"Why Is Jesus The Reason For The Season?”

“Why is Jesus the Reason for the Season?”

Hebrews 2:9

QUESTION: Have you ever seen a sign around Christmas time that said, “Jesus is the reason for the season?” You probably have.

But when you go out into the stores and malls you see a really different “reason for the season”

People running from store to store trying to find the gifts on their lists… Focused on making sure that everyone is bought for, everyone is going to be satisfied, and everyone is going to enjoy their Christmas

You basically see either one of two “reasons” in people’s hearts:

1. Greed for what they desire

2. Stress over what they want to get for others

And if you stopped each of these people and asked what they believe the “reason for the season” is, they might say “Jesus”, because they have read the same sign as you.

But they might also say, “love”, “peace”, “family” or “togetherness” and never mention Jesus.

ILLUSTRATION: “Who’s Birth?” Bart Simpson once stated, “Let’s not forget the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Santa”

ILLUSTRATION: “Dragging Jesus into Christmas” A woman walked up to church Nativity scene and was overheard saying, “Just look at that, the church tries to drag Jesus into every holiday!”

You see the only problem with the statement that “Jesus is the reason for the season” is that it has become a cliché.

People say it because it sounds right. They heard it somewhere, or they read it someplace, and they don’t understand what it means.

ILLUSTRATION: “Celebrating a Birth” Oh, they might understand that we are celebrating the birth of a special person. But we celebrate the birth of special people all the time. Martin Luther King, George Washington, and Christopher Columbus – all have days that honor them.

But what makes Jesus different? What makes us say that He is more special than these other characters in history? What makes Him the ‘reason for the season’?

The answer is found in the book of Hebrews.

READ: Hebrews 2:9

I. God Became Man

“…Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels…”

a. Jesus is not just a prophet:

i. Not just a good teacher

ii. Not just a special person God sent to the earth

b. Jesus is God, who wrapped Himself in flesh and made Himself lower than His created Angels and came to the earth as a man

i. John 1:14: “The word became flesh”

ii. Verse : “fullness of Godhead bodily”

iii. Verse: “I and the Father are one”

c. The problem with most of us is that we discount who Jesus really is

i. We say, it is impossible for a man to be God

ii. That’s true – we can never become God

iii. But God, in His unlimited power, His omnipotence, has the ability to become one of us and dwell with us and teach us about Himself

iv. ILLUSTRATION: “Song ‘What if God…’” There was a song a while back, “What if God was one of us?” And the lyrics read something like:

“Would he be a slob like one of us?

Would you just call Him by His name?

Would He just be a stranger trying to make

His way through this life?”

v. The thing is God was one of us!

vi. And He didn’t become one of us to just try to make His way through this life…

Transitional Statement:

So the question is: “Why would God make Himself one of us?”

II. To Understand Our Suffering

“…for the suffering…”

a. Only by becoming a man could God experience our suffering

b. God became a man because He wants to know your hurts, and hurt with you

c. He went through every emotion you could imagine (and some that you probably can’t)

i. He was angry at the people for making a mockery of His Father’s Temple

ii. He was tempted in the desert by Satan himself

iii. He was tired and weary from His long days teaching

iv. He cried tears at the funeral of a friend

v. He experience pain unimaginable by being stripped, humiliated and hung to die!

d. What humbles me in the remembering of all of this is that He did that so that not only I could know Him, but that He could fully know me

i. Verse: “He was tempted”

ii. Knowing that Jesus was tempted in His pain, in His hunger and in His anger helps me to know I can go to Him and know for certain that He understands me

1. I have never had someone hate me as much as people hated Him

2. I have never experienced the pain that He did

3. He knows me fully – much greater than even I know myself