So there are Bibles just in the hallway. Don't be afraid to run and get one.
We won't think less of you.
Don't be embarrassed to do that.
You'll find it difficult, I think, to follow unless you've got a Bible.
I have a file of sermons in my final cabinet of kind of unfinished sermons, of sermon ideas
which normally get to about Thursday or Friday and then they never get any further.
And so I was kind of looking at it this week and I thought, ah, this one I might be able to make something of.
Alright? But we'll, well, you'll be the judge of that.
Tonight's sermon begins with a grammar lesson.
I can already hear some of you inwardly groan.
To be honest, I can imagine the page in the communication textbook which says never use an opening line like that.
But I don't care this evening. I'm going to stick with it.
And we're going to begin with a grammar lesson.
Because sometimes grammar really matters.
And I want to try and persuade you tonight that the grammar of Christmas really matters.
And so in particular tonight, I want to talk to you about preposition.
Preposition.
Now, to be honest, I've spoken English since I learned to talk.
But grammar is a constant battle for me, as you know.
And I managed to get through secondary school without really knowing what a preposition was.
It was only in coming to study the Bible that I've come to see how important they are.
And so let me start with the definition.
Alright?
Just when you thought this introduction of this sermon couldn't get any worse.
Let me give you a definition of preposition.
A preposition is a word in a sentence that governs a noun.
That makes it clear, doesn't it?
And expresses its relation to another word or words in that sentence.
Let me give you examples.
You are sitting on the church chairs.
The word on is a preposition.
Do you understand that?
Because it describes the relationship between you and the church chairs.
You are sitting on the church chairs.
You're on it.
Let me give you another example.
I sat through an inexplicably boring sermon introduction this evening.
And the word through is a preposition.
Because it describes your relationship to the start of the sermon.
You get the idea?
Prepositions describe relationships.
And that's why they matter.
That's why we say things like,
I'm not laughing at you.
I'm laughing with you.
Which is usually, isn't it,
a vaguely apologetic sentence uttered by somebody who is laughing at you.
At and with are prepositions.
And there's a big difference between somebody laughing at you
and somebody laughing with you, isn't there?
Let me give you another couple of sentences.
Where prepositions make a big difference.
Just to drive the grammar lesson home.
There's a difference, isn't there,
between I swam in the English Channel
and I swam across the English Channel.
One is a bit mad.
One is totally mad, isn't it?
There's a big difference between
I found the cat hiding behind the fridge
and I found the cat hiding in the fridge.
There's a big difference.
I hope you're getting the idea.
Prepositions matter
and they matter especially at Christmas.
Now let me show you what I mean.
So for this message,
what I'm going to do is
I'm going to read you four very short passages
from the Bible
and each of them contains
a really important preposition.
And together,
when you put together the four prepositions,
they tell you the story of why Christmas really matters.
So we're going to start with the passage that we read.
Can you turn with me to Philippians chapter 2?
All right.
I'm going to give you the page numbers
so you find it.
And again, if you still want to go and get your Bible,
it's not too late.
So Philippians chapter 2,
it's on page 980.
Philippians chapter 2
and verses 6 to 7.
Page 980.
And these are verses about Jesus' life
before he came to earth.
His life before he came to earth as a baby.
And for Christians,
this is a really important part of the Christmas story.
These are verses about where Jesus was
and who he was with
before he arrived in Bethlehem in the manger.
So let me read to you
what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians
in chapter 2 and verses 6 and 7.
Can you see that?
It's describing Jesus.
And it says this,
who though he
was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God
a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself
by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
So I just want you to see in verse 6,
can you see the preposition there?
With God.
That's my first point.
Jesus was equal with God.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus
is in very nature God.
It's not only true that he's the Messiah,
the Son of God,
it's also true to say that he is God himself.
And so that's why the wise men
in the Christmas story,
they traveled such a long way
just to honor him.
Not just to present him with precious gifts,
but they bowed down
and they worshipped him.
Worship is something that you reserve
for God.
And those wise men knew very,
very well what they were doing.
Jesus existed before
he was a human child.
He was equal with God.
He didn't consider equality with God
something to be grasped.
Something to be used for his own advantage.
That's what he's saying.
Something to be tightly clung onto.
Rather, he humbled himself
and he came down to earth from heaven.
He was made in human likeness
and he came as a human
in order to serve humans.
