Father, what a precious gift to be able to actually raise hearts in song and in praise. To be able to worship You in the light of the Child who was born to us. The Son who was given to us. To marvel at Your greatness and Your condescending mercy the mystery of godliness in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, as has been mentioned already this morning, if we are those who worship in that way, in spirit and in truth, it is because you have caused the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ to rise in our hearts. And we thank You for that. Father, I pray now that You would give to us a greater insight and understanding of this great work that You have done in Your Son. We have sung and prayed and read of His coming. Help us now to more fully understand The meaning of that coming. Why we celebrate. What it is that we rejoice in. Father, cause that light. To shine all the brighter in our hearts. In our countenance. In our witness in this world. For the sake of the son who was sent. The son of David. Amen. Well, as always at Christmastime, try to do a message that's related to the theme of Christmas. And every year I pick a particular theme, a particular aspect of the Christmas message. But I thought this year that we would take perhaps maybe a little broader approach to the topic. One of the things that has amazed me for many years and certainly been a provocative thing to me as I've grown in the Lord over the years is taking note of what to me is a very interesting facet of the Christmas season. And that is the fact that we give by we I don't mean Christians per se or even America, but Western culture particularly uses the Christmas season to set out a myriad of images and conceptions that in a sense help to speak to the meaning of Christmas. And those images, those ideas, visual, auditory, the conceptions that are presented, some of them more directly speak to the meaning of Christmas, some of them more indirectly. Some of them is a matter of implication. And to me, it's largely a tragic thing that our sensibilities and our understanding are so much formed by and framed by these images and ideas and conceptions that are put out. Certainly, we can see that there are all sorts of avenues of arts and entertainment that are centered in the Christmas theme, the Christmas time. Whether we think of the book by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, as it sets out to us some conception of what we should think about Christmas and how we should understand it and, in a sense, celebrate it and honor it. We can come more recently into the 20th century with movies like A Miracle on 34th Street or It's a Wonderful Life, certain movies that people will even, as a matter of tradition, watch at Christmas time because of how it speaks to them about the meaning of Christmas, the significance of Christmas. In my experience, one of the things I looked forward to every year was the Charlie Brown Christmas. came out in 1965, it was a cartoon, but it has that high point, the whole point of the Charlie Brown Christmas is all the Charlie Brown sees around him is people who are wrapped up in the carnality and the materialism of Christmas and it frustrates him and it kind of comes to its apex in this little cartoon where he basically cries out and says, does anyone know the real meaning of Christmas? And at that point, Linus quotes the birth narrative from Luke chapter 2. And like I said, that was something that as a kid growing up, I always looked forward to. It made me think about Christmas when that particular show was on at Christmastime. But what really did those things contribute to our understanding? Again, you have Linus reading the narrative from Luke. But what does that really contribute to our understanding? But I think that a lot of the emphasis on trying to ferret out a meaning with respect to Christmas is tied to the nagging sense in the human heart that this event of the birth of Christ is something more than simply an opportunity to have parties and exchange gifts. It's something more. There's got to be something more to it. than even kind of the sense of magic in Christmas, the sense of a special season. Well, there are many answers that are given, obviously, to the meaning of Christmas. There are what we would consider to be the non-religious answers to the meaning of Christmas. Christmas is about certain kinds of sentiments and traditions. Christmas is about family. Christmas is about love for our fellow men. Christmas is about peace on earth. Christmas is about a kind of vague, warm, magical feeling associated with a warm cup of cider and a burning fire and snow falling outside. There's also the more flagrant, materialistic, secular trappings of Christmas parties and lights. gift-giving. Perhaps the epitome of that orientation is the myth of Santa Claus. And we may think that the whole Santa myth is, in a sense, irreligious. It may seem entirely secular, but it really, in a sense, epitomizes religious man. Because we see in the Santa myth the very heart of human religion, which is this idea of magic. And I'm not going to belabor that. We've dealt with that in different contexts. But essentially man's orientation towards magic is that he perceives of powers outside of himself greater than himself. He has some sense of these forces or powers and he uses resources, avenues faculties available to him to, in a sense, reach out to and make available and amenable to him those particular powers. That's the nature of human religion. And that's at the very heart of the Santa Claus myth. That if I am a good boy or girl, then