The Purpose for Christmas

 

My goal for this time is to get you to think about 4 things that you absolutely need. I am not talking about wants, I am talking about needs. This is a little bit of a deeper message, but I am going to try my best in describing the four things that you absolutely need, it is my hope that you will see or understand what the purpose of Christmas really is.

Whenever someone thinks about Christmas, especially as a pastor, my mind instantly wants to go to the account in the Bible about Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem. Most people know that story and are well aware of it. Out of that story often come things like the meaning of Christmas is love from God, or a gift from God, or something like that. For our time this morning, I want to come at this from just a little different angle. I want to think about Christmas from the angel of Genesis chapter 2:17.

I am going to do something that I rarely tend to do, but I think it will fit for our time this morning. I want to tell you the Genesis 2:17 account in my own words. Instead of reading it, I want you to sit back and let me recount for you what happened.

The Bible starts by telling us what God created. Everything He created was good…not one hint of evilness could be found in what God created. It was perfect, holy, pure, etc. When we get to Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam and Eve about a tree in the garden that He does not want them to touch. There was nothing wrong with the tree other than to say that God said not to touch it. God set up a situation where He wanted His creation to trust Him. So He gave the command for them not to eat from that tree. By obeying this command, Adam and Eve could remain just as God had created them. They had all that they needed in order to be perfectly connected to God. As long as they obeyed that one command they could talk with God whenever they wanted to for as long as they wanted to. They could think, say, and do whatever they wanted and know that God would be happy with what they were doing. They never had to worry about bad consequences, guilty feelings, hurting each other, the death of relationships or anything else that you and I often have to deal with. As long as they obeyed that command, things were holy…or another way to look at it…evil had not entered into the world.

However, in just a few short verses we find Eve smack dab in the one situation that had the potential to wreck it all. For the first time in the Bible, temptation shows up. I wish I had time to go into this verse by verse, but I don't so I just want to summarize with one word what happened at the end of it all…death.

God promised in Genesis 2:17 that death would happen and it did. A definition of death could be separation of what was meant to be together. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree that God said not to, separation happened. The very first thing that they did was to hide…how they looked and where they were located. There was the death of the relationship between Adam and Eve and there was the death of the relationship between God and Adam and Eve. It was the absolute worst thing that could have happened. No more walking with God in the garden. No more talking with God whenever they wanted to. No more guiltless days…Now they were going to hurt each other constantly…and so on. From that moment on, the rest of humanity has died…been separated from God and from each other due to sin.

I want to make sure that I am keeping my younger crew here this morning, so I want to show you all how this happens to you as well. How many of you in here have done something that you mom and dad told you not to do? Man I would imagine that it would be everyone in here.

My girls love it when I tell stories about my life growing up, so bear with me while I tell you about a story where I disobeyed what my parents told me to and it caused all kinds of death. When I was 4, my dad became a pastor at a church in Indiana. In the summers there, it was really hot. Right across the street from our house, there was a creek that had little minnows and crawdads that I love to catch. My friend Paul would ride his bike over to my house and we would take off over to the creek and spend all day there. We would come back with buckets and buckets of all kinds of little critters. My mom really didn't like it when the tadpoles were out…I brought home thousands of them. I was allowed to go over the creek as long as I followed one rule…I had to wear shoes. Where I lived in Indiana, there were thorns that grew close to the ground that were anywhere from 2 to 3 inches long, dark purple, and very poisonous. I followed that rule all of the time except for once.

One time, and for the life of me I can't remember why I did this, but my buddy Paul and I decided to go into the creek without our shoes on. Almost instantly I stepped on one of those long thorns. It went in to my foot about half way and stopped. I can still remember how much it hurt. I don't remember what it felt like, but I remember what I did when I stepped on it. I screamed really loud which made my friend Paul spin around to see what the problem was. I told him that I stepped on a thorn and showed him the bottom of my foot. He made a weird face as if to say, "Wow that's really bad" and then said, "Hold still while I pull it out." He yanked really quickly and out it came…well most of it. When we looked at the top of the thorn it was gone. It had broken off up inside of my foot. To say the least, my foot was bleeding and it throbbing at the same time. It hurt very bad. I decided I should put my shoes back on and call it quits for the day. So I gently put my shoes back on and hobbled back home. Now my mom and dad both worked and so they didn't come home until later on that evening. I was still limping but I tried to hide the fact that I was limping. I did things like try not to walk around my parents, stay out of the house when my mom and dad were home, and things like that. I did a good job for a couple of days…that is until the weekend.

