The Announcement of the Birth
Tom Shrader examines the Christmas story from Matthew 1:18-25, focusing on the virgin birth and its theological significance. He addresses Catholic teachings about Mary, emphasizing that Jesus was born specifically to die for our sins. The lesson connects Christmas directly to Easter, showing that Christ's birth was purposeful - to accomplish salvation through His death on the cross.
“You cannot look at Christmas and not look at the crucifixion.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Jesus was Born to Die
Recorded: December 20, 2001
Duration: 37 min
Themes: birth, death, salvation, purpose, christmas, easter, sin, grace, unbeliever, new believer, christmas season, seeking purpose, questioning faith, parent, struggling with doubt, young adult
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 1:21, Luke 1, Luke 2, John 19, Luke 1:46, Matthew 13:55, Matthew 1:25, Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9, Psalm 51, Psalm 7:11, Luke 2:14, Hebrews 11, 1 Corinthians 7, Genesis 3, Acts 24
Theological Themes: virgin birth, incarnation, christology, soteriology, salvation, atonement, prophecy fulfillment, biblical theology
Full Transcript
This is the second of a two-part special time as we get ready for Christmas. What we're going to look at this morning is the Christmas story. I want to have you see the story, understand it, and then see the importance of it as it relates to you personally.
Let me read to you from Matthew chapter 1 verse 18: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ is as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sin.' Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophets might be fulfilled, saying, 'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,' which translated means God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and they called His name Jesus."
That's a Christmas story, and you're pretty familiar with that story. What I want to do today is take a look at the story and focus on what is a key component of that story, which would be the virgin birth. Then I want to come back and grab one verse, that'd be verse 21, which gives us the whole purpose of Jesus being born, and then I want to apply it to your life.
This is actually a pretty serious lesson. It may be that you're here and you're not a Christian, and this is going to be a little bit in your face. If you are one of those people, and there are lots of us around right now, who find that Christmas time provides this special opportunity to share truth, this is going to be a lesson that's really helpful to you.
The Main Characters: Mary and Joseph
Two main characters in the story, obviously aside from Christ Himself, are Mary and Joseph. We do not know a lot about each one of them. We know that Mary was in all likelihood born in Nazareth, that she was probably from a poor family, and she had a sister. John tells us in John 19 she had a sister, and the sister's name was Mary. They found a name they liked and just kept using it. She's from the Davidic line, just as Joseph is, and she was a godly woman.
I would encourage you, when you get the chance, to look at Luke chapter 1 and 2. In Luke chapter 1 and 2, you see the announcement of the birth by the angel to Mary, and then you see Mary's response in the prayer we call the Magnificat, in Luke chapter 1 verse 46, and then you'll see the story of the birth there. Most of the information we get about the birth of Christ, we get from these two places: this section in Matthew, and that section in Luke.
Joseph, we know even less about Joseph than we do about Mary. He was a craftsman, probably a carpenter. In the passage we just looked at, he was described as a righteous man. That's about what we know about him. He, too, becomes a godly man and a submissive man. If we're going to say that about Mary, we've got to say it about Joseph, because they both have the same response to the angel.
The other thing about Joseph that gets talked about periodically is that in all likelihood, Joseph is dead by the time Jesus' public ministry begins. We say that because there's no mention of him at all, so the assumption is that he's dead.
Understanding Their Youth and Cultural Context
We know something else about them as a couple, and these are important things. I don't want to over-dramatize the story, but I don't want you to sterilize it either. In all likelihood, though we don't know for certain, Mary is somewhere between 12 and 15 years of age.
That picture changes a lot when you think about it. You get a picture of Mary and Joseph in your mind, and you see this young couple, 28, 25 years old. But imagine the difference: Mary's 13 and a half. Some of you have a 13 and a half year old daughter or granddaughter. Imagine this whole scene being played out with them. Let's say she's 14. Joseph's somewhere between 15 and 18, because of the culture and when these things would happen. So let's say Mary's 14, Joseph's 16 or 17.
