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Abraham’s relationship with God is pointed too throughout the Old and New Testament as an example of what it means to live a life of faith. We often talk about faith in our churches, but sometimes the idea of faith and how we live it out can be difficult to process. Lets look at a key passage in the New Testament concerning the faith of Abraham in Genesis and see if we can get a better understanding of what it means to live a life of faith.

The first passage we are looking at is from Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 begins with a definition of faith…

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,

the conviction of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

After this definition the author goes on to give several examples of people whose lives reflect what it means to live a life of faith. The author first talks about Abel, then, Enoch, and then Noah and in Hebrews 11:8 he gets to Abraham.

 

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Hebrews 11:8 ESV

 

This is in reference to when Abraham was called out from his homeland in Genesis 12. When God spoke to Abraham and told him to,

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3 ESV)

God told Abraham to leave his home and go to some undisclosed location where God would make him a great nation. God promised Abraham blessing and protection for both him and his descendants. This is an amazing promise, but it also would have seemed like an impossible one.

Lets look at some of the context. At this point in time Abraham was 75 years old and he had lived his entire live under the household of his father Terah. Although Abraham was advanced in age he still had no children. His wife was barren and it looked like Abraham was going to grow old without an heir. Abraham probably had a lot of questions about the promise that God had given him. How was Abraham going to become a great nation when he has no children? How was he supposed to be blessed and be a blessing when he was leaving his support system? God doesn’t give Abraham the answers or the details we would expect if someone were going to pick up and move their entire life. God does not even give Abraham an address or a general location to go to.

Yet Abraham obeyed. Although Abraham had questions and the path was not completely clear he had faith that God would not abandon him. Abraham put his life in God’s hands because he knew that God was good, loving, and righteous. Abraham had faith in the promises of God and lived out that faith by aligning his life with God’s leading.

Unlike Abraham we are blessed to have the rest of the story recorded in Genesis so we know that God would miraculously provide Abraham and his wife with a son, and that God would protect him from the assaults of those who might mean him harm. As we continue to read into the New Testament we see that God blessed Abraham in more ways then he could have ever known. Abraham was promised that he would both be blessed and that all the families on the earth would be blessed through him. God fulfilled this promise most completely by sending Jesus Christ. God sent His Son Jesus Christ, a descendent of Abraham to take away the sins of the world. Through faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross all of us can be freed from our sins and enter into a relationship with the God of the universe.

Abraham didn’t know how the story would end. God did not give him all the answers. Yet he had faith in God. He had faith that God was good and loving, that He had a plan and a purpose for his life, and that He would keep his promises. Abraham had so much faith in God that he was willing to put everything on the line, and followed God wherever He would lead him. Abraham is used all throughout the Scriptures as an example because he had faith in God and oriented his life around that faith. He didn’t sit on his hands when God told him to step out in faith; instead he relied on God and lived out a life of faith.

Too often we reduce faith to the ascension to an intellectual idea, or the affirmation of a truth claim. But faith in God is much more then that. Faith in God is the willingness to bet your life on His love, goodness, and righteousness. Faith is orienting our life around His promises. What would it mean for you today to have true faith in God? What would your life, your family, and your community look like if you acted out your faith? I pray we all have the same active faith that Abraham had.

Our Father in Heaven

Thank you for your promises to Abraham

Thank you for providing him as an example of true faith

Thank you for your Son Jesus Christ

Thank you for the opportunity to enter into a relationship with you

Through His sacrifice

Give me faith that leads to action

Build in me love for you and confidence in your promises

Allow me to actively trust in you when I don’t have all the answers

Allow me to follow wherever you lead

Allow my faithful obedience to be a blessing to the world around me

And make my life a reflection of my relationship with You

So that others will know and love You

In all things may Your name be glorified

And may Your will be done

In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior

Amen

 

Lets join together with other Christians in our community and worship Christ together. September 13th, 7:00pm at Meadow Spring Church, 511 North Walnut St, Chaska

Christmas is coming up really fast, and I realize, as I have gotten older that it can come with a lot of stress. There are travel plans that need to be arranged, gifts to be bought, baking to be done, and a whole list of stuff to do. It can become easy to get so caught up in the things that need to be done that we don’t really have time to celebrate the Birth of Christ on Christmas.

But it wasn’t always like that. I have memories of just being caught up in the wonder of Christmas as a kid. One of my favorite memories was driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights, and to this day when I drive by a house that it covered in lights I get caught up in the nostalgia. I feel excited for Christmas.

I talked to Pastor Rob about this earlier in the week and he told me that when he was a kid, he would wait up all night and at 4:00 in the morning he would try to wake his parents up, and they would send him back to bed until a more reasonable time. If you know Rob you know he is pretty determined about the things he cares about and he was as a child too.

So when he was sent back to his room he would throw stuffed animals at his younger brother until he woke up. I asked Rob why he would do this, if he was just angry and taking out on his brother, but he said, he thought if him and his brother were both up it would give him more leverage with his parents and he would get his gifts sooner.

Today we are going to be back in Luke 1 and we are going continue looking at the events leading up to Jesus’ birth. We will be taking a look at Mary’s Song from Luke chapter 1 verses 46-56.

Luke 1:46-56 says.

And Mary said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For He who is mighty has done great things for me,

And holy is His name.

And His mercy is on those who fear Him

From generation to generation.

He has shown strength with His arm;

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones,

And exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

And the rich He has sent away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel,

In remembrance of His mercy,

As He spoke to our fathers,

To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.

So lets put this song into the context of what is going on. Mary has been visited by Gabriel and told that by the Power and Will of the Holy Spirit she is going to conceive Jesus as a virgin, and Jesus is going to be great, the Son of God, and will rule over a kingdom that will never end. Once Mary conceives she goes to be with her relative Elizabeth. The baby inside Elizabeth, John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit and leaped for joy. After this Elizabeth said this to Mary…

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

After hearing this amazing thing from Elizabeth Mary responded with the song we just read.

