord is my healer) and many more names.
But when we come to the New Testament Jesus tell us to address God in a way that is dramatically new. He says, “You say, Our Father.” The Jews would address God as Father in a formal way but Jesus used the ordinary intimate form of the Aramaic word, which children used in addressing their fathers: Abba. Abba is like our English term Daddy or Papa. It is personal and very intimate. And this is the name that God loves the most, and we know that because this is the name Jesus used the most. Over 200 times in the New Testament. So when you think of God think of a loving Father.
Now that is real easy for me to do because I have such a great earthly father who is kind and compassionate, but maybe that is not the case for you. I spoke to my Father-in-law a couple weeks back about his dad, and he told me how his dad used to come home drunk every night, and literally kick his wife, John’s mom, in the stomach as hard as he could, right in front of their two kids simply because supper wasn’t ready. His dad left home when he was eight, and never paid child support never helped John’s mom whatsoever. Maybe when you think of the name Father, that is the image you conjure up, but God is nothing like that.
I want to share you a story about a father which will help you better understand what God is like. Patrick Morley tells a heart wrenching story in book The man in the mirror about an ill fated Alaskan fishing trip. After spending the day Salmon fishing, three men and a 12 year old son of one of the men climbed into their sea plane to head home. But the plane crashed soon after take off, however all 4 survived. After saying a prayer together, they abandoned their sinking plane and tried to swim ashore. Two of the men, strong swimmers, made it ashore. The cold water and the strong riptides really worked against them. But the third man, the father of the 12 year old boy saw that his son was unable to swim against the strong current and swam back to help his son, but he was unable to drag him to safety and was unwilling to leave him. So he cradled his son in his arms and the two were swept out to sea and drowned. You see the father himself could’ve made it to shore himself, but he loved his son so much he wouldn’t leave him alone. That’s the kind of love your Heavenly Father has for you. He didn’t just die with you, He died for you, so that you may live. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1 John 3:1 says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
So when you think of God, think of a loving, compassionate Father, who is full of Grace and truth. A Father who has such an undying love for you that He was willing to become one of us, to take on our flesh and then to nail it to a cross. The incarnation of God is difficult to understand, how God could become a man…but what is even more difficult to understand…is why? Why would God do this for a world that had rejected Him, who had so defiantly shook their fist at Him and said we don‘t need You, a world that wouldn’t even receive Him when He came. Why would He do it? I’ll tell you why. It’s Because He loves you… and when you look at the manger, you see a God who was willing to lay aside His glory so that you would could one day live with Him in glory. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus said if you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father, and God is like a loving, compassionate Father full of grace, truth and love.
Now the second thing that Christmas reveals to us is the approachability of God. Let me ask you, do you know what name Jesus is referred to most often in the Gospels? The answer may shock you. It’s not Jesus Christ, or the Son of God, or the King of Kings or anything like that…you know what it is? It’s simply Jesus. Close to 600 times in fact. Now why is that significant? Well because Jesus was such a common name, it is the Greek version of the name Joshua and there would be at least two or three Jesus’ in every synagogue. Like a modern day “Joe”.
And what makes that so great, is that when the word was made flesh, He didn’t try to separate Himself from the rest of the crowd. He wanted to be so entwined with His creation that He didn’t chose some lofty name like The Holy One or Majesty…nor did He affix any title to His name, no Rev., Bishop or anything of that sort…no it was simply Jesus. He was approachable and He was one of us. Or as John said, “The Word became flesh.”
Max Lucado spoke of it this way, He said, “He was touchable, approachable, reachable. And, what’s more, he was ordinary. If he were here today you probably wouldn’t notice him as he walked through a shopping mall. He wouldn’t turn heads by the clothes he wore or the jewelry he flashed.
He was the kind of fellow you’d invite to watch the Rams-Giants game at your house. He’d wrestle on the floor with your kids, doze on your couch, and cook steaks on your grill. He’d laugh at your jokes and tell a few of his own. And when you spoke, he’d listen to you as if he had all the time in eternity.
And one thing’s for sure, you’d invite him back.” Jesus was approachable. People didn’t shy away from Him, and it didn’t matter if they were a Pharisee or a prostitute. They all came to Jesus and they all felt welcomed. And there was not one person who considered him too holy, too divine, or too celestial to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach him for fear of being rejected.
Hebrews 12:18-24, says, “You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire. You have not come to darkness, sadness, and storms. You have not come to the noise of a trumpet or to the sound of a voice like the one the people of Israel heard and begged not to hear another word. … What they saw was so terrible that Moses said, “I am shaking with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands of angels gathered together with joy…You have come to God, the judge of all people, ...You have come to Jesus.” God even though He is holy, He still invites us to come to Him, but even better yet, He comes to us. Molly Brown said, “Christmas…is love tugging man back to God with the powerful grasp of a tiny hand reaching out from a bed of straw.” God has come near and has invited us near to Him.
