A Simple Invitation
Simply Christmas

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We’re beginning a new series today called, “Simply Christmas.” Today’s message is entitled, “A Simple Invitation.”

We all get invitations at this time of the year. We get invitations to Christmas gatherings. We get invitations to spend our money at a lot of retailers, don’t we? We get them in the mail, in the newspaper and in our social media. We get a lot of sales invites to come and spend our money and time. I guess the inauguration of the day that kicks it all off is called “black friday,” the day after Thanksgiving. Have you ever asked why it is called “black friday?” It depends on your perspective. Now, if your perspective is that you own a retail store, your perspective is that you move from profit margins in the red to go into the black because that’s the weekend that begins the season that you make most of your profit.

I used to run drugstores for twelve years. I was a district manager; I was transferred to eastern North Carolina with a large drugstore chain. We made 40% of our annual sales in the six weeks leading up to Christmas. That’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Christmas has become big business. If your perspective is the owner of that business, then you get in the black during Christmas. I remember the other side of it, which meant, to us as employees during that time, it was black Christmas season because we left home in the dark and got home in the dark, seven days a week. Work, work, work, work, work. “Black friday” was filled with chaos, long lines and people complaining because the sales item was out of stock and on and on and on. In fact I used to dread the Christmas season when I was in retail. It kind of stole the joy. If you’re in retail and you’re with us right now or you’re watching online, God bless you. It’s a hard thing to do. Sometimes we feel that way about Christmas anyway for a lot of reasons.

Maybe, it’s because there’s an empty seat at the table this year. You started feeling that way at Thanksgiving. Maybe, it’s because of something you’re going through. Maybe, you can’t “pull off” what some people try to “pull off” every year with their family as “the perfect Christmas;” we need to top last year. We spend, spend, spend and we almost bankrupt ourselves, our wallets and even our souls trying to make Christmas something that actually means something to us. There’s a better invitation, a more simple invitation that we can say “yes” to. It’s an invitation that the Father invites us to.

Black Friday is actually declining in sales. Have you heard this? It’s being surpassed now by cyber Monday. Black Friday, according to recent reports, made only $8.9 billion dollars on that day, whereas Cyber Monday has cleared 10 billion. Can you believe it? It’s big business. Christmas is big business, but it didn’t start out that way. It began with a simple invitation. I would invite you today, have you RSVP’d to the Father’s invitation, have you said “yes” to His invitation? That’s what we’re going to be talking about today. We need something simpler. Don’t you want to slow down and find some margin in your life? Find a place where you could catch your breath? Christmas should really be the chief of seasons where that could happen, where you could focus on what really matters.

Let me give you the invitation. It’s found in the book of John, chapter three, that well known passage in verses 16 through 18. Jesus explains to a man named Nicodemus, a jewish leader, how he could enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God by being born again, by believing in the Son of God. I believe today that we can accept that simple invitation to be born again to new life by believing in the Son of God, who is Jesus the Christ.

As we look at the text today, I have three simple words to help you understand the simple invitation. Let’s look at the text and then we’ll talk about these three words. John 3:16-18 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” This is God’s word.

We’re looking for three words. The first word for understanding God’s simple invitation is:

1. Love.

God’s love. Look at verse 16 and circle the word, “loved.” “For God so loved.” If you don’t get anything today, get this. God loves you. God loves you. His love is beyond comparison. This answers the “why” of Christmas; the question, “why?” Why is there is a thing called Christmas? It is because of God’s love. God’s love motivated Him to give us Jesus. God’s kind of love is a unique kind of love.

We’ve learned this word over and over again, even in our Roman series in recent weeks, we talked about the Greek word for love that we see underneath. This Greek word is “agape.” It’s God’s kind of love. “For God so loved the world that he gave;” It’s a giving kind of love.

God’s kind of love is not just this sentimental, syrupy kind of love that we have in our world today. No, it’s a giving love. A sacrificial love. God’s love motivated Him to give the greatest gift of all, which is Jesus. God’s love. God loves you. It’s his kind of love.

Who does He love? It says “For God so loved the world.” That’s the object of His love. Now, the Greek word for “world” here is the Greek word, “kosmos.” It doesn’t speak so much of the earth or of material things, but it speaks of humanity. God loves us and He loves us so much. “For God so loved the world.” How much does He love us? He sent us Jesus and Jesus says, I love you this much, and He spreads out His hands and He’s crucified on the cross. I love you this much. That’s how much He loves us.

God loves you; if you don’t get anything else, I said this already, get this. God invites you into a relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He sent us Jesus. This is a simple invitation and we must understand it.

He gives us a definition. Jesus gives us this definition for His love. It’s found in John 15:13 (ESV) “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” Wouldn’t you agree? That’s the greatest love of all, that you would give your life for someone.

I don’t know if anyone here would be willing to give your life for someone. Perhaps a mom or a dad would say that? Well, I would give my life for my child or I would give my life for my spouse. There might be a short list that you would say. I sometimes kid around when I’m talking to husbands and ask, “Would you lay your life down for your wife? Would you take a bullet?” They would reply, “I would.” Then, I would ask them, “Would you wash the dishes?” and their response was quick, “I’m not so sure about that.”

God’s kind of love is sacrificial. It’s the “washing the dishes” kind of love. It’s the “get down on your knees and scrub the floors” kind of love. It’s the “getting down on your knees and washing feet” kind of love. That’s the kind of love that God has. It’s a kind of love that we need; that’s the invitation. He demonstrates it to us in Jesus.

Romans 5:8 (NKJV) “ButGod demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Long before we deserved it, which we’ve never really deserved, He loved us. He loves us, not because of us, but in spite of us. You see, that’s God’s love; His love is unconditional. He loves us, not because of us, but in spite of us because God is love. He’s chosen to love us. He sent us this invitation and it’s based on the “why.” It’s motivated by His love.

Now, when our children were young, Christmas was so much easier. Can I get a witness on that, parents of teenagers? When they’re young, you can surprise them, you can buy the simplest little thing and they will “ooh and ah” on Christmas morning. It’s a lot of fun. It’s chaotic, but it’s fun. We had three of those little “crumb snatchers;” they’re all grown up now. When the first one turns 13, they start turning in their wish list nd everything on it costs $1 million. You can’t do it; you can’t fulfill their wishes anymore because they have adult sized wishes in young bodies. They want more than you can ever afford. You’ve been astounding them year after year and now you’ve hit your limit. That happened to us and we thought, We can’t keep this up. Even if we would try to find something to make them smile, it would be kind of a halfhearted smile. What can we do about this? How can we put the love back in Christmas? We came up with this idea. I can remember on a particular Christmas, we’re not even going to try this year. Each got a stocking with a few little things in it and an envelope with some cash. It was the amount of cash that we budgeted for. It was nowhere near the million dollar gift ideas they had come up with. Here’s what we did. We’ll go to Virginia to be with grandparents and after Christmas we’ll stop off at the mall. It was in Christiansburg, Virginia where we used to stop off. They could go in and spend their cash that they got from their grandparents and from us. It created this day where we would go and we would have joy. I would do the thing I like to do; I would buy a book and a cup of coffee and sit like in the seated section in the middle of the mall. They would come by with their bags, Hey look what I bought, look at this! It was awesome. We all loved it because it put the love back, put the relationship back, it, put the being together back. They bought the little things they wanted to buy. They all knew what they wanted more than we did at that point. Afterwards, we’d go see a Christmas movie or something and then we would head home. It lightened it up; it took the pressure off.

