Angels of Christmas2

Angels of Christmas

Part 2

“The Angel’s Celebration!”

Luke 2:8-11

Last time we looked at an angelic proclamation—angels announcing the arrival of Christ Jesus, God’s only Son, via a virgin.

And then we talked about the latest atheist advertising campaign where on billboards across America the statement is made, “You Know It’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate Reason.”

And we did just that; we saw how very unreasonable it is to believe that all that we hear, taste, touch, smell, and see came as a result of endless time + chance, or…evolution.

Today we’re going to look at an angelic celebration—the angels of God rejoicing over his birth.

Why were they celebrating? Because it was GOOD NEWS!

“Do not be afraid,” said the angel, “I bring you GOOD NEWS that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Now, hold that thought and let’s look at yet another atheist advertisement put out by The Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason that has just this week been removed from city buses in Fort Worth. The ad had read:

"MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ARE GOOD WITHOUT GOD."

Now, whether they mean good as in “morally good,” or good as in being “Okay without God” is up in the air. We’ll look at both possibilities today.

Okay, again, I'm a reasonable individual, a Christian who celebrates the birth of Jesus and the reality of a Creator God.

So let me ask a reasonable question:

IF God is a myth and we’re “good without Him,” then it shouldn’t matter if the myth was removed from our schools, right?

You remember that in 1963 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled it was unconstitutional to pray in public schools. The dastardly, objectionable prayer went like this:

"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg Thy

blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country. Amen."

Following the horrific 9/11 terroristic attacks, Billy Graham's daughter was

interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let

something like this happen?"

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound response. She said,

"I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've

been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to

get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.

How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand

He leave us alone?"

I BELIEVE THIS WAS A TRUE STATEMENT!

I checked out the Web site called DISASTERCENTER.COM for some history on how American schools have fared since we decided our children need no longer pray to Him in the public arena.

Here’s what it showed:In 1960, the rate of violent crimes in this country per 100,000 persons was at 161.

Of course the population increased over the next few years, but the rate of violent crimes stayed more or less static, ranging from 158 to 168 per 100,000 people.

Then in 1964 things began to change. The rate jumped to 191 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

Then in 1965 it climbed to 200 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

And by 1991 it had increased to 758 violent crimes per 100,000 persons.

From 161 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 1963, to 758 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 1991.

But I wanted to know some more, and my next stop was at WIKIANSWERS.COM.

Here's some of the “reasonable” stuff I learned there:For 15 YEARS BEFORE 1963, pregnancies in girls ages 15 through 19 years had been no more than 15 per one thousand girls.

But after 1963 pregnancies increased 187 percent in the next 15 years.

And then there’s the issue of STD’S.

Before 1963, sexually transmitted diseases among students were 400 cases per 100,000 students.

After 1963, they jumped up 226 percent in the next 12 years.

No one has disputed these numbers.

And oh yeah, the Wiki-Answers site is quick to point out that it cannot be proven whether any of these tragic increases came about as the result of prayer banning.

Uh huh.

Remember the claim, “Millions of Americans are good without God.”

So if the atheist signs meant that millions of Americans are morally good without God, these reasonable facts and stats would seem to disagree.

God warned His people long ago:

Deut. 11:18-21 “Place MY words on your hearts. Get them deep inside you. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder. Teach them to your children.

Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning until you fall into bed at night.

Inscribe them on the doorposts and gates of your cities so that you'll (1) live a long time, (2) and your children with you, (3) on the soil that God promised to give your ancestors for as long as there is a sky over the Earth.”

Then God says:

Vs. 26-28 “I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the BLESSING if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the CURSE if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God...”

So are millions of Americans really “good without God?”

Well, let’s go a bit deeper in our quest by asking what America might be like had the good news of Jesus Christ never come.

Would we really have been better off without Him?

What might it be like for us had he never come?

The story is told of a minister who had a dream. In his dream it was as if Christ had never come.

He drove to the church but there was no church.

He picked up his Bible and it stopped at Malachi.

In his dream he was at a freshly dug grave.

As many ministers do, he took some dirt and sprinkled it on the grave. Ordinarily he would say, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

But in his dream all he could say was, “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

That was the end of it. If Jesus had not come there would be no resurrection.

If Jesus had not been born:

This would not be the “year of our Lord” 2010.

I wouldn’t be standing here, nor you sitting there for there would be no church, for there would be no Christians.

If you had had an accident on the way here there would have been no Baylor All Saints or Harris Methodist Hospitals to take you to.

Not a single Christmas carol or Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus would ever have been heard.

No city would be named St. Paul or St. Petersburg or Corpus Christi.

We would have never heard of William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, John Knox, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Billy Graham, Elizabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, Fanny Crosby, Alexander Solzenitzen, C.S. Lewis, or… make a list of your own.

There would be no organizations such as Wycliffe Bible Translators, Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, The Navigators, The Red Cross, or The Salvation Army if Jesus had never been born!

MILLIONS OF AMERICANS ARE OKAY WITHOUT GOD?

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and countless other institutions of higher learning would not exist.

We would have no such books as Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’s Christmas Carol, or even The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

We would never have ever heard such songs as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” “Fairest Lord Jesus,” “Joy to the World.”

Idioms would never have been brought into our language such as the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, lost sheep, or any of Jesus’ other parables.

We would not have teachings that have entered our every day speech such as turn the other cheek, go the second mile, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and love your enemies.

It’s unlikely that this continent would have seen the arrival of the Pilgrims, who were overwhelmingly Christian.

The United States Founding documents would not be what they are, as 50 of the 55 signers were orthodox Christians.

The New Testament would never have been written.

There would be no mediator between God and man, for the man Christ Jesus would not have been born. We would remain dead in our trespasses and sins.

As C.S. Lewis put it: Life without God would be “Always winter and never Christmas.”

Without Jesus, our world would be a different place where few would want to live.

No wonder the angels celebrated the “good news” of the coming of Christ!

No, dear atheist friend, it’s not a myth. And millions of Americans are not “good without God.”

Let’s pray: