ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
GOD’S PRESENCE
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 1:18-25
DECEMBER 24, 2011
Ebenezer Scrooge is the name of the chief character in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. His story is told often at Christmastime. Ichabod Crane is a leading character in Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and his story is often told at Halloween. Strangely enough, both of these, names Ebenezer and Ichabod, are Hebrew names. They are linked in the Bible. They are a part of the same story, a story that is told in 1 Samuel chapter four. It is a story of war; it is a time when Israel is at war with the Philistines. The armies of Israel have camped at a place called Ebenezer. Ebenezer, which means “the stone of help, the stone of God’s help, the stone of divine help,” is where the armies of Israel were encamped. The war with the Philistines was not going very well and the children of Israel were afraid. So, they thought, “Let’s send to Shiloh, let’s send to the temple and ask for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought here to Ebenezer that we might have the presence of God with us as we fight the Philistines.”
They sent to Shiloh and to the high priest Eli and they asked for the Ark of the Covenant. You must understand that nothing in the world of Israel was more precious than the Ark of the Covenant, nothing to the people of the Jews more valuable, more revered than the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was a box that was ladened with gold, covered with gold. Inside the box were the stone tablets that Moses had brought down from the Holy Mountain, that Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai. Those were the tablets that were inscribed with the Decalogue; those were the tablets that were inscribed by the divine hand with the Ten Commandments. They were kept in the Ark of the Covenant. On the top of the Ark of the Covenant, on top of the Mercy Seat, there were the winged cherubim made of gold and it was believed by the Jews that the Shekinah hovered, or dwelt over the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark was kept within the Holy of Holies. They asked the Ark itself to be brought to Ebenezer that they might have the presence of God with them. So, the Ark was brought by the sons of Eli and the battle was fought and the Philistines won. The Philistines won that battle and they came to Ebenezer and they captured and stole the Ark of the Covenant and they brought it back to Ashdod, one of the five leading cities of the Philistines. Word of this came to Shiloh, it came to the temple, and it came to Eli, the high priest. The Ark of the Covenant is gone, taken by the enemy, taken by the Philistines, taken from Ebenezer. The daughter-in-law of Eli, the high priest, who was about to give birth, gave birth and she named her child Ichabod, which is Hebrew meaning “the glory has departed.” God has left us, the glory has left Israel, the glory has left Ebenezer, the glory has left our people.
Tonight, here we are, Christmas Eve, some of you might feel a little like the daughter of Eli. You might feel like the glory has departed. You might look at your life, you might look at your past, you might feel this way about the present. You may feel like the glory is gone. You might feel like, “the presence of God has left me, it has departed.” You might even feel that you never had the presence of God, you have never had the glory of God, and you have never had his Shekinah with you.
This is what Christmas is about. God has sent his Son into the world, Emmanuel, God with us. He offers you a gift and the gift is simply his presence, that you would have his glory and you would have his presence and his presence would never ever leave you, not from this day forth into eternity, that you would always have his presence. This is the gift offered at Christmas by the Christ that has come into the world. Tonight, on this Christmas Eve, we look at the presence of God. We do this in two ways.
First, we look at the presence of God as it relates to faith. We look at the presence of God as it relates to trust. It was originally told by word of mouth and then the story was told by, the Holy Bible. However, the story has come to you, however the story has been told to you, the only issue is: do you believe the story? Do you trust it? Do you believe that that child born in Bethlehem was the son of God? Do you believe that he came into the world to show us the Father? Do you believe that he died for the sin of the world on Calvary’s cross? Do you believe that death could not hold him and that he rose from the dead and is the hope of the world? Do you believe that he is alive? Do you believe that he is coming again at the consummation of this age? Everything is tied to that. Everything is tied to this question of, do you believe? The presence of God itself is tied to this question.
