A Thrill of Hope, December 14, 2025

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome. Good morning, fellowship. I want to enjoy this to be here with you all. Today, as we gather together as a church family to begin to turn our attention in this season toward the overwhelming reality that God came from heaven to earth at Christmas in the person of Jesus Christ. And all of that means for us and all of that means for the hope that we have in him and our relationship with God and our relationship with one another. It is the Christmas season and I'm excited to get to share it together with you as a church family. I also want to extend you Christmas greetings from our partners in Nepal. I had a chance last week to get to go there with our missions pastor, Rick Evershwick, and one of the members of our media team, Keegan Doyle, to go and to see the work that God's doing through your generosity, through your giving, to help translate the scriptures in the languages over there in Nepal that have never had the word of God

in their language before. So it was incredible to see that. We'll get to tell more of that story in the Sundays to come, but they wish you Merry Christmas and I want you to know that. And also for you to know that if I say something really off today, I may still be a little bit jet lagged. So just know Jesus loves you. That's the point, all right? If I say something really weird, that's what I'm getting at today. But for any of you who are relatively new to this today, my name is Ben Parkinson. I'm one of four we call teaching pastors here at Fellowship who have the privilege of getting to come alongside Brandon and Justin and Mark and the team Ori in a way that we do to teach and lead the church. And so if I haven't had a chance to meet you yet, maybe we've just never been here together the same Sunday or you haven't had time for that, I'm gonna be at the Connection Center after the service and would love to say hi to you. That'd be a huge blessing to me, whether you're here in the worship center,

whether you're in the chapel joining us today or of course online here at home and all across the world, we are glad that you are here. And we are gonna get back into preaching through the book of Galatians at the end of December and then we'll finish that on in through the month of January that we've been preaching through verse by verse as a church. But for the next few weeks, we wanna take a pause and look at the Christmas story in this series we're calling A Thrill of Hope. A Thrill of Hope. From my favorite Christmas hymn as well and that is O Holy Night. Whose lyrics really speak to in a lot of different ways some of the most meaningful emotions and truths of what it means that God came from heaven to earth in Christmas. I mean, just look at the first verse of this hymn together with me. It starts off and says, O holy night, the stars are brightly shining.

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared and the soul felt its worth. There's something in how Jesus came into human history and something about when he came in to human history that is incredibly meaningful for this world that was desperate to behold. After 400 years of silence when it comes to God speaking directly into the world between the Old Testament and New Testament eras, not only did he finally speak but he showed up in person and did much more than just speak. That's what the hymn goes on to say. A thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. There's a new and glorious morn that dawned on the world when Jesus showed up and arrived on Christmas. Isaiah the prophet back in the Old Testament

hundreds of years before Jesus ever showed up spoke to this reality in Isaiah 9 prophesying the coming of Christ where he said, but there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time he's made glorious the way of the sea. The land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations where Jesus would spend most of his time in his public ministry. And to that he says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them has light shown. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, before Jesus was born, people were living in a sense of deep darkness,

in the absence of the voice of God, in the absence of the reality of the presence of God. And when I say that, I wanna suggest somehow that between the Old Testament writing and when Jesus showed up in the New Testament times, that God wasn't present in the world, that he wasn't active in the world. He was very present and very active, just like he always is in the world. It wasn't a God problem, it was a human problem. It was an us problem, that we weren't aware of his presence. We weren't aware of his reality. And the absence of that in our minds and hearts had plunged the world into this deep sense of darkness and hopelessness that Isaiah talks about, just as it always does when we lose sight of the presence of God in our lives. And yet when Jesus finally came from heaven to earth at Christmas, the Bible describes him as this great light that exploded onto the cosmic scene in the midst of this great darkness, this thrill of hope, like the song proclaims, where the weary world finally can rejoice. So what exactly did Jesus do when he came from heaven to earth that gave the world this light, this newfound hope? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about in this series over the next two weeks together.

