Youth & Outreach Director, Hunter Newton, preached this message on December 8, 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Leah, I think we can cancel the gym membership. Can we give another round of applause to Mary and the kids? It’s a joyful thing. It’s a right thing. It’s a wonderful, glorious thing to hear from the mouths, as scripture says, from the mouths of babes praising the one true king. Amen.
At Christmas time, we sing about joy, peace, hope, love, all these things. Yes, and amen. And we should, and we will, and we do keep doing these things. But if I was being honest, when I grew up, I didn’t give a rip about any of that. Maybe that’s true for you, too. I really cared about Christmas for what Christmas could do for me. I cared about Christmas for… well, Mom, I really… I don’t know how I’m gonna survive if I don’t get the new edition of Mario Super Smash Bros. Man, if my favorite cousin Jacob’s not at Christmas, I don’t think we’re gonna make it through the meal.
Or maybe you’re thinking it’s about eggnog or the perfect gift, or it’s the perfect six, seven extra days off of work, whatever. And none of these are inherently bad things. None of these things are wrong things. In some ways, they’re really good things. They’re a foreshadow of these ultimate things that are to come. But when we get in trouble is when we make these things into ultimate things. When we make these things into… and look for them to be more than they should be, we put a weight on them they were never meant to bear.
We love the Hallmark movies. They’re fantastic. But no one can honestly say that the perfect relationship completes them, because it doesn’t. Unless that relationship is with Jesus Christ. This morning, it’s what I want to take a look at—just emphasizing that Jesus came for us at Christmas. And it sounds like, well, yeah, of course I know that, but it’s a personal thing, and I think we need the reminding.
It’s going to be far shorter than our usual sermons around here at Lake Wisconsin, but I just want to look at a few things. Our big idea is just that simple: that Jesus came for us at Christmas. From the text, I want to point out that he came at the right time, he came to redeem us, and he came to bring freedom.
Let’s go ahead and make our way in our Bibles to Galatians 4:4-7. God’s word there says in Galatians 4, “When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you’re no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then God has made you an heir.”
Like I said, our big idea: Jesus came for us at Christmas. Just looking at verse four right now, he came at the exact right time. The CSB translates this as “when the time came to completion.” Other translations say “when the fullness of time had come.” But the point that it’s trying to get across is Jesus Christ came at the exact perfect time in human history. Not a minute too soon, not a minute too late, not ten years too late, not ten seconds too early—at the exact right time.
And I think we can argue this for two reasons. The first is what historians would call this period of Pax Romana, which is Latin for “Pax Romana.” I don’t know—it’s this time of relative world peace when the Roman Empire had conquered much of the known world. There’s this period of just significantly less fighting. If you are constantly at war, it’s hard to think about anything else.
And so there’s this period of relative world peace. Also, too, a lot of the world, for the first time in human history, spoke the same language, shared the same roads, had the same governments. This was the first real chance in human history for globalism to occur. And so when these people could go out sharing, they could speak that same language, they shared in a lot of ways the same common oppressor, the Roman government. And they were able to kind of have this common ground that wasn’t possible before.
And maybe some of you are quick to think, “Well, what about those who weren’t part of the conquered by Rome?” Well, as the Scriptures tell us in the book of Acts, God moved even past that. Some of the earliest converts were in Africa and Ethiopia. There is no better time in human history for Jesus Christ to come. There’s no better time for God to send his Son than the exact moment and time he did.
And brothers and sisters, at Christmas time, we can rest in that, because that is how God is always and forever. God works all things out at the exact right time, forever and always for his people and for his glory.
At Christmas, Jesus also came to redeem us. Turn our attention to verse five. It says he came to redeem those under the law. Until Jesus came, everyone in the Old Testament was under the law. The standard was perfection. And of course, they were still sinners saved by looking forward to the promised Messiah, the promise coming someday.
But the expectations were high. Not only was it the moral law, but they had to uphold the food laws and the different custom laws. The burden, in a lot of ways, felt kind of heavy on the people. But Jesus came to redeem those it says under the law. He came to redeem those and pay for those and take care of those who are under the law because of his life, death, and resurrection.
We are no longer under this. Of course, we still answer to the moral law, and that requires perfection. That requires that of us. But Jesus has paid for and redeemed us from being under the yoke of the law because all the law can do is show us our sin. It can’t save. That’s where grace comes in, and that’s where the work of Jesus comes in, and we get brought into God’s family.
The word here says that not only is our sin taken care of, but we’re adopted. We are brought into God’s family. That’s embarrassingly good news. It should almost make us blush that the God of the universe looked at us in our fallen state and says, “I want you too. I want you too.” He came for us, and he meets at least two needs we’ve talked about.
One, we have this sin problem. We have this sin need. But I think deep-rooted in the heart of every human being is this desire to ultimately be wanted, too. Because did you know that according to Pew Research, one in every three Americans say they struggle with feeling alone, regardless of marital status, regardless of friendships, regardless of anything, really? One in three say they struggle with loneliness. At least once a week, the number skyrockets up to six out of every ten.
When we’re talking about teenagers, the Son of Man came to meet a real need such as this. He came to be a friend of sinners. He came to speak to us in our brokenness, to befriend the lonely, to befriend the undesirable. And not only does he say, “I’ve taken care of your sin. You were adopted. Come have a seat at my table.”
What a God for those of us who put our trust in him. We rejoice in this. It’s a truth we cling to because we’re no longer under the law, but under grace. Because Christ came to redeem us. He came to buy us back. He came to be a friend to the lonely. He came to meet every need. He also came to bring freedom.
When I talk to people, I think that the majority of us struggle with one of two things—maybe both, maybe more. But when we talk about freedom, it uses the word here of freedom from slavery. Like we’re no longer slaves. When it talks about freedom, I think two things really hold us down. People, I think, ultimately are either really, really tired or they’re really, really afraid. And maybe both at the same time. Maybe one, maybe the other. Maybe you’re like, “I’m neither.”
I think these two common plagues that come as a result of the fall is that people feel hopeless. And when you feel fearful, it’s hard to think about change happening. When you feel exhausted, it’s hard to think about putting in any extra effort. The passage here talks about Christ setting us free. Friends, we are no longer slaves. In other words, we are set free because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we might still struggle with sin; we might still struggle with being fearful. We might still struggle with being just worn out beyond belief. But we no longer have to be. That’s no longer our ultimate fate. Let me just give two examples. When we think about this fear swirl, maybe you’re familiar with it—the thought behind our thoughts. When we struggle with being afraid, it’s, “Well, if I don’t do well at work, then I’ll never get a promotion. Then my kids will never get into a good school. And then they’ll do this, and then they’ll struggle with this, or then this.”
Or maybe it’s, “I’m a failure because my life hasn’t panned out the way I wanted it to. I wanted this to happen by this point in my life, and it hasn’t. I’ve wanted this to happen, and then, and then, and then.” And we just struggle and we are so afraid.
Or we think about being just so tired—so tired. I think people also say they’re tired and they’re busy. I’m talking the kind of tired when you wake up and you’re already looking forward to going back to bed. Like the tired where you feel it deep in your bones. It doesn’t matter if you got 15 hours of sleep last night; you are just still exhausted. And there’s this gnawing feeling of no matter how much caffeine I consume, no matter how much sleep I get, no matter how many Maui beach vacations I book, no matter how many cruises I go on, I’m still just exhausted at Christmas.
These things change. And we have passages in our Bibles like Romans 8:15 and Matthew 11:28-30. Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery, to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!'” And you maybe have heard before that “Abba” word is just a really strong term of endearment. God, you are my God. You are not only my God, but you are my near, careful, loving Father.
And when these struggles, when these effects, these temptations to collapse back into fear, we no longer have to answer. It might sound easier said than done, but there is a way out. And we think about Matthew 11:28-30—some of my favorite words in all of God’s word. Jesus there says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In Jesus, we can find the real rest—the deep sigh of the soul that no amount of sleep or vacation could ever bring. And you can insert anything in here. Maybe it’s not fear. Maybe you don’t struggle with being worn out. Maybe it’s a constant need to please people. Or you can fill in the blank for you. The point is here at Christmas, he came to redeem us, and we are free because Jesus Christ came to bring freedom to his people.
So let’s just think of this, friends, that the God of the universe took on flesh at Christmas. And that’s the whole point. That’s why we get excited. That’s why we smile. Theologians would call that the Incarnation. It’s a wonderful, beautiful truth. The God of the universe, the second person of the Trinity, took on flesh. Luke 19:10 says that he came to seek and save the lost for us.
We cannot stand by. We cannot shrug our shoulders. That’s not information that you hear—that the God of the universe came on a rescue mission—and you just go, “Okay.” We can’t do that. That’s not intellectually honest, and it’s also just really foolish. We cannot shrug at that.
Maybe for us believers, it’s a reminder just to enjoy this Christmas season. And let me echo, but also invite you with these words of Dr. Tim Keller, writing about Christmas, writing about the Incarnation when Jesus took on flesh. He says, “Christmas is an invitation to know Christ personally. Christmas is an invitation by God to say, ‘Look what I’ve done. Look what I’ve done to come near to you; now draw near to me. I don’t want to be a concept; I want to be a friend.'”
That’s beautiful. It’s wonderful. Brothers and sisters, friends, let our hearts never grow tired of the Christmas miracle. Let us consider that God wants to be our friend this Christmas. Not only does he want to take care of our sin, not only does he want to comfort the lonely, not only does He… but the list goes on. God wants to draw near and have a relationship with you.
If that’s something you’d like to talk more about, please find someone—whether you’re a believer coming in, just burdened beyond belief, or an unbeliever who’s never come to know and put their trust in Jesus. If you’re in one of those spots and you need someone to talk to this morning, you can find anybody up here that you’ve seen with a name tag. It’s what we’re here to do.
As we transition to the last portion of our service, there’s going to be two ways we can respond here. You can feel free to remain seated. You can stand; respond however you feel led. One way, of course, we can respond—and we’ve been doing this—is responding to the message just by sitting and being quiet wherever you’re sitting and saying, “God, how would you have me respond? What’s the next step for me?” Take the time during this last song to ask God what he might have you do.
Another way to respond is to give of our gifts, of our tithes, of our offerings. And if you’re a guest this morning, feel free to please just let that go by. If you want to give, you’re welcome to, but we don’t want you thinking this is… oh, we’ve got some visitors here. Please let that go by. This morning, it’s mainly for our regular attenders and members.
So let’s invite the ushers forward. We’ll pray for that offering and pray for our time as they come. God, we love you and we praise you for you. We thank you for this time and the God that you are. And we thank you that you came for us at Christmas. It’s a glorious truth. It’s a wonderful truth, and it’s beautiful and it’s magnificent. And let our hearts never grow weary of hearing that good news.
We pray for hearts in this room that need to… that are either weary and just burdened. They’re trying to do the Christian life, but they need encouragement. They need a safe place to do the Christian life, to be unburdened. Let them come this morning and think about those in the room who don’t know you—this would be the morning that they do put their trust in you, that they do put their hope in you. They will see how incredible life is with you.
And as we get ready to respond, we pray that you would stir in hearts. Whether that’s giving back our tithes and offerings or just a response to your word proclaimed, God, we pray that you’d be faithful to bless the work that we’re doing here. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
So if you’ll stand with me, we’ll sing.