SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 12/21/25
Christmas is not merely about a season, a feeling, or a tradition. Galatians 4:4-7 reveals an unbreakable connection between Advent and your eternal identity. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: The Book of Advent
TEXT: Galatians 4:4-7
TITLE: The Great Christmas Effect
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
POINTS:
I. The Unfathomable Reality of Advent
II. The Unspeakable Reason for Advent
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes and text emphasis are taken directly from the pastor’s notes.
ILLUSTRATION: “The Christmas Effect”, Christmas being the cause of feeling miserable this time of year
“I do not doubt that for many, maybe even some here, this Christmas Effect is very real. Afterall, we live in a fallen world. If this Christmas Effect is your current experience, take heart, there is hope. And it’s not found in a disciplined diet, more sleep, or the emotional support of others during the holiday. I’m glad you’re here because you are about to hear the good news of another Christmas Effect. I call it The Great Christmas Effect because it will transform not only your Christmas but your life.”
“Last week we heard the good news that Christmas is coming. Today, we hear the good news of how Christmas changes everything.”
“Christmas is not merely about a season, a feeling, or a tradition. Galatians 4:4-7 reveals an unbreakable connection between Advent and your eternal identity.”
“I love the line we sang earlier: Who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold God in our hands. Few lyrics capture the unfathomable reality of Christmas like those. They create wonder and awe in your heart while simultaneously breaking your brain. Paul stacks up Advent phrases in our text that produce that same response.”
“When of Advent—’(4) When the fullness of time had come'.’ In God’s wisdom, He sent His Son into the world at just the right time. That’s the meaning of the fullness of time. The fullness of time wasn’t determined by a divine hunch or an alignment of the stars that God took advantage of. The fullness of time was thoroughly planned out before time even began.”
“In God’s providence, it was the time when the God-ordained cultural, political, and religious conditions were right for advancing the gospel. The Greek language and culture, which had become so common, made it ideal for sharing the gospel. The might and ingenuity of the Romans made it safer and easier to take the gospel to the world. It was a time when pagans, dissatisfied with the mythological Roman and Greek gods, were religiously hungry. And for the Jewish people, it was a time when they had grown weary of living as prisoners under the law, as Paul rehearsed in 1-3. It was just the right time. Not a second too soon, not a second too late, but at the perfect time, when the fullness of time had come.”
“Who of Advent—In the fullness of time—notice what Paul says next—God sent forth His Son. Paul reminds us of Jesus' deity. God sent Jesus from heaven into this world. The promised child of Isaiah 9, who was sent in the fullness of time, existed long before he showed up in Bethlehem. As we saw last week from another great Christmas passage—John 1 says Jesus existed in eternity past, with God, like God, indeed as God. The second person of the Godhead, Jesus, is eternal.”
“How of Advent—(4) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. Just as the word sent declares Jesus’ deity, the word born asserts his humanity. The One who has always been and is fully God entered the world fully human. Jesus had an ordinary birth. Mary changed his diapers. He learned to walk and talk. He grew in wisdom and stature. He had to learn about life and face its temptations. He was born of woman, taking on our flesh and nature in a fallen and sinful world.”
“This is the mysterious reality of the Incarnation—Fully God and fully man—one person, two natures, divine and human. Jesus was also born under the law. As a Jew, he was required to keep the Torah. He was expected to keep the Ten Commandments. He was expected to follow worship requirements. He had to keep the Feasts and celebrate Passover. And Jesus had to do all this perfectly. And he did!”
“This is the unfathomable reality and miracle of Christmas—God came to us as a man. And this reality is unfathomable as we read about the effect ‘God with us’ has.”
“It was the famous Clark Griswold who said—See kids, Christmas means something different to everybody, and now I know it means for me. Paul corrects Clark’s theology of Christmas in verse 5: The reason for the season is heavenly adoption.”
“God became flesh, Christ came into the world, to redeem those under the law by atoning for their sin. The manger led to the cross, where the penalty of our sins was paid with the precious blood of Jesus.”
“As good as the complete forgiveness of our sin is, and it would be enough, it is not the end of the matter. God didn’t stop there. Christ came to atone for our sins—notice (5) so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
“We don’t talk about our adoption in Christ nearly enough. It tends to get lost in the other aspects of salvation. But spiritual adoption stands on its own. Guarding against blending it with different aspects of our salvation is critical, lest we lose the unspeakable awe and wonder it’s meant to fan into flame within us.”
“Adoption is not Regeneration. Regeneration is about our inward nature being born again so that we may become God’s adopted children.”
