The Gift, The Verdict, & The Invitation | Pastor James Crocker

In this impactful sermon, we delve into the profound significance of Christmas beyond its familiar rituals and comforting traditions. Join us as we explore the transformative narrative of Jesus' arrival on earth, examining the important questions it poses about God's love for the world and His desires for our lives.

Through a thoughtful analysis of John 3:16-21, we uncover the essence of Christmas as a divine gift given, a verdict revealed, and an invitation extended. Discover how this moment in history does more than commemorate—it reveals, divides, and invites each of us into a deeper understanding of truth and grace.

Listen in to understand how God's love reaches out to a broken world, why Jesus did not come to condemn but to save, and how His presence offers an invitation to step into the light and live a life transformed by His grace. Whether you are meeting Jesus for the first time or reevaluating your relationship with Him, this message serves as a powerful reminder of His healing light and transformative power.

Subscribe and tune in for more enlightening messages that guide you on your faith journey.

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Transcript

 Man, I'm so excited for Christmas.

Who loves Christmas?

I love Christmas.

I think I love it more now that I have like a four-year-old.

Because he, oh man, I'm going to say it.

I'm going to get some judgmental things.

I know this.

But he believes in Santa.

And I am not, I'm not stopping it, man.

It is the absolute glory.

We have this weird little elf thing.

Have any of you seen these?

Like elf on a shelf?

Yeah.

 The kids are supposed to name it, and it's disproportionate.

It's not real.

Its torso is this big, and its limbs are this long.

So the kids are supposed to name it the first thing that you think of, and so Henry named it Long Boy.

 So Longboy keeps an eye on you.

He keeps an eye on whether or not you're listening good.

And I got to be honest, I'm taking full advantage of this.

It's like, you know, he goes to eat.

He's not eating his protein right now.

He's just not eating at dinnertime.

 And I'm like, hey, you know, Longboy's flying to the North Polar Knight.

And if he tells Santa that you didn't eat your beef kebab, I don't know about these presents, dude.

That's crazy.

Because, you know, you're going to get presents from me, but Santa's different.

So, you know, he's about good listening.

Christmas is awesome.

I love it.

It's my favorite time.

I love the lights.

I love it all.

 And today we're going to talk about the Christmas story.

And I think it's important to think about Christmas because every year it comes around and we all do the same things.

We hang the lights, we put the ornaments on the tree, we play all of our favorite songs, and we even know when those songs' key is about to change.

 We're ready.

You know what I mean?

We're ready.

Come on.

It's like that meme.

It's like Mariah dusting off for the holidays.

It's the same thing year after year.

Christmas is familiar.

And familiar is comforting.

But it can also make us stop listening.

Because at Christmas, beneath the nostalgia and all the traditions, Christmas is asking actually a bigger question.

 And if we're being honest, that bigger question, we usually don't hear it because we're not willing to slow down enough to hear what that question is.

The question is this, what does God actually think of the world?

And maybe even more personally, what does he want from us?

Most of us assume we already know that answer.

It's warm, it's safe, it's cozy, it fits perfectly on a Christmas card.

Like Jesus is the reason for the season.

 Peace and joy.

Live, laugh, Christmas cookies.

But the story that John tells, he doesn't make it so cozy.

 And so we're going to look at a scripture that's familiar, I would say, to most of us.

And just like Christmas, it asks a question, and then I think we're going to answer this today.

John 3.16, verse 2 through 21 is clear.

It's hopeful, and it's surprisingly confronting.

 Because the passage shows us that Christmas isn't just something to admire once a year, but it is a moment that reveals, it divides, and it invites us.

Really, John frames Christmas in kind of three main movements.

Jesus coming to earth is a gift is given, a verdict is revealed, and an invitation that is extended to us.

 And if Christmas were only meant to make us feel good, John would not have worded and written this chunk of scripture this way.

So if you have your Bibles, open up to John 3.16.

You should take bets on like how much of the room has that underlined.

It says this in John 3.16.

