*Christmas According to Kids - Southland Christian Church video*The new baby is going to change the world! Isn’t that the truth? I love that little video. That new baby changed the world so that every December 25th we can get a bunch of presents. Isn’t that great? Aren’t you glad that’s the reason He came and changed the world? No? Somebody tell me how that baby changed the world really.
That baby was born so He could live a sinless life and be our model for godly living. But His main purpose of being born was so He could be the perfect sacrifice in death. It was His death that paid the price the Father said was necessary to atone for our sins. Before Jesus was born, the people had to sacrifice animals for their sins and the blood from those sacrifices was said to cover over their sins. But Jesus was sacrificed and His blood removes our sins and they are forgiven and forgotten and thrown as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Thank you, Lord!
Why do you think God did that? Why did He send His only Son, Jesus, to be born so He could die on a cross for our sins? What’s in it for Him? I think we can answer that by reading the good old Christmas story this morning. I believe there are two reasons why God sent His Son to be born and die for us and both reasons are tucked into this one most beautiful of passages.
Turn to Luke chapter 2 and I hope this is not the first nor the last time that you read this passage. I think it ought to be read on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning just before you open presents. Fathers ought to read it to their families and then ask questions about it. Make sure everybody understands that this is what Christmas is about, not the presents and Santa Claus. Nothing wrong with presents and Santa but those are just part of how we celebrate what happened in Luke 2:1-20.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
A little boy and girl were singing their favorite Christmas carol in church the Sunday before Christmas. The boy concluded "Silent Night" with the words, "Sleep in heavenly beans." "No," his older sister corrected, "not beans, peas." (Michael P. Green)Neither one sounds very heavenly to me but I want to focus this morning on what the heavenly hosts were singing about in verse 14. The world has just changed forever. Everything is different now. Jesus has come from the glories of Heaven to be born as a human and what do the angels sing about? “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” They sing about God’s glory and our peace. Peace, not peas, by the way.
That sums up the reasons for why God the Father sent Jesus to earth. It was for His glory and for our peace. Let’s think about that for a minute. I want to mainly talk about the peace that we have but let’s spend just a minute talking about God’s glory because it will affect our peace. Why should God get all the glory in this life? Shouldn’t we get some? Isn’t it kind of selfish for Him to want all the glory in this world? Well, how much of your life can you really take credit for? Did you plan your birth? Did you design your body? Did you arrange it so that you would grow up big and strong? Oh, you went to school and got a degree and got a good job? That’s great. That’s good for you but your intellect, your drive, your opportunities and everything about you was planned and designed and created by God, so He gets all the glory.
In John 15:5, Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And we sure can’t provide our own salvation. We can’t be good enough or smart enough or anything enough to forgive our own sins and earn our way to Heaven. So, it’s okay that God gets all the glory. In fact, it’s more than okay because it actually makes clear that God loves us with the greatest love and that ought to bring us great peace and that is what I want to really focus on this morning.
I want you to think first about young Mary. We talked last week about how the angel Gabriel came to her and told her that she would be pregnant with the Christ child. That had to be a little scary but imagine if that was the last she ever heard about it. She might begin to wonder if she had just had a dream or if it was real at all.
The first thing that gave her peace was the angel himself, then she had lots of prophecies to read that would tell exactly what she was going through. Then the shepherds came and told the incredible story of the angels singing to them. They also had at least three wise men show up from a long way away and verify everything for Mary. All that had to bring peace. We see later that Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to the temple and Simeon and Anna both verified everything that had been prophesied and everything they had seen so all of that had to bring peace to Mary. In verse 19 it says that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
Peace. All that brought peace. But what is peace? Does it mean just the absence of war? How would you define peace? The dictionary partly defines peace as freedom from disturbance; tranquility. Somebody tell me a time when you had peace. I went fishing with Billy the other day. We never even got a nibble but we had the best time. You know how it is when you are with a friend and you can talk about anything and there’s no competition and there’s no pressure. You don’t have to worry about anything. You just hang out. That’s peace.
My big concordance defines peace as quiet contentment. And like my time fishing with Billy, we can have quietness and contentment with God. That’s what He wants for us. Just hang out with Him and have quietness and contentment. You can and should talk about anything you want. There’s no competition or pressure. Just come to God and find peace. Without peace with God, you will have no lasting peace with anybody or anything else. You might have some moments of quiet and rest but those come when your circumstances are quiet and restful. But what about when your world is chaotic and seems to be falling apart? The Bible is full of verses that help us with that. In the Old Testament, Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” In the New Testament, Jesus said in John 14:27 says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
You know what that tells me? That tells me that there will be scary times in this life. There will be troubling times but peace is available to us. It is a gift of God. We saw last week that joy is a gift of God and just like joy and just like our very salvation, peace is a gift that God wants to give us and has made available to us. All we have to do is accept it. Jesus just said, “My peace I give to you.”
We can have peace with other people because we have peace with God. Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Some people have no peace and they aren’t interested in having peace with you and there is nothing you can do about it. That’s their choice.
