MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2014)
Why does Christmas seem to be so much more important than all the other holidays of the year? Why is so much attention given to Christmas?
Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July are important holidays, but put them all together & they don't begin to make the impact that Christmas does.
What is so very special about Christmas? What is it about Christmas that seems to bring about such a transformation in our communities, our homes, & even in the lives of so many people?
Then again, what do you think about when you think of Christmas? What words pop into your mind? Home? Family? Gifts? Crowds? Jesus? Food? Santa Claus? All of these, & more, I imagine!
This morning as we look at the beautiful & familiar passages of the Christmas story as recorded by both Matthew & Luke, I want to suggest three more words for us to think about.
I. PURITY
The first one is the word "purity." Listen carefully to what Matthew says in Matthew 1:18 25. "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
“Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man & did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream & said,
‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, & you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.’
"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child & will give birth to a son, & they will call Him Immanuel’ which means, ‘God with us.’
"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him & took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave Him the name Jesus."
A. Notice Joseph. He is called a righteous man, one who is all right with God. Out of his mouth comes words of truth & integrity. Here is Joseph, the epitome of what men ought to be, an example for us all.
ILL. Now contrast Joseph to some of the celebrities that are so well known today movie stars, sport stars, & some politicians. They are everything that Joseph is not, & Joseph is everything that they are not. Many of today’s celebrities seem willing to do anything to get what they want.
Somehow, it seems that our world teaches that to enjoy life we must be more like them than like Joseph. But Christmas comes to say that it is all right to be pure & that there is joy in being righteous.
Do you suppose that Joseph & Mary were in love with each other when they were teen agers? We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t say. But if they were, can you imagine them dreaming dreams of sharing their lives with each other & growing old together & experiencing all the joys that would come their way?
Then one day Joseph heard that Mary was expecting a child. All of his dreams came crashing down. He knew that it wasn't his child, so the only logical conclusion was that Mary had betrayed his love & given herself to another.
Yet, despite that, Joseph's righteous character shines out because he was not willing for Mary to be disgraced publicly. In those days whenever you were engaged it took an act of divorce to dissolve the engagement, & he decided to divorce her privately & not to embarrass her. He really cared about her!
But after the angel revealed to him that which was in her womb was of the Holy Spirit then Joseph did what the angel said, & took her to be his wife & cared for her.
In Matthew 1:23 Matthew quotes the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The virgin will be with child & will give birth to a son." Then in vs. 25 Matthew adds that "Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son."
B. When you think of Mary you think of purity. Here is Mary, probably a teen ager among many other teenage girls. There must have been many temptations.
But when the angel comes & tells her that she is going to be the mother of the Son of the Most High, she asks, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" Somehow there was a quality of purity in her life that would not allow her to defile herself.
ILL. Now, who can we think of as a contrast to Mary? How about Lady GaGa or Miley Cyrus? Think of Mary, & then think of them. They are worlds apart as different as they can be.
Mary & Joseph shine like bright stars every December, proclaiming, "It is all right to be pure & decent." I think that deep inside of us there is a great longing to be like that. I think God created us to be pure, & that the world is trying to sell us a lie.
Somehow being good has been painted as being boring, & being bad has been painted as wonderful & exciting. And the world has said that it is only when you are naughty that you are really going to have a good time.
ILL. There is a little ditty that goes, "Will someone give me advice on how to be naughty & still be nice?"
So some partake of forbidden fruits, & never find that life at its best comes only through the quality of purity.
But I suggest that if you will read the stories of Christmas all over again you will discover that the two people who are having the happiest time of all are Mary & Joseph & they are absolutely pure.
II. JOY
A. The 2nd word that comes to mind is the word "joy." After Mary had listened to the angel & asked her questions about how she could possibly be expecting a child, the angel responds in Luke 1:37 by saying, "Nothing is impossible with God." Then the angel leaves.
For just a moment, can you put yourself in Mary's place? She is all alone. The angel has just told her that she will bear a child & his name will be Jesus. She isn't married. Then the angel is gone & she is all alone.
On the one hand there is the joy of the angel's announcement. But on the other hand there would be all the gossip & rejection that surely would come her way. Who would believe her? Would Joseph? Would her parents? Where could she go?
Finally, she thought of kinswoman Elizabeth who was also expecting a child & that child was also the result of a miracle. Luke 1:39 says that Mary got ready & hurried down to the town in the hill country of Judah. That trip probably took several days.
