Christmas by the Letters

 

THE 4TH SUNDAY ADVENT 2021

CHRISTMAS by the Letters

Over the last three weeks we’ve looked at several Biblical texts surrounding the first Advent of Jesus when He entered humanity as a helpless baby. Today is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent –but I am sure not the last time we will rekindle our efforts throughout the next 12 months to better reflect the meaning of Jesus’ birth to our families, friends, and neighbors.

I opened my message for the first Sunday in Advent by looking at how we can better prepare our lives for the 2nd Advent when our Lord returns for His bride – the Church.

On the second Sunday of Advent, we looked at Pilate’s pronouncement to the jeering mob – Behold, the Man. And we asked ourselves the very timely question – what do We in the 21st century say about that Man? 

Finally, last week, the third Sunday of Advent we looked at Pilate’s pronouncement to the murderous mob – Behold, your King! And we asked ourselves also the very timely question – what will we in the 21st century do with our King? 

This brings us to our message today – the fourth Sunday of Advent, just days before Christmas day.

So, knowing what we know of Jesus’ first advent – specifically WHY Jesus came to us in the first place – I want to use the word CHRISTMAS as an acronym – each letter of the word will serve as a springboard to the meaning we should derive from that first advent in a Bethlehem manger.

So, starting with the letter ‘C’ let’s look at the phrase: Come to Jesus.

We know from repeated references in the NT that Jesus came to rescue sinners – that means you and me. Jesus came to rescue sinners from the jaws of hell and the Lake of Fire. He came to rescue not only horrible, murderous, adulterous, despicable sinners, but He came to rescue plain, ordinary, and, as many of us like to think of ourselves, ‘not-so-bad sinners’ from the SAME destiny of hell as murderous, adulterers, and so on.

And contrary to what some clergy like to tell their biblically illiterate sheep, hell is populated today, on this fourth Sunday of Advent, by those who have scoffed at God’s commandments and died in their ongoing rejection of Christ’s sacrifice for their sins.

Let us never lose sight of God’s view of sin as told us throughout Scripture: All sin, all sin, any sin separates us from a holy, holy, holy God. And all sin, every sin, ANY sin results in eternal death for all who choose to die without repentance of their sins to God and living in obedience to Jesus the Savior.

Let us never lose sight of the nearly unspeakable and staggering truth that Bethlehem’s manger held the Baby who would grow to be the Man who would redeem us by His death and resurrection from Satan’s talons. The apostle John called Jesus the propitiation for our sins – a fancy word meaning the sacrificial satisfaction God requires as payment for our sins. You remember what St. Paul wrote: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:23

But just because Jesus CAME to do that job, His work is useless unless sinners – you and I – seal the deal. Listen to what the Lord said in Matthew’s gospel: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. TAKE MY YOKE upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11).

How do we seal that deal?  How does a person come to Jesus? Let me tell you how I did it: I came to Jesus 49 years ago on Christmas Eve by telling God I was sorry for my sins, and I asked His forgiveness of those sins. And then I promised I would serve Him through Jesus Christ all the days of my life. Shortly thereafter, I was baptized in the pool on the US Naval base by one of our chaplains.

So, the ‘C’ of Christmas urges us to Come to Jesus. Just as we are, sinners as we are – come to Jesus and let Him wash away your sins with His sacrificial blood.

Which brings us to the ‘H’ in Christmas. I use that letter to bring up the subject of hope – as in the hope of eternal life.

Hope, as I have shared many times in the past, hope in the NT is not like hope in the way we use the word today. ‘I hope it won’t rain on New Year’s Eve next week’ – but we know it might rain. The word hope, as translated from the Greek, is best translated as a ‘confident expectation.’ In other words, we have every good reason to believe what we hope for WILL happen.

I am amazed by how many Christians – how many children of God have a ‘maybe-it-will-happen’ hope about their eternal salvation, instead of that confident expectation of eternal life.  If you ask them the question, “If you died today, will you spend eternity with God?”  They will answer, “I hope so.”

But why is that when Scripture gives them the right to say, “Yes. I know so”? As St. Paul wrote to Titus: “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope (e.g. the confident expectation) of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

Or this word by the apostle John: (1 John 5:11-13) “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Christmas means God has given everyone who accepts His gift of salvation by faith, He has given every one of them the gift of forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Are YOU confident of your salvation? If you are living for Christ, you have every reason for confidence.

Which brings us now to the R in Christmas, which I will use to remind us of the resurrection of Jesus. Joined to the birth of Jesus as God’s gift is the crucifixion of Jesus to pay the penalty your sins and mine deserve. 

Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

It was Christ’s death that purchased our redemption and forgiveness of sins, but it is His resurrection from the dead that, as St. Peter tells us, “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

Jesus said to Martha after her brother Lazarus died, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” Then Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?”

And don’t think for a moment Jesus is not asking you and me the same question even now: “Do you believe this?”

I hope you do.

Which brings us to the next letter in Christmas ‘I’.   I use the “I” in Christmas to remind myself how then ought I to live. For that, I refer to this simple but profound chorus Nancy and I used to sing in churches. Many of you will know the chorus yourselves:

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice/And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith/And be closer drawn to Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessèd Lord/To the cross where Thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessèd Lord/To Thy precious, bleeding side.

