In a world where there’s so much suffering and pain, so many different choices we can make – entertainment choices, lifestyle choices, career choices, in a world that seems to have moved on from that age-old story of Bethlehem, is there really any point in celebrating Christmas?

Here we are, we’re standing on the threshold of yet another Christmas, another year gone by. I’m not sure whether you’ve ever considered this but Christmas presents people, like me, with a big problem, a real problem

You see, the problem is this; every year you expect me to come up with a fresh take on Christmas. You don’t want me to repeat what I said last year. ‘No Berni, we’ve heard that. Tell us something new.’

Indeed, tell us something new. And so each Christmas, people like me have to figure out something new to tell people like you, about Christmas. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining but you see my dilemma.

How many new things can one man say about Christmas? We have one of them every year, it’s, well it’s Christmas. Jesus was born, baby in the manger, no room in the inn. And then there were the shepherds and Mary and Joseph and of course, these wise men from the East and we all celebrate that by going on a shopping spree.

In the west, at least, the success of Christmas is measured by the retail trading figures for December. How many billions did we spend again on Christmas this year? There you go, it’s Christmas! What more do you want me to say?

So you see my point. We do Christmas as this seasonal thing and in the southern hemisphere it’s wrapped up in our whole summer holiday. In the northern hemisphere, well I don’t know, it’s cold I guess but I’ve never done Christmas in the northern hemisphere.

Just stand back with me for a moment and take a global perspective. While we in the west are wallowing in our wealth, billions of people are starving. Billions of people are in poverty and pain and privation. In fact, that challenges me because today, today there are more people listening to this program out of their poverty than there are those who have credit cards at the ready to go out on a shopping spree.

In fact today, millions of people listening to this program, well they must be sitting there wondering, ‘What’s Christmas all about? Why? Why Christmas? It’s a question you can’t answer with a shopping spree or a radio program for that matter. Why? Why Christmas? What do I say to people? What do I say to you in answering, why Christmas?

Well God’s amazing. I can just churn out another series of Christmas pantomime messages but I’m not sure that will help anyone. I’m not here to entertain you; I’m here to make a difference in your life. That’s what’s been churning around in my heart.

The other morning I was up early, at 4.00am, as I often am. I was preparing for this program and I looked at an email that came in overnight. It was from the head of our Rwandan ministry, a man called Bubahase Joseph, a good friend. He’s received an email from a listener that touched me so deeply and it helped me to understand Christmas in a whole new way. I’m going to share this email with you, from this man in Rwanda, who listens to this program, word for word, exactly the way he wrote it. Have a listen. He said:

‘I’m going to pass on my thanks to the team at Christianityworks. For the past 7 months, I have been following Berni’s programs on Radio Rwanda. I’m in my 3rd year of my divorce but let me tell you, this last year was the worst year of my life. But this past Saturday, I was so touched by Berni’s teaching on God’s love to us. I’ve had many teachings on this subject but no-one ever convinced me in the way that I am right now. After this night teaching on Saturday, I realised that I have to reconcile to my wife. 

Yesterday morning I was able to pick up a telephone and phone my wife after a whole year of no communication with her. We had a great conversation. As you know we have a Rwandan proverb, ‘a man doesn’t cry’. I was crying, my wife was crying too. We ended up forgiving each other and agreed to consider to be reunited as wife and husband again.

So, my brothers and sisters, thank you for providing these programs to us and for your prayers. Be encouraged for what you are doing.’

As I often say, a testimony like that just kind of blows me away. I shouldn’t be amazed but I am. And as I sat there, thinking about what Christmas means to each one of us: to the wealthy woman driving her 4 wheel drive to the shops to buy presents for her kids; to the mother in a refugee camp in Africa, whose daughter has been raped again; to the man whose marriage is falling apart; to the business man in some wealthy western city, who’s climbing his way up the corporate ladder towards an early grave; as I was thinking about what Christmas means to each one of us, this email nailed it for me.

