What's So Great About Christmas?

Well, happy Christmas Eve Eve.

You know what it means when it's Christmas Eve Eve?

It means that you are running out of time to be ready to do whatever it is that you have to do for Christmas.

So hopefully you will find some of the time for that.

Also, if you're around Orchard Hill, you know that uh today we have three more Christmas Eve services.

They've just been great.

Thousands of people have come through already at 3, 5, and 7 today.

Just a little tip.

5 and 7 may be a little lighter because there's this team playing or something.

So you might have a better chance to get quality seats at that time.

And then tomorrow at 11, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, just a great time for us.

So let me pray and we'll jump into this today.

Father, uh, thank you for each person who's gathered here.

Lord, I pray that you would speak to us.

I pray that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, uh, when I said that uh that Christmas means Christmas Eve Eve means that you only have a little bit of time uh before Christmas hits.

Here's one of the things that I've experienced as I've aged a little bit, and maybe you've felt this too, and that is when you're a kid, it feels like Christmas is like coming for a while, but you can really kind of savor the whole season.

But as you get older, what happens is Christmas is more like a freight train.

You kind of see it coming in the distance, and then all of a sudden it's coming at you faster, and then it's gone, and you're just like, what happened to Christmas?

I don't know if you've ever felt that way.

Uh one of the things that happens when you get married is you marry a family, not just the person that you marry.

And so when I married my wife, I married into her family, and she had a grandfather who has now passed away, who was just the sweetest man, like never said anything that wasn't encouraging and kind and positive, except for one thing.

And it was every Christmas, it was a signature line that he would throw out, and his signature line was, Christmas has come and gone.

And he would say it earlier and earlier every year, to where at the end of his life it would be like you'd get up and it would be breakfast, and he'd be like, Well, Christmas has come and gone.

It's over.

But you know, as Christmas comes, it's easy to spend so much time running around, doing stuff, taking care of food, presents, traditions, that you don't stop to really think about what makes Christmas so great.

And certainly for many of us, what makes Christmas great is having time with family, having a chance to travel, maybe to be near family or have people come in or certain traditions.

But even in the midst of that, sometimes, some of us would say, well, that hasn't been so great for me this year.

And if it isn't guaranteed to be great, you have to ask the question: is that really what makes Christmas great?

Or is there something bigger?

When I was a kid, one of the things that would be on every year and we would watch was the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

Now, this is gonna age me a little bit, but when I was a kid, if you wanted to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special, the way that you had to do it is you had to look at a newspaper, which was a thing that used to come to your door and you had like information, and uh and you'd find when it was on, and you actually had to sit in front of the television at the exact moment that it was on and watch Charlie Brown Christmas.

And then, you know, as things have emerged, now it's all on demand on your phone, it's somewhere wherever you want it.

But but that Christmas special was like the signature Christmas special of my childhood.

And so I can see those of you who are my age are like, yes, everyone else who's younger, you're like, what?

But anyway, uh, in that Christmas special, there there's this moment where after Charlie has complained about all of the commercialization and all of the problems and why the tree isn't working and everything else, he says, Can somebody tell me what Christmas is all about?

And then it cuts to the scripture that you just heard read, Luke 2.

And in a brilliant just just moment, it kind of takes all of the pretense and trappings out of Christmas and just points you to that simple scripture.

And what I'd like to just suggest this morning is that in Luke chapter 2, verse 11, there's this little phrase, which is really why Christmas is so great.

Luke 2:11

And it's this phrase that says that a savior has been born to you.

Now, when we first hear that, we we we like the idea of a savior.

In fact, this is what many of our current movies are predicated on.

This idea of a savior.

I mean, guardians of the galaxy.

We have saviors that have amazing talents among us who can do for us what we can't do for ourselves.

But here's what we quickly learn, and that is that that's movie, it's fantasy, that in most of this world, if something good is going to happen to us, who does it?

We do.

There aren't a lot of saviors out there who come to our rescue.

We work for what we get, we take care of ourselves.

And so the notion of a savior in many ways feels maybe a little foreign to us.

