God's Christmas Gift

Scripture Passage: Romans 6:23

Our Father in Heaven, we gather together every week here to worship our Savior, the LORD Jesus. But today is a special time of worship as we celebrate that very first Christmas when you sent your Son into the world. You have already blessed our time of worship and praise. I pray that you will bless this time of study as we open up your word. LORD, speak to us through your word and grant us receptive hearts to all you have to say. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

When I think about Christmas, it conjures up all sorts of memories for me. But the predominant one is gifts. Well, that sounds a little bit selfish but where there are gifts there is giving – and that’s a good thing. I remember one Christmas as a young lad I was sure I would get nothing for Christmas:

There was I nestled all snug in my bed, visions of sugar plums and GI Joe’s and baseball bats dancing in my head, when what trouble on my wondering senses did loom – that I really, really needed to go to the bathroom! I was quite perplexed because you know the script: Santa has to find you asleep or NO GIFTS! So I ran down the hall and came back to bed, but peeked out the window and saw something red – up in the night sky with red lights that shined. It was Santa in His sleigh with toys that were mine. But all I could think was, “He saw me awake!” So I jumped in the bed but sleep would not take. Good news, though: Santa must have been looking the other way because I got many gifts though I saw Santa’s sleigh.

That is a true story … To this day, I’m sure I saw Santa pass over my house. Not too long after that I got my first pair of eyeglasses.

Some gifts we unwrap are extra special – those we accept and treasure. On the other hand, you may get a Claxton Fruit Cake. Some gifts are harder to appreciate than others…

But you know God must really love Christmas because He loves to give gifts. Christmas is a reminder of the fantastic gifts God has given us through His Son. Today we are going to unwrap just one of the many awesome gifts of God. But I think it is the best gift:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, NIV)

I suppose you never thought of this as a Christmas verse? But isn't it just like God to give a perfect gift? A gift that lasts forever.

• Not like last year's toy car with the broken wheel
• Not like DVD movie you watched once and that was enough.
• Not like those pants that shrunk two sizes too small - I'm sure it was the dryer that did it ;-)

Eternal life is God’s Christmas gift that can never be used up, worn out, or quit working. As this verse says, eternal life is “in Christ Jesus our LORD” (Romans 6:23, NIV). That first Christmas reminds us of that awesome gift of God’s Son, the LORD Jesus. His appearance was a gift to the whole world, to every person. God gave the gift of His Son so that we might have eternal life.

Let’s unwrap this gift today and see what we can learn about the generous giver of eternal life.

Main Point:

Christmas is a reminder that God has already given you His very best gift – eternal life – causing you to exalt in the LORD Jesus and the joy of knowing Him.

Outline:

1. God chose the very best gift for you – eternal life.

   A. The Meaning of Eternal Life

   B. The Effect of Eternal Life

    

2. God chose this gift for you before you were even born.

   A. God planned way ahead.

   B. God planned this gift even knowing the course of your life.

    

3. God chose to deliver this gift personally.

1. God chose the very best gift for you – eternal life.

¹¹And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13, NIV)

Eternal life is God’s Christmas gift for you – a gift He wants you to have and know that you have. He wants you to be confident that you have eternal life with the LORD Jesus.

Eternal life is only found in God’s Son:

• If you have Jesus, you have eternal life.
• If you do not have Jesus, you do not have eternal life.

As I was pondering the significance of eternal life, I had this disturbing thought: why in the world would God want to spend eternity with me? Or with you for that matter? I know this is hard to believe but I’m not always the most lovable person to be around.

And people in Cobb County are not saints. In just one year, we have murdered one another 24 times, raped 124 victims, and stole from over 20,000 people. On top of this, roughly 21% of the people married in Cobb County got divorced, mostly for refusing to love each other. We do not have statistics on how many selfish or prideful or lustful or envious or angry acts were carried out last year but it would be a huge list. And don’t even mention our thought life – evil motives, bitter hatred, impure fantasies. Why would God want to spend eternity with people like this?

Then I had another disturbing thought -- He does not. That’s when I started hyperventilating – but I calmed myself with the certainty that God has the answer in the Bible. So I started digging deeper. We know that He loves us greatly. To understand why God would give us the gift of spending eternity with Him, we need to understand just what eternal life is and what is so great about it.

Because eternal life is not getting angel wings and a white robe sitting on a cloud strumming a harp forever…

A. The Meaning of Eternal Life

²Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:2-3, NIV)

Eternal life is what makes you into the person God wants to be with for all eternity. You see, eternal life is not just forever living – although it is that. It is forever loving. You enter into an eternal love relationship with the LORD – a relationship that changes you.

