Christmas All Year Long

We often talk about the night before Christmas, but what do you think about on the morning after Christmas? Interestingly, Canada has an official holiday called Boxing Day on the 26th. Traditionally, unwanted gifts are boxed up and taken back to the stores.

We’ve also heard a lot about "the Christmas Spirit." Many Christmas movies talk about it. Once a year, around thanksgiving and for about a month, people’s attitudes go through a change. People start talking about peace and goodwill. They go out of their way to give and forgive. Families get together. We call this different mood, "the Christmas spirit."

There's a problem with Christmas spirit, however. It doesn’t seem to last. Around New Year’s Day, it seems to slip away. The old feelings start to come back.

The sad thing about this--the kindness, the generosity, the peace and goodwill, the warm relationships—is that it is something we wish for and look for deep down in the human heart. I suppose what adds to the disappointment is that such things seem to be short-lived.

One of the most striking illustrations of this comes from a story shared many years ago by an old German man. He fought with the German forces in the First World War. For the benefit of the thirty-something people, I'll remind you that in those days warfare was not high tech but hand-to-hand trench warfare. Soldiers lived, fought, and died in trenches full of mud and blood and vermin. In those trenches, dug in the fields of France, enemies could actually hear each other talking. They didn't need satellites to locate the enemy. The enemy was just over there.

This old gentleman told me how on one cold, moonlit Christmas Eve, he huddled in the bottom of the trench. Because of the annual Christmas truce, the fighting had stopped. Suddenly, from the British trenches a loud, sweet tenor voice began to sing "The Lord Is My Shepherd," and the sound floated up into the clear, moonlit air.

Then he said something surprising: from the German trenches, a rich baritone voice tuned in, singing "Der Herr Ist Mein Hirte,” which is also Psalm 23. For a few moments, everybody in both trenches concentrated on the sound of these two invisible singers and the beautiful music and the harmony. The British soldier and the German soldier sang praise to the Lord who was their shepherd. The singing stopped, and the sound slowly died away.

"We huddled in the bottom of our trenches and tried to keep warm until Christmas Day dawned," he said. "Early on Christmas morning, some of the British soldiers climbed out of their trenches into the no man's land, carrying a football."

One soldier carried a round football. These English soldiers started kicking around a football, in a pickup game in no man's land, between the trenches.

Then the old man said, "Some of the German soldiers climbed out, and England played Germany at football in no man's land on Christmas Day in the middle of the battlefield in France in the first World War."

Then he said, "The next morning, the carnage began again, with machine guns and bayonet fighting. Everything was back to normal."

The Christmas spirit will produce a truce, but no peace. The Christmas spirit makes people think of peace and good will. The Christmas spirit thinks in terms of giving and forgiving. It actually has celebrities going to the homeless and feeding them a meal. Although the strain of keeping it up is too much, the Christmas spirit says something about the deepest desires of the human heart. It also says something about the inabilities of the human heart. We need something more.

I believe we can experience Christmas all year, every day. But there’s only one way this can happen. It must be replaced by the Spirit of Christ.

We don't need the Christmas spirit; we need the Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit of Christ Must Be What Causes the Christmas Spirit.

Let me read something about the Spirit of Christ and Christmas from Luke 1.26-38

Luke 1:26–38 (NASB95)

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Please notice the difference between the Christmas spirit and the Spirit of Christ. The Christmas spirit is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The Christmas spirit is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The Christmas spirit is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person.

The angel told Mary she was actually going to experience the birth of Christ through the Holy Spirit in her life. The angel said to her that the power of the Almighty through the Holy Spirit was going to rest upon her. The angel spoke to her and said that the one who would be born in her and of her would be the one whose kingdom would never end.

The angel's statements should ring a bell with you. The Bible teaches us that, in a way not too different than what happened to Mary, it is possible for Christ to be born in people's lives by the Holy Spirit. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8.11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

This causes us to recognize that:

The Spirit of Christ can actually come into our lives.

Think of it for a minute: Is it possible that the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead can actually come into people's lives? Do we believe that? If it is true, then the Spirit of him who raised up Christ from the dead, comes into our lives, to make Christ, if you will, to be born within us.

Paul, writing to the Galatians, used a dramatic term. He said to his beloved Galatians, who were giving him all kinds of problems in Galatians 4.19 “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—”

In other words, the essence of Christianity is this remarkable truth: Christ came from heaven and died for us on the cross and rose again, so that, in the person of the Holy Spirit, he might indwell our lives.

The possibilities are mind-boggling. We're not talking about an annual event. We're talking about a forever indwelling. We're not talking about something that is basically sentimental. What we're talking about now is supernatural: God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, born in men's and women's lives.

The difference ought to be obvious. We're thinking not so much of humanity, sentimentally on an annual basis, being good and kind and trying hard and then eventually giving up. Now we're talking about God in Christ, in the person of the Holy Spirit, empowering people to be what they're not and to do what they can't. That which is born of you is born of the Holy Spirit: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you."

Note that the angel explained to Mary that her child would establish an eternal kingdom. So he wasn't just talking in terms of the life of Christ being within her. He was talking about the kingdom of God being established. We need to understand this. We need continually to keep this in mind. We need to think in terms of our relationship to the Holy Spirit and to the kingdom that is established in our lives when Christ, by his Spirit, is born in us.

Let me put it to you with the story of a simple, illiterate man who was converted through the work of the Salvation Army. He went regularly to the Salvation Army citadel. One day he came home rather discouraged.

His wife said, "What's the matter?"

He said, "I've just noticed that all the people in the Salvation Army wear red sweaters, and I don't have a red sweater."

She said, "I'll knit one." So she knitted him a red sweater.

The next Sunday after he went to the citadel, he still wasn't happy. His wife said, "What's wrong this time?"

He said, "I just noticed all their red sweaters have yellow writing."

They were both illiterate, but she said, "Don't worry about it. I'll embroider some writing on it for you."

She had no idea what the yellow writing on the red sweater of a Salvation Army man said. They have a yellow circle, and in it, blood and fire. That's their motto.

The man's wife had no idea what the letters said, and she couldn't read anyway. So copying a sign from a store window opposite their home, she embroidered the words of that store sign onto his red sweater.

When he came back the next Sunday, she said, "Did they like your sweater?"

"They loved my sweater. Some of them said they liked my sweater better than their sweater."

What neither of them knew was that the sign on the store window she had copied read, “This business under new management.”

That's what it means to get saved. That's what it means to get converted. That's what it means for the Holy Spirit to come upon you: This business under new management.

The Spirit enables us to gladly come under the kingdom and make ourselves available for service.

We are changed when the Spirit of Christ gives to us the life of the risen Lord, and we begin to accept what it means to live under the kingdom. Notice what Mary said after she had asked her questions and the angel had said that nothing is impossible with God. Always remember that. If it is according to the divine will, it is within the divine capability.

Mary simply said, "Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord." The word handmaiden is the word for a female servant or a female slave. Mary says: I'll gladly come under the kingdom. I will gladly make myself available. I will gladly avail myself of all that you're doing. I will be what you want me to be. That's the attitude we want all year long, isn't it?

Think of getting up daily and saying, "Behold, the servant of the Lord. Be it unto me according to your word. More than anything else, I want the expression of your life in my life. I make myself available to you with glad anticipation."

Do you know what begins to happen? You begin to see something which is the Christmas spirit on a regular basis. Only it isn't the Christmas spirit. It's the Spirit of Christ.

The problem within all of us is a resistance to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul told believers not to grieve the Holy Spirit. It is possible for us to lie to the Holy Spirit and to resist. There's an attitude of resistance, of non-cooperation. In Galatians 5, the apostle Paul explains clearly why this happens. Paul says there is in all of us something he calls "the flesh." The flesh is a dynamic power operating in our personalities to oppose the Holy Spirit. We have this strange situation of the believer being the one in whom Christ is born by the Spirit, but at the same time, there is that old, resistant, self-centered flesh.

How can you recognize that flesh? In Galatians 5, Paul says the evidence of the flesh is anger and envy and bitterness and strife and contentiousness.

Remember that mood of Christmas spirit? Suddenly we're back to the anger and resentment and the bitterness. Watch out tomorrow, if this happens. You know what it is. It's the flesh. It's obvious.

We have all kinds of fancy names for the flesh. Let's simply accept the fact that there is within a human being a lingering power that is evil and that produces all kinds of bad attitudes. The Bible says it's the flesh. It is in complete opposition to the Spirit. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Christian life. It is in opposition to all that God has in mind.

You say, "I can't handle these things." Of course you can't. But nothing is impossible with God. The Spirit of God will empower you. The Spirit of God begins to reproduce in us that which is of Christ.

We have a battlefield within us. Paul explains it when he says the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit fights against the flesh. Do you ever find yourself in your better moments longing for the peace and the joy and the love and the patience and the meekness and the goodness and the gentleness of self-control and moaning over your shortcomings? I’m certain you do, unless you've totally killed your conscience and desensitized yourself.

Remember that the nature you go on feeding will grow, and the nature you go on starving will get smaller. If there's going to be anything resembling that which God has in mind for us, it is going to come, not through an annual attempt at Christmas spirit, but a continual recognition of the Spirit of Christ.

If we go on sowing to the flesh, as Paul puts it, guess what will happen? We will of the flesh reap corruption. But if we go on sowing to the Spirit, we begin to reproduce life.

Conclusion

The human heart longs for three things: an experience of Christ crucified for forgiveness of sin; Christ risen and ascended to the Father for access to Him; and Christ's indwelling power through the Holy Spirit so we might be changed.

The outward result on this earth doesn't happen overnight; it isn't instantaneous. The Bible says we're being changed from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. Do you know what you ought to be able to do at the end of a year? You ought to be able to look back and see some specific ways in which you have grown spiritually. There ought to be evidence of new habits, new attitudes, and new abilities relating directly to the fact that you're being changed by the Spirit of the Lord.

Can you think of one overwhelming weakness that was overwhelming you at the beginning of this year? Do you honestly believe that if Jesus Christ, risen from the dead in the person of the Holy Spirit came into your life, he could release you from it, and you could live in newness of life?

You say, "I don't know about that." Nothing is impossible with God. If it is part of the divine will, it is within the divine capability.

You know what has to happen? You must become the handmaid of the Lord. You must say, "Be it unto me according to your Word. Lord, I want myself to be yours. I want to be available to you. I want to be expendable for you. I would like to be the sort of person in whom the life of Christ is seen in increasing measure. I want to be the kind of person in whom the kingdom of Christ is seen to be established more obviously. Lord, I want to be the kind of person in whom the works of the flesh are becoming less and less obvious. In other words, I'd like to live Christmas all year long."

For that, We don't need the Christmas spirit; we need the Spirit of Christ; and He is available.