Christmas has a way of feeling like a destination—the carols, the decorations, the nativity—as though the manger is where everything finally arrives. John 1 won’t let it stay there: the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and the question John presses is what exactly that birth was launching toward and what it means for us now.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
The pastor argues that Christmas is a “launch pad,” not a destination. How does this change the way you think about celebrating Christmas, and what difference might it make in how you live out your faith after the holiday season ends?
John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God” rather than emphasizing his birth or miraculous nature. What does the image of a lamb—an animal sacrificed—tell us about why Jesus came into the world, and how does that shape your understanding of the Incarnation?
Are there Christmas traditions or decorations that sometimes receive more of your attention than the living Savior they are meant to point toward? How do we hold both reverence for meaningful tradition and obedience to what Scripture calls us to?
The sermon emphasizes that we continue to sin and fall short, even after becoming Christians. Why is it important to remember this at Christmas and beyond, and how does the ongoing promise of forgiveness shape the way we approach communion and our relationship with God?
What would it look like for you to receive Christ’s light and share it with someone else during this Christmas season?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
What makes the ultimate Christmas tree? That’s the question we’ve been asking all month long, hasn’t it? And of course, I taught my tree a few extra tricks there that you saw. And those would be pretty neat. If you have a tree that can dance like that tree, I want to see it. And that might get that prize, right? But when you think about your tree, when you think about what would make it the ultimate version of your Christmas tree, what is it? Maybe it’s the family ornaments that you pull out every year and you carefully unwrap and you remember the memories, maybe even going back to when you were a little kid. And you remember looking with wonder at those ornaments. And then years later, as you put those again on the tree, you remember all those memories. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s a nativity scene. I know a lot of people feel like if they haven’t put a nativity scene under the tree, it’s still a secular tree, but you put that nativity scene under the tree and now it is a genuine ultimate Christmas tree.
What is it for you? You can’t, well, you could go on the chat while you’re here in person, but for those of you online, certainly, you can jump in the chat and mention what you would put in there. But one thing I think we’d find is that an awful lot of people would come up with an awful lot of different answers. And we might not even agree on what those answers really point to. Some of us might say, well, I have to have the lights that chase. I have to have colored lights or white lights. We wouldn’t all agree on that, but you know when it really comes down to it, we don’t celebrate Christmas because we need an ultimate Christmas tree. We don’t need decorations; we need a Savior.
John, as he dives deeply into the mystery of what happens at Christmas, goes straight to that. We started looking at John chapter one on Sunday, and I’m going to actually go back to a few verses we looked at on Sunday, but we’re going to look at them from a different angle tonight because there’s so much embedded in them. And as we prepare to do that, why don’t we go ahead and come before God and pray?
Father, thank you for your love. As we think about what it is that you’ve done for us, how you gave us the ultimate Christmas gift. We talk about this ultimate Christmas tree. Would you help us to see what you’re really doing, what you really have done? And as we turn to you what you really will do in our lives. And as we go through the rest of this Christmas season, that might be encouragement to us. We have to hold on to that joy of the ultimate Christmas gift and share it with everyone we encounter. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
John chapter one, verse 14, if you’d like to turn there: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Here’s the first truth that we’re going to look at tonight in the Gospel of John. John, if we went back to the beginning of the chapter, clearly establishes Jesus has always existed. He created everything, but he did come into the world. He was born. Jesus was born for us. That’s why we celebrate, right? We celebrate because Jesus came into this world. And so then we put all the trinkets around that point to what happened that night. All the nativity bits, right? You get your donkeys and your wise men, and maybe you’re going to be really accurate. You put the wise men far away for a while because they’re not here yet. But you put all those pieces together. I mean, okay, here’s why we celebrate.
Well, let me ask you a question. Why? Now, that’s a funny thing to ask him. Why are you asking why? Because it’s Jesus’s birthday, and he’s really special. True, but we really want to get down to it. There were a lot of babies born over the course of history that were special, right? They did something special, something meaningful, something that as they grew up, we remember their names. Why are we celebrating this one’s birthday?
Notably, in the Gospel of John, we don’t spend a lot of time in a nativity scene. In fact, we don’t spend any. He establishes Jesus did come into the world, we need to know that, but then he just goes flying onward, fast-forward to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry 30 years later or so. Why? Because Christmas isn’t the destination. Christmas is the launch pad. Christmas is where it starts, this movement into the world where God comes into the world to fix things, but it isn’t the place we stop. It’s the place we start.
So often, we have our scene of that first Christmas, and that feels like why we celebrate. That is the thing we’re celebrating. And there is a lot of good to that, right? It’s amazing that God came into the world. How beautiful is it that God came into the world? We don’t want to somehow miss that, but you know, if that were it. And let’s say even, okay, we know that Jesus wasn’t just a special baby. He was the special baby. Okay, wonderful. The special baby of all history came into the world 2000 years ago. Isn’t that nice? Yeah, it’s nice, but we’re not there. Yeah, it’s nice, but 2000 years is a long time.
And when we view Christmas as the destination, it really does feel that way, because even if God came into the world and said, “Hi, everyone. I’m here. I’m in the world,” and spent some time in the world, and then went off like Elijah on a chariot of fire. You know, wonderful, but now what? I think it’s sometimes telling how we approach Christmas, how I approach Christmas, right? I love Christmas. Those of you that know me, I always get really sad when we get into the New Year, because it’s sort of like the whole year has been building up towards Christmas, right? And you see the, “Oh, I can’t believe people are already putting up the decorations in the store part of the year.” But as much as I might say, “Oh, wow, we’re already here,” at the same time it’s like, “Oh, yeah, Christmas is coming.” And then you get to the point in the year where everyone’s ready to start thinking about Christmas, and you get to your role in November, and it’s just like, “Oh, bring on Christmas. Put up the Christmas tree. Play those carols. I’m ready for the Christmas dinner. This is great,” right? Here we are at Christmas.
But Christmas isn’t the destination. It might feel like it’s a year, but it’s not the destination.
When I first became a pastor, there was an instant, I think, back on it. And would I have handled it differently now? Probably. I may not have quite gotten this just right. But I remember in seminary, I grew up, we always had a nativity scene under the tree, but those of you that know me know I have hesitations on nativity scenes. And that occurred in seminary. I was studying God’s Word, as you do, and the more I looked at God’s prohibition on making images, the more I struggled with the idea that we put a little image of the Son of God in a little bed and put that little bed under a tree. Because I couldn’t really come up with a distinction on why that was different and exactly what God had forbidden.
Now, I’m not here tonight to convince you on that. That’s not my point of spending some time on Christmas Eve reliving this story. But a couple years later, I’m a pastor in a church, and I walk into the sanctuary. Ladies have done a beautiful job decorating. The Women’s Committee always went overboard decorating everything. It was beautiful. And by overboard, I mean that’s great, right? It’s just beautiful. And I look up front, right off to the side of the stage, and there is a giant nativity scene. And I remember thinking, okay, if it’s in someone’s yard, if it’s under a tree, we’re not really even in a worship place. But here we are in the place where we worship the living Savior of the universe. He’s not a thing from the past, but the one who is alive today. And right up front, as you’re looking up for the lyrics of the songs, there’s this large baby Jesus laying there.
And I went to the leaders in the church, and I said, “You know, our confession that we affirm says we’re not supposed to make images. We have this image up front. I’m not sure about this.” And we all talked about it and said, “Yeah, you know, maybe we shouldn’t.” So one of the elders said, “I’ll go and take it down.” And he moved it, I think, back into the Sunday school area. Okay, it’s not in the worship area any longer. And the part I would have handled differently is I probably should have reached out to the women’s committee before we moved it. I did not.
But first, I didn’t really think a whole lot of it until I got a phone call one day. My cell phone rings, and the woman on the other end of the line says, “Are we becoming Muslims?” This is a strange question to ask a Christian pastor.
“What do you mean, are we becoming Muslims?” And she said, “Are we becoming Muslims? Are we letting Islam take over the church?” And I said, “What do you mean?” And she said, “You took down Jesus. You’re stripping away Jesus.” I said, “Are you talking about the nativity scene?” And she said, “Yeah, how can you take down Jesus? We’re just going into that culture that always wants to get rid of Jesus and everything.”
And again, this is not to pat myself on the back because I wasn’t really ready for this. And I don’t think I really gave the most thoughtful little manic answer I could have. I tried to. I certainly was trying to be sympathetic. I didn’t brush her off, but I said, “Well, you know, the reason we took down the nativity scene is that God says not to make an image of Himself. And when we come into a space to worship God, we don’t think we should have images of God. And Jesus, we want to be very clear, is God. So we took down the nativity scene.” I didn’t convince.
But as I think back on that, for one, I think about how could I have handled this more pastorally? The second thing I think of and why I would still want to take it down is something was deeply revealing about how strongly this faithful woman was reacting to this. Other decorations sometimes got moved. She didn’t react. Why this one? Because in a lot of ways, I think we do think of Christmas as a destination. And the destination is that baby in the manger. That this is where everything points, right? We get to this point.
But Jesus isn’t just a baby in a manger. Jesus certainly isn’t anything that we can make with our own human hands. Jesus is so much more than that. And that’s why John goes racing past a nativity. He doesn’t set up a nativity scene. He doesn’t even describe a nativity scene. He goes right to what Jesus is going to do, why that baby was born, why that baby came into the world. Because if we stop there and our sense on whether Jesus is here or not is whether or not we’re focused on the nativity scene, well, the nativity scene by itself leaves us sinners in a cold and dark and hopeless world. The reason the angels shouted with joy at the birth of the Savior is because of what the Savior was going to do, why he was born.
And that’s where John goes, verse 35, “The next day John, as John the Baptist, was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God.’” Now, I mentioned that verse the other night, but I didn’t really focus on that part about Lamb of God.
