All of us have special thoughts and happy memories
that flow into the meaning of Christmas for us
and for our families. Christmas is a time of
celebration for all Christians. So much so that
an atheist is said to have once complained to
a friend of his that Christians have their holidays
to celebrate like Christmas and Easter. He said
Jews have their days to celebrate like Hanukkah
and Passover, but he said we atheists don't have
a recognized holiday for us. It's unfair discrimination.
To which complaint his friend replied, why don't
you celebrate April 1st? It is true that the
Christian's day of celebration has been usurped
by the world and transformed into a commercial
bonanza. But let us who know Jesus Christ not
fail to celebrate Christmas. Don't allow the
meaning of the season to be robbed from your
heart. As I pondered the meaning of Christmas,
I thought it might be interesting to approach
our Christmas messages from that theme. What
does Christmas mean? And to follow this approach
in the Word of God, to follow that theme as it
would unfold within those pages, I'd like for
us today and for the following four Sundays,
the Lord willing, to talk about what Christmas
means to God the Father, to God the Son, to God
the Holy Spirit, to the angels, and finally to
the world, for all participated in Christmas
originally. What is the meaning of Christmas
to God the Father? That is our thought for this
morning. I invite you to open your Bible and
turn with me to Luke chapter 2 as we begin reading
in verse 25. What this records actually takes
place a few days, eight days after the birth
of our Lord, and it took place not in Bethlehem
but in the temple in Jerusalem. for they had
taken Jesus to be circumcised. And it says in
verse 25, Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem
whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous
and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel.
And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had
been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that
he would not see death before he had seen the
Lord's Christ. Think of what an amazing revelation
that was. How thrilled this man's heart must
have been that with his very eyes he would see
this anointed one whom he had been expecting
for the long years of his life. Before he died,
his eyes would look upon this one. And he came
in the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to carry out for him
the custom of the law, then he, Simeon, took
him into his arms and blessed God and said, Now,
Lord, thou dost let thy bond -servant depart
in peace according to thy word. For my eyes have
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared
in the presence of all peoples. A light of revelation
to the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel."
And his father and mother were amazed at the
things which were being said about him. And then
if you would turn with me please to 1 John chapter
4 verses 9 and 10. By this the love of God was
manifested in us. that God has sent His only
begotten Son into the world so that we might
live through Him. In this is love. Not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We want
to think today regarding the theme, what Christmas
means to God the Father. Before we do that, it's
necessary for us to talk briefly about the nature
of God as Trinity. Although that word, Trinity,
is not used in the Bible, it describes how God
has revealed Himself, that is, that He exists
in three eternal persons, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Each person is distinct.
In other words, the Father is not the Son and
is not the Holy Spirit. Each of them is distinct.
The Son is not the Father. The Son is not the
Holy Spirit. Each is distinct. And yet, they
are one in essence. And they are equal in every
respect. That's what the Bible teaches about
the triunity of God. This is not the same as
tri -theism, which teaches that there are three
gods, and we Christians are accused of that by
some, that we teach there are three gods. We
do not. There is one God who eternally exists
in three persons. This is neither the same as
Unitarianism. Unitarianism teaches that there
is one God without any distinction of persons.
Indeed, modern -day Unitarians, if they weren't
liberal enough already, usually talk about one
God with a small G on it. What we're saying about
what the Scriptures teach concerning God is not
Unitarianism. The triune nature of God is difficult
to understand, if not impossible to understand.
But of course, that difficulty does not mean
that it's untrue. There are many analogies that
have been offered to help get us past the mental
difficulties of this concept of God's one and
threeness. None of these analogies is perfect.
They all break down at some point, but they help
us to begin to understand, perhaps, what the
Scriptures mean when they teach that God is one
and yet three. For example, any given object
has three dimensions to it, height, depth, and
length. They cannot be separated from each other,
for they all are a part of the one object. Another
analogy that has been pointed out is time. Time
has three modes to it, past, present, and future,
and yet it's all time. And perhaps the most familiar
one is the three parts of man's nature, that
we are, as we understand it, body, soul, and
spirit. We are tripart beings, reflecting in
that sense the trinity of God. And yet we are
one person, though we have body, soul, and spirit.
Donald Cold writes, the idea of the trinity is
somewhat overpowering. I think that's an understatement.
But then he goes on to quote J. H. Large who
says, one cannot meditate on the awesome and
insoluble mystery of eternal and infinite being
without being made to realize that any inquiry
into the nature of God and the mode of His existence
must be entered upon with reverent caution and
utter dependence upon what God has been pleased
to reveal. God has revealed Himself as Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Now today, with deep and
profound reverence for the Trinity, we want to
isolate God the Father in our thinking and think
about what Christmas meant and means to Him.
It seems to me that to God the Father, The meaning
of Christmas would include at least these three
aspects. Revelation, relationship, and redemption.
Now I'd like you to jot those words down because
those are going to become the focus of our thinking
this morning as we think about what God the Father,
what Christmas means to God the Father. We're
going to think about Revelation, relationship,
and redemption. To God the Father, Christmas
in the first place involves the fullness of His
self -revelation to mankind. I repeat, as we
think about what Christmas means to God the Father,
first of all let's consider that it involves
the fullness of His self -revelation to mankind.
Turn over a few pages to the Gospel of John and
the first chapter. I want us to look at the last
verse of the prologue of the Gospel of John,
verse 18. Where the Apostle John draws the line
and he says this, no man has seen God at any
time. Now he is not counting here the theophanies.
What are theophanies? Those are Old Testament
appearances of God when God assumed a body form
and became visible as in the angel of the Lord
in the Old Testament. What John is saying here
is that no man has seen the essence of God at
any time. We have seen only a form in which God
has revealed himself but he says no man has seen
God in his essence. Why? Because God in his essence
is spiritual. Now we think of that which is spirit
as being rather unreal because it's intangible
and we can't touch it, we can't see it. But that
which is spirit is every bit as real as we are
indeed in some ways perhaps more real. than we
are in our physical bodies. God is spirit, which
means that he is very real, but he has not been
seen in his essence by any man. But he goes on
to say, the only begotten God, some translations
put it, the only begotten Son, because it's talking
here about the Word, who's been talked about
earlier in the chapter. The only begotten God
who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained
him. He expresses the fact that the only begotten
one is in the bosom of the Father, which is the
place of closest identification and affection.
That one who can be said to be in that closest
of intimate relationships to the Father. That
one who is the only begotten, Jesus Christ, the
Son, it says, he has explained the Father. The
word explained there in the original language
is where we get our word exegete. We try to practice
in our church what we call expository teaching.
which involves exegeting Scripture, which means
explaining what the Scriptures say. That's exegeting
Scripture. What does this mean? Now what John
1 .18 says is that the only begotten one, Jesus
Christ, has exegeted the invisible God. He has
declared Him to us. He has interpreted. God to
us, or He has explained God to us. In other words,
that first Christmas, when God the Son came into
the world, to the Father what it meant was, now
He was about to be fully explained, fully exegeted.
fully revealed to mankind. That was the essence
of Jesus' ministry in his life. He came into
the world that we created human beings might
begin to grasp what our invisible creator is
like. He came to explain to us the nature of
God. Did he do that? Of course he did. In John
chapter 14, we have the discussion with Jesus
and his disciples in the upper room. You'll recall
his promise of coming to receive them to himself.
You recall that he says to them on that occasion,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. You recall
that discussion, don't you? Just drop down a
couple of verses beyond that in John 14 to verse
8. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father,
and it is enough for us. Philip was saying, Lord,
reveal to us, expose to us, manifest to us the
Father, and that's all that we want. And notice
Jesus' profound words in verse 9. Have I been
with you, or so long with you, and yet you have
not come to know me? Philip. He who has seen
me has seen the Father. How do you say, show
us the Father? There's a mild rebuke from Jesus
to Philip because Jesus says to him, have I been
with you so long and yet you have not seen the
Father, Philip? If you have seen me, if you have
heard my teaching, if you have seen my life,
then you have come to see the Father Himself.
Jesus is saying that He is the fullness of revelation
with respect to God. Now the fact is that God
cannot be known by mere natural means apart from
His own self -disclosure. We have natural means
of discovering truth. One means is that of science.
In science, we discover by research. Through
experiments and hypotheses, we seek to come to
a greater understanding of the truth about creation
or nature, as the world says it. That is one
means of natural discovery that God has given
to us. But science cannot discover God because
God cannot be put in a test tube. We do not discover
God by research. Another means that we have of
discovering truth is philosophy. Through philosophy
we discover by reason, through theorizing and
rationalization, men seek to come to some grip
with the truth. No man seeks, rather claims to
fully understand it, but seeks to get a little
hold on the truth that exists by philosophy.
