Luke 2:1-14 – The Christian’s Christmas – Bible study

Luke 2:1-14 The Christians Christmas Let me begin by saying that I am not anti-Christmas. I love Christmas. I love the spirit of Christmas. I enjoy the times with family, church, and friends. I enjoy my wifes enjoyment at purchasing, shipping, and giving gifts. I personally love to receive gifts. I like the Christmas tree. I love the Christmas lights. I like the Christmas movies and music. And I suppose most of all, I love the Christmas memories that are stirred from years gone by. However, this is not the Christians Christmas. The Christians Christmas is not about the "spirit" of Christmasat least not todays spirit. It is not about buying, selling, or receiving gifts. I enjoy them and I understand that they CAN reflect in picture form the Gift that God gave to us, but lets face it. For the vast, vast, vast majority of people, it does not. The music and moviesalthough entertaining and mostly cleanare not about the Christians Christmas. The lightsalthough colorful and festiveare not about the Christians Christmas. What the difference is in Christmas and the Christians Christmas? The difference is that the Christians Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Sadly, Christmas today is not about the birth of Christ. In fact, except for a few individuals, you would never know that we are remembering the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the souls, into this world. To be honest, Jesus has been systematically and carefully removed from Christmas. Count how many times Jesus birth is mentioned in anything that is in the Christmas being celebrated. Just count the Christmas songs that the world sings and see how many times Jesus birth is mentioned. Then count the Christian movies where His birth is mentioned. Take note of the cities and courthouses where there is a nativity scene. Walk though Walmart or whatever stores you shop at and note the decorations about Jesus. Look long and look hard and I do not think you will find many that even mention Jesus name or title, let along emphasis who He is or what He came into the world to do. Why not? Because this is not the Christians Christmas. But here, this morning, I want to make certain you understand what Christmas is truly all about. I. The Christians Christmas is about the plight of man. A. The Cause of Mans Plight 1. For the sake of time, I am not going to ask you to turn to Genesis 3 where the cause of mans plight is detailed, but let me remind you that God made a. a perfect earth b. with a perfect couple c. who had perfect bodies d. and lived in a perfect Garden. 2. There was no sorrow and no sadness. 3. But God gave the two things: s choice and a command. 4. The choice came in the form of a tree. The Bible called it the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but we can just as well call it the Tree of Death for to partake of it meant death for anyone who ate of that tree was going to die. 4. The command was do not eat of that tree. 5. Adam and Eve had lots of choices: a. They could have just obeyed God and never gone near that tree. b. But if the temptation was too much, they could have built a fence around that tree. c. If the temptation was still too much, they could have moved to the other side of the Garden or even to the other side of the planet. 6. But they did not choose that. a. Instead they choose to rebel against God and to eat of the forbidden fruit. b. And because of that, mans plight into suffering, pain, death, and damnation began. B. The Condition of Mans Plight 1. Paul described it beginning in Ephesians 2:1. Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 2. We need to understand what those verses mean. a. \#1\ Quickened means to be made alive. We need to be made alive because we are dead. What killed us? (1) Our sins and trespasses. (2) Sin may seem relatively harmless but it is not. (3) It has killed three things: (a) It has killed our relationship with God. We cannot hear much of what God has to say and most want to hear even less. People are so dead that some think there is no God. That is not because God is not speaking. That is because they are so dead that they can’t hear God speaking. (b) It has killed your soul. Already, we do not think with a righteous mind, or have righteous desires. Our mind and desire is against God, That is proven by the fact that Jesus has been removed from His own birthday celebration! (c) It will kill your soul for all eternity. i. Presently, your soul is dead and separated from God, but it can be made alive. ii. That is what quickened means. iii. That is done by repenting of your sin and trusting what Jesus has done for you on the cross. iv. However, if you wait too long and you die with a dead soul; your soul (you) will be cast into hell and separated from God for all eternity. b. \#2\ So instead, we walked according to the course of this world. (1) That is, we did what the world wanted us to do. (2) And we walked according to the prince of the power of the air. That is we did what the devil wanted us to do. (3) And we walked in the same spirit that all the rest of the children of disobedience walk in. That is, we did what all the other lost and unsaved people did. c. \#3\ Paul got down to the nitty-gritty of it. (1) We followed the lusts of our flesh. (2) We fulfilled the desires of our flesh and of our mind. (3) And we were children headed for Gods wrath! C. I am sad to say that there is nothing MERRY about mans plight. 1. Maybe you think we lured you here under false pretenses. After all, we invited you here to hear the bells and this is supposed to be a MERRY Christmas celebration. 