Over the past few months we’ve all been spending a lot of time trying to decide what gifts to give our loved ones for Christmas. For hours on end, we’ve scoured malls and outlets and catalogues and dot coms, searching for just the right presents to purchase for each of our friends and family members. And we’ve gone to all this time and trouble because we love these people and we don’t want to give them just any old gift. No, it must be the PERFECT gift.
On Christmas morning, when they open the presents we have purchased for them, we want them to be pleased; we want to see by the look on their faces that we succeeded…that we got them a present that gave them great joy, not something they will return or re-wrap and give to someone else.
Well, one of the things that makes Christmas so wonderful is that it is a celebration of the fact that our Heavenly Father-the Giver of every good and perfect gift-thinks about you and me in the same way. As John 3:16 says, God SO LOVED the world that He gave…His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Tonight as we worship, I want us to understand that in giving His Son, God gave us THE PERFECT Christmas gift. I say this because His gift of Jesus, meets all the requirements of a perfect gift.
1. For example…a perfect gift must be PERSONAL.
In other words, it has to be aimed at a specific person. I mean when we love someone we don’t just go buy them anything. No, we think and search for something aimed at their unique wants or needs.
Every year as a church staff we have a gift exchange. We put our names in a hat and everyone draws a name and is responsible for purchasing a gift for that person. And this year was no different. Last Monday we started our weekly staff meeting by giving out these gifts and it was obvious that each giver had the receiver in mind. Steve had drawn Hugh’s name and got him a golf ball personalizer, a tool that will allow him to put his initials on all his golf balls and a divot tool. Steve did this because he knows that Hugh loves to play golf.
Amy had my name and gave me one of Jim Cymbala’s books because she knows how much time I spend reading books and how much I admire Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC. Tom Riggs had Steve’s name and got him an assortment of hot sauces for flavoring food, sort of a collection of super halopeno pepper juices because he knows that, as a former resident of El Paso, Texas, Steve is not happy unless his food is so spicy that it brings tears to his eyes! Angela had drawn Aaron’s name and she got him a gift box from Starbucks because we all know Aaron loves good coffee. We had a great time receiving these gifts because they were lovingly given by someone who had each of us in mind. This made each of these presents PERFECT gifts.
Well, when God sent His Son into the world….when He gave us Jesus…He had you and me in mind. Do you remember what the angel said to the shepherds that night? Luke 2:11 says that he proclaimed, Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to….YOU! The glorious news of Christmas then is that like that angel said, Jesus came for YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU….and ME. He was given with us as individuals in mind.
I believe that one of the messages of the parable Jesus told of the shepherd who, when he lost one of his sheep, left the 99 to go and find him. is that even if there were only one sinner separated from God on this planet, Jesus would have still come and died on the cross because God loves each and ever one of us as if we were the most precious thing in His universe. Each of us is precious to Him. Max Lucado writes,
If God had a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If He drove a car, Your name would be on His bumper. If there’s a tree in heaven, He’s carved your name in the bark. We know He has a tattoo and we know what it says. In Isaiah 49:16 God says, ‘I have written your name on My hand.’
The Bible tells us that God even knows the number of hairs that are on our heads. All this shows that when He gave us the gift of His only Son…He did so with each of us as individuals in mind.
2. And then, a second thing that makes a perfect gift PERFECT is that it is given to meet a SPECIFIC NEED.
I don’t know about the rest of you dads, but I count on getting ties and shirts and underwear and socks each year because I need these things. And I know my loved ones know this and that they will provide for my needs with gifts like this each Christmas. Well in sending Jesus into the world God was meeting our needs. He knew that as sinners, we needed forgiveness…as sinners lost…we needed saving. This is what the angel told Joseph. He said, She-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 ) So, as Paul wrote to young Timothy, Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst. (I Timothy 1:15 )
There’s a bit of prose that floats around at Christmas that expresses this wonderful truth. It goes like this:
If our greatest need was for information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need was for technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need was for pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer. If our greatest need was for money, God would have sent an economist. But since our greatest need is for forgiveness…God sent a Savior.
When God gave us His Son, He DID have our deepest needs in mind. I think the verses of Scripture that make up the Romans Road say as much. Do you remember those texts?
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see, the wages of sin is death but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.
3. And then the final principle of what it takes to make a gift PERFECT is this: It must be SACRIFICIAL.
To really convey love to the receiver a gift must cost the giver something. The more it costs…the more sacrificial a gift is…the more love it conveys. This principle of giving is seen in the famous short story entitled, The Gift of the Magi. Remember? It tells of a young couple who are so poor that they cannot afford to buy each other gifts for Christmas. But each finds a way to sacrifice so they can purchase a gift their spouse needs. The husband sells his most precious possession…his pocket watch…and uses the money to buy a beautiful comb for his wife’s lovely long hair. But, unbeknownst to him, she cuts and sells her lovely hair to a wig maker and uses the money to buy a beautiful watch chain for her husband’s pocket watch. They both sacrificed so they could give a special gift to each other.
Well, when God gave us His only Son, He broke the record when it comes to sacrificial giving .for no one has ever paid more for a gift than God did, when He gave His only Son to pay our sin debt. As I John 2:2 says Jesus is, …the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins for the whole world. This is why each Christmas Eve when we worship we always remember that greatest of all sacrifices through the observance of the Lord’s Supper. And as we do so tonight, 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.
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER