Well, Christmas 2020 has a different feel about it, hasn't it? The sounds of joy to the world may sound rather hollow in the year of COVID-19, where there's been unemployment, where there's been a bitter political election, where there are racial and social divisions, unemployment furloughed and people laid off work, lockdowns and school closures.
It's been quite a year, hasn't it? For many people, 2020 has been a horrible year. I read recently that anxiety and insecurity and depression are at increasingly high levels among our children and students.
Now, think of that. When I was at school, I didn't come across anyone who seemed anxious or really depressed. We never really thought about these things, never heard these things. But now, among our children, among students, anxiety, worry, depression are increasing. We wonder what's happening to our culture that is impacting people like this. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death of adolescence after accidents. Isn't that a tragic reality? That some of our students, some of our adolescents find life so difficult, so painful, in fact, so unbearable that they think of taking their own lives and in some cases, they actually do that.
This, in the United States of America, this country which has been so blessed and we read that these things are increasing. And perhaps someone would say, well, the message of Christmas, the message of peace, can that still stand true today? Absolutely. In fact, it is in the toughest of times. It is in the darkest of times that the message of Christmas shines with the greatest brilliance. Yes, Christmas is peace. You heard as we read the Scripture from chapter 2 that the word of the angel to shepherds, that is the voice of God to us on that first Christmas was glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace. What a message. Coming to you and me from heaven to earth, a message of peace. God is offering peace to you.
That's Christmas. And with the coming of Jesus, the Bible says that people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. People living in darkness, people living in the very shadow of death and then comes the light as our Lord Jesus Christ comes to this world and so the message of Christmas is that Jesus, who is the light, dispels that darkness, dispels that hopelessness, gives hope to those who otherwise seem utterly despondent. I'm saying to today, whoever you are, follow Jesus. He is the light of the world.
He still says, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in the darkness but shall have the light of life. Do you feel the darkness?
The darkness has begun to invade you. Certainly seems to be invading our culture. One would have thought that COVID-19, with all of the deaths, with all of the confusion, that we as a nation would have been drawn closer to the Lord. We saw that after 9-11.
I don't think it's happened with COVID-19, has it? Instead, there is bitterness. There is anger among so many. And yet, into our world comes the light of Jesus, into the darkness of our fear and despair and hopelessness and gloom.
A light comes and this light will never, ever be extinguished. Down through the centuries, the church has always been attacked. In fact, before Jesus was born, there were efforts to kill Him. You remember how Herod tried to kill Him just after He was born, attacking our Lord Jesus Christ. They put Him on a cross. No room for Him.
Let's live without Him. And down through the centuries, this book, the Bible, has been attacked and it has been proven to be indestructible. And the message of the Gospel, in spite of the opposition, throughout the world, this message reverberates that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting light and life. Now someone says, this sounds very good, John, but who is Jesus that can dispel darkness and gloom?
And that sounds rather glib. What is so uniqueness about Jesus who can turn our darkness into light? That is a great question. We're going to answer it as we look at an ancient Scripture. It was written 750 years before the birth of Jesus, so it's almost 3,000 years old. And that's part of Holy Scripture. It's written by one of the prophets, one of the great prophets, Isaiah.
And he writes in Isaiah 9, verse 6, many of you know the words, here they are, for to us, I want you to get that, it is to us, take that personally to you, to me. To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. A prophecy 750 years before the birth of Messiah. And then into our world comes this one, a child is born, a son is given, and he's given this glorious fourfold name. The prophecy was to us, a child is born, and our Lord Jesus Christ enters this world as no one else has ever entered it.
A human mother but not a human father. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son is the prophecy fulfilled with Mary and our Lord, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. He enters this world in a unique way, conceived of a virgin. But yes, he is a unique child. He's a holy child.
He's a perfect child. But nonetheless, he is a child. The baby born in the manger was a human baby. The 12-year-old boy who stood in the temple and confounded the scholars of his day was a human boy. The man who called his disciples to follow him was truly human.
The person who died on the cross was truly human. The prophecy is that unto us a child is born. Unto us a child is born, but unto us a son is given. Not only is a child to be born, but a son is to be given. Who is giving this son? He's giving to us, but who is doing the giving?
At Bethlehem, I want you to get this. At Bethlehem, the Son of God, God the Son who eternally exists is now coming into the world and is being given to us by his Father, by God the Father. The child born that refers to his perfect humanity. The son given refers to his perfect deity.