And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to just unpack this word today: savior.

And I'd like to just say that there's first a standard that we need to understand if we're going to appreciate this.

We need to understand the assessment that God gives.

So the standard he gives, the assessment he gives, and the provision.

So let me start with the standard.

And here's God's standard, very simply perfection.

He wants us to be perfect.

Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

And it's noteworthy that this phrase, glory of God, is the same phrase that occurs in Luke chapter 2, because at one point he says that the glory of the Lord shone all around them.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Now, why does he mention the glory of God?

And why is the glory of God in Romans 3, where he says that all of us fall short of this glory of God?

Part of what he's doing is he's saying, there is this perfection of who God is, and God's standard ultimately is that people, you and I, that we attain or live at that standard.

It's a pretty high standard.

Some have said that the way that you can understand this is to hear Jesus when he in Matthew 22 said that all the commandments can be summed up in two things love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Some have gone on to say that those are really summary statements of the Ten Commandments.

The first several commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart.

In other words, you should have no gods before me.

Don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain, have a day, leave it holy unto the Lord, don't make graven images.

And then the second half is of the Ten Commandments, or the second six are really about how we love one another.

Don't steal, don't murder, don't covet, all these kinds of don't commands that say, here's how you can love the people that you're in relationship with.

And what Jesus does is he takes these commands in the Ten Commandments, or in the Sermon on the Mount of the Ten Commandments, and he, in a sense, raises the bar a little at some points.

As if to say, if you want to go through the Ten Commandments and say, Yeah, I've done that, I keep that, I'm pretty good.

What he does is he comes in and he says, but if you really understand the heart behind it, you probably would come to understand that even then it's very demanding.

In fact, in Matthew chapter 5, right toward the end of the first section of the Sermon on the Mountain, verse 48, Jesus' words are, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And here's why this is important.

When we come to think about God, if our idea of God is that what he wants us to do is to try harder, to be better, not to be perfect.

What we'll do is we'll we'll assume maybe that we can make our way somehow with God.

And then a savior is pretty superfluous to us.

Doesn't matter a whole lot.

We're able to say, that's a nice idea, but if it works like the rest of the world, it's up to me.

And if I can do enough good things, if I avoid bad things, however I define those, then I'll be okay somehow.

But what we need to see is that Christianity is not about improvement, it's about perfection, and it's not about us doing better, but it's about what God has already done, and it's not just hard, but it's impossible.

And this leads me into the second thing that we need to see, and that is there's the standard, be perfect, there's also the assessment that God gives.

And here's his assessment.

You're not perfect.

You're not perfect.

Romans 3.23.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Now I know that that our first reaction to that, especially if if you haven't kind of necessarily bought into all of the Christianity ideals, is to say, well, okay, everybody makes some mistakes.

Certainly I've made some mistakes, but that that that doesn't mean that that I'm like short of the standard necessarily.

And what's behind this is the idea that God grades on a curve and that you can look at other people and say, compared to them, I'm pretty good.

And so we can say, well, I make some mistakes, but if we understand the absolute standard, the perfection of God, saying, love me with all your heart.

In other words, never put anything of yourself before me, then there's no way that we can say, I have kept this in its entirety.

Or, what some of us might do, instead of just saying, hey, everyone makes mistakes, is we'll insist on our own goodness.

We'll look at our lives and we'll say, you know, overall, I've done pretty well.

So I was trying to just think about how to communicate this, and I thought of this.

Golf.

I'm a terrible golfer.

I have never come anywhere close to shooting par in a round of golf.

But even if you're an outstanding golfer, even if you play on the PGA tour, you don't shoot par on every hole.

There are holes that you will miss, you'll get a bogey on.

So even if you say, you know what, I'm a lot better than Bjorkland at golf, you still don't hit the standard.

That's the idea here that that we have morally.

And what happens to us is we start to say, well, you know what, I may have had a few bad holes, but compared to other people, I think I do pretty well.

Or compared to my own idea, I'm just, I'm close to this idea.

