this video is a response to Rob Bell’s controversial video that started the entire fiasco. In no way are we parodying or making fun of Rob. Our hope is that we are graciously using his logic and appeal to emotion and turning it on it’s head. The beauty of the gospel is that ALL the attributes of God win at the cross, not just love. Gods justice is satisfied, His holiness revealed, His love shown, etc. The cross is a cataclysmic crash between all of God’s attributes showing that he is both JUST and JUSTIFIER of the one who does not work but trusts in Him.
Those Who Walk in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light: The Wonder of Christmas
“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” [Isaiah 9:2] Those words from the prophet Isaiah told of the coming Prince of Peace, and of the light and life He would bring.
Christmas arrives again with all the promise of remembrance and celebration. Christians celebrate Christmas because the light did dawn. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was not only the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, but the dawn of a new age. As the angels declared to the shepherds, this infant is “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
This is the very essence of Christmas: The birth of the Savior. To understand Christmas is to know that the ultimate peace the Savior would bring would be established by His death and resurrection. Even as Jesus came to save His people from their sins, Christ’s birth points towards His cross and the fulfillment of His saving work.
The image of light dispelling darkness is central to our understanding of the incarnation and its meaning. When Jesus was presented at the temple shortly after His birth, the aged Simeon recognized this child as “A Light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.”
The metaphor of light makes sense only against a background of darkness. In the Bible, darkness is a rich metaphor that points to a double reality. In one sense, darkness points to the simple fact of human ignorance. Those who are “in the dark” are those who lack knowledge. To the Jewish mind, this metaphor had particular application to the Gentile world–a world that had not received the grace of God through the revelation of the Torah, the prophets, and the written revelation of God. Even today, we know that untold millions still dwell in deep darkness, having never heard about the one true God or of Jesus Christ, His only Son.
In a second sense, darkness refers to evil and willful blindness. This points beyond the mere fact of simple ignorance. In this sense, darkness refers to the fact that many will reject the light. As John explained, “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came into His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”
This is hard to believe–the Son of God took on human flesh and came to live among sinful humanity, but the vast majority did not recognize Him for who He is.
As a celebration of light, Christmas is the festival that points to the glory of God in the revelation of the Son in Bethelehem’s humble manger. We rightly point to Christ’s birth as the central event of human history–the dividing line between the age of darkness and the age of light. This is reason enough to celebrate Christmas, for our response to this gift of light must be a celebration, thanksgiving, and rejoicing.
Preaching on a Christmas morning almost five hundred years ago, Martin Luther reminded his congregation that the proper response to the Christian story is not mere rejoicing nor casual interest, but faith. Beyond this, Luther understood that this faith has two important dimensions.
Luther reminded his congregation that most persons know how to rejoice when they are given a Christmas gift. “But how many are there who shout and jump for joy when they hear the message of the angel: ‘To you is born this day the Savior?’ Indeed, the majority look upon it as a sermon that must be preached, and when they have heard it, consider it a trifling thing, and go away just as they were before. This shows that we have neither the first nor the second faith.”
As Luther understood, to hear the Christmas story and to respond with mere interest is an indication of faith’s absence. Furthermore, Luther helpfully reminded his congregation that a mere affirmation of the fact that the incarnation occurred is not saving faith. “We do not believe that the virgin mother bore a son and that he is the Lord and Savior unless, added to this, I believe the second thing, namely, that he is my Savior and Lord.”
In other words, the message of Christmas is received when Jesus Christ is not merely affirmed as the baby in Bethlehem’s manger, but as one’s own Savior and Lord.
“When I can say: This I accept as my own, because the angel meant it for me, then, if I believe it in my heart, I shall not fail to love the mother Mary, and even more the child, and especially the Father,” Luther continued. “For, if it is true that the child was born of the virgin and is mine, then I have no angry God and I must know and feel that there is nothing but laughter and joy in the heart of the Father and no sadness in my heart. For, if what the angel says is true, that he is our Lord and Savior, what can sin do against us?”
With those words, Luther articulated the majestic faith of Christmas–the faith that saves. When Christmas is rightly understood, we know that God loves us, even as we are sinners who deserve no love. We also understand that this love is demonstrated in the gift of the Son, who would die for our sins and would be raised by the Father in order to secure our salvation.
Thus, a true Christmas is celebrated when we come to understand, to know, to celebrate, and to receive the fact that Jesus Christ is not merely a Savior, but our Savior.
The image of light is central, not only to Christmas, but to Christianity. Jesus said: “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” [John 8:12] This is the sum and substance of Christmas. The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who have lived in a dark land have now experienced the shining of the Light of life.
http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/12/24/those-who-walk-in-darkness-have-seen-a-great-light-the-wonder-of-christmas/
B. B. Warfield’s sermon “Imitating the Incarnation” “offers the most riveting description of the goal of Christian living that I’ve ever read.” Here is an excerpt: It is not to this that Christ’s example calls us. He did not cultivate self, even His divine self: He took no account of self. He was not led by His divine impulse out of the world, driven back into the recesses of His own soul to brood morbidly over His own needs, until to gain His own seemed worth all sacrifice to Him. He was led by His love for others into the world, to forget Himself in the needs of others, to sacrifice self once for all upon the altar of sympathy. Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world. And self-sacrifice will lead us, His followers, not away from but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort. Wherever men strive, there will we be to help. Wherever men fail, there will be we to uplift. Wherever men succeed, there will we be to rejoice. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows: it means absorption in them. It means forgetfulness of self in others. It means entering into every man’s hopes and fears, longings and despairs: it means manysidedness of spirit, multiform activity, multiplicity of sympathies. It means richness of development. It means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives,—binding ourselves to a thousand souls by the filaments of so loving a sympathy that their lives become ours. It means that all the experiences of men shall smite our souls and shall beat and batter these stubborn hearts of ours into fitness for their heavenly home. It is, after all, then, the path to the highest possible development, by which alone we can be made truly men. Not that we shall undertake it with this end in view. This were to dry up its springs at their source. We cannot be self-consciously self-forgetful, selfishly unselfish. Only, when we humbly walk this path, seeking truly in it not our own things but those of others, we shall find the promise true, that he who loses his life shall find it. Only, when, like Christ, and in loving obedience to His call and example, we take no account of ourselves, but freely give ourselves to others, we shall find, each in his measure, the saying true of himself also: “Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him.” The path of self-sacrifice is the path to glory.
“So that was a friendly Southern Baptist person?”
After making that statement, one of my coworkers—a divorced unbelieving agnostic man working two jobs a day to pay child support—tossed a credit card receipt with a circle around the subpar tip he had received from an individual that I had identified as a Christian, who just happened to be a Southern Baptist (I don’t think only Southern Baptists are Christians, nor do I think only Southern Baptists tip unfairly), sitting at his table. In fact, the tip was less than subpar…it was atrociously unfair—barely 10% on a $90 bill. I might have let his comments go in one ear and out the other if it was an isolated incident, but sadly it is not. I thought about ignoring him, but I have been attempting to share the gospel with this gentleman for quite sometime. So, I had to look this man in the face and say, “Not all Christian people treat others that way.”
I have been serving tables at a restaurant for several years in order to support my wife and children and to pay my way through graduate school. Over and over and over again I have observed Christian people (or people who identify themselves as Christian people) come in to the restaurant I work at, pray for their food after acting rudely toward their waiter, leave a 10% tip (give or take a few percent) with a gospel tract in the check presenter and then leave. The gentleman that I work with, like countless waiters around the country, interpret such actions (poor tips from alleged Christian people) as stingy-greed. So, though it may be unfair to some degree on their part, many waiters have identified the majority of Christians as a contingent of people who care little for others. Why? Primarily because they hear Christians promise them that God is just and fair, that he is a generousKing who is lavish with his mercy and kind toward others, and that the gospel is for all people right before that same Christian person metaphorically clinches their money in their fist and tips poorly; refusing money to laborers who are worthy of their wages (1Tim 5:18). Sure, believers and unbelievers can leave poor tips; believers and unbelievers can leave fair tips. But, the Scripture teaches that Christians, more than all people, should be a people characterized by generosity and love, not simply “fairness”, because they were first loved (1John 4:19) even though they were most underserving. It seems that the deeper issue is not a knowledge of what is culturally fair or economically acceptable. Rather, the issue is a lack of recognition by Christian people that they have received out of God’s fullness (John 1:16); that they have received because God generously provided his Son for us and for our salvation.
