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Well, it’s Christmas season, right? So you know what we’re going to talk about at church. And the difficulty becomes as as a pastor, this is the fourth Christmas season I think we’ve celebrated together. And so every year I turn to the Christmas story. And, and I try to look at it from a fresh set of eyes, asking the Lord just to speak to me in new ways, because this is a significant event that happened in history. It changed all of history. Every year we write the calendar thanks to Jesus. The date is now 2012. Right. We mark the calendar a holiday he he literally. Opinions of Jesus divides the world in Christmas season. How does that relate? If you were to bring someone to a from a foreign country to our nation today, I might have to say that they would probably have to search for quite a while to discover that the intentions of Christmas are to be all about Jesus. What do elves and reindeer have to do with him? If you’re like me on Christmas, when you were a child, it was so simple, right? You drove your parents crazy. You wanted to open them up early. Those gifts that just sat under the tree you drooled over. You shook it. You wondered what was inside the mystery and the wonder as you opened up. You know, your new pair of underwear or whatever it was. You know, as we grow older, one of the things we discover about the holiday season, it’s just not quite as simple as what it was when we were children.
Christmas gets complicated, especially if in your life you’ve experienced divorce. Christmas gets complicated, especially in your life. If you’re tight on money. Christmas gets complicated, especially when someone comes to your home over the holidays that you don’t even like. You don’t even know and you’ve got to buy them a present. Christmas is complicated. You know what I crave every year when I get around the holiday season? I love Christmas. I think Christmas is a wonderful time of year. I think out of all the holidays we celebrate as Christians pursuing Jesus, this is the one holiday that really helps children connect to Christ. This was the time Jesus came as a baby. He lived humbly. We give gifts to one another to celebrate the grace that was given to us through Jesus. We want to manifest and demonstrate at least we should give gifts for that manner. That was the reason that gift giving began in the Christmas holiday season. As Jesus has given us grace, so we give grace to others. It’s a beautiful picture to teach your kids about the beauty of Christ. Is it messed up? Turn it off. Turn it off. Are you going to fix it for me? That’s a song. Yeah. It’s true. All right. Fix it for me.
Will you go back there and help him fix that and pop it back up? I’ll make my introduction really long. All right. Actually, it’s almost over. Christmas is important, and especially as parents, it gives you the opportunity to and is all about as it relates to Jesus. And I ask myself, as we celebrate this holiday together, looking at all the things that we’ve come to make Christmas mean for us, what really is Christmas about? As a matter of fact, I say the words all the time. I grew up in the Bible Belt, and if you walk out of a out of a, a store and you don’t say Merry Christmas, but you say Happy Holidays instead, that’s like taking Jesus out of the holiday and you don’t do that. Everybody say what? Merry Christmas, it’s Merry Christmas. Keep Christ in Christmas. Right. Get real bitter about it. Real ugly about it. What is Christmas mean? I mean, we say the phrase all the time. What does what? You ever thought about that? What does the word Christmas mean? You go around the world and we say, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas. What does that word even mean? Have a merry Christ time together, collectively. Have fun. I mean, what is the definition of Christmas for us? And as I get near these holidays and it seems to gather complicated thoughts and ideas of what Christmas should mean. My soul craves the simplicity of what Christmas is about and the beauty of his message.
And as a young kid growing up in the Christmas tradition, now having children, I can’t help but wonder how much of what I do is driven by tradition rather than by Jesus. And how could I make this holiday season simple, not only in my own lives, but in the lives of others as we come to celebrate Christ? I’m not going to tell you I’m not to hang your Christmas tree or Christmas lights. I think all those things have godly intentions for what they were designed to do. But. But the root is, can we drive to what the simplicity of the Christmas message is all about? And so over the next few days, this is what we’re going to do. We’re going to start off very simple. We’re going to simplify the Christmas message today. For us as families, it’s very important to do at the beginning of the holiday season. Right? I mean, most of us probably have our, our our Christmas trees standing. If you don’t have your tree up already, what are you doing? Right. Get the get the thing up. But but for us, it’s about the simplicity of what this Christmas holiday is about. How can we simplify Christmas? Are we ready? My clicker. Yeah. If you brought a Bible this morning, I would usually have it on the screen for you.
