Luke 2:1-14
The Christian’s Christmas
Let me begin by saying that I am not anti-Christmas. I love
Christmas. I love the spirit of Christmas. I enjoy the times with
family, church, and friends. I enjoy my wife’s enjoyment at
purchasing, shipping, and giving gifts. I personally love to receive
gifts. I like the Christmas tree. I love the Christmas lights. I
like the Christmas movies and music. And I suppose most of all, I
love the Christmas memories that are stirred from years gone by.
However, this is not the Christian’s Christmas. The Christian’s
Christmas is not about the "spirit" of Christmas—at least not today’s
spirit. It is not about buying, selling, or receiving gifts. I enjoy
them and I understand that they CAN reflect in picture form the Gift
that God gave to us, but let’s face it. For the vast, vast, vast
majority of people, it does not. The music and movies—although
entertaining and mostly clean—are not about the Christian’s
Christmas. The lights—although colorful and festive—are not about the
Christian’s Christmas.
What the difference is in Christmas and the Christian’s Christmas?
The difference is that the Christian’s Christmas is about the birth
of Jesus. Sadly, Christmas today is not about the birth of Christ. In
fact, except for a few individuals, you would never know that we are
remembering the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of
the souls, into this world. To be honest, Jesus has been
systematically and carefully removed from Christmas.
Count how many times Jesus’ birth is mentioned in anything that is
in the Christmas being celebrated. Just count the Christmas songs
that the world sings and see how many times Jesus’ birth is
mentioned. Then count the Christian movies where His birth is
mentioned. Take note of the cities and courthouses where there is a
nativity scene. Walk though Walmart or whatever stores you shop at
and note the decorations about Jesus. Look long and look hard and I
do not think you will find many that even mention Jesus’ name or
title, let along emphasis who He is or what He came into the world to
do.
Why not? Because this is not the Christian’s Christmas. But here,
this morning, I want to make certain you understand what Christmas
is truly all about.
I. The Christian’s Christmas is about the plight of man.
A. The Cause of Man’s Plight
1. For the sake of time, I am not going to ask you to turn
to Genesis 3 where the cause of man’s plight is detailed,
but let me remind you that God made…
a. a perfect earth…
b. with a perfect couple…
c. who had perfect bodies…
d. and lived in a perfect Garden.
2. There was no sorrow and no sadness.
3. But God gave the two things: s choice and a command.
4. The choice came in the form of a tree. The Bible called it
the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but we can just
as well call it the Tree of Death for to partake of it
meant death for anyone who ate of that tree was going to
die.
4. The command was do not eat of that tree.
5. Adam and Eve had lots of choices:
a. They could have just obeyed God and never gone near
that tree.
b. But if the temptation was too much, they could have
built a fence around that tree.
c. If the temptation was still too much, they could have
moved to the other side of the Garden or even to the
other side of the planet.
6. But they did not choose that.
a. Instead they choose to rebel against God and to eat of
the forbidden fruit.
b. And because of that, man’s plight into suffering,
pain, death, and damnation began.
B. The Condition of Man’s Plight
1. Paul described it beginning in Ephesians 2:1.
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were
dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to
the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and
were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others.
2. We need to understand what those verses mean.
a. \\#1\\ Quickened means to be made alive. We need to
be made alive because we are dead. What killed us?
(1) Our sins and trespasses.
(2) Sin may seem relatively harmless but it is not.
(3) It has killed three things:
(a) It has killed our relationship with God.
We cannot hear much of what God has to say
and most want to hear even less. People
are so dead that some think there is no
God. That is not because God is not
speaking. That is because they are so dead
that they can't hear God speaking.
(b) It has killed your soul. Already, we do not
think with a righteous mind, or have
righteous desires. Our mind and desire is
against God, That is proven by the fact
that Jesus has been removed from His own
birthday celebration!
(c) It will kill your soul for all eternity.
i. Presently, your soul is dead and
separated from God, but it can be
made alive.
ii. That is what quickened means.
iii. That is done by repenting of your sin
and trusting what Jesus has done for
you on the cross.
iv. However, if you wait too long and you
die with a dead soul; your soul (you)
will be cast into hell and separated
from God for all eternity.
b. \\#2\\ So instead, we walked according to the course
of this world.
(1) That is, we did what the world wanted us to do.
(2) And we walked according to the prince of the
power of the air. That is we did what the devil
wanted us to do.
(3) And we walked in the same spirit that all the
rest of the children of disobedience walk in.
That is, we did what all the other lost and
unsaved people did.
c. \\#3\\ Paul got down to the nitty-gritty of it.
(1) We followed the lusts of our flesh.
(2) We fulfilled the desires of our flesh and of our
mind.
(3) And we were children headed for God’s wrath!
C. I am sad to say that there is nothing MERRY about man’s
plight.
1. Maybe you think we lured you here under false pretenses.
After all, we invited you here to hear the bells and this
is supposed to be a MERRY Christmas celebration.
2. But you cannot know the joy of the birth of Jesus until
you first understand why He was born.
3. We need to understand the condition of man's plight.
II. The Christian’s Christmas is about the promise of God.
A. The very same day that Adam and Eve sinned against God and
turned mankind on this hopeless plight, God made mankind a
promise.
