I was at el aztek cafe and the waitress there told me a story that illustrates why we need to tell the story at Christmas time
Her little grandson whom she is quite convinced is the most beautiful little boy in all the world was told 5 or 6 months that mommy and daddy would be having another baby soon.
This little 4-year-old boy went ballistic and told his parents I was praying for another baby! Im still gonna pray all the time until the baby is here.
Just last week grand ma asked him what do you think the baby is going to be a boy or a girl. He chimed up and said oh it will be a boy! He said with confidence Im gonna have a little brother.
The little boys mommy said we’ll since your praying about all this you need to ask God because its up to him if its a girl or a boy.
The little boy said “DANG” and hitting his forehead he said I forgot al about him Iv been praying to Santa Claus
IT’S REAL EASY TO LEAVE JESUS OUT OF CHRISTMAS
SO IT IS SO IMPORTANT THT WE CONTINUE TO TELL THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS
Every year at Christmas and at Easter time we preachers tend to fell the pressure to keep from preaching an IV HEARD IT ALL BEFORE sermon. Sometimes we feel a little like Bullwinckle say “HEY ROCKY WATCH ME PULL A RABBIT OUT FROM OUT OF MY HAT”.
BECAUSE you want it to be fresh and new, you want to add to people’s arsenal and give them something they haven’t had before but my experience at El Aztec shows the importance of telling the story again and again.
I remember the words to this old hymn:
"I love to tell the Story, for those who know it best Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest."
The Christmas story is timeless. Tell it. Preach the miracle of the Incarnation. Tell it simple and straightforward, and trust the Holy Spirit to keep it fresh and alive and meaningful to the people we preach it to
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF CHRISTMAS?
Santa clause, childhood memories, candy canes, Christmas tress lots of presents, lights on the houses, the nativity scenes, the shopping, The Christmas movie season, cold weather, Big family dinners....
WHAT DO I THINK OF WHEN I THINK OF CHRISTMAS
One of the things that blows us away and tends to impress everybody at one time or another in their life is when somebody reaches beyond themselves and does something completely out of their character in order to do something for someone else.
When the warrior makes peace, When the man of peace stands firm, When the wealthy give, When the poor give more, When those who have great power refrain from force, When those who are oppressed speak boldly, When the person of great strength is kind, When the person of great kindness shows strength, When the one who has hurt another apologizes, When the one who is injured forgives, When the great speaker listens, When the quiet listener speaks,
When God become human, When a man dies to give life.
its no wonder are impressed with Christmas
The whole world pagan and Christian recognizes the birth of Christ in some way or another.
The calendar itself is split down the middle and how we measure time is marked as before and after the birth of Christ. Christmas
WHY IS IT A BIG DEAL ?
IT IS WHEN GOD MAD HIMSELF HUMAN
HOW DO WE KNOW THEN THAT JESUS WAS GOD MADE TO BE HUMAN
Ultimately we know he was God because he was bigger than death and he slapped it in the face. If you were to ask me how do we know that he really was resurrected then I would say that’s a good sermon for Easter.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THIS BABY WAS GOD IN THE FORM OF MAN?
HEBREWS 11:3 THORUGH FAITH WE UNDERSTAND
When you are asked to believe you are not asked to check your brain at the door.
You are asked to trust and when you do trust, God gives you understanding of what you believe.
YOU ARE NEVER ASKED TO CHECK YOUR BRAIN AT DOOR
You are asked to check your Pride, you are asked to check your dignity
You are asked to check your own prejudices and preconceived ideas at the door
and that’s what the world is not able to do
Jesus did not come into existence 200o yrs ago he simply was born in the flesh 2000 yrs ago. He’s always been around
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In John 8 Jesus told the Pharisees that he was there before Abraham
And indeed he was, you can see him all throughout the Old Testament
* You see him walking in the fire with Shadrach meshack and abindago in Daniel chapter 3
Nebukhanezzer said look it’s the Son of God
* You see him announcing the birth of Samson in Judges chapter 13
This mystery man called himself “I am, said his name was wonderful and ascended into heaven off of a burning alter
* You see him wrestling with Jacob in gen 32
After he blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel, Jacob called the name of the place peniel which means the face of God because he said “I have seen God face to face and lived!”
its just like that in your life! There is a day where you really meet Jesus and after that you begin to realize he has always been with you even when you didn’t know him.
That’s why in Matthew 28, Jesus said behold, I am with you always. Always doesn’t just mean the present and the future but if you are able to grasp it also means the past. He’ll always be with you he always is with you and hes always been with you
So the birth of Jesus doesn’t mark the beginning of Jesus, it marks the beginning of the promise fulfilled in Jesus
The Promise fulfilled
For 4000 yrs God promised he would send a messiah
A deliverer, a fixer of the problem, a savior
a rescuer an emancipator a ransom
And as the centuries rolled by and men began to see how pitifully far from God we are it also became apparent that this kind of person had never existed. Because what was needed was a God, that was a man. A compassionate destroyer that had all power was above all and yet humble and willing to lay down everything.
