If you can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew Chapter 1, we'll be reading from verse 21-25. Matthew Chapter 1, verse 21-25. "So she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel," which translated means "God with us." And Joseph spoke from his sleep, Joseph woke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for continued grace as we celebrate the birth of Christ, Immanuel. Help us to understand the impact of what it is that we celebrate this holiday season. Help us to know the meaning of Christmas, that not only for ourselves, but for all those around us, that we may be a good witness, the Oral Home of Christ.

May your blessing be upon this time, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now that I have children who are a bit older, I am able to get legitimate gifts, where prior to every Christmas, it was just one-way street. So now they have their own jobs, and they have money in their pocket, so each time they come around, they're asking, "What do you want?

You want shoes? You want this? You want that?" I'm actually benefiting from Christmas now. I remember years ago, I forgot how many years, maybe about three years ago, you know, they asked, three or four years, they asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I think I told them I wanted shoes, and they mustered up whatever money that they had, and they bought me a used pair of booster shoes.

You know the Adidas? Ultra Boost. Ultra Boost. Booster, ultra, whatever, right. It's probably one of the most comfortable shoes I had, but I would never wear used shoes, but I wore it for a period because my children got it for me. It's the first time they were able to muster up money and get me something, and so I did my best to wear it as long as possible.

But you know, when our children were younger, they would ask, "What do you want for Christmas?" And I'm sure some of you parents can relate, because we know they don't have resources, they don't have money, and so typically what I would say is I want peace and quiet, right.

And so they know that, "What do you want for Christmas?" It's like, "Well, the only thing that you can afford to give me that I'd want is peace and quiet." Well, how do you get peace and quiet? Just be good to your brothers, good to your sisters, right. Because when the children are young, so much of your energy is given to take care of your kids that any little help is going to be beneficial.

So we would say, okay, you know, it's half joking, but seriously, we say we want some peace and quiet, right, to be good to your brother, to be good to your sister. Christmas is the only holiday where we celebrate someone else's birthday by giving presents to other people other than the person that we celebrate, right.

Christmas is a day we celebrate the birth of Christ, but all of our attention is given to our brothers and sisters and friends and family and to make sure that they're well taken care of. And I think it's appropriate, right. It's appropriate because God spends so much time and energy taking care of us.

What is it that you and I could possibly give to God that He doesn't already have? He doesn't need finances, right. There's nothing that we have that He doesn't already have in abundance, but for us to join Him in taking care of His children that He cares for and loves.

And so this is a special day as we come together and celebrate Jesus's birthday, but I want to make sure that we understand what it is that we are really celebrating. And none of the things that you'll hear today is going to be anything particularly new, how many Christmases that you've gone through.

But I think the depth and the impact of what it is that we talk about this morning is important for us to visit. As Jesus was being prophesied that He was going to come, obviously He was named Jesus, Savior, but He said the title that was given Him was a title that was prophesied in the book of Isaiah, that His name would be Emmanuel.

And Emmanuel basically means that He is God with us, God with us. And it's important for us to understand what that means because as simple as that is, and you've probably heard that word many, many times, sing it every Christmas, but what is the real impact of this? So this morning I want to try to unpack this word Emmanuel and what does that have to do with Christmas.

First meaning behind the title Emmanuel is pretty obvious. It means that Jesus is God. No surprise to any of you, right? You wouldn't be here if you didn't believe that. But the impact of that meaning, again, we live in a culture where that's being challenged and sometimes even inside the church.

Years ago I was out on campus at UCI trying to share the gospel and I met a UCI professor who was challenging us and saying that Jesus never claimed to be God. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be a God, but not God Himself.

At that time I wasn't versed well enough in scripture to be able to open the Bible and argue with him, and I remember going back to my professors at Biola asking, "Can you help me to understand it?" And he opened up a few scriptures and it was crystal clear, but at that time I couldn't.