And there's a lot of things we can share or talk about with what Jesus did when he came from heaven to earth, but we really wanna highlight just two big picture things over the next two Sundays leading up to Christmas that Jesus did to give the world this sense of a thrill of hope. In order to do that, we wanna look at the Christmas story in the gospel of Matthew, if you wanna turn there with me this morning to Matthew chapter one. Now, the story of Jesus' birth here is just in verses 18 through 25, eight short verses. We'll look at that together. Of course, you can follow along on the screen if you wanna do that as well. Let's look at Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus Christ. It says, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, being Isaiah, again says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she'd given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Very words of God, amen? So Matthew here gives us a pretty concise telling of the birth of Christ, doesn't he? Like I said, just eight short verses. And yet in these eight verses, God gives us these two big picture reasons why Jesus came from heaven to earth at Christmas, and how that was a great light in the midst of the darkness that was on the earth. Two reasons why the world experienced this thrill of hope. First of all, we're gonna see in our passage, it's because when Jesus came at Christmas, he came to show us what we could not see without him. Jesus came to show us what we couldn't see, God himself. He came to reveal who God is in the flesh to the world. Now notice back in verse 23, he says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,

which means God with us. Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus ever showed up, said, God's gonna come and be among us. He's gonna show up and be with us and walk around us in the person of Jesus Christ, which is what we're gonna take a look at in the rest of our time this morning together. But not only did Jesus show us what we could not see when he came from heaven to earth, the second thing we're gonna look at next week is that he also came to save what we could not save, ourselves. Look again at what the angel tells Joseph in verse 21. Says, she shall bear a son and you shall call him. is named Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Again, that's what we'll focus on next week. But this is the light in the great darkness. This is the thrill of hope that we have in Christ, that he came to show us what we could not see without him, and he came to save what we could not save without him. Those two things are what the world was desperate for. Because without seeing who God is, without knowing that he's real and seeing him in all of his glory, and then without believing that that God actually came to rescue us and wants to be with us and wants us to be with him forever, without those two realities, we'll always be living in darkness.

The world will always be living without real hope. That's where our hopelessness comes from. So what did Jesus actually show us about God when he left heaven and came to earth at Christmas? And how is that meant to give us hope in the dark world around us? Well, one of the things Matthew actually shows us in our passage is that first and foremost, Jesus came to show us that this God who created all of this is a God who is not like his creation. The God who created all of this is a God who is not like us. Yes, we're made in his image, and in a lot of ways we reflect his glory, and there are ways that we are like him, but he is different than us. Notice what the angel again tells Joseph in verse 20. He says, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. He says that that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, not from you, Joseph, and not from some other man that she cheated on you with, which is why I'm gonna ask you to marry her anyway and do what I'm asking you to do. No, this child is gonna show the world who God is because he doesn't have an earthly father. He has a heavenly one. And that's critically important for Jesus to show the world who God is,

because if his DNA had come through a human father, then he would have carried the same sin nature that all of us carry from our ultimate ancestor, Adam. And Jesus would have needed to be saved just like all of us need to be saved, right? But the scripture is very clear that Jesus didn't have a sin nature like the rest of us, that he didn't need to be saved himself the way that all of us do. Not only does Matthew say it here in chapter one of the story, but look at what the apostle John writes in one of his letters to the churches in 1 John 3, 5. He says, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him, there is no sin. In him, there is no sin. The apostle Peter reinforces that to his letter to the churches and says it in this way in 1 Peter 2, 22 to 23, he says he committed no sin, neither was there deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He didn't have any sin in him, and he never committed any sin, Peter says. Now, why is that so crucial for mankind to understand, to experience this thrill of hope in the midst of the darkness that we're talking about this morning? Well, the reason why it's so important is because part of what plunges us into darkness

is when we look around us and start to believe that mankind is as good as it gets. That's part of what makes us feel hopeless in the world, that this fallen, broken world is as good as it gets. When we start to believe that there is no God, that there's no such thing as holiness or perfection, that there's no personal being who made us and created all of this, or especially that there's no personal being that created all this that's better than us, that's what leads us to that deep darkness, to that place of hopelessness. Even if we can conceive of other gods somehow, even if we can make up that there's some other spiritual being out there, I mean, after all, the Greeks and Romans, they had their gods, they had their pantheon of gods, but they were gods they created in their image. Instead of seeing us as made in God's image and yet being broken and sinful, needing to be redeemed, they made their gods in their own image, right? If you go and read Greek mythology and Roman mythology, they have an idea of gods that Jesus was born into a world who understood, but go and read those stories. Their gods are just as selfish as we are. Their gods are just as petty as we are. Their gods are just as unjust and greedy as we are. Now, part of the deep darkness that the world was in before Jesus showed up,

part of the hopelessness that the world felt in the absence of hearing from the one true God for over 400 years, was the sense that Either we're completely alone in the universe and our fallen sinful natures is as good as it gets, or that the gods who do exist are every bit as sinful as we are and so there's no greater glory to aspire to than our own. But Jesus shows up in the midst of a world that's lost in that darkness, in that hopelessness, and shows us what we desperately needed to see, that God is real and that he's not like us in our sin. Where we cheat, he is honest and true. Where we oppress, he redeems and sets free. Where we're greedy and selfish, he's sacrificial and generous. Where we judge, he is merciful. There's a hopelessness when you live in a dog-eat-dog world that we all experience. There's a depression that comes, we start to believe that making the most out of sin is as good as it gets. We need to know that God exists in order to have hope and we need to know he's better than us. We need to know he's holier than us. We need to know that there is perfection out there somewhere in the universe and Jesus coming from heaven to earth

showed us just that. But holy did Jesus reveal to us that God's a God who is not like us in all the best ways that he needs to be not like us. He also showed us something that I think is almost even more amazing than that. And that is that even though God is not like his creation, here's the unreal thing about him. He's willing to become like his creation. To identify with us, to draw near to us, to have relationship with us, to prove that he understands us. Notice again back in our passage that we read this morning what it says about the birth of Jesus in the first half of verse 23. It says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Notice what it doesn't say there. It doesn't say behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear an alien. It doesn't say behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear an angel. She didn't conceive and bear some other kind of spiritual being or demigod. No, she gave birth to a human being. God is not like us, but he was willing to become like us at Christmas through the birth of Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter two, five through eight, the Holy Spirit riding through the apostle Paul to this church in Philippi,

speaks to this reality when he writes, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, get this, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, hoarded, held onto, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So wait a minute, you're trying to tell me that this one true God who is glorious and who is holy, who is eternal and who is all powerful, who is not like us in all the best ways, he needs to not be like us, that that God didn't show up as an all powerful God? When he came to the earth, he didn't show up in a form that would shake the world to its core as it beheld his glory? You're telling me this God that is so incredible, he didn't even show up like one of his angels does and they're less glorious than him because he created them, so they can't have as much glory as him and when angels show up in the Bible, man, men and women fall down their faces like dead people and they tremble and they know they're done because they're so holy, they're so perfect, they're so glorious, they realize how sinful they are

and they know what they deserve and they just, they can't handle it. You're saying God didn't even show up like a lesser than version of himself that would make people fall on their faces in awe? You mean to tell me that part of what Jesus showed us about who God is at Christmas is that the one true God is a God who's willing to restrain all of that power and restrain all of that glory and all of that worship, that he deserves every millisecond of every day and limit himself to learn how to walk as a child. Think about that for a minute. Limit himself to have to learn how to talk, how to speak the very languages that he created. Limited himself to have to be dependent on food. He would get hungry and he would get weak if he didn't eat enough. Of course, we know that he could fast for 40 days and depend on the word of God but he still was being tempted, right? He still ate, he still needed food and sustenance, the food that he created and put on the earth. He limited himself where he needed to sleep to make it through the next day. God needed sleep to be able to just make it through his day with the energy that he needed. Can you imagine a God who creates the sun in our solar system and then puts himself in a form that is dependent on that vitamin D or else he'll die.

How humble is that? How meek is that? How amazing is that? Just to show us that he's not only a God who is perfect in all the ways we're not perfect, but that part of his perfection is how humble he is in ways that we're not. Part of his perfection, like I said, is in his meekness. The word meek in the scriptures literally means restrained power. It's power that could be unleashed, that deserves to be unleashed, and yet it's intentionally restrained for the good of those around it. When it says Jesus was meek, that's what it's talking about. Incredible that he would be willing to restrain his glory to be with us and to become like us. So, O Holy Night echoes. The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger. In all our trials, born to be our friend. Which is yet another reason that Jesus showing up was the brightest of lights in the midst of the deepest of dark worlds. Because here's the thing, even if we came to know that God was real, and even if we came to understand that he was perfect and sinless and glorious, we would still be tempted to say, but does this amazing God understand

