God's Glorious Gift

Good Morning. Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. Yes, it is still Christmas.

It might not be in many of our homes but it is still Christmas season.

Let’s talk about this for a moment. For many people You aren’t allowed to talk about or put up Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. Now Technically, I hate to admit this but these people are correct.

Now, let’s get something clear here. Many of these individuals will tell you its because we need to respect Thanksgiving as a holiday. I mean that’s a good thought but the truth is that the real reason we aren’t supposed to start before Thanksgiving is the way that the church has set up the Christian calendar.

Yet, the truth is that the real reason is because the season of Advent doesn’t start till the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The season of Advent marks the beginning of the Church calendar year.

Yes, we don’t officially start Advent till after thanksgiving. We need to talk about when Christmas actually starts and ends.

See the problem is that we think that Christmas starts on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving. The true answer is that Advent starts on that Sunday. Christmas starts on Christmas day and guess what it doesn’t end on Christmas day!

I noticed this a lot this Christmas season. I heard people talk about Christmas being over and that we are done celebrating the Birth of Christ and I look around and I realized oh man we are sorely mistaken.

Christmas in the Christian church doesn’t end until Epiphany.

Some of you might be sitting here going what in the world is Epiphany?

Is Pastor Andy just making terms up now.

Epiphany

Epiphany is the celebration of Jesus Baptism. Its like the ultimate time jump.

We go from Jesus as a baby to a couple of weeks later Boom he is an adult and he is getting baptized.

Epiphany is celebrated traditionally on Jan. 6th. Or the Sunday that falls between Jan. 4th and 8th roughly.

Today is actually Epiphany Sunday though in the calendar we celebrate and recognize this on Tuesday this week.

What does this have to do with Christmas? Are you following yet?

Christmas

We celebrate Christmas for 12 days.

We recognize that Christmas is a time that shouldn’t be contained within one day. We sing songs, we give gifts, we celebrate the arrival of our King. What a time to of the year that we look forward to.

When someone says pack up the tree on Christmas day throw a Bible at them and say NO! we are celebrating Jesus, or even better. On their Birthday start putting away the gifts and the cake right as they are blowing out the candles.

Alright now I know this might sound like I am getting on a soap box but there is a reason for this today.

Jesus arrived and we celebrate that and he brought change. Think about it for a moment.

The Reason we celebrate Christmas is the arrival of Jesus. Jesus in his ministry challenged and pushed and forced change.

Now This time of year with the new year is in many ways all about change.

IT is the time of year that we look to better ourselves. This leads me to a passage that I want to share that should inspire us to change.

Ephesians 1:6–9 NIV

6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,

God’s Glorious Grace

We celebrate the glorious gift of God that he gives us with his son. This is the grace of God and it is given for us so that we can remember things like this.

Ephesians 1:7 NIV

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

The Gift he is Giving

God gave us the gift of Jesus at Christmas. Jesus walked with us and lived on this earth and died on the cross for us.

He then sent the Holy Spirit to be with us and to guide us and that also led to the creation of the Bible.

How has he made it Known?

He made it known through the scriptures