David Jeremiah - What Christmas Meant to Jesus
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Back in 1824, a 12-year-old boy watched helplessly as his father was taken to the March Chelsea prison in London for unpaid debts. He was crushed. School ended, and this young boy was sent to work at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse, where he spent 10 hours every day pasting labels on pots of black shoe polish for six shillings a week. He said it was the most humiliating time of his life and a time he never forgot, no matter what happened.
In his 20s, he became a journalist, and then he became a sensation. Sketches by Bos in the Pwick papers made him famous almost overnight. Over the next decade came Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Bleak House—stories packed with street urchins, debtors, and the overlooked poor. Crowds would come to halls just to listen to him read his books. Who was he? He was Charles Dickens. Christmas became the season of his life. In 1843, he wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks, transforming Christmas into a celebration of generosity and goodwill. He followed that with four more Christmas books, each circling the same themes.
Dickens said, «I have always thought of Christmas as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time, and the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.» I think we all sense that, don’t we? There’s something special about this season. We began to pick it up when we noticed that the lights are going up early, and there’s just something special. You can almost feel it in the air. Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people, and Dickens captured one version of it well.
But I wonder, have you ever asked yourself or even thought about the fact of Christmas and what it meant to Jesus Christ? Each year during this season, we open our Bibles and rediscover the events and stories of the first Christmas. Through the lives of our favorite nativity characters, we experience the birth of Christ through the lives of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men. But we never seem to take the time to view Christmas through the eyes of Jesus, whose birthday it is. What did Christmas mean to him? His perspective is available in the Bible, believe it or not. If we don’t know what it is, it’s simply because we haven’t studied it and read it, and we should.
With beautiful simplicity, the Bible communicates to us the heart and mind of God in human language and tells us what Christmas meant to Christ. Here’s a little bit of Christmas trivia for you. If you want to learn about the birth of Christ, you will find information about it in Matthew 2, in Luke 2, in Titus 2, in Hebrews 2, and today in Philippians 2. «Two» is the key word. Many scholars agree that the verses here in Philippians are a hymn or a poem which Paul wrote himself or included here as an appropriate illustration. While the beauty of the incarnation of our Savior is eloquently expressed in this paragraph, we must remember that it was not given as a doctrinal treatise but as an illustration of the mind of Christ.
I want to unfold this passage, Philippians 2:6-11. We’ll put the verses on the screen. I want you to see, most of all, that what I’m going to say is right from the word of God. I’m not adding anything or subtracting anything, but I want us to see together what Christmas meant through the eyes of the Lord when he came to this earth to be our Savior. First of all, Christmas to Christ meant selflessness. It says in verse six of Philippians 2, «Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.» Ladies and gentlemen, if anyone ever had the right to be self-centered, it was Jesus Christ. The word here used for «being» means that he lived before he came at Bethlehem.
If we are to understand the greatness of his sacrifice, we must grasp that he did not begin his life when he was born at Bethlehem. There never was a time when Jesus was not, and there never will be a time when he ceases to be. He is the eternal Son of God. When he came to Bethlehem, he stepped out of heaven to this earth, maintaining everything about him that was God because he was God. The Bible says that he came in the form of God. That means it wasn’t just the outer appearance of God; it was the inner existence of God. Jesus was not simply like God; he was God. He was the very nature and substance of God. All that God is, Jesus Christ was and is and ever will be.
On one occasion in his life, someone asked him, «Show us the Father.» What did Jesus say? He said, «If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.» He was God in the flesh. Once in a while, someone will say to me—not often, but once in a while—that the Bible does not teach that Jesus is God, that we have made that up to make the story more enjoyable for us. Most people do not have a problem with Jesus being a good man, but when you say he’s God, you have drawn the line, and they do not understand and refuse to believe it. They want to accept the idea that Jesus in the Bible is never referred to as God.
So I’d like to help you with that a little bit this morning. Colossians 1:15 says, «He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.» First Timothy 3:16 says, «And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.» Hebrews 1 says, «God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.»
Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus is God the Son. If we don’t understand that, we can’t understand Christmas, and we’re wasting our time. Because if he is not who he claimed to be, he could not do what he claimed to do. When the text says that Christ did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, it simply means that he did not grab hold of this selfishly. He did not take his Godhead and use it in any way other than it should have been used. He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. Because Jesus was God, he was not compelled to grasp the equality with God. He didn’t need to do that; he was God. Status wasn’t important to Jesus, but selflessness was. While we may not fully understand all of this in our finite minds—I know I can’t—Christ surrendered what he loved in order to serve those whom he loved when he came to this earth.
Please do not miss your role in all of this. Jesus made a choice to be selfless. If the only person in the world who ever had the right to assert his rights would wave them, you and I could do the same. Sometimes we do have to waive our rights and be selfless. So the first thing about Christmas from the perspective of Christ is that it meant he came as the selfless Son of God to be one of us. The Bible says he surrendered but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Jesus was, by his very nature, God, but the text says he made himself of no reputation. Some versions translate this as «he emptied himself.» J.B. Phillips translates the phrase this way: «He stripped himself of all privilege.»
Now, here’s where a lot of people get off the rails. When Jesus came to this earth, he did not set aside his deity. If Jesus set aside his deity and was not God while he was here, then he could not save us. One man cannot save the whole world by his death; only God can do that. What does it mean when it says that he emptied himself or was of no reputation? I want to get theological with you for a moment. Here’s a definition I learned many years ago that covers the whole subject. It’s kind of wordy, but listen to it anyway.
The self-emptying of Christ means this: that Jesus divested himself of the independent use of his attributes. He never gave his attributes away, but he voluntarily chose not to use them. During the first 30 years of his life, you will never see Jesus using one of his attributes as God to change anything. After his baptism, yes, he did. The Bible says even at the cross, he could have called angels to come and rescue him. But did he do it? No. He voluntarily divested himself of the independent use of his attributes so that he could identify with us by being like us. Many have attempted to say that when Christ came to this earth, he laid aside his deity. He did not. Nor did he lay aside any of his attributes. Everything he was in heaven, he was on earth. The most accurate way to define the self-emptying of Jesus is that he voluntarily surrendered the independent exercise of his divine attributes.
Thirdly, Christmas means that Christ came to serve. The part of the Christmas story that is so evidently portrayed in the life of Jesus is the life of service.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think this is so important based on what we’ve been doing over these last few weeks as we’ve served others. Do you know most of us don’t know the names of anyone we have helped? I don’t know a single person who got a turkey. I do not know the name of one person. Maybe you’re here today, and some of you got one, but I am so glad we served. I don’t know anybody who’s going to get a Christmas box. There are people all over the world whose names we will never know until we get to heaven. I don’t know anybody who’s in prison who we sent Christmas cards to this week from this church. What does it mean to celebrate Christmas like Christ celebrated Christmas? It means to serve. It means to reach out, to help others, and to find a way to wrap your arms around somebody who may need you, whom you haven’t talked to for a long time, and let them know that God loves them and Christ died for them.
Philippians 2:7 says that when he came to this earth, Jesus Christ took the form of a bondservant. One of the most overlooked aspects of his coming to the earth is that Jesus limited his access in a way that is just overwhelming to me. He took the form of a bondservant and came in the likeness of men. He gave up his unbounded freedom, his universal presence, and poured himself into humanity through the birth canal of a woman and was made like us in the likeness of men. His servanthood was authentic, and he himself claimed that was his purpose. He said in Luke 22:27, «I am among you as the one who serves.»
In Matthew 20:28, it says, «The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.» The one dynamic that you and I see as we examine the life of our Lord is not that many people served him, but that he served many people. We see the ultimate picture of this in John 13 when he puts on the clothing of a servant and ministers to his own disciples, washing their dirty feet. He took upon himself the form of a servant. At Christmas, Christ means service; he came to serve. If we want to celebrate Christmas in the spirit of Christ, it means that we will find a way to serve.
Years ago, Samuel Bringle graduated from seminary as the leading orator in his class. Upon graduation, he was called to the pulpit of the most prestigious church in his denomination. He was acclaimed by all who knew him as the next great preacher, the bright and shining star on the horizon. But his heart, in that first year of ministry, was not satisfied. There was an emptiness he could not explain. So, he resigned his position, sailed to London, and offered his services to General William Booth, who was the head of the Salvation Army. They sent him away to the training center, and his first assignment was to clean the boots of all the other men who were there. In his diary, he wrote, «Lord, if you could take a towel and wash the disciples' dirty feet, then I can take a brush and clean the cadets' dirty boots.» He got it—that the ministry of Christmas is service. That’s what Jesus came to show us.
Bringle had caught just a picture of that message. Christmas to Christ meant service; he took upon himself the form of a servant. Follow him through his life. Everything you see about him is in that mode. He’s not claiming many servants unto himself, but he’s becoming a servant to many others. Number four, Christmas not only meant selflessness, surrender, and service, but Christmas to Christ meant submission. It says here, «And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.» Paul’s statement here about the incarnation is that Jesus was found in appearance as a man. He came as a real man. Sometimes people think he was like Superman or in some special category of humanity.
Max Lucado, my friend, wrote this: «The omnipotent in one instant made himself breakable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo, and he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. God as a fetus—holiness sleeping in a womb. The creator of life being created. God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen. He stretched against the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother.»
C. S. Lewis tried to help us when he wrote these words: «The second person in God, the Son, became human himself. He was born into the world as an actual man, a real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many stone. The eternal being who knows everything and who created the whole universe became not only a man but a baby, and before that, a fetus inside a woman’s body. If you want to get the hang of it,» said Lewis, «think how you would like to become a slug or a crab.»
Many years ago, the Duke of Windsor was the Prince of Wales. One day, he left Buckingham Palace and journeyed west into the coal mining country. He put on a miner’s cap and went down into the dingy tunnels to see for himself the conditions under which men toiled in a difficult and dangerous branch of the British industry. As a member of the royal family in the mine, he was as much a prince as he was in the palace. But while his essential quality of royalty was unchanged, there was no longer an equality of experience. He had consented to enter into the experiences of the coal miners, experiences that never came to him amid all the luxuries and immunities of the palace.
That’s exactly what this passage is telling us about the Lord Jesus. When he came down to this earth, he was never less the Lord of glory than he was in the presence of the Father. Yet he came to participate in the experiences of humanity. As the Prince of Wales was in the mine, still the Prince of Wales, but involved in a different experience, so the Lord of glory is in the experience of humanity, submitting himself to the Father, yet still the Lord and still experiencing that which you and I go through every day as human beings. The Bible says he tasted flesh; he became one of us: selflessness, surrender, submission, and sacrifice.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. One of the simple things about Christmas that we should never forget is that it is entirely related to Easter. Christmas and Easter go together. In fact, someday, someone is going to make a combined Christmas-Easter card so you can cover them both with one stone. Just send out one card for both Christmas and Easter.
You see, just like in communion, when you take the bread, you are remembering the humanity of Christ, which began at Bethlehem; and when you take the cup, you’re remembering the death of Christ, which we celebrate at the resurrection on Easter. So Christmas and Easter belong together. As uncomfortable as it might seem, the Scriptures remind us that, in one sense, Christmas is about death. Jesus, you see, was born to die. Of all the people you will ever read about in history, whether secular or sacred, you will find very few about whom it is said that the only reason he came to be born was so that he could die. But that’s why Jesus came.
When our Lord’s death is described by the phrase «even the death of the cross,» we are reminded of the terrible punishment that he endured on our behalf. Crucifixion was reserved for non-Romans and terrible criminals—neither of which Jesus was. A person who was crucified died a thousand times before actually dying, and for Christ, it was all of that physical suffering and much more. From below, Satan and all of his emissaries assailed him. From around him, men heaped scorn upon him. From above, God dropped upon him the power of darkness, a symbol of the curse. From within, there arose the bitter cry, «My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?» On the cross, Jesus experienced the dark separation from God that you and I deserve. In the most beautiful picture of sacrificial love ever painted, he took our place and died the death that we deserve.
This week, I read a wonderful statement about God’s love shown to us on the cross. Jesus did not have to die despite God’s love; he had to die because of God’s love. It had to be this way because all life-changing love is substitutionary sacrifice. These are the words of Tim Keller. He said, «Think about it. If you love a person whose life is all put together and has no major needs, it costs you nothing. If you know some people like that, you should go and make friends with them because they won’t cost you very much. You can be their friend without ever having to worry. But if you ever try to love somebody who has needs—somebody who’s in trouble or who is persecuted or emotionally wounded—it’s going to cost you,» said Keller. «You can’t love them without taking a hit yourself. A transfer of some kind is required so that somehow their troubles, their problems transfer to you. The only way to love them is through substitutionary sacrifice.»
Dr. John Henry Jowett said that ministry that costs us nothing accomplishes nothing. If there is to be any blessing in what we do, there’s got to be some bleeding in what we do. Most people that you and I know—and probably most of us here—we want the product without the process. We want the end result without the requirements, and that is never going to work. This same Henry Jowett tells the story in one of his books of a British festival he attended one time. He was a missionary going from booth to booth examining the wares of the various booths at the festival, and there was a religious booth that had a sign advertising its wares: «Cheap crosses for sale.» Dr. Jowett said he couldn’t get that thought out of his mind because it seemed as if that’s what most Christians he knew were looking for: cheap crosses. Something I can do for God that costs me nothing; something I can be involved in serving my Lord that doesn’t demand anything from me. Trying to steal the blessing without the bleeding.
I want to say to you that Jesus Christ teaches us that in our service to others, there will always be sacrifice. It’s a strange and difficult lesson that we learn when we view Christmas from the perspective of Christ. In a season that can give rise to the opposite of all these virtues we’ve been talking about, Christ teaches us that Christmas is selflessness, surrender, service, submission, and sacrifice. But our passage in Philippians doesn’t end by pointing us backward to the first Christmas. It points us forward to the next one: the second coming of Christ. For verse 9 says, «Therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.»
In this great doctrinal passage, we are given a complete history of Christ. We have learned of his pre-existence—he lived before he came at Bethlehem—his incarnation when he became flesh, his humiliation at the cross, his crucifixion, and now his ascension and exaltation. The ascension was the beginning of his exaltation, for Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Paul looked beyond that day, however, to a future day when every knee would be made to bow before Christ. This one who humbled himself and came to this earth will one day be exalted, and every knee will bow—every knee above the earth, on the earth, and under the earth. At the mere mention of his name, everyone above the earth will bow, including all the good angels and all the redeemed who have died before Christ returns. Everyone on earth will bow, including all human beings. Everyone under the earth will bow, including all the inhabitants of hell and all the evil angels. Everyone will bow the knee to this one whose birthday we celebrate.
It’s almost amazing to look at his beginning in his glory with the Father in heaven to see his condescension to come down here to be one of us. What he had to give up to become a person, and then to see him exalted again to the Father—the round trip from heaven to earth. The Bible speaks of it so clearly. At the moment of his exaltation, the cycle will be completed. The one who was humiliated will be exalted; the one who was brought low will be raised up by his life. Jesus teaches us a very important lesson: Here it is—the way up is the way down. The way up is the way down. Peter put it this way: «Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.» James said, «Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.» The way you get exalted is not by trying to exalt yourself. The way you get exalted is through your humility, serving others, and God will lift you up.
I am an absolute, totally dedicated Ohio State football fan. I grew up in Ohio back in the days of Woody Hayes. I have watched Ohio State football for years, and you can imagine the grief I’ve been through over the last five years as Michigan has continued to beat Ohio State—until yesterday. Now, this is not a pep rally here, but I couldn’t get over the fact that if you watched last year’s game, an incredible fight broke out. Michigan won, and they tried to take their flag and put it in the ground in the middle of Ohio State Stadium, and the Ohio State players didn’t like that. It was really ugly; it was not a good scene for college football.
This year, Ohio State won, and Coach Day was walking off the field. Someone asked him about it, and he said this: «We are going to win with humility.» That doesn’t show up very often in our culture. Humility is almost a lost art—to accomplish something great and then to walk off the field with your head bowed in humility. I mean, if they can do that in college football, we can do it in church. Amen? We can live like that!
This week, I read a story about a preacher who was finishing his sermon preparation on Saturday afternoon. His little daughter came in and said, «Daddy, can we play?» He said, «Honey, I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of preparing this sermon, and I can play in about an hour.» She said, «Okay, when you’re finished, Daddy, I’m going to give you a great big hug.» He said, «Thank you, honey.» She went to the door, and then she did a U-turn, came back, and gave him a chiropractic, bone-breaking hug.
The father said to his daughter, «Darling, you said you were going to give me a hug after I finished.» She said, «Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to.» I think one meaning of Christmas is that God wants us to know what we have to look forward to. If the first Christmas, with all of the issues of humanity mixed in, is as glorious as it is—and now celebrated all over the world, even by those who have no clue what it means—what in the world will the second Christmas be like when he comes, and every knee bows, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father? Hallelujah!
So that’s what Christmas meant to Jesus. I want to tell you something that’s really unique, and if you don’t let me tell you about it, you’ll miss it. I missed it for a lot of years before I really understood it. This passage we have just studied, which is one of the most famous passages in the Bible, is called the Kenosis passage from the word «keno,» which means emptying. It’s a passage about Jesus coming to this world, which we’ve just discussed. But ladies and gentlemen, it was not put in the Bible so that we would have a clear demonstration of the life of Christ.
I want to give you the first words that introduce the passage. Are you ready for this? Here it is: «Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.» Then all the things we have talked about come into play; Paul said, «I want you to know what it’s like to have the mind of Christ.» The mind of Christ is selfless, sacrificial, submissive, and serving.
Then he says, «Let this mind-that you will see in this passage about Christ — become your mind and my mind, your attitude and my attitude.» So as we walk about during this season, we reflect the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not about us; it’s not about all that we get. It’s about what we do to serve others and to make a difference in the lives of those who, apart from us, may never even know Christmas exists. So when you send your cards, when you wrap your gifts, when you fill your boxes, when you give money for the turkeys, and when you deliver them around the county, you are doing Christmas like Christ does Christmas. I’m so proud of you and so thankful to be in a church that understands.
Yes, we’re going to have a big time and celebrate tonight, but that’s not the main thing. The main thing is to be to others what Christ has been to us. When we are to others what Christ has been to us, Christ will be to us what we want him to be. I pray that this will be true for all of us during this season. May we pray together.
Father, thank you for this wonderful passage of the word of God. We almost feel like we should take off our shoes before we talk about it, because it’s such a holy place, and it tells us so much about Christmas that we don’t hear from any other source. It helps us to understand what it means to be Christlike at this season when so much Christlikeness gets lost. Lord, we can be your representatives in this dark world. We can be the light that is missing, and we pray that you will help us to vow together today that we shall do that with all of our hearts in the name of Jesus, the Savior whose life we have studied today, and for his sake. Amen.