1. It is such a little promise, you might miss it!
2. It is like a stick man promise.
3. God talking to Satan said,
Ge 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel.
B. What is enmity?
1. You can just about pull that word out and put in to the
promise the words "an enemy."
2. God was going to put an enemy between Satan and the
woman. That enemy would bruise Satan’s head.
3. That it. That is basically all that God promised. God
was going to put somebody or something between the devil
and mankind, and that somebody or something would be the
devil’s enemy and would one day crush his head.
4. That statement is little more than a stick figure. You
could not figure out what God was going to do or
recognize the One He was going to send from that brief
promise, but do you know what God did?
a. God kept adding to that promise. Just a little bit
here and a little bit there.
b. Maybe it has hit you like it did me when I got my
first copy of the Bible, "That is a BIG Book!"
(1) 1189 Chapters
(2) 31,102 verses
c. It is like a huge gold mine, but as you read though
it, you will find one vein after another of the
richest treasure available to mankind.
d. You will find hint after hint, statement after
statement, promise after promise of who this enemy
was to be.
C. The Promises:
1. \\#Isaiah 7:14\\ told us He would be born to a virgin.
2. \\#Micah 5:2\\ told us He would be born in Bethlehem.
3. \\#Deut 18:15\\ told us that He would be like Moses, first
rejected.
4. \\#Isaiah 53:3\\ told He would be despised.
5. \\#Zech 9:9\\ told us He would come into Jerusalem riding
a donkey.
6. \\#Psalm 41:9\\ told us He would be betrayed.
7. \\#Zech 11:12\\ told us He would be sold for 30 pieces of
silver.
8. \\#Isaiah 53:8\\ told us He would be arrested.
9. \\#Psalm 35;11\\ told us false witnesses would charge Him.
10. \\#Isaiah 50:6\\ told us His back would be beaten, His
beard would be plucked, and His face would be spit upon.
11. \\#Psalm 22:7\\ told us that the people would mock Him.
12. \\#Psalm 22:8\\ even told us what some would say at the
foot of the cross, "He trusted on the Lod, that he would
deliver Him; Let Him deliver Him."
13. \\#Psalm 22;16\\ told us that His hands and feet would be
pierced.
14. \\#Isaiah 53:12\\ told us He would be counted among the
sinners.
15. \\#Isaiah 53:8\\ also told us that He would be killed, but
not for His crimes or sins, for ours.
16. And there are so many, so many others.
a. Scholars differ over how many but most would say that
Jesus fulfilled more than 200 prophecies while He
walked on this earth.
b. Each one of those prophecies was a promise given by
God.
c. More accurately, each prophecy was another brush
stroke added to the first promise given in
Genesis 3:15.
d. Each brush stroke added depth, color, and dimension to
the stick Man first introduced to Adam and Eve in the
Garden; until finally, when Jesus came, a full and
complete portrait of the Savior existed so that any
one with Bible knowledge and an open heart would
immediately recognize Jesus as the Promised One.
D. What is the Christian’s Christmas? It is about the birth of
the One promised by God!
III. The Christian’s Christmas is about the payment for sin.
A. Maybe you are thinking, "Here we go again. Every time I come
to this church, you tell me how Jesus died for our sins."
1. I hope so.
2. Why?
a. Because the Bible is like in a good joke, nothing
really makes sense until the punch line at the end.
b. In the Bible, the end of the story is what makes
everything else make sense.
(1) Knowing that we are doomed and damned does us no
good.
(2) Knowing that God promised to bruise Satan’s heel
will not help us.
(3) We must know and trust what Jesus did to fix our
problem.
B. When we are talking about Christmas, we are not just talking
about the coming of a Baby. We are talking about the death
of a Savior.
C. Someone says, "You are dramatizing. You can’t see the cross
from the cradle!"
1. Oh, but you can. In fact, you can’t miss the cross from
any place in human history.
2. This last spring, Joseph built a shed while I watched.
3. The door was of 2x4s and with a solid wood cover and it
was large, large enough to ride a lawnmower through. I
was concerned about the weight of the door on the hinges
so I put three, large hinges on that door. The door
rest and revolves on those three hinges.
4. But as that heavy door swings on three hinges, so all
of man’s history swings on three hinges.
a. Jesus’ birth
b. Jesus’ death
c. Jesus resurrection
5. Man’s existence rests and revolves upon these three days.
6. Just like you can see the three hinges of that shed
glisten in the sunlight so from any point in human
history, you can see those three hinges, the birth, the
death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
D. Someone has said life is about choices, and they are correct.
1. In the Garden, God gave a tree and a command.
2. At the Christian's Christmas, God gave another tree and
another command.
a. This tree was not in a garden but on a hillside.
b. This tree was not a growing tree, but a dead tree. It
was a tree carved into a cross.
c. The tree in the Garden spoke of death, but this tree
speaks of life.
d. The command for the first tree was, "Don't come near
and don't touch," but the command for this tree is
"Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest."
e. When Adam and Eve partook of that tree, they died; but
if you will partake of this tree, you will find life
eternal.
What will you chose today?
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