Part 3: Christmas Is the Gospel

John 3:16

God Loves the World

He loved us first (1 John 4:10)

He loves us forever (Rom. 8:37-39)

God Gave His Only Son

An eternal plan (Is. 7:14)

An eternal provision (Luke 2:11)

We Believe in Him

Simple truth (1 John 5:13)

Simple faith (Eph. 2:8-9)

We Live Forever

We can have it now (1John 5:13)

We can count on it (Titus 1:2)

More to Consider

On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was Isaiah 45:22Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation. The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. A man need not go to college to learn to look, he shouted. Anyone can looka child can look! About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, Young man, you look very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ! The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted. Warren W. Wiresbe

Why would God come this time in the form of a baby, rather than a firestorm or whirlwind? Because this time he has not come to bring judgment but to bear it, to pay the penalty for our sins, to take away the barrier between humanity and God, so we can be together. Jesus is God with us. Tim Keller

The gospel message is about the greatest gift of all timeGod gave us Jesus Christ, his Son, who brings great joy to everyone who receives him. The purpose of Christmas is to share this gift. And what a perfect opportunity! Christmas is a holiday that focuses on the Savior of the world. There could be no better reason to celebrate Christmas. We can share the most wonderful gift of Jesus so that others may experience the great joy of salvation. If you dont know Jesus Christ as your Savior and youd like to experience great joy, you can receive his gift of salvation right now and join in the celebration of Christmas. Source unknown

Isaiah 9:1-7

The Need for Hope (v.1)

Gloom

Distress

Oppression

The Nature of Hope (vv. 2-5)

Light

Joy

Peace

The Names of Hope (vv. 6-7)

Wonderful Counselor

Mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

More to Consider

As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband. Gary Thomas, in Christianity Today

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. G.K. Chesterton

Although Mt 4:16 applies the passage as a whole (vv. 27) to Jesus Christ by implication, the NT does not specifically apply to Him the names, or titles, listed in this verse. Some commentators believe Isaiah was describing a Judean ruler to come during his own time; thus, these names were applied to the reigns of Hezekiah, Josiah, and even Ahaz. But even if the names do not recur, as such, in the NT, they fit the ministry and messianic role of Jesus. As a Wonderful Counselor, He is a doer of miracles, wonders, and signs (Acts 2:22) who sends the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to continue His work (Jn 14:26). Hailed as My Lord and my God (Jn 20:28) in His resurrection, Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Mt 28:18). As one with the Father (Jn 10:30), He is eternalalive forever and ever (Rv 1:18). As a member of Davids royal line (Rm 1:3) He is the Prince who brings peace between Jew and non-Jew (Eph 2:14), whose rule over all kingdoms (Rv 1:5) brings an end to wars. John Collins

Luke 15:1-7

We Were Desperately Lost (vv. 3-4)

The Pharisees assessment was accurate

Our lostness was shameful

He Relentlessly Searched for Us (v. 4)

He valued us

He pursued us

He saved us

He carried us

He celebrated us

We Were Joyously Found (vv. 5-7)

The joy of the Shepherd

The joy of Heaven

More to Consider

The shepherd was responsible for each sheep; if one was missing, the shepherd had to pay for it unless he could prove that it was killed by a predator (see Gen. 31:3839; Ex. 22:1013; Amos 3:12). This explains why he would leave the flock with the other shepherds, go and search for the missing animal, and then rejoice when he found it. Not to find the lost sheep meant money out of his own pocket, plus the disgrace of being known as a careless shepherd. Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 233). Victor Books.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep teaches that there is rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents. Jesus was not saying the other 99 sheep were not important. Instead, He was emphasizing that the one sheep not in the fold corresponded with the sinners with whom Jesus was eating (vv. 12). The 99 righteous persons refer to the Pharisees who thought themselves righteous and therefore in no need to repent. Martin, J. A. (1985). Luke. In J. F. Walvoord R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 244). Victor Books.

Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how, in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn't get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can't jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. "Why don't they go down there when the sheep first gets there?" I asked. "Ah!" He said, "they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!" And that is the way with men; they won't go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way. Moody's Anecdotes, pp. 70-71.

