Christ

"Christ"mas?

For the average person history has no meaning and no overarching purpose. Christmas? It is just another holiday which is emptied of any real significance. Christmas can mean whatever you want it to mean. Christmas is about being kind. It is about giving to people in need. It is about Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Santa Claus, reindeer, and elves. It is about gifts, lots of gifts, and about gratifying our materialistic fantasies. Christmas is the celebration of earthly things. It is a celebration of the human spirit, of the "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" mindset.

Bill O’Reilly has been giving voice to a very disturbing trend. The true significance of Christmas is being suppressed. Traditionally, Christmas has been about celebrating Christ in worship. If you take a close look at the word Christmas, you will notice that it is a compound word. Christ – mas. We're familiar with the word "Christ". But not "mas". The "mas" is the word "mass", which according to any dictionary means "Christian ceremony". Christmas is a Christian ceremony celebrating the birth of Christ.

But the word Christmas is politically incorrect these days. In many places you can say X-Mas, but you cannot say Christmas. But what is the X? Why is the name of Christ being crossed out of Christmas? Have you ever been to a Christian celebration, a mass, where people worshipped X?

In Wisconsin lawyers threatened legal action against a school district for having children sing "Silent Night". The song is just blatantly Christ-centered. To avoid a lawsuit lawyers suggested children sing a new and improved version of "Silent Night" titled, "Cold in the Night". In the politically correct "Cold in the Night" version, references to Christ are replaced with winter weather themes!

So where the original lyrics of "Silent Night" read, "Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace." The new lyrics of "Cold in the Night" read, "Cold in the night, no one in sight. Winter winds whirl and bite. How I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm."

This is just the tip of the iceberg. For companies like Wal-Mart, Kohls, CostCo, and Toys R Us, it is "Happy Holidays" and not "Merry Christmas."

But what is it for you? Is there anything noteworthy about Christ’s birth that should cause us to honor him this holiday season? Churches are canceling Sunday services on Christmas morning. To the secularists I say go ahead and celebrate the holidays, but for us Christians it's Christ’s mass. It's a celebration of the life that became the light of the world. It's the fulfillment of God’s promise. Our conviction is that Christ stands in the center of all history. Before Christ it was BC, but since Christ’s death, it has been AD. The birth of Jesus Christ has changed everything for us. Lawyers, lawsuits, or whatever, Christ’s name cannot be silenced.

Creation, choice, and consequences.

Now hundreds of years before Christ was born in a manger on Christmas morning, God's chosen people had discerned God's hand moving throughout history. They understood that history began when God created the heavens and earth. They understood how in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve chose to know good and evil by sinning against God. Instead of living for God’s glory and pleasure, they sunk their teeth into sin and were cast from God’s presence to the east of Eden. Immediately, they experienced the consequences of their sin.

First, they felt naked and ashamed before a holy God. They hid from God. They covered themselves. Spiritually, they came under God’s curse. Instead of partaking from the tree of life, they would taste death and would receive the full penalty for their sin. Separation from God.

Second, Adam and Eve experienced disharmony in their relationship with one another. Prior to their sin, Eve was taken from the body of Adam and became a suitable helper to him. They each fulfilled their unique and God-ordained purpose, but now they struggled against one another. Eve’s desire would be for her husband, but Adam would rule over her. Chauvinism. Conflict. Domination. Evil entered human relationships. Cain would kill Abel. Wickedness would increase, covering the entire earth.

Third, Adam and Eve experienced hardship and physical death. Eve’s pain in childbirth was greatly increased. Because of their sin, even the ground was cursed. They would eat of the earth only through painful toil. For Adam there would be sweat, toil, thorns, thistles, and dust. From dust they were created, and to dust they would now return. Such were the consequences for their sin. The wages of sin is death.

God covenants with his people.

But here is the thing. Despite these consequences, God’s people came to understand that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in love. He is a God who relents from sending calamity. He is a God who covenants with his people.

To Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15God promised that one of their offspring would utterly crush the venomous head of Satan. Even as evil struck, it would be defeated. That’s what we're going to talk about next week with the cross .Satan struck the Son of man, but Christ was raised from the grave on the third day.

To Cain in Genesis 4:7 God promised that sin could be mastered. In Genesis 4:15 Cain is promised God’s protection so that no one would take his life, even though he deserved death for murdering his brother Abel. God is gracious and merciful.

