God's WORD at Christmas
December 2015
I am well aware that 25 December is not the date on which Jesus was born, and that celebrating Christmas is not approved by some Christians. However I must confess I love Christmas, and all the comforting feelings and traditions that go with it. In our British culture I know that many unsaved people go way too far, with their worldly celebrations - but actually Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to proclaim the message every year to people who otherwise are closed to the gospel.
That is what I really love about Christmas – the gospel message. I preached sermons on the Christmas story for forty years and never came to the end of it! Every year there were always fresh new angles and insights that came to me.
I had the opportunity back in June of this year, to record 14 one minute Christmas messages for UCB Christian Radio which are being aired nationwide through December based on one of my series that I preached years ago entitled “The Angels of Christmas.” (I have put the scripts on the Resources page if you are interested).
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One year I did a sermon entitled “The Christmas story according to John.” Of course the nativity narrative is not in John’s gospel, but the message is: “The WORD became flesh and dwelt among us.” It struck me this year as I prepared those radio scripts, how the angel Gabriel explained to Mary, that the Holy Spirit would bring about that miraculous virgin conception. Obviously this had not taken place yet because Gabriel spoke in the future tense (Luke 1:35). Mary had to give her approval first! (See how gracious God is – He does not use or abuse people, He waits for us to willingly submit to His will).
It then hit me like a rocket that when Mary said “Be it unto me according to your WORD” - that was almost certainly the moment when the conception took place - and the WORD became flesh! I think you theologians will agree that the moment a person truly believes in Jesus is the moment He comes to dwell in us by His Spirit. In this way Jesus - the WORD is made flesh within every believer’s life and from then on the written Word of God also becomes a vital part of our lives.
We can so easily underestimate the effect God’s written Word has on our lives - but it’s profound. Of course we need to read and study it - but as we do, it becomes the engrafted or implanted Word in us (James 1:21). The influence it then has upon our thinking, our way of life, and our actions is phenomenal. God is speaking to us through His Word more than we realise it and at any time He can specifically use his Word to challenge, encourage or direct us.
Let me finish with a little Christmas story…
When I first started out in ministry in September 1974, I was staying at the house of one of my elders and his wife who gave me very generous and gracious hospitality. They lived about ten kilometres from the town where the church was, but at the time this was also very convenient because I had a full time job as well, and that was very near to where they lived. It soon became apparent however, that it would be good for me to move closer to Thetford where the church gathered.
Just before Christmas I went home down south to be with my family for the holiday. At the time, in my daily readings I was going through the book of Acts and on Christmas day I had come to the last chapter. Then I got to the end of the book which says:
“For the space of two years Paul dwelt in his own rented house and received all who came to him.”
God used those words to speak to me. It was like a promise for ME which God gave me that day as a Christmas present!
Needless to say it didn’t happen straight away, in fact it took another eight months or so before that rented house became available. But it happened at just the right moment because that was when I left my job and started in the ministry full time. I really needed to be in town then and I did not have a car anymore because I had sold it to pay for my first trip to the USA - but that is story for another time!
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God’s timing is perfect, His will is good and He speaks to us through His Word as and when He chooses. Just as Jesus the Word made flesh has profoundly changed our lives, His written Word becomes flesh in our lives as God speaks to us through it - and we live by it!
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