The Day After Christmas...
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· 27 viewsIt's the day after Christmas... What now?! The celebrations over... the gifts are unwrapped... the turkey's all eaten... and we need some rest... What do we do now? We need to remember the real meaning and purpose of Christmas... It wasn't about a little baby, it was about what He did for us! We have a story to tell! And, It does not end when the parties are over!
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Have you ever hit the day after Christmas and thought, “HMMM… Well, what now?”
Lynn Casagrande wrote this poem:
Twas the day after Christmas and all through the town
The ones who weren’t Christians were feeling let down
The stockings weren’t hung by the chimney anymore,
And boxes and wrapping covered the floor.
The kitchen was covered from floor to ceiling
With enough dirty dishes to send mother reeling.
The children were whining over what they didn’t get
And rather than sharing, they were throwing a fit!
The malls were bustling with post-Christmas shoppers
Searching for bargains on racks and in hoppers.
The salesmen looked haggard, the shoppers looked worse
As credit cards flew out of wallet and purse.
There were no joyful sounds of carolers singing,
And the only bells heard, were registers ringing.
The scene was altogether too grim,
For all the people who didn’t know Him.
If only this unhappy crowd could know
That the Spirit of Christmas isn’t tied in a bow
And stacked in piles under the tree,
He lives forever in you and in me.
He didn’t start in presents piled up in a sleigh,
He started with Christ being born in the hay.
The perfect gift from our Father above
Sent to us sinners to show us His Love.
He came without wrapping or boxes or strings,
No glitter or glamour or other vain things.
He came with a promise of hope for all men,
That even in death, we’d have life again.
The next face you encounter covered with strife,
Introduce them to Jesus and change their whole life.
Teach them that Christmas is a daily thing,
That comes from intimately knowing the King.
We like to say — “Keep Christ in Christmas,”… But…
The real story of Christmas and of Christ … is that it’s not a once a year celebration, or even a once a week thing on Sundays… It’s a daily thing that comes from intimately knowing the King!
When we lose sight of that… it becomes easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of this world!
I want you to see something here:
On that first Christmas day… over 2000 years ago… most of the world had no idea what was happening… most of the world had no idea that God’s greatest gift had been delivered, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laying in a manger…
Think about that for a minute…
That means that the “witnesses” were responsible for the message!
You see… The shepherds knew… Mary and Joseph knew… and 2 years later, the Magi knew…
And it was an experience they would never forget!
We consider this… we celebrate this during Advent and on Christmas day, but… On the day after… we are still left with the question: “What now?”
What do we do when the celebration is through? What do we do when the songs are sung… and the lights are out?
Luke 2:16-20 “16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
The Day after Christmas… for Mary, Joseph, and the Shepherds… was a day to ponder… to wonder… to be amazed at what God was doing… and they glorified God with their testimony!
So… What do we do on the Day… the weeks… the months… after Christmas? THAT!
We consider… we ponder… we bask in the wonder of God’s gift to the world!
Let me ask you this: “What does Jesus’s birth mean for you and me? What does it mean to the world in the days that lay ahead?”
It means that we have the opportunity to be born again!
Mary had a little lamb,
He was born on Christmas day.
She laid Him in a manger bed
To sleep upon the hay.
Angels filled the night-time sky,
And they began to sing.
Shepherds heard them all proclaim,
The birthday of a King.
Wise men saw a blazing star,
Up in the sky that night.
They followed it until they found,
The King of Love and Light.
Mary had a little lamb,
But hers wasn’t hers, you know,
He was the very Son of God,
The One who loves us so.
The Father of this little Lamb,
Loved the world so much,
That He sent His only Son to earth ,
So we could feel His touch.
He came to give us joy and peace,
And take away our sin.
So when He knocks on your heart’s door,
Be sure to let Him in.
Why do I love this precious Lamb?
What can the reason be?
The answer is quite plain to see,
It’s because He first loved me!
Christmas isn’t about gifts… It’s not about parties… It’s not about family… It’s about a little baby… Born to a humble peasant girl… to save the world…
Luke 1:34-35 “34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
Jesus’s birth was miraculous… God became flesh…
Isn’t that an awesome thing… Isn’t it worth celebrating… It’s glorious… It’s mind-blowing… It’s what made angels sing…
But think about this:
I. THE SAME SPIRIT THAT BROUGHT ABOUT CHRIST’S PHYSICAL BIRTH, BRINGS ABOUT OUR SPIRITUAL REBIRTH!
1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Nicodemus was a Pharisee… He was a member of the Sanhedrin… He knew the OT as well as anyone on the earth… He knew there was a promised Messiah to come… and now, he heard about Jesus… His miracles, and His teachings…
So, he comes to visit Jesus… at night.
Why at night? Maybe he is afraid… maybe he’s just being cautious… It really doesn’t matter… what’s important is what he says:
“Rabbi, you must have come from God, because no one can do the things you do unless they’re from God.”
Do you see what that is?
It’s a commitment… It’s an acknowledgment of Jesus, maybe not as the Messiah, but as a Rabbi… not as an enemy!
But look at Jesus’s response… He gets right to the core… right to the point:
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
I gotta ask: “Why didn’t Jesus respond to Nicodemus like He did to others?” (the Scribe in “The Good Samaritan”)
Nicodemus calls Him “Rabbi,” and Jesus responds with “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again...”
Look at Nicodemus’s response:
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
Have you ever tried to have a spiritual conversation with someone who is thinking in worldly ways?
