What is Christmas? (Romans 4:23-25) | Pastor Marc Cogan

Speaker: We'll be looking at these three verses that may not

initially seem related to Christmas.

It may not initially seem like Christmas eve verses, but I am confident that

they will clearly help you understand why we celebrate Christmas, and

specifically why we celebrate Jesus this Christmas next Christmas.

All year round why we ought to do that.

So read with me and we're actually gonna begin in verse 20.

So I want your eyes on these verses as I read them aloud.

We're actually begin in verse 20, just to give you some context that I think

is necessary and helpful for the verses that we'll be looking at tonight.

So verse 20 says this, know unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God.

Who's him?

Shout it out.

Jesus.

Abraham Abraham, this whole chapter has been about Abraham.

You got, you guys got the Jesus, the Jesus Duke.

You know, the Sunday School Answer.

What's the answer to everything?

Jesus.

You guys got that, but you got the wrong answer.

Okay.

Who is it?

No unbelief made him Abraham waver concerning the promise of God.

What's the promise of God specifically in this context?

You guys learned about it.

What's the promise to Abraham in this passage?

Close.

Yeah.

That he would be the father of a nation.

Of a nation, right?

But he grew strong.

Abraham grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that

God was able to do what he had promised.

That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

Okay, verse 23 is where we're gonna be tonight.

Listen carefully.

But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone.

For ours also, it will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised

from the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses

and raised for our justification.

Christmas is worth celebrating.

It's worth celebrating because Jesus was delivered up for your trespasses and

he was raised for your justification.

What is Christmas?

It's a celebration of Jesus.

His birth that would result in this stunning possibility that

your faith here in 2025 could be counted to you as righteousness.

If that doesn't amaze you, it should.

If you don't celebrate that, you should.

If, if you don't marvel at that, you, you should.

That is an amazing truth, but it's okay if you don't quite get it.

It's okay if you don't quite get it because God is very kind to you to

bring you here tonight, to hear his promise, to hear of his promise.

And there's some big words that we need to make sure we understand

and there's some important ideas that we're gonna unpack tonight.

So God has been kind to you to give you his word and we're

gonna examine it together.

Sound good?

Alright, let's look at verse 23.

Verse 23 says.

The words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone.

Okay?

If we were just looking at this verse, it would make no sense, right?

What is the it?

Normally, when you're reading your Bible, sometimes these things are a

little bit harder to discover, but thankfully in this passage, all you

gotta do is look at the verse above it.

What is the it?

Verse 22 says.

That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

So when we read verse 23 and it says it was counted to him,

it's referring to verse 22.

There's two important words that I know Lewis has already taught you on,

but are so critical to understanding everything else that I wanna make sure

we're all on the same page and that we have clarity about these two words.

Look at verse 22.

That is why his faith.

What is faith?

What exactly is faith?

Well, we're talking about Abraham's faith.

Paul has been talking about Abraham Abraham's faith

through all of chapter four.

Well, largely throughout of chapter four.

God promised something radical to Abraham.

What did he promise him?

That he would be the father of a great nation.

What was the problem with that promise?

At least what appeared to be the problem with that promise?

Abraham was.

He was old.

He was old, he was too old to have kids.

His wife was also too old, but, but he had faith in the promise of God that he would

indeed be the father of a great nation.

And in his old age he would, he would be able to do that.

This promise didn't really make sense.

In fact, even somebody laughed at this promise.

Who was that?

Who laughed at this promise, right?

Sarah?

She hears this promise and goes, what?

This is crazy, right?

Abraham?

Does he laugh?

No.

Abraham has faith.

And look at verse 20.

It says, no unbelief made him waver.

What does waver mean?

He's not shakeable.

He's not shaken.

Concerning this promise of God.

And verse 21, it says he was fully convinced that God was

able to do what he had promised.

So what is faith?

Well.

When I was maybe six, I dunno, maybe six, maybe seven.

I was just absolutely dead set on.

I was absolutely dead set on a gift.

This gift, I bet nobody will.

Nobody will.

Guess it was a toy cash register.

I don't know if you, I don't know if when you were a kid, when you

were, when you were six or seven.

If you would just like hyperfocus on a gift and it was like all you could

think about for the weeks leading up to Christmas, maybe you still do that.

Maybe, you know, maybe.

Maybe.

But it was just all I could think about was this toy cash register.

My parents were very generous, giving us gifts.

We didn't always have a ton of money, but they were always

very generous giving us gifts.

And I asked for it.

I asked for it.

Did I see them buy it?

Nope.

Did I happen to see it in the closet?