there is this being out there who somehow hears my wish list and who can travel all around the world with his sleigh and a bag full of goodies and give me the very special gift that I want more than anything. But only if I'm a good boy or a good girl. It's a very religious myth. Very much ingrained in our culture. Even for a secularist who doesn't see it that way, the schools will not permit a religious observance of Christmas, but Santa Claus is absolutely encouraged and embraced, yet equally religious. Well, what then is the religious answer to the meaning of Christmas? Well, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. And in our culture, at least, most everybody understands that. They may not like it. They may not agree with what Christians try to press by that. But at the same time, virtually everybody acknowledges that Christmas celebrates the birth of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. You almost can't escape it because of Christmas carols and Christmas cards and the slogans, you know, Jesus is the reason for the season, whatever it happens to be. you'll find very few people who don't understand that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Even though they may not make much of that, they will still acknowledge that that is in fact the case. Now, obviously, Christians hold that understanding of Christmas, but so do many non-Christians, even in the sense that some 70 percent, I heard on the news the other day, some 70 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas specifically as the birth of Jesus. It's not just that they acknowledge that a guy named Jesus was born on that day, but they celebrate Christmas as, in fact, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. For non-Christians, we can surely be able to say that mere understanding, this is about the birth of a man, Jesus of Nazareth, is wholly inadequate. For the non-Christian who knows nothing of the Christian faith that understanding is wholly inadequate because without knowing who Jesus is and why he was born it becomes meaningless of no value to acknowledge the birth of that individual. But I would argue even for Christians understanding and celebrating Christmas as the birth of Jesus still falls far short of communicating its true meaning. its true significance. We all acknowledge that we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and we may even say we're celebrating the birth of the one who is the Savior. But in those things, we still fall woefully short of understanding really the significance of the birth of Jesus. Many Christians, many professing Christians, Christians do acknowledge this as a monumental event, the birth of Jesus. But they largely view his coming as God sending one who shows the way to the human race. Jesus becomes the example to be followed. He comes into the world to show us how we ought to treat each other. How we ought to think in relation to God. He comes to, in a sense, reveal to us God's law, God's way, God's morality, God's ethics, and he shows us by his own life how it is that we're to live. To find a better way to live in this world. For many other Christians, and these even overlap, the coming of Jesus is about God sending an acceptable sacrifice. He sent this one into the world so that he could live a perfect life and keep all of God's commandments so that he could die in our place that we could be forgiven of our sins and ultimately be able to go to a place called heaven. But left without a clear and a complete understanding and explanation of why Jesus came and what he's accomplished. simply acknowledging his birth, even as he came to die for sinners. Simply acknowledging those things as the meaning of Christmas is, I would argue, hollow at best. And in some instances, even misleading and even contrary to the gospel. Thus, to me, the culture wars over Christmas are really a distraction. They miss the point. We have this culture war going on in America. It deals with what do we do with Christmas? Can we use the phrase Merry Christmas in Walmart? Or do we have to say Happy Holidays to be politically correct? Can we say Merry Christmas Can we celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday in the public schools? Or in any public or government arena? Can we put Christian Christmas symbols on government property? Can we put a manger scene at the foot of the civic center? And we fight these culture wars over keeping Jesus in Christmas and ultimately it becomes irrelevant in itself because unless we understand why it even matters then it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter at all. I want to consider today then what really is the real message of Christmas. And I want to just refer us back to the basic context that Jerry even read from this morning. We didn't plan it this way, but this is the way that it's worked out. And I'd like to first look at a section in Luke and then in a section in Matthew. But again, pulling into this the understanding that what these writers are doing is really capturing what is the whole of the Old Testament revelation of the coming one. and maybe more narrowly, Isaiah's prophecy, not just a handful of isolated passages, but the totality of Isaiah's and the totality of the Old Testament's revelation of what God was going to do in relation to this one that he was going to send. If you look in Luke chapter 1 verse 26, This is the appearance, and I want to go here first, then to Matthew, because this is the angel's appearance to Mary, telling her what's coming to her. Verse 26. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee. This is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy. Who will give birth to John the Baptist. The angel gave her was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David. Both of them are descendants of David and the Virgin's name was Mary and coming in he said to her hail favored one the Lord is with you but she was greatly troubled at this statement perplexed. and kept wondering what sort of greeting, what sort of salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus Yeshua Yahweh is salvation. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. Now, turn back to chapter one. Of Matthew. Now, this takes place, we read this passage, but this takes place now after Mary is actually pregnant. What the angel has said was going to happen to her has indeed happened. And now Joseph, who's betrothed to her, realizes she's pregnant. Verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, even as the angel had told Mary. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. He obviously believes that she has had relations with another man. It would never occur to him that this was indeed a conception by the Holy Spirit. But when he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins. The same sort of revelation to Joseph as had come to Mary. Now, all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel in Hebrew, God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleeve, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife. And he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus, Yeshua. I want to kind of work off of this idea of Immanuel, God with us. Not because it's the only point of departure we could take, but because it allows us to really get at what is the meaning of Christmas? What is the meaning of the coming of Jesus of Nazareth? And the first thing that is bound up in this idea of Immanuel is that Jesus' birth is incarnation. theological term that we all hear some people understand some people don't, but the incarnation is the taking on a flesh and the implication is that there is deity involved in this process. The incarnation speaks to Jesus as true God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That one was with God in the beginning, but the Word has become flesh and tabernacled among us. The Word has been incarnated. And so we see that Jesus' birth first in this God with us idea as incarnation. And that in itself speaks to the divine purpose that God has for the creation into which Jesus comes. It doesn't give us all the information, but it at least implies that the purpose of God has something to do with relationship between the creator and his creation. Because in this individual you have the conjoining of humanity and deity. This has something to do with the relationship with intimacy between the creator and the creature. And as we will see ultimately with the idea of sacred space, the realm in which God is present and interactive and communicative with that which he has created. And that purpose of God, that purpose of relationship of intimacy is most fully revealed, most fully and tangibly revealed in the incarnation. Why? God has always been manifest in his creation by his spirit, by his word. He's always been operative in, manifest in the creation in a sense available to its understanding or its perception even just by the fact of creation itself. But now God is actually entering into his creation by taking on the nature of the creature, man. God isn't simply manifesting his existence in the creation by his power, by his spoken word, by his articulation through his prophets or whatever it happens to be, by the creation itself testifying to him. He's actually entering into the creation by taking to himself the nature of the creation in the Son who is human. He is conjoining himself to his creation. Not simply speaking to it, interacting with it, but becoming a part of it. Joining himself to his creation in his creature, man. And that divine intention lay behind the very design of God to create a particular creature in his own image and likeness. What is the significance of man? Man is image bearer created to be image son. God's purpose for creating man as man for creating man in his own image and likeness is that it would be in relation to that creature that he would eventually enter into and take the creaturely nature to himself, not forsaking his deity, but nonetheless taking to himself the nature of the creation. That was God's ultimate end for creating man. God created a being in that way because it was necessary to have a being with whom he could communicate, with whom he could interact. And the only way he could do that is to have a being that shares his likeness. Not deity, but shares the attributes of God that can be communicated to a creature, a created being. That relationship that God intended for his creation that has man at the focal point was to go beyond merely a kind of common union in that God has some creature that he can actually communicate with and talk to and have understand him. It goes beyond that. It's not just that he created man in that way in order to be able to have a relationship of person to person, but in order to have a relationship of person in person. The actual conjoining of humanity and deity. the taking up of humanity in himself. And we see that localized in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the meaning of the coming of the Son? What is the meaning of the birth of Jesus? You have God testifying in that one individual his ultimate end for the created order. He doesn't simply communicate to his creation, he joins his creation to himself. And