I CANNOT live for Christ in obedience to Christ unless the Holy Spirit continues to change my heart, piece by piece, day by day, year in and year out. I know, as St Paul mourned, “that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” (Romans 7:18), and that in my flesh not only do I not want to do God’s will, but I am UNABLE to God’s will (see Romans 8:7).

That is why I – that is why YOU – must come to Christ each day, taking up our cross, and seeking His Holy Spirit to not only show us our sins, but to change us to better reflect Christ to our families, our friends, and our neighbors.

The next letter in Christmas is ‘S’  And ‘S’ reminds me of the word Solace, meaning consolation.  For many people, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. But for many others, Christmas is the most loneliest time of the year. Nevertheless, our Father in heaven is not unaware of your sorrow. He shares your grief.

Jesus knows what it is like to lose someone you love. He mourned His cousin, John the Baptist. He wept at the grave of Lazarus. And He weeps over your loss and your loneliness as well. Christmas is a time to remember that God remembered humanity, lost in our sorrows and grief. And He became human, like us, to share in our heartache. Surely, He is Emmanuel, God with us.

Yes, Christmas is a time to find assurance that God remembers you. I wonder if the writer of this hymn wrote the song from the depths of his own emotional pain – “Be Still My Soul”:

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain . . .

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart

And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears . . .

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored . . .

So, ‘S’ is for solace. God became flesh to give us solace. Let Him hold you close to Himself in your time of sadness and sorrow and loneliness.

And so we come to the next letter in Christmas ‘T’, which reminds me of Thankfulness this Christmas.

What good things has God done for you?  Then make application of this song of encouragement: “When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your blessings, see what God hath done; Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

It is not likely you or I will be able to recall all that God has done for us unless we get alone and get quiet with Him. But please take the time this last week of the Christmas season to do so. Maybe bring a pen and a pad of paper and let the Holy Spirit take you on a remembrance tour. You may be surprised to remember the so many things for which you can be thankful to the Lord.

“M” is the next letter in Christmas’ – and we should never think of Christmas without thinking of the mother of Jesus – Mary.

Why did God choose Mary to mother His Son? We really don’t know the full answer to that question. But here are a few reasons to consider:

Mary demonstrated humility before God. And so, it was in humility Mary – knowing the scandal such a pregnancy would surely cause, Mary said to Gabriel: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” The Greek word used here for ‘handmaid’ carries the idea of being a slave to God.

Next, Mary demonstrated obedience to God despite what that obedience could cost her. In Israel’s first century culture, unwed pregnancy was a capital offense punishable by stoning. Mary, knowing her pregnancy would cost her betrothal to Joseph, her reputation, and perhaps even her life, nevertheless laid herself at God’s feet and told the angel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Finally (if there is a final thing we can say about Jesus’ mother), Mary loved the Scriptures. In an era when Israelite culture didn’t consider it a priority to teach girls the Scripture, it is clear Mary read and memorized God’s word. Her adoration of God (Luke 1:46-55) is an example. In those short ten verses of her Magnificat, Mary quoted or alluded to at least six Old Testament texts. (1 Samuel 2:1-10, Psalm 34:2, Psalm 35:9, Psalm 98:1, Psalm 103:17, Psalm 107:9).

Can we emulate Mary? Should we emulate Mary? Why not? After all, God thought well enough of her to choose her to bear and nurture His only begotten Son. If God thought so highly of her, why should we not think of her so highly?

And now for the next letter in Christmas: ‘A’  For me, the letter stands for the word, ‘all.’

All to Jesus, I surrender/All to Him I freely give/I will ever love and trust Him/In His presence daily live.

What does “all” mean?  All my hopes, my joys, my pain, my disappointments, my unmet expectations, my loneliness, my losses, my ambitions, my dreams . . . All of everything that has ever come into my life – I surrender it all to the gentle hands of my Savior.

What about you? What have your surrendered to Jesus?  What WILL you surrender to Him from this time forward?

And so, we come to the last letter, ‘S’ in Christmas. In this letter I see the concept of Service.

Christmas is not so much a time as GETTING as it is in GIVING. “God so loved the world that He GAVE us His Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.” And anyone who’s lived this long knows the joy of giving gifts to another – to see the joy in their eyes that you not only remembered them – but were thoughtful about your remembrance of them. And I am not talking only of family and friends now.

What about those less fortunate than many of you? There are so many needs out there – how can we hope to meet them all?  We cannot. But there are organizations that combine five dollars here and ten dollars there that then help hundreds, even thousands of needy people. Nancy and I support organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, and One Child Matters. And I hope many of you support Christian organizations as well – and especially at Christmastime.

Let me quickly conclude this message with a quick review of my Christmas points: Christmas is a time we can do at least nine things:

1. Come to Jesus,

2. Hope -- live a life of confident expectation before Him and others,

3. R remember always the resurrection of Jesus because His resurrection assures us that we also will rise from the dead,

4. I In Christ alone are we complete

5. S Solace, comfort, consolation are available to us only in Jesus

6. T  Thank God for His goodness toward us,

7. M to learn to imitate Mary the mother of Jesus,

8. A All to Jesus I surrender time, treasure, and talents to our Savior,

9. S Recommit ourselves to service in Christ’s name to others.