Who wouldn’t want more joy, peace and hope in their lives this Christmas?
We were encouraged that these things can be found in the gift of Jesus Christ. Through his birth, life, death and resurrection he has made a way for us to receive this precious gift.
Once we have received this gift through faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of our circumstances, we can know true joy, peace and hope. This is because these things are rooted permanently in our relationship with God and what he has done for us.
Sermon Transcript
I want to talk to you about joy, peace and hope at Christmas time. But before I do that, I’m just going to pray one more time, Jeff, pray for us at the start, but I want to pray for us again. We believe that God hears our prayers and answers our prayers. So, let’s just pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we’re here this evening and we ask that you would speak to each and every one of us. Would you reveal yourself to us? Lord God, if there’s anyone here who doesn’t know you, Lord, but is inquisitive, I just pray you would reveal yourself to them now, as we as we hear from your word, and I pray, more than anything, Lord, would you fill us with joy and hope and peace as I speak. In Jesus name, Amen.
1 . Romans 15:13
I want to share with you three Bible verses that are special to me and speak into Christmas and what it’s all about. And so I’m going to walk you through three Bible verses. The first Bible verse is Romans 15, verse 13, which says this:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.”
There are three words that really stand out to me in that amazing, amazing verse – hope, joy and peace. Not just hope, in fact, but abounding hope. And I think that every single one of us will agree, we’d like to experience more joy in our lives. We’d like to experience more peace, and we certainly need more hope. Certainly, the last few years that we’ve been through as individuals and as a nation, we need joy, peace and hope in our lives. Do you know when the Bible talks about hope, it’s not talking about the hope that some of us have that England might one day win a World Cup. That’s misplaced hope, but it’s a sure hope. It’s a hope in God. And I must confess, I was one of those people who really believed we were going to win it this time. And I was wrong. But when the Bible talks about hope, it’s hope in God. It’s not misplaced hope, but it’s hope in something that is sure and will surely deliver. When the Bible talks about joy, it’s not talking about a fleeting momentary pleasure, but something deep and heartfelt that is eternal, a joy that really is experienced in our hearts. And when the Bible talks about peace, the Bible is talking about a freedom from conflict and a freedom from anxiety.
Deep down in our hearts, these aren’t just words for me – hope, joy and peace – these are things I experience through my relationship with God. So, I want this verse to set our direction this evening. This is where we’re headed as we think about Christmas. We’re headed hopefully to a place filled with abundant hope, amazing deep joy and great peace. Are you with me on that journey? Do you want to come on that journey to this place of joy, peace and hope? Yeah. Good. If anyone is shaking their head well, you can just leave. (laughs)
The other thing this this verse teaches me is this: that everyone should want Christianity to be true. If this is the kind of thing that Christianity is speaking about, it’s inviting people to have more joy, more peace, and more hope in their life, then everybody should want Christianity to be true. If you want more of it, more joy, more peace, and more hope, then you should be sitting there hoping that this is true. And I hope there’s an anticipation in the room as I’m speaking. And if you’re not a Christian, thank you so much for being here, you’re so welcome. I hope that there is a desire in your heart that what I’m sharing with you be true because you want more joy and more peace and more hope in your heart, in your life.
2 . Isaiah 9:6
Let me move on to my second verse, Isaiah nine, verse six. Now, I wonder what you are hoping for, what you are hoping to receive as a gift this Christmas time. Is there anyone who just wants chocolate for Christmas? That’s the main thing that they want A few hands. Ethan, our violin player, is there, got his hand up. How about a good pair of socks? Anyone ask for socks this year? Not Funmi. She doesn’t want socks. Jonny wants socks. Oh, great. How about a cabbage? Has anyone asked for a cabbage for Christmas this year? No. Well, five year old Duncan, that’s what he asked for. I think my parents were absolutely delighted that I was such an easily pleased young man. And I genuinely got a massive cabbage right in the bottom of my stocking, which is so big I couldn’t get it out. It was just stuck. I don’t know what I was thinking. And we cook the cabbage for Christmas dinner. I enjoyed it, but I don’t even especially like cabbage. So anyway, five year old Duncan was very strange. That’s what he really wanted for Christmas. Do you know God has a gift for you this Christmas time? Isaiah nine, verse six was written in 700 B.C. So 700 years before Jesus was even born. And God spoke supernaturally, prophetically through him to speak about the very first Christmas.