Nope.

And, and I didn't that year.

Look for it in the closet.

Did I see them wrap it?

No.

And in fact, in our family, our tradition, at least when I was a kid, was that our

parents would put those big gifts under the tree only on Christmas morning.

That way we couldn't sleuth around too much.

So I didn't even see it until Christmas morning, but I was convinced

that they were gonna give it to me.

Why?

Why?

I was convinced.

No evidence of the actual present that they were going to give it to me.

In fact, they did.

In fact, they did.

The only indications that they were gonna give it to me was the fact

that Christmas was a couple weeks away and that my parents loved

me and that I had asked for it.

I didn't have anything else, but I was convinced that I would get that present.

And I did Abraham in a similar way.

I mean, I believe in my parents, but Abraham believes in God.

Abraham is fully convinced that God is going to deliver his promise to him.

He's fully convinced that God is able to and will even in fact, when

he had evidence to the contrary, all the evidence I had when I was a kid

was that they would get it to me.

Abraham doesn't even have that.

He has evidence suggesting that it's not possible that he's too old, that it's

not gonna be something that will happen.

Okay, so Abraham's faith is counted to him as righteousness.

So his faith is counted to him as righteousness.

What is, what does that mean?

So his faith is counted to him as righteous.

Well, what?

What is righteousness?

What is righteousness?

Maybe you already know.

Maybe you already know.

Maybe this is simplistic, but just to make sure we're on the same page,

I think I want you to think when you hear the word righteousness, to hear

right in that word and specifically.

Right with God.

Righteousness is being right with God as opposed to being wrong with God.

So what is this?

It's faith that is counted to Abraham as righteousness.

This is also not the first time you've heard this in this room,

but you have a big problem.

Many of you are believers and.

This problem is not a problem at this point, but you were all born

with the problem and that problem is that you were not righteous.

That you were not right with God.

You were wrong with God.

Your sin made you the bad guy, made you the person who was the enemy

who made you, the person who was at odds with God, not righteous.

And so what is happening here is that the faith of Abraham.

Is being counted to him to solve that problem, to solve that problem.

So we've been talking about Abraham, right?

This whole passage seemingly is about Abraham.

What does it have to do with you?

What does it have to do with you?

Well, Paul is actually extremely clear about what it has to do with you.

Let's look at verse 23, specifically at the, uh, as it

goes into verse 24, it says, but the words, it was counted to him.

Were not written for his sake alone.

They were not just written for Abraham.

Who were they written for, but for ours also, this promise is for you.

This promise is for you.

The idea that your faith can be counted to you as righteousness is

a promise for you this very evening.

God has included this amazing truth in the Bible so that you

can hear it this very evening.

I, I wish I could use all your names in that statement,

that this promise is for you.

Hear your name as I say that and begin to wonder, begin to maybe

even for the first time, be amazed at what an incredible thing that

is, that this promise is for you.

Think about everything that it took for you to get here tonight.

I know all your paths here to True North are a little bit different.

But you know, you maybe you're in your last class, your teacher

has to actually let you leave.

You might rebel if, if they didn't let you leave, but they have to finish up class.

You have to walk to your car.

Your car has to actually still be in the parking lot or the

bus has to actually be there.

You have to get in your car, you have to get on the bus, you have to ride home, you

have to get there safely, not get in any sort of car accident to go in the house.

There has to be food in the fridge, or maybe your mom has food on the table

so that you don't starve to death.

I know what it's like to be a high school boy.

It's possible that you would starve to death, then you have to get ready to go.

You have to get back in the car.

You have to not get in an accident.

The doors to this building have to be unlocked.

The building itself has to be standing.

There's a million things that you did not think about that God cared about

to make it possible for you to be here tonight so that you could hear.

These incredible words and his promise to you.

Let me go even further to suggest, to actually confidently say that

God has worked all of human history so that you could be here today in

this music room to hear his promise.

Every king that's ever sat on a throne, every law that's been passed, every

war, every famine, every victory of the good guys, all of that.

Was cared for by God, was directed by God, so that your parents would

meet so that they would have you, so that you'd eventually make it here.

Don't think that that was a coincidence.

Don't think that that was just by chance.

That was God's love for you.

He loves you.

He cares for you, and he wants you to hear his promise to you.

What is his promise?

What is his promise?

And we've already said it, but we can't miss it.

We can't miss it.

Look, again, we're gonna read 23, but we're gonna read a

little bit further in verse 24.

Before I do that, lemme give you the first point.

Um, I realize I, I missed that.

Lemme give you the first point, uh, this Christmas.

