I wish to encourage you to celebrate Christmas in truth
For Christians, Christmas is one of our greatest celebrations. The angel who appeared to the shepherds said it so well; “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). We praise God every Christmas because He selflessly gave without restraint; when love entered the world in the form of a baby to fulfill an intended purpose 33 years later.
About 9 months earlier an angel foretold that “She (Mary) will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Yes, Christmas is our celebration of when God stepped into human history to do what the world said would never happen. Although God didn’t do things the way the world expected, He nevertheless “so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Worship in awe
The mind blowing wonder of the Christmas celebration is that this baby Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8). No other baby has, or shall ever, be born with such an eternally supreme purpose.
If Jesus had come to lead a military revolt or bring political reform, He failed. If to lead religious revival or resolve racial tension, this He also failed. Or, if He came to establish a spiritual enlightenment program, or to lavish His followers with a life style of luxury, He definitely failed. No, baby Jesus came to do that which humanity could not do for themselves; to save them from the eternal consequences of the very sins they deny being guilty of.
Consider Jesus own words; “I have not come to abolish them (the Law of the Prophets) but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). ”Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book” (Hebrews 10:7).
Purpose fulfilled
Some 33 years after His birth, as Jesus considered the future Cross of Calvary and what that involved, He prayed; “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).
Not surprising then, that “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so 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” (Philippians 2:9-11).
While the world wants political, social, military, and financial reform, God gives us a Saviour from sins. While the world frivolously disregards baby Jesus as a fairy-tale for children, we acknowledge and worship Him as Sovereign Saviour and Lord.