CHRISTMAS RESET

CHRISTMAS RESET

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Isaiah 7:14 (KJV)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

There is an attack against Christmas and it is one that Baptists ought not be part of.

·   The Christian cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses have complained against it

·   Some Jewish groups mistakenly complain against it[1]

·   The “Ebenezer Scrooges” of the secular world have complained against the commercialization of it[2]

·   Some forms of Protestant Christianity (and among them - some Baptists) present a supposed historical complaint against it

·   The atheists have made great inroads in complaining against and subduing it and now

·   The Muslims in America are influencing leaders of government and business to curtail the celebration of it

If there is anyone in the world who understands and enthusiastically celebrates Christmas, it ought to be Bible believing Baptists.

In the coming three weeks, I plan to attempt to show you why.

I want to begin this morning by showing you that the observance of the birth of Christ is a Biblical, even fundamental practice to our faith.

Next week I want to answer some of the objections with a message, I think will be called, Did Early Baptists Celebrate Christmas?

Then, the Lord willing, we will wrap these messages up on the 23rd with a message entitled, Christmas Must Carry Us To the Cross.

Judah was, in the days of the prophet Isaiah, in a terrible way.

Assyria had oppressed their northern brethren in Israel and would eventually defeat them and wipe them off the face of the earth.

Judah’s king at this time was a man named Ahaz, a wicked king, but the king of God’s people nonetheless.

Through Isaiah, God offered comfort to Judah, promising that Assyria would not do to them what they would do to Israel. Isaiah encouraged Ahaz to ask God for a sign to prove His promise.

Ahaz, in wickedness and unbelief, refused to do so.

Isaiah 7:10-12 (KJV)

Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

Ahaz’s refusal to ask for a sign was not an act of humility.

It was in fact the opposite.

This wicked king refused to ask for a sign because: 

·   He did not believe the message of the prophet.

·   He did not trust God and

·   He mocked the very idea of God with the words, “neither will I tempt the LORD.”

Isaiah said, Isaiah 7:14 (KJV)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign…

That sign, we know, is the Christmas story.

Isaiah 7:14 (KJV)

… Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The Bible nowhere teaches us to ignore the birth of Christ. Quite the contrary, the message of Christ’s birth is delivered repeatedly in the Word of God.

What I have discovered is that many of the Old Testament prophecies and promises of Christ’s birth came at a spiritually difficult or low time in Israel.

The message of Christmas served as a “spiritual reset.”

It is a wicked and unbelieving person who rejects that message.

I do not deny that Christmas season is often misused in our world today.

A few days ago I received a reminder of that from our friend, Bruce Turner.

Brother Turner had served as a chaplain for the Tampa Police Department when he pastored in that large city. He reminded us preachers that, though the holiday season around Thanksgiving and Christmas is a joyous one for many of us, it is also when depression, loneliness and suicide reaches their peak of the year.

That demonstrates that, for a good number of people, the focus of Christmas is “off.” They are focused on themselves and not on the Lord.

·   If they were focused on the Lord they would see Him as the One who never leaves them or forsakes them[3]

·   If they were focused on the Lord they would be blessed in the promise that He is the protector and provider of the fatherless and the widows.[4]

Christmas is supposed to be a time to reset in the faith. 

It is a time to return to the foundations, to the basics of our faith.

It is a time to remember,

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

·   I do not mean to add a layer of guilt to those who are already hurting in the holidays

·   Nor do I mean to add a burden upon those who enjoy their families and friends over the holidays.

I only mean to urge you as believers – 

Make Christ Your Christmas.

I have already explained a bit about the passage in Isaiah.

Allow me to take you to three other Old Testament passages meant to turn people’s hearts back to Christ.

I. THE SEED OF THE WOMAN

Genesis 3:14-15 (KJV)

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Adam and Eve had blown it big time and, by this time, they knew it.

The circumstances of the two were slightly different.

Evehad been deceived into eating the fruit of the garden that God had forbidden.

For whatever reason, 

·   She had entertained the questions of the serpent

·   She had looked at and desired the fruit and then

·   She had given in to eat of it

Adam’scase was quite different. He ate the fruit with “eyes wide open.”

·   He was not deceived

·   He likely could already see the damage it had done to Eve

·   He ate the fruit, I think, for Eve’s sake.

And I think this is the reason the woman is not to usurp authority over a man. A man will do anything for the woman he loves, even the worst of things.

But though their circumstances were different, their consequences were the same.

·   They now knew evil

·   They were ashamed and

·   They would be judged because of it

The sin of Adam and Eve would not only affect them, but all of their children after them.

They would be: 

·   Driven from the garden, 

·   Driven from the tree of life and 

·   Driven out of fellowship with God

Their children would be

·   Conceived in sin

·   Shapen in iniquity

·   Corrupted in their own nature

From now on:

·   The earth would bring forth thorns and thistles

·   Women would bring forth children in sorrow and

·   Men would eat bread by the sweat of their face

·   There was no date given when the sentence would be commuted

·   There was no time off for good behavior

·   There was no thing Adam and Eve could do to reverse the damage they had done

But, in the middle of all of this weight of guilt, God gave them reason for hope.

Genesis 3:14-15 (KJV)

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The focus of God’s enmity was not on the man, but on the serpent.

The Bible doesn’t say that God would from then on be at war with man, but with the serpent, the devil.[5]

God told them in this prophecy that it would be a long and painful battle but that,

The seed of the woman would one day “bruise the head” deliver a deathblow to the seed of the serpent.

It’s the very first promise of the virgin birth.

The seed, we all know, is not of the woman, but of the man.

This will be a child, born of a woman, but not of a man.

Everyone in this room faces the consequences of sin.

Our circumstances are all different.

·   Some of us were raised in rough, hard conditions – sin was a way of family life

·   Some of us were raised in poor and difficult circumstances – sin seemed necessary in order to survive.

·   Some of us were raised in nearly perfect circumstances – we sinned anyway.

Whatever the circumstances behind our sin,

Galatians 4:4-6 (KJV)

…when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

When your sins burden you, go back to Christmas

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

II. DANIEL’S STONE CUT OUT WITHOUT HANDS

Daniel 2:34 (KJV)

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

The children of God had really messed up.

Despite all of their advantages:

·   They were the apple of God’s eye

·   They were the possessors of the Word of God

·   They had men gifted of God to lead them and correct them

But they got off course so badly that ten of their twelve tribes were essentially annihilated and the two remaining tribes had been conquered and taken into Babylonian captivity.

Though it was a terrible situation, God had superintended.

Nebuchadnezzar, the victor, had taken from among the Jews their brightest young people and had given one of them a place of prominence.

And then the king had this dream. It troubled him so that he had to find out what it meant.

He just couldn’t remember the dream.

Eventually Danielwas called who, after prayer, revealed both the dream and its meaning to the king.

He saw an image:

·   Its head was gold

·   Its chest and arms were silver

·   Its belly and thighs were brass

·   Its legs were iron

·   Its feet were iron and clay

Daniel said then that the king saw this image in his dream until a stone that was cut out without hands destroyed the image and became a great mountain.

Daniel then interpreted the dream.

The image represents the four great empires of history. We know them to be:

·   Babylon

·   Medo-Persia

·   Greece and

·   Rome

The stone is an image of Christ

Genesis 49:24 (KJV)

But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

1 Corinthians 10:4 (KJV)

And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Jesus is coming again.

When He does, He will defeatthe kingdoms of this earth and He will establishHis own kingdom. 

That it was cut without hands is representative of the virgin birth.

After Daniel had finished the Bible says,

Daniel 2:47 (KJV)

The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

Here’s the thing

When we get overwhelmed in our world.

When we start to believe

·   That the devil is the victor

·   That the atheists have won

·   That the secularists and spoiled things

·   That Christianity is ruined

That nothing is ever going to change.

Just look back to Christmas.

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

III. MICAH’S BETHLEHEM 

Micah 5:2 (KJV)

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries.

They both preached:

·   In the same time frame (just after Uzziah died)

·   In the same country (Judah, Isaiah to the city and Micah in the country) and

·   The same message (the coming Savior)

Notice 

Micah 5:1 (KJV)

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

Remember that Isaiah (and Micah) preached 

·   DURING the threat of Assyria and

·   BEFORE the capture by Babylon

But it is agreed that the subject of this passage could not be either Assyriaor Babylon– it has to be ofRome.

A series of extra-Biblical events happened in the period after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity and the Old Testament was completely and the New Testament began with the birth of Jesus Christ.

The 400 year period of time between the Old and New Testaments was a time of great trouble in Israel.

It’s the days of which movies are made

·   Of Alexander the Great

·   Of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra

·   Of Caesar and Brutus

Greece conquered Jerusalem and Antiochus Epiphanes defiled the altar in the Jewish Temple about 200 years before Christ.

Rome conquered Greece around 150 years before Christ.

For one hundred years almost Rome marched against Egypt and Egypt marched against Rome and they did most of their fighting in Israel.

Rome had conquered and occupied Jerusalem about 63 years before Christ. The Jews knew they could not defeat them and Rome allowed them to pretend they ruled their own land so the Jews put up with them.

But it was not a friendly environment.

Herod, the king of Israel at the time of Christ’s birth was raised as a Jew but he was really an Edomite, a descendant of Esau.

He was the perfect representative of the mess that was in Jerusalem at the time.

·   He was not Jew, but ruled the Jews

·   He was not Roman but got his authority from them

·   He was jealous of everyone

And when word got to him that there had been one born who had claim on the kingdom of David, he had to destroy Him.

It was in this environment Micah prophesied that Christ would be born.

Micah 5:2 (KJV)

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Notice that he says that, even though Christ would come forth of Bethlehem, His goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.

·   He was born in Bethlehem, but 

·   He did not begin there.

Do you ever think your world is:

·   Too violent

·   Too troubled

·   Too confusing

Too difficult to see 

·   Who to trust, 

·   Who to follow and 

·   Who really is teaching the truth?

Then it is time to look back at Christmas.

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Conclusion

I’ve only given you a hand full of the Bible passages that point to the birth of Jesus Christ.

I did not bring up any of the New Testament passages.

·   Two out of the four gospels give two or more chapters dealing with the birth of Christ.

·   John implies it with John 3:16 and in John 1:14

·   Paul speaks of it in Galatians

So, while the Bible nowhere forbids or even discourages celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, it does repeatedly take us back to His birth.

·   As the One who forgives our sins

·   As the Hope for our future and

·   As the Focus when we have lost our way.

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[1]There are conservative Jewish leaders who understand that America’s strong Christian roots serves to led us to support the Jews as a nation, people group and souls whom God loves. We would not agree with their spiritual conclusions, but our own conclusions lead us to support them.

[2]It, they believe, costs them too much.

[3]Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV)

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

[4]Psalms 68:5 (KJV)

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

[5]Because of the sin nature, men are at war with God, but God is not at war with them. He loves them and gave His only begotten son for them.