weekly sermon
12-23-07
Merry Christmas
This is the last message of our Christmas series. After the first set of
messages we have now learned that Jesus Christ is the true reason for the
season, that depression really likes to take over this time of year plus how we
should help those who might be depressed, and the true acts of giving.
In this message we will go back to the traditional story that is told this time
of year, that of the greatest gift that God gave man, His Son.
Turn with me if you will to Luke 2:8-14, "And there were in the same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (9)And,
lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them: and they were sore afraid. (10)And the angel said unto them, Fear
not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all
people. (11)For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord. (12)And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the
babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. (13)And suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
(14)Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
This is the true story of the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ, the gift that
God gave, as shown in John 3:16, that He gave His ONLY Son to save our
souls from eternal fire.
Now that we have read this story let us look at it from a different angle. You
really didn't think I would show this message as the world sees it now did you?
I have a very good reason for wanting to approach this message from a different
angle, the world has made me. What I mean is the world has forced us to either
voice our opinions strongly of the reason for this season, or they have forced
us to listen to their ideology of how the story must be a farce and we celebrate
this season for all the wrong reasons. If we look at this text in Luke then we
can prove the world is completely correct in their thinking. Yes! I said we are
going to prove the world is correct, and I am going to prove them correct with
the first verse that we read here.
What does the world say about this time of year that we celebrate as Christmas?
Let us look at the facts that can be proven by them from the Bible. The world
states that there is never a mention of a tree in the Bible, yet we have a
Christmas tree. The world says that Christ was not born on December 25th, or
even in December for that matter, yet we celebrate Christmas at this time.
Finally the world says that Christmas is a pagan holiday, yet we as Christians
celebrate this holiday. Well let us prove them right shall we?
First I used a very well known Bible search program online to search for the
words Christmas tree in the 13 different translations. Of course NOT to
the worlds surprise the word Christmas did not appear in any verse in any
translation. The word tree however appears 201 times in 169 verses, but never
once is it a tree that is in reference to the Christmas tree. So if we were to
keep score, it would be so far, world one, us zero.
Next we will go to that first verse we read to see about the next statement the
world is making. "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flock by night." This is clear proof that Christ
was NOT born in December. Shepherds never kept flocks in the fields
during the winter time. If we look at Bethlehem in the Wikipedia we see that the
season of winter is from November to March, with the January being the coldest
month. So we see from here that from the weather forecast that there were NO
shepherds in the fields to see a star in December. It's not looking good for us,
the score is now 2-0.
Lastly, I went to research the word Christmas. This is what I found. A winter
festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many
cultures. Reasons included less agricultural work needing to be done during the
winter, as well as people expecting longer days and shorter nights after the
winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. In part, the Christmas celebration
was created by the early Church in order to entice pagan Romans to convert to
Christianity without losing their own winter celebrations. Certain prominent
gods and goddesses of other religions in the region had their birthdays
celebrated on December 25, including Ishtar, Sol Invictus and Mithras . Various
traditions are considered to have been combined from winter festivals including
the following: Saturnalia, Natalis Solis Invicti, and Yule. The only thing about
it being pagan was that any sect that was not considered Christian was
considered pagan. So what has been stated here does not only refer to Romans but
to many different faiths that were not Christian. The score board is showing
3-0. Now that I have proved that the world is correct in their facts, let us
look at their thinking.
First there was Christ, as we have read about, that was given as a gift from God
to save man. There was a tree that I would consider as the true Christmas tree.
The tree I am referring to is the tree they nailed Christ to when He was
crucified. That was truly Christ's tree. When we look at what the holiday does
to mankind, do we really care when our Saviour was born? It does not matter when
Christ was born, it only matters that His birth was the gift that we should be
giving. This holiday, in the Christian eye, has never been pagan. When the
reference stated that it was created to convert pagans to Christianity, that
just shows me the same thing that Jesus showed when He mingled with the sinners,
in Matthew 9:12, also to convert them to His flock. Here I have shown many
reasons why we should celebrate the birth of Christ, no matter the time of year,
and they all give us hope of the eternal life versus the hope of nothing from
the worldly thinking of this holiday.
I see the world slowly taking over the holiday and making it into a joke of a
fat man in a red suit that will promise us all our dreams if we be good all
year. The judge of our goodness all year is determined by man that thinks it has
also been good all year. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there are many that
are great good people, but man was born in sin and will always sin, so if we are
to base this holiday on us being good, then none of us deserve any gifts. Thank
God daily that we have a merciful God that gave us this gift of life that came
and died on that first "Christ" tree and was raised to defeat sin and death.
What about the score card? Christians won, world lost. Let us remember this time
of year for what it represents, the birth of the greatest gift that could be
given. May the Christian take the gift to the lost world and show them that
Christ is really the reason for the word Christmas.
If you know this gift then give it for Christmas. If you do not know this gift
then go to a Bible based church and at least listen to the story and do your own
research. Faith is the reason this gift works for the Christian. Take a leap of
faith that you may receive the gift of life with our Heavenly Father by saying
this simple prayer with me.
Dear Lord, come into my
life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received
salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our
link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few
things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Stone