Merry Christmas, everybody. Are we good? I'm Chad. I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Cross Assembly. I love my Cross Assembly family. How many Cross Assembly family members do we have here tonight? Good to have you all.
This is this. If you're good, you'll go to heaven. If you're bad, you'll go to hell. God rewards good behavior when it comes to eternal life. A lot of people look at God and Him rewarding good behavior.
Like this little five-year-old kid I heard about one time. He sat down and he wrote a letter to Santa, telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. And then he said, no, I'm going to go to the main man.
I'm going to go to God Himself. So he started writing to God and he told God all the things he wanted for Christmas. And he said, God, I want you to give me these things because I've been good for six months. He thought about it for a second. He scratched out six months. He said, I've been good for two months. Thought about it again. Scratched it out and said, I've been good for two weeks.
Scratched that out. He put his pencil down. He went to the Christmas tree and underneath the Christmas tree was a nativity scene.
And he picked up the little figurine of the Virgin Mary, walked back over to his pad of paper, and he wrote this down. Dear God, if you ever want to see your mother again. Well, we have an attitude like that when it comes to eternal life. God, I want eternity. I deserve heaven because I've been good. And yet the Bible says there's none righteous, no, not one. Well, how do I have eternal life and go to heaven when I die?
Don't believe what I say. Believe what Jesus says. Jesus himself answered that question.
How do I have eternal life and go to heaven when I die? Jesus himself gave that answer and probably the most familiar Bible verse in the world. It's John 3 16. And in fact, those of you who know that verse say this with me for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's Jesus talking.
Let's talk about that for just a moment this evening. Jesus, first of all, says for God so loved the world. You know, the New Testament was written not in English. It was written in Greek and in the original Greek. It doesn't say for God so loved the world. Here's how it starts in the original great Greek so much God loved the world.
The beginning ever emphasizes the extent of God's love so much God loved the world. Now to Jesus's original listeners that would have astounded them because the Greco Roman world did not think of God or their gods as being loving gods. They were capricious. They could get angry.
They use human beings for their own pleasure. They were not good beings. Jews were astounded when Jesus said so much God loved the world because their God was kind of grumpy. He's in a perpetual bad mood.
And if you don't follow the rules, he'll strike you down. And yet Jesus comes on the scenes and he says, no, let me talk about the real God of the universe so much God loves this world. It's amazing because, look, God is holy. Heaven is a perfect place. There's no sin in heaven. There's no sin in God. Here's what's so amazing about God loving the world. He is holy and we are sinful.
And listen to me. Sin isn't just something you do. Sin is a condition. See, a lot of times we think, well, sin is just something maybe bad. I do. I take a little white lie.
No, no. The Bible says we are at our core sinful and yet the holy God of the universe still loves us. I heard a story one time of a missionary lady. She and her family had just gotten on the mission field and was right at Christmas time and she wanted her family on the mission field. It was in a very deep, dark, dangerous place. She wanted her family to enjoy their first Christmas.
So they'd just been there a few days. She went to the missionary house and was filthy. So she says, I'm going to clean this place up and get it decorated for Christmas. And she got a broom and she started sweeping the floors. And the more she swept the floor, the more the dust flew all over the place. She said, I can't clean these floors. So she got a mop and she put it in the water and she cleaned it. She said, the more I mop this floor, the dirtier it gets.
What's going on? Until somebody told her, these aren't dirty floors. These are dirt floors. We aren't just dirty people.
We are dirt people at our very core. And yet Jesus comes along and says, yeah, but God still loves this world. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, literally his one and only son. God looked at the human race and said, somebody's got to pay for their sin or they won't be able to spend eternity with him. They've sinned. Somebody's got to take their sin and pay for that sin. And God said, I'm going to send my only son into this world and all the sins that they've committed that would send them to hell, that would separate them from me forever, I will put on my son Jesus Christ. And when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he took our sin.
Are you with me in that church? It's an amazing thought. Jesus says, God so loved the world that he gave. Jesus was the first and ultimate Christmas present. You know, I always find it interesting the ways that men open Christmas presents versus women. You know, so you have this beautiful Christmas present. My wife is a master at decorating and wrapping presents. You've got this beautiful box with perfectly crisp corners.