A natural means of discovery, but we can't understand
God by philosophy. Man's knowledge of God is
limited to what he himself reveals to us. Now
God has revealed himself by several means. Look
over in Romans chapter 1 and verse 19. The apostle
explains that God's wrath is revealed against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Verse
19, because that which is known about God is
evident where? What does your Bible say? Within
them, something like that. That which is known
about God is evident within them. for God has
made it evident to them." Notice those two statements,
within them and to them. God has put within the
conscience of every man the intuitive awareness
that he exists. God is placed within the consciousness
of every man within him. The intuitive awareness
that He is, that couples with creation, where
God has made it evident to us, not just within
us, but to us, and He explains that in verse
20. By the creation of the world, His invisible
attributes, His eternal power and divine nature
have been clearly seen, being understood through
what has been made. so that they are without
excuse. Who? Everybody. Even that pagan person
in the most remote part of the world who's never
heard a word of the Bible has this kind of revelation
available to him and he is responsible to God
for it. And because of the darkness of his heart
and his rejection of it, he's condemned. On the
other hand, I believe that if he responds to
it and desires more, Which response would be
the grace of God working in his life? God will
get additional truth to him that he might believe
on Christ and be saved But make no mistake about
it that God can be known at least in two respects
to all men everywhere in the respect that he
exists and that he is powerful Those two truths
about God are available to all men throughout
the earth Because God has made it known to us
and within us. God has revealed Himself by several
means. By our own consciousness and by the creation.
But there is another means by which God has made
Himself known and that is the Old Testament revelation
of Himself. Go with me now to the book of Hebrews
chapter 1. The very first verse. God, after He
spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets
in many portions and in many ways. Here is another
way in which God has revealed Himself. It is
to the prophets of old. He speaks here specifically
regarding Old Testament revelation. And He says
concerning that revelation that it came in many
portions in many ways. What does that mean? Well,
as he describes the many portions, he is saying
that it came part by part, or piece by piece,
fragment by fragment. Here, some revelation,
and there, some revelation. Here, again, some
revelation, and there, some revelation. That's
the way God did it in the Old Testament. And
he spoke not only in many portions, but in many
ways. Consider the fact that he spoke through
visions. He spoke through dreams. He spoke directly.
He spoke through theophanies. He spoke through
rituals and ceremonies. He spoke through institutions.
God in the Old Testament spoke to prophets in
bits and pieces and did that in many different
means and ways. But all of these that we've talked
about, the consciousness within, the creation
without, and the Old Testament, all of those
are only partial. They are not full in their
disclosure of God. It was in the coming of His
Son that God fully revealed Himself to us. It
goes on to say here in Hebrews, God who spoke
this way in ages past, in these last days has
spoken to us in the sun. When it says that he
has spoken, the tense of the verb means that
he has spoken and he has now finished. God has
said fully what He is going to say to us through
the Son. Notice it says about Him, whom He appointed
heir of all things, through whom also He made
the world. The word world there literally is
ages, and what it encompasses is everything.
Time, space, matter, it all came into being.
through the Son. He is the agent of creation
and he is the heir of creation, verse 2 tells
us. And now verse 3 goes on to say, and he, the
same one, is the radiance of his glory, of God's
glory. In the life of Jesus Christ we see the
outshining of God's glory. The glory that has
been veiled because we could not look upon it,
is made visible in Jesus Christ. And it says
further about him that he is the exact representation
of God's nature, God's essence. The word representation
here is our word character, like the character
on a typewriter key. By the impressed of the
life of Jesus Christ, we are able to see by what
is left the very nature of what God is, the very
essence of His person. And it goes on to say,
He upholds all things by the word of His power.
When He had made purification of sins, He sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
That position being the one of acceptance, the
one of supreme authority, When it says that He
sat down, it does not mean that He sat down to
rest. He sat down to go to work. Just as some
of us sit down at a desk to go to work on Monday
mornings. So our Lord sat down, it says, at the
right hand of God, there to begin His work of
intercession on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the fullness of God's revelation. And we have
in the New Testament a propositional, permanent,
written record of that personal revelation of
Christ. What does all this mean to us? Well,
it means that we must bow in worship of Jesus
Christ the Son, who is deity Himself, come in
human form. He has been sent by God the Father.
so that we might fully know Him. Therefore, Jesus
Christ is worthy of our total devotion. And we
ought to give to Him complete obedience because
He is God Himself come in the flesh. And a further
means regarding this book that you and I have
in our hands this morning, that we must approach
the Bible with reverence. not worshiping it as
an object, but worshiping the God and the Christ
whom it reveals to us. For this book is an infallible
revelation of God in written form. Rather than
making it an end in itself, we are to make it
a means to the end that we might know Him. The
Bible is not given to us that we might master
its trivia. It is given to us that we might worship
our God. What does Christmas mean to God the
Father? Well, in the first place, it means revelation.