It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

 And whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

 Verse 19, this is the verdict.

Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you.

We thank you for your presence.

We thank you for your word.

God, we thank you for your generosity by giving your son to us, that you really and truly did love the world, that you gave your one and only son.

You gave yourself.

 God incarnate on earth, would you reveal to us today why this gift is so precious, why the life we have because of it is so wonderful?

Would you speak to every single one of us in every single one of our circumstances and remind us of the glory of Christ?

In your name we pray, amen.

 I have a title, I think, of this message.

Well, I don't think I do.

I think they do.

It's the gift, the verdict, and the invitation.

If you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down.

The gift, the verdict, and the invitation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

The gift given.

Christmas begins not with humanity searching for God, but with God moving towards humanity.

 God doesn't wait for the world to become lovable, he loves because love is who he is.

And when John says the world, he's not talking about ideal people, he's not talking about religious people, he's talking about a broken, resistant, sinful, divided world.

God sees a world like that and his response is not distance, it is generosity.

He gave his son, not advice,

 not a system, not a checklist for getting better.

He gave himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

It's the way love works.

Think about visiting a loved one in the hospital.

You don't stand in the hallway analyzing their circumstance.

You don't stay at a safe distance offering commentary on how they got there.

 You move into the room, you sit down, you stay close.

That's what Christmas is.

The manger is God stepping into humanity's hospital room, not waiting for us to recover, not scolding us for how we got there, but coming near to us because love moves towards need.

And John is unmistakably clear about why Jesus came.

 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus does not arrive as a prosecutor.

He arrives as a rescuer.

Christmas isn't God standing over us in judgment.

It's God stepping towards us in mercy.

The incarnation tells us something staggering, that God believes the world is worth entering in order to redeem it.

 God believes the world is worth entering in order to redeem it.

And if we're being honest, if we asked ourselves, if I were God, that's not necessarily the story I would write.

If that were me, I would try to save the world from a distance.

We'd probably wait for things to improve.

We would demand proof that the world was worth the effort.

 We would protect our holiness by staying removed.

We would guard our power by staying untouched.

And we would offer love only once conditions were met.

But God doesn't do this.

He does the opposite.

The incarnation tells us that God looks at a broken, resistant, sinful world, and instead of backing away, he steps into it.

He doesn't enter because the world is impressive.

He enters because love moves towards what is broken.

 God doesn't wait for the world to become worth saving it.

He declares its worth by saving it through entering it.

And that's what makes Christmas so shocking, is if God is willing to step into the mess of the world, then is he not willing to step into my mess?

Your mess.

 That's the kind of love we're talking about, and that's the reason why it's so important.

It's because especially around this time of year, people view God, they assume that he relates to us from a distance.

He's over there in that building.

But is he here with me?

And I wonder if just for a moment, if we as just everyone in this room, just took a moment, if we slowed down, we surveyed our soul,

 We ask ourselves, what's the mess that I've been trying to clean up before coming to God?

Maybe it's something you keep telling yourself, once I fix this, then I'll come back to him.

Or maybe it's not that dramatic.

Maybe it's just a quiet sense of, I should be further along by now, but I'm not.

You might ask yourself these questions, what part of my life have I been managing instead of surrendering?

 What am I hoping God doesn't look at too closely?

Like, what's the question I hope nobody asks me?

Where have I assumed God is disappointed instead of near?

Because for a lot of us, the distance we feel between us and God isn't because he's far away.

It's because we've believed we've needed to clean something up first.

 John 3 tells a totally different story.

God did not come close after the world was healed.

He came close because the world was sick.

Jesus didn't enter humanity at its best moment.

He entered humanity at its weakest moment, which means that your mess does not repel God.

Your questions do not disqualify you, and your past does not keep him at an arm's length.

Christmas says that God's not distant.

 Christmas says that he doesn't wait outside of a room waiting for you to improve.

He sits down with you in your mess.

And that should change how we respond to God.

The invitation of Christmas is not try harder, be better, fix yourself, figure it out, then come talk to me.

The invitation of Christmas is let God come close to you, let him sit with you, let him save you.

 Because salvation doesn't begin with effort.

It just begins by embracing the one who came close to you.

God comes close in love.

God so loved the world.

But love doesn't avoid clarity.

 And John wants us to understand exactly what's at stake when Jesus steps into the world.

So he tells us plainly what the verdict is.

In verse 18, he says, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son.

The verdict is revealed.

 This is where most people stop memorizing John 3.16, by the way.

They're like, ooh.

Because this is where the passage kind of sharpens up a little bit.

You're like, oh.

John's clear.

Condemnation is not something that Jesus suddenly brings with him into the world.

 It's the righteous judgment of God that already exists over a broken world.

When Jesus steps into the world, he doesn't stand outside of that judgment, pointing it out.

He steps into it in order to rescue us from it.

So his coming doesn't create a verdict.

It reveals where we stand.

And most importantly, it shows us a way out.

 It shows us a way forward.

And this is important.

Let me say it this way.

His coming doesn't create condemnation.

It exposes reality and it opens a door to rescue.

It's a little like going to the doctor when you feel off.

Like, you know, you go in, you run all the tests.

You're hoping that it's not too serious.

And then you get the results and they tell you what's actually going on.

The diagnosis didn't create your problem.

 You know what I mean?

It was there.

It's just revealed.

And in that moment, the doctor isn't your enemy, he's your help.

Like I have pale skin, I don't know if you could tell.

And I grew up in Australia for the first 13 years of my life and I had an aversion to sunscreen because I felt like it wasn't cool.

I'm just being honest, okay?

 And because of Suburbans, there's a hole in the ozone layer above Australia.

If you go there and you stay out in the sun, I don't care how tan you are, you're going to get cooked.

And so I go to the doctor when I feel these little bumps.

And they cut them off like a razor blade.

It's crazy.

It's called skin cancer.

Surprise.

And I can ignore it.

 I can pretend like it doesn't exist.

I can choose not to go to the doctor.

And when the doctor says I got to cut it off, I can go, oh, actually, I left something in my car.

The doctor is not the person that gave me the skin cancer.

They're just revealing what already exists in my life.

And it's at that moment there that either leads to healing.

It depends on what I do next.

 And this is what John is describing here.

Jesus doesn't step into a world and suddenly condemn people.

He steps into a world and he tells the truth about their condition.

And the dividing line John gives us is not background, effort, or moral track records.

The dividing line is belief.

It's trust.

It's reliance on Christ.

Surrender to Jesus.

A belief that shapes and reshapes how a person lives.

 John leaves no room for neutrality in this scripture.

To refuse the Son is to remain outside of the life he offers.

And it feels kind of heavy at first.

But to love is to be clear.

It's an act of love.

It's not about being harsh.

It's about being clear.

One New Testament DA Carson, he points out this.

 about Jesus, he says, Jesus doesn't come to bring condemnation into the world.

Condemnation already exists.

What Jesus brings is rescue.

But the moment that rescue arrives, a response becomes unavoidable.

And that's why Christmas isn't just a warm moment.

It confronts us with a reality.

Jesus doesn't just show us who God is.

He shows us where we stand with God.

And this is important.

 Because for some of us today, Jesus is an addition to our lives, not the defining center of it.

Jesus is something that we appreciate, he's something that we intellectually accept, but he's also something that we kind of just keep at a distance.

And John 3 presses the question deeper.

The issue isn't whether we believe things about Jesus,

 The issue is whether we trust him with our whole selves.

The purpose of this clarity is not shame, it's restoration to Christ.

In Christmas, the story of Christ entering the world, God plunging into the depths of humanity's mess, of our mess, invites an honest response.

Am I receiving rescue or am I avoiding the diagnosis?

Because the same light that reveals our condition is the same light that leads to life.

 For some of us, Jesus can feel like a threat.

And this is the question that we have to ask ourselves.

When Jesus reveals the truth about your life, do you see him as a threat or do you see him as a gift?

For some of us, he can feel like a threat because he might disrupt the life that we've worked really hard to hold together.

 He feels threatening to following him means admitting that we don't actually have it all figured out.

If it means naming a habit, a relationship, a pattern that we'd rather avoid.

If it means letting go of being mostly fine and actually admitting that you are desperate for help.

Because if Jesus feels like he might take something away or tell the truth about us or ask us to trust him before we really feel ready, it feels risky.

Jesus feels risky and that's honest.

 But for others of us, it's not necessarily that Jesus feels like a threat to our faith.

He just feels like a threat to our control.

Like I'm comfortable with him as my savior, but maybe a little uncomfortable with him as like the Lord, the person in charge, the person directing my steps, the person telling me yes and no.

He feels like a gift when he comforts me.

 Man, but he feels like a threat when he corrects me.

He feels like a gift when he affirms me.

But he can feel like a threat when he starts touching areas of my life I thought I told him to keep off limits.

When obedience costs comfort and trust costs certainty, when following him reaches into how I spend my time, how I spend my money, and how I spend my energy.

 He feels like a threat rather than a gift.

And John says the way that we answer the question, is he a threat or is he a gift, is how we respond to the light.

If he's a threat, we stay at a distance.

If he's a gift, we draw near.

It's kind of like just what Rene described in that moment.

Threat or gift.

A threat, I'm holding on.

Gift, I'm giving it all.

 Do I pull back or do I draw closer to him?

If Jesus reveals reality, if he tells the truth about our condition, then the question becomes, why would God do that?

Is it to expose us?

No.

Is it to embarrass us?

No.

It's definitely not to leave us standing there with a verdict and no way forward.

The reason Jesus reveals where we stand is because he's about to show us where we can go.

 Because light in scripture is never meant to be cruel.

Light in scripture is supposed to lead us.

And that's where John takes us next.

He moves us from a verdict into an invitation.

I love this.

He moves us from clarity to grace.

Verse 19 says, this is the verdict.

Light has come into the world.

This is the invitation extended.

John starts by naming the verdict plainly.

I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for clarity.

 I love, I'm like, please put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everyone can grab some.

Like, let's keep it simple.

I got enough things in my life I'm trying to figure out.

The verdict is clear.

Light has come.

It's already in.

It's not a future courtroom.

It's not something that happens later.

It is here.

John tells us something crucial here.

Not just that people resist Jesus, but he tells us why.

 It's not because there isn't enough evidence.

It's not because people are lacking intelligence.

It's because of what they love.

Look at the rest of verse 19.

It says, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

The word loved here really matters.

John is saying it's not about confusion or a lack of awareness.

It's about attachment.

What we love, we're attached to.

 It's about people clinging to something because it allows them to remain hidden.

John isn't saying people accidentally wander around in the darkness.

He's saying something deeper.

We choose darkness when we protect our control, our secrecy, and our ability to stay unexposed.

Because light does something.

Light reveals.

Light names reality.

Light tells us the truth, not just about God, but about us.

 And that can feel threatening before it feels freeing.

It's like it's Christmas time, as we've said.

And my house is full, it is the land of milk and honey right now.

I got eggnog in the fridge.

 Last night, no, not last night, a couple nights ago, Kirsten and I were watching a Christmas movie.

We love Christmas movies.

And I ate four giant shortbread cookies.

There's cookies everywhere in my house right now.

We're going to have roast on Christmas Eve.

We're going to have ham on Christmas Day.

And we're going to do some kind of other thing on Christmas.

I've got this planned out, friends.

Let me tell you the one thing that I also have planned out.

I am avoiding every mirror in my house.

 between now and January.

Because it is decadent up in my house.

And some of y'all is 20, so you can eat a Tupperware and your body will just process that right out.

And that's good for you, but not for me.

That's not how my body works anymore, unfortunately.

And so it's kind of like avoiding a mirror.

