Christmas Guidance From the Bible: Gift-receiving

I. Introduction
A. We’ve spent the month thinking about what the Bible says regarding different aspects of celebrating Christmas. In this last sermon we come to the subject of receiving presents.
1. Nothing seems easier receiving a gift. Nothing seems more natural. Nothing seems less in need of guidance. And yet most people get it all wrong.
II. Things to keep in mind when gift-receiving
A. Proverbs 27:20 “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.”
1. There’s something wrong with us. We crave and can’t be satisfied.
2. This applies to you and me. This verse helps us each to understand ourselves. We always want a little bit more. We don’t think we want too much because – to put it in algebraic terms – we usually only want x+1. The eye keeps thinking that it will be satisfied with one more thing. But it won’t. When we get the one thing we crave, we suddenly want something else. The eyes of man are never satisfied.
B. Contentment is an uphill battle.
1. 1Timothy 6:6–9 “Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
2. “Godliness with contentment is great gain... But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ” I.e. you’ve really gotten somewhere if you’re relationship with Christ has so cooled your materialism that you are content with your needs met.
3. We live in a very materialistic society. And so for the church in America, it seems to me, materialism is sort of our besetting sin. So much so that’s it’s acceptable even in the Christian context to sin this way.
C. What we SHOULD want is not everything, not even everything we desire, not even everything we think we need. What we should want is only what is best for us.
1. Proverbs 30:7–9 contains an amazing prayer: “Two things I ask of You; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny You and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
2. To pray like this, you need to know and believe that having too much does you damage.
3. Do you know in your heart that prosperity can poison your soul, and make you deny the Lord?
4. Do you have the guts to ask God not to give you too much?
D. The application of this to receiving Christmas presents should be obvious.
1. Don’t expect that your heart will be satisfied with the gifts you receive. Even if you got everything you desired, it would not satisfy. The eyes of man are never satisfied.
E. And even those who are looking for love won’t be satisfied.
1. It’s good to recognize the love behind the gift. Remember Luke 21:1–4 where Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” In this story Jesus teaches us a number of things. One of them is that the size of the heart behind the gift is much more significant than the size of the gift itself. And we should appreciate the love more than the gift – God does.
2. However, even the people who get the love they crave won’t be satisfied by it. Why? Because people don’t love us as much as we’d like them to. And even if they do, human love cannot satisfy.
III. Now let’s talk about the gift that does satisfy; let’s talk about what really does satisfy the human heart.
A. In at least two places Jesus speaks of how He truly satisfies whereas earthly things do not:
1. John 4:13–14 Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
2. John 6:35 Jesus said to those who were among the 5000 He miraculously fed, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
3. Jesus is God’s great Gift.“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” John 3:16
B. Gift-giving is the essence of Christmas, but not gift-giving to each other. Christmas is the celebration of God’s giving of the greatest Gift, the gift of His Son Jesus.
IV. But it’s not just what He gave, it’s how He gave it.
A. When you have a very special gift to give, you often plan out how you’re going to give it. E.g.
1. A wedding proposal
2. I recently saw a video of a soldier/dad who came home from war. The way he surprised his 9-10 year old son was this: every professional baseball game is kicked-off by a ceremonial first-pitch, usually by some celebrity. Well, this day he had somehow arranged for his little-league son to be asked to do the job. Little did the boy know that the one behind the catcher’s mask was his own dad. This obviously took a lot of preparation and arranging. But for something as big as this, it is fitting.
B. And so it was with the Lord. He planned very carefully and magnificently how He would present His Gift to the world.
1. The first thing He did was to wrap His gift in mystery. He told them a wonderful gift was coming and gave hints about it but kept most of it secret.
a. The OT filled with mystery about coming of the promised One. E.g. in the prophecy of Daniel we are told of a small rock – not carved with human hands – which strikes the foot of and thereby destroys the whole statue and then grows into a great mountain which fills the whole earth. (Dan.2:34-35; 44-45) Do you see what I mean that the OT is filled with mystery about His coming?
b. This is why Romans 16:25–26 refers to “the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations.”
C. But when the time was right, the Gift was revealed in just the way God had planned.
1. When you hold a surprise party or give a surprise gift, there is a moment of revelation, a moment when the gift is presented.
2. When was the Surprise! moment in the Christmas story? The closest thing we have to a Surprise! moment is when angels appeared to the shepherds. It was the first public declaration of the Gift being given.
3. Luke 2:8–14 “There were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
4. That multitude of angels was exclaiming the surprise revelation of God’s great Gift, Jesus Christ.
5. And so it began, “the mystery hidden for ages and generations...now revealed to his saints.” (Colossians 1:26; Cf. Ephesians 3:4–10)
6. Everything we long for, everything we need, rolled into one Gift, the person of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.
V. But just because the Gift was given didn’t mean the Gift was received.
A. John 1:11–12 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
B. From the very beginning it was known that His own people by-and-large would not receive the Gift. But many would. And they’d be given the great privilege of being adopted as His children.
VI. First and foremost, Christmas is about Gift-receiving, not gift-giving.
A. And receiving Christ is not something you just do once. We need to do it every day.
1. When’s the last time you received Christ? When’s the last time you opened wide your heart to Him and welcomed Him in with joy and love?
B. We deserve nothing. We don’t deserve gifts. We don’t deserve things. We don’t deserve to live. We don’t deserve having people who love us and want to show it. We don’t deserve for God to love us. We don’t deserve the gift of Jesus. It’s all grace. “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” – John 1:16
C. When you receive a very precious gift, you need to give thanks or write a thank you note.
1. And so we end where we began: with worship.
2. 2Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”