Where Does Christmas Come From? Series

An aviator trainer told of how he would take students up in plane, and deliberately fly in

all directions to confuse them. Then he would turn the controls over to the student and say,

"Now take us home." It was the job of the student to learn how to find the radar beam, and

stay one it until they were back at home base. The birds and fish have their homing instinct

built in, but man needs to have outside help to get home.

Paul is helping the Galatian Christians develop their homing instinct. He wants them to get

back to the place where they can feel they are really a part of the family of God. They are

confused by the legalist, and feel disoriented and uncertain about their relation to God and

the law. Paul helps them get back to home base, and to their freedom in Christ, by following

the beam God sent into the world on that first Christmas.

Follow this light, and you will know where Christmas comes from, and it will take you

home. For where it comes from is where you want to be. This is not a mere seasonal

question. It is a supreme question for all time-where does Christmas come from? The

answer can guide us through confusion and uncertainty back to home base, in the very heart

of God. In this passage, Paul indicates that Christmas comes from three sources. First of all-

I. CHRISTMAS COMES FROM HEAVEN.

In verse 4, Paul says, "When the time had fully come God sent forth His Son." The God of

the Bible is a God of action. He gets involved in history to achieve goals for man, and to

develop relationships with man. He is not like Aristotle's God-The Unmoved Mover, who is

so perfected that he needs nothing, and so he does nothing. The God of the Bible does have

needs. He needs to redeem man and restore him to the family of God, because He is love and

love cannot remain unmoved. The forces of darkness have enslaved man, and love demands

that they be set free.

Christmas comes from heaven, because God cares about what happens on earth. He sent

His Son to bring light into earth's darkness. As American Christians, who enjoy both

political and spiritual freedom, it is hard for us to appreciate the liberating light that God

sent in Jesus. We have the light and the liberty, and, therefore, we take it for granted. That

has not been the case with all Christians in the 20th century. Hans Lilje, the evangelical

pastor who resisted Hitler, and ended up in a concentration camp, tells of his experience in

his book, The Valley Of The Shadow.

"Christmas was near. Christmas Eve in prison is

so terrible because of wave of sentimentality passes

through the gloomy building. Everyone thinks of

his own loved ones, for whom he is longing; everyone

suffers because he doesn't know how he will be celebrating

the Festival of Divine and Human Love. Recollections of

childhood comes surging back, almost overwhelming some,

especially those who are condemned to death, and who

cannot help looking back at their past lives. It is no

accident that in prison suicide attempts are particularly

numerous on this special day; in our case, however, the

most remarkable thing was the sentimental softness which

came over our guards. Most of these S.S. men were

young fellows, who were usually unnecessarily brutal in

their behavior, but when Christmas Eve came we hardly

knew them--the spirit of this evening made such a deep

impression upon them."

He goes on to tell of the camp Commandant, who allowed a few of the prisoners to get

together and sing on Christmas Eve. They were in bondage to the forces of evil, but they

could see that even those who kept them imprisoned, knew it was wrong and contrary to the

spirit of Christ. They could see the light of heaven penetrating even the Nazi darkness. Lilje

wrote, "Upon us shines the Eternal Light, filling the world with radiance bright." Their very

darkness made them see, more clearly, the light they had received from heaven, in the gift

God gave at Christmas.

Helmut Gollwitzer was another Christian leader who spent Christmas in prison, during

World War II. He was a German held captive in Russia. In his book, Unwilling Journey, he

writes of planning to celebrate Christmas in a setting deprived of all that makes life worth

livingThe Russian camp leader had given his permission, but some

of the prisoners objected loudly and even begged me to forgo

every reminder of Christmas; "Only by not thinking about it--

that's the only way I can endure it; if you celebrate I shan't be

able to stand it and I shall hang myself...."