This sermon emphasizes the importance of Christ as the true focus of Christmas, highlighting how His significance as Creator, King of Kings, and Savior should never be forgotten or taken for granted, especially in a world that often overlooks Him.
Transcript
I have to confess that I generally always enjoyed the Christmas season and all of the stuff, most of the stuff anyway. I like Christmas movies for example. I enjoy Christmas movies, I think, and I have been thinking critically about it for the past few weeks, trying to figure out, why do I like Christmas movies? Well, one reason, it is probably changing now, but for most of my lifetime you could watch a Christmas movie and it’s a pretty safe movie to watch. It’s a family-focused movie. And usually there’s no, until recently, there’s no blasphemy in these movies. They, the emphasis of just about all of these movies is on family. And they almost always have a redemptive element. Even going back to A Christmas Carol, with Ebenezer Scrooge being a cold-hearted, selfish guy who’s after the next dollar and all of that, and the misery that he causes Bob Cratchit and his family and all those things. And how with three ghosts who come to him, you know, three spirits who come to him, he’s changed through that. But the emphasis is on the family and goodwill and those kinds of things.
Family Emphasis
Similar with like a movie like It’s a Wonderful Life where you see someone like George Bailey grow up through the eyes of Clarence Oddbody. And you see all these things come about, him saving his brother from drowning, and his battle with Mr. Potter and marrying Mary Hatch, and all those things that are involved in the story, and then the crisis of the story and the, you know, the evidence of goodwill and community. And you know, emphasis on family is not a bad thing. It really isn’t. Not in today’s world when family is so neglected. So, I think that’s one of the reasons. I mean, it’s an aside, you want to aside just cursed to me is that if all, in all the history of the United States of America, right now, if anything family should ever be emphasized, it certainly should be now.
Here’s one little statistic on that. That’s not my topic today. I’m getting off on it. Here’s one little statistic I’ll throw out. If I were to ask you individually, you know, what do you think the percentage of traditional families are in the United States today? If I were to ask you what that is, what do you think? You think it’s down to 50% or 40% of traditional family? A mom and a dad and children in the home. That’s what, that’s what I mean. What is, what’s the percentage of that now? I’ll tell you, it’s 17%. 17%. And the decline in the past decade has been really significant. So yeah, emphasis on family is not, not a bad thing.
Something Missing
But there’s something that bothers me about the Christmas movies, and it has for years, but especially this year for some reason. And that is that you can watch all these Christmas movies and there’s something missing, or rather, there’s someone that’s missing. If you look up, go to Google and look up the top 25 Christmas movies. And there’s going to be multiple lists like that. You can look at all of the Christmas movies that’s in most of these lists and you will never come across a movie that mentions the name of Jesus Christ. And that’s a startling thing to realize.
You have someone missing. And it’s not just someone missing. It’s, it’s, it’s really significant. And that’s true for just about all of them. Even even a movie, you know, the movies that I mentioned. I mean, in It’s a Wonderful Life, you have Janie playing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and they’re singing at the end of the movie, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and giving praise to the newborn King. And that’s something. But that’s the only mention for as I remember in that movie. Unless there was something in one of those strange prayers at the beginning. I can’t remember the name of Jesus being mentioned in that movie. Or certainly not in A Christmas Carol. Or in any of the pretty, some of them pretty decent, Hallmark movies, or dozens of movies and all the movies like White Christmas, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, the Christmas song, you know, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” Elvis’s “Blue Christmas,” “Walking Around the Christmas Tree.” Those are, those show up on the lists. Those are the main songs of Christmas. “Winter Wonderland,” “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”
And so you can have all of these things and you can celebrate Christmas and you know, you can list all your favorite things and have a holly jolly Christmas without ever mentioning the name of Jesus. And that’s something, or something fundamentally wrong with that. I mean, isn’t it? Shouldn’t it be?
