The Reason for the Season

Do you believe in miracles?  I do.  Do you believe that cancer and all of the other horrible sufferings in the world can be cured?  I do.   Do you believe that the hungry can be fed, the blind made to see and the deaf made to hear and the lame made to walk?  Do you believe that Jesus can and will set you free?  I do. 

We have all seen and experienced things that we cannot explain, things that have no reasonable explanation other than God.  These things are called miracles and I believe strongly that miracles still occur.  I also believe that the greatest miracle that ever occurred happened over 2000 years ago in a small town called Bethlehem.  God sent his only son (miracle), born to a virgin (miracle), laid in a manger or a feeding trough for animals (miracle), he led a sinless life (miracle), died on a cross (miracle), and rose again three days later (miracle).  Because of these miracles, our sins are not just swept under the rug for another year; they are gone, just as if they never happened.  This is the entire gospel message in a nutshell. If you don’t believe this basic message, this foundation of the Christian faith, then you are lost. 

Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, there can be no forgiveness of sins.

“On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University’s department of research surgery. A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age. When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death. However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it. The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side. Then the stony coating was lifted form the heart as an orange is peeled. Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally. “I feel a thousand per cent better already,” said the patient soon after the operation.

“There is a parable of life here. Our hearts develop a hard protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life. They are coated by the deposits of a thousand deceits and rebuffs. They are hardened by the pressure of circumstance. Inevitably they become smothered and insensitive to the divine. Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray. It becomes simpler to work than to worship. Self-satisfied, proud, often cynical, our hearts need a spiritual operation that only Christmas can perform when we dare to surrender our hearts’ burden before the cradle of Bethlehem” (Charles M. Crowe. Sermons For Special Days. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951, p. 163). That is why Jesus is the reason for the Christmas Season. Jesus can heal our broken and wounded hearts. “Christmas is a time to celebrate, proclaim and demonstrate” (C. W. Kiningham. Year ‘Round Sermon Outlines. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987, p. 47).

It is once again the Christmas season when we celebrate the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can make a big deal about birthdays of people like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and other famous people, but do we make a big enough deal out of the birthday of our Savior? 

We tend to use X-mas, winter or holiday in place of Christmas to describe important events that happen during this season.  People do this because they are trying to take Jesus out of the season.

                At this time of the year it is important to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Jesus revives the heart desire for a life that has meaning because Jesus is the reason why asked meaning. Jesus gives life meaning.  On July 14, 1789, Jean Lenoir, a cobbler living in an obscure side street in Paris wrote in his day: ” nothing of importance happened today.”  Just a short distance away was a Bastille and on that very day a mob has stormed it. They killed the troops freed the prisoners, destroying the building, and started the French Revolution. This event changed the whole course of life in France.

A day without Jesus is a day without meaning, a day without joy. Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season. When Jesus was born it was the best say that the world has ever known.   Yet, when Jesus was born there was no room in the inn.  Luke tells us about when the Angels greeted shepherds in the field. The shepherds were scared. They had probably never seen Angel before. Listen to what the angel told them.  “Do not be afraid to bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

 Jesus is the reason for the season.

Have you ever thought about why we need Jesus? Have you ever wondered why God sent his son to die on the cross for the sins of all human beings? Think about this, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, if we had died for our own sins, he would’ve been just one person paying the penalty for his own sins. It took the sinless Lamb of God, born of a virgin, leading a sinless life, to pay the sin debt that we all. It took the sinless son of God to satisfy the wrath of God.  

We cannot sing wonderful songs of Christmas, the songs of our will and Savior, in all honesty unless we have the joy that Jesus gives in our hearts. We cannot celebrate if there is no joy. Sometimes we are guilty of celebrating Christmas as if it was nothing important, just another day on the calendar. We are sometimes so near to Christmas as a holiday with the festivities and commercialism and yet we are so far away in heart from our Savior who was born in Bethlehem almost 2000 years ago. Just as there was no room in the inn, there are times no room in our hearts for the King.

This Christmas season make room in your hearts for the King. Jesus made room on the cross and me. Don’t just worship Christ at Christmas and Easter, worship him all year long because he is worthy of our worship, praise, and adoration.

Jesus is the reason for this season.