Born to Die - December 21st, 2025

If I can have you guys all rise again, and uh I'm gonna read just three verses of uh the gospel of John, chapter one, verses 12 to 14, and it reads, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're very thankful that you've gathered your people together, especially on this day to remember that all that we have, and in you have our purpose, we have our being, and you've come to reconcile us to yourself.

And Lord, this is a story for many of us that we've heard time and time again, week after week, but I pray that you would remind us afresh this morning why we celebrate. And I pray, Lord God, that you would fill your people with delight and joy at the proclamation of your truth. Grant us just ears to hear, hearts that are tender, and would you be magnified for who you are and for what you've done for your people? And we pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats. Today is our Christmas Sunday, so an early Merry Christmas to each of you. Um, some of you may remember this, but about 20 years ago, there was a bit of a buzz with corporations and even some churches formally moving away from using the words Merry Christmas.

And in an effort to be more inclusive and with a desire not to offend, they subtly pushed for either a more neutral happy holidays or seasons greetings. And there was a perceivable pressure here in America to become more inclusive and more embracing of all religions and cultures. But many Christians and interestingly many non-Christians alike were unhappy with the removal of the name Christ from Christmas and the Christmas season. And I remember going into a Starbucks during this buzz, ordering my coffee, and saying to the Christ uh to the barista, Merry Christmas, thank you. And she responded with a very careful and a deliberate happy holidays with a smile. And I remember writing about that, uh, interesting exchange in a Zanga entry, if you guys remember what that was.

So there definitely was a shift, perceivable shift in our culture, and I remember that moment because it was notable, not because I was offended, but sadly, because I was understanding of that shift. If Christ is not the reason for the season in the hearts of people anyway, then of course it's only to be expected that gradually Christ wouldn't be the reason for the season in name as well. So the operative question, it's a two-fold question in all of this is the following. Who is Jesus, and for what purpose was he sent? Who is Jesus, and what purpose, for what purpose was he sent? Everything hinges upon this twofold question. Your life, the meaning of Christmas, everything. And a person's answer to this twofold question will reveal how he or she actually feels about the season.

Okay? You can you can ask me after.

If a person concludes that Jesus was just a good moral teacher, then God sent him into the world to instruct and to teach principles for moral living. And that's not necessarily a bad purpose, right? We could definitely use more people living upright and moral lives in the world. Morality is a good and beneficial thing. If a person concludes that Jesus was an excellent leader and a stellar man, then he was sent into the world simply to be a good role model. And that too, in and of itself is not a bad thing. The men of the world could definitely use more godly role models. If Jesus is regarded as a mere man and simply the founder of the Christian religion, then naturally he shouldn't be celebrated by non-Christians.

Because he lived, he taught, he established an institution, and then he died. Nothing more, nothing less. Now, if a person concludes that Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, a troublemaker, then it is to be all the more expected that this person laments the fact that Jesus was born into the world. It would be better for people not to celebrate Jesus so that he could be wiped from our collective memories. So Jesus is hopefully just forgotten and ignored. Kind of like Christopher Columbus, right? Nothing good can be gained in celebrating this man. So who you conclude Jesus to be and why you believe he was born into the world will dictate how central Christ is to your observance of the last few weeks of each year.

So here's a new question. Again, it's a rhetorical. Who is Jesus and for what purpose was he sent? And you have a theological answer in your minds, and you also have an answer that's real, right? Most in the Western world today do not necessarily oppose a recognition of Jesus. It is likely that in the honest minds of many, both churched and unchurched, the historical Jesus was generally a good figure. I mean, even the many who hate the church still highly regard the person of Jesus. And you guys probably have friends like this. The majority in the Western world will conclude that Jesus had simply been a good moral teacher or just an exemplary man, so sure, he deserves a national holiday, like an Abraham Lincoln or a Christopher Columbus or a Martin Luther King Jr.

And no matter what a person feels about Abraham Lincoln, or regardless of his opinions on polarizing people like Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King Jr., sure, I'll take the holiday. Right? We'll enjoy the holiday and not even pause for a moment why he has that day off, right? And in many ways, that's how it's become with Jesus. Christmas is a holiday season. Christ is to be acknowledged but not celebrated. And since Christ is not the real reason for the season, then of course it's only natural to stop saying, Merry Christmas, because the world around us simply wishes to have a holidays that is happy and not so polarizing or divisive. But if Jesus is Savior, if he is redeemer, if he is King of kings and Lord of Lords, if he is the only means to be being reconciled to God, Christmas is the day of all days to be celebrated.

