I want you all to know how much I appreciate you being here this evening as we celebrate…just for a few minutes the time of the year set aside as Jesus’ birth date.
I’ve mentioned before this is a difficult time of the year for preachers…preparing for both a Christmas Eve and Christmas day sermon…then trying to share something new about an event that’s been preached on for over 2000 years.
Living in America, who doesn’t know the Christmas story?…so it leaves the Pastor in a difficult position trying to introduce a new twist to a topic that’s preached every December 25th …what more can you say that hasn’t been said?
This evening we’re here to light the fifth and final Advent candle…the Christ candle…that represents the light that Jesus brought into the world when He was born…the fifth candle focuses on the transition from prophecy to fulfillment.
Advent means “arrival” or “coming,” a time of spiritual anticipation and expectation of the birth of Christ…much like Lent is the spiritual preparation for Resurrection Sunday.
Advent season stands between the ‘already but not yet’…the already was about waiting…when the Old Testament saints waited during the long period of time that preceded Jesus’ first coming…the time from Genesis to Matthew.
But also is the not yet part…the time we’re living in now…we stand between the first and second advent…an equally important time when we are waiting expectantly on the second coming of the Lord…that’s the not yet part.
Advent is a time for all believers to commemorate the arrival of the Messiah…prepare for His second coming…and celebrate the joy of Christmas.
I’m going to be brief this evening…not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I want the focus to be more on the event rather than on my preaching.
I’m reminded of the story of the man who, when leaving the church after a lengthy sermon, told the pastor:
“Pastor, your sermon reminded me of God’s peace and love.”
Obviously flattered, the pastor asked how so?
Well, it reminded me of God’s peace because it surpassed all understanding! And it reminded me of God’s love because it seemed to go on forever!”
For the past four weeks we have been celebrating Advent…if you have been with us these past four weeks, we have lit the Advent candles of hope…faith…joy … and peace…and recalled how each of the candles represents a different theme… each candle has its own special significance.
Every Sunday during the Advent season a family from our congregation came forward to read a passage of Scripture and to light a candle.
At the expense of re-preaching again the meaning of these themes let me summarize:
…hope…the confident expectation that what God has promised will happen.
…faith…the confident assurance that what is unseen will be seen.
…joy…the feeling we’ll experience when we see Jesus.
…peace…the serenity that comes over us when God takes control of our lives.
This time of year we sing Christmas carols that include the themes of all four of these candles…the songs:
‘Peace has Come’ expressing the serenity that God’s presence provides.
‘Joy to the World’ expressing the excitement of Jesus coming to earth.
‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ expressing our faith in a coming Savior.
‘Hope Has a Name’ expressing God’s promise of sending His Son to earth.
The Christmas season is supposed to be the happiest time of year…the angels who announced Jesus’ birth said so “…I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people…” (Luke 2:10).
BUT…when you look at the world with all its unrest…violence…pain…and brokenness…you wonder if hope…joy…and peace…are really possible?
Look at our nation…for the past two years we’re still feeling the aftershocks of one of the most contentious elections in U.S. history that continues to cause deep divisions within our country.
I doubt if anyone of us has been exempt…our communities…workplace… neighborhoods…families…and even within the church there are still strong feelings about the results.
The world is not the way it’s supposed to be…but you don’t need for me to tell you that…you already know that…and probably for most of us…our lives are not the way we’d like for them to be either.
Have to wonder how did we get so far from God’s description of the world after He created it from being ‘very good’ [Gen. 1:31] to the fractured broken mess it’s in today.
If you been in church for any length of time then you know the answer to why the world is in such a fractured mess…because sin entered the world and made a mess of everything…and things have never been the same since.
People in their self-reliant…self-sufficient…self-supporting…self-sustaining lives don’t want God interfering in their business…and worse yet…they don’t believe they are under God’s judgment and will face eternity away from Him when they die…could anything be more hopeless?
What an uplifting Christmas Eve message this has been so far…and in case you’re saying… ‘Where’s the uplifting part of this message’…here’s the uplifting part of the message.
God refused to leave the world in the fractured broken mess it has become…so He took matters into His own hands and entered into the world Himself…with the intent of pulling the world back together.
Jesus said “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).
Not bringing with Him the kind of hope…faith…joy…and peace the world was expecting…because that will not occur until Jesus returns sometime in the future possibly thousands of years from now.
BUT rather the kind of hope, faith, joy, and peace Jesus brings comes as a result of restoring the relationship between Himself as the creator and us as the creation.
It’s what theologian Karl Barth called the ‘impossible possibility’ …a God who is able to do what we…in our own striving and efforts…cannot do.
That’s what Christmas is…it’s when Christians celebrate God’s love for the world through the birth of the Christ child…it’s a time of God showing His love for us.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the pervasive commercialism of Christmas has resulted in Christmas being less about religion and more about being a cultural holiday…people who are not even religious celebrate Christmas.
SO…as we prepare tonight and tomorrow to celebrate the time of the year we designate as Jesus’ birthday…we should look at Christmas in a new way this year.
Statistics reveal that you will remember very little of what I have said this evening …not very encouraging if you’re a pastor…might be why according to a Pew Research Center the average Catholic sermon is only 14 minutes long.
So knowing that…just real quick I would like to leave you with three short reasons why Jesus is the reason for the season:
—FIRST…He is the only way to God… others may say they have access to God… but Jesus is the only way [John 14:6].
—SECONDLY…He came to seek and save us!! Jesus told Zacchaeus that ‘the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ [Luke 19:10] …that’s you and me…at one time we were all hopelessly lost…with no ambition or way to be united with God… that is the reason Jesus came to earth… you and I are the reason for the season.
Everything that Jesus did in His ministry…in His preaching…teaching…healing …even what He accomplished on the cross can be seen as an intentional deliberate saving act of love.
—THIRDLY… God has a plan for our individual lives…He knows us personally by name and has prepared a purpose for us other than just living and breathing.
That’s what lighting the fifth candle is all about…Jesus bringing light into the world and into each one of our lives by giving us a plan and a purpose for living.
Praise God for Christ’s response to be the reason for the season…that should be a reminder that there is no better gift to give yourself this year than:
1.Accepting Jesus as your Savior…if you’ve never done that let me encourage you to do so.
2.Accept God’s will and plan for your life…allow God to show you your destiny.
There is no better gift you can give yourself than those two.