“The Cost Of Christmas”

What a mixture there is at Christmastime of thoughts, emotions, and quiet songs about a baby being born and yet an event that happened that is so far beyond our comprehension, God becoming man, angels singing in the sky terrifying big burly shepherds, it's hard to grasp all that goes through our minds.   It's also hard to grasp what goes through the preacher's mind when he panics thinking he forgot his sermon notes, there they are!  [Laughter]

We want to talk about the cost of Christmas this morning.  If you want to follow along in your Bible in the first chapter of John beginning with verse 1, I read part of that this morning.  If you want to take a pew Bible you can find it on Page 886, that's the blue book in front of you in the pew.  But, before I guess you could call this a sermon; it's as much a Christmas meditation as it is anything.  What I am after is getting you to think with me about the theme of Christmas. The incarnation of God in Christ, that God became man, to try to size that up, to try to see what it means, to feel it with all your soul so that you can begin to weigh out what it means, what does it say to us and what does the incarnation offer us?

But, before we do that, let's weigh out some costs of Christmas so I can make you miserable before I can make you feel good.  Do you want to do that?  Let's come back to the 21^st Century and get into Christmas 2007 and let's start weighing out just a few costs:

·                     Have you bought your wrapping paper yet?  Now I know that doesn’t cause you too much expense except for the fact that you haven't started wrapping those presents yet.  Now, wrapping is a stress isn't it?

·                     Gas for your car? Isn't it delightful how many trips you've made into town to buy gifts? And you haven't traveled to relatives yet, or they are traveling to you and it's $3.00 a gallon.  Well, we did get some mercy, it was $2.87 when I bought it yesterday, I think.

·                     Energy!  Are you tired?  Now, I've had people fall asleep in my sermons before.  I long since got over that.  It's wonderful when you look back and you look like you are looking into the mouth of a killer whale when somebody goes (Big Yawn).  [Laughter]  My esteem has risen above that.  I'm secure in my manhood and it doesn’t bother me, but it does bother me when you go to sleep before the sermon ever starts and some of you are that tired right now.

·                     What about food? Have you eaten plenty already?  Do you have plenty yet to fix?  Are you stressed over cooking the meal when everybody comes over, or do you dance through your kitchen like June Cleaver with your dress, high heels and apron on, and you are just smiling the whole time? That's the way it is, isn't it? Or are you barking out orders at your husband, your dog, and your children all at the same time because they are sitting around doing nothing!  Preparation of the food and all of that.  Tums, Rolaids, or the drug of choice, for those of you who are more serious, Nexium works really well.  [Laughter]

·                     Relational strain!  Isn't it amazing how much relational strain comes out during the holidays? You know, you're going over to Grandma's house and somebody says, "Is Uncle Charlie going to be there?"  Everybody's got an Uncle Charlie or an Aunt Sue, don't they? The one you really hope gets sick at Christmas or goes somewhere else at Christmas.  [Laughter] Why are you laughing, have you got two of them in your family?  [Laughter]  Maybe you are  Uncle Charlie? [Laughter]

·                     Shopping crowds.  You know, that is really enough to make us question the health of American society, isn't it? I mean, think about it.  One time a year they have to put cones on Shelbyville Road so you can get out safely from the Interstate.  You say, "Well, how do you know that?"  I saw it on TV, I don't drive in that stuff!  Huh!

·                     Serving the guest at your house, traveling to someone else's house, housing relatives.  Now, isn't that a joy?  Nothing more wonderful in the holidays than seeing their taillights!  [Laughter]

·                     And then gifts!  What'd you spend? $100 per person? You wish!  $250 a person; $500, $1000?  How many have you got in your family? X6? Oh, man, Visa is loving you right now and you are going to be kicking yourself from now to next Christmas.  "I'm not going to do it next year!"

Ah, isn't it wonderful to come to church and be picked up like that? [Laughter]  Just to have the pastor really rub it in? But, is that really the cost of Christmas.  Let's feel about the cost of Christmas, let's think about the cost of Christmas, let's dig into the cost of Christmas by asking, "What does the incarnation say?" Now, incarnation is a big word.  Many of you here know what it means.  Some of you just don’t use it.  It is simply the word we use to express what happened at Christmas.  That some miraculous, powerful way, God chose and was able for His Son to be conceived into the womb of the Virgin Mary, this is God the Son, coequal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, full of glory, setting his glory aside and becoming everything that you are except sin, everything that you are, fully human.  He went through the entire 9-month gestational period. He was birth just like you were birthed.  He lived just like you lived.  When he grew up or when he was playing as a kid or when he was working with his father in the carpentry shop and he got a splinter in his thumb, it hurt just like yours hurt.  He slept when he got tired.  He ate when he got hungry.  He is just like you!  What does the incarnation say?  The first thing it says is God's love is immeasurable. 

