“Why Christmas?”
(1 Timothy 1:15)
Christmas 2014
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
“He who is mighty has done a great thing; taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting.”
This worship service is all about the Mighty God in heaven who has come down to us, to take on flesh, to save us from our sins.
You know, it’s so ironic; one of the greatest challenges of the Christmas season is to stay focused on that, the whole point of Christmas. We speak often of the need to “keep the Christ in Christmas” and we prefer to say, “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” We write, “Merry Christmas” on our Christmas cards and circle or underline the name “Christ” in an effort to keep the focus on Jesus and what this time of the year is all about.
So I thank God for a wonderful church family where we can come together like this and sharpen our focus on the whole point of the Christmas season.
As the year ends, many of you are finishing up reading through the Bible, several of you reading the chronological Bible, and you were in 1 Timothy not long ago. I was listening to 1 Timothy and a familiar verse spoke to me in a way that helped me focus on the point and purpose of Christmas, not so much the “what” and the “when,” but the “why” of Christmas.
And I’d like to read that verse to you and study it with you. So if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to join me in 1 Timothy, chapter 1 (YouVersion Bible app).
In order to ground this verse in its proper context, I’m going to read six verses from verse 12 to 17 and the verse we’ll study is found right in the middle of those six verses. Listen for it as I read the passage.
And this passage is the Apostle Paul’s sharing of his personal testimony. He’s talking about his coming to know Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Those of you who are Christians have your personal testimony. Paul is sharing a bit of his testimony here as He thanks God for his salvation.
•I invite you to please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
And amen. Please be seated.
Did you catch the one verse, the one verse in that passage that succinctly captures the whole point and purpose of Christmas? The “why” of Christmas? It is verse 15. Hear it again as I read 1 Timothy 1:15:
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
So as we continue worshiping Jesus this morning, let’s really study this verse, let’s feast upon it. Many of us are going to enjoy a big Christmas dinner this Thursday. I want to invite you to a feast right now, a feast upon verse 15. Let’s partake of this verse and meditate upon the Word of God.
If you have your Bible, would you recite verse along with me? Verse 15. Here is the point of Christmas, the “why” of Christmas. Let’s read it together:
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
Here’s a simple outline to guide us as we study verse 15. Three things Christmas is about, okay? Three things about Christmas. Number one:
I. Christmas is about a Message to Share
Christmas is about a message to share, words to communicate, a saying to make widely known. You’ll remember Brother Matt read earlier from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 2. He read that passage about the shepherds in Bethlehem seeing the Christ child in the manger in Bethlehem.
And the Bible says in Luke 2:17, “Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”
That means, they shared the “Good News,” the Gospel, glad tidings, tidings of comfort and joy. “They made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child.”
What was the saying told them concerning this child? It was what the Angel of the Lord had said to them. Remember? “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11).
That’s the saying that the shepherds made widely known, the saying which was told them concerning this Child. They made widely known that this Child is more than a little baby in a manger. They made widely known the truth that this Child is a Savior; Christ the Lord, Christ the King.
Yesterday, I received an email from my cousin in Nebraska. It was a picture. It showed the little humble manger with straw on it and then the caption above read, “King Size Bed.” Christ is King.
Christmas is about a message to share. And this is the same point in this verse we are studying this morning from 1 Timothy, chapter 1, and verse 15. Paul writes:
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance,”
Were we to ask, “What is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance?” Paul responds: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
This was most likely a saying that was shared frequently in the context of Christian worship. This saying, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” was a saying that Christians spoke, a saying spoken by Christians in churches during Paul’s day. It was a popular saying, a statement of Christian doctrine. So Paul says, “This is a good saying, a faithful saying.”
Listen to a couple other translations here as we consider Christmas being about a message to share:
The NIV, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
The NLT, This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’”
The Phillips paraphrase, “This statement is completely reliable and should be universally accepted:—‘Christ Jesus entered the world to rescue sinners.’”