Amen.

Let Earth receive her king with tears in our eyes, with awe, reverence, and thanks. So again, who is Jesus and for what purpose was he sent and gifted to man? I pray that for you and me, Jesus is the reason for the season. And today we celebrate the giving of God's only begotten Son as a gift to a corrupted and broken world. Jesus was given and sent into the world with a specific purpose. He was set apart and sent into the world as a helpless baby for one purpose and for one purpose only, to reconcile sinful man to holy God. Jesus was specifically appointed, commissioned, set apart, and born for the purpose of slaughter. He was born in every way to die with every possible death, with every pain imaginable.

And we gather to celebrate this truly unfathomable mystery, right? Jesus, the bread of life, the Son of Man, the Lamb of God, the Messiah of God. He was set apart for the gifting unto you and me. So this morning we're going to be reminded of the purpose of God's gift. And I pray that this reminder will cause us to leave here in awe as we reflect together on the birth of God incarnate, baby Jesus. Amen. Now, I'm not sure where the tradition of the wrapping of gifts on Christmas originated. I don't wrap gifts, I'm bad at it. It's a waste of time. So I buy a gift and I just say here. I do take the price tag off. Okay, but I don't know where the tradition came from. But a wrapping is biblically very significant.

It's actually very seldomly used in the New Testament. Only four times in all the New Testament has the word rap been used. And in each of those four times, a person is wrapped. And three of those four times were used in regard to Jesus. So Jesus, our gift, was literally wrapped on three occasions, and I believe that therein we see the purposes for which he was sent. So he was first wrapped in a swaddling cloth in a manger. And we see in that wrapping that Jesus, the bread of life, had been sent to sustain. Second, Jesus wrapped himself with a towel before he washed his disciples' feet. John 13, 5. So he had been sent to serve. And thirdly, and lastly, Jesus was wrapped in a linen cloth for his burial.

And in that we see that he had been sent to be slain. So literally, Jesus was sent gift wrapped to the world, and then died gift wrapped for the world. And he was gifted to the world to sustain, to serve, and then eventually to be slain. So first, why we celebrate this morning is we celebrate that Jesus was born to sustain. He was born to give life and to give it to the full, to sustain. John 6, I'm going to read this for you, verses 32 to 35. Then Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who welcomes, he who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. So the Bible is very clear. And it's up to you to believe it or not, but the Bible is very explicit that you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. The Bible is very clear when it says that we exist for God. God does not exist to bless us. He is king, not a vending machine. He is for He is for whom and through whom we have been created. And so in God, we live and move and we have our being, as it says in Acts 17, 28. So what sin is basically a rebellion against that purpose. Okay. So in the John 6 context here, the crowds in Jesus' day were tired of feeling hungry.

Sustenance from the bread of the world had always been temporary. It had never fully satisfied. And then the people would eat only to hunger again. Hunger and then going from one meal search to the next was a day of uh just a way of life. And in this period of time, the Jews of the day were very poor. And this is why they actually prayed really for daily bread. So they were tired of never feeling satisfied and always returning to the default setting of emptiness. So they asked in verse 34, Lord, or they demanded, Lord, always give us this bread. And then Jesus answered by saying, I am the bread of life. You eat of my flesh, drink of my blood, and you will never hunger, you will never thirst.

So he's using the description of the physical to describe the spiritual, to point to the spiritual. So you and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and Jesus was sent into the world to cause those in the world to be sustained in that purpose. The Bible teaches clearly that man has no purpose outside of Christ. Man has no life outside of God. So in him we live and move and we have our being.

So Jesus was the bread of life born to sustain. And the rival of Jesus, the Messiah, born to feed and sustain, was prophesied over 700 years before his birth. How many? The prophecy of the book of Micah foretold that eternal God himself, in the person of the Messiah to come, the Savior, he would be born in the city of Bethlehem. Okay. But as for you, Bethlehem Ephratha, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from everlasting from the ancient days. So the little town of Bethlehem truly was a little town, known only to us because a couple of people that were of significance, they were born there. Scholars estimate that no more than a thousand people at most were in Bethlehem.

Some archaeological archaeologists estimate that it was about two to three hundred. Okay, so Bethlehem was a tiny town. Though it was an insignificant town, it was a town in which spiritually and scripturally, significant things have already happened. So Bethlehem's chief industry was barley. Hence the name, Bait Lechem, the house of bread. It was the place where Ruth, the widowed Moabitis, had once gleaned grain. Ruth was shown kindness by Boaz the Hebrew barley farmer. Boaz would redeem and marry Ruth. And then they would later become great grandparents to a man named David, Israel's most beloved king. And so, but that's the only real significance that this house of bread had had up to that point of Jewish history.

King David was born there. So the prophet Micah, writing 700 years before the birth of Israel's true king, foretold that Jesus also would be born literally in this little town of Bethlehem. So Jesus was born in the city called house of bread, abundant and overflowing bread, Ephratha. And the first place that Jesus was laid, gift wrapped and placed onto was a place where bread was eaten by unreasoning creatures of instinct, a manger. So Luke 2, 7, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths, laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guest room. So Jesus was born in the house of bread on a feeding trough of bread. And man, what symbolism is in that prophecy.

Jesus, the bread of life, was born into the town of sustenance on a place of sustenance, and so he was sent to restore and to sustain. And he came to give life and give it to the full. And that's why in the very beginning of the Gospel of John, he says, in him was life. And the life was the light of men. So John 6 35, Jesus is saying, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst. So Jesus was first born to sustain and to sustain permanently. You don't have to have lived long to know that the bread of this life does not satisfy.

So Lord, give us always this bread. The bread of life, the bread of life, came to satisfy and to satisfy eternally. Amen. Second, Jesus was born to serve. He came to serve. That was his purpose. He was God, the creator of the universe to whom all allegiance and all obedience are due. But an all-powerful God, the king of all kings, who hates sin, who hates sinners, he did not come into the world to terrorize or to smite or to subject. No, he came to seek, to serve, to save the lost. And absolutely, man had been lost. Man had been totally and thoroughly lost. Man was sick and despicable and rotten to the core.

We are born in sin. If you guys are parents, you know that tabla rasa is a fake thing. Oh, you are a sinner. You're hardwired to rebel, right? So Jesus came to seek and to save the lost and to minister and to heal the sick, both physically, but especially the spiritually sick. And so Jesus came sacrificially to serve.

And it says, can you click the slide? Mark 10, 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So biblically, Jesus' service, sacrifice, salvation are synonymously used. Okay. Paul reflects on this. This is who God is, right? Who, although existing in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he lowered himself. He despised himself, he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Ew. The exhortation that is often heard at Christmas, and we sang it this morning, right? Oh come, let us adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him. That's absolutely appropriate as he is the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

This is not a Christmas carol for children. That is a call for you and me to worship. But this king and this Lord came in the form and the function of a slave. Only slaves washed feet. That was a most menial thing for any human being to be able to do outside of taking care of sheep. But Jesus came in the form and the function of a slave to wash feet. And we have to let that sink in a little bit. This is exponentially greater than the CEO of a billion dollar company cleaning the toilets. Oh, come let us adore him. Why? Because we serve a humble king. So Jesus, the reason for the season, was first born to sustain and then born to serve. And thirdly, Jesus, the Son of God, was set apart and then sent gift wrapped and was born to bear humanity's sins and then be slain.

He literally was born to be killed. He was born for the purpose of slaughter. So when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him, what does he cry out? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. You've heard this verse before, right? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This was the declaration of John the Baptist's description of Jesus' primary purpose in life. And modern day preachers actually should be very careful to preserve that purpose.

He was actually the last significant man from the tribe of Levi. And he was from the tribe of the priests. The Levites were the ones who prepared, killed, and handled all of the atoning sacrifices. And this last Levitical significant priest would prepare the Lamb of God through baptism by slaying him by immersing him in water. Do you understand the symbolism? Baptism into death. He's putting the Lamb of God symbolically to death. That's not insignificant. And so in the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he who had no sin would be put symbolically to death by water to fulfill all righteousness, Matthew 3.15. So Jesus would take on all of humanity's sins. So Jesus would be all of humanity's scapegoat.