And I was looking, every time I go on campus I look for him. Now I'm better equipped. But of all the things that I can point out, to me the greatest and the most clearest place where Jesus declares to be God Himself is Matthew chapter, sorry, in John chapter 5, 21 to 23.

This is what he says about Himself. "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes." That statement alone, where Jesus says, "God has the power to give life and so do I." That statement alone would have gotten stoned because only God is the author of life.

And He says, "God has the authority and so do I," in verse 22, "for not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son." Now if the first statement wasn't blasphemous enough, the second statement He says, "I do even what the Father doesn't do.

I have the authority to judge." And then third, in verse 23, "So that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." Do you remember how many times in the scripture where a prophet would declare God's Word or they would perform miracles and they would bow down in honor of the prophet and the prophet or the angel in fear would beg them, "Get back up.

I'm a man. I'm a servant just like you. If you worship me, you will be judged and I will be judged." But Jesus here says, "If you do not honor me, you do not honor the Father." And so He places Himself to be equal with God. So any one of these statements would have been blasphemous enough because it was crystal clear and that's exactly how the Jews understood it.

Because they said, "We want to stone you, not because of the many miracles, but because you being a mere man claim to be God." So Jesus made it crystal clear who He is. In John chapter 1 verse 1, it says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." You notice here He says the Word in reference to Jesus was with God and yet He was also God Himself.

So we see in the very beginning of the gospel there is a statement of His Trinitarian relationship with God the Father, the second person, because He was with God and yet He says He also is God. The Bible is not ambiguous about this. When we say that Jesus is Emmanuel, it's declaring who He is.

Even in our wildest imagination, we can't create something bigger than God. You know, like recently we had all these Avengers movies coming out. I know Spider-Man is very popular right now, but among the Avenger movies about these superheroes, right? We would ask our questions just as a fun question, you know, what superhero would you want to be?

What powers do you want, right? So if you're going to pick one, you're going to pick one with the most power. Superman, maybe Captain Marvel, right? Not Captain America, Captain Marvel, right? So who are the most powerful? Well in recent history, they came up with another character, not necessarily a superhero, but a character that can demolish all other superheroes.

Thanos, which happens to mean in Greek, death. So they created this figure, if you have the five stones, that basically by clicking the finger you can destroy half the world and all the powers of the other superheroes, imaginations of all the other superheroes could not overcome this power of Thanos.

Even in our wildest imagination, even with all the power that Thanos has with all the stones, it still functions within God's creation. So even in our wildest imagination, the most powerful being that was created by some of the most creative people in the world created a being that is a tiny little figure in God's creation.

To say that Jesus is God, we need to understand the gravity of what that means. In Colossians 1.16 it says, "For by him all things were created, both in heavens and on earth, visible and invisible." Anything that you and I know of, plus the invisible world, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things have been created through him and for him.

So I want to show you a video to kind of illustrate, because sometimes it's easier to visualize. So if you can play the video. So I want you to see the gravity of what I'm talking about. Okay. Yeah, it was a wrong video. Okay, if you turn the lights back on.

I wanted to visually show you just the magnitude of even just the galaxy that we live in. The largest planet star that's in our galaxy. It requires over a thousand years for it to travel around it. That's in, that's just one star of billions of stars in our galaxy.

And our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies that they know of. So think how tiny we are on Earth. And think how tiny our Earth is in light of one planet. And think how tiny that planet is in comparison to all the other planets in the galaxy. And think about that galaxy in the context of all the other galaxies.

That's how tiny we are. And so the scripture says Jesus is the creator of all that. And they're constantly finding more galaxies. So we can't even, we can't even comprehend how big God is. And so when he says God with us, he's referring to that God. And that's just what we see.

The Bible says he's a creator of the visible and the invisible. So I think it's important for us to understand the gravity of when we see, when we say that we have this relationship with this God. That we worship this God. That we understand what it is that we are worshiping.

