Christmas Cheer

So I'm sure you've heard people talk about Christmas cheer.

And usually in a typical year, what happens is people talk about Christmas cheer like it's this ethereal thing that you just kind of get from going to parties and sipping eggnog and listening to Christmas music, and that you catch this Christmas cheer and it'll make you kind of happy.

But this year hasn't been any year.

In fact, I would venture to guess that Christmas cheer might be at an all-time low.

Because if you're like me, there have been a lot of things that you've had to forego that are normal things.

Maybe it's something big like having your family visit.

I have an aging mother, and so we aren't seeing her for Christmas, and we felt like we had the choice between inviting my mother to come, knowing that at any year, it could be her last year.

Sorry, mom, but that, you know, is kind of a reality.

Or inviting her and taking a risk of exposing her to something and then being responsible.

I mean, those are the kinds of choices we're all making this year.

And those aren't easy choices.

And beyond that, the normal things, Christmas concerts, Christmas events have been canceled left and right.

The economy has been tough, as I've talked to many people who realize that this has been a hard time.

I realize it's been a hard time for many people with their jobs or their businesses.

Schools have been shut down, friendships have had to be put on hold because of everything that's going on.

And so when somebody talks about Christmas cheer this year, I doubt there's many people who are going, oh yeah, Christmas cheer.

Now you may say, okay, this isn't really helping me at the moment.

And I understand that, but but but here's what I want you to understand: the world that Jesus entered was not a happy world.

Sometimes what we do is we fantasize about Christmas with these little pictures making it this happy event.

We picture Mary and Joseph riding on like a donkey through some snow-covered hills to this beautiful barn where Mary gives birth and the Lord Jesus doesn't make a sound as he's a baby.

Well, well, I have news for you.

Babies cry.

And a birth in a barn is not a good birth.

And riding a donkey when you're nine months pregnant for hundreds of miles under the oppressive thumb of a government who's demanding a census is not a happy story.

But we tend to romanticize the story and make it better than it is, but but there was occupation that these people were facing from a foreign government, there was oppression, there was poverty, and yet the announcement of the angel in Luke chapter 2, verse 10 was, I bring you good news of great joy.

Luke 2:10

Today in the city of David has been born to you a savior.

So my question is, why is this good news of great joy?

Why do you and I, some 2,000 years later, have any reason to have Christmas cheer when all around us there are things happening that we would say, there's not a lot of reason for cheer this year.

Well, the word that's used for good news in Luke chapter 2, verse 10 is the word that we get our idea of gospel from, and it means the announcement of a victory is what it means.

Luke 2:10

It means that there's a declaration that something's been done outside of us that secures our future.

And so to have an announcement of victory means that what the angel was doing was he was saying, this is a proclamation of ultimate victory.

And so here's what I'd like to do for a few moments today, and that is I'd like to point us to the verse that you heard read earlier in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30 and 31.

1 Corinthians 1:30

And I believe that it points to four things that you and I can have cheer about today if we are in Jesus Christ.

And here's how 1 Corinthians 1 states this.

1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says this.

1 Corinthians 1:30

It says, it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus.

In other words, it's because of Jesus, you're in Christ Jesus.

And what this is doing is it's saying, if you're in Christ Jesus, then these things are now true for you.

And here's what it says: who has become for us the wisdom of God, that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

And so here's the first thing.

And that is if you're in Jesus, then you've been given wisdom.

Now, you may not think about this.

In fact, a lot of times when we think about what Jesus gives us, we think about the past and we say, Well, I've been forgiven sin, and we think about the future, I've been given security.

We don't tend to think about the present, but but to be given wisdom means that we're given something from God.

That's what it means, that when we're in Christ, that he's become our wisdom, that he has given us this sense of being able to say, now I can see and understand the mind of God.

And wisdom is something that is either the world system of wisdom or wisdom that's in Jesus Christ.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we get a little picture of this because in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6, we see what the wisdom of the age is.

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 2:6

It says, We do not, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.

