The Reason For The Season

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• Why do we take time to celebrate the Christmas holiday? Why does a nation of people take time out of their busy schedules to celebrate this national holiday? Are you all busy?

• How much time have you taken out of your busy schedule to decorate (how much have you taken out of your budget), to buy presents and open and send Christmas cards?

• Sometimes in the hype of a holiday, we tend to forget the real reason for the holiday that we are celebrating.

• I see this during the Easter season; many people think that Easter is all about a big bunny that comes to the house to give us candy. Who thought that up? The dentist?

• The Forth of July and Memorial Day get reduced to another day off of work.

• If you ask people what the reason for the season is, you will get many different answers, they will range from; “it is a special time for the kids”; to “it is a time to give and receive gifts”; to “it is a time for family” to “Jesus”.

• I know why we say these things. With all the commercialization and hype around Christmas we lose sight of Christ.

• Christians should understand that Jesus is the reason for the season; however, there are elements in our society who are seeking to remove Jesus from the Christmas equation.

• When we say that Jesus is the reason for the season, what mean?

• Is Jesus being the reason for the season simply that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, or is there more to the story?

• Today I want to briefly examine a few of the statements Jesus made in the Gospels to see if we can uncover how Jesus defines His reason for coming.

• The first reason for the season we will uncover together is found in Matthew 5:17.

• SLIDE #2

• Matthew 5:17 (HCSB) “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. Jesus was born to fulfill the Law.

• Why did Jesus have to come to fulfill the Law? Why would the Law need to be fulfilled? The purpose of the Law was to lead a person to Christ. It was designed to let a person know that they could not get to heaven on his or her own.

• The Law was never meant to be a permanent fixture hanging over the heads of the people.

• SLIDE #4

• Galatians 3:24 (HCSB) The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.

• Jesus was the focus of the Law; the Law was to be fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

• This is important because without Jesus fulfilling the Law, there would be no salvation by grace. Without the blood of Jesus, there would be no true forgiveness of sins.

• The Law was never meant to be a permanent fixture hanging over the heads of the people.

• SLIDE #5

• Hebrews 10:1–4 (HCSB) 1 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 2 Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

• Today some people find their righteousness in keeping the Ten Commandments; however, this is a tough way to go since this means of deriving one’s righteousness would require perfection.

• SLIDE #6

• Galatians 3:10 (HCSB) For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written: Everyone who does not continue doing everything written in the book of the law is cursed.

• In our passage from Matthew, it is apparent that part of the reason Jesus came was so that we can be freed from the curse of the Law, that curse was having to be perfect!

• Let’s turn to Luke 12:51-53 to examine another statement Jesus made concerning the reason He was born.

• SLIDE #7

• Luke 12:51–53 (HCSB) — 51 Do you think that I came here to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on, five in one household will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”