We dig a pit for ourselves, each one of us differently. For this man it was a marriage breakdown, for you and for me, well who knows but you know what I’m talking about. We dig a pit for ourselves and then, when the night seems so incredibly dark, God reaches down into that pit. He reaches down into that pit with His love: a love so great that it compels us to change; a love so great that it brings reconciliation.

This man listened to a program on his radio in Rwanda and some joker from Australia, with a funny accent, talked about the love of God. And even through that, God reached down into the pit:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son and so that whoever believes in Him wouldn’t perish but have eternal life.

God didn’t send His Son into this world to condemn us, He came to save us. See, the love of God saves us. On that night, in Bethlehem, God reached into my pit, He reached into your pit. The Bible calls Jesus ‘the Word of God’ because Jesus is God speaking to us.

See, God didn’t just stop by sending us a letter, God didn’t just stop by sending us an email or a text message. That is not how He sent His word to us. He came Himself, He sent His Son, His one and only beloved Son. What a miracle! This little baby in that stable on that night – little hands, little fingers and toes – born out of His mother’s womb into that draughty, smelly stable that night. He cried, He slept, He gurgled. He grew up. He died on that cross for you and for me.

See, that’s real love, that’s God’s love. That’s God becoming a man, becoming one of us, talking to us in a way that we can see and touch and hear and perceive and understand and receive. In a man, in Jesus, the Son of God.

Whatever war you and I happen to be living in right now. Whatever conflict or pain or loneliness or isolation or injustice we happen to be living through, this love is a love that rings so clearly, so truly, through all the noise and the clamour: the sound of the cash registers, the sound of hungry children crying, the sound of bombs exploding.

On that night, He gave us His Son – Jesus. And what that man, who sent me that email discovered, is exactly what God meant him to discover. This love of God that slipped into this world on that night, 2,000 years ago, is a love that changes our hearts, is a love that changes our lives. That’s why, that’s why Christmas!

Christmas is always a bit of a contradiction to me. On the one hand, we seem to celebrate it en masse – on a huge, global scale. On the other hand, the message of Christmas is very small, it’s very personal. It’s a message of a tiny baby, in a manger in Bethlehem. So – big Christmas or small Christmas. Which one will you be celebrating?

I don’t know what your local shopping centre looks like but the one near me is massive. Now I’m pretty good at navigating but this one is so large, it’s easy to end up wondering, ‘Now, where am I and how do I get out of here?’ If you were to ask me what’s one of my strongest visual associations with Christmas? Well, it would be the masses of people thronging through this shopping mall – one ritzy, glitzy shop after the next.

And the other strong association that I have, with Christmas, is the TV programs they put on around this time; these massive cavernous cathedrals with angelic choirs and crimson clad clergy. These massive new shopping malls of ours seemed to be modelled on the cathedrals of old sometimes. Like a modern take on an old theme. You hear what I’m saying?

The way that Christmas is dished up to us these days, well it’s larger than life. It’s a global phenomenon and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian or a humanist, spiritual or secular, pilgrim or consumer, we’ve got a cavernous cathedral to suit our needs.

In fact I sometimes wonder when it comes to Christmas, whether there’s even a line between Christ follower and consumer. The Christmas that we splash onto the big screen these days, it’s so big and the only way we get to participate is either to sit and watch or to shop.

Now I don’t mean to be unduly pessimistic about Christmas but I just wonder whether this ‘larger than life’ Christmas experience, well it colours our world. We’re part of it. We swallow it hook, line and sinker. That’s in the affluent west but what about the majority, what about the two-thirds who live in poverty, without even enough food to eat.

What about the people who work in the sweat shops that produce most of what, we in the west, consume at Christmas. I mean, I live in the affluent west and I struggle to know how to make sense of this whole Christmas juggernaut, I really do. This massive ritual that kicks in early December with the hype and the ads and the tinsel and the trees.

I believe in Jesus, I have enough food to eat and yet I still struggle to know how to be part of this, this ‘bigger than Ben Hur’ Christmas phenomenon. Answer me this; how is the lonely old widow in Lubumbashi supposed to make sense of it? How is the 13-year-old girl working 14 hours a day in an EPZ in the outskirts of Manila, how is she supposed to make sense of it all?

And what about the man who sits on the pavement, all unshaven and dirty and smelly with his cardboard sign – this man that people step over and avoid – how’s he supposed to make sense of it all? Tell me that!

My God, what is this Christmas thing that we celebrate? God, what does it mean? Is it even for me? You know something; I’m just not sure that all this stuff is what God had in mind for Christmas, that ‘big’ Christmas thing. You know how I come to that conclusion? You go and spend a while in that draughty, smelly, little stable out back of some two-star establishment in Bethlehem.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the night sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes
but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.

Now, that’s all just fine and dandy until you realise that a manger is a trough for livestock food and the livestock stink because they urinate and defecate all over the stable floor. And that, that is where the little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head!

Where are all the big cathedrals full of choirs? Where are the crimson clad clergy? Where’s the shopping mall with all its glitz and glamour? Where is this Christmas juggernaut that we all consume every year without ever giving it a single thought? Let me ask you, where are they all? Come on, tell me, where are they?

Well something big and amazing did actually happen on that night.

Some shepherds were out there tending their flocks, in the field and angels appeared to them in the sky and these shepherds were pretty terrified but the angels said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid, I’m bringing you good news of great joy for all people because to you, is born this day, in the city of David, a saviour who is the messiah and the Lord. And this will be the sign for you,’ said the angel, ‘You will find a child, wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’

 And suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth. Peace among those who He favours.’ When the angel had left them and gone to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go down to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’

 And what did they find? A child wrapped in rags, lying in a smelly feeding trough, just like the angel promised.

Now that, that I can make sense of, not some big extravaganza. Just take a look at this for a moment, through the eyes of the shepherds. They had a music-and-light show out there in that field like no other didn’t they? They saw a massive extravaganza but all that noise and hoop-la and glory and light from the angels, that wasn’t the end game.

God only sent that troop of angels, out there that night, to put on that fantastic carols-by-candlelight show, for one reason – to point those shepherds to the real meaning of Christmas, to get their attention. The centre piece of the ‘Christmas’ that God, the Father, had planned in His deep and mighty heart, before time had even began, the centre piece wasn’t the light show at all. It was there to grab their attention, to guide them to this little baby, wrapped in a few rags, lying in a smelly, grotty, disgusting little manger.

See, when we think back to that first Christmas Eve, it’s not the light show that we remember, it’s the baby. It’s not the big ritzy, glitzy presentation that God splashed across the sky, that He wants us, so much, to remember but His Son and the utterly incredible love that God, who put His Son, God the Son, into that manger that night for you and for me.

You and I, to put it bluntly, are easily led astray by the light shows and the razzamatazz but year after year after year of the same thing and you realise how hollow and empty that is. There’s a reason for that. God never ever meant for this big Christmas juggernaut, that we’ve created, to be the main play but this little babe, in this humble space who, with His love, would turn our world upside down.

Jesus, who pulled on flesh and blood to show us the glory of God; Jesus, whose flesh would be crucified, whose blood would be poured out for my sin and for yours – that’s the bit of the Christmas thing He always wanted us to remember. Not the hype, not the glamour or the cathedrals or the choir or the mall or the stores or the balls or the tinsel – none of those things, just a baby in a manger. Jesus.

The age–old story of Christmas is one that most of us know pretty well. At least … we think we do. And yet there are some strange twists and turns in the story, things that we can all too easily miss, that speak volumes about what God really wants to say to us, through … Christmas

I don’t know about you but I’ve always been puzzled by something in this whole Christmas story thing. It’s seems like such a simple little story, Christmas. Angel appears to Mary, she conceives, miraculous but simple. She and Joseph head off to Bethlehem for the census, she has the baby, Jesus in the stable, lays Him in the manger. Shepherds, wise men, there you have it; Christmas. It’s pretty simple really and I like simple stories because invariably, they’re the most powerful ones.

Christmas, the simplest story of God’s utterly amazing love for you and me but here’s the bit that confuses me. You can read it in Luke’s gospel; his account has something happening before the nativity scene. His Christmas story begins before Christmas, before Jesus, with the conception of another child, Jesus’ second cousin, a boy named John. You and I, we might know him better as John the Baptist. This apparently loony guy, who dressed in camel-hair tunics and leather belts and ate locusts and honey and lived in the wilderness and shouted at people, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of God is near’. Hmm, what was that about? What’s he got to do with the Christmas story, why is he there at all? Well?

See, here’s my problem; if you or I were writing a script for the next movie blockbuster called ‘The First Christmas’, there is no way known that we’d include this kind of diversionary precursor, this John the Baptist thing, we just wouldn’t. Here’s how it happens, you can read about it, in full, in the first chapter of Luke’s gospel.

There’s a priest called Zechariah, his wife Elizabeth. Now Lizzy is Mary’s cousin. She’s getting on in years and she was barren and of course, in that culture, that was a source of great shame because God’s blessing was acquainted with having lots of kids and if you didn’t have any, you were cursed and you were out of God’s favour. Zechariah, her husband, is a priest and it came his turn to minister before God in the temple to offer incense. So in he goes and an angel appears to him and tells him they’re going to have a son and they should call him John. (Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it?) And the angel actually tells Zechariah the purpose of this boy John, who would be known as John the Baptist.

We’re going to have a look at what the angel said in a moment but it turns out that Zechariah doesn’t believe the angel. How could his wife, who’s old, possibly have a son? So the angel strikes him mute and he’s not able to speak again until after John is born. Elizabeth, his wife indeed conceives and later, Mary, her cousin, conceives by the Holy Spirit. They get together, they celebrate these two amazing miracles and then, first is born John the Baptist and later is born Jesus.

Kind of odd isn’t it? I mean this whole ‘Zechariah, Elizabeth, John’ thing is a messy prelude heading into the story of Christmas and the fact is, well it is messy. We wouldn’t have written the script that way but it does tell us something. God had a plan to do it that way; He put it in the official record in Luke’s gospel. That must mean He thinks it’s pretty important. Well He did and He does and it is and we find out the reason, from the angels own lips. This is what He says and I’m reading from Luke chapter 1, beginning at verse 13. He says:

‘Don’t be afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will name him John. You will have great joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink. Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord, their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before Him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’

Why does John come before Jesus? To prepare the way of the Lord. To prepare but to prepare in what way? Surely not the roads that Jesus travelled on, certainly not that. And it certainly wasn’t to stabilise the geo-political situation, that definitely didn’t happen. So what did John come to prepare before Jesus came? The way into the hearts of God’s people. Listen again to what the angel said. Luke chapter 1, verse 17:

‘With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before Him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’

To prepare the people to receive Jesus and how did he do that? By preaching this simple message over and over and over again to anyone who would listen:

‘Repent! Turn away from your evil ways and back to God because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

That’s what he preached. Luke chapter 3, verses 3 – 5 says this:

He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah; The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’

See, God knew these people weren’t ready to receive Jesus, why? Because their hearts weren’t open, they were closed. They turned away to their own selfish ways. God’s people had strayed off into the wilderness, goodness knows where and before they could even begin to get the whole Christmas thing and receive Jesus into their hearts, God had to do a work in their hearts and this preparatory work had a purpose. To make ready, a people prepared for the Lord so that they will see the salvation of God.

John came before Jesus because, unless the people’s hearts were opened, they would never see the salvation that God was sending them in Jesus. Until John pointed out their sin to them and God used John to turn their hearts back to God, they wouldn’t even realise they needed Jesus to save them.

