Reasons for the Season ● Part 2 | "What is the reason for the season?"

Have you ever wondered “What is God like?”, “What does God like?”, or maybe… “Who does God like?” Believe it or not the birth of Jesus addresses all three.

NOTE: The following content is a raw transcript and has not been edited for grammar, punctuation, or word usage.

Today we're in part two of our series, Reasons for the Season. Reasons for the Season. We said at the beginning, last time we were together when we started this, that no doubt by now you have seen the billboards, the signs, or the clings, or maybe you have a Christmas tree ornament at home that says, "Jesus is the reason for the season," and the sentiment being, of course, we need to keep Christ in Christmas, and Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas. I get all of that, but if Jesus is correct, and I always think Jesus is correct, by the way, if Jesus is correct and if the authors of the New Testament are correct, Jesus isn't actually the reason for the season. You are actually the reason for the season, and I'm the reason for the season, because if you weren't such a mess, no offense, and if I wasn't such a mess, no offense, and if the world wasn't such a mess, there would've been no need for Christmas, but the messiness of the world is what paved the way and created the context for God to do something extraordinary.

As we talked about last time, to bring about the birth of Messiah, the birth of a king. The birth of Jesus was for your benefit, and the birth of Jesus was for my benefit. It benefited us in many ways, and in this series we're talking specifically about three, three specific reasons for the season. We looked at the first one last time. We said that Jesus came to bless the world, that as a result of Jesus, the world would be better off and people would be better off, and we talked about that last time. We talked about the fact, and I said to you, because of you and what you do in our communities and what you do around the world, the world is better off simply because of you as a group of Jesus followers, that the world is better off because of Jesus. We talked about that. Today we're going to talk about the second reason. It's a little bit more personal, a little bit more gritty, something that's easy to miss, even if you consider yourself a Christian and have been a Christian for a long time.

But one of the reasons that Jesus came that he was born on Christmas. The reason we celebrate Christmas is that Jesus came to demonstrate what God is like, to demonstrate what God is like. This was a theme of his teaching and a theme of his ministry, but I'm telling you, I know for me, at times I forget this. I feel like, as I listen to Christians and read what Christians say, what they complain about, and how they respond to things, I think, "Wait. Have you not been paying attention to Jesus? Because the reason he came was to demonstrate and to illustrate what God is like, and it's easy to have all kinds of ideas about what God is like, and Jesus came to clarify that for us." In fact, the truth is we all have some concept of what God is like. In fact, you may be of a different Christian or a different, excuse me, a different religious tradition, and you have some concept of God.

When you picked your God, something comes to mind, but here's what you already know, is you can be wrong about what you think God is like.The reason you know that is because you have changed your mind about what you think God is like, and both things you thought can't be right. You have changed the way you've thought about God. So it's possible to have an idea of what God is like and to be wrong. Case in point, the Apostle, Paul. The Apostle, Paul actually wrote half the New Testament, but as you know, he steps onto the pages of history, not as the apostle Paul, but as Saul of Tarsus who hated Christians, and here's the interesting thing. Before he met Jesus, before he met Jesus, he was sure he was right about God, and he was sure he was right with God. Absolutely sure, because he was a Pharisee.

He'd say, "Saul, do you know what God is like?" "Of course I know what God is like. I've been trained by the best." "And Saul, do you feel like you're right with God?" "Of course I'm right with God."

And then, Saul of Tarsus came to the sudden realization, in the course of half of an afternoon, came to the sudden realization that he did not know what God was like, and he was not right with God. He was neither right about God, nor right with God, and what changed his mind was not some intangible thing that happened out there as it related to this mystery of God. It all changed when he met and had an encounter with the person of Jesus. This is amazing. I don't want to rush by it. After years of theological training, one encounter with Jesus, and the whole thing gets turned upside down and turned inside out, and he would say, "You know what? For all my life since I was a little boy, I thought I was right about God, and I thought I was right with God, and I was wrong on both accounts." He went from this description of himself before he met Jesus. He said this. "As for righteousness." In other words, as for doing the right stuff and being the right kind of person, based on the law, faultless, faultless.

