The Gift Of Forgiveness Series

OPEN: Here it is the first week of December and people are already getting into the Christmas spirit. They’re decorating their homes, putting up Christmas trees and mistletoe and holly… and Christmas lights all over the place.

We Americans are so used to our traditions of the season that we sometimes don’t realize that other nations don’t always do things the way we do.

For example, in Italy they don’t have Christmas trees; instead they decorate small wooden pyramids with fruit.

In Caracas (the capital city of Venezuela) it is customary for the streets to be blocked off on Christmas Eve so that the people can roller-skate to church.

In Yugoslavia, on the 2nd Sunday before Christmas, children creep in and tie their mother’s feet to a chair, shouting ’Mother’s Day, Mother’s Day, what will you pay to get away?’ She then gives them presents. Children play the same trick on their father the following week and get more presents.

And in Britain it is a Christmas tradition to make a wish while mixing the Christmas pudding, but the wish will only come true if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise fashion.

(From a sermon by Bruce Rzengota, on sermoncentral.com)

But Japan has perhaps the most American style of Christmas… because they borrowed it from us. They put up decorations, exchange presents, send cards, sing yuletide songs, decorate trees, serve special seasonal treats and make a big fuss over St Nick, Rudolph and Frosty.

But there is one distinct difference from our American Christmas… they don’t honor Jesus.

Why not? Because Japan is 99% Shinto and Buddhist in their religion. Only ½ of 1 % of their people claim to be Christians.

The Japanese are attracted to the glitter and romance of the American version of Christmas, and have adopted nearly everything except the real reason for the season.

(from an illustration by Robert Leroe)

Galatians 4:4 tells us that the reason for the season… was Jesus. It says:

“…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

God waited patiently until the time was right… and then He sent His Son.

Why? Because something wasn’t quite right until Jesus came.

BUT what was it that wasn’t right?

Six hundred years before Jesus was born in the manger God made this declaration:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will FORGIVE their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34

That’s what Jesus came to do.

He fulfill that new covenant, to make good on the Father’s promise.

Jesus came to forgive our sins.

When the angel appeared to the Shepherds he said:

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a SAVIOUR….” Luke 2:11

And WHAT was He going to save us from?

When the angel appeared to Joseph he told him that Mary would “… give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people FROM THEIR SINS." Matthew 1:21

Jesus came to fulfill the promise God made about 600 years before.

The promise was that God was going to make a NEW covenant with us.

A covenant that would make it so that God would forgive us our iniquities and remember our sins NO MORE.

Now WHERE did Jesus do that?

Where did He fulfill that promise?

Where did Jesus make it so that God would forgive us and not remember our sins?

Did He do that in the manger?

No… He did on the cross.

One person said it this way:

“They say that Santa puts presents UNDER the tree.

But Jesus came and became our gift ON the tree.”

So – if that’s true – (that Jesus forgave us on the cross) what’s all this about a manger? Why on earth would Jesus need to come as a baby to bring us this salvation? Why include the baby thing - as part of the story - in the Gospels?