T'was the night that it really was. If you've been with us over the last few weeks, you know we've been looking at that theme. We've sprung kind of off of those opening lines from the book, right? It was indeed the night, a holy night, a different and weighty night, and it changed everything.
Have you been along the ride the last couple of weeks? I just want to catch up so I can get you to where you need to be for tonight. Week one, we look at t'was the night that the silence was broken. Many of you don't know, but for over 400 years before Christmas night, God's people had gone without any word at all from their God.
There had been, I mean, you know, modernized, this would be going back to the 1600s for us. For God's people, there had been no prophets, no sages, no rulers, no words. Christmas existed only as a client state of the Romans. All of the promises of their people and their past, the ones first given to Abraham, reiterated by Moses and King David, the ones that prophet after prophet had repeated.
These stories of a coming redemption and a renewal, a savior, they would speak of. They were not only that first Christmas night unmet. Seemingly now they were not even spoken. And yet what we discovered week one is that even in the depths of silence, God is at work.
And that is still as true tonight as it was that night. I don't know how silent he seems to you, but I promise you he's at work. And then the next week we look at this idea of truth. We'd laugh together because no one knows what's true anymore about anything.
But that night, twas the night, the truth was revealed. In a world that is desperate for the actual truth, that night it came from God. But it didn't come from God with a list of more commandments. There was no lecture.
There was not some kind of a plan put in place. But the truth came in the form of a person who would reveal not only who God really is, but how he walks and talks and thinks, what he enjoys to eat, and how he loves. And then finally last week we spent some time looking at what I would say is the offensive nature of the gift of Christmas. It's the word grace.
This unmerited favor, we've done nothing to deserve it. Gift of God. And how challenging that idea is for Christmas. Twas the night that grace and mercy triumphed our effort and judgment.
It twas the night that truly changed everything. From the worth of women to the value of children, from power through force to greatness through serving, from shame and exclusion to dignity and belonging, Jesus' birth began altering the cultural values of the entire world that night. Kings and empires put down, lepers, paupers, and prostitutes lifted up. Heck, twas the night our calendars changed.
We now date our calendars. We measure all of recorded time in history from this night. And the gift of Jesus can change you tonight. Your story could, and I would argue, your story should begin with a twas the night.
Twas the night when I finally got it. Twas the night I understood it for the first time. Twas the night I received and believed the word, the truth, and the grace of Christmas. And that's where I want us to camp out tonight.
Receiving and believing. I actually had a boss one time, and he told me at Christmas time, that it just randomly came up to me and said, hey, you know that whole thing about love languages? And I said, yeah, I've heard about it, because I want you to know my love languages are gifts. Who says that?
And I thought about it a little bit, right? It's kind of funny, because at that point, like any gift I gave him going forward was not going to be a gift. It would be like a bribe, right? I mean, who doesn't like receiving gifts?
At least most gifts. One of my favorite gift stories in our family was Father's Day, when my children were little. My son John was downstairs. It was Father's Day.
He was very excited. He was about three years old. He yelled up to me, dad, come down and open your presents. Paws for about a half a second and goes, it's a tie.
And yet, not all gifts are always welcomed gifts. Because here's the truth. The gifts sometimes can say something about the giver and about you. A couple of books I came across, for example, ones that you might not be too happy to receive this Christmas.
They might be fun to give. I think of my old boss. But these wouldn't be great to receive. How about this one?
Imagine opening this under the trees, under the tree. Gentlemen, some advice, don't do that. But there are others out there, and these are all true. These are actually books you could get off Amazon tonight.
Imagine finding this one under the tree right here. How to stop being selfish. Merry Christmas, honey. Here's one for the mother-in-law.
How to stop being a narcissist. Not my mother-in-law, mind you. Just, you know, joke. How about this one?
That's pretty blunt. Stop being toxic. What does it say? It's a guide for breaking free from behaviors that hurt.
And those are funny, right? But here's the thing. This is exactly why Christmas sometimes can be strangely uncomfortable for some of us. Because Christmas is not mainly about the gifts we give.
It's about the gift we receive. And if we believe what it is, the gift says about us and the giver. Now, in the history of this nation of Israel, they had this prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah dreamt of this gift.
Pretty famous truth. We read this line a lot at this time of year. Here's what Isaiah said to the people. He said that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. According to this great prophet Isaiah, you and I, we are a people walking in darkness, stumbling around in a land of deep darkness. And the gift that has become available is a light. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a deep, deep, dark place.
But if you have and someone flicked on a light or handed you a candle, you know the power and the peace of light. Now, here's what I want you to see. The scriptures teach both in the Old and the New Testament the same exact truth. That this light is a gift that is offered to everyone.
Here's Isaiah continuing on talking about the light. He says, For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. He'll be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. What you can't miss this Christmas, friends, is that Isaiah does not say that this light in the form of a child or a son, he does not say that a son or a child is born.
Isaiah said that a son is given. He's a gift. The light comes to everyone in the dark and is offered as a gift, which means by its very definition that the only way to have it, to experience it, to benefit from it, is to receive it. Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at Jesus' disciple, John's telling of Jesus' birth.
30 plus years after Jesus' death and resurrection, John has been serving Jesus for three decades, and now he's a very old man, and he's looking back at the birth story of Christ, and he's beginning to explain it, well, with the kind of clarity, right, and benefit that time and experience bring. And John, with the benefit of decades of time and experience, describes Jesus' birth exactly the way Isaiah foresaw it. Listen to this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning, and in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. That light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into this world. Life and light in the darkness of this world.
It is offered to everyone, but here is the thing about a gift. A gift has to be received, or a gift just given but not opened. A gift just given and not received, not put on, not worn. It really is no gift at all.
In fact, John says so much. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And I would tell you, this is right where Christmas gets challenging.
In fact, enough so that John says it was so challenging that many of God's own people said thanks, but no thanks. They knew the gift was there. It was wrapped and under the tree, and they chose to leave it unopened, unreceived. Because receiving a gift like this is a lot harder than giving it.
Giving can feel quite enabling, quite powerful. Receiving can feel humbling. Receiving light and life as a gift means you're admitting, I need light and life as a gift. My life is not the life it should be or could be.
And I am a person that is struggling in the darkness and with my darkness. And Christmas is that kind of gift. Because Christmas means we're not just people who need a little bit of guidance. We're people that actually needed rescue from the dark.
Many of us, especially, I don't know how you grew up in what kind of church background you have, but many of us have been taught that when it comes to God, our way to him, our way to keep him on our side, or happy, or off our back, or to be blessed, is to perform for him. To do the right things, or at least more right things than wrong things. But don't you see? There's no gift there.
That would invalidate the gift. It would nearly be kind of like my old boss's thing. It would be a bride. It would be nothing more than a wage for my best efforts.
I never quote it before, until this week. But in Isaiah's prophecy about this gift of a son, which he said would be given to us, it begins with the word for. For unto us, a son is born. He's referring to, there's a reason this gift is given, and it's referring to the prior verse.
Never saw this to this week. Can I show you the prior verse? Here, at first it makes no sense if you understand what Isaiah's trying to tell us. Here's what he wrote in the prior verse.
Every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood, will be destined for burning, and it'll be fuel for the fire. For unto us, a son is born. What Isaiah is picturing is battle gear. He's seeing boots and garments that have been stained by war, and then he says, burn them.
What does he mean? What he's trying to get across is that you won't need them. The victory over the darkness of our world, the death that all of us must face, the victory of light and life in our dark world, won't. Well, it won't be won by you.
You don't need to lace up your boots. You don't need to strap on some armor. You don't need to prove that you're strong enough. In fact, Christmas says you're not.
For unto us, a son is born. Unto us, a son is given, and he will do it. In fact, if you follow Isaiah's prophetic trail, that vision leads from Isaiah 9 to Isaiah 53, another verse you're very familiar with. We just don't speak of it on Christmas.
We speak of it at Easter. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.
Christmas is not the story of God handing anyone a sword to fight. It's God handing you a savior to be received. The light comes because the darkness, right? Your light, our light comes because the darkness fell on him.
The victories come, right? Because the battle cost him. The peace that we long for is ours because the punishment belongs to him. Isaiah goes, look, burn the boots.
Because he's already fought and won a battle for you. You couldn't win. At some point for all of us, this gift, this son given unto us, this life and this light that is offered to us, this is the true story of Christmas. It deserves a response.
It has to be received, or it is just a nice story otherwise. It's of no value or benefit. It's the unopened gift on Christmas. It's the gift card in the junk drawer.
It's the sweater whose tags are never taken off. It has all of the purpose and promise, but none of the power in our lives. That's why John said the word received twice. His own did not receive him.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name. In fact, he treats receiving and believing almost like a matched pair. Two ways of describing the same kind of heart posture. To receive this gift of Christ means to welcome the news.
To open the door and say, I accept this. I am lost. I am stumbling in the darkness. I can't save myself.
And to believe means to trust yourself to who it is who gives you the gift, not merely agreeing that he exists. And so why don't we receive him? Well, John answers it with one brutal phrase because nothing has ever changed. The brutal phrase is his own.
The people closest, most familiar, most certain that first Christmas still refuse the gift. Friends, don't you see that Christmas is not rejected mainly by atheists? It is rejected by familiarity. Oh, I've heard that story before.
That's a nice story. Or it's pushed off by pride. I don't need it. I have everything I need.
It doesn't fit me. It doesn't look good on me. It's not that dark. And I'm not all that lost.
And I get it. Because Jesus is a threatening truth. John would go on to say that the light has come in the world. But people love the darkness.
And I get it. Light reveals things. It illuminates things. Light makes choices and paths in ways, clear and obvious.
You know what? I mean, think about this. Wouldn't you really, really have to trust the giver of this gift in order to embrace it? Let me explain.
If my wife were to give me, on Thursday, that dieting for dummies book, right? If I were to open it up, I might be taken aback momentarily. But in general, I know my wife loves me. And she would give me that gift because she knows I need it.
It's good for me. She wants to be with me, spend decades with me. John, have a salad. Right?
I trust the giver, so I embrace the gift. However, if one of you tonight were on your way out and you handed me the book, How Not to Be a Narcissist, I'm not going to be thrilled with you. What would make you receive this gift of Christmas? You would have to understand, at deep levels, the heart of the giver for you.
And so I close with this story. A reflection, really, I came across this Christmas week. I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Because while it is true, we are very familiar with the story that Jesus is one gift in the Christmas story, there is a second gift in the Christmas story that is often ignored.
I want to show it to you by introducing a little history. It's a really strange story. You're familiar with it. But it's a weird story.
You're not aware of it. It's weird because, well, you've heard it since you were a little kid. Almost all of us are familiar with it. It's a detail that reveals the second gift.
The detail I'm talking about are these three so-called wise men who show up at the house of Jesus. Has anybody ever paused to go, that's a weird story. Nobody knows who they are. Nobody really knows how they came.
Nobody knows what they're doing there. Like, who are these dudes? They just show up. Many of us have them in our manger set on our mantle.
But historians would tell us that they likely didn't get to Jesus until he was about two years old. It was a serious trip of them. Let me explain to you. This is why it's so mysterious who these guys were.
This is all we know about them, right here from Matthew. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, where's the one who's been born, King of the Jews? We saw a star when it rose and we come to worship him. Now, with that limited description in mind, I want you just to jump back 500 years of history with me, in the history of God's people, to a man named Daniel the prophet.
Most of you know who Daniel is, because this is the Daniel of Daniel in the lion's den fame, right? In the days of Daniel, the world power of the empire at that time was not Rome like it was in Jesus' time, but it was Babylon. And Babylon had, once again, just conquered the people of Israel. And they had a very famous king, Nebuchadnezzar.
In fact, let me show you what Nebuchadnezzar did. As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and he cut up the gold articles that Solomon, king of Israel, had made for the temple of the Lord. It's kind of mind-blowing, I think. I'm about to show you.
It's pretty cool. Nebuchadnezzar, five years before Jesus was born, goes into the temple, goes into the king's palace, and takes everything of value. Specifically mentioned is the gold, but he also takes the best and the brightest of the Israelites back to Babylon with him. Daniel's one of those guys.
And because of this ability that Daniel has, because he is part of the best and brightest, Daniel prospers. In fact, Daniel gets put in charge. Do you want to know who he gets put in charge of? Check this out.
Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire prophets of Babylon and placed him in charge of all of its wise men, magi. Daniel gets put, think about this, five years before Jesus was born. Daniel gets put in charge of all of the magi in Babylon, all of the wise men in the world's greatest power.
And if you don't know, Daniel is a very prophetic book. It's one of the four great major prophets in the Old Testament. It is all about the prophecies of Jesus, that Jesus is coming, that the Messiah will appear. And so Daniel spends the rest of his life teaching magi about the coming of Jesus.
Fast forward five hundred years. These magi show up, and the only thing that we know about them is they come from the east. That's the only description we're given. Friends, Babylon, which is now part of modern-day Iraq, which is a fascinating study.
Saddam Hussein often tried to characterize himself as a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar. He put his face on coins with Nebuchadnezzar. This is part of modern-day Iraq. Guess which direction Iraq is from Jerusalem, dead east.
Is it not possible? I would argue it's not likely, given this set of circumstances, that these very magi that show up at Jesus' house are the great, great, great, great, great, great grandsons of the men that Daniel taught about this coming Messiah. Men that very likely he had lent to faith in the one true God. And those men told their children for generations about the coming of a king.
And one night, 500 years later, word would get back to these men in the east, and they would go, I know that story. My grandfather taught my father about that story, and he taught me about that story. This is the night. And they loaded up their stuff, and they headed to find Jesus.
And here's what, this is the crazy part. When they get there, you've heard the story, they bow and worship, and they give him three gifts. You remember the gifts? Here's the verse coming out on Matthew.
On the coming of the house, they saw this child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and they worshiped him, and then they opened their treasure, and they presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, the history books tell us that when King Cyrus from Persia let some of the exiles return to Jerusalem, they brought back with them many of the temple treasures, but here's what we know about gold. Gold gets melted down, gold gets refashioned, and I can't help but wonder if on the day those magi show up at Jesus' house, as Mary and Joseph stand in awe, as they go, who are these dudes? As they get down on their knees, and they bring forth their gifts, if they don't hold it up in front of Jesus, they go, we brought your gold back.
Friends, know this. What belongs to God does not stay stolen forever. And this story is here to remind us that the Christmas story is not simply about gifts given to Jesus. It is about what Jesus came to reclaim and get back.
The most important thing brought to Jesus that night wasn't gold. It was their worship. And the most important thing Jesus came to take back wasn't gold either. It was you.
It was us. Because we are the stolen treasure of God. The Apostle Paul tried to explain it this way. He said, speaking of Jesus, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
We are the ones who have been carried off, stolen away, taken into a dark land. We belong to God. We were made for God. We were designed for God.
And we have been so stolen away by pride and idols, shame and fear, and by the dominion of darkness that is within us. But what belongs to God does not stay stolen forever. Because Isaiah said, for unto us a Son is given. And we usually stop there.
We think, well, God gave Jesus to us. That's true. But don't miss the other side of it. God gave Jesus to us so that Jesus could give us back to God.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. Don't you see that gift language? You are the second present of Christmas. Jesus doesn't just save you from something.
He saves you for someone. The wise men brought gifts to the Son. But the Son came to bring a gift to the Father. And don't miss this truth of Christmas.
You are the gift Jesus came to bring home. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. The gift of Christmas, like every gift, it says something about us, doesn't it? It's challenging because on one hand it is very truthful about our situation.
The darkness, our darkness. And some of you tonight are still trying to earn the light, trying to be good enough to deserve it. But I am here to tell you, what won't we die? I say, burn the boots.
You can't. Some of you are still trying to deny the darkness. Managing the image, you know, trying to maintain control. Oh, and Christmas says, receive a gift.
Believe. Trust your life to him and his ways. But I'll tell you something. This Christmas tells us, this gift of Christmas tells us something else.
We, you and I, are God's treasure so valued that he sent his Son to bring you home. That's who he is. And that's why you can trust and receive this challenging, wonderful gift. Twas the night indeed to receive and believe.