IT'S ALL ABOUT CHRISTMAS......It Began with a Tree

It Began with a Tree - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. -Genesis 2:9

 

The Christmas story begins with a tree, but not the kind of Christmas tree with brightly colored lights or ornaments. The Christmas story begins with a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the Garden of Eden.

 

God had given Adam and Eve only one restriction in that literal paradise: stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But before long, that's just where we find them. Of course, we know the rest of the story. They listened to the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit. And once that happened, they lost their sweet fellowship with God.

 

A few verses later, we come to the first Christmas verse in the Bible, where God said to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

 

Here the battle lines were drawn. The devil knew this Messiah would come-and that He would come from the Jewish people. So he tried to stop that from taking place.

 

Really, as we look at the Christmas story, we realize that it doesn't begin in Matthew or Luke. It begins in the Old Testament. Before there was a world, before there were planets, before there was light and darkness, before there was matter, before there was anything but the Godhead, there was Jesus-coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with the Father and Holy Spirit. He was with God. He was God.

 

Jesus Christ became human without ceasing to be God. He did not become identical to us, but He became identified with us. The real message of Christmas is that God came to this earth. The real message of Christmas is Immanuel, God is with us.

 

The First to Hear - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. -Luke 2:8-9

 

When God's Son was born in a manger in Bethlehem, an unlikely group was the first to hear the news. If it had been up to me, I would have chosen to dispatch an angel to the court of Caesar Augustus. "You call yourself the savior of the world, Caesar? Well, check this out. The real Savior of the world has been born!"

 

Or, the angel could have appeared to the high priest, scribes, and scholars and announced the news that the Savior had been born.

 

Instead, God chose to deliver His message to shepherds who were "living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night" (Luke 2:8). To be a shepherd in that culture was to be at the bottom of the social ladder. Shepherds were despised-so much so that the testimony of a shepherd wasn't allowed in a court of law.

 

Shepherds basically did the work that no one else wanted to do. They had dirt under their fingernails. They were hardworking. And they probably felt right at home when they learned that this baby was born in lowly circumstances. They would have related to this. God was speaking their language.

 

This became the modus operandi of Christ throughout His ministry. He always went to the outcasts, to the hurting, to the ordinary people. He went to people like the woman at the well who had been ostracized because of her multiple marriages and divorces. He went to people like the tax collector Zacchaeus who was perceived by his fellow Jews as a traitor. Our Lord always had time for people like that. He was described as the friend of sinners.

 

In the same way, those lowly, despised shepherds who kept watch over their flocks, were visited by the Lord.

 

 

You Have a Savior - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people." -Luke 2:10

 

When the angel delivered his heavenly announcement to the shepherds, he started with, "Do not be afraid." But the shepherds, along with all of Israel, lived in frightening times. They were under the reign of King Herod, who was a tyrant. Their land was under Roman occupation. There was fear about the future. Would Rome ever leave? Would they ever be free? Would the Messiah ever come?

 

Then suddenly there were angels announcing to the shepherds that the Messiah had come: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people" (Luke 2:10). Having angels appear was frightening in itself. Angels are awe-inspiring beings. That is why, when we read of angelic appearances in the Bible, we often see them starting with, "Fear not."

 

The message of Christmas is fear not. Have joy. As commentator Ray Stedman said, "The chief mark of the Christian ought to be the absence of fear and the presence of joy."

 

Yet it can be difficult for us to have joy because we are surrounded by sadness. With all the tragedies in the world, all the acts of terrorism, and all the problems we have, how can we have good tidings of great joy? The answer is this: "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).

 

No matter what happens in life, remember this: You have a Savior. As a Christian, you have been saved from death. You have been saved from eternal punishment and hell. You have the hope that when you die, you will go straight to heaven. That is the most important thing about the Christian life. There is a heaven waiting for you. You have a Savior.

 

Still no room for Jesus? - Greg Laurie - http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/still-no-room-for-jesus/

 

Pastor Greg Laurie chronicles myriad rejections Christ suffered on earth

 

Along with every other aspect of Christmas, we have romanticized the story of Christ's birth. We envision a scene in which he is draped in fine satin while a smiling Joseph and Mary look on. Everyone has a halo, including the animals.

 

The fact of the matter is the birth of Christ took place in a cold, damp and dark environment. It was an undesirable place to sleep, much less to have a baby.

 

If you're a parent, think about when you had your own children. You wanted them to be born in the most secure and sanitary environment possible. Can you think of a place that would be worse than where animals are kept? It was about the least desirable place to have a child.

 

Yet this setting symbolizes the entire ministry of Jesus and his life on earth, from the cradle to the cross. The Bible sums it up for us this way: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV).

