Well, good morning and Merry Christmas on this Christmas Sunday. And if you’re a guest with us, we’re so glad that you’ve joined us to celebrate Christmas.

If you have your Bible with you, we’re going to be in a very familiar verse, probably the most familiar verse of all time, John 3.16. So if you have your Bible and want to look there with me, I’m just going to read John 3.16 for us this morning.

And here’s what the Apostle John records the Lord Jesus Christ saying.

It says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

I’m 30 years old. But I’ve got to admit, at Christmas time, I might as well be a kid, because I know you get older and you don’t care about presents. But it gets closer. I’m like, I wonder what everybody got me. You know, maybe you’re more mature than me. That’s not you. But, you know, I just want to know. What did my wife think of? What’s my mommy going to get me? Like, it’s going to be exciting, you know. So surely that’s not you. You don’t do that like me. But that’s exciting. It’s fun, right? At Christmas time, you maybe get lengthy vacations. Time off. So that’s fun. People make special food. That’s good. Spending time with family. Very good. All very, very good gifts and blessings from the Lord. But I’m afraid, friends, that as good as those things are, we as gospel people, we as Jesus people, we can’t lose the purpose. We can’t miss the point of Christmas. And it’s easy, I think, in the 21st century, for Christmas to be about so many other things. And so I want us just to be reminded from the Apostle John, the point of Christmas. What’s the point of Christmas? We’ve said so far this month in the Advent season that Christmas means we’ve been given a living hope. Jesus got up out of that grave, so my future is sure because Jesus is alive. And we saw that the psalmist says, we have reason to shout for joy. God is our intense pleasure. We were designed and created. We were designed and created for joy. To have joy, to have satisfaction in Jesus alone. And we lost that in the garden. But Jesus made a way for us to have joy in a relationship with God again. And we said last week that Christmas is the dawn of peace. You and I have no peace in this world. Nation against nation is always fighting. The future is uncertain. We don’t have peace with God because of our sin. But Jesus came and He gave us peace. Jesus was the light that promised us a better life, a safe, peaceful life in the city of God.

So why do we have all these things? Why is it true that we could have looked at those passages and say, you know, as a Christian, I have hope. I’ve got peace. I’ve got joy. The reason is because God chose to give those things to us. And the reason why God gave those things to us is simply because God has chosen to love us. It’s that simple. God has chosen to love us. That’s the whole purpose. That’s the point of the season. To cherish, to relish, to celebrate this fact that God has loved us in His Son Jesus. I want us to look at this very popular verse and just consider the Advent season in light of Jesus and what it means for this verse. We said the Advent, that’s just Latin for the coming. It was the coming of Christ. So we celebrate the coming of Christ into our world. But just as much as it’s true that Christ of His own volition came into the world, no less is it true, friends, that the Father gave Jesus to us. He gave Him up.

So I believe it’s one thing to say, oh, I love you, or someone loves you. But it’s quite another thing to really feel the proof, to experientially know the love. And I believe John 3.16 gives us all the proof we need, evidence as we need, that God loves us this Christmas season like we can’t imagine.

So if the point of Christmas is love, I want to say to you,

to John 3.16,

the proof is found in first this, that God gave us His one and only capital S Son. He gave us His one and only Son. Just this past week in London, England, a mother picked up her child from school.

And here’s what the child said to her mother. Today, Mom, in assembly, the head teacher told everybody that she would be changing the words to the Christmas song, A Way in a Manger. That song the kids just sang. She said that they’re no longer allowed to sing the little Lord Jesus. They were only allowed to sing the little baby Jesus.

And rightfully so, the mother and many other mothers said, if He was just a baby boy named Jesus, there wouldn’t be a celebration in the first place. He is our Lord and Savior and King of all kings. She said this, and it can’t be said any better, that’s the whole, whole point, isn’t it? That’s the whole point. God didn’t give us some angelic being, nor did God give us just some man. It would have been to no avail. The beauty of the incarnation is this. It was the fullness of God and the fullness of man coming together again where they were once hopelessly severed. Jesus, who is very God of very God, the same substance of the Father, He came and He didn’t assume a costume. He really assumed, He assumed the full human nature. So Jesus alone then, who was God and the power of God, He restored our humanity. When He came up out of that grave, He came up out of that grave with a perfect humanity. So when we’re in Christ, it can be said we’re back with God again because in Christ, God and humanity meet. When the doubting Pharisees were constantly picking at Jesus, Jesus had the nerve to say to them, I am.

Jesus is a man standing before them and said, I’m equal with your God of the Old Testament. Jesus says, I am all God. Jesus says, I am all man. In Colossians, the Apostle Paul writes this in chapter 1, verse 19, For in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. So friends, you’ve got to understand it’s only in the God-man Jesus that we can be one with God, that we can be intimately, really, in relationship with God again. But so also is it true that Jesus isn’t just an uncreated, eternal being, very God of very God? You know, what’s also true is this. He was beloved of the Father. He was special and unique. In fact, at Jesus’ baptism, you know, when Jesus starts His ministry, the voice of the Father says this, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So in eternity past, the Father, and the Son, they had perfect fellowship. Why? Because no one else was like the Father. Jesus alone carried the same substance of perfection and holiness and righteousness. No one’s character was pure and good like Jesus. So when the Father looked at the Son, and the Son looked at the Father, they saw the purity and perfections of themselves in one another. And it’s not that Jesus was one of many. It says that He is the only Son of God. So you see, Jesus is the one perfect, precious Son that the Father had. He was His one and only, John tells us. So Jesus isn’t only uncreated and beloved, special by the Father. It’s also true He’s King of all creation.

Jesus is your Creator and He’s my Creator in the universe and the galaxies and the planets and all living things and objects and animals and fish and birds. Everything is because Jesus spoke it into existence. Jesus created you and me. Nothing is outside the Lordship. Of Jesus. Everything that is, is because Jesus has allowed it to come to pass to be that way. You know, when John’s in prison, John the Baptist, he’s getting discouraged because if Jesus is so great, John’s wondering, how come I’m sitting in prison? Right? He doesn’t fully get Jesus’ mission yet. So Jesus sends word to John and He says this to him in Luke 7.22, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news. Preach to them. Tell John, I’m not limited by this natural world. Tell John, I’m the supernatural King of all creation. That’s what John the Baptist was told. So you see, we can’t say it was just some baby in that manger, can we? We can’t say it at all. And if it’s not true that it wasn’t some baby, but it was Jesus, Lord and King, we’ve got to read Isaiah 53.10, with astonishment. Here’s what Isaiah prophesies. Look at this. He says, Yet it was the will of the Lord, of the Father,

to crush Jesus. The Father put the Son to grief. And when Jesus’ soul makes an offering for guilt, He shall see His offspring. He shall prolong His days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

Now when it says the Father, it was His will to crush Jesus. You know what it actually means most clearly in the Hebrew. It was the delight of the Father to crush the Son. It was the Father’s great pleasure to crush the Son. Jesus to be born as a babe in a manger and grow up as a commoner in rural Galilee, and then to be abused, beaten, spat upon, mocked, and crucified as a criminal. It was the will of the Father to crush His beloved Son. How could it be so? Well, the Father didn’t enjoy seeing Jesus suffer. The Father was glad and had pleasure in crushing the Son because of what it would produce, of what it would accomplish if this Son did what only He could uniquely do. And what did it produce, Isaiah says? It produced an offspring.

The Father had pleasure in crushing the Son because it would produce you and me. We would not be condemned in our sins, but by Jesus’ atonement, we would be called the people of God. So the Father had pleasure in crushing the Son. So friends, you and I could have life in Jesus forever. And not that. The second fruit, Isaiah says, is that Jesus’ days would be prolonged. Jesus uniquely has the glory of being the one who dealt with God’s ancient enemy, Satan. Dealt with our enemy. Jesus alone defeated death. Jesus alone defeated sin. Jesus alone took away shame. So for all eternity, the Father and the Son are going to get the most unique and the greatest glory. The ones who redeemed sinners for themselves and defeated their enemies. Jesus did it for God’s glory. And in doing it for God’s glory, we were made a people for His possession. We were loved of God. The Father had pleasure to see Jesus uniquely do this so that His Son was given so much glory.

So I say to you, this Christmas and every Christmas, we’ve got to join that mother and we’ve got to join that mother to wholeheartedly say it was the little Lord Jesus who laid down His sweet head. It was the Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

I want that adjective, Lord Jesus, to be a sweet sound in your ear this Christmas. For by it, you have been deeply, you have been sacrificially loved by God. The Father lost His Son that you and I could be found in His Son.

You see that? The Father gave Him up so we could have new life in Jesus. And it’s a hard proof this Christmas that God loves you very much.

I want you to see the second proof. The second proof that God loves us is this. God requires nothing of us but trust. The older you get in life, you discover, and people say it all the time, nothing in life is free, right? When you’re, when you’re a kid, everything seems to be free, right? When you’re at the grocery store and your kid’s like begging for everything, it’s like the concept of money is nothing. I’m like, Dawson, do you have any money? And he pulls like a penny. You’re like, I got this. I’m like, that’s not going to get us anything. It doesn’t matter. But you get older and you realize like higher education, they want money. You want a house? They want money. You want a car? Money. House breaks down? Car breaks down? Money. You’ve never gone to the repair shop. The guy says, hey, that $1,200 to fix your engine, I’ll float that. Don’t you worry about it. I just don’t worry about it. Uncle Sam has never called you and said, hey, those taxes, forget about them this year. Not you. Don’t you worry about it. It doesn’t happen, right? It just doesn’t happen.

