There’s a third miracle of Christmas. GOD CAME FOR YOU. When God came to earth, He came to ordinary people. When Jesus Christ was born, He didn’t come to a select few. He didn’t come to the privileged class. He didn’t even come for religious people. He came for people who didn’t care less about religion. He came to lowly shepherds. He came for all of us.
Luke 2:7 (NIV) says “Mary gave birth … and wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” The Bible says that when Jesus was born, He wasn’t born in a palace although He was the God of the universe. He wasn’t even born in a nice hotel. He wasn’t even born in a hospital. He was bon in a barn. We, today, over sentimentalize the nativity scene. And we talk about how Jesus was born in a manger. Do you know what a manger is?
A manger is a feed box for cattle. And they put wheat and oats and stuff. The cattle stick their nose in it, saliva comes out. It’s not exactly a real clean place to leave a infant, newly born baby. Yet that’s where God was born. When God came to earth, He came in the stuff of life with the stench of animals. You can’t get any lower than being born in a barn. He was born right out in the open where anybody could come and have a relationship to Him.
Luke 2:16 (LB) says “The shepherds ran to the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.” The first people who got to visit Jesus were not religious leaders. They were not royalty. They weren’t political figures. The very first people who were invited to see Jesus were the shepherds. Just regular ordinary people.
Folks, the third miracle of Christmas is that Jesus came to our level. John 1:14 says “Christ became a human being and He lived here on earth among us.” Notice the phase “among us”. He didn’t live in a palace, He didn’t live is some far off place where you couldn’t get close to Him. He lived among us. I love the Message translation: “Jesus became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” He was a homeboy, one of the brothers in the hood. He was a regular guy and looked every ounce a Palestinian Jew which was what He was.
What’s the Good News of this? God meets us where we are. You may think, “All the things I’ve done in my life, I could never have a relationship with God.” You’re wrong. You may think, “God doesn’t care about me, I’m a little nobody. Nobody cares about me and God certainly doesn’t have time for me.” You’re wrong. Dead wrong. God says, “I love you, I know you, and I want you to know Me.”
There’s a fourth miracle I want to talk about this morning – I think the greatest miracle of all – it’s the miracle of why He came. He came for one purpose. He came for our benefit. He came for you and for me.
Listen to these verses where Jesus explains why He came to earth.
John 18:37 “Jesus said, `I was born for this purpose. I came to bring truth to the world.’” John 10:10 Jesus said, “I came to give you life, life in all its fullness.” John 12:48 Jesus said, “I came to save the world, not to judge it.”
Truth, life, forgiveness – that’s why Jesus came. First He says I’ve come to bring you truth. Truth about what? Truth about ourselves, because we don’t even understand ourselves a lot of the time. Truth about God, because there’s a lot of misconceptions about Him. Truth about life, because there’s a lot of phony philosophies that lead to dead ends.
If you don’t build your life on truth, you build your life on a foundation of faulty information, then you’ll go through life making bad decisions and having unnecessary stress and unneeded problems that God never meant for you to have in your life.
What is the truth? The truth is that you matter to God. You matter to God so much that God left His home in heaven came to earth in the form of a baby, grew up, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was resurrected, went back to heaven and now says, “Come be with Me. I want you to live with Me for eternity.” That’s how much you matter to God.
Jesus said, “I’ve come to give you life.” Why did He say that? Because most people aren’t really living. They’re just existing. Most people get up in the morning, go off to their job, come home, eat dinner, watch television, go to bed. The next day they do the same thing. And the next day they do the same thing. Folks, that’s not living – that’s just existing.Jesus said, “I came to give your life purpose and meaning and significance. You’re not here just to take up space.”
Then Jesus said, “I came to save you not to judge you.” You may ask this morning – What do I need a Savior for? The Bible says that heaven is a perfect place. There is no sadness in heaven, no sorrow, no sin, no sickness, no problems, no pressures at all in heaven. Heaven is a place of absolute perfection. That means that only perfect people get to go to heaven.
If God let imperfect people into heaven, then it wouldn’t be perfect any more. It would be like earth. Our earth is obviously filled with imperfect people. You say, “If only perfect people get into heaven, then I don’t stand a chance.” You’re right. Exactly. Neither do I. None of us stand a chance. That’s what Christmas is all about.
God said, “None of you are perfect so I can’t let you into heaven. So here’s what I’ll do. I will come to earth in the form of a human being and My name will be called Jesus. I will live the only perfect life that ever lived. Then I will die on the cross to pay for all the imperfections you have and then ,if you will trust in Me, I will get you into heaven on My own goodness because you’re not good enough.” Those are the miracles of Christmas.
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