CHRISTMAS
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 1
DECEMBER 19, 1992
Edwin Powell Hubble was the American who founded the science of extra-galactic astronomy. He was a brilliant Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, England, but it was in Southern California in 1923 at the Mount Wilson Observatory where Hubble made his great discovery. It was then and there that Hubble discovered that the Andromeda star group was actually a galaxy beyond our galaxy. It was then and there that Hubble proved that galaxies existed beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.
Now, of course, today scientists know that there are billions of galaxies beyond this galaxy spanning billions of light years. Today, astronomers want to see every single one of those galaxies. That is why they launched the Hubble Space Telescope named after Edwin Powell Hubble. But you see, the problem is that space telescope doesn’t work. That is why most recently NASA has launched the space shuttle Endeavor and trained astronauts through five space walks, replaced the solar panels, replaced the gyroscopes, and they also upgraded the computer components and they installed corrective lenses. They hope that through these repairs, the Hubble Space Telescope might be able to see to the very edge of our universe.
Now, it’s going to take two months before they can determine the success or the lack of success with regard to this mission. But personally, I hope it is an absolute success. I hope they’re able to see as much of the heavens as is possible because the Bible says that the heavens declare the glory of God. There’s a sense in which the more of the heavens we can see, the more of God’s glory we see because, as we look at the creation, we see the majesty of the Creator. Yet you see, even if we were able to see all of the galaxies, even if we were able to see all of the universe, we’d get a very small glimpse of God. We wouldn’t be able to see God’s heart. We wouldn’t be able to see God’s character. We wouldn’t really know what God is like. That is why God sent His Son into the world.
God sent His Son into the world that we might really know what He is like. The Bible says, “No man has ever seen the Father, the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made him known.” The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature. The Bible tells us that that baby born in Bethlehem is Emmanuel. He is God with us. Through Him, we see what God is like. But it would be a mistake, it would be a mistake to think that this is the only reason that Jesus Christ came into our world. If we thought that He simply came to show us the Father, that would be an inadequate understanding of Christmas. He came for other reasons, and I would like us to explore two of them this morning.
First of all, Jesus Christ came to make you safe. He came to make you safe. Now you see, we live in a world that is not safe. There’s nothing in this world that is really safe. I know many of you know Glenn and Diane Goldie. Glenn is in charge of the Christian education ministry here at our church. A few weeks ago, Glenn and Diane were going to take a few days’ vacation in the mountains. Before they left their house, Glenn took the ashes out of the fireplace and put them into a trash can in the garage. Just to be safe, he took a bunch of snow and threw it in the trash can, thinking that would keep any fire at bay.
But of course, it didn’t happen that way. The trash can caught fire. It was a plastic trash can, it began to melt. Pretty soon the wall of the garage that connected the garage to the house, the wall that connected the garage to the laundry room, that wall caught fire. But it was kind of miraculous what happened. You see, as the wall burned and it began to burn the wiring, somehow it triggered the electric garage door opener. The garage door came up just as Glenn’s neighbor who lived five houses down the block was taking his walk and walking right in front of Glenn’s house. The garage door came up. He looked in and saw the wall burning inside the garage, and he immediately got help. They called 911. The fire department came. They were able to stop that fire just on that one wall.
The fire department said that if they’d waited any longer, just a few more minutes, it would’ve been too late. We can be grateful that Glenn and Diane’s house was spared. But the truth is this world isn’t safe. The truth is our houses aren’t safe. Today, more than 3,400 homes in America are going to catch fire if this is a typical day. Today, more than 11,000 houses in this country are going to be burglarized if it’s a typical day. You see, houses aren’t safe. Of course, cars aren’t safe. Today, if it’s a typical day, more than 56,000 people are going to drink and drive. Today there are going to be thousands and thousands of automobile accidents and hundreds of deaths through automobile accidents. Cars are not safe.
Our bodies aren’t safe. Your body isn’t safe. My body isn’t safe. Today in this country, more than 4,000 people are going to have heart attacks. Over 2,000 people are going to die of heart attacks today in America, if this is a typical day. Over 2,000 people today in this country are going to be told that they have cancer. Over a thousand people today are going to die of cancer in America. Our bodies are not safe. Of course, we try to make the world safe. We try to make the world safe, and we buy a lot of insurance. The word insurance is really built on the Latin word “securus,” which means to make safe. But no matter how much insurance we buy, it doesn’t really make the world safe. I mean, house insurance doesn’t make your house safe. It doesn’t keep your house from having a fire. It doesn’t keep burglars away. Car insurance doesn’t make your car safe. It doesn’t keep people from drinking and driving. It doesn’t keep people from having accidents. It doesn’t keep people from dying in those accidents. Of course, health insurance doesn’t make our bodies safe. Health insurance won’t keep you from having a heart attack and it won’t keep cancer away. You see, life isn’t safe. Of course, that’s why we buy life insurance. But you see, life insurance is really just death insurance. I mean, primarily, life insurance doesn’t keep us alive. It just provides certain things in the event of death.
You see, we live in a world where death reigns and no one is safe. No one is safe. But you see, there’s a cave in Bethlehem. There’s a cave in Bethlehem over which the church of the Nativity is built. It is said that in that cave there was once a stable. And in that stable, the Son of God was born. There is another cave, a short distance away, another cave in a garden in Jerusalem near a place called Golgotha. This other cave was once a tomb. Today it is an empty tomb. You see, those two caves are joined. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem in order that He might conquer death and make you safe.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he died yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.” Jesus said, “Fear not. I am the living one. I died, but I’m alive forevermore.” Jesus said, “I know my sheep. They hear my voice. They follow Me. I give them eternal life. No one is able to snatch them out of My hand. My Father is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hands.”