You guys know the word scapegoat, right? It's understood as a person who gets the blame for all the mistakes or all the sins of the collective. The word scapegoat has its actually its origins in the Bible. And this scapegoat idea was woven into the fabric of Jewish culture. So every year on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the highlight of that day and that year was when the high priest symbolically transferred all the sins of the people of Israel. They are all gathered in the presence of God. You guys have a visual in your head? They're all gathered there for worship with God at the center. And the highlight was when the high priest would transfer all of everybody's sins and place it onto a living goat.

And then that goat will be released into the wilderness to carry the people's sins away. The scapegoat would be driven out before the presence of God at the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. So the theological truth was embedded into Israel's society and culture. So year after year after year, a scapegoat would carry off man's sins that were imputed onto it, and then that scapegoat would be cast out of God's presence in man's stead. And in addition to that scapegoat, a spotless, blameless lamb, a little lady lamb, a you a lamb, would also have imputed onto it the wages of man's sins. Unlike the scapegoat, the lamb would be slain. Usually from the time of their birth, outcomes a perfect lamb.

Out comes a perfect goat. All white, no blemish, no spot, the horns are perfect, the nails are perfect. That we're gonna set it apart as a sacrifice. And that set apart lamb, goat, would be fed, would be nurtured, would be loved on, and would be tended to for one purpose and one purpose only, to have all of Israel's sins imputed onto it, and then to be either cast out or bloodied and put to death. So Jesus, our scapegoat and the lamb of God, was prepared from his earthly birth to live a perfect life, to be a perfect, spotless lamb in accordance with all of the Levitical laws that God had put in place. So, in order for sinful man to be reconciled to God, sin has to be dealt with.

Because God is holy. The problem of sin has to be solved. Payments have to be made. We're corrupt and we're broken and flawed, but we understand deeply injustice when people are wronged, even if it's not us. If someone I know is deeply wronged, we understand some kind of payment has to be made. We just take it sinfully. But penalties are put in place because payment has to be made. So blood, God wanted to put it into a visual for all people. Not because the blood has special magical power, but he wanted to show people year after year after year that blood would have to be shed. Only then would God, at least temporarily, pass over or look over the sins of the people. And so the people had to do this year after year after year after year after year.

How can the shedding of blood of mere animals pay the penalty of all of man's sins? That makes no sense. And that's what the book of Hebrews is actually addressing. In reality, animal blood is not gonna fix the problem. It was just to symbolize man's helpless position. So it was put into the very system of the culture of the Hebrew people to point to the Lamb of God that God himself would gift to people to slay. Make sense.

Hebrews 10 3 and then uh to 4 and then 10 to 12. In those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Skipping to verse 10. By this we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. So Jesus Christ would come into the world once for all to obliterate that system. God would accept Jesus' sacrifice as the payment for sin. And that little baby wrapped in a swaddling cloth would grow up to be slaughtered.

That's not only horrifying. Imagine Mary's thought on this.

So it's a horrible thought, but it's humbling, awe-inspiring, and overwhelming, especially for those of us who are acutely aware of how depraved and sinful we are. You and I have been brought near to God only because this little lamb will grow up to be bruised and slain on our behalf. Amen. Isaiah 53.

Surely our griefs he himself bore. And our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him, smitten of God and afflicted. He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquity. The chastening for our peace fell upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us is turned his own way, but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. So God put the penalty of our sins on Jesus and took the righteousness of Jesus and credited to those who would believe that that payment was sufficient. And this is what we call theologically, double imputation.

Repeat after me, double imputation. It's also called a glorious exchange. Jesus' righteousness is credited to my account. My sins and my depravity are all credited to Jesus. Double imputation, glorious exchange. And now, through that glorious exchange, man can be reconciled to God. That's not a big deal if you don't think that you exist to be restored to God. And that's why Christmas is meaningless for many people. But if you know you are a sinner, wow, that transaction was enough. So we are ambassadors for Christ as God is pleading through us. We beg all people who don't know their purpose and their helplessness to be reconciled to God.

