Allen Jackson - God Sent His Son
Hey, I wanna take a moment to wish you a very merry Christmas. I even dressed up for Christmas morning. You know, so often we let the circumstances of our day determine our attitude. I wanna encourage you not to do that today. God has blessed us. He has called us out of darkness and welcomed us into the kingdom of his Son. The gifts under the tree, the people who may gather at our table this holiday or may not are not going to change the joy in our hearts. Let's thank God for his mercy. Enjoy the lesson. But most of all, merry Christmas.
We did five Christmas Eve services and I went through the birth story of Jesus in every one. I wanna talk about Jesus this morning but I need to get out of the barn. You know, the greatest Christmas gift we'll ever receive is the one God gave us. It may be the best-known verse in the New Testament that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten Son. Jesus changed everything, and I wanna take a few minutes with you and just celebrate the person of Jesus. He's changed my life. I do what I do today because of the person of Jesus. My whole life changed when that Matthew 16 became real to me where Jesus said, "I'll build my church". And I thought, "Well, what better could you do with your strength"?
Anything I can do to help advance that cause, I'm in. I didn't really like pastor as a job, I didn't like ministry as a profession. I mean, there wasn't, the ones I had known, it was not an inviting picture to me. But being an advocate for Jesus has become a consuming part of my life. And so we're gonna take a few minutes. I'll start in John 20 and verse 27. Hope you received an outline when you came in. If you didn't, maybe somebody would share. On Christmas morning, that would be like a really good idea. If you're joining us online, you can download it. They're available from the websites or the apps.
John 20, verse 27: "He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; and see my hands. And reach out your hand and put it into my side.'" I know it's another holiday, but never mind. "'Stop doubting and believe.'" You know, we all have to do that. Everybody in here battles doubt. You're not the only one. You're not the only one that has a brain or a heart that questions the Word of God, or that questions its authority over your life. And you'll have a choice to make. I have a choice to make: Am I gonna believe? I'm gonna have to override doubt and say, "I choose to believe".
"And Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!' Then Jesus told him, 'Because you've seen me, you have believed; but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" I brought you a Christmas blessing. Did you hear it? Jesus said if you believe in him and you haven't seen him in the physical body, you're blessed. So hear that. Jesus personally pronounced a blessing over your life. There may be some aspects of your life that aren't great. There may be some circumstances of your life that you're not particularly grateful for, but please receive Jesus's blessing. Our Lord himself blessed you because you've chosen to believe in him, but you didn't see him on the earth yet. We will. Woo-hoo!
Acts chapter 4 and verse 9. These are the disciples in Jerusalem. This is post Ascension. Now they're standing on Jesus's behalf. "'If we're being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and we're asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It's by the name of Jesus, the Messiah of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.' And when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus".
I have an objective. I want to spend so much time with Jesus that when remarkable things happen through my life, people go, "That makes no sense. He's not too clever, he's a lot country". And the only plausible explanation that they'll be able to land upon is, "Well, he sure did spend a lot of time with Jesus". Folks, if you'll spend time with Jesus, he will change the trajectory of your life. Please don't think of Jesus as an intrusion, as a burden, as a limit. He's more profitable than exercise and I believe in exercise. He's more beneficial to you than eating a good diet, and I believe in eating a good diet. We have diminished it. We've tried to figure out how little we can do with Jesus or spend with him and still get the benefit we want.
That is backwards thinking. The things that limit our lives don't limit him. The things that frighten us don't frighten him. The things that bring grief to us don't cause him to withdraw. I want to spend time with Jesus. He is the point of differentiation in our lives, both in time and for all eternity. You know, Jesus is the great dividing line in human history. If you take the world's great religions today, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, you could forge a document of agreement between those three where they would stand in unity, if you could remove Jesus. In fact, you will hear more and more of that in the years ahead. Attempts to diminish the person of Jesus.
