What is the real meaning of Christmas? Find out today on Changed by Grace. Welcome to Changed by Grace. I'm Pastor Steve Hereford. Why do Christians celebrate Christmas? After all, they know that Jesus wasn't born on December the 25th. Could there be more to Christmas than we're being told? Well, these are questions that we have today. And with your Bibles open, let's find those answers as we study together from God's Word. What comes to your minds when you hear the words, Happy holidays. I asked that question because I was told that a few times while I was shopping this week. As I was leaving one store, this woman was very helpful, really good salesman, saleswoman. And as I was leaving, she said, happy holidays. And I just stopped and I replied. I said, it's Merry Christmas. She said, well, I didn't want to offend you because I didn't know if you were Jewish. I said, well, it doesn't matter, it's all about Christ. Because that's what this day is about. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. And since my Lord and Savior was Jewish, I certainly would not be offended, would you? It seems that as each year goes by, Christmas becomes more about Santa and less about Christ. And you expect that in the world because the world does not know him. Even when he came unto his own, his own did not receive him. But you wouldn't expect that in his church. You wouldn't expect that among his people. In some churches, just like Halloween, they celebrate Halloween. They put up what they first started out as a tribulation house to try to win people to Christ, to show them the dangers of hell, has now turned into more like a haunted house. And the same is true during this time of the year. That some churches have just compromised altogether and they say it's OK and they'll post Santa all around the room. And they put Santa up next to Jesus as if they're equals. Well, first of all, Santa is a myth. Jesus is not. And I have the conviction and I've always had this conviction, which is why I never taught my kids that there is a Santa Claus, because I believe that If I was going to teach them about someone that they could not see, then when I would talk about Jesus, they would think that he was a myth too. And so I taught them about Jesus. And I remember Jeremy, he must have been about four or five years old, arguing with a little girl about nine years old in the backyard. And she believed in Santa Claus and we didn't. And of course, we've taught them through the years how to deal with that. But this is a time about Christ. This is a time when we celebrate the person of Christ. And it's not just singled on His birth, but it encompasses everything about Him. What is the real meaning of Christmas? Is it the presents? Is it the lights? Is it Santa? Is it trees? I don't have anything against a tree. Many of you all came to my house Friday night Two Christmas trees in our house. Not that we covet trees. If you look at them real closely, one of them is what we call our witness tree. Everything on it is something about Christ. I'm not against lights. We have a tradition in our family that, you know, we get out there and put lights in the yard and I about fall off the house every year trying to put them on the house and get knee burns and yaha burns as well sitting on the roof. But in all in all, it's not about any of that, is it? I want to take our time this morning to share with you the purpose of Christmas. Christmas can be summed up in one phrase, and I want you to see that phrase. Turn with me to the Gospel of John. And look at verse 14. There's one phrase found there. That gives us the real meaning of Christmas. And it's that phrase in verse 14, And the Word became flesh. The Word became flesh. In John 1.1, the Apostle John said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then verse 14, And the Word became flesh. The real meaning of Christmas is God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. And it says in verse 14, we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the most concise biblical statement of the incarnation. The four words with which it begins, the word became flesh. It expresses the reality that in the Incarnation, God took on humanity. The infinite became finite. Eternity entered time. The invisible became visible. The Creator entered His creation. He became that which first became through Him. Look at that word, became. Eganeto. It means that He took to Himself. It means that He took on humanity. And the idea of flesh here is a reference to the whole man. He took on the whole person of man. Jesus Christ was 100% man as well as 100% God. You say, well, you can't have 200% of something, but here you do. That is the paradox. God became flesh. That's the Christmas story. And I want to talk about two things as we deal with the real meaning of Christmas. First of all, I want us to understand that Christmas has only one purpose. And what is that purpose? It is to reveal that a Savior has come. The world has no problem with seeing a little baby in a manger. But they do have a problem with what that baby represents. In fact, in our world today, to be politically correct would be to erect a manger scene, a Santa Claus, a menorah, and now an atheist sign that denounces all of it. But even going further than that, most that will allow all of that will subtract the nativity scene and allow for the other things where Christianity is more and more under attack. And if you don't think that that is true, start talking about Jesus in your job and watch how your employer employees respond. And if you're not experiencing any of that, maybe it's because you're not living your faith out loud. Maybe you have silenced it. Maybe you have held it in a closet. But the whole purpose of Christmas is to reveal that a Savior has come. And according to the Gospels, The gospel itself is to encompass the entire story of redemption beginning at the birth of Christ. Let me have you to look over with me to Luke chapter two. And I want to take our time this morning to spend there in Luke chapter two. And just leading up to where I want to get, let me just read the first seven verses, but verse eight and following is where we will spend our time. It says, Now, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea. to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child. And while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. By the way, I'm not going to say much about this, but if you are those types that like to read blogs, we do have one for our church. I put on there born in a cave because there is some evidence there that the way the stables were, they were actually hewn out of a cave. Get a chance, read that. That is something by William Barkley. But I want you to notice that here is the birth itself. The birth itself encompasses the first seven verses. But what I want us to focus in on is not necessarily the birth itself, but the announcement about the birth. Because you have in verse 8 the announcement of this birth that comes