Christmas: The Day God's Grace Appeared

And tonight we're going to take a little bit of time to look at the Titus passage,

which might be odd since we're here at Christmas not looking at the gospel passage,

but I think you'll see why as we work through the text.

So again, welcome to Church of the Advent.

If you're new here, I don't think there could be a better day for you to have joined us.

As today, presumably, we just took some time to feast and to open presents together wherever we have come from.

And now we gather together as God's family in the world to feast at his table in a little while.

And before we do that, we're going to take a look at Titus 2 and unwrap what Paul tells us is God's gift to the whole world,

the greatest gift we could ever receive.

So we turn to Titus 2. We are greeted by a beautiful and powerful phrase.

For the grace of God has appeared.

For Paul, who wrote this letter, this word grace is the linchpin of the gospel.

It's the climax.

It's the story of God and humanity summed up in one word.

It permeated Paul's thinking and Paul's life.

All of his ministry revolved around this word grace.

For Paul, he could not possibly conceive of salvation apart from grace.

Pause for a second.

What is grace?

What is grace?

Here's a classic definition.

God's grace is his unmerited favor.

Grace means that God showers favor and blessing.

His good gifts on all those who do not in any way merit or deserve it.

Those who deserve judgment receive mercy through God's grace.

So, if we do not in any way merit or deserve it, and yet we receive it, then it can only be one thing, right?

God's grace that Paul talks about here in Titus 2 is a gift.

It's a Christmas gift.

It's the Christmas gift.

So, in verses 11 through 14 tonight of chapter 2 of Titus, we're going to look at two questions that this passage answers.

What is this gift of grace that Paul talks about?

And what are we to do with it?

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father God, we thank you for Christmas.

We thank you that the season of Advent comes to a close this day.

That our hope has been realized in you.

That our needs have been met in you.

That Christmas signals and calls us to remember the day where you broke into time and space and rescued us.

As we open up this passage tonight, God, we ask that you open up our hearts and our minds and our ears.

That we can not only hear and receive, but we can be changed by your good news.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

So, what is the gift that Paul calls God's grace here in Titus 2?

It's three things.

This gift of God's grace is seen in the person of Jesus, coming to fulfill the plan of God, and deal with the problem of sin.

Now, I used three Ps so I could remember it, and maybe that will help you.

If not, feel free to forget that.

Now that I've said that, you probably can't, and that's okay.

But first things first, the gift of God's grace is seen in the person of Jesus.

Throughout the Bible, we come across these words, the grace of God appearing.

The grace of God appears.

The grace of God has appeared, as we see in tonight's text.

And every single time, this is a direct reference to the person of Jesus.

For Paul, his life word is grace, as we talked about a moment ago.

And for him, it cannot be separated from salvation.

Therefore, when we see the grace of God appearing, it leads us to one conclusion, and one conclusion only.

The grace of God that has appeared is none other than the person of Jesus.

The person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ become man, born in the humble setting of a backyard cattle shed.

To become the gift we all desperately need.

But he didn't just come as a person.

He didn't just come to be another guy to walk and talk on the earth.

He didn't come just to be a human.

Jesus Christ came as a person to fulfill the plan of God.

And deal with the problem of sin.

What is this problem, and what is this plan?

Well, from the beginning, God created with the desire and the intention to be in perfect relationship with his creation.

But we, humanity, starting with Adam and Eve at the very beginning, the first people,

have chosen to follow our own desires, our own passions, our own way of life, instead of a relationship with God.

A choice that has left us in a hopeless, dire situation that we could not undo or get ourselves out of.

From that moment on, from that first moment where we chose ourselves instead of God,

God put a plan into action.

A plan to rescue us from our destruction and death.

A plan to break into the world and save us when we weren't even aware that we needed saving.

Without God's plan to deal with the problem of sin,

we would still be hopelessly stuck in our self-made problem.

This need of a miracle and of rescue is much like two stories of shipwreck

that end up with two very different endings.

In the spring of 1912,

a ship named after a Greek myth

struck an object in the Atlantic.

Of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew,

over 1,500 of them went down with the ship.

Just about 70% of the lives were lost.

It was thought to be an unsinkable ship.

The crew was unprepared to launch the lifeboats.

And they were untrained in how many of the lifeboats could hold

as they ended up loading only about 50% capacity into each lifeboat.

The people on the ship didn't immediately respond to the sirens warning them to evacuate

because in their minds,

there was no space for this being a reality.

There was no conceivable way that this ship,

named after a Greek myth,

could go down.

Why?

Simply this.

They thought they were safe.

They thought this ship,

the Titanic,

was indestructible.

And the second story is of a ship named the SS Andrea Doria,

sailing the Atlantic in 1956,

just 40-some years after the Titanic.

She was hardly more prepared than the Titanic.

But there was one life-altering difference.

After a collision off the coast of Massachusetts,

a multitude of other ships,

having seen on their radar this collision happen,

and hearing through their radios the calls for help,

came to the rescue,

offering safety to the majority of the passengers and crew.

Of the 1,706 passengers and crew,

all but 46 survived.

The difference?

