What is the greatest invitation you have ever received? What is the greatest invitation you would like to receive? Maybe you are feeling like Charlie Brown right now and reflecting on the invitations that you didn’t receive, the times that you weren’t included. I have good news for you. The most important Christmas invitation has been sent and you are on the list!
The Christmas carol O Come, All Ye Faithful is a joyful song of praise inviting us not to miss the point of Christmas. This song invites us to “come and behold Him”. It calls us to reflect on who Jesus really is and to worship Him in response. Luke 2:11 tells us that angels announced that the baby born that night is the “Saviour who is Christ the Lord”. The Saviour come to rescue us and lead us home. The Christ, God’s promised deliverer. The Lord, this is God Himself who came to be with us. No wonder the angels quickly moved to the anthem “Glory to God in the Highest”! The Christmas invitation is an invitation to truly behold Jesus and worship Him.
The Angels continued in Luke 2:14 saying “…and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests”. We hear a lot about peace at Christmas time, but it is easily misunderstood. We will never be at peace with others if we are not first at peace ourselves. And we will never truly have peace of heart and mind, the peace of God, until we are at peace with God. I have heard people say that they have made their peace with God. That’s a problem because making peace with God is not something that we can do. God is not sitting at a negotiating table waiting for our latest counteroffer. We can only be at peace with God on His terms.
That is why He made peace. He sent Jesus so that we could be forgiven for our rebellion against God and brought back into a proper relationship with Him. We use the word salvation in church. This is what we mean by that. Rescued by God and no longer facing the consequences for our rebellion because Jesus paid for that at the cross. Reconciled to God through Jesus, brought back to the Father the only way possible (2 Corinthians 5:20, 21). The Bible tells us that “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This is another part of the Christmas invitation: come and be at peace with God through the Saviour He sent for us.
An invitation to worship and to truly find peace with God is a wonderful thing. As we go back to our carol, some may be thinking that this invitation is not for them. After all, it says “o come all ye faithful”. If you are thinking “that’s not me”, I understand. It isn’t me either, or any of us. However, Jesus did say that He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). He tells us that the healthy don’t need a doctor, the sick do (Matthew 9:12).
John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. That may be the most famous verse in the Bible, but the verse right after it continues “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him”.
We are not faithful, Jesus is. He is faithful to accept all who truly come to Him (John 6:37) and then when we wander, He is faithful to forgive when we come and confess our sin to him (1 John 1:9). Jesus knows that we aren’t faithful, that is why He came!
So, this Christmas, whoever you are, whatever you have done, respond to the Christmas Invitation. Come to Jesus and behold Him for who He is, worship Him, be reconciled to God through Him. O come, He is faithful!