He said, "Yeah, if you'd met me before Jesus, I would've told you I was faultless. I was as perfect as you could possibly be. I kept the law better than anybody. I was right about God and right with God." Then, he met Jesus, and this is his new biography. Christ Jesus came into the world of saved sinners, of whom I'm the worst.

It's like, "Wait, what happened? I thought you were the most righteous person on the planet. You were the most righteous Hebrew in Palestine at the time, and now you're telling us you're the worst among sinners?"

And he would tell you, "I'll tell you what happened. I thought I was right about God. I thought I was right with God, and then I met and encountered the person of Jesus."

He summarizes it in this little line in one of his letters that is so powerful, that is so packed. It's so meaty. I'm just going to touch on it briefly, but it's amazing. Here's what he said. He's referring to the old covenant, the relationship that God established through a covenant with ancient Israel and all the traditions and all the things that went along with it. Then, along with that, he's also referring to, basically, all the world religions that were looking up, trying to figure out God and had all these customs, practices, dietary laws, and ways they did sacrifice, and referring to all of that. Here's what he writes after encountering Jesus. These, he's talking about all of these. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. These were just a shadow." Now, you can tell a lot about something by the shadow that it casts, right? But you can't tell everything about something by the shadow that it casts, because shadows could be deceiving. I brought a picture of a shadow. This is Sandra and me walking.

She has long legs. They're not that long, and our arms are not that short, because shadows distort. Shadows leave too much to the imagination. So Paul says, "All that came before, it wasn't wrong. It was just incomplete. It was like signs that were pointing to something, but it wasn't the something. It was the shadow that was being cast by something, but it wasn't the something." Then Paul would say, "Tell you, and that's why I thought I was right about God and right with God, and then I had an encounter with the shadow caster, and everything changed for me. The reality," he says. "The reality, however, these are a shadow of the things that were to come, but the reality, however," this is so amazing, the truth about the thing that cast the shadow is found in a person, that's found in Christ." Until the arrival of Jesus, and this is the reason for the season, until the arrival of Jesus, everybody guessed. There was so much mystery.

There were hands and shadows. Every world religion, every religion, every ancient pagan religion, all of them were trying to figure out something, because they knew there was something beyond them, but they had to guess. They had to strive for, they had to try to figure it out, but they all fell short because all they had were shadows. Then, the first Christmas, God came, the shadow caster came to dwell with us, to demonstrate for us what God is really like, who God likes, what God likes, and how to be right with God, the Father. Now, there will always be mystery, and the reason there will always be mystery is this, that God always has to accommodate to our capacity. God is like a good father. He always accommodates to our capacity. For example, where do babies come from? It depends on who's asking. Is it a 5-year-old? Is it a 15-year-old? Is it a 25-year-old? How is it? How do you get 600 plus tons of airbus airborne? Who's asking? A 5-year-old, a 15-year-old, a 25-year-old, right?

That we accommodate to people's capacity, and God in his wisdom and mercy, and this will explain so much of the Old Testament, especially God accommodated to the capacity of people, and then, on Christmas, at Christmas, the reason it became Christmas, God decided to reveal himself in the clearest way possible. He entered the world, and he entered the world because he wanted you to know what he is like, and he wanted me to know what he was like. More importantly, he wanted the world to know what he's like. He sent us the best version of himself. He sent us himself. Here's how Jesus explained it. This is at the end of his ministry. As I said a few minutes ago, hours from this particular incident, this conversation, Jesus is going to be arrested, falsely accused, and crucified. He's gathered with his apostle, the 12 for their final Passover meal. They're in Jerusalem, and these guys thought they were coming to Jerusalem and he was going to throw off the rabbi robe and proclaim himself Messiah and king, and they're going to expel the Romans, and life is going to be great.

