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Sermon Notes for December 15, 2002
“Please Don’t Miss the Real
Meaning of the
Birth of Jesus”
Exodus 19:16-25
Hebrews 12:18-24
Introduction
A. The SILLINESS Of Christmas.
1. How we have missed the true meaning of Christmas.
a. For the Billionaire Who Has Everything . . . Need a Christmas present
for that money-bags billionaire relative or friend and don’t quite know
what to do? The Robb Report, magazine for the ultra-rich, has just
what you need, but probably can’t afford. How about a $30 million
165-foot super yacht with a gymnasium and marble-floored lobby?
Then what about a 485 horsepower V12 Ferrari 550 Barchetta
Pininfarina limited edition convertible? It can be yours for $258,000.
Other gift opportunities for consumers with copious cash include a
$325,285, 21-day safari package complete with a pair of 12-bore
shotguns and a Range Rover, or a $7.75 million set of four Patek
Philippe pocket watches, one of which will accurately copy the
chime of London’s Big Ben clock tower. For those wishing to keep
price tags to five digits, the magazine offers a man and woman’s
wardrobe of cashmere and wool from Italian manufacturer Loro Piana
for $55,000, or a $39,400 two-person ski vacation in the French Alps.
And for those who want to indulge a fantasy or simply steal a glance
into the world of wretched excess, you can buy a copy of the magazine
for just $9.99.
b. It is NEARLY impossible even for Christians to maintain a proper
focus of the meaning of Christians.
c. “To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more
difficult with every year.” E.B. White – The Second Tree From the
Corner
2. Even as Christians, we seem to focus solely a “part” of the entire Christmas story.
a. The manger scene; the stable, the town of Bethlehem.
b. We never seem to take the story or event any farther.
B. The SERIOUSNESS Of Christmas.
1. Without a doubt, Christmas is a joyous, momentous time for the believer.
2. But Christmas is not an end in itself.
a. It was simply the beginning of the journey for the Christ-child.
b. For He would leave the security and peace of the wood of the stable in
Bethlehem and eventually be placed upon the wood of the cross of
Golgatha.
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3. We will see the seriousness of Christmas as we contrast the relationship of the
believer to God in the Old Testament and the relationship of the believer to God
in the New Testament.
a. IN ORDER FOR EACH OF US TO SEE JUST WHAT JESUS CAME
TO THIS EARTH TO DO.
b. SO THAT YOU CAN ADEQUATELY PRAISE HIM THIS
CHRISTMAS.
I. The Mountain Of JUDGMENT.
A. A Mountain Of FEAR.
Exodus 19:16-19 (read)
1. The spiritual fear on the mountain.
a. The scene is Mount Sinai in the desert.
1. The Jews have been led out of Egypt by Moses and have
arrived at Mount Sinai and are waiting to hear from Moses who
has ascended the mountain to talk to God.
2. The scene, as described in Exodus 19:10-19 is ominous. (read)
Imagine for just a moment that you are an Israelite living in
the fifteenth century B.C. You have spent your entire life in
the land of Egypt as a slave. You have existed to do the bidding
of your Egyptian taskmaster, and there is a pyramid outside of
Rhamses that is a testimony to your labor. But now a man
named Moses has appeared on the scene who is a spokesman
for the God of your ancestors. The power of this God named
Jehovah has humbled the mighty Egyptian empire, and now
for the first time in your life you are free.
You have just made a very treacherous journey through
the desert of Sinai, and it is obvious that you are being led there by
God himself. A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by
night is leading you onward. Your life has been spared from the
Egyptians at the Red Sea and from hunger and thirst in the desert
by the direct intervention of God Himself. And now you finally
stand before the foot of the mountain upon which Moses had first
met God some forty years before.
Your joy at completing your long journey through the
wilderness is short lived, though, because it is replaced by
absolute terror. You have witnessed the plagues that brought a
proud Pharaoh to his knees; you have seen an entire army
drowned in the sea. But you have never seen anything as
terrible and frightening and awesome as this. The mountain
that rises up before you is covered by a thick cloud, but the
darkness is repeatedly pierced by the flashing of lightning. The
silence is shattered by the rumbling of thunder. The blasting of
a trumpet announces what you already know – that God is on
this mountain. You have to struggle to keep your balance because
a great earthquake is rumbling, and your knees are just a bit
shaky anyway. Moses disappears into the cloud and then he
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returns to warn you not to approach the mountain or else you will
die. He doesn’t really need to tell you that, because you’re not
about to take a chance and go near that terrible and holy place.
And then the most terrible and awesome thing yet takes
place. Through the cracking of the thunder and the rumbling of
the earthquake, a voice is heard by all the people, “I am the Lord
your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall
have no other gods before me. . .” God Himself speaks from the
mountain giving you the Decalogue, The Commandments. The
experience is so terrifying that you plead with Moses to go and
speak to God for you, before you’re convinced that if you hear
God speak again that you will die.
b. The scene is also one of warning. Exodus 19:12-13 – “Put limits for
the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you
do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches
the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned
or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man
or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's
horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain."
1. The Lord is saying through Moses that the people are not to try
to meet with God or they will perish.
2. In fact, they are not even to “touch” the mountain or they will
die.
2. The physical fear of the mountain:
a. There was smoke and fire.
b. The mountain trembled violently.
c. A trumpet continued to blast from the mountain.
B. A Mountain Of FURY.
1. Later, after being on the mountain with God, Moses would begin his trek down
the mountain, only to find that the Israelites had fashioned a golden calf to
worship, instead of the one true God.
2. At that point, God makes it very clear of His attitude toward these sinners.
a. Exodus 32:9-10 - "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses,
"and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my
anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I
will make you into a great nation."
b. There is nothing but wrath, fury and judgment.
C. A Mountain Of FAILURE.
1. Do you sense the atmosphere at Mount Sinai?
a. It is one of darkness.
b. It is one of fire.
c. It is one of fury.
d. It is one of distance.
1. The people are NOT to approach God.
2. They are not even to “touch” the mountain or they will die.
3. God is saying to KEEP OUT! DON’T COME!
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2. Do you surmise WHY there is such an atmosphere?
a. Is this God of Mount Sinai the same God that we understand today?
1. Is this the “God of the Old Testament”
2. While there is a “God of the New Testament”?
b. Several points we need to see:
1. One – This is the EXACT SAME GOD that we know
throughout the New Testament.
a. God has not changed.
b. God will not change.
2. Two – God is EXHIBITING HIS WRATH on Mount Sinai.
a. A wrath that is full of fury and judgment against the sin
of man.
b. Don’t mistake God’s wrath.
1. It is real.
2. It is against sin.
3. Three – God IS STILL WRATHFUL against sin.
a. God’s attitude toward sin has not changed.
b. God’s fury still burns against sin.
c. Jonathan Edwards: Sinners In the Hands of An
Angry God – “You hang by a slender thread, with
the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and
ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder;
and you have no interest in any Mediator, and
nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to
keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,
nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you
can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.”
c. This picture of God at Mount Sinai should make us stop and think about
who God really is and of our relationship to Him.
1. “We seem to think that somehow God has changed.”
2. “That He has somehow “become” more gracious, more
forgiving, more loving.”
3. “Because that is NOT the God that I know.”
a. “I don’t know of a wrathful God.”
b. “All that I know is a God of grace, mercy and
forgiveness.”
d. Let me show you one more picture of God’s wrath as seen in the Old
Testament – (II Samuel 6:6-7)
1. The Philistines had captured the Ark of Covenant.
2. When David became King, he along with 30,000 men, went to
Philistia, to retrieve the ark.
3. Upon returning with the ark to Jerusalem, one of the Levites
who was to help transport the ark, was walking beside the ark as
it was being carried on a cart.
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a. The oxen who were pulling the ark stumbled, and
Uzzah, the Levite, without thinking, reached out his
hand to steady the ark.
b. Upon touching the ark, he was instantly killed by God
because he “touched” the ark.
c. Notice why Uzzah was killed – Numbers 4:15 - "After
Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy
furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp
is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the
carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or
they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things
that are in the Tent of Meeting.”
1. And although Uzzah was a Kohathite 2. He “touched” the ark.
3. Do you see the picture here?
a. GOD IS HOLY!
b. In fact, when you look at the book of Isaiah, the prophet was transported
into heaven when he heard the angels, the seraphim – praising God and
saying: Isaiah 6:3 – “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty. The
whole earth is full of His glory.”
1. This is a Hebrew song, and the lyrics are simply Holy, Holy,
Holy. It is said THREE TIMES!
2. In English we can emphasize the importance of something
by printing the words in italics or bold face type.
