Well, another year’s almost over. And we’re hurtling towards Christmas. Christmas. You know what the problem is with Christmas? Who has time for it? I mean really. We’re all busy people.

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 – well it’s so big. Big cathedrals. Big shopping malls. Big – everything. And you and I – we’re so small. Just you. Just me. So how do we get a handle on this Christmas juggernaut thing?

There’s one part of the Christmas story that we almost never focus on. There were in fact two babies born around that time. Jesus and… well, who? Who is the other one and what was he all about?

I don’t know about you but I’ve always been puzzled by something in this whole Christmas story thing. It 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 what can be a brutal world. Two thirds of the world population doesn’t have enough to eat. And here we go with Christmas again. But what does Christmas have to say, to someone living in this brutal world?

Jesus was born in a stable, slept in a manger. We know that. We’ve seen the pantomimes and sung the carols. But this little baby in a manger tells us something. He tells us – what God’s like.

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.