And this is what this Prophet Isaiah wrote:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”
At Christmas time, a child is born, a son is given as a gift to us. God gives this gift to his people, a son, a person, and his name, the son that was born, the child that was born. His name is Jesus. But, actually he’s got loads of names, doesn’t he? He’s not just called Jesus. He’s also called wonderful. He’s called counsellor. He’s called Everlasting Father. He’s called Prince of Peace. But perhaps the most interesting name that Isaiah gives to Jesus is mighty God. This baby that was born, this son that was given is called Mighty God. He is God come to Earth in human flesh. This is the great glory and the great mystery of Christmas that God Himself would come to Earth and be born as a baby that very first Christmas Day.
The most important thing to take away from that verse, though, is this: Christmas is about the gift of a person. Yeah, we get loads of great Christmas presents, we get some chocolate, we get some socks, we get some cabbages, we get great Christmas presents. But the most important gift on offer is the gift of a person – Jesus Christ.
3 . John 3:16
Let’s move on to my third and final verse. John three sixteen The most famous verse in the Bible. I can’t even remember where it’s from – John 3:16. I can remember where it’s from. The idea of a gift is in this verse as well. Let me read it to you.
“For God so love the world that He gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
The gift of Jesus is a gift of love. That’s why that verse starts “for God so loved the world that He gave”. It’s a gift that comes from love.
I’m going to reveal myself to be a very soppy bloke right now. But I have a shoebox at home, and in that shoebox I keep cards and little presents and tokens of affection that Rachael, my wife, has given me over the years. One of the things in that box is a KFC card that when you scratch it, it smells like the chicken. Because I love KFC. It doesn’t smell of chicken anymore, actually. So why do I keep it? Why do I keep that card that no longer smells of KFC? I do love KFC. That’s why she gave it to me. Anyway. Why do I keep that? It’s because it was a card that came from a place of love. It was a present that was given to me from love, and therefore it’s special to me.
I received it with joy and immediately scratched it and went, Oh, it really does smell like KFC. I kept it and I treasure those things that are in that shoebox. Jesus is a gift given by God the Father in love. And because he’s a gift of love, he is worth receiving with joy, keeping and treasuring. Jesus is a gift from God’s love – “for God so love the world”.
Now, who is this gift given to? Well, the answer is in that verse as well. The word, “whoever” that should stand out to us, “whoever believes”. The gift that is given is a gift to whoever believes. Don’t rule yourself out from receiving this gift. Don’t go, “Oh, I’m not included. I’m not religious enough or I’m not good enough or, Duncan, you don’t even know what I’ve done in my past. How can I possibly receive this gift?” No, the verse says in the Bible, whoever believes! It’s a gift for anyone to receive, Please, please don’t rule yourself out.
Well, how is this gift received? It’s for anyone who will receive it. So how is it received? Well, the answer is through belief. Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Whoever believes in Jesus receives this wonderful gift of love from God, the Father.
My greatest desire for this evening. You know, I’m. I’m so grateful to all the people you’ve contributed this evening. Lots of people have done great, great things. The band have been fantastic. There’s mulled wine and tea and coffee and there’s been some decorations put up and people have been out with lanterns in the dark, guiding people in through the door. I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened. But my greatest desire is that people would believe in Jesus. This evening people would receive this wonderful gift which is offered by God in love.
4 . How does the gift of Jesus bring hope, peace and joy?
Now let me turn back around to the very first verse I shared with you, Romans 15, verse 13. Notice that believing is in this verse as well. Joy and peace are for you in believing. Did you spot that in believing? And so this joy and this peace is given to people who believe in Jesus because they’ve received this wonderful, wonderful gift. But the question is how? How does a baby born 2000 years ago enable me to experience peace and joy and hope today in 2022?
Well, I want to answer that question with a silly illustration, which is what my bag of rubbish is for. God is in heaven up high, and I want you to imagine that my hand is me or you. God is in heaven. And my hand is me or you. The Bible teaches that there is something that’s separates us from God, and that’s what this bag of rubbish represents. The things that separate me and you from God.
