Celebrating Christmas Pt. 1

Intro

Here’s what I want to do tonight and next week. From the beginning of this series in the Gospel of Luke, it was planned to do Luke 1 and 2 for the Christmas season…because…Luke 1 and 2 are the Christmas story. Makes sense right?

So if you look at my preaching calendar you’ll see an outline of what I want to preach each week. And usually the week before a message I’ll open up the document, look at what I’m preaching, and start wrapping my mind around it.

So, I do that last week to start preparing myself for this week…and all it says is “Luke 1”. No thoughts that I had, no theme to draw out, no specific part of the passage…nothing.

And I’m thinking, okay…that’s fine. I’ll just start reading and figuring it out…and I do that. and do it again. and do it again. and nothing.

Came in this week, looked at it again Tuesday for a minute…nothing. Dedicated a few hours to it yesterday, lots of research and reading…nothing.

Not gonna lie, started getting nervous…I’ve never had this happen…where I come up to the day that I’m preaching…and I don’t know what I’m preaching. So this morning, instead of my normal bible reading…I decide to scrap it and spend more time in Luke 1 and 2 looking for a specific passage. And I think I identified the reason I was having a hard time...

The reason is…I felt a tension. A tension between what I wanted to tell you, and finding it in just one particular passage in Luke. Because that’s what we normally do here…we open to one very specific passage…and we go through it verse by verse to draw out the meaning and application of it.

But when it came to the Christmas season…I approached it like I normally do… “God, what would you have for our ministry this season?” “What do you want them to learn?” “What do they need to hear that is from your word?”

What I believe is that the Lord brought clarity this morning. And that clarity, is that what he has for you, isn’t found in just one passage in Luke 1 or 2, but is instead found throughout the entirety of both chapters.

I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to spend intentional time understanding why we celebrate Christmas. And I don’t just mean “Jesus is the reason for the season” type of stuff. I mean, I believe that God wants us to understand the implications of Jesus being born. The things it fulfilled, the hope that it meant for God’s people…the reason why things happened the way they did.

So here’s what we are going to do. We are going to spend this week and next week in a two part message called “Celebrating Christmas”. And what we are going to look at, is what we are actually doing when we celebrate Christmas.

Because…it’s not about the time of year. Not sure how many of you know this, but most scholars believe that Jesus actually wasn’t born in December. Most study leads us to believe that we was actually born in September, with another possibility being March. This is based off a whole bunch of things that I don’t have the time to get into, but if you’re interested, come find me afterwards and I’d love to break that down for you.

So anyway, when we are celebrating Christmas, it’s not a chronological thing we are celebrating…and in fact, it’s not a scriptural command we are following.

There actually isn’t any scriptural support for having a separate holiday set apart for Christmas, and in fact the early church didn’t celebrate it...

So, it’s not an historical even we are celebrating, it’s not a scriptural command we are following...

What is it?

Celebrating Christmas is a redemptive celebration. That is, we are celebrating a specific moment in God’s history of redemption. That is, the history of God bringing people to himself.

Think of it like this…how many of you have celebrated some kind of anniversary before? Whether it’s a relationship, work related, friend related?

Let’s just use a relationship anniversary as an example. Brittany and I were married on October 18th, 2014.

Every year, when October 18th comes around…we celebrate our anniversary. But here’s the thing…we don’t always celebrate it on the specific day. Because sometimes…the 18th is on a Monday, or Wednesday…and it’s just not practical or fun even to celebrate then. Sometimes I buy us tickets to something that’s a month away, and we celebrate it then. How many of you have some type of anniversary or even birthday, in which you’re okay if you’re actually celebrating it a little before or after?

Why is that?

It’s because the date, the moment in history, is not what you’re celebrating. Instead, what you’re celebrating is a specific point in your life. It’s the relationship, or life, that you’re celebrating…and not the actual date.

And so to, is Christmas for the church. To the church, it doesn’t matter the exact day Jesus was born, but just the fact that he was born. And to the church back in 3rd or 4th century…Jesus’ birth was worthy celebrating, even if it meant they were just putting it somewhere in the calendar that they use to celebrate other things as a culture.

Celebrating Christmas is a way for the church, worldwide, to come together and celebrate the redemptive history. To come together in the midst of winter, to refocus our hearts, and lift our eyes up to God as a redeemed people.

It’s a part of the liturgy, the order of worship, for the global church. Much like Easter is.

All that to say…and here’s the first point...

When celebrating Christmas…

We celebrate a savior born.

I want to be very clear. We celebrate the birth, not the birth date.