Someone,

some crew,

a host of ships outside of themselves,

broke onto the scene and rescued them,

or it would have been the Titanic 2.0.

In the same way,

Jesus Christ,

without our asking or even knowing,

the eternal problem we are facing,

came on a rescue mission.

A rescue mission to save us from our brokenness and death.

A rescue mission called Christmas.

He came to save us and rescue us from the sinking ship

that is our sin.

And it's a death that I think we don't even recognize most of the time,

if you're anything like me.

We have earned this death.

We have chosen to follow our own desires

instead of God's will,

but just the same,

regardless of what we've done or what we do,

Jesus came as the gift of grace

to rescue us from our situation.

So,

the answer to the first question is this,

the gift of grace has appeared

in the person of Jesus,

come to fulfill the plan of God,

and deal with the problem of sin.

However,

is any gift a good gift

unless it is received?

That's the real question, isn't it?

Or is it simply a package,

a box,

an unknown thing,

neatly wrapped,

residing under a Christmas tree?

Essentially useless.

Right?

Even the passengers of the SS Andrea Doria,

they had to choose to actively participate in the gift that was their rescue.

They had to actively receive this gift

by boarding the ships that came to rescue.

They could not stay on their sinking ship

and receive the gift.

Something had to happen.

So, the second question for us tonight is this,

what are we to do with this gift of grace,

this gift of Jesus,

that we celebrate at Christmas?

Paul says two things.

He says,

receive it freely,

and he says,

let it change our hearts and our lives.

The first thing then,

receive it freely.

Learn to receive it freely.

Verse 11 says in our text,

that it is a salvation for the whole world,

unmerited and unearned.

Oftentimes, receiving gifts can be the hardest part of gift giving.

I have to admit,

if someone offers me lunch,

I'm very quick to ask them when I might get them back

or offer to get them back the next time we have lunch.

Or, and maybe you can resonate with this,

I try to repay this non-existing debt to my friend even more quickly

by asking,

can I Venmo you?

Maybe you can resonate with this.

Maybe you yourselves have offered Venmo

as a way of paying a non-existent debt

to someone offering you a beverage or a meal

or a gift.

But for that gift to remain a gift,

for any gift to remain a gift,

we cannot repay it.

We cannot turn it into a transaction.

Because just like we saw with grace at the beginning,

a gift by nature is freely received.

We see this in the great musical-turned-film Les Miserables,

after Jean Valjean, a convict and a thief,

is caught red-handed

and returned to the bishop from whom he stole a bag full of silver.

If you've seen this movie, you know where I'm going.

Upon his arrest and return to the bishop,

the bishop looks at the guards and says,

feel free to leave.

This man stole nothing from me.

This was a gift.

He's not a thief, but my guest.

Jean Valjean, having received this grace,

is confused.

He's at a loss for words.

He's utterly speechless.

And the bishop offers this beautiful summary of grace.

The scene goes like this.

The bishop drew near to him

and said in a low voice,

Do not forget,

never forget,

that you have promised to use this money

in becoming an honest man.

Jean Valjean, who had no recollection

of ever having promised anything,

remained speechless.

The bishop,

having emphasized the words when he uttered them,

continued on to Jean Valjean.

He says this,

Jean Valjean,

my brother,

you no longer belong to evil,

but to good.

It is your soul that I buy from you.

I withdraw it from black thoughts and perdition,

and I give it to God.

Isn't that beautiful?

This is the gift of Christmas.

This is the gift of grace

that we see here in Les Miserables,

which we neither deserve or can earn,

and yet it changes us forever.

Think about how countercultural it is

to have unmerited favor and blessing.

In our schools,

you work to earn a good grade

so you can earn a scholarship

or an award

that'll earn you a degree

that positions you well

to get a good job

in a prestigious firm or company

or career path.

But it doesn't stop there, does it?

No, you get the job,

and then you work to do well

to earn your raise or your promotion,

knowing that if you do sloppy or poor work,

eventually you'll be demoted or worse,

fired.

Relationships.

Relationships are that way in our culture, I think.

Most of the time they operate on the question,

what are you doing for me

that I should love you?

Are you loving me well enough to earn my love,

my trust, and my allegiance?

Relationships end up in shambles

because of this idea of merit-based worth.

Work becomes life-taking

instead of enjoyable and God-glorifying

because of merit-based worth.

But Jesus offers us an upside-down kingdom,

an upside-down way of living,

an upside-down love.

We do not earn it.

We cannot get more of it

through success or loyalty.

And best of all, we cannot lose it.

I imagine if all human relationships

worked this way,

that we would begin to see

more and more of a glimpse

of what this world

can and will be

when Christ comes again in glory

to reclaim all of this world that is His.

He's broken in on Christmas Day

and He's coming back

to redeem this whole thing.

For those of us who have been trying

to carry the burden all on our own,

trying to do enough,

to be enough,

to succeed enough,

to be worth someone else's love

or recognition,

this gift of Jesus,

this gift of Christmas,

has got to be the sweetest sound

our ears could ever hear.

There's nothing like it.

And yet there's a little bit more

to this idea of receiving a gift.

When you get a Christmas present,

are you content to just freely receive it?

