I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday

## Christmas in August?

> It was August 1973.

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> Men women were heading to and from work in stylish suits; hippies were hanging out in the parks;

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> and parents were complained that their children's jeans were too wide and that their the shorts were well.. too short!

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> In the charts, Gary Glitter was four week steark at number one with 'I'm the leader of the gang'. But was about dethroned with by dreamy eyed Donny Osmond's 'Young Love'. No one was thinking about Christmas, a wouldn't be for sometime.

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> But in an out of the way recording studio things were very different.

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> The fans were blowing freezing air. Baubles and tinsel hung from instrument stands and microphone cables, there was even a Christmas tree in the corner.

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> Completely unknown to the world outside, that afternoon Roy Wood and his unknown band, 'Wizzard', were about to make Christmas history.

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> _I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everday_ was born.

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> The song never made it to Christmas number one. But with over 6 million views and 1,800 comments on YouTube this 45 year old glam rock song is still as big a Christmas anthemn as ever! Maybe even bigger!

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> But despite it's catchy chorus and clever rock and roll style, the Adventurers done a fantastic job of showing us why none of us would want that kind of Christmas everyday.

So is the problem that Wizzard over sold us a dream of Christmas that can't measure up? I'm not convinced.

I don't think Wizzard oversold how great it would to have Christmas everyday. No I think they've undersold it!

They're offering you a bag of chocolate coins when their is a box of Guylians with your name on it!

So if you are willing to hear me out, I'd like to take you back two thousands years to a family expecting a baby. A baby who for that family (and for us!) would make everyday into Christmas day.

It would be a Christmas that would change their lives for ever... And it might even change your's too.

But to explain what I mean we need to take a closer look at the passage we heard earlier.

So if there is a bible in front of you, you might want to grab it and open it to Matthew 1:18-25. Page 996 in the red bibe.

We're going to focus on one verse, verse 21. A verse that gives us an incredible snapshot of the who the baby in the manger really is.

A snapshot that helps us see that...

## Jesus is the saviour we desperately need (Matthew 1:21)

Jesus is the saviour we desperately need.

> Last week, some friends and I went up to London to do the Crystal Maze Experience. If you've never heard of the Crystal Maze it was a game show from the 90s.

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> in it teams of eight raced to solve 12 puzzles split across 4 zones to win Crystals. Each crystal gained the team 5 seconds in the crystal dome at the end of the show where they had to collect gold tickets to win prizes. simple

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> Puzzle were either physical, mental, mystery, or skill. And usually had to be completed in under three minutes. Fail to get out in time and you were locked in.

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> The point of the Experience was that you got to go around the zones with a maze master, play the puzzles, win crystals, and try to beat the dome.

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> Now I watched a lot of Crystal Maze growing up. And often it looks easy enough from the comfort of your own sofa,

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> But when you are in a puzzle room, against the clock, with all your mates shouting at you through a little window... Well...

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> I can tell you your mind turns to jelly and it is easy to crack under the pressure.

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> And funnily enough, several of us did just that. The puzzle sounded simply enough, but when it came to the crunch we crumpled in the face of an impossible task.

If you were at the Adventurers Parents evening a couple of Weeks ago. You'll remember how the Bible gives us a really neat summary of what God says a good life is supposed to look like.

In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus says that the good life it is to **"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind"** and to **"Love your other people like you love yourself**"

Sound simple enough, doesn't it. Be a loving person, sorted, I can do that, piece of cake. I'm already a decent loving person as it is thanks.

Then Jesus tells us, as one translation puts it, that

> "The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

Oh.

Did you catch that. Jesus says that every law God ever gave for people to live by is summed up in those two: Love God with everything you are and love others like yourself. Which means...

Every time we use God's name as a swaer word, every time we dishour our parents, everytime we get angry at someone, gossip behind their back, deceive someone, eat too much, drink too much, fail to be generous, fail to be kind, obey God just to get what we want, the list goes on.

Everytime we do those things and more we are failing to love God and failing to love others.

All this means that actually being fairly loving isn't loving enough, if these two commands summ up everything the bible says about human life. Then the only way to be that loving is to be perfect.

I don't know about you, but I certainly am incapable of loving God and other humans perfectly. FOr me it is an imppossble task. If you're honest with yourself, can you?

The bible calls this failure to be perfectly loving towards God and other, sin. And sin separates us from God, it makes it impossible to know God and to experience the life he has for us.