You've got a beautiful bow on it. You got a card. Here's how women open that present. First of all, they actually read the card. They'll open it up and they'll look at the card and they start reading it. And then, you know, oh my God, I told myself I wasn't going to do this.
This is the most beautiful thing in the world. And they'll read this kind of stuff and then they'll kind of put it aside. And then have you ever noticed this? Here's how they open up the present. They'll very carefully lift the piece of tape off, take the other piece, and they'll carefully unwrap the thing. That's how women unwrap Christmas presents.
We men, we don't even read the card. We open it up, we shake it to see if there's a Bass Pro gift card. If there's not, we throw it off to the side, we tear it open, we get the gift, we like it, we go to the next gift, and we do the same thing. God sent His Son on Christmas, not in a beautifully wrapped package. You want to know how God sent His Son? Luke chapter 2 says this is how God sent His gift into the world. So it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
God so loved the world that He gave His Son. That's how He gave His Son, not in a beautifully wrapped package. And it says that God gave His Son wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Do you see that? Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, stepped out of heaven, and He becomes a little tiny baby, and they wrapped Him not in packaging but in swaddling clothes. Those are basically rags. Jesus isn't a rags to riches story. He is a riches to rags story. And they laid Him, do you see this, in a manger because His mom and dad, mom and stepdad, go to an inn trying to find a place to stay.
She's about to deliver the baby. The innkeeper says there's no room in here, and so they literally go to a barn. Do you know what a manger is? See, we glorify mangers. Do you know what a manger is? It's a dog bowl. It's a feeding bowl for dogs. They literally have their baby, and they put them in a feeding bowl. And you ever go to the state fair?
The people at the state fair, the livestock area, they do a great job cleaning up or whatever. I don't care how well you clean up. There's always excrement and urine there.
You can smell it, right? Imagine being in a barn delivering your baby with excrement and urine and cows and sheep. That's where Jesus Christ was born. You invited your good friends to your baby shower, friends and relatives, and they bought you nice stuff. Do you know who comes to Jesus' baby shower? Shepherds.
Those are the lowest people on the socioeconomic level. So when God loved this world, he said, I'm going to send my son wrapped in rags and being born in a barn. For God so loved the world that he gave this greatest gift ever of Jesus Christ. And then Jesus says this, that whosoever, do you see this, believes in him. See, many of you here tonight, you are relying on your good works to get you into heaven.
Well, I buy Girl Scout cookies and I volunteer for my kid's soccer league and I go to church and I got a title. The Bible says our righteousness and God's sight is like filthy rags. Me at my best is not good enough to get into heaven. Jesus says God gave his son that whosoever believes in him.
What does that mean? You believe means you realize you're a sinner and you turn from your sins and you realize that man died on the cross for me 2,000 years ago. All the sins that would send me to hell, he got the punishment for. He took my whooping, he took my beating, and now I turn from my sins and I just put my faith in Jesus. I can't save myself, but Jesus Christ can.
That's what it means to what Jesus calls believe in him. I heard a story one time of a man, he had an elderly father who had never flown an airplane before. The guy was terrified of flying. And the old man made, he's like, how could something so heavy fly through the air? So the old man, all of his life, had never flown in an airplane and it's about Christmas time and his son said, Dad, come on, would you please fly out to see me? And the dad blew him away. He said, you know, son, I want to take a risk.
I want to get on an airplane and I want to come see you. So the old man got on the airplane, flew out, his son went to pick him up at the airport. And he asked his dad, he said, Daddy, how'd the flight go? I know you were nervous. I know you didn't think something that big could fly through the air.
How could your flight go? And I love what the old man said. The old man said, well, the flight was all right, but I never did put my full weight down on that seat. To believe in Jesus means I put my full weight on him. I can't say myself, I'm not good enough to go to heaven, but he was good enough in my place. He died for my sins. He rose again and I'm putting my full weight on Jesus Christ. That's what it means to believe in him.