Eternal life hinges around knowing the LORD. “That they may know you” (v3). The Greek word “ginosko” translated “know” means to know from personal experience. I can say, “I know W, #43, the President!” and all of you will understand that I know about George W. Bush but will doubt that I know him personally. But if I say, “I know my wife” and you know that we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, would understand that I know her personally, intimately, and deeply.

B. The Effect of Eternal Life

How many of you have been married for 25 years or longer? Congratulations – you are to be commended for your faithfulness. You are living in a society that thinks you are weird – but you are an inspiration to this community to be sure. For those of you married that long, how many of you can order for your spouse at whatever restaurant you go to? If it’s Folks you get 2-piece chicken (both legs), creamed corn, and turnip greens (drain the juice so it doesn’t spill out and get the chicken soggy). That’s my wife’s meal at Folks. And how many of you finish one another’s sentences? You even begin to think alike. Some of you look alike. Being together in a loving relationship where you get to know one another intimately – it changes you. You become like that which you love.

If this is true for human relationships, what changes will take place when you enter into a relationship with Almighty God? – holy, righteous, a love that endures forever, pure, just, forgiving, patient… Now God is complete – He does not need to grow or mature at all. In this relationship, God will not change but you will. “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6, NIV). The character of God will never change but you will change. God’s love will rub off on you.

The wonder of eternal life is not simply existing forever as you are now but having a personal love relationship with the LORD Jesus forever. It is a relationship that changes you moment-by-moment, day-by-day.

God will spend moment-by-moment, day-by-day with you. When you spend your moments with Him – getting to know His love, His wisdom, understanding more of His unspeakable grace and kept by His precious mercy – you will become more like Jesus the more time you spend with Him. And the Bible says to be “confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NIV).

God does not want to spend eternity with a sinful, selfish person. But as you walk with Jesus in this life, you become more like Jesus. And He works in you to make you holy. That’s why you don’t need to clean up your life to enter into a relationship with God. That would be the same as getting a bath before you hop in the shower. The whole purpose of the shower is to clean you up. Being in Christ and walking with Christ is what cleans you up – from the inside-out!

God cared enough to provide the very best gift for you – eternal life – the best gift to meet the greatest need in your life.

2. God chose this gift for you before you were even born.

¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (1 Peter 1:18-20, NIV)

How many of you are last minute shoppers – you do most of your shopping on Christmas eve? Just being good stewards so you can get the “best” deals right…

But some of you shop early to avoid the crowds. How many of you get all your shopping done by November? Wow, how many get all your shopping done by September? You are planning ahead.

What would you think about a person who planned ahead and bought you a personalized gift for every day of the year next year? You would have high esteem for such a person. What if this person did this for the next ten years? Wow, this would be someone who loves you very much to buy you all those gifts!

A. God planned way ahead.

Now consider that God chose to give you the very best gift – eternal life. And God went shopping long before you were born – “He [meaning Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world” (v20).

This means that God decided before you were born to give you the greatest gift of all. It is a gift not just for every day of the year but for every moment of every day of every year for the rest of your life and on into eternity. Eternal life was even His promise before you were born:

A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. (Titus 1:2, NIV)

B. God planned this gift even knowing the course of your life.

If God planned to give you this gift before you were born, that means He knew about every day of your life before you were even born – and He still decided to give you this gift of eternal life:

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:14-16, NIV)

This does not mean that everything that happens is fate or that God causes everything to happen. God gave us the ability to make choices. What this does mean is that God knows everything about you – all you will do, all you will say, all you will think and hope and dream -- and still chose to give you this gift of eternal life!

Steve Brown, a Bible teacher and former Presbyterian pastor, once told his shocked congregation, “If you really knew me, you wouldn’t want me as your pastor…” They started to murmur thinking he was about to confess some horrible crime or indiscretion. Then he went on, “but then again, if I really knew you I wouldn’t want you as a congregation.”

God really knew you and knows you and yet He still planned long ago to give you eternal life! Isn’t that marvelous … fantastic … stupendous! Eternal life for such as I. Let us never forget His awesome love through apathy or ingratitude. Praise the LORD for His great, great love and the perfection of His gift.

3. God chose to deliver this gift personally.

¹That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ²The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3, NIV)

That very first Christmas -- not only did God choose to give you the very best gift and plan it way in advance, He chose to deliver it to you personally.

²The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it … ³We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard” (1 John 1:2, 3, NIV)

The disciples were witnesses: they saw Jesus, they heard Jesus, they even studied Jesus up close (“we have looked at” translates a Greek word meaning to study intently), and they touched Him. It doesn’t get more personal than this.

