I remember when I was a kid, my grandma knit me a pair of wool socks—which was super nice and thoughtful, and she put so much work into making them, but I’m allergic to wool. Another Christmas, my aunt couldn't get me the toy I wanted because it was out of stock, so she promised to get it when it came back in stock....AND I'M STILL WAITING FOR IT! There was one time when we told the kids' grandparents not to get any really big gifts for the kids because we live in a small apartment and don't have a lot of room...and they gave my boy an 8 FOOT LONG CATERPILLAR that played the alphabet song at ear-piercing levels!
Because we're only got a few weeks before Christmas, this week we talked about the BEST PRESENT EVER! The reason why gift giving is a thing at Christmas is because Christmas began with one AMAZING GIFT-- a miracle-- something incredibly supernatural and mind-boggling-- that Jesus, this promised saviour, was born!
1. A GIFT WE REALLY NEEDED
Getting something that you REALLY need is pretty much the perfect gift. Nobody wants a gift that they have no use for, that will gather dust on the shelf or never be worn because it’s made of wool.
The Bible tells us that this gift of salvation is something that we really need. It says that we all have this sin problem where we keep doing the things that are the opposite of what God wants for us…and that every time we sin, it’s like we’re building a wall between us and God—and we are in desperate need of RESCUE. So God decided to do something about this—he decided to personally make a way for us to be rescued from sin, find forgiveness, and to have a restored friendship with him!
Matthew 19:25-26 says that the disciples asked Jesus, “How can anyone ever be saved? Jesus looked straight at them and said, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”
We can’t save ourselves—we can’t solve our sin problem. We NEED God’s help. And that’s what Christmas is about!
2. SPECIAL DELIVERY!
The way he chose to rescue us is incredibly weird and mind-boggling. The deep theological word for this is INCARNATION—which describes this mystery of how the God of the Universe was born as a human being in order to take the sins of the world on himself, so that we could be saved! It sounds kind of crazy, doesn’t it?
In fact, it's so hard to believe that when Joseph learned that his fiancée, Mary, was pregnant…and that she claimed that it was something that supernaturally happened…and that she was pregnant with the saviour of the world—he didn’t believe her! The Bible actually says that he was going to call off the wedding because he thought she was either lying or insane (which is probably a pretty natural response in that situation).
Matthew 1:18-25 says, “While Joseph was thinking about this (how to quietly break things off), an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (The name, Jesus, literally means “saving one” or “rescuer”.) So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “A virgin will have a baby boy, and he will be called Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
Now, while this was enough to convince Joseph, it’s still really hard for US to believe this incredible story just because a guy had a dream that cleared the whole thing up a couple thousand years ago. But thankfully, we have more than a dream to convince us that this was a real, miraculous moment in history!
A) PROPHECY
Often times you might see a movie where they tell you that there are prophecies written that talk about something that’s going to happen in the future—that a hero is going to rise up and rescue the world. Well, those movies use the Bible for their inspiration.
You see, the Bible is a book made up of a lot of smaller books that were written hundreds of years apart by different people in history—so even though it’s all compiled in one book, the books of the Old Testament were written and recorded HUNDREDS of years before Jesus was born…and what’s shocking is that the Old Testament has a bunch of prophecies that all came true in Jesus. The author Josh McDowell says that the odds of even 8 of these things, written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, being fulfilled in one person, is over 1 out of a quadrillion! It’s just impossible!
So, let’s just take at just a few of the things that came true in Jesus:
-The saviour would have a virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14- written 700 years before Jesus was born)
-The saviour would be God (He will be called Immanuel, which means “God With Us”- Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7- written 700 years before Jesus was born)
-The saviour would be born in Bethlehem—a small insignificant town—(Micah 5:2- written 700 years before Jesus was born).
-The saviour would have his hands and feet pierced- Psalm 22- (this was 400 years before crucifixion had even been invented as a form of capital punishment and was written 1000 years before Jesus was born!)
We don’t have time to look at them all, but just google “prophecies fulfilled byJesus” and it’s just mind boggling that all of these things recorded hundreds of years before Jesus came on the scene could come true in one person. Unless it really was God’s plan all along!
B) JESUS’ LIFE
If we’re still looking for proof about the truth of this Christmas story, we just have to look at Jesus’ life. He taught people about God and known for his wisdom. He was followed around 24/7 and no one ever caught him sinning. The people who followed him believed that he was God. He did incredible miracles in front of tons of eyewitnesses, including raising one person from the dead who had been sealed in a tomb for 4 days! These miracles were so incredible that crowds of people were worshipping him and ready to make him king...which is why the government and religious leaders of the day saw Jesus as a threat and killed him! None of that would have happened if Jesus had just been an ordinary person.
C) JESUS’ RESURRECTION
On top of that—Jesus didn’t stay dead! He was crucified and buried—and then three days later he rose from the dead (which is why we celebrate Easter). During that time, he talked and ate with tons of people. 1 Corinthians 15:6 says that he met with over 500 people just at one time, and that a lot of the people were alive at the time Paul that Paul wrote those words and could attest to it being true!
One of Jesus’ followers, Thomas, was super skeptical about the whole thing. He thought the other disciples were lying or insane (kind of like how Joseph felt with Mary), but in John 20, he actually talked to Jesus himself and touched his wounds. After doing so, he became so convinced that he not only said right there that Jesus was God, but he spent his entire life telling other people about his experience!
I wanted to highlight those things because Christmas represents an amazing moment in human history—where God became a person so that we could be saved from our sin problem and have a friendship with him! We’re talking one of the biggest miracles EVER!
