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One week. Are you ready? Everyone has. I’m assuming that perfect tree already picked out, right? I’ve been fighting all the traffic at the mall. Your budget has taken a December blow, and now you’re worried about all the quality time with your family. If you’re like my family, it’s been. We’ve had some divorce and remarriages experience. And so that fight for that time of where you go and how you spend your time on Christmas is very valuable. Guys, if you don’t know, it works like this with her family. She gets Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas and you get Groundhog’s Day, Presidents Day. No, I’m just kidding. Christmas can be complicated. So complicated, in fact, that we oftentimes forget the point or we miss the point. It’s possible to be born in America today under the advertisement of Christmas, and really have no idea of why Christmas began and what the point of Christmas is all about. What about this, guys? Is your shopping finished? I know most guys you’ve got. How many days before the mall closes? What day is that? What time? Right. Are you looking for that perfect gift this year? What are you going to go with? Are you going to try it out? Do your gift this year. Are you going to go with the more expensive side this year or more of the sentimental side? I know some of you have probably already tried this. You’ve gone to your spouse and you said, honey, what do you want for Christmas? And she said, oh, you know, nothing.
I’m okay. I just want to spend time with you. Right? But woe to the man who shows up on Christmas morning with nothing under that tree. Buying that perfect gift can be difficult and sometimes complicated, especially if you’re a guy. Maybe you live under that pressure that I. I feel where you’ve got to buy that special gift for someone where it’s exactly what they needed or wanted for Christmas. You know, you couldn’t go over your budget. But somehow, Lord, if you could bring under that $25 range somewhere to get that gift for that, that person. And what about those presents you have to buy that are just bad presents? And what I mean is, your name got thrown into a hat somewhere, and you’ve got to buy an office party gift for someone that you’ve never talked to all year long. Right? You might as well just exchange $25 bills, right? Buying the perfect gift for someone can be difficult when you think about the point of Christmas. Christmas is all about that perfect gift, God. Knowing exactly what you needed in your life and bringing that gift to you. Christmas is a story about the greatest gift ever given. Christmas is about an unbelievable gift. Together, we’ve been studying an unbelievable Christmas and how it was perceived by the early followers of Jesus, the Zacharias who pronounced the coming of the Messiah, and Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus.
The idea of Christmas running around in their heads and how God coming in the flesh seemed unbelievable to him. And today we’re going to understand the the whole gift of Christmas and the unbelievable idea of what Christmas is about as it’s presented to us as people, as a gift. We’ve seen in Luke together, we’ve studied the first two chapters of The Christmas Story. We talk about an unbelievable gift, the pronouncement of the angels as he came to the shepherds. He he declared this to them as they were tending their sheep. So 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 the people. For today in the city of David there was there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. When you think about Christmas, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about Jesus on Christmas? What do you think about? Under the stress of what Christmas has become, I would have to say that it’s not always happy times. But I think for just a moment and just reading this text and the pronouncement of the angel when he came before the shepherds, that if when I think about Jesus and I think about Christmas, as the angel said, if the first thing that I. I’m not thinking about is great joy, perhaps someone has misrepresented to me what Jesus and Christmas is all about.
If there’s anything about this story that does not strike you as good news or joyful, perhaps someone has given you a poor characterization of what the story of Christmas possesses for us as people. When someone mentions to you Christmas or someone mentions to you good news, the first thing that comes into your mind shouldn’t be, well, what’s this going to cost me? Or how much time is this going to take? Or what is it I’m going to have to do? The pronouncement of Christmas is of good news. It tells us in this passage of Scripture that this great joy which was given for all people. This joy was given for all people. It says, for today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior. The Christmas story is all about God wanting to be with you. The joy of Christmas is that God wants to know you. And God came to this world to demonstrate it. We’ve seen the unbelievable journey of Christmas together. We’ve seen how Jesus has fulfilled Old Testament prophecy in coming to this world and being born of a manger, living an incredible life that led him ultimately all the way to the cross, to die for the sins of all the world. But how is this unbelievable gift of Christmas good news for us. What is it about Christmas or about Jesus that we’ve misunderstood? That when we think about the great joy of what Christmas is supposed to be, how did it get lost from the joy of the pronouncement of the angel to the stress that we feel in Christmas today? This morning we’re going to answer that question.
If you brought a Bible with you, you turn to John chapter one. We’re going to simply ask this question how is the unbelievable gift of Christmas? Good news. If you turn to John chapter one and verse one, you see a very clear pronouncement about the coming of Jesus as written by the Apostle John. And the first thing that he wants us to recognize is he begins his book in John. Is that the good news about this unbelievable gift, different than probably any other Christmas gift you’ve ever received, is that it’s totally free. You don’t have to buy someone else a gift to get this gift. Jesus came to this world for you before you were even born. God desires a relationship with you so much that 2000 years ago, Jesus saw the need to come to this earth for you. The good news about this Christmas gift is that it’s free. It says in John one and verse one, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The word in this passage is referring to Jesus. Let me just substitute the name word for Jesus in this passage and reread it. In the beginning was Jesus. And Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.
