ADVENT
THE BIRTH OF JESUS
DR. JIM DIXON
DECEMBER 24, 2000
LUKE 2:1, 1 JOHN 1:1
Late one afternoon on a cold December day, an elderly woman named Stella Thorn Hope was preparing to spend her first Christmas alone. Her husband had died a few months earlier after a long struggle with cancer, and they had loved each other very much. It was three days before Christmas. A cold winter storm had blown through the region, leaving a blanket of snow. Stella hadn’t put out any Christmas decorations—no lights, no Christmas tree. It didn’t feel like Christmas to her. She was lonely and she was alone. Suddenly, there was a knock at her door, and it was a delivery boy with a package. He said, “Mrs. Thorn, I hope this package is for you. I need you to sign the paper if you would.” Stella invited the delivery boy into the house. She signed the paper and she said, “What’s in the package?” And the boy said, “Well, it’s a gift for you.” And he opened up the box and he pulled out a beautiful golden Labrador retriever, a beautiful little puppy. And Stella looked at the puppy. It seemed glad to be out of the box. And she said, “Who would’ve given me this this wonderful little puppy?” And the boy smiled and he said, “It’s a gift from your husband. He never saw the puppy, but he saw the mother and he prepared all of these things and made all the arrangements. It’s all explained in the notes.”
When the delivery boy left Stella read the note from her husband, written just a few days before he died. And as she read the note, she began to cry because her husband described his love for her and called her to be strong and reminded her that he would be in heaven and he would be waiting for her there. And he said, “I thought maybe you’d be lonely, so I gave you this gift of this puppy.”
Well, through her tears, she looked through the windows and she saw the Christmas lights on the neighboring houses and the radio in her kitchen was playing Joy to the World, The Lord has Come. And suddenly it felt a whole lot more like Christmas and she wasn’t as lonely anymore.
Now, the truth is that there are a lot of people who are lonely at Christmas. There are people who are lonely all year round. And yet God doesn’t want us to be lonely. He doesn’t want us to be lonely. He doesn’t want us to be lonely at Christmas time or at any time. And that’s why He sent His Son into the world. He doesn’t want us to be lonely. And that’s what Christmas is all about.
To understand this, we really need to take a look at the prologue of the little letter of 1 John. And in this prologue, Christmas is described as an epiphany. Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of life, was made manifest. And John tells us that he saw Him, he heard Him, he touched Him, and he is charged to bring His message, the message of Christmas, the message of the gospel, to the world. And that message John sums up in one word, and this one word is what Christmas is all about. It’s what Jesus came into the world for. It’s what the gospel is all about. And that one word that describes the message of Christmas is fellowship. Jesus came for fellowship. Now, the Greek word is “koinonia.” And in this little scripture passage in 1 John, it’s used in two ways, and these comprise our two teachings this Christmas Eve.
First of all, fellowship with God, fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, koinonia with God, is what Christmas is all about. That’s why Jesus came into the world, that we could have koinonia with God. The word koinonia means community, a community of friends who partake together, participate together, share together, and partner together. It refers to a relationship of friendship, a relationship that is close and intimate. The marriage relationship in the Greek world was described by this Greek word koinonia. And you see, God wants koinonia with you. God wants koinonia with me. He wants fellowship, He wants intimate friendship with each of us. And that’s why He sent His Son into the world. And that is what Christmas is all about: koinonia friendship.
Now in Luke’s gospel, the 23rd chapter, in the 43rd and 44th verse, the moment of Christ’s death is described, the moment of His death on the cross. And of course, Jesus Christ was born to die. “For this He came into the world.” “You will call His name Jesus,” the angel said to Joseph, “for He will save His people from their sins.” The angels announced to the shepherds on the Judean hillside, “I bring you good news of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior.” You see, He came to save us from sin—to die for your sin and for my sin, to die in substitutionary atonement. And that moment of His death is described in Luke 23. And we’re told that in the moment that Christ died, the moment He drew His last breath, the skies were darkened and the sun would not give its light.
We’re told that as Jesus said His final words, “Father, into Thy hand, I commit My spirit,” and as He said, “It is finished,” in that very moment, a strange thing happened in the city of Jerusalem. On the hill of the temple Mount, Mount Moriah, inside the temple, the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the holy place was ripped a sunder. And to understand the meaning of this and the symbolism of this, we have to go back to the Old Testament and we have to look at how God revealed Himself to the children of Israel.
