WHY IT WOULDN’T BE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT CHRIST

Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…First, I want to apologize for missing last week.  I had intended to give notice that I would be off schedule because of  the incredible opportunity to once again (for the 24^th year) conduct  the Saint Louis Symphony Holiday Brass Concert for the IWBC.  We had two concerts last Monday and two on Tuesday, with a rehearsal last Sunday evening. I was totally booked-up the week before that event, and I also knew my time was again limited this past week.  But I still intended to give notice to that effect.  But, as sometimes happens, intending to do it never got it done.  Sorry about that, but I’m happy to say, I’m back in my regular groove.

Earlier this morning I was asking the Holy Spirit for guidance concerning today’s blog, and I was prompted to look at Ephesians 1:4-5, 9-10: “Long ago, even before he created the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.  God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.  And this is his plan; At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.”    What a perfect set-up for why we celebrate the Christmas season.

Think about this.  Long ago, even before he created the world – and man, God had a secret plan, and that plan was centered on Jesus Christ.  So why do you think God needed a secret plan even before he created the world and man?  I think the answer to that question is an incredible testimony to His omniscience.  God created us for a relationship, therefore he knew that he had to give us free-will so we could choose to enter into that relationship.  After all…that is the very essence of a relationship; two people choosing to enter into a union that is rooted in mutual love and respect.  But because God is all-knowing and can see into the future, he knew that man would use his free-will for a purpose other than for which it was intended.  You see…God knew that evil was also in the Garden and that the first two inhabitants would not be able to resist his deceit.

Pssssst, hissed the serpent.  “Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?’       ‘Of course we may eat it’, the woman said. ‘It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.  God says we must not eat it, or even touch it, or we will die.’  ‘You won’t die’, the serpent  hissed. ‘God knows that your eyes will e opened when you eat it.  You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.  The woman was convinced.  The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise.”  (Genesis 3:1-6) That is the same deception satan uses today to lure man away from God; “you can be your own god”, and notice how he always “wraps it” in a most enticing way.  (So what is the “tree of the knowledge and good and evil” today that man thinks “will make him soooo wise?”  I would like to suggest it is exalting the teachings of man over the truth of God’s Word.)

From the Garden of Eden until 2016 years ago, God let Man reign over his own destiny when it came to dealing with the issue of SIN.  Romans 1:18-25,28-30,32  tells us how man was faring: “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves.  For the truth about God is known to them instinctively.  God has put the knowledge in their hearts.  From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made.  They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature.  So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.

Yes they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.  And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused.  Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead.  And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.  So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.  As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.  Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies.  So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen!

When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior and gossip.  They were backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud and boastful.  They were forever inventing new ways of sinning…They were fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway.  And worse yet, they encourage others to do them too”

Remember, God created us for a relationship…not  just a here-and-now relationship, but for an eternal relationship.  His intent was (is) for Man to join him, Jesus, and all Christ-followers in Paradise forever.  However, God saw, (is seeing), what SIN has done (is doing) to his Creation.  Without a doubt, SIN spreads, contaminates, kills and destroys. (If you doubt that, just look around.  Does this look like Paradise to you??) Therefore, no sin is going to enter the new Paradise that we, as Christ-followers, are promised.  We have to be Holy (sin free, set aside for a sacred purpose) to enter into the presence of God. (1Peter 1:16)  Since man has proven himself incapable of being sin-free from Creation until now, how is that going to happen?

Well…because God is loving, merciful and full of grace, his plan, even before the world (and man) was created, was to give us  His Gift of Grace.  Notice in Ephesians 1:10 it tells us that “at the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ.”  Romans 5:6 tells us about “the right time”: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.”  You see, God’s plan was always to do for us what he knew we would never be able to do for ourselves; overcome the issue of SIN. Instead of overcoming the issue, we, through our own effort, became “utterly helpless.”

Roman’s 3: 21-25 tells us the truth about his Gift of Grace.  “But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight – not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.  We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.  And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.  For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.  He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.  We are made right with God when we believe that  Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.” 

The reason for this wonderful Holiday season is to celebrate God’s Gift of Grace.  Jesus came as the sacrificial lamb so that we, who are covered with his blood, can look forward to eternity in Paradise with God, Jesus and all other Christ-followers.  Notice that Ephesians 1: 4 it tells us that we are holy and without fault in his sight because we are in Christ.  That is the only Christmas present that really counts, and is also why we can’t take Christ out of Christmas. He IS the reason for the season.

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May God Bless Ya…and Merry Christmas!

Dan Presgrave, (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)