I love poetic passages from the Bible and we don’t have very many in the New Testament, but they also come with the challenges. I firmly believe that every portion of Scripture tells us something about God and tells us something about our relationship with Him. With poetic passages we have to work harder to discover what they say about God and about our relationship with Him. Partly this is because western cultures don’t typically teach using poetry, we like bullet points and graphs. It may take more effort to study a poetic passage but its worth it because there is a lot of truth about God and our relationship with Him.

So we are going to go through Mary’s Song and similar to how we did last week I want us to be thinking about one thing during our discussion.

What does this tell us about our relationship with God?

So beginning in verse 46

And Mary said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For He who is mighty has done great things for me,

And holy is His name.

In the first part of Mary’s Song She begins by saying “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” The original word translated as magnifies means “too make or declare great”. Just like how a magnifying glass makes things bigger and more noticeable. Mary is saying that her soul makes God bigger puts Him on display and declares His greatness.

Mary say she is rejoicing in God and Magnifying Him because despite here lowly estate, He who is mighty has done great things for her. When God looked at Mary He didn’t see a lower class young girl from no name city Nazareth. When God looked at her He saw someone who He loved and who loved Him and wanted to live a life devoted to Him. He gave her the privilege of being part of His plan to redeem the world. She got to carry the Savior of the world in her belly for 9 months and watch Him grow. As far as we know she spent more time with Jesus then anyone. That is why Mary is magnifying the Lord and rejoicing in Him.

What I find most amazing about this first part is that Mary didn’t ask for anything. How often do we spend most of our prayers presenting God with our list of requests? We tell our loved ones how much they mean to us and how amazing they are but, how often do we take the time to just glorify God for who He is and what He has done?

But God didn’t just do this for Mary, she continues in the next verses.

Luke 1:50-53 says,

And His mercy is on those who fear Him

From generation to generation,

He has shown strength with His arm;

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has put down the mighty from their thrones,

And exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

And the rich He has sent away empty.

Mary starts out this portion by making a claim about what God does. “His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation” She claims that throughout history God has had mercy on those who fear Him. She is saying that God cares for, protects, and chooses to use the people who love and respect Him. Much like how He did for Mary.

Then she goes on to offer examples or proof of how God does this. She says He has…

Scattered the proud, put down the mighty from their thrones, exalted the lowly, filled the hungry, and sent the rich away empty.

Is this saying that its bad to be wealthy or in power? Is it saying that God is targeting those who have had a lot of success? No! It’s saying that God has mercy on those who fear Him. It doesn’t matter your economic or social status God is in control. He can use and bless whomever He wants despite their current situation. But what about Mary? It talks about the lowly being exalted and the hungry being filled. There is no evidence that by the end of Mary’s life she jumped some social barrier or came into a bunch of money.

This passage does not support some health wealth and prosperity theory that claims that God is going to give us money and power because we love Him. What it is saying that your current position in life does not restrict God. He chooses to use those who love and respect Him. He offers them much more then material or earthly blessings.

God is not our magic genie that pours out riches on us because we follow Him. But when we can live a life in relationship with God, take a part in His work, and live as members of His household and citizens of His kingdom, we can stand before Him on the day of judgment and He will look at us with love and forgiveness and say “well done good and faithful servant”. In that moment when we are standing in the presence of God surrounded by His love, our economic and social status on earth will mean nothing. It will fade away in the glory of being with God for eternity. Not only did God choose to bless and use Mary despite her lowly position, but He does that for all who fear Him.

Mary magnifies and rejoices in God because…

He did mighty things for and through Mary, and He has mercy on all those who fear Him, but that’s not all.

Mary continues in verse 54. It says…

He has helped His servant Israel,

In remembrance of His mercy,

As He spoke to our fathers,

To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.

Mary is saying that God has also shown mercy on Israel and remembered the words he said to Abraham.

God told Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3.

“I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you

And make your name great;

And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,

And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

For thousands of years Abraham’s descendants had been waiting for this promise to be fulfilled. They had seen glimpses of its fulfillment throughout history. But here they were living in the land promised to them controlled and oppressed by a foreign power. It would be easy to lose hope, to think God had forgotten His promises. But the blessing to the world promised to come through Abraham was growing in Mary’s belly. Jesus Christ was in the world to fulfill all the promises they had been given. He would bless not just the Jewish people, but all people throughout all time, because He came to earth to save them from the most despicable curse, from sin. Jesus Christ would grow up to preach about the Kingdom of God and at the cost of His life He would offer freedom to all people. Maybe not how they expected. He wasn’t going to crush Rome and free them from political oppression at that time, but He was going to do something much greater. Jesus Christ has died on the Cross and risen from the dead, destroying the power of sin and death and making it possible for all people to have a personal relationship with the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

Mary magnifies and rejoices in God because He…

Did great things for and through Mary despite her lowly state. He has mercy on all those who fear Him despite their economic or social position. And He has been faithful to Israel and the world by fulfilling His promise to bless the whole world through Abraham by sending Jesus Christ into the world.

Going back to our question.

What does this tell us about our relationship with God?

It tells us that God is not restrained by our social or economic status. He chooses to use and bless those who love Him despite their position. It also tells us that God is faithful. He will do what He says, and He has blessed the entire world through Jesus Christ. And it tells us that when God is glorified in our lives we will rejoice in Him. Mary said “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior”

At the beginning we talked about things that make us excited about Christmas. Maybe it’s the lights, or the gifts, or the fact that it’s a chance to celebrate the Birth of Jesus.

Mary is excited and joyful because God has included her in His plan. She is joyful because He who is mighty has done great things through her and because of that, because God used her to bring about His plan God was glorified.

We all have the opportunity to glorify God in our lives. No matter our position in life we can make His name great and put His glory on display. And when we do it shouldn’t be out of obligation, but because when God’s glory is increased our Joy in Him will be increased. The fact that we serve a God who created everything, and who loves us so much that He died on the cross to be with us is cause for joy.

My challenge for us today is to find sometime in this busy season and rejoice in God. Stop and think about the greatness and love of God. And because He is so great continue to Magnify His name. Find in opportunity to dwell in the joy of God and make His greatness known in your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes when we think Christmas and the nativity scene we can become distracted with the types of animals, the way it must have looked, and we adapt the image in our minds to fit with what we know or can relate to. Now this is not bad, but sometimes we become so enraptured with the image that we forget the people who were involved and what it must have been like for them.

