Christmas message

Good morning! Since it is December, I wanted to share with you a Christmas message. Christmas is a time that we as Christians can be joyful and thankful and we can have confidence in who we are as a child of God. I am glad that I have this opportunity we can celebrate together and I have the opportunity to share God’s Word with you today. I want to thank you and to give you encouragement as you are the light of Jesus to this area of Suriname. This is your special responsibility.

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We have so many wonderful traditions as Christians around the Christmas time. We have special foods, enjoy time with our families, exchange gifts, and sing joyful songs. This Christmas time is also one where we remember Jesus coming to Earth. While opening a gift at Christmas is a delight, the best gift is accepting God’s offer of forgiveness of sin and the gift of hope and peace. That is a gift that will truly last forever! Today, I want to share three things with you today about Christmas. The first thing I want to talk about is that Jesus is fully God, but He also came in humble circumstances as a person in the form of a baby.

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You have certainly all seen a baby. They is able to do some things themselves but, they still need their diaper changed and to be dressed and fed. Now think about Jesus coming to Earth as a baby. Jesus being God himself, how humiliating it must have been for him to need to be cared for. Jesus was there at the creation of the world and with the creation of mankind and now to come to Earth as a human baby himself! He is the same God who spoke the world into existence and knows every grain of sand on the seashore. The God who feeds every living thing needed to be fed. The strong hand that helped the Israelites to win their wars was now bound inside a baby cloth. The God who formed every person, now has the weaknesses of being a physical person. Jesus came as a baby, needed parents and others to care for him. He lived a life of ridicule, shame, and hardship. Then He died one of the most humiliating deaths possible on the cross by crucifixion. If anybody deserved to be revered and respected and deserved a place of honor, it was Jesus! Yet, He lived a life of humiliation and humbleness. Why did Jesus do this? For two reasons, to be obedient to the will of God the Father and for the love of mankind that they might be reconciled to God. Sinful man can only be reconciled to a holy God through faith in Jesus Christ.

‌Let me read a passage of scripture related to this which illustrates all of this very well:

‌Phil 2:1-11 (NIV)

‌ Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature a God,

‌did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

‌7rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature b of a servant,

‌being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man,

‌he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

‌9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

‌in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Christmas is a time for celebration, but it is also a time to remember our Savior Jesus who was born at this time. Jesus should have received all praise and honor at his coming. He could have come with bright lights and loud thunder and commanded that all people praise Him. This kind of experience will happen at His second coming. But instead, what was Jesus’ first coming like? How did He come into our world? He came to our Earth with humbleness and lowliness as a child and as a servant. For this reason, just like Jesus, we as a disciple of Jesus should have a lifestyle of humbleness and as a servant of others. Jesus was willing to die on the cross for us that we can be set free from our sin. We are not God and we are sinful ourselves, so we cannot give our life to save other people from sin, but what we can do is to give what we have, our time, our money, and our attention to others and to God so that we show our love for others and our love and obedience to God. Jesus is our perfect example and we ought to live as Jesus lived.

-The next thing I want you to understand this morning is that that Jesus is God 100% but he was also man 100%. That means that He was there at the creation of the world and he is completely God. Yet, he was also a person while He was on Earth. He felt happiness, sadness, pain, and laughter. But in all of these feelings, He did not sin even one time. Our God is not one who is very far away, He is close to us. The gods of other religions cannot be understood, but our God wants a relationship with us.

Is 7:14: “14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”

Our God is Immanuel, God WITH us. The other gods which the nations and other religions follow are distant. They do not love people or have a relationship with them. Jesus is our true God who is near to us. He desires closeness and a relationship with the people whom He created. We can go to Him in prayer and He intercedes for us. Only a God with no sin who understands our customs and our weakness can intercede for us in a true and good way.

‌ Jesus lived on Earth with us. He was born in a humble way. Then He lived the perfect life. His teaching helps us to understand how we as people can know God and how to please God. He understands your problems and He understand your Joy. When your life gets hard, Satan wants you to believe that you are alone and have no hope. He whispers lies in your ears. Satan says, “you cannot know God” “God does not love you”. “You have special trouble, and nobody can help you with your trouble. God cannot and will not help you with your troubles”

But these things which Satan says are all lies. When you are a child of God, you are never alone. God is always with you and even better, Jesus understands you. He understands what makes you happy and what makes you sad. Jesus had friends, family, laughter, sadness, trouble and joy. No matter the problem, you can go to Jesus because He loves you and understands your life. If you come to him with humility and obedience, he will never turn you away as any loving father would do. So, when you have a problem, go to Jesus through prayer. When you are happy and thankful, give praise to God for giving you that gift from His hand.

-‌ Finally, while it is important to know that Jesus is humble and that He understands our lives but, I want you to understand the real important reason that Jesus came to this Earth. In the Bible, Jesus has been given many names: bread of life, water of life, the word savior. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born on the Earth, a prophet named Isaiah prophesied that there would be a future king that would come and would bring light, hope, and peace.

Read Is. 9:6: For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

‌One of the important names that is listed in this verse is Prince of Peace. How do we get peace? What does it really mean to have peace? Is it a quiet place in the jungle? Is it having no war? It is hard to find peace here in the busy city of Paramaribo. There are buses making noise on the road. Neighbors who are shouting and fighting. Children or friends who are asking you for things all the time. You are thinking, “I just want some peace!” Then, there is a possible war happening in Venezuela with other wars throughout the world. We all need peace, but how with so much turmoil can we actually get peace?

‌ Jesus came to this Earth to bring true peace. His disciples and many who listened to Him thought that Jesus would bring freedom from the Roman government who was causing the people of Israel so much trouble. Some people even today think that Jesus will bring them wealth and that would bring an end to their troubles and bring peace in their lives. These were not the reasons that Jesus came to this Earth, but He did bring true peace.

‌ Every person who ever lived has a problem, a disease that brings problems and a lack of peace. That is sin. The Bible says that all people have sinned (Rom 3:23). God is holy and cannot have any sin or evil with Him. Our sin breaks the relationship between God and man and causes turmoil. God does not wish that we would be separated from Him forever, but all people gave this condition because of our sin. Not only is our relationship broken but also, the payment for sin is death of our earthly life and eternal death. We as sinners are under the wrath of God! As a sinner, we are the object of the wrath of God. How can we be saved from this condition? How can we have true and lasting peace?? THIS is the reason Jesus came as a baby to Earth. When Jesus gave His life on the cross, our sin debt was paid and we were forgiven. If we put our faith upon Jesus, we have salvation and we have peace with God! The same God who created the world and who made you can now have a relationship with you. When we put our faith in Jesus, our relationship with God is restored and we have peace. True peace does not come from no noise or no problems. Peace comes through a right relationship with God. We can only get that in and through Jesus Christ.

‌ Even when there is trouble and hard things in our lives, we can still have peace knowing that God loves us and that God, our Imannauel, is with us. This is how Jesus is our Prince of Peace.

To finish, I wanted to remind everyone what we talked about today.

1. Jesus is God and has all but He came to our world humbly as a baby. Jesus lived a humble life as a servant with love and service. We as Jesus’ disciples ought to live with humility as a servant with love for God and love for others.

2. Jesus is 100% God and He was also 100% man when He was here on Earth. Remember that Jesus knows your joy and your problems. You can go to God through prayer because He loves you and understands your life.

3. Finally, Jesus is our prince of peace because He made the way for sinful people to have peace with a holy God and a relationship restored. This happens when we put our faith and trust upon Jesus.

This is our Christmas message. (For all of these reasons and more, this is a day of joy and celebration). May God bless you all and fill you with joy.

‌Let’s pray