X-Mas: What's Missing?
Notes
Transcript
Amazement
Gen.3:15, Isa. 9:6, Isa. 7:14, Micah 5:2
The Christmas season has become the busiest time of the year.
We have been preparing for it for months and it seems as if the whole month of December needs to be reserved for gatherings and fellowships.
I enjoy those special times with family and friends, but I often wonder if Christmas hasn’t just become too busy.
If we aren’t careful we will schedule ourselves into a frenzy.
We will become so busy that we fail to consider and fully appreciate what it is that we are celebrating.
A large majority of the world celebrate Christmas, but I think we have lost something in Christmas.
I believe that the modern world has hijacked our sacred holiday and made it a commercial nightmare.
Rather than a time for thankfulness and rejoicing, it has become a time of jealousy, resentment, and greed exspecially among Christians.
There is little consideration for the birth of our Lord.
Most are only concerned with whether that coveted gift has been wrapped and placed under the tree.
WE are missing something in Christmas
Now, Dont gwt me wrong, I love Christmas its probaly my favorite holiday
I just don’t like the “getting ready” part of Christmas.
Just a few weeks ago I spent hours putting up lights and decorations
The Christmas tree is pretty but, we had to move things around.
I’m gonna feel guilty every time I walk by the Salvation Army bucket.
Nothing’s gonna be normal until next year.
You ever feel like that this time of year?
1. It’s more stress than “merry.”
2. You like Christmas but you’ll be glad when it’s over.
3. You just want to get back to your routine.
You ever feel like that?
Could it be we’re missing something in our Christmas?
Well, that’s what we’re going to consider over the next three Sundays
Today we’re beginning our new sermon series:
Xmas: What’s Missing?
In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, we’re missing something.
Maybe we need to rediscover what Christmas is all about?
Maybe we need to strip back all the layers that we’ve added to Christmas.
Maybe you are missing the One that makes Christmas, Christmas?
If so, He is here this morning waiting for you to come to Him.
Regardless, if you are saved or not, we need to get back to “the Reason for the season” as they say.
But in order to do that, we must find those things about Christmas that we have lost.
Let’s start with the title of this series.
Xmas.
What do you think when you see Xmas?
They left Christ out of Christmas.
They’re taking Christ out of Christmas.
Maybe anger?
Honestly, as I have thought on this series, I have come to lose my distaste for it.
Why?
Because sometimes that’s the only time Christians think about Christ is when they see X-Mas
But I have also found out by study that the X in x-mas is just an abbreviation of Christ name.
Here’s what Christ looks like in the Greek.
Χριστός Christŏs, khris-tos´; from 5548; anointed, i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus:—Christ.
Now Im not defending those that do this, but...
You see that “X”? The first letter in Christ?
Removing a few letters from a word ain’t gonna remove Christ from Christmas.
Forgetting what Christmas is about removes Him.
Im not saying you have forgot Him completely, I am just saying, you have forgot who it is we serve and what all took place around His birth.
So, what is the first thing that we are missing from Christmas?
To find this out, we’ve got to take a quick trip through the Old Testament.
Old Testament Scriptures.
Old Testament Scriptures.
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, tempted by Satan, sinned against God for the first time.
Think about it,
God created man in a perfect environment.
Walked with Adam in the cool of the day
Man and beast got along
and yet man stilled found a way to mess it up
God told Adam and Eve the wages of their sin.
And then He turned to the serpent, Satan.
God gave us a hint of things to come.
the womans seed
At some point He will strike Satan in the head, defeating the devil.
Thousands of years before the birth of Christ, we hear He’s coming.
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, And shall call his name Immanuel.
The Lord God Himself is going to give a sign
He would be immaculately conceived.
He will be called Immanuel.
His name Immanuel “God with us”
The Lord God Himself is going to give a sign
He will be immaculately conceived.
He will be called Immanuel.
Isaiah wrote some 700 years before the birth of Christ
Not only would the womans seed bruise the head of the serpent
God Himself would come to us
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
So now we see the progression
The seed of the woman will defeat the serpent
The seed of the woman will be born of a virgin
The seed will be called Immanuel
Now, this seed, this child
will carry the world on His shoulder
But this is not any ordinary child.
He will be:
Wonderful
Counselor.
Mighty God.
Everlasting Father.
Prince of Peace.
But thou, Beth-lehem 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.
Now God is telling us where this Immanuel will be born.
He’ll come as a baby but He existed in the past!
What is the one thing that can be taken from these verses?
A child will be born and that child will be the savior of the world.
Isn't that amazing.
God, the almighty, the creator of all things, will come in the flesh as a babe, born of a virgin and He will save sinners
What Amazement!
I think
the first thing that We’ve lost is our amazement.
We put up the lights and forget that God sent His son to be the light of the world.
We stand in long lines at 5 o’clock in the morning and forget that Christ laid in a manger just to hang on a cross 33 years later for us. for six long hours
We get angry sitting in crazy traffic trying to turn into Walmart and we have forgotten that Christ was born to stand in front of a crowd and be condemened to death for nothing he did, but for what we did.
we’ve lost our amazement of the Incarnation!
we’ve lost our amazement of the virgin birth.
God had a plan from the very beginning.
He know what we were when He created us
He knew what Adam would do before He created him
He already at it planned
Amazing!
God planned for thousands of years to send Jesus to be with us,
Immanuel.
Amazing!
We need to recover our amazement!
So thats the first thing I think we are missing in Christmas is
AMAZEMENT
There are three quick things that should amaze us this Christmas.
I.We should be amazed that God the Son would step into His own creation.
I.We should be amazed that God the Son would step into His own creation.
A. Read John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
The Word is Jesus, God the Son.
He took on human flesh and made His home among His creation.
But look at verse 10 and 11.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
God, the creator of all the world, came unto His own, knowing that they would reject Him.
God became flesh so He could die for the very ones that rejected Him.
The Creator of all things came into that same creation only to be rejected.
How amazing is that?
He didn’t have to do it. He didn’t have to come in the flesh
He could have come back on a horse with a sword like he soon do
He would have been right to do it
But thats not what he did
He came back as a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
No trumpets
No party
No parade
Just a simple lowly manger in Bethlehem
How amazing!!!
we get amazed at all the lights and shows.
all the decorations and parties
but we seem to forget that the very Son of God came unto His very own creation just to be rejected.
This Christmas we should be amazed that, the very Creator came into His creation simply to die for it 33 years later.
Next,
II. We should be amazed that God the Son came into the world as a nobody.
II. We should be amazed that God the Son came into the world as a nobody.
A. Read Luke 2:7
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
God, the Creator, the Son was born in a barn.
He spent His first night in a cattle feed trough.
He identifies with the lowest of the low.
When He offers help and comfort and escape He knows what He’s talking about.
Christmas is amazing because it reminds us that Jesus identifies with us.
You remember when you were a kid and you saw your first 100. Man what an amazement. That was before you realized that it does not buy as much as you thought.
The 100 dollar bill, today it is worth 100 dollars. not very amazing What can you buy with 100 dollars?
Maybe a cart of groceries if you are very frugal
But what if you take that same 100 and go back to 1862.
The first year it was introduced
Now the 100 dollar bill can purchase over three thousand times as much stuff.
Amazing isnt it.
Take a 100 dollar bill and give it to an orphan.
Yeah, he still only has a 100 dollars, but that is the most money he has ever seen and its amazing.
I know that is a poor illustration
but the point I am trying to get across, is this
Your amazement is based on perspective
How do you see Jesus?
If you see Him as just a child born in a manger, then there is no amazement
But if you see Him as God in the flesh, born of a virgin,
If you see God as the Wonderful
the Councilor
the Mighty God
Then you will be amazed
III. We should be amazed that God would care so much about us.
III. We should be amazed that God would care so much about us.
A. Read Galatians 4:4–5
But 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.
He cared so much He sent Him at the right time
He cared so much He sent Him the right way
He could have come some other way
But it was this way that shows us just How much He cares
think about it
Jesus the Son of God, Creator of the worlds was not ashamed to identify Himself with miserable unworthy helpless hopeless filithy sinners but was willing to die for all.
He endured the Cross and despised the shame
He now calls us brethren
what if he was not born of a woman and just appeared out of nowhere?
He showed up the way He did, because He cared so much for us
He was tempted in all points like as we are
with one difference
yet without sin!
He cared so much He sent Him to rescue us
He could have just come to bring judgement
He could have just came to save a select few
He could have came to condemn and not save
He cared so much for you and I that He came to seek and save that which is lost
He cared so much for u and I that He came to redeem us back to the Father
The purpose of this incarnationwas that as a man He might pay man’s debt
It was for the “suffering of death” that He who was crowned with glory and honor, became a little lower than the angels and should taste death for every man.
The goal of Jesus stepping out and becoming a little lower than the angels, and being born of a virgin was the cross.
Jesus cares for you and I
His birth
His life
His death
His ressurection
is all in perfect harmony with His character
It was just like Him and in harmony with His great love for us to do it
For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
1. When the right time came, Jesus stepped in.
2. He came to free us and
He came to adopt us!
Christmas is amazing because it means we have freedom in Christ and can join God’s family.
If you are here today and have never excepted what Christ came to do, then I urge you to come to the foot of the Cross today.
Dont delay
come this very min.
Closing
Closing
Every head bowed and eye closed
saint, believer have you lost your amazement during this season?
No believer should be able to stand at the manger in Bethleham and realize that their God emptied Himself to save us and not be moved!
do you need to come today and say thank you God for sending you Son into your creation as a nobody because you care so much for us
Sinner friend, do you need to come this morning and be born again?
no one looking around, all I am asking for is a raised hand so that I can pray for you
Would you be willing today to admit that you are lost and on your way to hell?
If you are here this morning and have never seen the amazement of what Christ has done but understnad that you need to
wont you raise your hand this morning so I can pray for you