And this is part of why we don't fully appreciate the idea of a savior.

Because what we often do is we think, yeah, there's a savior, Jesus died, I know there's something about this story, but in my life, I've done alright.

I'm not uh much of a country music fan.

Uh I had a have a friend who loves it, and so sometimes when I'm with him, I'll listen to country music, but it's not it's not that I dislike the genre, it's just not my my thing necessarily.

But I was with some some staff and some friends uh from our church here in Nashville earlier this year, and one of the days that we were there, uh there was a free Luke Bryan concert out on the street.

And so we went to hear Luke Bryan.

And uh this was kind of you know just just kind of fun, random event.

I I had heard a little bit of his music but wasn't overly familiar.

He opened his show with Shake It for Me Country Girl.

Um just a side comment.

People are offended by baby it's cold outside, but shake it for me country girl is a big hit.

Um by the way, we should be offended by Baby It's Cold Outside if it really was about putting something in the lady's drink.

That's deplorable if that indeed was the case.

But really hard to say that indeed that was the case.

But either way, uh after Shake It For Me Country Girl came uh another classic uh song of his, evidently, sunrise, sunburn, sunset, repeat.

That was that was the deep lyrics.

But then came his signature song.

And his signature song is uh the song that I believe most people are good.

Now, he didn't write the song, but this is a song that he sung that has become uh somewhat popular, it appears to me, as a non-country music fan.

Um I won't even ask who the country music fans are, but I can see you.

I can see by the way you're nodding.

All right, so here it is.

He says, I believe kids ought to stay kids as long as they can, turn off the screen, go climb a tree, get dirt on their hands.

I believe we gotta forgive and make amends.

All right, that's great, right?

Kids be kids, play, you know, forgive.

Because nobody gets a second chance to make new old friends.

I believe in working hard for what you've got, even if it don't add up to uh a lot.

Uh I believe most people are good.

Yeah, if you know the song you just gave yourself away by saying, you didn't read that right.

And most mamas ought to qualify for sainthood.

I believe most Friday nights look better under neon and stadium lights.

I believe you love who you love, ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of.

I believe this world ain't half as bad as it looks.

I believe most people are good.

Now, I don't think that Luke Bryan or the authors of this song were necessarily saying we're going to write a theological essay.

I think somebody sat down and said, you know what?

Um, I want to put in a positive word for the world, that not everything's bad, that not everything's bleak, that not everything's horrible, that there's a lot of people with a lot of good.

And you know what?

That's a great message.

I I agree with that message.

But listen to where this goes.

I believe them streets of gold are worth the work.

But I'd still want to go even if they were paved in dirt.

I believe that youth is spent well on the young, because wisdom in your teens would be a lot less fun.

I believe if you just go by the nightly news, you'll lose your faith in all mankind, and it or it would be the first thing you'd lose.

I believe most people are good.

Now, here's why I read this song right here.

Is because underneath this is this idea that says, there are good people, there are bad people.

Most people are good, most people are neutral, and uh and you can kind of believe in the goodness of humanity.

Now, again, if you just want to say, say, say the world's not as bad as it seems, it's a fine song.

But even embedded in the song, there's a place here where there's a little bit of a rub, and here's I'm I'm gonna make you a little uncomfortable here.

I believe you love who you love, ain't nothing you should ever be ashamed of.

Okay?

Now, what's he saying?

Well, certainly you might say, well, that's a nod to people with different sexual orientations.

That appears like that might be there.

But say that to somebody who says, you know what, I'm gonna leave my family because I love who I love.

I've decided that I don't love your mom or your dad anymore.

I love somebody else.

Nothing you should ever be ashamed of.

Really?

I believe most people are good.

I believe that that the streets of gold are worth the work.

You see, the mindset in our country, in our culture, is we don't need a savior.

We're basically okay, we're basically neutral, and the assessment that God gives is completely counter to that because God's assessment is you and I are not perfect.

Nobody's perfect.

But his standard is still perfection.

And so what we tend to do is we either reduce the standard and say, I'm going to make the standard lower than be perfect so that I can meet it, or we resist the idea that we have shortcomings.