You see, that’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor heights, nor depths, nor things present, nor things to come, nor anything in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Our Lord Jesus wants to make you safe. No matter what happens to you in this world, even in the midst of death, you can be safe if you embrace the child born in Bethlehem.
The angel said to Joseph, “You shall call his name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” The name Jesus means savior. The angel of the Lord announced to shepherds on a Judean hillside, “I bring you good news of a great joy, which shall come to all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior.” The Greek word is “soter.” It’s related to the word “sotirios,” which means salvation built on the verb “sozo,” which means to save. But you see these words, sozo, sotirios, soter, these words are all built on the root “sos,” and the Greek root “sos” simply means safe. Safe. He came to make you safe.
Now He came for another reason. That is this: He came to make you sound. You see, the world we live in is not very sound. If you look in Webster, you’ll see the word sound means healthy. It means physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually healthy. This world is not sound. You’ve heard the expression “sound as a bell.” It’s kind of a pun. The word sound is used in two ways in that expression. You see a bell that is cracked cannot make a sound. A bell must be sound in order to sound. Now, God tells us, the Bible tells us that we’re all cracked. I mean, everyone in the world, we’re all cracked.
A thousand people plus every year call Graceland, wanting to speak to Elvis. It’s not a sound world. It’s a confused world. Confused world. We all get a little confused. People call the front office wanting to know what time the 9:30 service is. You see, we all get confused. We’re not sound.
Now, in the year 1883, a story was told about an egg-shaped nursery rhyme character who fell from a wall and broke in pieces. That nursery rhyme character was of course Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s, horses, all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again. The Bible says that that’s the human predicament. We’ve all had a great fall.
The fall is described in Genesis chapter 3 when sin entered the world. You see, that’s why we’re all cracked. That’s why we’re all in pieces and no one can put us together again. Counselors, therapists, they cannot make us sound. They cannot put us together again, not completely, only Jesus Christ. That’s why He came into the world. That’s why He offers the atonement. That’s why He died on Calvary’s cross, that He might pay the penalty for our sins, that He might offer us forgiveness. We’re cracked, but as Christians, forgiven. That’s why He offers sanctification to all who believe in His name. You embrace Christ as Lord and Savior and He indwells you by His spirit and begins to sanctify you, begins to sanctify me. He begins to make us more and more like Himself, more and more sound, less and less sin riddled. Yet, in this life, no matter how much sanctification we experience, we’re all going to still be at least a little bit cracked.
That’s why the Bible speaks of the Bema seat. The Bema seat, it’s a place for Christians. It’s a place where one day we’ll all go, all of us who believe. There we’ll stand before Christ and will be made whole. All residual sin will be taken away and the cracks removed. You see, we will arrive in heaven, safe and sound. Safe and sound, only Christ can offer that.
In 1904 in the city of Baltimore, an old man was walking down the street. He was a street person. He was a bum. As he walked down the street, he saw a dollar in the gutter. He was amazed. He picked the dollar up and he began to look for a bar or a liquor store. He wanted to get some booze. As he walked down the street, he walked past a toy store and he looked in the window and he saw a baseball bat there. It kind of took him back to when this old man had been a little boy. He remembered how much he’d loved baseball and how much he’d always wanted a baseball bat, but had never had the money to buy one. He saw that the baseball bat cost 95 cents (remember, this was 1904).
So he decided he would go in and he would buy that baseball bat, and he did. He came out onto the street, a bum with a baseball bat. He didn’t know what to do with it. He thought, “You know, I’m too old and I can’t play baseball anymore.” He thought, “Maybe I can give it to a little boy.” He went down the street and he found an orphanage. He went up to someone who worked at the orphanage and he said, “You know, I just bought this baseball bat. It’s brand new and I’d like to give it to a little boy. Do you have a boy here who loves baseball?” The person said, “You know, we have a lot of kids who love baseball, but there’s one boy who just really loves baseball. It’s almost all he talks about. He’s never had a baseball bat. I know he’d love it if you could give that bat to him. He’s a nine-year-old boy.” And this old man gave this brand-new bat to that nine-year-old boy and that nine year old boy was named George, George Herman Ruth. He grew up, of course, to become Babe Ruth, one of the greatest baseball players the world’s ever known.
How great it would’ve been if that old man could have survived for a few more decades, just to see that boy grow up and become a star. How great it would’ve been if that old man could have lived a few more decades and seen what that nine-year-old boy would become. Maybe the old man would’ve felt like his gift in some way had changed that boy’s future. Maybe the old man would’ve felt like in some small way his gift changed that boy’s destiny. Of course, that’s pretty rare for gifts. I mean, gifts don’t change our future. Not normally. They certainly don’t impact our destiny.
Christmas is coming up Saturday, and I know I’m going to get some gifts from my family and I have a pretty good idea the kinds of things I’m going to get. You know, they’re pretty nice. I’ll probably get some cologne. I always get some cologne, and I need that. I think they’ll probably get me a Nerf something. I mean, they always get me a Nerf something. Nerf football, Nerf basketball. They know I like Nerf balls and in wintertime I like to throw things in the house. They’ll probably get me a tie or maybe a shirt. Those are great. I mean, they’re really great, but they won’t change my future. They won’t shape my destiny. Not many gifts like that. In fact, there’s really only one gift that truly changes your destiny, and that’s the gift that we celebrate at Christmas. The gift of God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you accept this gift… You accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and your destiny has changed. You accept this gift and your whole future is reshaped. You accept this gift and you become a child of God. You accept this gift and you’re given a kingdom to serve forever. You accept this gift and you’re given a promise that one day you’re going to arrive in heaven, safe and sound. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.