Christmas Cheer

Message Description

Dr. Kurt Bjorklund points to a small section in the book of 1 Corinthians to explain how Christ's followers can experience hope even in the midst of the tough year of 2020.

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Message Transcript

Hey, welcome to Orchard Hill! It's great to be together online, Butler County, Strip District, Wexford, socially distanced, safe worship gatherings. It's great to be together as we are. And hey, just a reminder, if you haven't, virtual Christmas Eve, some in-person options, again, socially distanced, register. But the virtual, we have a great little Christmas Eve promo video that you can send to people that's about 15 minutes, gives a taste of Christmas Eve, and invites people to the virtual experience on Christmas Eve day, which will stream at 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, and 7:00. And we'd love to see this just penetrate our community and beyond, so please take some time to share. Let's take a moment and pray and we'll jump in. Father, as we're gathered today, I ask that you speak to all of us. God, I pray that my words would reflect your word and content and in tone and an emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 

So undoubtedly, you've heard people talk about Christmas cheer. This is the season to have Christmas cheer. And if this year is the year that you say that you probably say, "Well, there's not a lot to be cheerful about." In fact, a lot of us would say, "I don't have anything to be cheerful about, because this year I can't invite my family, my brother, my sister, my parents over to our house. Some of us feel the tension if we have aging parents between this. I don't want to sacrifice one Christmas with them, because we don't know how many more we have, and yet we don't want to take any chance on exposing them to a virus." And it just feels like there's something that's hard to celebrate. Certainly, we could talk about the economic ramifications of repeated shutdowns. 

I was talking with a business owner the other day who was telling me that their business will not survive this season. And I just felt the weight that they feel of providing for other people in their family. And then there's been school that's been shut down and kids learning online and missing friendships and activities and gatherings we've sacrificed, friendships that feel like they've just been put on hold or have been tried to be navigated through Zoom calls. And we just say, "There isn't a lot cheer." Well, the world that Jesus entered some 2000 years ago was a world that also probably didn't have much cheer. We don't tend to think about it, especially when we think about Christmas. We usually idealize Mary and Joseph traveling on a donkey and a starlit night and giving birth in this beautiful little manger lambs around and things. 

But this was not a cheerful scene. They were forced by an occupied government that was probably oppressive to travel on a donkey for days for a census so that Jesus could be born. And there were huge economic disparities and difficulties and poverty and hunger and just issues in that world where people would have said, "There's not a lot to be cheerful for." And yet, in Luke chapter two, verse 10, when the angel announced that Jesus was to be born, his statement was, "I bring you good news of great joy. Today, in the city of David, a savior has been born." And that is a moment where you have to stop and say, "Well, what is the good news of great joy that Jesus brings?" when I look around my world and I don't see much to be cheerful for, and Jesus' world didn't have much to be cheerful for. 

And certainly, the good news statement was actually a technical term. It's actually the word that we get our word Gospel from, and it means an announcement of victory. An announcement of good news is what it means. And here's what I'd like to do today, is I'd like to help us think about what it is that we have if we have Jesus and why this is good news. And to do that, I want to highlight a verse or two in First Corinthians chapter one, which isn't normally where we look for a Christmas scripture. But here's what we read in First Corinthians chapter one, verse 30 and 31. It says, "It is because of him," speaking of Jesus, "that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." 

And from this, I think what we see is we see four different gifts that God gives that give us a reason for cheer, a reason for good news of great joy, regardless of what's happening in our world globally or in our world personally. And here's the first gift. And I'm just going to say, I'm going to use the word that's used, and that is, if you are in Christ, you've been given the gift of wisdom. Often, when we think about what Jesus does for people, we tend to lump it into, in the past, God has given us forgiveness in Jesus Christ and in the future there's security in Jesus Christ. But we rarely think about this idea of wisdom that God gives. But the address today that God gives is this idea of wisdom, and what wisdom is ultimately is it's the ability to understand knowledge and principles and apply it to our lives. And so, wisdom equals our opportunity to say we are going to live in a way that is intelligent or right in our world. 

Now, you and I, we have choices in terms of wisdom, because wisdom doesn't mean that we don't make any mistakes. It doesn't mean that if we have the mind of Christ that we'll always get things right. What it means is that God says, "I will work in your life so that you are not left alone." In fact, in First Corinthians chapter two, we see the difference of what I'd say the wisdom of our age and the wisdom of God. Verse six says, "We do however speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing." In other words, what First Corinthians talks about is that there are people who appear to be the wise, who appear to be the elite, and that is not the wisdom that we have from God, because they're ultimately coming to nothing. 

And then chapter two verse seven says, "No, but we declare God's wisdom a mystery that's been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." I mean, these are sweeping statements. I don't know if you've thought about the implication of this idea of wisdom, but this is saying that if you are in Christ that the wisdom of God has been given from all eternity in a way that you have access to it. Now, a lot of times what we do when we hear that is, we say, "Well, what that means is that I have wisdom because God gives me wisdom, and I just need to sit under a tree somewhere or sit in my favorite chair and I'm going to get wisdom." But ultimately the wisdom that God gives us wisdom that he's revealed to us in the Bible, because that way, what we're doing is we're not simply saying, "I have my idea of wisdom I'm getting wisdom into my mind," but I'm actually rooting my idea of wisdom in what has been revealed. 

Let me give you an example of wisdom of the age and wisdom of God. In our age, in really any age, one of the ideas of wisdom is if somebody does you wrong, you shut them out, you do them wrong, you get even, you make sure that they pay. Now, unless you think I'm just driving this, just think about movies, think about TV shows that you've watched that you like, how often is there a get even theme and a moment when somebody stands and stare somebody down and gets them back for what they've done in such a way that you sit there and you're almost cheering going, "Yeah, that's what they deserved"? And it's a theme that we love because we love to see somebody get what they deserve. But do you know what the Bible says about what you and I should do when it comes to people who've done us wrong? It says that we should turn the other cheek. It says that we should forgive. 

And why that's important is, you and I have the wisdom of God and, if we're in Christ, we start to understand how to apply it. That doesn't mean that we always do it, but that is one of the gifts that God gives us, is the ability to say, "God has now given me a way to navigate life that I didn't have before." So that's one gift. Here's a second gift, and that is, you and I, if you are in Christ, have been given status. And I use the word status here for the word in the text in First Corinthians one, verse 34, for the word righteousness. And the reason I use the word status is because we don't use the word righteous all that often. We don't talk about righteousness. It's not typically in our vocabulary, but we understand the word status, especially legal status. So, when we talk about this idea that you've been given status, what we're talking about is this idea that legally you have been made right by God. You've been acquitted, and that relationally, there's no alienation. 

You see, this is a deeply biblical word that means that you and me, if we are in Christ, have a standing, a status with God, that can't be revoked. If you think about this for any length of time, you begin to realize how significant this is. And this is different than simply being acquitted for something when we say that righteousness means to be declared right, that it's a standing. Think about it this way. When I was a kid, my sister one time, my older sister, showed me how she had a stack of bills in her little Hidey-Ho, and I wanted a few of them so I went into her room when she wasn't there, and I took a few of them. And predictably, she came out a few days later and accused me of stealing her money. And I did the whole, "I don't know what you're talking about." And she insisted that she would go in and go through my room to look for the money. And I had already taken the money out into the garage and hidden it in the woodpile so it would never be detected. 

Of course, I hadn't thought through, in my grand scheme, that there was no way that I would be able to spend the money without her knowing. But here's how sometimes we tend to think of righteousness. We tend to think, "If I hadn't actually taken that money and my sister accused me, that righteousness is me once I've been falsely accused, proving myself right." And in other words, what some of us do when we hear the word righteousness or standing is, we say, "I have standing with God, because actually I'm pretty good. I actually do most of the stuff I should do." And so, when we hear righteousness, we think I'm just getting off for being falsely accused or for minor offenses, or we get declared righteous or right even though we're guilty and we get off, which you may say is closer to the truth, but it isn't true, because it leaves false guilt. 