If you’re just skipping to John chapter one all the way down to verse 14, and John clarifies a little bit more about Jesus. And it says, And Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. To understand the unbelievable gift of Christmas, we have to begin to unpack what John is telling us as readers in verse one and verse 14 of beginning chapter of his book. He says, When Jesus came to this earth, the reason that it’s good news for us as people is because this gift to you was full of grace and truth. What is grace? I would say in society today we use that term often, but rarely use it in the proper context. The Bible clarifies for us what the idea of grace is all about. In Romans four four says, now to the one who works his wage is not credited as favor, but as what is due. In the King James, the word favor there would be grace. It’s the same Greek word favor, and grace is the same Greek word. And it sang to us, when you work for something, it’s counted as a wage, and it’s not counted as grace. It says in Romans 11 six, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. When God came to this earth for you, the gifting to you was completely free.
In fact, if you were to read in John one and verse 16, as we saw in chapter one, it says, for of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. God has not delivered to you just just a little bit of grace on top of what you needed in life. Jesus has dumping his grace into your life. It says in John 316, For God so loved the world that he gave this free gift, came out of love for God giving to you. And it says in Ephesians 289, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not a result of works. When you think about the good news of Christmas, the first thing that you shouldn’t think about is what’s it going to cost me? Or what am I going to have to do? The good news about Christmas is that it’s full of God’s grace to you. It’s not a story about straighten up. It’s not another to do list of something you have to do to earn something. It’s not about even going to church and listen to this. It’s not about giving yourself to God. The only message that’s contained in the message of Christmas is that God has freely given himself to you. Imagine for a moment what this was like for those during the time of John and the Greek culture and a Roman society.
In their mind, in order to appeal to God, in order to win God’s favor and even begin to experience God’s love, you had to work yourself to death and try to keep God happy, because most of their gods sat on clouds throwing lightning bolts at you. They were angry gods, and now all of a sudden, John is delivering this message to people and saying, listen, you’ve missed the whole point of Jesus’s coming. It’s about nothing that you’ve done but what God wants to bring to you. The message of Christmas is a message of grace, because it’s a message that is free without having to give yourself to God, without having to straighten up, without having to obey any rules. God simply has declared to us that he wants to deliver himself to you. Second, the message of Christmas is an unbelievable gift for us because we need it. We talk about a word as John 116 says, grace upon grace. It’s not as if Jesus just throws the the sprinkles on top of your ice cream cone here. It’s not like you’ve got a pepperoni pizza and Jesus throws a little extra pepperoni on it. You know, for you pepperoni lovers. We talk about grace upon grace. The way that Jesus lavishes this grace upon you is because you need to experience his grace. It’s as if you have a naked man walking around unclothed, or a child going to bed hungry, or someone staying without shelter, sleeping through the night.
They are in need. And when Jesus talks about his grace upon grace in your life, he’s delivering this grace to you because it’s your need. It becomes joyous to us because we see Jesus delivering for our need. The Bible says this. Your iniquities have made a separation between you and God. Iniquities is sin. Your sin makes a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Bible says in Romans 310, there is none righteous, saying to us as people, no matter how hard you try, no matter how good you might think you are, you’re not good enough when it measures up to God because no one is righteous. Romans 323 tells us, for all have sinned. In Romans 118 says this God’s wrath is against all sinners. If the Bible is declaring us to be sinful, and it’s telling us in Romans 118 that that God’s wrath is against us, and we’ve seen that we can’t earn his favor, what position do we stand in before him? When we talk about the coming of Jesus and we see it as grace upon grace, Jesus is saying to us before me, you have no hope, but I’m bringing you this grace upon grace to to introduce to you life through me. Says to us and other passages of Scripture in Isaiah 64 and verse six, all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment before God.
You think about before God trying to earn his favor, and he’s saying to us, it doesn’t matter how hard you try. Romans 320 by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified, justified in his sight. This gift is glorious on Christmas because it’s free. This gift is glorious to us on Christmas because we need it. Psalm five and verse four and five says this. For you are not a God who treasures pleasure in wickedness. No evil dwells with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all who sin. I don’t want to change the message of what I’m trying to share with us this morning, because I said to you, the message of Christmas is all about God giving to you. What’s important for us to recognize is the joy of of this gift. And the news of this gift is so important to our lives, because we are in a position of desperation and in great need for his glorious grace. When we think about the coming of Jesus, it should bring us such joyful hope, because before God, without him, we are in a desperate position. And no matter how we chose to live our lives, it was never going to be good enough to amount to the goodness that God required of us as people. Jesus’s grace is more than just sprinkles on top of your ice cream cone.
