WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.040 Christmas is the only Christmas holy day that is also a major secular holiday. 00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:15.160 ! In fact, Christmas is the largest holiday in the entire world. 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:18.640 ! More people gather and celebrate Christmas than anything else. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:26.760 ! Of course, what happens then is you end up, the result of all of that, particularly in Western civilization, is two different celebrations. 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:33.560 And it can bring a certain level of discomfort on both sides of the fence. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:46.040 For instance, many Christians can't help but notice that more and more of the public festivities surrounding Christmas avoids any reference to its Christian origins. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:52.020 Things like Merry Christmas has been replaced with Happy Holidays. 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:57.100 And the holiday, the Christmas time is promoted. 00:00:57.700 --> 00:01:00.680 I heard it on the radio multiple times in this past week. 00:01:00.680 --> 00:01:07.040 It's a time promoted as for family, for giving and for peace in the world. 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:18.120 On the other hand, non-religious people can't help but find the old meaning of Christmas keeps intruding, uninvited into their world. 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:21.719 It can be irritating to answer a child's question. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:25.140 What does it mean when it's said, born to give them second birth? 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:25.900 What does that mean? 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:31.660 And as a Christian, I've got to say, I've shifted my thinking on this over time. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:38.480 I actually now, in a position where I think it's great sharing Christmas with the entirety of society. 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:39.960 Well, the most of society. 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:44.839 The secular Christmas is a festivity of lights. 00:01:45.339 --> 00:01:46.859 It's a time of family gathering. 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.719 It's a time, it's a season to be generous, to give. 00:01:52.899 --> 00:01:59.919 And particularly around those who are not just closest to us but also those in need in our society. 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:07.799 And those are practices, in my view, which are ultimately good and enriching for society, for everyone. 00:02:07.799 --> 00:02:14.659 And they are genuinely consistent with the Christian origins of the celebration of Christmas. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:24.500 The emphasis on light in darkness comes from the Christian belief that the world's hope comes from outside of it, into it. 00:02:24.919 --> 00:02:31.460 And so remember that as you pass through houses lit up and Christmas trees and so on. 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:37.640 The giving of gifts is a natural response to Jesus' stupendous act of self-giving. 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:43.420 And when he laid aside his glory and was born into the human race. 00:02:43.920 --> 00:02:53.780 Concerned for the needy recalls that the Son of God was born not into, you know, aristocratic, powerful family, but into a poor family. 00:02:53.780 --> 00:03:02.280 The Lord of the universe, identified with the least and the most excluded of the human race. 00:03:02.979 --> 00:03:06.400 All of those are very powerful things. 00:03:07.259 --> 00:03:10.800 But every one of them, if you like, is a double-edged sword. 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:23.080 Jesus comes as the light because we are so spiritually blinded and our souls are plunged into such deep darkness that we cannot find our own way. 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:32.420 Jesus became mortal and died because we are too morally ruined to be pardoned in any way. 00:03:33.140 --> 00:03:34.620 We cannot help ourselves. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:40.480 Jesus gave himself to us so that we might give ourselves wholly to him. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:55.719 Christmas, like God himself, is both more wondrous and also more threatening than we'd ever imagined at all. 00:03:56.379 --> 00:04:03.280 To understand Christmas is in fact to understand the very basics of Christianity, 00:04:03.280 --> 00:04:14.759 which is why I am delighted when I hear Christmas carols come in the supermarket as people about worshipping other things. 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:25.019 Every year, our increasingly secular Western society becomes more and more unaware of its historical roots, 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:31.019 many of which are grounded in the fundamentals of the Christian faith. 