Today we are going to be back in Luke Chapter 1 and we are going to be looking at the first time Mary makes an appearance and the message God has for her. While we are talking about what happens there are two things I want you to be thinking about.

 

What does this passage tell us about God? What does this mean for us today?

Beginning in Luke 1:26, it says,

 

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”

 

These first few verses are just setting the stage for what is about to happen. So we are given the time. “In the sixth month” this is referring to six months of Mary’s relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. We are also given the place “Nazareth”, and we are given the individuals involved, which are the angel Gabriel, a virgin named Mary and her betrothed Joseph.

 

It also gives us a little context. So at the time that Gabriel enters Mary’s life she is betrothed to a man named Joseph. Now at this time a Jewish wedding was a two stage process. First the families agreed that the man and woman were going to be married and then they went through a period of waiting of about a year before the actual wedding. During this time the man and woman were legally bond to each other, but the woman still lived in her father’s house and the couple were not to consummate their marriage.

 

So it seems like things for Mary are going really well. She is doing things the way she is supposed to she is taking the proper steps to begin her life with Joseph and then the Gabriel comes into play.

 

Luke 1:28-29 says,

 

“And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.”

 

So Mary is just living her life and Gabriel pops up and says “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women.”

After hearing this Mary reacts in a rather unusual way. I am sure she was afraid, because in the next verses Gabriel tells her not to be afraid, but when it says that she was “troubled” in the original language it means something like, confused, concerned, or perplexed. This is in sharp contrast to what we see in Luke chapter 2 when the angel appears to the shepherds. It says they “were greatly afraid” which in the original language means they feared a big fear.

 

Here Mary, who most scholars would say was just a teenager, is standing before an angel of God and the reaction that the author chooses to recognize is her confusion at the way the angel greets her. This makes senses because, Mary was probably young, she still lives in her parents house, and she lives in Nazareth which was a relatively small town which was not know for much at all. In fact when Nathaniel is told that the Messiah is from Nazareth in John 1 he says, “Nazareth? Can anything good come from there?”. She was probably wondering why out of all the people in the world, God would choose to bring her a message and say that God had favor on her.

 

So she is there trying to make sense of what Gabriel is saying and he continues in verse 30.

 

Luke 1:30-34 says,

 

“Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

 

Gabriel tells Mary not to be afraid and that she is going to conceive a Son. His name is going to be Jesus, and He is going to be great. He is going to be called the Son of the Highest, and He is going to sit on the throne of David and His kingdom will never end. These are incredible, impossible claims. These are unbelievable claims, and Mary understandable asks “How?”

 

She is probably thinking I am a virgin, how is this possible. She must have heard accounts of miraculous conceptions in the past. She would have known the story of Abraham and Sarah, and they didn’t conceive until years after the promise. She might be thinking that the baby the angel is promising will come right after the wedding or maybe even years after the wedding. Her mind must have been racing trying to understand what Gabriel was saying. When Gabriel explains in the next verses his explanation doesn’t seem possible.

 

Luke 1:35-38

 

“And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

 

What Gabriel said was impossible. The Holy Spirit will conceive a Child within Mary. He won’t be the Son of any man but the Son of God. What Gabriel said was impossible because it had never happened in the history of creation. Even the impossible conceptions mentioned previously in the Bible did not happen this way. Sarah had Abraham. Elizabeth had Zachariah. They were still amazing but Gabriel is not talking about healing Mary’s womb he is talking about her conceive a child not by the desire of man but by the will and power of God. God is choosing to bring Jesus into the world through Mary, a virgin.

 

This is God exploding into creation with the greatest miracle ever known to mankind. Barren wombs producing life are miracles of healing, but the virgin birth is God ripping apart the laws of science and biology and bringing forth the Savior of the world.

 

People argue about the importance of virgin birth, whether it should be a primary doctrine or not but if we deny the virgin birth, if we say that it’s a little too far fetched, and God must have done it in a different way, we are denying the Creator of the world the power to bring His Son into the world by defying the very laws He established.

 

What Gabriel said was impossible but “with God nothing will be impossible.”

When Mary responds says, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” She is basically saying, “God I submit myself to you. I may not understand how this is possible but I want your will to be done in me.”

 

The way Mary responds is amazing for two reasons. First she believes that God can do the impossible and second she is willing to accept any consequences that come along with it.

Sometimes we are afraid to spend too much time looking at Mary because the Church has a history of elevating her too highly. But just like any person of the Bible we can learn something important about how God used them. Sometimes we blow over the part where Gabriel says, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” Maybe we do this because we have heard it so many times, or we want to get to the rest of the story, or because we don’t want to glorify Mary to too high of a position.

But I think God has Gabriel include this part with His message, because after she becomes pregnant with Jesus she is not going to hear this from very many people. She is going to be caring inside her belly the most amazing miracle the world has ever or will ever see and because of it she is going to be looked down upon by almost everyone around her. Even her future husband Joseph doesn’t believer her until an angel appears to him. Why would anyone believer her? The explanation seems impossible.

Mary was not some super human, she was a young girl who wanted to please God. When Mary believed the impossible message from God, and chose to willingly submit to God despite the consequences there is no way she could have known what would become of her Child. She couldn’t have known that He would be scorned, rejected and killed be the very people He came to save. There is no way she would have known that the baby God put inside her would save the entire world. That because He came to earth and lived among us, sacrificed Himself on the Cross, and rose from the dead on the third day, all people every where could be free from their sins and live in the presence of God forever.

 

There is no way she could have known. But she didn’t invite God’s will to be done because she had all the answers. She did it because she believed, that the God we worship is a good, loving, gracious God, who has a perfect plan even when we don’t understand it or it seems impossible.

 

So going back to the two things I asked you to be thinking about at the beginning of this passage. What does this passage tell us about God?

 

This passage tells us that God can do the impossible. The laws of nature or science do not restrain Him. He established them. He doesn’t need us to do the impossible but wants to include us in His work. God didn’t even need Mary. If Mary had rejected Gabriel’s message, God wouldn’t have said, “Oh darn. I guess I will try again in a few thousand years.” God didn’t need Mary but because He loved her He wanted to include her. She may have gone through difficulties as a result but she got to spend more time with Jesus while He was on earth then anyone else that we know of.

