December 14, 2014
Morning Service

Last week Jared shared with you what God gave him on the Christmas story. Jared spoke on the gifts we have because of Jesus and what he did for us. Those gifts which were left under your tree of life were; Strength, Peace, Forgiveness, Blessings, Love and Salvation. We are truly blessed and no gift we could receive on this earth could ever come close to the importance of the gifts Jesus gave to us. And it all started one Christmas some 2000 years ago. I read a story a preacher shared and in it he told of this cartoon clip he saved titled “Marvin.” In the first frame a young mother has just finished reading the Christmas story to her young son. The lad has a puzzled look on his face as he sorts it all out. Then he thinks to himself, “Let me see if I’ve got this straight … Christmas is baby Jesus’ birthday, but I get the presents?” The final frame shows him with a satisfied grin as he says to himself, “Is this a great religion or what?!” On the surface it’s true, it’s Jesus’ birthday that is celebrated but we (anyone who celebrates Christmas with gifts) get the gifts. When you look at it deeper it is Jesus’ birthday and we (Christians) got the gifts.

    II Cor. 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Jesus in all his wealth gave it all up in heaven and came to earth to be born a lowly child in a remote village in a forgotten province, to join a despised race, to be born of an obscure teenage peasant girl in a dirty stable, wrapped in rags, placed in an animal’s feeding-trough instead of a crib. He voluntarily gave up the riches of heaven for the poverty of earth. Most of us understand wealth, maybe we haven’t experienced it first hand, but we know what it is. Poverty we know, again probably not from experiencing it personally but we see it around us. We know enough about the two to know they are on opposite ends of the spectrum and it makes no earthly sense to give up wealth and take on poverty. It’s beyond human comprehension but that’s just what Jesus did. He voluntarily gave up the wealth of heaven and took on the poverty of earth. And he did it for you and I. He also did it for the billionaire and he did it for the beggar. What Jesus did he did for one and all.         

    John 1: 14 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.

The phrase “became flesh” really means to wrap oneself in flesh. On that Christmas night in the little lowly village of Bethlehem in a smelly dirty stable in an animal’s food trough God wrapped himself in flesh. He entered the human race in the form of a man so that he could relay and we could relate.

There’s an old illustration, though one I never heard, it goes like this:  If I had some ants that I loved, how could I communicate my love to them? I could stand up and shout, “I love you,” but because they are ants, they wouldn’t understand. I could write them a letter, but they couldn’t read it. I could shrink down to ant size, but they wouldn’t recognize me. But there is one thing I could do. I could take on the form of an ant, be born as an ant, live as an ant, communicate as an ant and then I could find a way to say, “I love you.”  That is just what God did. He became poor just as we, he lived and suffered among us just as one of us so that we might forever hear him say “I love you”.

There is a thing the law refers to as guilt by association. Hang out with a criminal and if you are with him when he’s caught you will likely be charged as well because of your association with that criminal. Because of our relationship with Jesus we have grace by association. We didn’t earn it but it was imputed to us.  Galations 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.   We have inherited wealth beyond measure because of our association with Jesus.  C.S. Lewis (who was a lay theologian) said it this way: “The Son of God became a son of man in order that the sons of men might become the sons of God.”  We are as Isaiah says…  But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags. Like the Little Drummer Boy when we come to God we have nothing to offer even our best works are as filthy rags. It doesn’t matter if you are that billionaire or the beggar God accepts us as we are and we become heirs to a fortune instantly. And it all happens because of Christmas.  Which brings me to what I was originally going to speak on and in a roundabout way am back to. The gift I would like to call attention to that Jesus placed under your tree of life if Hope. One month ago today I spoke at the Huron Church of God to help them out while they search for a pastor. I spoke on Hope. True Hope is one thing the Christian has that the world does not have. Oh the world has hope….I hope my ball team wins today….I hope it doesn’t snow tomorrow….I hope I can retire someday….I hope you have a good day. These are the types of things the world “hopes” for, hope based on wishful thinking. But we dear Christian have a true hope, not one based on wishful thinking but one promised by God who cannot lie.     

     Hebrews 6:17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,    

Jesus Christ came to this earth and wrapped himself in humanly flesh so that we could understand, relate to, perceive, get a feeling for what he did for us. His death gives us hope, true hope that a home in heaven awaits us but he couldn’t die unless he lived first. It wouldn’t have had the same impact were he to have mysteriously appeared one day as a grown man and out of the blue began his ministry. He became an ant, was born and ant, grew up as an ant, learned to communicate as an ant. He ate what we ants eat, he slept as we ants sleep, he suffered the same feelings and emotions the same as the other ants and he died just as an ant would die under the same circumstances. He did it all so the other ants could relate and understand it was all rooted in love. It was all about love. Love is the true meaning of Christmas.

Our prayer: We thank you God for Jesus your son. For his coming to this earth to live as one of us and to show us the true meaning of love. Thank you for Christmas and it’s true meaning.