Why Christmas Happened Series

“WHY CHRISTMAS HAPPENED”

1st In Series: “Christmas Was Not Optional”

Rev. Todd G. Leupold, Perth Bible Church, 12/13/2009 AM

INTRODUCTION:

This Christmas season I will ask us some questions that may, at first, seem silly but are in fact not asked or answered enough. You may have already noticed that our Christmas Series this year is titled “Christmas Was Not Optional.” But is this really true? Almighty God, Creator of all that exists had NO other options than to send His Son – a part of His Triune self – to come into this hostile, messed-up world not just in the form of a man but as a man; and not just as a man but as an infant? Born in a feeding trough to a teenage, virgin mom?

Seriously, have you ever really thought about why? Yes, we acknowledge that this did happen. Perhaps, we even acknowledge that it all happened exactly as the Scriptures describe. But did it really HAVE to happen that way? Christmas is jolly, but would it really make a difference if we remembered it or not? Christmas is nice and cute, but isn't Easter the Holy Day that really matters? After all, everybody knows two of the four Gospels (Mark & John) don't even specifically refer to Jesus' birth at all. Just why DID Christmas happen and why did it happen the way it did?

SCRIPTURE: 1JOHN 3:1-10

PRAYER

I.) JESUS CAME TO DESTROY

The key that unlocks this section of Scripture we just read and the tie that binds it all together is the simply profound and direct statement in v. 8b: “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the Devil's works.”

The idea translated here as “revealed” refers to His initial physical arrival (birth).

He was born in the flesh as an infant man, not to look cute. Not to create a memorable warm and fuzzy tale to make people feel good for centuries. Not to give us an excuse for a month of celebration, consumerism and vacations. Not even to tell us good stories and lessons that would make us better spiritually dead human beings.

Jesus was sent and came into the world in this way for exactly and only one purpose: to destroy!

A.) What? Sin

“the Devil's works”

The works of the Devil are to thwart and rebel against God. To seek to interfere with His will and pleasure. To wreak the havoc on God's special creation, made in His image, that Lucifer would like to but cannot wreak on God Himself.

In a word, the devil's works is SIN. But what is sin?

v. 4 “Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law.”

What law? God's law! That is, God's revealed will in every aspect for His creation!

Pastor and author, John Piper, explains it this way:

“Lawlessness is living as though your own ideas are superior to God's. Lawlessness says, 'God may demand it, but I don't prefer it.' Lawlessness says, 'God may promise it, but I don't want it.' Lawlessness replaces God's law with my contrary desires. I become a law to myself. Lawlessness is rebellion against the right of God to make laws and govern His creatures . . . The work of Satan is to tempt us to reject the authority of God and become like God ourselves. Satan works to nurture and cultivate the pride that puts its own desires above the law of God. This is lawlessness; this is the essence of sin; and this is what the Son of God came to destroy in you and me”

(from his message “The Son of God Appeared to Destroy the Works of the Devil,” 12/23/1984).

He did not come simply to destroy the guilt of sin, but to destroy sinning itself!

B.) Why? Hate

Make no mistake, friends and guests, there is One Thing that Almighty God – the very embodiment and definition of Love – absolutely hates: SIN!

God does not simply dislike, not prefer or regret Sin. Scripture is very clear from Genesis through Revelation that the LORD God Almighty absolutely with every once of His Being hates, abhors, and detests Sin in all of it's forms and no matter the circumstances. In the light of His Holiness acts, attitudes and thoughts of sin appear only as pure abomination!

C.) How? His Righteousness

Just as darkness can only be destroyed by flooding it with light, so Sin – the works of the Devil can only be destroyed by the flooding of Perfect Righteousness.

And the only Perfect Righteousness among men is that embodied in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus the Christ (Messiah).

He accomplishes this in two steps:

1.) His Appearing

He enters into and engages our world in the flesh, fully as a man, and through all the same stages, trials and challenges.