00:04:31.019 --> 00:04:36.539 Our society wants Christmas without the Christ at the centre of it. 00:04:36.859 --> 00:04:37.879 That's not new. 00:04:38.799 --> 00:04:40.000 That's not new at all. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:47.259 Jesus was being pushed away and rejected from the very beginning, 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.979 from the moment of his birth, as we saw last week. 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.500 Luke chapter 2, familiar manger scene. 00:04:54.500 --> 00:05:01.040 She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for him. 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:09.139 At the very beginning, Jesus is shut out and pushed out into the shed, away from all of the action. 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:16.720 And when Jesus' parents brought him to the temple on the eighth day, there was this old man present, 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:23.220 Simeon, he'd been waiting for the long promised Jewish saviour and ruler, 00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:30.120 and he said something that was quite troubling when he saw Jesus. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:37.540 This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel 00:05:37.540 --> 00:06:03.480 Now, unlike the manger scene, it's pretty rare to have those verses read out at Christmas services around the world. 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:13.500 They seem rather depressing, even though they get, in fact, to the very heart of the meaning of Christmas. 00:06:14.140 --> 00:06:20.200 The words of Simeon tells us that Jesus Christ came to be rejected, 00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:26.240 and he had already experienced it by eight days since his birth. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:34.740 He came to reveal people's hearts and ultimately to have them speak against him. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:36.720 They're the words of Simeon. 00:06:38.460 --> 00:06:44.639 Jesus didn't come seeking rejection, but knowing that he would face it. 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:53.480 He embraced the rejection because it is at the very centre of the reason why he came. 00:06:53.480 --> 00:07:00.879 And so if we don't understand the rejection he faced, why he faced it, 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:05.700 and the implications for us as a result of it, 00:07:06.700 --> 00:07:09.439 then in the end we don't understand Christmas at all. 00:07:12.379 --> 00:07:14.540 It means that Christmas can't be good news. 00:07:14.620 --> 00:07:19.960 It can't be a moment of celebration unless we understand the rejection of Jesus. 00:07:19.959 --> 00:07:24.319 And so there's three things I want to get to today. 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:26.159 You see it on the board, that's where we're going to head. 00:07:26.739 --> 00:07:30.259 First of all, he was rejected for being ordinary. 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:40.419 That is, he was rejected first up because he didn't meet humanity's expectation of what a saviour would be. 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:42.879 He wasn't the right kind of person. 00:07:43.299 --> 00:07:45.959 He didn't act or look like a saviour or a ruler. 00:07:46.060 --> 00:07:47.299 He was, in fact, too ordinary. 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:58.860 When Jesus is presented at the temple, we are told in verse 24 that Mary and Joseph brought along a couple of doves or pigeons for the sacrifice. 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:07.639 What that tells us, in their context, Mary and Joseph were extremely poor people. 00:08:09.080 --> 00:08:11.240 It was the offering of poverty. 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:18.379 And therefore, Jesus was not born into an aristocratic family, a wealthy family. 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:22.960 He was brought into the low of the world in society. 00:08:23.860 --> 00:08:25.240 He was born into poverty. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.600 He came from the wrong side of town, if you like. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.360 He didn't have the credentials of leadership. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:43.180 In Mark 6, we are told that his own hometown and his closest circle of friends rejected him. 00:08:44.060 --> 00:08:45.460 They were offended by him. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:47.180 They were scandalised by him. 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:52.759 And as William Lane says in his commentary on Mark 6, 00:08:52.759 --> 00:09:00.620 that the reason was their discernment could not penetrate the veil of ordinariness that surrounded him. 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:04.860 He was a carpenter. 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:08.960 His father died young. 00:09:10.180 --> 00:09:12.159 He was raised by his mother. 00:09:12.740 --> 00:09:13.779 He had no connections. 00:09:14.379 --> 00:09:16.039 He was on the margins of society. 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:18.539 He wasn't leadership material. 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:20.500 He didn't get a high mark in his HSC. 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:27.680 We even told in Isaiah 53 that he was not good looking. 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:31.559 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:34.839 Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.299 He was despised and rejected by mankind. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:40.899 A man of suffering and familiar with pain. 00:09:41.459 --> 00:09:44.959 Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised. 00:09:46.079 --> 00:09:48.500 And we held him in low esteem. 00:09:49.479 --> 00:09:50.459 He was not a celebrity. 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:58.680 A celebrity has always been someone who has it all together and on the outside. 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:01.080 A celebrity is someone who we want to be like, 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.900 even if inside and their private life is an entire train wreck. 00:10:05.800 --> 00:10:07.360 On the outside, they're beautiful. 00:10:08.820 --> 00:10:12.360 If not beautiful, then they're either rich, and if not rich, they're talented. 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:17.340 Or they've just got a social media account that others just want to buy into. 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:23.759 It matters not if their relationships are a wreck and they struggle with addictions. 00:10:24.160 --> 00:10:27.700 In a celebrity culture like ours, it's the externals. 00:10:27.820 --> 00:10:28.639 It's the superficial. 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:32.540 The outside that matters more than anything else. 00:10:35.500 --> 00:10:38.000 And Jesus destroys all of that. 00:10:39.139 --> 00:10:41.080 Christmas destroys all of that. 00:10:42.180 --> 00:10:45.139 He says your status, your look, your beauty, your achievements, 00:10:45.139 --> 00:10:48.639 your position, your connections is absolutely nothing. 00:10:49.439 --> 00:10:50.419 It matters nothing. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:52.939 God is not pressed by it at all. 00:10:54.620 --> 00:10:56.960 What matters is your heart and your soul. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:03.220 And Christmas means, at the very least, that Christians reject snobbery. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:06.679 And we care about character. 00:11:06.819 --> 00:11:07.879 We care about humility. 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:13.000 We care about compassion and love and wisdom and integrity 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.379 and standing with those who are rejected. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:21.519 What we love reveals who we are. 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:29.879 Jesus is rejected because he is too ordinary to be the saviour and the ruler of the world. 00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:43.320 But secondly, he's rejected because he reveals the ordinariness of our inner lives, of our hearts. 00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:45.879 See what Simeon says in verse 35? 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.179 The thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:57.620 That is, Jesus shows people who they really were and they really did not like it at all. 00:11:58.699 --> 00:12:02.459 The book of Romans in the New Testament tells us that deep down, 00:12:02.939 --> 00:12:06.779 every human heart is a need for God. 00:12:06.779 --> 00:12:14.319 We all know, sinners, that we are all flawed, we are all failures, 00:12:14.839 --> 00:12:19.539 and we dress up the external to try and distract ourselves and everyone else from that. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:31.519 We constantly, deep inside of ourselves, have what you might call the engine of self-justification, 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:33.379 constantly revving. 00:12:36.779 --> 00:12:38.240 And it's not EV. 00:12:39.779 --> 00:12:46.159 We're talking V12 engine in overdrive of self-justification. 00:12:47.740 --> 00:12:53.319 And it desperately, that engine wants to so desperately to think that we are okay 00:12:53.319 --> 00:12:58.939 in such a way that it suppresses the truth about God. 00:12:59.839 --> 00:13:04.279 It does not want to know about God or what he would require. 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:11.720 He doesn't want to hear that, in fact, we need God or that there is anything wrong with humanity 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:12.740 at all. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:21.059 Anything that makes it hard to suppress that truth gets us mad. 00:13:21.059 --> 00:13:25.639 So when Jesus Christ came along, he was hated. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.799 Everywhere Jesus went, crowds gathered. 00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:37.039 He both, in those moments, he both mesmerised people and he alienated them. 00:13:37.239 --> 00:13:39.939 He attracted and he infuriated. 