When a plan is put together to address a need, it often will end in a blessing. Over the last two weeks, we’ve learned about that happening with Christmas. We’ve learned about “The Need for Christmas” and “The Planning of Christmas.” Today, we get to learn about “The Blessing of Christmas.”
There are a lot of blessings that come from Christmas.
I love getting together with my family and eating ham.
I love being the official trash bag person when wrapping paper is being thrown about the room.
I love sipping coffee while my kids exude excitement.
I love having a few days off work.
There are so many blessings that come with Christmas. However, there is no greater blessing than the reality that God loved us through Jesus.
So, let’s learn about that blessing this week.
Before we do, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
(prayer)
So, while we’re still being grateful for all of the blessings that come at Christmas time. Let’s focus now on the greatest blessings that come at Christmas: Those gifts that are from our Lord God.
First, we must recognize . . .
I. The blessing of God’s intervention.
Have you ever needed to intervene with something? Sometimes as a pastor, I need to intervene in situations at church. Sometimes, as a dad and husband, I need to intervene in situations at home. Sometime, you may need to intervene with someone because they are in a situation where they could really use some help.
We learned over the last two weeks that we have a need for Christmas and God planned Christmas in order to address that need.
We must recognize this reality: We needed intervention, and God intervened. It is such a blessing that God intervened on our behalves because we really needed help.
Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this situation in Ephesians 2:1–5: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!”
Isn’t that beautiful?
We were in need. We were children under wrath. We needed intervention. We were in a desperate state, but God intervened.
Christmas is about God meeting our need.
You know what’s neat? There’s something about Christmas time that stirs up emotions within us which remind us that it is good and right to help those in need. There’s something in us that senses that Christmas is about intervening to help others.
People ring bells to collect money for those in need at Christmastime, and it is good and right to do so.
People will reach out to single parents or families in need to help them at Christmastime, and it is good and right to do so.
People will visit widows or shut-ins at Christmastime, and it is good and right to do so.
The whole idea of Christmas is built upon the blessing of God’s intervention into our world; it’s built upon God meeting our need.
God did this; God intervened.
Listen to this reminder from God to Joseph, the man engaged to be married to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
We read this in Matthew 1:20: . . . an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
This was not a coincidence. This was not just a miracle. This was the Holy Spirit of God at work. This was God’s invention.
God looked at our need, He had a plan, and He blessed us by intervening in our lives.
This was the blessing of God’s intervention.
Second, we see . . .
II. The blessing of God’s salvation.
God intervened because we needed to be saved from our sins, right? We needed salvation.
We use that word, salvation, a lot in church, but I wonder if we really know what it means.
When we speak of salvation, it means that we need to be saved from something.
Like someone who is trapped in a raging sea needs to be saved from a drowning.
Like someone who is caught speeding needs to be saved from a ticket.
Like a child who is caught disobeying needs to be saved from punishment.
Like someone who jumps from a plane with no parachute needs to be saved from certain death.
Listen, folks: Our sin brings devastating consequences from which we need to be saved.
As Paul said in Ephesians 2, . . .
. . . we were dead in trespasses and sins
. . . we were children under wrath
We need salvation!
Listen to what one of the famous Christmas Bible verses says.
Listen to Matthew 1:21: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Did you catch that? Before Jesus was born, it was said of him, “He will save his people from their sins.”
In fact, the name Jesus means “God saves” or “the Lord is salvation.”
That’s the kind of intervention that we really need! We need the blessing of God’s salvation!
We need someone to live righteously for us.
We need someone to pay the death penalty for us.
We need someone to rise to new life for us.
We need someone to prepare a home in heaven for us.
As we learned in our study in the Book of Acts, in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
We need the blessing of God’s salvation.
Finally, at Christmas, we experience . . .
III. The blessing of God’s kingdom.
I think sometimes we miss out on the wonder of what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God refers to a time and place where God is acknowledged and worshipped as king.
To be a part of God’s kingdom means two things:
First, it means that we have the privilege of being called His children now, worshipping Him now, and acknowledging how wonderful He is now.
This is such an honor!
As 1 John 3:1 says, “See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children . . . ”
We are living in the kingdom of God now. We are His children now. We can worship God now. We can acknowledge who He is now. We can follow Him now.
Second, the kingdom of God refers to a time when God will make all things right, wipe away sin and evil, and establish Himself as King over all things in a way that none will be able to deny.
The reality is, there are people now who do not praise God, do not worship Him, and do not acknowledge Him as King.
However, that will not always be the case. One day, everyone will acknowledge God as the one true King!
As Philippians 2:10–11 says, “ . . . at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
What a celebration that moment will be.
There’s another picture of this celebration in the Bible.
There’s a picture of people from all over the world coming together as part of God’s kingdom to worship before the throne of God.
That moment is described in Revelation 7:9–10. It says, “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
What a blessing it is to be a part of God’s kingdom now. What a blessing it will be to live in God’s fully revealed kingdom later.
Those blessings are brought about through the blessing of Christmas. God saw us in our need: children under wrath; God planned to rescue us; and God blessed us through the miracle of Christmas.
That takes us to our bottom line for today:
Bottom Line: The blessing of Christmas is that God loved us through Jesus.
That little baby, born as the miraculous child, born in a supernatural way, worshipped by the wise men, admired by the shepherds, feared by Herod, raised by Mary and Joseph . . . that child was the Son of God. That child grew to become a man who would give His life as a ransom for many. That child would rise from the dead as the Son of God. That child would be the one who later would ascend into heaven and sit at the right of God. That child would be the Savior before whom all will one day bow their knee and confess Him as Lord.
That child is Jesus, the Son of God, sent to take away the sins of all those who would call upon His name.
The blessing of Christmas is that God loves us. The blessing of Christmas is Jesus.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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