And so it’s interesting to me how we’ve come to this thing because people like the idea of Christmas. They really like the idea of joy and peace and goodwill towards men, family celebrations and giving gifts to other people and showing kindness. And one of the things that comes up in so many of these movies and things, especially recently, more recent years, is the idea of faith and believing. I think that’s really intriguing. You have to believe. You’ve got to believe. What you believe in is not always defined, often if it is defined, it’s Santa Claus. And so you have this idea that’s conveyed in the movie that we really know that Santa Claus is not true, but we’ve got to believe. I think what they’re saying is we’ve got to believe in goodwill and purpose in life. Even though we know those things aren’t true either. But we have to believe, otherwise what else is there?
So, to have all these things and we neglect Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in
Romans 10:3, “For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
Jesus is the righteousness that comes from God. There are a lot of people to think about Jesus and his perfections. A lot of people to think about Jesus stirs their heart to feel guilty. They think about Jesus and his perfections and they feel guilty. And so they push Jesus out of their thoughts. I think that’s one of the reasons that people like these kinds of movies and favor them over a movie that would talk about Jesus and the genuine, the true Christmas story.
Hate for Christ
And that’s not, that can’t really surprise us really when you start thinking about it. I mean, the world hates Christ. And so why should you celebrate Christ at the time of festival if you hate Christ? So they hate to mention his name unless it’s in some form of blasphemy. Jesus told us that it would be that way. He said,
“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.”
And later in Matthew 10 he says,
“All the nations will hate you because you’re my followers.”
So there’s that kind of thing. It’s a given that the world hates Christ. But the thing that also strikes me is that there are a lot of people who identify as Christians, who aren’t Christians. And they’re caught up in these things. For many of us, you know, if you were going to look at your Christmas celebration, I think for many it looks probably looks a lot more like a Christmas Story, the movie, rather than reflecting on the Christmas story of Scripture.
So why is that? I mean, how does that come about? I think that if I were to ask anyone that that’s true of, a Christian who has caught up in the things of this world and has kind of pushed Christ out of his Christmas. If you called their attention to it, they would say, “Of course. Of course, it’s about Jesus.” You know, that’s a given. That’s what’s presumed.
I think it’s pretty much the response you would get from most any of them. It reminded me of an illustration that I heard many, many years ago. I think it was Piper. And his illustration he said, “Suppose you ask a man a businessman, a president of a company, say, who under God, who is the most important person in your life?” And he were to say, “Oh, I think my Vice President for Marketing.” And you say, “Well, what about your wife?” And he says, “Oh, I just assume that. You know, that goes without saying.” You know, it might be that a lot of people would assume that it was wonderful affection and respect for his wife that kept him from coming to mind. But most of us, especially his wife, would think exactly the opposite. The reason she didn’t come to mind is because she’s not of paramount importance to him. And she goes without saying because in his mind she goes without significance. And so she’s not going to like it.
She doesn’t say, “I feel so loved and honored because my husband never thinks to mention my name among his top priorities. I’m like the air he breathes. He never gives me a thought.” She’s not going to say that. She’s going to say if I don’t come to mind to talk about then I’m not important to you. If you think that I’m honored by being taken for granted, then you’re wrong because I’m not. So Jesus is a very important person. And he shouldn’t be taken for granted. It’s possible to take important things for granted, like air. But nothing is honored because it’s taken for granted.
God’s Purpose
In the book of Isaiah, the passage that I read earlier, God said,
“For my name’s sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it from you. In order not to cut you off, behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act, for how can my name be profaned and my glory I will not give to another.”
So Christ Jesus has shown us mercy. He’s given us mercy. An incredible mercy so that we would celebrate, so that we would worship him. He’s worthy of our worship. Jesus is important and he should not be forgotten or presumed upon or taken for granted. He’s important because he’s the very focus and the center of the Word of God. He’s the very focus and the center of all of history. He’s important because he’s the Creator of everything. Everything that exists in this world is here because of Jesus Christ.
John 1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, not one thing came into being that has come into being.”
He’s the creator God.
The beginning of the book of Hebrews says,
“Long ago and in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these last days, He spoke to us by His Son, whom He appointed an heir of all things. Through whom also He created the world.”
And then it says,
“Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power.”
