As you know, each of the four past Sundays we’ve looked at a different part of the story of Jesus’ coming—the story of His ADVENT—hence the title of this series: “The Great ADVENT-ure.” Well, if you’re a lover of adventure stories like me you know they always LEAD somewhere. I mean, there comes a point when the adventure, whatever it is, reaches its GOAL. For example:
- Indiana Jones FINDs the lost ark.
- Frodo and Sam DESTROY the ring.
- Aslan crowns Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy as high kings and queens of Narnia.
The same is true of the Great ADVENT-ure. The Jesus Who was predicted—the Jesus Whom the angel told Mary and Jesus would be born—WAS born. He Whose birth was predicted long ago made His ADVENT into our world. The question I want us to deal with tonight is this: “What can we learn from the culmination of God’s Great ADVENT-ure? More specifically what can we learn about God from this birth that Christians like us are celebrating all over the world?”
(1) First, I want to remind you that, as I said Sunday, Jesus’ BIRTH tells us that GOD SEEKS SINNERS like you and me.
There is only ONE way to God—through faith in Jesus but there are lots of ways God guides us to the point where we are led to decide to repent of our sin and put our faith in His only Son. For the shepherds it was the angels. For the wise men it was the star. Some are led to Jesus through the selfless, sacrificial actions of Christians—or by reading a Gospel tract or whatever. The point is God draws lost people to His Son in a variety of ways. And that brings me to why I have reviewed this part of Sunday’ sermon.You see, tonight you may be here because a friend brought you or because your parent guilted you into coming or because it just seems to be the right thing to do on Christmas Eve. But if you are here and are not a Christian—I think it’s more than that. I believe God has guided you just as He did the shepherds and the wise men. He has drawn you here—drawn you to this place so you can be reminded of the true reason for Christmas—the true reason for Jesus’ advent. Jesus came into this world to seek and save sinners like you and me. He came for us because God loves us. I like how Timothy Keller put it. He said, “Here’s the gospel: you’re more sinful than you ever dared believe; you’re more loved than you ever dared hope.”
This is wonderful news because it reminds us that God’s love is unconditional. I mean, we don’t have to be perfect for God to love us. He loves us as we are—and sent His Son to make our forgiveness and restoration possible.
The Chicago Tribune ran a story about a health club that has a unique niche: they reach out to people who normally don’t feel comfortable joining a health club. The article opened with the following story:
“Tara Lawton says she quit going to her health club in part because she sensed she didn’t fit in. People always seemed to be staring at—and silently judging—her 280-pound body. Then Lawton stumbled on the Facebook page for Downsize Fitness, a discreet new gym in Chicago’s West Loop that’s designed exclusively for people who want to lose at least 50 pounds.‘I want to cry sometimes at how it has changed my life,’ said Lawton, 42, who now works out five days a week and has lost 20 pounds since joining in October. ‘My body is responding positively to being pushed. The hardest thing [was] getting through the door. But now I’m moving forward, and there’s no way I’m going back.’”
The article then explored WHY it is that Downsize Fitness is helping people like Tara Lawton. It said:“Although people are joining health clubs in record numbers, the clubs usually feature attractive young men and women with perfect abs and toned bodies.’ The article reported: ‘The industry is often perceived to cater mostly to fit, educated, and middle-to upper-class clients. But according to one fitness expert, most people don’t buy that picture. They know it’s not realistic and don’t think they can achieve it. So the fitness industry, in a way, is its own worst enemy. Unfortunately, many fitness clubs alienate the people who need the most help. But Downsize Fitness is different: they welcome extremely unfit people and then walk beside them as they work through a program to get healthy and shed pounds.”
I share this story because God is like Downsize Fitness. He welcomes the imperfect. He loves the unlovely—He seeks them out and draws them to Jesus—which is wonderful because no matter how physically fit we are—inside we are ALL unlovely—ALL scarred by sin.
(2) A second thing we can learn from this BIRTH is that GOD UNDERSTANDS.
Because of Jesus’ coming, WE can be assured that God knows what it’s like for us and we see this principle from the very beginning of Jesus’ earthly life—when He was laid in that manger. Now most manger scenes we have in our homes or yards are quaint. They can even look kind of inviting and cozy with the soft light of candles or lanterns shedding a glow on clean straw in a warm barn. But I can assure you that the stable in which Christ was born was anything but quaint and inviting or even warm. It was a dark, cold, damp CAVE, rodent-invested and crowded with smelly animals. It was an all-round rotten place to give birth to a baby.
I don’t know about you but this makes me wonder—If God could commandeer a STAR to serve as a travel guide for the Wise men we talked about Sunday—why couldn’t He commandeer a SUITE at the Bethlehem Hilton or at least a private room in the local hospital? Well of course God COULD have done something that but the fact is, He made the deliberate choice not to.