They're close to the kings, so things are going to go well with them, and Jesus begins talking. Again, it seemed like nonsense. It's like if things are as bad as you're making them sound, why did we come to Jerusalem? We should have stayed in Galilee, where it's safe. He announces that he's about to be betrayed. They're like, "Well, if you knew that already, why did you lead us here?"

He says, "I'm going to be betrayed. I'm going to leave you, and you can't go with me."

And Peter says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, I'm going with you, and I'm willing to die for you." And Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. You can't go with me, and I hate to tell you, you're not willing to die for me." So much tension in the room.

And Jesus smiles in the midst of all of this, and he says, "Guys, don't let your hearts be troubled."

They're like, "Are you kidding? We are completely confused as to why we're here and what you're talking about." Then, he says this. "You believe in God, don't you?" They're like, "Yeah, since we were little boys, we've believed in God." He says, "Believe also in me. Trust me, like you trust God." That's crazy. He is equating himself with God, and John, who was there and wrote all this down, would lean out of history, out the window, history window and say to us, "I know. I was there. It was crazy."

But here's the thing, four chapters earlier, he raised a man from the dead, not freshly dead, four days dead. And so, when he would say these things, as crazy as it was, as blasphemous as it was, as impossible as it was for us to get our minds around and our hearts around, we just stayed and we listened. Jesus says, "My father's house has many rooms." Now, I grew up, the King James version of this says, "In my father's house are many mansions," so when I'm a kid, I'm like, "A mansion. I mean, I'd seen a mansion. There's a lot of mansions, and when we get together in heaven, it's a bunch of mansions, streets of gold." And unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, better, this word really should not be translated to mansions. It's really rooms, which is kind of a bummer. I mean, you go from a mansion to room. I got a room already. I was hoping, anyway.

So Jesus says, "In my father's house, in my father's abode are all these smaller abodes," and he says, "If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you, I'm going to go there," and again, he says, "And eventually, when I go there, you're going to join me, but Peter, not now." Then, he goes on. You can see why this was confusing. They're like, "Wait a minute. We just got to Jerusalem. I thought you were going to be Messiah. Now you're going to leave and you're going to your father's house? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come back and I'll take you with to be with me."

"Not yet, Peter, that you also may be where I am." He's talking about his death. He's talking about his resurrection. He's talking about like, "I'm going to go see my dad. Then, I'm going to come back and get you. We'll all go see my dad." They're like, "What are you talking about? If you're talking about your death, how is it you talk so casually about going and coming?" Then, he says, "You know, guys. You've been with me for three, three-and-a-half years. You know the way to the place where I'm going, right?" Thomas, it's like the rest of them. It's like, "Is anybody going to say anything?" "Hey, no. We don't know where you're going, and since we don't know where you're going, we couldn't possibly know the way."

Now, pause right here for a moment. This is so important. One of the reasons that we believe the gospels, one of the reasons we believe the gospels reflect actual accounts of actual events, there are reliable account of actual events and actual conversations, is because the authors of the New Testament do not write themselves into the story looking very good. They write themselves into the story as confused, constantly right up to the end, because they were confused constantly right up to the end, and you would've been too, and I would've been too. Even with hindsight and with the context for all this, we missed this extraordinary point that Jesus is about to make, that changes everything once we embrace it with our hearts, in our minds, in our thinking, and in our approach to life, and Jesus answered, "Hey, we don't know the way. How can we know the way?" And Jesus answers famous verse alert, famous verse alert, "I am the way. I am the way." They're like, "Wait. You're talking about going to the father."