So that’s the first point, and we aren’t even in the scripture yet…we want to make sure that doesn’t happen very often, so let’s get to the the meat and open our Bibles to Luke 1.

As you’re turning there. Let me pray for our time in the word together.

Alright, so we are going to be doing just a little bit of jumping around in the text today. If you have a physical bible, you’ll be better off then just your phone, because you’ll be able to see multiple things at once.

Like I said, we are in Luke 1 and 2 for the next few weeks. I want to take a moment and point out some events that happen rather than specific verses. I’m going to point these out and just add them to our bucket of understanding, then we’ll pour the bucket out and see what all we have.

Here’s the first drop in the bucket. Look at Luke 1.

Here we see the birth of John the Baptist. John’s dad was a priest in the temple of God. And as he’s doing his priestly duties, something happens.

Luke 1:8–13 ESV

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

So, we will stop there for now. We will come back to the second part a bit later , but this will do for now. To summarize, an angel shows up and declares a prophecy to Zechariah.

So first drop in the bucket. Angel declares prophecy.

Next, turn the page and look...

Luke 1:26–33 ESV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Same thing. We will stop there for now, but come back to the second half a bit later.

So first drop in the bucket, angel declares prophecy about John.

Second drop in the bucket, angel declares prophecy about Jesus.

Next turn the page and look at Mary’s Song.

Luke 1:46–55 ESV

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

So we won’t get into this line by line for now…but I just want you to see what’s going on here.

So, the drops in the bucket…you’ll see how all these relate in just a moment, I promise, just stay with me.

1st drop: Angel prophecy about John

2nd drop: Angel prophecy about Jesus

3rd drop: A new psalm is written

Turn to the end of chapter one with me and you’ll see our fourth and last drop in our bucket.

Luke 1:67–79 ESV

And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

1st drop: Angel prophecy about John

2nd drop: Angel prophecy about Jesus

3rd drop: A new psalm is written

4th drop: A new prophet prophesies

Now why do all these matter? What am I bringing this up? How are these 4 events all related into one point as to why we celebrate Christmas??

I’ll show you. If you have a physical bible, go ahead and turn to Matthew 1.

If you’re on a phone this won’t work.

This little page…represents roughly 400 years.

4 centuries.

Over 20 generations.

And what did these 400 years contain as far as activity of the word of God to his people?

Nothing. No prophets. No kings. No judges. No angels moving forward the redemptive history.

Nothing.

The proper name for this page…is the intertestamental period. But many call it “the years of silence”. Because that’s exactly what it was.

Silence from God to his people. Did he speak in moments? Maybe. Were there prophets? Maybe. But none of them contributed to the everlasting word of God.

Just do your best right now to visualize the history of the world and God’s work and activity in it.

Creation. Boom.

Garden. Adam. Eve. Sin. Fall. Removal. Cain and Able. Babel. Noah. The Flood. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Joseph. Egypt. Moses. Exodus. Wandering in the desert. The law given to his people.

All these huge moments rising upon each other.

Promised land. Judges. Kings. Prophets. Exile. Dispersion. Return. Temple. Destruction. Conquering, being conquered. More prophets declaring the future and speaking into the lives of people...

Silence.

400 years of silence.

And then all of the sudden…BAM! Angels, prophesies, psalms, miraculous births, not to mention all the prophesies that were also fulfilled.

So that’s our second point tonight. When we celebrate Christmas..

We celebrate a silence broken.

When the birth of John the baptist is foretold by the Angel from the Lord, a new era is ushered in. An era where all that God has been doing comes to fruition. An era where prophecies are fulfilled. The silence of God is broken, the old covenants are fulfilled, and a new covenant takes their place.

That’s actually why we call it the New Testament. Because it ushers in a time of a new covenant. It’s called the New Testament because this is where the 400 years of silence was broken and God continued the work that he had started in the Old Testament…that is…under the Old Covenant.

And it’s actually speaking of Covenants that I want to end tonight with. Specifically I want to end tonight with a bit of a cliffhanger…and hopefully something that excites you about coming back next week.

We’ve mentioned that when celebrating Christmas we are celebratings a savior born, and a silence broken.

The last point I want to hit tonight, and actually the first one I want to hit next week...

is that When we Celebrate Christmas...

We celebrate a promise fulfilled.

The idea of a promise being fulfilled rests in understanding God’s covenants.

And this is why I want to split this point up. Because I don’t have enough time tonight to show you just amazing God’s covenants with his people are…and how they are all fulfilled in Christ, and how that all starts with the Christmas story.

But I do have enough time to simply show you that they exist here in the New Testament, and that they are the reason everything is happening. Remember I told you we would come back to a few passages tonight?