So, here is a message that should be shared with everyone this week. Everyone should hear this message and accept this message. It is a good message. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
That’s the message of Christmas. The “Good news” of Christmas is not an impersonal greeting of holiday wishes, nor a generic blessing of peace, love, and joy. Nor is the message of Christmas that some oversized jolly elf is going to make the season bright, but the message of Christmas is this: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
That’s the message to share. It deserves, says Paul, “full acceptance.” Everyone should accept it. But no one can accept it without having first heard it. And who is to proclaim the message? Christians. Jesus says, “You shall be My witnesses (Acts 1:8).”
The best Christmas gift you can give anyone this week is the gift of that message. This is the message we’re to share. Make verse 15 “widely known” this week.
You say, “Yes, but how?” Well, it may sound overly simplistic, but just say it. Just say it. Here is a faithful saying. So you say, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” There’s power in that! And there’s power in that because there’s power in the Word of God. You speak it and you are speaking God’s Word.
So when you’re at work this week, during a break or a chance you have, you say to your co-worker, “Hey Frank, did you know there’s a verse in the Bible that tells us in just one verse what Christmas is all about? Can you guess which one I have in mind? Can I share it with you? It will only take 5 seconds.” And then you share. There’s power in that!
Or as you interact with a neighbor, or a friend, or a fellow shopper, or the person who’s ringing up that last minute Christmas purchase—you know, all those stores that are still open to the very last minute for all of the men who are still shopping for their wives?—but you know, it’s so easy to work this in to everyday conversation, “Do you know there’s a single verse in the Bible that captures the essence of Christmas in less than 10 words? It’s found in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Or during your family meal this Thursday, why not ask one of the family members to read verse 15? One person stands and reads 1 Timothy 1:15. Maybe preface it with, “Hey, just want to be sure we all remember what this is about: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’”
Christmas is about a message to share. And in that message to share we read about a Messiah to Save, a Messiah who comes to save. That’s the second point of our study this morning about the “why” of Christmas. Number two:
II. Christmas is about a Messiah to Save
Again, right from verse 15, right there in the middle:
“that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
It’s always helpful to review that the word “Christ” is a title. It is a Greek title that comes from a Hebrew word meaning “Messiah,” or “Anointed One,” or “Chosen One.” So when we speak of Jesus Christ we’re not using Christ as a last name, but as a title: “Jesus, the Messiah.”
And the word Jesus means “Savior,” or “the Lord saves.” So when we say, “Jesus Christ,” we are referring to, “The promised coming Savior.”
Who came into the world to save sinners? Christ, that is, the Messiah; Jesus—Savior.
This part of the verse speaks both of incarnation and salvation.
Incarnation, as most of you know, means to “incarnate,” or to enflesh, to take on flesh, to take on skin, to take on humanity.
One of the doctrines of God we reviewed last Wednesday on our theology discussion is the doctrine of God’s eternity, that God has always existed. As the Creator of time, He Himself is timeless. He does not experience time in the same way we do. We are limited. He is limitless. So He does not experience a succession of moments as do we.
Rather, He experiences everything at once, and forever. It boggles the mind and brings us to our knees in glad adoration because it means that even our praise is something He never ceases to experience. Because one day to us is as a thousand to the Lord, He never ceases to experience our praise and worship. You praise Him this day, this morning and He goes on delighting in that praise forever and ever. It makes you want to praise Him all the more so He can continue to delight in our worship!
So God is eternal. This is helpful to review at Christmas time because it reminds us that the Son of God did not have His beginning at Bethlehem. The Son of God has always been. As the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son has always been.
The Bible says in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created…all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”
The Son of God is the One through Whom all things were created. So at Christmas, The Pre-existent eternal God comes to Bethlehem.
We sing of it in the hymn, “Hark the herald angels sing.”
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
God comes to us. He takes on flesh. This is a Christmas gift: deity wrapped in humanity.