If it’s true that Jesus is the greatest treasurer anyone could ever have, it seems like you must be elite. You must have a special bloodline. You must have special accomplishments. You perhaps must have a lot of money to get this prize. I mean, that’s just how the world works.

But I want to say to you, to the glory of God, that God defies the ways of man.

God defies natural wisdom. He doesn’t subscribe to anyone’s thoughts or methods or wisdom, but His own. And in fact, He does it to the shame of worldly knowledge, worldly wisdom, the prestige of man, the glory of man. This is why God does what He does and how He does it. He confounds man’s wisdom. And here’s how He’s done it. He’s called all people to come in simple, humble faith to His Son Jesus. Not some, but all. Not just a special group of people, but all. Rich, poor, uneducated, simple, good citizens, lawbreakers, highly accomplished, highly troubled, all nationalities, all races, the qualifier to receive everlasting life is just this. It is to receive the gift. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3, verse 26, For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you were baptized in the Christ have put on Christ. There’s not Jew, there’s not Greek, there’s not slave, there’s not free, not male, not female. For you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,

heirs according to the promise. And there’s something in me, maybe it’s in you, and it says, I don’t know, surely there’s something I’ve got to do for God. I’ve got to do something. Like, I’ve got to get some merit. And the Scripture says, no, there’s nothing you can do. You’re trying to do stuff. That’s the problem in the first place. Friends, we make a mess of things when we try to impress, when we try to please God. But Isaiah says, our righteousness is as filthy rags in His sight. You may excel at so many things in life, in your job. You may do things that impresses a lot of people. You may have a lot of money. You may want the praises of man. You may get the praises of man. But let me say, say to you, you can do nothing to be right in the eyes of God. You don’t have it in you. It’s why Paul says in Romans, that’s why it depends on faith, so that the grace of God would be magnified, so that you and I can say together, it’s only because God gave it to us. It’s faith alone.

Why is it faith? Have you thought about the nature of faith?

Faith is the one thing that enables you to let go of your pride. It’s the one thing that enables you to let go of your dignity, your ways, your methods. It’s the one thing that can bring you to your knees with this crystal clear understanding. I’ve got nothing of worth to offer God. I am but a condemned, broken soul before God. And if I try to produce a salvation for myself, I’m going to perish and I’m going to be brought to a miserable ruin.

Sin too great, the enemy too strong. That’s what faith helps us see. But it helps us see this. That Jesus, from the cradle to the cross, from the grave and back to life again,

His blood was enough to wash us clean. His life strong enough to save us and to keep us for all time. Faith brings us to a glorious and happy end of ourselves and to the beginning of real and new life in Jesus. And it’s seen in the cross of Christ. It’s just receiving. The gift. It’s just receiving the gift.

Salvation is free to you. That’s evidence of God’s great love. And it’s free to whoever would receive it. But I want to say to you, you can’t take a good thing in your hand until you’ve emptied your hands of the lesser thing you’re holding on to. You know? You can’t have both things. Friends, if you want the gift of eternal life, you’ve got to give it up for your temporary life here. To say it to the point, if you want Christ’s life, you’ve got to die to your own. The love of God in Christ received by faith, you know, would really give you to give you a taste for finer things, for heavenly things. If you’ve really experienced the love of God in Christ Jesus by faith, you won’t want the world. You won’t want what your flesh desires. You’ll be awakened to the reality of the God who loves you, the God for whom you were created, the God in whom alone you will have true salvation. Satisfaction and true purpose and true life. This world and your life and everything you could ever do, as much as you could impress yourself, as much as you could impress people, friends, it all fades away and only what’s left is what was done in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Give it up. It’s a small thing to lose your own life, to lose this world, for you will gain in Christ’s eternity.

Believe. On the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That’s the gift of Christmas. It’s that simple for you. Believe.

In this life, because this life’s hard, right? There’s valleys and there’s mountains to climb and there’s trial and there’s adversity and there’s trouble, but through it all I can say this, I have been saved because I have believed. And God’s promise is sure. And you know what? In the next life, when you stand before judgment, you can say then, I know I will, I will be saved then because I did believe. I saw the cross and I saw what God did and it secured me, not just in this life, but it secures me in the one to save to come. I have been saved. I am saved. And friends, we can say by faith we will be saved.

So just to say to you again this morning, I’ll be done. The point of Christmas is love and the proof of love is seeing that God gave His Son to be freely received by faith. Have you received? Have you received Him? And that’s the wonderful truth of the advent, the coming. But keep in mind, for the rest of your life, there’s a second advent coming. And when Jesus comes back the second time, He’s not coming as a babe in a manger. He’s coming as a warrior king and He’s going to come and He’s going to separate the sheep from the goats and those who have not believed, He will destroy. He will execute. It will not be a day of glory. It will be a day of dread. Let me say to you now, receive God’s love. Place faith in God so that second advent can be even more glorious than the first. It is the love of God in Christ Jesus this Christmas.