James Merritt - Christmas to The Rescue
When I was a senior in high school, I went to church with a man. God rest his soul. He’s not here. That’s one reason I waited to tell the story. His name… I’m not making this up. His name was Grover Dover. That was his name, Grover Dover. Rumor has it, he had a brother named Over and another named Rover. I dunno if that’s true or not, but his name was Grover Dover. Grover was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Let me just kind of put it to you that way. But when I was a senior in high school, he came up to me on a Christmas Eve service, and said, «Hey, I wanna go ahead and give you both your graduation present and your Christmas present at the same time». And I said, yeah, okay. Well, he gave me a tie, but it wasn’t your classy Brooks Brothers kind of a tie that you would tie. It was a clip-on tie.
And you may say, «What is that»? Well, back in the day, one of the things that was really hot was a clip on tie. Now I’m gonna show you this tie, okay? I’m gonna put it up on the screen, but now let me just say this to you. There’s only been two ugly ties in the history of clothing. That’s both of them. He gave me this tie. That tie was given to me over 50 years ago. Okay? It’s hideous. I mean, it’s just hideous. It’s white, pink, blue, burgundy. It kinda looks like an Auburn uniform or something like that, okay? I mean, it’s just ugly. It’s just horrendous. It’s just horrific. Well, when I got it, my dad, especially my dad and mom, when I brought it home and opened it, I mean they just laughed their head off. And they immediately said, «You need to wear that tie. You need to wear it». In fact, my mom said, «Why don’t you wear that to your graduation»? And I said, «Well, I’m gonna tell you two reasons why I won’t. Number one, I’ll get beat up. Number two, I’ll never get another date».
So I’ve never worn that tie, never clipped it on, and I’ve waited all these years for this reason. If you live long enough and you go through enough Christmases, you’re gonna get a gift that it will be an Academy award-winning performance if you act like you like it. I’m just telling you right now. So let me tell you what I did. I came up with a better idea. While my mom and dad were alive, and this was before some of my boys were born. We used to have big family Christmas get together. Every year, I started the first year. I didn’t wear it, but I’ll tell you what I did do. I wrapped it up and I gave it to an unsuspecting family member. And every year, everybody came to our Christmas get together with a dread in their heart. They knew they were gonna get that tie. They didn’t know what box it would be in. They didn’t know where it’s, but they were gonna be stuck with that tie.
We passed that tie around year after year after year. And I’m just telling you, we all have gotten those gifts that, on the outside, let’s just be honest, you’re lying through your teeth. You’re going, «Oh, isn’t that nice»? But inside you’re saying, «What a moron. I can’t believe you’d give me something like that gift». Okay, we’ve all had that kind of a gift, which makes the other kind of gift so meaningful. Because what you love is when you get that gift and when the moment you open it, you know somebody put a lot of planning into that gift, and a lot of creativity into that gift, and really kind of thinking about what kind of a gift do I think they would like, a gift that you want, a gift that you would need. Maybe it might even be a gift sometimes, this is the cool one, is when you get a gift that you would’ve never thought getting for yourself, but somehow they came up for it, and you knew that that gift was just for you. And we’ve all received a gift just like that.
Now, if you haven’t. I’ve also learned that some people will go out of their way to make sure that they get that gift. I heard the other day about two little boys, they were spending the night at their grandmother’s house. It was the week before Christmas. So the grandmother said… It was late. She put them to bed. She said, «Okay, boys, I want you to say your prayers now before you go to sleep». And so she went to her bedroom. Well, the younger boy went first, but he didn’t say his prayer. He yelled his prayer. And this is what he prayed, just like this, «Dear God, I want a bicycle for Christmas. Amen». His brother looked at him. He said, «Why are you yelling? God’s not deaf». He said, «No, but I think grandma is».
Now, we all have a way of kinda making sure that we get that gift, and I thought to myself as I read that story, here’s the great news about Christmas. God’s not deaf. And God doesn’t sleep. No, he doesn’t. And let me tell you what God did 2,000 years ago. God gave us a gift without even asking for it, gave the entire world the only Christmas gift we ever really need. By the way, it was planned for us before we were born. It was prepared for us to give us exactly what we need. It was provided for us free of charge. And best of all, it is a personal gift, tailor-made for you, tailor-made for me. It is absolutely the perfect gift for everyone, and guess where we find it? We find it in the story of Christmas.
So I want you to read. You don’t have to read it out loud. We’re gonna put it up on the screen, but I wanna read to you the classic Christmas story. It’s out of the gospel of Luke chapter two. I’m gonna read it. And while I’m reading it, I want you, just for fun, see if you can pick out the word that I’m going to talk about tonight. Okay, Let’s read it together In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to their own town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.
There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord showed around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, «Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you who is the Messiah, the Lord, a Savior who’s Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You’ll find the baby wrapped in cloths lying in a manger». Well, suddenly a great company of the heavenly appeared with the angel praising God, saying, «Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rest». When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, «Let’s go to Bethlehem. See this thing that’s happened, which the Lord has told us about».
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. So, Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that heard had seen which were just as they had been told. Now, obviously, there are several words you might say, «I think that might be the word. I think this could be the word. I think that might be the word». But there’s one word tonight I want us to focus on. There’s one word I want to come just full stop. I wanna camp out. I wanna focus like a laser beam on just this one word, and that word is found in the 11th verse, and this is the word. Today in the town of David a… Say that out loud with me. Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.
That word, savior, in one word, describes the greatest gift you and I and everyone before us and everyone after us can ever receive, and let me tell you why. In that one little word, it tells us three things about what this Christmas baby was, and is, and will be that makes Christmas what it is. This is gonna be very short, so listen quick. Ready? Savior, number one, tells us who He is. Savior tells us who He is. Now, it is not coincidental that of the titles of the first word in this list of titles, Jesus has given this word savior. This is the word. That’s the very first word. That’s not incidental. That is fundamental. Why, because that’s the first thing Jesus is. He is the Savior.
As a matter of fact, let me tell you something. I’ve never noticed this before until I worked on this message a few weeks ago. You go back and read the first 20 verses of the story of the birth of Jesus. And if you’re really reading it and paying attention, there’s a question you would be forced to ask when you get to the end of that verse, those verses. What’s the baby’s name? 'Cause we’re not given a name. We’re given titles. He’s Savior, He’s Messiah, He’s Lord, but you know, we’re here… His name, why don’t you hear his name? Well, you did, but you just don’t realize it because the meaning of the word savior is His name. That is what it means. His name means savior. You say, «How do you know that»? Do you remember what the angel said to Joseph before Jesus was born over in the gospel of Matthew? Here’s what he said. He said, «She will give birth to a son. You’re to give Him the name Jesus». Why? «Because he will save his people from their sins».
Now, I’m gonna give you a little bit of a Greek lesson for just a minute. The name Jesus is almost a transliteration of the Greek word Iēsous. Iēsous is the Greek word. Jesus is the English word. The Hebrew form of Jesus is Yeshua. That comes from the personal name of God, which is Yahweh, but all those names put together simply mean to save, to deliver, or to rescue. So in other words, Iēsous or Yeshua means God saves or God rescues. So now when I read the word Savior, I say, «Okay, that’s who you are. You’re my rescuer. You’re my deliverer. You are my Savior». Now, it’s very interesting. Even though the New Testament represents only about 25% of the entire Bible, the name Jesus appears more than any other name in the Bible, it occurs over 1,600 times.
Now you think about this, God writes this book through authors. God’s the author, men wrote it. But God authors this book, 66 books. And of all the names that you read in that book, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, Daniel, the prophets, Paul, Peter, the apostles, of all the names, the name that occurs more than any other name, 1,600 times, is the name Jesus. Why is that? Because God wants us to know something about this name, and that is every time you hear the name Jesus, every time you speak the name Jesus, every time you read the name Jesus, every time you hear somebody talk about the name Jesus, think about this word, savior. He is the Savior. He is the rescuer. That’s who he is. But then there’s something else in that word. Savior not only tells us who He is, savior tells us why He came.
Now, here’s what… Let’s go back to Matthew one just for a moment and listen again to what Matthew heard, what Matthew recorded. «She will give birth to a son. You’re to give him the name Jesus». Why? «Because He will save his people from their sins». So now we know why the angel said, «Don’t call him Charlie, don’t call him Joe, don’t call him Jacob, don’t call him Michael. You call him Jesus because here’s specifically why He came, because He will save His people from their sins». Now, I’m gonna give you a question in a minute. Before I do it, if you’re one of those folks that don’t come to church but maybe a time or two a year, maybe if this is your first time since Easter or you haven’t been in church in years, that’s fine.
I’m glad you came. I’m not here to throw down on you. I’m glad that you came. I’ll take any time you’ll come. You’re welcome here. But you may not be used to a little churchy language, so I’m gonna ask you a question in a moment. It may sound a little churchy, but it’s an important question. I believe the single most important question you can ever ask another human being… If I were talking to the President of the United States, I’d love to ask this question. If I were talking to Vladimir Putin, I’d like to ask this question. If I were talking to the mullah and the imam of Gaza strip, I’d love to ask this question. If I was talking to Benjamin Netanyahu, I would love to ask this one question. And here’s the question: Are you saved?
That’s the question I’d love to ask because only two kinds of people in the world, saved and lost. Not black and white, not rich and poor, not Democrat, Republican. You’re either saved or you’re lost. And again, I realize that’s churchy language. So let me just clarify what I mean by that. It’s actually a biblical term. It’s used over 150 times in the New Testament. And if you’re like men grew up in a country church, which I did not far from here, you sing a lot of old hymns. And if you sing a lot of old hymns, you will know that they sing a lot about being saved and about being redeemed. So it might be good for you to know that the Hebrew word yasha and the Greek word sozo are both translated saves or saved. And by the way, it can also be translated as rescued.
Now, if you’re tracking with me, you ought to be asking yourself a question right now that you may not know the answer to, and that is, what do I need to be saved from? You say I need to be rescued. You said Jesus is a rescuer. What do I need to be rescued from? We don’t have to wonder. We’re told. He will save His people from their sins. Now, as much as we love the Christmas story, and as much as we thank God for the Christmas story, I’m gonna be very honest. You can read Luke chapter 2:1-20 every day for the rest of your life, but you will never really understand that Christmas, what Christmas is, till you understand that the beginning of the story is how we can be rescued from our sin.
Now, I realize when you came to church tonight, I guarantee you that a lot of you would be thinking right now, perhaps, «I wish I hadn’t come tonight. I just wanted to hear the Christmas story. I just wanna hear about gentle Jesus, meek and mild. I’d just like to walk out here with jingle bells and just be left alone. I certainly didn’t think we talk about this word called sin». So I wanna make two things clear and hopefully we’ll be on the right side of this. I will be the first one to to tell you this. If you go to a church and all that church ever talks about is sin, that’s all they ever talk about, is sin, you probably are going to the wrong church. But I also wanna tell you, if you go to a church and they never talk to you about sin, you’re definitely going to the wrong church.
Now I don’t wanna get neither ditch. I’m not gonna major on it. I’m not gonna minor on it. I wanna be right where I need to be. Having said that, let me just make sure you understand that the primary message of Christmas and the primary message of the church, unlike what you hear out there in the world, it’s not bad news. It’s good news. But it’s the good news that we need because of the bad news. The bad news is we’re all sinners. We all need to be rescued. There’s something I knew about every person that came to the first service, I know about every person in this service. Some of you I’ve never met. Some of you I may not meet tonight. Some of you I may never meet ever.
There’s something I know about every single person I meet. I don’t have to know whether you went to college or not. I don’t have to know what kinda parents you had. I don’t have to know what you do for a living. I don’t have to know what your political affiliation is. I don’t even know anything about that. Here’s one thing I know about you. I’m gonna say it real bluntly. You’re jacked up. See, that’s not nice to say. It’s just true. You say, «Well, you are jacked up». Yeah, I am. You’re listening to a jacked up preacher. We’re all jacked up. We’re just jacked up in different ways. The Bible calls that sin. But the good news, here’s the good news of Christmas, Jesus came to rescue us from sin. Jesus came to unjack us. Jesus came to say, «Hey, I think, I know I have the solution to your problem».
Now, to be clear, that’s not the only reason that Jesus came. He came to give us life here that’s abundant, and joyful, and purposeful, and meaningful. One of the reasons why I’m so glad I get up every morning knowing I know Jesus, one of the reasons I get so excited about being a believer is I’m sometimes unhappy. I’ll give you an example. About three Saturdays ago, I was down in the Dome in Atlanta. I left very unhappy. It’s a good thing that I didn’t see the refs in an alley that night. But I live full of joy 'cause my joy never ends, because I know the one who gives me joy, unspeakable and full of glory. So Jesus did come to give us joy. He also came to give us a home in heaven. He also came so that we could have the Holy Spirit to lead us, and guide us, and direct us so that we could be what we ought to be, and we could do what we ought to do. But I don’t want you to miss the primary reason that He came.
The Bible says He came to rescue us and save us from our sins. So when you hear the word savior, you say, «Okay, I know who He is. He’s the Savior. I know why he came. He came to save me from my sins». But there’s one last thing I want you to understand. We’re done. That word savior tells me who He is. That word savior tells me why He came. But that word savior tells us what we need. 'Cause I want you to hear the next thing. Get in real close. The one thing, the only thing that will keep you and me from ever having a relationship with God is sin. That’s all. The only barrier between you, and God, and me, and God is sin. Therefore, the only thing, the one thing that we need is a Savior who can rescue us from our sin.
