OPENING: Video – Christmas, The Nativity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu6A9fMLnsY)
(The video was all dramatic music and words on a screen. After the video was done, I spoke the words to open the sermon)
“His birth… foretold in ancient writings a miracle that would threaten an empire.
His birth… would bring forth a revolution in new life, and shine light into a world filled with darkness.
His birth would change the world forever.
His birth would be the greatest gift God has ever given.”
That’s a powerful little video… and it points to SOMETHING that Isaiah saw. In fact, I’m afraid, it also points to something that I had not seen before. At Christmas we always hear these words from Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is given, unto us a Son is born…” Those are stirring words. Powerful words. And we all know that this verse applies to the birth of Christ.
But it seems I’d overlooked something that passage. Something I’d not considered before. “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” Isaiah 9:1-2
The minute I read this entire section of Isaiah 9, I realized what I’d seen those words before in Matthew 4:13-16 “And leaving Nazareth (Jesus) went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”
Isaiah was telling us that this child who was given, this Son who was born, this Messiah - was going to bring light into the lives of those who walked in darkness. In other words: “For a unto us a child is given, unto a Son is born”… and He will bring us light. That was the prophecy that Isaiah proclaimed to us! That was the focus of the promise – this Child was going to bring us Light.
So, is it any wonder that John’s Gospel starts out with these words: “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was THE LIGHT of men. The LIGHT shines in the DARKNESS, and the DARKNESS has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5
AND Jesus Himself said: “I am the LIGHT of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in DARKNESS, but will have the LIGHT OF LIFE.” John 8:12
As I was studying for today’s sermon I thought of something I hadn’t noticed before: Luke 2 tells us “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock BY NIGHT. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord SHONE ROUND ABOUT THEM: and they were sore afraid.” Luke 2:8-9
The shepherds were out in the fields BY NIGHT. It was dark and a little cold And suddenly, the glory of the Lord shone round about them. The shepherds were engulfed in light. I don’t think that was done by chance, I think God was engaging in a little “show and tell.” This child born in Bethlehem was to bring light to a dark world, and these shepherds were getting just a taste of what Jesus offered.
So God waited until it was dark… and then He flooded their world with light
ILLUS: One of the most beautiful carols of the season tell us the same thing. I’d like to sing the first verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and make special note of the words I’ve highlighted:
“O little town of Bethlehem, How still we see the lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by; Yet in thy dark streets SHINETH the EVERLASTING LIGHT; The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee to-night.”
God repeatedly drives home the fact that we live in a dark world. Paul writes: “…this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are DARKENED in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Ephesians 4:17-19
Those who live without God are “darkened in their understanding.” But what does that mean? (PAUSE) It means they don’t think clearly.
You see – without God guiding OUR thinking… everything depends on OUR personal values and likes and wants... or upon the opinions of our friends. As such, these values are transitory and inconsistent.
Ephesians tells us folks who think like this become calloused, get involved in sensuality, are greedy and indulge in every form of impurity.
JUST AS AN EXAMPLE: There’s been a big furor recently about a popular seasonal song that’s been around for 70 years. I read on many internet sites that this song was a “Christmas Song.” No! To call it a Christmas song is to insult Christ. It’s really not a nice song and I’ve never been comfortable with it. The name of the song is “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”
How many of you have heard the song? Of course. How could you avoid it?
For those of you who may not be familiar with the song, it was made famous by Dean Martin back in the 60s. It’s a cute little song (if you don’t pay close attention to the words) and it has a young woman and a man singing back and forth. She’s saying she has to go home. He’s pressuring her to stay the night. I’m just going to quote the woman’s words from the 2nd verse so you can see the implication of what's being sung.
“The neighbors might think … Say, what's in this drink? I wish I knew how … to break this spell. I ought to say "No, no, no, sir" … at least I'm gonna say that I tried.”
Like I said, the song’s been around for over 70 years now, but just recently people – influenced by our present “MeToo” Culture – have begun to complain. There’s this guy pressuring his girlfriend to stay when she knows she should go. Her mom and dad will be waiting for her. People will talk and her reputation could be ruined. The implication is that she’s going to stay the night. The song has often been viewed as a “Playful” appeal to sensuality and impurity.
There’s a lot of folks complaining that this song shouldn’t be played at Christmas… and I wouldn’t lose any sleep if it wasn’t. Like I said, it’s not a very nice song. But because the thinking of our world has rejected God there’s a darkness in how people (who are upset with this song) are reasoning about it.
