Title: Christmas is about…
Text: Luke 2:10-14
Date: 12/23/07
Location: Sulphur Spring Baptist Church
Introduction: About a week before Christmas a five-year old boy was busying drawing a picture for his mother. She walked into the room and asked him what he was drawing. The boy pointed to a brown structure in the right corner of the paper and told his mother that the brown structure in the corner was baby Jesus’ house. Then he pointed to a large yellow star above the house and explained that it was the star that the wise men followed to find baby Jesus. His mother pointed to a man outside the house carrying something in his arms and asked, “Is that one of the Wise Men bringing His gift to Jesus?” The boy quickly replied, “no that’s Joseph taking out the trash.”
Well, it’s almost Christmas, only two more days! For most of the children here today that two days is going to seem like an eternity. On the other hand if you’re like me and haven’t finished your shopping yet, it’s going to get here way too fast.
Second Grade Students at Simpson Elementary were recently asked to write what Christmas means to them. I enjoyed reading through this section, and wanted to share a few of their thoughts about Christmas with you this morning.
One boy writes, “Christmas is a holiday. At my house Santa goes through the door because we don’t have a chimney. Santa comes on his sleigh. Christmas is fun. I am going to ask Santa for a skateboard and pads for my elbows and knees. I can’t wait until we put up our Christmas decorations.”
Another little boy writes, “Christmas is all about being good. If you be good you get good present’s. If you be bad Santa will put you on the bad list.”
One little girl wrote, “It’s a time to have a great time and get presents and laugh with your family and friends.”
Another Second grader said, “Christmas means giving presents. You also get to sing and dance with your family. It means watching Frosty and Rudolph. It means decorating your house and tree.”
I expected to see several answers similar to those and I did, but I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at the number of children who mentioned the true meaning of Christmas in their responses. I was especially proud of a couple of our young boys.
Benjamin Bayles said, “Christmas means Jesus the New born King. Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. God sent Jesus on Christmas. Jesus is called the Messiah!”
Owen Carey wrote, “On Christmas Day Baby Jesus was born…Christmas is not all about toys and presents its about baby Jesus!”
I couldn’t have said it any better myself boys! I proud of you and I know your parents are as well.
Christmas means different things to different people. So this morning I want to take just a few minutes to remind you of what Christmas is all about. First of all, as Dr. Pulliam shared with you a few weeks ago…
I. CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT HOPE.
During the First Century there was a heavy sense of Hopelessness among the Jewish people. They despised the Roman Empire and King Herod, and were hoping that God would send the Messiah to save them from all of the persecution they were experiencing. But their hopes and dreams of the Throne of David being re-established and the Romans being thrown out of Israel didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Consequently many of the people had lost hope.
Many people today also have a sense of hopelessness, especially young people. They sense that despite our best efforts everything seems to be falling down around us. I want you to know this morning that there is hope. But I want to make sure you understand that our hope is not in a political party or even a particular presidential candidate. Our Hope is not in scientific discoveries or technological advances. Our hope is found in God and His promises.
There are two definitions of Hope that I want to make sure you understand this morning. There is the common worldly definition or understanding, and then there is a “Spiritual definition.”
Webster’s Dictionary defines hope as “a feeling that what is wanted will happen; or as a desire accompanied by expectation.”
One of the little boys I mentioned earlier said he was hoping to get a skateboard for Christmas this year. Now just because He’s hoping to get that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to happen. In other words there is no guarantee He’s going to get a skateboard no matter how much he hopes for it.
That’s the common understanding or definition. Now you might not know this but even though the Bible doesn’t come right out and give us a definition of “Hope,” it does provide us with a good basic understanding of the term. The Biblical or spiritual definition of Hope is this: "Hope is an expectation based on the promises of God."
You see the difference between “Biblical Hope” and regular hope is that God’s hope is not based on feelings, desires or even positive thinking. It is based on the person, nature, and promises of God Himself. Our Hope is found in the person of Jesus Christ, who came to fulfill all of God’s promises.
The song “O Little Town of Bethlehem” states Jesus purpose for coming to the earth so well. The later part of the first verse says, “Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
We have Hope that God loves us and will not forsake us. The Apostle Paul reminded us in Philippians 4:19, “that God would provide all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
Not only this but as Christians we have Hope that no matter how bad life on this earth may get, that there is something better waiting for us on the other side. Jesus also promised to prepare a place for us and to return for us, so that we could spend eternity with Him. Those are promises that we can count on, those are things that give us hope even when things around us are falling apart.
Therefore, Christmas is about HOPE.
II. SECONDLY, CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT LOVE.
Most of us enjoy giving gifts to those we love at Christmas. If you’re like me you may not like shopping for the gifts, but you do enjoy seeing your children or grandchildren or other family members opening the gifts you have given them.
It’s hard for people, even those of us who have been Christians for many years to comprehend just how much God loves us. You see, as Mary Anne reminded us a couple of weeks ago in the Children’s sermon it was God’s love for us that motivated Him to send His only begotten son into the world in the first place.
The Apostle Paul reminds us of this in Romans 5:8 when He says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
1 John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
So Christmas should definitely remind us of God’s love in sending His son into this world, and it should remind us of Christ’s love for us in that He was willing to lay down his life for us.
III. NEXT, CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT JOY.
When the Angel appeared to the Shepherds in the fields outside of Bethlehem He said, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”
Sometimes people mistakenly believe that Happiness and Joy are synonyms that they are essentially the same thing, but they aren’t.
Happiness comes from the world around us. Joy on the other hand comes directly from the Holy Spirit. Our Happiness usually if not always depends on what is going on around us. If things are going well in our lives, and we don’t have any major problems then we tend to be happy. But if those circumstances change, if problems develop at work, or if you don’t win the ballgame or if your boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t call you back then all of a sudden you’re not happy anymore. In other words our Happiness is directly related to our circumstances.
Joy, on the other hand, is given to us by God, and doesn’t change regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in.
I have to admit, sometimes I’m more of a scrouge around Christmas than I should be. I don’t like to shop, and nothing gets on my nerves any quicker than having to deal with Holiday traffic in Bowling Green or Nashville. I’d rather do just about anything than go shopping, which is why Mary Anne has learned over the years that she is better off just going by herself than having to put up with me. But while I may allow those things to steal my happiness, they cannot take away my joy. Because my Joy is in the Lord, and it that God it cannot be taken away. (Amen)
When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you experience “Joy” in its fullest sense. Some of you here this morning have no idea what I’m talking about because you’ve never made that commitment, and so you’ve never been given the “Joy of the Lord” that was given to the Phillipian Jailer in Acts 16:34.
This man was ready to commit suicide because He thought that all of the prisoners including Paul and Silas had escaped. But after discovering that they were still there, He fell at Paul’s feet and pleaded with him to tell him how to be saved. Paul told Him, and He accepted the Lord. Acts 16:34 describes what happened next. It says, “The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.”
“He was filled with joy because He had come to believe in God.” In other words He was filled with joy because He had a relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ. If you don’t have the same kind of a relationship with God, then it won’t matter what you do or what you achieve in this life, you will never experience “Real Joy.”
Which is a shame because according to the Angels message to the Shepherds, God meant “this joy” to be something that everyone could experience.
IV. NEXT, CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT PEACE.
President Bush and His administration recently hosted a “Peace Conference” in Annapolis, Maryland which was intended to get the Palestinians and the Israeli’s and other parties in the Middle East back to the negotiating table. Many people believe President Bush wants to see a deal worked out between Israel and the Palestinians to establish a two states in Palestine as part of His legacy.
But unfortunately the prospects for peace in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world aren’t really very good.
Just this week, Turkey sent troops into Northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels. Our troops in Iraq and Afghanastan continue to be threatened by terrorist attacks on a daily basis.
Israel continues to defend itself against terrorist attacks and launched new attacks this week against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and according to an Ex-CIA agent may soon be forced to attack Iran to keep them from developing a Nuclear weapon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, seems to be determined to restart the “Cold War” and another Arms race with the West. Back in September He announced that the Russian military had successfully tested a bomb which has been described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear weapon. He said it was four times more powerful than the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal.
