Christmas Message 2010

It’s Christmas time!  Now I know Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, let me encourage you to pause and prepare your souls for Christmas. I share with you 4 words that I trust will shape both this Christmas season and the year ahead.

1. Joy
‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’ (Luke 2:10-11)
What is this good news? Put simply, the God who created everything and sustains everything humbled himself to take on human flesh. At Bethlehem, Jesus left the luxuries and glories of heaven to be born a man. We can see God clearly! We can know God! We can begin to understand the greatness of our God! But more than that, the angels procalim that a ‘Saviour’ has been born. That is truly the good news of great joy – that in Jesus we can be saved, saved from God’s wrath and saved for a loving relationship with our heavenly Father. The bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary, the purpose of the manger was realized at the cross! That’s the joy of Christmas – that our Saviour has been born. The good news of great joy is that God, the greatest gift giver, is offering us forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus. Now joy is not an emotion (like happiness, which depends on circumstances). Joy is a constant state, independent of circumstances. It’s that security & satisfaction that, in the person of Jesus Christ, God really has loved us and met our greatest need, namely forgiveness of sin. That’s the joy of Christmas.

2. Peace
‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:14). The peace that God promises is not ‘peace on earth’ – we only need to watch the news or read newspapers to see we live in a world of little peace. But God does promise ‘peace’ to those whom he has graciously saved, peace to people who follow Jesus. Now that doesn’t mean we have trouble free lives. No, peace means that we have the confidence that we have ‘peace with God’, that we are reconciled to our maker. But we also have the confidence and contentment that God is our rock, our refuge, our shelter in times of trouble. We have ‘peace within ourselves’ – that God is in control, that God cares for us, loves us, sustains us and provides for us. That’s the peace of Christmas!

3. Hope
Hope is not ‘wishful thinking’, like ‘I hope England retain the Ashes’!! Hope is this certainty, this confidence in something which we have not yet seen, but know will definitely happen. Now that’s how Christmas transforms us. Because Jesus has stepped into our world, because we have seen God clearly, because we have been assured that Jesus is our Saviour, then we do have hope. Hope of eternal life (namely life with God that will last beyond this earthly existence), hope that death is not the end, hope that this life is not ‘all there is’. In a world without hope, the manger at Bethelehem is a symbol of great hope!

4. Love
As 1 John 4 so eloquently puts it ‘God is love’. ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins’. God’s gift is his most precious Son! God’s gift is sending his Son into the world. That truly is love! How can we question whether God really loves us –when every Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Saviour? But there is a corollary! Because God loves us, we must love one another. We can, and we should, express our love for another – meeting the needs of others, both here and in the world, giving of our time, our talents and our money to care for others (even when they have wronged us!). That’s radical love. That’s love shaped by Christmas!

Wishing you a Christmas full of joy, peace, hope and love!

Paul Dale (Senior Pastor)