Don’t you need to take the pressure off? Don’t you need to just focus on the simple invitation? Again, God loves you and His love is relational. Let’s make it less about presents and more about being present with other people at Christmas, loving God and loving one another. How can you simplify this Christmas and make it more about relationships,about loving God and others? Here’s the second word:

2. Lord.

Notice the word, “that,” in verse 16. “For God, so loved the world that;” the word, “that,” triggers what’s called a result clause. We have a result coming from God’s love. What is it that He gave? “He gave His only Son.” The King James version of the bible says “He gave His only begotten Son.” The word, “begotten,” means unique. It’s the Greek word, monogenēs uhios. The one and only born Son. There’s no one like Him in all of the universe; He is the greatest gift of time throughout history. God gave His Son, His one and only begotten Son; that’s Who He gave. He gave us Jesus; He didn’t loan Him to us. He didn’t just send Him to us, He didn’t mail Him like a happy holidays card. He gave Him over to us to do with as we would and we took Him and we crucified Him. That’s what we did with Him. He gave Him and we killed Him. But, I wasn’t there. Yes you were; your sins were there. Our sins were all there. Our sins were there, because when He died on the cross He died for our sins, for all of us, for every one of us. God gave Jesus over to us.

The cradle at Christmas, that the baby lies in, is overshadowed by the cross of Easter because Christmas points to Easter and the cradle points to the cross. “God gave.” You can’t get past that word, “gave,” without recognizing that He was the one born to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He gave Him to us, what a gift. This is the gift of Christmas that He gave His only son. So that means He’s the lord, He is the Lord God. He’s his one and only unique Son.

Verse 17 says, “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. He didn’t send him here to judge us . He sent Him here to save us. We were already condemned, because it says, 17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” He was sent to save us, that we might be saved through Him. He is our salvation; it is through Him and Him alone. He’s the unique one.

Remember what the angelic host told the shepherds? It’s found in Luke 2:11 (ESV) “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The angels bore witness to this baby, born in that cradle, in that stable. He is Christ the Lord. the Messiah, the Anointed One. He is the Lord.

The apostle Paul wrote, Romans 6:23 (ESV) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We don’t use the word, “Lord,” anywhere except church now. I don’t think you call your boss “Lord.” I don’t think wives call their husband’s, “Lord,” as Sarah called Abraham. I don’t think we throw that word around very much except at church. I don’t think we say, “master,” either. What does “Lord” mean? It means to get rid of the bumper sticker that says “God is my co-pilot;” that is heresy. If I see that on your car I’m going to call you out. “Lord” means He’s the pilot. It means Jesus is driving the car. Give Him the keys; get out of the driver’s seat of your life. If he’s Lord, you’re saying that He is in charge of every arena. To believe Him is to believe that He is Lord. To believe that He is Lord is to say that He is Lord of my life. If He’s not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all. That one area that you’re still in charge of is the area where He is not Lord. He’s not Lord of your life.

I remember, when I was a teenager, I recommitted my life to Jesus. I had made a decision for Jesus when I was eight years old, that was the year my father died of cancer and I was scared of death and I made a decision with an eight year old’s understanding. Then, when I was around 14 years old, I recommitted my life to Jesus and I had a deeper understanding of my own sin because I recognized that I was a sinner with more understanding. I recommitted my life. Then, someone said to me, Have you made Him Lord of your life? Have you given every area of your life? At 14 years old, I remember that I had given Him my studies, I had given him my school activities. I remember that there was sports and I wanted to be good at sports, so I gave Him that. But, I remember this one area, and guys you’ll get this, that when it came to girls, I wasn’t ready to give Him that part yet. I felt like I could pick girls out on my own. I didn’t need Him to help me with that. As you get older you think, I can handle my own business and my own money. We begin to take things back.

I don’t know where you’re at today with Jesus being Lord, but God gave Him to you. Jesus is His one and only begotten Son. There’s no one else like Him. Have you put Him over every area of your life? The place that you haven’t put Him over your life is the place that reveals your heart. Is He Lord?

Our kids are grown. We no longer have to worry about those million dollar wish lists that they used to give us. Now, they all have kids of their own. We have nine grandchildren. Believe it or not, when they all gather at our house, it’s a wonderful kind of chaos with all of us together. At Christmas, we have this gift limit of $10 per person. It’s really getting harder and harder; we’ve had this limit for years now. It’s getting harder to pull off; it’s caused us to get crafty. We have to make things now to pull this off and the idea is to spend less on presents so we can spend more on being present and not being so overwrought.We can spend less on ourselves and spend more on what Jesus cares about.

Starting next Sunday and for the next couple of Sundays, we will be taking up our Christmas missions offering. We hold back on spending on ourselves because of Whose birthday it is. We’re celebrating, Jesus. It’s Jesus’ birthday. What does Jesus want? What’s on His wish list? He says to go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That’s what is on His wish list. He says, “as the Father sent me, I send you” and so we’re taking up that offering. We have to make a margin for us to be able to do that so we can give our most sacrificial offering to Jesus as a birthday gift. We will start taking that up next week and we will send it to International missions. It leaves this church and this town and it goes to missionaries around the world.

The “why” of Christmas is God’s love. The “ who” of Christmas is the Lord, Jesus Christ. He answers the question, “who is this Christmas about? ” It’s about Jesus. The third word is:

3. Life.

Let’s circle the word, “life,” in verse 16, “eternal life.” Do you see it there? Don’t you need more life? We need some more life. This answers the “what” of Christmas. What’s Christmas really about? It’s about the life that God invites you to be a part of to have for yourself. God loved us so much that He gave us His one and only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him… Going back to King James version again, “whosoever” just sounds better. “Whosoever;” do you think that includes you? Are you one of the “whosoevers?” Do we have some “whosoevers” in the house? “Whosoever” includes anyone that would believe in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Gerald L. Borchert, in his commentary, talks about John 3:16. He talks about how it balances that tension between God’s sovereignty and how He provides all that we need for salvation and humanity’s responsibility to believe it or not. To say “yes” to the invitation or not. To RSVP; I’m in or not. There’s a tension between God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. Dr. Borchert says, “The Calvinists will tend to emphasize the role of God in loving the world and in giving the Son. The Arminians will tend to stress the word “whosoever” as indicating human freedom and the human decision-making process in salvation. But this verse is in fact an excellent reflection of the wonderful tension in the Bible that must be maintained in all discussions on salvation.”

I thought, since we’ve just been through Romans, chapters nine through twelve in recent weeks and we talked a lot about this, that John 3:16 actually has both of these together. God did it all, He did everything necessary so that whoever believes; yes, this is what God calls us to. There’s a two sided choice here. “Shall not perish but have eternal life.” Whoever believes what? In Him. Who is “Him?” It’s Jesus; whoever believes in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not passive believing . This is an active trusting and staking your life upon it.

Someone told a story about a famous unicyclist, high-wire performer who stretched a tight wire between two tall buildings in downtown New York City. He had a great crowd of news media and people gathered there to watch him ride a unicycle back and forth between these two buildings, a death defying feat. He asked, “How many of you all believe that I can ride this unicycle from this side of the building to the other?” Everybody said, “We believe, we believe!” They all wanted to see him do it. So, sure enough, he jumps up on his unicycle and he peddles it back and forth forwards and backwards. He goes across and the wind blows a little bit, but he makes it fine. He comes all the way back, jumps off and puts his unicycle down beside him. He says, “Now, how many of you believe that I can ride?” Even those that were doubting threw their hands up. Then, he asks, “Who wants to piggyback on my back as I go back across?” and all of their hands went down. They didn’t really believe that much.

How many of you are ready to stake your life on the invitation to believe in Him, that He did all that was necessary to pay for your sins and to give you eternal life. Oh, I believe. I believe. I say “yes.” Do you believe this is what he says? He says, as he begins to explain it, “whoever believes in him should not perish.” If you look at verse 18, it unpacks that word a little bit more. He says, 18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” You see, the condition that we’re in, before believing, is that we’re already under God’s judgment, that the wages of sin is death.

