CHRIST: THE REASON FOR CHRISTMAS

Wednesday 25 December

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulder. And his name will be called ,Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (NKJV)

As you have probably heard before, Jesus was not born on the 25th of December. This however is the date that many people in the world celebrate Christmas. Christmas by its very definition is the ‘celebration of Christ.’

Despite what many have been led to believe, there is no true celebration of Christmas without Christ. When I think about why people seem to place such little value on Jesus and more on Santa it’s because I believe the church has failed to represent Christ after the resurrection.

Let me give you an example. We sing songs like ‘Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new born king’. Why don’t we sing ‘glory to the risen king’? Whether we realise it or not it’s pure traditionalism to sing about who Jesus was when He walked the earth and not who Jesus is now. Christianity is the exalted Christ in us now not Jesus the Christ of the gospels.

No wonder the world is in a state of confusion about Christ. Christos is the Greek word for Christ in English which means the anointed one and His anointing or the one anointed by the Spirit. People need to know that there was one man who was incarnated miraculously by the Spirit, into the womb of Mary to bring the gift of salvation to all mankind and His name is Jesus.

Acts 10:38 says ‘how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.’

He is the Word who was with God and was God. He was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.

This was Jesus in the gospels. The Son of Man who operated as the promised seed of the Abrahamic covenant. He was given authority to cast out unclean spirits and to heal every sickness and disease etc.

After the resurrection, this Jesus was highly exalted and given a name that is above every name. Now all authority and power is vested in the identity, reputation and integrity that His name represents. This Jesus is far above all rule, authority power and dominion.

This Jesus now lives in every believer through the Spirit in all His power and glory and ‘as He is, so are we in this world’. 1 John 4:17b

I showed you all this for a reason. The message of Christ has come full circle. The child conceived of the Holy Spirit became Jesus, the Christ of the gospels who after the resurrection became the highly exalted Lord Jesus Christ, seated in the place of power ‘as’ the right hand of God.

Christ in His birth. Christ in His life. Christ in us by His Spirit. This is the full picture of Christmas: the celebration of Christ. Merry Christmas everyone!

APPLICATION

Make up your mind that you will be someone who will make known the full message of Christ and His eternal salvation to all those in your world, today and every day.