Now because of Christmas, because of the incarnation, not only can man approach God w/out the fear and trembling, and not only does man now have a better understanding of who God is, but now God has a better understanding of who man is. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us. God walked in our shoes. God experienced what we experience. A little 5-year-old boy one day was playing with his 2-year-old brother when the 2 year old reached up and yanked his older brother’s hair. He screamed in pain, and his mother came rushing in. He cried and said that his younger brother had pulled his hair. His mom said, “Well, he’s only 2 years old and he doesn’t know what its like to have his hair pulled.” The mom left and seconds later she heard a scream from the bedroom, but this time it was the 2 year old screaming in pain. She rushed in and asked what had happened, to which the 5 year old explained, “You said he didn’t know what it felt like, well now he does.”
Well, God knows what it feels like to be human. For thirty-three years God walked this earth and He experienced everything that you and I would experience. He got thirsty, He got tired, He laughed and He cried.
So He knows what you are going through because He Himself went through it. When a person hasn’t experienced what you have, than there is no way for them to truly understand, and when they don’t understand they often can be cold, distant and at times even cruel. When I was younger I had an awful stuttering problem, which still occasionally raised it’s head. But I remember specifically one day when I was only in the 5th grade and we lived in Atsugi Japan and I was playing basketball in the gym and another little boy started making fun of my stuttering. I can’t tell you how much that hurt, and I went outside that gymnasium as everybody else played and I simply cried. I remember thinking, “I wish he knew what it was like to open your mouth and not have the words come out, to have other people out of impatience finish your sentences for you, and to know the overwhelming fear of simply being called on to read in class. If he knew, then he wouldn’t say those things. He’d understand.” But the boy didn’t stutter, he didn’t understand, and he couldn’t relate to my anguish and despair.
If you have never experienced it, then you can’t say you understand. That’s why I try to avoid telling a person in the hospital or at the funeral that I understand what you’re going through because I can’t. When the ship that I was stationed on pulled in from our 6 month deployment, the man who slept in the bunk under me went to meet his wife with rose in hand on the shore. He stood out there in his dress whites. I knew that in about a week I would be flying to Mississippi to meet my wife so I was a little envious, but about 30 minutes later, this man, CTR1 Hokas came back to his bunk in tears, and said, “Barry, she left me. She left me.” His wife had met him on the pier only to tell him that she had met another and she gave him the divorce papers, and you could see in his eyes the feeling of lonliness and of abandonment. And I did my best to relate to him and offer him words of comfort, but the truth is I couldn’t say much you know why…because I knew I had a faithful wife waiting for me in Mississippi. So I said that although I didn’t know what it was like to feel abandoned, I said that Jesus does. When He needed His friends the most, the all fled, and on the cross He even yelled, “My God My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I didn’t understand but God did. And He could relate. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” He understands because He knows what it’s like.
A while back Miss Diane Glidewell of our church was in the hospital with breathing difficulties. Miss Diane had cancer a while back and had to have one of her lungs removed and now it is at times difficult for her to get enough air. While we were in the hospital, her daughter said, “What an awful feeling it must be, to breath but not to get enough air.” And while we prayed, I said, “Jesus, we know that on the cross the victim usually dies of asphyxiation so we know that you know what Miss Diane is going through. Comfort her and thanks for understanding.”
You see friend, there is no amount of loneliness, so amount of physical pain or suffering that you are going through that He Himself has not endured if not worse. We have a God who is not cold and impervious to our struggles, but we have a God who took upon Himself our flesh, our weakness, our humanity…we have a God who understands.
Dr. Richard Swenson, who’s written a book called Mortal Lessons tells this story. He was doing surgery on a young woman who had a tumor in her cheek. He said he very carefully removed the tumor, but in doing so he knew he was going to have to cut a very tiny branch of a nerve. Unfortunately that nerve controlled the muscles in her lips. After the surgery was complete, her lips were twisted and contorted; he said almost clownish, impish looking. She was with her young husband when she asked him, "Will I always look like this?" He said, "Yes, we cut the nerve." Immediately the young man said, "I like it. It looks kind of cute." Swenson said he bent down low and I could see him as he twisted his own lips to match hers and then said, "it’s going to be okay, our kiss still works.”
When we come to Jesus, we discover God meeting us no matter how twisted our souls may be. There’s absolutely nothing you’ve done that prevents you from coming to the Lord this morning. You will never be bad enough where God’s grace isn’t sufficient and you will never be good enough where God’s grace isn’t sufficient. On the first Christmas, God came near, and He’s near to us this morning. God has done all He could to win your heart, He gave you Himself and then He nailed it to a cross. That’s the love God has for you. There was once an old preacher who used to end every sermon the same way, He’d say, “God loved you first, now you love Him back.” This Christmas, if you have never responded to the love that is found in Jesus Christ, I want to invite you to do that this morning. As Cecil sings our song of invitation, I invite you to come forward. If you have never given your heart to Christ we invite you to make that decision this morning, or if you have wandered away from Him, take note that He never stopped loving you and He invites you to come home with no questions asked. Or if you don’t have a church home and you would like to make this church your home church we welcome that decision as well.