what I'm going through down here? Does this amazing, perfect, holy other than God who's not like me appreciate my struggle in this fallen, broken world that he created? We ruined it, but he made it. Does he understand? Is he just a perfect, holy, glorious kind of robot of a God who gives me someone to worship who's greater than me, something to aspire to that's better than me, but he's still aloof and distant, removed from my humanity? Is he the kind of guy that when I pray to him, man, he hears it and he says, yeah, I mean, I can listen to you, and man, here's some things that I can do about that prayer, but honestly, I really don't know what you're going through. No, look at what Hebrews 4, verses 14 to 15 says about Jesus Christ. It says, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast to our confession, and look at what it says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. No, every temptation you've ever felt to turn to something other than God's perfect love for you

to satisfy your deepest needs, Jesus has felt that same temptation. He didn't act on it the way we do, right? It says he's been tempted as we are yet without sin. Whenever he was tempted to walk away from it, he trusted in God's perfect love for him. Every time Satan offered him a different path, a different way, some kind of shortcut, he trusted the Lord, but he knows what you're going through. He knows what it feels like. He's not just sympathetic to your struggle as an observer, he's actually empathetic with our struggle as one who suffered what we have suffered. Have you ever craved for God to change something in your life so desperately that you feel like if he doesn't change it, you're gonna die? Jesus has felt that temptation. Sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, what does he say? Father, take this cup from me. Change it. It's overwhelming. It seems impossible. I don't know if I can walk through it. I don't think I can walk through it. But then the difference between Jesus and you and I is that whereas most of the time we then turn and say, God, this is too impossible for you to ask me to walk through

so I'm gonna take a different path. I'm gonna pick my own way. Satan's giving me this out over here. I'm just gonna jump on it. Jesus comes back and says, yet not my will but yours be done. He felt everything you felt. He's been tempted every way you've been tempted yet without sin. So the hymn says, he knows our need. Our weakness, no stranger. Behold your king before him lowly bent. Which leads me to the final big picture thing that Jesus showed the world about who God is that broke through this darkness in an otherworldly way. And that is that not only did Jesus show us that the one true God is a God who is not like his creation in the best of ways. And not only did Jesus show us that the one true God is a God who is willing to become like his creation in the most amazing of ways. But finally, Jesus shows us that the one true God is a God who loves his creation in every way. And that this God who is perfect and holy and eternal and worthy of all worship loves us even though we're none of those things. Not even close. And that's an important part of the hope that the world felt when Jesus showed up. That's a part of that light that came in

and interrupted the deep darkness. Because think about it for a minute. Even if he had come and simply showed us that there was a God who's real and better than us, which we needed, and even if he had walked among us in humility as a human to understand our struggle and all of our trials, which we needed, he still, after both of those things, could have returned to heaven after all of it and said, whew, glad that's over. I mean, he could have walked among us and said, I mean, I wanted to show humans how far they'd fallen from what I'd created them to be, and I wanted to show them how amazing I am in being willing to walk a mile in their shoes out of humility to understand their plight, but good grief, I can't stand them. So glad to be back up here on my throne away from all of that, man. I'm just gonna let that play out the way it's gonna play out, and whatever happens, happens. Whew, shoo. No, when Jesus came from heaven to earth, he touched the untouchable, didn't he? He healed those who were hurting, didn't he? He helped support those who were needy with his generosity, didn't he? He befriended those who everybody else rejected. I love this, he spent time with the self-righteous

who, in their pride and arrogance, thought they were better than people around them and didn't need God's forgiveness as much, and he spent time with the unrighteous who knew they were walking away from God and didn't really care. He spent time with both of those groups to show them what grace was about, to show them what the love of God was about. He ate with people no one else would eat with. Jesus loved the world. I know when I say that, a lot of us aren't really surprised by that idea. I mean, most of us, when we think about Jesus, we think of someone who is loving, who does loving things, who did loving things in his life when he was on the earth. I mean, the reality is, even people that don't place their faith in Jesus and don't think he was God and the Son of God and that he died for our sins on the cross and all of that, even those people, if you ask them who Jesus was, if they believe he actually lived in history, would say, oh yeah, I think he was a really good guy. I think he was super nice, I think he gave us an example to aspire to. Most people would say Jesus was a loving person. So that's not really what we get confused by a lot of times when we think about Jesus. The challenge for a lot of us

is to view who we think of as God as the same way that we view Jesus. We're tempted, if we're not careful, growing up around the Bible, growing up around church, growing up in the South where we've heard the gospel over and over and over again, to think of God as this being who's really mad at the world, who's disgusted with the world, who hates the world. But then Jesus came as the Son of God and rescued the world so God could finally love the world. That's how we think about it a lot of times, isn't it? And yes, on the one hand, Jesus did come from heaven to earth to pay for the sins of the world on the cross. We'll look at that again in great detail next week like we talked about. But I think when we think about that reality, a lot of times we get the order of God's emotions wrong. We don't think about it really in a way that warms our hearts to who He is and to what He's trying to show us through Jesus coming from heaven to earth at Christmas. And I've said it before, but I'll say it again here. John 3,16 doesn't say, for God so hated the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that then He could love the world. That's not what it says. Right, what does it say? It says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