You do realize in this world in which we live….. I was listening to National Public Radio.  Now, I like to listen to National Public Radio.  I rarely share their views.  It's one of the most liberal broadcasts there are, but, you know why I like to listen to them? They talk with a level of intelligence instead of yelling at me.  Have you ever noticed that conservative news shows always yell? You're looking at me really funny.  Should I name a shoe?  A shoe!  This is a black leather shoe!  [Laughter] A few?  I mean Rush Limbaugh, and all the guys on Fox, I mean, the only way to get a word in edgewise is to be meaner than they are, even if you agree with their views.  But I listen to National Public Radio and this is how it can drive you crazy.  You've got a man interviewing this woman and I can't remember her name, but she grew up a Christian, converted to Catholicism and now is Louis Farrakhan's associate and is a member of the Nation of Islam.  And she mixed talking about Jesus and God and Allah altogether!  

My point is, that's the world we live in, and that's what God is like to many people.  He can be anything you want him to be.  I want you to try that with your wife.  Just imagine what you would like her to be and start telling her that that's the way you want her to be.  Do that to your husband!  Just let him be whatever you want him to be.  Do that with your boss at work.  You say, "I think I would like it if he would give me a raise and move me up to the corner office because that's what I feel like he should really do for me." That's idiotic, but that's what we do with God when God has so well defined himself.  If it were not for the incarnation, we could not know God.  How well do you know me?  Some of you in this room know me very well.  Some of you, uh, the staff came over to the house the other night for our Christmas party and they know that I cannot do DDR.  Now, some of you translated that.  Dance, Dance Revolution is what that stands for.  I do not dance, it's not that I'm a Baptist, I have no rhythm.  And so when nobody's around one day I'm going to get on that mat and I'm going to practice and practice and practice, one song only, and then I'm going to just wear my family out.  My girls are all good at it, my son's good at it, I can't do a thing on it.  But, they know that because I sat in my seat and wouldn't get up out of my seat because I was too intimated for anybody to see me looking like I was having an epileptic fit! [Laughter] Because that's what I look like when I'm trying to do something in rhythm.  They know that now because they saw it, they experienced it, they heard me deny the opportunity to do it, but you don't know anything about me if I don't tell you.   Why do we think we can know something about God if He doesn’t tell us?  Can you just walk up to somebody and start thinking and feeling and think this is what… I know this about you.  You can't do that.  The only way humans ever learn is by revelation and discovery.  God uncovers Himself and tells us about Himself in Christ and his love to do that is immeasurable. 

I'm going to flip over just a few pages into the Book of Philippians, Chapter 2, if you're good in your scriptures and you want to follow along you can.  But I'm going to begin reading in Verse 5, and I want to show you why the incarnation says God's love is immeasurable.  He distinctively spoke in Christ that we might know him.  Verse 5, Philippians 2:

Php 2:5  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

Php 2:6  who, though [He's talking about Jesus] he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Php 2:7  but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Php 2:8  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

This is the one about whom it says in John 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made."  That's Jesus.  This is Jesus in Philippians 2.  Who made Himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.  He did not have to die, we do.  He submitted to death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

That's what God says about himself.  I didn't imagine that Jesus was Lord.  I didn't make it up and neither did you.  God said it, and the way he said it was not only in the verbal word but in visual form through the incarnation and for Him to do that, that I might be saved, that I might know Him is the explanation of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son."

The incarnation says God's love is immeasurable.  The incarnation also says the security of my salvation is unshakable.  I did not save myself and neither has anyone who has ever been saved, Jesus did it.  He did it by becoming man, by living a perfect life and by dying on the cross and being raised from the dead. 

Because of the incarnation of Christmas and the cost of my salvation being infinite because I've sinned against an infinite God, He died on the cross to take that for me, He did it, I didn’t, and that foundation is unshakable; that means, I as a result of my creator, condescending to be crucified, brings praise from my lips.  Why do I praise Him? Because of the incarnation and His great love.  How do I know God loves me?  God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  You never have to question if God loves you, you just look at His book and listen to history.  What does the incarnation say? It says, God's love is immeasurable. It says the security of my salvation is unshakable, so I praise Him.  It also does something in the human heart because it is unshakable, because of his work, not my own, it creates not only praise but humility.  And humility breeds, through Christ, a humble certainty.  You don't need to guess about your salvation.  The Bible is written to us who believe in the name of Christ that we may know that we have eternal life.  That was the price that was paid. What does the incarnation say? It says God's love is immeasurable, it says the security of my salvation is unshakable.  Those are wonderful. 

