Christmas 2009

Christmas Through the Eyes of Jesus

Welcome and Merry Christmas!

Would you open your Bibles to…

Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Luke 2:2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.

Luke 2:3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.

Luke 2:4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,

Luke 2:5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

Luke 2:6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Pray

Intro

√ Christmas through the eyes of Jesus

Over the last few years I’ve used the weeks leading up to Christmas to look at some of the different people involved in the first Christmas and how the birth of Jesus touched their lives.

The faith of Mary

The courage of Joseph

The hope of the Wisemen

The contentment of Simeon

The witness of Anna

In each of those studies I’ve tried to put us in the sandals of these different people so that we might look at that first Christmas through their eyes.

To experience the wonder and marvel of that day!

To see through their eyes the perfect child of God!

To hold Him ~ God’s own Son in your hands!

To celebrate with the angelic host the birth of the Savior!

While it took a little imagination on our part to see through their eyes it wasn’t a huge stretch because Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, and even the Wisemen were men and woman just like us!

Their lives weren’t that different from ours so it doesn’t take a lot of work to get our minds around what they experienced that first Christmas.

But, there’s one person in the Christmas account whose experience on that first Christmas was so vastly different than anything in our own life that it’s going to take a bit more work to get our mind around it.

That person of course is Jesus, the One whom we celebrate on Christmas Day.

So, I’d like to look at Christmas through the eyes of Jesus this morning because His experience was unique and knowing something about it will help us appreciate all that He did to give us something to celebrate on the day we call Christmas!

The moment before conception (Luke 1:29-35)

Luke 1:29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Luke 1:30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.

Luke 1:32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

Luke 1:33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

√ The moment before conception

When we think about Christmas the picture in our mind is probably that of a humble stable, or cave, where we find Mary, Joseph and Jesus.

But that little baby is hardly representative of the Jesus who has existed throughout eternity!

We understand that Jesus’ life didn’t begin when He was born, that was just the beginning of His life as a human being.

So where was Jesus before the Immaculate Conception, and what was He doing?

Before that day, and before the day that He was supernaturally conceived in Mary’s womb, He lived in Heaven where He ruled all of Creation from eternity past!

So, to really understand how significant Christmas is we must look at who Jesus was before His birth!

John provides one glimpse of the glory that Jesus had in Heaven before taking on the body of a man with his description of Jesus in the Revelation…

Rev. 1:12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,

Rev. 1:13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.

Rev. 1:14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire;

Rev. 1:15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters;

Rev. 1:16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.

Rev. 1:17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.

Rev. 1:18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Wow - hardly the helpless child we celebrate at Christmas! Rather, we find Jesus as John describes Him as…

Dwelling in unapproachable light.

The object of the praise and worship of Heaven’s host.

Standing at the center of all that goes on in Heaven.

Possessing all power and authority.

Discerning the thoughts and intents of every heart!

And ready to reclaim the Earth and its inhabitants as His own!

This is Jesus not just after His Ascension, but also before He stepped down from Heaven and entered time and space as a newborn child…

…the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of the Universe ~ that’s who we worship and celebrate on Christmas Day!

√ Farewell to Heaven

Knowing just a bit about Jesus prior to the Incarnation we might wonder why He would leave all of that to come to this sin-tainted world as a helpless child?

Well, just so happens that the Bible provides us with the answer to that question in a little read scripture in the book of Hebrews.

There we get to eavesdrop on a conversation Jesus had with the Father just before stepping out of Heaven and into the tiny zygote that would become His human body.

Reading for the NLT…

Heb. 10:5 That is why Christ, when he came into the world, (note the timing) said,

“You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings.

But you have given me a body so that I may obey you.

Heb. 10:6 No, you were not pleased with animals burned on the altar

or with other offerings for sin.

Heb. 10:7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—

just as it is written about me in the Scriptures.’”

Heb. 10:8 Christ said, “You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them” (though they are required by the law of Moses).

Heb. 10:9 Then he added, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second.

Heb. 10:10 And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus’ motivation for giving up all of the benefits and blessings of Heaven was so that He could do the Father’s will.

What was the Father’s will? To reestablish a relationship with Mankind!

God created Man so that He could pour out all of His love upon us, and in turn enjoy our freewill offering of love.

He wanted an eternal relationship.

But, our sin separated us from Him and broke the relationship between God and Man.

So, God established a means of temporarily covering our sins through the sacrifice of another life ~ that of a cow, or a lamb, or a goat ~ all a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God.

One problem ~ the blood of those animals was also tainted by sin so while their sacrifice could cover sin…

…it could never do away with sin.