 

What does this mean for us today?

We can learn a lesson from Mary that applies to our lives. God wants to do the impossible through us. He wants to use us to fulfill His plan to redeem all of fallen creation. But if we want to be used by God in impossible ways we need to believe that He can do the impossible, and despite the things people might say to us, or the challenges we may face on behalf of Jesus we need to submit to His will. My challenge for us today is to ask ourselves

 

“What impossible ways does God want to use us? And what is holding us back from submitting to Him?”

 

 

The Good News Network is a website that was started back in 1997 that is geared toward providing good and uplifting news stories compared to the bad news that tends to dominate most news outlets.

For instance some of the headlines this week featured a 13-year-old girl who landed a record-breaking backflip in her wheelchair. There is a story about a former marine who when the Las Vegas shooting happened a few weeks ago, actually stole someone’s truck to use to transport 30 wounded people to the hospital. And then when a motor company in Arizona heard about it, they tracked him down and gave him his own truck. There is even a story about a local post office in Scotland where they have a dog employed as a stamp licker. So that when you come in to mail things you can go over to the dog and let him lick your stamp for you. This website is just filled with good, wholesome, happy news. But while I read several stories I didn’t find any that contained news as good as what I am about to talk about.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 10. Over the last few months we have been going through a sermon series related to the core values of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. We are now on core value #5 which says: Completing the Great Commission will require the mobilization of every fully devoted disciple. The Great Commission refers to Jesus’ call for His disciples to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” And so this value is saying that if we really want to see that mission completed, it is going to take all of us as Christ followers to get involved.

Keep that value in mind as we look at our passage today. Let’s pick things up in Romans 10 with verses 5-8: “5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)”

So in the Old Testament we have the commandments that God gave to the people of Israel. And those who wanted to follow HHHim were expected to keep His commands. Paul actually references Leviticus 18 here when he says the person who does the commandments shall live by them. So righteousness by the law means obeying the commands.

Now God’s law is good and it does point out the best way for man to live, but is it possible for someone to follow all of those commands and never mess up? No. Jesus Christ did it when He came to earth, but the rest of us are sinners. We mess up and fall short of this standard that God has given us. And that was true in the Old Testament as well.

But in addition to the law, the people were also given a substitutionary sacrificial system whereby animals were sacrificed to atone for the sins of man. But could the sacrifice of animals really atone for the sins of man? No. As we read in Hebrews, the blood of bulls and goats was never enough to truly atone for sins, but what those sacrifices did do is they pointed ahead to the pure, spotless lamb, Jesus Christ who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.

Now verses 6-8 are somewhat confusing. Paul seems to be referencing the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 30. And he seems to be pointing out that our ability to obey the law does not have any part in our righteousness. It’s not like by our righteous acts we were somehow able to go up to Heaven and bring Christ down to earth, or go into the abyss and raise Him from the dead. Our righteous acts did not accomplish salvation. Christ’s sacrifice accomplished salvation. We didn’t have anything to do with it. It is freely given and simply received by us through faith.

So then there are two choices, righteousness that is based on the law, which means we would need to lead a completely perfect and sinless life, which is not possible. Or we have the righteousness that is based on faith. That righteousness deals not with a righteousness that we have earned, but that has been given to us.

In order to help me explain this, let me remind us of the Gospel this morning. So in God’s original creation man had an intimate relationship with his Creator in paradise. The book of Genesis records for us this image of God walking and talking in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from God because of their guilt and shame, and their relationship with God was broken. They were separated from Him. And from that moment on, man was born with a sin nature. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. It’s our nature to do so.

In Romans 3 Paul writes, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No matter how hard we try, we could never be good enough on our own, because good enough would be perfection and no matter how good we think we are, we know that we are not perfect. And so that means we are separated from God and incapable of being reunited with Him on our own.

In Romans 6 Paul says, “the wages of sin is death.” By our sin we earn death. And if we die physically while we are still separated from God spiritually, then we will be separated from Him for all eternity in hell.

It is important for us to understand that. That is our destiny as sinners, and it is a destiny that we cannot overcome our own. We cannot possibly be good enough. But while it is important for us to know, it is also important for us to recognize the Good News that God has for us. In Romans 6:23 Paul does say that “the wages of sin is death,” but he continues that verse with the words, “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In Romans 5 Paul says, “but God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Jesus came to earth lived a sinless life, performed many miracles that proved that He actually was the Son of God and then He allowed Himself to be crucified and while He was on that cross God placed all of our sins upon Him and allowed Him to pay the penalty for all of those sins. Then after He died on the cross for the sins of man, He rose again from the grave, He appeared to many people who testified regarding His resurrection and then He went to Heaven. With His resurrection He showed that His sacrifice for sin was accepted, it was enough, the debt was paid, sin was accounted for, and He was victorious, earning for us the right to a resurrection of our own after we die, where we can be reunited with our Father, the Creator of the world, and spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

 

So that’s the Gospel. It is amazing and true. But one thing is left. How do we respond? Let’s say that you are sitting there today and this has made sense to you and today you have realized, your sin and your need for a Savior and let’s say you want to respond and receive this free gift that God is offering. How do you do it? How should you respond?

Take a look at what Paul says next, “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

That is the response. There is not some kind of mystical incantation that we need to recite. It is simply to believe in our heart that this message is true and to confess with our mouth that we want this for us. This is good news. The Gospel is not a message about what we have to do in order to be saved, it is not about righteousness that is earned by obeying the law. It is a message about what has been done for us. It is a message of grace that is available to everyone who would believe.

We don’t have to get our life all cleaned up. We don’t have to have done more good than bad. We don’t have to be a member of a particular church. We don’t even have to have all of this figured out. We don’t have to understand all the ramifications of different theological viewpoints. This grace is available to all regardless of race, social status, present ability, likability, intelligence, inherent goodness or anything else and we receive it simply through faith.