Now you know why that word came first. Messiah didn’t come first. Lord didn’t come first. The angel made it plain, savior comes first. So we read it again. A Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. Yes, He is the messiah. He is the Christ of the Jewish people. He’s exactly the one the Old Testament prophets talked about. He is the Messiah. He’s also the Lord. He’s Lord of everything in the universe, everyone in the universe. He’s Lord in everything. He’s Lord over everything. He’s Lord far everything. But first, he is the Savior who came to rescue us. And we need to be rescued, do you know why? We’ve got a sickness we can’t heal. We’ve got a problem that we cannot solve. We’ve got an enemy we cannot defeat. We’ve got a barrier we cannot break. We’ve got a trap we cannot escape, and that is called sin.
And so Jesus comes as a Savior. He said, «I can break down that barrier. I can heal that sickness. I can free you from that trap. I can break down that wall». And that gift, here’s what I love, that gift, the Bible says, is for you. It’s monogrammed with your initials. It’s personalized. Listen to what it says again. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, to you, and to you, and to you, and to you, and to you, and to you, and to me. I’ve got my name on it. You’ve got your name on it. It’s custom-made just for you. You say it’s all the same gifts. Yes it is because we’re all the same people, and we all need the same Savior, and that’s why He came. Because if our greatest need had been success, God would’ve sent a life coach.
If our greatest need had been information, God would’ve sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would’ve sent a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would’ve sent us a financial advisor. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would’ve sent us an entertainer. But God knew 2,000 years ago, our greatest need is forgiveness, and He sent a Savior. Unto us is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord. So I’m gonna leave with this and we’re gonna pray. Every single person on this planet, without exception, yesterday, today, and tomorrow, every single person needs a Savior. Every single person needs saving. Every single person needs salvation.
I love the way Rick Warren put it. Rick Warren said it out to… That’s what I’m gonna include. This is so good. Here’s what Rick Warren said. He said, «You don’t need a Savior just because you may die tonight. You need a Savior because you have to live tomorrow». Christmas, for you to understand Christmas, for you to enjoy Christmas, for you to truly experience Christmas, you better say four words. You’ve got to say four words. You need to say four words. You must say four words. And it’s the four words I said in a theater 30 miles from here when I was nine years old. And when I said those four words, it radically changed my life, and here’s those four words. I need a Savior. I need a Savior. Sir, you need a Savior. Ma’am, you need a Savior. «But I’m the president of the PTA. I pay my taxes». Stop. You need a Savior. I need a Savior. That’s why Christmas is for everybody. Today is born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
So would you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment? And I wanna ask just one question, and this is so important. And I don’t want you to raise your hand unless you mean it. If you don’t mean it, just keep it in your pocket. I wonder how many people here, 'cause we had a lot of people at the first service. I wonder how many of you would say tonight you walked in here without a Savior, you’re not ready to meet God. You’re glad that you didn’t meet your end before you got here tonight. And I’m just asking a very simple question. And some of you little boys, little girls, and teenagers, and grown men, grown women, you need to raise your hand right now.
Here’s my question and if this is you, I want you to raise your hand. If you’re one of those people and you would look… You’d be honest… Nobody’s looking but me. If you’d be honest enough to say, «Pastor, I need a Savior. I understand now I’ve got a problem. It’s called sin. I got a sickness I can’t heal, a problem I can’t solve, a barrier I can’t break. I need a Savior».
How many of you right now you’d say that’s me? I need a Savior. Raise your hand up right now real high. Let me see. Hands are going up all over the building. Keep your hands up real high. Let me see them. Don’t be ashamed. Hold those hands up. I see it. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that hand. Okay, I want you to put your hands down. If you’re one of those people that raised your hand, you’re one of those people that raised your hand, I need a Savior, all right, why don’t we take care of it right now? I don’t want you to walk out of here and say, «I need a Savior». I want you to walk over here tonight and say, «I’ve got a Savior. His name is Jesus». So if you raised your hand and you say, «I need a Savior,» I want you to pray this prayer right now. I’m gonna pray out loud. I want you to pray in your heart. Just say:
Lord Jesus, I need a Savior. I am a sinner. I’m lost. I need to be rescued. I have a problem I cannot solve. I have a sickness I cannot heal. I’m telling you tonight, Lord Jesus, I believe you are that Savior. I believe you died from my sins. I believe God raised you from the dead. I believe you’re alive right now, and I’m asking you to become my Savior. I repent and turn away from my sin and I surrender everything that I am to everything that you are. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for hearing my prayer and thank you for becoming my Savior.