What it is that we are praying to. Who it is that we are praying to. And secondly, God with us, the word Emmanuel means that God took on human flesh. Consider who we are, the frailty of man. You know, whenever we celebrate Christmas, we say he humbled himself, became an infant to a teenage mom who wasn't wealthy, was born in a manger, and he was humble, and we talk about all of that.

But think about what's happening right now. We have a tiny little virus that you and I have never seen. That the world doesn't have an answer for yet. And as a result of that, all of the earth has shut down to a certain degree. That's how frail we are.

Something that tiny has caused this kind of disturbance to us. That's how frail we are. So to understand that God came and took on human flesh, is that God came into this frail humanity. Think about the magnitude of that. Think about all the different mysteries that we wonder about.

And we think, you know, like, oh, you know, can a man really come back from the dead? And there's all so much debate about the resurrection of Christ. Can a man actually walk on water? Did Lazarus actually was raised? If you believe that that God of the universe became a man, resurrection should not be a problem.

Raising Lazarus from the dead should not be a problem. You can snap his finger and the whole earth could come back to life if he wanted to. That's the God of the universe. But that God took on human form. You know, there's a--in the scientific world, they have this principle called the anthropic principle.

And basically is what is necessary for human life to happen. And so years ago, they thought that maybe there were thousands of stars and thousands of planets out there that could possibly harbor life, has all the things that is necessary to have life. But more and more they studied, they realized that number is dwindling down more and more.

The more knowledge that they have of what is necessary to have life, now they have dwindled all of that down to possibly 60. And they said from 60 is actually shrinking every time they find something new. That all of these things need to happen in order for life to actually even happen.

Albert Einstein, in the process of studying the universe, says this, "The temptation to believe that the universe is a product of some sort of design, a manifestation of subtle aesthetic and mathematical judgment, is overwhelming. The belief that there is something behind it all is one that I personally share with the majority of scientists." Even though Albert Einstein never came to faith as a Christian, he says that not only him, but majority of scientists who look into this, said because there's so many things that need to happen, so many things that the flesh needs in order for us to be able to breathe and wake up and continue, that he believes that it is impossible to think that there wasn't some intelligent design.

There is not a God behind all of this. Philippians chapter 2, 5-7, it says, "Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in likeness of men." He said God, in every way God, decided to veil his glory and he put on humanity.

And some people had looked at that and said, "Well, you know what happened was God kind of abandoned some of his deity in order to take on humanity." The theologians, to better explain this, describe this union of God in humanity and God himself, they call this a hypostatic union.

The word hypostatic union basically means to stand under. That's what that word means. Hypo, where we get the word to be under, stastis means to stand. So basically the description is that God is 100% man and 100% God. You probably heard that term before. But let me better illustrate this with an illustration.

If you see this, on the bottom you have water and on the top you have oil. So when you describe this, the oil on the top is 100% oil, the water on the bottom is 100% water because it does not mix. And yet when we talk about this cup, we talk about water and the oil in the same cup.

And so that's what hypostatic union is a description of. Of God, in every way, still retaining his deity, yet veiled his glory in order to take on human flesh. And so he took on all of the frailty of mankind while retaining the fullness of his deity. Why is this important?

Because the gravity of what that means, that this Christmas we celebrate the God of the galaxies, took on what you and I could possibly imagine, took on human form. I mean, of course, that's what Christmas is, right? You've heard this, we sing about this every single year. So after a while, we say, yeah, this is the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday.

But think about what that means. Think about all the things that we contemplate, we ask questions and we wonder about. But the greatest mystery of human history is this. That that God walked on this earth as a human being. And so the natural question that you and I would ask is, why?

Why did he do that? So either, if you do not believe this, this is harder to believe than anything else. Like Jesus' resurrection, feeding of the 5,000, that's easy. Either you say, that's ridiculous, that God became man? And you would either reject Christmas and reject everything else that comes with that.

Or, if you understand and believe Christmas, then everything else, everything else that comes along with that makes perfect sense. The natural question that you and I need to ask about this is, if God truly became man, why did he do this? I remember years ago, when we were going out to China, we would go to the remotest part of China.