My mom and dad were home all day on Saturday and so was I. My mom happened to notice that was limping pretty bad and she asked if I had done something to hurt my foot, to which I lied and said "no". God has blessed me with this weird thing when I lie. The outside of my mouth gets white and that is how my parents always knew when I was lying. And sure enough the outside of my mouth turned white when I lied to my mom. She asked me to sit down and take my shoes and socks off so she could look to see what the problem was. I reluctantly did that and I watched her face go from curiosity to panic. I didn't know that those thorns were poisonous; I just knew that they hurt. When my mom looked at the bottom of my foot it was really read, puss filled, and there were some streaks starting to shoot out from where the thorn had pierced into my foot. She saw how serious it was and off to the hospital we went….now I could make the story longer…but I want to get to how this applies to what Adam and Eve did.

Up until the moment where I disobeyed my parents, my relationship with them perfect. I had nothing to hide from them. If I went into the woods, I would tell them all about it. I would show them what I had caught, how high the water was, and so on. But when I disobeyed them, my relationship was separated. Not only did I not tell them what I had done, I tried to conceal from them the very thing that would have killed me if they had not found out about it. Sin always kills…it always separates…it always destroys the way that God intended things to be.

And the most horrible part of sin is that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to fix that problem. When my buddy and I tried to fix the problem of the thorn in my foot, we did what we thought was best and only made things worse. And then I added to the problem by trying to cover it up…and it would have led to my physical death if someone outside of me would not have intervened.

The purpose of Christmas…what is the purpose of God coming down to earth in the form of a baby whose name of Jesus. I want to go back to Adam and Eve in the garden and talk about 4 things that they lost when they sinned that they absolutely needed. The lost their sinless nature…they became evil from the very core of their heart. Instead of telling the truth, now they wanted to lie. Instead of thinking about each other, they only thought of themselves. Instead of taking responsibility for what they had done, they blamed each other for what they had done. They lost their holiness.

In addition to their holiness, they also lost their oneness or unity with God. I hope all of you in here know what it is like to hang out with your parents without having anything hidden at all. No flunked tests, no bad papers, no discipline issues…just about to hang out and have a good time. In times like those, you are unified with your parents…there is nothing between you. That was what was lost when Adam and Eve sinned. They were no longer unified with God. They went and hid, and then when they were found out they could not even stay unified with each other. The lost their holiness and their oneness to God and each other.

The also lost the peace with God. They could no longer walk in the cool of the day with God and talk with Him. Where there was once peace, there now was tension. Do you know what that is like? Have you ever had a friendship that went bad? One day you were best friends laughing it up at Starbucks and now you can't stand to even hear the name of your friend. That was what it was like when Adam and Eve sinned…peace was gone and the only that was left was horrible tension.

Not only had they lost their holiness, oneness, and peace with God, but they also lost eternity with God. Hell was now where they were going to go…a place that was devoid of God and any relationship with Him. We learn later on in the Bible that this place is where there will be gnashing of teeth, fire, and other things…but at the top of the list of bad things about hell is the fact that God will never be there and so there is no chance of having a relationship with Him.

So that is what was lost…and when you open up to the New Testament and read of a baby lying in the manger with Joseph and Mary looking at Him, with the shepherds showing up along with the wise men to worship him…what you have in that baby is holiness restored, oneness with God brought back, peace with God reinstated, and eternity with God a reality

If you are following with me this morning…the purpose of Christmas is Holiness restored, (H), Oneness with God brought back (O), Peace with God reinstated (P), and Eternity with God a reality(E). The purpose of Christmas is Hope. Not the hope that is often used at Christmas, but it is the hope that expects and knows that one day all will be as God wants it to be. The kind of hope that is often used says, "I am not sure what I am going to get but I hope to get…" It's what we want. But the Biblical hope is not in hoping that we get what we want, but in hoping that today is the day that we get what the Bible says we will get…

As something practical for you to do before you spend time opening up presents this year, spend some time talking about the hope that you have knowing that your holiness has been restored, that your oneness with God has been brought back, that peace with God has been reinstated, and that eternity with God is now a reality. And if you are still looking for a gift to give someone who does not know Christ, there is no greater gift for someone this year than hope…give them the gift they desperately need.