It takes untainted blood to sanitize a sinner and satisfy the perfect justice and righteous requirements of a holy God.

So, Jesus, the Son of God took upon Himself the mission of restoring relationship between God and Man by offering Himself as a perfect sinless sacrifice!

To do that He needed a human body for Spirit does not pierce, bruise or bleed!

Thus we hear Jesus say to the Father as He stands on the doorstep of Heaven preparing to descend to the earth…

“You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But you have given me a body so that I may obey you.” ~ vs. 5

Jesus understood exactly why He was leaving Heaven and going to earth.

From the moment He left Heaven He was headed for the Cross.

The Cross was no accident as some ill-informed would suggest, it was His destiny from eternity to give His life as a perfect Lamb to take away the sins of the world.

To accomplish that end He put on a body of flesh so that He might do the Father’s will.

John MacArthur captures the awe-inspiring wonder of God’s love for us writing…

“Here’s a side of the Christmas story that isn’t often told; those soft little hands, fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, were made so that nails might be driven through them.

Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross.

That sweet infant’s head with sparkling eyes and eager mouth was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it.

That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear.

Jesus was born to die.”

With all that in mind think of the courage it took for Jesus to take that step…

…from the comfort, glory, blessings, and eternal bliss of Heaven into the dark festering putrid sin-filled world of Mankind!

Ex. Airborne troops

Jesus made the greatest jump of all so that He might rescue us from sin.

The moment of birth (Luke 2:6-7)

Luke 2:6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

√ The moment of birth

As I read Luke’s short narrative of Jesus’ birth I can’t help wonder what that moment of transition was like for Him.

From the sweet, sparkling, radiant, pure air of Heaven to the…

…stifling, pungent odor of manure, smoke, and the sickly fragrance of decay woven into every breath.

From the adoration and worship of Angels to the…

…bewildered and awestruck looks on the faces of men and woman marred by the ravages of sin.

From the Throne from which He ruled universe to…

…a rough cut trough where animals fed!

Talk about culture shock! I’ve experienced culture shock a number of times as I’ve traveled around the world but it was nothing like Jesus must have experienced!

Ex. Uganda

By way of illustration my experience doesn’t even begin to compare to the radical experience that Jesus must have had when He opened His eyes that first Christmas morning…

“Quiet He lies, whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps, whose eyelids have not closed before. His breath, so slight it seems no breath at all, once ruffled the dark deeps to sprout a world…Breath, mouth, ears, eyes ~ He is curtailed. Who overflowed all skies, all years, older than eternity now He is new…

…Nailed to my poor planet, caught that I might be free, blind in Mary’s womb to know my darkness ended. Brought to this birth for me to be newborn”.

Nancy Shaw

Are you beginning to comprehend just how great a sacrifice Jesus made just to bring us Christmas morning.

We always think of the Cross as His greatest sacrifice, and surely it was…

…but it seems to me that most of us have never even considered the cost Jesus bore just to begin the path that led to the Cross.

Christmas to the eyes of Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Anna was so full of radiant beauty…

Angles

Shepherds

A Heavenly choir

Wisemen

Star

But what was so awe-inspiring to those who witnessed that first Christmas was only a pale vision of the real glory of Heaven to the eyes of the Christmas Child.

√ Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Yet, as one poet penned…

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”

To Jesus’ physical eyes that first Christmas must have been a sore disappointment when compared to Heaven, or even the Earth as He had originally made it…

…but Christmas through the spiritual eyes of Jesus was a thing of beauty.

For He was now on earth in the body prepared for Him by His Father to provide the sacrifice that would satisfy His Father’s righteousness and justice…

…and so provide all who would trust in Him forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Christmas then should remind us not just of His marvelous birth…

…but that Jesus left His home in Heaven so that by the sacrifice of His body and blood we might be restored to a relationship with God.

Christmas through the eyes of Jesus then is of a Father satisfied and a sinner saved!

Close

√ Christmas through the eyes of Jesus

Why would Jesus put Himself through all of that?

Simply because of His love for the Father and for us.

So then, as we celebrate Christmas this week let us not forget that standing near the cradle is the Cross.

When we embrace the Cross and trust in Jesus to forgive us and cleans us, then, in a spiritual sense, the miracle of Christmas happens again.

Not in Bethlehem but in our lives.

Jesus comes not to the manger, but through the door of our hearts.

Remember, if Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem and not in my heart, I would be lost forever.

There’s no better time to come to Jesus than Christmas!

Won’t you open your heart to Jesus today?