| Vintage Christmas | Love |
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Part 4 of 5 | December 21, 2008
Watch the original ACC video below that ties into the message
Welcome to the fourth week of our Vintage Christmas series. In each week of this series, we’re visiting with a different member of the family featured in the story you just heard. This week in our story, we met the daughter named Erin. Erin’s story reminds us that our hunger for love can push us to do desperate things. Hunger for love can push a boy to excel in a sport because, “If I do really well in tonight’s game, dad will tell me that he’s proud of me.” It can push a girl to excel in school because, “If I get an A, mom will encourage me.” Hunger for love can push us who are older work longer hours, doing more and more just to get noticed. Recognition of our efforts feels a lot like love to us. Hunger for love can push a young girl into a guy’s bed because, “If I sleep with him, he’ll love me.” In her pursuit of love, she’s willing to give away a precious and irreplaceable part of herself. Hunger for love can push us to do desperate things. It pushed Erin to grab the razor blade she kept in her nightstand. “If I cut myself, then maybe someone will notice me. Then maybe they’ll care about me. Maybe they’ll love me.” Our pursuit of love can make us do some drastic things. Not even God is immune to this. His hunger to love and to be loved was what launched the most drastic plan in history. And it is this drastic move of God that we celebrate at Christmas. As we try to get away from the commercial craziness of Christmas in 2008, as we travel back to the very first Christmas, we’re going to see that, at its heart, Christmas is about love. Radical, desperate, drastic, unrelenting, unstoppable love. All month long, we’ve been hanging out with the shepherds who were the first ones invited to come and see Jesus after he had been born in Bethlehem. In Luke 2, the Bible says, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:8-11, NIV) The angel told the shepherds that Jesus was a Savior. The word Savior literally means “deliverer.” The picture here is that Jesus is the one who delivers his people from their sin. This was Jesus’ mission even before he was conceived. In Matthew 1, an angel appeared to Joseph and told him that his fiancée, Mary, “will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, NIV) The whole reason Jesus was coming was to be a Savior. To save his people from their sins. That was even reflected in the name that the angel gave to Joseph. Joseph was commanded to name the baby “Jesus.” The name Jesus means, “the Lord saves.” Everything about the coming of Jesus Christ signified that he was different. From the prophecies about him that were written hundreds of years before his birth, to the angels’ appearance to Mary and then to Joseph and then to a bunch of shepherds, to the virgin birth. It all signified that this was different. Every detail indicated that this child was special. Every detail, down to the name given to the baby. His name would be Jesus, the Lord saves. Even today, that name still shows us that Jesus is different and special. The simple truth that “the Lord saves” stands in radical opposition to every other world religion. Here’s how Max Lucado put it: “Salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, and God-originated. The gift is not from man to God. It is from God to man. Grace is created by God and given to man…On the basis of that point alone, Christianity is set apart from any other religion in the world…Every other approach to God is a bartering system; if I do this, God will do that. I’m either saved by works (what I do), emotions (what I experience), or knowledge (what I know). By contrast, Christianity has no whiff of negotiation at all. Man is not the negotiator; indeed, man has no grounds from which to negotiate.” If you wonder what sets Christianity apart from every other world religion, this is it. In every other religion, it’s all about what you can do for God. In Christianity alone, it’s about what God has done for you. In every other religion, it’s all about what you can do, do, do. But only in Christianity is it done. We are saved by what Jesus accomplished on the cross. You can’t save yourself. You can’t earn God’s forgiveness. You can never do enough to deserve God’s salvation. The very name of the baby born in Bethlehem tells us that. The Lord saves. The Lord alone saves. I don’t care how good you think you are. You’re not good enough. Neither am I. The Bible says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8, NIV) Perfection is the standard, and we all fall short of the standard. You can try to explain away your need for Jesus if you want, but this is what it comes down to: are you perfect? If you’re not, you need Jesus. It really is that simple. The reason that Christmas exists is because we got ourselves into a mess that we couldn’t get ourselves out of. There is nothing we could do about the sinfulness of our lives. There is nothing we could do to avoid the punishment and wrath of God. But instead, God did what we couldn’t do. He refused to stand idly by while we destroyed our lives with our own sinfulness. He wouldn’t stand on the sidelines and watch his children be damned to hell. His love wouldn’t allow it. He intervened as only he could. His intervention started in the middle of the night, in an animal’s feeding trough in a small, insignificant town called Bethlehem. The intervention culminated at a place called Golgotha, which means “the place of the skull.” It was there that the one who was born in a wooden manger died on a wooden cross. It was there that we saw exactly why his name was “the Lord saves,” because it was there that he gave his life for ours. It was there that he became our Savior, our Deliverer. Now let’s go back and look at what the angel said to the shepherds again. There are two words that you may have missed, but they’re critically important. The angel told the shepherds, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11, NIV) This announcement was given to bunch of scraggly, ragtag shepherds. As we learned at the beginning of this series, in first century culture, you didn’t get any lower on the socio-economic ladder than a shepherd. Shepherds weren’t trusted. They were viewed as thieves. They weren’t allowed to vote. They weren’t even allowed to worship in the temple. That last one really caught me. Shepherds were barred from