But go ahead and turn to Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two begins for us just the story of the Christmas message and why it’s important to simplify what the Christmas story is all about. And it says in Luke chapter two, if you pick up and let’s start in verse nine, actually start in verse eight, and this is the birth of Jesus has already taken place. The angels are about to appear before the shepherds, to let them know that the Messiah has been born in Bethlehem, and they’re about to go join the birth of Christ and engage in worship over him. And it tells us in verse eight, in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people. For today in the city of David there was there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. The opening message of the thought of Christmas this morning, which I desire for us just to grab, is the thought, this is way distracting, huh? Is this when the angels came to announce the coming of Jesus? You see it underlined there at the very bottom, it says, I bring you good news.
Jesus is about good news. When you think about Christmas on the coming of Christ, the first thought that should occur in our minds is good news. Can I tell you this morning when you think about Jesus, if the first thing that you think about when Christ comes to mind isn’t good news, then perhaps you’ve been introduced to the wrong Jesus. I know many of our lives, and even in mine, I have somewhat of a legalistic background from which I come from. And when I think about church and I think about Jesus, I tend to associate it with religious upbringing. And to me, when I think about the idea of Christ based on my past, the the first thoughts that I have are aren’t necessarily good news. I mean, when someone says to you and comes and they say, I have great news or I have good news, I want to proclaim. And we would expect something, especially on the Christmas holidays. Someone’s bought me a brand new car, right? Or if you’re in college and you’ve had those finals, your exams been canceled. I mean, that is good news. And the same is true with Jesus. We think about the message of Christmas. The first thing that should occur within our minds is this is something worthy of celebration, and this is good news.
John wrote about the coming of Jesus as well. Go ahead and click to the next slide for me. Mark. John wrote in his gospel in verse 17, he, he, John opens up his gospel. It’s a beautiful story of the coming of Jesus. If you don’t know anything about Jon, Jon was Jesus’s best friend. He was referred to as the beloved throughout Scripture. He was loved. Jon was loved so much by Jesus that on the cross, Jesus looked at John from the cross and asked, John, John, will you please take care of my mother? When you think about how much you’ve really got to love and respect someone to to ask them to care for your mother. John was also in Scripture, thought to be the youngest of Jesus disciples. When he started to follow Jesus, it was thought that he was somewhere in his early 20s. And John wrote the Gospel of John. He’s the only disciple that didn’t die of martyrdom, though he was persecuted quite a bit. He lived on to old age, wrote, wrote the Gospel of John in old age, and he began to reflect on Jesus and what his coming to this world meant for us as people. And he wrote this book to younger generations throughout all of the world that they can come to know this Christ. And he opens his book in John chapter one. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
The same was beginning with God. And then he says in verse 14, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, the birth of Jesus. And we beheld that glory of Christ. And he closes his book in John chapter 20 and ends in 21, but in 20. In verse 28, Doubting Thomas bowing before Jesus, saying, my Lord and my God. And sandwiched in between the coming of this God and the death of this God and His resurrection as he celebrated his God, is the the details of his life and the significance of who Jesus is for us. And John picks up the story in verse three, and he helps us to understand something about the good news of Jesus, something about the significance of who Christ is in our lives, something that tells us when we think about Jesus. If we don’t think about good thoughts, if we don’t think about the good news of his coming, then our perception of Jesus is messed up. And so he says this in verse 17, For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. This was revolutionary at the time. It still is today. It stands in the face of every religious teaching in the world, because every teaching in the world tells us, try and do as best you can according to all the rules that we tell you.