Of course, God revealed Himself to the children of Israel through a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud by day and by night. And He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. And these were theophanies, manifestations of the divine presence. But the divine presence came to tabernacle amongst the people of Israel. We’re told in the Bible He came to dwell amongst the people of Israel and that the divine presence, called the Shekinah, hovered over the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies inside the tabernacle (and then later in the Holy of Holies inside the temple). But the people of Israel couldn’t really have friendship with God because God was holy and they were sinners. And so they could never go into the holy of Holies. No one was allowed in the presence of God. They were separated from God. Only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies (as many of you know), and he but once a year on Yom Kippur, when he took the blood of animals and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, seeking to atone for the sin of the people.
And when he went into the Holy of Holies that one day of the year, he had to have a rope tied around him in case he died in there, because no one could go in and get him. They would be able to pull him out. God was utterly holy, and they were sinners and there was no friendship with God. There was all reverence, respect, but not friendship. But you see, in that moment on the cross, when Christ died, sin was atoned for it—your sin and my sin. And the temple curtain between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place was split in two and access was provided to the divine presence—God wanting friendship with you, God inviting you into the Holy of Holies, God inviting us into fellowship with him. Koinonia. That’s why He sent His Son into the world, that we might have friendship with Him.
The word koinonia describes a relationship even deeper than friendship. I know many of you have heard of the orphan train, which ran from east to west in the United States. It first started running in the year 1854. And of course, in the eastern cities of America, there was great poverty and there was disease and many moms and dads died and many were so impoverished that their children were abandoned. And orphans were just walking the street. But they were put on the orphan train. And the train moved from east to west and stopped in little towns and cities moving west, inviting people to receive these orphans into their homes—to adopt them, to make them their children. The orphan train ran all the way until 1930 following World War I. And of course, in World War I, 9 million children were orphaned—2 million in Poland alone and tens of thousands right here in the United States of America.
Many of them were put on the orphan train. They were put on the orphan train and the train moved west, stopping in towns and inviting people to receive these children into their homes and to adopt them into their families. These children were not simply seeking friendship; they were seeking even a deeper relationship. They were seeking families. They were seeking mothers and fathers. And you see, Jesus came into the world to give us that kind of koinonia, that kind of relationship with God. It is not simply friendship, but a family relationship. God wants to be our Father.
Of course, Jesus referred to God the Father as Abba. And that’s an Aramaic word. Of course, the Jewish people in the time of Christ spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew. The Jewish people at that time also knew Hebrew and probably knew a little Greek as the world was largely Hellenized, but Aramaic was the daily language of the Jewish people. And Jesus used this Aramaic word Abba when He spoke to His father. The Aramaic make word “Ab” is the word for father. “Im” is the Aramaic make word for mother. But when a baby tried to say “Ab,” the baby would say “Abba.” When the baby tried to say “Im,” the baby would say “Immah.” And so children of Jewish Aramaic-speaking people called their mom and dad “Abba and Immah.” And as they grew up, they continued to use this affectionate term for their parents.
They were terms of closest intimacy with one’s parents, Abba and Immah. Nobody ever would’ve called God Abba. Nobody would’ve dared to do that, but Jesus did. He called God Abba, as we read in Mark 14:36, and here’s the amazing thing. When we come to Romans eight and Galatians four, we who believe in Jesus Christ are also told that we should call God Abba, which is like “Daddy.” We should call God Abba because we who believe in Jesus Christ have been born into the family of God, adopted. What Jesus has by nature, we have by adoption as we receive Jesus Christ and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ becomes our Father, Abba. This is the gift of Christmas. It’s why Jesus came into the world, that we would have koinonia with God.
I want to read you just a little quote from Max Lucado. “There are many reasons God saves you: to bring glory to Himself, to appease His justice, to demonstrate His sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because He’s fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. And when you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe and He chose your heart. And the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem? Face it, friend. He’s crazy about you.” That’s how God feels about us. That’s why He sent His Son into the world. He wants koinonia with you.
Now, there’s a second kind of koinonia described in our passage of scripture this Christmas Eve, and it’s koinonia with God’s people, koinonia with each other. In this little passage, John describes the epiphany of Christmas, God made manifest. And then he says that this is the message of Christmas, that we might have fellowship with each other as well as with the Father and with His Son, fellowship with each other. And so, Jesus came into the world to give us koinonia not only with God, but with a new community. And that new assembly, the Bible calls the church the “ecclesia,” which means assembly. It’s a new community created for koinonia, created for friendship.
