Why Christmas

Questions for Christmas

What is Christmas

Illustration: A mother lost her boy

Four Reasons for Jesus's Coming

- to ransom many, to call sinners, to give sight to the morally blind, and to give eternal life.

- to call sinners,

to give sight to the morally blind, to save from divine condemnation, and to give eternal life.

to give sight to the morally blind,

to give sight to the morally blind, to save from divine condemnation, and to give eternal life.

- to give sight to the morally blind,

- to give eternal life.

- to give eternal life.

1. He Came as a Ransom for Many

—"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The reason we need a ransom to be paid for us is that we have sold ourselves into sin and have been alienated from a holy God. When Jesus gave his life as a ransom, our slavemasters, sin and death and the devil, had to give up their claim on us. And the result was that we could be adopted into the family of God.

Paul put it like this in , "When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons." In other words the redemption or the ransom frees us to be a part of God's family. We had run away and sold ourselves into slavery. But God pays a ransom and redeems us out of slavery into the Father's house.

To do that, God's Son had to become a human being so that he could suffer and die in our place to pay the ransom. That is the meaning of Christmas. puts it like this, "Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death." In other words, the reason Christ took on human flesh was so that he could die and in dying pay a ransom and free us from the power of death.

Is this an elaborate creation of desperate human imagination, or is it God's exact provision for our need?

2. He Came to call sinners to repentance.

, "Jesus said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'"

Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. First, there needed to be a ransom to be paid for sinners. Then, there could be a successful call to sinners. The call is based on the ransom. And Jesus says he came for both of these things.

He does not leave the ransoming or the calling to others. He ransoms and he calls. Even today he is calling through the Bible and through the preaching of the Bible. He is calling this morning.

That is the meaning of Christmas. He came to call sinners.

3. He Came to give sight to the morally blind.

, "Jesus said, 'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see." And , "I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me might not remain in darkness."

Jesus did not merely come to ransom and to call, he also came to open people's eyes so that they can see the light and walk in it. Our problem is not just slavery needing a ransom, and lostness needing a call, our problem is also moral blindness, needing the gift of sight. We are simply blind to some spiritual realities that are utterly crucial to see and embrace.

This is why Christ came: that those who do not see may see. This is the meaning of Christmas.

4. He Came to give us eternal life.

, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Christmas means that God sent his Son so that we could believe and have eternal life. 

This is what Patty was talking about when she said last night, with her dead child in her arms, "How do people bear it who have no hope?" The hope she meant was eternal life. And that life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Conclusion: Believe in Jesus and Receive the Gift of Life 

There are many interpretation of “Believe”

Believing is not “knowing”

Believing is not just “receiving”, but giving

Believing is delighting, embracing, making Christ the treasure of our life; not loosing, but lose others

As a American, unlike other third world nation, Our translation on “believing” is

Know him, be with him, enjoy him, follow him, and celebrate him—The Change of Heart