And maybe, maybe God will accept you. In the midst of that, John writes these words Jesus already accepts you. Jesus didn’t come into this world to condemn us, but to free us, to save us. This week I was reflecting in Matthew chapter five, when Jesus begins to deliver the sermon on the Mount, because some people would look at this and consider when Jesus just simply frees us from the laws that we’ve broken, that as Christians we have what they call easy believism because we don’t have to live according to laws in order to be saved, Jesus saves us. You know, when Jesus came to the earth, he didn’t just establish the law. He said, I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And then Jesus went on and said in the very next sentence that if you have anger in your heart, you’ve killed someone. If you’ve lusted in your heart, you’ve committed adultery. And he took this law that all these people felt like they had to live by in order to please God, and felt like they were earning their salvation through. And he took the law, and he raised the level of it. And he recognized to us that this law is impossible to live. The point of the law is that it’s impossible to live. It’s like this when you wake up in the morning.
Hopefully. I hope you did this. You looked in the mirror, right? Come to church. Look in the mirror before you come. Right. Amen. But you know, the reason we look in the mirror is we look into this mirror to detect whether or not we’re. We’re dirty. Right? I look good all the time, so I don’t even have one of my. No, I’m just kidding. But we look in that mirror and we try to detect whether or not as people were dirty. And, you know, the oddest thing that when we decide that we need cleaned, we don’t then rub our face on the mirror to cleanse ourselves. Do you know that people attempt to do that with the law? We look at the law, we recognize we fallen short, and then we start rubbing ourselves in the law to make ourselves look better. And the truth is, God already recognizes that according to law, according to God’s holy standard, according to the lusts we carry in our heart and the anger that we carry in our heart. Whatever standard that God has for us, we can’t attain to because it’s perfect. God already knows. And so Jesus didn’t come to judge us in that. He came to free us from it. To free us from that condemnation that we may experience him. And so, John, as he’s written in verse 17, he wrote for us in the previous verse, go ahead and click Mark.
And the most famous verse in all the Bible. For God so loved the world. And what it’s saying to us is people, while you were most unlovable, while you’re in a place of darkness When you felt like you didn’t deserve love, Jesus came in to embrace you. Amen. He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish. I love that phrase, whoever believes because the tendency of our mind as people, we always want to feel like we have to earn something we don’t. We don’t like to accept things that are free or gifts given to us. God’s come to this world and he’s given you. And it says, whoever believes it doesn’t say whoever looks good and then believes it says whoever believes whenever they believe. Jesus gives you this beautiful gift because he desires to come into your life, and he’s proven it by coming to this earth. If that doesn’t bring forth good news, we’ve got a bad perception of Jesus. Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. I love thinking about this as John writes these words, because as he gets to this word, believes he I can I can just picture in my mind John, beginning to write, thinking in his old age, looking at a generation of people who were to come to read these words, how can I begin to express to them what they need to understand with Jesus? And he writes this phrase that’s not been seen in the Greek language to this point.
He writes, whoever believes and the Greek language already has this word for believes, it’s it’s pistius. It means a knowledge of. It’s like saying to you this morning, I believe in George Washington. He makes no relevance to my life, but I believe he existed, right? I have no reason to doubt otherwise. He’s on something somewhere, right? He’s got pictures and places and people telling me he’s important. I’m sure he was real, I believe. But then John goes on to write, he he doesn’t just say pissed us when he comes to the word believes. He says pisteuo. And then he and then he adds on this final word in which in Greek is ice. And he’s saying to us as people, it’s more than just a knowledge. It’s more than just understanding that Jesus existed. The word that John, for the first time in the Greek language that we found is trying to place together in our minds, is this idea of trust. It literally means to place yourself into or to lean heavily upon this and in this. And John is saying to us, it’s not just a mental believing of your heart or of your mind, it’s an acceptance of your heart. Jesus has come to this world not to condemn, but to save you.