“Adoption is not Sanctification. Sanctification is about our practice—how we live, as adopted children of God.”
“Adoption is not Justification. Justification is about our legal status. It’s a courtroom declaration of pardon by God, who is our Judge. Adoption is about a relationship that sees God, no longer as Judge, but loving Father. The moment we are justified, we become adopted into the family of God. We move from the heavenly court room to the heavenly family room.”
“Adoption is about our identity. When an orphan is adopted, they don’t just get a new street address or better prospects for making it in life. Their identity changes. They bear a new name that reflects the family they now belong to. Their original birth certificate disappears, and a new one is drafted as if that child were born to their adoptive parents. That intimate belonging is what spiritual adoption is about. And it couldn’t be more relevant. We live in a society where personal identity AND the longing for belonging is paramount.”
ILLUSTRATION: ‘Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ is really a story of belonging, NOT Christmas.
“Spiritual adoption is the ultimate belonging. Sin has left us as spiritual orphans: no father, family, no future. But God’s love has brought us into His family.”
“Abba is the Aramaic word for Father that communicates a childlike intimacy. Abba Father is profoundly personal and affectionate. These are the exact words Jesus cried out in the dark moments on the eve of his crucifixion in the garden: Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will—Mark 14:36”
“The way Jesus addressed his Father is the same way our identity as adopted sons and daughters in Christ allows us to address Him. Think about that: His Father is your Father. Your Father is His Father. That means you are loved by the Father just as the Father loves Jesus.”
ILLUSTRATION: Final Adoption Hearing
“In Christ, you are a child and an heir to heaven and all of its eternal riches and blessings, just as Christ is, including, above all things, God’s divine affections.”
“Wherever you are this Christmas, let this truth have its full effect. The promised seed of Genesis 3 and the promised child of Isaiah 9 came to us—so that we could be the adopted sons and daughters of God who have the privilege of calling the God of the universe, Jesus own eternal Father, our Abba Father.”
“This is the unspeakable joy of Advent. Just as an orphaned child doesn’t have the right to be adopted by a particular family, we don’t have the right to be adopted by God. Oftentimes, a couple that adopts knows what they are looking for—a boy or girl, an infant or toddler, a particular nationality. We have nothing that appeals to God. In our sin, we are hopelessly unlovely and unappealing. That’s the wonder of divine adoption—God loves us as His own because He chose to love us as His own—it comes to us by faith, and it’s all of grace! So wherever you are this Christmas, I pray the Spirit gives you eyes of faith to see the wonder of The Great Christmas Effect in your life, so that you may have a truly Merry Christmas to the praise of your Abba Father’s glory.”
QUOTES:
John Stott- “What is emphasized in these verses is that the one whom God sent to accomplish our redemption was perfectly qualified to do so. He was God's son. He was also born of a human mother, so that he was human as well as divine, the one and only God-man. And he was born under the law, that is, of a Jewish mother, and to the Jewish nation, subject to the Jewish law. Throughout his life he submitted to all the requirements of the law. He succeeded where all others before and since have failed: He perfectly fulfilled the righteousness of the law. So the divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, and the righteousness of Christ uniquely qualified him to be man's Redeemer. If he had not been man, he could not have redeemed men. If he had not been a righteous man, he could not have redeemed unrighteous men. And if he had not been God's son, he could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.”
Sam Storms - “I rejoice in the fact that I've been justified and forgiven and granted eternal life. But to know and experience God as my Father, ABBA, is greater still. When you are justified by faith in Christ, you stand before God as judge and hear him declare: ‘Not guilty! Righteous through faith in Jesus!’ Praise God! But in adoption God the judge steps down from behind his legal bench, removes his stately robes, stoops down, and sweeps you up into his arms of love and says softly: ‘My son, my daughter, my child!’”
Phillip Graham Ryken -“It would be enough for God to release us from slavery, to rescue us from our captivity to the law, and so to redeem us from its curse. But God did not stop there. Once Christ had gained our freedom, he gathered us unto his family.”
J.I. Packer - “God receives us as sons, and loves us with the same steadfast affection with which he eternally loves his beloved only-begotten. There are no distinctions of affection in the divine family. We are all loved just as fully as Jesus is loved....This, and nothing else than this, is what adoption means.”
SONGS FROM THIS SUNDAY:
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Who Would Have Dreamed
O Come All Ye Faithful
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:15-20
We Are Yours Forever
CHRISTMAS EVE’S PASSAGE AND NEXT WEEK’S PASSAGE:
Luke 2:1-20, Advent and the Incarnation
Revelation 5, Advent and Eternity
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