If someone buys you lunch,

are you content to just have them

buy it for you

and have it set in front of you?

Isn't there a little part of you

that wants to open up the present

that you've received

and see what's inside,

to put it to use,

to play with it?

Children absolutely lead the way for us

in learning how to receive God's grace

and how to receive good gifts.

Christmas morning just happened.

Many of you probably had children

around the Christmas tree with you.

Like a child,

they wake up in the morning,

the earliest morning of the year

for most children.

At least it was for me as a child.

It was the one morning sleeping in,

didn't matter,

cartoons didn't matter,

gifts mattered.

They get up,

they run to the tree,

they tear off the wrapping paper,

they rip open the box,

they hurriedly rip through all of it

in a hurry to see and use this new gift.

It changes them.

It changes them and their priorities.

With a child and his or her toy,

it changes them for a while,

right?

For an hour,

or a day,

or a week,

until it's broken,

or until they get a next gift or present.

If they're young enough,

maybe until brother and sister

open their present

and it seems better at the time.

But for us,

for us receiving the gift of Jesus,

receiving the gift of God's grace,

it lasts forever.

And we must let this gift of grace

change our hearts

and our lives

forever with it.

We'll return to Les Miserables for a second.

This beautiful, beautiful reality of Les Miserables

is seen in Jean Valjean,

the character who becomes

the main character throughout the film.

Having received freely this grace

in the opening of the film,

the rest of the film shows us

what happened

once he received this grace.

You see,

Jean Valjean doesn't go back

to the life he lived before.

Jean Valjean doesn't forget

this gift that he received

from the bishop.

No.

No, he goes on

and he does exactly

what the gift was intended to do.

He goes and he runs a business

that's just and right.

He later on

saves an old man

from an injury at work

and offers him a pension

that he neither earned

nor deserved.

He saves a woman

who is a social outcast

and takes care of her

through her dying days.

And even once she has passed,

he risks his life

to go and save

this woman's daughter

who is living as a servant

in another part of the area.

He later on

offers up his life

and his freedom

to set another man free.

Grace changed him

and so too

shall it define our lives

once we receive it

from Christ.

So receiving this grace

and being changed by it

means two things.

First of all,

it means turning away

from worldly ways

and our own human passions

and desires.

And second,

it means turning towards God.

It means turning towards God

and living a self-controlled,

upright,

and godly life.

Another translation

of the passage

says this,

turning from drunkenness

and living a sober life.

I like that language

because it shows us

the point

of the text we read tonight.

The two options

are mutually exclusive.

You can't have one

and the other.

It becomes clear then

that the first list,

the do-nots

that Paul lists for us,

are all inward

and self-serving things,

motives for us.

And the second list,

the do's,

the ways in which

the gift of grace

changes us,

are all outward

and selfless motives,

meant to serve the world,

God's kingdom,

and God himself.

But how do we learn

to begin to practice

turning towards God?

just a few suggestions.

Friends,

spend time opening

and reading the Bible.

And as you do,

remember that

every story in the book,

every story

that this book

has in it

points you to Jesus

and nowhere else.

is the life

that we learn

secondly,

by worshiping

on Sundays together.

It shapes us,

it forms us,

it helps us practice

turning towards God

actively together.

And thirdly,

by praying,

eating,

and playing

with other Christians.

If you're a member

here at Advent,

you may recognize

this as the life

of our core groups,

our small group ministry

here at Church of the Advent.

If you're new here tonight,

I would encourage you

to check out

and join one of our core groups

as they are intended

to be the place

in our church

that helps us practice

this life

of turning towards God.

So just a few habits

and practices,

and there's many more.

But I encourage you

to try some,

to put them to practice.

Let them turn you around,

let them shape you.

What I love most

about this idea

that Paul

has for us tonight

of actively receiving

by turning away

and turning towards

is you cannot by nature

turn away from something

and turn towards something

at the same time.

They're opposites, right?

If I'm turned towards you all,

if I'm facing you

as I talk tonight,

I am by nature

turned away

from the cross

and table behind me.

And likewise,

if I turn around

and I face the cross

and the table,

I'm turned away from you

because they can't coincide.

They can't be together.

And yet,

if you're anything like me,

I try to do this

way too often.

I want all of the world

and I want all of Jesus.

I want both camps

and I want to have it all.

The gospel tells us,

friends,

it just isn't possible.

It just isn't possible.

But for us,

the offer is this.

The grace of God

has appeared

and is freely given

to us for salvation.

Won't you receive it?

Won't you unwrap

this gift of grace

and let it change you

by turning you

towards God

and how you live

and how you think

about relationships

and how you think

about your work,

your home,

your family,

and your play.

As we begin

to live this way,

the worldly desires

and passions

that boil up

inside of us

will begin

to get pushed out.

We'll be pushed

to the edges

as our heart grows

bigger and fuller

with God's desires

and will.

for Paul,

for Jean Valjean,

and for us,

this gift of grace,

the birth of Jesus,

the true joy

of Christmas,

it turns us

towards God.

It turns us

towards His kingdom work

as we wait

for Jesus to return.

And while we wait,

we join with Him

in the restoration

of this world.

in the name

of the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray.