As we are all very, very well aware, this is the day that the world celebrates Christmas.
Millions of people who have no time for the Lord, and never think of Christ, celebrate Christmas in one fashion or another.
And this is one of those days which brings out the extremes in human emotion – good and bad.
For example, I am told that there are more suicides this time of year than during any other.
Then on the other hand, people are more generous and giving now than during any other season.
I have seen videos of children who were besides themselves because they either received or didn’t receive the gifts that they expected.
I know of married couples who fight over whether Christmas is a religious holiday or a family holiday; whether they should go to Grandmother’s house or the House of God.
We have been hearing people screaming over the Presidential greeting cards which say, “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”
There are people who are furious that the Post Office sells stamps that recognize the end of the year holidays of religions other than Christmas.
In many public forums it is considered illegal or gauche and tactless and use the word “Christmas.”
they still have the parades, but they are called something else.
Public schools no longer have “Christmas vacation;”
but which takes place at exactly the same time as the old Christmas vacation.
They condemn just about every practice and doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, including the celebration of the mass, except for this Christ-mass.
As we have pointed out repeatedly, this scripture from Acts 26 outlines Paul’s conversion to Christ, and details of the commission that the Lord gave to him.
Then Paul goes on to say that by the grace of God, he faithfully carried out that commission.
Particularly, he showed to both Jews and Gentiles that “they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.”
He witnessed to both small and great,
That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead,
and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.”
Here is part of the article about “Christmas” in the Encyclopedia Americana:
“The name is derived from the medieval Christes Masse, the Mass of Christ. The celebration was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. The death of the martyr Stephen and the massacre of the innocents at Bethlehem had already long been celebrated, when, perhaps in opposition to the doctrine of the Manichaeans respecting the birth of the Saviour, a feast was established in memory of this event in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church (the Roman Catholic church in contrast to the Eastern Orthodox church) ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed. Among the German and Celtic tribes the winter solstice was considered an important point of the year and to commemorate the return of the sun they held their chief festival of yule, which, like other pagan celebrations, became adapted to Christmas.”
So history tell us that the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ didn’t begin until the 4th century: 300 to 400 years after the actual birth.
And when churches did begin to celebrate that birth it was to offset a growing heresy.
Unfortunately, what was begun to oppose heresy quickly assimilated it’s own heresy & heretical practices.
When Paul was preaching the gospel, it didn’t include a lot of emotion about where, when and how Christ came into this world.
We are given some of the details about the incarnation in three of the four Gospels.
John doesn’t tell us much, except that “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.”
But even though John didn’t give us much information about the incarnation, Luke, who accompanied Paul throughout most of his ministry, very definitely did.
In other words, it appears that Paul was familiar with what we need to know about the birth of Christ,
but despite knowing those details, neither Paul nor Luke give us any of those details in the Book of Acts.
However that doesn’t mean that Paul completely ignored the subject.
In the middle of a long and important study of salvation in his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote:
“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. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
I think that we can conclude that the birth of Christ is important only as it relates to the death of Christ.
As we have seen over the last couple of weeks in Sunday School, several aspects of Christ’s birth are important.
Jesus was.
The only way that he could be a proper substitute for the sinner was to be one of the sons of Adam.
That is certainly possible, although there are also 364 other days just as likely, if not more likely.
It is because it is not even close to being as important as the sacrifice of Christ for our sins.
His perceived blasphemy was in saying that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.
And his heresy was first in telling Gentiles that they could be saved without becoming Jewish proselytes.
The second major part of his suppose heresy was in teaching that Christ would suffer and die rather than rule and reign.
But Paul’s defense was that Moses and the prophets declared such things.
We need to remind ourselves that the only scriptures that Paul had from which to preach were the Old Testament scriptures.
And what did those scriptures declare?
I think that the last word in verse 22 is rather interesting:
Paul witnessed only “those things which should COME.”
It is a very common Biblical word translated in many different ways:
The most common is the simple state of being verb: “to be,” found 255 times.
But the next most common translation is “come to pass.”
Some of the other translations are: “be done,” “be fulfilled” and even to “be married.”
“Take this part, go out and marry up with Tom and help him put the tractor back together.”
he was talking about the fulfillment of prophesy.
He was talking about verbally marrying the pronouncement with the fulfilment.
“That Christ should suffer.”
The vast majority of Jews in the days of the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul, could only picture the Messiah in His office as King.
And without a doubt the scriptures are filled with statements and prophesies about the Millennial Kingdom with the Son of David ruling and reigning.
Even the Lord’s own disciples had a very hard time with any other thought.
So when Jesus was crucified, we aren’t surprised to hear that the disciples scattered.
It wasn’t that Jesus’ hadn’t warned them, prophesied and explained the Old Testament prophesies.
First, He had to convince them that He was the Christ,
and then he had to convince them that Christ must needs suffer and die.
Mark 9:31 – “He taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
But after his death and resurrection the angel had to say,
Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”
Psalm 22: – “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the LORD’S: and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”
Now turn to Isaiah 52:13 – “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Not only were there distinct prophesies of the suffering and death of the Messiah of Israel, but every blood sacrifice Israel or the earlier patriarchs ever made were testimonies to the necessity of death of Christ.
As Moses said, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
In fact, “without shedding of blood there is no atonement.”
Not only did Moses and the prophets say that Christ would suffer and die, they also taught that he would live again.
Psalm 16:8 – “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
Extremely important are the comments of the Apostles about that resurrection.
Acts 2:25-36 – “For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Not only did the Jewish scriptures teach the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, but they also revealed that He would be a light upon the souls of both Israel and the Gentiles.
Isaiah 11:10 – “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
Isaiah 42:1- 12 – “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.”
From the testimony of the scriptures, I don’t believe that Paul ever preached a “Christmas Message” per se.
At times he taught and preached about the importance of the incarnation of Christ.
But his primary message was about the sacrifice that Jesus made in His death.
Let me close with this:
It was when Paul said that Christ would show light unto the Gentiles, that Festus jumped to his feet and said with a loud voice, “Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learn doth make thee mad.”
This brings us right back to the problem that all people have – whether they are Jews or non-Jews:
We don’t want to be told that we’re in the dark; that we’re blind; that we’re slaves to sin.
We want to think that we’re in control of our spiritual lives and our eternal destiny.
But the truth is we need a Saviour; we need the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That was the message of the Apostle Paul; that was the commission which the Saviour gave him.