You see, if they can deny his divinity, if they can swipe aside the incarnation, if they can make that Mary story irrelevant and tell you it's a myth, if they can say the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are more about an idea and a principle than they are physical history, then they can reduce Jesus to some shadowy figure that may have talked to crowds of people and done an occasional miracle, but he certainly was not the incarnate Son of God. What you need to know is that Jesus is not your Savior. So don't ever trade away those components. I can't explain the virgin birth but, fortunately, I don't have to. I can't explain the Resurrection, but I'm not called upon to do that. I'm just asked to believe it. And Jesus changes everything.
You know, even pagans believe in a god. There's no real victory in saying, "I believe in God". It's Jesus that is the stumbling point. Jesus makes God personal. Jesus brings a morality to our faith. He brings a sense of responsibility to our faith. He brings authority to our faith. He said, "You can use my name". Now that may not have a great deal of effect at Walmart, but in the spiritual realm it changes everything. Even the demons shudder at the name of Jesus. Remember what the demonized man said to the sons of the high priest? They said to the evil spirit, "You come out of him in the name of Jesus that Paul preaches".
Remember what the demon said? Said, "Well, Paul we know and Jesus we know, but just who do you think you are"? And they stripped, there were seven of 'em, and the one man stripped them and beat them, with some demonic assistance. There's authority in the name of Jesus. We've stepped away from that for too long. We've tried to ignore it. It's a little uncomfortable sometimes. I'm gonna take a few minutes. I think we can find some strength this Christmas in the words of Jesus and the people who spent time with him. I think there is encouragement for us in the experiences that they had. I like to read my Bible and try to imagine that I'm in the crowd, that I was spending the day with Peter while he's interacting with Jesus. I don't need to use any words. I'm pretty sure I could have been quiet for at least a few minutes.
In John 18, it's the story in the Garden of Gethsemane where they're coming to arrest Jesus. Most of us think of Peter as the one who denied the Lord, who almost drowned in the Sea of Galilee. We forget some things. He did walk on the lake. He's the only one other than Jesus that's done that at all. The rest of the clowns stayed in the boat. Peter climbed out. Well, in Gethsemane, when they came to arrest Jesus, it's John 18 and verse 10, it says: "Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. And Jesus commanded Peter, 'Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?'"
I love that passage. Peter's outmanned, he's outnumbered, he's outgunned. And he doesn't care. They've come for his friend. They have come for his friend. I don't think he's particularly even good with the sword, 'cause I think it's a pretty safe assumption that he wasn't aiming for the guy's ear, right? I mean, the best he could do was an ear? I'm not encouraging violence. I'm just telling you, Peter was in. There's none of the other names mentioned. Nobody else picked up a rock or broke a branch off an olive tree. Peter said, "I got this". But Jesus stopped him. Now, I'm sure in that moment, Peter didn't understand. I have come to learn that about following the Lord.
So oftentimes in the moment when I'm being asked to be obedient, I don't really understand the full context of what that means. I'm usually much smarter in hindsight. When I look back and I go, "Oh, the Lord really was leading me through that. I just thought it was miserable". Peter, put your sword away. If I needed help, I could call legions of angels and we'd smoke these men. Well, I wanna read you something in 1 Peter. This is written near the end of Peter's life. He's had a lot of life experience between Gethsemane and when he writes that Epistle.
And now he's gonna talk about his friend, but I would submit to you that it isn't theory to him. It's not something he learned in a classroom. He's thinking back to that day in Gethsemane. He's thinking back to following the crowd through the streets of Jerusalem while a broken Jesus barely able to carry a portion of the cross, struggles through the streets. He can hear Jesus saying to him, "Peter, if I needed to, I could call legions of angels". Listen to what he writes about his friend. "When they hurled their insults at him, he didn't retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; and by his wounds you have been healed".
That all of a sudden is no longer a theory to me. It's not even just biblical text. It's a personal expression from an eye witness. "When they beat him almost to death, he didn't say anything. When they insulted him, he soaked it up". But then Peter turns it and faces it towards us. He said, "He himself," it's a way of emphasizing. It seems redundant, that "he himself". It's a way of saying "He and only he, Jesus," bore our sins in his body on the tree. He did that for us. That's our Jesus. That's why we celebrate Christmas. That's why we blow up Amazon. That's why we're gonna eat all that food like gluttons today and then swear tomorrow we'll never eat again, while we eat leftovers.