And Jesus is like, "Look, this isn't complicated. Just focus. I am the way. I'm the way to God, and I'm the truth about God, and I'm the life of God. No one understands. No one gets to. No one figures out. No one reasons their way that no one gets God unless they come through me. Here's what he was saying. Guys, you'll miss the Father if you attempt to find the father anyway other than me." I'm not just the way, and again, we read these verses and these have been contextualized in terms of you get to go to heaven when you die, and certainly there are salvific themes here, but within the context, here's what Jesus is saying. "Don't look past me. Don't stop short of me. This is as good as it gets," which leads to what he says next, which is the reason for the season. It's the reason that you should consider or reconsider following Jesus. He says this, "If you know me," this is either blasphemy on a scale that there's no words for or it must be true. "If you know me, you will know my father as well, and from now on," he says to them in the room, "And from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him." They're like, "We do? We have?"

Jesus is like, "Yes. Why do you think I stuck around? Why do you think I dragged you boys around?" The implication he's saying is this, "You know what the Father is like. You know what the father is like, because you know what I'm like. I'm as good as it gets. I'm as close as it gets. I'm as clear as it gets. I came to reduce the mystery, and I came to add some personality, because God who loves you, wants you to know what he is like, and from this point forward, the world will know, because God came to dwell among you. He became one of you so you could know what he's like, who he likes, what he likes, what he values, and how much he loves you," and they still don't get it, and I don't think we would either. I think we still have a hard time getting this. I get confused, and I get discouraged, and I want to give up when I lose sight of this.

When I try to figure out, "What is God up to out there somewhere? What is God up to in the circumstances of life? What's God up to in my heart? What's God up to in relationships? What's God up to? What's God up to?" The moment I depart from the person of Jesus that we discover and the gospels that I try to figure God out, apart from Jesus, it gets confusing and I get confused. It's why he came and lived among us. If you're looking anywhere other than Jesus, this is bold, and I wouldn't say this if Jesus hadn't said it 20 different ways, if you're looking anywhere other than Jesus, in an attempt to understand God, you're looking in the wrong place. That's why there's never any peace, and that's why there's always more confusion, and that's why you try to factor your circumstances into your little, bitty understanding of God, and it never seems to fit. For some of you, look up here. For some of you, it's why you lost your faith.

I understand that, because somebody gave you God about this big with four or five adjectives and a whole bunch of different names. Then, there was life, and the rigors of adulthood squashed that childlike faith because it was built around concepts, and Jesus says, "No. Look at me. Listen to me. Watch me, and you'll see God, your Father, in action," to which the response is, but that's so exclusive. No, it's clarifying. It's clarifying. Well, at this point in the conversation, Philip's head is just spinning. It's like, "Okay. We believe you, but we have no idea what you're talking about. We believe you, but we don't understand you," and this is the moment in the conversation where he just interrupts and blurts out. The text says that Philip said, "Lord, okay, okay, okay. You're coming. You're going. We can't go. We're going to show up later. Why are we here? Look, look. Just show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. We don't need you to keep talking and explaining. We've heard all the stories and the parables."

I mean, John and Matthew, you wrote most of those down, "But look, we just want to know the Father is with us. Just show us the Father. We need a sign to know he's here." And Jesus is like, "Show you the Father? What do you think I've been doing for three years? It's the reason I came." Then, he looks at Philip. I think he smiles. He understands. "Philip,don't you know me, Philip? After I've been among you such a long time? Philip, look at me eye to eye. Anyone who has seen me," this is so bold. What if this is true? What if what he is about to say is true? If what Jesus is about to say is true, we should wake up every day and just stay in the gospels, "I want to know what God is like. I want to know what God is like. I want to know what God is like."

If anyone who has seen me has seen the Father and there's no place else you can look to see the Father, how can you say, "Show us the Father?" Then, he says, "Don't you? Come on. Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me after all you guys have seen? The words that I say to you, the words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. I didn't come here, so it's all about me. The words that I speak to you, I don't speak on my own authority. It is the Father living in me who is doing his work. If you've seen me, you've seen God in action. If you've been watching me, you've been watching God in action. If you've been listening to me, you have heard the words of God." Earlier, he would say, "I do nothing on my own initiative, because I am here to reveal the Father in the most clarifying, certain terms imaginable. I came as one of you to live among you." What if that is true?