You are to be, you should believe in God to be right with God.

Believe in God to be good, believe in God, to be righteous, to be a righteous person.

And that's the promise.

That is the promise that God has given to you, that if you believe

in him, there is a hope for you.

So, okay, now let's look at verse 23.

Verse 23.

It says, but the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone,

not just for Abraham, but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead.

Jesus, our Lord God has protected his word so that you can hear

these, these words this very night.

Okay.

Again, we need to make sure we understand exactly what's going on here.

There's a word in here that maybe you think you understand, but we

need to make sure we understand it properly, and it's the word believe.

It will be counted to us who believe in him.

What does it mean to believe in somebody?

Well.

I don't want you to turn there, but I want you to listen carefully.

I'm gonna read a passage from the book of Numbers, and this is an account

from the time of the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness.

So they're under Moses as their leader.

They're in the wilderness and listen to what happens.

Numbers 21 verse four says, from Mount whore, they set out by the way to the

Red Sea to go around the land of Edem.

The people became impatient on the way they became impatient.

So they sinned in their hearts.

Their hearts were rotten, their hearts were not righteous.

And then they sin outwardly.

It says, and the people then spoke against God and against Moses.

So they're impatient and then they speak against God and they say, why have you

brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food and no

water, and we loathe this worthless food.

Which is it?

Is there no food or is it worthless food?

I, you can see their heart attitudes are not good.

Are not good.

Well, God is gonna judge them and you're gonna be surprised unless

you know this how he judges them.

Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people,

and so many people of Israel died.

And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned for we have spoken

against the Lord and against you.

Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.

So Moses prayed for the people.

They don't quite get the answer to the prayer that they want.

Listen, and the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent.

We're gonna find out.

It's made outta bronze.

Make a fire serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten.

When he sees it shall live, so he doesn't get rid of the serpents.

Instead, he provides this solution.

So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, and if a serpent bit anyone, he

would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Imagine that.

Imagine you're one of the people of Israel and this happens and

there's all of a sudden snakes that are on fire all around you.

You're trying to get away from them, but then one bites you on the arm.

What are you gonna do?

Get a bandaid?

No, you're not gonna get a bandaid.

What if, if you watch those shows, those survival shows, are

you gonna suck out the venom?

That's what Sean's gonna do.

You gonna go find mom, see if mom can help.

What are you gonna do?

They're also fiery serpents, so you're probably also on fire, so

you're padding out maybe your clothes.

What are you gonna do?

Well, Moses provides a solution, but it's a counterintuitive solution.

It's a solution that doesn't make any sense.

If you think the solution to the bite from the snake is to get a

bandaid or to find mom or to do anything else, it's not gonna work.

You're gonna be looking down at your arm, you're gonna be looking for

more snakes to that might bite you.

It doesn't make sense to look up.

Why would you look up when the problems are down here?

You wouldn't look up unless you believed that salvation would

come by looking up at the serpent.

The only way you would do that is if you believed in God's promise

that that serpent on the pole was the way that you were saved.

You believe in something.

I'm, I'm encouraged that many of you have professed faith.

But if you haven't professed faith in Jesus, you still believe in things.

And for those of you who are Christians in the room, there's

temptations to believe in solutions to problems that aren't godly.

Maybe some of you are lonely.

Maybe it's really hard to go to lunch 'cause you don't

know who's gonna talk to you.

You don't know how awkward those conversations are gonna be.

You don't know if your friends are gonna abandon you.

Maybe you're lonely.

Maybe you think to yourself, the solution to that is, if only I

had a boyfriend or girlfriend.

If I had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, then problem solved, right?

If my friends abandoned me, I have somebody to talk to.

I have somebody to text.

Right?

That thinking is a belief that.

A boyfriend or a girlfriend will solve your problems.

Maybe that's not exactly something that you face, but I think you

could probably relate to that.

Maybe you feel a lot of anxiety.

Maybe getting outta bed in the morning is really difficult.

Maybe every time you leave your house you feel just completely exhausted.

Maybe when you walk onto school campus or you begin some sort of

project related to school, you feel your tight, your chest tightening up.

You feel that anxiety in you.

And the only time you feel relief from that is a couple times when

you've done really well in tests and you feel, oh, it's finally over, and

I feel the relief from that anxiety.

And so you begin to work harder and harder at your school so that you can

experience that relief that comes when you've passed a test and done really well.

You put more and more faith into your education, which is a good thing.

But that way of thinking is believing that good grades are gonna solve your problems.

That is a belief.

I know you guys face real problems.