The incarnation! God comes to us. He enters-in to this broken, fallen world of suffering. God “gets His hands and feet dirty” by coming down to us—deity wrapped in humanity.
And the main reason He came to us was to save us from our sins. This is His name, Jesus, Savior, Christ the Lord.
The fact that He came to save us means that without Him we need to be rescued. We need to be saved. That’s the given that precedes Christmas. That’s the bad news that precedes the good news: that we are lost and need to be found. That we are in darkness and need the light. That we are spiritually dead and need to be made spiritually alive.
So God comes to us in the person of Christ. It’s right there in verse 15: “Christ Jesus came into the world.”
He came to us that He might save us.
It’s just like the key verse to the entire Gospel of Luke: Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”
He came to us that He might save us.
Ellie and Jen sang earlier, “He who is mighty has done a great thing; taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting; shattered the darkness and lifted our shame.”
We spoke of this last week when we spoke of the virgin birth. We said that the virgin birth made possible the incarnation, the uniting together of full deity and full humanity in one person. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, two natures in one person. He is the God-Man and both natures are necessary given Christ’s work on our behalf:
As God, Christ lives a perfect life and fulfills perfectly and completely the righteous demands of the law. We cannot keep the moral commands perfectly, commands like the 10 Commandments, we can’t keep them perfectly but as God, not only could He, but He did just that.
And, as man, Christ has skin and can therefore die. And He dies a sacrificial death, a substitutionary death, so that in His dying, Christ takes the punishment we deserve for our sin. He rose the third day as evidence that the Heavenly Father accepted Christ’s life and death as a just and holy sacrifice, a substitute in our place.
All has been done to accomplish our salvation, and to save us from a burning hell which is what we deserve, and to fit us for a holy heaven, which is what we don’t deserve.
But this salvation is not automatic. We must make a choice, a choice to believe, to repent, to receive Jesus Christ as Lord. So we must believe what the Bible teaches about Christ, we must turn from our sinful selves and sinful desires, and receive Jesus, take Him as Lord—which means He is now “Number One” in our lives. We live for Him. We run everything by Him. We’re actively involved in a local church serving Him. He is Lord.
Christmas is about a Messiah to Save; a Messiah who brings salvation.
Salvation means that our lives can change. We can be saved from hell and gain entrance to heaven. We can be saved from obscurity and enter into meaningfulness and purpose. Our lives can change for the better.
This is the promise of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.”
Se we can love others we previously could not love. We can forgive others we previously could not forgive. Not only can our marriage be saved, but our marriage becomes more meaningful. Our work becomes more meaningful, our lives become more meaningful.
If we’re saved we begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and so on. We’re not stuck with some sinful personality that cannot change. It can. If we’re saved, we’re changing more and more every day, becoming more like Christ. And people see Christ in us, the way we talk to them, the way we talk about them, the way we live before them.
Christmas is about a Message to Share, and a Messiah to Save, and thirdly:
III. Christmas is about a Mercy to Show
Paul regards himself as the chief of sinners; last part of verse 15. After he says, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world,” he adds this phrase:
“of whom I am chief”
Regarding himself as the foremost sinner for his having persecuted Christians and blaspheming God, Paul praises God for the mercy that God showed him. Most of us know that God changes Paul from chief sinner to chief missionary, a demonstration of God’s mercy.
Paul speaks twice of that mercy in this passage. You see it there in verse 13: “I obtained mercy” and again in verse 16: “I obtained mercy.”
If grace is our getting something we don’t deserve—like salvation—then mercy is our not getting what we do deserve—like eternal punishment.
Christmas is about a mercy to show—God shows His mercy not just to Paul, but to all who believe in Christ. And, furthermore, God uses Paul as an example. God shows how great is His mercy by showering it upon Paul so as to show us that there is no one beyond the reach of God’s forgiveness.