when Jesus talks about the significance of his work later, he will talk about the goal that God has, which is that we would live in relation to one another with a oneness that is grounded in not the fact that we're one with one another as such, but that we are one with God in Him. May they be one, Father, as we are one. I in you, you in me. So also they are in me, and I am in them, and you are in them. In the person of Jesus Christ, we see that God's intent for relationship with his creation is not just that the created order would acknowledge him and praise him and keep his law, but that the creation would actually be taken up in him in a kind of unity that doesn't deify the creation, but establishes a oneness and focused on man himself. That God will take to us our humanity, that we will, in Christ, be partakers in the divine nature, as Peter says, having escaped the corruption that is in the world. So, being the conjunction, the conjoining of deity and humanity, Jesus is both the revealer of the divine intention and also the substance of it. He is the revealer of the divine intention for the creation, but he's also the substance of it. So, Jesus' birth is incarnation. The conjoining of deity and humanity. And that divine purpose is to be realized, again, not just in Jesus becoming man, but through a process of redemption, renewal, and restoration. Why? Because of the fall. The fall didn't make people bad people who want to do bad things. It fundamentally estranged them from the being whose image and likeness they bear. You've heard me say this a hundred times. The problem is not that we're bad people who do bad immoral things. It's that we live life without knowing who we are. We are estranged from God and so our humanity becomes lost to us. We can't live truly as human beings because we don't even know what that is. Because we've lost connection with the one who is the definition of who we are, since we bear his image and likeness. And when the fall brought about that estrangement between God and man, it also estranged God from the whole created order. Because man is the point of the interface between God and the rest of the creation. So this divine purpose of union and intimacy with his creation is to be realized through a process of redemption, renewal, and restoration. And that work is first realized in Jesus Christ. The reconciliation, if you will, of deity and humanity in the man Christ Jesus. But God's goal is not just that that would happen with respect to Jesus himself, but that in him, through this redemption, through this restoration, through this reconciliation in him, it will extend to the human race. And not even stop there, but ultimately that outcome is to extend to the whole of the creation. That everything would be reconciled and restored to God in his son. that everything would be rightly restored to him, relationally restored to him. Not just that God will finally be king. He's always been king, but that he will rule as a father, as an intimate present Lord in the context of an intimate presence with his creation in and through man, the image son. So, Immanuel tells us that Jesus' birth is about incarnation. Jesus as true God. But Immanuel also tells us that Jesus' birth is first fruits. Jesus is true man. The first fruits is the first part of an offering that always referred to and spoke to ultimately what would come after it. It was the promise of what would come. Israel offered the first fruits of its harvest to God, not giving God the first and the best, but with as an act of faith, believing that God has given the first fruit, he will give the rest of the harvest. And we give it to him as an issue of faith and praise and worship. And we see that principle fulfilled in Christ. Jesus' birth is about first fruits. He is the beginning of a new humanity. He's not a way shower. He's not an example to be followed. He is the paradigm of a new humanity into which men are called to enter. They're not called to be like him. They're called to be found in him. Jesus has come. He has been born into this world, Paul says, as the last Adam. He's the beginning of a new humanity. As the last Adam, he is true man. He is the fountainhead of a new humanity as Adam was the fountainhead of the first humanity. He comes as true man. I don't know if you've thought about this before, but part of the confusion of life in this world is that no human being has ever seen an authentic human being. Consummately so. We see Christians who are being transformed into the likeness of Christ, but only in Jesus of Nazareth do we see man when he is truly, fully consummately man. And outside of Christ, we have no vision, no sense of what man really is. And so all we can do is reduce him down to the best ethical person, the best moral person, the most religious person, the most spiritual person. We have no sense of what man really is. Christ has come as true man. And the scripture tells us he's true man in that he's man of the spirit. He is man as, again, sharing in the most intimate, total communion with God in the Spirit. This is the way Isaiah spoke of the servant. When Jesus went into the synagogue at Nazareth, he read from Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to do this, to do that. But as John even speaks about him, if you turn to John's testimony concerning the the baptism of Jesus and his own recognition of Jesus. John chapter 1. John recognizes the significance of this one more than all the other gospel writers. John emphasizes Jesus as the true sanctuary, the true tabernacle, the fulfillment of the dwelling place of God. But he says