And it wasn't that difficult, but obviously, we're pretty wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Everywhere we travel, we want to make sure that we have proper lodging, there's food there, especially if you have young children. But we were going to an area where the hotel wasn't exactly comfortable for us, no air conditioning, and the food wasn't to our liking.

But we would go there because we wanted to share the gospel, spend two weeks waking up early in the morning, preparing, and then we would literally go to sleep at 11, something like 12 o'clock at night. And we did this for two weeks straight. After a couple years of this, one of the leaders of the school, we got comfortable enough, we were having dinner, and he leaned over to me and asked me, "Peter, why do you guys come?" Because he was curious.

"You guys are wealthy. Why do you spend your own money to come here, stay at a hotel?" Because this guy traveled to Europe, and so he knows what it's like in the United States. And he said, "Why do you spend your own money to come here, teach a bunch of students that you don't know, spend all these hours with them, and what benefit do you get from this?" So obviously, we're trying to keep our gospel message down low because he's one of the leaders there.

But he's not dumb. If I give him a wrong answer, he's going to know, it's like, "Oh, he's fooling me." So I said to him, "It's because we're Christians." And he already knew this. So we're Christians, and so as Christians, we are told to help other people. And so we're here, and that's part of what it means to be a Christian.

So obviously, we would not be here. If we wanted to make money, we could go to Japan and Korea and do the same thing and actually make money doing this. But we're doing this because part of what it means to be a Christian is to do this, and we want to share what God has given to us.

And then he said, "Oh, okay." And he said, "Is it wrong if the students ask us about what we believe and we tell them we're Christians? Is that illegal?" And he said, "Oh, no, no, that's not illegal. It's just don't do it in the classroom." And he said, "Is it illegal for us to talk about Thanksgiving, for Easter, Christmas?" As long as it's in the context of the school.

But I share all of this because it was perplexing to him. Why would you guys who have the money to go somewhere nice, comfortable, and vacation, you know, to check off a bucket list, why would you come here? And all we are is just a little bit more wealthy than they are, but they're all other human beings just like us.

And it wasn't like we couldn't have food. And yet, when we talk about the God of the universe who came and walked on earth, that should be the greatest mystery. Why did he come? Why was he here? If that God came here, why did he come? What was his purpose?

Well, there's three things that I want to highlight here. First, the Bible makes it clear, Jesus came to us because we could not go to God. The Bible says that because of our sin and rebellion, that we were separated from God. We were in rebellion. Mankind is in rebellion against God, refusing to acknowledge him as the creator.

And because of that, we have been separated from the author of life. So this separation isn't simply that we're not able to have a relationship with him, because he's the author of life. To be separated from this God means that we have been separated from life itself. And so, sinners cannot be in the presence of this holy God, just like we cannot be in the presence of a nuclear reactor when it leaks, because what comes out of that is going to kill us.

So the scripture says, a sinful man in the presence of a holy God, we would be destroyed. And the Bible says, no man can see God and live. So we could not go to him. So the Bible says that Jesus veiled his glory and came to us. It says in Colossians 115, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

He is the exact representation of his glory, yet veiled. And so, in order for us to be able to see God, he came to us. Secondly, it says God, in Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-man, became the perfect mediator. If you want somebody to mediate, you want somebody who understands both sides well.

You don't want somebody just to, if you want somebody to represent just your side, you call an ambassador. He said, no, but Jesus Christ came to be the mediator in 1 Timothy 2.5, where there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

As you guys already know, I'm a Korean-American. I was born in Korea, raised most of my life in the United States, so I'm more Americanized than Koreanized. But I understand the Korean culture enough where when I used to serve in the Korean church, I realized there's some huge differences that the younger Korean generation that was born and raised here that did not understand that I had to kind of mediate.