He says, "Believe me, when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves," so what's the reason for this season? It is to remove some mystery. It's to add some personality. It's to bring clarity. It's to reduce the distance. You want to know what God is like, what God likes, who God likes, how God would respond? Jesus would say, "Don't look out there, and don't look in there. Look at Jesus." Now, it may help to know, after all that, they still don't get it. They didn't buy it. I mean, how could they? They're in the room with a person, a human being who claims to be God in a body, and they just can't get it, and Judas, who was there for most of this, betrays him that very night, and later they're in the garden, and Jesus is pouring out his heart praying. When Judas and the Temple Guard show up to arrest Jesus, what do they do? Stand by their man, God in a body?

No, they all run, because they do not believe, and I bet we wouldn't either, but here's the interesting thing. Here's the undeniable thing. These are the same men who would ensure that these claims, the claims of Jesus, would survive the first century. These men, along with the female, the women followers of Jesus in the first century, those men and women were the ones who would assure that the teaching of Jesus, the words of Jesus, the behavior, the words and works of Jesus would survive the first century and be documented in a way that we would receive them in a future generation. They were the ones that assured that happened. Why? Because after the resurrection, they were convinced Jesus and the Father are one. Like father, like son. They were convinced, this is important. They were convinced that Jesus didn't simply have the best explanation of God. They were convinced that Jesus is the best explanation of God, our father. And the boys in the room that night, if they could speak today, you know what they would tell us?

They would say, "Hey, don't draw conclusions about God. Do not draw conclusions about God based on your circumstances." That's what we did. We looked at circumstances, and the puzzle pieces just didn't fit. That's a mistake. Don't draw conclusions about the love of God, the compassion of God, the mercy of God. Don't draw conclusions about the wisdom of God and especially about the unconditional love of God from your circumstances. That is a mistake. It's why we abandoned him in the end, and don't depend on your traditions. Traditions are like signs. They point to something. Traditions are things that kind of cast a shadow. They're hints, but don't lean so hard on your traditions, that you miss the thing behind the tradition. Don't lean so hard on the shadows and the hints, that you miss the thing that cast the shadow, because the reality is not a concept. The reality is not theology. The reality is a person, God and flesh who came to dwell among men who entered this world just like we did as a baby.

They would say, "Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One other thing. Don't look within, because your wounded, experience-shaped heart doesn't always tell you the truth. Your wounded, limited experience shaped heart is easily misled. If you want to know what God is like, if you want to know what God likes, if you want to know how much God loves you," he says, "You look to Jesus, because God is like Jesus. The reason he came, what if this is true? The reason he came was to illustrate, and then demonstrate, and then communicate what God is like, who God is, and all those men and women in the first century who got it all wrong, and then eventually got it all right, would assure you that he loves you, that you are the reason, at the end of the day, that you are the reason for this season." One of the best things you could do in this Christmas season, I want to challenge you to do it, if you have a Bible, to find your Bible.

If you don't have a Bible, you can download a Bible. There are Bible apps. To find a Bible and go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the fourth gospel, and read the Gospel of John with this question in mind, "What do I learn about the Father from the Son? What do I learn about the Father from the Son?" If Jesus came to reveal the Father, if Jesus came to add personality to God. If Jesus came to disclose to us in the best possible way, in the way that we would best understand what God is like, then as I read this gospel, what do I learn about the Father from the Son?" While you will learn a lot of things, one thing you will be assured of is that he was the sign to assure you that he's here, and he is the sign to assure you that he cares, and that he knows the details of your life and he cares about you.

It's John, who later on would pin those powerful words that most of us memorized or hurt his children, "For God so loved you that he gave to the world his one and only son, that whoever trust in him would never be lost to God, and God would never be lost to him or her, because Jesus came to explain the Father." So however that strikes you, believable or unbelievable, I want to challenge you. Find the Gospel of John, and read it with this question in mind. What do I learn about the Father from the Son? Because he is the perfect representation of God, our Father. God, our Father, who loves you.