Today, I want to just share with you a simple telling of the Christmas story; I’ve asked some of kids to remain up here on the platform with me, because they’re going to help me with the word, CHRISTMAS! So, kids, as I come to each letter in that word, I want you to just hold your letter in your lap, and keep it there until we have spelled the entire word! Okay?
Of course, Christmas starts with the letter, C; it’s fitting that it starts with that letter, because that letter stands for Christ, God’s great gift to our world! In fact, the word Christmas comes from a combining of the phrase “Christ Mass.” The word Christ means anointed One, that is, the One sent by God with a specific task to carry out; the word Mass means “a service of celebration.” Christmas is a day of great joy, because it marks the beginning of Jesus Christ’s time here on this Earth. It’s a day that we celebrate in a number of ways, but is a day that should make worship of Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One sent by God, an integral part of the Holiday Season. God sent His only Son, Jesus, to our world because our world had a problem: that problem is called sin! Sin separated us from God as His crowning achievement of creation, and it came about because mankind disobeyed God! That’s what sin is—disobedience to God! God told Adam and Eve clear back at the beginning of the Bible, that they could eat of any fruit from any tree in the Garden of Eden!—except the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil! What did they do? They ate of the forbidden fruit, and from that time until now, their disobedience brought sin into the world, and a holy God cannot, and will not tolerate sin!
That brings us to the letter H; the God of Heaven, the God who created all that is, loved His creation so much that He couldn’t bear to see His creation suffer the consequences of sin! Out of that love, God made a plan from before He even laid the foundations of the world; that plan was to send His Son, Jesus, to live a sinless, perfect life, and to bear the penalty for mankind’s sin with His own death! Jesus came down from Heaven to be born as a baby in a manger, at Bethlehem. You would think that such a noble act would require a very lavish, pompous entry into our world; but God chose rather to have His Son, and His plan for the world to come in the form of a normal baby, born in a dingy manger of a barn, surrounded by stinky animals! So, the letter H not only represents that Jesus was sent from Heaven, but that He was also sent with very humble beginnings!
The letter R stands for redemption; redemption is the reason God sent this gift of Jesus, His only Son, from Heaven to our world. To redeem something means to buy it back; God created us, but then He had to buy us back, and the only “thing” with enough value to buy us back, to redeem us, was the sinless blood of Jesus, poured out upon the Cross, where Jesus died for the sins of mankind! Let me explain with an illustration, how redemption works:
“A little boy once made a toy boat. He was very proud of his boat because he hadn’t bought it, he had made it himself. One day whilst sailing his boat on the lake, the wind suddenly strengthened and blew the toy boat out of sight towards the other side of the lake. The boy immediately ran around to the far side of the lake to look for his boat. He searched and searched, but couldn’t find it anywhere, the boat was lost. The boy was bitterly disappointed because this wasn’t any ordinary boat, this was his special boat that he had made with his own hands.
Sometime later, the boy was walking past a shop in his village. He happened to look in the window, and there up for sale was his boat. He knew it was his because he had made it himself and knew exactly what it looked like. Immediately the boy rushed into the shop and paid the asking price for his boat. On leaving the shop, the boy looked admiringly at his boat and said Now you are mine twice over. I made you, and now I have bought you back again. I have redeemed you.”
That is a picture of what God has done for us! He made us and therefore owns us, but because of our sin we became lost and separated from Him. But in His love, God sent Jesus to buy us back, to redeem us. And the price Jesus paid? – His own blood that He shed on the Cross. So, although at Christmas time we remember the coming of Jesus to our world as a baby in a manger in the city of Bethlehem, we must also think of Easter, that time of year that we are reminded of Jesus’ death on the Cross for our sins. We must always remember the purpose of His coming, was to redeem us to God!
