This is the transcript of the message I shared at our December 24 Christmas Eve Service:
CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE 2022
“ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?”
Well, here it is. Christmas Eve. We finally made it! Tomorrow is Christmas.
For the past several weeks, almost everyone here has, to one degree or another, been super busy.
Planning and preparing. Hustling and bustling. Hosting, shopping and decorating
Hopefully by now you’re ready! If not…well time is almost up!
But here’s the deal. There’s really only ONE WAY to be ready for Christmas. It’s by knowing what Christmas is really about and rightly responding to the true message of Christmas
Think about it:
- You can hang up all the Christmas lights.
- You can trim the Christmas tree.
- You can attend a bunch of Christmas parties.
- You can eat a ton of Christmas goodies.
- You can even watch all the Christmas movies.
But you can still miss out on Christmas. Because even though all these things can be fun, they really aren’t what the true meaning of Christmas is about.
Christmas, in a word, is about Jesus. Both the person of Jesus and the mission of Jesus.
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, which of course, sets everything in motion regarding the reason Jesus came to earth. This is the reason Christmas exists!
And what a gift Jesus is! Jesus isn’t just a gift we should want. Jesus is the gift we desperately need.
Regarding our personal need for Jesus, perhaps one of the clearest sections of scripture is found in Matthew’s Gospel.
It’s a passage that describes how Joseph was informed by an angel on how to handle the fact that his fiancé, Mary, had become pregnant.
Matthew 1:18-21 NLT
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. 20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Notice there in verse 21 we discover the reason why Jesus came to earth. Jesus came to save. Specifically, Jesus came to rescue us from our sins.
One of the most paradoxical things about Jesus is this: Jesus was born for the purpose of dying. Yes, the Christmas story begins in a stable. But the story of Jesus ultimately finds its way to a cross. That’s where Jesus paid for the sins we are completely unable to pay for ourselves.
In our broader culture, the image of baby Jesus lying a manger in Bethlehem usually evokes a measure of sentimentality and feelings of peace and love. And, certainly, Christmas is a great time to enjoy warm emotions. But enjoying the birth of a baby is not the end goal of Christmas. No…it’s much more than that!!!!
Jesus himself declared his ultimate life purpose when he said these words found in Luke 19:10,
“The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost.”
I like how Alistair Begg summed up the idea of Christmas being MORE than just a celebration of a new birth:
Christmas had as its goal Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday, when Christ utterly triumphed over death, dealt it a lethal blow, and paved the path to reconciliation with God. This was Christ’s mission, accomplished on the cross, where He gave Himself up for His people. Christmas, then, is actually about the love Jesus displayed on the cross, for “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
At the cross, Jesus didn’t only pay for our sins.
No, the cross is also the place where Jesus provided for us that we might experience life as God originally intended. A life in relationship with God, rather in rebellion to God. At the cross, Jesus not only redeemed us from sin, He reconciled to our Creator.
How’s THAT for a Christmas present!?!
Here’s how the Apostle Paul talked about the fact that it is only through Jesus that we can discover peace in our fractured relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT)
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
THIS is the message of Christmas.
- The opportunity to be free from the penalty of sin.
- And the opportunity to know God in a way we could never know Him without Jesus.
Rather than knowing God as a distant, wrathful judge, we can now know God as caring, intimate Father.
And this is all because of Jesus. God’s grand gift to humanity.
But don’t miss this: Jesus is a gift we must receive. It’s not enough to simply appreciate Jesus. To experience God as we were meant to, we must trust and believe in the person and work of Jesus.
Here’s how the Apostle John explained it in his Gospel letter:
John 3:16-17 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
So, in light of the crystal-clear message of these verses, let me ask: Have you experienced Christmas yet? Are you ready for Christmas? Because a Christmas without Jesus really isn’t much of a Christmas at all.
Over the past 4 weeks of Advent, we’ve zeroed in on 4 key Christmas themes: hope, love, joy and peace.
And because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, hope, love, joy and peace can be ours. That surely is reason to celebrate! God sent us his very own Son to die that we might have life.
Let’s bring this message home.
For me, no Christmas Carol captures the true meaning of Christmas than the familiar “HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING,” particularly the words of the 3rd verse. Here’s how it goes:
Hail, the heav’n-born Prince of peace, hail the Son of Righteousness
Light and life to all He brings, risen with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by, born that we no more may die
Born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King!
KURT STAEUBLE 