JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON
Text: Luke 2:4-7
People have always searched for the meaning of life in order to fill some void that they feel. Some try to fill that void with material things. Others try to fill that void by trying to gain power so as to prove their importance when the truth of the matter is that they are trying to evade their feelings of insecurity. There are others who feel an emptiness inside that they try to escape from their pain through drugs, alcohol or immoral behavior.
Shakespeare once said that life was "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Just as words mean nothing to someone who is functionally illiterate, life "signifies" nothing if we are spiritually illiterate. Jesus came to teach us how to read about the significant things about life. He came to teach us about where and how we are illiterate about life's significance. And unless we learn from Him, we remain illiterate without learning why.
On July 14, 1789, Jean Lenoir, a cobbler living in an obscure side street in Paris, wrote in his diary: "Nothing of importance happened today." Just a short distance away was the Bastille, and on that very day a mob has stormed it. they killed the troops, freed the prisoners, destroyed the building, and started the French Revolution. That event changed the whole course of life in France." (Charles M. Crowe. Sermons For Special Days. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 162).
Sometimes we are guilty of celebrating Christmas as if it was "nothing important." We are sometimes so near Christmas as a holiday with festivalism and commercialism while we are so far away in heart from our Savior who was born in Bethlehem almost 2000 years ago.
Christmas is more than just a holiday to celebrate the break we get from work or school. Christmas is a time to celebrate; a time to proclaim; a time to demonstrate (C. W. Keiningham. Year 'Round Sermon Outlines. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987, p. 47).
CHRISTMAS IS A CELEBRATION
Every year we celebrate Jesus's birthday.
We make a big deal about the birthdays of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Why then can we not make a bigger deal out of Christ's birthday which is far more important? We celebrate Christmas while we sometimes slight the fact that it is Christ's birthday. When we do that, it appears as if we have taken Christ out of Christmas.
Years ago, I attended Sunday School at my home church, prior to entering the ministry. I was regular in attendance and often enjoyed the lessons. However, there is one lesson that still stands out in my mind to this day. That is a point that Jim Ransom, then teacher made about the substition that we sometimes see as Merry Christmas is often substituted with Merry Xmas. Mr. Ransom madethe point from some that literature that he read that some made the substitution in such a way as to take Christ out of Christmas. However, though some may try to substitute the X for Christ so as to "x" His name out. They fail, because the X is a Christian symbol that is known as St. Andrew's cross. Whether people use it in that fashion or not, one thing is certain. You cannot take Christ out of Christmas.
"When we put Christ into Christmas, our hearts are revived by a renewed sense of the divine at the heart of life" (Crowe p. 163).
"On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University's department of research surgery. A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age. When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death. However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it. The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side. Then the stony coating was lifted form the heart as an orange is peeled. Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping noramlly. "I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation.
"There is a parable of life here. Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life. They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs. They are hardened by the pressure of circumstance. Inevitably they become smothered and insensitive to the divine. Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray. It becomes simpler to work than to worship. Self-satisfied, proud, often cynical, our hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christmas can perform when we dare to surrender our hearts' burden before the cradle of Bethlehem" (Crowe p. 163).
CHRISTMAS IS A PROCLAIMATION
A proclamation is a declaration.
When we declare something, we make it clear. When God sent His son to us, in the flesh, He wanted to make Himself clear to us how deep His love is for us. In fact, so deep is God's love for us that it is beyond our ability to comprehend. Consider Ephesians 3:16-19 where Paul prays for the Ephesians: "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge---that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (NIV).
A proclamation is an announcement.
As Christians we have an awesome responsibility to uphold to uphold the honor, glory and godliness that goes along with being called God's own. Ephesians 3:14-15 makes this clear: "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name" (NIV).
ILLUSTRATION: "Ida Nelle Holloway told the story of a lonely young lady who had been the roommate of her friend. She had always heard of the unkind things that this young lady named Helen had done. Unlike her friend Marty, Ida had perceived Helen much differently, because she perceived the young lady as a troubled person, whereas Marty considered her to be a troublemaker.
The week before the Christmas holidays, Ida's mother made lots of her Christmas fudge. Ida wrapped some of it up in small boxes to give to her friends. When she went by Marty's room Helen was the only one there. And Helen misunderstood as she thought that the gift was for her, as tears came to her eyes.
"You brought me a gift?" she asked, "how could you? Nobody ever ..." Putting her arm around Helen, she asked, "Nobody ever what Helen?"
Nobody in my whole life ever liked the way that I am. So I decided if nobody was going to like me, I would make them remember me by doing means things." After that Helen went into the bathroom and locked the door. And she remained quiet for a long time, until finally she thanked Ida for the present and asked her to go away.
The tragedy about Helen was that her parents were both dead and her older brother and sister did not want her around. ..." [Let me interject, there was no room for her in the lives of those who could have made a difference, much like there was no room for Jesus in the Inn (Luke 2:7). And Jesus said that whatever we have done to the least of these, is the same as if we had done it unto to Him (Matthew 25:40,45). Helen certainly qualified as one of the least of these.] After the holidays, Helen did not return and neither Marty nor Ida was surprised since Helen had been failing her classes. But Unfortunately, the word came to both Marty and Ida that Helen had committed suicide." (Ida Nelle Holloway. Loneliness: The Untapped Resource. Nashville: The Braodman Press, 1982, pp. 23-24).
Our proclamation by way of announcement is therefore an awesome responsibility. Consider Luke 2:10, 14 that tells us about the good news of Christ's coming and also the peace on earth and among men good will (KJV). This means that we are not just people who have good news, but people who apply the good news to make for man's highest good which is what peace is about. The Hebrew word "Shaloam" means what makes for man's highest good. Therefore, the way we live at peace with one another or fail to do so either helps or hinders the announcement we make about the good news of His coming and the joy it accompanies.
CHRISTMAS IS A DEMONSTRATION
God demonstrates His love for us through His Son, who is with us and for us as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Consider Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us" (NIV). It is God's demonstration of how Jesus, His only begotten Son came to reconcile us to God and also to each other.
As forgiven and reconciled people, we have a responsibility to maintain and reaffirm our love for each other (Keiningham p. 47). If we do anything that is hurtful to someone, and do it knowingly, then we are not reaffirming our love for each other. Instead, what we are practicing is selfish ambition (Philipians 2:3). The Bible tells us that we should live this way: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consdier others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philipians 2:3-4 NIV). We do this by remembering that without Christ, there ain't no such thing as Christmas!
At the time Christ was born, there was in the world at that time the expectation of a king to come. At about the same time of His birth, some hailed Augustus, the Roman Emporer as the Savior of the world. "When Jesus Christ came the world was in an eagerness of expectation. Men were waiting for God and the desire of God was in their hearts" (paraphrased and quoted. William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel Of Matthew. Volume 1. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975, p. 27). There is still an eager expectation and desire for God today. But, at the same time, there is within the world at least three reasons why people cannot or will not make room for Jesus. First, some people do not make room Him, because they are not expecting Him while at the same time they hunger for the kind of peace that He gives. Yet, they look for it elsewhwere. Secondly, people may shut the door in the face of Jesus, because they do not recognize the guise in which He came and is coming. Finally, there are those who shut the door in the face of Jesus simply because they cannot have fellowship with Jesus on their own terms. (Clovis G. Chappell. Chappell's Special Day Sermons. Nashville: Anbigdon Press, 1936, pp. 196-200). Again, there ain't no such thing as Christmas without Christ! He is truly the reason for the season.