The Word [meaning Jesus] became flesh and made His dwelling among us. (John 1:14, NIV)

His “dwelling” is from a Greek word that literally refers to pitching a tent. Jesus came to “camp out” with us. That’s pretty personal. He did not simply shout from his throne, "Here's how you can know me!" or “I’m up here in case you’re interested!” He first sent prophets ahead of Him to announce His message of forgiveness and life. But His plan all along that He put into action that first Christmas night was to come to us in person.

It is what the angel told Joseph about the baby in Mary’s womb:

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23, NIV)

-- Begin descending the stairs into the congregation--

Our Lord Jesus left the glory of heaven to step down and meet us on our level and tell us personally...

--pick someone and try to guess his name: “I have a personal gift for you, ____?____”

Well, I would have a hard time delivering a message to each of you personally. I didn’t even know your name until now. But God knows you inside and out as we saw in Psalm 139. And so He came in person to give you His gift of life--eternal life.

Now if someone traveled 100 miles to bring you a gift, how would you respond to him? Would you slam the door in his face or respond to him openly? Would accept the gift or leave it on the front porch? Maybe there are people with whom you have such a poor relationship that you would not respond with warmth ... But what if they traveled 1,000 miles? What if this person came all the way from God's throne right to your heart? That ought to be someone to consider, especially considering He is bringing a gift!

That is exactly what God has done for you with the very first Christmas. And He wanted you here this morning to be reminded of the greatness of His love for you that He would give you His only Son, the Lord Jesus, that you might have forgiveness and eternal life through Him.

• He came personally because His gift is intensely personal: He gave Himself. Eternal life gives us fellowship with God and His people forever. Truly God gave a gift that keeps on giving. That should cause each of us to fall on our knees before the LORD Jesus and rejoice in knowing Him forever!
• And we should be giving this gift away to others – eternal life is a gift you cannot lose but you can give it away over and over and over. I want to encourage you to join with others in your small group or Sunday School class where you can be specifically equipped to share the love and message of Jesus Christ with others. Make sharing the good news of Jesus an intentional plan for you personally and for your group.

Some of you are here this morning because God wanted you to know what Christmas really means. Because you are here, Jesus is calling out to you personally: "special delivery just for you! All your sins paid for in full! I died for your sins so you could be forgiven! I rose from the dead so you could know that I am LORD and Savior! Forgiveness and eternal life are yours if you follow Me." You need to unwrap His gift!

You may even have celebrated Christmas for years. But you have His gift of eternal life still sitting on the front door of your heart.

Do you desire forgiveness, Heaven and eternal life? You can have it this morning. Jesus came all the way from Heaven to meet you right here, right now, with His message. He just wants you to open your heart and receive Him with His gift of eternal life.

Let’s all bow our heads pray silently before the Lord Jesus this morning:

• Praising Him for his indescribable gift and
• Telling Him how much eternal life means to you – knowing Him and being known by Him
• Thanking Him for His awesome love for you.

Now if you want to unwrap this gift of eternal life, I'll lead you in a prayer that you can pray to the Lord. He's not concerned with how well you pray but with your sincerity. If you mean it, He will hear your prayer asking for forgiveness and eternal life. You can pray:

Dear Lord Jesus, Thank you for loving me even though I do not deserve it. I have sinned against you and I ask your forgiveness. I believe that you died for all my sins And rose from the grave to prove You are Lord of all. I have decided to turn from going my own way And I will follow You as my Lord and Savior. Help me learn to love others the way You love me. Amen.

With every head bowed, … In a moment after I pray, we will have a time called an invitation. It is simply a time to let others know how God is working in your life. After we pray, whatever decision God has brought you to this morning, just step into the aisle, and make your way down front to one of the ministers on either side. The people here at Noonday will be delighted to hear your decision and want to help you in any way we can.

If you prayed to the Lord today asking for this gift of eternal life, would you let us know you are now trusting in the LORD Jesus? Or maybe you have been looking for a church home – you’ve found it. Noonday is all about passionately reaching people for Christ. You need to join the Noonday church family today. Or maybe you have a special prayer request that you need the church to pray for you and with you. Whatever your decision, please come and let us know about it…

Our Father in Heaven: Thank you … but thank you seems so inadequate. Christmas is a reminder that You have already given us Your very best gift – eternal life. What else can we do but fall down and praise You for the joy of knowing You forever and commit our lives to You afresh and anew. You alone are God and You alone are holy! May our decisions here and now be pleasing to you and reflect our love for you. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen!

© Copyright 2004, Randy Lariscy.