The people who will experience the fullest meaning of Christmas on Tuesday are the people who know and feel that there is something in them that needs to be destroyed. It is true, as John said ( John 3:17), that God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. But he saves by destroying. Like a doctor who amputates a foot full of gangrene or cuts out a cancerous lung. Jesus Came to Destroy Something Jesus said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners ( Mark 2:17). The only people who understand Christmas and embrace Christmas for what it is are people who feel sick, and who desperately want their sickness destroyed. Unless you welcome Jesus as a destroyer in your life, you cant have him as a Savior. The point of this mornings message is taken from 1 John 3:8, The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Christmas is the celebration of the appearing on earth of Gods eternal Son. And the reason he appeared is to destroy the works of the devil. So the reason there is a Christmas is because God aims to destroy something. Or if you like the imagery of contemporary space odysseys, picture Christmas as Gods infiltration of rebel planet earth on a search and destroy mission. Or if you come from the Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey era, picture Christmas as the arrival of a single brilliant doctor in an isolated Appalachian village ravaged by a deadly virus. Or, if you antedate all that, picture Christmas as the arrival of John Joseph Pershing as full commander of the U.S. 1st Army on the Western Front of the Argonne Forest in the fall of 1918. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. The spaceship has landed, the doctor has arrived, the general has taken command—mission: search and destroy the works of the devil. Three Questions About the Christmas Mission There are three questions I want to try to answer in relation to this Christmas mission. 1. What did the Son of God come to destroy?2. How did he destroy it?3. How can we participate personally in his victory?
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:12:39 +0000