The Right Christmas

What does Christmas mean to you?

To some people it means hard work – The stores are crowded with shoppers; the Post Office is overflowing with mails and the trains and buses and airplanes are carrying record crowds. To some people Christmas means a visit home. Surely this is the best time of all the year to be with loved ones. To some people Christmas means a sad memory. They look back over the year and think of the loved one who has left them since the last Christmas. To some people Christmas means revelry. They talk about Christmas liquor; they connect whisky with the blessed Name of the Saviour. But to millions of people, Christmas means nothing. They do not know Jesus. December 25 for them is just another day.

But Christmas means everything to the real Christian. It means that God loves him with all His heart. It means that God has regarded his lost condition and has done something about it. It means that God has given him the best Christmas Gift that even God could give. It means that his Saviour is born – born to set an example with His life – born to die for his sins, - born to be raised for his justification; - born to ascend on high and make intercession for him; - born to give him the hope of His coming again to gather all believers unto Himself. Christmas means that he has a Companion for life – a Friend in the hour of death, - a loving Brother for eternity. Yes, Christmas means everything for the Christian.

Now, if we are to have a right Christmas, certain things must be placed in that Christmas. Let us follow the Gospel Story and see what a Right Christmas includes:

1. A Right Christmas Includes Making Room For Jesus

When Mary and Joseph came to the inn, the inn-keeper said: “We have no room for you”. Oh, he was the man who missed Christmas and all of its meaning! He had many guests in his hotel, but they were soon gone and forgotten. If he had allowed Jesus to be born there, this would have changed his hotel and his whole life. So today, if you say, “I have no room for Jesus”, if your heart and life are filled with other things, you miss everything good. Wouldn’t it be a good thing this Christmas for you to throw out all else and make room for Christ?

The Captain of a ship that goes out on whale hunting went to Church one Sunday. The preacher talked to him later after the service and learned that the sermon had made absolutely no impression on him. “To tell the truth, sir, replied the Captain, all the time that you were talking I was thinking about where I could likely find my next whale. I have no room in my heart for anything else but whales!” Is this true of you? Is your heart so full of other things that there is no room in it for Jesus?

As you travel around in this city you see the sign “No Vacancy” on the front of many offices. Some of you have hung out the same signs so far as Jesus is concerned. You have said to Him, “There is no room here for You. My heart is all filled up. Go away!” No room for Jesus! That is like an engine saying that it has no room for the oil – like a tree saying that it has no room for the sap; like the heavens saying that they have no room for the stars; like the garden saying that it has no room for the flowers. You are simply not living if you haven’t let Jesus come into your heart.

2. A Right Christmas Includes Worship.

When Jesus was born a wonderful miracle of nature took place. The heavens opened up and an angel came down to speak to a group of shepherds on a Judean hill. “Unto you is born this day, in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. You will find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger”. The shepherds went to town, found the baby and worshiped Him. If you are to have a right Christmas, you must come and worship Him also.

Has worship any place in your life? It is a lost art with many Christians. They do not have time to stop and look up into God’s face and worship Him. They never enter God’s house; they say they can worship God anywhere, but they never worship Him. The Idol-worshipers look up to their gods and worship them. The dog worships as it gazes into the master’s face. The lover worships his sweetheart and the baby worships the mother. How much more should God’s children, saved and blessed in a million ways, lift their hearts to God in praise.