God intentionally CHOSE the stable as a place for His Son to be born for a very important reason. He wanted Him to experience life as we do. Bill Hybels writes, “Jesus was born in that cold, dark place because He had no desire to be sheltered from the harsh realities of life on this fallen world of ours. He wanted to experience human life in all its blue collar boldness.”
The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Philippians 2, “[Jesus] made Himself nothing…taking the very nature of a servant, being made in HUMAN likeness.” Try to imagine what that must have been like for our Lord. All Jesus had known—up until that first Christmas night—was the sights and smells of Heaven. And the Bible says that HEAVEN is a place of unimaginable beauty. But when He woke up as a baby, the first thing He SAW was that dark, cold, cave. The first thing He SMELLED was urine and manure. And the first thing He HEARD were animal sounds—when He was accustomed of the singing of angels! The Bible teaches that when Jesus was in Heaven, He could say a word and the world came into existence. Unlimited power was at His disposal.
But that first Christmas night He lay in a manger and He had set aside His power—so He had to hope His teenage mother would change His diapers and feed Him on time. “Why?” you ask. “What was God’s PURPOSE in being born in a place like this? Why not be born in a palace—a place at least remotely like Heaven? Why not come to earth as a Prince instead of a Peasant?” Well the answer is this. Palace-dwelling princes can’t relate to what you and I go through. I mean, they don’t live where we live, they don’t eat like we eat, or work like we have to work or suffer like we suffer.
So the PLACE of Jesus’ birth is a permanent symbol of the fact that God sent Jesus to live in the REAL world. He was given no aristocratic Kingly advantage. In fact, He had humbler beginnings than any of us. He was born into a real family and He worked a real construction job for 30 years so His hands were calloused and His fingernails had dirt under them. And—He had no chariot like earthly kings. No, Jesus WALKED everywhere He went so His feet were also calloused and dirty. Jesus lived in a neighborhood. He had friends and enemies. He suffered hardship like the rest of us have, and He died a cruel death for a crime He didn’t commit. So, when the Bible urges people like us who are going through disappointment and pain to pour their hearts out to Jesus, we can do so with absolute assurance that Jesus understands and Has been there. Life without advantage? Jesus lived it. Shortage? Poverty? He’s didn’t even have a place to lay his head.
Discrimination? Oppression? Jesus was a refugee before His first birthday. Rejection? He experienced it. Ridicule? It was part of His daily life. Abandonment? In His greatest time of need—His closest friends fled. Death of loved ones? He went through it. Physical pain? More than you or I will ever experience.
The amazing truth is—whatever you experience in this life that drives you to within an inch of your breaking point—which is where some of you may be tonight—Whenever you experience pain such that you want to cry out, “I can’t go on because nobody understands,” look at the CAVE/STABLE and be reminded that Jesus understands. He’s been there. He can identify with you no matter what you’re going through, and you MATTER to Him more than you could possibly imagine. As Hebrews 4:15 says, in Jesus, “We do not have a high priest—or KING—Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses—but we have One Who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin so we can come boldly to the throne of God to find grace to help in time of need.”
You know, access to the most powerful leader in the world—the President of the United States of America—is granted only to the few who have successfully passed through a series of detailed, cautious checkpoints. Well, a few years back a teen from Norway created quite a stir in the United States when he challenged the system, boldly dialing a secret phone number for the White House. Sixteen-year-old Vifill Atlason claims he called President George W. Bush out of curiosity. The teen told ABC News,“I just wanted to talk to him—have a chat, invite him to Iceland, and see what he’d say,” In order to get through security, Atlason pretended to be Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland. He was surprised when his initial call didn’t pass through a switchboard, but went directly to a higher office to be screened by various security officials. Atlason was asked a series of personal questions in an attempt to verify his identification as President Grímsson, including Grímsson’s date of birth, hometown, and even the names of Grímsson’s parents. Atlason said, “It was like passing through checkpoints.” And, the checkpoints proved one too many—the teen never made it through to the president and was later taken from his home for questioning by local police. No charges were filed.
Well, because of our faith in Jesus and what He came to do, as Christians we go through ZERO checkpoints to get to God. We can come boldly to His throne for any reason—knowing that whatever challenge we face, Jesus faced. God understands because in Jesus He has been there.
(3) Here’s a third thing JESUS’ BIRTH tell us: God can CHANGE US.
As I said, when Jesus was born He was laid in a manger. And please don’t think it was a first century BASSINET—because it was a far cry from that. Back then a manger was nothing more than a dirty feed trough for cattle. It was just a chunk of cold rock with a hollowed out basin of sorts in which to put food for cows or donkeys. To the people of Jesus’ day a manger was a very ORDINARY thing.