2. But you cannot know the joy of the birth of Jesus until you first understand why He was born. 3. We need to understand the condition of man’s plight. II. The Christians Christmas is about the promise of God. A. The very same day that Adam and Eve sinned against God and turned mankind on this hopeless plight, God made mankind a promise. 1. It is such a little promise, you might miss it! 2. It is like a stick man promise. 3. God talking to Satan said, Ge 3:15 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. B. What is enmity? 1. You can just about pull that word out and put in to the promise the words "an enemy." 2. God was going to put an enemy between Satan and the woman. That enemy would bruise Satans head. 3. That it. That is basically all that God promised. God was going to put somebody or something between the devil and mankind, and that somebody or something would be the devils enemy and would one day crush his head. 4. That statement is little more than a stick figure. You could not figure out what God was going to do or recognize the One He was going to send from that brief promise, but do you know what God did? a. God kept adding to that promise. Just a little bit here and a little bit there. b. Maybe it has hit you like it did me when I got my first copy of the Bible, "That is a BIG Book!" (1) 1189 Chapters (2) 31,102 verses c. It is like a huge gold mine, but as you read though it, you will find one vein after another of the richest treasure available to mankind. d. You will find hint after hint, statement after statement, promise after promise of who this enemy was to be. C. The Promises: 1. \#Isaiah 7:14\ told us He would be born to a virgin. 2. \#Micah 5:2\ told us He would be born in Bethlehem. 3. \#Deut 18:15\ told us that He would be like Moses, first rejected. 4. \#Isaiah 53:3\ told He would be despised. 5. \#Zech 9:9\ told us He would come into Jerusalem riding a donkey. 6. \#Psalm 41:9\ told us He would be betrayed. 7. \#Zech 11:12\ told us He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver. 8. \#Isaiah 53:8\ told us He would be arrested. 9. \#Psalm 35;11\ told us false witnesses would charge Him. 10. \#Isaiah 50:6\ told us His back would be beaten, His beard would be plucked, and His face would be spit upon. 11. \#Psalm 22:7\ told us that the people would mock Him. 12. \#Psalm 22:8\ even told us what some would say at the foot of the cross, "He trusted on the Lod, that he would deliver Him; Let Him deliver Him." 13. \#Psalm 22;16\ told us that His hands and feet would be pierced. 14. \#Isaiah 53:12\ told us He would be counted among the sinners. 15. \#Isaiah 53:8\ also told us that He would be killed, but not for His crimes or sins, for ours. 16. And there are so many, so many others. a. Scholars differ over how many but most would say that Jesus fulfilled more than 200 prophecies while He walked on this earth. b. Each one of those prophecies was a promise given by God. c. More accurately, each prophecy was another brush stroke added to the first promise given in Genesis 3:15. d. Each brush stroke added depth, color, and dimension to the stick Man first introduced to Adam and Eve in the Garden; until finally, when Jesus came, a full and complete portrait of the Savior existed so that any one with Bible knowledge and an open heart would immediately recognize Jesus as the Promised One. D. What is the Christians Christmas? It is about the birth of the One promised by God! III. The Christians Christmas is about the payment for sin. A. Maybe you are thinking, "Here we go again. Every time I come to this church, you tell me how Jesus died for our sins." 1. I hope so. 2. Why? a. Because the Bible is like in a good joke, nothing really makes sense until the punch line at the end. b. In the Bible, the end of the story is what makes everything else make sense. (1) Knowing that we are doomed and damned does us no good. (2) Knowing that God promised to bruise Satans heel will not help us. (3) We must know and trust what Jesus did to fix our problem. B. When we are talking about Christmas, we are not just talking about the coming of a Baby. We are talking about the death of a Savior. C. Someone says, "You are dramatizing. You cant see the cross from the cradle!" 1. Oh, but you can. In fact, you cant miss the cross from any place in human history. 2. This last spring, Joseph built a shed while I watched. 3. The door was of 2x4s and with a solid wood cover and it was large, large enough to ride a lawnmower through. I was concerned about the weight of the door on the hinges so I put three, large hinges on that door. The door rest and revolves on those three hinges. 4. But as that heavy door swings on three hinges, so all of mans history swings on three hinges. a. Jesus birth b. Jesus death c. Jesus resurrection 5. Mans existence rests and revolves upon these three days. 6. Just like you can see the three hinges of that shed glisten in the sunlight so from any point in human history, you can see those three hinges, the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ! D. Someone has said life is about choices, and they are correct. 1. In the Garden, God gave a tree and a command. 2. At the Christian’s Christmas, God gave another tree and another command. a. This tree was not in a garden but on a hillside. b. This tree was not a growing tree, but a dead tree. It was a tree carved into a cross. c. The tree in the Garden spoke of death, but this tree speaks of life. d. The command for the first tree was, "Don’t come near and don’t touch," but the command for this tree is "Come unto Me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." e. When Adam and Eve partook of that tree, they died; but if you will partake of this tree, you will find life eternal. What will you chose today?