Since Thanksgiving, each of our services has focused clearly on the person and work of Jesus. We have stood in awe with the shepherds at his birth. We have been amazed with the crowds by his teaching. We have cried with the women who stood by the cross. Today, we are transformed by power of the resurrection.
Jesus is the best gift mankind has ever been given. He doesn’t wear out, go out of style, or require batteries and “some assembly.” He always fits, he can’t break, and nobody who has him complains if they’re given more of him. All of the blessings of eternity are tied up in Jesus. He is the exclusive gift that everyone really has to have!
Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
It isn’t over-simplifying to put it this way: there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who are in Christ and people outside of Christ. Every spiritual blessing is for those “in Christ”: grace (2 Timothy 1:9), inseparable love (Romans 8:38-39), redemption (Ephesians 1:7), righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), change for the better (2 Corinthians 5:17), the promises of God (2 Corinthians 1:2), peace (Philippians 4:7), and eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:22).
As this year draws to a close, the most important question is this: are you in Christ? You can know that you are. I don’t want you to miss out on the best gift in the history of eternity. Come see me or one of the elders—or even walk down the aisle this morning at the invitation—if you want to get in on the great gift.