Opening Illustration: The Christmas Countdown Numbers. One day left… (show Christmas countdown). I’m going to venture to say that most people here probably have some form of Christmas countdown. Maybe you got the countdown that has candy in it. Maybe you have it on your calendar. Maybe you’re like me and you have the numbers that you change each day. For those that have a countdown, I’m going to assume that most of you all have the same number as mine does. But there are a few of you all that your countdown still says “25 days!” Anyone want to admit that and give me a head nod?!

What is it about December 25^th that makes us literally count down the days? There is typically one person in a family that is on the countdown. Like, it’s their thing. There is a part of them that gets offended if someone else changes the countdown. Sometimes, you get two people that it’s a race every morning. And occasionally, you have a whole family that loves to change the numbers and then you have to make a schedule to the countdown. If that’s you, God bless you…Then there’s some of you that puts the wrong number intentionally just to throw everyone else off… God bless you too! What is it about Christmas that draws expectancy in us? Now, I know we get excited about presents and movies and some of you strange people get excited about cold weather, but the expectancy of Christmas runs deeper. For a lot of people, Christmas brings hope, renewal, and peace. For others, they can’t wait for the countdown to hit zero so they can move on because Christmas brings pain and hurt.

Tonight, I want us to see the expectancy of Christmas in a slightly different way. If you were to step back and look at the Bible from a 50,000-foot view, you would circle the birth of Jesus as a major event. Why? The whole first half of the Bible is all about people wanting someone to come save them. When Jesus arrives on the scene as the Savior of the world, it’s a big deal. In fact, it’s quite the scene. What happens in Luke 2? ⁸ That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹ Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, ¹⁰ but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. ¹¹ The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! ¹² And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” ¹³ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” ¹⁵ When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” ¹⁶ They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.

So many people were excited about the birth of Jesus. What did the wisemen do when saw Jesus? We see their response in Matthew 2: ⁹ After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! ¹¹ They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What about the shepherds in Luke 2:17? ¹⁷ After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. What about Anna in the temple in Luke 2:38? ³⁸ She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. And what did Mary, Jesus’ mother do in Luke 2:19? ¹⁸ All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, ¹⁹ but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. There was excitement about the birth of Jesus because they had been expecting His arrival.

But if you were to read your Bible, you’d see this kind of reaction to Jesus wouldn’t remain. Over time, as Jesus got older, what would the response to Jesus be? What so many people, for so many years, had been longing for, was a Messiah that would be their earthly king. They wanted someone who would politically deliver them from their oppression. They wanted someone to change their circumstances in life. But that’s not why Jesus came to earth. That’s not why Jesus was born. And that’s why, as Jesus began His earthly ministry as an adult, the excitement and anticipation would turn to hate for so many. Around Christmas time, we look at how God brought His Son into the world. We see the Father introducing His Son to the world. But if we want the expectancy of Christmas to fill our hearts year-round, we need to go to the place where Jesus first introduced. Himself as the Messiah.

There’s a scene in John 4 where Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well. It’s in the middle of the day and Jesus asks this woman to give Him some water to drink. This encounter is significant in many ways. Jews, which Jesus was a Jew, didn’t interact with Samaritans. Jews saw Samaritans as second class. Jews thought that whatever a Samaritan touched would be ceremonially unclean. In addition, this particular Samaritan woman had a questionable reputation. Jesus would tell this woman that He knows she has had 5 husbands and the man she is living with now isn’t her husband. Jesus knows the details of this woman’s life. Jesus knows that shame and guilt that she feels. Jesus knows that she doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Jesus knows that this woman wants to feel known and loved. So, what did Jesus do? Look at John 4:25-26: ²⁵ The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!” Of all the people in the world, Jesus first introduced Himself as the Messiah to a lonely, broken, shame-filled woman. No angels, no wisemen, no expensive gifts – just a heart that needed to be saved and healed. Can you imagine that moment for that woman? Can you imagine the chills that came over her? The breath that was taken out of her lungs when she realized who was standing in front of her. This woman was expecting the Messiah to come – and now she stood face to face with Him. In that moment, Jesus took all of her brokenness, shame, and loneliness and replaced it with His love. She was no longer an outcast, but rather in the family of God. In that moment, the expectancy of her life changed forever.

This Christmas, that’s what I want for you. Some of you need to see Jesus as the Messiah for the first time. You need to stop drinking from the empty wells in this world and start drinking from the well of Jesus that fully satisfied. You need to let your brokenness and shame be healed by beginning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For all of us, we need to have an expectancy like the woman at the well. I want you to celebrate the birth of Jesus because of who He is and what He did for us. I want you to celebrate that Jesus didn’t enter this world to sit on a man-made throne of stone and gold. I want you to celebrate that Jesus entered this world so that He can enter your hearts and make them full and clean again. I want the expectancy of Christmas to be the expectancy of your life – for all 365 days of the year. 

This Christmas, I’m going to ask you to do something little different…Many of you are going to wake up in the morning and you are going to go to your Christmas countdown and change the numbers to “00”. When you do that, I want that moment to instill expectancy in your heart for what Jesus is going to do over the next 365 days in your life. I want you to spend a few minutes reading John 4 in your Bible. I want you to read about this Samaritan woman that ran off telling the nearby village that she met the Messiah. I want you to live with expectancy of the Messiah. Let’s pray.

Transition to Christ Candle

Tonight, we lit our final advent candle, the Christ candle. This candle represents the light that Jesus brought into the world. The candle reminds us of Luke 2:12-14: ¹² And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”¹³ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,¹⁴ “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”  This candle reminds us that we don’t take a step of faith into darkness, but rather a leap of faith into the light.

In just a minute, we are going to sing the famous hymn, “Silent Night”. It’s a reminder to us about that night when Jesus enter into the world as the Messiah. As we sing that song, I want the birth of Christ to resonate on your heart. But we are not going to end our service this year with that song. We are going to end this year with “Joy to the World”. I want us to leave tonight with the expectant joy that comes from the Messiah. Do you know what happened after the Samaritan woman ran into the nearby village declaring that the Messiah had come? We find out in John 4:39-42: ³⁹ Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” ⁴⁰ When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, ⁴¹ long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. ⁴² Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.” 

Tonight, we end with expectancy. We end with joy. Because, indeed, Jesus is the Savior of the world. Let’s sing “Silent Night” and then let the expectant joy ring out!

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