So when men would study and see what it would take in order for us to be saved then they would inevitably come to the conclusion that it was impossible.
Yet God kept promising. He wrote it in the heavens, (PS19) he whispered it in the wind he penned it in his book he shouted it thorough his prophets and he didn’t care how impossible it was.
He just said I promise
In fact the more the more he promised and the more that was written and revealed about him the more confusing it would be to be to people and the greater the impossibility became.
How could he be king ruler over everything yet hated and tortured
How could he be of the tribe of Judah, yet be a high priest when only the Levite could be priests
How could a virgin give birth to a baby
How could God be put to death?
One prophecy said he would be born in Bethlehem
Another prophecy said he would be called a Nazarene
Yet another prophecy said he would be brought out of Egypt
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!
Turn with me to Luke 1:37
That’s why when Gabriel, Gods arc angel showed up to announce the birth of this promise
One of the first things that he declared in
LUKE 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Because now Jesus is on the scene and any time Jesus shows up everything changes and the impossibility becomes reality!
When Jesus enters the picture, any picture, everything is radically changed!
Who can approach God, How we approach God, when we can approach God, The terms of our relation to God. Our Lifestyles...who we can associate with, what we can eat, how women are treated, How we treat our Friends, our Families and even our enemies was changed. Jesus Christ is the pivotal person in History. Even our own concept of time 2000 years after his birth, hinges on before Jesus and after Jesus birth.
Jesus changed how nations are formed and how they interact with each other. Do you know that for 4000 yrs of so-called civilization in the Egyptian, Assyrian, roman and Babylonian empires there was not one single hospital ever built? Not one single soup kitchen, not one single orphanage, not one single college or university because until the teachings of Jesus came into civilization the mental comprehension of the betterment of other people had never occurred to one single person.
We are a people that are accustomed to change. Just a few years ago in the early 19 hundreds the dept store Herods of London built the first mechanical, moving stairway called an escalator. .........
When Jesus came he exposed all the hidden agendas of everything he was in the Midst of and he reveled all things of God and of man without prejustice
In doing so he changed everything.
So what’s the big deal? God pulled something off that nobody else could pull off and he didn’t do it for his benefit but he did it for your benefit. HOW DO I KNOW THAT THIS BABY WAS GOD MADE TO BE FLESH AND HE HIMSELF CHOSE WHEN AND WHER HE WAS BORN AT.
The Plan
People do not have any control over when they are born, to whom they are born to or to
The local, national or worldwide environment that they are born in. If Jesus is the messiah, the anointed one, God made to be a man that is here to complete a perfect task, then the time and place of his appearing must show some evidence of intelligent planning.
About 350 years before Jesus was born king Phillip of Macedonia paced the corridors of his castle as his young bride, Olimpias, a princes of Epirus gave birth to his first Son. Philip named him Alexander and the world would later add the great.
In the spring of 334 BC Alexander the great took his army south and began to take over the world one little war at a time.
Now every country that Alexander conquered he hellenized. That means he caused every civilized nation to learn to read and write in Greek.
He completed his final conquest and subdued the entire known world and was himself conquered and subdued by a single mosquito. He died of malaria in the spring of 323 BC.
There was a struggle for world power and this led to the rise of Rhome. And not only did they take over all of Alexander’s territory but they discovered new lands and pillaged them as well.
Alexander was used by a god he did not know to prepare the way for the messiah.
Roman legions were everywhere. They built roads between all the countries they conquered and the Mediterranean Sea became a great roman lake for trade and transport.
Now communication was safe, fast and sure and the legions kept peace through out the empire.
By 5 BC we have the world prepared for the messiah
The whole world speaks the same language
There are good roads and mapped territories
World peace
Where the messiah would be born was strategic as well
Israel is the only natural land bridge in the world that unites 3 continents. Europe, Asia and Africa
From there the news of the gospel and the teachings of Jesus and the new and unusual message of Christianity could be taken quickly to the uttermost parts of the earth.
So what’s the big deal?
The fact that he was born proves he is God
The fact that he fulfilled the prophecy that everybody said could not be fulfilled proves that he is God
The fact of when he was born proves that he is God
The fact of where he was born proves he was God
The Fact of the Matter is that he is real and he is the Fixer of the Problem
The a deliverer, a savior, rescuer, emancipator, ransom
The Lamb that takes away the sins of the world!
Troy Brewer
www.troybrewer.org
