12/13/09 Sermon Review

Questions to Ask about Christmas
Matthew 16:13-17; Hebrews 10:5-10

Christmas is a wonderful time. As one song will put it, "it's the most wonderful time of the year." I will gladly agree. For some reason, everything feels a bit jollier. I love Christmas music, and I love gathering with families. I love the break that I get from school, and I love the gifts that I give and receive. But we all know that Christmas is much more than these things. Central to the Christmas season is the Christmas story. It is a marvelous story, and for us to forget the main idea of the story would mean we have failed Christmas. As some of my students would say, it would be an "Epic Fail." And it's not just an epic failure, it is an eternal failure since the main idea has consequences for your eternal destiny.

The Christmas story is not a mystery. The events and the details are there for us to see clearly in Scripture. But so often as we look into the story of Christmas, we get caught up in the periphery while neglecting the center. How little we contemplate on the true Christmas Day is reflected in our shallow reverence to the Christmas story. We make the Christmas story about Mary and Joseph, about how they endured trials. We make it about the lowly shepherds who were visited by angels. We make it about the wise men from the Orient who came to see little baby Jesus. We make it about Herod and how wicked of a man he was.

All those side-stories are great stories indeed, but they are not the main pillar of the Christmas story. Then what is? John Macarthur puts it well: "So the glory of the Lord was the angelic focus at the birth of Christ. The glory of the Lord was the aura that invaded the scene. It isn't imposed upon the Christmas story, it is the Christmas story." It would do us well to remember this day is called Christmas. This story is about Christ and His glory. This story is about the baby who sleeps on a manger on Christmas eve.

If we want to to understand Christmas therefore, we need to ask ourselves this important question: Who is this baby? And the best answer I've found comes from the lips of man thirty years after Jesus' birth. His name is Peter, and to Jesus' piercing question, "Who do you say that I am?" he replies, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." No man ever answered the question better, and Jesus gives Peter His approval.

The Messiah - I've already preached a sermon covering the details of what this term means so I won't go into much detail. It suffices to say that the Messiah has a threefold role: Prophet, Priest, and King. To say that Jesus was the Messiah is the He is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises who will deliver Israel and all men from their sins. His kingdom will know no end.

Son of the Living God - The statement "Son of God" does not mean that Jesus came into being at a certain point in time, that he was second to God. Actually, this term means that Jesus' nature was that of God! Take for instance the phrase "Son of Man." The phrase is not trying to say we came into being after a certain "Man," but that our nature is that of a man. The phrase "Son of God" when used of Jesus means to say that Jesus' nature was that of God. Everything God is, Jesus is.

If this is the case, if this is who this baby really is, then we need to ask ourselves another question. Why in the world is He here? Why in the world is this Messiah-God in a dirty manger in a baby's body?

He is in perfect existence as a Spirit with no restriction to form and omnipresent; yet here He is in a finite, human body and this for all eternity. He is God almighty, ominpotent and able to do whatever He so desires; yet here He is, a defenseless baby. He is God omniscient who needs no counselor or teacher, who declares the end from the beginning; yet here he is, a baby who cannot even mutter a single word. He is Creator and Provider who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and says, "If I were hungry I would not ask you"; yet here He is, a dependent baby who needs His mother to feed Him. He is a king whose throne is heaven and who can say earth is His footstool. Nothing can house his grandness! Yet here He is in a stable because no one would house Him.

Why would someone so exalted, in such an elevated position humble Himself to such a degree? Why would he want to become human? Well we know it definitely wasn't because becoming human was in anyway adding to His glory. It wasn't so that He could train disciples and teach good moral principles. Why did He become a man? As I search the Scriptures, I find one clear answer. So He can die.

There is much that Jesus did for us during His earthly life that He could have done if He were not a man. But there's one thing He could not have done: He could not have died. He becomes like us to die for us. A spirit does not have hands and feet to be pierced. A spirit does not have a head on which to lay a crown of thorns. A spirit does not have a side to be pierced or a back to be scourged. A spirit does not have a body to give up as a bloody sacrifice. But that is exactly what God required of His Son for the salvation of His people. So Jesus obeyed (cf. Hebrews 10:5-10, Philippians 2:5-11).

Do you see your sin so great and sinful that God would demand such a price? It is an absurd demand. Yet Jesus, for the glory of His Father and the salvation of His people, met such a demand. And God did not spare Him. He let Him taste every bit of His wrath. And so, Jesus became our propitiation. Arthur Pink writes, "How hateful must sin be to God for Him to punish sin to its utmost deserts when it was imputed to His Son." The more you reflect on this, the more you realize your sinful nature and the more you come to love and cherish the Cross of the Gospel. And then it puts Christmas into perspective.

Now you know why I love Christmas. It is a reminder that my God came to die for me, undeserving as I am. It is reminder that He paid the full price by tasting God's wrath on my behalf. We do not celebrate Jesus' humanity on Christmas day because it's a feel good story about how we should all be humble. We celebrate it because it looks towards the cross, it looks towards His death. And in so doing brings us back to the Gospel which is the power of God for salvation.