Countdown to Christmas
Well, it’s been awhile since I last posted, gonna have to do better in 2008 – here is the text from my last sermon, on Dec 2, 2007.
CHRISTMAS SIGNS
- From a toy store: “Ho, ho, ho spoken here.”
- In a bridal boutique: “Marry Christmas.”
- Outside a church: “The original Christmas Club.”
- From a department store: “Big pre-Christmas sale. Come in and mangle with the crowd.”
- In a Texas jewelry store: “Diamond tiaras: $70,000. Three for $200,000.
- A reducing salon: “24 Shaping Days until Christmas.”
- In a stationery store: “For the man who has everything: A calendar to remind him when payments are due.”
I heard about a mother who was running furiously from store to store on Christmas Eve … trying to get those last-minute gifts. Suddenly she realized she’d lost track of her little 3-year-old son. In a panic, she retraced her steps and found him standing with his little nose pressed flatly against a frosty window. He was gazing at a Manger Scene.
When he heard his mother call his name, he turned and shouted in innocent glee: “Look Mommy! It’s JESUS! Baby Jesus is in the hay !”
The harried mom grabbed his arm and jerked him away, snapping, “We don’t have time for all that! Can’t you see that Mommy’s trying to get ready for Christmas!?!”
Mark and I belong to an online community made up of preachers, Elders, preacher’s wives, and just plain ordinary Christian folks. Over the past 2 years that I’ve belonged to this community I’ve made quite a few friends with people from all over the country, most of whom I’ve never met face to face but have come to enjoy Christian fellowship with. We have some great discussions on topics that range from, Theology, to sports and everything in between. We share sermon ideas, illustrations and most importantly prayer requests and pray for each other.
However there is one thread that has intrigued me over the past months, I drop in from time to time to check it out – it’s called “Countdown to Christmas” This thread was started by a preacher from Illinois JD loves Christmas – and way back on September 10th he started this thread John says this about his reasoning. “ – He looks forward to Christmas and enjoys counting down the days to Christmas – at that time it was 106 days to go – John, and the Postman (He’s and elder from West Virginia) each day use some numbered graphic to count down the days. Here is a sample of this mornings post – as you can see, there is only 23 days left! Are you ready?
At our house preparations began a little over a week ago – on thanksgiving morning, well actually I guess it began about 4 days before that when it was a beautiful 70 degree day – I spent Saturday on the roof attaching the strings of white lights that cover the front of our house. Then, Thanksgiving morning we started dragging out of the store room all the Christmas decorations and Glenda began the annual tradition of transforming the house into a Christmas paradise. We dug out the snow village, and the Nativity scene, by time we went to thanksgiving dinner that afternoon things were beginning to fall into place. The next 3 or four days, we added, lights, snowmen, trees, more lights until almost every room in the house was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I love the holidays – It’s a wonderful feeling sitting on the couch with all the lights off except for the decorations and the fire in the fireplace with my arm around my wife and enjoying the beauty of the season.
How about you? Are you prepared for the holiday? Shopping done? Shopping started? Cards picked out, signed and mailed – Remember mail early!
However, You may want to be careful:
I read about an elderly widow who decided it was too much trouble to get all of her kids and grandkids Christmas presents, so she decided to send them a check with a card. A few days after she mailed all the cards, she discovered she forgot to include the checks in the cards. Imagine all those kids opening a card from grandma with a note inside that says, “Buy your own presents.”
As of today, you have 23 days to prepare for Christmas Day, 2007. It’s not time to panic yet, but it is time to start making preparations. But I wonder: with all the preparation going on, will you take time to prepare your heart for Christmas this year? So often Christmas becomes a bother instead of a blessing, full of headaches instead of a excitement – all because we fail to heed the words spoken by the prophet in
Isaiah 40:3 …prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
Those words were fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist, and they’re not talking a construction project, but a preparation of the heart to welcome the Lord Jesus. This morning I want to apply this call to our need to prepare our hearts for Christmas
As you prepare for Christmas, I want to challenge you to spend as much time preparing your heart as your house, shopping list etc.
I know that not everyone loves Christmas – search the internet and you’ll find many sights “One I saw as WWW.Ihatechristmas.com – Well if I didn’t understand the importance of Christmas I might hate it too,
The Prophet Daniel had a vision about the coming King –
[Daniel 7:13-14] “In my vision at night I looked, & there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of Heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days & was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory & sovereign power; all peoples, nations & men of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, & His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
We will never truly appreciate and enjoy Christmas until we understand the real meaning of Christmas.
When you open your Bible to the New Testament the first four books you find are what we call the Gospels, 4 accounts by different writers share with us the story of Jesus Christ – Matthew and Luke give us the most detailed accounts of the birth of the Lord, Mark skips over the birth of Jesus and jumps headlong into the life of Jesus – And John gives us a very unique I guess more intellectual account of Why Jesus Came – Let’s look at his Gospel
(John 1:1-14 NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. {2} He was with God in the beginning. {3} Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. {4} In him was life, and that life was the light of men. {5} The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. {6} There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. {7} He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. {8} He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. {9} The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. {10} He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. {11} He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. {12} Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– {13} children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. {14} 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.