Worse still this is his law we are braking, it makes us Criminals in his eyes destined to face his justice and experience hell when this life is over. That bad news.

Here is some good news, it dosen't have to be that way In Matthew 1:21 the angel says to Joesph that,

> "[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Jesus' name means the "Lord God Saves" and this is exactly what Jesus was born to do, to save his people from their sins.

We might not be able to love God and others perfectly but Jesus can and Jesus did. He lived a life of perfect love for God and others, and he lived it on our behalf.

The amazing and wonderful truth of Christianity is that Jesus was able to do this because he is more than a perfect human, he is God himself. That's why **Matthew 1:23** calls Jesus **'Immanuel'**, God with us, because Jesus really was God the Son come to earth a human being.

Just take a moment to process how earth shattering that is. That the almighty God who created supernovas, the milky way, and sub-atomic particles allowed himself to be confined inside a tiny frail human body.

That's mind blowing!

But it gets better!

God didn't come to earth as a man just to be starred at; he came with a mission!

Jesus lived a perfect human life to die a perfect death on our behalf. You see the baby born in Bethlehem would thirty-odd years later die on a Roman Cross.

And there on the cross all the anger and justice of God against our sin, our law-brekaing, would be poured out on Jesus so that Jesus perfect record could be transfered to us.

Did you catch that? It's truly amazing!

On the cross Jesus became like us, a criminal and law-breaker in God's eyes so that we could become like him - perfect and right in God's eyes.

He received the punishment that would have been ours, so that we could live the life God always intended for us.

A life where we would learn to love God and love others. A life of joy, and meaning, and purpose.

A life where everything becomes filled with etneral significance. A life were God would always be with us, and us with him.

The moment we place our trust in Jesus for forgiveness and commit to live differently, life begins again and continues that way forever.

Jesus was born to die to make this new life available for us, for me, for you... yes even you!

For Christian, everyday is Christmas day because everyday we remember that the baby in the manger was the God of the Univser come to rescue us.

That the baby boy grew up to be the saviour of the human race. A Saviour who has changed our lives forever, and he can change your life too.

Because Jesus is God come to earth to be the saviour we desperately need.

## Christmas Everyday?

> This might surprise you but did you know that CHristian's don't have to celebrate Christmas?

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> It's true, the Bible says alot about how Jesus was born and why it matters, but it doesn't say anything about how or when to celebrate it.

In fact, it tells us to think carefully, about why we celebrate the events we do. Paul, one of the New Testament writers, says in Romans 14:5,

> **One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.**

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> So Tree or no tree, Santa, stockings, presents, carols, nativity display, advent calendar... the bible leaves it to each person to decided according to their own conscience how they are to mark the birth of Jesus, if at all.

Now that is not to say celebrating christmas is a bad thing, it is a good thing. But what is easy to forget is that we are not holding all of these Christmas services because we have to, but because we want to.

Every year we take take the month of December, and December 25th in particular to remember something which is true all year around.

That God the Son came to earth as a baby born to a virgin the little town of Bethlehem.

One day a year to remember that the baby in the manger grew up to die for our sins. Jesus did all that so we could know the joy of forgiveness and the meaning and purposes that comes from having a restored relationship with God who made us. For those who trust in

Jesus this is true all year round, whether it is 25th December or the 1st June.

For Christians we take Christmas day, to remember that it is in fact Christmas everyday. It might not be the kind of Christmas that Roy Wood and Wizzard were wishing for in their Christmas song.

There's no snow, winter walks, or visits from Santa. But as we've seen throughout this service. Wizzard's dream of Christmas everyday both underpromises and underdelivers.

"I Wish it could be Christmas Everday" under promises and undelivers because it fails to see that things we obsess over every year - presents, food, snow - are just the wrapping paper of God's Christmas present to the world.

And like toddlers it be so easy for us to spend so much time playing with the wrapping paper that we don't relaise we supposed to be delighting in the Amazing Gift our Heavenly Father has for us. HIs one and only son. Jesus.

Jesus. The baby who came that first Christmas.

Jesus. THe God of the universe born laid in a manager.

Jesus. The saviour we so desperately need.

For Christian it really is Christmas everyday, and it can be for you too. Maybe this will be Christmas you turn to your God and Saviour trusting him to give you the forgiveness you desperately need.

Then you might just find, to your surprise, that you won't need to wish it could be Christmas everyday.

Because it will be.

Let's pray.