Like I'm afraid of what I'm going to see.

 You know, like I got one of those trifolds in my bathroom.

I'm just folding them all in on themselves.

You can look at yourself.

I got sheets over the full length in my room.

I'm just like, get out of here.

Is it because the mirror is going to lie to me?

No, the mirror is going to tell the truth.

It's going to tell the truth.

Looking doesn't make anything worse.

 It just ends up pretending that nothing is there when we choose not to look.

And this is what Jesus does.

He doesn't force himself on anyone.

He simply shows up as light, and light always asks the question, will I step into truth or retreat back into what is familiar?

John presses it further in verse 20.

He says, everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

 So it's not about moral comparison here.

John is not dividing the world into good and bad people.

He's describing posture, the way that our heart is tuned.

To avoid light is to avoid exposure.

The issue isn't that light condemns us, it's that light tells the truth about us.

The issue isn't that light condemns us, it's that light tells the truth about us.

 And for many of us, that's the real fear.

Not that God would reject us, but that we would be fully known.

Exposure feels risky.

It means letting Jesus speak honestly into our lives.

It means opening areas that we've managed, we've justified, or we've kept private.

And often, that fear doesn't stop with Jesus and what he knows.

 it spills over and shows up in a reluctance to be known by his church, his bride, to be discipled, to be pastored, to be led, to let others walk alongside you through the hard things of life.

And this is what John wants us to see in this scripture.

This is really important.

Light is not opposed to grace.

Light is how grace does its work.

Growth doesn't happen in the hiding.

 Healing doesn't happen in secrecy, and freedom doesn't happen in isolation.

Light is where forgiveness becomes real, where wholeness begins, and where God starts forming us into something new.

And I'm so thankful because John doesn't end in darkness.

He goes on in verse 21, the most hopeful line in this entire passage.

He says, but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light.

 This phrase here, lives by the truth, is really important because John, again, he's not talking about people who have earned the light.

He's talking about people who are just willing to live honestly before God once the light appears.

People who say, I'm no longer hiding.

I'm no longer keeping this secret.

As the gospel consistently shows, truth in John is not merely believed, it's lived into.

It's about honesty.

 openness.

It's about surrendering our will to God's.

And John finishes the thought in verse 21.

He says, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

This is key.

Coming into the light doesn't mean that your life becomes a performance.

It means that your life becomes a testimony.

 God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

God steps into our mess.

He doesn't expect us to turn it around.

Just because he didn't present you with a checklist before he got to you doesn't mean that he's going to require you to get it all together on your own once he meets you.

God restores us.

God forms us.

There's a gentleman in our church and

 In the younger years of his life, he did drugs.

And then he sold those drugs.

And then he went to prison.

That's what happens, friends, in case you're wondering.

Kids, listen.

After a few years in prison, right before he got released, he gave his life to Christ, which is amazing.

Jesus met him in his mess.

 He then left prison as a convicted felon.

And if you're unaware, it makes it very hard to start a life for yourself.

It was a struggle to get a job, yet God kept him.

Years later, this man has a testimony, not because of his own, but because of what God has done in his life.

 He's now married with a family.

He owns a home here in Los Angeles and another elsewhere.

He has a thriving business and he also has a wonderful career.

And he would say to you, the reason is, is because Christ met me and he led me through that.

That's what God does.

He takes our mess and he turns it into a testimony.

This friend of mine, he wouldn't say that it was, he worked hard.

 But God opened every door for him.

God kept him.

God has built his life.

What grows in the light isn't something that we manufacture.

It's something that God forms.

Jesus doesn't invite us to impress him.

He invites us to step into the light and be transformed by his power.

One pastor and theologian, he says it this way.

Yeah.

 God gave his son in love, he revealed the truth in light, and he opened the door into life.

God gave his son in love, he revealed the truth in light, and he opened the door.

Forgiveness brings us out of guilt, but light brings us into freedom.

 And that's the heart of Christmas.