In Jesus Christ, there's a perfect man and there's a perfect God. He is the man Christ Jesus. There is none like him, nor will there ever be anyone like him. He is unique in all of human history. There is none like our Lord Jesus Christ. And he comes from heaven and the Father sends him. The Father gives him in great love that God so loved the world that he gave, there it is, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should have everlasting life. John the Apostle says that God sent his Son into the world. Do you understand that?
He comes from heaven, the eternal God, into human history. Did you see the planets Saturn and Jupiter the other night? Huge planets. And we're on this tiny little planet, aren't we? In the cosmos. The planet earth is just like a speck of sand. It is to that world, the world that we live in.
Yes, the dark world, a world of gloom, a world of death, a world of conflict, a world of war and injustice. As well as we see human brilliance and creativity and the wonder of the gifts that God has given us, it is into that world that God gives his Son. A child is born, a son is given.
And he does this in love. This is the gift of God in love to you. And to us, a son is given.
I want you to grasp this. That the son, yes, the Son of God is given for us, for you. The perfect hands and the precious feet of this little baby in the manger would one day be pierced with nails on a cross. That tiny little body, snugly wrapped in the swaddling cloths, that little body, yes, would grow on one dark and dreadful day outside the city of Jerusalem at the place called the skull. That body would be ripped open by a Roman spear.
Why? The Father is giving his Son. He's giving his Son for you. More than that, he's giving his Son to die for you. The death that you deserve because of your sin, my Lord Jesus Christ comes and he dies in the place of John Monroe.
A child is born, a son is given for our salvation. I think very quickly of the fourfold name that is given to him. His name shall be called first Wonderful Counselor. Wonderful refers to things beyond human understanding.
They're wonderful things. This one, the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, is a wonderful counselor. Many of you have gone for counsel, whether to a pastor or a teacher, a psychologist, a psychiatrist. You've gone to people for counsel. People come to me as a pastor and ask for counsel and guidance and I give the best I can, but sometimes the problem is too deep.
I just don't know what to do other than pray for the people. But think of knowing this one who is the Wonderful Counselor. Why do we lack peace? Why are we sometimes anxious? Because we don't know what to do in difficult circumstances and we don't know what's going to happen in the future and that causes anxiety.
That causes a lack of peace. Can I remind you that God made you, God knows all about you. You know your past, you know your present, you don't know your future. But God not only knows your past better than you do, you've forgotten some of it. He knows your present condition and He knows what's going to happen tomorrow. He knows what's going to happen in 10 years, in 20 years to you. He knows when you're going to die. He knows everything about your future.
So wouldn't it be wise to follow the light of the world? The one who is the Wonderful Counselor and gives wisdom, perfect wisdom. Trust this Wonderful Counselor. Trust Jesus who gives wisdom. Not only is He the Wonderful Counselor, He's the Mighty God.
Yes, Jesus is God. Trust the Mighty God who gives power, gives strength. All of us face circumstances where we just don't know what to do. A health crisis, a problem at work, a relationship problem, a struggle within our family, some difficult situation.
That's part of human experience, isn't it? And we find ourselves in these situations and we sometimes lack power. We feel helpless, we feel weak, we feel powerless.
What do we do? We're to trust God. He is the Mighty God. Not only is Jesus all wise, He's all powerful. Paul, once an opponent of the Christian faith, as a convert to Christianity says this in one of his writings, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He had proved a point that this one he is following is the Mighty God. And as the Mighty God, he can do all things. What do you see as a big problem God can solve in a minute, a second? Why are you worrying about the future? It's in the hands of Almighty God.
Trust Him. Paul says if God is for us, who can stand against us? As you go through life, you know if you're following Jesus Christ that you're on the side of God.
And if you're on the side of God, who can oppose you? Well, as a wee boy at school, about eight or nine, I was at a particular school, and I was just about all boys that did Scotland in those days. Any time we could play football, soccer, we did it. Before school, during the recess after it, and it was, this was not organized other than boys getting together and playing against each other. We'd put down two jackets if there weren't goalposts, and we would play whatever there was.
Use a door as a goal, whatever it was. And however number of boys there were, we would select two captains, and we'd pick our team. And it became pretty obvious that these boys who thought they were very good at soccer, and we were very good because we played so often, we should be good. There was one boy who was, this is difficult for you to believe, he could play even better than I could. His name was Alan Campbell. And Alan Campbell, we didn't know then as wee boys, but Alan Campbell was going to become a professional soccer player. In fact, he was going to play for the national team for Scotland of the under-21s.
And even as a little boy, he just had that ability that we all longed for. And so when we were picking sides, you can guess what happened. If I was a captain of the team and I got the first pick, I picked Alan Campbell. If I didn't get the first pick and the other captain picked Alan Campbell, I knew that we were in for a difficult game.
What was the point? The point was this, that Alan Campbell was so good that if he was on your side, you're almost certain to win. Do you know that God is on our side? If I'm following the light of the world, if I'm following Jesus Christ, I have this assurance that the mighty God, the God of the universe, He will look after me, He's all power. And as I ask Him for His power and His blessing to do His will, He will give me that so that I can say like Paul I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Therefore, trust Him. This Jesus, He's a wonderful counselor. He's the mighty God. Third, He is the everlasting Father. The everlasting Father who cares for us. Now, Jesus is not God the Father in the Trinitarian sense. There is God the Father, God the Son and Holy Spirit.
These are distinct persons within the one Godhead. No, but Jesus is a Father in relationship to His children. What does a Father do? We've got many Fathers here, what do you do with your children? You take care of them. You watch over them.
Do you love them? And most Fathers are quite good but no Father is perfect. In fact, there are some Fathers that can be unreliable, some Fathers can be fickle, some Fathers even can be abusive to their children. But what's my relationship with Jesus? He's my everlasting Father. He always cares for His children.
He's utterly dependable. And as I follow Jesus Christ, the light of the world, I'm assured that He will give me this peace because He is going to take care of me and bring me comfort. In the song Mary Did You Know, there was a line about the Lord stilling the storm. Remember the scene when He's with the disciples in the Sea of Galilee. There's a tremendous storm.
The weather's coming into the boat. The men are frightened. They think they're going to die. And they say to Jesus, do you not care that we perish? Of course He cares.
He stands up. Peace be still. And there's a great calm.
Would you like to follow someone like that? Who in the midst of the storm manifests His care and His love for you. In fact, the Bible says that we're loved with an everlasting love. A love which will not let us go. A love which we will have for all of life through death and into life eternal. Nothing in the whole universe can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He is the everlasting Father. So Peter says, what are you going to do with your anxieties? What are you going to do with your worry? You're going to cast them on Him.
Why? Because He cares for you. Why would you bring a problem to someone who doesn't care?
You don't do that. No, when you have a problem, when you're anxious, you share it with someone who loves you and who cares for you. Here is our Lord Jesus Christ who always cares for you, who always loves you. That's peace, isn't it? Following Jesus who is the wonderful counselor. Following Jesus who is the mighty God, that's peace. Following Jesus who is the everlasting Father and then the wonderful title, He is the Prince of Peace. Think of that.
That my Lord Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and gives peace and camp. What a wonderful term. We live in a world of conflict, don't we? We've seen it this past year in all kinds of levels. We see it nationally, we see it in our city, we see it in the workplace, we see it in homes. We see it in our own hearts, don't we? Unrest, anxiety. Our world is full of name calling, isn't it? Some of you very wisely limit your exposure to social media.
I think people are vitriolic, name calling. We see hatred into that world. I hope that's not in your home. I hope that's not in your heart.
I hope there is peace. Tomorrow, millions of people are going to gather for Christmas dinner. Here in the United States, Canada, throughout the world, United Kingdom and Europe, people will gather for a Christmas meal for celebration and in many cases, the family is alienated. Some brother won't speak to his sister. Some uncle is alienated from someone else and it's awkward, isn't it?
In fact, some people just don't invite people. We need peace in our home. You're going to trust the Lord Jesus and allow His peace to come into your heart. Left to ourselves, we're not at peace with God. We rebel against God. We marginalize God. We use God. We take God for granted. We want God in the emergency but we want to live our own lives. You think that's the way of peace? Do you think you're smarter than God? You say, well, how does the Lord Jesus accomplish peace?
That's why He came. There's a holy God and there's sinful people. There's the light of God and there's a darkness of our hearts.
Not just out there but in here. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father sends His Son. The child is born, the Son is given, coming into our world, becoming man, the word becoming flesh, being with us, Emmanuel God with us, showing us His love, teaching us, but then most of all dying as a substitute for the sinner, for you and for me. He is the great mediator. He is the great peacemaker between a holy God and sinful people. The Bible refers to the peace of His cross, the blood of His cross. It's through His death and His glorious resurrection that we can be reconciled to God, that there can be peace between us and God. Paul says being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you want to be at peace with God? One day you're going to meet God. Are you going to be at peace with God? How can your sins be forgiven? How can you receive eternal life? Through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you done that? That's the way of peace in our world of unrest and confusion and division. What are you going to do?