3. In Hebrew poetry, the way to show emphasis is to repeat it:
a. Jesus would say, “Truly, truly I say to you . . .”
b. Revelation 8:13 - “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth.”
c. And now in Isaiah 6:3 – “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
Almighty.”
c. DO WE HAVE ANY CONCEPT OF THE HOLINESS OF GOD?
1. How perfect, awesome, complete, true and righteous He is!
2. And how much His holiness hates our sin.
3. A.W. Tozer – God is holy and holiness (is) the moral
condition necessary to the health of his universe . . .
Whatever is holy is healthy, . . the holiness of God, the
wrath of God, and the health of creation are inseparably
united. God’s wrath is his utter intolerance of whatever
degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hated
the polio that would take the life of the child.
4. Martin Luther – “At these words I was utterly stupefied
and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, “With what tongue
shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to
tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am
I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the
divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the
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earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say ‘I
want this, I ask for that’? For I am dust and ashes and full
of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true
God.”
II. The Mountain of JOY.
A. The Mountain of INVITATION.
Hebrews 12:22a – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the
city of the living God.”
1. The contrast of the mountain.
a. Do you notice the ABSOLUTE CONTRAST with this verse – “But you
have come.”
1. The word but is an emphatic word of comparison.
a. Nevertheless
b. Rather
c. Instead
2. The word come in verse 22 is the same Greek word used in
verse 18.
a. Vs. 18 – “You have not come to a mountain that can be
touched.”
1. They are the SAME, EXACT WORD!
2. To come near, to approach
b. Our “coming” is very different:
b. One mountain we are not to approach or come near; the other mountain,
we ARE to come near.
2. Can this be the same Bible, the same people and the same God?
a. How can we see such a God of wrath REFUSING our approach of Him,
b. while here in these verses we are called to come close to God!
B. The Mountain Of INSPIRATION.
1. You have come to a different MOUNTAIN.
Vs. 22 – “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city
of the living God.”
a. Mount Zion historically.
1. Mount Zion was known as the place where King David lived.
2. Later, Mount Zion would include the highest area of Jerusalem,
where the Temple was located.
b. Mount Zion spiritually.
1. Here is the Temple in heaven, where the transaction
between Jesus and God took place to secure our salvation.
2. Here is the “courthouse in heaven” where my name was written
in the Lamb’s book of life.
2. You have come to a different MESSAGE.
Vs. 22b-23 – “You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in
joyful assembly for the church of the firstborn.”
a. The musicians - in comparison to the “doom and gloom” of Mount
Sinai, there are thousands upon thousands of angels praising God in
heaven.
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1. Actually the Greek suggests ten thousand times ten thousand
angels.
2. The heavenly host is in chorus about the joy of salvation.
b. The ministers - all worshipping at the “church of the firstborn.”
1. WHO IS THE FIRST BORN?
a. Colossians 1:15 – calls Jesus “the firstborn over all
creation.”
b. Hebrews 1:6 says - And again, when God brings his
firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels
worship him."
2. Does this text sound familiar – WHEN DID TEN
THOUSAND TIMES TEN THOUSAND SHOUT FOR JOY
AT THE BIRTH OF THE FIRST BORN?
Luke 2:8-14 (read)
3. You have come to a different MEDIATOR.
a. You can approach Mount Zion
1. Not because GOD has changed
a. He STILL has His requirements of holiness and
righteousness.
b. He STILL will punish sin with His wrath.
c. As in Hebrews 12: 28-29 says, “Therefore, since we are
receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be
thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence
and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."
2. But because WE have changed,
a. We are now seen as righteous.
1. Not because of what we have done,
2. but because of what Christ has done for us on
the cross.
a. Did you notice the similarities of the
scene surrounding Mount Sinai and the
scene surrounding the death of Christ?
1. Mt. Sinai
a. Darkness
b. The mountain shook.
2. Golgatha
a. Matthew 27:45 – “From
the sixth hour until the ninth hour
darkness came over all the land.”
b. Matthew 27:51 – “At that
moment the curtain of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth shook and the rocks
split.”
b. On that cross Jesus took upon Himself
the wrath of God.
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1. God has not changed.
2. His demand for holiness has not
changed.
3. He simply placed that wrath on
Jesus instead of us.
b. We are seen as forgiven.
1. His blood was shed instead of mine.
2. His death for mine.
b. JESUS CHANGED OUR APPROACH TO THE MOUNTAIN!
Conclusion:
1. THIS IS MY STRUGGLE AT CHRISTMAS.
a. Why do I preach on such a depressing, morose topic such as the death of Christ
upon the cross at Christmas?
1. Because THAT WAS THE JOY that was sung about by the thousands
of angels who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.
2. Look at Luke 2:13-14 - Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth PEACE TO MEN ON WHOM HIS FAVOR
RESTS."
a. Did you notice the word peace?
b. The announcement was given WHILE God’s wrath still
remained on man.
c. There was no peace upon man, only wrath.
3. What the angels were rejoicing about was that we would be transported
from a mountain of wrath – Mount Sinai – to a mountain of joy and peace!
– ALL BECAUSE A BABY WAS BORN IN BETHLEHEM!
a. This baby was born so that He would grow up to take away the
darkness, the judgment, the fear and the guilt.
b. And replace that with love, joy and peace.
c. That is why Hebrews 4:15-16 is SUCH A REVELATION!
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in
every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we
may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of
need.”
b. This message is ANYTHING but depressing!
2. THIS IS THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS.
a. If you don’t know what you have been saved from . . . you will never REALLY
understand the meaning of Christmas.
b. If you ONLY think that Christmas is about peace and joy, you have missed its
message.
c. Christmas IS about peace and joy, but it is about peace and joy because they have
replaced fear and wrath . . . because of Jesus.
d. Look at John 3:36 – “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever
rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
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3. THIS IS THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS.
a. The gift of Christmas is that Jesus came to take that wrath for you.
b. Don’t get so caught up with the peace and joy of Christmas that you forget to
thank Him for not having to experience the wrath of God.
R.C. Sproul – The Holiness of God, his testimony of how he became a Christian.
I was compelled to leave the room. A deep, undeniable summons disturbed my sleep;
something holy called me. The only sound was the rhythmic ticking of the clock on my desk. It
seemed vague and unreal, as if it were in a chamber, submerged under fathoms of water. I had
reached the beginning edge of slumber, where the line between consciousness and
unconsciousness is blurred. I was suspended in that moment when one hangs precariously on the
edge, a moment when sounds from the outside world still intrude on the quietness of one’s brain,
that moment just before surrender to the night occurs. Asleep, but not yet asleep. Awake, but
not alert. Still vulnerable to the inner summons that said, “Get up. Get out of this room.”
The gears of the clock atop Old Main Tower began to grind, and the arms met and
embraced vertically. I heard the dull groan of the machinery a split second before the chimes
began to ring. Four musical tones signaled the full hour.
The chapel was in the shadow of Old Main Tower. The door was made of heavy oak
with a Gothic arch. I swung it open and entered the narthex. The door fell shut behind me with
a clanging sound that reverberated from the stone walls of the name.
The echo startled me. It was a strange contrast to the sounds of daily chapel services,
where the opening and closing of the doors were muffled by the sounds of students shuffling to
their assigned places. Now the sound of the door was amplified into the void of midnight.
I moved slowly and deliberately toward the chancel steps. The sound of my shoes
against the stone floor evoked terror-filled images of German soldiers marching in hobnailed
boots along cobblestone streets. Each step resounded down the center aisle as I reached the
carpet-covered chancel.
There I sank to my knees. I had reached my destination. I was ready to meet the
source of the summons that had disturbed my rest.
I was in a posture of prayer, but I had nothing to say. I knelt there quietly, allowing
the sense of the presence of a holy God to fill me. The beat of my heart was telltale, a thumpthump against my chest. An icy chill started at the base of my spine and crept up my neck.
Fear swept over me. I fought the impulse to run from the foreboding presence that gripped me.
The terror passed, but soon it was followed by another wave. This wave was
different. It flooded my soul with unspeakable peace, a peace that brought instant rest and
repose to my troubled spirit. At once I was comfortable. I wanted to linger there. To say
nothing. To do nothing. Simply to bask in the presence of God.
That moment was life transforming. Something deep in my spirit was being settled
once for all. From this moment there could be no turning back; there could be no erasure of the
indelible imprint of its power. I was alone with God. A holy God. An awesome God. A God
who could fill me with terror in one second and with peace in the next. I knew in that hour
that I had tasted of the Holy Grail. Within me was born a new thirst that could never be fully
satisfied in this world. I resolved to learn more, to pursue this God who lived in dark Gothic
cathedrals and who invaded my dormitory room to rouse me from complacent slumber.
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