Second half of the sermon I preached last Sunday at our Cathedral on Romans 16:25-27.
Paul continues…
… according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!
It was God’s design to redeem us through his son. Everything about the birth, life, and death of Jesus was God’s plan! And God’s plan is meant to bring about what Paul refers to as the obedience of faith. Paul uses this phrase several places in his writings. Obedience is the opposite of rebellion in this case. Paul has already suggested that we were by nature enemies of God; we were at odds with him. But our response to the gospel is that of obedience or becoming right with God. Our response to the good news is to no longer be at odds with him. This is not about obedience to a particular morality; it is about following God through the person of Jesus. This response of faith is what gives glory to God. God is glorified by the accomplishment of Jesus and the response of faith. Christmas is the glory of God!
But what is this good news, this gospel that Christmas is really all about? What’s so incredibly good and exciting that Paul proclaims it as the big reveal? If I could sum it up in a few words… Well, we first have to understand that God created us out of Love. Each of us was intended by God and not born out of mistake or by some random biological event. The Psalms say God knitted us together in our mother’s womb and before we were born, God knew us and loved us. We were created to be in relationship with him. Yet, the damaging effect of sin in the world, the reality of a broken world which started with Adam & Eve in the garden… is such that we by nature reject God. So we are born into rebellion against God and how does God end that rebellion? A gift! He gives us his son! See, what we need in order to have a right relationship with God, this relationship that we were meant to live in, is to be righteous. Yet none of us are good enough for God. So, God sends his righteousness in the perfect person of Jesus and makes him a sacrifice for our sin. This is what the first several chapters of Romans outlines… that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! What is so incredible about the gospel… the thing that is so good is called grace. It is that we receive a gift that we did not earn, we could not earn, and we certainly did not deserve it. So, if I sum up the good news in one sentence…? It’s that God has done everything necessary for us to have a relationship with him!
Now, like any gift it must be received. Back in the late 90’s I lived in England and part of my job as a youth minister in England was to speak at school assemblies. In an assembly I did at a local public school where I spoke about this free gift I held out a Cadbury Crème Egg. It was delicious milk chocolate on the outside and pure creamy sugar on the inside. I asked, “Who wants this Cadbury Crème Egg?” Probably 90% of the students in the auditorium raised their hand. I asked again. Now hands were waving for it. I asked a third time. Hundreds of hands are waving frantically, all of them squirming in their seats. One girl, sitting near the front, jumped out of her seat, ran up and snatched the egg from my hand. People gasped and I said to the students “Charlotte wanted the egg and now she has it”. The thing about a gift is that it has to be received. Charlotte, a cheeky 13-year-old girl, risked getting in trouble with her teachers by leaving her seat and coming forward to receive the gift. Paul says in Romans chapter 6 “…the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The gift is Jesus. The good news is that the gift is freely given to those who do not deserve it. This is why Christmas is the ultimate big reveal!
Christmas day changed in 1996 for my family. It was ten years into our marriage. We had three young children and up to that point in life we did Christmas the way we always had. We did church on Christmas Eve (with the exception of the year my daughter was born just 45 minutes into Christmas day). Then on Christmas morning we got up, opened gifts, and then spent the day with extended family. I did not grow up in a church that even offered a Christmas day service. In 1996 we had moved to England. On Christmas Eve I went to church alone to a quiet prayer book service attended by at most 75 people. There were no children there, nor families. On Christmas day however, we got up and had breakfast, we each opened one gift and then went to church where we worshipped in a packed out service with over 400 people. Everyone from the congregation attended and it was a lively service for all ages. The excitement was amazing. The gospel was preached clearly. We sang our hearts out! We stayed for coffee afterward and celebrated with our church family. Then we went home and opened gifts. There was something strangely different that year for us. No longer was Christmas about the gifts we had bought for others or the ones we received from each other. It was focused on Jesus. I could not get Jesus out of my mind if I wanted to that day! We had started our day praising and praying thanks to God for the amazing gift of his son. The material presents we opened were really nice but were so secondary now. I am not sure I can really describe how different the experience was except to say that our day was dramatically changed by being in worship with our church family that morning praising God for his amazing grace. We found a new tradition and have gone out of our way at times to continue the habit of starting Christmas day in worship with other believers. We still attend on Christmas Eve, but that is different. On Christmas Eve we anticipate. On Christmas day it’s here!
The point is this. Given that Christmas is God’s big reveal, it’s the day in which we celebrate the gift that God gave us in Jesus, it only makes sense to celebrate that with our hearts and eyes on Jesus and also celebrate it with our church family. I’d encourage you to make your way to church on Christmas day as a part of your annual Christmas tradition. If you are going to be out of town on that day, seek out a church to worship with God’s people. Celebrate God’s ultimate gift to us, his big reveal, the good news that God has completed his plan of redemption in the person of Christ.
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