We deny his assessment of us.

And so what we need is his provision.

And his provision as a savior is that he came to save.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21 puts it very succinctly.

2 Corinthians 5:21

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that those of us who trust in Jesus can experience the righteousness of God.

Here's how one author wrote about this.

He said, the Bible is not a record of the blessed good, but rather of the blessed bad.

Far from being a book full of moral heroes to emulate, what we discover is that the so-called heroes in the Bible are not really heroes at all.

They fall and fail, they make mistakes, they get scared, they're selfish, deceptive, egotistical, and unreliable.

The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with his rescue, our sin with his salvation, our failure with his favor, our guilt with his grace, and our badness with his goodness.

Another author put it like this ponder the achievement of God.

God doesn't condone our sin, nor does he compromise his standard.

He doesn't ignore our rebellion, nor does he relax his demands.

Rather than dismiss our sin, he assumes our sin and incredibly sentences himself.

God is still holy, sin is still sin, and we are redeemed.

By the way, this is why some of the elements of the Christmas story are important.

The idea that Jesus was born from a virgin.

You know how you hear that all the time?

One of the reasons that's important is because in the biblical narrative, every human being is born in sin, and Jesus being born of a virgin took him outside of that loop, meaning he could be a perfect sacrifice for those of us who couldn't be perfect.

This is why in Luke 2, when it sells that the angels revealed to the shepherds that this child would be born, what was happening in part was the shepherds would have been people who were ceremonially unclean, unable to go to the temple to make sacrifice.

In fact, it's likely that the very shepherds in Luke 2 were the ones tending the sheep who would later be sold and used as sacrifice in the system.

In other words, these were people who could always get close to it, but never actually experience the idea of worship and sacrifice.

In other words, in the very announcement, it's God's way of saying, I'm coming for those beyond.

I'm coming for those who do not have it all together.

And so God's provision is to say, Jesus was perfect for you.

Jesus was perfect for you.

So if you and I instead decide that we see God as our help, then Christmas won't be so great.

Because what we'll do is we'll come to Christmas and we'll say, well, I'll assess Christmas based on all of the factors that are external to my life.

And if they seem good, I'll say Christmas is good.

But if we're able to say Jesus is my savior, what will happen is, regardless of what's happening in our life this year, we'll be able to say, Christmas is great because God has done for me what I could never do.

And you see, this is where real healing in our nation comes from.

A lot of times people get the idea that Christians are the people who are who are kind of exclusive and judgmental, but but if you understand this teaching, what it does actually is it makes you say, there's no distinction in people other than the fact that Jesus is the savior of some.

You see, it isn't good people and bad people, and you're one of the good people.

The teaching of the Bible is we're all bad people, but there was one good who came and died on our behalf.

And I know some of us will object, we'll say, wait a second, I'm good.

I'm one of the good people, I'm one of the good.

But hear this.

God's standard is be perfect, you are not perfect, but Jesus became perfect for you.

And if we get that, we will worship God.

If we get that, we'll understand that there's a sense and a need to personalize this.

Not just simply to say, I affirm abstractly that there's a savior, but I affirm that he's my savior.

And not only that, it will fuel mission.

Because it isn't come and become good like me, it's come and find the one who is good.

Experience him.

And that's the story that we hope to tell.

Let me ask you just to bow your heads and close your eyes for a moment with me.

And I'd like to just give you a moment to respond.

Maybe for you, this morning is a morning where you come here and your self-dialogue has been, I'm a good person.

And whatever your relationship is to God or Christianity, it's been one of improvement, moral improvement.

Maybe this morning is just your morning to acknowledge to God that you're not perfect, and to invite Jesus' perfection to be for you what you cannot be for yourself.

Maybe this is just a moment to say, God, I've I've been so caught up in all of the things of Christmas that I haven't actually worshiped your son, worshiped you.

Maybe this is just your moment to come and worship.

Father, we thank you for a Savior who was born unto us, who is Christ the Lord, who took sin for us.

And we worship you this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.