I want to focus on that phrase, HE CAME – because in reality, that is what Christmas is all about – it’s not about decorations, though they are nice, it’s not about the music, which is wonderful, It’s not about cookies, or trees or finding that perfect gift or really it’s not about a baby –
I was being interviewed this week by a reporter from the news tribune, perhaps you saw the story about the Christmas traditions here in Jefferson City, As I was explaining our Drive thru – “we have seven scenes from the life of Christ, beginning with the Angel’s announcement to Mary, the angels appearing to the shepherds, the manger scene itself, the wise men, and we end with the cross and the final scene is the empty tomb.” She seemed a little confused that at Christmas time we would have the crucifixion and tomb – Until I told her that without the crucifixion and the empty tomb, all you have is a story about a baby – it’s the empty tomb that gives the story power – makes it a reality, you see, HE CAME for a Reason – not to give us a holiday season where we can get a few days off work, or so the stores could run great holiday sales to boost their year end numbers, NO He CAME for several specific reasons.
I wonder if the same could be said about us when it comes to Christmas. Look all around us…
-The trees are decorated
-The music is festive
-The Season is Right
–It is Christmas, and there are only 23 days left!
In all of our rushing around, in all of our gift buying, in all the things we have to do during this season – HAVE WE MISSED THE IDEA – Jesus has come to earth!
First of All
1. He Came To Live!
He didn’t just come to live, He came to live a perfect life –
You see, man is sinful - God’s standard is very high – he demands purity – he demands perfection, God himself is Holy, He is Righteous, he is Perfect, while on the other hand, we fall way below his standard – we have a human weakness, the ability to think for our selves, we have an enemy who delights is turning us away from walking with God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”
I John 3:5
“But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin”
I Peter 2:21-24
“Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. Why they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”
Hebrews 4:15
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin”
Also note this: At Jesus’ trial all sorts of charges and accusations were brought against Jesus. Was Jesus convicted on the basis of any of those charges? NO—for Pilate himself said “I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him”. Point: when Jesus died on the cross, it was not for his crimes or sins. He died there as the spotless lamb of God, in our place, with our sins laid upon him.
Listen to what Jesus said to the Pharisees who monitored and evaluated his every move, continually looking for something they could charge Jesus with: “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” John 8:46
The overwhelming testimony and conclusion of the scriptures, whether the words recorded come from the mouth of Pilate, Jesus’ disciples, the Roman centurion who proclaimed “surely this was the Son of God”, or from the mouth of Jesus himself is this: Jesus was sinless. He was perfect. There was fault in him.
Sin, for Jesus, was a possibility that he rejected.
For some this is sort of mind bending- for as we all know, God can’t sin. Yet note this: Jesus, being fully God and fully man, was tempted in every way that we are and yet was without sin. These temptations and Jesus’ struggles with these temptations were real. (40 days in the wilderness, Garden of Gethsemane, the rest of his earthly life). The temptations to sin that Jesus faced were not fake or trivial. To proclaim that Jesus did not face and struggle with temptation is to strip Jesus of his humanity: a humanity the Bible resoundingly proclaims (just as it does his deity)
He came to live a perfect life, because we aren’t perfect, we are all sinners, but because of his perfection we have the promise & hope of eternal life. Hope is what the Christmas season is all about –
Not only did he come to live a perfect life but he CAME with another specific purpose in mind,
2. He Came to Die!
Though Jesus was and is perfect his creation is not – we are marred by sin, the Bible clearly states that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
(Rom 3:23 NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
(Rom 6:23 NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That we might be reconciled
The Bible teaches that because of sin we are all separated from God, but because of his death he paid the price for our salvation – he paid for our sins.
(Mat 20:28 NIV) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Through his death he conquered – he became our King
His death shows us the depth of his love for us.
(John 3:16 NIV) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Not only did he come to live a perfect life, and to die but perhaps most importantly of all he CAME to
3. He came to Rise from the grave!
To demonstrate his power and might –
To go prepare a place for us.
[John 14:1-4 NIV]“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go & prepare a place for you, I will come back & take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John Wrote:
He came to his own – but his own did not receive him, but to as many as did receive him the gave the RIGHT to become children of God.
Having Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord is the one gift that should be on your gift lift, it is the one thing that you need to have in order for Christmas to make sense, accepting his death on the cross as the payment for your sins is the gift that God has offered to you.
Earlier I read to you the scriptures that proclaim Jesus’ sinless-ness, you might have noticed in those verses that the scriptures teach that Jesus came to take away our sins.
The Bible proclaims that without the shedding of blood that their can be no forgiveness. In OT times countless bulls, goats, lambs were offered to God—and only the best most perfect of animals were to be brought. All of these animal sacrifices of the most perfect animals pointed forward—for in and other themselves animals blood is not good enough for the forgiveness of sins, to the once for all sacrifice of Jesus—identified by John as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
If Jesus were a sinner like us he himself would have needed a Savior for his sins. But he wasn’t and isn’t a sinner. Jesus was and is perfect and qualified to act as our Savior.
The Bible teaches that when he went to the cross, dying as a sacrifice for sins, he hung their, taking upon himself our sins-for he had none of his own. He acted as a our substitute and took upon himself the wrath of God for sins—that we deserve- that we might be reconciled to God, forgiven of our sins, and adopted as his sons and daughters.
He Came to Live
He Came to die
He came to Rise again
Will you accept his Perfect Gift?
I enjoyed it. So very true
Pat Stillwagner
January 1, 2008
When did you start posting sermon notes as BLOG entries?
Young Skywalker
February 5, 2008