We face a choice, don't we? You say, well I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to live my life on my own terms and my own desires, follow the culture, follow your friends, do what everyone else is doing, or I'm going to be an individual. No one's going to tell me what to do.
OK, you can do that. That is not the way of peace. That's a way of destruction.
That's a way that ends down, down, down. The way of blessing is humility. The way of blessing is to turn from your sin and to understand you can save yourself and to thank God for His magnificent gift in our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you expect to get to heaven? What's your plan to get from here to heaven?
How do you think your sins are going to be forgiven? Earlier this week, I read the report that Buddha Air, which is based in Nepal, made a blunder. A plane took passengers to the wrong airport. The flight left the capital Kathmandu.
I've had the privilege of being there. And it was meant to fly south to a city called Janakpur, but it flew north to Pokhara. Instead of going south, the pilot went northwest and landed in another city. It's a pretty bad blunder, isn't it, for a pilot. And an executive officer at Buddha Air gave a statement I thought was brilliant. He said that there was a mix-up.
You got it. Your plane went to the wrong place. He said the mix-up was caused by two factors.
I thought, I wonder what it was. One, lapses in communication. Secondly, failure to follow detailed standard operation procedures. They went to the wrong destination. Why?
Failure of communication and a failure to follow the standard operating procedures. I thought, I thought that's a metaphor of people's lives. They want their sins forgiven. They want peace.
They want joy. They want to go to heaven when they die, but they're not listening to the communication from God. Has God communicated? Has God told you the way?
Of course He is. And He points you to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father apart from me.
That's the communication from heaven to earth. You need to listen and you need to obey it. You need to follow the operating procedures found in the Scriptures that God has given us His Word. God has told us the way.
I'm saying to you this Christmas, follow the operating procedures. Follow Jesus, the light of the world. Your answer to peace does not lie within yourself. You don't have a key that can unlock that peace. No, you need, this is where humility is absolutely essential, you need supernatural help. You need help from above.
And that's what happened. That's what Christmas is about, that God has come to us. It's not that we love God. It's not that we made our way to God somehow.
No, God comes to us to deliver us, to save us through sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's a wonderful counselor. He's the mighty God. He's the everlasting Father. He's the Prince of Peace. I want you to receive His peace.
I want you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ personally, the Son of God. You do that, you turn from your darkness. This candle symbolizes that the light has come in Jesus. The Bible says that the light has come and the darkness will not overcome it. There is no force in the whole universe that can extinguish the light of the Gospel.
People have tried, people continue to try. This light of the Gospel, the light of Jesus Christ shines. It is a supernatural light. It's a light from heaven to earth. And Jesus still says, I'm the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. I want to live in the light of life. I want to follow Jesus. I want Him to be my wonderful counselor.
He's a mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. We need, don't we, to turn from the darkness of our hatred and of our bitterness. Some of you have allowed that bitterness to come into your heart. Strife. Angry. Angry at the government. Angry at the president. Angry at the president-elect. Angry at everyone. Bitterness. Bitterness in your family. Come to Jesus and He will help you to be a peacemaker.
A reconciler. I'm asking you to follow Jesus, the light of the world. I'm going to pray. I'm going to give you an opportunity as I pray to receive this gift of salvation, this forgiveness of your sins. To receive the wisdom of God, the power of God, the comfort of God, the peace of God.
Yes, Christmas is peace. The Bible says very clearly, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. That's the promise.
Trust Him. Receive Him. Let me pray with you and if you wish to receive Christ as your Savior, you pray from your heart with this. Not just the words, but from the depth of your being that you call out to God to save you. Eternal God, I thank you that you've given us this gift of Jesus.
You gave your Son because you so loved me. I'm a sinful person of darkness. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying on the cross, taking my sin, being my substitute. I turn from my sin now and receive you as my Savior. Come into my heart, transform my life. Help me to follow Jesus, the light of the world, and to display that light to others. I thank you that you rose from the dead as the Son of God and are alive. Come and save me and cleanse me. In Christ's name, Amen.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-31 02:48:34 / 2023-12-31 02:58:56 / 10