This bag of rubbish is full of everything I’ve ever done wrong in my life. The lies that I’ve told the times. I’ve been selfish, greedy, the times I’ve said things that have hurt people. The times I’ve done things that might be described as malicious. This bag is not only full of the things I’ve done wrong. It’s also full of the things that I haven’t done that would have been good if I did do them. Sins of omission. We call them. That’s the theological title. The things that were good that I could have done or should have done, but decided I couldn’t be bothered to do or didn’t want to do.
Now imagine I ripped open this bag and started flicking the rubbish around the room. Bits of paper over here. You guys get the bin juice over here. It’d be pretty disgusting, wouldn’t it? Well, that’s actually what happens with the things that we do wrong in life. Our sin isn’t nicely contained in a nice bag. We start to impact other people and ruin their lives as well. When we do things wrong, we end up damaging other people. And often I find that something I’ve done wrong might lead someone else to do something wrong. And so we come into this environment where bin juice is being flicked all over the place. The point is this – every single one of us has a bag of rubbish in our lives.
I reckon if I asked you to turn to the person next to you and say the thing in the bag that you’re most ashamed of, you probably wouldn’t be able to do it. Every single one of us has a bag of rubbish that separates us from God. He is perfectly and utterly good and we’re carrying around all our rubbish. There’s nothing we can do to get rid of our rubbish. We can’t undo our past and we can’t undo all the hurt that we’ve done to others. We can’t take our rubbish and chuck it in the Solent. We just can’t do that. So what does God do? We’re separated from him. So what does God do? Well, the answer is the story of Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ. God comes to Earth. Christ, in His Love, is born at Christmas with a mission to take the things that we have done wrong upon himself. To take all our sins and all the things we’ve done wrong, and all the things we should have done that we haven’t done upon himself. Which leaves us free to enter into relationship with God. Our rubbish has been taken away that we might be with God again, reconciled to Him. And Jesus takes the punishment that we deserve by dying upon the cross. He carries our rubbish and dies as sin as death. We’re treated like a son and daughter of God. Christ, upon the cross, is treated as we deserve to be treated.
This is a wonderful, glorious, eternal gift for us on this side of the equation, isn’t it? We’re free to be with God. We’re free to have relationship with him. And it’s not one of those gifts that you open on Christmas Day and then never go to or touch again. It’s an eternal gift that’s going to transform not just today, tomorrow, but our entire eternity. And this freedom, which Christ has won for whoever believes in him, is a wonderful, wonderful gift. For me, it means in every circumstance I can be joyful. Even if everything was taken away from me this evening and I ended up on the street cold and homeless with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. I would still have God, and therefore I could rejoice because His He is a God of love and a lot of hope. And he’s pouring love into my heart. I would still you would find me praising God in the streets this evening if this happened to me, because I still have him even in the darkest and difficult situations. So I can still have joy in all things. I can have peace even when I’m going through huge stress at work or I have big worries about my family. Anxiety threatens to take away my heart and overwhelm me. But I remember God’s love for me that he showed me in the gift of Jesus Christ, the all powerful creator of the universe loves me.
That gives you huge peace in your heart and a trust in him. That means you can go through the most difficult and dark times. And finally, I will always have hope. And if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, you can always have hope. Christmas might be a really tough time of year for you. I know it’s a tough time of year for many, many people. Or maybe you’ve got health concerns or worries and you’re thinking, I’m hopeless and I’m lost. But the gift of Jesus Christ is an everlasting gift. And every Christian, everyone who has received the gift of Christ has hope for eternal life. A day where every tear will be wiped away and every pain taken away. And we will live in paradise forever. And so Christians can be always full of hope, joy and peace. The gift of Jesus is a gift you can receive today by believing in Him. By trusting in Jesus. Believing in trusting are things done in the heart. But we express what is in our hearts with our lips and our mouths. And when we talk to God, we call that prayer. As Christians. And I’m going to lead us in a prayer. And if you want to express belief and trust in God in your heart, then why don’t you just say amen? You can do it silently under your breath, but say amen in response to the prayer to say, Yes, I agree.
Amen. Just means truly, I agree. So we’re expressing what’s in our hearts through this prayer. Let me let me lead us in a prayer.
Lord God, I want to receive the gift of Jesus Christ by believing in him. I confess I have rubbish in my life that needs dealing with. And I believe Jesus died for me so that I might be free for relationship with you. And Lord, I believe that in some amazing way, this impacts my reality. Now fill me with the joy and peace and abundant hope that you describe in Romans chapter 15. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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