Endless holiday films try to portray the true meaning of Christmas, but nearly all of them miss the point. Christmas is about the One who denied Himself and gave up His rightful glory for us.


Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Welcome to HT at Christmastime, I’m CM sharing the GS that’s all about Jesus. Remember begging your parents to buy a Christmas tree as soon as you thought you could get away with it? Sherry North, a children’s book author in Fort Lauderdale remembers doing this as a child, but her requests were denied - not because of timing but tradition. Her appeals were rejected because her family comes from a conservative Jewish background. Most Jews throughout America consider celebrating Christmas in any way as blasphemous. Still, 9 percent of Jewish households in America decorate a Christmas tree each year, and another 8 percent said they usually or sometimes do. Frances Dinkelspiel – a writer in Berkeley, California – will host a Christmas party this year and even decorate a tree and exchange gifts on December 25th. “I am 100 percent Jewish” she says, but celebrating the day has no religious significance for her.

This Christmas I pray that Jews and Gentiles alike will look to Jesus and know that He is Immanuel – God with us.

(Stanton Lanier – Shepherds & Starts from December Peace)

Father in heaven. We live in a world of unbelief, but yet we know from you that this world is passing away. I’m thinking of the famous atheist Christopher Hitchen who died from cancer last week. He represents so many people who die and have no hope. Lord, this Christmas may the message delivered by prophets of old, by the angel Gabriel, by a host of angels come to us. May we see that Jesus, the Son of God, was Immanuel, God with us and may that Good News come into our hearts this Christmas. May we see the manager, but never lose sight of the cross. May the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ fill us with knowledge and assurance of our eternal future. This Christmas may we long for the second coming of our Savior or when we die from cancer or any other reason and all of us listening today can be abscent from the body and present with the Lord. I pray for message from those angels to be real with us now, in the name of Jesus, amen.

SONG – Christmas Angels – Michael W Smith


A friend of ours was telling Janet that she had so much on her plate she was going crazy -- elderly parents with needs, gifts to buy, financial matters to attend to, parties to go to, phone calls to make – her to-do list was endless and she’d planned each day down to the minute to try to get it all done by Christmas. And then, a friend had a health crisis and she had to drop everything. She had to let it all go and take her friend to the doctor, pick up her prescriptions, make sure she had meals. She told Janet that instead of being the straw that broke the camel’s back, that crisis broke through to her and reminded her of what Christmas IS.

She said, “The Lord gave me back my joy. I needed to repent of the way I was perceiving "interruptions" as getting in the way of Christmas! How ridiculous is that? Giving up rights is what Christmas is!!!”

Giving up rights is what Christmas IS – and it begins, not with us giving up our rights but with the Son of God giving up his rights. Think of a manger scene: there’s the stable, the animals, the mother, Mary, the father, Joseph, and in the center of it all, the little baby, Jesus. When you look at that baby, what do we think about? Do we think about giving up rights? We should. We should let it flood our hearts with Christmas joy – giving up his rights is what he did. That’s why he’s there. That’s what being born as a human baby meant to the Son of God. It meant giving up his rights, and his glory for our sake. It meant humbling himself, coming down, becoming a servant.

Philippians 2:5-11 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

“He didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped” The Son of God descended down to that stable from the highest position in the universe. He was in very nature God – Omniscient, all powerful, eternal, creator God. He was clothed in splendor, far above his creation. And he made himself nothing to come to us. He came down, down, down, to live with us.

When we see the baby, we know who he’s going to grow up to be – the magnificent Lord Jesus who calms the storms and raises the dead. The suffering Savior who gave himself on the cross. But do we think about who is WAS?

There’s a beautiful passage in Zechariah where the Lord is speaking, before the incarnation, telling his people what he’s going to do: He says:

“Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the LORD. “Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you. The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. Be still before the Lord all mankind because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

“I am coming and I will live among you.” When you look at the little baby in the manger we need to realize, He did! This is who he is – the Lord, who has roused himself from his holy dwelling and descended to us, giving up his rights, and his glory, so he could live among us.

He came to live among us. I don’t think we can begin to comprehend what it meant for Him to become like us. But we know it was a great infinitely humbling descent. And it was an exact 180 of what Satan did.

In Isaiah 14 we get a glimpse of the devil’s thoughts at the moment he first rebelled against God. “Isaiah 14:13-14 “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”



Exactly the opposite of Jesus! What Lucifer did was exactly the opposite of what Jesus did. He tried to elevate himself, to make himself like the Most High. And when he was cast down, he succeeded in seducing us into that same rebellion. He told Eve she could be like God. I think we live like we think we’re God more often than we think. When we think we have rights, when we live as if we were the center of the universe, when try to get praise and approval, when we just do what comes naturally – we’re elevating ourselves, lifting ourselves up. We’re living like Lucifer.

But we’re called to live like Jesus. “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” Christmas is meant to teach us to live like Jesus. Who didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, he stripped off his glory and made himself a servant, born as a human baby. He came down to be with us but his coming down didn’t end at the stable. He kept going down, down, down, until he was literally stripped and hung on a cross. All for love’s sake. All for us.

SONG – For Unto Us - Point of Grace

Here’s what that great descent of love is meant to do:

1. It’s meant to save us. It’s meant to deliver us from sin and guilt and death and bring us into glory – where Jesus is right now, seated at the right hand of the Father. It’s meant to accomplish our redemption to lift us up to the heavens.

2. It’s meant to bring us to our knees in worship. After his death and resurrection God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It’s meant to create worship.

3. It’s meant to cure us of living like Lucifer. It’s meant to teach us how to give up our rights. It’s meant to show us the direction our lives should take – not up but down.

Stanton Lanier underneath (O Come O Come Emmanuel) December Peace

Philippians 2:1-11 “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

MAIL CLOSE

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