So this first preposition
is really important to Christians
because it tells us
what Jesus left behind.
He was with God.
He was equal with God.
And when he came to earth as a baby,
he didn't just appear out of nowhere.
He came down.
He left behind the majesty
of his throne in heaven.
He surrendered his position
at God's right hand.
He gave up the splendor
of his heavenly kingdom.
And that's a very important question
because it pushes us to ask
another question.
Why would he do that?
Why did he do that?
Jesus was equal
with God.
But then we're going to see
secondly,
the second preposition is this.
Jesus dwelt among us.
And here I want us to go to
the beginning of John's Gospel.
So the beginning of John's Gospel,
it's really famous.
John chapter 1,
can you turn there?
It's on page 886.
It's on page 886
in the Church Bibles.
And John actually begins his,
if you want to call it,
a biography of Jesus' life
in a very poetic way.
And it's one of the key verses
in his introduction.
He describes Jesus
as the Word.
And listen to what he writes.
He writes in verse 14.
And the Word,
that is the Lord Jesus,
who was equal with God,
remember,
became flesh.
And he dwelt,
here's the second preposition,
among us.
And we've seen his glory.
Glory as of the only Son
from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
He's actually saying something
very similar to what Paul has said
in Philippians chapter 2.
That Jesus came from his Father,
and he came to earth
full of the grace of God,
full of the truth of God.
That is,
even though he left behind
his majesty,
even though he left behind
his glory,
even though he left behind
his heavenly throne
where he was adored
by the angels,
he didn't leave behind
his divinity.
By becoming a man,
he did not give up
his godness.
Jesus, the human,
was full of divine character,
grace and truth.
And though for a time
he surrendered his position
at the Father's right hand,
he did not surrender
his godness.
In fact,
one of the things
that John's Gospel
is at pains to suggest
to you and I
is that as people
saw Jesus
and as they heard Jesus,
they saw the incredible things
that he did
when he was alive,
they encountered
the glory of God.
Jesus was the life of God.
Jesus was the glory of God.
He was the grace
and truth of God
wrapped in skin.
I can put it like that.
He became flesh
and made his dwelling
amongst us.
Among us.
A friend of mine
was in a pub quiz
and over on the adjacent table
as he glanced over,
he saw a face
that he recognized.
Didn't know it was at the start.
And so he looked at him again
and he recognized who it was.
Frodo Baggins.
It was Elijah Wood,
the actor.
And my friend resisted
kind of taking a photograph
of himself
with Elijah Wood
on the other side of the table.
But he did boast about it
on Twitter.
I thought,
well, fair play.
That's pretty newsworthy,
isn't it?
You don't usually
go down to your local
for your pub quiz
and expect to bump into
Frodo Baggins
from Lord of the Rings.
In the same way,
if you were an innkeeper
in a dusty town
called Bethlehem
2,000 years ago,
you don't rent out
your stable
on a full night
and expect to find there
the Jewish Messiah
born in it.
Likewise,
if you were a rugged shepherd
in those parts
2,000 years ago,
you don't expect
to get some angels
telling you
to head into town
to see the Son of God
in a manger.
It's definitely newsworthy.
So if Elijah Wood
hanging with the common people
at the pub
is newsworthy to tweet,
then the Son of God
turning up in a barn
is undoubtedly worth
telling people about.
He made His dwelling
among us.
But we still haven't
answered the why question.
Why would He?
And here's where
our third preposition
helps us.
Philippians chapter 2
tells us that
He came to serve.
He humbled Himself
by becoming a man.
And it went on to say
that He ultimately
humbled Himself
by His death
on the cross.
And so come with me
to Colossians chapter 1.
Colossians chapter 1.
Which is on page
983.
Page 983.
And let me read you again
from the pen
of the Apostle Paul.
And once again
he's talking about Jesus.
Chapter 1 verse 19.
It says this.
For in Him
all the fullness
of God
was pleased to dwell
and through Him
to reconcile
to Himself
all things
whether on earth
or in heaven
making peace
by the blood of the cross.
before we come
to the third preposition
let me just
point this out to you.
Do you notice
once again
what the Bible says
about Jesus' divinity?
Look at it.
It says all
doesn't it?
All God's fullness
dwelt in Him.
We're reminded
that though Jesus
left behind
His majesty
to dwell on the earth
He didn't leave
behind His godness.