I think it was important for us to be reminded of the Gospel message, but what if we know the Gospel message and have already responded to it ourselves. Well, Paul has some further instruction for us. Take a look at verses 14-15: “14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

This means that while we may have heard the good news and responded to it. While we may be looking forward to an eternity in Heaven, celebrating with Jesus. We are living in a world that does not know Him.

And this Gospel is for the whole world. It is Good News for all. But how will they know about this good news if they don’t hear it.   That’s a good point right? So since we have received this Good News it is now our responsibility to go and take that good news to others.

We have people all around us that do not know the message we talked about today. And so they are stuck in their sin, separated from God, and still under the curse of death.

They are actually living in the reality where Jesus has come to be sacrificed for their sins, but they think they are living in the reality where they are separated from Him.

We have a message that they need to hear. But how can they hear it if we are not willing to tell them. Imagine one day going to heaven and having our neighbor go to hell and when they recognize their eternal destiny compared to ours, they ask us, why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you let us know about this amazing good news that you have known about for so long and never told me. But this challenge also goes beyond just those in close proximity to us. This is more than just a call to reach out to the person next door. We are actually in a culture here in America where many of those around us have already heard the Gospel. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell them, but it is important to recognize that there are people in other parts of the world who have never heard and who have much less opportunity to hear.

Let me put it this way. Here in the United States if you wanted to go and find someone who could tell you the Good News you would need to knock on about 6 doors before finding someone who could tell you about Jesus. In some places, where access is more limited like in Post Christian countries in Europe it would be more like having to knock on about 500 doors before finding someone who could tell you about Jesus. But in some areas among people groups that we would consider unreached, you would have to knock on 30,0000 doors to find someone who could share the Gospel with you. What about them? What I love about this passage is the straightforward logic of Paul’s argument. This is an amazing message that the world needs to hear. It is good news for a world that desperately needs it. But how can they respond to a message they have never heard? And how are they ever going to hear unless someone goes to tell them? And that means not only people going, but people being involved in the sending side of it as well.

The core value we are talking about is that if we are going to complete the great commission. If we are going to make disciples of the whole world. it is going to take all of us. Every single one of us is called to play a part in bringing the Gospel to the world. My challenge for you is what is your part? Have you ever thought about that? I believe that God is calling all of us to be part of this mission. Who are the people right around me that God wants me to go to? And what about the people who have never had anyone go to preach to them? What is my responsibility to give them an opportunity to hear? If I really believe this good news, then what am I doing about the people who have never heard?

What would you wish for if you had three wishes that would be granted, a billion dollars, fame, health or long life? Or maybe something simpler like a new car or all your debts paid off? Or maybe you would wish for something broader like world peace or an end to world hunger?

Those things might be fun to think about, but I also think the idea of a genie in the bottle is sometimes the expectation we have with God. We ask for things as if he is a genie and we are the masters telling him what we want. On the flip side, sometimes we approach God more with skepticism, as if we are not expecting him to answer us, or like he is just whimsical, randomly granting some requests and rejecting others. And so we pray with no idea whether or not we will be given what we ask for. Prayer can be confusing and it can be a struggle figuring out what to expect from God as we seek him in prayer. Well, today we are going to dig into that a little bit.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, beginning with verses 7 and 8: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

 

Jesus is not literally talking about seeking, knocking, and asking each other for stuff. He is talking about prayer. He is talking about asking and seeking God. So this is pretty awesome, Jesus is saying that we will receive what we ask for. But, have you ever asked God for something and not received it? I have. I have asked God to heal my injuries and take away my anxiety and other stuff I struggle with and those have continued to be issues in my life. Now I also have received many things from God and even with the things I mentioned I have seen God work in my life in awesome ways in the midst of those things, so that while he may not have taken those issues from me, he has used them in my life or given me grace or strength in dealing with them.

But the fact remains that this verse says ask and it will be given and yet there are things we have asked for and not received. Jesus is not saying that prayer is like a blank check where we can just figure out what we want, write in the amount and expect God to sign it. God is not like a genie in the lamp, who must grant us our wishes. So does that just mean that we throw our prayers up to God like we are standing at a wishing well, hoping that God might whimsically choose to grant us a wish? No, that’s not right either.

I think the next half of the passage sheds some light on this for us. Take a look at verses 9-11: “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

These verses add context for our asking seeking and knocking. Yes God responds to our requests, but he does so from the position of a good father giving to his children, not from the position of a genie in a lamp. He doesn’t just give us what we ask for as if we are the masters and he is beholden to give us what we request. But he is also not just some whimsical wish fulfiller, who just randomly chooses which of our prayers to answer and which ones to ignore. I believe this illustration of a good father really informs our perspective for prayer. Consider what Jesus is saying. First of all, bread and fish would have been basic key foods in Jesus’ culture. Here Jesus gives us the illustration of a father pulling some awful practical joke on his child where the child asks for bread, and the father gives him something like maybe a bread shaped stone that the kid will break his tooth on it if he bites it. Or even worse, instead of a fish to bite, he winds up getting bitten by a snake. Even though man is sinful and imperfect, even we know how to care for our children better than that. We know that would not be a good father. Even if we did not experience a good father we recognize what a good father is and is not. And if that is true of us, then how much more is it true of God.

 

Prayer is like the asking of a child to a loving father. If an earthly father always gave a child everything they asked for, would we consider that father a good father? No, because kids ask for all kinds of things that are not in their best interests. Or maybe just the timing is not right. Or maybe the father has a better plan for the child and that request will just get in the way. As a parent I see this in my parenting. My kids make requests that I choose not to fulfill because it is not going to be best for them. They don’t see the full picture that I see and so all they know is that I chose not to give them what they asked for, but if they could see things from my perspective they might understand better.

We would characterize a good father as that father who hears his children’s requests and understands them, but also sees more clearly the bigger picture and chooses wisely what to give and not give that child. Ultimately the child can ask for whatever they want, but a good and loving father is not just going to give them what they ask for, but rather what is best for them. How much more is that true of God, who is able to see even more clearly what is in the best interests of his children. He sees clearly the things we would never understand as well as all the ramifications of what each choice means. And so rather than give us what we ask for, he gives us what is in line with his better plan. Our Father truly is a good father.