It means that when Christmas came, God was fully
disclosing Himself to us in that babe in the
manger, who grew up then to live a sinless life
and offer Himself on the cross as a propitiation
for our sins. God wants you to know Him. God
has done the most incredible thing that you might.
He has sent His Son into this world to live in
humanity like yours and mine, yet without sin.
That we might see Him and know Him and trust
Him and worship Him. What does Christmas mean
to God the Father? Well, in the second place,
I believe that Christmas involves this meaning.
That it marked the initiation. Now listen to
me carefully. It marked the initiation of a new
relationship between himself and his son. A new
relationship is involved here because of Christmas.
First we have to understand that the names father
and son do not connote generation. That is, as
we use it in an earthly sense. When one is the
father and one is the son on the earth, it means
that the father has generated life to the Son,
so that the Son came into being because of the
Father. That is not what it means in the Bible
when God is called Father and Son. Nor do those
terms imply any inferiority of the Son to the
Father, for they are equal. Rather, those names
are chosen to focus on the relationship between
them or the function, actually, that each of
them has. They are the very same in substance,
but they are not the same in duty with regard
to creation and redemption. Please understand
that the Son did not become the Son of God at
Bethlehem. or for that matter at any point, because
He is eternally the Son of God. So that the second
person could always rightly address the first
person and call Him Father. However, the incarnation
initiated a new relationship between the Father
and the Son, as the Son united Himself to humanity.
This is evidenced, for example, in what is said
in John chapter 20. I'd like you to turn there
and look at this. Some of you have never thought
about this before. In John chapter 20 and verse
17, Jesus says to Mary, after His resurrection,
For I have not yet ascended to the Father." Now
how long could he call the Father by that name?
Forever. That was always the right title. The
Son could always address the first person as
Father. So Jesus goes on to say, I ascend to
my Father and your Father. and, this next phrase
is the significant one, and my God and your God.
It was only after the incarnation that God the
Son could address God the Father as God, as His
God. There are two distinct relationships between
Christ and the Father. And here they are observed
in this one verse. When he calls God my Father,
he points to the eternal relationship that he
had as the Son. But when he calls Him my God,
he points to his new relationship to God after
the incarnation as perfect man. For it is man
the creature who calls him God. It is Jesus in
his humanity crying out at the cross, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is in his
humanity there that he speaks. What does this
mean to you and me? Well, obviously you and I
address God as God, and all people can and should
because we're all His creatures. He is the deity.
He is God. But you and I, because we have trusted
in Jesus Christ and are now united to Him by
faith, we can also address God as Father. We
can address Him indeed with such an intimate
term that the Bible calls it Abba. Daddy. Why?
Because He has caused us to be born again that
we are His child. Not just His creature. Any
creature can call Him God. But we who are saved,
we can address Him as Father. because He has
caused us to be born again. That new name by
which we address Him is possible only because
we have a relationship with Him based upon Christ's
saving work at Calvary. Can you address God as
your Father? Jesus came into the world that He
might address God as God. as perfect man. But
He came that He might die as perfect man and
become sin for us. He came that He might be raised
from the dead, gloriously alive as man and God
forever. So that then we through Him and through
His resurrection life might come to God and we,
the creatures, call Him Father. because we're
redeemed for His children. Isn't that great that
God has done that for us? What does Christmas
mean to God the Father? It means that He is now
establishing a new relationship with the Son
so that He might redeem lost mankind and through
the Son allow those lost but redeemed people
to address Him as Father. And finally, what does
Christmas mean to God the Father? It means this,
that His plan of redemption was on schedule.
