By Simon ManchesterSunday 22 Dec 2024Christian Growth with Simon ManchesterFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Gracious God, we pray this morning on this special day that what we know not you would teach us, what we have not you would give to us and what we are not, you would make us, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
You may have read in the past a true story of a busker who played the violin in one of the plazas in Washington DC some years ago. And apparently as thousands walk past in those 45 minutes, approximately seven stopped for even seconds to listen to him. And the busker was a man called Joshua Bell, one of the finest violinists in the world. A couple of nights before, he’d played at an absolutely packed concert. The music that he played was the cream of Bach, and the violin that he was playing with was his own $3.5 million Stradivarius.
Now, was that a tragedy? I actually feel sorry for the shoppers, because if I go to the plaza, I don’t have 45 minutes to stop and listen to somebody play music. It’s not really why I’ve gone. It seems to me that that is a good position of Christmas. That it is such a busy, frantic, stressful time that a lot of people don’t really have time to stop and think or even see what is perhaps of great benefit to them.
So, um, rushing past Joshua Bell is a small tragedy, perhaps, but rushing past the person who gives hope to the world would be a very great tragedy indeed. And I thought for my few minutes that I would like to show you as simply as I can, why? The news of Jesus is crucial and even more wonderful than the shopping stuff which can really wait.
Uh, the real message of Christmas outweighs the glitz of in of everything else by infinity. Just as when you sit at the table today and the crackers are pulled and some little toy comes out, you won’t, I presume? Pin your life on that little toy and you’d feel sorry for anybody who did pin their life on that little toy. So we should not pin our soul and our life on temporary stuff, but we should pin it on what Christ offers. Now. Jesus puts this beautifully in John six in the verses that are printed on your service sheet. I think this is as clear as you could ever be. He has just fed a huge crowd. Miraculously, the crowd is now chasing him for more food, as you can imagine.
And Jesus says to them, there is a better bread. It’s not the loaf which will help you through a day. It’s a person. Myself, says Jesus, who, when you take me, will give you life eternal. And he puts the Christmas message in a nutshell, and I’m going to put it into two words. I have two points. The first point goes like this. Down, up, down, up. That’s it. In John, Chapter six, he says, I’ve come down from heaven.
I will raise my followers up. So, my friends, if you can just forget the non-essential gifts for a minute this morning I saw a card during the week, which was a Christmas card covered in socks and inside. It said, Happy Christmas, Dad. Or, as we now call it, Happy Socks Day. And a lot of gifts are like that, sadly, aren’t they? And if you can forget the food lunch stuff that’s coming in the next hour or so just for a minute because not many of our Christmas tables are going to be exactly like the television Christmas tables where everybody is attractive and perfect.
And there’s so much food, it’s going to be, uh, often a disappointment, isn’t it? But when the food and the gifts are gone, Jesus is talking about something infinitely more important. He says He’s come down in order to raise people up, and you wouldn’t want to get to the end of your life, find yourself face to face with Jesus and say to him, Gee, I didn’t really get around to thinking about you because there were so many presents and so much food.
Now Jesus is not saying don’t have food and gifts. These are good gifts and we enjoy them. But he is saying, Don’t miss the great gift of himself. Well, we should notice what a strange thing it is for Jesus to talk about coming down. It’s not a physical thing. I mean, to come down in Australia is to go up in the UK. It’s not a it’s not a physical thing. But he’s obviously describing himself as coming from a different world, and he doesn’t say as we would say I’ve come here or I’ve come along or I’ve come across or I’ve come over or I’ve come by or I’ve come in here today he says.
I’ve come down. It’s a word to describe a descent with great humility. If I said to you today I’ve come down to speak to you, you would think that I was either deluded or dangerous. But Jesus talks like this and he lives like this. He talks like somebody who’s come from another world, and he lives like somebody who’s come from another world.
When the church was putting a summary together of the faith in the fourth century what is called the Nicaean Creed, which is said, regularly in churches around the world, they put these words into the creed. We believe in Jesus who, for our salvation came down from heaven. That’s a regular reminder to the people who gather that he came down now. Of course, he didn’t lose his grip on heaven when he came down, but he did enter into the earth. He took his place in the earth. This word down is a loaded word.