And you know what I think; I think that there is many a man, woman and child, listening right now, who is in that same place. Who looks at Christmas and wonders, ‘Well, who needs it? I mean really, who needs Christmas? Who needs Jesus? Who needs a saviour?’ And if you’re in that place, I want to ask you to do something. As you’ve heard this simple story about John the Baptist and how he came to prepare the hearts of the people, that Jesus would touch with God’s love, I want you to ask yourself, ‘What does my heart look like? Is it closed in its own self-sufficiency and pride or is it open to receive Jesus?’

Each of us, each of us falls short of the glory of God in His perfection and deep in our hearts we know that, we just do and maybe you’re in that place. Well, if that’s you, I encourage you to do exactly what John said, repent, go to God, on your own, quietly admit your sin, your rejection of Him. Do it today! Do it now! It will only take a moment.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and I promise you this; that the moment that you do that in all sincerity, there will be a craving in your heart for Jesus. He will switch the light of His understanding on, in your heart and you will know how desperately you need Jesus Christ and Christmas. Christmas will be a whole new thing. It will never be the same again.

We live in a brutal world. Well, most of us do – of the billions of people on this planet, two-thirds are starving. Around 100 million are slaves. Millions live in war zones. Millions have seen their children die. It’s a brutal world out there … so what does Christmas really mean, in such a brutal world?

Here’s something that I really struggle with every time I have a chance to spend these few minutes with you on this program, A Different Perspective. Well, I live in the relative safety and comfort of a western democracy and so do the good many of people who listen to this program. But, and here’s the ‘but’, by far the greatest majority of people who are listening to this program today, don’t.

By far, the greatest majority have black skin whilst I have white skin. By far, the greatest majority do not know the safety or the relative luxury and wealth of the west. By far, the greatest majority, in fact, by a factor of at least 10:1, do not have safety, security, enough food to eat and a stable home.

Millions of people in Africa are listening to this program today, who have none of the things we in the west take for granted, and here I am talking about Christmas. All my life, every year I’ve received at least one Christmas present. Many of the people listening today count themselves fortunate if they can just survive another day or week or month. That’s what I struggle with.

So how is it that I can talk to them about Christmas? And if you are one of those millions, how is it that I can talk to you about Christmas? What is it that I dare say to you today, about this time that we call Christmas? If you, like me, live in the affluent west, I hope that you understand my dilemma. And if, unlike me you live in a place where, well it’s a much more brutal world, I wonder what you expect me to say.

Today, I want to share something with you, that the Son of God came to your world, to the brutal world, not mine. Not some safe, comfortable privilege place but a place under hostile enemy occupation – a place where the Roman government or the self-styled King Herod had the power of life and death over every ordinary citizen, like you and me; a place where people lived hand to mouth. When droughts struck, famines killed thousands of people. Wars arose and many were lost.

This was not ‘A Silent Night’, ‘Away in a Manger’ or an ‘O Come All ye Faithful’ Christmas pantomime kind of world but a brutal world, a dangerous world. A world where there wasn’t even enough accommodation, for the Son of God and His parents, to find a room in the inn.

Let me share that place with you. It was in the time of King Herod:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, that some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. They were asking, ‘Where is the child who’s been born King of the Jews? Because we saw His star at it’s rising and we’ve come to pay homage to Him.’ When King Herod heard that, he was frightened and all of Jerusalem with him and calling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he enquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. And they told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet.’ And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who is the shepherd of my people, Israel.

Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them, the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he said to them, ‘Go to Bethlehem and go search diligently for the child and when you’ve found Him, bring me word so that I may go and pay homage to Him as well.’ When they had heard the King, they set out and there, ahead of them, went the star that they’d seen at it’s rising, until it stopped over the place where the Child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary, His mother and they knelt down and paid homage to Him. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Now after they left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child and destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, by night and fled to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord, through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my Son.’ 

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated and he sent and killed all the children, in and around Bethlehem, who were 2 years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken, through the prophet Jeremiah, ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be consoled because they are no more.’

That story comes from the 2nd chapter from Matthew’s gospel.

You know what strikes me about this world, this 1st Century Judea in the Middle East? That it is so much, so much like the brutal world, that many of the people listening to me today, are in. It’s a world of contradictions, the very rich and powerful: the poor and powerless and oppressed. Make no mistake, 1st Century Judea and Samaria and Galilee, the places where Jesus lived, these were part of a brutal world.

And if you live in such a difficult place of the world, places where wars rage, where people die of AIDS because somehow, we in the west can’t find it in our hearts to provide the drugs and the food and the health care. Places where life is unfair and people die young and children miss out on education. If you live in such a place, let me say this to you.

I don’t know, I just don’t know why God allows these things to happen. He gives us a free will and part of that free will is that people hurt each other and when that happens, people suffer but this much I can tell you. He spared not even His Son from this brutal world.

He put Him deliberately in the midst of it, poor parents, born in a stable, an assassination attempt by King Herod before He was even two years old. He fled as a refugee into a foreign land and then, a massacre of infants in His wake. Can there be any more brutal world than this? Jesus the refugee, Jesus the poor carpenter’s son.

What does God have to say, through Christmas, to one who lives in a brutal world today? To the person who doesn’t know if they’re going to have enough food. To the person who’s dying of AIDS or living in oppression or suffering in any number of ways. What does God have to say to you today through Christmas? Simply this:

‘I spared not even my Son from this brutal world. I loved you so much, so much that I gave up my one and only Son for you so that whoever would place their faith in Him would be saved.’

There’s a man who told me once, who lived in Rwanda, that there couldn’t possibly be a God because of what had happened to his country and his people back in 1994. How could God allow this to have happened?

That same man encountered the love of Christ and his hardened heart was softened. That same man met Jesus somewhere amidst his despair and a few months later, he himself was killed. Today that man is with God in heaven because of his faith in Jesus Christ.

I am, some days, so frustrated that I cannot do anything to end the physical suffering of those who live in a brutal world but the one thing I can do, I do for you. With all my heart I urge you to accept this Jesus as your Lord and your saviour. This Jesus who was born into a genocide and who, ultimately, was assassinated on a cross. He came for me, He came for you.

Christmas – that time when we celebrate the fact that Jesus came to this earth, to become one of us. Now most of us imagine that He came to this earth with one, single purpose in mind. To die on that cross. Yep – that was part of it. And yep, that’s supremely important. But there was something else, another reason that He came. And perhaps that reason isn’t quite as obvious.

There’s a man that I’ve worked closely with over the past three years. In fact, God has achieved so many things through him, it’s utterly amazing. He and I, we’re like brothers. Day after day we collaborate and work together for God. Only thing is, we’ve never actually met.

His name is Joseph and he lives in Rwanda, I live in Australia. We were introduced by a mutual colleague and we’ve worked together, in ministry, all these years over the internet, by email and the relationship’s developed and today, millions of people hear this program in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Rwanda because of this man, Joseph.

Can I tell you something? I can’t wait for the day that he and I meet in person. I’m looking forward to just sitting and talking with him for hours and hours on end. He’s such an amazing young man. And it’s so frustrating that I’ve never had the opportunity to meet him face to face and you know, my hunch is that that’s what Christmas is about.

We can talk about God and read His word, the Bible and pray and see Him at work in our lives but there’s nothing like meeting Him in person and that, that is what Jesus is all about. For centuries, see God spoke to His people, Israel, through different people and in different ways. That’s how the writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews starts out. Have a listen:

Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways through the prophets but in these last days, He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He has also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being and He sustains all things by His powerful word.

This week, we’re working our way through a series called ‘Why Christmas?’ Well, why Christmas indeed? A bunch of different reasons I guess. We’ve been looking at them over this week and we’ll be doing that again next week on the program. Today, today I want to look at a really practical reason for Christmas.

Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus is God who walked and talked and related to us – God who became one of us. I reckon that’s huge. The writer of Hebrews tells us that. Sure, it’s great that God talked to Israel in many and various ways, through the prophets and the like but, but there’s nothing like meeting God in the flesh – God in person. You can write an email, you can write a letter, you can send an email, you can see how people perform and behave and deliver from a distance but there’s nothing that can replace a personal meeting. Nothing can replace seeing them in the flesh.