If you want to know what that looks like just turn the evening news on. I don’t care what you think about Trump getting impeached, the people on both sides have no peace. I’m not just talking about having peace between Republicans and Democrats. I mean the vast majority of these people are just showing that they have no inner peace. There is no quietness or contentment in their lives and it shows. But Congress is not a church. That is not a Christian organization. There may be some Christians in there but we should just expect to see fighting, bitterness, name-calling and back-stabbing from people that don’t have a relationship with Jesus. That’s what unbelievers do, which ought to make the contrast between us and them even more drastic. That most definitely should not describe us.
I’ll be honest. I have some friends that live up north and they are very liberal in their politics and every time they post something on Facebook, that’s it! I’m gonna tell them what for! That is crazy talk and I’m not putting up wi…uh oh. I feel my peace slip, slip, slipping away. That’s my choice to lose that peace. I wind up with no quietness in my spirit or in my mind and my contentment is long gone and I have to back away, take a breath and remember.
It’s going to be okay. God’s got this. That little baby that was born so long ago lived, died and rose again and today sits at the right hand of God the Father and scoffs at the petty politics of this perverted, sad little world! I want to know what is happening in our country but I often just have to step away and let it go, trusting that God is on His throne and hears our prayers and one of my most fervent prayers is, “Come, Lord Jesus, come!”
That’s when we will have real, true and lasting peace. Job said, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1) But because we have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, we can have peace when there is no peace because we don’t get our peace from this world. Nancy Pelosi is not in charge of peace. Donald Trump is not in charge of peace. They wouldn’t know peace if it bit them. We get our peace as a gift from God – a gift He wants to give and all we have to do is accept it.
Because we have peace with God, we can have peace with other people. But there is somebody else that peace is a problem with. In fact, that person is in our church. There is a person in our church that is the most difficult person in the world to have peace with. I have tried to make peace with him and it seems to work but in no time at all he digs up my past and throws it in my face and we go to war again and I’m sick of it. So, I’m just gonna tell you who it is so you can watch out for him. I’m calling him out right now. His name is…me.
Maybe you have a problem with him too. He or she stares back at you in the mirror every morning. Have you ever gone into the bathroom first thing in the morning and looked in the mirror and smiled only to have the person in the mirror scowl back at you like a witch on crack? That person is sometimes the hardest person in the world to have peace with. That person knows you and knows what you did yesterday. They know those thoughts you have. They know what you said that one time and they don’t want to let you forget it.
I want you to know, dear one, that Satan is that person’s biggest fan. That does not come from God. When you sin it ought to pain you which ought to send you immediately to the throne of Grace to ask for forgiveness from God and 1 John 1:9 says He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And when God forgives, He forgets and so should you.
My favorite verses in all the Bible are Isaiah 43:18-19. They are my favorites because I have some baggage. I have done a lot of stuff I’m not proud of and when those memories come back ushered in by Satan himself and I think of the people that I have done wrong and let down and all the stupid stuff I did and I feel my peace being vacuumed right out, I remember those beautiful words that God said to me in Isaiah. He said, “Todd, forget the former things. Don’t dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland!” He is doing a new thing in my life and He gets all the credit and all the glory and I get peace. I get the kind of peace that unbelievers can’t understand.
Philippians 4:7. Ooh! That would make a great tattoo. It says, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Some of you hoodlums, Lois, you need this tattoo. I see a warrior named God’s Peace standing in front of your heart and mind keeping guard. You’re welcome for that idea. God’s peace is beyond all our understanding and He wants us to have it. He wants us to have peace with Him and when we have peace with Him, we can have peace with others and even peace with ourselves. And all we have to do is accept it.
Okay, I’m going to close by giving somebody a dollar bill. I have it right here for the first person to come and get it. Who wants it? Okay, here you go but are you sure you want to take it? Let me tell you what taking this dollar bill means for you. I want you to have this dollar. I really do. And if you take it, you will not only get this dollar but you will receive joy and peace and wisdom and a whole lot of other priceless gifts. You are guaranteed a ticket to Heaven included in this transaction. It’s a great deal and all you have to do is take it but your life will never be the same.
From now on, you have to do everything I say. You have to act like me and follow me and it will cost you a lot of friends who don’t understand what you are doing. It is going to be scary sometimes and you won’t always understand what I’m doing but you have to trust me. But don’t worry because I won’t let anything happen to you that I don’t want to happen. You get all of that if you take this dollar bill. Still want it? Tell you what, you take the dollar and do all of that with Jesus and you will never regret it. Now, let me ask you something. When was that dollar bill his? Was it his when I gave it to him? No. It was only his when he took it. It was available. I wanted him to have it. But it wasn’t his until he took it.
That’s how it is with salvation. It is available right now for you and all you have to do is accept it. When you do, you get peace and joy and wisdom along with patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). You get God’s peace to guard your heart and mind. You get God’s own Spirit to live inside of you to guide you. It’s quite the package deal and God wants you to have it and keep it forever and you can. Yes, it will cost you but it will be more than worth it. I don’t know how people get through life without it.
Ask God to forgive you of your past and to cleanse you of all that dirtiness. Repent – turn away from that lifestyle and allow God to change you and make you more like Him. Do it right now as the music plays.
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