in verse 29, speaking of John, John the Apostle writes the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said after me comes a man with a higher rank than I for he existed before me and I did not recognize him but in order that he might be manifested to Israel. I came baptizing in water and John bore witness saying if I be if I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. This is the Son of God. To Him the Father gives the Spirit without measure. And Jesus goes out in the power of the Spirit, the presence of the Spirit, proclaiming the good news of the gospel of the kingdom. What is coming in Him, what God has done in Him as first fruits. He has come as the man of the Spirit, but not simply to say, here I am, but to be the beginning of the new creation, the first fruits of this renewing, transforming, reconciling work of God. So Jesus is first fruits. His birth means first fruits. His Emmanuel, he comes as first fruits. First as the beginning of a new humanity, but ultimately as the beginning of a new creation. The Father didn't send Jesus into the world to model a new and a better human existence. And so many non-Christians think that way and sadly many Christians think that way. Jesus effectively models a new and better existence. He comes and he reestablishes Moses for us and he shows us how we're supposed to live. He shows us how to keep the law and empowers us to keep the law. He empowers us to do this, to do that, to do the other thing. He's effectively an avatar, a way shower. He's not that. He's not simply one who shows a better existence for people if they'll apply themselves in a certain way. He doesn't come so that people can reform themselves or live a better life. He is the fountainhead of a renewed and a restored human race. The beginning. But again, this beginning, this first fruits extends beyond simply the restoration of the human race. It extends to the whole created order. what Paul calls the fulfilling, the consummating of the purpose of God, the eternal purpose of God, which is that in the administration of the fullness of the times he will sum up everything in the created order, everything in the heavens and the earth in Christ. There's the purpose of God according to which he's working all things after the counsel of that purpose or that will. And Paul says of, that's in Ephesians 1, in Colossians Paul says of this work of Christ, that he has initiated, that he has reconciled, God has reconciled to himself in his son, he's reconciled to himself all things, things in the heavens, things in the earth. This first fruits isn't just about individual Christians. Now being, in a sense, sharing in the nature of Christ. It's not about our individual lives. It's ultimately about the whole of the created order being brought back and perfected in relation to God. Jesus' birth speaks of the renewal of the whole creation. But the renewal of the whole creation unto its consummate perfection. The realization of the very purpose for which God created it. Many Christians tend to think that what Jesus came to do was to get us back to the garden. God created everything perfectly. Everything was in place. It was all wonderful. Then Adam and Eve blew it, and now God had to come up with a way to get us back. He had to come up with a way to get us back to the way things were before the fall. to restore us back to our pre-fall state, to restore the created order back to its pre-fall state. But the purpose of God and His Son was not to get us back to where this all began, but to get us to the end, the goal for which that beginning existed in the first place. Jesus doesn't come as a rehashing of unfallen Adam. He comes as a new Adam, as the last Adam. He doesn't come just as a sinless man. He comes as the paradigm of man as he will be consummately man of the Spirit. He's greater than the first Adam. And all those who are restored in him, as indeed the whole created order being restored in him, is greater than the first creation. I don't want to go back to the garden as it existed before the fall. I want to be a part of the goal for which God introduced Eden, the goal for which God created all things. I want to be a part of what John sees as this vision of the New Jerusalem. And so Emmanuel first of all shows that Jesus' birth is about incarnation. It shows also that it's about first fruits. It shows also that it is In Jesus' birth, we see the revelation of the gospel. The revelation of the gospel. Because in the birth of Jesus, we see the true problem. We see the true problem. The problem in this world isn't a lack of compassion or philanthropy. It's not a lack of humanity of one man to another. It's not the lack of peace on earth, goodwill toward men as we tend to view that. It's not that people are not nice enough to each other. They're not kind enough. They're too selfish. They're too proud. They're too materialistic. They're too greedy. They're too covetous. Those things in themselves are not the problem. And the problem also isn't a lack of moral and ethical compass and conviction. Those are not the problem. The problem isn't even a lack of acknowledgement, due acknowledgement of God, His authority, His ways, His commandments, His sovereignty. In other words, the problem isn't that men won't bow the knee and do what God says. Now, all of those things that I mentioned have some relevance, but they're not the problem. Those are not the issue. The problem is death. Death as the Bible understands it. Death is the devastation of the creation that came through the fall. Death is the created order losing the capacity to fulfill its identity