Sermon Info
Summary
Christmas is the ultimate expression of love. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son…(John 3:16) Christmas is Emmanuel, God with us. Therefore, the Language of Christmas is love. There are five different ways we give and receive love. One of them is physical touch. Jesus touched people, and, as Christ-followers, we are called to touch others, in a healthy way. Maybe you didn’t grow up in a home that expressed love this way, but this Christmas can be different. This season, first commit your life to Jesus and feel His touch and love in your heart. Then, commit to love others in a way they will understand and receive. Let’s grow in our love.
Content
The God Who Gives
For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
— John 3:16
The sentence from the Gospel of John above is the most famous Bible verse of all time. It reveals so much about who God is and what our relationship with Him can be. He loves the world, and He loves each of us who live here. He has a Son, Jesus, whose earthly life was sacrificed on our account. He has given us a way to gain eternal life, and His solution for us is simply having faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Nearly every word in this verse has such great significance! This Advent, as we enter a season where we give one another gifts as part of tradition, let’s not gloss over the word “gave” in John 3:16.
Our God is a God who gives. He loves us, and so He put that love into action by giving. You may be so familiar with the Gospel message that you’ve forgotten just how amazing this is!
The Creator of the universe owes us nothing. We’ve rebelled against His instructions time and time again. And yet, Jesus gave up the splendor of heaven to join us in the flesh where He’d be mocked, beaten, and killed. He did this for us, so that we could see just how far His love reaches, and so that we could be reconciled to Him for eternity.
As we await Christmas morning this December, let us remember that His gift and His love is truly the reason for the season. Our God has already given us everything we need.
Emmanuel Means God With Us
Adam and Eve lived in God’s immediate presence before they committed the original sin. Genesis 3:8 tells us He even walked through the Garden of Eden among them. But after the Fall of Man, it was no longer possible for unholy people to live so intimately in the presence of their perfectly holy God.
Christmas is about Emmanuel: God with us. The birth of baby Jesus was a really big deal! Mighty God took on the form of a dependent infant, with a humble birth to poor parents. He entered this world just as we all do: small, needy, and human. The Lord put on the flesh as part of His plan to reconcile His people back to Him. This way, we could forever live like Adam and Eve did before the Fall.
By coming down to earth in a human body, Jesus was accepting that He would experience pain just like you and I. In fact, because He had such revolutionary teaching, He had to endure the excruciating pain of crucifixion.
He felt hunger (Mark 11:12), He felt thirst (John 19:28), and He felt fatigue (John 4:6). We know that our God can truly empathize with our physical discomforts and needs, because God has been right there with us.
Jesus Loved Through Touch
When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed Him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man, “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!”
— Matthew 8:1-4
Physical touch is one of the ways we show love to one another. Because Jesus was with us in His physical form, He was able to demonstrate His love to His people using touch, too.
From the verses in Matthew 8 above, we can see that Jesus made the choice to put His hand on the leper. Let’s be clear: Jesus is plenty powerful enough to heal someone from afar. In fact, one such story immediately follows the healing of the leper. For a Roman centurion who showed great faith, Jesus healed a servant far away in an instant (Matthew 8:5-13).
The Law also stated that anyone who would touch a leper would become unclean for some time. It was not a sin to be unclean, but it caused a person to become socially isolated for a time. And yet, Jesus showed selfless compassion and love for the leper by crossing the divide with the touch of a hand.
In today’s increasingly contactless world, it’s easier to cut touch out of our lives. While our culture does not forbid contact with the “unclean,” one could imagine how Jesus’ decision to heal through touch might be scorned in these post-pandemic times.
Jesus shows us that physical touch brings healing and hope. It strengthens connections between people, and affirms dignity. Used appropriately and respectfully, physical touch can be a tool for God to bring His love to others through us.