And one of the key things that I learned, and I learned that this is not only true of the Korean culture, but most Asian culture functions in a similar way. Maybe not Japan, but most Asian cultures. Chinese culture, they use the word "guanxi." So I'm teaching Chinese to a room filled with Chinese people.

I have that kind of boldness. So it means relationship. So in the Western culture, everything is done by contract. So even in the church, if you come in, they tell you, well, what's my job, what's my pay, what am I supposed to do, what am I not supposed to do?

And then so you agree on that, and then based on that, you do what you agree on. Well, the Korean culture doesn't function that way. You can have a contract, but if you have a bad relationship with your elders or leaders, it doesn't matter what the contract says. But if you have a good relationship with them, if you have guanxi, then even if things don't go exactly right, they'll cover you.

They'll forgive you and they'll support you, and you'll have a good experience. But the thing is, people who grew up in the Western culture have a hard time understanding that. But we said this, we agreed with this. And that's why a lot of the Western missionaries have a hard time when they get into China because they have these rules like, oh, we can't do this, we can't do that.

And the other Asians, you know, especially Koreans, when they come into China, you know, it's like water. Kind of like Bruce Lee, right? Be water, my friend, right? Be whatever, whatever you need to be. And that's kind of how the Asian culture, especially the Korean culture and Chinese culture function.

And so as somebody in the middle, I have to constantly relate that, right? I have to tell the Korean side, this is how the Koreans raised here. That's how they think. If you agreed on that, you have to function that way and understand that to them, you have to follow that to be righteous.

In the Korean culture, if you don't respect your elders, it doesn't matter what you agreed on, right? Because to them, that's more righteous. Well, Christ came to be the perfect mediator between God and man because he is 100% God and 100% man. He is the perfect mediator between a sinful man and a holy God.

In Hebrews 4.15-16, it says, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." The Bible says that Christ intercedes on our behalf because the only way that we can reconcile with this holy God is that this perfect mediator stands before us.

You know, I shared with the first service, I'm going to share this with the second service. Recently, I became an owner of two cats. Those of you who know me know that I was determined to never own a pet. And part of the reason why is because we actually had pets when we were younger and didn't have good experience.

We tortured every pet that we had. And the other real reason is I don't want to get attached to a pet. I don't want to get attached to a pet and then go through the sadness of losing the pet. I'm going to reserve that for people. That's my rationale.

But my family has been begging me for a pet for years, and I was the only person that's like, "No. I don't want that smell here, and there's people who are allergic to cats and dogs, and I don't want to have to shun people away because we're going to own a cat." So I had all these reasoning behind it.

And then my daughter, I think she devised this plan, right, that she asked us, like, "Can I foster a cat?" Foster. Not own, foster. And for how long? Two weeks. We're going to take care of her two weeks, you know, we're going to play with the cat, and then return it after two weeks.

So I said, "Okay. Just foster." How much does it cost? It costs nothing. They provide the feed. They provide everything. Right? And I said, "Okay, for two weeks." So they bring this cat home, and the first two, three days, the cat is meowing all night. You know? And Faith is sleeping out in the living room.

And so I said, "Okay, this is not going to last long. How long?" At some point, she's going to realize how hard it is to own a cat. But each day, she would grow more fond of this cat, and then one day, they said, "Hey, this meowing, this is not normal." They took them back to the foster place, and then they came back with two cats.

"What's going on here?" And they said, they took the cat back, and then they said, "The cat is lonely." They know what they're doing. Right? And they said, "Either you drop the cat off now, or you take another cat so that the cat won't be lonely." Right? When they came home, they were so sheepish.

Even before they showed me the cat, you could tell they were kind of looking at each other to see how I was going to react, and they opened up the box, and two cats jumped out. I go, "What?" We went from fostering one cat to now two cats, and it was supposed to be two weeks.

Now we're into what? Our fifth? Going to six weeks? And I said, "When is this going to end?" Right? And so, I'm kind of thinking, at some point, they're going to give up. And it wasn't just Faith. Faith recruited her mom, her younger brother Isaiah. And so now, every day, when they're bored, they're in the room playing with the cat.