coming to worship God in the temple. But that discrimination came from their culture. It did not come from God. When Jesus was born, God specifically told the shepherds that a Savior has been born “to you.” Jesus was born for you. He will give his life for you. He will save you. He loves you. God went against every social protocol this culture had, but he didn’t care. Nothing was going to stop him from loving his people...all of his people. Including the shepherds. Including me. Including you. The message of Christmas is that no one is beyond loving. No one is beyond saving. Like we talked about earlier, you’re not good enough to deserve God’s grace. But at the same time, you’re not bad enough to be beyond the reach of God’s grace. I don’t care what you’ve done. I don’t care how dark your past is. The sin you committed 30 years ago and the sin you committed last night can be forgiven because God’s grace is for you. A Savior has been born to you. A Savior has died for you. Jesus was born with a death sentence on his head. You may know the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. In Matthew 2, the Bible says, “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11, ESV) These men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Jesus. Each gift had a special significance, but the strangest gift in the group was the gift of myrrh. Myrrh was a burial spice. The Jewish custom was to use myrrh, along with other spices, to prepare a corpse for burial. Now, contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not a baby when the wise men arrived. He was probably about two years old. The wise men never came to the manger in Bethlehem. Every nativity scene that you’ve ever laid eyes on is wrong. And the song, “We Three Kings,” that’s wrong, too. The Bible never tells us how many there were. But regardless of all that, Jesus was still very young when the wise men arrived and presented him with these gifts. How would you like to have been the dude who gave him myrrh? “I know you’re only two years old, but here’s something for when you’re dead. Happy birthday, kid.” That’s weird! That’s morbid! That’s sick! Actually, that’s perfect. Whoever brought myrrh really was a wise man, because he couldn’t have given a more perfect gift to Jesus. The one who was born to die. Jesus was actually presented with myrrh twice. Once by the wise men when he was a toddler. Once after his death. John 19 says, “Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.” (John 19:38-40, NIV) The first time Jesus was given a gift of myrrh, it was preview. The second time, it was a review. But both times that Jesus’ was presented with myrrh, it was the perfect gift for a Savior. And really, the only question that remains is, “How does this affect me today?” The answer is found in the very first words that the angel spoke to the shepherds out in the field the night that Jesus was born. Luke 2 says, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:8-11, NIV) Don’t miss the very first thing the angel said. They shepherds were terrified, but the first words out of the angel’s mouth were, “Do not be afraid.” Scientists have determined that, when you are afraid, your adrenal cortex releases 30 different hormones into your body. These hormones cause a lot of changes in your body.
All that is a good thing if you’re in a dangerous situation, like staring into the face of a poisonous snake or reacting to a burglar trying to break into your house or Christmas shopping at the mall. All scary stuff. And our body’s reaction to fear is God’s way of keeping us safe and alive. But living in constant fear will destroy us. But many of us do. Someone in this room is living in fear that they will never amount to anything. Someone is afraid that they are unlovable. Someone is afraid that their marriage is beyond saving. Someone is afraid of the report that the doctor will give them. Someone is afraid of being a failure. Someone is afraid of what the future holds for them. Someone is afraid of death. The words of the angels to the shepherds have not lost their power some 2,000 years later. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” We can live our lives without fear because Jesus has come. Do you know everything the future holds? No, but you know who holds the future. Do you know all the struggles you will face in your life? No, but you know that you won’t face them alone. Do you know when and how you will die? No, but you know that death is simply the gateway into the presence of Christ. You do not have to live in fear because you can live in the love of Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 John 4, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins… we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” (1 John 4:9-10, 14, 16, 18a, NIV) The angels told the shepherds not to be afraid because a Savior had been born. The love of God had reached a fever pitch. The apex of love was found in a manger, and then 33 years later on a cross. And it’s that love that allows us to live without fear in our lives today. The Christmas story, the story of Christ, is that we can live in the joy, peace, wonder, and love of God. We don’t need to be afraid because God went all in for us. He held nothing back. He gave us his very best. And when we submit our lives to him, we have nothing more to fear. In our story, Erin held the razor blade against her skin, about to cut open her wrist…all in a desperate search for love. She was so afraid that she was insignificant. She was so afraid that no one cared. She thought that if she made herself bleed, people would notice her. Care for her. Love her. What she failed to understand is that Jesus had already bled for her. His blood proves that she is loved. The Bible says in 1 John, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16, NIV) Erin didn’t need to bleed to find love. Jesus already bled. We don’t need to do something drastic to find acceptance, recognition, affirmation, and love. God already made the drastic move. He already did the unthinkable. In his book, Cosmic Christmas, Max Lucado writes a fictional, but very realistic, interpretation of what might have gone on in heaven, behind-the-scenes before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Listen to this exchange from the book between God and Satan as Satan learns about God’s ultimate plan:
Mike Edmisten Tags: 1 John, Christmas, fear, love, Luke 2, Vintage Christmas |
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