He came to earth
with the life
of God in Him.
He dwelt with us.
God dwelt in Him.
And it pleased His Father
not only to His fullness
dwell in Him
but to see Jesus
accomplish what He came to do.
He came to reconcile.
He came to reconcile
and it would ultimately
be reconciliation
through His blood.
Through His blood.
That's the third
preposition.
It was His death
on the cross
that reconciliation
would come by.
Jesus reconciles
through His blood.
Through His death
by standing
in the place
of the guilty
Jesus the innocent
bears our sin
and He embraces
God's judgment.
He embraces
God's judgment
so that we would
never have to.
And do you notice
that this reconciliation
is not only available
to those who are on earth
but to the creatures
in heaven.
It is cosmic
in its scope.
And that word
reconciliation
it implies
doesn't it
a broken relationship.
And without
Jesus Christ's
humble service of us
a broken relationship
with God
is all we would have.
Because in big
and in small ways
we've ignored God.
Our relationship
with our Creator
has always been
in need of repair
and in need of healing.
And so many people
I meet today
presume
that everything
is fine
between them
and God
but it is not.
And what all
true Christians
come to realize
and come to recognize
is that without Jesus
their relationship
with God
would remain
permanently
and tragically broken.
And that is why
we love Jesus.
And that is why
we love Christmas.
And that is why
you cannot understand
Christmas
without understanding
Easter as well.
Because Jesus
came to reconcile
through his blood.
He came to make peace
between people
and God.
And this is the peace
on earth
that so often
trotted out
at Christmas time.
It's not talking
about the end of war
and the end of violence
and the end of fighting
although that will be true
one day when Jesus Christ
comes again.
But it's speaking
about the peace
that we all need
between us and God.
and it is a peace
that he was able
to accomplish
not just wish for.
He came to earth
that first Christmas
with a mission
to reconcile people
to God.
And that reconciliation
we all need
can only come
through Jesus
through his blood.
And of course
what God accomplishes
through Jesus
is for the people
he loves.
and the fruit
of the reconciliation
that he wins
lasts forever.
Because after
his resurrection
from the dead
Jesus returns
to the majesty
of his throne
in heaven.
And he is lifted up again
just as he came down.
He goes up
in order to prepare
a place for his people.
That's our fourth preposition.
Jesus' own words
in John chapter 14.
Can you come there
with me?
John chapter 14.
This is your last passage.
John 14.
It's on page
901.
And as Jesus
talks with his disciples
on page 901
John chapter 14
and verse 2
he says this.
He says
in my father's house
there are many
rooms.
There's plenty of room.
If it were not so
I would have told you
that I go
to prepare
a place for you.
And if I go
and prepare
a place for you
I will come again
and will take you
to myself
that where I am
you may
be also.
So do you see
that completes
Jesus' journey?
He came down
to earth
from heaven
in order
to take people
with him
to heaven.
He came down
so that we
might be lifted up.
He comes to be
with us
so that he
can carry us
to our eternal home.
Jesus prepares
a place
for his people.
That's the preposition.
Jesus prepares
a place
for his people.
So what these
four prepositions
have taught us
is that Jesus
was with God
in heaven
and he was
equal with God
but he left
it behind
in order to be
born in a stable.
And so the amazing
truth of that
first Christmas
is that he comes
to be among us
and because when
Jesus was born
his story
and our story
become joined.
he humbled
himself
by becoming
a man
but he humbled
himself
further even
to death
on a cross
and he did
that in order
that we might
be reconciled
with him
through his
blood.
And because
of his humility
and his service
all who trust
in him
can be with
him forever.
He prepares
a heavenly
home for his
people.
And that is
the Christmas
story.
And that is
why the
grammar of
Christmas
matters.
Because these
prepositions tell
us what is
important.
They teach us
Jesus with
God.
Jesus among
us.
Jesus reconciling
through his
blood.
Jesus preparing
a place in
heaven for
his people.
with God
among us
reconciling
through his
blood
preparing a
place in
heaven for
his people.
And so they
are my four
Christmas
prepositions and
I hope they're a
little bit more
interesting than
you expected.
But having
shared those
four Christmas
prepositions I
want to finish
today with a
Christmas
proposition.
Proposition.
I want to
propose something
to you.
And my
Christmas
proposition
about this
is will
you do
something with
this Christmas
story?
