Christmas Song
Luke 2:8-20
And 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, goodwill toward men!” - Luke 2:13-14
The two most used words in the month of December without question are the words, "Christmas" and “Gift". From eBay to Amazon, from the internet to the mall, everybody is searching for Christmas gifts. Why do we do this? It is the only time in the year when people all over the world give gifts.
It all goes back to the very first Christmas gift ever given that God gave to you and to me at the very first Christmas. Today, God has a Christmas gift for you. A live, real, eternal gift and that gift is a person called Jesus Christ.
The reason we celebrate Christmas is perfectly captured in the song, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." This song has a fascinating history. Charles Wesley was the youngest of eighteen children. Many of you have heard of his older brother, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church. In 1737, Charles Wesley wrote more than 3000 hymns. He began working on a new Christmas song and the words he wrote began, "Hark, how all the welkin rings. Glory to the King of kings."
Another famous preacher, named George Whitfield. Whitfield published this song and changed the words to "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." Whitfield took his title from Luke 2:13 which speaks of "a heavenly host."
This song describes the message that we read about in Luke Chapter 2 that tells us exactly what we have in the Christmas gift called, Jesus Christ. When you receive Jesus the Messiah, you not only receive Him, but also you receive the things that will make an eternal difference in your life and make every day, including Christmas day - if you will only receive these three gifts.
I. Receive Happiness In A Hurting World
"8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” (Luke 2: 8-10, NKJV)
Immediately we see that the birth of Jesus Christ was to make everyone happy. God wants you to be happy in the right way for the right reason. God wants to give you joy, not judgment. God wants to give you heaven, not hell. God wants to give you happiness, not suffering.
God is a loving father who wants to bring majesty into your life. Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10)
God sent His son Jesus Christ to give you the one thing that most people never find which is happiness. The average person is not happy. You would think that as a culture becomes more prosperous and wealthier that people would become happier. So are we happier today? There was a prisoner who was standing before a judge. And the judge said, "I noticed that in addition to stealing money, you also took rings, watches, diamonds, and pearls." The prisoner said, "Yes sir, I was always taught that money alone doesn't bring happiness."
The truth is you cannot be truly or completely happy without God. You were created by God to have a relationship with God. You cannot have a relationship with God except through Jesus Christ. Therefore, without Jesus Christ you can never be truly and completely happy.
That phrase, "I have good news" gives us the word “evangelize" which simply means to tell people good news. C.S. Lewis once said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven." That is exactly what Christmas and Christianity is all about – bringing real joy to this world. You can have a joy that will last from here to heaven in a painful world when you receive Jesus Christ.
II. Receive Hope For A Heavenly World
"For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11, NKJV)
The angel goes on to say, "This very day in King David’s hometown a Savior was born for you." (Luke 2:11, CEV)
Now a Savior was not what the world wanted, but it is what the world needed. That raises a question. Why did then and why now does the world need a Savior? The number one need for this world since the beginning of time is salvation. The reason why salvation is the world's number one need is because sin is the world's number one problem.
If you go all the way back to the first two chapters of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, you will find a world in which there were absolutely no problems. Adam and Eve lived in a paradise, that is until they disobeyed God, what the Bible calls sin. At that moment, two other problems entered into the world that we have to live with today – sorrow and death.
From that time until now, the world's greatest problem has been sin and the world's greatest need has been salvation. The sad thing is, the world in large can't see this. Even though it is right under our noses, they can't see that sin is our biggest problem.
I was reading about a boy from Mexico by the name of Markos. Every day he would come to the Mexican border on a bicycle with a large bag over his shoulders. The guards would stop him and would say, "What's in the bag?" He would say, "Sand". For a while, they would open and they would find nothing but sand. Every day for three years that boy would ride that bike to the Mexican border, give the same answer and they would let him through.
After three years, Markos quit showing up and one of the border guards met him at a canteen in Mexico. He walked up to him and said, "Markos, something is driving me crazy. I know for three years you were smuggling something across the border and I thought about it for three years and I never could figure it out." He said, "What were you smuggling?" Markos just smiled and said, "Bicycles."
According to the Bible, sin is: Defying God, Disobeying God's law, Disregarding God's word, Denying God's son
Yet in America today only 17% of the people understand sin in relation to God.
You see the world just doesn't get it. There are many people in our world who think that ignorance is our problem and education is the solution. Others think poverty is the problem and money is the solution. Others think technology is the problem and science is the solution. Others think that war is the problem and diplomacy is the solution. God says sin is the problem and a Savior is the solution. That is exactly what God gave us on Christmas, so we could have hope for a heavenly world.
III. Receive Harmony In A Hateful World
We read, "There was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: ‘Give glory to God in heaven and on earth, let there be peace among the people who please God.'" (Luke 2:13-14, NKJV, NCV)
God wants you to experience something found very rarely on this Earth today – peace. We are living in a world where national peace is unlikely. Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, the Sudan, Somalia –everywhere you turn there is violence, massacres, bloodshed, homicide bombers, thugs, and killers.
According to the Society of International Law at London, there have only been 268 years of peace in the last 4,000 years of human history, despite the signing of more than 8,000 separate peace treaties. It has been calculated by a former president of the Norwegian Academy of Science that says since 3,600 B.C. over 14, 531 wars have been waged in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed.
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6
That is exactly why God's Christmas gift – Jesus Christ is called the Prince of Peace, because He alone can give peace. In the Middle East, there is a peace process now known as "The Roadmap To Peace". God has a roadmap to peace. It is the only kind of peace that is real and that will last. There is a vertical peace, there is an internal peace and there is a horizontal peace.
If you want to have real peace, if you want to have harmony in a hateful world, first of all there must be vertical peace – there must be peace with God. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1, NKJV)
Vertical peace then leads to internal peace. Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you whose thoughts are fixed on you!" (Isaiah 26:3, NLT) This is internal peace. The peace that passes all understanding. The peace that helps you to keep your head when everybody around you is losing their own.
It is when you experience this vertical peace with God and the internal peace of God that you will have horizontal peace with other people. This is the peace found in the song, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'' as we read in verse 14. "Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. (Luke 2:14, MSG)
A man by the name of Thomas Merton summed it all up when he said, "Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself; he is not at peace with himself, because he is not at peace with God."
Peace can be obtained but our souls are lacking. Our souls reek from the stench of sin and no matter how hard we try to cover it up, the smell remains. The only difference is there is a cure. I John 1:7 says, “ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." (I John 1:7, NKJV)
Conclusion:
Christ who brings that cleansing is the greatest gift of all, a gift so great that it even sent angels into singing.
I read the other day about a man that got a Christmas gift 49 years ago and never opened it. Can you imagine if you gave perhaps the most valuable thing you owned or the most valuable thing you could buy to someone that you really loved, wrapped it up in the most beautiful way you could imagine, give it to that person and the person never ever opens it?
Yet, there are some of you here today who have gone Christmas after Christmas and never unwrapped the gift that Christmas is all about. You have never accepted God's gift to you – Jesus Christ and because of that you have never received the other gifts that He wants to you – happiness, hope, and harmony.
When you get Jesus Christ, you don't just get Him; you get all that He wants to give you. Because of Him, you can receive happiness in a suffering world, hope for a heavenly world and harmony in a hateful world. Amen.