And so I get sucked up into that, and now I'm sitting there watching these two cats play. And they are cute, but in the back of my mind, it's like, "Man, I got suckered." And so I'm saying, "How long is this going to last?" And Faith has gotten fond of this cat, and so did my wife and my son.

And Faith said, "You know, we're supposed to go to Korea next year, if it opens up, to visit. How are you going to do that with these two cats?" And she said, "I'd rather give up my trip so that I can have this cat." I said, "Oh my gosh, you got suckered into this." I can't.

And it's not because I love the cats. They're cute. I can get rid of them tomorrow if they weren't home, right? But they have a sympathetic mediator, these two cats. And not because I love these two cats, but because I love my daughter. Because I love my wife, I love my son.

And let me say officially here, if you wanted to keep the cats, you can keep the cats. I got suckered. We'll talk about Korea. We'll see what happens with Korea. But they have a sympathetic--these two cats have a sympathetic high priest. And I cannot take that away from them.

There's a story about this boy who wanted a dog. And the parents decided to get him a dog for Christmas and went to the pet shop. And the pet shop owner started bringing all these different animals to the boy. And the boy would just say, "No, no, no, no, no." And by the time they got through all the healthy dogs, they said, "Well, how come you don't want any of these dogs?

I thought you wanted a pet." And he said, "Yeah, I'm looking for the right one. Do you have any other?" So the pet shop owner said, "Well, we do have one, but I don't even want to show him to you because for sure you're not going to want it." He said, "Well, let me see." So he goes to the back and brings this puppy out.

And the puppy was clearly--was not whole, was limping in. And one of the legs was broken or could not use it, so it was limping in. And this boy just ran and hugged it and said, "This is the one." And so the pet shop owner was surprised. He said, "Every other person that came in here rejected this dog.

Why do you want this dog?" And so the boy just took his pants and he just started rolling it up to show that he had a wooden leg. And so he said, "I want this dog because I can relate to this dog. I need to be this dog's owner." The Scripture says Christ came and became a sympathetic high priest so that he's not just in the middle of logistically taking care of business.

He said, "I can relate to you, your suffering, your struggles." The Scriptures--in church tradition, it says that Christ is a sympathetic high priest, went through suffering, and it said possibly he may have lost his father when he was young. That's why Joseph is not mentioned in the Gospel stories other than the beginning.

He knows what it means to be rejected. He knows what it means to be lonely. He knows what it means to have hardship. His closest friends abandoning him at the greatest of need. He knows all our pains. And he was tempted in every way, the Scripture says, and yet he was without sin.

And so as a result, he became the perfect mediator. Mediator to do what? The third thing it says, to save us. As it said in verse 21, Matthew chapter 1, he said he was going to come to save us from our sins. Hebrews chapter 2, 14 to 18, "Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives." Second Corinthians 5, 21, "He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." And so he says, "Come, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, that we have a high priest, the God of the universe, who took on human form, to invite us, that I know your suffering, I know your hardship, I know the difficulty of living in this fallen world, of broken relationships, of being rejected.

He knows this." So he says, "Come, because I know your suffering." And he says, "I will give you peace." How much of our lives are being jumped around from place to place, relationship to relationship, from job to job, seeking peace that they cannot give? And so that's the reason the Bible says that he came, 1 Peter 2, 14, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds we are healed." Now everything that I told you is what he's done.

This is what he accomplished by coming. He brought God to us, he became the perfect mediator, and then he became the propitiation, atonement for our own sins. But there's a greater question than that. Not what he's done, but why. I can tell you the intricate details of what the Bible says about atonement.

I've been studying the Bible since 1983, and I've been preaching through the scriptures. Some of these passages multiple times. I read most of the commentaries from Genesis to Revelation. So I can give you the background information and tell you what the passage means. But the greatest mystery has become a greater mystery to me after all these years than ever.

