Why Do We Give Christmas Gifts?

00:00:00.000 | On Wednesday we addressed Santa Claus. On the table today, gift giving. Here's the

00:00:09.840 | email. Hi Pastor John, my name is Kaitlin. My family and I love listening to all of your

00:00:14.600 | sermons and appreciate the way you proclaim Christ's name. Thank you. My question is this.

00:00:20.360 | We seek to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to not make it so much about the gifts.

00:00:25.920 | I have two questions for you. Number one, is gift giving biblical? And number two,

00:00:31.920 | is there a better way to do it? The short answer is yes. Gift giving is biblical and yes,

00:00:42.640 | there is probably a better way to do it. Since nothing we do is perfect, then there's always a

00:00:48.640 | better way to do it. It's good. It's good to ask what aspects of our giving and getting,

00:00:56.920 | our giving patterns, are merely cultural and what are shaped by Christ to magnify Christ.

00:01:06.120 | So what I thought might be helpful is to just develop a short theology of gift giving at

00:01:14.280 | Christmas by weaving together some of the biblical passages. Three steps from God's

00:01:22.200 | giving to us, to our giving to Christ, to our giving to each other, and to those in need.

00:01:29.480 | So I think it will be helpful just to step back and get the biblical perspective on these three

00:01:34.840 | things. Then we'll be able to articulate why are we doing this? Why are we sharing gifts from a

00:01:40.760 | pretty deep biblical vision? So step number one, here's the way Christmas is described in the most

00:01:47.960 | famous verse, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him

00:01:57.320 | should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. Paul puts it like this in 2 Corinthians 8-9,

00:02:04.520 | "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake,"

00:02:11.720 | this is referring now to Christmas, "for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty

00:02:20.520 | might become rich." In other words, a huge gift comes to you by his poverty. The meaning of

00:02:28.040 | Christ's stooping to become man was to raise up, raise up to glory his family. Amazing.

00:02:37.160 | Then the simple, short, spectacular exaltation of 2 Corinthians 9-15, "Thanks be to God for

00:02:46.440 | his inexpressible gift." So the very essence of Christmas includes divine overflow of generosity,

00:02:58.440 | kindness, grace, giving, doing for us, giving to us what we could never do for ourselves or get

00:03:09.320 | on our own. And the ultimate gift is God. God gives God. Like it says in 1 Peter 3-18, "Christ

00:03:19.080 | suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,

00:03:25.160 | so that we might have God as our supreme, all-satisfying gift or treasure." So at the

00:03:33.160 | heart of Christmas is God giving God for the enjoyment of his people whom he saves by giving

00:03:41.560 | his Son to suffer. That's breathtaking. That is the heart of Christmas. Now here's step two.

00:03:48.680 | Our responding by giving to Christ. Now I know this is dangerous. I feel this more keenly than

00:03:57.880 | everything, because I've written whole chapters on why you shouldn't give to God, he's the giver.

00:04:03.160 | But it's biblical. It's dangerous in one sense to speak of giving to Christ, because our giving to

00:04:09.640 | Christ dare not be seen as a paying him back, as if the transaction were done because he needs to

00:04:19.240 | get our services. Mark 10:45 is such a warning. "For the Son of Man came not to be served,

00:04:28.440 | but to serve and to give." He didn't come to get our service. He came to give his life as a ransom

00:04:37.720 | for many. He did not come to find a labor force to supply his need. He came as the servant and the

00:04:47.800 | giver. Nevertheless, the Bible pictures people giving to Christ. So here's the picture in Luke

00:04:56.280 | 7. Remember the story where Jesus comes to visit Simon, and a woman comes in and starts washing

00:05:05.400 | his feet with her tears, and Simon gets bent out of shape, and Jesus says, "Simon, do you see this

00:05:12.520 | woman? I entered your house. You gave me, gave me no water for my feet. She has wet my feet with

00:05:20.280 | her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came, she has not

00:05:27.880 | ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. You didn't give me any anointing,

00:05:35.720 | but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many,

00:05:41.240 | are forgiven. She loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little." This is a giving

00:05:49.720 | that is not a purchasing anything. It's not trading for anything. It was overflow of affection and

00:05:58.360 | thankfulness for her forgiveness. Same thing in John 12 where Mary took a pound of expensive

00:06:06.680 | ointment, it says, made of pure nard, and just poured it out on the feet of Jesus, wiped his feet

00:06:13.880 | with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, John 12 3. And Judas

00:06:20.920 | was ticked about this because he was a thief, but Jesus defended her and said it was like an

00:06:30.600 | affectionate anointing in advance for his burial. And of course, this giving to Jesus is connected

00:06:40.440 | with Christmas by the wise men. Going into the house, these wise men who came from the east

00:06:48.440 | saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then opening their

00:06:55.160 | treasures, they offered him gifts—gold, frankincense, myrrh, Matthew 2 11. So part of worship

00:07:05.080 | is finding ways to show how much we admire and reverence and trust and value Jesus, and part of

00:07:16.440 | that is making sacrifices—that is, going without things, valuable things, not because he needs them,

00:07:25.480 | but because he owns them, and we can be happy without them if we have him.

00:07:32.600 | Now here's the third and final step in our little mini-theology of gift-giving at Christmas.

00:07:39.480 | So number one, the giving of God to us. Number two, our joyful readiness to show affection

00:07:48.120 | in giving to him. Those two things overflow in number three, giving to others. And one of my

00:07:56.200 | favorite expressions of this dynamic, the way this works in the Christian heart, is 2 Corinthians 8

00:08:03.560 | verse 2. "In a severe test of affliction," so imagine yourself at Christmas time in some kind of

00:08:11.480 | trouble and distress, and a lot of people are, "in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy

00:08:19.480 | and their extreme poverty have overflowed." So what overflowed? Abundance of joy in extreme poverty

00:08:28.760 | overflowed in a wealth of generosity—that's giving—on their part. And Hebrews 13 16 says,

00:08:38.040 | "Don't neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices," that's worship,

00:08:45.720 | "are pleasing to God." So even our giving to others is viewed as a sacrifice, a worship to God.

00:08:55.400 | So here's the sum of the matter that I think all of our gift-giving should be seen in the light of.

00:09:02.840 | Seek to form a mindset about giving at Christmas that helps the children and helps the adults,

00:09:10.840 | number one, to rejoice in God as the great and first giver of the greatest gift; number two,

00:09:19.800 | the mindset that offers back to Christ the gift of trust and hope and admiration and

00:09:28.520 | joy and affection; and then finally, the mindset that overflows with joy in giving to others. Not

00:09:38.680 | primarily the mindset of getting, but the mindset of joyful overflow of giving.

00:09:46.360 | - Amen. Those are important mindsets for this season, as we, from overflowing joy,

00:09:51.880 | give, and in giving, double our joy as we share our joy with others. Thank you,

00:09:56.840 | Pastor John. So good. Caitlin, thank you for the question. I'm looking forward to the next

00:10:02.440 | question. I love this. On Monday, we return with a question about Colossians 1.20. That's my

00:10:07.080 | favorite chapter of the Bible, but it's not one without conundrums. In fact, how can Paul say

00:10:13.000 | that Christ reconciles all things to himself in chapter 1, verse 20? Does that apply to angels

00:10:19.560 | and human souls that are not redeemed? How is it that Christ reconciled all of his creation to

00:10:26.360 | himself? It's a great question and one that has perplexed theologians for a long, long time.

00:10:31.400 | Well, thanks for listening to the podcast. We have entered a really important milestone in

00:10:36.600 | our budget cycle. Get this, nearly 40% of our annual budget comes in to us in the month of

00:10:43.560 | December alone, 40%. If you're a regular listener to the Ask Pastor John podcast,

00:10:48.600 | would you consider making a donation before December 31st? Thanks in advance for making

00:10:53.320 | it possible for us to provide everything we do at DesiringGod free of charge. To give,

00:10:57.640 | visit DesiringGod.org/give. That's DesiringGod.org/give.

00:11:01.800 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.

00:11:08.520 | you

00:11:09.560 | you

00:11:09.640 | you

00:11:11.100 | you

00:11:11.180 | you

00:11:12.640 | you

00:11:12.720 | you

00:11:13.220 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Why Do We Give Christmas Gifts?

Chapters