They were betrothed, that is, they were engaged. That again is a term that is different in their culture as compared to ours. This is a legal binding contract. The parents would make these arrangements generally. As a father of two daughters, I like this next thing: the husband-to-be, the groom-to-be, would pay a dowry to the parents of the wife for one of two things or both, either to offset the cost of the wedding, which makes a lot of sense to me, or so their parents could take this...
The Cultural Context of Engagement
For those of you who've been around, in that Jewish culture, you could divorce anybody for anything. A guy could divorce a woman for literally anything. There were a lot of divorced ladies around. Well, all of a sudden, you get this girl at age 17 who's been used and she's damaged goods. This money is used to support her and provide her some protection.
So this is what we know about them. They're engaged. With that background, let's work our way through the story. I want to go a little quickly because I've got a lot I want to get in here today.
Here you go: "Mary, his mother, had been betrothed to Joseph and before they came together, she was found to be with child." Before they came together—that's a euphemism for they had not had any sex. In this engagement time in that culture, part of that engagement would typically last about a year and had two components: there'd be no sexual contact and very little social contact.
The Virgin Birth Emphasized
What this passage is telling us, again and again and again and again, is that Jesus was born of a virgin. They hadn't had any contact yet. They hadn't been together. "And Joseph, her husband"—now, if you're one of those real sharp people, you're going, "Wait a minute, I thought they were engaged but now Joseph's her husband. How can that be?" Well, because as we said, this thing was essentially a contract that was a binding contract. So that term "husband" was used even in that instance in this engagement period or this time in which they were betrothed to one another.
"And he was a righteous man. He didn't want to disgrace her so he desired to put her away secretly." Here's what's happened: Joseph has found a reason to sever this engagement. Mary's pregnant. She's had sex prior to this wedding, and that gives Joseph the right to sever this relationship.
You see the key phrase? "He desired to put her away secretly." Verse 19 tells you an awful lot about Joseph.
Joseph's Character Revealed
Hey guys, you can relate to this. You're 17 years old. Here's your bride-to-be. You haven't been around her. She comes in and she says, "I gotta tell you something here. I'm pregnant." There aren't a lot of guys that can handle that. Who is he out there with? Who is he? Who is this punk? And then after you're done with that, it goes, "Mary, what kind of a gal are you, Mary?" The natural response is to say, "We're gonna pull this apart and everybody's gonna know who you are and what you're like."
That's not what Joseph did. Joseph's desire was to just quietly put this away. See what an extraordinary guy he was? The angel comes in the midst of this and the angel says to him, "Do not be afraid." Fascinating to me—that's the same greeting that the angel used with Mary.
The Challenge of Belief
Do you see what I'm saying? When you don't sterilize this, do you understand this? "Do not be afraid" because you're 14 years old. You're a 14-year-old girl and you're pregnant. You're pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Imagine the conversation there with your dad. "Dad, I need to talk to you." "What's wrong?" "I'm pregnant."
You know what the dad's gonna say? I guarantee it. "I never liked that Joseph from the beginning. I never liked him. I never trusted him. From the very day he came in here, I never liked that Joseph guy." And she goes, "No, it's not Joseph." "What is it? Who is he? One of the guys from work? One of the guys from the bowling league? One of those softball guys? That's who it is." "No, it's the Holy Spirit."
And that's when his dad goes, "You know what? When you said the dog ate the homework, that was hard for me. But this is over the line. This is way too much for me." You see that? And they say "don't be afraid" because the angel's saying, "You need to know this. This is what's happening. This is true. Don't be afraid. God is with you." Not only Emmanuel, God with us—God is in the center of this whole relationship, in the center of your life.