We’ve probably all been there… the blank stare… the “I have no idea what you’re talking about” expression… Nicodemus wore both!
And he says: “Surely a man can’t be born again when he is old!”
Nicodemus is thinking in terms of biology, Jesus is speaking about theology.
So… Jesus explains:
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
What does He mean?
The Holy Spirit was the catalyst for the virgin birth… and He is the catalyst for us to be born again…
He opens our eyes to God’s Kingdom… and He points us to the door to enter it…
The same Spirit that brought about Jesus’s birth brings about our new birth.
Ezekiel 36:26 “26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
That is the promise of Christmas! That is the promise of the Gospel! A New Heart… A New Life!
But… Nicodemus didn’t understand spiritually what that meant! He knew the words… but he didn’t understand…
Jesus was literally saying to him: “God from above will make you new.” He’s going to heal your heart.
On February 24, 1948, on of the most unusual operations in history took place at Ohio State University’s department of research surgery…
Harry Besharra, a 30 year old man, was the patient… When he was a boy, he was accidently shot with a .22 by a friend as they played together.
The bullet had lodged in his heart… but didn’t kill him. Now… the problem was that it had caused a lime deposit to form around his heart that began to strangle it… He literally had a heart of stone!
The operation was a delicate one… they had to separate the ribs… move the left lung out of the way… then carefully lift the stony coating from his heart…
The process is described “like peeling an orange”… Immediately the pressure was reduced and his heart began to beat normally… Harry was quoted as saying “I feel a thousand percent better already.”
There is a parable to life here…
Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life… They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and abuses from this world… They are hardened by the pressures of circumstances… They become smothered and insensitive to the divine…
We soon find it easier to sneer than to pray… It becomes easier to work than to worship…
Our self-satisfied, proud, often cynical and callous hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christ can perform!
This is probably the most important spiritual truth I can share with you today, and tomorrow, and every day…
II. JESUS CAME TO SAVE US, NOT CONDEMN US.
Nicodemus didn’t understand… so Jesus tells him a story… one he already knew…
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus tells Nicodemus an OT story about the Israelites sin and punishment… (God sending the vipers into camp)… God tells Moses to fashion a serpent, and to put it on a pole in the camp… Anyone who was bitten and looked at it would be healed!
Then Jesus tells him, “in the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that those who believe may have eternal life.”
It is all about FAITH!
God always had a plan to deal with man’s sin… In the OT it was temporary — animal sacrifices, had to be repeated… But… in Christmas… the temporary became permanent… When Jesus was lifted up on the Cross!
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
satan would turn our eyes from that… he would turn our eyes from the lifted up Son of God… he would have us forget the real reason for Christmas… he would have us lose sight of the sharing of the message… not just on Dec. 25th, but on every day after…
Today… I cannot help but stand in amazement of the One who was lifted up n the Cross… in my place… who bore my sins in His body… who was condemned so I might be redeemed…
All the preparation was over… broken lives and confusion were scattered at the foot of the Cross like old ribbons and cast off boxes…
Light has come into the world… and the darkness could not cover it… but… We loved the darkness instead of the light… so, we tried to snuff it out!
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
But Darkness cannot win… Jesus has finished the Father’s work… No longer is the Spirit temporary… only “lighting on” the prophets for a time… No longer is the sacrifice temporary… Jesus has completed the work “once for all.”
38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.
39 Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.
40 They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.
41 Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.
42 And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arithemea were Jesus’s pallbearers… They are the ones who took Jesus’s body and laid it in the tomb… There could not have been a time when it was more risky to declare that you were Jesus’s disciple… even His closest disciples were in hiding!
Yet… these men publicly declared they were Jesus’s friends!
Their last act of love for Him is recorded in the Gospels… They both risked their reputations and much more to give Jesus a proper burial.
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.
9 They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
But… He wouldn’t stay there…
He rose from the grave… the Great Physician conquered what no other physician can conquer — death.
The light now shines with a glory that can never be extinguished…
21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
It’s the day after Christmas, and Jesus is still Savior and Lord!
That is the message we share!
We tell the story through our lives… through our work… through our struggles… through our relationships, as we carry the light into every single aspect of our lives!
Today, we share it through baptism!
Baptism is the sign and seal of the new covenant of grace, the significance of which is attested by the Apostle Paul in Romans 6: 3-5:
“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Through the sacrament of baptism, we give our entrance into the Body of Christ through a the new birth, visible expression. Having been incorporated into God’s mighty act of salvation in Christ, we follow Him in baptism, publicly identifying with Him and testifying to our having appropriated by faith the benefits of the atonement that Christ has provided us in His suffering, death, and resurrection.
We join these persons in celebration of the grace of God in their lives and unite our hearts in praise to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I encourage you, as we celebrate and baptize these men and women, to remember your own baptism. Let this day serve as a reminder of what you have received, and a recommitment to Christ who has saved you.
Now, as we prepare to baptize these before us, I ask you, the congregation, their brothers and sisters in Christ: Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ? Will you pray for them, encourage them, instruct and lead them, will you be accountable to them and allow them to be accountable to you, and will you so live before them that they may follow your example in Christian living?
If so, answer, “We will.”
______________ Do you renounce satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness, rebellion, and sin that draw you away from God?
“I do.”
Do you acknowledge Christ as your personal Savior, and do you realize that He saves you now?
“I do.”
Will you obey God’s holy will and keep His commandments, walking in them all the days of your life?
“I will”
_________________, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…..
“The work of Christmas” by Howard Thurman
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.