Jesus came from heaven to earth to show us that God already loved us. It's why He came in the first place. We preached through the book of Romans last year. We looked at this verse in Romans chapter five, verse eight that echoes this reality when it says, but God shows His love for us. He displays His love for us. He reveals how He feels about us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What Jesus did on the cross didn't change how God felt about us. It showed us how God felt about us, which is why Jesus says to His disciples at the Last Supper what He says. In John chapter 14, eight through 11, Philip's wrestling with the same thing that we wrestle with a lot of times. Look at it with me. He says, Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us. Right, what's Philip saying there? He's saying, look, I know we've spent three and a half years walking around with you and you're great, but man, just give us a glimpse of what God's really like, of what the Father's really like. And look at what Jesus says to him. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? He said, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? in me, and look at what he says. He says, the words that I speak, that I say to you, I don't speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Jesus says, everything you've ever heard me say, if you think the words coming out of my mouth have been gracious and kind and loving and merciful and forgiving and caring, guess what? All of them are coming straight from the Father through me to you. It's not two different ideas going on here. He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Listen, whatever you think in your mind and heart about Jesus, whatever warm fuzzies you get when you think about him, you need to apply that same feeling, that same emotion, that same thing you feel about him to God the Father, to the Holy Spirit, to the three of them together as three in one. We don't need to think of those beings as having different emotions toward us in our relationship with God. Which is why the hymn goes on to say, truly he taught us to love one another. Why?

Because his law is love. And his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression shall cease. Now Jesus didn't love us so that God could love us. Jesus loved us because God loves us. That's the light that showed up in the midst of the deep darkness some 2000 years ago at Christmas, fellowship. That's the thrill of hope that leapt into the hearts of mankind when Jesus finally arrived. That sin and brokenness is not all there is to live for in the universe. There is a God who created it all and is not like us in the best of ways. That we're not alone in this life when it comes to our suffering and our struggle, but that same God is willing to become like us. And when we talk to him, we're talking to someone who understands what we're going through. And then finally, this is not a God who comes to us in anger or in hatred or just to say, I told you so from on high somehow, but this is a God who loves us. As though he created in his image and wants to have a relationship. Yes, he's holier than us, but he also understands us. And what's incredible is he loves us just the same. Which is why we sing sweet hymns of joy. In grateful chorus raise we.

Let all within us praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord. Oh, praise his name forever. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you for the reality of Christmas. Jesus, we thank you for coming from heaven to earth like Philippians 2 said, for emptying yourself and taking on our form, unbelievable, so that you could show us who this God is. So you could identify with us in our struggle, in our weakness, in our frailness, in our temptation. And so that you could love us and reveal to us the love that God has for us. Jesus, thank you for being willing to come and do that on Christmas day. The humility is overwhelming. Lord, we beg you that as we reflect on you this Christmas, as we praise you for who you are, God, that we would thank you for those things. And that you would put in our hearts the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us, a desire to reflect that reality to the world around us as well. Lord, to walk with you and follow you in ways that we didn't used to before we knew you, to show them a glimpse of who we can be, a glimpse of who we'll one day be. When scripture says, when we see you, we will be like you.

God, help us to begin to give the world a sense of what that's gonna be like in the way that we trust you and follow you. God, may we also enter into people's struggles, bear their burdens with them, walk a mile in their shoes the way that you have done for us. God, put that kind of love in our hearts and Lord, do it in us out of love. May we not do it to prove that we're better than other people. May we not do it to prove to you that we're worthy of your acceptance. May we not do it in some kind of competitive way or arrogant way or self-righteous way. God, may we do it in the same spirit and heart that you came to us in love, because we love them and we want them to experience the same life that we're experiencing. Jesus, thank you for coming from heaven to earth. Come into us and help us to show the world what that means. We ask it in your name. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.