In fact, when you think about it, the only reason we are even familiar with the term “manger” is because in one little clip of Scripture it says God’s Son was laid in one. Apart from that, we wouldn’t have a clue as to what a manger is. But because God’s Son WAS laid in a manger, look what happened to an ordinary piece of farm furniture. All of a sudden it has a new dignity. Now, it’s a household word. The ordinary has become extraordinary—a FEED TROUGH for a stable has become the CRADLE for a King. That’s quite a transformation—wouldn’t you agree?
Well that manger is a symbol of what can happen to an ordinary MAN or WOMAN or BOY or GIRL when Jesus Christ resides inside. It’s a symbol of what has happened to billions of people around the world and in this church—ordinary people, average run-of-the-mill people—working, thinking, acting, relating people…who one day saw themselves for who they really were—lawbreakers in God’s eyes. They saw themselves as sinners—moral failures—and they didn’t hide from it. These ordinary people came to realize that they couldn’t change their past record and they probably weren’t going to be able to change their future conduct. They knew that they would be standing guilty on the judgment day. So they repented of their sin and claimed the forgiveness that is only offered through Jesus Christ. They asked Him to come into their hearts and lives—to dwell within them—much as He did in that ordinary manger. And when they invited Him—He came in just as He promises to come in Scripture—and when He did, their lives were wonderfully transformed from the inside out. It is just as Paul says, “CHRIST IN YOU is the hope of glory.” 2nd Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone has Christ IN them, they are a new—extraordinary creature. The old has passed away. The new has come.”
This is my paraphrase but I can assure you that when Jesus Christ takes up residency in an ordinary life, the ordinary gives way to the extraordinary. Just as a feed trough becomes a King’s cradle, a very average man or woman becomes exceptional through their responsiveness to God. Where he was once only a people-pleaser, now he becomes concerned with giving God pleasure. Where one there was a selfish person now there is someone who focuses their life around loving and caring for other people.
You know these days many people don’t know about the changes God can work in our lives because they’d rather rely on themselves. That’s the main reason the “self-help” industry in our nation continues to explode in growth. We’re told that we can take our lives into our hands, that we are the captain of our own ship, the master of our own destiny. And to a degree, that’s true. In fact, we CAN successfully make some personal changes—superficial and external though they may be. We can lose weight, learn a language, improve our skills, bleach our teeth, strengthen our abs, or shorten our nose through plastic surgery.
But what about the INSIDE? You see, the backwash of “self-help” is that many have discovered that we are powerless to make significant INTERNAL changes—changes in our marriage—in our parenting—in our habits—in our speech—our attitudes—our relationships. It is only JESUS working WITHIN us that can make such significant change possible. So, you see, God DOES do to humans what Jesus did to the manger. He makes something that was ordinary extraordinary.
And that leads me to mention one other reason we celebrate Jesus’ birth.
(4) Because Jesus was born that first Christmas night GOD CAN REDEEM US.
Our sins can be forgiven. We can be restored to fellowship with our Creator. You know, at this time of the year another word we hear a lot is SWADDLING CLOTHES. That’s what Luke says was Jesus’ first outfit. Have you ever wondered what that meant? What a SWADDLING cloth is? Well, in the Middle East, people traveling long distances were often met with many hardships and trials—and because they did they often DIED while far from home. In case death were to occur while traveling, men carried a thin, gauze-like cloth—wrapped around their waist. If someone died while traveling his companions would use this material, referred to as “swaddling cloths” to wrap the person’s corpse in before burial.
Well, when Jesus was born, there was apparently no other cloth to use, so Jesus was wrapped in Joseph’s “swaddling cloths.” This means His first baby outfit was literally a death shroud. And this should remind us that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords came into this world to die for you and me. He came into this world to be the Sacrifice for our sins—to pay our sin debt and in that way remove the barrier that was between us and God so that we COULD draw near to God and walk through life in fellowship with Him—so that we COULD access His power—power to live life as He wants us to—power to enable us to change from the inside—power to have a truly ABUNDANT life.
Will Willimon tells of an encounter he once had with a dying woman. He writes, “She was in the last stages of lung cancer, gasping day after day for breath. It was obvious she was in great pain and exhausted from fighting. She clutched a crucifix daily, given to her by her grandmother when she was a girl, carved by a monk in Europe. It was a symbol of all that her Catholic faith meant to her. When I entered the room that afternoon, I could see she was very near the end. I asked, ‘Would you like me to pray for you? Would you like me to summon a priest?’ With her last ounce of energy, she held out the crucifix toward me, which depicted the body of Christ nailed to the cross. She said, “Thank you—but I have a Priest.’”
And this is why every Christmas eve here at Redland we partake in communion—to remind us all of this stark but wonderful truth—that Jesus was born to die for sinners—that He is our High Priest making intercession for us—making it possible for us to have a relationship with God Himself. And as we celebrate in this way, let me invite all Christians present to partake with us. Even if you are not a member of this church….If you are a Christian…if you are His, this is Yours.