With Noah in Genesis 6:18 as wickedness increased and filled the whole earth and God’s heart was grieved because of sin, God was poised to completely destroy man. However, God promised to spare Noah and his family. He instructed them to build an ark, and in it eight people and the animals were saved from God’s wrath. God put a rainbow in the sky, vowing never again to destroy the whole earth by flood.

With Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 (NIV) God promised, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you ;I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

First with Adam and Eve, and then with Abraham, we have this foreshadowing of a child who would come to earth and through whom all nations would be blessed. Who would that child be? What would that child accomplish? What would his name be? At this point God’s people only had a promise and an inkling of God’s faithfulness. But don’t lose sight of the point here. Early in the chapters of Genesis even as God pronounced his curse on man, we discern the hand of God working in history.

God is always faithful.

Creation > Choice > Consequence > Covenant! > Grace > Sin & Evil > Promise!

Nowhere in all the Old Testament is the hand of God working more evident than in the prayer found in Nehemiah 9. That prayer is a history lesson for us. It's God’s people coming to terms with God’s covenant faithfulness throughout history from the time of Abraham to their present. It's a prayer about their complete and utter need for God’s mercy. I want you to get into your Bible and find chapter nine of the book of Nehemiah. Let’s do it together. If you go to the very middle of your Bible you will find the Psalms. From there you just need to back up three books of the Bible. Go back through Job, then Esther, and there is the book of Nehemiah! Nehemiah 9. Now consider the rich history of Israel and the hand of God working. Creation, choice, consequence, and covenant. Grace, sin, evil, and promise.

Nehemiah 9:1-4 (NIV) begins, "On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God."

Nehemiah 9:5-6 (NIV) continues, "Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."

Nehemiah 9:7-12 (NIV) says, "You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous. You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take."

In Nehemiah 9:13-15 (NIV) the prayer continues. "You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them."

Nehemiah 9:16-18 (NIV) speaks of a God who is slow to anger. "But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies."

Nehemiah 9:19-21 (NIV) speaks of God's compassion. "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen."

Nehemiah 9:22-25 (NIV) tells of God's generosity. "You gave them kingdoms and nations, allotting to them even the remotest frontiers. They took over the country of Sihon king of Heshbon and the country of Og king of Bashan. You made their sons as numerous as the stars in the sky, and you brought them into the land that you told their fathers to enter and possess. Their sons went in and took possession of the land. You subdued before them the Canaanites, who lived in the land; you handed the Canaanites over to them, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, to deal with them as they pleased. They captured fortified cities and fertile land; they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness."

Nehemiah 9:26-27 (NIV) speaks of Israel's unfaithfulness to God and God's continuing goodness. "But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they put your law behind their backs. They killed your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies."

In Nehemiah 9:28(NIV) Israel rebels again. "But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Then you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to you again, you heard from heaven, and in your compassion you delivered them time after time."

Nehemiah 9:29-31 (NIV) speaks of God's patience and mercy. "You warned them to return to your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed your commands. They sinned against your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on you, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so you handed them over to the neighboring peoples. But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God."

Nehemiah's confession on behalf of Israel is in Nehemiah 9:32-35 (NIV). "Now therefore, O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes— the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings and leaders, upon our priests and prophets, upon our fathers and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong. Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways."

The agreement of the people is in Nehemiah 9:36-38 (NIV). "But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress. In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it."

Even after all God had been doing throughout history, the Israelites were still waiting for the complete fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. They were waiting on the child who would crush the head of Satan, the child through whom all nations on earth would be blessed. This child would be named Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where was he?

The promised child.

Through Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 7:13-14 (NIV) God would say, "Then Isaiah said, 'Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Again through Isaiah in Isaiah 9:6-7 (NIV) God would promise, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this."

"All is calm. All is bright. Round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild."

God speaks once more through Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV). "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

"Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace."

What child is this? It is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. The Christ of Christmas. The center of mass. The center of all Christian celebration. The center of all history. The culmination of God’s working and a turning point for mankind. The dawning of a hope beyond the grave and the promise of eternal life to all who believe. Jesus Christ changed everything for us. He is most certainly worthy of our worship this holiday season. He is equally worthy of our complete devotion.