Jesus, The Ultimate Gift Giver
(topical)
1. WHAT CHILDREN HEAR
I was reading the story of Jesus’ birth to my day-care children one morning. As usual, I stopped to see if they understood.
"What do we call the three wise men?" I asked.
"The three maggots," replied a bright 5-year-old.
"What gift did the MAGI bring baby Jesus?" I corrected.
"Gold, Frankensteins and smurfs!" the same 5-year-old replied.
(source: Sermon Central)
2. It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child Himself.
— Charles Dickens
3. Our children appreciate the sounds and smells of Christmas, but it is human nature to get extra-excited about the gifts. It is the way we are. I don’t know that that is bad. Because gift-giving is so exciting, it is great to do so at those monumental times.
4. Who gives the best gifts in your family?
5. Some people buy just about anything…others ask for ideas….some are creative, some practical, and some fill up our garages, basements, and attics with remote oddities…hang on to them for a year so you don’t feel guilty trying to sell them in a garage sale or sending them to a the mission…or trying to pawn them off to someone else!
6. Take a pancake maker…okay maybe for a single person, but could you imagine a family of seven waiting for one pancake at a time?
7. When Jesus came to earth, He gave us gifts we have yet to discover. There were so very many. But today, I’d like to focus in upon some big gifts the Savior gave us.
They are practical gifts, and I want this to be a practical sermon. But there is so much here I want you to look for one thing…one area for you to focus upon. If last week’s message had us all over the universe looking at constellations, this one is as close as your heart.
PROP: These gifts Jesus gave us we can never be duplicated; yet we can, in one form or another, give a toned down version of them back to God and even to our loved ones.
TS…..The Christmas story paints us several pictures that remind us of these gifts…
I. The Stable and the Shepherds: Jesus Gave Us the Gift of Humility (Philippians 2:5-11)
1. We all know the Christmas story: “she wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger…” Jesus was born in a stable…a picture of His Humility, His status
-----Shepherds were His first admirers…common, nameless poor people…
2. He “let go” (Phil.2:5-6)
(1) of what did He let go?
3. He emptied Himself, became a man (7)
One of the ancient kings of Persia loved to mingle with his people in disguise. Once, dressed as a poor man, he descended the long flight of stairs, dark and damp to the tiny cellar where the fireman, seated on ashes, was tending the furnace.. The king sat down beside him and began to talk. At meal time the fireman produced some coarse black bread and a jug of water and they ate and drank. The king went away but returned again and again for his heart was filled with sympathy for the lonely man. They became very good friends as time passed. At last the king thought, “I’ll tell him who I am, and see what gift he will ask.” So he did, but the fireman didn’t ask for a thing. The king was astonished and said, “Don’t you realize that I can give you anything—a city, a throne?” The man gently replied, “I understand your Majesty. You have already given the greatest gift a man could receive. You left your palace to sit with me here in this dark and lonely place. You could give nothing more precious. You have given yourself and that is far more than I could ever deserve.”
(source: Sermon Central)
4. But not only did He became a man, He became the ultimate: a humble man, to the point of willingly becoming a sheep led to the slaughter (8)
5. He waited for the Father to exalt Him, taking the long route (9-11)
6. What a great gift to give to the Lord or even your spouse or children, the gift of humility; not having to control everything, taking the brunt of the sacrifices; instead of demanding your rights, loving others and sometimes surrendering your rights.
7. God doesn’t need anyone or anything: but He takes pleasure in the humble.
Psalm 147:6 “ The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.”
James 4:6, ”But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
8. To be humble means to align yourself with God’s perspective, to let Him make the decisions, to seek to do His will for His glory….to have a truly realistic perspective
These gifts Jesus gave us we can never be duplicated; yet we can, in one form or another, give a toned down version of them back to God and even to our loved ones.