You see, what happened, and the reason I tell you the story about me taking money from my sister, is my parents declared me righteous. They couldn't find it. I had pulled off the heist. But inside I knew that I wasn’t because I knew I had done my sister wrong. I knew I had taken what wasn't mine. Righteousness that comes from God, standing that comes from God, is neither getting off when we're falsely accused or getting off when we're guilty. It's Jesus' righteousness coming into our lives on our behalf, because of what Jesus did on the cross. God throws out our legitimate charges because Jesus is a substitute. Here's what's so good about this. You and me, we can't mess it up. This standing, this status is a gift because of what Jesus has done, not because of what we have done, will do, or might do. It is a gift that you and I cannot mess up. 

This is a reason for cheer, because it means that the gift of Christmas, of Jesus, is ultimately God's way of saying, "I am going to give you something that only I can give you." So, if you're in Jesus, you have wisdom, you have status. I'm going to say that we also have distinction, and this comes from this word holiness in First Corinthians one, verse 30. I think the ESV says, "Sanctification." And again, holiness, sanctification, aren't words that we use a whole lot, but what they mean in essence is being set apart. To be sanctified means that you're distinct, you're set apart, that you're not what you once were. Maybe a good way to think about this, especially with Christmas right around the corner, is some of us, especially if you're of a certain age, grew up when China was a thing. And I don't mean China, the country, I mean, China plates. 

And the reason I say you have to be of a certain age is I think the emerging generation is like, "That's a ridiculous thing. I don't want to keep a bunch of plates that I use twice a year." But China plates, China sets are set apart plates that are used for special occasions. And they're very different than your daily ware or then paper plates. In other words, paper plates are things you're like, "I don't care if this gets messed up, we're going to throw it away when we're done anyway. Just use it however." A regular plate is a plate that gets scuffed and marked and dishwasher abused over time. But China plates, you hold special and sacred for a special day. The idea of being holy or sanctified is the idea of saying that you have a distinction that God gives. Now, there's an important thing to understand here theologically, and hang with me for a moment. I realize this may or may not be interesting to everybody who's listening, but it's very important. 

When the Bible talks about you or me being holy or sanctified, it uses it in two different ways. Sometimes it speaks of it as a status, like righteousness, like you have been declared holy by God. And sometimes it speaks of it like a process, like you are becoming holy. Not that you are holy now, but you are becoming holy. Maybe the easiest way to think about this is, when you get married, if you're married, if you ever think about being married, if you know anybody who's married, when somebody gets married, they become one. Legally they become a couple, but it takes a lifetime for the couple to actually become one in reality. In other words, you're always becoming more united, more together if your marriage is good. And sometimes when it's not good, you see the implications or the difficulties or the challenge of it. But the reality is it starts as a status, but it's both a status and a process. 

And if we confuse these two, we'll end up out of balance, because what we'll end up doing is, we'll end up acting like we're always dating and marketing ourselves, because we don't understand our status. You know how when you start a relationship, you market yourself? And then there's a moment somewhere in the relationship when it turns and you no longer are always trying to dress perfectly or look great or say the right thing, you just start becoming you. If you don't understand the status part of our distinction before God, we'll always be marketing ourselves. Maybe not just overtly to God, but to other people, to ourselves saying, "I really am worthy. I really am good." But if you don't understand the progression part of it, the process part, then we won't continue to grow, and what we'll do is we'll use the other person. 

In other words, in a marriage, if you say, "I'm married, therefore I'm good. I never need to work at this relationship again," you start using the other person. And when it comes to our spiritual life, what happens is we move forward because what we're doing is, we're saying, "I've been given status, righteousness by God, and I've been given distinction, but I want to be more and more like Jesus because I've seen the beauty of who he is." And so, from a gift standpoint, if you're in Jesus, you've been given wisdom, you've been given status, you've been given distinction. And then I would say, "You've been given freedom." And this might be the most powerful and neglected of the gifts here. Righteousness is too. They all are. I can't say what I just said. So, strike that. But here's what verse 30 says. It says, "that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption." 

And the reason that I use the word freedom for redemption is because to redeem something had in its nature the idea of buying something back that you didn't have a right to. It was used in the slave markets to redeem, to buy something back. And so, the image here in the New Testament is that one of the gifts that Jesus gives is that he buys us from something that has power over us. To be redeemed means that we move from the power and dominion of sin and our compulsions into another realm. You've maybe seen this maybe if you have watched Pawn Shop Wars or something, one of those shows that are on. See how often I watch them, I don't even know exactly what they're called, but I've seen some of these things. And when something's put into a pawn shop, what happens is somebody takes it, and then if you don't redeem it, buy it back in a certain amount of time, you lose it. But the idea is, it's under your control and I buy it back. 

And that's the picture that Jesus gives us here, and what he's picturing is that our compulsions, our addictions, our destructive patterns, no longer to dictate our direction in life. This is what First Corinthians chapter six says in verse nine and following. It says, "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, the idolaters, the adulterers, or men who have sex with men, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." And then he says this, "And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of our God." Do you hear the return to the vocabulary here? He says, "This is what some of you were." 

Now, this doesn't mean that you never go down any of these tracks, but what it means is that there's a freedom for somebody who is in Christ, and you say, "I don't have to be what I once was, because God has redeemed me." Romans 6:14 sometimes is a verse that talks about how we have a new direction in a sense, and sometimes what we'll do is we'll say, "Well, I can't help myself." But being redeemed means that you can help yourself, that God has worked in our lives in such a way that we can. And here's where you and I can find cheer this year. And that is, we can find cheer in saying, "God has done for me what I can't do. He's given me wisdom, he's given me status, he's given me distinction and he's given me freedom." I don't know if you've ever gotten a gift that you got and you didn't open. 

Sometimes my wife will give me a gift, especially with new clothes, and I'll want to save it for the right occasion. And so sometimes I'll get a gift at Christmas and it might take weeks before I use it, maybe sometimes even months, because I'm waiting for the right occasion and I don't open it. And it drives my wife nuts. She's like, "Why don't you open this gift I got you? Why don't you wear it? Don't you like?" It's like, "No, I like it. I just like it so much I don't want to wear it yet. But an unused gift, an unopened gift is something that you don't get any benefit from. And sometimes what we do with the gifts of God is we say, "I don't have anything to be cheerful for," because what we're doing is, we're saying, "My whole life is about my circumstances and about what's happening now," and the cheer that God gives is bigger than your circumstances. It's bigger than my circumstances. 

When I look at Jesus and I see what Jesus has done, what I can do is I can say, "Whatever's happening in my life today, whatever's happening in your life today, I still have something that God has given to me in Jesus Christ that I can say, "This is where I get my joy." This is why it's good news of great joy. You know the other thing that First Corinthians one, verse 31 right after this says? That we have these things so that no one can boast, meaning Jesus has achieved it on your behalf, on my behalf, and as a result, a true Christian community is not one with people who walk around touting their standing, their distinction, their freedom. It's one where people say, "This was what Jesus has done for me," and we invite more and more people into the mix. 

Maybe you're here today watching online, Butler County, the Strip District, Wexford, and you're saying, "You know what? I don't know that I have these things." Well, the way that you can say this is true of me is in this little phrase "in Christ" and to be "in Christ" means that what you've done is you've come to the place where you say, "I know that if God sees me for what I've done that I deserve punishment, I deserve hell, but if God sees me in Christ that then these things become true," that's when I have the gifts that God has given. And the way that you take that step is the same idea of this not boasting, it's by saying, "It's not in my achievement, it's not in my betterment, it is in Jesus' work alone, and me throwing myself wholly on that, that I will encounter, that I will encounter what God has for me." And when that's true, whatever else is going on, you can say, "I have reason to have good news of great joy this year, because of what Jesus has done." 

Father, we pray today that you would help each one of us to not root all of our joy, all of our cheer, in our circumstances, but to root it in something that transcends our circumstances, and in that, we would find real joy, real cheer this year. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.