and its role. Death is not the stopping of a heart beating. God said in the day you eat of it you will surely die. And the testimony of the death of man was that he was cast away from the presence of God. And because man is now alienated from God, the whole creation is alienated from God. You have a created order out of control, not because it's unethical, not because it's immoral, not because it's not philanthropic, not because it's not humanitarian, not because it doesn't bow the knee to God's sovereign authority. It's out of control because it doesn't have even the ability to know what it is to operate as it was created to exist. And man at the center of that. As I said, you've never seen a human being in your life. And so we've never seen the created order existing and operating and flourishing as God created it to be. That's the problem. Death. And you can move around in the frying pan however much you want. Through religion, through reform, through a better life, through your best life now, through, you know, devotion to this or devotion to that. Through piety, through godliness, through doctrinal acuity. You can move around in the frying pan a hundred ways and it's still death. In the birth of Jesus we see the real problem. Life has come into the world. Life, John 1. Life has come into the world. God's promise at the time of the fall is that as death had come into the world through man, most specifically through Eve, but through Adam, death had come upon the created order because of man. So life would come through man. Eve would give birth to a seed, and in him all things would be restored. And Adam understood the significance of that promise, because after God made that pledge that Eve, this woman, this wife of his, was going to have a seed, a son, through whom all things would be restored, he names her Eve. Why? Because she's the mother of all the living. All there is is death now. Adam is dead, Eve is dead, the creation is dead. Everything is estranged from God, and yet God holds out the promise of a seed. And Adam can look at her and he can name her according to her destiny and her purpose for existing, which is that she's to be the mother of all the living. Life is going to come back. God is going to restore life. He's going to overcome death with life. And so when we understand the problem for what it really is, as we see even in the birth of Jesus, light and life have come in Him, so we can understand what really even the remedy is. Jesus' birth shows us that the human problem is beyond human remedy. He didn't come to say, here's the commandments of God, it's important that you keep them. He didn't come to say, let me show you a better way to live. Take care of the poor, feed the poor. Think about your brother. Respect your parents. He didn't come to do that. The remedy isn't more religion. The remedy isn't just another religion. Oh, when Jesus came, he introduced another religion. We call it Christianity. We have another religion now to choose from. Another way shower. The remedy isn't more religion. It's not more commitment to religion. It's not a greater and more committed religious life. That's moving around in the frying pan. The remedy isn't another religious figurehead. The answer, the remedy isn't another prophet. Someone who's going to come and be another avatar, another wayshower. like Joseph Smith for the Mormons, like Muhammad for the Muslims, like Buddha as a way shower, like Zoroaster as a way shower. We don't need another way shower. The remedy is not found in another way shower. It's not found in more religion, more devout religion, greater piety, greater commitment. All of those sorts of remedies only highlight and reinforce the fundamental human sense of the need for self-reform and self-righteousness. Here's the path for me to take. If I'll just follow this guy's teaching. If I'll just study this book. If I'll just do the rules that I find in this book. If I'll just give my money. If I'll just pray. If I'll just do this. If I'll follow Joseph Smith. If I'll follow Mohammed. If I'll follow Buddha. All of those remedies highlight and reinforce the fundamental problem, which is the human commitment to self-righteousness. In our death and our estrangement from God, what we want is to be right with God, but we want to do it ourselves. Rightness with God means that I get my act together. I start living a better life. It's the straight and narrow for me from here on out. And heaven above when I die. And again, and most importantly, the remedy isn't in merely a savior. Someone who has come into the world to deliver me from my sin and my guilt and my penalty. So that now I have this weight taken off of my shoulders. Like going, you know, before a priest in confession and dumping out on him all of the things that I did in the past week so that he can give me some absolution of a few things to go say or do. And I can go, I'm glad I'm done with that. I'm glad I have that weight off my shoulder. I'm glad I'm now right with God. The remedy isn't a Savior who can simply take away God's anger at us who can take away this hammer hanging over the top of us, so I can feel relieved and free. And free of the threat of condemnation. One who frees me from my sense of guilt and condemnation. That's not what the remedy is. Again, that remedy doesn't address the fundamental problem, which is death. I can be forgiven, does it make me alive? I can be delivered from my sense of guilt, doesn't make me alive. The great need of the creation, with man at the very center of it, isn't forgiveness, but renewal. Life. Renewal and restoration to God. The creation's need, humanity's need, and beyond humanity, the whole creation's need, is to realize its eternal destiny. to realize that for which it was created in the first place. That's the great need. The remedy is not in any of those things that I mentioned. Men don't need a guilt bearer as such. They don't need an avatar. They don't need a way shower. They don't need someone to lead them to a better life. They don't need simply someone to liberate them from judgment and condemnation. What we need is someone in whom, by whom, through whom we can actually become truly human. That's what life is about. If death is the loss of our authentic humanity, because in our alienation from God, we don't even know what it means to be human beings. Because God is the definition of who we are. Not that we're divine, but we are image bearers. If the problem is death, the remedy is life. And the nature of life is for someone to give to us, someone to secure for us, someone to bestow upon us our true humanity. Someone in whom we can become truly human. Human beings as we were created to be. You can't do that for yourself. Religion won't do that for you. How can a man cause himself to be brought out of death into life? He can't. And so the birth of Jesus, lastly, as it reveals the problem, it reveals the remedy, it also reveals the final goal. Why was Jesus born? Why did God send His Son? He sent His Son, as Paul says, in accordance with the outworking of His eternal purpose. That in the administrating, the carrying out of the fullness of the times, He will sum up everything in the heavens and the earth in His Son. Why did God send His Son? The Christifying of the whole created order. That every created thing will find its meaning, its identity, its functionality, its fullness, its completeness, its blessedness in its relation to God in Christ. That's why He sent His Son. The summing up of everything in Jesus is the consummate realization of Immanuel, God with us. And so if Jesus' coming is in fact, if the Christ event, the coming of Jesus and the work that he did, if that's the focal point of the scripture, and it is, and therefore is the focal point of the salvation history, the work of God leading up to that event, then wouldn't we expect the Bible to, in a sense, conclude with a summary of the realization of that purpose of God? If that's the reason that God sent his son, wouldn't we expect the scripture to end in that way? And it's exactly the case. The meaning of Christmas is summed up in John's vision of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22. Why the New Jerusalem? Why does John see a vision of the New Jerusalem? Jerusalem symbolized God's presence and God's throne. Jerusalem was the place in which God was enthroned and the place from which he manifested himself and interacted with human beings. Remember the law of the central sanctuary for Israel was that God said, I'm going to define a place where I'm going to put my name and that's where you must come and meet with me. You cannot just find me anywhere you want. You can't just imagine me or come up with some concoction. You come and you meet with me where I am. And he put his name at Jerusalem. And so you have, first of all, the land of Canaan as God's dwelling place. Exodus 15. Canaan is the sanctuary of God. But then more narrowly, he said Jerusalem. David understood Jerusalem was that place. And God put his name there in Jerusalem. Well, what about Jerusalem? The temple was there. God's dwelling place. And more narrowly, the Holy of Holies. That was the place where God was enthroned between the wings of the cherubim. That was where men, all men, had to come and meet and encounter God. And in John's vision of the New Jerusalem, all of the symbolic elements of that idea, sacred space, the realm in which God is present and interactive in his creation. All of those ideas that the scripture develops, all of the symbols associated with that are brought together. You see in that vision of the New Jerusalem, the idea that it's the city of the great God. You see this idea of the temple. There is no temple in it. The whole city is the temple. God is enthroned with the lamb in the midst of the city. And if that's not clear enough, the city is presented in John's vision as a cube, a cubic space. And the only cubic space in the scripture is the Holy of Holies. The whole city has become the Holy of Holies. The idea of the presence of God with men. When John sees the vision, the angel interprets it for him and says, now the dwelling of God is with men. Now the dwelling of God is with men. He will be their God. They will be his people. He himself will dwell in their midst. The city Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, is the dwelling of the people. It's the dwelling of God. It's the throne of God. And ultimately, the whole idea of the whole creation being, in a sense, taken up in this relationship with God, this intimacy with God, is present in the fact that this city is everything. There isn't another city. There isn't another place. All there is is outside. There's the city and there's outside. And outside is darkness, nothingness. In that vision of the new Jerusalem, it speaks of the whole of the created order being rendered as God's dwelling place. What began in Jesus with his birth, the conjoining of the creator and the creature, now has come to its ultimate consummate fullness in the summing up of everything in the heavens and the earth in Christ. And so the meaning of Christmas isn't found in the human spirit or in human goodness or in philanthropy or in kindness. It's not found