The Critical Importance of the Virgin Birth
Now what causes such great concern here is this picture of the virgin birth. When I was a young man, I was born and raised in a Catholic environment: Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, Catholic college. I was intrigued by different things, and the virgin birth was one of them. I always thought, "How can this be and does it even matter?"
At the college that I attended, we had a guest theologian, a Catholic priest from Holland. I posed that question to him and his answer was, "It doesn't matter. All that matters is the product of the birth." What I've come to realize is that the virgin birth is absolutely critical to our Christian faith.
Addressing Views of Mary
Every time we talk about the virgin birth, we end up talking about Mary and we end up talking about the Catholic Church. So I want to just take a couple minutes and talk about this. Understand, please, what I'm not doing—not bashing, not trying to beat anybody up. But what inevitably happens is people want to come up afterwards and ask about Mary. "What about Mary?" And they'll say, "I'm a Catholic and here's the thing with Mary," or "I've got friends who are Catholics. What's the Catholic Church teach?"
Here's what you've got, and I put it on your outline for you. I understand how dangerous this is. I understand how politically incorrect it is and how potentially lethal this is. When you deal with the Catholic Church, they have a different view of Mary than most of us may have. Mary elevated and elevated and elevated and elevated to a place of almost worship, and a term that's even used of co-redemptrix.
Learning from the Catholic View
The question I ask is, why do the Catholics in the Catholic Church honor Mary? Four things. Number one, the story we just read. And I'll tell you something—I think we could learn a lot from them. I've observed that many Protestant churches underestimate, in my mind, the role of Mary. I think as a reaction, they've just kind of pooh-poohed it. But we give great lessons about Joseph and his time in Egypt, great lessons about Paul and Moses. I think Mary and her life and her approach to her relationship...
Understanding Mary's Role
When the Lord considers Mary's response to the angelic announcement, I think she has a lot to teach us here. When you study the Magnificat, beginning again in Luke chapter 1 verse 46, and that prayer, it's a magnificent prayer. So we have a lot to learn.
The Catholic Teaching of Perpetual Virginity
Here's the second reason. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was perpetually a virgin. Now, you may be a Catholic and say, "We never heard that." In fact, I've had a bunch of that lately. "We were never taught that." I don't know whether you're taught that. I don't know what your parish teaches. I don't know what the diocese teaches, but I know what Rome teaches. Rome teaches that Mary was forever a virgin.
My grade school I went to was called the Holy Family grade school. Holy Family. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. That's who we had. There weren't any more, because Mary was perpetually a virgin. I always struggled with that, and I think there's a lot of pride. All of a sudden, you hold up as here's the perfect family. Mom and Dad, celibate. That, to me, seems out of whack.
Here's the problem. The problem isn't that the church moves into extra-biblical teaching here. The church teaches something that's anti-biblical. You've got the passages in front of you. In all of these passages, what we're taught is that Jesus had brothers and sisters.
Jesus Had Brothers and Sisters
Now, let's be technically accurate. They were His half-brothers and half-sisters. Same mom, Mary, but a different father. Their father was Joseph. Jesus' father was the Holy Spirit.
Take, for example, Matthew chapter 13, verse 55. Jesus is coming into Nazareth, and here are the guys, and they're hearing all about Jesus. They're trying to figure out what's going on. They hear that He's coming, and now He comes, and here's what they say: "Wait, isn't this the carpenter's son? And isn't His mother Mary?" And there's His brothers, and they name four of them, and His sisters.
In fact, even in the passage before us, it seems to me, and I would admit that we could be reading a little bit into it here, but the language is interesting. Matthew chapter 1, verse 25. He kept her a virgin forever? No, until she gave birth. But let me tell you something. After she gave birth, it was time for Joseph and for Mary.
God's Plan for Marriage
Here's God's plan for sex. If you're single, you're celibate. If you're married, it's celebration. That's what 1st Corinthians chapter 7 is all about. Gentlemen, your body's not your own. Wives, your body's not your own. Don't deprive one another.
You probably can't imagine it, but in that day and age, there were actually people that were using sex as a tool in a relationship, and they were manipulating the other person with it. "Stop depriving one another, except by mutual consent, and then for a season, to pray and to fast, and then come back together."
So the Church teaches that Mary was perpetually a virgin. Not only extra-biblical, anti-biblical.
The Teaching of the Immaculate Conception
Here's the third thing, her Immaculate Conception. This teaching really wasn't formalized in the Church until about 1850. The Immaculate Conception is this: The Immaculate Conception doesn't speak of Jesus' birth. It's not what we have in front of us here.
The Immaculate Conception, I quote from a book titled "The Faith of Millions," written by a Catholic priest, and it bears the stamp of Rome on it, their approval. It speaks not of Jesus' birth, but of Mary's birth. It says this: "Not only was Mary free from the slightest stain of actual sin, but by a singular miracle of divine grace, she was free also from original sin, once all the other children of Adam were born into this world."
See, that's not extra-biblical, that's anti-biblical. Here's what Romans chapter 3:23 says: "For all have sinned and fallen short." It doesn't say all except Mary.
The Danger of Elevating Human Authority
Here's why this is so important. When I start embracing these truths, then what I do is say, "This Bible is really significant, but we have a higher authority, we have a new revelation, we have different teachings." That's what the Mormons do. This book, we won't see, we'll see some of these ads now, but you'll see a bunch of them around Easter that say, "You've got the Testament of Jesus Christ, you've got this, this is a really important book, but now you need the Book of Mormon. This is really important, and it's really significant."
Again, my point here is not in any way to put any of this down. I just want you to understand this. So the Catholic Church would elevate Mary, and you begin to see why you end up worshiping her. Here's a person that perpetually is a virgin, stays in that state, stays removed. They were born without sin.
Mary, by the way, I think Mary's own testimony contradicts the teaching of the Immaculate Conception. When she prays in that Magnificat, she prays, "God, my Savior." Well, I don't need a Savior if I don't have sin.
The Assumption of Mary
Here's the fourth thing. I said I went to a Holy Family grade school, I went to Assumption High School. 1950, the Church formalized this teaching. Here's what they said, and you've got it in front of you: "We pronounce, declare, and define it as divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, that's what we talked about, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed, body and soul, into heavenly glory."
Again, not necessarily anti-biblical, but certainly extra-biblical. We have nothing from the Scripture that would say this. In other words, Mary's done literally, and she just goes into heaven.
Finding Balance in Our View of Mary
So that's why, again, let me be clear, I think we can profit from understanding that Mary plays a key role, and we can learn from her response to this. But when we start elevating her to this position, this is how we get things out of whack. So when you're talking about Mary, I get it all the time from people say, "I have Catholic friends, or I'm this, and..."
What about Mary? I rarely get into that. What about Jesus? Do you know Christ? But inevitably, this creeps in, and what has crept in here is extra-biblical teaching. You have to be very cautious there.
The verse I want to focus on, we've got about 20 minutes, is Matthew chapter 1, verse 21. The angel speaking to Joseph says this: "She will bring forth a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, and He will save His people from their sin." There's Jesus' purpose statement. There's Jesus' mission. That's why Jesus was born.
Christmas and Easter Are Inseparable
You cannot, at our church, we will not allow you to talk about Christmas without talking about Easter. You cannot look at Christmas and not look at the crucifixion. If all you do is look at this key time when the stars shine brightly, and Magi came, and there was this significant birth, if that's all you do, then you miss the whole point of Jesus' life. He was born to save His people from their sin, to rescue them. That was part of the plan. From the beginning of time, that was part of the plan.
I had a friend involved in a mainline denominational church, and it was around Easter time. This denomination had gotten a little liberal on him, so he wanted me to meet with his pastor and talk about just how do you go to heaven, and everything else. So we sat, and we had the typical dance about what you got to do to go to heaven, and this guy didn't have anything there, and we weren't getting anywhere.