This passage gives us a good perspective for prayer and seeking God. We are not talking to a genie in a lamp, or someone who just randomly fulfills or ignores requests. We are coming to our good Father. This puts a totally different look on prayer. Like we are children coming to our loving father grabbing hold of his hand, climbing into his lap, and expressing our desires, our needs, but with a trust in him and an understanding that he will do what is best for us.

 

Now, I believe this includes growth on our part. Much like growing up as kids in our relationship with our parents. Early on as children we have a tendency to ask selfishly for things from our parents. Like asking for a candy bar in a grocery store or to stop at Dairy queen on the way home from church. When we don’t get our way, maybe we throw a fit or pout. As we grow in maturity, those requests begin to change, and our relationship with our parents is different. We sometimes still might throw a fit or pout when we don’t get our way, but we at least begin to understand that there are reasons why our parents don’t just give in to our every request.

 

Hopefully as we experience our Father and his care for us, we develop a relationship of faith and prayer that becomes more about us walking with him and knowing him and seeking him and drawing closer to him and his ways for our lives rather than just getting stuff and pouting when we don’t get our way. Prayer is about coming to our loving Father.

Us coming to God in prayer, not to ask for stuff that we want, but asking for the stuff that he wants for us. Seeking more of him, more of his will, more of his kingdom, in us. In this sermon Jesus has been proclaiming the kingdom of God, which ultimately is a better life than we could ever imagine and so rather than seeking what we want or think we need, we should be seeking him and his kingdom. You know, the verbs, for ask, seek and knock are actually in the present tense. So it would be like keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. It is the idea of persistent prayer developing an intimacy with God, being connected with him and letting him have his way in us.

We are to live a life of seeking God. And in Jeremiah 29:13 we are promised, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Sometimes it is hard to know how to approach God in prayer. But we don’t need to approach him like a genie in a lamp who must grant our wishes, or like a whimsical wish giver who just randomly grants requests and we never know whether or not our prayer will be granted. We can approach him as our Good Heavenly Father. There is a certainty in Jesus’ words in this passage, that as we ask, seek, and knock, we can be assured that God will answer, and open doors, and help us find him and know him and his kingdom. He may not always give us what we want, but we can trust him to give us what is best.

 

 

How do you know when someone is drunk?  I actually found some answers to that question on wiki-how.  It was pretty standard stuff glassy or bloodshot eyes, smell alcohol on their breath or clothes, inability to walk a straight line, or handle simple motor function, like fumbling with their keys, spilling a drink, etc., slurred speech.  Changed behavior like fewer inhibitions, more talkative, mood swings, difficulty in pronouncing words, speaking overly loud or soft, things like that.

Now you may be thinking what kind of opening illustration is this?  Why are we talking about identifying drunk people?  Well believe it or not, this has pertinent information for what we are going to be talking about today.

So as we arrive in Ephesians 5 we find Paul talking about our walk with God.  He speaks of walking in love, and walking as children of the light rather than walking in darkness.  Actually there are some similarities between what we see here and the Galatians 5 passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago.  Paul even speaks of fruit of the light compared to unfruitful works of darkness.

But we are going to pick things up after that, in Ephesians 5 beginning with verse 15: “15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So there is a lot in this little passage, but you are probably noticing that there is actually not much mention of the Holy Spirit here.  That’s true, but I believe this is an important passage in our understanding of the Hoy Spirit in relation to our lives.  So let’s begin by making sure we understand the overall context of what Paul is talking about here.

Let’s start with verses 15 and 16: “15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

The word here translated as walk is the Greek verb peripateo and it speaks of how we live our lives.  Paul has used it four other times between the last chapter and this chapter.  He has talked about walking in light rather than darkness, and about walking in love, and about not walking as the Gentiles do, and about walking in a manner worthy of our calling, but here he compares the idea of walking in wisdom rather than foolishness.  He is saying to pay careful attention to how we are living our lives.

Notice he talks about wise and unwise in verse 15 and then follows it up with not being foolish in verse 17. In proverbs we read about how the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  And the fool is spoken of as the one who says in their heart there is no God.  So how does that help us understand what it looks like to walk as wise rather than as unwise? Basically our walk through this life is made up of a multitude of choices.  As we walk through this life we have the opportunity to live in ways that are not in step with God’s plan for our lives or we can walk in our own ways. Here we are reminded that we need to be walking in the ways God wants us to walk. Notice also that Paul says making the best use of the time.  When Paul uses the word time here he could have used the word chronos, which has to do with clock time, like hours, minutes, seconds.  But instead he used the word kairos, which speaks instead of like a fixed period of time, like an era or period. Our lives themselves are a fixed period.  We have a beginning and an end on this world, which means that we have only have x amount of time in our lives.  We have already used up as much as however old we are and we don’t know how much we have left.  When we think back over our lives to this point I am sure we can all think of things we have done with our time that was a waste.  We can’t do anything about the time that is already gone.  But we can make the most of the time we have left. When Paul speaks of making the best use of time, that phrase carries with it the idea of buying back or ransoming the time.  We only have so much time left, are we going to waste that time, or are we going to make the most of it?

Lets take a look at the rest of this passage: “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

So what are the different things that Paul is calling us to do and not do here?  Don’t get drunk, be filled with the Spirit, address one another with psalms, etc., give thanks, and submit to one another.

Okay so first he mentions to not get drunk. This can be a touchy topic in the church today.  Some churches condemn drinking completely.  Some people won’t be part of a church or a denomination that suggests that drinking is wrong. The Bible clearly condemns drunkenness, but does not do the same with drinking . However, Scripture suggests being careful with alcohol and recognizing the dangers.  Just because it is permissible does not mean it is the best choice for us. Here Paul talks about drunkenness leading to debauchery.  What does he mean by that?   The word actually refers to a life devoid of virtue.  It actually speaks of wastefulness, like a wasted life.  It is the word used in the parable of the prodigal son and how he squandered all he had on reckless living. When we get drunk, we wind up under the influence of the alcohol and we end up doing things that we probably should not be doing.  This fits in well with the earlier verses about not wasting the time that we have. Instead we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.  But what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

So this is a big theological question.  That we could answer very theologically, but I love the simple analogy Paul is making here as he compares being filled with the Spirit, to drunkenness. It seems that he is suggesting that being filled with the Spirit has some similarity to getting drunk.When we are drunk, it changes the way we walk, talk, think, and act.  And Paul uses that for an analogy of being filled with the Spirit.  So what do you think of being filled with the Spirit based on that analogy? Basically we can look at it as being under the influence of the Spirit.  Letting him have control.  Doing what he wants us to do.  Letting the Holy Spirit change the way we walk, talk, think and act. Now does this mean that the Holy Spirit is in us sometimes and then he overtime leaks out or goes away when we sin or something like that, and the filling of the spirit refers to like a constant refilling?