II. The Presence of Angels and the Gold: The Gift of Disclosure (Hebrews 1:1-3a)
1. John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was with God…and the Word was God….the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld His glory the glory of the only begotten of the Father…”
The Magi came to worship Him, because He was the discloser of the Very Nature of God, for He was, in His Very Nature, God…
Gold was a gift fit for a king…the family would live on this during their flight to Egypt
2. The writer to the Hebrews words it differently…but either way, the bottom line is the same….(deal with the passage): God has uniquely revealed Himself in His Son…
3. Isaiah 46:9 says, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”
4. We humans experienced God visiting us as one of us…though sinless…
5. I don’t know about you, but I have no patience for “pretend” Christianity…where every prayer is answered, where Christians are never in a bad mood, where the advice for every problem is “trust God and pray,” where life and God for that matter are completely under control if we learn the right spiritual secrets or have the right experiences…
Jesus did not have to pretend, because He was the sinless lamb of God, God in the flesh;
We do not need to air all our dirty laundry, but we need to be ourselves….we don’t have to show our ugly side, but we should not pretend it does not exist; I make it my hobby to irritate the fake-sounding version of the true faith…I do have a nasty side…if the faith of the Bible is anything, it is TRUE. If we have to put on a false front, something is wrong.
6. If God is working in your life, stop trying to cover up and just let others see what He is doing….and also how much like them you STILL are…that’s authentic Christianity…it doesn’t win academy awards, it simply make a difference in the Kingdom of God.
7. How are you at disclosing yourself to others? Are you status conscious? Are you competing with others, jostling for social position? Or do you ENJOY others, and do you open up and show your true self to family and close friends?
8. Do you seriously worship the Lord Jesus Christ as God? Do you mean it when you sing His praises, pray, partake of Communion, or give testimony to His grace?
These gifts Jesus gave us we can never be duplicated; yet we can, in one form or another, give a toned down version of them back to God and even to our loved ones.
III. The Myrrh and Frankinsence: He Gave Us the Gift of Cleansing (Hebrews 1:3)
1. The angel said, “He shall be called Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
The gifts of Myrrh and Frankinsence speak of His death and burial….
2. He came to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might be pure in God’s sight…
3. In our day, we talk about the mission statement of an organization or the purpose driven life….Jesus was purpose driven: Matthew 20: 28. “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
4. Because God has legally cleansed us and given us a new nature, we are to live holy lives in response; we can give Him back lives dedicated to serve Him in the daily grind
5. We can give that gift to others by being cleansed in our relationships through forgiveness. Some of you need to go to people you have wronged and ask for their forgiveness. Maybe that someone is a spouse, a child, or a parent….maybe you treated one child too harshly while favoring another one, and they are grown up now…still ask forgiveness…let Christ’s purification be a model…
These gifts Jesus gave us we can never be duplicated; yet we can, in one form or another, give a toned down version of them back to God and even to our loved ones.
IV. The Overshadowing of the Spirit: The Gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4)
1. When the angel told Mary she was about to have a baby, she was utterly confused. How could she have a baby without a man? Luke 1:35 records the answer: “The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Jesus was conceived miraculously, but he was truly the son of Mary as well as the Son of God…His human nature was sinless but truly human and truly connected to David genetically…
2. Just as the Spirit of God was active in the conception of Christ, so He is active in the lives of those who follow Christ….
John 1:33 quotes the words of John the Baptist, “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, `The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit
3. Look at Acts 1:4 and then 1:8
4. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to unite all true believers into the Body of Christ…and to empower us for the task God gave us…and to give us Spiritual Gifts…
5. 2 Timothy 1:6 reads, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” Our job is to “fan the flame.”
6. Luke has been our fireplace and fire circle person…he loves to fan the flame by gently blowing on the hot coals…other people use a bellows
(1) on the one hand, the Holy Spirit is Sovereign and is in the process of conforming us to the image of Christ, making us holy…
(2) on the other hand, we can grieve and quench the Spirit, or fan His gifts into flame
7. In January, I’ll be doing a Sunday night series on the Holy Spirit; some of us may not understand Who He is or What He does…yet many of us do…we just need to learn to stop depending ourselves as much as we do and to depend upon Him more…I know I do.
So as we prepare for the New Year, let’s fan the flame.
8. The Holy Spirit would love to:
(1) develop His fruit in you, much of which is relational in nature
(2) give you a heart that hungers for God
(3) empower you to serve….
These gifts Jesus gave us we can never be duplicated; yet we can, in one form or another, give a toned down version of them back to God and even to our loved ones.
Conclusion
1. Jesus is more than a model of good character, but He is that.
2. His coming to this world for a mission He accomplished is likewise an example.
3. Better than fruitcake, better than a new coat, better than a favorite video tape or DVD are the gifts that build our relationships to God and others. We don’t get tired of them by Decemember 31st…they last an eternity…literally!