I don’t know anyone who likes war. I think we would all be happy if the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were over and our troops were back home. But unfortunately that’s probably not going to happen for several more years regardless of who the next President of the United States is.
When we think about “Peace on Earth,” we generally think of the absence of war and conflict.
But when the Angels said, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.” They weren’t talking about an absence of war between men. They were talking about “Peace with God.” You see the only people who can be ‘at peace with God’ and experience the ‘peace of God,’ are those of us who are Christians.
The New Living Translation says it like this: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.”
The Bible tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. So an unbeliever can not possibly receive His favor or experience His peace. But those of us who are believers can experience both. We are “at peace with God” when we are obedient to His will in our lives. And by submitting to His Lordship in our lives we can then experience what the Apostle Paul describes as the ‘peace of God which surpasses all understanding.”
You may find yourself in conflict with God this morning. Maybe the Holy Spirit has been convicting you of your sin for some time, and up until this point you have been resisting Him. If that’s the case I encourage you this morning to stop resisting and confess your sins to Him and allow Him to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness. Then and only then will you ‘be at peace with God,’ and be able to experience the ‘peace of God.’
So Christmas is about Hope, It’s about Love, It’s about Joy, It’s about Peace…
V. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT CHRIST.
Paul Harvey told the story of a family on Christmas Eve. For several years this family had a tradition where the Mother and children would go to the Christmas Eve service, and the Father would stay home and read the paper. Then when they got back from church, they would open their gifts.
The Father was not a bad man, he just had trouble believing that the Son of God was born to a virgin, and that she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.
When his wife and children left to go to church he sat down in his favorite chair opened up the evening paper and began to read
Suddenly, he heard tapping on the window, and went over to investigate. It was a bird flying against the window. He concluded that the bird must be cold and was attempting to get into his house to get warm. He felt sorry for the bird, and he went outside, to see if he could catch it and bring it inside to keep it from dying.
As he approached the bird, the bird franticly began flying into the window even harder. Pretty soon, the bird flew into the bushes below the window, half frozen, and exhausted. But it was still too afraid of the man, and the more he tried to reach for the bird, the more the bird tried to get away from him.
After a few minutes outside in the freezing temperatures without any luck catching the bird the man yelled out in frustration, "Stupid bird, don’t you understand that I’m trying to help you?" The man paused and thought, "If only you understood you wouldn’t fly away ... if only ... if only I could become a bird, and get you to understand."
Just then, the church bells rang, as they always did at the beginning of the Christmas Eve Service. But when the man heard the bells this time, he fell to his knees and began to cry, saying, "Oh, God, I didn’t understand. Oh, God, I didn’t understand."
At that point, He understood why the Son of God had come in the form of a baby. He came to help us and tell us how our relationship with God could be restored.
That’s what the Apostle John meant when He said, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,… and even though the Light was shining in the darkness most people were like this man… they didn’t understand or comprehend what was happening.
Unfortunately the majority of people in the world today still don’t understand. Most of the people in America will celebrate Christmas this year without worshiping Jesus or even acknowledging that it is his birthday. In fact there are some people who would like Jesus to be taken out of Christmas completely.
In an issue of the cartoon strip "The Family Circus," young Billy sees many of the signs common around the Christmas Season. One says, "Don’t forget Christmas candy." Another say’s "Don’t forget the wrapping paper." Everywhere Billy turns he see’s more of the same. "Don’t forget the Christmas lights." "Don’t forget to visit Santa." Don’t forget the batteries.”
The final frame of the comic strip shows Billy drawing a picture. The scene is the stable with Mary and Joseph standing beside the manger where baby Jesus is lying. Above the scene Billy wrote two very simple words. "Don’t forget."
We must be careful not to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas activities and forget what we are celebrating. Some people get so involved with holiday details, traditions, and festivities that they neglect to worship Jesus. Some people even see Him as an inconvenience and would prefer to remove Him from Christmas entirely.