You see, you and I will live always pitted against what our world tells us is wise and good, and the best choices, and what the Spirit of God tells us is wise and good, and what are the best choices.

Verse 7 of chapter 2.

No, we declared God's wisdom a mystery that's been hidden and that God has destined for our glory before time began.

You see, having wisdom doesn't mean that you'll never make mistakes.

Sometimes people, when they talk about having the wisdom of God, think that what it means is that they become almost infallible.

In other words, I have the mind of Christ, I can do anything, but the wisdom of God means that you have a resource that's been given to you that will help you navigate everything in your life.

That's what that means.

I was uh thinking about this and just thinking about one example of this.

You know, one place that our world's wisdom tells you how things should be is in the area of getting even with people.

And here's what I mean.

If you feel slighted by somebody, you feel like somebody did you wrong.

Well, what our world tells us is that the way you should handle that is by making sure that they feel slighted, making sure you tell other people about it, making sure that you get even with them.

And if you doubt this, just think about TV shows or movies or Netflix binge watching that you do, and how many times there's this theme of somebody has done me wrong, and now the person gets a chance to tell them off to their face how they made sure that they paid for something that they did.

And if you're like me, I sit there and I watch that kind of a thing sometimes, and I'm like, yeah, give it to them.

And then I realize when I read my Bible that that's not how the Bible tells us to handle those situations.

You see, what I want to do sometimes is say, yeah, that's awesome, give it to them.

But you know what the Bible says?

It says, turn the other cheek.

Pray for those who persecute you, forgive those who've done you wrong.

That's what the Bible says.

And the wisdom is the opposite of what we want.

And to say that Jesus has given us wisdom means that we acknowledge that God has given us a better way, even if it doesn't make sense to us in the moment.

And sometimes we have to receive that as a gift to say, I'm so glad that I can turn somewhere outside of myself, beyond myself, to say there's something that I can look to as being true and being reliable and being for me that isn't about me.

Because I sometimes, often, maybe even usually, left to myself will blow those things.

But if I bend my knee to the word of God, then what happens is I start to say, okay, there is wisdom.

And part of Jesus coming and me being in Christ, you being in Christ, is that we get wisdom.

But here's the second thing.

And that is 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 30 says, not only that, but but we've been given status.

1 Corinthians 1:30

And I use the word status for the word in the text, righteousness.

And righteousness isn't a word that we use very often in our day and age.

You hear it sometimes in reference to self-righteousness.

You'll say, oh, that person's a self-righteous so-and-so.

But righteousness is a biblical word.

And what it means is to have a right standing with God.

It's used for a legal standing with God.

In other words, that we've been acquitted of sin, and it's used of a relational dimension in which there is no alienation between us and God.

And so to talk about righteousness in the Bible is to say you've been given status.

And so I use the word status because if I just simply said you've been given righteousness, you might go into this place where you say, okay, that's a biblical word, and I kind of check out.

But when you talk about being given status, what it does is it helps me, helps you to say, what is the status that God has given me?

And the status is one of somebody who's been completely forgiven, and any relational tension between you and God has been addressed through what Jesus Christ did, if you are in Jesus Christ.

Now here's the challenge with this.

Sometimes what we tend to do is we tend to kind of read our lives into this idea of status in terms of our experience.

So let me tell you a story.

Um I've probably told this story before, but when I was a kid growing up, I had an older sister.

And my older sister, one day when I was probably early to mid-grade school, showed me a wad of money that she had saved and where she had put it.

I don't know why she showed me, she just wanted to show off that she had this money.

And I was envious of her money, which uh, if you're taking the world's wisdom versus God's wisdom, that's not good, okay?

Then I had a plan.

That is, when she's not looking, I'm gonna go into her room, I'm going to peel off one or two of those bills, I think they were all 20s, and she'll never know that she just didn't miscount.

So I went into her room, I took the bills, a few days later, she came out of her room hopping mad, saying, You took my money, you're the only one who knew where it was.

I denied it.

Okay?

Yes, this is your pastor.

