We celebrate Christmas because Jesus came to rescue us from condemnation so that we could experience an eternity in relationship with Him...

This week we have been looking at an encounter between a man named Nicodemus and Jesus that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. Yesterday, we looked on as Jesus explained to Nicodemus that to experience a relationship with God, a person needed to be born again, or born from above. Nicodemus, however, was having a hard time understanding what Jesus was communicating.

We talked about the reality that to understand why Nicodemus was having such a hard time wrapping his mind around the significance of Jesus words here, we first need to understand how Nicodemus believed one entered into a relationship with God. You see, Nicodemus, and the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus day, believed that it was what you did for God that made you right with God.  They believed that it was your performance for God that determined whether or not you were able to have a relationship with God.

Nicodemus grew up and lived his entire life trying to do things for God. And now Jesus was telling Nicodemus that everything that he had learned, lived by, and was teaching others was wrong. Jesus was telling Nicodemus, and the Jewish religious leaders of the day that they had missed what it meant and how they could live in relationship with God. 

After blowing up all of the categories that Nicodemus had when it came to God, Jesus begins to answer the question that drove the religious leaders to send Nicodemus to Jesus in the first place. And that question was this: Who did Jesus think He was and what authority did He think He had to say and do what He was doing. We see Jesus answer that question in verse 13-15:

"No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

Jesus explains to Nicodemus that He alone can speak authoritatively on how one is able to be brought into a relationship with God, because He alone is the Son of Man. Jesus here brings Nicodemus back to a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Daniel. In Daniel 7:13-14, the prophet Daniel predicted and proclaimed that the Messiah would come from Heaven to usher in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus then reminds Nicodemus of a story in that is recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of our Bible called the book of Numbers. In Numbers 21:9, we read the story of an occasion where the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against Moses and God. God responded to their rebellion by sending poisonous snakes to kill those who were involved in the rebellion. The Lord commanded Moses to make an image of a bronze serpent and lift it on a standard so that it would be visible to all. Moses then explained to the people that those who trusted that God would heal them if they looked at the serpent would be healed. All those who trusted in God and looked at the serpent that was lifted on the pole were healed, while the rest of the Jewish people who failed to trust God but continued in their selfishness and rebellion died.

Jesus then took this Old Testament story and explained that this story was a foreshadowing of what would happen to Him. Jesus explained to Nicodemus that just like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, He would be lifted up on a pole and that everyone who placed their confident trust in Him would be brought into a relationship with God. Jesus then makes a statement that is probably the most familiar verse in the entire Bible. And it is in this single verse that we see the core message of the good news of the message of the gospel.

If you are not sure you buy the Jesus, Bible, church, thing; if you have had Christians share “the gospel” with you but found yourself walking away confused or found the message filled with big 50 cent theological words that you did not understand, I just want to let you know that I am glad you are reading this. I am glad you are reading this because, in this verse, we see the gospel most clearly and simply put. I am glad you are reading this because while you have the freedom to reject and walk away from the message of the gospel, I want to make sure that you walk away clearly understanding what you are rejecting. And this may be the first time that you have had the opportunity to clearly hear the good news of God’s message of rescue through the message of the gospel. So let’s look at this verse together:

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

In this verse, we see Jesus reveal for us we need to know and what we need to do in order to enter into a relationship with God. First, Jesus says for God so loved the world. You see, God sent His Son Jesus to earth not because He was mad at the world; God is in love with the world. Jesus then tells us that God did what people, who are in love, do. God gave. God sent His Son Jesus because He loved the world.

You see, while God created humanity to experience a relationship with Him and a relationship with one another, all of humanity selfishly rebelled and rejected that relationship, instead choosing to love ourselves and do things out of that selfish love that hurt God and others. That selfish love and rebellion is what the Bible calls sin.

God responded to that selfish love and rebellion by giving what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. God’s love and interest in us was made known and shown in the most powerful way when He sent His unique, one and only Son to earth, who allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

Jesus then explained that God loved and God gave so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. Now this little phrase believes in, in the language that this letter is written in, literally means to entrust oneself entrust to someone with complete confidence. To trust is a lot like sitting on a stool; while I can say that I believe that this stool can hold my weight, it is only when I sit on the stool that I demonstrate that I trust the stool to hold my weight.

And for the person who believes, trusts, and follows Jesus, Jesus explains that they shall not perish, but have eternal life. Now eternal life is not simply living forever. You see, everyone lives forever; we are created as eternal beings. The question is not whether or not you are going to live forever, the question is where are you going to live?

When Jesus uses this phrase, He is revealing to Nicodemus that the person who places their confident trust in Jesus life death, and resurrection will not be separated from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion, but will experience the forgiveness of sin and the relationship with God that we were created for. And that is the good news of the gospel: God loved, God gave, so that those who believe and place their confident trust in Jesus would receive life in relationship with Him.

Now you might be thinking “I am still having a hard time buying that God is like this. I still see God as being like a cosmic cop around the corner waiting to bust me. The idea that Christmas is about God’s love for me and desire for relationship with me is hard to accept”. If that is where you are at, just look at what Jesus says next in John 3:17-21:

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

If Jesus was communicating this in the language that we use in our culture today, these verses would sound like this: Nicodemus, God did not send Me as the Messiah to the earth in order to judge all of humanity, but that all of humanity would have the opportunity to be rescued from their selfishness and rebellion. The person who places their confident trust in Me is not condemned. However, the person who refuses to place their confident trust in Me is already condemned because of their selfishness and rebellion. Everyone is condemned and the reason that they are condemned is because I have revealed Myself throughout all of human history and all of humanity has responded by rejecting and rebelling against Me. They want nothing to do with Me because I expose the selfishness and rebellion that is in the center and core of their being. Everyone is already condemned because of their rebellion and I have come to rescue those who place their trust in Me from condemnation. And everyone who places their confident trust in Me and live in relationship with Me reveal the reality of My transformational intervention and activity that has brought them into relationship with Me.” 

And with that, Jesus conversation with Nicodemus was over. And a little less than two and a half years later, Jesus fulfilled the prediction and promise that He made. Nicodemus watched as Jesus was arrested, tried, convicted, and handed over to the Romans, who lifted Jesus up on a pole, a cross in order to be crucified.

However it is here, in event from history involving a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, that we discover a timeless answer to the question “Why Christmas?”And that timeless answer is this: We celebrate Christmas because Jesus came to rescue us from condemnation so that we could experience an eternity in relationship with Him.

You see, Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that all of humanity stands condemned to an eternity apart from God as a result of our selfishness and rebellion. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to clearly understand that rescue from selfishness and rebellion was not based on what we did for God, but in trusting in what God was doing through Jesus, who entered into humanity as the culmination of God’s Divine plan to provide an opportunity for forgiveness and restoration.

Christmas is significant because Christmas is about Jesus entering into humanity in order to provide humanity an opportunity to be rescued from the condemnation that flows from our selfishness and rebellion and that separates us from God. Christmas is significant because Christmas is about Jesus entering into humanity in order to provide humanity the opportunity to experience an eternity in relationship with Him.

Christmas is about the reality that out of love God gave what was closest to Himself to rescue what was furthest away. Christmas is significant because God, loved, and God gave so that all humanity would have the opportunity to live for all eternity in the relationship with God that they were created for.

And because of the reality, we celebrate Christmas because Jesus came to rescue us from condemnation so that we could experience an eternity in relationship with Him.