So I said, "What do you have to do to go to hell?" And he said, "Well that's so negative, I don't like to bring in the negative." I said, "Okay, well I'm betwixt and between, I don't know what to say. How about this: why did Jesus die on the cross?" And his answer was this: "Because Jesus was a political prisoner, and that's how they executed political prisoners in that day." I said, "Okay, I'm going to go with that for a little bit, but why? What was the significance of it?" "Well, He showed us how to live, sacrificial love." I said, "Okay, but what else?" He said, "Well that's it."
The True Meaning of the Cross
Well, the crucifixion is all about the fulfillment of what Jesus says right here, or what's said of Jesus right here: He'll save His people from their sin. When He's on the cross, and He cries out, "My God, my God," the only time that He refers to the Father by any other term other than Father, He calls Him "my God." What's happening?
Well, at that moment is this miraculous divine transaction, where your sin and mine, if we're Christians, our sin is thrust onto Christ at that moment. He who knew no sin takes on the penalty and the judgment of sin, and the wrath of God is poured out. And when He says "it is finished," what He's saying is, "I've accomplished what I came to do," which was to save people from their sin.
Well, that's the story. Here's how it applies to you, and you've got these verses in front of you, and I just want to work our way through them. It's essential to communicate this in your own life, in your own understanding, to those people that you come in contact with.
The Reality of Sin
First of all, Romans 5:12: "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and this way death came to all men, because all sinned. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." When David's writing in Psalm 51, he says, "I was conceived in sin." He's not saying, "I'm a bastard child." What he's saying is, "I was a sinner from the very beginning."
Here's the question we ask all the time: how many sins must you commit to be a sinner? The answer is none. You're born a sinner. When Adam sinned, and there was a real Adam and a real Eve, when Adam sinned, he thrust, that's what this passage right here teaches, he thrust all of us into sin.
Ray Steadman writes this, speaking of Adam's sin in Genesis 3: "In many ways, Genesis 3 is the most important piece of information ever conveyed to man. Here's the ultimate explanation for the tensions and conflict that are constantly flaring up around the world. Here's the explanation for over a hundred centuries of human heartache, misery, torture, blood, sweat, and tears. Here's the reason for the powerful fascination that drugs hold on young people today, passion for power, the lure of wealth, the enticement of forbidden sex. Here is the only reasonable answer for the existence of all these things in the world today, and that is sin."
The Necessity of the Virgin Birth
When Adam sinned, you sinned. He was your perfect representative. When he sinned, you were now tainted with original sin, and every man that was ever born. By the way, that's why there had to be a virgin birth. If Jesus has a human father like you or me, then I might as well die on the cross for you. You might as well die for me. That's why virgin birth is so critical. Jesus isn't born with sin.
Let me tell you how important this is, and again, I think one of the great things I do is not major in minor things. So I beat this to death because it's a huge deal. If you're sitting there and you say, "I don't like this. In fact, I don't buy it. In fact, it's not even fair. One guy sins, so we all get tainted with that. That's not fair. You ought to get what you deserve." Well then, here's the problem: if you don't like this substitutionary arrangement, then Jesus' death on the cross for you doesn't work. Through Adam, sin entered into the world.
The Gift of Eternal Life
Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It's an important verse. It says this: the wage of sin, the dividend, what sin pays is death. Physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death, unless God intervenes.
If you're a Christian today, I hope you understand that what you deserved was death. See it in the verse? But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's a free gift. That's the whole point of Jesus' death on the cross: now the payment is paid.
Now I receive that free gift. See it in Ephesians chapter 2 right there in front of you? "For by grace..." Grace is a key word. Grace can mean many things, but part of the idea of grace is unmerited favor, special favor, something I haven't done.
So here's what the Bible teaches: There's nothing you have done, there's nothing you can do, there's nothing you will do that will please God and result in you going to heaven, your salvation. All of religion teaches that. All religion teaches, "Do this, don't do this, come over here, make God happy."
The God of Wrath
It's a very important truth. Can we get at this? God is a God of love, to be sure, but God is also a God of wrath. On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached what is considered the greatest sermon ever preached in America: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Someone would suggest if he were to preach that today, he'd have to change the title. It wouldn't be "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," it would be "God in the Hands of Angry Sinners." That's how we view it today—a totally distorted view of God.
Here's what Edwards' approach in that sermon was: As I understand it, he read his text monotone. As he began to preach about how tenuous our relationship is, and how much trouble we're in, and how we simply hang by a thread over the precipice of hell, that if God doesn't intervene—as he began to teach, literally they started moaning. People were grabbing pillars under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
I'm trying to figure out exactly what I want to do Christmas Eve. It's always a hard time for me—I'm not the best on Christmas Eve and Easter. But what I'm going to do, I'm going to use a text that I believe has never been used on Christmas Eve before. I'm going to Acts chapter 24 and talk about Felix. You remember Felix? Where Paul is speaking, and he's talking about the path, the way, what it means to be a Christian, and Felix says, "Go away and we'll talk another time." That's the Christmas Eve crowd. That's what they said after Easter: "Go away, we'll talk another time." This year we got a bonus—there were three days we saw Him, because we saw Him right after September 11, but then after two weeks, "Go away, we'll talk another time."
The True Message of Christmas
See, this is the truth. Here you go: Psalm 7 verse 11, "God is a just God, and God is angry with the wicked of the world." That's the message that never gets out at Christmas. All I see at Christmas are these beautiful pictures—a little manger scene, a beautiful round baby with no imperfections. Here's Mary, here's Joseph, what a sweet, lovely scene.
Jesus was born because God is angry, and He'll judge sin, and the wages of sin is death. There you go: "But by grace you've been saved." Not religion, not being a good person—you've been saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast.
Here you go—to me this is the good news of Christmas: There's nothing you can do, there's no act you can perform, there's no penance you can do that are going to please an angry God. Here you go: three-word sentence—"God saves sinners." It is so simplistic. I love that sentence. God, this triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—they intervene and they save, they rescue, they do everything to bring man to glory. And He saves sinners—people who are guilty and helpless.
Diagramming God's Grace
Hang with me one second as we diagram that sentence. I always thought—the nuns made us diagram sentences, and I always thought, "That's just stupid, I'll never use that." You know, I was wrong. I've used it this one time.
"God saves sinners." Remember how we did this? God—He's the subject, He's the noun, He's the actor in the sentence. Saves—the verb, the predicate, the action. Sinners—sinners, in this sentence, is a direct object. I remember always thinking, "Gee, if I could be in a sentence, you know what I'd like to be? I'd like to be a direct object." They have no responsibility, and they have the benefit of whatever is going on in the sentence. God does the action, saves is the action that's performed, and the benefit is sinners.
Here's the message to take, I think, to the marketplace at Christmas: The good news is, God's done it all. There's nothing you need to do.
Peace Among Men—With Whom God Is Pleased
On your outline it says Luke chapter 2 verse 4—it's actually Luke chapter 2 verse 14. Here's what it says, you'll love it: I even got it on my Christmas cards as they were coming in this year. "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men." The only problem with that is, that's not what the verse says. "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom God is pleased." Do you see it?
In The Message, Eugene Peterson renders it this way: "Glory to God in heavenly places, peace to all men and women on earth who please Him." Here's the question for you as we head to the end of this: Do you please God? Is God happy with you? Are you a Christian?
In Hebrews chapter 11, the author of Hebrews is working through the Hall of Fame of Faith, and he says this: "Without faith it's impossible to please God." He's just been talking about Enoch. He says Enoch walked with God—that's what it means to have faith, to walk with God. Is that you? Have you been reconciled with God?
