Christmas Eve 2024
When Venus and Serena Williams were growing up, their father, Richard, worked very hard to coach and train them to be excellent tennis players. When the girls were only 5 years old their father aggressively started developing their talent, insisting that he was going to raise champion tennis players no matter what it took. Their practice sessions often started early in the morning and stretched into the dark of night after school was out. As a result the girls turned pro at the age of 14 and over the years together they have won over 150 tennis titles and have earned about $200 million in prize money.
When you were 5 years old did you demonstrate a special talent that your mom or dad thought they could develop to turn you into a professional athlete like the Williams sisters or a composer like Mozart or an artist like Monet? Even if you did not, I wouldn’t be surprised if your parents at least looked. After all, doesn’t every parent dream of having a child who becomes rich and is able to support mom and dad in their retirement years? The world’s first parents, Adam and Eve, may have thought along those lines. No, they were not looking to become rich through their children; instead they wanted to be saved from their sins and from a life of eternal suffering and separation from God. They quickly learned, though, that their children would not bring them eternal life in heaven. Only God’s Son could do that for them and for all of us.
After Adam and Eve sinned, fortunately life wasn’t over for them. In His love for them God promised in Genesis 3 to send a Savior, who would be one of Eve’s offspring, to rescue them from their sins. So when Eve gave birth to her firstborn son, with great joy she said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Now it’s possible that Eve was simply marveling at the miracle of childbirth, but it’s also possible that she may have thought her firstborn child, Cain, was in fact God’s promised Savior.
I wonder how long it took Eve to realize that Cain was no angel, and was certainly no the Savior of the world. We don’t know what kind of child Cain was, but we do know that he eventually brought offerings to God just as his younger brother, Abel, did. But Cain did not give his best to God, while Abel did, meaning that in his heart he was not honoring God with his offering, but was simply going through the motions. He gave an offering, because he felt obligated not because he wanted to with great joy. So God made it known that He was not pleased with Cain’s offering, while He was very pleased with Abel’s.
And I think this serves as a warning to us as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. We need to ask ourselves, “Are we decorating our homes, buying gifts, gathering for worship, and bringing an offering tonight because this is what’s expected of us? Or are we doing these things out of thankfulness for everything God has done for us?” Cain may have fooled his parents into thinking that he loved God with his offering, but God was not fooled. Nor is God fooled or happy when we simply go through the motions of worship and Christmas.
Cain’s anger over God’s rejection is understandable. No one likes to be told his or her efforts are not appreciated. But sadly, Cain’s anger and envy led him to murder his brother. I’m sure Adam and Eve must have been devasted to find out that their firstborn was not the Savior, but in fact a murderer. Cain may have inherited Adam’s hair or Eve’s eyes, but he also inherited their sinful rebelliousness. That is why we can never find true everlasting life in our children. As much as we love them and want to make our Christmas celebrations revolve around them, Christmas is not about our children, it is about God’s child, a Son who was born to save us.
Richard Williams devoted his life to training his daughters to be champion tennis players. He put a lot of faith in their abilities to succeed. As a result, Venus and Serena made a lot of money playing tennis and maybe they bought their parents a nice retirement home and life is very comfortable for them, but it will not last. We all need a Savior and we are not going to find one in our family. We need help from another family, God’s family, and that help came in the person of Jesus.
It’s very interesting that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Knowledge and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, God placed an angel at the entryway with a flaming sword to keep them away from the Tree of Life. Tonight, instead of placing an angel to keep us from eternal life with God in heaven, God put an angel in the sky to point the shepherds and all of us to the only One who could give us eternal life with God.
I would guess the night of that first Christmas must have seemed like any other night to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem. All the sheep had been gathered in and there was probably nothing left to do except to keep watch, visit with one another, and stay warm. That quiet routine, however, was shattered when an angel of the Lord burst onto the scene with some life-changing news. And how did the shepherds react to this heavenly invasion? We heard tonight that they were terrified. Some translations of the Bible tell us that they were “sore afraid,” meaning they were so afraid it hurt. Have you ever been that afraid? I can recall a few times in my life being so afraid that it was hard to move – hence the term “scared stiff.” So in the same way, did the shepherds fear the worst when they saw God’s messenger standing before them? Had the angel come to announce that it was Judgment Day? And if so, were they ready to be judged by God?
But that’s not why the angel had come. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Just by listening to this message the attitude of the shepherds changed as their fear was replaced with joy. The Savior had been born in Bethlehem just as the Old Testament prophets had said. And since this child was also God, and was conceived in a miraculous way by the Holy Spirit and not by a human father, He wasn’t born with the debilitating defect of sin.
In a way, you could say that this child, Jesus, was just like the replacement bulb that comes with your Christmas lights. I know it is not always the case today, but it seems like many of the older strings of Christmas lights were made in such a way that when one bulb went out, the whole string went out. I remember many Christmases growing up when a string of lights would go out on our tree and my dad would patiently take that replacement bulb and go through the strand of lights to find the one bad bulb. It never seemed like a quick fix, but when he would finally locate the bad bulb, he would then replace it with a good one, and the whole string would light up again and we would be happy.
Likewise, when Adam and Eve sinned the light of humanity went out. What was once the crown of God’s creation now covered the earth like a string of dead lights on a Christmas tree. Human beings no longer added to the world’s beauty, but detracted from it. Yet in His grace, God sent His Son to take His place among us to give us light again, as Jesus himself said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
After Abel’s death in the Old Testament, Eve gave birth to another son whom she named Seth, which means “replacement.” While Seth believed in God like Abel, he was not the Savior. In time, Seth also died. And that’s our story isn’t it? We’re born, we live, and we die. But Jesus, the true replacement, came to break that cycle. He saved us when He took the punishment we deserved for our sins by dying on the cross and He came back to life and promised that all who put their trust in Him will one day too break out of the death cycle and will live forever. Our children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews certainly bring us great joy during Christmas, and maybe they will become famous athletes or artists someday and buy you a house in Hawaii where you can retire, but we will still die. So before that happens, but your faith in Jesus, the child whose birth we celebrate, and not your children or family members, because He is the true light of life who brings us together to celebrate tonight.
