The Christmas Message

I can always tell when it is the Christmas season. It is the season when I have to park six rows over from the front door at Wal-Mart. Although this is a sure sign of Christmas, the Christian believer views Christmas in an entirely different way than the rest of the world.

In Galatians 6:14 Paul says:

Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

What Paul is saying is that he has "died to the world and the world has died to him." What he means by that is that he doesn't care what the world thinks and the world doesn't care what he thinks and Paul is okay with that.

As a Christian we take our guidance from God's word and not from what the world thinks or says or does, at least that is the way it is supposed to be. That is doubly important when it comes to Christmas. It would be very easy for us to sit down and write a long account of what the world thinks Christmas is all about. Some of the themes in that account would be a number of parties to attend, family, office, etc, and finding just the right outfit to wear to those parties.

That account would include many hours of frenzied shopping, sometimes starting in the wee hours of the morning, and involving strategies to get the popular items before anyone else can grab them all up. Some people prepare for Christmas as if they were preparing to go to battle.

That account would include endless baking and decorating. Now, I’m not saying that these things are wrong, I enjoy the Christmas lights and the Christmas cookies as much as anyone, I’m just saying that at no other time of year are worldly values more manifest than during this festive season.

It therefor falls to all true Christians everywhere to speak forth, by words and actions, the real message of Christmas.

When we take our minds back to a long-ago evening in Bethlehem and look down into that simple manger, what do we see? What messages is ours to carry far and wide from these humble servants of God from ancient times?

Any thoughtful Christian who reads his Bible will be able to answer this question. The story of Christmas is not about a newborn baby. It is not about Christmas trees, or lights, or cookies, or giving and receiving presents.

The real message of Christmas is about the incarnation of God; Emanuel, God with us. That is the central idea of Christmas. It is not just one of many things we can say about the birth of Christ, it is the key fact, the redemptive fact about Christmas.

The fact that God came to this earth 2000 years ago, became a baby, born in Bethlehem, cradled in the arms of his mother Mary, that reveals some startling truths about the nature of God and his deep passion for mankind.

The real message of Christmas can be seen in the following points, first:

Christmas Proclaims a Message of Love

In the book of John, we have God’s proclamation of how much He loved us:

John 3:16 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God loved us so much that He gave His only Son so that we might be redeemed.

We can also see God’s love for His people proclaimed in the Old Testament in numerous verses, such as:

Exodus 3:7–8 (ESV)

7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey....

God has always shown that He loves his people, and this is a central theme of Christmas.

Another message proclaimed by Christmas is Self-Disclosure.

Christmas Proclaims a Message of Self-Disclosure

You see, God was not satisfied to speak His word from afar. God wanted us to get to know Him, face to face.

John 1:14 (ESV)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The only way for us to really see the Glory of God was in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

God’s Christmas present to us, though Jesus Christ, was the means of revealing all we can comprehend about the mind and heart of God.

Christmas Proclaims a Message of Singularity

When we see that baby in the manger of Bethlehem, we are looking at the only provision God has made for the sins of the world. There's only one way for humanity to be rescued from its dark impending judgment.

It is common these days to hear people philosophize that "all paths lead to heaven." People today believe it to be very sophisticated to hold such beliefs.

A lot of people believe that God loves all religions and those struggling to find their way to Him. They are confident that God loves their sincerity and the effort expended in their search and believe God will reward this work with eternal life. Folks, you can believe something sincerely and be sincerely wrong.

The “all religions lead to heaven” people are of the opinion that the Christian is arrogant when he so blindly and ignorantly claims that his way is the only way to God. But you see, I am not making the claim that the way I preach is the only way to heaven, God is the one making that claim.

The definition of a bigot is someone who is intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices regardless of evidence to the contrary.

It is not arrogance but humility when the Christian accepts the word of his Savior when He declares that, "no one comes to the father except through me."

Or when God speaks through the apostle and says,

Acts 4:12 (ESV)

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The Angle of the Lord came and spoke to Joseph about Mary:

Matthew 1:21 (ESV)

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

The Angle did not say that religion is going to save His people from their sins. Religion can not do that. Only a Savior can do that.

To the shepherds out in the fields at night, the angel said:

Luke 2:10–11 (ESV)

10 ... “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

When the aged Simeon held the infant Jesus in his arms he said:

Luke 2:30–32 (ESV)

30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

When Abraham, out of obedience to God, was sacrificing his son Isaac as a brunt offering. Isaac asked him, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering"? Abraham said these famous words, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering." As he drew the knife above his head to plunge it into the heart of his son, the angel of the Lord stopped him. And sure enough, there in the thicket he saw a ram and sacrificed it-a type of Christ.

Salvation is not about competing religions, it is about the only sacrifice that has been made through which a man or women's sin can be forgiven.

Christmas Proclaims a Message of Divine Involvement

Divine involvement in the full range of human existence.

Jesus experienced personally every developmental phase of human life from infancy through adulthood.

God knows intimately our struggles and stresses. Whatever trials or hurts me may experience in this life, whatever hopes or joys we may embrace, Jesus tasted them too. No stage of life, no situation we face is foreign to the God of Christmas.

Hebrews 2:14–18 (ESV)

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Christmas Proclaims a Message of Hope and Redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV)

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

One of the ancient church fathers said, "The son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God."

The point of the incarnation was not simply for God to express his love for human beings, to disclose his nature or walk in our midst, or even to identify with our struggles and yearnings. God entered this world as a human baby to fulfill his mission to rescue lost and sinful people. He took the name Jesus which in Hebrew means "Yahweh saves."

In the incarnation, God has fused himself with humanity, and now seeks to transform believers into the likeness of Jesus. God has come not simply to rescue us, but to remake us. Remade in a process by which we die to our old ways of living and are reborn into new existence in God's family.

Christmas is a dangerous time. There is a real danger of missing its true meaning, in the midst of the most popular holiday of the year.

Conclusion

To the man or women of the world.

Most of them are given-over, without restraint, to all the merriment of the holiday season. This is the time they think to seek maximum pleasure, to get all you can out of Christmas.

Unfortunately, the joys of Christmas for them last only a short time. The the hang-over needs to be endured, the bills have to be paid, the excess weight must be lost, the discouragement has to be endured.

Christmas is an artificial high that requires a price to be paid. The joys are transient and short -lived, because the true lasting joy for which you seek is only found in God through Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter refers to the believer who is "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."

The only lasting joy in Christmas is when you embrace the Christmas child as your Savior.

God has sent his Son, in the midst of Christmas. If you neglect to embrace this Savior, if you say no to God's gift of eternal life through his Son, it will be the greatest tragedy of your life and Christmas to you will become not the joy you have sought from it, but rather a horrid reminder, for all eternity, of what you could have had.

To the true Christian, at Christmas time, will always think about what they are doing. They know that the only way to resist the tide of the world is to compare their actions to the word of God.

The true follower of Christ will be careful to make Jesus Christ the dominant theme. He will seek to glorify Christ him in all that he says or does.

The true Christian will recognize the unique role that he has in modeling what is important about Christmas to a world that is determined to blot out Christ and to erase His memory from it forever.

And that, my friends, is what Christmas is all about.