God's plan of redemption was on schedule. That's
what Christmas means. Turn again to the Gospel
of Luke in the second chapter as we go back to
the text where we started. I remind you again
that Tussimian was made the promise that he would
see the Lord's Christ. By the way, notice in
verse 26, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and the
Lord's, the Father, Christ, the Son. Now, Tussimian
was the promise made And he recognizes the fulfillment
of that promise as he holds the Christ child
in his arms. And he says in verse 30, for my
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast
prepared in the presence of all peoples. And
then he specifically mentions the Gentiles as
well as Israel. God had declared and designed
the plan of salvation for all men from before
the creation of the world. And from the time
of creation onward, he began working out this
great plan. We see it in Genesis 3 .15 as he
designates the woman's seed as being the source
of the coming Savior and Redeemer. We see him
further working in history as he protects that
seed and the line of the Redeemer from the pollution
that Satan tried to bring to the human race before
the flood. And yet he saved a family through
that flood that he might save the line for the
Redeemer. We see him further working in Genesis
chapter 12 when he calls out the family. through
which the Redeemer eventually would come, the
family of Abraham. We see him working throughout
the Old Testament, preserving that line, going
from generation to generation to generation,
choosing the one through whom eventually the
Christ would come. And then when he seemed silent
for those hundreds of years after Malachi laid
down his pen, God was still working. as he prepared
the world for the arrival of his Son. The Apostle
Paul captures that in Galatians chapter 4 when
he says, but when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth his Son. What does that mean?
Well, it means that in every respect God had
prepared the times for the coming of Christ.
He had caused empires to be raised up and to
go down. He had caused cultures to be transferred
from one place to another. He had caused the
mix to be such that the time was just right for
the coming of his son. What did Christmas mean
to God the Father? It meant that the plan of
redemption was right on schedule. And he moved
toward the consummation of that plan by sending
his beloved son into the world marked for death.
The manger seen with its intimacy, glory, mystery,
and beauty was overshadowed by the cross with
its agony, cruelty, rejection, and death. He
did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all. The fact is that for His plan
of redemption to be accomplished, God could not
spare His Son, and He did not. And so He handed
Him over to death for the sake of the world.
A number of years ago, a family went on a little
trip to participate. in a family reunion as was
their custom each summer. And on that day at
that park beside the lake they gathered from
here and there across the upper Midwest to see
each other again as family. A 16 -year -old boy
and a friend of his that he had brought along
to that reunion, went out into the lake. And
as they were there in the boat, they both fell
over into the water and neither one of them could
swim. The father of that 16 -year -old boy saw
what happened. And he dashed into the water to
go save. those that he could. And as he swam,
he realized that he was going to be incapable
of saving both his son and his friend, his son's
friend. And he had to make a choice. What would
you do? That father chose first to grab his son's
friend. and he pulled him back to shallow water
and then swam quickly out again to where his
son had been. But in those seconds, his son had
gone down for the last time and drowned. That
father gave his own son over to death and spared
his son's friend. Jesus said, no greater love
does a man have than he gives his life for his
friend. The Father spared not his own son, but
handed him over to death, that you and I might
be saved. That's what Christmas means to God
the Father. I have wondered, do they celebrate
Christmas in heaven? I believe without question
they do. And I believe that they celebrate Christmas
perpetually. They celebrate the gift of God the
Father in sending His Son. I believe that that
is the talk of the universe and that it will
be throughout all of eternity. I guess the question
for you and for me boils down to this. Can we
truly celebrate Christmas this year? I do not
speak of the stockings or the family gatherings
or the tree with gifts or even religious services
that we might attend, but have we celebrated
Christmas by receiving the gift that the Father
gave? Do you understand this morning that to
God the Father Christmas means that he gave his
Son for you? Have you then received that gift,
that love gift from the Father? If not, will
you this Christmas season take that gift for
yourself? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make
Him your own. Let's pray. Father, I pray that
this morning there would be some friend here
who would do that. May none of us understand
what Christmas means to you, Father, in terms
of revelation and relationship and redemption.
And then turn away from the tree, the cross,
where that gift lies, waiting to be taken. Thank
you that that gift is there for each of us. May
someone receive it today. Receive Him, Jesus
Christ, and be saved. We pray this in His name,
Amen. Would you open your hymnal, please, to
number 306. As we sing this closing hymn, we're
going to extend a public invitation this morning
for any who today would receive God's gift, Jesus
Christ. If you have not placed your faith in
Him, we invite you to do that this morning. And
to give public profession of that faith in Christ
by walking the aisle and coming and taking my
hand and saying, today I am receiving Christ
as my Savior. I want to take the Father's gift
for me. And it may be that you've done that already
in private, but you've never made a public profession
of your faith. Jesus wants you to make it public,
my friend. All of His disciples He called publicly
before others. And today, before believers for
the most part in this service, I invite you to
come and to make a public profession of your
faith in Christ. Perhaps it's been days or weeks
ago, or even longer than that, but you've never
publicly professed Christ as your Savior. Will
you today do that? I invite you to come as we
stand together and sing just as I am. I'll be
waiting here at the front. I urge you to slip
out from wherever you are and come quickly here
to the front where I'll be standing to greet
you.