It not only means down to the earth. But it also means down to the cross. He didn’t float down to the earth on a comfortable cushion. He entered into human skin like we have and suffering, as somebody had said, has said. If he just came down and wept with us, that would be impressive, that he has come down and lived and died and risen with us. So to go from heaven to Earth, there is no human comparison and then to go from earth to crucifixion.
There is no human comparison. When Jesus went from heaven to earth and then from Earth to the crucifixion, when he went to the cross to die, he carried the sins of the world. He paid the penalty that we should pay, and he entered the darkness that we should enter so that we might never experience that darkness and separation from God. One of the verses in the Bible says, though he was rich in heaven. Yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become truly, spiritually, eternally rich.
Someone has said that the religions of the world are transactional. It’s a kind of bartering system. You perform certain steps, you get certain reward. But Jesus, you see, is not transactional. He’s just actional. It’s a gift, not a trophy, and it’s a gift that outweighs all the gifts that we could ever receive.
The word down is a loaded word down to earth, down to the cross and raised is a loaded word raised up into God’s family and one day raised up into God’s presence. So Jesus doesn’t just raise our feelings when he comes. It doesn’t just raise our self-image, our self-esteem. I was hearing that song on the radio. You raise me up. You may know that popular song well, Jesus is not you see coming into the world to help you stand on mountains, walk on stormy seas, sit on shoulders, be more than you can be.
Nobody knows what that is all about. Nobody really gets to experience what that’s all about, But Jesus raises people in real ways and people around the world Christians around the world know that they have been raised up into the very family of God. Jesus raises people, however bad they are. During the week I had a phone call again from one of my friends who’s in prison for life, went in at the age of 14, became a Christian at the age of 16. He turns 50 next year.
He’s been a Christian behind bars for the last, whatever that is 37 years, and he’s been a most active evangelist pastor to people behind bars. Christ saves anybody. Christ can save anybody at all. The minute we turn to Christ, he brings us into the family of God.
And this is better news than many Children are hearing today. Cos many Children are hearing today through various means, that they are here by chance in the world, that they’ll find their identity in their pleasure or their performance, and that if they look inside themselves, they’ll find all the answers. What a terrible and tragic message where Jesus says, No, you’re here because of a loving God who’s interested in a relationship with you.
And, uh, you’ll find your identity by knowing him, and you’ll find that he has oceans of answers not to be found in your own frightened little heart. So the news of Jesus, which is true news, is much better than the news of the world and one day Jesus will raise his people who’ve been raised into his family into God’s presence. And we’ll find ourselves in the glory that he came from, as surely as Jesus lived, ID and Rose and keeps his promises, his people will rise and eternity is a very long time. It’s much longer than a temporary quick life.
Without this solid confidence, you’ll notice that our world has become very short sighted, very stunted and very empty. With this hope, this confidence, this great expectation. You’ll see that people in the world have not just the long-term of the Short-term throne in as well. Eternity is a reality. Eternal life is a quality life, with Christ starting immediately going through this world, going through the grave on into his presence. It’s not just a quantity thing somebody gave me through the week as a Christmas present, a CD of some spectacular voices. One of the songs they sing is the old hymn Amazing Grace. What amazed me in the singing of the Song of Amazing Grace is that they change the line when we’ve been there 10,000 years and they sing when we’ve been here 10,000 years. I can’t think of anything worse than to be here for 10,000 years.
But to be raised to the presence of Christ, where he has finished the job of perfecting people and world will be a most very wonderful experience. So Jesus raises people today to God’s family. And he will raise people one day to God’s presence. This, my friends, is the truth of Christmas. This is the truth of the incarnation. Jesus came down. Yes, he did. He came to Earth. Yes, he did. He came to death. Yes, he did.
He’s going to raise people up. Yes, he will. He’s going to raise people to be in God’s family. Yes, he does. He’s going to raise people to be in God’s presence. Yes, he will. Down, up. And the second brief thing this morning is where Jesus says in the verses on your sheet. Come. He says, come to me and you will be safe. What does God want people to do in the world? That is a bit of a mystery for many people, isn’t it? You might walk past a church like this and think, What’s the guy saying in that church? He’s probably telling people to be good.
That’s not what the real faithful minister should just be saying, we’re not being told by God to improve, to pull up our socks, to stop some bad habit, to become religious, to turn into a missionary, Jesus says in John six. Come to me, come to me and you will not die. You’ll not die eternally and again, he says. Verse 37. When you come to me, I will never turn you back.
