Last Sunday we began a three-part Christmas series called,
"A Christmas Story." If we truly know and understand the story of
just what happened on that first noel, we can have peace and joy all the time. A 19th century skeptic once said that every
church in the world should have three words engraved above its entrance –
Important if True. That is a very true statement. If what we believe about
Christmas and the Word as a whole is true, then it is very important. But, if
we do not really believe it, it is all a bunch of religious pageantry — which
is how much of the world views Christianity.
Isaiah 9:2-7 tells us about what was coming to humanity when
God's Son, Jesus, arrived. The “land of
the shadow of death refers to Psalm 23, which is a prophetic passage. Before Christ, we lived in the shadow of
death, but now with Christ we can go through it. A side note, for all the prophecies simply
surrounding the birth of Jesus to come true, the probability of that happening
would be about the same as winning the powerball 18 times in a row. This scripture says that Satan is not our
oppressor any longer and that we can rejoice like the victorious Israelites
when they divided the plunder of the people God defeated before them. This
passage also says that God’s kingdom is always increasing and always working to
give us Shalom peace (nothing missing, nothing broken) with no end, in a
kingdom that lasts forever. When we
choose to step out of the kingdom, bad things can happen. But we can always go right back in.
When the angel speaks to Mary in Luke 1:31-33, that promise
is fulfilled. Another side note, Jesus
is Yeshua—the Lord almighty saves. Yet,
many Christians have not allowed the Christmas story to truly change their
lives the way it was intended.
A poll done by World magazine in 2003 said that 26% of
professed Christians believed all religions were basically equal, 35% did not
believe Jesus actually rose from the dead and 45% didn't believe Satan really
existed. These are foundational things that they did not believe. If we
do not take what is in the Bible as truth, it does not change us. It is no surprise that Christmas (when it is
even allowed to be called that) has been dumbed down to a commercialized fictional
man in a red suit who delivers toys. We can get mad at what the world has done
to Christmas, but if we believers knew and lived what the Christmas story was
all about, no one would care about a commercialized holiday.
It begins with us as parents, grandparents, aunts and
uncles. We make a feigned effort to "remind" the kids of the real
meaning of Christmas by forcing them to listen to us read the nativity story.
We hold their presents hostage until we read it. So, we end up actually making
them hate the story because it only delays them opening the presents :) Instead of mentioning the story on Christmas
day alone, perhaps we need to instead really meditate on this all season and
share it with our children throughout the season. Now,
I'm not entirely down on Santa or whatever traditions we all participate in
during this season. There are a lot of "non-religious" aspects of
Christmas that are great because they bring family together and build memories.
But, let's take the time to learn what it is about Christmas that sent
shepherds rejoicing and brought kings bearing priceless gifts to pay honor to a
child king – the King of Kings!
We looked at Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2:6-8. Adam and Eve were given authority over the earth but then gave it to the enemy. Jesus had to come to take it back. This passage seems to say that Jesus was a little lower than the angels, which does not make sense. In the New Testament, the Greek word for “little lower” means to be made lower in terms of dignity. That makes more sense for Jesus. In the Old Testament, this “little lower” in Hebrew means to be lacking in relation to, which certainly applies to man because we are not in God’s presence like them. We and Jesus are not lower in authority. We are lower in glory, and Jesus is lower in dignity.
Here are some reasons Christmas was the only way
1. Jesus
had to become like us in nature in order to become Immanuel, God with us.
2. He
had to overcome the power of death by suffering the penalty of sin while
sinless in order to give us life.
3. He
had to come in the form of man to take back the dominion and authority man had
given the enemy.
4. He
uses man’s sin to defeat the enemy. God took what the enemy planned for evil
and turned it to good. He uses the
mistakes of ours to defeat our enemy. Remember,
God uses bad things to cause good things to happen, but He does not cause those
bad things to happen. God does not do
things like the enemy, but He uses what the enemy does for His glory.
Ways that God used our sin to defeat the enemy:
1. Mary had to risk her life to accept the call (she could have been stoned to death for being pregnant out of wedlock.
2. An emperor had to institute an oppressive tax (as a result of the census). The census allowed Jesus to be born in
3. A king had to demand the murder of babies. Jesus had to go to
4. A friend had to betray Him for greed.
5. A very close friend had to deny Him.
6. Nine more of His close friends had to abandon Him.
7. The very people he came to save, as well as the religious leaders of His day had to hate Him so much they wanted Him killed.
8. A murderer would have to go free to ensure His death.
We can see that the Christmas story even shows that despite the mistakes we make, God can use those things to defeat the enemy in our lives. This will make our life all year more meaningful.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