from an angel to shepherds who are biding in the fields. And as God reveals this glorious truth about the birth of a Savior, He reveals it to lowly shepherds in a field. The idea about shepherds being in a field is one of the reasons why we do not believe that Jesus was born on December the 25th. Shepherds would not be out in the field in the dead of winter, tending their sheep. But here they were. And you'll see there in verse 8, it says, in the same region, in the same area, in the same locale, near where this took place of the birth of Christ, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and they were keeping watch over their flock by night. Then all of a sudden you have in verse 9, this glorious scene. An angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. And just with any kind of angelic visit or any kind of heavenly visit, what could you imagine the response would be if this were you? I mean, we see recorded there in Revelation chapter 1 where John hears a sound and he turns to see and hear the voice that was speaking to him and it was Jesus. And he begins to describe Jesus. And all he could do in response to that was fall down like a dead man. Isaiah, when he came into the temple in Isaiah chapter 6, he wanted to see the Lord. He wanted to see what was going on. It says he had a vision of God, according to chapter 1. And as he had this vision of God, he saw the seraphim. Seraphim were angels, and they were there in antiphonal praise, crying out to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And he says the posts around him were shaking. And the amazing thing about this, he says, when I saw that and I heard what they said, I saw my sin and I pronounced curse on myself. He said, woe is me for I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king. So at least in those two situations, you have one pronouncing a curse on himself, the other one falling down like a dead man. The parents of Samson, when they saw the angel of the Lord, they said, we will die because we saw God face to face. Nothing like what you hear today. You don't hear anybody falling on their face like a dead man, you hear people going on Christian TV and giving a Christian testimony, saying, I saw the Lord. And they give this grandiose testimony. But that's not how it appears. These shepherds were out in the fields. They were doing what they ordinarily do. They were doing what they did every day. They were tending to their flocks. And all of a sudden, an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. It says in verse nine, the glory of the Lord shone around them. And this is an understatement, they were terribly afraid. Terribly afraid. That word, afraid, is the word phobos, from which you get phobia. It means to put to flight. In other words, it means to run. They saw this grandiose vision, this appearance of these angels, this angel appearing before them and making this grandiose announcement, the glory of the Lord shining all around, and they wanted to run. And you have again another example here. An example of one cursing himself, another example of one falling on his face like a dead man, and here a third where they wanted to run. You know, just this past Wednesday, there was an explosion not far from mine and Chip's house. And I'm sitting in my study preparing for Wednesday night as I normally do, and the whole room shook for just a second. I ran out of the house and just first thing I did is I ran through my house. See, did something happen? And Jeremy was in his room and I asked him, he felt the same thing. And a few minutes later, Chip called me and said the chemical plant over there on Fay Road exploded. And I ran outside. I'm talking on the phone and I could see, you know, the smoke and everything from my house and went down and picked up Naomi from the horse stable, which is not far from there. And we were just watching it as she was getting ready to leave. And it was just billowing up there in the in the sky. And I remember an eerie feeling. just this eerie feeling coming across, you know, coming upon me. I mean, we were thinking, well, maybe we may have to evacuate everything we have. You know, we have a lot of animals at our home and we're just trying to figure out what to do. So we're just kind of sitting still, watching, listening, waiting, glued to the news. And after about a few minutes, I said, y'all just watch it. I got to go back and study because if we're not, then we still have to move on with what's going on that day. And so I went back out there and just continued to prepare and But you know, I just remember just that whole feeling of something bad just happened. And what were you going to do? And there was a part of me that was just kind of restless there, like, well, if I leave, where am I going to go? It's almost like when those hurricanes would bear down pointing to Florida. And those things are bigger than a few states, right? It's like, how fast can you get away from something like that? And I remember one year that we sought to do that. And we took off and we were in bumper to bumper traffic and couldn't get as far as Waycross, Georgia. And I thought, wow, we're not safe here. But couldn't go anywhere else. Too much traffic. And again, just that whole feeling. Folks, you can't run from God. And really, there's some there's there's a sense of common sense there in doing that. There's also a sense of foolishness. I mean, common sense in that you want to do the right thing, you want to get your family to safety, you want to get yourself to safety, you want to do those things, but then there's a sense of foolishness and thinking that you can run from everything. When you're a child of God and you know the sovereignty of God and you know that God is the one who is in control of everything, even things like that. But just imagine these shepherds. They see this, they hear this, the glory of the Lord is shining all around them and they're terribly afraid. They're ready to run. But the angel of the Lord said to them, do not run. Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. There has been born for you today the Messiah. And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And then it says in verse 13, and suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. If you are a modern public relations agent. In charge of getting out the news. Of Christ's birth. The glass group you would have picked to be the first to inform would have been a small band of shepherds. Instead, you likely would have targeted the influencers, the real movers, the shakers. You might have considered telling the high priest first because he was the religious leader of the nation. Or you might have weighed the advantages of going first to the chief priests and the scribes, which were the leading teachers of Israel. On the other hand, you might have thought it smart to go first to the Sanhedrin because they were the body of 70 elders that was the theocratic leadership of Israel. Or you might have insisted on informing the Pharisees first. After all, they were the religious fundamentalists who were very strict about Old Testament prophecies and they were looking for the Messiah's arrival. You might have even wanted to send an official press release to Caesar Augustus to make sure he knew the true Savior had recently come into the world. But none of those alternatives was God's option for revealing the news of Christ's birth. See, instead, he first takes this special message to one of the unlikeliest classes of people imaginable, an obscure group of shepherds. And when I think about that, I think about 1 Corinthians 1.27, which says, That God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame those who are strong. And when you look at all of this, you think, why did God do it the way that He did? There's only one answer to that. Because God got more glory doing it that way. It's like the question, why aren't all people saved? Why do some people go to hell and some go to heaven? The answer is God gets more glory for it being done that way. And we don't understand that. These shepherds were social outcasts. Matthew Henry says that shepherds were outcasts in Israel. Their work was not only what made them ceremonially unclean, but it kept them away from the temple for weeks at a time. so that they could not be made clean. See, their job was seven days a week. It made it hard for them to keep the Sabbath, and therefore the Pharisees hated them. They despised them. And so this heavenly announcement comes from these heavenly beings to these lowly outcasts. Look at their reaction. Verse 15, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, The shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known unto us. They first reasoned among themselves and then they believed what they heard. They knew that this was something that the Lord had made known to them. This therefore brought about a swift response. And as I mentioned, instead of them running in fear, they ran in haste. And it says in verse 16, so they came in a hurry and they found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. So they believe the report, they believe what the angel said, and why not? It's not every day that you get a heavenly angelic visit, right? In fact, it says in Hebrews 13 that some have entertained angels unaware. So they found Mary and Joseph. and the baby after a careful search. You know, these shepherds are good examples for us to imitate today. They have received by faith the message God sent them, and then they responded with immediate obedience. And after they found the baby, what did they do? Well, look at verse 17. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. They made it known to others. They told everyone. This was a message not to be concealed. This was a message to be shared. And beloved, the Gospel that you have received is a Gospel not only to believe and receive, but a Gospel to be shared. And they made widely known the statement. That word, the statement, or the word statement, that's the Greek word rhema. It refers to a specific statement, a specific saying. The word occurs in Matthew 26, 75, where Peter remembers the specific statement that Jesus made about him when he said, before a cock crows, you will deny me three times. It also occurs two times in Luke 9, 44 and 45, when it says, Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this statement, this saying, this specific statement here. as it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask Him about this specific statement. The Word is translated a saying in Luke 20 and verse 26. Probably the best verse or the most popular verse that you're familiar with is Romans 10, 17, which says, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. That term Word is the term rhema. It's talking about a specific speech in Romans 10 17. What is that specific speech? It's the specific speech about Christ. It is the gospel. What's the specific statement that the shepherds made known? Look back at verse 11. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ The Lord. This is the statement that they made known. A Savior has been born. The Messiah has come. The One we have been waiting for. The One that the prophets spoke of has come. Let's kind of venture off for just a second and see what kind of principles that we can pull off. Verse 17, that they made widely known the statement that have been told them about this child. You know, evangelism is a matter. Of seeing Jesus and making his presence known to everyone. And even though we can't see him physically, we can see him spiritually in his word. We can see Him work in the lives of people. We read this morning, 1 Peter 1.8, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him. Jesus said to Thomas, after He said, My Lord and my God, in John 20, Blessed are your eyes, for you have seen. But blessed are the eyes of those who have not seen, but believe. That's you and I. That's anyone after Jesus resurrected and ascended to the Father. We haven't seen him, but we believe. Now, I know that that goes against some popular opinion in many churches that believe that they have seen Jesus Christ himself, the historical Jesus. One guy out in California says that Jesus comes in his bathroom while he's shaving, puts his arm around him. And of course, the question is, do you keep shaving? I think that you would fall on your face, hit your chin on that sink and die. Or at least break your jaw or something. If Jesus came and put his arm around. That is so ludicrous. It's almost blasphemous. Or about the guy who said that he died and went to heaven and he came back and reported that there were no toilets in heaven. That's foolishness. That's wickedness. Blasphemy. Their declaration about what the angel said came after it was confirmed what the angel told them. Let's back up for just a moment. Verse 15, when the angel said, go on a wave. From them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing which has happened which the Lord has made known unto us. And so they came in a hurry and they found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. After this, verse 17, they made known the statement. They confirmed what the angel said. That makes me think here that, listen, our faith is not blind. Our faith is confirmed. by the Word of God. You know, archaeology says so much for Christianity, but the Book of Mormon cannot be confirmed about anything mentioned in there, historical, any places, any dates. Archaeology has not found one location. The Bible confirms our faith and provides for us what we are to believe. We've been learning that today in our message called The Real Meaning of Christmas. You can order this message today on CD by calling us at 904-651-3351. Or you can download the free mp3 from our website by visiting www.mp3.org. On our website you'll find over 1,100 messages that will help you in your Christian walk. Well, I'm Pastor Steve Hereford and I do want to thank you for listening today. Join us again next time as we study together God's Word.