We are going to look back at history, and in the year 476 AD Romulus Augustus was cast down from the throne of Rome. The armies of Rome were defeated by Germanic tribes. When Romulus Augustus was cast down in 476 it was the end of the Western Roman Empire. Those were the days of changing thrones, of changing empires. Just five years later, in 481 AD, Clovis I ascended the throne of the Merovingian dynasty; he founded the Merovingian dynasty. He would ultimately conquer much of Gaul and then be called the founder of the nation of France. He was 15 years old when he ascended the throne in 481.
Twelve years later, when he was 27, he married his wife. She was beautiful and she loved Jesus. She was a devout Christian; Clovis I was not a believer. After a years’ time they had a child. Clovis was excited and pleased, but the boy became ill. He asked his wife, he said, “Pray to your Christ, pray to your Jesus, that my boy would be healed.” She prayed for their son and yet their son died. Clovis became enraged. He cursed Christ, he cursed this Jesus and all who followed him. He began to burn churches; he burned them to the ground throughout his part of the ancient world. Then a year and half later another child was born to them. This child also became ill and Clovis said to his wife, “I am desperate, pray again to your God.” She prayed and fellow Christians prayed and this time the child was healed.
Clovis marveled. In those days, he fought many battles and he went to his wife and he said, “Pray for victory.” He won victories. So it was that in 496, Clovis himself, king of the Franks, came with 3,000 of the soldiers and they entered the cathedral at Reims and they were baptized into the Christian faith. The bishop said to Clovis I, “Worship what once you burned and burn what once you worshiped.” Today many historians and many theologians debate, did he really believe? Did he really become a Christian or was he just baptized? Is it all about if you give me what I want, I will believe and if you don’t give me what I want, I will reject you? If you heal my kid, I will believe in you and if you don’t heal my kid, I won’t believe in you? If you bless my career, if you bless my reign, I will believe in you and if you don’t, I won’t?
Today, on this very night, as Christmas Eve is celebrated, many theologians and many pastors of churches ask the same question about so many CEOs—so many Christmas and Easter only people. Do they really believe? Do you really believe? Do you really believe that Jesus is God with us and that he is the hope of the world? Have you really trusted your life to him?
We are told in the Bible in the Book of Acts, chapter 17, that the Apostle Paul came to the city of Athens. The city of Athens was the center of the Hellenized philosophical and cultural world. There in the city of Athens, we are told that Paul preached a sermon. He preached it on the Areopagus. The Areopagus was a hill near the Acropolis, with the Parthenon. The word Areopagus is a Greek word, and it literally means Hill of Ares, the Greek word Ares being a synonym for the Roman word Mars, the Greek god Ares being identical to the Roman god Mars. Hill of Mars, Mars Hill.
So, the Areopagus, which is where the Roman council of Athens first met, was called Mars Hill as well. There is a possible different etymology, a possible different derivation. It could be that Areopagus actually means Hill of Arai, and the Arai were the furies that avenged those innocents who were murdered. We don’t know for sure, but it doesn’t matter. What we do know for sure is that Paul was there. Paul preached this sermon. We know that in the crowd that heard him were two different philosophical groups. There were the Epicureans and there were the Stoics. The Epicureans were hedonists, and they believe that God was distant. They believed that God created and stepped back, so God is not present. God is nowhere near us, and he doesn’t even care. They hoped he didn’t care since their lives were so hedonistic.
Now, the stoics were rationalists and also pantheists. They believed that God was everywhere present and God was in everything—every rock, every stone, every tree, every person, and every animal. Pantheism. Here is Paul and he preached. He said, “You are all wrong.” That is what he said. I am sure he sought to be loving, but he said, “You are all wrong because God is not distant, because God cares. God is not distant because he is not far from any of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. Yet, he is not pantheistic. He created the world but he is separate from his creation and yet close by. He does not live in rocks or trees or people or animals, but the gospel. The Gospel tells us he is willing to come and live in people. He is willing to come and live in people through his son Jesus Christ.”
This is really and truly at the heart of the Christmas message. If you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, your Savior from sin and the Lord of your life, he will come by his Spirit and indwell you, actually tabernacle in you, make of you a holy of holies. He will come and dwell in you by his Holy Spirit. Jesus said to his disciples, “The Holy Spirit is with you and will be in you.” At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came within them. Today, wherever the gospel is preached, when people believe in Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit comes within. It is called regeneration, it is called rebirth, and it means to be born again. This phrase “anagennao” is used again and again in the Bible. This is at the heart of the message of Christ, that if you believe in him and accept him, he will enter you by his Spirit and be present within you and intimately by his Spirit. He will also be with you in the sense that whatever you are going through, he is there. In you and with you, this is the gospel of Christ. You have to trust it and believe it in order to receive it.
I think for many Christians, this trust in his presence is often tested. I accepted Christ when I was five, I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. I am 66, so do the math. I have been a Christian for 61 years. In my college years I had this stretch where I just didn’t feel his presence. I didn’t feel his presence and I came home from college and I talked to my mom who had led me to Christ and was also close to Christ. I told her that I sometimes feel like I am praying to the wall and that I sometimes feel like he is neither in me nor near me. I just don’t sense and feel his presence. My mom laid her hands on me and prayed that I would be given a special gracelet, a special working of grace that I would always sense the presence of Jesus. I do. I feel like God gave me a very special gift. I would say to you that if you don’t sense his presence, yes, pray for it and yes, ask somebody to lay hands on you and to pray for that special gift. I would also say this: we accept by faith that he is in us and with us. It is a choice we make. Faith is a choice. Every person who comes to Christ chooses to believe because there are seeds of doubt within us. Jesus says that the enemy puts them there. You see, there are seeds of faith and you have a choice to make. What do you want to grow: the seeds of doubt or the seeds of faith? You can make that choice and choose faith, choose Christ. It is a choice that, in a sense, we make every day.
Bill Belstrum is an elder emeritus at this church, an attorney-at-law and a very good friend. Fourteen years ago, in 1997, he was having surgery; it was to be a six-hour surgery, very, very difficult and long. As he was going to the operating room before he went under, he said to the surgeon, “Have you ever worked with a partner?” The surgeon said, “Many times. In fact, I will have a partner there today. There will be two doctors doing your surgery today.” Bill said, “Well, you are going to have a third partner today as you do the surgery.” The doctor smiled and understood that Bill was talking about the Lord and his faith in Christ. When the surgery was over, as Bill came out from under the anesthetic, the doctor said to Bill, “Your partner was with you today. He was with us today.”
You can choose to believe that or choose to not believe that. I would submit to you that if you give your heart to Christ, from that day forth he is in you and with you. It doesn’t matter whether you are in the operating room or the classroom at school. It doesn’t matter whether you are at home sleeping at night in your bedroom or whether you are at your place of work in the corporate world. It doesn’t matter where you are, he says, “I will never fail or forsake you. I am with you always even till the close of the age.” If you reach the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he is still with us because he is Lord. That is really the gift of Christmas. It is not that he always does what you want him to do. True faith accepts his providence. It is the only way to live. It gives you joy and it gives you peace and it gives you a purpose in life, if you truly trust his presence.
One final thought. In addition to associating the presence of God with trust, I just want to mention the association of the presence of God with worship. You shouldn’t even think of the presence of God without thinking of worship. I know you have all heard the story of the magi, you have all heard the story of the wise men. You have read that in Matthews’s Gospel in the second chapter starting in the first verse. The story of the magi is an amazing story. Personally, I marvel that it is in the Bible. You see, magi is a negative word in the Bible. There is nowhere in the Bible, Old or New Testament, where this word magi is approved of. The only place where this word is approved of is in Matthew chapter two and the story of the birth of Christ and the visit of the wise men. Every other place, this word magi is a condemned word.
If you go to Acts chapter eight and read about Simon Magus, Simon the magi, and he is called a sorcerer and he is condemned. You come to Acts chapter thirteen and you read about Elymas Bar-Jesus the magi called Magus, and he too is called a sorcerer and is condemned. So it is on the pages of the New Testament and the Old. This Persian word magi was borrowed by the Greeks and even its Hebrew equivalent is always condemned when you see it in Scripture.
