Christmas Eve 2017

Once again, it’s Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve 2017. Did you ever think we'd make it here?

Once again, we settle in with family and friends to hear a familiar story, to sing familiar songs, to feel the warmth of candles in our hands, to remember that one night, long ago, a small child was born who would change the entire world – for that child was God Himself in the flesh, soon to walk and talk and lead us, to perform miracles, to ultimately die for the crime of claiming to be God – and then to rise from the dead in three days and so prove to us that He, Jesus the Christ, was truly God and worth listening to.

We mostly know the story.

In Israel, in the land of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, during Roman occupation, a young man and an even younger woman – both descended from King David, the man who had ruled Israel a thousand years earlier – these two people had to travel from their home in Nazareth a hundred miles to the south to David’s city, Bethlehem, which was at the time a small hamlet a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

And we know that they stopped at the inn in the town and there was no room left, but the innkeeper referred them to the stable, which many believe was actually a cave, the same cave where David had hid out from his predecessor, King Saul.

And in that stable, Mary gave birth to Jesus.

A few hours later, a group of shepherds came rushing into the stable with a wild story about angels in the heavens, an order to find the baby, and Mary sleepily listened to them and remembered the angel that had visited her nine months earlier. And Joseph? He wondered too as he remember a dream he had had months before when he had considered sending Mary away, but in the dream an angel spoke to him, also. So many angels!

And we know most of the rest of the story. No – the wise men from the East did not stop that night – we think they stopped a couple of years later, as the Bible says, which led Herod to decide to kill all the young boys in Bethlehem and Joseph, warned by an angel, took the family to Egypt just in time.

We know that years later, Joseph and his family returned to Nazareth, that Jesus was supernaturally intelligent and wise for a child, and that eventually, as a man of about thirty years old, He began to teach and perform miracles, traveling around Israel to eventually enter Jerusalem at the head of a huge procession of people.

We know that Jesus often claimed to be God or to do the things only God can do. And the people watching, almost every time, picked up stones to kill Him because He was claiming to be God or have God-like powers.

We know His teachings were extraordinarily wise, but ran counter to the common sense of the day. “If a man strikes you on the cheek, turn your other cheek.” “Forgive people. Love your enemies.” In response to a question from one of his students, he said, “Don’t forgive a person seven times, but forgive him seventy times seven times.”

Perhaps most importantly he taught that those who break moral laws are not any worse off in front of God than those who tried so rigidly to keep those laws because everyone eventually breaks those moral laws. And so Jesus hung out with corrupt tax collectors, prostitutes, drunkards, and bar tenders – and reserved His harshest condemnations for those who were seen as religious teachers.

And then He was arrested and sentenced to die naked on a cross. And He died.

And almost everyone was happy, because He was clearly a blasphemer, a political troublemaker, a leader of a movement, a threat to the established Temple leadership and to the order of society.

But He came back to life, proving that He was God Himself, and our world has never been the same since. All of this is found in the Four Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament.

Jesus lived such a long time ago, and we’ve watched so many movies and television shows, and seen so many Christmas’s, that Jesus has almost become a legend, a fable, a myth, one of those characters that only exists in make-believe land, like Santa Claus and his North Pole, like Dracula and his castle, like the Avengers and their world of Marvel Superheroes.

But there is one difference.

Jesus was and is real.

For a long time, the "experts" had decided that the Bible was a book of made up stories. Where, for instance, was this town Nazareth? We couldn't find it. Where outside the Bible was any mention of Pontius Pilate, the man who ordered Jesus’ execution? He couldn't be found. Where was any evidence of reality found in the Bible?

But in 1960, Nazareth was found. About the same time, a stone marker was found in a coastal city in Israel that read, essentially, “This amphitheater given by Governor Pontius Pilate” and the date was within two years of the traditional date of Jesus’ execution.

Since that time, dozens and hundreds of little items in the Bible have been confirmed by archaeologists and the discovery of ancient writings. And each little item adds up to the fact that the story we have of Jesus is true, that He lived, and that His followers – and others – were convinced that He was very special, God Himself walking upon the earth. Over 500 eyewitnesses saw Him resurrected, and a half dozen men wrote about it. And within 30 years, those Christians had spread so far as to cause trouble in Rome itself. Within eighty years, Roman governors were asking what to do about the Christians, and within 300 years, the Emperor was a Christian and Christianity was the preferred religion of the Roman Empire.

And so I ask you tonight…what does this mean?

If Jesus was truly God, then this important fact should roll your world!

For if Jesus was God, then everything He said is extraordinarily important.

If Jesus was God, then His words hold the keys to eternal life.

If Jesus was God, then something should change in your life.

What did Jesus teach?

Contrary to what most people today think, Jesus did not teach a system of do’s and don’ts, a strict moral law.

Contrary to what most people today think, Jesus did not make huge pronouncements about science and evolution.

Contrary to what most people today think, Jesus did not give a huge list of requirements about how good people need to be to follow Him.

No, Jesus’ main teaching was this:

Everyone disobeys God. Everyone sins. Everyone makes mistakes in their lives.

But God is a God of many chances.

And God wants to have a close relationship with you, like a good Father wants to have a relationship with a wayward son or daughter.

And like most good Fathers, there is a simple test our Father gives us to allow us to come home on good terms.

God’s three-part test is this:

First, will you apologize and ask forgiveness? Will you ask God to forgive you of the times you’ve disobeyed Him, the times you’ve hurt others, the times you’ve hurt yourself? Will you ask God to forgive you of the times you’ve turned your back on Him, trying to believe that He doesn’t exist, or doesn’t care? Will you ask for His forgiveness?

Next, will you follow the example and leading of God’s Son, Jesus Christ? Will you practice being kind to people, to treating even your enemies as you’d like to be treated.

And third, most importantly, will you try to learn what God desires of you?

Christmas Eve is the best night of the year to make your apology to God. Here, surrounded by the beauty, surrounded by the love of God, is the best time to come to God.

And if you are reading this today, now would be a great time to make your apology:

Almighty God,
I come before You as a sinner.
I have committed crimes against You.
I have committed crimes against my friends, neighbors, and family.
Some have become public knowledge;
Some are still private, known only to You and I.
Some crimes I thought were small;
Some crimes I thought were great.
But I recognize that all are worthy of Your Divine punishment,
For as Paul wrote: “The wages of sin are death”.

Please forgive me, and accept me back into your good will,
That I may live an abundant, eternal life following Your Son Jesus Christ,
Who lives and reigns, now and forever, and speaks through the Holy Spirit.

Amen.