I propose
that tonight
we don't
just hear the
Christmas story
and nod our
heads politely.
But we
actually respond
to it.
It's a story
that is looking
for a
response.
We'll hear the
phrase this week
that I'm just
trying to get
through Christmas.
I just want
to make it to
Christmas.
And God's
message is that
Christmas is not
something just to
be endured.
And it is not
something just to
be enjoyed
either.
Christmas is
for remembering
something totally
newsworthy.
Something
momentous.
And it is for
responding to
this momentous
thing.
And so for
some of us
tonight,
responding will
mean what we've
done many
Christmases
before.
It will mean
praising God
for Jesus.
And savoring
his goodness
with grateful
joy.
For some of us
it might mean
acknowledging that
we've been
ignoring Jesus
lately.
Or even for
a long time.
And this
Christmas time
is an opportunity
isn't it?
To turn back
to him and
embrace once
again his
word and his
people.
And the
way of life
he calls us
to live.
And for
some of us
tonight,
as humiliating
as it might
be,
it might be
that we
need to
acknowledge
the fact
that we've
never really
understood
what the
fuss is
about.
And if
that is the
boat that
you find
yourself in
this Christmas,
then my
proposal for
you is that
you make
time this
Christmas,
this January,
to do some
investigating.
That you
really get
behind why
is it that
some people
worship
Jesus,
why they
love
Jesus,
why they're
willing to
devote their
lives to
Jesus,
and why they're
willing to pay
a great cost
for the Lord
Jesus.
And I
think,
you see,
I think
church is a
great place
to hide,
isn't it?
You can
hide in
church life.
You can
sit here
week by
week and
enjoy the
people,
join in
with the
hymns,
love being
in each
other's
homes,
but never
really get
to the
point where
you love
the Lord
Jesus,
where you're
willing to
devote yourselves
to him,
where you're
willing to
put him
first and
yourself
second.
And everybody
might think,
well,
they're at
all the
meetings,
but actually
you don't
love the
Lord Jesus.
And so
you pretend.
And I
want to say
to you tonight,
tonight's the
time to
own up to
that.
To own up
to that
before God.
There will
be loads
of ways
that we
would love
to help
you.
We're
going to
run a
course in
January.
It's
called
Hope
Explored.
It's
about the
life and
the death
and the
resurrection
of the
Lord Jesus.
I'm told
it's really
basic.
I think
we'll
probably do
it on
Zoom.
And you
can join
in.
You can
turn your
camera off.
You can
eat your
tea while
you're
watching it.
You can
ask any
questions you
want.
You can
put a
fake name
into
Zoom
if you
want.
I
couldn't
care less.
But I
want to
say
tonight if
you've
been
hiding
and if
you've
been here
and actually
you recognize
I do not
love him
and I
don't
worship him
come on
the course.
I will
send the
Zoom link
out.
Don't be
embarrassed
at all.
If you
think I
just need
to know
more
come on
the course.
We'll
send the
link out
and you
don't even
have to
sign up.
You can
just
join us
on the
night.
But
whatever it
might mean
for you
my proposition
is that
this
Christmas
you don't
let a
wave of
tinsely
nostalgia
and
festiveness
wash over
you.
And you
certainly
don't let
the Christmas
story wash
over you.
My
proposition
is that
you respond
to it
because it
really is
a stunning
story.
And it
is true.
That a
couple of
thousand years
ago Jesus
who was
with God
came to
be among
us.
And he
came so
that we
could be
reconciled
through him
so that we
could be
forever with
God in
the place
that he's
prepared for
his people.
And I
want to
say to
you it
is true
and it
is wonderful.
I love
finishing
books.
Don't you?
I love
finishing
books.
And by the
end of the
day I'm
trying to
finish a
load of
books by
the end
of the
year that
I've
started and
not got
through.
You know
what it's
like when
you finish
a book.
You get
to the
end and
you go
like this.
And you
put it
down.
And that's
it.
And you
have a
sense of
well-being.
You get
on with
the day.
Maybe put
the book
back on
the shelf
a couple
of months
later if
you're
like me.
But the
Christmas
story is
not like
that.
The word
became
flesh and
made his
dwelling among
us.
And we
have seen
his glory,
the glory
of the one
and only
Son who
came from
the Father
full of
grace and
truth.
Let's
pray.