The Peace We're All Searching For
Peace is a huge word this time of year. We want the peace of God—that's what you're searching for. That's what I hear when I watch TV, when I read. Esquire magazine has a cover story this time on the meaning of life, and in this whole process of meaning of life, they're trying to figure out how does all this thing come together. Where do we find this? Where do I find happiness? Where do I find joy? Where do I find peace?
What the world wants desperately is peace of God, but I can't have that until I have peace with God. Here's what John MacArthur writes—I personally love this quote, I think this would be a magnificent
Christmas card, so I've provided it for you on your outline. Here's a side of the Christmas story that isn't often told. Those soft little hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb were made so that nails might be driven through them. Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross. That sweet infant's head with sparkling eyes and eager mouth was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it. That tender body warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear. Jesus was born to die.
An Honest Inventory of Your Life
I have no leverage with you. I don't want to manipulate you. I ask you though to do this: would you at this Christmas season stop and take an honest inventory of your life to see whether you're a Christian or not?
Some of you that's an easy question. You just say no—no evidence, no fruit, no. Others of you, you answer yes quickly, maybe too quickly. Why is it a yes? How many of you have just been hanging out in church for years and years and years, maybe born even into a church family or a Christian family, but never come to a point of understanding Christ and who He is, never come to a point of salvation? Would you stop and take that inventory?
Sharing Truth During the Holidays
I also know—I've been doing it 13 years now—I know that this is a tough time of year for many of you. You are about to climb on airplanes or saddle up the SUV or go to the airport and pick up people. You're about to be in a situation where families are merged together again and you're merged together with people who are not Christians, they're not followers of Christ and this is an awkward time for them.
Would you understand that this is the message of truth? Would you ask God to open your heart, to find a way for you to share this truth in love with your friends and your neighbors and your family?
The Real Meaning We've Lost
I guess I got a whole bunch of people who are friends who get all bent out of shape about the materialism of Christmas. We've lost the meaning of Christmas, we've become so materialistic. That doesn't bother me that much. What bothers me is we've lost the meaning of Christmas in terms of the whole point of why Christ came and died, that it's just another story, that we separate the birth from the death and now Jesus becomes just a teacher or just a prophet or just a pattern of how we're supposed to live. No Christmas, no Easter. No Easter, no salvation. So important for us to remember that.
My Christmas Wishes for You
I hope you have a great Christmas. I hope you—you know what I hope—I hope you get a lot of stuff. I'll tell you what no other guy is going to tell you: I hope you get a lot of stuff, that'll make it good. I hope you give a lot of stuff. It looks to me like the economy could use it. I just hope that the stuff doesn't get in the way. I hope you're not just one of a bunch of people who Christmas Eve crowd into a church and don't have any room, argue to get out of the parking lot, fight through this whole process and miss the whole point of why this is significant.
When we come back next year, we'll take a look at what kind of year we'll ask you what kind of years you have and how to make 2002 the greatest year of your life.
Closing Prayer
Let's pray together. Father help us see this, help us understand that Jesus was indeed born with a specific purpose and that purpose was to die, so that we would have eternal life. A story that's so familiar to many of us and yet for me, I never grow tired of hearing of your grace and your love that saved me from my sin.
God thank you for these men and women that are here this morning, so faithful through the year, so tough to get up, cold day, nice to stay in bed. I pray that you use this time in their life, that your Spirit would open our eyes to see things that apply to us and truths and principles to teach others. Now we pray that always we would go to your word and from that word we would find truth and what we find as it relates to our salvation God, is that you loved us and you sent your Son to die, so that we'd have eternal life in Him and Him alone.
Father we thank you for the simple truth of the sentence, God saves sinners. Father thank you for that at this Christmas time. Fill our hearts with joy overflowing and thanksgiving for your work in our life. God we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.
We'll see you after the holiday.