Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services/Advent2009/Christmas Eve_2009

Christmas Eve 2009

‘Holding On To Christmas’

Introduction: ‘Lucy walks up to Charlie Brown just before Christmas & says to him, "Charlie Brown, since it is Christmas, I suggest that we lay aside all our differences & be friends for this season of the year." Charlie Brown says, "That’s a great idea, Lucy, but why does it have to be just at this time of the year? Why can’t we be friends, all year long?" Lucy looks at him with that look that only Lucy can give & says, "What are you, a fanatic or something?"’ (Melvin Newland)

Wouldn’t you like to do that...hold on to Christmas for just a little while longer?

Wouldn’t you like to see us practice the things we sing about at Christmas?

·       We sing ‘Peace on earth and good will to men.’ Think how different life would be if we actually lived at peace with one another all year long.

·       We sing ‘Joy to the world.’ Think how different life would be if we actually were joyful all year long.

·       We sing ‘Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay, close by me forever, and love me, I pray.’ Think how different life would be if we were assured of God’s love for us...all year long.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could hold on to Christmas. throughout the year?

ILL:  But the Christmas season, for many, is like bungee jumping.

·       I remember feeling that sense of freedom as you jump out of a metal cage held up 175 feet in the air by a crane.

·       I felt the wind on my face and the rush from me stomach to your throat.

·       But as the ground quickly gets closer I felt the ‘boing’ of the bungee cord jerking me up and down until I rested softly on the ground. (Better a ‘boing’ than a ‘splat.’)

·       For a few brief moments I felt a wonderful exhilaration & then it was over. I was on the ground, facing reality once again, back to the humdrum existence of everyday life.

Is that what has happened with Christmas? Christmas is wonderful, & then ‘boing,’ it’s December 26^th and you’re face to face with reality once again?

Tonight each one of us has come to this Christmas Eve service for different reasons.

·       Perhaps you’ve come because you like to sing Christmas carols.

·       Perhaps you’ve come because you feel obligated.

·       Perhaps you’ve come because you realize that Christmas is more than just about presents, it is about the birth of Jesus and so you want to honor and worship Jesus tonight.

·       Perhaps you feel some strange tugging on your heart to be here and you are not sure why you’ve come.

We’ve come for many reasons, but what I hope we can each take away from tonight is that it doesn’t matter why you’re here, as much as it matters that you hold on to Christmas every day of your life.

God is happy we can be here to celebrate his Son’s birth, but what God is more interested in is what this child means for every day of your life.

 

I want to read a non-traditional Christmas eve text for you and then briefly tell you how it helps us hold on to Christmas.

Read: John 1:1-14

John doesn’t give us all the details surrounding Jesus’ birth: the angels, shepherds and manger scene is missing. But what he gives us...is life changing. I can sum up the 14 verses in one for you

‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’

Or as the paraphrase The Message puts it:  ‘The Word became flesh and blood and moved into our neighborhood.’

·       John is saying that the Word, the Son of God, was around a long time before He showed up in the manger in Bethlehem.

·       The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, existed before time, before anything that was made was made.

·       In fact John says that Jesus, was the Word and He was God. God, in the flesh.

Jesus was so much more than just a baby in the manger; He is God who came to earth.

The Prophet Isaiah tells us this about when Jesus would come:

Read: Matthew 4:16 ‘the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.’

John in our test said ‘In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.’

There’s darkness and death all around us. Just read the newspaper and listen to the news on TV if you have any doubts.

Both Isaiah and John said that Jesus brings

·       light where there is darkness

·       and life where there is death.

But, He brings it to those who listen and who act upon what they read in God’s Word.

Later in his gospel John writes this about Jesus:

Read: John 8:12 ‘When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

Isn’t that what we all want? God promised that to us in Psalms:

Read: Psalm 16:11 ‘You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at

your right hand.’

God had come in the flesh to walk among us,

·       to experience the same ups and downs we do,

·       the same temptations, the heartaches,

·       even the devastation of the death of a loved one.

Why? So that we would remember that Jesus didn’t stay a baby in the manger.

John wrote: ‘Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...’

Through faith in Jesus we become children of God. But just as Jesus didn’t stay a baby in the manger, so neither should we stay children, but grow into mature men and women, sons and daughters of God.

That’s what it means to hold on to Christmas. To make Christmas more than just the birth of a baby...to make the Christmas event motivate us to live in the light of Jesus, God’s great gift of love to us.

To do that we need to make room for Jesus in our life. But that’s always the rub isn’t it?

·       When Jesus was born there was no room for him in the inn.

·       Abortion, gay marriage, no mangers at Christmas...more and more we are seeing today that there is no room for Jesus in our government.

·       Happy Holidays...instead of Merry Christmas. More and more we are seeing there is no room for Jesus in business.

·       No prayer, evolution, no Christian songs at Christmas programs...more and more there is no room for Jesus in school.

There is no room for Jesus in our lives....unless we are intentional about making a place for Him...Hold on to Christmas, live in the light of Jesus, be God’s sons and daughters by faith in Jesus, His son.

Hold on to Christmas! By making Jesus your treasure, God’s gift of love, for you.