God doesn't just forgive and leave us where we are.

He brings us into a new way of living, a life shaped by truth, healed by grace, and lived in the light.

And this is important because some of us, many of us, are comfortable with Jesus as long as the light is dimmed.

We want enough light to feel better, but not so much that it changes us.

 We want enough light to be able to check off the list that like, yeah, I'm a Christian.

I know God.

But not so much that we step out and we do what he's called us to do.

We want to feel better.

Better.

 We don't necessarily want to be changed.

John gently and clearly says the invitation of Jesus isn't to manage your darkness, it's to step out of it.

Coming into the light doesn't mean exposure without mercy, it means honesty met with love.

And Christmas invites a simple and brave response.

Stop hiding, stop pretending, stop managing your appearances.

Step into the light.

Because the same light that reveals your wounds is the same light that is going to heal your wounds.

 And the good news of Christmas is this, that light has already come.

You do not have to create it.

You don't have to manufacture it.

I wonder if part of the reason why some of this feels challenging to us is because we know what it's like to keep certain areas in the dark.

Not the obvious, but the quiet places we just restrict Jesus's access from.

We restrict his light from entering into.

 You're laying there late at night.

Everyone else in the house has gone to bed.

You're scrolling, and we wouldn't want that exposed.

The way that we clock in and out of work when no one's really watching.

The tone we use with our parents or our spouse or our children, or maybe even with someone that we've just decided is too difficult.

The habits we justify.

The resentment we've normalized.

 the compromises we've learned how to manage.

The question isn't, does Jesus know?

Of course he knows.

The question is, have we invited his light in there?

What would it look like not to fix that problem today, but to just simply say, Jesus, shine your light in here too.

Because light doesn't come to shame us, it comes to heal us.

 And Christmas reminds us that Jesus doesn't avoid our darkest places.

He steps into them.

So as we close, as we look at what John is trying to teach us, we can really see that John 3, 16 through 21, it boils down to these three things.

 It boils down to God gave his son in love, he revealed the truth in light, and he opened the door into life.

Christmas isn't just a story we remember, it's a response we're invited to make.

Light has come and how we respond to that light matters.

Because light doesn't just show us who God is, it shows us where we are and it shows us where we can go.

 So I want us all to stand here today.

And I want to make space for two simple responses.

The first is for anyone in this room who has never made Jesus the Lord and Savior of their life.

And they want to do that for the first time.

You've maybe heard about him.

You've maybe respected him.

You've never really trusted him with your life.

 And today you don't feel pressure.

You just feel clarity.

You're realizing you don't need to fix yourself.

You don't need to clean yourself up.

You just need to come into the light.

If you want to say, Jesus, I trust you as my Lord and savior.

I receive you into my life and I step into your light.

Then in just a moment, I'm going to pray.

And I want you to pray with me.

The other is for this.

 I think there's some people here where you already believe you already follow Jesus.

But if you're honest, there's areas of your life where you have, you've accepted him as your savior, but not your Lord.

There's areas where you're managing instead of surrendering places where he is welcome as savior, but you have not invited him as, as Lord.

 My invitation to you today is not to start over.

It's to just bring those areas into the light.

Some of us have been struggling with something and we've just been trying harder and harder and harder and harder.

And today, I wonder if you just said, Jesus, would you just shine your light in this area?

I believe that there's some healing for us.

So in just a moment, I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask you to pray with me as well.

 I'm really inviting you to just say, Jesus, I trust you here too.

I'm done keeping this to myself.

My life is fully yours.

So if that's you, if you want to respond to either one of those calls, would you just lift your hand in this room?

Awesome.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Thank you, Jesus.

 Thank you, God.

With every head closed, every eye, every head closed, every eye closed and every head bowed, let's just pray this together.

Jesus, thank you for loving me first.

Thank you for coming close.

I bring my life into your light.

 I receive you as my Savior, and I trust you as my Lord.

Forgive me, change me, lead me.

I step out of the dark and into life with you.

Amen.