 

Jesus went from a heavenly throne to an earthly feeding trough, presumably the very area where he was born. He went from the presence of angels to a cave filled with animals. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo. He who sustains the world with a word was dependent on the nourishment of a young girl.

 

It is an amazing thought to consider that God Almighty became a helpless little baby, unable to do anything more than lie there, wiggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed like any other child.

 

Because Jesus was God, we might imagine him being born with all of his faculties intact: Hello, Mary and Joseph. I am Jesus, the creator of the universe. I have work to do. ... But that isn't how it was. He still was a baby, like any other baby.

 

He grew up, in many ways, like any other child but without a sin nature. He grew in physical strength, and he grew in wisdom. We are told in Luke 2, "And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him" (verse 40 NIV).

 

Then we read that Mary and Joseph found him, at the age of 12, sitting in the Temple. He was speaking to the scribes, both listening to them and asking them questions.

 

Later in Luke 2 it says that "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (verse 52 NIV).

 

These verses would appear to be saying that Jesus went through a learning process like anyone else. But at the same time, he didn't have the limitations of sin in his life.

 

Being God, Jesus may have known a lot more than we may realize. We won't know for certain until we get to heaven. It is an interesting thing to consider, however, that he left the glory of heaven, and as he took his first breath on earth, he awoke to the smell of a cave on a cold night. Against his skin was the pricking of the straw and the coarseness of the rags he was wrapped in. What a rude awakening that must have been. And as sad as it is to think about all this, it is the reality of how Jesus came to this world.

 

And for the most part, the world he came to save rejected him. Sure, he had Mary and Joseph and his family. They loved him. But the Bible says, "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (John 1:11 NIV).

 

Jesus even was hated in his hometown. In Nazareth, when it happened to be his turn to read from the Scriptures on the Sabbath, he read from Isaiah 61 with an authority like the people had never seen before. Then he said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21 NIV).

 

They fully understood what he was implying. He was saying, "I am the fulfillment of this Scripture. I am the very Messiah of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me."

 

What did they do? Did they give him a round of applause? Did they treat him as a hometown hero? No, they turned against him. In fact, they hated him and even wanted to kill him.

 

We might say that at least he had a home with Mary and Joseph, and later on, his half brothers and half sisters. But the fact is that at least on one occasion, his siblings came to take him away from where he was because they thought he'd taken leave of his senses. In fact, the Bible tells us that his brothers didn't believe in him. It wasn't until his death and resurrection from the dead that his own family fully understood who he really was.

 

When Jesus arrived at a place known as the Gadarenes, he cast demons out of two men. How did the people treat him? They drove him out of town.

 

On another occasion when he drove demons out of someone else, the Pharisees had the audacity to suggest that it was by the power of Satan.

 

Then we remember at least one joyful day in Jesus' life when he made the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The crowd laid palm branches at his feet and shouted, "Hosanna!" The religious rulers wanted it stopped. They couldn't stand the idea that people were saying that about him.

 

As he got closer to the day of his crucifixion, even his moments of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane were interrupted as soldiers came to arrest him, hauling him away on trumped-up charges to their kangaroo court.

 

Then they took him to the cross and pounded nails through his hands and feet. There he was, in unimaginable pain, and all he asked for personally was a sip of water to cool his raging thirst. Even then, they gave him vinegar and gall instead of water.

 

It never stopped. There never was any room for Jesus. And as sad as that was, it is a statement that still could be made today.

 

Is there room in your life for him?

 

The Conflict of Christmas - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

 

Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! -Luke 12:51

 

This may come as a shock to you, but the real Christmas story is not about love, peace, harmony, and gathering with family around a crackling fire. The real Christmas story is actually about conflict. It always has been, and it always will be.

 

One of the unexpected passages in the Bible that deals with the subject of Christmas is found in Revelation 12, where we have the picture of a woman being pursued by a powerful dragon who seeks her death. As she is preparing to give birth to a child, the dragon hovers over her, wanting to destroy the baby. The woman is a picture of Israel, the child is Jesus Christ, and the dragon is Satan.

 

That is Christmas from a heavenly perspective, and it gives us the big picture of what was really happening when God sent His Son into the world. The devil opposed it and wanted to stop His birth. And really, you can take that story and see how it is still in play today.

 

Hostility toward Christmas seems to escalate a little more every year. More nativity scenes are being removed from public places, Christmas carols have been prohibited in many places, and atheists have put up billboards attacking the Christian faith. What's more, many today don't even want the word Christmas used. These are all symptomatic of the conflict of Christmas.

 

Jesus did not come to bring a mind-numbing peace on earth that is devoid of truth. The message to the shepherds on the night Christ was born was, "Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased" (Luke 2:14).

 

What does that mean? It means the only way we will have peace on earth is when we are pleasing to God.