in the emergence of another religion. A better religion that works better to show men a better way to live as compared with the fallacies of Hinduism or Buddhism or Mormonism or whatever it happens to be. But it also doesn't reside, the meaning of Christmas doesn't reside in the mere fact of a Savior who came to die and purchased forgiveness. That's the starting point. That's not the end. That's not the goal. Cleansing and forgiveness are the starting point. The goal is the summing up of everything in Christ. I don't want to just be forgiven so that I can go on my way. I want to know that my life is hidden with Christ in God. That's what heaven is. It's not the place that I go and get all of the goodies that I don't have now, the better life that I don't have now. It's the perfecting of that reality, the consummating of that reality. My life, I have died, but my life, Christ who is my life, is such that my life is hidden with Christ in God. That's the meaning of the birth of Jesus. So, during this Christmas season, we have so many opportunities, beloved. People are kind of in a spiritual sort of mindset, and granted they're wandering around out there in their thoughts, but this is such a great opportunity, a great opportunity for us to interpret and explain the meaning of the birth of Jesus. I don't know of anybody who doesn't acknowledge that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. But it makes me want to ask him, so what? Who cares? Why does it matter? Well, he came to die. OK. And? Well, he came to die that we can be forgiven. OK. And? So we can go to heaven. OK. What is all that about? This is a great opportunity for us at Christmas time Multitudes of non-Christians embrace the sense of Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior who came into the world. But they don't know what it means. They don't know why it's important. And they just have some kind of vague, ethereal, sentimental, kind of self-referential, self-comfortable vision of what that all is and why it's going to go well with them. Because Jesus came. And so also, Christians recognize and celebrate Jesus' birth. But in many instances, even their understanding falls far short. Many see in Jesus simply a Savior who came to insist upon, to present, to exalt, and to insist upon the straight and narrow, and heaven is the reward hereafter. Tragically, that's true. In this Christmas season, and I pray in all of the Christmases to come that the Lord allows us to be a part of, that we will be, as Paul said, lights in the world. Christ the light has come. Are we lights in the world? This light that is in the face of Christ, the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Paul says God has caused that light to shine in our own hearts. That in our faces, so to speak, is the radiance of this light of that glory. And Paul says, as we dwell in the midst of a dark and a perverse world, not perverse because they're immoral, perverse because they don't understand what God has done. Christians can be perverse in that way. As we reside in a dark and a perverse world, he says, we shine like lights in the world. And what does that mean? We hold forth the word of life. Not reform. Not a better life. Not heaven hereafter. We hold forth the word of life. The word of life. I hope that we will do all diligence to see that we can explain and interpret the reason for the season. And that maybe, perhaps, even if we can do what Linus did and we can read and explain the meaning of Christmas from the birth account in Luke, that we can go beyond that and say, here's why that's important. Here's what was bound up in that. Here's what that means. Light and life have come. And one day all things, all things, will be taken up in God, in Christ. That's what Christmas is about. Father, give us a grand vision. It's not that the things that we understand perhaps are incorrect in so far as they go. We do have a Savior who came to forgive sins. But that's such a small piece of the story. And I pray, Father, that we would also recognize that the way that we really understand this story is to understand all that you have revealed from Genesis 1 forward. The great telling of this story of redemption, the telling of this story that will find its final chapter in the summing up of everything in the created order in Christ. That story began at the beginning. And I pray that we would not be content to merely start with a birth narrative or Mary's Magnificat that we wouldn't be content to start with the gospel, but that we would recognize that even that revelation of Christ in his conception, in his birth, in his ministry, has its own interpretation and meaning in what it is that you revealed from the very beginning. This eternal purpose according to which you were working out everything and are to this day working out everything. The sun has come and now the work of summing up has begun. Father, may we be ambassadors of that gospel, not a gospel of religion, not a gospel of morality, not a gospel of ethics, a gospel of a new creation. That's what people need. They don't need to dust off and put on a new suit of clothes. Unless a man is born from above, he cannot even perceive the kingdom of heaven. Father, may we understand that what Christ has done, what his birth means, is life out of death. And ultimately, a life that will swallow up death in its totality. The enlivening of all things. May we be heralds of that gospel, and Father, may we be stewards of that gospel in the lives that we live. Give us grace and courage and discipline to live in the truth as it is in Christ. For His sake we pray, Amen.