Christmas

GAL: 4:4-7 8/16/08 CHRISTMAS

Did you know that there are many people through out our land that don’t know the true origins of Christmas? What I mean by that is many folks don’t realize that the birth of Christ is really what its about. And even those of us that do know the true meaning of Christmas tend to forget it amidst all of the shopping, and gift giving, and family get togethers with all the good eating etc. let me say that we don’t really know for certain what day the Lord was born, but we do know for certain that He was born, so we recognize Dec. 25 as a time to remember His birth.

So today I want to talk a little on what Christmas is.

The Galatians also needed a reminder about the significance and meaning of Christmas.

Now the word Christmas is not in the bible anywhere, but The Galatians were turning from the Gospel of the grace of God to the bondage of the law.

Paul wrote to the Galatians to remind them of the significance of what Christ had done for them when he came to the earth.

Galatians 4:4 4But when the fulness of the time was come,{At the time determined by God, God the Father sent forth God the Son, born of a woman, born under the Law. Mary was a Jewish woman.} God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, -5To redeem them that were under the law, {Jews} that we {everybody} might receive the adoption of sons.

6And because ye are *sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. {This cry of Abba, Father reveals deep emotion coming from the indwelling Holy Spirit.} 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

What is Christmas really all about?

I. ITS ABOUT THE ADVENT OF THE SAVIOUR

In these verses we see some very important things about Jesus Christ and his coming to earth.

a) First we see his Divine Origin---there was an event that took place before the birth of Christ in the manger, even before the conception of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

It was the sending forth of Christ from God the Father.

We’re told in Gal.4:4 "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son". Christ had always existed with the Father. Jesus the Christ was born.

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." When was the beginning?

Billions of years back of creation. He already was; He comes out of eternity to meet us. He did not begin. “In the beginning was the Word”—He was already there when the beginning was.

As a man Jesus prayed to the Father, John 17:5 5And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Christ had always existed in perfect loving fellowship with God the Father. One day at the precise time, God sent him forth. It was Gods plan even before there was a world.

1st pet.1: 20Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Jesus made a conscious choice to be sent.

Philippians 2: 5-8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:* 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto *not until death, even the death of the cross.

In love for humanity the Father sent the Son, & in love for the Father and humanity Jesus willingly went.

Jesus willingly and obediently and lovingly left a place of glory and sinless ness, and ceaseless worship and perfection, and unbroken fellowship with the Father. From the bosom of the Father, to the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Imagine all the fullness of the Godhead was dwelling inside this young virgin.

· This is his divine origin.

And then His full humanity---"made of a woman"

The previous statement "God sent forth His Son" could be said of no other man in the history of the world.

The next statement, "made of a woman" is true of all men. While Jesus was fully divine in origin, he was likewise fully human. He entered the world just as you and I entered the world. He was born of a woman. He was a man. He was Mary’s son. He hungered, and thirsted, and ate, and drank, and worked, and played, and laughed, and wept, and hurt, and bled, and prayed, and lived, and died as a man.