No. When we come to faith in Christ, part of that is the baptism of the Spirit.  He must work in our lives to accomplish the rebirthing process so we can be born again and he comes and lives in us as we talked about a few weeks ago. So he is already in our lives.  But while he is living in us, there are still some parts of our lives that are not yet full surrendered to him.  And that is what is suggested here. Being filled with the Spirit means yielding every area of our lives to him and his authority.  It means giving up the right to lead my own life and placing myself under him, submitting to him and his will and plan for my life.  Letting all of me be under his influence. And only as we do that, will we be able to live the kind of life that is described here.  So let’s continue on.

What does it look like to address one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and making melody to the Lord with our hearts?   Does this mean that we should sing everything we say rather than speaking to each other? No, that would be silly.   Not to mention embarrassing.  It is talking about what is going on in our hearts, thankfulness and praise to God, overflowing out of our lives, as we come together to worship and praise the Lord with our eyes focused on him and lifting each other’s eyes toward the Lord. It means having thankful hearts and submitting to one another.  Every time we open our mouths we have opportunities to praise the Lord or curse him, to lift others up or tear them down, to build unity or to create division, to give thanks or to complain.  Unfortunately, our default is to tear down rather than to build up. Complaining, arguing, gossip, slander, and other forms of degrading conversation have become so prevalent, that we don’t even notice we are doing it so much anymore.  But that is not beautiful music to the Lord’s ears.  It is not worship and praise and thanksgiving.

Every time we gather together as the church we have the opportunity to be like this in each other’s lives.  Our worship is not just the songs we sing while looking at the screen, and it is not like it is just me who has a message, or word that needs to be heard.  God is at work in all of our lives and when we come together there should be this melody of praise and thanksgiving as we remind each other of whom God is.

Now understand these verse are talking about what our lives should look like.  But this is not so much a challenge for things we should put on our to do list but rather things that should be exemplified in our lives. Overall these verses are giving us this picture of walking with God and what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit.

Lets focus on verse 18 as we close “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,”

Ultimately I don’t think that the main emphasis of this verse is about alcohol. That is a part of it.  Scripture seems to indicate pretty clearly that while drinking is okay, being drunk is not.  But I think the main reason that Paul is talking about drunkenness here is to give us this powerful analogy to being filled with Spirit.  As he talks about walking over and over again and living our lives for God this idea of the filling of the Spirit is critical. We need to realize that we have been given a precious gift of having the Holy Spirit live in our lives.  Our response should be to yield every area of our lives to him and walk in the ways that God has planned for us.  That is walking in wisdom and not wasting our lives.

But I want to really dig down into this beautiful analogy.  I want you to think about drunkenness for a moment and how people look when they are drunk.  How they are so intoxicated with alcohol that it is changing how they walk, and talk, and act.  And you can see the effects of the alcohol in their lives.  Their attitude and behavior are different, their inhibitions are gone. With that image in mind, I want to take you to a time when Christ has just recently left for heaven and all the believers were gathered together, and for the first time they received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Jesus had promised he would send his Holy Spirit to live in them and finally he comes and they are filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit.  They began speaking in different tongues and some people were passing by who were from other areas of the world, and they heard these people speaking in their own native languages and they were amazed and astonished.  They couldn’t figure it out. It was an amazing time that led to thousands of people getting saved.  And some of the crowd mocked the believers who were filled with the Holy Spirit.  They said, they are filled with wine.  They thought these Christians who were filled with the spirit, were drunk. But they were not drunk on alcohol; they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  They were so intoxicated with him, so filled up with him that he was bubbling up, overflowing their lives to the point that other people could see.  The Holy Spirit was changing the way they walked, talked and acted.  It was evident that they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

That is my challenge for us, to be so filled with the Holy Spirit, so completely inebriated with him in every facet of our lives, that we are like drunk people, living our lives, moment by moment, completely intoxicated with God in such a way that everyone around us see Christ in the way we walk.

 

 

So the Nativity story is basically found in two places.  It is found in the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke.  In Luke 1 we find the story of Mary being visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her that she is going to give birth to Jesus.  And then she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with John the Baptist, and sings her song, the Magnificat.  Then in Luke 2 we have the traditional Christmas story, with Mary and Joseph making the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem where Jesus is born and the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks. In Matthew 1 we have the genealogy of Jesus and then the nativity story from Joseph’s perspective as he is thinking about divorcing Mary after finding out that she is pregnant, but an angel appears to him in a dream and tells him to take Mary home as his wife and that the baby will be Immanuel, which means “God with us”.  Then in Matthew 2 we have the story of the visit of the magi, which happens at some point after Jesus’ birth, but is still considered part of the nativity story. That is where we would typically turn.  But what if I told you that there is another place in Scripture that gives us some insight into the nativity story, which is not in either one of those places?  And it is not one of the prophecies about the birth of the Messiah, but rather it is probably the most famous verse in the Bible.

I am talking about John 3:16.  Well, I think John 3:16 belongs with the nativity, or at least fits with the story of the nativity, in that it gives us just a little glimpse into the mindset of God as he sets into motion this plan of sending his son to earth.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 3. This is part of a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, and he came to see Jesus one night to talk with him, and Jesus told him that in order to see the kingdom of God, he needed to be born again.  And then Jesus followed that up with talking about spiritual rebirth, and then a little bit about himself and a hint of what he was going to do.

