Summary
TITLE: Household of God, Celebrate His Gift! – Jn1:1-18, Eph6:17-18
AIM: Celebrate together the gift of God of Christ & thru Christ.
INTRO: Didn’t hear the message, tho would like to have. Dr. David Jeremiah’s TV program advertised his message for today – maybe some of you heard it. I think title was, “Why All the Music at Christmas.” From the ad it seemed that he was going to say there’s plenty to sing about at Christmas – much to celebrate. Why we don’t spare the special music & other music on Christmas Sunday & Eve. Celebrating the gift of Jesus is the right/only thing to do if we consider it at all. Most, if not all gifts we give/receive at Christmas have a limited value & use span. May last for years, but will eventually wear out or be outgrown or otherwise consumed. These gifts are temporal. God’s gifts, however, are eternal & perpetually fresh, vitally useful & infinitely valuable. The gift of God is His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior/Lord. But as have already seen, thru Jesus we are given more & more & more. He really is the gift that keeps on giving. 2013 theme: HofG – understanding that we who are in Christ are the HofG & seeking to understand what it means to be the HofG. I would say to you this Christmas Sunday that as part of the HofG, we should/must celebrate God’s gift – it’s right & good & vital that we do so. Just think about those well-known vss – John 3:16, John 1:14, Isaiah 9:6. Just think for a moment. If “all” God did was to send His Son to enter into our world, into humanity, into the plain of man’s despair, to be one of us, to identify w/our plight – wouldn’t that in itself be wonderful? It would not accomplish our salvation, but it would still be a marvelous thing, that God would lower Himself to be among us. Sadly, that is the extent of the understanding of Christmas for many, & many others don’t even have that understanding. But thankfully, Jesus didn’t just come to become like us. He took on our sin, though He Himself was sinless. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, so that we could be forgiven. Jesus rose again, as conqueror of sin/death, for us, so that we might live new. Jesus is our conqueror, our champion. Thru Christ, the barrier of sin was taken away, & the gulf of our lack of righteousness was filled. His righteousness was imputed to us who believe, so that we could become children of God. We’ve quoted II Cor.5:21 many times – great vs – “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” We can know God & be known by Him thru faith in His Son, His gift, Jesus Christ. And so much more is given to us thru Christ. In the NET John 1:16, speaking of Jesus, reads, “For we have all received from His fullness one gracious gift after another.” Again, Jesus is the gift of God, in essence God giving Himself to us. But thru Jesus we continue to receive gift after gracious gift. Look thruout the pages of Scripture & see these gifts enumerated. God’s choosing & adopting us, His working w/in us, His acceptance, His forgiveness, His abiding presence & immeasurable love, His precious Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of/down payment on our inheritance. All of this comes to us thru Christ, the gift of God, & is applied to our lives by faith in Him. Today, consider 3 other gifts that come to us thru the gift of Christ. Been looking at armor of God – truth covering. Last “piece” of the armor & the weapons of our spiritual battle are found in Ephesians 6:17-18 – “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication…” The helmet of salvation is simply sure hope which depends upon God, believing that we are saved & will be saved, come what may. David Gudzik wrote that it is “assurance that God is w/us & will triumph, in this present age & in the one to come.” Sometimes we lose sight of God & God’s salvation. In the struggles of our lives we forget that God is a “big picture” God, that He is working toward His purposes & the design which He has set forth. We have to remember that from before creation He set a plan in place, & thru the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension & 2nd coming of Christ He has been & is carrying out that plan. He will indeed triumph & we who have put our whole trust in Christ will triumph w/Him. He helps us in our struggles now, but also has His higher purposes in mind, which are for His glory & our good. So we hold on to Him & depend upon Him. The sword of the Spirit, Paul tells us, is the word of God, the Bible, “His story.” The wd Paul used for “word” is not the one used in John 1 – “In the beginning was the Word [logos], & the Word was w/God, & the Word was God.” “Logos” means word which embodies a concept or idea. Jesus was the definitive word of God, just as He is the gift of God. The song we sang this morning calls Him “the final word” – representing the fullness of what God has said & done. The wd Paul used in Eph.6:17 is “rhema,” or “spoken word,” lending itself to discourse or narrative. If Jesus is the definitive word of God, then the Bible, which was “breathed out by God” (II Tim.3:16) thru the writers of the 66 books, is the expansive, explanatory word of God, the narrative of God’s story. II Peter 1:21 – “…men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” It is this word which is wielded as a sword by the Holy Spirit in our lives, cutting away the flesh/old man in us & becoming a weapon in our hands as we battle temptation & take the offensive w/the gospel. But Scripture is little help to us if we don’t know Christ, except to help us come to faith in Him. The promises of God contained in Scripture are for those who believe, for God’s covenant people, which we become by faith in Christ. What a marvelous gift God has given us thru our Savior, Jesus Christ – His word, which is sure! The last element of the whole armor of God is prayer, which really fastens all the armor together. Prayer is communication w/God. Now, lots of people of many different faiths pray to whatever god they worship, but prayer for the Christian is an expression of relationship w/God, the one true God, who gave us His Son & saves us by His grace. Prayer is an expression of faith, of trust in Him. Why pray if you don’t believe that God hears & receives our prayers on the basis of Christ? Prayer is an expression of hope, that God will help us, that He will save us. Paul said to “pray at all times” & “in the Spirit,” that is, being led by the Holy Spirit, praying w/His guidance, which means we will be on target, & God will hear & will answer & will lead us in His triumph in Christ. What a marvelous gift is prayer! And it comes to us thru Christ. It’s a shame to receive a gift & never use it. If the giver knows this, they will be offended. How foolish we are when don’t pray, commune w/God, nor petition Him concerning our own struggles or those of our brothers/sisters in Christ. Prayer is always in order – there’s not time that’s not the right time to pray! God’s gift of & His gifts thru give us much to celebrate at Christmas & every day all year long. Household of God, celebrate His gift! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