And that question is, why? I know what he did, but why would the God of the universe do that for me? And do that for you? And the answer is simple, and yet so mysterious. John 3.16, it says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." It says it's because he loved us.

Now, we may receive that and say, "Yeah, of course he loved us." But imagine the magnitude of that. Why? Why would he love us? Look how small we are. You know, we have a problem. If we were to go hunting, and the larger the animal is, the harder it is for us to kill.

We never think twice about killing a cockroach. Because they're small, they're tiny, they seem insignificant, just by size. Think how tiny we are on this planet. Think how tiny the planet is in our universe, and in the galaxy. And then all of it put together, think how tiny we are.

And yet, why would God think of us? And that's why the psalmist says in Psalm 144, 3-4, "Oh Lord, what is man that you take knowledge of him, or son of man, that you think of him? Man is like a mere breath, his days are like passing shadow." Why?

Why would you love us? That mystery, that I could not comprehend, the day that I became a Christian, is more mysterious to me today than it was 40 years ago. I can tell you what he did. I can exposit the text to you, and say, "This is what happened.

This is what needs to be done. This is what confession looks like. This is what predestination looks like." But I am more perplexed today than ever when he says, "He so loved the world." Why? That should engross all of us this Christmas season. Why would he love us? And that's what John says in 1 John 3, 1-3, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us.

Behold how great the love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God. And such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.

We know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is." Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. What hope is he referring to? It's his love. This love of God that compels us, renews us, changes us.

Either we don't believe this and we just walk away, or we believe this and it changes everything. You know, I grew up with three boys, as you guys know, and I'm the middle child, and I'm the prototypical middle child. So whenever they say middle child, it's like, yeah, that's me.

I don't deny it. I grew up thinking, like, nobody loves me, nobody cares for me, everything's unfair. Why do I get targeted if my parents walk in and somebody's crying, it's my fault. Whether that was true or not, that's how I felt growing up all my life. I don't belong anywhere.

I left the country that I was born in, came to the United States. I don't fit here. We're in the East Coast, Midwest, the South, going back and forth. And even though my dad was a pastor, I don't remember growing up in the youth group, because we were changing constantly.

And so my greatest struggle inwardly is, like, I don't matter. And I struggled with that. Everywhere we went, that was my primary struggle, and I was angry inwardly because I don't matter. I remember thinking, if I disappear, no one's going to miss me. And I remember thinking, if I disappear, I wonder how long it takes before somebody looks for me.

Now, all of this, looking back at it now as a parent, looking back at it as a child who was hurting. But that thought was deep in me. And I'm sure some of you guys can relate to that. Maybe some of you in this room may be feeling that way.

But that's how I felt most of the days. If I disappeared, who would look for me? I wonder how long it would take. And so because that was my default setting, I was bitter about everything. Every little thing that happened would set me off. And when people would warn me, say, don't you care if you're going to go to jail or you're going to die?

My answer is, so? I wanted to die anyway. And then I met Christ. And it wasn't this detailed explanation of the gospel and about exposition. I heard this great sermon. All of a sudden, I was like, he's real. He's actually real. I've been hearing about him. I've heard sermons about him.

I've memorized scriptures about him. And I didn't really think deeply about it. And then, he's actually real. So that means he loves me? The gospel is real? And that was it. All I knew was the God of the universe loves me. And that changed everything for me. And everything that I was bitter at, I was looking to see.

Like, where do I fit in? Who cares about me? But once I knew that I was loved by God, it changed everything. All my bitterness, anger, feeling of not belonging anywhere, instantaneously was answered by the love of Christ. In Psalms 36.9, it says, "In your light, we see light." It wasn't until I came out of the darkness and my eyes became open, I began to see.

Now, as an adult, I look at my parents and how much they had to put up with me. And I can understand that as a father who's raised four children myself, the difficulties and frailties and our own shortcomings, and through all the trials that my parents went through, that they put up with me.