But really, the first exclamation in Jesus’ ministry about who He is isn’t, “Look at Jesus. He’s going to be a great teacher.” Or, “Look at Jesus. He’s even the Son of God. But look at Jesus, the Lamb of God.” Because Jesus came into the world, we looked at God in the flesh. But so much more than that, we looked at God in the flesh, willing to come into the world to die for us. What do you do with the Lamb? You sacrifice the Lamb. He didn’t come into the world to be in a gilded manger or a beautiful Christmas card scene. He didn’t come into the world to even simply teach us all kinds of wisdom that we could hold onto. He came into the world to take our sin to the cross and to die for us.
Lots of pagan gods came into the world, according to mythology. I mean, I don’t really believe they did, but I mean, people believed they did. Now, why did they come into the world? Well, maybe they’re curious. Maybe they wanted to get some kind of earthly advantage. Maybe they’re envious of what humans had, and they wanted it. Those were the stories that were told. What made the story of Jesus different? Well, it happened. But also notably, the God of the universe came into the world, not for His advantage, not for His benefit, but for ours.
Acts chapter 2, verse 36, Peter’s describing what has transpired with the crucifixion. He says, “Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.” When people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Jesus went to the manger for us, yes. But He didn’t stay in the manger. Jesus went to the manger for us so He could go to the cross for us.
That brings me back to my question about the ultimate Christmas tree, ultimate Christmas decoration. I’m going to turn off the lights for a moment so we can just kind of soak in the beauty of our Christmas decorations here. I love the way Little Hills looks at Christmas time. I look at the trees and just think how it’s so beautiful what we’re blessed with here, that we can celebrate with these decorations that remind us of the light who came into the world. I look at the different trees and their stories, and I think, for example, I also look at the candles and think I need to be careful with those decorations.
You look at, for example, this tree, and the tree over there, and the stories behind them as they were donated, or actually all these different trees. You’ve heard the story of the one tree over there. It was thrown into a dumpster. We had all these different trees and all their stories, and they’re all beautiful. Anyone want to try to pick the ultimate tree here at Little Hills? I don’t think I can, but here’s the thing. We’re going to take them down. Not right now. Yeah, no, please don’t, but we will take them down, and even if we didn’t take them down, their lights will fade. Eventually, their needles will fall off. They won’t last. Someday, all the lights will go off.
You see, none of them are the ultimate Christmas tree. There’s only one of those. There’s the cross. Jesus came into the world not so we could bedeck our tree with things that remind us of Christmas, and so he could go to that cross and place himself on it. But as he did, we would receive the ultimate Christmas gift.
When we really come down to it, the best Christmas gift, the ultimate Christmas gift, is Easter. The one who came into the world died and triumphed over death so we could live. Jesus didn’t just come to be remembered. To be that, “Oh, here’s a nice baby that we can remember and we can celebrate. Here is one who seems pretty good.” He came to bring us to Him.
The Spirit was given to us. The very God of the universe dwells with us. Every time we come to Him, every time we have the Lord’s Supper, every time we pray to Him, we actually are in the presence of the Savior. We don’t have to look at a decoration or history book. He’s the living God who is there with us right now.
The ultimate Christmas tree is the tree that saved us because God loved the world.
Would you pray with me, please? Father, would you help us to be those who keep our eyes on the ultimate Christmas tree? To keep Christ in Christmas isn’t to have the right decorations, to sing the right songs, to have all the beautiful trees as much as I love them. To keep Christ in Christmas is to look to the cross and realize exactly the weight and the wonder what it is that you did because you love us. And to be refreshed by that and to share that hope, not just that there was joy 2000 years ago, but there is joy today when we trust in our Savior, our Savior who lives. And it is in His precious name we pray. Amen.
In a moment, we’re going to come to a time of communion and as we do, we’re going to come to the Savior who took our sins upon Himself for us. The one who went to that cross, well, not that cross. It probably wasn’t as pretty as that cross. It was a horrendous thing. But He went to that because we fall short.
Now, here’s something that we need to remember. We didn’t fall short in the past; we continue to fall short. I fall short even today. I can think of a multitude of mistakes. Christmas, what we need to do is confront, but that’s true. And yet God knew that and saved us.
Our call to confession comes from Matthew chapter one. Here’s what the angel said: “She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Notice, before Jesus was ever born, before there was ever a manger that could ever be depicted or not, before the angels sang or the shepherds ran with joy or the wise men came or there was rejoicing in the temple as dedication or anything else, before any of that, it’s already been said what Jesus was going to do. He was going to come into the world. He was going to come into the world to save us.
So, let’s take just a few moments now and place our sins before Him. We don’t need to hide them and hope that maybe He’ll give us the gift because He doesn’t yet know what we’ve done. He does know. We confess those things before Him, the deeds that can give us the continuing gift of His forgiveness. We’ll take a moment in silent confession and then I’ll close this.
How do we even wrap our minds around what you have done for us, Lord? That You came into the world, came into the world with the purpose already being that we were going to sin. Those of us who weren’t even alive yet, we were going to sin and fall short over and over again and need your forgiveness, need your redemption. Yet, that’s what you did.
Lord, as we come before you tonight, we pray that you would purify us, that you would wash away our sins, the burdens we lay before you, the failures that we can accumulate in just moments of time. That you would strengthen us through your Holy Spirit, that we might instead look to the cross and respond to it by going and doing the work you’ve caused. And pray this in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
Start the Conversation