Reading: Ephesians 3:1-8
3 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – 2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. 7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ
Teaching:
Every gift that we give communicates something. What you give to a person communicates something about what you think they might need. So for example if Alison was to go down to the tree on Christmas morning and she opens my present and it’s a set of driving lessons, then that communicates in some way that I’m not happy with her driving. Or say I open a present from her, and it’s some kind of breath freshener like Listerine, then I’m going to think that my breath smells bad to her.
God gave us a great gift in Jesus and it communicates something to us. If God perceived that our greatest need was economic support and guidance, then he would have sent us a Financial Advisor. If he perceived that our greatest need was to be happy, then he would have sent a comedian. If he perceived that our greatest need was physical health, he would have sent a doctor.
But God perceived that our greatest need was to be cured of our sin, and so he sends us a saviour. Remember what the Angel declared to Joseph in a dream, “[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins”. And so Jesus’ name literally means, God saves. So Jesus came as the greatest gift in order to meet the greatest need of humanity. I think I said last week that if we don’t get our heads out of the manger, then we will never see the true reason for Christmas. The greatest gift that we can receive this Christmas is a Saviour.
It’s no wonder then that we associate Christmas with the giving of gifts. And we as Christians should primarily celebrate the gift of God’s love for us. I don’t know what it’s like in your house, but I would say that Alison is incredibly thoughtful when it comes to gifts. I on the other hand will be the one walking round with all the other men on the 24th December trying to choose the gifts that I didn’t take time to sort out earlier. Nathan this year is showing signs of being like his mum – he’s spending a lot of time choosing the right gift for each person that he loves.
But how often do we think about how important it is to be a good receiver of gifts. I can remember one year receiving a gift from a family member, and my face probably said it all. As I opened the present, and while I was saying thank you for the gift, my face was saying “what on earth is this that I’ve been given”, or “I bet you this is an unwanted gift that this person has simply rewrapped and handed to me”. At Christmas time you will know who in your family is a good actor or not when it comes to appreciating gifts.
God has given the greatest gift of love, and we celebrate it, but we don’t often think of how important it is to receive it in the right way. And as I said in my Christmas letter, it’s my prayer that as you celebrate Christmas this year it will feel like the excitement and joy that you would have had on your first ever Christmas. That as we acknowledge God’s gift in Jesus, it would warm our hearts full of Joy. And so I’m going to get us thinking about how we need to receive his gift today.
Firstly, we have got to willingly receive God’s gift of love
Have you ever had someone give you a gift, and you have refused to take it. For example, maybe you’ve been out for dinner and the person you are out with decides to pay for everything, and you then get into a debate about it as you consider it to be too generous. And when it comes to God’s gift of love, there are many who protest to receiving it. Think about what that feels like when someone wants to give us something to bless us, and we say that we can’t accept it. We are either saying, you can’t afford to give me this gift or I don’t deserve it. In John Chapter 1:14 it says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. Jesus came full of grace – that’s an undeserved unfailing faithful love for every person. The birth of Jesus announces the arrival of the love that every human needs. It’s not a love that we receive from someone and then it becomes diluted over time, no, this is a love that keeps on giving and giving, even though you think you don’t deserve it. It’s the only love that truly satisfies you, but you have got to receive it.
Some of you today might think, no I can’t possibly receive this love, I have done terrible things in my life. It’s too much. Yes we don’t deserve this love, but it’s a gift. You see it’s given because of the generosity of the gift giver. Here’s a verse that we all know, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”. There are a lot of people who wrongly think that Jesus has come to point out all the things that are wrong with us. I was with someone the other night, who pointed out that the Church exists to just make people feel bad about themselves. But that’s not how this book describes it. This book says that God loves you so much that he gave you Jesus, not to condemn you, but to save you from your sins. So you have got to receive this love. Because if you don’t then you are going to spend the rest of your life searching for a love that you think will make you happy. Receive his gift of love.
Secondly, we have got to receive his forgiveness.
If we don’t acknowledge this, then there’s absolutely no point to Christmas. There’s absolutely no point to Christmas if it isn’t about a saviour, and there’s absolutely no point to a saviour coming if they don’t have something to save. And that is us. He has come to save all of us. Before we put any presents under a tree this Christmas, the living gift of the saviour was to be hung on a tree so that the blood that he shed for us would cleanse us from the sins that have separated us from God. When we hear about that, and if we say that we can’t accept that, then either we believe that God isn’t capable of forgiving the stuff we’ve done, or we don’t deserve being forgiven because of how far we have fallen. But folks that’s not how God sees it. Here’s how the writer to the Hebrews explains it, chapter 12 “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.
Who here has had a child who when you have given them a gift, they’ve not accepted it? Never. Our boys know that their mum & dad are good, and that our gifts are good, so they willingly take them.
But the thing is that in order to see the joy on that child’s face as they receive that gift, you have to go and pay for the thing you have bought them. There’s a price that brings that joy. And when Jesus goes to the cross, it wasn’t going to the cross that gave him joy, it was what it allowed him to purchase. It was the idea that when he would go to the cross, he would be able to give us the gift of forgiveness through the Father, because he paid a price that only he could pay. And the price he paid was given with incredible sacrifice – it was a cruel and lonely death, but the victory that came from his death and resurrection was an incredible gift for us of forgiveness for our sins. The Gospel says that your sin is much worse than you think it is, but God’s grace is even greater than you hope it is. So let God forgive you. So receive his gift of love, receive his forgiveness,
And then the final thing is that we should receive God’s favour
In Luke 2 the angels at the birth of Jesus declare “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests”. That word favour means “Good will, delight, pleasure and satisfaction”. In other words, through the birth of Jesus God delights and is pleased with those who follow him. It’s so true that in life today, the greatest need that everyone wants is to be liked. We want to be accepted. We want people to approve of us. And the reality is that we can search for that in people around us, but the greatest approval and acceptance we will receive is through Jesus. Unlike our friends and colleagues, we don’t have to perform certain things to receive that favour. The birth of Jesus announces the arrival of God’s favour to humanity. It’s not what we deserve. It’s not like Santa who it says “he knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake”. It’s not that our kids and grandkids will only get presents at Christmas based upon how they have been. No it’s all to do with how we love them. We want to pour our love over them, and we want to spend money on them, because we want them to see our kindness. That’s what God does for us. He just keeps loving over us. God doesn’t take back his good gift to us. He doesn’t say that we won’t receive his love because of how we have been – he lavishes his love over us. That’s what our reading today says from Ephesians 1, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure”. It made God happy to adopt us as his sons and daughters. This is the grace he lavishes on us, not because we deserved it, not because we’ve earned it. But because he wants to give it to us.
I’m guessing that for some of you, you just can’t get beyond the barrier of accepting it. If that’s you, then get over yourself. It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with how much God loves you. All you have to do is say thankyou, receive it, and enjoy the perfect favour from God.
Now just to finish off as we have been thinking about the gift of love, I want you to think about giving the gift away. I don’t mean that when you get a gift that you don’t like this Christmas that you wrap it up and give it to someone else. No I mean the gift of love that you recognise this Christmas you have received through Jesus Christ. Now unlike the person who gives you a gift being rather offended when you give their gift away to someone else, God is delighted when you give his gift to others. He wants to give you love, but he doesn’t want you to keep it for yourself. He wants others to know his love, and that will only happen through you. We are to love others, because God is love. God wants to do a great work in you, so that then God can do a great work through you. What a great thing this morning that as you recognise the gift of love that you have received, that you would share that gift of God’s love with others. That could simply start this evening or next week by coming back to our special services having invited a friend or family member to come with you. Through your action you may point that person to the greatest gift they will receive this Christmas and that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. I wonder have you realised that Jesus’ birthday is the only birthday in history where those that attending the celebration receive more favour than the one being celebrated.
So receive the gift of Jesus today. Receive his love for you. Receive his forgiveness in your life this Christmas. And know his love, his delight and his favour surrounding you. And in receiving, why not share it with others this Christmas season. This will be the greatest gift anyone will ever receive. It won’t be like the gift that eventually breaks or gets tired. The gift you share is the only gift that brings life in all its abundance to people we know. Remember that in him was life, and that life was light to all mankind.