For much of the culture at large, the true meaning of Christmas is almost totally lost. Most people think of Christmas sentimentally. A recent survey indicated that here in America, and I’m sure this would extend to the rest of the Western world as well, “a fewer number of people are celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday.” Of those surveyed here in the U.S., only 57 percent (down from 64 percent just 3 years ago) say they believe what the Gospels teach about the birth of Jesus. For most people, Christmas is about getting new things and spending time with family and friends. It’s not a bad thing to exchange gifts and spend time with family and friends, but if you leave Jesus out, calling the day Christ-mas makes little to no sense.

Yet even among believers, the true meaning of Christmas can often be obscured. We sentimentalize the manger surrounded by farm animals with baby Jesus in the center, asleep on the hay. But from the Biblical standpoint, Christmas is actually the fulfillment of the first phase of God’s Great Rescue Mission. If we fail to understand and celebrate Christmas in a way that overlooks or obscures that, then we have, to some degree, sentimentalized Christmas.

Seeing Christmas as God’s rescue mission, what do we see?

The Mission was Absolutely Necessary

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining” are words we have all heard and probably even sung for years. They are words that describe the human condition day after day, month after month, year after year, century after century—a pitiful situation we haven’t been able to free ourselves from even after thousands of years of attempting to do so. We had exhausted every hope of self-deliverance. We were Dead in Trespasses and Sins, Spiritually Blind, Living in Darkness, and Held Captive by Satan to do his will. To free us all from Satan’s power, one more powerful than he must intervene. As author Paul Tripp said, “Sin is so disastrous and inescapable that the only solution was for God to come and rescue us.”

Not only are we bound in sin and captives of the devil, we are also blind to our true condition. Blind to our need to be rescued. In an early episode of “The Crown” (Netflix), they portray Billy Graham’s visit to Queen Elizabeth during his 1954 London crusade.

The aristocracy, apart from the Queen, loathed the idea that this unsophisticated country boy from North Carolina would suggest that they were sinners in need of a savior. At one point, someone near the Queen spoke up, saying, “Holding a crusade gives the impression that we are no better than the pagans.” Yep, that’s how most people feel: dead in sin, captives of Satan and completely unaware of it all.

The Mission was Planned

All the way back to before the beginning of time, God, knowing that the ones he created and loved would be taken captive by the enemy, planned their rescue.

Matthew, in his Gospel, quotes two of Israel’s prophets to show that the events that unfolded in the manger in Bethlehem were happening according to God’s plan:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“But as for you Bethlehem … too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Micah 5:2

His coming was ordained from the days of eternity—before time.

The Mission was Costly

Mary: I wonder if we ever stop to think about the price those involved in the rescue mission paid. Think of Mary. Of course, there was the honor of being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, but not everyone believed the story of her being pregnant by supernatural means. This would cast a shadow of suspicion over her and tarnish her reputation for the rest of her life. Jewish writers would later accuse her of having an adulterous relationship with a Roman soldier. And that is only part of the cost. Think of what it was like for Mary to see her own son viciously turned on by the mob and brutally murdered by the state. As Simeon prophesied to Mary, “A sword will pierce your own soul.”

Joseph: Think about Joseph for a moment. The emotional difficulty he suffered initially upon hearing that his betrothed was with child. Surely, this would have rocked his world. It took nothing less than an angelic visitation and revelation about Mary’s condition and the child Mary would bear to bring him back to a state of peace of mind. All of this obviously took Joseph out of his comfort zone, to say the least.

God the Father: What about the cost to the Father who gave his one and only Son? The Father who sent his beloved into the world where he would be despised and rejected, mocked, ridiculed, spit upon, brutally beaten and murdered. And these are only the things we can see that Jesus suffered. God only knows all that was involved when Jesus was being made an offering for sin, as Isaiah prophesied.

God the Son: The emotional, physical, and spiritual sufferings of the Son are the price he paid to redeem us and bring us back to God. But even beyond that, what does it mean that God the Son would now and forever have His deity joined with humanity? Is there an unimaginable cost involved in that for Jesus? It seems so. We don’t know all that the Incarnation entailed, but it’s something to ponder. For all of those immediately involved in the mission to rescue the captives, there was a cost.

The Mission was Dangerous, even Deadly

The Incarnation was the first step toward the Crucifixion. And in between were many perils: Herod’s attempt to destroy Jesus as a child, the people of Nazareth attempting to throw him off a cliff, the constant plots and schemes of the religious leaders to destroy him. The mission was fraught with danger.

To save His people from their sins would require that He give His life in exchange for theirs. This is the reality of a rescue mission.

On July 4^th, 1976, the IDF pulled off one of the greatest rescue missions of modern times when a commando unit liberated 102 Israeli and Jewish victims of the terrorist hijacking of Air France flight 139, which was given safe haven at the Entebbe International Airport by Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator. This rescue mission was known as Operation Entebbe, but later became known as Operation Jonathan in memory of the unit’s leader, who was the only soldier killed during the mission—Lt. Col. Jonathan Netanyahu. He was the older brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The rescue mission that God sent His Son on would be dangerous; it would actually be deadly. In His effort to rescue us, Jesus would give up His own life. The manger was the first stop on the way to the cross.

The Mission was Personal

He shall save His people from their sins. This is a family matter. Christmas is the story of the Father sending the Son, the Older Brother, to rescue the children who have been abducted and are being held captive by their tormentors. Hebrews so profoundly expresses this, “Since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death—that is, the devil, and set free those who were held captive all their lives by their fear of death.”

Mission Accomplished

So we see, Christmas is not mainly about gifts or decorations or food or family or friends or time off work, etc. Those are all good things, but they’re not the main thing, which is so much greater and more profound than all of those things could ever be in and of themselves. Christmas is about a loving Father who sent His Son on a mission, a mission to free us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray, a mission to provide forgiveness for our sins and to bring us into a beautiful personal eternal relationship with the One who loves us with an everlasting love, the One who has a wonderful plan and purpose for our lives that stretches beyond time into eternity.

Christmas is nothing less than God’s ultimate rescue mission!

Originally published on Feb 17, 2014

“What were we made for? What aim should we set ourselves in life? What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else? The answer to all these questions is the same: Knowing God!” (from Knowing God by J. I. Packer).

Listen to a young Charles Spurgeon on the subject of knowing God:

“It has been said by some one that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. … No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. … But while the subject humbles the mind it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. … the most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatary. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead” (from The Immutability of God, a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon).

There truly is no greater objective in life than knowing God, but how is that experiential knowledge of God attained?

The first question we need ask is this: Is God is willing to be known? Is God knowable in a personal sense, in the same way that we know one another? Some say, No, that is not possible. God is too great to be known by man. Deism, theism, and Islam are all views of God that put Him beyond our ability as human beings to know, at least in any personal, meaningful sense. However, the Bible presents us with a God who can be known and actually desires to be known.

Listen to God Himself speaking on the subject:

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer 29:13 ESV).

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant … I will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. … for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest …” (Jer 31:31, 33-34).

“For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos 6:6).

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true …” (1 Jn 5:20).

So we see clearly from God’s Word itself that God is knowable.

In fact, bringing men and women into personal fellowship with God is the chief objective of the Gospel. Jesus said this in prayer to the Father, “You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:2-3).

Since God has made a relationship with Him possible, we need to be daily pursuing this wonderful knowledge.

What does that look like, you might ask? Let me suggest three things:

1. Gleaning from those who know God better than we do.

a. Get to know and spend time with older, more mature Christians. Talk to them, ask them Bible questions, ask them about their experiences with the Lord.

b. Make sure your are being taught the Word through the gifted pastors and teachers that God has given to His church for the building up of the body of Christ.

c. Read good books that will help you to better understand God’s Word and His ways.

2. Spend quality time alone with the Lord.

“When the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, one of the things it means is, now, so to speak, Jesus is loose and at large, so that anyone anywhere can enjoy the same kind of relationship with him as the disciples had in the days of his flesh. The only differences are that, first, his presence with the Christian is spiritual, not bodily, and so invisible to our physical eyes; second, that Jesus’ way of speaking to us now is not by uttering fresh words, but rather by applying to our consciences those words of his that are recorded in the Gospels, together with the rest of the biblical testimony” (from Knowing God by J. I. Packer).

3. Listen intently and seek understanding.

What do I mean by that? Reading and meditating on the Word of God.

“Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. It is a matter of talking to one’s self about God and one’s self” (from Knowing God by J. I. Packer).

This all begins with meeting the Lord.

Have you met the Lord? Jesus is the one through whom we come into this relationship with the Father. To as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the children of God. Receive Him if you haven’t. Simply ask that He forgive your sins and take charge of your life.

Are you pursuing a deeper relationship with the Lord? Are you getting to know Him better and better? The chief end of man is to know God and to glorify Him forever.

Let me end with one final quote from J. I. Packer’s Knowing God:

“Once you become aware that the main business you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord. … The world today is full of sufferers from the wasting disease known as absurdism (‘life is a bad joke’), and from the complaint (‘nothing taste’). These disorders blight the whole of life: everything becomes at once a problem and a bore, because nothing seems worthwhile. But these are ills from which, in the nature of the case, Christians are immune, except for occasional spells of derangement when the power of temptation presses their minds out of shape- and these, by God’s mercy, do not last. What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?”

Jesus Revolution has taken Hollywood by storm. The Lionsgate production has broken box office records, becoming the company’s highest-grossing movie since 2019, at well above $30 million. The film is based on a true story, documenting how tens of thousands of counterculture young people (hippies) came to know and follow Jesus in the late 1960s and early 70s.

The narrative revolves around the lives of four main characters: Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney, Super 8, The Kissing Booth), Cathe Martin (Anna Grace Barlow, The Big Leap, Grey’s Anatomy), Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie, The Chosen), and Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer, Cheers, Frasier). Greg has seven stepdads and is a disillusioned 17-year-old living in a trailer with his alcoholic mother. Cathe is a young, pretty socialite type caught up in the hippie scene through the influence of her older sister. Lonnie is a charismatic hippie preacher, and Chuck is a middle-aged conservative pastor of a small church.

The Late 1960s and Early 2020s

The movie does a fantastic job of recreating Southern California culture as it was in the late 60s, with a beach concert featuring Janis Joplin and a pro-LSD sermon preached by none other than Timothy Leary. Naturally, the film has drawn in many Christians, as was expected. What was not expected? The number of non-religious people flocking to the theaters to see the movie. The reasons seem to be wide-ranging. The depiction of the times is authentic. The portrayals are non-judgmental, in that the characters are not condemned even though their lives are obviously a mess. And Jesus is seen as being outside of the “religious” context, gracious and welcoming, a friend of sinners, you might say. To be clear, no one plays Jesus in the film. But he is front and center, seen in the humility and love shown by Chuck Smith when he opens the doors of his church to welcome in the hippies and in the simplicity and sincerity of Lonnie Frisbee, the radical hippie preacher who “looks” like Jesus, at least how some people imagine him to look.

The movie might also resonate with so many because of the similarities to our current times. The late 1960s shares many parallels with the early 2020s. The social unrest, racism, riots, war, and drug epidemic destroying the lives of many young people seem very much like the messages we are seeing and hearing in our news feeds today.

In contrast, the film’s message is this—no matter how messed up, broken, empty, or hopeless your life may be, Jesus is the answer. Greg has given up hope of finding any real happiness or purpose. As a result, he decides to tune in, turn on, and drop out, like so many others. Just when things are spinning completely out of control, Lonnie Frisbee visits Greg’s high school campus and preaches a gospel message. Listening from a distance, not wanting to get too close to the Jesus freaks, Greg is intrigued. After wrestling with Jesus’ words, You’re either for me or against me, he gives in, surrendering himself to Christ. From this point forward, everything changes. Things are far from perfect (the movie keeps it real), but the big questions of life—Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?—have all been answered.

The Message of the Jesus Revolution Is for You

Maybe you have the same types of questions today. You feel that life is without purpose and without hope. This is understandable; after all, the world is in the same mess now as it was then. Why? What’s it all about? Is there any peace in the midst of this madness? Yes, believe it or not, there is! Jesus said, Come to me, and I will give you peace (see Matt. 11:28).

Like those in the film, in the mid-1970s, I, too, was a young, aimless, restless soul. I had tried everything the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll culture had to offer but still came up empty. I had even encountered a few Jesus freaks, and they were just a bit too freaky for me. Then one day, I randomly opened a Bible and read the following words of Jesus:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

These Scriptures struck a chord deep in my soul, and I accepted the invitation from Jesus to come. For me, just like many others, everything changed. My problems did not automatically go away, but the big questions, those that kept me up at night, were answered. The Jesus who saved untold thousands in the Jesus Revolution of the 1960s is still saving people today. He alone can give hope and bring real purpose to our lives. And he has a plan and purpose for your life. Receive him today, and watch and see what he will do.

On this season of Mission & Methods, hosts Nick Cady and Brian Brodersen are interviewing some of the members of the CGN Executive Team, so that you can get to know who they are and what they are passionate about.

Nate Holdridge is the Pastor of Calvary Monterey, in Monterey, California. He is the author of several books, including his recent book: Whole-Hearted Work, which you can find on his website: nateholdridge.com. Nate is a pastor’s kid, and in this episode, Nate talks about what it was like growing up in a church planting family, and what he learned through that about how Pastors can help their children to grow up in a way that helps them love the church and follow Jesus.

Nate is also a member of the Pastoral Care and Coaching Team for CGN, and so we talk about the importance of pastoral care and sabbaticals, and how to access those resources through Calvary Global Network.

We’d love to hear your feedback on these episodes. Email us at cgn@calvarychapel.com