And he’s calling us as people to place our faith, our trust, everything that we are leaning in to this thought that John is carrying. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, which by the way, means of the same kind or essence, the same makeup as the father. He gave his only begotten son, that whoever, whoever, whoever believes into him, does not perish but has eternal life. When I was a young kid, I can tell you this is how eternal life was taught to me. You don’t want to go to hell, right? Go to heaven. And when you die, Jesus will take you to heaven. And that’s what eternal life means. But you know, as I’ve come to learn and mature my faith, I’ve learned that that’s not what eternal life means. It is somewhat of what eternal life means. But that’s not really the beauty of the message of what eternal life is. John went on to define in John chapter 17 what eternal life is, and verse three says, this is eternal life, that you may know him. Eternal life is about experiencing the presence of Jesus every day. It doesn’t just happen in eternity. As we wait to meet some thought that we have. It’s about experiencing that relationship every day. The good news of the Christmas celebration. The reason we get so excited, the reason we celebrate advent for four weeks, is because God has made himself known to us when we didn’t deserve love.
He loved anyway that we can experience him every day. That’s eternal life in Christ. And that’s the good news. This is a crazy thought to think about. But as I was studying the Gospels this past week and and looking at the coming of Jesus and, and the people around him and their response to Christ, the ones who embraced him get this. They didn’t have presents under a tree. They didn’t even have a tree. They didn’t have lights. They didn’t have reindeer. They have any of that stuff. But, you know, the common thing I keep seeing when it talks about the people who embrace Jesus is that they were filled with joy and they worshiped. Might I suggest this morning if Christmas feels complicated to us, the simplicity of what the idea represents during the holiday season is where the joy establishes itself in us. This is eternal life that you may know him. That is, we believe. We experience Christ every day of our life and from that we celebrate the holiday. Amen. I was reading this famous verse this week comes in Philippians. I had a had a friend in high school. It was his favorite verse. Philippians 413. He totally took it out of context, but it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And he was an athlete, so that meant God was going to give him like super powers to lift stuff.
And that’s not even what the verse means, right? Like you read that verse, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. When you go up to bat, next time we have a church softball game, it doesn’t mean you’re going to crush a home run, okay? Just because you recite the verse, it doesn’t give you like the supernatural ability. What Paul is communicating in that verse. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He’s he’s literally saying this. It can translate this way in the Greek. I can I can do all things resting in the presence of the one who infuses me. Did you get that? I can do all things resting in the presence of the one who infuses me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God’s got this crazy idea for us. It’s not about what you do. It’s about where you are in his presence. It’s about taking the time to rest in his presence and allowing the joy of the Lord to infuse you with his strength. That way, when you go to look for happiness in this life, it doesn’t start from the external, but it begins from the inside out. Jesus transforms you. You can ask ourselves this morning, why is it that we don’t enjoy Christmas? And talking about that verse more, go ahead and click for me one more time.
Romans chapter one and verse 20 kind of talks about the opposite spectrum of of this Christmas holiday. We talk about the coming of Jesus as good news. We talk about the celebration of of who Christ is. And we note within our culture, we’re really beginning to miss the mark of the purpose of the season. Why is that? How have we gotten so far from just making this day about Jesus? We don’t need magic things. God is all you need. Romans chapter one Paul starts to talk about that for us. He says this in verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. Just keep in mind this verse for a minute. It just tells us in verse 21, they did not honor God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Hold on to that thought for just a minute. Good. And give me one more quick mark.
Professing to be wise they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over to the over, in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind. God allows your heart to experience what it is that you crave. Romans carries this idea that the that the thought of these individuals who miss the mark of God’s identity and as it relates to them in their life, they the reason they did is because they started with this question. What is it that will satisfy me rather than what is it the Lord desires for me? And it tells us in this previous verses that the way that the process happened is that they began to get futile in their mind, or they began to be foolish in their mind, and through that they were darkened. Can I suggest that sometimes in life the things that we do really aren’t bad, but they’re futile. They’re just aimless. I could relate it to the Christmas holiday and say, what are some things that you’ve done during Christmas that just have no point in Jesus at all? It’s not per se bad.