Whoever believeth in him, do you see what Jesus says next? Should not perish, but have everlasting life. Did you know everybody who lives will live into eternity? You will exist in some form, in some place into eternity. We send our kids to school and they learn about the origin of the species.
We ought to be more concerned about the destiny of the species. Where are you going to spend eternity? And some of you look at this and you scoff and you laugh. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in eternal life.
This stuff is fake. A.J. Ayer was one of those people who did not believe in eternal life.
A.J. Ayer was one of the most influential atheists of the 20th century. He was a professor of logic at the University College in London. He was professor of philosophy at Oxford.
He's kind of the intellectual father of atheists like Christopher Hitchens. A.J. Ayer said this one time.
He said, the idea that Jesus died on the cross for our sins is intellectually contemptible, morally outrageous. There is no God, is what A.J. Ayer said. And then years ago, A.J. Ayer had a heart attack and he was clinically dead for four minutes. And after those four minutes, medical technology was able to bring him back.
And after A.J. Ayer was brought back, he said, I experienced something in those four minutes that rattled me. He said to his attending physician, Dr. Jeremy George, in those four minutes of death, I saw a divine being. I'm going to have to revise all my books and all my opinions. He understood there was something after we die. Beloved, I want you to understand there is something after you die.
And I'm not trying to give you a downer. I'm not trying to kind of get our minds on death this Christmas season, but death is real. And from what Jesus, the man, just said right there, if you believe in him, you don't have to worry about dying. You don't have to worry about where you spent eternity.
I want you to listen to me. The Son of God was born so that we might be born again. The Son of God left his home in heaven so that we would have a home in heaven. And if you're here tonight and you don't know where you're going to spend eternity and you're asking me, how can I know that I know that I have eternal life, don't listen to me. Listen to Jesus Christ who said, For God so loved you that God gave his only begotten Son, that if you'll simply turn from your sins and believe in him, you will not perish but have everlasting life. And you don't have to wait.
Listen to me. You don't have to wait until you die to experience the benefits of eternal life. And Jesus is an interesting word right here.
Do you see this word? He says that whosoever believes in him. I don't care how messed up you are. I don't care what you've done, who you've done it with, how many times you've done it.
I don't care how far you've wandered. Jesus Christ calls you whosoever. There is hope for you in Jesus Christ and you can experience the blessings of forgiveness right now, the moment you believe in Jesus Christ. A brilliant educated young man was talking to a wise old man and his brilliant young man said to the old man, Sir, for a hundred dollars I'll teach you how to remember anything.
The old man's son said this, Son, I'll give you a thousand dollars if you'll teach me how to forget some things. And tonight you can turn from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Place your weight, your trust in Jesus Christ and God can forgive you of all your sins and give you eternal life when you die.
That was the greatest Christmas present ever and some of you this evening can unwrap that Christmas present called eternal life. I want you to bow with me right now. Now listen to me. Repeating mantras, it doesn't save anybody. I repeat these words, repeating words don't save you. Jesus saves you. But if tonight you're not certain that you have eternal life and that you're going to heaven when you die, words can't save you but Jesus can save you.
And I want you to figure out everybody else in this room tonight and ribbons and candy canes and Santa and Rudolph and all, just forget all about that this evening. Right now I want you to imagine it's just you and Jesus in this place. And I want you to say that you can say this out loud or you can say this in your heart. But if you're not certain that you have eternal life and that you're going to heaven when you die, based on what Jesus Christ just said in John 3 16, I want you to say this to Jesus right now. Jesus, I am a sinner. Jesus, I do not deserve to go to heaven. But I believe, Jesus, say this to him, you died for my sins. Say that to him. You died for my sins. You paid the price for my sin.
Say that to him. Now say this to Jesus. I believe you were buried. I believe three days later God raised you from the dead. You're alive right now, Jesus. I want you to say this to him.
This is so important. Say to him, Lord, I turn away from all my sin. I turn my back on my sin and I turn to you. Say this to Jesus.
Lord, take control of my life. Forgive me of all my sins. Take me to heaven when I die. Beloved in this dark, messed up world, there is the best news still around the world has ever heard, and that's that Jesus is alive. Jesus is well. Jesus can forgive you. Jesus still gives eternal life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