I know you face real problems, whether that's anxiety or, or loneliness or, or

fears or depression or troubles at home.

I know those are real things.

Each of you faces different facets of life.

There's different things that you each struggle with, but there's one thing

that you were all born with and in fact the Bible makes it very clear and Lewis

has preached very clearly on this.

You all were born with a sin problem, and that problem is, is huge.

It's a huge problem.

We've already talked about how that problem means that you are not

righteous, you are not right with God.

You need a solution to that?

What is the solution to that righteousness?

What do we see here in Romans four?

It'll be counted to us.

Who believe in him?

Who raised from the dead?

Jesus our Lord.

What is the it?

It's the righteousness that you need.

A Christian doesn't have anxiety disappear overnight.

When they profess faith and they are saved, depression

doesn't just suddenly disappear.

God may relieve that may work through your life to help you, but those

things don't just vanish overnight.

The problems that you have don't just disappear when you become a

Christian, but there is something that disappears when you become a Christian.

It disappears instantly.

It disappears immediately, and that is the problem of righteousness.

That you have and have had since birth.

When you are saved, God makes you righteous.

Does that mean that you continue to sin or don't continue to sin?

We still sin as Christians in this life, but we are made righteous

before God, once and for all.

Once a righteous Christian, always a righteous Christian.

We do grow.

Christians do grow.

There's a big word.

We're not gonna dive into it, but imagine many of you have heard

it, progressive sanctification.

That's something that happens over the life of a Christian.

But when you become a Christian, your biggest problem is dealt with.

Your biggest problem of sin is dealt with.

One Corinthians 1517.

A place where Paul helps us to understand another important

element to the passage here.

One of the things that is clearly articulated in this passage is

that Jesus is raised from the dead.

Raised from the dead.

We don't celebrate the resurrection at Christmas.

We celebrate it at Easter, right?

The resurrection is critical to understanding.

This reality.

So listen to, just don't turn there.

One Corinthians 15, verse 17 says, says this.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.

So your faith is worthless.

Why is that?

Because you are still in your sins.

So we're dependent on the resurrection of Christ because without that

resurrection, we are still in our sins.

Paul continues on and he says, then those also who have fallen

asleep in Christ have perished.

So even if it was possible that you could be a Christian in this life, but Jesus

wasn't resurrected himself, what hope would you have of life after this life?

What hope would you have of resurrection for yourself?

But no, Jesus has been resurrected.

He has overcome the grave, and so we do have hope.

Just to make sure we're not missing anything.

Paul continues.

He says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are

of all people most to be pitied.

We're very much dependent on the resurrection.

For any of this to be possible,

you have a, a, a problem if you are not a Christian, which is that

sin, reigns and rules in your life.

If you are a Christian, you need to remember these truths.

You need to remember that God is kind to you and you need to remember the gospel.

So this Christmas, believe in God to be right with God this Christmas.

Look to the cross for the hope that you can have.

There's nothing you can do, but look to the cross.

Alright, does anybody know what a warrant is?

If Mark Cogan has a warrant for his arrest, who knows what that is?

Only two people.

Everybody else has no clue.

Who knows what a warrant for arrest is if I have a warrant for

my arrest, what does that mean?

It means that some judge has sat in a courtroom and looked at evidence and

said, that guy is guilty of a crime.

He needs to come in and see me.

He needs to be judged for his crimes that he has committed.

Does that mean I'm in the courtroom yet?

It does not mean I'm in a courtroom before yet.

When we're born, we all have kind of a warrant for our arrest.

We have a sin nature, a sin problem that God has issued a warrant of sorts for.

Does God issue a warrant because he needs time for a police officer to bring you in?

No, he certainly does not.

He does not.

God has issued a warrant for your arrest and he has not called you into

your judgment yet because he's kind to you, because he loves you, because

he wants all to reach repentance.

As Peter says, God wants all to reach repentance.

A judge in a courtroom needs a police officer to go out and

arrest whoever it is who has the warrant, but God is kind to you.

Let's look at verse 25.

Let's lurk at verse 25 to better understand.

This Verse 25 says, who was delivered up?

So who is the who?

That's Jesus.

He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

So we have a warrant when we're born for our arrest, but if we believe and

we have faith and the righteousness is counted to us, what happens?

Does God call us in for that warrant?

No.

Who is delivered up?

Instead, Jesus is delivered up instead.

Instead, Jesus is the one who pays the price.

What is that word?

Trespasses.

That word trespasses.

I suspect many of you kind of like intuitively know what it means.

I, I think the easiest way to understand it is that it's sin.

