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The Greatest Gift John 3:16
1) In John 3 we see a story of a man in search of truth, a man coming to Jesus out of the darkness, and he is given a Real Gift, the real truth. JESUS IS THE TRUTH WE NEED… HE’S THE REAL GIFT OF CHRISTMAS. a) Nicodemus knew his stuff! He was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews! i) He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the council of seventy men who ran the religious affairs of the nation and who had religious authority over any Jew anywhere in the world. ii) The Pharisees were religious fanatics. b) The basic philosophy of Nicodemus was that all humanity needed in order to do right and to please God was good teaching -- an instructed mind and a committed will. If one had those and really worked at it, one could please God. i) Many of us are like this… the only difference is how high or low we set the standard. ii) There are probably people here this morning who believe that what God expects of them is to live life as best they can, to try hard to do good, and if they do that they will please God and be accepted by him. (1) Don’t believe this! It is a clueless answer! Even Nicodemus sensed this! It’s what brought him to Jesus! Living by human standards didn’t solve the problem! (a) The problem of evil in this world is not solved by us trying a bit harder! (It might be diminished a little bit) (i) The quick solution would be to just kill all the evil people… but who would be left? (b) The problem of evil can only be solved by God! …Because the problem is us! (i) God offers an eternal solution for evil, BOTH FOR EACH PERSON, BUT ALSO FOR THE WORLD! iii) We all sense that there is something wrong with the world… not only are we clueless… but so is the whole world! (1) How many of you believe that we live in a perfect world? (2) How many of you have a problem with evil? With pain? With frustration? (3) I have to admit that when I look at the world I SOMETIMES JUST DON’T GET IT!?! iv) All of us deep down recognize this… Whether we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior or not… there are times when we just don’t get it! In this passage we find a call to go deeper! I've been a bit haunted by this passage... Like Nicodemus I often come to Jesus out of the darkness. Like Nicodemus I feel like I have it all figured out. And Like Nicodemus I sense a call to go deeper! And so today, on the Eve of Christmas we look at a simple passage, a verse that many of you memorized as a child… and one that we need to look a bit more deeply at. Within the context of life we see all of us coming out of the darkness. We need that light that shines in the darkness, the one that we have a hard time understanding… 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 1. John 3:16 - A true gift is a. given in love - For God so loved the world b. a true sacrifice - he gave his one and only Son, c. is of real value - that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 2. Jesus offered himself as the Real Gift to all humankind…3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. a. But we must take the gift…3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.° 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 3:20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 3:21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." b. So many of us just pull out this Greatest Gift at special times… At Christmas plays and Sunday morning… and then we walk back into our variations of darkness. i. Now some of us have rigged our lights really well, we can see well enough in our own little world, ii. But if we venture to far from our comfort zones, from our lighted homes it is really dark outside.
Faithful God, we rejoice that you have sent your promised Christ. And yet, O God, we confess that we are still not ready for Christ's coming; we are reluctant to live as if the whole earth were your domain. We know the story—the shepherds, the angels, the magi—but we don't fully understand what it means. Awaken us to your Spirit, let Christ's birth make a difference in our lives, and grant us your peace, through the grace of Jesus Christ. Ruth C. Duck in The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers
c. We need to allow this Greatest Gift to make a difference in our lives! i. We need to truly believe and live with this Greatest Gift! ii. To not live with it is to walk in darkness. 3. This gift was given so that we would have light and life, eternally!
NOW IS
THE TIME
to sing, envision, enact, and retell a story of God coming unexpectedly in the
worst of times as a baby born poor, born homeless, born to die that all human
life might be transformed and dreams made real. It's God's Good News—but only
because we already know the story of Easter.
a. This Greatest Gift of Christmas was: i. given in love - For God so loved the world ii. a true sacrifice - he gave his one and only Son, iii. is of real value - that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. b. Will you accept it and live with it? c. Will you come in out of the darkness? d. Will you quit stringing your own lights together and depend on the true light, the one who gives true light to every person? e. Or will you stumble back into darkness? f. Each moment of the day, each moment of your life, God is saying, “Now is the time, come home to me!” g. This Christmas will you take hold of the Greatest Gift and let Emmanuel, God with us, change your life?
REJOICE,
you who feel that you are lost; your Savior comes to seek and save you. Be of
good cheer, you who are in prison, for he comes to set you free. You who are
famished and ready to die, rejoice that he has consecrated for you a Bethlehem,
a house of bread, and he has come to be the Bread of Life to your souls.
Rejoice, O sinners everywhere, for the restorer of the castaways, the Savior of
the fallen, is born.
That Savior born so long ago, is alive today… and the pathway away from the manger led him to the cross, where He died for our sins. Lets remember the truth Gift of Christmas by Remembering… let us enter into the Celebration of Communion.
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