What Will Become of Me if There Were Not A Christmas?

Scriptural Text:

What Will Become of Me if There Were Not A Christmas?

Christmas

The festival of Christ’s birth has been celebrated in the Western Church on December 25 since about the 4th century. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 6, and links it with the season of Epiphany, when Christ was manifested to the world by the Magi (wise men).

In many western countries, Christmas has been so commercialized and secularized that it is often hard to find any reference to the nativity story. Christians have not always celebrated Christmas. Some Puritans refused to have a holiday on Christmas Day.

 Mark Water, The Christian Book of Records (Alresford, Hants, UK: John Hunt Pub., 2002), 160.

Signs of the Times 631

The May 1984 National Geographic showed through color photos and drawings the swift and terrible destruction that wiped out the Roman Cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 b.c.

The explosion of Mount Vesuvius was so sudden, the residents were killed while in their routine: men and women were at the market, the rich in their luxurious baths, slaves at toil. They died amid volcanic ash and superheated gasses. Even family pets suffered the same quick and final fate. It takes little imagination to picture the panic of that terrible day.

The saddest part is that these people did not have to die. Scientists confirm what ancient Roman writers record—weeks of rumblings and shakings preceded the actual explosion. Even an ominous plume of smoke was clearly visible from the mountain days before the eruption. If only they had been able to read and respond to Vesuvius’s warning!

There are similar “rumblings” in our world: warfare, earthquakes, the nuclear threat, economic woes, breakdown of the family and moral standards. While not exactly new, these things do point to a coming day of Judgment (). People need not be caught unprepared. God warns and provides an escape to those who will heed the rumblings.

Warnings, Judgment

For us mainly these passages(v.12-19) is the revelation of Jesus as the coming King. It involves both a false concept and the true concept of His coming. It is a picture of how men have seen Jesus down through the centuries:

The crowds gathered for the Passover (v.12)

Est. over two million (Josephus)

Multiple Groups: (1) Jesus disciples, (2) the multitude of Bethany who saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the grave, (3) the multitude of pilgrims who were told by the prior group of Lazarus resurrection, and (4) the Pharisees who was against Jesus

The false concept of Christ (v.12-13) Conqueror(straighten out the problems on the earth) Provider(sought to bless man in all the good things life) Indulgent, Passive Lord(accept men no matter what he does, just so he is somewhat religious; live as you desire)

Conqueror(straighten out the problems on the earth)

Provider(sought to bless man in all the good things life)

Indulgent, Passive Lord(accept men no matter what he does, just so he is somewhat religious; live as you desire)

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Point: Don’t come to Jesus for material blessings, but must come because you love Him (; ; ; ; John 2:15-16)

(NKJV) 1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

(NKJV) 17Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” 18“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

17Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”

18“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

(NKJV) 6But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.

6But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us.

(NKJV) 4No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

4No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

(NKJV) 15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.

The true concept of Christ (v.14-15)

The disciples’ reaction (v.16)

The people’s reaction (v.17-18)

The religionists’ reaction: despair and rage (v.19)

Thus the Incarnation has ramifications in relation to our knowledge of God, to our salvation, to our daily living, to our pressing needs, and to the future. It truly is the central fact of history.

The New Testament states the following purposes for the incarnation:

To Reveal God to Us (; )

Though God reveals Himself in various ways, including the magnificence of nature around us, only the Incarnation revealed the essence of God, though veiled (; ). The only way man can see the Father is to know about the Son, and the only way we can do that today is through studying the record of His life in the Scriptures.

Though God reveals Himself in various ways, including the magnificence of nature around us, only the Incarnation revealed the essence of God, though veiled (; ). The only way man can see the Father is to know about the Son, and the only way we can do that today is through studying the record of His life in the Scriptures.

To Provide an Example for Our Lives (; )

The earthly life of our Lord is held up to us as a pattern for our living today (; ).

The earthly life of our Lord is held up to us as a pattern for our living today (; ).

To Provide an Effective Sacrifice for Sin ().

Without the Incarnation we would have no Savior. Sin requires death for its payment. God does not die. So the Savior must be human in order to be able to die. But the death of an ordinary man would not pay for sin eternally, so the Savior must also be God. We must have a God-man Savior, and we do in our Lord ().

Without the Incarnation we would have no Savior. Sin requires death for its payment. God does not die. So the Savior must be human in order to be able to die. But the death of an ordinary man would not pay for sin eternally, so the Savior must also be God. We must have a God-man Savior, and we do in our Lord ().

To Destroy the Works of the Devil ()

So Christ was sent into this world to destroy Satan’s works.

To Be Able to Be a Sympathetic High Priest ()

To Be Able to Be a Sympathetic High Priest ()

To Be Able to Be a Qualified Judge