Trespasses is Paul's way, of course, in the English of saying sin.

That word trespasses, I think is really helpful.

What is a trespass?

Normally, if I get trespassed from a place, what does that mean?

It means I went onto the property of somebody else and

I broke their rules, right?

I made a scene, made a mess, broke something, stole something.

And so what does the property owner say?

You broke the rules of the property.

You are no longer welcome on the property.

Trespasses for God work in a similar way.

God is the creator of everything.

This is his world.

Every inch of this world is his.

You are his.

And he has set up rules.

And when we break them, we deserve punishment.

We deserve to be kicked off the property, as it were.

But we have hope.

And we have hope because Jesus is the one who is.

As Paul says, delivered up for our trespasses.

Alright, there's another important word here.

He doesn't just say delivered up for our trespasses, right?

Jesus didn't just die, but here's that word again, raised.

We already talked about that, but an important word.

He wasn't just delivered up for our trespasses put to death for our sin,

but he was raised for our justification.

Another big word.

Again, I think you probably intuitively know what it means, but justification.

What word do you hear in there?

Think justice.

Justice, right?

The phrase justice is served, probably comes to your mind.

Justification means what is good and right, and just is done.

I know you guys probably been exposed to many of the headlines recently about

some of the terrible things that have happened in our world and in your heart.

I'm sure you desire justice to be done.

I'm sure you are alarmed at it, but I also know that you

desire justice to be done well.

What is the justice that we deserve?

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but, but there

was a baby born in a major.

There was a baby born in a major.

There was good news of great joy.

That will be for all people that today in the city of David, a

savior is born, Christ is born.

And so you can be justified.

You can be made righteous before God because of what Christ has done.

Notice here, what does Paul not say, or another way of asking that

is, what role do you play in this?

Our final point for tonight,

0.2

of two is be amazed that God saves anyone.

Be amazed that God saves anyone this Christmas.

Be amazed that God, who lived a perfect life, who was born in a

manger, lived and died for you.

That's an incredible thing.

There's no law of nature that says that that's something God had to do.

There's no, there's no law of physics that says God had to save you, but he did.

There's nothing that mandates that God loves you, but he does love you.

He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What part do you play in that?

It's your trespasses, right?

Where you delivered up for them.

Were not.

You are justified or you raised up for that justification.

You are not.

What an incredible thing.

What an incredible promise from God.

What an incredible display of love for you that he would do such a thing.

It's complete.

It's sufficient.

It's done.

Again, a Christian grows a Christian sanctification that

happens day by day in their life.

But once a justified Christian, always a justified Christian.

I'm not much of a football fan.

I'm a little bit better now.

I'm not too proud of this story, but in high school, I started watching football.

I was really confused because at the end of games, the clock was

still ticking down, but everybody's cheering the like stadium is.

Cheering.

Everybody's happy.

Everybody's excited.

I'm like, well, wait a minute.

The clock is still ticking down.

What has happened?

Well, the reality is a team had won, right?

The scorebook don't, didn't reflect, and wouldn't reflect that a team had won

until that clock clicked down to zero.

But there was a final play.

There was a final touchdown that sealed the deal.

It was done.

It would've actually been weird for the stadium to wait until the clock ticked

all the way down to start cheering.

It would've been odd to to wait for that to happen.

Jesus has sealed the deal.

He has done it.

He has completed it.

There is a time coming when Jesus will return and the the score books,

the record books will be finalized.

For this moment here in 2025, Jesus has done it.

He has been victorious.

There's nothing the enemy can do to undo his work.

There's nothing that can be un, there's nothing that can undo his promise.

And so this Christmas, this Christmas, you should celebrate what God has done.

You should be amazed that God sent his son to die.

You should be amazed that a baby was born in the manger.

You should be amazed that he has given you this promise that if you believe in

him, righteousness will be counted to you.

Alright, let me pray for us and we'll go to small groups.

Lord, thank you for Drew North.

Thank you for these students.

Thankful for those.

Who have professed faith.

I pray that they will be encouraged, that they will be, um, excited

about what you've done, that they will be reminded of the gospel.

For those here who are not saved, I pray that tonight will be the

first night that they believe.

I pray that they will believe in you.

I, I pray that they will understand the problem they have, but they

will understand how great a God you are, how much you love them.

I pray that they will believe, um, that they will be.

And their faith will be counted to them as righteousness as you promise.

This is a good word for them and I pray that, uh, it will work in their hearts

and their minds by the power of the Spirit this evening as you see fit.

In Jesus name I pray, amen.

Alright, thank you guys.