I’m going to use the letter I to represent three things: one, it represents the nation of Israel; Jesus was born in Israel, in a little Judean village called Bethlehem. There was certainly nothing special about this little village; it was very small, very much unimportant, and very unlikely to be the birthplace for Someone as significant as Jesus, the Savior of the world!—and yet, that’s where God chose to bring His Son to our world! The second thing that the letter I represents is an Old Testament prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah was a Hebrew prophet who was believed to have lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Born in Jerusalem, Israel, he was said to have found his calling as a prophet when he saw a vision in the year of King Uzziah’s death. In Isaiah 7.14, Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Anointed One, Jesus; he said, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His Name Immanuel.” That’s the third thing that the letter I represents! It’s the Name, Immanuel, which means “God with us!” Isaiah, nearly seven hundred years before that damp, cold night in the little village of Bethlehem, told of the virgin, Mary, who became pregnant with God’s Son, Jesus, whom God sent to our world as “God, with us!”
The letter S is also used in three ways in this story; God sent a very bright star to guide wise men from the East to the place where Jesus was growing up as a little child. Jesus' birth took place when Herod was king of Judea. At this time, these wise men (sometimes called “Magi”) from the east saw a great star. They followed it, knowing the star signified the birth of the King of the Jews. The wise men came to the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem, and asked where the Anointed One was to be born. The rulers explained, “In Bethlehem in Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: ‘and you, o Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’” Micah 5.2. Herod secretly met with these wise men, and asked them to report back after they found the child. Herod told them that he wanted to worship the baby, but secretly, Herod was plotting to kill the child! The wise men continued to follow the star in search of the newborn King. They found Jesus with His mother in Bethlehem. They bowed and worshiped him, offering treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. When they departed, they did not return to Herod. They had been warned in a dream of Herod’s desire to destroy the child. By the time the wise men visited Jesus, the child was likely two years old. The letter S also represents the stable in which Jesus was born; there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn in the village of Bethlehem, so they were likely given a stable in which to spend the night of Jesus’ birth. On a cold, dark, damp night, the Savior of the world was born to a teenaged virgin, along with her husband, Joseph, to whom she had been engaged. The letter S also represents shame; as teenaged virgin, Mary had become pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God, not as the result of sexual relations with Joseph, or any other man! But who would believe such a story? No one had ever become pregnant without having had relations with another man! Who could believe such a preposterous story such as this? When she told Joseph, he most likely felt disgraced. He knew the child was not his own, and Mary's apparent unfaithfulness would have carried a very serious social stigma. Under Jewish law, Joseph not only had the right to divorce Mary, but he could also have had her put to death by stoning. But Joseph was a good-hearted man. Although his initial reaction was to break the engagement, the appropriate thing for a righteous man to do, he treated Mary with extreme kindness. He did not want to cause her further shame, and decided to act quietly. Then God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to confirm that Mary's story was true. She had indeed conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. The angel reassured Joseph, telling him to take Mary as his wife, raise the boy as his own son, and name Him Jesus, because he would be a Savior to his people. When Joseph woke from his dream, he willingly obeyed God and married Mary in spite of the public humiliation he would face. Joseph's noble character was one reason God chose him to be Messiah's earthly father. At that time, Caesar Augustus decreed that a census would be taken. Every person in the Roman world had to return to his or her hometown to register. Joseph, being of the line of King David, was required to go to Bethlehem to register with Mary. Joseph made a decision to endure the shame of what everyone was thinking; Joseph endured the shame, and along with Mary, went through the engagement process, waited until the baby Jesus was born!
That brings us to the letter T, which I will use to represent the word time; I mentioned before that God, the Father, Jesus, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in Heaven from before the creation of the world, established this plan that would redeem mankind back to God. In his letter to the churches of Galatia, the Apostle Paul affirms that the Son of God came to our world at just the right time in the Divine scheme of things. He expresses the thought like this: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law…” (Galatians 4.4). For centuries, this “time” had been in preparation and various societal elements had contributed to it. When Jesus was born, it was indeed the fullness of time! It was the providential preparation of God in anticipation of the sending of His Son. It came at a time when God revealed that Jesus’ death was necessary, even for those who lived under the law of Moses. V. 5 of Galatians 4 says, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (and daughters!).” Just a quick breaking down of what that means in real life: animal sacrifices of the Mosaic Law were unable to provide a complete remedy for sin; only the sinless, perfect blood of Jesus, God’s Son, could provide such a remedy!