And I understood. It's like, "Oh, they did love me." But I couldn't see that love until His love opened my eyes. It was in His light, I saw light. Until Christ comes and penetrates into our darkness. Just like the song says, "Looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces." It's a simple song, but that's a description of mankind that has fallen from the grace of God.

To this day, it's a mystery. I cannot explain to you why He loves us, but He does. Because He says so. And no other explanation makes any sense, other than the fact that He loves us, that He would do what He has done for us. So for those of us who are brothers and sisters in Christ, when was the last time the love of Christ compelled you?

Look at your life, what you pursue, what you value, what makes you happy, what makes you sad. How much of the love of Christ is in the midst of that? Those of you who have been invited here as guests, because your family and friends also wanted you to see and comprehend and understand the love of Christ.

That if this is true, doesn't this change everything? Do you really think that all of this, everything that you've seen on this video, everything that you've studied about mankind, do you really think that this was just an accident? That everything that I'm saying, everything that you're thinking, all the relationships, past, present, and future, this is all an accident?

Or just like Einstein and the majority of the scientists, that could there be a God behind all of this? And if there is a God, could it be that this God wants to have a relationship with us? That's what the gospel is. A holy God, for whatever the reason, who loved us, took on human form.

He humbled himself. Not only did he become a man, he humbled himself to the point of being crucified on the cross, to take our sin upon himself, and he offers his salvation to all mankind. He who confesses his sins is faithful and just to forgive us of all our unrighteousness.

Only he can make you righteous. You cannot do good enough to pay off the sins of the past. Only Christ and his blood can cover us and forgive us and renew us. So the offer of salvation ultimately is an offer of his love for you. So our prayer this morning is that you would open your heart to God as well, to receive him.

He is real. He's not somebody that just made it. It's not philosophers. It's not the disciples who wanted attention for themselves. He is real. He died and he was resurrected on the third day to prove his love for us, to prove his identity. And he says the reason why he hasn't come back is because he's being patient, because he wants more of us to come to Christ, so that one day when he comes back, that we would be restored in this love relationship with him for eternity.

Would you make that decision for him? Come to Christ. Maybe you've heard him from a distance. Maybe you've mentally acknowledged him like I did when I was younger, but I never really knew him. Would you consider to humble yourself before the Lord? Lord, I'm a sinner and I'm in need of forgiveness.

Would you forgive me of my sins? Open my eyes that I may know you as well. We pray that this morning that if you have any interest in knowing Christ, maybe you've been to church all your life and you've only seen him from a distance. You've acknowledged him, but you don't know him.

So we pray that you take this opportunity this Christmas to really dwell upon the magnitude of what Emmanuel means, that you may also come to know him as well. So after service, our outreach team has set up a booth outside. Our pastor, Mark, is going to be out there.

He's going to give a short summary presentation of the gospel. And if you have any questions and you just want to be there, there are some snacks there as well. We invite you, if you've been brought with friends and you just have questions about that, we invite you to go and visit that area and they'll be able to answer any kind of questions that you have.

And then for the rest of us to really commit to make this Christmas season about Christ, to think deeply about what it is that we confess so that our life and our confession would be consistent. So at this time, we're going to ask our—we have a special presentation this morning.

So as they come and get set up, okay, so think about the lyrics that they're going to be singing as we watch them. So I'm going to pray for us as they set up, and then I hope that you will meditate and be blessed by it. So let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that your word would have a deep impact in our hearts. Save us, Lord God, from distraction. Save us, Lord God, from the sins of this world, from our temptations. Lord Jesus, I cannot begin to comprehend why you volunteer to take my punishment. All we can do is to say thank you and praise you.

I pray that as you are merciful with us, that you would be merciful, Lord God, to anyone else in this room, that they may also come to know you as well. That the powerful love that you showed us would continue to spread not only here, but everywhere you go.

Everywhere we go, everywhere you send us. May your grace be sufficient. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.