That gift of the little baby, wrapped and laid in a manger, will grow up to be slain. Jesus, the Lamb of God, would be grown up and slaughtered for the payment of our sins, because that is the only way to satisfy the wrath of God. And after he paid for our sins and was put to death, he was gift-wrapped and then laid in a tomb. When Joseph, and this is of the Joseph of Arimathea, had bought a linen cloth and took him down, he wrapped him in the linen cloth, laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. So Jesus was the bread of life sent to sustain and satisfy man, sustain. Jesus was the humble servant sent to be spent, exhausted and broken on behalf of man.

He came to serve. Jesus was the Lamb of God who was slain to do away with both the penalty and the power of sin. You and I have been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and because of that broken and bruised body of the Lamb of God, because of his blood satisfied all payment. You and I are now restored to the purpose to which we have been called. That's Christmas. Jesus was born to die that you might live, that we may be reconciled. Jesus was born to die. And that's the reason why we actually should marry. Which is the old English for the word rejoice. So merry Christmas.

So may our prayer be Mary, Mary, joyful, joyful. We adore thee, O God of glory, Lord of love. May we find first our sustenance in Christ, because nothing else satisfies. Again, you don't have to have live long to understand that. One of the biggest effects of sin is that you and I get tired of things. We get tired of everything. We get tired of people. We get tired of all experiences. And if a person is dissatisfied enough, they'll take their life. Nothing satisfies. So may our sustenance come from the Lord of life, bread of life himself. Right? And that is the rhetorical question that is proclaimed from the beginning of Genesis all the way through. So we read Isaiah 53, where the Messiah is prophesied, right?

A couple of chapters later, Isaiah foretells after the prophesying of the Messiah who's going to be bloodied, beaten and bruised and smitten and afflicted of God, he foretells a proc like a proclamatory invitation. He prophesies an invitation. Here it is. Ho! And I don't think that's where we get the word ho ho ho. Okay, it's just old English. Hoo! Whoa! Everyone who thirsts come to the waters. You have no money to buy an animal to sacrifice on your behalf? That's what that's that means. Come. It's free. Buy and eat. Come. Buy wine and milk, which is party food. Without money, without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me.

Eat what is good and delight your soul in riches. Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that your soul may live. I'm gonna cut a permanent, everlasting, unending, forever, eternal covenant with you according to the faithful loving kindness of David, who was born in the little town of bread. Plentiful bread.

This gift. What's a gift? I mean, our culture is Asians, especially have made it obligatory, right? Like, you give me a gift, shoot. I give you a gift, right? But a gift, it is not earned. Payment is a wage, right? Payment is earned. A gift is freely given. So a gift is not a gift if you have to work for it, as the apostle Paul logically argues in Romans chapter 4 and 11. We receive abundant life in Christ, not as a reward for our works, but because simply he chooses to give it, and it's up to us to actually receive it by faith. All because the giver desires to be kind and generous. It is too good to be true, but it is true. So may we receive and enjoy this gift of eternal life. Amen. May we receive and learn from our humble king, the servant king.

And may we also be spent in the service of his kingdom and for his people. And may we always cherish our precious Lamb of God who has restored us to Himself, restored us to our joyful purpose. I'm going to close with the passage that we read in the beginning. The only thing to be done with this gift is to joyfully receive it. Amen. The only thing to be done with a gift is to receive it. I'm going to say it one more time. The only thing to be done with a gift is to receive it. And there's a guarantee that you will enjoy it. Because, man, that's an awesome gift. And it isn't just a gift from a well-meaning individual. It's a gift of adoption.

You're not just being given a one-time gift from a rich benefactor. You're being adopted as his child. Where then you become an heir permanently, not just a one-time recipient. How cool is that. But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of any man's effort, but of God. And Jesus, the little baby, became flesh. He dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus is truly the only reason for the season. May it be a merry Christmas because we understand who he is, why he was sent. Amen.

None of this happy holidays business. Because if you say it, you're casually forgetting the purpose for why you exist. Jesus was gift wrapped and sent. So let us receive, enjoy, and celebrate him on this day. Turn to your neighbor and say, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Let's pray together. Father, we pray for your help to deeply understand the truth that has spoken plainly before us. Help us to understand truly the reason for this season. Help us to celebrate the bread of life, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, our Savior. And we confess, you are not only our King, our Savior, but you are Lord.

So would you do with us and do with the remainder of the time that we have here in this life as you please and as you will. And in your name we pray. Amen.