And then we arrive at this famous verse, followed by some lesser-known verses.  Let’s pick things up in John 3, with verses 16 and 17: “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 like I said, this passage is actually kind of like a nativity passage.  I know that seems kind of strange considering this takes place about 30 years or so after Jesus’ birth, but let’s consider for a moment what we find here about what is going on inside the mind of God as he gets ready to send his Son.

God’s motivation for this is love.  Not our love for Him, but simply His love.  God’s love for us is agape love, which is a Greek word referring to love that is not based on merit or emotion, but based rather on will.  He determines to love us.  We talk about how God is a god of love, but this puts that into practice, it is not just theoretical.  He shows us his love by what he does here.  What does He do? He gave his Son.  What does that mean? It means he sent him to earth with the purpose of reconciling the world to himself, which would be accomplished through his son’s death on the cross. And he did all this because he loved us.

Now let me also point out that Jesus is talking with Nicodemus here about himself.  It is easy to get detached from that reality.  These are not just some words about Jesus, this is Jesus speaking about himself and about God’s plan for the world.  Earlier we mentioned that Nicodemus was a Jewish teacher.  With that in mind, it might have been difficult for Nicodemus to understand the concept of God loving the world this much. He probably had never thought of God loving anyone other than Israel.  The people of Israel believed that they were God’s chosen people and he loved only them.  So Jesus saying that God so loved the world would have been a revolutionary concept for Nicodemus.  Jesus isn’t telling him that God loved Israel so much that he sent the Messiah; he is saying that he loved the world so much that he sent his Son. This might have been a revolutionary concept to Nicodemus, but it was always God’s plan.  Even way back in the life of Abraham God’s plan was to bless the whole world through him and his people.  He chose Israel as his chosen people to display himself to the world, but he loved the whole world.  That was true in the Old Testament, it was true when Jesus came, and it is true today.

God loved us so much that he gave his son.  Basically, this is the first ever Christmas gift.  I know that sounds a little cheesy, but I think it is important to understand the concept of God giving up his son.  We can’t really quantify God’s love, but this idea of him giving up his son to die for us, helps us understand the depth of his love for us, at least a little bit.

Why did God need to send his son, according to verse 16?  Verse 16 points out that the world is perishing.  Not just physical death, but spiritual.  Ever since sin entered the world, we are born as sinners, separated from God because of our sin.  That means that people are dying every day without a savior and are facing an eternity of separation from God.  God gave Jesus to the world so that people might not perish.  That does not mean so that they would not die, but so that when they die, they don’t need to die without a Savior, without being brought back to a right relationship with God.

The word salvation refers to rescue, like a drowning person being thrown a lifeline.  Jesus did not come to bring condemnation or judgment, but rather to save people from perishing.  He came to give us the possibility of eternal life.

So what do we do with this information? How do we respond to such an amazing act of love? Belief.  It is like the person who was drowning and is thrown a lifeline they can choose believe that the lifeline is real and they can be saved by grabbing hold of it, or they can ignore it and continue to drown.  These verses remind us that God’s plan of salvation was for the whole world.  He sent his Son for all of us.  He sent us a Savior.  Unfortunately, some choose not to believe in him.

Take a look at verses 18-21: “18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

So verse 17 spoke of how God did not send Jesus to the world to condemn it, but rather to save it.  However, by that very point, those who choose to not believe in Christ, are condemned, not because of Jesus, but because of their refusal to believe in him.

In these verses we see this reference between darkness and light.  It is an interesting picture of people who are living in darkness and yet actually prefer that darkness rather than the light.  Why would anyone want darkness instead of light? Darkness hides the evil things that they do or want to do.  Maybe because they are comfortable where they are or indifferent or because they think they are fine where they are.  For whatever reason, they are choosing to not believe and are choosing to stay in the darkness rather than coming into the light. Notice even these verses speak of their works.  Some people might be staying in the darkness simply because they think they can save themselves or that something other than Jesus is what will save them.  Maybe they are trusting in their own abilities or the good things that they do, but salvation is not about doing anything.  It is about what has been done for us.  That is a major difference between Christianity and other religions.  Salvation is a free gift that we did not and cannot earn, but must freely receive.

The response to the Gospel is simply belief.  It is not doing something, it is simply believing.  That is pretty amazing.  It actually reminds me a little bit of some of the Christmas movies we see out there during this time of year about Santa Clause.  The focus in many of them is on the need to believe.  We just have to believe in Santa and he will be real.  Like in the movie Elf, when the only way that Santa’s sleigh will fly is if people believe in him.  The problem is that Santa is not real and no amount of belief is going to change that.  It is fine for the movies, but not for real life.

The great thing about the Gospel is that it is true.  It is not some fairy tale or some Christmas fable.  It is truth that is backed up by Scriptural prophecies from hundreds of years before Jesus was born that could only have been fulfilled in Jesus.  And by solid testimonies of believers who saw Jesus’ life and ministry and died telling others about what they saw. The Gospel is true, so believing in Jesus is not like believing in Santa Claus.  He doesn’t need us to believe in him in order for him to be real.  He is the real deal and worthy of our belief. Make no doubt about it.  Jesus is the Savior of the world.  That is a fact.  Whether people believe in him or not, he came to save the world. The choice is whether or not we will believe.

With all of that in mind, let’s move back up to verse 16.  I don’t know what you get out of Christmas, but the thing that I most want to remind us of today is God’s love.  This verse gives us just a glimpse into the mindset of God sending his son and we see the motivation was love.  He loved us so much, that he sent Jesus. An important thing for us to understand as we approach Christmas is that it all begins with God.  He is the one who pursued us, not the other way around.  It is not like we pursued him so hard that he decided to do something for us. He loved us so much that he sent his son to bring us back to a right relationship with him so that we could spend eternity with him in Heaven.

This Christmas season, celebrate that it all starts with God.  Celebrate his love.  Celebrate how much he cares about you.   I know sometimes we don’t feel loved or we feel unlovable, but if nothing else, let Christmas remind us that that is not true.  We are loved.  God is not looking to condemn us or judge us, he is looking to save us.  He went out of his way to do everything he could to save us so that we could be with him forever.  That is love.