So he wants people to come to him, which means more than just believe in him from a distance. It means that you turn to him, not away from him. The one who came for you says, come to me, and that means no more separation between you and Christ, but friendship. No more distance fellowship. No more fighting, surrender. No more refusal, following because, as I say one day we will stand before Jesus. The person who has come to him will hear those wonderful words of Jesus. Come take your inheritance. But the person who has refused will hear those terrible words depart. I don’t know you, so it’s a big decision. It’s a big and vital decision that when we come to him in faith today, we are immediately welcomed, forgiven, adopted and secure.
Therefore, my friends, why is there a massive rejection of Christ even at Christmas? Why is there a massive rejection of somebody who has paid so much in order to provide so much? And the answer is that there’s a battle of the wheels going on as to who will be king. That’s the problem. And it was so in Jesus day.
That’s why we read in Verse 36. Jesus said. You people have seen me. You don’t believe you’ve seen the miracles Jesus might have said. But you don’t believe because seeing is not believing. Believing is a matter of decision. And then you see what people said to him in Verse 42. They say, Do this. Jesus is just a local boy. He’s just the son of Joseph. He’s nobody special against all the evidence. They just said he’s ordinary.
These ideas continue today into the 21st century. The evidence is unwanted, and the uniqueness of Jesus is largely ignored. Uh, recently, about a week ago, I was in a shop, exchanging a shirt that I’d been kindly given and the lady behind the counter reminded me of my former P A at the church where I worked at before. And I said to her, you’ve got a twin just around the corner. She said, So you’re a minister and I said Yes. And she said, Well, what I want to know is, why is the world in such a mess?
And I basically gave her the Children’s spot this morning without the pictures. I said, it’s very hard to have peace on Earth without the peace with God. It’s very hard to get the horizontal until you get the vertical. And she said, I’m a very open person. You know, just tell me the facts and I said, I’ll drop in a little book for you and, uh, it’ll pretty well answer all your questions. A little book called More Than a Carpenter, which has helped millions of people around the world to get the answers that they would like about Christianity. So I dropped in the book, and actually there was nobody else in the shop, and all the staff would come around to listen to the conversation. So I took a book round for all the staff. Would it surprise you if none of the staff were reading the book?
It wouldn’t surprise me because it’s quite a remarkable thing, isn’t it? For somebody to say, Tell me, Tell me. Tell me. I want some answers. It’s mostly the situation that people say away, away, away. And that’s what Jesus faced. And that’s what we face today.
Well, in the battle of the wills, Jesus is not depressed. He’s not anxious, he says in Verse 37. Everyone the father gives me will come to me. No need for panic, says Jesus. When the father enables people to come, they will come. God will use perhaps the facts of the faith to help someone come. Maybe he’ll use a friend to help someone come. Maybe he’ll use a sadness to help somebody come or a trial, but they will come and those who come will never be lost or never turned away.
You may wonder if you did come to Christ how you would keep going, and the answer is he will keep you going. You’ll never be lost. You’ll never be dropped. You’ll never be rejected. I came to Christ in 1970. I deserved to have been sacked from the team 1000 times 1000 times that he has kept me going because he’s full of patience, full of forgiveness, full of grace, full of power.
And the one who comes to him will never be lost. So I want to say that to you this morning as I finish. Dear friends do come to him. Don’t keep your distance from him. Believe in him, Not yourself. Look to him. He has the answers. The short-term, of course, of following Jesus will not be easy. Trusting him for starvation is humbling. You have to get down and say, I need forgiveness. Following him is costly. He’s the king and you’re not.
But you will be gaining an ocean of blessing and losing a drop in the process. I noticed, uh, Jeff Bezos, who began Amazon, told the investors to expect nothing from their investment. For the 1st 20 years, he said, this was his slogan. It’s all about the long-term. It’s all about the long-term and somebody infinitely more wonderful than Jeff Bezos is Jesus Christ. And he says, I’ve come down to raise you up, and when you come to me, you’ll be eternally secure. So my friends, don’t be fooled by the toy in the cracker. Take up the King and the Saviour. Don’t rush past the music of Christ because the music of Christ outweighs everything in the world.
Let’s Pray
We thank you, our gracious God, for giving to this world someone who outweighs the world. We pray that you would give us grace and wisdom, humility and help to take hold of him and that he might take hold of us in Jesus’ name. Amen.