This is precisely the point Paul makes in what follows verse 15. He has just said, “Here is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief”—now verse 16:
16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
Another way of saying that:
“God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life (NLT).”
God shows His mercy toward Paul to encourage you. Paul sees this. He recognizes this. God showers His mercy upon Paul for you! God shows mercy to Paul for your sakes, so that none of you would be so discouraged to think that God would not shower His mercy upon you.
It makes sense. After all, given Paul’s life before Christ, are any of us any worse?
Have any of you been responsible for the death of others? Paul had. But God showed mercy to him.
Have any of you persecuted innocent people? Paul had. But God showed mercy to him.
Have any of you ever blasphemed God by your words or by actions? Paul had. But God showed mercy to him.
Now what sins could be worse than plotting murder, persecuting the innocent, and blaspheming God?
Christ died for all sin. There’s not a sin you can name for which Christ did not die.
Christmas is about a mercy to show.
So in one verse, 1 Timothy 1:15, we have the “Why” of Christmas:
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
Christmas is about a Message to Share, a Messiah to Save, a Mercy to Show.
Would you bow your heads for prayer?
Have you obtained this mercy about which Paul is speaking? Have you been saved from your sin? Are you trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, believing what the Bible teaches about Him?
You may be here this morning as a member of Henderson’s First Baptist Church and not be saved. Or you may be here as a regular attender or a guest and you are not saved.
Listen: nothing is more important this morning than your eternal destiny. Do you know for certain that God has saved you, that you have accepted Him and that He accepts you? Do you know that?
The Bible speaks elsewhere of conviction of sin. Conviction is a work of God. God takes hold of our heart and He works it so that we sense His hand upon us. We feel sorrow and shame for our sin and we know that we are at odds with God. God brings us to this knowledge so that we might then receive His mercy by believing in His Son Jesus Christ.
Today if you are uncertain of your salvation and you sense God at work in your heart. Let me invite you right now with your head bowed and your eyes closed, let me invite you to pray. And you may silently pray right now in your spirit, pray something like this:
“Lord Jesus, there’s room in my heart for you. Please forgive me. I know that I am a sinner. I admit that. I am in need of your grace and mercy. I am sinner in need of a Savior. I turn away from my sin and I turn to you.
“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you paid my sin debt with Your blood on the cross. And I believe that God raised you from the dead. God, make me clean. I want to have a relationship with You forever. And I will follow you all the days of my life.
With our heads still bowed and eyes closed let me say that some of you may have prayed that prayer and you have professed your faith in Christ. Only you and God know whether you really professed your faith and trust in Christ.
But let me say this: if you have just now trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then God will make a difference in your life. And you will share with others what you have done. So tell someone today that you have placed your faith in Christ.
Tell your pastor as soon as possible and talk to your pastor about baptism—which is the first step of obedience for a Christian; first faith in Christ, then baptism that pictures faith in Christ. If you don’t have a church home, get involved in a local church starting right away. The Bible takes for granted that every Christian is an active member of a local church. If you’re from out of town, then return to your church home and share with your pastor that you are a follower of Christ and talk to your pastor about the next step.
Our Father, we thank You for Your work of grace and mercy in the first Christmas, God, that you came down to us in the Person of Christ, that, ‘You who are mighty have done a great thing; taken on flesh, conquered death’s sting; shattered the darkness and lifted our shame—Holy is Your name;” and in Your name we pray, amen.
Now please stand as we close our time together, singing, “Come, thou long expected Jesus.”
1. Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
2. Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
Amen! Thank you for being with us this morning. I’d love to chat with you, especially if you have placed your faith in Christ this morning, I want to hear from you. I’ll be standing right outside these doors.
And I want to remind you of our special Christmas Eve Service this Wednesday at 5 PM at Henderson’s First Baptist Church—always a great service, Christmas Eve at Henderson’s First Baptist.
May God bless you richly this Christmas time!
Let’s join hands as Alan leads us in our concluding praise. Merry Christmas, everyone.
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