For the last few weeks I have been working at one particular
goal: to help you to prepare to celebrate. Jesus has come, and that is
something to celebrate with great joy. One approach that I have used in these
sermons is to take the familiar and open it up a bit further so that you can be
reminded of what is sometimes hidden or forgotten. I'm going to do that again today. So, listen
to what the angel tells Joseph about the child who will be born to Mary.
She will bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
For the longest time I understood the angel to say that
because Jesus has come I won't end up in hell. Now, of course, that's true. And
thanks be to God that it is. But it's not what the angel was talking about. He
didn't say, 'He will save His people from hell'. He said, 'He will save His
people from their sins'. There's a difference. The angel was talking about more
than what happens later, heaven or hell. He was talking about important things
that happen now.
When it comes to Jesus dealing with our sin, what most of us
are used to is the idea that He saves us from the penalty of our sin. Because
of Jesus, His people will not face the Father's justice. The penalty of sin was
dealt with on the Cross, and it is gone. The demand of justice has been
satisfied. And again, thanks be to God for that. But Jesus does more than deal
with just the penalty of sin. Just to mention one other aspect, He also deals
with the power of sin.
So, here's this week's quote from a Christmas carol.
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
The carol prays that we would be 'set free'? Set free from
what? The carol explains.
… from our fears and sins release
us …
The point is about the power that our fears and our sins
have over us. I'll leave talking about fear for another time, though I will
remind you again that the only thing a Christian has to fear is God. What I
want to talk about today is the power of sin, the power that it has in the
lives of people. Sin doesn't just tempt. It controls. We know about this power
to control not just from a song. Jesus said,
Truly, truly, I say to you,
everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
Sin controls because sin enslaves. It is the master, and we
are its slaves. And that's where we all start. We all start as slaves of sin.
But Jesus has come to save us from that. He has come to free us from this power
of sin. So, Jesus also said,
… and you will know the truth, and
the truth will set you free.
Jesus has come so that you might be free from the control,
the slavery of sin.
Consider this. Someone who is without Jesus is a slave of
his sin. This sin has touched him deeply. And it's not just that he does what
is wrong. It goes much deeper than that. His heart is trapped. His heart has
been conquered. Sin has corrupted how he thinks about life, what he desires
from life and therefore what he chooses in life. So, when faced with a
decision, this person's perspective is so twisted by sin that he won't even consider
Godly options. Because of his slavery to sin he will only consider options that
conform to his sinful orientation. So, just as a lion will always choose to eat
some sort of meat and never hay, this person will always choose some sort of
sin. It's not that he is forced to sin. No, he freely chooses it. Now, he may
do that in ways that are socially acceptable or in ways that are socially
despised. But in either case, he chooses to sin because of his slavery to sin.
And what is the result of these sorts of choices? A life that is slowly but
surely being destroyed. This destruction is obvious in some and more hidden in
others. But it is happening in all who are without Jesus. This is slavery to
sin. Jesus has come to change that. He has come to save us from our sins.
So, someone who has Jesus has lots more options. To be sure,
there are still the sinful options that a Christian might choose, and sadly, he
does. But he can also choose to do what is holy, and happily, he does.
Now, there are problems when I talk about being holy. For
lots of folk, any talk about being holy is either way too 'religious' to be
real or it's viewed as stiff, rigid rule-keeping that just isn't any fun. The
evil one has stolen a good word. But consider what's really going on when we
talk about holy options in contrast with sinful ones. Consider how sinful
choices affect families. How many children have grown up with selfish fathers,
men who thought about themselves first? So, instead of playing catch with his
son, his attention is completely given to watching the game on TV. Instead of
spending time being suitably affectionate with his daughter, he spends too much
time at the job or working on projects at home. These are sinful choices that
result in young men trying to figure out life on their own and young women
looking for love in all the wrong places. And I haven't even mentioned this
man's relationship with his wife. Does it sound like stiff, rigid rule-keeping
to say that a man is opting for holiness by spending quality time with his
family, being a loving, attentive father to his kids and a devoted husband to
his wife? And consider the fruit of such holy choices in the family. A new
generation of people who have a solid understand of life, a new generation on
their way to living well. Jesus has come to free us from the power of sin so
that we might make holy choices and thus enjoy the good gifts of God, like a
family that turns out well.
So, you see, holy choosing is not this 'religious' thing.
It's living in harmony with reality, God's reality. That's how you should
understand the Spirit's call for holy living in the Scriptures. It's choosing
to live in a way that works. That's why Jesus has come. He has come to save you
from your sins so that you can become someone who is holy.
Now, it is a sad fact that we don't always make holy
choices. All too often we choose the sinful option. Thanks be to God that Jesus
has come to save us from the penalty of those sinful choices. We are not on our
way to hell, which is exactly what we deserve, but rather on the road to a
glorious forever. Forgiveness is another gift of Jesus' coming. But that does
not mean that we should forget about working at choosing wisely, opting for
those holy choices. There are, sadly, way too many Christians struggling with
life because of the sinful choices that they are making. And how does that make
Jesus look good? So, you need to heed the call of God to work at becoming holy.
How do you do that? The first step is clear. Acknowledge
that you have a problem. Acknowledge that you still choose sin when you don't
have to. As you do that, don't go into a tailspin. I don't want any of you
beating yourselves up because you face the fact that you still sin. Jesus has
taken care of the penalty of all of your sin. You are fully loved and fully
accepted by the Father who knows all about your sin. But out of love for Him,
take the first step to acknowledge that you still sin.
Then, as a second step, when some sin of yours is pointed
out to you, consider spending a little time examining what happened. Ask
yourself, 'Why did I do that?' Consider an example. You get crabby at times. There
will be surface reasons why you do. It happens when you're tired. But there are
also deeper reasons. Reasons of the heart. It may be that you just want your
own way. You can keep that from being too obvious when you're rested and in
control of yourself, but when you're tired your mask slips. So, you snap at
someone who isn't doing it the way that you want. That may be what's going on
when you choose to sin, when you choose to be crabby. Seeing your crabbiness in
this way makes clear what you need to do. You need to repent of your sin. But
understand that while that will include asking forgiveness of that other person
you snapped at, it will also include repenting of deeper heart issue, the
demand that things go your way. Bear in mind that behind the sin that you do
see is sin that you don't see. Trace your sin back to the lusts and demands of
your heart and deal with those by repentance and faith.
You will face sinful habits that have some very deep roots
and thus won't be removed easily. Learning to choose to live in a holy manner
in those situations where you are tempted by well-established sins will be
hard. But here is the thing to hold on to. Jesus has come so that you can be
freed from the power of your sin. He has come so that you can have success in
becoming someone who chooses to be holy. So, you can be very optimistic about
this. Or to use a church word, you can rejoice in what Jesus is doing in all of
this. Call it rejoicing or call it being optimistic - I don't care - but hold
on to that attitude because of what the Gospel promises. Or to say all that
differently, believe the Gospel when it says,
… you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
Once again I want to remind you of something that you
already know. This will not work if it's just a matter of you trying harder.
Nothing will work unless God blesses. So, pray that He would bless. Pray about
some specific sin that you already know about. Pray that you would see the
heart issues involved in that sin so that you and the Spirit might be able to
dig them out. Pray that you might be better able to choose to be holy.
This week we celebrate Jesus' birth. It is my deep desire
that your celebration this year will be greater than your celebration last year
because you understand a little better what it is that Jesus has come to do.