I'll give you one more. With Jesus, there's a purpose to life. Look in John 8 and verse 42: "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I'm here. I haven't come on my own; but he sent me.'" I'll tell you what's missing in that. You don't hear Jesus saying, "This is my life and I'm gonna do what I want. I only get one time to be 30 and I'm gonna live 30s for Jesus". No, he said, "Look, this is not my life. God sent me". Luke 17, this is a fun scenario to me. "The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!'" He's just given 'em a lesson in obedience and forgiveness and they're struggling with it, and they said, "Increase our faith".
"'Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, "Come along now and sit down to eat"? Wouldn't he rather say, "Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; and after that you may eat and drink"? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you've done everything you were told to do, should say, "We are unworthy servants; and we have done our duty".'"
You know, something that's missing from so much of contemporary conversation is a sense of duty. We have a lot of conversations about what we're entitled to, what we have a right to, what we dream about. We don't really talk much about duty. We don't talk about younger people honoring older people. We don't talk about men honoring women. It's not chic any longer. It's "patriarchal". We've lost a sense of duty. We've stopped, you know, we've started asking far more frequently what can the country do for me than what can we do for the country. I mean, our priorities are way out of whack and you know why that's true? It's because the church has failed. It's the weakness of the church. It's our perspective. It's that God perspective in us that it's not my life, that I've been redeemed from an empty way of life, that I've been brought into the kingdom of God by my friend Jesus.
And therefore, the greatest use of my days and my strength and my intellect and my resources is to honor him. That's not just my privilege, it's my duty. And when I've spent myself in that cause, and when my days are gone and my strength has diminished, I don't deserve applause. I've simply fulfilled my duty. Somehow, our calibration's gotten off. We've gotta find the joy in serving the Lord again. If he didn't answer another prayer, if he didn't do another thing for us, if he didn't give us another gift, if he didn't provide another meal, if he didn't give us one more day of liberty, if he didn't do anything else for us except see to it that we could participate in his kingdom, we should serve him with joy for the rest of the run.
Now, I don't believe he's done. And I'm not recruiting for anything; it's Christmas morning, we're celebrating. But I want you to know that there's a duty towards the Lord. We don't earn our way into heaven. Nonsense. But the best expression of appreciation and gratitude for the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God is to serve the Lord with abandon. With abandon. And if I could make a suggestion this Christmas. You know, I know we don't always feel that, and I wanna give you a gift if you'll allow me. Start a new habit this Christmas. Tell the Lord the truth. If serving him does not seem inviting, tell him. He already knows. Say, "Lord, I've been a lot more interested in many other things than I have in serving you. I've seen that more as an obligation than a privilege. And I'm not even exactly sure how to fix it but I would like to honor you with my life. Would you help me"?
I've done that with the Lord at this point in a number of ways around a number of topics where I knew I didn't have inside of me the attitude or the inclination that I needed. I did it with my Bible at one point. You're supposed to read your Bible, right? Every Christian know that? You know you're supposed to read your Bible? I didn't. I mean, I'd try. I mean, way back and when I was in college, I'd get up in the morning and read my Bible. I'd go to sleep every morning with my Bible open. And when I was up half the night. But I'm trying and I finally thought, you know, "This is nuts. The Bible doesn't say, 'Sleep with your Bible.'"
And so I said, "Lord, I know that I'm supposed to read it but, with all due respect, it's a dull book. There's no pictures, the plot's confusing". I mean, I like to read but I was having trouble. I said, "If you will help me, I will read it". So I get the most fruitful, most alert time of my day, I blocked it out to read my Bible. It didn't happen in a day or a week or a month, but somewhere along the way it became the more fascinating thing I've ever read. It's still alive to me. And I could tell you place after place in my life, praying.
You say oh, prayer's a burden, you know, let the women pray. Let the people that can't do something pray. I said, "Lord, you said I should always pray and never give up. I need to pray. Lord, would you help me"? And I haven't, I don't think I've finished that course but I have come to value the privilege of prayer and proclamation, taking what God has said. But I think around this notion of duty, there's a place where in the church we've wandered a long way away from this. And I think it'd be a good place to talk to the Lord and say:
Lord, you know, I don't really have any sense that I have a duty towards you at all. I've been indoctrinated that my salvation is ironclad, that I said the prayer, got dipped in the pool, and I'm golden. Awaken me to what it would be like to lead a life that was aware of my responsibilities to you. Help me to live that out for my children and my grandchildren, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the people I work with. Make anybody that knows me know that I live with a sense of duty to Almighty God. No thanks is expected. No applause will be sought. I am honored to own my lane. You show me where that lane is, Lord. I'll be there.
Folks, one day you're gonna see Jesus. You will see Jesus. I gotta hush, I know I do. It's Christmas. I'll tell one story on myself. Talking about seeing Jesus. I was visiting my grandfather in the car. He didn't have a great education but he had tremendous faith. And I don't know what we were talking about but I remember asking him the question when he got to heaven who he wanted to talk to. I looked, I thought he was really close to heaven. I look back, he was probably younger than I am. But never mind. And I thought he would say, you know, he wanted to talk to Moses or he wanted to talk to Abraham Lincoln and we pulled up to a stop light 'cause he looked over at me. It's the only time in my life I ever remember him looking at me as if I didn't have enough sense to get in out of the rain. And he said, "Well, I wanna talk to Jesus".
I thought, Jesus. I never forgot it. One day we will see him. Do you know what a privilege that'll be? Folks, all the rest of this is in preparation for when we see the Lord. In Revelation chapter 1 when John, on the Lord's Day it says he's in the Spirit, and Jesus comes to see him. You remember John's response? He knows who it is. He heard the voice and he turned around and he describes in this very prophetic, brilliant language, but he understands it's his friend. Remember how he responded? Said, "I fell at his feet like I was dead". He put his hand on me and said, "I'm the living one. I was alive and I was dead, but I'm alive forevermore". You're gonna see Jesus.
Now, I don't know what challenges you've brought to Christmas, but I'm telling you next to Jesus they're small stuff. I'm not saying they're not real. I'm not diminishing them. I'm telling you we've gotta get closer to Jesus. I brought you a prayer but I'd rather pray for you, if you'll allow me. That's a great prayer. You could pray it today with your family. Christmas Day, you're allowed to have a prayer before you eat. You can say, "My pastor told me we should pray". Blame it on me. Let 'em get mad at me. Won't you stand with me? If you're at home Christmas morning, you can stand with us too. Put the coffee down. Wipe the coffee cake crumbs off your chin. We're gonna talk to the King. Ah, it's good to be with God's people. Have you a place where a God event in your life would be okay? Look at us, hallelujah.
Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the honor and the privilege we have of standing in the public place and lifting our hearts and voices in praise and thanksgiving to the King of kings. I thank you for your great mercy for us that you called us out of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your Son. And Lord Jesus, I thank you that you were willing to be born in a stable, to walk the hills of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem, to stand silently before those who accused you and to not retaliate. I thank you that in your love for us you bore our punishment that we might be forgiven. And we turn our faces to you today, filled with gratitude and thankfulness that our sins have been forgiven. I pray that you bring health and strength to our bodies, peace to our minds, hope to our souls, boldness where we have been frightened. I thank you for it.
And in the authority of Jesus's name, I speak to every expression of fear: you go in Jesus's name. Your power over us is broken. You're a liar and a thief, an intruder. You go now in Jesus's name. Lord, where there is need, I thank you that you'll bring abundance. Where we need wisdom, Father, that you will give us thoughts beyond ourselves. We praise you for it today. I thank you that we're not alone. I thank you that our name is known in heaven and that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth on our behalf. We praise you for it all, in Jesus's name, amen.
And in the authority of Jesus's name, I speak to every expression of fear: you go in Jesus's name. Your power over us is broken. You're a liar and a thief, an intruder. You go now in Jesus's name. Lord, where there is need, I thank you that you'll bring abundance. Where we need wisdom, Father, that you will give us thoughts beyond ourselves. We praise you for it today. I thank you that we're not alone. I thank you that our name is known in heaven and that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth on our behalf. We praise you for it all, in Jesus's name, amen.