It’s just futile. It has no point. It’s aimless. The Bible tells us that we really as people and seeing this in Romans, we don’t plan to fail in life. We don’t plan for bad things to happen. But eventually you live life in a futile manner. Eventually you start walking in the darkness and before long you’re turning around, wondering how in the world you got so far from where you should be. You think about the reverse of that. If you just start with Jesus and His joy as you experience resting in Him and His presence of eternal life being made known in you, how much of a difference that makes from the futility of mine and Romans not only acknowledged for us where we’re missing the mark, getting futile in our mind, and walking into darkness. It also spoke to us how we begin to enjoy that relationship with God. It says that they did not honor God and they were not thankful to him. Satisfy your cravings in life. Can I just say biblically it should start with his presence before you. And the way that Romans talks about enjoying the presence of God is to carry both honor and thankfulness before him. When you’re thankful before God and you’re honoring the Lord with your life, it becomes difficult to be futile and to walk into darkness.
We say it quite often here. You were created in this world for a relationship with God. But do you know how you engage that relationship? It’s through what we call worship. In Romans chapter one is pointing out to us as people the way that the mind begins to get futile, the way that we don’t recognize our creator, is that we’re not craving to acknowledge him in our relationship of eternal life through what we call worship on. Romans tells us at the beginning of our hearts, if you were to make Christ the center of Christmas and Christ the center of every day, for us to walk in thankfulness for what he’s done and to honor him and the beauty of his coming to save us as people. Christ is the focus of Christmas. And so what does that mean for us? What in the world does it mean when you say Merry Christmas? Have a have a merry, happy time in Christ, right? No, that’s not what it means. The word Christmas has been around for over a thousand years. It was literally stated as the the Christian Mass or the Christian Mass. Mass is the word that is used in honor or in simultaneously with or related to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper, you will remember, was if you read in the Gospels it was a time of intimacy with Jesus’s disciples.
He went into the upper room just before his death, just hours before his death, and he experienced just a close relationship with those who loved him. And they celebrated communion as they ate a meal together, refer to it as the Lord’s Supper. And during that meal Jesus took both bread and wine. And he said to his disciples, his followers, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat it, and drink this, and remember me. And here’s the promise I’m coming back for you, where you will be with me as I reign as King of Kings. Amen. When we literally say Merry Christmas, we’re honoring the death of Jesus. Jesus lived to die. And Merry Christmas means to us. Happy communion with Christ. It’s wishing someone. May your season be filled with an intimacy and the presence of Jesus as you commune with him. You think about the beauty of that. I’ve said that word for years and not even known what it meant to whisper to someone with the knowledge of that man. I hope that you have a merry Christmas. I hope that you can see Jesus for who he is, that he’s come to this world, and he’s not expecting you to prove his love. But he already loves you. He’s already died for you. Everything in your past that you’re concerned about Jesus has taken care of because his concern isn’t your past.
His hope for you is a future in relationship with him. Amen. He’s gifted you his life to die on the cross for your sins, that you can experience him both now and forever. Have a merry time in the communing presence of Christ. Merry Christmas! Christmas is a beautiful day for us as people, and I look at the opportunity it presents for us as a church. I’m big in my life on. I want to redeem the culture I don’t. I want to see culture change. Some people get scared about Christmas and they don’t want to celebrate it because of the things that Christmas has come to mean today. You know, if you decide not to celebrate Christmas, the world’s going to keep celebrating Christmas. I would rather celebrate Christmas with the world and point them to Jesus during the holiday season. The beauty of just saying to someone, Merry Christmas as we understand them as believers. And can I just say to us this morning, if you know Christ, how important that message is? And can I say to us this morning, if we could just reflect on the thought, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son? Do you know as a believer, it’s not sometimes about just learning new things, but about appreciating and thankfulness what God has already done for us. For some of us that don’t know Jesus. Can I just tell you this morning all it is is just an acknowledgment from your heart away.