Isaiah 61:10-11, Rev. 19:6-8

An immediate Consideration (Is. 61:10-11)

Internal elation

External elegance

Wrapped in Gods salvation

Clothed in Gods righteousness

Natural expression

An Eternal Celebration (Rev. 19:6-8)

The Marriage Supper

The Bridal Gown

More to Consider

I'm reminded of E.B. White's comment: "People have re-cut their clothes to follow the fashion...People have remodeled their ideas too -- taken in their convictions a little at the waist, shortened the sleeves of their resolve, and fitted themselves out in a new intellectual ensemble copied from a smart design out of the very latest page of history." When slavery to fashion invades the church, our latest ideas are yesterday's fads. We adopt the world's agenda -- just a few years too late. Many churchmen sport theological bell-bottoms. Charles Colson, Against the Night, p. 151.

[how can anyone] be silly enough to think himself better than other people, because his clothes are made of finer woolen thread than theirs. After all, those fine clothes were once worn by a sheep, and they never turned it into anything better than a sheep. Thomas More, Utopia

In these verses the prophet seems to be speaking for the redeemed remnant who will rejoice (cf. comments on 9:3) in response to Gods blessings mentioned in 61:19. Salvation and righteousness are pictured as clothes worn by the people (cf. Gods clothes, 59:17). In other words the Israelites are characterized by salvation (Gods redeemed people) and righteousness (those who are living by Gods standards; cf. 58:8; 60:21). To picture their joy and blessing a bridegroom wore a fancy headgear, like a priests turban, and the bride wore costly jewelry. God will cause Israels righteousness to spring up in (be known by) other nations (cf. 61:11; 62:12) much as the soil sustains the growth of plants Martin, J. A. (1985). Isaiah. In J. F. Walvoord R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1116). Victor Books.

2 Chronicles 20

Prayer (vv. 1-4)A. When the world attacksB. seek the Lord.

Preaching (vv. 14-17)A. Do not fearB. Do not falterC. Do not fight

Praise (vv. 20-23)A. The praising choirB. The providential confrontationC. The promised confusion

Power (vv. 27-30)A. The rejoicing of Gods peopleB. The reputation of Gods people

More to Consider

Worship is all that we are, reacting rightly to all that He is. How broad is the biblical concept of worship? And how accurate is your perception of it? Worship is to the Christian life what the mainspring is to a watch, what the engine is to a car. It is the very core, the most essential element

John MacArthur

When faced by a combined army of the Moabites and the Ammonites, two ancient enemies of Israel (Gen. 19:3038; Deut. 23:3; Neh. 13:1ff), Jehoshaphat put his faith in the Lord, and God gave him a great victory. The combination of prayer (20:313), prophecy (20:1417), and praise (20:1822) brought him the victory. (We wonder how the choir of Levites felt about going out before the army. But worship is a great weapon against the enemy.)

Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbes Expository Outlines on the Old Testament (2 Ch 1336). Victor Books.

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C S Lewis

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

A.W. Tozer

Psalm 24

The Range of Worship (vv. 1-2)

The fullness of worship

The foundation of worship

The Requirements of Worship (vv. 3-6)

Our part

Pure hands

Pure heart

His part

Blessing

Righteousness

The Reception of Worship (vv. 7-10)

Lift up our heads: attention

Lift up our doors: welcome

More to Consider

What is worship? Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery, that Majesty which philosophers call the First Cause, but which we call Our Father Which Are in Heaven.

A.W. Tozer, quoted in D.J. Fant, A.W. Tozer, Christian Publications, 1964, p. 90.

True biblical worship so satisfies our total personality that we don't have to shop around for man-made substitutes. William Temple made this clear in his masterful definition of worship: For worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our sin and the source of all actual sin. Warren W. Wiersbe,The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991.

Barclay quotes William Temple, the renowned archbishop of Canterbury, as defining worship as quickening the conscience by the holiness of God, feeding the mind with the truth of God, purging the imagination by the beauty of God, opening the heart to the love of God, and devoting the will to the purpose of God Matthew R. Mounce.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. If it were possible for a created soul fully to 'appreciate,' that is, to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme blessedness. To praise God fully we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God, drowned in, dissolved by that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression. Our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds. C.S. Lewis.