The book of Hebrews is a letter to the Jewish people, explaining this Jesus and who He is so that they could understand Him and the first thing, the very first thing that the writer says is that He’s God Himself, the exact imprint of God’s very being. You want to know what God’s like? Take a look at Jesus.

The word, the original Greek word that’s used to underscore this exact imprint of God’s very being, it literally means ‘a mark stamped onto a coin’. You know you have a tool and it punches out a mark into the metal onto the coin and each coin is the exact imprint of that mark. That’s literally what that word means.

Jesus is the exact image, a precise reproduction in every respect, of God. You want to know what God’s like. Look at Jesus because He is God in the flesh. Bit like my friend Joseph and me, we’d love to meet one another in the flesh. With God that’s possible because of Jesus. Matthew, in his gospel, in chapter 1 writes this, he says:

She will bear a son and you are to name Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Look, a virgin shall conceive and bear and son and they shall name him Immanuel which means ‘God is with us’.

The apostle John puts it a slightly different way, he refers to Jesus as the ‘word of God’. Have a listen to what he says. John chapter 1, verse 14:

And the Word (Jesus) became flesh and lived among us and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

He lived among us, dwelt among us, literally tabernacled among us. In the Old Testament, when Israel was on it’s Exodus, God travelled with them in the tabernacle. It was a mobile temple, it was a tent. And that’s what Johns saying here. The presence of God came and dwelt with us. Jesus Himself put it this way. Jesus said:

‘Have I been with you all this time Philip and you still don’t know who I am? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say ‘show us the Father?’ (John chapter 14, verse 9)

For Jesus, you see, it was so obvious and I think it’s easy for us to miss the obvious. Imagine that Jesus only came to die on the cross, granted that’s really, really important but He spent thirty something years on this earth and three and a half years in public ministry so we could see what God’s like.

If all Jesus did was come and die on the cross we would never have discovered what God’s like by being able to hear Jesus talk, see how He behaves, see how He reacted in different situations. See how God loves the little people and hates the religious hypocrisy. See how God loves to heal us and loves us and stands up for us and so many things.

I was speaking with a pastor of a Church one day, you know what He said to me, he said ‘No, I don’t read the gospels anymore, the four books; Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.’ (They’re the historical accounts of Jesus) He said, ‘No, I don’t read them anymore’, he said, ‘I’m bored with them. I know how they end.’ I can’t believe that. I regularly read one of the gospels, from end to end. I’m besotted with them because they show me … they show me what God is like.

That’s why Christmas, it’s one of the key reasons that God came in the flesh. It’s one of the key reasons why that little baby, Jesus, lay in that feed trough, that manger, His little hands and His little feet kicking. He became a man so that we could see and discover what God is like. And story after story in the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – they just make my heart want to explode.

My favourite one, in Mark chapter 1, is about a leper who came to Jesus begging. And he knelt in front of Jesus and the leper said to Jesus, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ And Jesus was moved with compassion. He stretched out His hand and touched this, this unclean leper and said to him, ‘I do, I choose, be made clean.’ And immediately, the leprosy left him and he was made clean.

That’s who God is! God wants to reach out and touch us, God has a heart of compassion. God wants to heal us. That leper is you, that leper is me. Christmas is God coming to us. Christmas is God stepping into our world so that we can meet Him and see Him and hear Him. He came as that little babe, to grow up and to become one of us and to suffer all the things that we have to suffer and then some.

Sure, Christmas is family and shopping and celebrating for so many people but if that’s where it stops, what a tragedy. Like that pastor who knows how the story ends, we miss the point. One day, one day you and I will stand before Him and we will see Him face to face and worship Him for all eternity but until that day comes, I know exactly what God’s like. I know because He’s exactly like Jesus!

He came to me, He came to you on that clear cool night in that Bethlehem stable. He came so that we would know … know exactly what God is like. Jesus.