Christmas?

Who is Christ? What does He have to do with Christmas? And, why do I need Him?

We’ve all heard that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” And we should “put the Christ back in Christmas.” Both of which are great sayings and I agree with them whole-heartedly! But it occurred to me that not everyone understands who Christ is and why He is important, I know I didn’t get it for most of my life.

I look back to where I was this time last year, no money, no job, and no logical hope under the circumstances. One thing I did have was Faith in God that (whether for the good or bad for me) His “will” will be done. I never doubted that God was in control and I made the promise to Him around this time last year that, if it was in His will, and we were blessed enough to be able to pay our bills and earn enough income to work for ourselves, then I would do all I could to Glorify His name. I realize that we shouldn’t make “deals” with God or attempt to bribe him, but I was desperate and had a heartfelt need.

Now here’s where some people could get a bit offended. I apologize if you are one of them but know that I write this out of love. I have read parts of “The Secret” and heard enough about “The Shack” to see how many people view God. It doesn’t help that many mega-church preachers are teaching this version of God either. They actually want you to believe that, If you want something, you need to think it, visualize it, speak it, and believe it (possibly in some other order) and if you do all of these things then… God will give you what you are asking. Like He is some cosmic genie and if you rub his lamp, He’s going to grant your wishes. This is a completely un-Biblical view point. This is a Quasi-Pantheistic view tainted with hints of Eastern Mysticism. This is not Christian and is considered a heresy. Turns out this “Law of Attraction” works because, when you are constantly focused on a goal, believing in yourself, and working towards that goal… Well, you stand a pretty good chance of getting it.

How silly would you think I am if I sat on my couch thinking about a cheeseburger because I’m hungry and expect God to deliver one to me? I just have to think about holding that cheeseburger, I believe that I’m going to get that cheeseburger, then I speak that “I’m going to have that cheeseburger!” Then I sit on my couch and die of starvation because I didn’t do anymore about it… Same way with the rest of your life. If you want that cheeseburger and you make that your goal, you think about ways to achieve it, you do what it takes to get it. You get off the couch and go get yourself a cheeseburger. You don’t need “the law of attraction” for that.

Sorry if you disagree but, God is not a Genie or a short order cook.

Back to my reason for writing this (as if anyone is actually reading this far). Who is Jesus? Well, over 2,000 years ago God Himself came to Earth as a man. He was still fully God, yet fully man, 2 distinct natures in one person (Theology is awesome!) So, Jesus (who is God) came to live a perfect life and die for us. And through His death we can be forgiven of our sins.
I had no idea what this meant for a very long time.

So, we all get to go to Heaven, right??? Well, we all could… When most people are asked “who goes to Heaven?” they quickly say “good people.” When asked if they consider themselves to be a “good person” they always say… “YES!”

This is called self-righteousness. As Christians, we believe in the Bible. The Bible says, in Luke Chapter 18, that “none are good but God.” David says this in Psalms and Paul reiterates this is Romans. Well, I always thought I was a pretty good person also. That’s because we use other people as our reference point. “I’m better than Hitler, Saddam, Bin Laden, and that kid across the street that plays his car stereo too loud.”

We aren’t supposed to compare ourselves with one another; we should compare ourselves to God’s standard. God’s standard is perfection. Let’s look at the laws he gave in the Old Testament, we’ll go through a few of the Ten Commandments and see how good we really are. Have you ever told a lie? “Well yeah, who hasn’t?” What do you call someone who tells lies? “A liar”, right. Now, have you ever stolen anything, irrespective of its value? “Nope, not me!” Now, you just admitted to being a liar… “Well, I did take some candy from a store when I was younger.” What do you call someone who steals? “A thief”, right. This is true of you even if you didn’t steal from a store. Swiping that cookie your mom told you not to eat until after supper counts too, it’s all about one’s intent.

Have you ever used God’s name in vain? I see it and hear it constantly… “Oh my g_d!” Or, “J_s_s Chr_st!” This is called blasphemy. We take the name of our Holy, perfect God, the God who gave us life, and use it as a replacement for a 4 letter filth word to express disgust. Here are a couple that got me thinking, Jesus said that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And whoever hates someone is a murderer at heart! God sees not only our actions but our thought life as well.

So, if you are like most people, you just admitted to being a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer and murderer at heart. That’s only half of the commandments; there are still 5 more to go. If God were to judge you by this standard would you be innocent or guilty? Guilty right? So do we still think we are good enough for Heaven? Certainly not, God hates our sin and sin cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (Sin is the breaking of God’s law, from 1 John 3:4) So if God were to give us what we deserve, we deserve punishment for breaking the law right?

I know, I know… “Nobody is perfect, no one could keep all of those laws from birth!” You’re right! This is what makes God’s Grace so amazing! We all deserve to be punished for our sins, but God loves us so much, that He sent His only Son (Jesus) to come to Earth, Live a perfect (sinless) life so that He could take our punishment for us! “How does that work?” (In Theological terms, it’s called propitiation.) Well if you remember your Old Testament, the Israelites used animals, such as lambs, to sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Through Christ’s sinless life and subsequent death and resurrection, He removed the condemnation that was upon the Earth for our sins. We now have the ability to be forgiven by God through Jesus’ Blood.

This is very good news! It’s called “The Gospel” for this reason! So how does one become forgiven? Great question and the answer is easy. Repent of your sins (which means STOP doing them) and trust in Jesus to be your advocate on judgment day! Trust in Jesus the same way that you would trust a parachute if you were to jump from a plane. Know that you cannot get into Heaven by doing good deeds or being a good person (we just found out that we are not good, remember?) The only way to Heaven is by God’s Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. There you have it… Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope that none were offended as this was written out of love. Love for all of you and, most importantly, my love of Jesus. Thank you Lord for your sacrifice and saving a wretch like me…

Merry CHRISTmas and that’s the end of the sermon