The letter M stands for Mary; Mary was an unlikely candidate to be honored with the role of Mother to the Savior of the world. She was a young, poor female. In her day and in the eyes of her people, these traits would have disqualified her as someone God would want to use for any important purpose. A young teenager, Mary was living in the village of Nazareth and engaged to be married to Joseph, a Jewish carpenter. One day, God sent the angel named Gabriel to visit Mary. The angel told Mary that she would conceive a Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. She would give birth to this child, and name Him Jesus. At first, Mary was afraid and troubled by the angel's words. Being a virgin, Mary questioned the angel, "How can this happen?" The angel explained that the child would be God's own Son, and that nothing was impossible with God. Humbled and in awe, Mary believed the angel of the Lord, and rejoiced in God her Savior. Just as the angel had said, while Mary was engaged to Joseph, she miraculously became pregnant. The city of Bethlehem was a small village about five miles southwest of Jerusalem; while in Bethlehem, Jesus was born. She wrapped the baby snuggly in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger (an open box or trough used to feed cattle or other livestock).
That brings us to the letter A, which I will use to represent angels; angels are God’s messengers, and in the Christmas story, they are the ones who announced Jesus’ birth. That night in a nearby field, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds who were tending their flocks of sheep. The radiance of God's glory surrounded the angel as it announced that the Savior of the world had been born in the city of David, Bethlehem of Judea. These men were terrified, but the angel reassured them, “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ (the Anointed One), the Lord.” (Luke 2.10-11). “Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2.14). As the angelic beings departed, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see the Christ-child!” They hurried to the village, and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby. The shepherds shared with everyone what the angel had said about the newborn baby. Then they went on their way praising and glorifying God.
So, not only does the letter S represent the final letter, it stands for those shepherds; they were the first to hear the “Good News!” What was the good news? Most importantly, the letter S represents the word Savior; .
After the shepherds visited Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, Mary quietly reflected on their words and the news they brought of their visit from the angel of the Lord. Mary treasured their words and pondered them often in her heart. It must have been beyond her ability to grasp, that sleeping in her arms—her tender newborn baby—was the Savior of the world! How could she grasp that God in the flesh, Jesus, Immanuel, “God with us”, came to live with mankind. Just as the Holy Spirit made this possible in the Christmas story, the same Spirit makes Jesus Christ present today in the life of every believer. It's likely that not even Isaiah understood the full and far-reaching meaning of this Name. The Christmas angel, Gabriel, appeared not only to Zechariah and Mary but also to Daniel the prophet more than 500 years before the Christmas story.
That brings me to a punctuation that is NOT part of the word, Christmas, but in many ways, the exclamation point is the most important part of this story! An exclamation point is placed to let us know when something is of utmost importance. So, this is important! Because, like Mary, many feel less than qualified to serve God. But Mary trusted God, and humbly obeyed Him! When God speaks to you and shows you his will, do you treasure His words quietly, like Mary, and think about them often in your heart? Don't set limits on God and what he may want to do with your life. He will use you, too, if you trust in Him!
There it is: trusting in Him; trusting Jesus, God’s only Son, sent to die for the sins of the world, so that we could be redeemed back to God! That’s the Christmas story! But there’s more, something so important that God attaches an exclamation point to the Christmas story! It’s this: you have to believe in Jesus as your Savior; you have to believe that He died on the Cross, shedding His sinless blood to forgive your sins! You have to believe that even though He died, because He was sinless and perfect, death could not Him, and He arose from the dead, alive forevermore! You have to believe, that because He overcame death, the penalty of sin, that by professing belief in His saving work of dying on the Cross, you too, can overcome death, and have everlasting life in Heaven, with Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, as your Lord! Will you profess these beliefs today? That’s the most important question you will ever have to answer, and the Holy Spirit is asking that question of you at this very moment!