So, we’re already perishing. That’s an unusual word, “perishing .” Usually, I think of something that you’re supposed to refrigerate, it is perishable, so, keep it in the refrigerator. If you leave it out, it won’t be edible after a period of time. Verse 18 seems like an unusual choice of words. It speaks of death. If you really think about our earthly condition, and can I get a witness from those of you that are at least over 50, there’s some stuff here that needs to be “refrigerated.” There’s some stuff running down here. You’re going to need a new body pretty soon.

Apart from God, we’re already under judgment, we are already condemned. You don’t even have to make a decision about that; you’ll continue perishing. But you have an opportunity to say “yes” to an invitation. The invitation is to believe in the one and only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. God gave Him to do with as you would. What will you do with him? Someday you will stand before a holy God and He will say, “Why should I let you in my heaven?” The most popular answer in Wilson County, I know because I’ve interviewed so many people, is I’ve tried to live a good life. What would the Father say to that response? He’ll say, “Depart from Me. I never knew you. The answer He’s looking for is what you did with Jesus. He gave you a gift; He gave you His one and only Son. What’d you do with Him? Is He Lord of your life? That’s the only answer we can give as we stand before a holy God. What did you do with Jesus? I bowed down before Him. I made Him Lord of every arena of my life. I trusted Him and believed in Him as my Lord and Savior. That’s the only answer we can give.

1 John 5:11-13 (ESV) 11 “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Some years ago, there were billboards and advertisements in magazines and newspapers paid for by the American Dairy Association. They said “Got milk?” Famous movie stars would have a “white mustache” and it would say, “Got milk.? This billboard from 1st John says, Got Jesus? Got life. Don’t got Jesus? (I know it’s bad grammar teachers) Don’t got life. It’s really simple. It’s a simple invitation. Do you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Then, you have life. If you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have life; you’re still perishing. You’re still on that road to condemnation. If you have Jesus, you have life, this eternal life. When does it begin? Do you have to wait until you get to heaven for eternal life to begin? No, eternal life begins at the very moment you believe because this eternal life is not just about quantity that it’s everlasting but it’s also about a quality of life that’s the best you ever dreamed of. John 10:10 (Msg) “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

Does that describe your life today? This is the life He offers. We have a simple choice. A simple invitation. God gave you Jesus. What will you do with Him? We’ve answered the “why;” the “why” is God’s love? The “who” is the Lord Jesus. The “what” is the gift of life that’s found in Jesus. What about the “how?” How do you get this? Believe. He’s done everything necessary. It’s a gift.

You should have a gift under your Christmas tree. But, is it yours, just because it’s sitting there with your name on it? It is not yours until you take it, open it and receive it. It’s there but it’s not really yours until you own it.

Have you done that? God gave you a gift. His name is Jesus. It’s a simple invitation; believe. That’s the “how;” believe, trust and commit.

Let’s pray, Lord, thank you for these three simple words, love, Lord and Life. It’s so simple. Our lives are so complex. Could it really be this simple? You made it so, Lord. You saw us and You loved us, even though we were not lovable. You sent us Jesus. I pray for the one right now. It could be you; would you pray with me right now? If it’s you, pray right where you are, right in your seat. Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need a Savior . I need You. I believe in You. I believe You died on the cross for my sin, that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe. I trust in You to come into my life and forgive me of my sin. Make me a child of God. I want You to be my Lord and Savior. If you’re praying that prayer right now, believing, He’ll save you. He’ll be your Lord. That’s why He came. Others are here and just listening to this message has reminded you that you’ve been trying to be too perfect. You’ve been trying to make the perfect Christmas. You have made it so complicated. Just repent and say, Lord forgive me. I’ve made it all about so many things, Lord, I just want to simply meditate now on You and the simple invitation. I say “yes” afresh. I recommit my life afresh. Now, help me Lord, to simplify all of my goings and comings this Christmas so I’ll make it about loving You and loving others. We say all of this now in the name of Jesus. Amen.