As she travels along, she thinks about the angel's announcement, & the child inside of her & the glory of it all, yet wondering how Elizabeth would react. How would Elizabeth receive the news? Would she believe?
B. Listen to the amazing words of Luke 1:41, as Mary entered Elizabeth's home, "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb & Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
“In a loud voice she exclaimed, 'Blessed are you among women & blessed is the child you will bear. Why am I so favored that the mother of the Lord should visit me?'"
What a greeting! What a confirmation of the angel's announcement! And in Luke 1:46-55 Mary just opens her heart & praises God for His great love. Here is joy that can't be contained anymore.
C. There is a wonderful little passage of Scripture in Malachi the 4th chapter. It is on the last page of the O.T. Malachi is talking about the day of the Lord.
In the last part of verse 2 he says, "You will go out & skip about like calves released from the stall."
ILL. You who are farmers know what that is talking about, don't you? One man recalls, "I can remember calves being born in the cold of winter & how Grandpa would take care of them & make sure they had plenty of straw.
“Mother made sure that they were warm & had plenty to eat. Throughout the cold days of winter they were always in the barn because it was too cold outside.
He says, "I can remember when the first warm day of spring came & Grandpa opened the barn door & turned the calves out to pasture. When they got outside you could see them running & skipping & clicking their heels together & raising their noses & snorting because they were breathing fresh air for the first time.
“They were so overjoyed they could not contain their joy."
Malachi prophesies that when we understand what Christmas is all about there will be so much joy in our hearts that we can't keep quiet about it.
Here is Mary, pure as she is, with a joy that simply cannot be kept inside anymore.
III. WARMTH
A. The final word is "warmth" the warmth of God's love.
ILL. Do you remember seeing the beautiful Christmas card picturing the hills outside Bethlehem wrapped in a mantle of snow? The winter wind is blowing, & shepherds are huddled in their blankets trying to keep warm.
But nearby, in Bethlehem, there is a brightly lit stable & a manger containing a little baby radiating all the warmth & light of God's love.
I know that it rarely snows in Bethlehem, & that it probably wasn't even a cold night. But somehow that picture says that in this cold dark world there is a place where God's love is always warm & always available. Shepherds can come there. Rich people can come. Poor people can come.
Happy people & lonely people & depressed people can all come there because Christmas is a time when God expresses His love through a family. He takes Mary & Joseph & Jesus & says, "Here is what life is all about. We are a family, & you can become a part of that family."
ILL. There was a rather sad letter printed in a newspaper a few years ago, written by a man telling how empty Christmas was for him. He was divorced, his children grown & his family scattered.
His conclusion was that Christmas is only for people who have perfect families who never experience divorce who always have plenty of love. Christmas is only good when children are young & enjoy opening gifts. Christmas no longer had any meaning to him.
If only someone could have told him, "That's not true. You don't have to have a perfect family to enjoy Christmas.”
That is just one reason why Christmas is so important. You see, Jesus came because some of us hurt. Jesus came because sometimes we're old & depressed & life isn't all it's cracked up to be."
That's why Jesus came. If Christmas is just Christmas trees & ornaments & cards & presents then maybe it will be empty & have no meaning for you.
B. But the warm light that comes from the manger is for everybody. Our emotions are enhanced at Christmas time. If we love, we love more. If we hate, we may hate more. If we are depressed, we are often more depressed. If we are lonely, we are often more lonely.
But God comes through Jesus to say that no matter how you feel or how you hurt, Jesus can take care of it. And that is why Christmas is so special.
That is why Christmas gets more attention than any other holiday. That is why the world stops every December because Christmas says it is all right to be good. It is all right to be pure. In fact, it is only when you are that you really experience the joy that you just can't keep inside.
At Christmas time God calls us together to make us a family again. A family filled with the warmth of His love.
That is why invitation time is so special because God calls us from the circumstances of life, regardless of what they might be, & invites us into the warmth of His love. It's there for you.
ILL. I received a beautiful Christmas poem written by my cousin that she titled, "When Chances Come Again." Listen to its words:
If you had been a lowly shepherd who heard the angels sing,
Would you have left your sheep alone to find the baby King?
If you had been the innkeeper pressed & hurried since the dawn,
Would you have done the best you could, or told them to move on?
If you had been a wise man due respect & courtly graces,
Would you have left it all behind to search in unknown places?
We cannot know what we'd have done if we had been there then.
We only know what we do now when chances come again.
(Willo Lou Clark 1989)
