This week, Pastor Luke continued on with our Christmas series “The History Channel” with part three; covering the time period from 1800 to modern day.

SECULAR

Queen Victoria popularized Christmas in the 1800’s, and Charles Dickens wrote ‘the Christmas Carol’ in 1843. This invented ‘the spirit of Christmas’ and humanitarian efforts as the center of Christmas; effectively muddying the waters of the spirit of Christ and His coming to earth.

The way that we celebrate Christmas today is therefore only about 200 years old, and we need to be careful not to bury Jesus under a pile of Christmas presents.

SACRED

Pastor Luke used Galatians 4:4-5 as his key passage:
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”
1. God knows, plans, and acts.

God’s sovereign hand is all over the details of the Christmas story. The birth of Jesus was strategic, and “in the fullness of time”. Jesus came into the world at the perfect time; when four key things came together:

The Pax Romana (peace and stability in the region)
The Roman roads were built and in place (this meant that Gospel was able to travel quicker than ever before)
Kione Greek (there was a common language)
There was a religious fervor across the empire (people were open to talking about big ideas and religion).

Jesus came in the perfect moment of human history. God knew, planned, and moved in accordance with this moment – the world was ready.

God’s providential hand is all over the Christmas story, which shows us that God is in control, and if we can trust His timing at Christmas – the first advent - then we can also trust His coming for the second advent – when He is coming back again. And this also means that we can trust Him for the details of our own lives as well. We need to stop, slow down and see God in the big and the small details of our lives.


2. Your nativity set is actually a really big deal.

Our nativity set represents the incarnation – when God Himself came into human history and put on flesh. When Jesus stepped into human history, He truly crossed worlds, and became like us in every way.

Because of Jesus our sins are forgiven, and we can be made right with God. And so when we think about Christmas, we need to be filled with joy, hope, wonder, and awe at the fact that Jesus came. We need to be forever thankful for the reality of both the humanity and the divinity of God.

Many of us stop at this truth; that we are justified, without understanding the second truth – that we are then also adopted as sons and daughters of God.

This means that we are co-heirs with Christ, that we will rule and reign in His new Kingdom, and that we have the same access to the Father as Jesus did.

Sometimes we can get caught up in the secular Christmas traditions, but we need instead to slow down and focus on the one who has saved us. This Christmas costs us nothing, and cost Jesus everything. We are adopted as heirs, and the truth of that is eternal and awe-inspiring.