This world is held together because of the power of Jesus. The reason that we take our next breath is because of the power of Jesus and He’s holding us, sustaining us together. That is grace and mercy. That’s the kindness and grace of God. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
Our Savior
Jesus is precious because he’s our wonderful counselor. He’s our mighty God. He is the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. He’s important and he shouldn’t be taken for granted. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. In Philippians chapter 2, the Son of God lays down the glories of heaven. And he does that in order to be made in the likeness of men. That’s the Christmas story. And he takes the form of a bond slave. And he humbles himself further by becoming obedient to the point of death, it says,
“even death on a cross.”
And then it says this,
“For this reason also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus said that
“all power and authority have been given to Him.”
He’s the King of Kings and he’s the Lord of Lords. There is no one higher or greater or better or more powerful. He’s the one who, to whom all judgment has been given.
So Jesus is important because he’s the King of Kings, but he’s important especially for us because he’s the Savior of mankind. And that’s what the Christmas story is about.
Matthew 1:21, “His name Jesus, because his purpose in coming, it was to save, He will save His people from their sins.”
And that’s what Jesus said about himself. In
Luke 19:10 he said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Why did Jesus come and why was he born in that manger? Why did such a, the holy Son of God come and enter into this world?
Mark 10:45, it’s, it’s because it’s to give his life a ransom for many.
We can’t save ourselves. We can’t save ourselves by keeping the law. If you offend in one point, you’re guilty of all. And we couldn’t save ourselves by keeping the sacrifices. That was not enough. For it tells us in
Hebrews 10:4, that “it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.”
Therefore, when the Lord Jesus, when the Son of God comes into the world, he says,
“Sacrifice and offering you’ve not desired, but a body you’ve prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you’ve taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God.'”
That’s why Jesus came. He came because only he could be the provision for our sin. For
God so loved the world that He gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus Christ came to be our Savior. He is the Savior of mankind, of everyone who puts their trust in him. As the carol we sing, “Good Christian men rejoice, with heart and soul and voice, now ye need not fear the grave. Jesus Christ was born to save.” Calls you one and calls you all to gain His everlasting hall. Christ was born to save. Christ was born to save.
Jesus said the
“Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”
He’s important and he’s precious and he should not be taken for granted because he’s our Savior. The purpose of his coming was to save us. Those are just a few of the reasons that he’s not to be taken for granted. He’s a Creator God, he’s a King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, he’s the only Savior of mankind. There’s no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
And because of that, God has highly exalted him.
“As I live,” says the Lord, “Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
Romans 10:9, it says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
I mean, if, if the foundation of our salvation, I mean, as far as our side of this, and trusting Christ includes confessing his name, we should certainly be doing it, especially this time of the year, wouldn’t you think as we presume to be celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus. We should never presume on God’s grace or take the name of our Lord Jesus for granted, even in the simplest, most basic things. A few weeks ago, we were instead, our study of First Corinthians, we spent a week looking at First Corinthians 10:31, it’s a very simple verse. And in that verse, it’s basically saying that whatever we eat or whatever we drink, or whatever we do in this life, we’re to do it for the glory of God. The little things in our life. There’s a tragedy that is greater than a Christless Christmas. Even though as bad as that is, and it’s bad. There’s the tragedy of a Christless life. Living just about every day of our life without taking thought to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus didn’t come for that reason. So, in Romans chapter 15, the Apostle Paul writes,
“For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision.”
He became a servant to the Jew on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers. He came a servant to the Jew to confirm the promises given to the fathers,
“and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy, as it is written. Therefore, I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.”
Jesus Christ gave up the glories of heaven to enter into this world to purchase a to live a perfect life, the life that we can’t live, and to purchase for us a place in heaven by paying a debt that we cannot, we cannot pay.
And he did that to earn the praise of heaven and to earn our praise. I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name. He’s a precious Savior. He’s the glorious Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We need to praise him. We need to remember him and not forget him. So I want us to do that now. As we close the service today, I want us to sing another carol. And as we do so, I want us to sing from our heart in praise to the Lord. He’s our precious Savior. He’s an extremely important person. You dare not neglect him or take him for granted.
To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. Amen. In the name of…