All it is, is a confession from your inner self before the Lord. You can even do it in a prayer just saying, Lord, I trust in you. Lord, I believe that you’ve come for me. Lord, I believe that you died for me. God, I see the simplicity of this Christmas message. Lord, I just want to accept you. I’m leaning, I’m believing, and I’m leaning into you in this promise. Christmas for me this year is a little bit rougher. Um, this past Thursday, I lost my grandfather. And so right after we’re done here, Stacy are going to jump on a plane and head back east. I get the privilege of of sharing the message at the funeral for his death. You know, as a young boy, I can remember I would go into my grandfather’s house and always loved, always accepted my grandpa every day, without fail, had this chair. He always had this comfortable chair. Every man needs a comfortable chair and he would sit in this chair and he would just read his Bible. And I believe my grandfather knew what it meant to have eternal life in Jesus. And he loved Jesus. As a young kid, I can remember walking in and thinking, who is this person my grandpa is making look so real, this This curiosity in my heart for this individual that he just craved to get with every day.
He actually wrote a commentary on the Bible. He. I think it’s in my office now. And he gave me. It’s not the whole Bible, just his thoughts on Scripture as he experienced Christ in his life. And I was reading this week, just throughout his commentary, reflecting on his life, looking for something important to share at his funeral. And and I was looking at his thoughts on people who had rejected Christ, people who were so close but just couldn’t understand the beauty of this message. And and he wrote about in Christian mosques and reflection of the importance of that day. He wrote about the the soldiers who were at the foot of the cross as Jesus was being crucified. And he said this, The soldiers were throwing dice at the foot of the cross. They were in a circle, heads pointing down the criminal. Jesus was forgotten because they were laying their luck on the earth, hoping to expand their wardrobe over some used clothes. As Jesus looked down past his bloody feet, he was amazed. They were witnessing the world’s most uncommon event and they didn’t know it. As far as they were concerned, it was just another Friday and he was just another criminal. The symbolism is striking. Don’t you see it? We are not unlike those soldiers. Do we play games at the foot of the cross? Do we compete? Do we scramble for status? Do we deal out judgment and condemnation? Do we try to be like others, or do we get angry and walk away in a huff? Are we so close to the cross but so far from Christ? Are we so close to the world’s most uncommon event, but act like common crapshooters, huddling in a bickering group and fighting over silly opinions? How many hours have been wasted on the trivial? How many leaders have saddled their pet peeves, have drawn their swords and launched into battle against friends and loved ones over issues which are not worthy of discussing.
So close to the cross, but so far from the cross. We write books about what others do wrong. We major in finding gossip and become experts in unveiling weakness, while Jesus prays things like. May they all be one. One in faith and one in the Lord. No denominations, no hierarchies, no traditions, just Jesus. We need hearts that are willing to come to Jesus. What about you? Are you willing to follow Christ? This morning I just want to make for us the message. Simple. I don’t want us to focus on learning anything new over the holiday season. You know the Christmas story. If you’ve been in Alpine Bible Church for more than a year, you know the Christmas story. Christmas really ultimately is about the application of the things that we already know. It’s about the simplicity of the Christmas season.
It’s about understanding that Jesus isn’t, about judging that when we think about Jesus, it should bring to our thoughts. Just good news that God craves a relationship for you, and you were designed for that relationship, and that eternal life happens for us. The minute that we put our faith in him, that we lean into him. And if you’re a believer, it’s not something that you did as a get out of hell free card once in your life. It happens every day experiencing the presence of Christ that that in him, as we trust in him, as we rest in him, he infuses into us his strength because he loves us and desires to make himself known. For those of us who’ve done that, it’s just about experiencing it. It’s about giving ourself the opportunity this holiday season, not to busy ourselves over the futile things, finding ourselves walking in darkness and frustrated over the holidays. But it’s about taking the time to allow the presence of the Lord to infuse itself in your life. By not knowing Jesus for the first time in your life, it’s about taking the opportunity of seeing the gift that God has given you. It is a gift. It is free. He loves you. He’s extended it to you. He doesn’t care about your past. He wants a future with you. That’s why he’s come. He’s died for it. Now it’s about leaning into that promise and saying to him, Jesus, thank you, and I accept.