The same folks who are angry about THIS song have no problem listening to even worse songs in our present day and age. These same folks may regularly listen to Country songs that talk about people sleeping together and committing adultery. Or they might listen attentively to rap songs where the “artists” curse and call women evil names. Or these same people may read books or watch movies like “50 Shades Of Grey.”
Evil abounds… and these people embrace it. But every once in awhile – because our culture decides to show some righteous indignation about one song, or one movie, or ONE book - NOW they feel good and righteous because they’ve stood against evil. But the next day they go right back to reading and watching and listening to the same stuff that focuses on impurity and sensuality.
That’s why Ephesians 2:1-3 tells us that BEFORE we became Christians “you (and I) were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
This DARK WAY of thinking corrupts our reasoning. We just don’t think straight because God is not guiding HOW we think. But once we become Christians… that’s all should change. Colossians says: “(The Father) has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:13-14
And Jesus said: “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46
This child that was born… this son that was given… THIS Jesus has stepped into our dark worlds… and become our light. And we’ve been transferred out of the world of darkness into His kingdom where Jesus has lit up our lives. He’s forgiven our sins, so we can be rescued from our darkness. Now, there’s no more shame; no more guilt; no more fear of judgment.
Now this doesn’t mean we’re not going to mess up once in a while, but it does mean… because we love Jesus and we want Him to RUN our lives - we will change little by little (or even great bounds by great bounds) until we reflect more and more of His light into a dark world.
You see, we are going to stumble because we came out of darkness. That was what we were used to and it became a habit with us. But do we want to stay in darkness? Of course not. As Proverbs 4:19 tells us “… the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.”
ILLUS: We KNOW what has made us stumble… it’s called sin. We’ve ALL sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We didn’t become Christians because we were righteous enough to earn God’s love. We became Christians because we were tired of living like we’d been living and so we accepted the gift of Jesus, and He saved us out of darkness we once lived in. That’s what Christmas is all about. And if you miss THAT - if you miss the Jesus part of the story - you’ve REALLY missed out on everything
ILLUS: I recently read an article by Kirsten Powers a while back, where she spoke of turning to God. She’d been a very committed atheist, but she began going to church, reading the Bible and her whole life turned around. Then she wrote another article recently where she said: “Becoming A Christian Ruined My Love Of Christmas.”
REALLY? What what’s that all about?
Well, during her childhood, Christmas was as an oasis of normalcy. “It was the one day of the year I could count on there being some sort of harmony in my divided family. At age five, my parents divorced and established two outposts in my life, I shuttled back and forth. One home was headed by my sophisticated, East Coast-born, feminist mother; the other by my down-to-earth, Idaho-bred father, who held fast to his traditionalist views.
The Christmas season though… was a magical time, made all the more special because I got to experience the magic twice. I helped pick out and decorate two Christmas trees, one at my mother’s house and one at my father’s. Wherever we woke up on Christmas morning, my brother and I were greeted by mountains of presents piled under the tree. We would spend hours plowing through them and then look at each other with delight as we realized we would get to do it all over again just a few hours later at the other house.
Christmas meant two of everything.
Or rather, almost everything: Church we only did once. My mother was a lapsed Catholic who had no discernible faith; my father was an Episcopalian who took us to church every Sunday. And going to the Christmas Eve service with him was high point of the holiday. We lit candles and sang carols, and all felt right with the world.
I suppose we talked some about Jesus, but truth be told, my mind was primarily occupied with counting down the hours until the commencement of presents. Looking back now, I see that Christmas in my family—like it is in lots of families—was really a cultural event focused on the exchange of gifts. It had next to nothing to do with the birth of Christ Jesus. (”https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/december-web-only/kirsten-powers-becoming-christian-ruined-my-love-of-christm.html)
You see… that’s the nature of a world that darkens everything. It removes Christ from the day that bears His name so that we can focus on what pleases “US” – the lights, the sounds, the smells… and (of course) the presents. It’s all about US. Thus, Christmas without Christ is the order of the day… in a dark world.
We’ve got to be careful we don’t fall into that trap.
CLOSE: Years ago in England, a schoolteacher helped her students construct a manger scene in a corner of her classroom. Her pupils were excited as they set up the model barn and covered the floor with real straw and then arranged the clay figures of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Wise Men, and the animals – all facing a little crib in which a tiny doll represented the baby Jesus.
When it was all finished… one boy was entranced by it. He kept looking at it, and he had puzzled look on his face. The teacher finally asked him, "Is anything bothering you? His eyes still glued to the manger scene, and he slowly said,
“What I'd like to know is, where does God fit in?”
If you don’t know where He fits in… then you’ve missed the meaning of the child in the cradle. That’s why offer an invitation at the end of every service:
INVITATION