What Christians don’t realize is that they are abdicating their responsibility to the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20) and compromising the gospel that they preach by tipping restaurant waiters poorly. Indeed, poor tips are the equivalent of what Moses teaches in Deuteronomy 25—muzzling an ox when it is treading out grain (Deut 25:4. Later, the Apostle Paul would say the same thing in 1Tim 5:18). It is abdicating responsibility to the Great Commission because the gospel is about grace. Of all the people in the world, Christians should be a people who understand that they are unworthy of the great mercy, grace and generosity shown them in Christ. Even an unbelieving person can tip fairly, but Christians should be more than “fair” tippers, they should be generous because God has generously provided redemption for them through his Son, Jesus Christ (see the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Matt 18:21-35; Lk 7:47). So, to determine the tip percentage of your bill based on quality of service, whether one is a Christian or not, goes against grace and is a matter of greed. Most likely, no one who says to themselves, “The service was poor so I will leave a poor tip” would allow their boss to say, “You showed up late today for work and forgot to make copies or send an email so I plan to garnish your day’s wages.” Why? Because it is unethical for a supervisor to dock someone’s pay for the day because they had a bad day (though, that person may be in danger of losing their job). So it should be with waiters and their customers; they deserve their wages simply because they are working humans created in the image of God. The real heart issue when it comes to poor tipping by a Christian is a lack of awareness of how great and vast the debt was that God generously forgave freely because he loved.
Recently, on another occasion, a local pastor came in with his wife to eat and left a 13% tip, which made his bill an even number. Why would anyone want to go to his church or believe the gospel he preaches when the laborer, whose wages he has kept back for himself, cries out against him (James 5:4)? The woman I work with who served his table is married to a man she hasn’t lived with in over two years. She desperately needs the gospel, but she has identified the gospel that Christians preach with their greedy restaurant tipping. Again, it seems that the deeper heart issue in a moment like this, when a Christian defrauds a worker of their wages, is that they have deceived themselves into believing that this action is trivial and doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, that no one will ever see or know about how they defrauded another person. But that is not the picture that the Scripture paints—indeed, the Scripture teaches that Someone does see and hear and is paying very careful attention to all of the actions that we think do not matter in this life (Josh 7; 2Cor 5:10), whether one is a Christian or not.
When eating out at a restaurant there are two types of people serving as waiters: Christians and non-Christians. Both deserve fair wages simply because they are humans created in the likeness of God (Gen 1:27). The majority of waiters in the United States are people who make far less than minimum wage – about $2.13/hr in Kentucky where the minimum wage is $7.25 (with the exception of waiters in places which have unions that have enabled them to have a fair hourly wage because so many people listen to Suze Orman and tip poorly). Therefore, waiters are a group of employees who are totally reliant on fair wages to support themselves and their respective families, since their $2.13/hr does not even cover the taxes that are taken out of their check. When Christians sit at a restaurant table they assume the role of a master or boss; the Scripture commands that they treat their slave/waiter justly and fairly because they too have a Master in heaven (Col 4:1). This is the reason that restaurants ask, for a big party, if the check should reflect an 18% or 20% gratuity (formerly, restaurants asked if you wanted 15% added to the check). Due to the economy and cost of living, 18% is considered a fair wage for a waiter now. Just as minimum wage increases every once in awhile to accommodate for rising costs of living, so it is for waiters and the percentage that is considered a fair tip. But again, fairness is a standard that anyone can provide—even the Gentiles do this (Matt 5:46-48)—the Scripture calls Christians to be a people who are generous in hopes that by becoming all things to all people they might save some (1Cor 9:22).
Sadly, a large portion of the people that I work with have received less than minimum tips from many who have identified themselves with the gospel; as a result they distance themselves from the gospel preached to them by Christians. It seems that the only way that this will be rectified is if Christians recognize their position in Christ—they are the recipients of unmerited grace by a Generous God—repent of their greed, cling to their money loosely, store up their treasure in heaven and give generously so that others may know that our treasure is indeed found in Someone else—Jesus Christ (Matt 6:19-21).
backsliders reclaimed, Satan’s captives released,
blind eyes opened, broken hearts bound up,
the despondent cheered, the self-righteous stripped,
the formalist driven from a refuge of lies,
the ignorant enlightened,
and saint built up in their holy faith.
I ask great things of a great God
“‘Immanuel, God with us.’ It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it… . Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word, ‘God with us,’ back he falls, confounded and confused… . ‘God with us’ is the laborer’s strength. How could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor if that one word were taken away? … ‘God with us’ is eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified, the song of the redeemed, the chorus of the angels, the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky… . Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast… . But in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem. Let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the Child given. I finish by again saying, A happy Christmas to you all!” C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Old Testament (London, n.d.), III:430. -ortlund
