[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 24th of December, 2017, the fourth Sunday of Advent. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
Today is the fourth and last Sunday of Advent. It is also Christmas Eve – the end of the annual huge build-up of spending and shopping and gift buying. The culmination of what the Christian world celebrates as the day our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born!
Now His birth most likely occurred sometime in September, but the early Christian church chose to honor it on December 25th. No matter the actual date, sometime one night, before the morning dawn, Jesus came to us in the form of a small, helpless baby, and in the meekest, lowliest of circumstances. On that night, God’s love came down to earth.
Listen and follow along as I read about that love from the Gospel Account of the Apostle John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 21, from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
Now His birth most likely occurred sometime in September, but the early Christian church chose to honor it on December 25th. No matter the actual date, sometime one night, before the morning dawn, Jesus came to us in the form of a small, helpless baby, and in the meekest, lowliest of circumstances. On that night, God’s love came down to earth.
Listen and follow along as I read about that love from the Gospel Account of the Apostle John, chapter 3, verses 1 through 21, from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
--John 3:1-21 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, we cannot even begin to understand the depth of Your love for us. That You would send Your Son Jesus to earth, knowing full well how He would be mistreated and killed, is beyond our grasp. How could You love us so much, Father? Help us to show our love of You by loving others as Jesus commanded us. Speak to us now, Father, that we might better hear Your voice and see Your will for our lives. In the blessed name of Your Son Jesus we pray. Amen.
Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents' house the week before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers. The younger one began praying at the top of his lungs:
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE..."
"I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMING SYSTEM..."
His older brother leaned over, nudged him and said, "Why are you shouting? God isn't deaf." The little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
Grandmas do love their grandchildren, don’t they? And so do grandpas. We often show that love by buying and giving gifts. But love is more than that – much more. How would you define love? How do you say “I love you”?
The teacher in an adult education creative writing class gave an assignment to write "I love you" in 25 words or less, without using the words "I love you". She set a 15 minute time limit and said, "Go!". One woman in the class spent about ten minutes staring at the ceiling and wriggling in her seat. Finally, in the last five minutes she wrote frantically to complete the assignment on time. What did she come up with?
"Why, I've seen lots worse hairdos than that, honey."
"These cookies are hardly burned at all."
"Cuddle up -- I'll get your feet warm."
One of the many things I remember about my father is how much he loved my mother, his wife. You may have heard me say that Mom was a great baker – she could make deliciously wonderful cakes – but she wasn’t a very good cook. Sometimes our meals were… well… strange. But Dad never complained, and always complemented her meals. “Tastes like more!”, he’d always say, making a little word-play on our last name.
It’s easy for grandparents to love their grandchildren, for parents to love their children. It’s easy to love those who love us. But there’s more to it than that. Jesus told us all about love, such as we can read in the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34 through 40…
Yes, it’s real easy to love those who love us, who treat us good. But Jesus commands us to love everyone, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. That is not always so easy, is it? But there are some tricks we can employ to make it easier. In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote:
"Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor, act as if you do. As soon as we do this, we find one of life's great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
That’s why we need to pray for those folk who would do us harm. Pray, so that not only might they see the light, accept Jesus, repent and be saved, but also pray for them because it becomes increasingly difficult to dislike or hate someone we are praying for. Pray, so that we can grow to love them like God loves us.
The Apostle Paul spoke of that love in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8 verses 38 and 39, when he wrote…
Nothing can separate us from the love of God that comes through our Lord Christ Jesus! This is an unconditional love, an undeserved love. Unconditional because we need His love! Undeserved because we are sinners.
Jesus came to us when we were lost in sin and gave us hope for salvation through belief in Him, through our faith. A little earlier in that letter to the Romans, in chapter 5 verses 1 through 8, Paul writes…
We don’t deserve God’s love – He willingly gives it to us because we have been justified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and by our faith in Him as the one true Son of God. When we were dead in sin, unrighteous and ungodly, Christ Jesus died for us.
And in that act, God demonstrated His own love toward mankind, toward us. That alone should be good reason to glory in our tribulations. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, who lives within us. We were without strength, so God gave us His. In Psalm 18 verse 1, King David writes…
Who among us hasn’t faced a seemingly hopeless challenge in this life where we saw no way to get through it, no way to win? Wasn’t there some point where we were just ready to give up, that we thought we couldn’t go on? But yet we did, or we wouldn’t be here today. We did, because God strengthened us. Whether we prayed and asked for help or not, God gave us some of His strength to see us through.
God could have sent Jesus, His Messiah, to condemn and punish the world right there on the spot! But He didn’t. He sent Jesus that the world might be saved. This is God’s love, that He would sacrifice His own Son to save us, that He would give of His own Spirit to guide us, that He would share His own strength to strengthen us.
God gives of Himself to us, because He loves us. Return that love, share that love. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You sent Your Son Jesus to the world to offer mankind salvation. We deserved punishment, but You gave us love. By this You showed Your love for all of Your creation, if we would only accept and believe in and obey Your Son. Thank You, Father, for Your undeserved and unconditional love.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thanking You for Your many blessings, repenting of our disobedience, seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You did everything our Father asked of You, even to the point of dying on the cross, of taking the punishment we deserve. You came to save us, but too often we seem ungrateful of Your tremendous sacrifice. Help us, Lord, to understand the great love You and our Father God have for us. Help us to return that love and to share it with a world that desperately needs love right now. Help us to love every day, not just at Christmas time. Help us to love as You love - without reason, without conditions, without judgment.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
Two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents' house the week before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers. The younger one began praying at the top of his lungs:
"I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE..."
"I PRAY FOR A NEW GAMING SYSTEM..."
His older brother leaned over, nudged him and said, "Why are you shouting? God isn't deaf." The little brother replied, "No, but Grandma is!"
Grandmas do love their grandchildren, don’t they? And so do grandpas. We often show that love by buying and giving gifts. But love is more than that – much more. How would you define love? How do you say “I love you”?
The teacher in an adult education creative writing class gave an assignment to write "I love you" in 25 words or less, without using the words "I love you". She set a 15 minute time limit and said, "Go!". One woman in the class spent about ten minutes staring at the ceiling and wriggling in her seat. Finally, in the last five minutes she wrote frantically to complete the assignment on time. What did she come up with?
"Why, I've seen lots worse hairdos than that, honey."
"These cookies are hardly burned at all."
"Cuddle up -- I'll get your feet warm."
One of the many things I remember about my father is how much he loved my mother, his wife. You may have heard me say that Mom was a great baker – she could make deliciously wonderful cakes – but she wasn’t a very good cook. Sometimes our meals were… well… strange. But Dad never complained, and always complemented her meals. “Tastes like more!”, he’d always say, making a little word-play on our last name.
It’s easy for grandparents to love their grandchildren, for parents to love their children. It’s easy to love those who love us. But there’s more to it than that. Jesus told us all about love, such as we can read in the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34 through 40…
34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
--Matthew 22:34-40 (NKJV)
"Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor, act as if you do. As soon as we do this, we find one of life's great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
That’s why we need to pray for those folk who would do us harm. Pray, so that not only might they see the light, accept Jesus, repent and be saved, but also pray for them because it becomes increasingly difficult to dislike or hate someone we are praying for. Pray, so that we can grow to love them like God loves us.
The Apostle Paul spoke of that love in his letter to the Romans, chapter 8 verses 38 and 39, when he wrote…
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
--Romans 8:38-39 (NKJV)
Jesus came to us when we were lost in sin and gave us hope for salvation through belief in Him, through our faith. A little earlier in that letter to the Romans, in chapter 5 verses 1 through 8, Paul writes…
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.--Romans 5:1-8 (NKJV)
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And in that act, God demonstrated His own love toward mankind, toward us. That alone should be good reason to glory in our tribulations. The love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, who lives within us. We were without strength, so God gave us His. In Psalm 18 verse 1, King David writes…
1 I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
--Psalm 18:1 (NKJV)
God could have sent Jesus, His Messiah, to condemn and punish the world right there on the spot! But He didn’t. He sent Jesus that the world might be saved. This is God’s love, that He would sacrifice His own Son to save us, that He would give of His own Spirit to guide us, that He would share His own strength to strengthen us.
God gives of Himself to us, because He loves us. Return that love, share that love. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You sent Your Son Jesus to the world to offer mankind salvation. We deserved punishment, but You gave us love. By this You showed Your love for all of Your creation, if we would only accept and believe in and obey Your Son. Thank You, Father, for Your undeserved and unconditional love.
Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thanking You for Your many blessings, repenting of our disobedience, seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You did everything our Father asked of You, even to the point of dying on the cross, of taking the punishment we deserve. You came to save us, but too often we seem ungrateful of Your tremendous sacrifice. Help us, Lord, to understand the great love You and our Father God have for us. Help us to return that love and to share it with a world that desperately needs love right now. Help us to love every day, not just at Christmas time. Help us to love as You love - without reason, without conditions, without judgment.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment