CHRIST OR CULTURE
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Pastor Brian Matherlee
The Bible tells us to be prepared to give a defense in all things so I searched for some Scriptures that could help in some touch situations you might encounter over the next several weeks:
When your wife asks you to help with the decorations
—John 2:4, “Dear woman, why do you involve me?”
When people ask why you haven’t given them anything
--Matthew 6:32, “The pagans run after all these things.”
—I Corinthians 14:1 “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts.”
Children, when your parents tell you to wash your hands, Matthew 15:20, maybe I shouldn’t use this one.
When you don’t like something that is served
—Job 6:7, “I refuse to touch it, such food makes me ill.”
When you want the last piece of dessert that someone else has taken
—Luke 3:11, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”
Ladies, when all the men are sitting around doing nothing but watching football
--Proverbs 6:9, “How long will you lie there, you sluggard?”
And finally, for those guests who don’t seem to know when it is time to go
--1 Samuel 29:10, “Now get up early, along with your master’s servants who have come with you, and leave in the morning as soon as it is light.”
During this season of celebrating gratitude for the blessings of God culminating with celebrating the greatest gift from God we should recognize that there are really two kinds of celebrations going on. There must be. Do Christians celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas different from those who don’t follow Christ? Should we?
Think about how we decorate. We put up trees and lights in and out of the house. Santa comes down the chimney and the nativity scene sits on the mantle. It is an interesting dichotomy. Christmas Eve we read, “The Night Before Christmas” and the Birth narratives from the Gospels. We sing Joy to the World at church and crank up, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” on the car stereo.
James Fallow, until recently the Far Eastern correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, reports that Americans have exported this confusion of symbols. In one large Japanese department store he came across a display featuring Santa Claus holding the infant Jesus, behind a sleigh pulled by the seven dwarfs. (From Mohler is Associate Editor of Preaching, Vol. 7, #3)
There is, at times, an uneasy mixture of the sacred and the secular in our observance of Christmas…not to be confused with Xmas.
My hope today is not to pull down Christmas trees, ornaments & do away with gift exchanges. I want us to see the importance of exalting Christ in our homes during this blessed time of year. In exalting Christ we resist the leavening influence of cultural traditions upon Christian truth.
Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends upon human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”
1. Somebody is out to get you!
a. It should be clear that our enemy is Satan
i. “Your enemy, the devil”, said Peter.
ii. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood”, said Paul.
iii. Peter also wrote to us that Satan was like a roaring lion, prowling around seeking someone to devour.
iv. He isn’t trying to slow us down or trip us up a bit. He is all about absolutely trying to destroy!
b. He is after you, your children, your grandchildren & everyone you love.
c. Only two ways of attack
i. Might-this is what happened in the first Gulf War. General Colin Powell described the plan this way. First we will cut them off, and then we will kill ‘em. “Shock and awe” has been used to describe this kind of plan. It is the full on assault to beat us down by life’s circumstances. But Satan rarely works this way.
ii. Deception-this is the number one tool of the devil. Eve told God in Eden, “the serpent deceived me.” ( Genesis 3:13) And Satan has been sneaking around ever since. Jesus told us in John 8:8, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
2. Beware the power of human traditions
a. George Barna states, “My research has shown that people – especially young people – absorb an amazing degree of their values, beliefs and lifestyle practices from the media content to which they are exposed. Most of that media is based on worldviews that do not honor God.” (George Barna, July 10, 2006)
b. Galatians 4:3, “So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of this world.”
c. Human traditions center upon these basic things:
i. Our happiness
ii. Our gain
iii. Our comfort
d. Godly traditions center upon these basic things:
i. Connection with our Creator
ii. Connection with God’s people
iii. Testimony to those without hope
e. It is imperative that the observance of Christmas in our homes be centered primarily on the birth of Christ. How can we do this?
i. Don’t crave to fit in-- Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”—A majority of the activity during this time of year is clearly the antithesis of what Jesus taught. We are to be uncomfortable in the pattern of the world. It shouldn’t fit us so well.
ii. De-emphasize gift giving—it is Jesus birthday, but we get all the presents! When you do give gifts, explain the value of the gifts Jesus received from the Magi. The gifts they gave financed the escape of Jesus and his family to Egypt.
iii. Tell and re-tell the story through the Gospel narratives and prophecies that foretold the birth.
iv. Bring music back into the home. Is church the only place we should sing about Jesus’ birth? Play CDs and if you can play an instrument, sing.
v. Send Christmas greeting cards that point to Jesus. I don’t even read cards that say “Happy Holidays”. I shake the money out of them and then throw them away.
3. We don’t resist only for our own
a. John 1:9-11, “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
b. Just as the Jews didn’t receive Jesus in their day, many Christians ignore Jesus today. Their witness to the saving, transforming power of God in their life has become anemic at best and impotent through hypocrisy at its worst.
c. A rather pompous-looking deacon was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. "Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked. After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it’s because they don’t know you." (sermoncentral.com)
d. Christianity must mean everything to us before it can mean anything to others. (Donald Soper)
e. Since 1991, the adult population in the United States has grown by 15%. During that same period the number of adults who do not attend church has nearly doubled, rising from 39 million to 75 million – a 92% increase! The latest study shows that the percentage of adults that is unchurched – defined as not having attended a Christian church service, other than for a holiday service, such as Christmas or Easter, or for special events such as a wedding or funeral, at any time in the past six months – has risen from 21% in 1991 to 34% today.
Barna noted that to unchurched people embracing church life is “both counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. (George Barna, May, 2004)
f. We must live in such a way that people see the difference and are attracted to the hope we have in Christ more than the attraction of the hollow and deceptive ways of the world.
Conclusion
Consider carefully how you will observe the season of celebrating Christ’s birth. Don’t be lulled into thinking Jesus can’t possibly be lost in all the shuffle of gifts, wrapping paper, and decorations. Will you decide to forgo anything that doesn’t point to Jesus? Will you endeavor to forge new traditions that will tell and re-tell your family how God became one of us that we might have hope?
