Manchester Lutheran Church

Who should you stop thinking about this Christmas?

It’s Christmas time again, and so everyone is competing for your attention.

Shops want to sell you things, and there’s all sorts of cool products in our feeds.

And one little sub-culture we may see is that there are so many Christians every year, putting videos and messages comparing Father Christmas and Christ; contrasting Santa and Jesus.

But, the reality is pretty much nobody is obsessively thinking about Father Christmas.

And today’s Gospel passage tells us that Santa Claus is not the person we should stop thinking about at Christmas.

No, this Christmas, as every Christmas, each one of us will be obsessively thinking about one person in particular.

Who should you stop thinking about this Christmas?

Well, here’s what we learn from this event in the life of John the Baptist:

• Stop thinking about yourself
• Think about Jesus who honours you

That first point: Stop thinking about yourself.

Please look with me at vv. 19-20:

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

John the author of this Gospel has already told us that John the Baptist had been sent as a witness to Jesus.

And he’s been working out in the desert, near the Jordan river, baptising people who come to him, and telling them that Christ is coming.

And so now the political and religious elite from Jerusalem, send a delegation to John, asking him this question: “Who are you?”

And what’s implied by that question is flattery.

The way the question is worded in the Greek language draws attention to the word “you.”

And John’s answer reveals that the context of this conversation was lots of flattering things had been said to John suggesting that he was the Christ, the Messiah, the one everyone had been waiting for.

And the way John’s answer is worded in the Greek language draws attention to the word “I.”

“Who are you?” the elite and powerful ask “I am not the celebrity you’re looking for!” John replies.

Now, John was not an impressive looking man, but he’s drawn many crowds through his preaching.

And so the tactic of the elite from Jerusalem, is to flatter John, so they can try and bring him into their circle, and thus control him for their own purposes.

So their questions continue, v. 21:

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

Now John’s ministry was in the spirit of Elijah. Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, had prophesied that Elijah would come before the Christ.

And before John the Baptist was born, an angel told his father, that he would be a prophet like Elijah, fulfilling this prophecy.

John himself dressed like Elijah.

And later on, Jesus would say John the Baptist was Elijah.

But John denies being Elijah here, because Malachi’s prophecy was about a humble prophet who pointed away from himself toward the Christ.

But, the Jerusalem leaders were looking for Elijah himself to physically come in victory and with power and glory.

It’s an idea we’ve been hearing about throughout advent, that it is a false gospel that teaches there is glory and victory now.

And instead of buying into that false gospel which promised John glory and fame and success, instead, John points away from himself.

Look at vv. 22-23:

So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

“I’m nobody,” John says, “I’m just a finger pointing to someone else.”

And we can learn from John’s example, that’s the first thing we should take away from this passage this Christmas:

Stop thinking about yourself.

In some ways John the Baptist is the last Old Covenant prophet. But in other ways he is the first New Covenant prophet.

The New Covenant contains Law and Gospel. Jesus says “Repent and believe the Gospel”

So, the Law is to repent: which means to turn around.

Because sin is being turned away from God and toward ourselves, Isaiah 53:6 says this:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;

We turn away from God and toward ourselves. And God’s Law says: turn back!

John the Baptist is a great example of that to us.

Again and again, the Jerusalem leaders hold out glory and victory to him… …and he refuses …instead he points to Jesus.

But, every year, that is not our response to Christmas. Our response to Christmas is so often to think more about ourselves.

You see that image, or hear that carol, or smell that food, it brings up memories, and then your mind is just racing around what your life could have been “if” or how you regret “that” or how much you “wish”

so…

You start thinking about yourself.

And that self-focus can express itself in all sorts of ways… …maybe you tend to be the host and we spend all the holiday working and cooking …or maybe we have to project a certain image of ourselves to the old friends and family we’ll meet up with …or maybe we get lost worrying about how people will view us and perceive us at a particular meetup, or online.

Whether we feel proud, or embarrassed and ashamed: we are all naturally curved in on ourselves.

And Christmas can particularly bring this to the surface.

Each of us has gone astray and turned to our own way.

The idea of talking to people about Jesus at Christmas scares us, because it might damage how people view us.

Contrast that with John the Baptist: I’m not the messiah… look over there!

And so, Stop thinking about yourself. Think about Jesus who honours you.

Please look again at vv. 24-25:

 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptising, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

The Pharisees are confused, because John the Baptist has pointed away from himself.

And they are so hardened in their curved inwardness, that if his ministry isn’t for his own glory they don’t really understand what it’s for.

But, John is so willing to point away from himself simply because he’s so excited about what he’s pointing at.

Vv. 26-28:

John answered them, “I baptise with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptising.

John simply can’t think about himself, because he’s so excited about Jesus.

Why?

Because, he’ll go on to say in v. 29:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

And later on in John’s Gospel, Jesus will give himself over to die.

The message of Christmas is John 1: that God himself has come to us, taken to himself human flesh.

This is God, in person. And that person, God himself, will stand in front of not one, but two courts, and deliberately remain silent, so that he will be sentenced to a gruesome death.

And he did that for you. For every single one of you.

He did it for every Pharisee, and he did it for John the Baptist.

John the evangelist who wrote this Gospel, was an eyewitness of the event, and will be so blown away by what he sees that in 19:35 he will write:

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.

That is the kind of language you use when you see something incredible.

“Honestly, I swear to you, I saw it with my own eyes. It was right there.”

You don’t need to persuade God. God himself did this willingly… …he deliberately came as a baby at Christmas, …so that he could deliberately walk into a gruesome death.

Just think about how that compares to all the anxieties and the memories and the pains we remember at Christmas:.

And here’s the difference: You don’t need to persuade God to love you. You don’t need to explain away your feelings of failure and lost opportunities. You don’t need to convince him of your glory and worth. You don’t need to worry about how you come over to him.

Because, it’s entirely the opposite way around.

He is trying to persuade you that he loves you.

He is trying to explain that you’re already in his good books.

He cherishes you.

He cares about you.

He honours you.

In his resurrection, he gives you justification, glory, honour, with him.

He reconciles you to God, so that you know him,—which is eternal life—and that is life that you’ll continue living with him eternally.

And God was so desperate to give this to you… …that he became a human being and died to make it a reality.

Why is John not thinking about himself? Because… Jesus has honoured him.

Jesus is just too exciting for John to think about anything else.

And it’s not just because of what Jesus has done for John, it’s because of the purpose that Jesus gave John’s life.

In v. 33 John the Baptist will go on to say:

this is he who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’

This is the first reference in John’s Gospel to the Spirit.

The last reference will be in chapter 20, when the risen Jesus will give the Holy Spirit to all his disciples along with the power to declare forgiveness of sins.

vv. 22-23 Jesus will say:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Everyone who has the Spirit, in other words everyone who trusts in Christ, has this power.

You have been tasked to preach, you can declare forgiveness of sins.

You can transform people’s lives completely by bringing them to Jesus.

You have the same ministry as John the Baptist, v. 23 again:

He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

Who should you stop thinking about this Christmas?

Stop thinking about yourself.

Christmas is so depressing when we spend time doing that.

Instead… Think about Jesus who honours you.

You don’t need to persuade God to like you. He went to massive lengths to show his love for us.

He became a child. Stayed silent at court. Died on the cross. Rose again.

And so as people who spend Christmas thinking about Jesus… …remember that purpose he’s placed on your life.

He’s chosen to make you part of what he’s doing… …he values you so much that he wants you to have, and enjoy, playing a crucial role:

I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’