The Gift of Advent: Life

In a couple of days, we will celebrate Christmas, the coming of Jesus. And for most of us, that is something that we have done more than just a few times. And that’s good and right. There are many good things to celebrate, and Jesus’ advent is certainly one of them. And doing this year after year also makes sense because there is always more about His coming for us to grasp and enjoy.

So, with the goal of helping you to grasp and enjoy more about Jesus’ coming, let me ask a question. Why did Jesus come? And as is the case with ‘why’ questions, there are quite a few good answers to that question. Here is one that Jesus, Himself, mentions.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10.10

What I’m going to do today is take a look at this life that Jesus has come to give to us. It is my hope that this will help you to grasp and enjoy more of what Jesus’ advent is about.

An Idea For Next Christmas

Did your Christmas gift-giving enhance your family's focus on and appreciation of Jesus' birth? If it did, great! Stop reading.

But if it didn't, then I have a thought for you to consider. What if you were to separate the two, the celebration of Jesus and the nurturing family bonds by giving gifts? What if Christmas Eve and Day were just about rejoicing in the coming of our Savior with special meals, special worship and lots of singing? And then, what if, say, New Year's Eve and Day were all about family fun and the creation of great memories, including gifts? (And more special meals!) This would be killing two birds with two stones.

Joy to the world!

There is a reason why those old carols have stuck around. This one is a good reminder of what we are celebrating. But don't sing it to yourself. Forget the tune. Just read it, and let to words sink in. 

Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth! the Saviour reigns:
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of his righteousness,
And wonders of his love.

The Christmas Gift

Today is Christmas. It is a day to celebrate. Part of that for many is the giving of gifts. And one reason for that is the fact that what we celebrate today is God's gift to us in Jesus. What I’d like to do today is help you see that gift a little more clearly so that you can enjoy it a little more. Our text is Mark 1.9-11.

What We Celebrate

Next Sunday is Christmas Day. So, today, I want to do a bit more to help you prepare to celebrate Jesus' Advent. What I'm going to do is rehearse the basics of the Gospel. I doubt that I will tell you anything that you haven't heard before. But that's not my goal. All I want to do is remind you of what you already know. But in doing this I hope to help you focus on what the celebrating is to be about and in this way to help you fight against the growing worldliness that tempts Christians these days. This morning's text is Galatians 4.4-7. After I read it we'll take a look at a few of the key thoughts that Paul presents here.

Who Is This Man?

The point of Christmas is to celebrate a birth. We celebrate the birth of a new person, a new baby. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh. God, the Son, became a man. This birth of the Son of God is filled with mystery and wonder and lots of questions. But at its heart there stands a flesh and blood man. So, what we are going to do today is spend a little time looking at Jesus, the man. My hope in this is that as you understand him a little better, you'll understand yourself a little better.

Celebrate!

We're going to take a break from John's Gospel. Soon Christmas will be upon us, and I thought that it would be good for me to look around for some things that might help you as you celebrate Jesus' birth. So, today, we're going to deal with this question. How are we to celebrate this great act of God? I'm raising this question because of our cultural situation. It's no secret that our part of the world celebrates Christmas today in a way that is quite different from not all that long ago, and it is a change that is not for the better. We would be naive to think that this doesn't affect us. So, I think that it would be good to consider again what celebrating Jesus' Coming looks like. I won't be using one particular text. Instead, we'll look at several different texts to see what the Scriptures have to say about this celebration.

Celebrate!

So, there I was, minding my own business, working on this week's sermon, when the Spirit ever so gently tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out to me that the application that I was making from the text applied to me also. And, of course, He was right. The application was about celebrating that Jesus has come. I had been figuring that I wouldn't decorate or anything for Christmas. After all, it's just me here. But, the Spirit's point was too obvious to miss. It's a time to celebrate. I'm not going to die because Jesus has come. So, I got the box that contained these fellows and set them up in my living room.



This is a Nativity that Linda made, I'm guessing something like 34 years ago. It predates our kids and had been a regular part of our Christmases. For the curious, they are filled with soy beans and I think that I am the model for Joseph - the hairy-looking guy up front. (You need to see some pictures from my college days to understand that.) I also put up an elf in a not-so-hidden place. (My kids will understand that.) There's a wreath on my front door, and I'll get a poinsettia to be a Christmas tree stand-in.

It is the season to celebrate. 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.'

Christmas Spirit II

More from Packer.

The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending and being spent - to enrich their fellowmen, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things He will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit.

J. I. Packer,
'God Incarnate'
in Knowing God

Christmas Spirit

I just read this and thought it would be good to share it with you.

We talk glibly of the 'Christmas spirit', rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said [about the Incarnation] makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of Him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.

It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians - I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians - go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet them) averting their eyes, and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians - alas, they are many - whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the sub-middle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.

J. I. Packer,
Knowing God,
1973

Delighted with Christ

By calling it 'great joy,' he shows us, not only that we ought, above all things, to rejoice in the salvation brought us by Christ, but that this blessing is so great and boundless, as fully to compensate for all the pains, distresses, and anxieties of the present life. Let us learn to be so delighted with Christ alone, that the perception of his grace may overcome, and at length remove from us, all the distresses of the flesh.

John Calvin
on Luke 2:10