The Message
Here’s
a big question: why do we make such a big deal out of Christmas?
Why do we make such a big deal out of Christmas? Do you
know why? Because Christmas is a big deal, that’s
why. And what’s the big deal about Christmas? Let
me tell you, it is the greatest event in history of mankind.
It changed the perception, our perception of God is eternally.
Here’s the meaning of Christmas in a nutshell. “In
the beginning,” I’m reading directly from John’s
gospel, “in the beginning was the word and the word
was with God. And the word was God; He was with God in the
beginning and the word became flesh and made His dwelling
among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and
only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.”
Christmas isn’t about any child being born, Christmas
is about God extending Himself into human flesh. He did
that for a very, very good and very big reason. He did it
to communicate who He is and to share with us and to realize
that we might realize what He’s all about. Christmas
it’s the beginning.
It’s the
beginning of God in flesh. You know the angels appeared
to the shepherd’s and they said “go and see
the Christ child.” And one of the Sunday school teachers
was trying to teach the story of the shepherd’s going
to see the Christ child, so she was teaching her eight year
olds the lesson and a lot of them seemed to know what she
was talking about so she stopped and asked a question. Okay,
let me see a show of hands, who knows, who can tell me what
the shepherd’s found when they went to Bethlehem.
And they all raised their hands, they were all excited and
one boy was in the back jumping up and down so she called
on him. He says they found Mary and Joseph in the manger.
And what we miss in Christmas is often the child. The meaning
of it all, and it’s the beginning of God coming into
human flesh to express who He is and what He’s all
about.
This past year
my wife and I came to the conclusion that our family is
definitely dwindling. Don’t get the wrong idea, they’re
not dying or anything but we don’t have a member of
our family who isn’t a child anymore. They’re
all grown ups, our youngest child is now 18 years old. He
is officially an adult, and as a result of that our children
find themselves in different geographical areas and it’s
very difficult for us to all get together so our Christmas
picture this year consisted of my wife and I and my youngest
son. They’re just all grown up. And when you stop
and you see your children becoming mature and wonderful
adults, you kind of reminisce about some of the times when
they were little; do you ever find yourself doing anything
like that? Well you’re probably too young for that.
But I remember
one of our fondest occasions was keeping the thought of
Santa alive in their minds; The idea of giving gifts and
a gift giver. And so when they started to wane a little
bit we got a little more creative. And one of the things
we did is not only did we put the milk and cookies out there
and of course take a couple of bits of the cookies and stuff,
what we did is we got the boots and we stuck the boots in
the ashes and then we walked the boots across our white
carpet, now we’re desperate. And then we have the
boot tracks going back to the fireplace again and oh man
that got them for another year. Donna was, my wife was a
great actress. She comes down and she goes, that Santa,
oh he makes me mad. Every year he gets the carpet dirty.
And we started reminiscing about my daughter’s strangest
gift request I’d ever heard of in my life. Have you
ever heard of a two year old child asking for a stop sign?
Go figure. It wasn’t just one time she asked for it,
she started like six weeks before Christmas asking for it
but she had a little lisp then, you know she’s two
years old you know. A stop sign. I want a stop sign.
She went and
sat on Santa’s lap, what do you want for Christmas
little girl? A stop sign. Okay, here’s the weirdest
thing of all, that same year we walked through a toy store
and you know it, about that big, heavy, cute little plastic
thing is a stop sign. Go figure. How is it that the toy
stores know exactly what the kids want? There’s the
stop sign.
A friend of ours,
his son, he wanted a back pack for Christmas. Sounds cute
and everything, he was four years old. Christmas comes he
gets his backpack, he’s so excited he opens it up
and he goes, oh, now I can go to school. Isn’t that
sad, he was still only four years old and he didn’t
get to go to school. But it’s amazing how we ask for
things and how we wish for things and desire things when
God knows exactly what we want. He knows what we need. He
knows our desires and our hopes.
Christmas is
a big deal because it’s the beginning; it’s
the beginning of a new realization of who God is. Prior
to Christmas day, prior to the beginning of this new era
and humanity, God was not the God we know today. And the
stage of the world, you only had a couple different thoughts
of who God was. There was God as the multiple Gods, being
the Greek god’s and the Roman gods, which is really
a pantheon of different God’s. In fact the Romans
and the Greeks both did this. When’d they overcome
a certain culture or a city what they would do is in order
to keep these citizens under their control is they would
take their gods, include them in their pantheon, and they
would have all these gods and they controlled the gods in
a way. And this is the way they controlled the masses. You
have the pantheon of gods and then you had this one tiny
little community in Israel that didn’t believe in
many gods but believed in one God. And this tiny little
group of people who believe there is one God. And up until
this point in their life and in their existence, they had
worshiped this God who was based upon a salvation by works:
do these things and you will be saved. Hear your commandments,
follow My commandments. And so their realization of God
was, as long as I’m good enough, then God will be
good to me. And do you know what? We still practice that
and it’s so hard for us to get rid of that in fact,
we sing Christmas carols to that effect. Better watch out,
better not cry, better watch out I’m telling you why,
Santa Claus is coming to town. And if you’re not,
then he’s not going to bring you the goodies that
you want so you got to be good enough.
But Christmas
is not about being good enough, Christmas is the beginning
of not having to be good enough just being and the being
is in a relationship with Jesus Christ. He came to give
His love. To give us what we need the most, to give us where
we can’t comprehend the tremendous joy and the goodness
which comes into our lives.
So God’s
vision, God’s vision for Christmas, is to share with
us and to give us a realization of who He is. And our mission,
is very simple: as a man Jesus said, “I am the light
of the world. He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness
but shall have the light of life. Let your life so shine
that men may see your good works and glorify your Father
in heaven.”
And so we live
in the light of Christ, day by day allowing His light to
shine through our lives that Christmas becomes part of us
and shines through us 365 days a year. Why is Christmas,
why do we make such a big deal out of Christmas? Because
Christmas is a big deal. And it’s worth remembering
and it’s worth celebrating and it’s worth the
realization that Christ is alive today.
Dear Heavenly
Father we thank You that You have given us Christmas. That
Christmas shines in our lives because 2000 years ago You
decided to give us the greatest gift of all. A gift we didn’t
even realize we wanted or needed. A gift the world was not
even ready for. And yet You gave us the unexpected gift,
the gift of a Child. And so we thank You Lord, for that
precious beginning. The beginning of new life, the beginning
of the realization of Your grace and who You are. The realization
of Your mission in us. Now we love You Lord and we praise
Your name, Amen.
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