Good morning, CHURCH!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Where is Amanda and Christian?

They are now in the sight of God and man, Mr and Mrs Christian Roustic.

(Opening joke)

A preacher closed the services one Sunday morning by saying, "next Sunday I am going to preach on the subject of liars.

And in preparation for the message, I would like you all to read the seventeenth chapter of Mark."

“How many of you will read it?”

Nearly every hand went up in agreement that they would read the assigned passage.

On the following Sunday, the preacher rose to begin, and said,

"Now, then, all of you who have done as I requested and read the seventeenth chapter of Mark, please raise your hands."

Nearly every hand in the congregation went up.

Then he said to everyone who’s hand was raised, "You are the people I want to talk to.

One bold parishioner spoke up, “Why us, we did the assigned reading?”

The Pastor just shook his head and said, “There is no seventeenth chapter of Mark."

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Today, in place of my wisdom vaccination, I’m going to give you a few reasons why I believe Christmas is not a Pagan holiday.

Because of time I can’t go into great details but I will read you some bullet points from my research.

1 The Early Church was offended by Pagan celebrations.

While we don’t know whose idea it was to begin celebrating the birth of Christ, we do know that early Christians were careful not to incorporate pagan rituals into the practice of the church.

In fact, some philosophical sects in the 3rd and 4th centuries accused Christians who celebrated Christmas as secretly worshipping the sun and the moon as some pagans did in the winter, but Christians like Ambrose of Milan (c. 339–397) and Leo the Great (c. 400–461) refuted these accusations.

The early church was greatly offended by claims that they were doing anything “pagan.”

2 Christmas is not a rip-off from Pagan festivals and holidays.

For the first thousand years of church history, not even the critics of Christian celebrations of Christmas, associated December 25th with a pagan holiday.

Church historian Andrew McGowan notes that the church father Augustine, writing in the 5th century, wrote about a Christian sect known as the Donatists who kept Christmas festivals on December 25th.

What’s more, the Donatists were greatly opposed to the pagan practices of the Roman Empire.

At the very least, we can conclude that the early church wasn’t ripping off pagan practices to make Christianity more appealing.

McGowan also made a convincing case that early Christians chose to celebrate Christmas on December 25th because they were borrowing from an ancient Jewish tradition that said that the most important events of creation and redemption occurred at the same time of the year.

Because of this, many Christians in the early church believed that Jesus died on the same day he was conceived.

No matter how speculative that may seem, it fits with ancient Jewish tradition and makes sense of the move to celebrating in December.

If Jesus was conceived around late March to early April, that would put his birth in late December.

All these details underscore that the early church was careful not to merely adopt pagan practices into the church but had many other reasons for celebrating Christmas festivities.

3 The real meaning of Christmas is greater than commercialism.

The religious significance has all but been stripped from our celebrations.

After all, the season’s movies, songs, and decorations have more to do with the Santa folktale than they do with the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

Historians note that the myth of Santa Claus was employed to sell Christmas goods as early as the mid-1820s, not even twenty years after the myth first emerged in the Netherlands.

These myths have led to the most challenging aspects of Christmas for Christians today.

None the less, we need not let worldly pitfalls keep us from enjoying the Christmas season.

The gospel is so profound and otherworldly that even on a highly commercialized holiday, the strange wonder of God being wrapped in human flesh, coming to the world as a helpless babe to redeem man, can’t be muzzled, no matter how crowded the mall’s parking lots are or how overwhelming the online shopping ads are.

4 Christmas isn’t a fairytale.

Christmas is the confession that God really did come into human history; to save man from the darkness of the world and the coldness of our hearts.

And this confession, is our hope today.

(Luke 2:10-14)

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Christmas isn’t a fairytale.

All the myths surrounding Christmas are the fairytales.

Today’s message title is:

The life of Jesus

I’ll use my three points today to mirror the life and times of Jesus while also giving us an expectation of how our lives through different stages should mirror his.

Point or Stage #1

Baby Jesus

Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:30-33 ESV

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Luke 1:34-35 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

The birth of Jesus was miraculous, historical and worth celebrating.

Just as Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit:

When we are “born again” we are implanted with the Holy Spirit.

John 3:5-7 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

That goes for anyone here or watching this online. You must be born again.

This is our great miracle and historical day worth celebrating.

Point or Stage #2

Adolescent Jesus

Jesus grew up physically, mentally, and spiritually.

If you remember the account where Jesus was left all alone while his family was on there way back home to Nazareth.

He was in the temple handling his father’s business.

The family came back looking for him and found him and confronted him.

Luke 2:51-52 ESV

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

And just as Jesus grew:

We must grow physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

If I could just focus on today. Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world, that December 25th is all about gifts we get under a tree.

This day is about the gift that God wrapped and sent to earth for us.

The greatest gift of all.

Point or Stage #3

The Man Christ Jesus

Jesus as an adult began to move forward in ministry.

John 2:1-9 TPT

Now on the third day, Jesus’ mother went to a wedding feast in the Galilean village of Cana. 2Jesus and his disciples were all invited to the banquet, but with so many guests, they ran out of wine. 3And when Mary realized it, she came to Jesus and asked, “They have no wine; can’t you do something about it?” 4Jesus replied, “My dear one, don’t you understand that if I do this, it will change nothing for you, but it will change everything for me! My hour of unveiling my power has not yet come.” 5Mary then went to the servers and told them, “Whatever Jesus tells you, do it!”

6Nearby stood six stone water pots meant to be used for the Jewish washing rituals. Each one could hold about twenty gallons or more. 7Jesus came to the servers and instructed them, “Fill the pots with water, right up to the very brim.” 8Then he said, “Now fill your pitchers and take them to the master of ceremonies.” 9And when they poured out their pitchers for the master of ceremonies to sample, the water had become wine!

This represented the first of many miracles that would come in Jesus’ earthly ministry.

I do want to point something out and I’m sure this weeks Equip class attendee’s will get a kick out of it.

Jesus said fill the pots with water and fill your pitchers and take them and serve them.

Who turned the water into wine?

Just as the adult Jesus moved forward:

We must grow up and move forward in ministry.

Mark 16:15-18 ESV

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Who is going to cause the demons to flee?

Who is going to give the new tongues?

Who will keep the poison from hurting you?

Who will cause the sick to recover?

Mark 16:19-20 ESV

So, then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Just as Jesus was on a mission, we should be on a mission.

(Closing illustration)

I dare you to interject the real meaning of today in your family celebrations.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?