No, I don't believe Christmas is a divinely approved or Biblical celebration of the birth of Christ. However, since millions of people around the world are focused on the Babe in Bethlehem this weekend, I thought it would be an excellent time for us to get beyond that scene to the real purpose for His coming. I am glad you have joined us.
Thank you, thank you, my friend, thank you for your joining our Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. There is something about the birth of the Baby in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago that is unique and significant. I mean, it is different from your birth and mine. It is different from the birth of any of our children. It is so different, in fact, that it is hard for some people to believe it's true. That difference gives it significance. So much so that whether December 25th is the day it occurred or, whether it is what Jesus wants, or well virtually the whole world stops on December 25th to salute Him. Today I would like us to get beyond the nativity scene, push aside the tree and the tensile, and try to get past Santa Claus and the department store, and look beyond the folk religion to see "Why Jesus Came."
That is going to be our message today. If you think you might want a CD or an audio cassette tape or a printed copy of it for further study, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or you may use our toll-free telephone number and call. That number is 1-800-321-8633. They are free. Everything we offer you on this program is free. We are presented here locally by friends of yours-- and ours-- who are members of churches of Christ in this area. We would like very much, though, to know that you paid them a visit this last week.
If you need assistance in locating one of them near you, please write us or call us. And we would like to be helpful in any way we can. Visit our website, too. It is searchtv.org. Our Scripture text will be Matthew 1:18 to 23, and we will be right back for it after the hymn led by Ken Helterbrand.
Our reading today is from the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, beginning at verse 18. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” I read through verse 21. Now let us go to God in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful that you sent your only begotten Son into this world, born of the Holy Spirit, to live as a man, to endure all of the hardships, and all of the life that we do on this earth so that He can be a faithful and just High Priest and a Savior for us all. We are thankful, Father, for that provision of salvation which You made in Him and for the gift of your love as it is. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Even after about two thousand years, even in the very sophisticated, enlightened and scientific culture of our times, and in spite of all the efforts of some people to prevent it, I just have to say anyway, that Jesus Christ is still means more to human life than any other person who has ever lived! What makes Him so? Well, there is something about Him that is unique. And it isn't something that developed over a period or a generation or so, as legends grew up among his own followers of that day. No, it was something that was observed by the people personally associated with Him those three-and-a-half years of His earthly ministry.
In the first place, He claimed to be distinctive. He said that He was the "Son of God." Well of course, there were lots of others that had said that. But, He was different. He had his credentials. The crowds who heard Him preach said He was different (Matthew 7:28 and 29). The people who worked with Him, ate with Him, prayed with Him and traveled with Him; the people who were closest to Him knew that there was something distinctively different about this man Jesus. They shouted, "Truly, You are the Son of God" (Matthew 14:33). Indeed, He was the Son of God, not in the same way that all of us are sons of God according to Acts 17, verse 28, not even in the same way that we become sons of God by faith in Him in Galatians 3:26 and 27, but He was God come to live in a fleshly body (John 1:1). And, in spite of all the claims of some modern television evangelists to being God incarnate themselves, Jesus Christ is the only such person to ever live on the earth. That makes Him and His birth very unique!
Matthew gives some of the details of His birth, as we read earlier in the program. Luke gives us even more, but Mark passes over the story of His birth, and begins with His baptism to tell of His ministry. All John, the fourth gospel writer, has to say about the birth of Jesus is in what is often called the "prologue" to his gospel. "In the beginning was the Word," he says, "and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that is made . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." That is John chapter 1, verses 1 to 3, and verse 14.
So, there you have inspired affirmation of the Deity, the preexistence and the incarnation of Jesus the Christ. He was in the beginning. He was with God. He was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that is made. And He was made flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth. And in the parentheses John says, "We beheld (or we saw, or we witnessed) His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father." The idea that Jesus was God's Son, sent from heaven on a divine mission and was to return to the Father upon the completion of that mission runs all through the gospel of John. What was that mission? Did Jesus leave the Heavenly abode to live among us as a man?
Well first, because it is here in this passage, and because of its essential nature, Jesus Christ came to reveal God to the world. The last sentence of the prologue to John's gospel says, "No man has seen God at any time." (Now, my friend, those people who are saying they have seen God, had better think about that. And, if you are being deceived by them, you need to think about it too, friend.) The Scripture says, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (or He made him fully known)." Thomas, one of the twelve, said, "Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." And Jesus answered him, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:1 to 10). If you want to know what God is like, study Christ. God was manifested among men in the person of His only begotten Son who became flesh and lived among us.
Then, there is the theme of fulfillment that runs throughout His ministry, the idea that "the time has come" for God to step into the current of human events and world events and bring to pass all He had promised through all of those Old Testament prophets. Mark summarizes Jesus' preaching. He says that after His baptism and temptation and after John had been cast in prison, Jesus returned to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent you, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). He is saying that His earthly ministry is nothing less than the total achievement of God's purposes in these Old Testament prophecies. Well, you can almost feel the excitement and the anticipation they felt as you read those passages. To say, as the premillennialist does, that He did not fulfill the prophecies nor establish the kingdom, is a denial of His sovereign power, and to deny Him the realization of His mission.
