Forever Christmas
Advent 2021 - The Lights of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Christmas is the day in which we remember the coming of God the Son. As John would say,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
But Matthew, quoting Isaiah puts it like this:
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
What makes Christmas Christmas is Immanuel—God with us. If God did not come down to dwell with humanity in the flesh—to be with us—then Christmas isn’t Christmas. It’s simply winter solstice or, in reality, nothing at all.
In the Old Testament, God gave Israel holy days in which they were to celebrate and they were for specific reasons. One in particular was the Feast of Booths. It was to remind the people of their journey in the wilderness. By the time we get to the New Testament a new holiday has come that even Jesus celebrated. It was the feast of dedication or Hanukkah; it was to remember the time when Israel threw off the oppressive rule of Antiochus IV and gained independence for the first time in hundreds of years. Though it is not biblically mandated, today we celebrate one of the greatest holy days ever. It reminds us of the coming of God in the flesh.
And it points to a future reality. It points us to a time when it will be forever Christmas—when God will be with us forever. And when that day comes, we will see and experience, among other things, these three realities:
God’s Sanctuary
God’s Splendor
God’s Security
like never before.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
God’s Sanctuary
God’s Sanctuary
The first reality that we are looking at this morning that will be in our forever Christmas, is God’s Sanctuary.
To fully understand what John saw and we will experience, we need to go back to the Old Testament. When God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle, he gave exact dimensions of its size. And what we find, if we were to go through the entire set of instructions is that there was the courtyard for the average Jewish man. It was about 75 feet wide and 150 feet long, but there was no ceiling. It was completely open. The Holy Place, which was for the priests of Israel, was 15 feet high, 15 feet wide, and 30 feet long. Then there was the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place. This part housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat of God. This was where the glory of God would dwell. It was 15 feet high, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet long. In other words, it was a perfect cube. When the temple was built, the size of the Holy of Holies was 30 feet-cubed. A perfect cube for the perfect God. The further out from the sanctuary of Yahweh one got, the more imperfect the dimensions. Hence, the Holy Place of the priests was twice as long as it was wide and high. The courtyard was twice as long as wide and there were no dimensions for a ceiling. Then there was the nation of Israel which had borders and finally the world, which has no borders.
In the Old Testament, there was a word for the temple; it was beth, which simply means house as in Beth-lehem (House of Bread) or Beth-el (House of God). In the New Testament, however, there were two words. One was hieron which was the temple complex with all the courtyards (Courtyard of women, Gentiles, etc.) and the Holy Place of the priests, but then there was the Naos which was the sanctuary—the Holy of Holies. Generally, the temple was called hieron and only occasionally was it called Naos. That word was generally reserved for the Sanctuary.
What does all this have to do with our text this morning? Everything! Let’s look back at
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.
The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal.
The New Jerusalem is a perfect cube. But rather than being 15 feet cubed like the tabernacle or 30 feet cubed like the temple, its 7,282,000 feet cubed—12,000 stadia. We aren’t supposed to get hung up on the size though actually because each the idea is based on the number 12 for the twelve tribes of Israel and 1,000 which is the number of completeness in a perfect cube: perfection! In other words, the New Jerusalem is all Israel, both the Old and New Testament saints, come together forever. And then we see that there is no temple in their midst.
The word is Naos—there is no sanctuary. There is no Holy of Holies like one would expect to see. Why? Because God and the Lamb is its temple. Finally! A perfect city for the perfect God. God will dwell with his people forever; we will experience God’s presence as never before!
God’s Splendor
God’s Splendor
But we are not just in God’s sanctuary, we see God’s splendor.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
When we met last week, I talked about the glory of God and how it directed and defended Israel through the wilderness. We saw how it filled the temple and yet deserted it later. We saw that Israel had waited 600 years for that glory to return and it finally came in wrapped in human flesh. But the glory that the Shepherds saw and that Simeon saw, and Peter, James, and John saw on the mount of transfiguration, ascended into heaven nearly 2,000 years ago. And believers have been longing ever since to see that glory revealed.
Here we are told that God’s glory will be among the New Jerusalem, among all the believers of all time, just as it was in the Holy of Holies. His glory will fill that place! And I am amazed at how beautiful this place will be. John described the walls of Jerusalem being made of jasper with the foundation being various precious stones. There will be reds and blues and greens and yellows. And by themselves it would be beautiful, but imagine the radiance of God’s glory bursting through them!
You know, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who like white lights on their Christmas tree and those who like colored lights on it. I’m a colored lights kind of guy. I love its warmth and beauty, but all the color-lighted trees in the world put together would not compare to the beauty of the New Jerusalem.
But we are not there yet. Christ has yet to return to us. And until he does, we are called to display God’s splendor in this world. As Paul to the Philippians
Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Brothers and sisters, we are here to shine a glorious light to a darkened world. That is not simply by being nice and kind to people. It is not simply done in temporal ways, but must be done in eternal ways. We must reflect the light of the gospel. We have been given this light and so we give this light.
