The HOPE of Christmas

In our modern world, Christmas is all about… ANTICIPATION

Anticipation: Waiting eagerly for something you know is going to happen

• Gifts
• Food
• Gatherings
• Lights

The Story of Christmas is actually about a DIFFERENT type of waiting… LONGING

Longing: A strong desire, especially for something unattainable

Let’s talk about longing before we get to how it is a part of Christmas
We have all experienced some sort of longing

Nostalgia – Longing for a time in the past

Sorrow – Longing for something lost

Grief – Longing for someone who is gone
We can long for…

• An opportunity that may never come
• Health outcome
• Financial windfall
• Etc

 

Longing – The Cracked Bowl

• Regardless of how much is put in, it always runs low

Our hearts/souls also leak

• We are constantly needing to FILL BACK UP
• This leak is LONGING

The trouble is…

Our world offers MANY things that claim to “FILL OUR BOWL”

• To fix the longing

Things like…

Stuff – But it is never enough (The bowl leaks)

Relationships – But we always get let down (The bowl leaks)

Physical pleasure – We always have to have more (The bowl leaks)

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ~C.S. Lewis

New Series Called…

THE SONGS OF CHRISTMAS
More than any other holiday, Christmas is defined by it’s MUSIC

• Some are “Jingle Bells”
• But some speak a powerful truth…

Each week…

Taking a different song and discovering it TRUTH
SONG:

O come, O come, Immanuel
History:

• Over 1,200 years old
• Originally written in Latin
• Sung for centuries of Christians speaking to the LONGING of our souls and world

Let’s look at a few lines from the song…

1 O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

4 O come, O Branch of Jesse’s stem, unto your own and rescue them! From depths of hell your people save, and give them victory o’er the grave.

5 O come, O Key of David, come and open wide our heavenly home. Make safe for us the heavenward road and bar the way to death’s abode.

6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star, and bring us comfort from afar! Dispel the shadows of the night and turn our darkness into light.

7 O come, O King of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind. Bid all our sad divisions cease and be yourself our King of Peace.
But then there is the REFRAIN

Refrain:

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to you, O Israel.
You can feel the LONGING

• Not at home
• Something we wait for but cannot get ourselves

How should we respond to a song like this?
John 4

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 because his disciples had gone into town to buy food.

9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”

11 “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”

13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

15 “Sir,” the woman said to him, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and come here to draw water.”

16 “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”

17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
Jesus points out the area of LONGING in her life

• It’s uncomfortable for her
• It’s uncomfortable for us

The Longing in our heart must be filled with something… So make sure it’s the right thing

• Jesus is the answer to the Longing of our hearts

19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
She tries to shift the conversation off of herself

• She’s uncomfortable
• Having your heart examined by God is UNCOMFORTABLE

21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”
This should be our goal every day. To Worship God in…

• SPIRIT: In the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit. Not driven by our own emotions but deeply emotional
• TRUTH: The revelation of God in Jesus Christ. There is no other truth but Him

 

25 The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am He.”
She knows that the answer to the LONGING in her heart is not all these relationships

How do we respond?

1: Every Christmas, we RECOGNIZE the longing in our hearts and in the world

• This is why our world is so broken, just a bunch of letdowns and heartbreaks

We constantly examine ourselves to make sure that our longing is not driving us to TEMPORARY THINGS

 

2: Every Christmas, we ANSWER our longing with the HOPE of JESUS – Immanuel – God with us

 

We have a HOPE-FILLED LONGING

• Christ HAS COME, He will COME AGAIN

 

The HOPE of Christmas is…

ALL OUR LONGING IS FILLED IN THE HOPE OF JESUS
CLOSING PRAYER

Father in Heaven, You know my hopes, dreams, and disappointments. I have deep needs that only you can meet. Please forgive me for putting my confidence in so many other things instead of in You, the Giver of life. Help me know that You see me and know me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.