The Jews knew their Scriptures well, and they believed them. As many do today, they often misunderstood them, but because of the Scriptures, they were full of hope and expectation at Jesus’ preaching. And the Old Testament spoke of "the day of the Lord" (Joel 2:31). Often John pointed to the Messiah who was to come to fulfill God's purpose. Jesus seldom referred to Himself as the Messiah. He probably refrained from using such "politically loaded" terms, lest the Jews would view Him in a political light, as the means of their national restoration. And He didn't advocate, or even support others who favored armed rebellion against Rome. His was another kind of kingdom-- a kingdom of righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). He more frequently used Daniel's reference, "the Son of man."
When Pilate asked Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" (John 18:33), Jesus asked him whether he was asking a political question or a spiritual one. If Pilate meant a king over a kingdom of territorial bounds and a threat to Caesar, the answer is "No." And He explained that if that were the case, Pilate would have had a fight on his hands. Because, He said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are You a king then? Jesus answered . . . For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world." Oh yes, Jesus is King now, my friend! He reigns today in the hearts of all people of all nationalities and tongues and tribes who hear and believe the truth, who accept Him as their Lord, and decisively respond to His teaching in repentance and baptism in His name. They are all citizens of the kingdom, right here and now, else Jesus failed in the mission that demanded His birth of the virgin of which we just read. Well, I hope we have helped you to look beyond the Babe in the manger to see Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Well, all that leads us to Jesus' bold statement of purpose in Luke 19 and 10. There He said, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Obviously then, without the birth of Christ, man is lost; and without His coming, we would remain lost. The name "Jesus" was carefully chosen of God Himself for Jesus because it comes from the same root word from which we also get the word "save." In fact, in my New King James Version the marginal note has a reference to that word “Jesus” literally meaning Savior. So His name declared His mission. He came to save lost souls. The angel of the Lord told Joseph, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." And when the angel announced His birth to the shepherds that night, he said, "There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 10, verse 11). According to Romans 1, verse 4, He proved Himself to be so by His resurrection from the dead. And the apostle Peter, being inspired of the Holy Spirit preached it that way. He said, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts chapter 4, verse 12).
Well, by the Holy Spirit the apostle Paul, also, said it. He said it in a little different way, using a little different words. He said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance," (or acceptance by all). He wrote it in I Timothy chapter 1, verse 15. Now what are those words; "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. . ." We are all sinners, my friend; not because we were born that way, but because "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Because we are completely unable to save ourselves, we all stand in need of a Savior. No amount of our good works; or our wisdom; or our sterling character, or our money, or success, or prestige or power; nothing else we can do will save us. Only through the coming of Jesus Christ are we saved. You see, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). If there were any other way of salvation and peace and hope for victory over death, the birth of Jesus would never have been. His was a ministry of atonement and reconciliation. He came into this world to save us who were dead in our trespasses and sins. Are you saved? Or, did He come and suffer in vain, as far as you are concerned?
Finally, (not because there is no more to be said, only because it is all the time we have), "In as much then as the children have been partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to be propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2, verses 4 to 8).
It was necessary for the Son of God to become a man, to submit Himself to all the human frailties, fleshly weaknesses and temptations common to all our lives, even to dying, that He might become a merciful and unfailing High Priest, and to be able to aid and assist, and support and strengthen all of us when we are tried and tempted. Let’s pray. Thank You, God, for sending Christ Jesus and all that we have said today and even more. In His name we pray, Amen.
Thank you, my friend, for joining us for today's message about Why Jesus Came. I hope we have helped you to see beyond the toys and tensiles, and through all the crass commercialism of the season. I hope we have helped you to know more about Jesus Christ, who He was, and His mission to the earth. And I hope you can now know Him to be more than the Babe in Bethlehem’s manger. I hope you see Him now as number one: the revelation of God, number two as the Savior of the world, number three as King over His existing kingdom, and number four an unfailing High Priest who is able to comfort and strengthen you. Such a mission as His demands the greater response of full acceptance and obedience to His will. His mission can easily be summarized with what we have often called "the golden text" of the Bible: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16 and 17). In view of so much erroneous teaching on this verse, I must say, though, that "believe" in this verse does not mean just to give credence to-- or to consent to the truthfulness of the deity of Jesus. It means full acceptance of His teaching in an obedient response. It was the risen Christ Himself who said, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." That is Mark 16:16. As a minister of His I would not want to have to meet Him when He comes not having told you that. And I pray you won't have to meet Him when He comes, not having done what He said. I pray you will accept His gift of salvation by faith and you will be baptized into Him at once.
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You may want an audio cassette tape or a CD or a printed copy of this program. If so, you may have it free by writing us. Our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Simply ask for the message about Why Jesus Came. Our toll-free telephone number for your convenience is 1-800-321-8633. You don't have to send money. It is free.
We plan to be back next week for the last program in 2006. Oh, I hope you can be back with us then. Until then, God be with you. We love you. |