It’s a it’s a clothing of you who stand before him naked and without hope. And the good news about Jesus. I know I’m talking about sin today, and that’s that’s sort of the Debbie Downer statement. But the good thing about Jesus was when he comes to you and he gives this message, it says in John chapter three and verse 17, For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. The good news about this gift and the joy that comes with this gift, is that Jesus supplies every need that you have in your life. Jesus didn’t come to this world wagging his finger in front of your face. Jesus already knew where you stood before him. Jesus simply came to this world to give you himself. It’s not about what you don’t have, but what you get with him. It’s not about where you’ve been or what you’ve done. It’s about Jesus coming to you. God has brought you his free gift. Perhaps the most famous verse in all the Bible, I’m sure Tim Tebow is going to be wearing it today when he plays my Patriots down with Tebow, right? Verse says, 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. The question that we have this morning is, do you want that gift? The message of Christmas, of if you thought about Jesus and you thought that God is more than him wanting to give himself to you, and I say this morning that someone has misrepresented that to you.
The message of Jesus is that God desires to give himself to you and for you to respond to him. And the question we ask this morning is simply, do you want this gift? You know, some of the smartest people on earth on Christmas morning are children. You know where they are on Christmas morning. They’re under that tree. They know what’s there for them. And with open arms, they’re ready to wake Mom and Dad up before the sun even comes up for you to enjoy the opening of this joyous gift that they know they need, right? The same is true with Jesus. It’s as if Jesus has come to this world, and he’s presented himself under the Christmas tree of your life. And he’s saying, if you want me in your life, all you have to do is open. It says in this verse, For God so loved the world that God did what loving people do. He gave. And when you think about the giving of God, it wasn’t because of anything that you’ve done. It was despite what you’ve done. Even while we were yet sinners, it tells us in Romans five eight, Christ gave his life for you, goes on and says that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in the invitation begins to be opened up for all people.
And when John was writing John chapter three, this was the first time John was presenting to someone how to trust in Jesus. And he says, when, when we share this message, it’s for whoever wants to believe. It’s an open invitation to anybody at any time. And it says whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. That phrase believe in in this passage of Scripture is is an interesting word in the Greek language. It was the first time they’ve ever discovered in any Greek writing that this word believe in was put together. John carefully chose these two words because in the Greek language, they don’t have a word for trust. And what John is trying to get across to us as people, Is that what it takes to inherit this eternal life? What it takes to get this gift with Jesus is simply your trust in him. And the promises at the end of this verse is that you will have eternal life. I’ll give you an illustration for a moment. Suppose for a moment we came today to commit idolatry and worship this stool, and we were to trust in this stool. This morning was our goal. But I spent all morning long just telling you about the stool. We walked around the stool. We looked at the stool. We. We talked to the stool. At some point, someone even got brave and halfway trusted the stool, but still trusted themselves.
What the Bible is saying is that when we believe in Jesus, we give up on everything else. Jesus is promising us eternal life in him. And there are all sorts of ways throughout this world that men and women have determined that they would achieve a life everlasting with God. One is they try to earn their way. And we’ve seen in Scripture that according to the Bible, it’s impossible. But the way that Jesus shares is just simply trusting in him. Rather than trusting in anything else. You lift your feet on the ground, and you just lean as heavily as you can into Christ, trusting in him with your life. Some believable gift comes to us through Christ because it’s free. It’s unbelievable. Gift comes to us through Christ because we need it. It’s unbelievable. Gift comes to us because Jesus supplies it. When we read this scripture, I just want us to note this morning that when we reject Christ in our lives and the gift that he offers, we aren’t rejecting a list. We’re not rejecting rules. We’re not rejecting a religion. What we’re rejecting is Jesus. And no matter what other people have tried to represent Jesus to you this morning, God’s Christmas wish to you is that you would embrace him. God’s Christmas gift to you is that he has given himself. The Bible says that whoever believes will inherit eternal life. It says in John 116, for all of all of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
We’re rejecting Jesus. What we reject is his grace upon grace. The promise we saw in John chapter three and verse 16 this morning tells us that whoever believes, whenever they believe, will inherit eternal life. The good news and the joy about Christmas amidst everything else is that God has given himself to you. Everybody bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment. God has given himself to you. And the quietness of your heart. God has also said that if you believe in him, you’ll inherit eternal life. If you’ve never taken the time just to trust in Jesus, to believe in him, I’ll give you that opportunity this morning with your head bowed and just having conversation with God in prayer to him. Take the time just to say, Lord, I believe you’re my Savior. God, I believe you came to this world and died for me. God and I want to trust in you. As you trust in him. God promises that you receive eternal life. And as you share that joyful message with the Lord, our hope this morning is that you share with other people and what God has done for you. And for you here this morning. Let this set into our hearts. God has given himself to you. Christmas is about nothing more than God has given himself to you. As believers this morning, take the opportunity just to thank him for it.