I openly confess that I am a humbug. Indeed, I dread this time of year. I am afraid that Bible College finished off this holiday for me. Once I was told about the paganism, the date, the Mass and such it pretty much turned me off. Sadly, the truth about Christmas is that there is very little truth in the practice past the quoting of Luke 2. After that, you add to the previous stuff the craziness of the materialism and the secularization with Santa Claus and the politically correct "Happy Holidays" nonsense it becomes more a tragedy rather than a true holy day. The following poem pretty much describes the current truth about Christmas.
Twas the night before Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the town
not a sign of Baby Jesus
was anywhere to be found.
The people were all busy
with Christmas time chores
like decorating, and baking,
and shopping in stores.
No one sang "Away in a manger,
no crib for a bed".
Instead, they sang of Santa
dressed-up in bright red..
Mama watched Martha Stewart,
Papa drank beer from a tap.
As hour upon hour
the presents they’d wrap.
Then what from the TV
did they suddenly hear?
’Cept an ad, which told
of a big sale at Sears.
So away to the mall
they all flew like a flash...
Buying things on credit...
and others with cash!
And, as they made their way home
from their trip to the mall,
did they think about Jesus?
Oh, no... not at all.
Their lives were so busy
with their Christmas time things
No time to remember
Christ Jesus, the King.
There were presents to wrap
and cookies to bake.
How could they stop and remember
who died for their sake?
To pray to the Savior...
they had no time to stop.
Because they needed more time to
"Shop till they dropped!"
On Wal-mart! On K-mart!
On Target! On Penney’s!
On Hallmark! On Zales!
A quick lunch at Denny’s
From the big stores downtown
to the stores at the mall
They would dash away, dash away,
and visit them all!
And up on the roof,
there arose such a clatter
As grandpa hung icicle lights
up on his brand new stepladder.
He hung lights that would flash.
He hung lights that would twirl.
Yet, he never once prayed to Jesus...
Light of the World.
Christ’s eyes... how they twinkle!
Christ’s Spirit... how merry!
Christ’s love... how enormous!
All our burdens... He’ll carry!
So instead of being busy,
overworked, and uptight
Let’s put Christ back in Christmas,
and enjoy some good nights!
"author unknown"
A cartoon in the paper was pretty much to the point as well. The mother is yelling at the daughter for making an online purchase with the mother’s credit card. The daughter had bought a doll for her mother. She explained that since that was the doll that the mother had always wanted and now she finally had it maybe Mom would find her Christmas spirit. Mom replies, "Yeah, the true meaning of Christmas…buying things with money that we don’t have. Thanks for reminding me."
Sadly, for most Christians that is the bulk of Christmas spirit as well, buying stuff and stuffing themselves with a dab of church and Jesus thrown in. Heck of a concept. It is supposedly His birthday and yet many Christians cut back on their giving to the Church in order to buy Christmas presents for others. How about we send a gift in the name of a loved one to a missionary or to the Rescue Mission or something and use money other than the tithe? If the kids get one less X-Box© or Sega© product it will not kill them. You know, generic jeans often last longer than brand names and the fads last even less. Does Aunt Hilda really need a Super Deluxe combination vegetable and paper shredder? Most of the stuff we buy folks gets exchanged the day after Christmas or put in a drawer or in the next garage sale pile. How about we finally get sensible?
Is it not interesting that while the birth of Christ is really tremendous, we are not instructed by Him or the Apostles to remember it in any special way? We are told to remember only His death via the Lord’s Supper and that also teaches us to look forward to His coming. He doesn’t even call for a day to do it or even a frequency, but "as oft as you do it." We set up a day and messed that all up as well. We have a fairly accurate date for the Resurrection and we went and tied that to the new moon. We should have stuck with the Passover dates. Do you think He might have had a clue that we would get so wrapped up in stuff that we would forget the purpose so He didn’t set up a day intentionally? Do you think He might have just had a real sense of how men do things? I believe so.
Note that after the announcement of His birth to the shepherds, no one seemed to notice until the wise men showed up two years later. (Yes, you can take them out of your nativity display unless you have a two-part diorama showing Jesus at two years old in a house as well. We Baptists love truth but yet we do not portray the facts in our Christmas traditions.) You would have thought that there would have been a follow up by the shepherds or other folks that might have heard about it. We see none. In fact, it is a lot like our traditions. People get all excited for the time period and then don’t talk about Him or darken a church door until Easter. They forget. The fun and awe is over back to life as usual.
The only reason His second birthday was significantly noticed was because of the wise men and that only made Herod want to kill Him. The priests were not concerned even after they were able to give the wise men directions. You would have thought at least one of them would have been curious. Wouldn’t you want to go see whom this was that these men had traveled so far to worship Him as a king? There hearts were too hard and eyes to blind to even care if it were true. Too many people today can quote the story of His birth too well, but have no real concern of what that means to their own lives.
When He turned twelve, He was in the temple like any other lad of His time and no one took great notice of Him until He made the ThDs stutter and stammer trying to figure out how He knew so much. None of them even had a clue and maybe only once and awhile remembered the precocious young man whose understanding of the Word should have made them search and study the promises of the Messiah. No, they were impressed but quickly forgot Him. Many are impressed with His life today, but have no real interest in learning more about Him.
You see the birth of Christ while extremely wonderful and miraculous was only a necessary step in the path of His mission and what we need to focus on is the end of that mission. The Incarnation is just awesome and above words to be accurately described. The Virgin Birth is also a marvelous miracle and gift of God. Yet, all of this is just preparatory for the real gift and miracle.
Folks will hear so many messages on Isaiah 9 and Matt 1 and Luke 2 that they will burn out on them to the point that it is the only time of the year those passages can be taught because they have been chained or relegated to Christmas messages. I am going to be different, which since I am called Maverick, what a shock and surprise that is.
Rev 1:4-8
4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
I include this verse as a reference for clarity. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John is writing to the churches and giving not only his own blessing, but the Lord’s as well.
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Here we see the purpose of the Incarnation and what we should be focusing on during any time of meditation or celebration of that miracle. He was incarnated to be crucified then crucified to be risen to become the first begotten of the dead to become the prince of the kings that He might show His love for us and to cleanse us of our sins in His own blood. Can I get a Glory here?
John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. (KJV)
Romans 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. (KJV)
Even the glorious substitutionary death of Christ on the Cross and the wonder of the Resurrection were steps towards His end or mission. Indeed, they were the acts that, in human terms, assured Him His coronation (and our salvation) in that they were linked together so closely. The end is what we need to concentrate on and act in accordance with that.
"Rejoice the Lord Is King" was written by Charles Wesley based upon Philippians 4:4 but it fits so well during this time that we want to meditate on His birth. We tend to look at the pieces and not the whole puzzle. A Virgin Incarnation plus a Substitutionary Atonement proven acceptable by the Resurrection results in the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" as is so wonderfully put to music by Handel. And what is the result of this coronation?
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
We have been brought into an eternal kingdom and granted positions way beyond our own personal honor or virtue. Taking the poorest person in the England and having him adopted into the immediate royal family does not come close to comparison, but it is the best our feeble human experience and language can provide.
Do we yield to the King as we should or do what we like as Americans that have our rights? Do we exercise ourselves in a way that speaks of royalty thus properly representing the family name and title? This is what we should be meditating on every day, but certainly when studying the birth of Christ.
7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
This is what we should be rejoicing over not just that He was born miraculously. He could have been born in this way, done many miracles and then just returned to Heaven and we would all still be dead in our sins and in deep trouble when we stood before Him. Like a threefold cord that is not easily broken we need to rejoice in the full set of events and the end result of those events.
Yet, in our rejoicing we must also do some solemn reflection. The passage says that not everyone will rejoice when He comes.
1 Cor 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. (KJV)
A great many of them will be in that condition because the Church, which is we were too busy building our temporal kingdom here instead of increasing the eternal kingdom. We bought into the materialistic bent of our age and have not battled the lies of evolution and the very foundation of our country is crumbling around us and we have no clue why. We have been asleep in a glut of careers and possessions while the devil was working overtime. Now we see the Hell around us and cry out to God. Indeed the only thing we were royally good at was messing up royally.
There is still time to turn this around, but we need to go to the house of mourning rather than the house of laughter to gain some wisdom. (Ecc 7:2,4) We have been fools too long. To each of the seven churches, the Lord said "He that hath an ear, let him hear…"
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (KJV)
I offer this verse up to you as an encouragement and a word of hope. Nothing takes the Lord by surprise. He is the beginning and the ending and while it is not stated it is implied that He is everything else in between as well. He can give us back the years that the locusts and worms have eaten. (Joel 2:25) We can still see a harvest of souls because He was the Lord of the harvest in the past and He is the Lord of the final harvest therefore He will be the Lord of a present harvest if we will but live up to our position and seek Him as the Almighty.
If you are not saved today, you can sing all the carols you want and be the most generous giver in the world and this time of meditation on Christ’s birth will do nothing for you unless you become related to the King. God created Adam and Eve and they sinned and death entered into the world. Because of them we all have the sin nature and we have all willfully sinned against God. Our sin calls for us to suffer the death penalty. Jesus died for your sins on a Cross so you would not have to pay that penalty. Confess to Him that you are a sinner and ask Him to come into your life and save you and change you. Once you are a child of the king then you can join us and say, Rejoice the Lord is King! Maranatha!!!!
