A reminder

Every year Christmas comes around.

Every year Social Media gets lite up with all kinds of stories that claim to explain something in some amazing way, or reveal something that adds so much to the story of Christmas. And it seems every year I go down the rabbit hole of trying to dispute most of it.

SO this year I am just going to say this: all those stories detract from the wonders of the Bible, not add. Jesus was not placed in some special manger meant for a precious lamb, because that would not make sense, with just a BASIC understanding of geography.

BUT ANYWAY:

I realize that Christmas is special. But what is Christmas?

Is it the Celebration of the birth of Jesus? A reminder that Jesus was born. Both? And if so, how we Celebrate the truth that our Savior came, was born of a virgin - how we celebrate that matters.

Christmas.

Christ - Messiah, anointed one, chosen one

Mas - Celebration

Christmas - the celebration of the birth of our savior.

simple enough.

So, what should Christmas be for those of us who call upon the name of Jesus.

Christmas should be A REMINDER

From the closing words of God to the Prophet Malachi to the Priest Zechariah was 400 years. 400 years of silence. 400 years of people remembering the Word of God. 400 years of people forgetting the Word of God. 400 years of life. 400 years of complacency. 400 years of dedication.

And then God speaks.

He speaks to Zechariah.

He speaks through Angels.

and speaks to Joseph.

Matthew 1:22–23 CSB

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

Remember. 700 years ago.

Isaiah 7:14 CSB

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

God speaks and says that the prophecy that He commanded 700 years prior was coming to fruition.

And all who would hear would REMEMBER.

Now from the life of Jesus to now is about 2000 years.

2000 years of silence.

2000 years of NOT silence.

2000 years of people forgetting the Word of God.

2000 years of people being committed to the Word of God.

2000 years of of truth that Jesus was born, did live, was murdered, crucified in our place, paid a price for you and me, that we could not pay, died on the cross - and came back!

2000 years of people abandoning the truth.

2000 years of people clinging to the truth.

Sound familiar?

So every year we Celebrate the birth of Jesus, because the birth of Jesus was one of the most profound moments in all of history. Literal world shaker, and it wasn’t in silence! It was loud in all the right ways, in all the right places, in all the ways that could shake the core of the earth; completely in opposition to how the WORLD would say it should have happened.

Which, oh y the way, is part of all that social media garbage that shows up.

SO what do we get a reminder of at Christmas?

Brothers and sisters:

1 -A reminder that God said it, and it happened!

God made Prophecies and then those Prophecies came to fruition. See a Prophecy is something that is spoken of before it happens, and then it happens.

Conservative number - over 2000 Prophecies fulfilled.

And i’m not talking about educated guesses. I’m not talking cheap parlor trick palm reading spouting generalizations based on observation.

God made prophecy about things so specifically that the only way they could have happened the way God said, was if God Himself made them happen. Because they were things that happened hundreds of years apart. Thousands of years apart. Things that involved people that no man could sway. Things that involved the laws of nature that no man could manipulate.

Things so specific that it would require people to do uncharacteristic things, in highly unlikely places, under insanely unique circumstances - and yet they happened.

God gives His word, and God KEEPS HIS WORD!

For instance: the Birth of Jesus fulfilled over 300 biblical Prophecies. Some well over a thousand years from the time the Lord spoke them.

All things covered: virgin birth, born in Bethlehem yet from Nazareth, things that Jesus would do, His ministry, His life, His betrayal, 30 pieces of silver, His death, literal prophecy speaking about the crucifixion (something that was not common in when the prophecy was made), His burial - and His resurrection.

2 - A reminder that If God says it is going to happen, then it is going to happen!

my friends, GOD still has prophecy that is about our future.

If everything God said was going to happened, did in fact happen; then doesn’t it stand to reason that everything God says IS going to happen, will in fact happen.

Rapture

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 CSB

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

John 14:1–3 CSB

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.

I could go on, but this sermon is not about the Rapture specifically.

Tribulation

Matthew 24:21 CSB

For at that time there will be great distress, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again.

Man of Lawlessness

2 Thessalonians 2:9 CSB

The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie,

Passing away of all current things

Establishment of the New Heaven and New Earth

3 - A Reminder that if God said it, then it is TRUE!

If God says it, it is true.

There was a time when God spoke through men carried along by the spirit.

2 Peter 1:21 CSB

because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Either Prophets or the authors of the Word of God.

God still speaks, but when it comes to what we call His WORD - that is closed. Not because GOD has stopped speaking, but because everything that we need is available in His word.

Recently His word was made available in the South Pacific for the first time. Took decades. God’s Word is now in the language Tokelau.

Why dedicate so much to that? Because everyone needs access to God’s Word. Because His word is TRUTH!

Christmas should be a reminder that there is absolute TRUTH!

We live in a world full of garbage relativism - live your truth, my truth, your truth - all deception to molest the word TRUTH so that it means nothing. TO BLUE THE LINES between what is real and what is subjective.

Brothers and Sisters: THERE IS TRUTH. It is the Word of God.

Not only does the Bible claim itself to be true.

There are so many extra biblical sources that confirm the truth within the BIble that it cannot be denied.

I borrowed this from Focus on the Family:

5 Reasons we know the Bible is True.

1. Documentation

There is significantly more documentation for the books of the Bible than there are for other historically recognized authors and literature, including Plato and others.

2. Archeological findings

Excavation sites and artifacts also provide evidence that many of the events, people, and places mentioned in the Bible really existed, including the Hittite people and the city of Jericho.

3. Eyewitness accounts

The Gospels give multiple points of view and, in many cases, were written within the lifetimes of the people who witnessed the events recorded in the Bible. Writers focused on different aspects, but they had the same message: Jesus taught, healed, performed miracles, died on the cross, and rose from the dead.

4. The life of Jesus

The fact that Jesus was a real, historical person is clearly documented by Jewish manuscripts, even before the Apostle Paul and the writers of the Gospels provided their eyewitness accounts. Other ancient cultural documents also reference his existence. For example, the Roman leader and historian, Tacitus, wrote: 

“Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus…”

5. Redeemed lives

We see evidence of the Bible’s trustworthiness by the lives that have been changed and redeemed by it. A few examples include C.S. Lewis, a former atheist who became one of world’s leading Christian apologists, and John Newton, a former slave-ship master who converted to Christianity and penned “Amazing Grace.”