00:13:40.359 --> 00:13:42.699 He evokes rejection and hostility. 00:13:42.700 --> 00:13:49.080 In the Christmas narrative, King Herod hears that Jesus is born the king. 00:13:49.300 --> 00:13:53.900 He's threatened and he attempts to kill, to have him killed. 00:13:53.899 --> 00:14:03.340 And instead goes on a murderous rampage and kills boys, everyone in the vicinity of Jesus, 00:14:03.439 --> 00:14:04.600 around the age of Jesus. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:15.240 When Jesus Christ comes to anybody and reveals himself as the true ruler of our lives, 00:14:15.240 --> 00:14:19.340 our first instinct is to get angry with him. 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:25.500 And people will get upset with any Christian who lives and loves like Jesus 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:30.419 because it reminds them of their own heart and their own priorities and their own actions. 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.220 The self-justification engine kicks into gear. 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:39.560 And yet the reality is you don't have to be perfect to get rejected. 00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:50.660 Living a life like Jesus exposes corruption, immorality, gossip, greed, vilification, hatred. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:15:01.240 No one likes the depths of immoral hearts being revealed or those who reveal it. 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:10.840 Christmas means in our growing secular society, 00:15:11.180 --> 00:15:17.200 there's often not room in the inn for those who follow Jesus. 00:15:20.620 --> 00:15:26.100 But thirdly, Jesus was rejected for our acceptance. 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:33.800 Jesus Christ came into this world knowing that he would violate the world's standards and its priorities. 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:40.500 And that he would intimidate people with his life and his message. 00:15:41.180 --> 00:15:50.600 But he became, because, he still came, because of the substitutionary work, nature of his work. 00:15:51.040 --> 00:15:57.980 That is, him being rejected is his work for us. 00:15:57.980 --> 00:16:00.779 Have a look back at Isaiah 53. 00:16:02.060 --> 00:16:03.659 Right after it says, 00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:08.399 Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised. 00:16:08.860 --> 00:16:10.680 And we held him in low esteem. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.460 We read these words. 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:17.019 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:22.180 Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. 00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:26.579 But he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:16:26.739 --> 00:16:30.199 He was crushed for our iniquities. 00:16:30.899 --> 00:16:35.579 The punishment that brought us peace was laid on him. 00:16:36.719 --> 00:16:39.059 And by his wounds we have been healed. 00:16:39.859 --> 00:16:42.039 All, like sheep, have gone astray. 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:44.279 Each of us has turned to our own way. 00:16:44.579 --> 00:16:49.219 And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:53.980 You see, in a nutshell, what that's saying is, 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.700 Jesus' rejection is our acceptance. 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:04.039 He didn't come to be rejected simply as an example for us to follow. 00:17:04.620 --> 00:17:08.400 He came to be rejected as our substitute, as our saviour. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:10.440 He came to be rejected for us. 00:17:11.500 --> 00:17:14.120 He was rejected for our transgressions, for our sin, 00:17:14.759 --> 00:17:17.660 for our rejection of our created God. 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:17.740 God. 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:22.820 Simeon says in Luke 2, verse 34, 00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:27.840 that Jesus is to be a sign that will be spoken against. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:34.000 What that means is that because Jesus is spoken against, 00:17:35.360 --> 00:17:37.519 God speaks for us. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:43.220 Because there is no room for him, 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:47.019 we can dwell through Jesus, 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:48.900 through his substitutionary work, 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.500 we can dwell in the presence of God forever. 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:54.960 Jesus knew that his acceptance 00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:00.139 would ultimately mean our rejection by God. 00:18:00.140 --> 00:18:04.540 But his rejection would be for our eternal acceptance. 00:18:05.580 --> 00:18:07.680 And he chose that rejection for us. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:12.480 And so Christmas is so beautiful. 00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:15.140 It is so glorious. 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:18.920 It is so filled of light and hope for humanity, 00:18:19.180 --> 00:18:19.520 broken, 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:19.599 broken, 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:23.240 and yet it is so dangerous at the same time. 00:18:24.680 --> 00:18:26.400 Because the news of Christmas, 00:18:26.539 --> 00:18:29.460 the message of Christmas is so hard to hear. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:36.299 That is the very nature of some gifts that you receive. 00:18:36.299 --> 00:18:37.680 You know, 00:18:37.879 --> 00:18:39.299 a few days from now, 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:42.419 you pull out a present that's been given to you, 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:43.299 gifted to you, 00:18:43.539 --> 00:18:45.419 you unwrap it and it's a book said, 00:18:45.500 --> 00:18:46.500 how not to be arrogant. 00:18:47.299 --> 00:18:47.639 You know, 00:18:47.799 --> 00:18:51.240 or how to grow in humility and defeat pride. 00:18:51.899 --> 00:18:52.419 You know, 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.319 what on earth? 00:18:57.039 --> 00:18:58.639 Who bought me this book? 00:19:00.639 --> 00:19:02.980 Your sensibilities are damaged, 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:05.779 but it's most likely needed. 00:19:08.140 --> 00:19:10.019 The message of Christmas is hard, 00:19:10.360 --> 00:19:13.019 but it's also healing and soothing. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:15.420 In the same way, 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:18.059 a surgeon brings healing to our body 00:19:18.059 --> 00:19:19.200 by cutting out 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.640 the stuff that's wrecking it 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:24.440 and spilling our blood. 00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:25.860 Ultimately, 00:19:26.120 --> 00:19:28.500 that is a wound that brings healing, 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:30.380 brings health. 00:19:30.380 --> 00:19:34.680 And the reason Jesus makes us uncomfortable 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:38.120 is because he challenges our worldview. 00:19:39.060 --> 00:19:42.480 He forces us to expand our fury of life 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:44.920 and its purpose and its goal. 00:19:45.800 --> 00:19:46.640 The magnificent, 00:19:47.320 --> 00:19:47.820 perfect, 00:19:48.600 --> 00:19:49.660 flawless God 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:53.380 comes down into our ordinariness, 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.060 into our brokenness and our darkness. 00:19:56.380 --> 00:19:57.380 He immerses himself 00:19:57.380 --> 00:19:57.980 himself 00:19:57.980 --> 00:19:59.280 in our pain 00:19:59.280 --> 00:20:00.440 and our vulnerability 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:02.300 and our suffering. 00:20:02.780 --> 00:20:05.420 The ordinary suffering of human life, 00:20:05.500 --> 00:20:07.180 let alone the extraordinary suffering 00:20:07.180 --> 00:20:07.940 of human life, 00:20:08.060 --> 00:20:09.760 like we saw last week. 00:20:10.740 --> 00:20:12.700 He came to be rejected, 00:20:13.160 --> 00:20:15.520 to be murdered by humanity. 00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:18.540 And it took God 00:20:18.540 --> 00:20:20.280 such drastic steps 00:20:20.280 --> 00:20:21.460 to save us. 00:20:21.460 --> 00:20:24.880 It is offensive 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:26.200 to our sensibilities 00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:28.240 to think that we are so dark, 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:30.420 that we are so broken, 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:33.200 that we are so sinful. 00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:35.660 And yet, 00:20:36.279 --> 00:20:37.440 we cannot know 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:38.039 the blessing 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:39.380 of his forgiveness, 00:20:40.360 --> 00:20:41.420 the blessing of hope 00:20:41.420 --> 00:20:42.579 and life 00:20:42.579 --> 00:20:44.180 and light forever 00:20:44.180 --> 00:20:47.000 if we have never felt 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:48.039 the offence 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:51.100 of Christmas. 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:55.860 We should feel 00:20:55.860 --> 00:20:56.620 the offence 00:20:56.620 --> 00:20:57.720 of Christmas, 00:20:58.299 --> 00:21:00.140 but don't take offence. 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:03.160 It's hard to believe 00:21:03.160 --> 00:21:03.720 in Christmas, 00:21:04.620 --> 00:21:05.519 but there is 00:21:05.519 --> 00:21:06.120 light 00:21:06.120 --> 00:21:06.900 and life 00:21:06.900 --> 00:21:07.539 and healing 00:21:07.539 --> 00:21:08.279 and hope 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:09.140 and joy 00:21:09.140 --> 00:21:10.360 when we do. 00:21:11.380 --> 00:21:11.680 Amen. 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:11.759 Amen.