Is Christmas a Fairy Tale? (Various scriptures)
(from John Piper)
Is Christmas a fairy tale? Is the baby in the manger, the wise men, the shepherds, the star, all just a story?
Is it the figment of someone’s imagination like Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and the like?
Is Jesus just someone we created to help us feel better when we are bad?
Is God someone we created so that we could have hope about life and death?
Did we create the Christmas story to give us hope OR do we have hope because of the Christmas story?
Does our sense of need for forgiveness and help and hope cause us to create God?
Or do we have those needs because in fact we are created by God and have rebelled against Him?
Well I get those answers from God’s word, the Bible, because I believe with all my heart that the Bible is the inspired word from God himself
It is powerful enough to stand on its own
When people look at the Bible and give it a chance it becomes impossible not to believe it
It has taken down many an atheist
John Piper said about the Bible: Its testimonies are too penetrating, its witnesses too diverse, its insights too high, its vision of divine things too wonderful, its authority too compelling, its love too rare, its Savior too radical that it should be the mere creation of sinful men.
So, let’s look quickly at 6 reasons for Jesus coming:
- He came as a ransom for sinners
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The reason we need a ransom is because we are enslaved to sin that drives a wedge between us and a holy sinless God
When Jesus came and gave his life a ransom for us, our slave masters: sin and death and the devil had to give up their claims on us
When Jesus paid the ransom, he made it possible for us to be adopted into God’s family
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
God sent his son Jesus to pay a ransom and redeem us out of slavery and bring us into His house!!
To do that Jesus had to become a human being
Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
Is this just a fairy tale of someone’s imagination or is it God providing for us exactly what we need?
- He came to call sinners to repentance
Luke 5:31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
First there needed to be a ransom to be paid for sinners and we are ALL sinners
Then there was a call for sinners to repent
Jesus paid the ransom, and because of that he calls sinners to repentance
He does that still today through the Bible and the preaching of the Bible
Jesus is calling today sinners to repentance; sinners to break free of the slavery of sin by repenting
Christmas is definitely not a fairy tale
It is not some sweet little story…it is the season celebrating when God came down for sinners like you and me!
- He came to give sight to the morally blind
John 9:39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Jesus didn’t just come to pay a ransom
Jesus didn’t come just to call out the lost
He did those things but he also came to open people’s eyes so that they could see the light and walk in it
Our problem is not just slavery needing a ransom or lostness needing a call
Our problem is also that without Christ we are morally blind…we need to see right
We needed to have our eyes open!
The world we live in is an immoral, sinful disaster
The problems we see in the world today are led by people who are misguided and blind
The solution is not Frosty, or Santa, or Rudolph, or government or the president, or any other man or woman…the solution is Christ Jesus the Lord!
You need to turn to Christ and be saved
But when you turn to Christ, know that Jesus also causes division
- He came to divide households
Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
You see when you walk with Christ, people are not always going to walk with you
When you turn to Jesus and start living for Jesus, people are not always going to like the new you
Even in your own family
It is not that God loves division and strife, but sometimes that happens
But I would rather have Jesus in my life with strife and division, than have no division, no strife and no Jesus
In addition, when we follow Christ, we must be totally committed to him…we can’t act like we don’t know him when we are around certain family members just to keep the peace
We can’t be sold out to Christ and then choose family over Him
Again, God does not love division and strife, but when we are ransomed and called and given moral sight and saved something radically happens to us
For some in our families that can be threatening and so tension develops
I have experienced that and must say that I don’t like it…but having Jesus in my life…and my salvation secure is far, far better
- He came to save from divine condemnation
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
God sent his Son to save us from his own just condemnation and wrath.
The need for salvation implies that there is a danger we need to be saved from.
That danger is sin and death and the devil.
But the most serious danger of all is the danger of the condemnation of God.
If God is for us, then sin and death and the devil will fail to destroy us.
But if God is against us, then nothing can save us
If God is against you, then nothing can save you
Christmas, the coming of Jesus, is God's way of being for us—if we will believe.
"He who believes is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already."
- He came to give us eternal life
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Christmas means that God sent his Son so that we could believe and have eternal life
He came so that we could have hope among all the other things I have talked about this morning
So, Christmas was not created by man in an attempt to have hope
Christmas is God’s gift of His Son to us so that we would have hope!
Christmas is no fairy tale, even though man has distorted it so badly.
I want to invite you to trust Jesus as your Savior this morning
You’ve heard that call many times, but you have never fully trusted Jesus as your Savior
Take the step of faith and trust Jesus
You say that your already saved and this invitation is for someone else
You just keep living your mediocre, half committed Christian life
Go all in for Jesus today
Really a half commitment is no commitment at all
Recommit your life to Jesus today
That’s what this invitation is for.