What is the "true meaning" of Christmas?
I've been taking most of my vacation this month. Last Sunday Lara and I were heading out of town when I got a text message from Brad that he was sick. So I called him, and he was in his office, throwing up. I offered to turn around and come back, but he really wanted to preach. And besides, I thought it would be cool to have someone who was turning green like the Grinch preach to you. How many of you realized that he was ill? He did a great job in spite of being sick.
It's like Paul says, we have to preach in season and out of season. No wimping out! We are blessed to have a great ministry team here at Lakeside. Nic offered to preach if necessary. One time Jay read my notes when I was ill. It all works out.
While on vacation I've been watching television. I don't normally watch a lot of television, but I decided to become a couch slug this Christmas. There are so many shows and news stories. Everyone is trying to find the true meaning of Christmas. I read how someone's been going around to K-Marts paying off people's layaways. "That's what Christmas is all about," several newscasters have said, "helping people in need."
By the way, we have far exceeded our $10,000 Operation Rescue goal. You heard last Sunday how our church gave money to help plant a church in New England. Brianne Impson and the Girlfriends ministry have been working to provide Christmas gifts for over 20 children. Lakeside is all about helping people in need! But many others are helping people in need also. What makes us any different?
I was reading an article by a local pastor who was flying home from overseas when two guys struck up a conversation. One guy described how, as a Christian, he'd been digging wells to provide safe drinking water for people in a remote village. But then the other man described how he too, as an entrepreneur and businessman, and not as a Christian, had been doing the very same thing.
What is distinctively Christian about the way you and I will be celebrating Christmas?
So if there is nothing distinctively Christian about giving, than what is distinctively Christian about the way you and I will be celebrating Christmas? The truth is that Christmas morning will look about the same whether you are celebrating in a Christian's living room or a pagan's living room! Do you give gifts? Do you greet your family? That's great, but to borrow Jesus' words in Matthew 5:47 (NIV), "Do not even pagans do that?"
And look at Matthew 6:31! How many of us will get up Christmas Sunday worrying, "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?" But look what Jesus says in Matthew 6:32 (NIV). "For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them." But then Jesus gets at the essence of Christmas in Matthew 6:33 (NIV) when he says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Christ's kingdom and his righteousness should come before everything else! Notice that it doesn't say to the "exclusion" of everything else. It only says "before" everything else. What makes Christmas special is what we exalt above our wants, needs, and desires.
Now this has been a fascinating Christmas season. You have Tim Tebow out there on national television, kneeling before God in prayer. He's praising the name of Jesus. And he has all kinds of people up in arms. Earlier this summer, planking was the craze. Do any of you know what planking is? Then the craze was owling. Now the craze is tebowing. Several students got suspended this past week for tebowing in the hallway at their school. Do you want to create controversy? Then exalt Christ at Christmas. Do a tebow to Christ! You will delight some, but you will offend far more!
Look at how controversial it is to say "Merry Christmas". Did you notice that a lot of retailers have gone back to saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" in their ads? Good for them! This past week it was our Federal government that banned federal employees from using the words "Merry Christmas" in e-mails. But then I turned on the radio and they are playing Christian music. On St. Louis' top station they played the lyric, "Christ our Savior is born." How cool is that?
The choice to exalt Christ is what should differentiate the Christian's celebration from that of an unbeliever's.
In the true Christmas story, there was conflict. John 1:1-4 (NIV) describes the essence of Christmas. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men."
But then notice John 1:5 (NIV), "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." John 1:10-11 (NIV) says of Christ, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him."
Are you seeing the progression? They didn't understand, then they didn't recognize, then they didn't receive. In John 3:16-21 (NIV) Jesus expounds upon this. "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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Exalting Christ and his kingdom changes everything about Christmas.
Exalting Christ, his kingdom, and his righteousness changes everything about Christmas. When Christ is part of Christmas, suddenly it's no longer about our wants and desires. It's about our sin and about our falling short of God's righteousness. It's about the coming judgment and it's about God's desire to save us from condemnation and death through faith in Christ Jesus.
If you're a person who loves evil, you love the holidays. Because one way or another, you get things. I was parked out in front of Macy's a few weeks ago, waiting for Lara. As I sat there, a car parked right next to me. It was weird. Together we were blocking the whole roadway. I started thinking, "What's this person's deal? Why don't they just pull up in front of me or behind me?"
But then out runs this teenager, with his pants falling down. He's got a bunch of stolen merchandise in his hand. I now realize that it was his mother driving the get-away car! The security guard tackles the kid on the pavement. The mother gets out of the car to attack the security guard, but then the kid bites the security guard, or stabs him, and gets away. Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Tis the season!
In the Christmas story, there was a group of people who exalted Christ.
In the first Christmas story, there were two (and only two) groups of people. First, there were those who exalted Christ. There were those who sought first Christ's kingdom and his righteousness. There are Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. Elizabeth praises God for looking in favor upon her, and removing her disgrace. In Luke 1:68-75 (NIV) Zechariah says, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-- to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days."
Then there is Mary, who in Luke 1:46-55 (NIV) rejoices, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."
The angels in heaven praise Christ. In Luke 2:20 (NIV) we find the shepherds who saw Jesus, "... glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."
In the temple Simeon blesses Jesus. Luke 2:38 (NIV) tells how a prophetess named Anna, "gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem." In Matthew 2:11 we see how the Magi bowed down and worshipped Jesus. Even the angels of heaven exalt Christ. Even the star of Bethlehem points to his greatness.
But there was a second group of people in the Christmas story who loved the darkness.
But in the midst of all this, there is a second group of people. It's King Herod and his government who love the darkness, whose deeds are evil, who don't understand, who don't acknowledge, who don't receive, who hate, and who go on a murderous rampage in order to snuff out the light of Christ at Christmas.
Let's not be naïve. There are those who have a vested interest in destroying Christmas. There are those who'd rather Christmas be something else than a celebration of God's redemption of sinful man. It's our duty to exalt Christ, to praise Christ, and to make him known so that all might believe.