And what I did was I was a step ahead of her because I knew that she would demand to search my room, so I had taken the money carefully out into the garage, and I had found a place in the wood pile where I could stash the money and it would never be found.

So my sister went through my room, tore it apart, and my parents declared me righteous.

I had won.

Now here's what happened next.

I had not thought through the fact that I could not spend that money because it would be obvious that it was not money I had earned.

And then I started to feel guilty because I was not being falsely accused, I was being accused of something I actually did.

And even though I had been declared righteous, given status, you didn't do this, I started to say, this isn't right, so I snuck back into her room and I put it back, which did blow up the whole thing.

I didn't say I was smart, okay?

Now here's my point.

When it comes to status, some of us have been falsely accused of something, and we tend to think of righteousness as I just need everyone to know that I didn't actually do it, and we're actually self-righteous in the biblical sense of that term, not the modern sense, meaning we don't think that we have anything that God has on us and that everything's like a false accusation.

And some of us know that we're guilty, and and so when we're accused and we're given absolution or a status, we're like, okay, but without the gospel, neither of those actually help us, without being declared righteous by Jesus.

Because what it does is it helps us to say, I'm not being falsely accused, I'm actually being accused for something I did, and I'm not just being acquitted and kind of being gotten off even though I'm guilty.

My righteousness is because of what Jesus Christ has done on my behalf.

Do you see it?

And it changes how you relate to God entirely.

It makes it so that you are starting to say these are legitimate charges, but God has been my substitute.

And here's what this means it means that you and I can never mess this up if it's a status that's given to us by what Jesus Christ has done.

Listen, there is nothing you've done in your past, there's nothing you're doing in your present, and there's nothing you can do in your future that can earn you this status.

This is given by God through what Jesus Christ has done on the cross.

And as soon as we start to think, I have earned it, or I can earn it, or I can lose it, I can mess it up, then what happens is now we're trying to live in a sense of saying, I have earned this status rather than I've received it as a gift.

And we will not be cheerful.

This will lead to people who are filled with self-condemnation, fear of being found out rather than real joy, real good news.

And so, according to 1 Corinthians 1, if you are in Christ, you've been given wisdom, you've been given status.

There's a third thing that we see here.

And I'm going to say we've been given distinction.

And I see this in this word holiness.

Some translations say sanctification.

And these are words that mean to be set apart.

Again, we don't use the word holiness or sanctification very often in our day and age.

In fact, I doubt many of us have said either of those words in any time recently.

But the idea is that something that's sanctified, something that's holy is set apart.

Now, you understand this if you're of a certain age, and if you're younger, um, like just kind of coming of adult age, you're gonna think that this is ridiculous, although you're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about because chances are your parents have this.

Okay?

When I was a young adult, one of the things that everybody did when they got married is they registered for China.

Okay?

Not to go to China, but for dishes that were China.

Okay?

And then what you did is you took these dishes and you stuck them in a cabinet and you got them out twice a year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe one other time.

And they took a huge space in your thing, and and and these were set-apart dishes.

Now, the reason I say you've got to be of a certain age, I mean you again, you know this because you've seen it.

Um what's happened is the emerging generation is like, why would we want all those dishes?

We'll just eat on our normal dishes, our everyday dishes.

We don't need those fancy dishes, okay?

But but but here's here's the analogy.

I see some of those nods around the room.

But here's um, I can see you guys, by the way, in this room.

I couldn't see you in the old room, so I actually can see you.

Uh which is kind of cool.

I digress.

Okay, so um, so so here's the issue with China, okay?

When you have China plates, you say these are distinct.

These are for a special purpose.

When you have everyday plates, you say, we use these, they get chipped, knocked around, not a big deal.

When you have paper plates, you're saying, you know what, these can be totally trash, and I'm not even gonna bother to clean these.

These are just going in the trash as soon as we're done.

Here's what holiness and sanctification points to.

When I say you've been given distinction, God has made you a China plate.

If you are in Christ Jesus.

Now you may say, I don't want China for myself.

Why would I want to be a China plate?

Because when brides of a previous generation got their China, they spent hours picking it out, and grooms would say, This is important.