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
But not only are we to proclaim it, not only are we to display it, but we are to sing the wondrous glory of God, reminding each other through song of the glory that awaits us.
God’s Security
God’s Security
But it is not only God’s sanctuary that makes us our forever Christmas. It is not only God’s splendor that makes it forever Christmas. But there is also God’s security.
We live in a world full of light-pollution. It’s nearly impossible to find a place in the U.S. where light does not affect how we see the night. Even in most places in the desert, lights from the cities can be seen. That wasn’t always the case. As dangerous as night is today, it was more so before electricity was harnessed. Traveling at night could be a deadly activity. Cities would close their gates at dusk and not open them until morning.
But here, in the place where God is with his people, where his glory is displayed in all its splendor, there is no night and the gates never close.
and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
In other words, what we see is that there is no danger. The dangers that plague the world, whether physical, mental, bacterial, viral, or whatever they may be, will never enter into this glorious place.
Remember last week, I mentioned that God’s glory is both directing and defending. We see both of these here. The glory of God brings in the glory and honor of the nations and kings. It defends the people of the city from the evils and dangers that exist.
Nothing unclean will enter. That word really means common. Nothing common will enter. Only that which is glorious. Only that which is honorable will be allowed into the perfect city of our perfect God. Nothing common is allowed in. Nothing detestable. No false thing. No false thinking, no false speaking, no false living, will enter in. God has secured his city, which means that God once and for all secures his people from all hazard.
Since the beginning of time nearly, God’s people have wondered why God allows bad things to happen to his people. Why doesn’t God step in and stop the evil from happening? While there are many reasons for God not stopping the evil, there will come a time when God completely secures his people with his own glory. A glory that is so bright, there is no need for a sun or moon and there is no night.
But that last sentence may be concerning for some of us.
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
You may be looking and saying, “I’m unclean; I’m common. I’ve done some detestable things in my days. I’ve thought, told, and done some false things. I can’t even count how many lies I’ve told!” And the question is, will you be allowed in? It sounds like none of us would be allowed in. Especially the way that it is written: “But only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
For those who wonder if they will make it through the gates—those who say that they are common, detestable, and false—those who say they have no glory or honor to bring—let us see what God has done for us in Christ. We go back to the text Matt preached from the other week.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,
to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
God in Christ, keeps us from stumbling. He keeps us blameless before his glorious presence. Those who put their faith in Christ Jesus as the Master and Savior go from common, doing and saying and thinking detestable and false things to being blameless and stable and are allowed to enter into his glorious presence.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish this series up on the Lights of Christmas, we have seen the light of the star that led the wise men to Jesus, to whom that star was a sign. We’ve seen the glory of God surrounding the shepherds watching their flocks, but also that glory wrapped in swaddling cloths. Today, we see the glory of God in eternity. God will be with us forever and ever. It is like a forever Christmas. But you may be listening this morning and saying, “That’s great and all, but so what? What’s the point?”
So what!? What’s the point!? The point is that it’s been a vert long, difficult, and even frightening two years. I’m talking about a place where we don’t have to worry about those things anymore. No more worries over COVID, whether the original, Delta, Omicron, or any other variant. No more worries over masks. No more worries quarantining and isolating. No more worries over vaccines. No more worries over religious exemptions. No more worries over how much oxygen someone is on or whether they need to be put on a ventilator. No more worries about death. No more worries about miscarriages and babies being stillborn. No more worries about cancer.
No more worries about riots in the streets. No more worries about trials and how the public will react. No more worries about 24 hour news cycles that shape opinion and feed hatred and animosity. No more worries about school shootings. No more worries about inflation and our economic outlook. No more worries about the security of your job. No more worries about which countries get nuclear weapons. No more worries about failed states being led by terrorists. No more worries about who sits in the White House or any other nation for that matter.
No more worries about celebrities being charged with heinous acts against children. No more worries about pastors failing and falling. No more worries about churches keeping their doors open or maintaining unity. No more worries about cars being stolen. No more worries about family disputes. No more worries about mental illnesses and having to figure out between truth and lies. No more worries about pornography. No more worries about drug and alcohol abuse. No more worries about tornadoes coming in the dead of night leveling entire towns. Need I go on?
But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Every Christmas is marred by sin and corruption. But there will be a day when we will see the lights of glory and all that we fear, all that we worry about, all that is wrong in this world, will melt away. We won’t need to remind ourselves that God is with us, even in the bad times because there won’t be any bad times, and God will be visible to our very own eyes. Emmanuel—God is with us.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Christmas is simply a holiday that ought to remind us of a greater reality. All the lights that we associate with Christmas can point us to the greater reality of Christ and of the Father in glory as we see and experience his sanctuary, his splendor, and his security. So let us live as those who are children of the light. Let us hope in that glory. Let our light shine in dark places with the glory that is ours for all eternity.