This is part of what Christmas is all about as well. In fact, the gospel is oftentimes misrepresented. In the gospel, we often think of a call to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And that is true, but that’s only half of it. We receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and we enter into koinonia with God. But that’s really only half of it, because the gospel also calls us into koinonia with the church, with the new community. This is the call of the Gospel too. Jesus came into the world and He said, “I will build My church, and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together”—assembling at the ecclesia, the church.
Now, I know that you’ve all heard of Notre Dame Cathedral. It stands on a little island in the midst of the Seine river in the city of Paris. The cathedral was built beginning in the 12th century. It took over a hundred years to build. Many famous things have happened there through the passing of the years. In 1430, King Henry VI was crowned King of France—the boy monarch, king of France, crowned right there in Notre Dame Cathedral. And it was in the middle of the Hundred Years’ War when, apart from the efforts of Joan of Arc, France would’ve become an English dominion. In 1558, Mary Queen of Scots was married to Francis II, right there in Notre Dame’s Cathedral. And in 1804 Napoleon I, Napoleon Bonaparte, took the crown from Pope Pius III and placed it on his own head and he crowned himself emperor and his wife Josephine empress. Right there in Notre Dame, in the Notre Dame Cathedral in 1944, Charles De Gaulle on August 26th, knelt at the altar to thank God for the liberation of France.
It’s because of famous events like these that the cathedral, the church at Notre Dame, is so famous. But in the sight of God, these were not the most significant moments in the cathedral of Notre Dame. In the sight of God, the most significant moments were moments of community, moments when His sons and daughters, believers in Christ, came together and experienced koinonia right within those walls. Friendship and fellowship. Partnership. When they came together in community, those were the greatest moments to God. And in the sight of God, the cathedral of Notre Dame is not even a church, it’s just a building. It’s just a building in which from time to time throughout history the church of Christ met. The assembly met. But it’s just a building. Of course, churches need buildings, assemblies need buildings, but only the church can be a koinonia. A building can’t experience koinonia; only people can. And the true church consists of people, people who are sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ, brothers and sisters coming into relationship with each other in community and friendship. And that’s why Jesus came into the world.
Of course, it is true that there are some people who rarely go to church. And it is true the church is flawed, but it’s God’s chosen instrument in the world. And there are some people who only go to church to be baptized when they’re born and to be married when they fall in love and to be buried when they die in services of Memorial. They just want the church to participate in, you know, hatching matching and dispatching. That’s basically it. It’s also true, of course, that there are some people who only go to church on Christmas Eve and on Easter. And the sad thing is that’s missing the message of Christmas, because Jesus came into the world in this epiphany for the sake of koinonia, to bring us into friendship with God and to bring us into friendship with each other, that we might be the community of Christ in this world, that we might experience friendship and fellowship amongst the people of God. That’s why in this church we have over 300 small group fellowships, little mini congregations, because God calls us into koinonia.
December 13th of this month was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are my day off. And on that Wednesday morning, I turned on the TV because the night before on Tuesday the 12th Al Gore, the vice president of the United States, had made his concession speech and George W. Bush had made his acceptance speech. And I wanted to see what the media had to say about this. So I turned on the TV and the Today Show was on and the Today Show with Katie Couric. And she said that she was going to be interviewing Mr. Rogers—Fred Rogers from the children’s show. And I thought, well, you know, I’ll just listen to this for a moment.
Mr. Rogers came on the show, and I guess Fred and Katie are friends, and he said to her, you know, Katie, the most important things in life are rarely center stage. They’re almost never center stage. For instance, he said, you this morning got ready for your show and you went through all the makeup and all the preparation that you might come out here before the cameras and before the whole nation and be center stage, but that’s not really that important. He said, what really is important might’ve been the conversation you had this morning with the makeup person, or some other conversation you had. Because what’s really important in life, he said, is relationships. Relationships.
Now, when you think about it, the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem was not center stage. I mean, it happened in a little manger in a little town called Bethlehem. It’s not center stage, but it’s the most important thing in the world because it’s all about relationship, friendship with God, and friendship with his people—the assembly, the church.
This morning as we close, we’re going to invite you to enter into this friendship with God and to enter into this friendship with God’s people. That’s why Jesus came into the world, and that’s what Christmas is all about. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.