We want this to be special so that we can set a special table when we want to for our best guests on our most special occasions.

Now, there is something that's important to understand about holiness and sanctification, and that is in the Bible, when those terms are used, they're used both of a process and of a status.

Now, I just talked about status of righteousness.

In the Bible, there's the status of sanctified or being holy, and then there's the process or the progression of becoming holy.

Now, again, you understand this in other areas of life.

If you're somebody who has ever been around somebody who's married, you understand this.

And presumably you've at least known somebody who's married in your life.

And here's what happens when you marry: you marry and you are instantly legally one entity.

You have status.

But here's what you also know: just because you're married doesn't mean that you act like one entity.

It takes years, decades, to keep learning about the other person and to continue to become one in reality.

In other words, initially you are one in status, but the experiences over years and years you become one in reality.

And what Jesus is talking about, not Jesus here, but Paul in 1 Corinthians and what the angels were announcing about Jesus in the good news is that he has given his people who are in him status, and he's given us this distinction to say you're holy.

And here's the issue: if we confuse this idea of status with the idea of a progression, we'll be out of balance.

And if we pro uh confuse the idea of progression with status, we'll also be out of balance.

And here's what I mean.

Again, just take the analogy of marriage.

If you misunderstand the idea of progression, what will happen is you'll never grow in your marriage.

What you'll do is you'll start to use the other person because you'll say, We're married.

You have to treat me a certain way.

I mean, who would want to be in that marriage, right?

I mean, if somebody is like, hey, you married me 20 years ago and you got all of me, and that's that, you'd be like, uh, can I renegotiate?

And on the flip side, if you were somebody who doesn't understand the status side of this designation, then what happens is you're constantly marketing yourself.

In other words, if you didn't say we're actually one, it would be like you're always dating.

Do you know one of the great moments in a relationship is when you go from this idea of I'm marketing myself to I'm just me?

You know what I'm talking about.

It's that moment where all of a sudden you say, I don't have to dress up, I don't have to have my words measured, I don't have to do anything.

We like each other and we're past that now.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

You see, spiritually, if we don't understand these two elements of this distinction, what will happen is what many of us will do is we'll continue to market ourselves with God or to ourselves to say, I'm really good enough.

But if we don't understand the progressive nature of this holiness, this sanctification, then what we'll do is we'll start to feel entitled and we'll want to use God instead of living with this tension.

So if you're in Christ, you've been given wisdom, you've been given status, you've been given distinction.

And there's one more word here, and it's the word redemption.

And I'm just gonna say that we've been given freedom.

And the reason I say this is because redemption in the Bible is a picture of somebody buying something back, it's a freedom word.

It was used in the slave markets where somebody would go in and buy somebody their freedom.

And so to be redeemed is a picture of being given freedom.

Now, again, you understand this concept in our world.

If you've ever watched any of those shows like pawn shop wars, and again, you may not have ever experienced a pawn shop, but but the idea is simple.

You need money, you take something in and you set it there.

And they have it, and then you come back and redeem it some days later, and if it isn't redeemed, then they get to keep it.

You, by redeeming it, buy it back so that it's free.

And what is happening when the Apostle Paul here in 1 Corinthians 1 talks about this idea of being redeemed?

I believe he's talking about this idea of being given freedom.

Now he uses a list later on in 1 Corinthians in chapter 6.

Here's what he says.

Verse 9.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And that is what some of you were.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

Do you hear how these things come together?

He talks about being sanctified, washed, justified.

What he's doing is he's saying, listen, there is a freedom from all of the things that can become your addictions, your compulsions, all of the things that take you away from the wisdom that God has for you.

You can be redeemed.

Now, to say this is what some of you were doesn't mean that none of us will ever step down those paths again.

But what it means is it won't become the complete addiction and direction of our lives because we've been redeemed from that.

We don't have to be dominated by that.

And that is one of the beautiful gifts that God through Jesus Christ has given your freedom.

In fact, if you ever make the argument to yourself, I can't help myself, it means you don't understand what Jesus Christ has done for you in redeeming you.