Now, buckle your seatbelt for point 3.  The incarnation says the comfort of my life is questionable.  Can you draw that application from the incarnation? Do you think that Jesus was comfortable in heaven being who He was, doing what He did, by his very nature holding all things together in the universe by the word of his power; ruling and reigning; angelic servants serving him day and night, flapping their wings over him flying, singing day and night "Holy, Holy, Holy is He."  I wonder if the angels gasped at the incarnation when their sovereign Lord left heaven, clothed himself in the weakness of human flesh and without being irreverent, left the comfort zone of heaven to come to a trashed, fallen creation full of people who wanted nothing to do with him.  He came into His own, the Bible says, we read this morning, and His own people did not receive him. As a matter of fact, they crucified Him. 

If the incarnation is the means of God saving us, it is also the means through which we live the Christian life.   We receive Christ by faith into our lives and the only way, let me repeat this, the only way  people know that you are a Christian is by what you do with your body.  They are the instruments through which God works and so with our bodies and with our tongues and we penetrate the community and we build relationships with people that are real and genuine, not fake and plastic.  We're not out to get another scalp for Jesus so we can stamp the side of the church and say we won a hundred souls this year.  I pray that we'd win a thousand, but for the reality of understanding, God came to the world and entered our world through great discomfort and death that we might know God!

When I think about the home I live in, the car I drive, food I eat, the comfort with which I live, and I'm wondering, is my life really what Christ wants it to be? Is yours? You see, this incarnation thing, it causes the comfort of my life to be very questionable.  What are we as Christians anyway if we're not like Him?  What have you done in the last 12 months that pushes you a little bit in your giving? In your going? In your life at home, and by the way, don't think about going out and saving the world.  Think about what you can do first as a husband to your wife and father to your children, or a wife to your husband and a mother to your children before you start exporting your Christianity.  Incarnational living begins at home.  Howard Hendrix, as I've quoted him I don't know how many times, said "If your Christianity doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work and don’t export it," and then see who you might reach with the gospel.

Okay, if the incarnation says that God's love is immeasurable, the security of my salvation is unshakable, and the comfort of my life is questionable, what does the incarnation offer me now?  How does this come home now?

John Chapter 1, Verse 9.  Let's read the scriptures a bit and walk through three more ideas that will help us put this to use in our lives.

Joh 1:9  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Now, I want to stop there just a minute  and get you to think with me.  Go back to verse 1 and you read these words, "In the beginning."  Now, it's church and I'm giving you permission to talk out loud.  What other book of the Bible starts with those exact same words? [Genesis]  Thank you.  Very good.  You get an A+ this morning, only because it's Christmas, you're trying to get on Santa Claus' good list, aren't you?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  In the beginning was the Word.  That is not a mistake.  John did that on purpose.  Genesis, is it 1:3 that says, "And God said, "Let there be light!"  So, you've got this mixture of words and pictures and truths.  In the beginning was the word, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void  and darkness hovered over the earth.  God made things by his spoken word.  The Word of God moves things with power.  God's Word is executive.  What He says happens.  He doesn’t have to make law, he is law.  And the first thing he made was light.  But this light he is talking about here is not a created light.  How do you have light without a sun? He didn't create the sun until day 4; because God Himself is light. 

1 John Chapter 1, Verse 5 I think says that "Our God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."  So …

Joh 1:9  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Joh 1:10  He [personal pronoun, that's a person - not a thing, not a creation of God but the person of God] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

Let that sink in for a minute please.  He was in the world, the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 

Joh 1:11  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Joh 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

What does the incarnation offer me?  Now, I'm going to skip down a few verses

and come back to Verse 13 in just a minute.  What does it offer me?  It offers me this fact that God has made Himself understandable in Christ.  Remember we talked about earlier that you can't know anything about God if He doesn’t tell you?  Have you ever thought about understanding the language of God? Have you ever thought about that?

I was looking to see if Robert was over here this morning.  Robert is fluent in Chinese because that's his home country.  I started to have him come up here and speak a few words to us and ask you if you could understand.  What if God spoke in the language God uses, do you think you could interpret?  Can you imagine the condescension, the lowering of Himself God had to come to communicate so that we could hear him?  We don't even stop to think about that sometimes, but think about what he did.  God made himself understandable through and in Christ.

Joh 1:18  No one has ever seen God [this is true; it's a fact]; the only God, who is at the Father's side [that is Jesus], he has made him known.

He has exegeted, he has proclaimed, he has told, he has explained in detail what God is like.  When Philip said, "Show us the Father," Jesus said to his disciple Philip, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."  Everything we are to know about God we know through Christ.  So God has made Himself understandable in Christ.  You can know how to trust Him.  You can know how to listen to Him through His word, you can know how to speak to Him in prayer.  Who is it that taught us to pray, "Our Father, who art in Heaven?"  Jesus did. What condescension that we could understand.

What does the incarnation offer me? That God is now understandable.