So why is it that these magi that come from the east and visit the Christ child, why are they heroes in the story? Well, if you read the writings of Philo of Alexandria, and I know you haven’t… Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenized Jew, and he lived in the first century. He lived in the time of Christ; he lived in the very same years of Christ and the apostles. He was a Greek speaking Jew who lived in the educated city of Alexandria, Egypt. His writings were prolific and we have many of his writings today. I was recently poring through pages he had written about the magi. He says that in the first century there were two types of magi. The first type he calls the Meekashephim, and the second type he calls the Chartumsinim. The Meekashephim (and by the way, that is a Hebrew word, and the word Meekashephim is actually found in Deuteronomy chapter 18.) he is saying were sorcerers, necromancers, occultists, and astrologers. They were banned from the Roman Empire by Emperor Tiberius in 19 AD as charlatans.
He says there was a second type of Magi called the Chartumsinim, which is also a Hebrew word, which is found in Genesis chapter 41. He says the Chartumsinim were people of wisdom who may have dabbled in some of the stuff that the Meekashephim did, but they were educated scholars and they pored over the sacred writings of the Jews. He said that the Chartumsinim were students of the Torah. They did not live in Israel, they were not Jews, but they were scholars and students of the Torah, the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
They also, he said, were scholars who studied the Nevi’im, which comes from the Hebrew “nabi” and means prophets, the books of the Prophets. They also studied the Ketuvim, which is from “katab” and means the writings. These were magi that studied the whole of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, the books of the prophets, both major and minor, and all the other writings. He said that by studying them they understood Jewish prophecy. They understood that the Christ was coming. They understood that the Christ was the anointed one. They understood that he would fulfill the earthly offices of prophet, priest, and king and that he would be King of Kings. They understood something of the timing of Daniel’s 70 weeks so they would have understood the timing of his coming and this star, by the hand of God, led them.
It is a matter of some controversy. We have all sung at Christmastime We Three Kings of Orient Are. We don’t really know that there were three; we know that they gave three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but we really don’t know their number because the Bible doesn’t tell us. We do know that they were not kings. Magi, whether we are talking about the Meekashephim or the Chartumsinim, were counselors. Some of them were counselors to kings in royal courts. We also know that they were not from the Orient; they were not from the Far East, and they were not in the far reaches of the east in modern day China. They were more from the region of Persia. Other than that, it is a great song.
What we do know about them is beautiful because we are told in Matthew chapter two, verse eleven, that when they saw the baby, when they saw the Christ child, they fell down and they worshiped him. That is the invitation of Christmas, to fall down and worship him. Worship isn’t just something you do in a church. I love the church of Jesus Christ. Worship isn’t something you only do in some special place on some special occasion.
The first living nativity was created by Saint Francis Assisi in the year 1223, almost 800 years ago in an Italian grotto. He had sheep and shepherds and Mary and Joseph and the baby and angels. He had a sign he printed in Latin and the sign said, “Behold, Emmanuel. Come and worship Him.” That is what Christmas is, an invitation to worship. It is not just something you do in front of a nativity scene. It is something that if you really have placed your life in his trust, if you really believed in him then worship is something we do every day no matter where we are. Understanding he is in us and with us and he is always present we worship him.
Worship is not simply adoration. Worship is service. Most of the Hebrew and Greek words for worship, like the word “latria,” simply means to serve. If you really would embrace Christ every day the rest of our lives we wake up and we say, “Lord Jesus, thank you for being present in me and with me. How can I serve you today? How can I serve your cause? How can I serve your kingdom? How can I serve the cause of heaven on earth? I worship you and I offer myself to you. I offer my time to you, my talents to you, and my treasure to you. How can I serve?”
The wise men came and they bowed down, they fell down, and they served by giving him gifts. The gift that Christ wants is your life. He wants your life. As we close this morning, we are going to invite you to give your life to him. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.