In Romans chapter 6, verse 14, we're told about being dead to sin and how if we consider ourselves dead to sin, that we can overcome those addictions, those habits, those proclivities in our lives.

Romans 6:14

And so whenever you say, look, that's just the way I am, I can't help it that I yell when I get mad.

I can't help it that I get angry.

I can't help it that I drink too much.

I can't help it that.

Fill in whatever blank you want to fill in, it means that you're not living in the gift that God has already provided.

Now, an unused gift sits around and does us no good.

You understand this as well.

Sometimes my wife will give me gifts at Christmas time, and this especially happens with clothes, and I'll take the gift and I'll set it in the closet, and I won't wear it, not just for weeks, sometimes for months.

And my wife will come along and she's like, Don't you like what I got you?

It's like, well, no, I'm waiting for the right occasion.

I don't want to wear it for something that isn't sanctified, put aside.

Um and and and and she'll say, Oh, I why won't you wear this?

It's like, well, I'm waiting for and here's the reality.

Sometimes I'll wait too long.

And I'll miss like the season, even.

And then I'll have it for the next year, and it's brand new the next year, but it's like I was waiting and I kept waiting and I never used it.

And here's what some of us do with the gifts that God has given us in Jesus Christ.

We live without joy or cheer or celebrating the good news because we're so focused on our current circumstances that we're saying, I have no reason for joy because we haven't lived in the reality of the gifts that God has given us.

You see, cheer is in short supply this year.

And it is if you look at our world and our circumstances, and it can be in short supply for people who name the name of Jesus.

But if you are in Christ Jesus, then you have great reason to have great joy because Jesus has made it possible for you to live with wisdom, with status, with distinction, and with a sense of freedom.

And here's what else 1 Corinthians says, chapter 1.

It says this.

Therefore, this is verse 31, right after these four words, as it is written, let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord.

Now, why does it say that right there?

I think it says it.

Because the essence of Christianity is not, I deserve these gifts.

It's they are given to me, not because of what I've done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done.

See, Christianity is not about a bunch of good people getting together and celebrating their goodness.

It's about a bunch of broken, sinful people getting together and celebrating God's goodness.

And Christianity is not about us commending ourselves to one another, it's about us admitting to one another where we fall short and commending the goodness and the greatness of Jesus Christ and what he's done on our behalf.

And what will happen to our feeling of joy is that we'll actually grow to be more joyful, more content, more cheerful, if you will, when we say, this is what Jesus has done rather than here's what I'm trying to achieve.

Now, this little phrase in Christ is important because it's possible for some of us to come to church, sing the Christmas songs, be in the right family, act the part, and never be in Christ Jesus.

And to be in Christ Jesus in the Bible means that we come to the point where we say, it isn't about my effort, it isn't about what I do, it isn't my boasting.

You see, it's the same application, whether you believe or don't believe, but to say it's all about what Jesus Christ has done.

And so you can step into these gifts today if you've never had them.

By acknowledging your sinfulness, your fallness before God, and saying, God, I want Jesus to be my substitute so I have this status, I can experience this wisdom, that I can be distinct, and that I can have the freedom that this verse talks about.

Not because of me, but because of you.

You've achieved it.

You know, I don't know how this year has been for you.

I'm sure there are some who would say this year's been not a year that I'd ever want to repeat.

No cheer.

There are others, honestly, where it's probably been a pretty good year.

You've worked from home, everything's worked out, you've been like, I didn't like going out anyway.

But real cheer has to transcend our circumstances, or it's a very vulnerable joy.

And Jesus offers something that isn't vulnerable, but it's something you can say, this is something God has given me that isn't dependent on what's going on.

That's where we get real joy.

Father, thank you for this day and this time just to gather.

Father, we pray that over the next few days you would just remind us over and over again about the goodness that you've extended to us if we're in Christ.

And God, I pray it would keep us from boasting, but instead cause us to worship you and the wonder of what you've provided in Jesus Christ.

And we pray this in his name.

Amen.