Second, what does it offer me? That God understands me.  You've been there, haven't you? Your heart's been broken, you're in depression or you're in deep grief and you wonder where God is.  And you think, "God, don't you understand what's going on? Why have you left me here to suffer so?"  That's why we think often about the cross.  Because that reminds us that we are always understood by a suffering savior and we have never suffered to the likes that He has.   He suffered innocently.  He suffered globally for the sins of the world.  He suffered vicariously for someone else; He was innocent. 

Now, if you're fast with your fingers, you can go to Hebrews 2 and let me read you these words.  Verse 17 of Hebrews 2:

Heb 2:17  Therefore he [that is Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God

A priest is one who goes in between man and God, understanding both man and God so he can be the go-between, that's what Jesus is...so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Sin is what separated us, Jesus died to remove that barrier, Verse 18, does he understand you? Because of the incarnation he does. 

Heb 2:18  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

That's why the Bible says, "There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful that along with the temptation he will provide the way of escape.  How does he do that?  He knows us intimately. 

What does the incarnation offer me?  That God Himself is understandable in Christ, that God understands me through Christ and finally I do not need to work to be accepted by God, I need to rest in the work of Christ.  God has made Himself understandable.  God understands me.  I have a go-between because of the incarnation.  Because of that, instead of laboring, instead of doing good deeds, instead of trying all the world's religions, instead of just giving away money for the sake of giving it away, to gain something with God.  I don't work so I can rest in Heaven, I rest in the cross so I can go to heaven.  Let me see if I can explain. 

I put this statement up, "I do not need to work to be accepted by God, I need to rest in the work of Christ."  If Christ had not come to earth, you could not go to heaven.  I really have never understood human logic when it gets to this.  Lots of people today don’t believe in Hell.  I can understand the logic behind that, especially based on the way a lot of people live.  Can't you? That's convenient.  But a lot of people believe in Heaven.  I can kind of understand that logic, because it's just really a nice thought to think that when I die, I've got paradise awaiting me.  First of all, I want to know where they ever go the idea?  Second, if Heaven is where God lives, and Heaven is God's house as Jesus said it is, this is not God's house, this is a building, then why in the world did we ever think we could barge into God's house without a ticket and an invitation? Suppose a stranger showed up on your doorstep for your family Christmas dinner and he just said, "I want to come in."  Now, the proper thing to do at Christmas or anytime for a Christian would be to show hospitality, I understand that.  But, suppose in the middle of the night, a thief came with a black mask over his face and tried to force his way into your house.  Are you going to do something to stop him? Isn't that kind of what it would be like if I just decided I wanted to go to God's house when I died and I didn't have an invitation and I didn't have a ticket to get in, and I didn't know Him and He didn't know me.   Where's our logic here?  Why do we throw all logic out the window when we think about God? God is very logical.  God has the greatest mind in the universe; He thinks things through.  He does things with purpose.  Nothing about God is random.  Look at the creation he made and see.  Look at the cross and see.  The intricate, intimate plan he worked out, so the point I want to make is I do not and cannot work to be accepted by God, I need to rest in the work of Christ.  The way you get the invitation is through Christ.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No man comes to the Father, but through me."

How, back to verse 12:  Here's the invitation.

Joh 1:12  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Joh 1:13  who were born [There's your invitation], not of blood [natural birth] nor of the will of the flesh [human choice] nor of the will of man [any strength of ability of us to choose that we want to go to heaven], but of God.

Please hear me.  Had Christ not come and become man, Heaven is in accessible; God is unknowable.  That fact actually still stands apart from Christ.  He came and all you need to do is receive Him and He will give you the right, the power, to become a child of God.  That message goes to the whole world.

1.                 Will we get out of our comfort zone and take it?

2.                 For this very Christmas, you can know God, do you know God?

Oh, it's simple, but it's not simplistic.  It took Jesus leaving Heaven and coming to earth to be a man to die on a cross and be resurrected for it to be simple for us by believing in His name.  What that means is I can't work my way to heaven, I have no ability.  God must give me life!  He must birth me.  I need to rest in the work of Christ.

The cost of Christmas? Wrapping paper, gas for the car, relatives, Uncle Charlie.  What does the incarnation say?  Because it happened, God's love, I know, is immeasurable. The security of my salvation because God left Heaven and lived on earth and died on earth and was resurrected from earth.  My salvation, I know, is unshakable but as a believer now, the comfort of my life is very questionable if I'm not willing to do what my Lord did to get the gospel to the world.  What does this now presently offer me? You can understand God!  You can see what He's done!  What's it offer you?  God understands you in the midst of your pain, he knows what it feels like to hurt, to be betrayed, to DIE!  He knows, and through His death and His life, I can rest in His work that I might live for his glory.

How about Christmas this year?  How about it?  Will you think through hard what God did and smile about it and think about how you can talk about it?  You know you can know God.  I have to ask you again, do you know God through Christ? Let's pray together.