3. A GIFT OF LOVE
Gifts are pretty amazing. Nobody owes you a gift. Presents represent the fact that somebody REALLY loves you and thinks you’re awesome. John 3:16-17, one of the most famous verses of the Bible, says this- “For this is how God LOVED the world: He GAVE his one and only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to SAVE the world through him.”
This whole master plan, all of these incredibly miraculous things, all happened because God loves us, because he wants a friendship with us, because he wants us to experience his forgiveness! He wants us to be a part of heaven with him!
Matthew 1:18-25 says, “While Joseph was thinking about this (how to quietly break things off), an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (The name, Jesus, literally means “saving one” or “rescuer”.) So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “A virgin will have a baby boy, and he will be called Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
Now, while this was enough to convince Joseph, it’s still really hard for US to believe this incredible story just because a guy had a dream that cleared the whole thing up a couple thousand years ago. But thankfully, we have more than a dream to convince us that this was a real, miraculous moment in history!
A) PROPHECY
Often times you might see a movie where they tell you that there are prophecies written that talk about something that’s going to happen in the future—that a hero is going to rise up and rescue the world. Well, those movies use the Bible for their inspiration.
You see, the Bible is a book made up of a lot of smaller books that were written hundreds of years apart by different people in history—so even though it’s all compiled in one book, the books of the Old Testament were written and recorded HUNDREDS of years before Jesus was born…and what’s shocking is that the Old Testament has a bunch of prophecies that all came true in Jesus. The author Josh McDowell says that the odds of even 8 of these things, written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, being fulfilled in one person, is over 1 out of a quadrillion! It’s just impossible!
So, let’s just take at just a few of the things that came true in Jesus:
-The saviour would have a virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14- written 700 years before Jesus was born)
-The saviour would be God (He will be called Immanuel, which means “God With Us”- Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6-7- written 700 years before Jesus was born)
-The saviour would be born in Bethlehem—a small insignificant town—(Micah 5:2- written 700 years before Jesus was born).
-The saviour would have his hands and feet pierced- Psalm 22- (this was 400 years before crucifixion had even been invented as a form of capital punishment and was written 1000 years before Jesus was born!)
We don’t have time to look at them all, but just google “prophecies fulfilled byJesus” and it’s just mind boggling that all of these things recorded hundreds of years before Jesus came on the scene could come true in one person. Unless it really was God’s plan all along!
B) JESUS’ LIFE
If we’re still looking for proof about the truth of this Christmas story, we just have to look at Jesus’ life. He taught people about God and known for his wisdom. He was followed around 24/7 and no one ever caught him sinning. The people who followed him believed that he was God. He did incredible miracles in front of tons of eyewitnesses, including raising one person from the dead who had been sealed in a tomb for 4 days! These miracles were so incredible that crowds of people were worshipping him and ready to make him king...which is why the government and religious leaders of the day saw Jesus as a threat and killed him! None of that would have happened if Jesus had just been an ordinary person.
C) JESUS’ RESURRECTION
On top of that—Jesus didn’t stay dead! He was crucified and buried—and then three days later he rose from the dead (which is why we celebrate Easter). During that time, he talked and ate with tons of people. 1 Corinthians 15:6 says that he met with over 500 people just at one time, and that a lot of the people were alive at the time Paul that Paul wrote those words and could attest to it being true!
One of Jesus’ followers, Thomas, was super skeptical about the whole thing. He thought the other disciples were lying or insane (kind of like how Joseph felt with Mary), but in John 20, he actually talked to Jesus himself and touched his wounds. After doing so, he became so convinced that he not only said right there that Jesus was God, but he spent his entire life telling other people about his experience!
I wanted to highlight those things because Christmas represents an amazing moment in human history—where God became a person so that we could be saved from our sin problem and have a friendship with him! We’re talking one of the biggest miracles EVER!
3. A GIFT OF LOVE
Gifts are pretty amazing. Nobody owes you a gift. Presents represent the fact that somebody REALLY loves you and thinks you’re awesome. John 3:16-17, one of the most famous verses of the Bible, says this- “For this is how God LOVED the world: He GAVE his one and only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to SAVE the world through him.”
This whole master plan, all of these incredibly miraculous things, all happened because God loves us, because he wants a friendship with us, because he wants us to experience his forgiveness! He wants us to be a part of heaven with him!
The reason why we celebrate Christmas, is we’re celebrating how, even though we don’t deserve it and tend to mess up all the time—God loves us and offers us forgiveness!
If you were in a life or death situation, and somebody stepped in to save you, you would probably be pretty thankful. I’ve heard stories of how paramedics who saved people’s lives were invited over for BBQ’s or became friends with the people they helped because they just wouldn’t be alive if those paramedics hadn’t stepped in to help.
This is why Christmas is celebrated! Jesus stepped in to save us! Jesus stepped in to rescue us! This is the BEST PRESENT EVER!
If you were in a life or death situation, and somebody stepped in to save you, you would probably be pretty thankful. I’ve heard stories of how paramedics who saved people’s lives were invited over for BBQ’s or became friends with the people they helped because they just wouldn’t be alive if those paramedics hadn’t stepped in to help.
This is why Christmas is celebrated! Jesus stepped in to save us! Jesus stepped in to rescue us! This is the BEST PRESENT EVER!
No discussion this week, but please look over the email I sent to the group about the different opportunities we have to give as a group this year. Each December, we let teens vote on how they would like to give the money they've given in our youth offering. The email I sent out contains links to give more information about each opportunity to give. Thanks! PB
