Sermons on christmas 2020: showing 601-615 of 20,420

Before There Was A Christmas

Contributed by Luther Sexton on Jun 13, 2018

Describes situation before Christ and after Christ

BEFORE THERE WAS A CHRISTMAS INTRODUCTION: Christmas, as we know it, is a rather modern innovation. Christ’s birthday was not celebrated until more than 300 years had gone by, years in which accurate birth records (if there were any) had been lost. The early Church remembered and celebrated ...read more

Denomination: Pentecostal

Christmas Is For Purity Series

Contributed by Scott Maze on Jun 15, 2021

Purity is to be prized by categorically every one of God’s children. The last text I read puts it in stark terms: If you don’t prize purity, then you’re not a child of God.

In a California neighborhood in 2009 one resident decorated his lawn with a depiction of Jesus shooting Santa Claus with a double-barrel shotgun. Fox News had reported that Jesus points the weapon at Santa’s dead body while Rudolph lays sprawled across the hood of a pick-up truck. The creator, Ron ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 3:5, Romans 6:17-19

Denomination: Baptist

Christmas Significa Series

Contributed by Gordon Pike on Jul 11, 2021

The real beauty and power of Christmas is how it is as mundane as it is holy, secular as it is sacred, temporal as it is eternal, physical as it is spiritual, worldly as it is heavenly … and this is by design.

Today’s scripture reading reminds me of Christmas hymns like “Angles We Have Heard on High” in which the angels “sweetly sing o’er the plans” (UMH, verse 1; p.238) or “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” … “glory to the newborn King” (UMH, verse 1; p. 240). Songs like these beautifully capture the drama ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-15

Denomination: United Methodist

The Cost Of Christmas Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 30, 2021

It cost Him the cross to be born at Christmas. He was born to die, and die He did that we might be saved. We are saved freely, for it is a gift that Jesus bought for us, but the fact is it cost Jesus everything. Grace is free to receive, but it was costly to give.

December in Peru is just as hot as July. The jungle is steaming and the insects are ferocious. Yet in that jungle setting more than 300 people from the Wycliff Bible Translators celebrate Christmas. The twinkling Christmas tree lights are not on a pine or fur tree, but on a banana or palm tree. ...read more

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Waiting For Christmas Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

We need to remember, Christmas is a celebration, not of what might be or of what we hope to see happen, it is a celebration of a sure thing that has already happened. God has come down to man to dwell with him.

In 563 BC, a son was born to a ruler in India. The local astrologers predicted he would either be a great ruler or a world renowned ascetic. His father wanted to prevent that, so he sheltered his child from all contact with suffering of any kind. The little prince was to never see life's ...read more

Scripture: Haggai 2:1-9

Christmas Secrets Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

The secret of the star is based on the fact that the more precious the gift the greater the secrecy connected with it. A precious gift is meant to be a surprise and so it is kept secret.

C.S. Lewis is one of the most read and most quoted Christian scholars of the 20th century, but he had to endure the burden of a very heavy secret in his life. He fell in love with a divorced woman and his church, the church of England, forbid marriage to one who was divorced. Joy Davidman, the ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:16-25

Christmas Expectations Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

There is no other holiday like Christmas, where expectation is so much a part of it's celebration. We look forward to Christmas, longer, and with greater anticipation, then all other holidays combined.

Henry McCushy, of the Texas Employment Commission, said they had a hard time getting men to be department store Santa Clauses, one year. The reason was, the high percentage of children who were kicking Santa in the shins for not coming through the year before. They expected Santa to live up to ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-32

Paradoxes Of Christmas Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

John says not only did the Word become flesh but He dwelt among us. He not only became one of us, He became one with us. Christmas is not only the celebration of birth but of relationship.

Little Hattie, determined to give her hero the highest image and magnify his achievements, wrote the following in her history examination-"Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12, 1809, in a log cabin which he built himself." Lincoln was indeed a great man but historians, I think, are ...read more

Scripture: John 1:1-14

The Foolishness Of Christmas Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

Let's look at the foolishness of Christmas and see just how wise it really is. The foolishness of God is very simply the foolishness of love. True love tends to be foolish for it takes risks.

A large number of life's greatest blessings start out as stupid, moronic foolishness in the eyes of many people. This was the case with Samuel Morse, a pastor's son and an artist who left his art for a new idea. He thought that a message could be sent by means of electricity. He labored ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Christmas Babies Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

Jesus is the only person in history who chose to be a baby. This tells us just how important the baby centeredness of Christmas is to Him. The message of Christmas is not that the angels came; that the shepherds came, or that the wise men came, but that the baby came.

Elenor Cicok had a three year old daughter who developed an emotional block and ceased to talk. She never said a word, not even mama when she wanted her mother. It was a terrible ordeal as she went month after month in silence. Her mother taught her about God and prayer, and read to her about ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

The Complexity Of Christmas

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

We often see the first Christmas though rose colored glasses tinted by centuries of tradition. But the plain facts are that Mary and Joseph had a very difficult time with all the events surrounding that first Christmas.

Approaching the Christmas season in 1972, Fred Putman decided to have a evening in front of a cozy fire. He used two boxes of matches, one pint of started fluid, and the Sunday addition of the New York Times, and still could not get the fireplace burning. Bent on romance by fire-light, he decided ...read more

Scripture: Luke 1:18-45

Christmas Is Contagious Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

The fastest way to get infected with the spirit of Christmas is to start praising God for what He has done for you through His Son. This sort of praise is very contagious. If you let it start coming out of your mouth, before you know it, it has infected your heart.

Celestine Sibley tells of her father saying to her mother one grayish December morning, "the lumber business is going badly. It looks like a poor Christmas this year." She cried out, "A poor Christmas-shame on you! There is no such thing as a poor Christmas! Times can be hard and ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-20

The Sights Of Christmas Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

The challenge for all of us is to go into this Christmas season determined to see in the sights of Christmas that which makes us praise God and want to be part of His light in this dark world. Let your prayer be, open my eyes Lord, I want to see Jesus.

Hal Bowser said, "the most exciting gift I've ever received was the microscope my parents gave me for Christmas when I was eleven." The first thing he did on that Christmas day was to go out in the back yard and get some water from a rain puddle. He put a drop under his microscope ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-20

Christmas Stuff Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

Jesus created all of the stuff of this material universe, and in His Incarnation He became personally involved with the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdom. His goal is to redeem all of His creation from the effects of the fall, so that even stuff is a part of the plan of salvation.

Back in October of 1948, a young pastor and his wife took on the challenge of repairing and restoring an old church. Their goal was to have it done by Christmas Eve. But just two days before Christmas a storm dumped over an inch of rain, and the roof leaked, and right in front of the church the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Christmas Trivia Series

Contributed by Glenn Pease on Apr 8, 2021

We are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, but sometimes they seem so trivial we tend to ignore them. Christmas trivia is a good example. Dr. Luke was a man of detail, and he records for us a number of things that can be called Christmas trivia.

One of the great paradoxes of Christmas is that almost everything the Bible tells us about this most sacred event, is secular in nature. It is filled with what is temporal rather than eternal; physical rather than spiritual; and world oriented rather than heaven oriented. Christmas is really a ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-14