CHRISTMAS
EVE
December
24, 2013
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Galatians 4:4-7
“BORN TO SAVE US!”
GOD’S PERFECT GIFT
1.
Perfect
Timing
2.
Perfect
Planning
3.
Perfect
Results
Galatians 4:4-7 (NIV 1984) “But when the time
had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might
receive the full rights of sons. 6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
the Spirit who calls out, ""Abba", Father." 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son;
and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
I really didn’t understand it. People
kept calling us the Griswolds. I suppose it had to do with the fact that the
tree we cut was wider than our van, took three men to boost on top of it and
dwarfed the van once it was tied on. This is what happened. My wife, Chris,
daughters Jamie and Anna and I were getting our Christmas tree at a cut your
own place in Muskego. We found what for each of us was the perfect tree. The girls
want one that is big and will fill our front window. This one would. Perfect!
For Chris, she wants one where the branches are full with no gaps in it. This
one was. Perfect! For me? The price tag
said $10. Perfect! Have you ever noticed how at Christmas time there is this
fascination with trying to find what’s perfect? You try to pick the perfect
Christmas tree. Merchants try to convince you that they have the perfect
Christmas gift. So every kiss begins with Kay and a diamond will make the
perfect gift. No it’s the Lexus with a red bow on top. That’s the perfect gift.
Or… you name it. Really this isn’t surprising if you think about it. Imitation,
they say, is the highest form of flattery. And this pursuit of perfection at
Christmas is merely an imitation of what God did at the first Christmas.
Jesus was born to save us and by
giving us His Son Jesus God gave us the perfect gift. You heard the details of what
happened in the readings from Luke. Now let’s look at what God had the Apostle
Paul write in his letter to Galatian churches to see some of the why. First we
see that God’s perfect gift had perfect timing. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son.” In some cases
timing is everything. The snap of a ball. The pianist’s finale. The
choreography of a fireworks display. God’s timing in sending Jesus was perfect.
Paul describes it as the time had fully come. Now what that fully means we can
only guess. Some have. They see that God waited for a time when there was a
universal language, Greek, so that news about Jesus could be shared easily
between cultures. They see that God waited until there was a time of relative
peace, the Pax Romana, the peace enforced by the Roman Empire so that travel
was safer. They suggest these reasons and many more. The important truth though
is that God’s timing was perfect. It was the perfect moment in history. The
perfect moment in God’s plan of salvation. Now let God’s perfect timing when He
sent His Son into the world lift you up and encourage you as you deal with
things in life that are out of your control. When things are out of my control
and your control that means they are in God’s control. This covers accidents
and illnesses. It covers unexpected job changes and everything else that
happens out of our control. You can rejoice in it! God’s timing is perfect.
When you are feeling doubts or worried about things that are out of your
control remember God’s perfect gift of Jesus that shows His perfect timing.
God’s planning was perfect too. Why
are you doing that? What are you hoping to accomplish? Those are important
questions to ask and be able to answer when it comes to any endeavor from choosing
a college to attend to building buildings to giving gifts. Why did God do that?
What was He hoping to accomplish by having His Son born as Mary’s son too in
Bethlehem. These words tell us. “God sent
his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law.” Jesus was sent on a mission. There was a
problem, a very serious problem. Sin. You might feel or see it in your life as
guilt in the pit of your stomach, or anger that this world is unfair. You
experience it when you live for yourself like the commercials tell you to and
buy for yourself and call attention to yourself and still you feel empty and
unhappy. It all gets traced back to sin, disobedience of the God who created
us. And truly the problem of sin is a whole lot worse than feeling anger, guilt
or emptiness. Sin separates us from God who is holy. We can’t be with Him now
or forever in heaven. Sin condemns to Hell. Now how do you fix the problem of
sin? Well you can try harder not to sin so you don’t feel guilty and mess up
relationships the next time. You can try to do something nice to make up for
bad things you do. But you know, those things don’t ultimately work. Try as
hard as we want we keep sinning and messing up our lives. None of our ways
takes care of sin. But God does. Here is the problem. Sin is wrong. Sin must be
punished. People are sinful. How do you punish sin without punishing people?
Only holiness and perfection get to exist with God. People are not holy. They
can’t obey perfectly. How can they get the holiness they need to live with God?
With perfect planning God provided a substitute. He sent His son. Born of a woman. Jesus became
one of us. Born under law. Jesus would have to obey all
the laws of God we must. To redeem those under law. Jesus would pay the price
of sin. He would be punished. That’s perfect planning. Stand in awe of God with
me! Who else would come up with a plan that could provide obedience and pay for
sin all wrapped up in one perfect gift? Jesus who was born to save us. Remember
God’s planning is perfect when things aren’t going well for you. Go back to God’s
perfect gift and see that He knows what He is doing, always. You can trust His planning.
And you can look forward to enjoying
the results. Once again God is perfect. “That
we might receive the full rights of sons. 6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
the Spirit who calls out, ""Abba", Father." 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son;
and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” These words of God
were originally written to people who lived in a different culture than we do
now. Their culture had slaves. Slaves are property. They have no rights. It’s
the children and specifically in that culture the sons who inherited the
property. Can you imagine how you would feel if you lived back then and were a
slave or maybe a daughter and so you would not be inheriting anything and then
one of the sons of the family came and said, “Here you can have my rights. You
can call Him father. And you will inherit everything I do.” You’d say. “Can
this be true?” Well it happened for real when God gave his perfect gift, Jesus
who is born to save us. Because of sin we forfeited any right to be God’s
children. Because of Jesus we are His children. God sent Jesus born to save.
His perfect life, the life of a perfectly obedient son, is credited to every
believer. His death would pay the full guilt price of every sin so God can have
us with Him forever. And now we are children of God. Heaven is our home and
heaven is perfect. God’s gift is perfect!
My Christmas tree—not so much. A few
days after I set it up it fell over. Not because I set it up wrong. The tree is
weighted to one side. It’s not perfect. It’s been starting to drop needles now
too. It’s not going to last forever. It’s not perfect. Neither are diamonds or
lexuses—or is that lexi? Nor any other gifts we get. But Jesus is and what He
has done for us means we will last forever. What can we say other than “Thank
you God for your perfect gift. Jesus, born to save.” Amen.
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