The Cross (vv. 5-8) A. Christ willingly surrendered His self-willed deity B. Christ willingly submitted to the limitations of humanity C. Christ willingly succumbed to an agonizing death 1. Agonizing physically 2. Agonizing emotionally 3. Agonizing spiritually The Crown (vv. 9-11) A. Christs exaltation 1. The Father exalted His Person 2. The Father exalted His Position B. Christs glorification 1. Global 2. Universal C. Christs vindication More to Consider Definitions of Political Systems Communism: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and gives you part of the milk. Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both cows and sells you the milk. Nazism: You have two cows. The government takes both cows, then shoots you. Bureaucracy: You have two cows. The government takes both of them, shoots one, milks the other, then pours the milk down the drain. Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one of them and buy a bull. In a democracy, everyone has two cows, then a vote is taken, and whatever the majority decides to do, you do, and that's no bull! Pulpit Helps, August, 1992, p. 8. I want to give a word of caution here. Be very careful about calling Jesus your Lord if He is not your Lord. He made the statement that many would call Him Lord, Lord, and even perform miracles in His name, yet He will say, I never knew you (see Matt. 7:2123). My friend, you had better know Him as your Savior before you say He is your Lord. If He is your Savior, then you can become obedient to Him as your Lord. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (Philippians/Colossians) (electronic ed., Vol. 48, p. 53). Thomas Nelson. The person with the submissive mind, as he lives for others, must expect sacrifice and service; but in the end, it is going to lead to glory. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time (1 Peter 5:6). Joseph suffered and served for thirteen years; but then God exalted him and made him the second ruler of Egypt. David was anointed king when he was but a youth. He experienced years of hardship and suffering, but at the right time, God exalted him as king of Israel. Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 7677). Victor Books.

Live as a Light in Darkness (vv. 11-15)

Infiltrate but do not imitate

Illuminate but do not alienate

Cooperate but do not deviate

Live in Liberty Under Direction (v. 16)

Freedom in the world

Freedom from the world

Live by Love Amidst Desperation (v. 17)

Considerate love to the unsaved

Sacrificial love to the saved

Reverential love to Savior

Respectful love to the sovereigns

More to Consider

Years ago, the communist government in China commissioned an author to write a biography of Hudson Taylor with the purpose of distorting the facts and presenting him in a bad light.

They wanted to discredit the name of this consecrated missionary of the gospel. As the author was doing his research, he was increasingly impressed by Taylor's saintly character and godly life, and he found it extremely difficult to carry out his assigned task with a clear conscience.

Eventually, at the risk of losing his life, he laid aside his pen, renounced his atheism, and received Jesus as his personal Savior.

Whether we realize it or not, our example leaves an impression on others. Sign in an executive's office: "What I am about to say represents one four-billionth of the world's opinion."

Jack Williams, Phoenix Gazette.

Dr. John Geddie went to Aneityum in 1848 and worked there for God for 24 years. On the tablet erected to his memory these words are inscribed:

When he landed, in 1848, there were no Christians. When he left, in 1872, there were no heathen.

J.O. Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, p. 24.

An elderly gentleman was sitting on a park bench, basking in the sun, when another elderly fellow sat down. They looked at each other for a moment but did not speak. Both men sat there, staring straight ahead.

After a while, one of them heaved a big, heartfelt sigh.

The other jumped up immediately and said, "If you're going to talk politics, I'm leaving."

Bits Pieces, June 24, 1993, p. 7.

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.

Plato.

The Dread of the Cross (vv. 27-29)

The Sons resolve

The Fathers reassurance

The Necessity of the Cross (vv. 30-33)

The wonder of the crowd

The weight of the crucifixion

Judgment of sin

Destruction of Satan

Redemption of humanity

The Brilliance of the Cross (vv. 34-36)

The blindness

The brightness

Walk in the light

Believe through the light

Live by the light

More to Consider

The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.

But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school's founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. "There is no Poland without a cross."

Chuck Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict, pp. 202-3.

All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning. Oswald Chambers.