The Real Meaning of Christmas (Part 1)

SERMON               GMT14-022

SERIES:              Topical Messages:  Christmas

SETTING:          North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE:          Sunday AM (Dec 7, 2014)

SUBTITLE:        The Real Meaning of Christmas (Part 1)

SCRIPTURE:     Philippians 2:5-7b

SUBJECT:          God became a man

SUMMARY:       God became man in order to redeem the human race                                  from sin.

SCHEME:           that believers appreciate the incarnation of Jesus Christ

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Now Look at What Chick-fil-A Has Gone and Done!

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

The Christian-owned Chick-fil-A is well-known to the liberal mainstream media.

They portray it as a company that forces its religious and cultural views on others.

But the media was strangely silent last winter when a rare snowstorm in the South left countless motorists stranded on the slick road for hours in subfreezing temperatures andChick-fil-A once again made its religious leanings known.

A local Birmingham, Ala., restaurant provided not only food to some who were stranded along Highway 280 but also shelter.

Employees stranded at the store, led by manager Audrey Pitt, prepared hundreds of sandwiches and trudged through the storm to distribute them to motorists, some of whom had been stuck in their cars for up to seven hours without food or water.

Aubrey said that the move showed exactly what was at the heart of Chick-fil-A — the Christian principles of its owners.

“This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit,” she said. “We were just trying to follow the model that we’ve all worked under for so long and the model that we’ve come to love. There was really nothing else we could have done but try to help people any way we could.”

In addition, the store opened up its dining area to anyone who could get there and wanted a warm — if not exactly comfortable — place to sleep.

And in the morning, more food, this time chicken biscuits.

The charge for this room and board?

Nothing. They wouldn’t accept a penny.

Thanks to the always-attentive folks over at Mad World News we know about this story and the fact that “The only thing that Chick-Fil-A has closed is its cash register.”

We could offer several explanations for why the mainstream media never picked up this story.

They only cover stories where they can claim that Christianity is hateful or divisive, for example, or they didn’t want to place Chick-fil-A in a positive light.

But with winter once again preparing to descend, the important thing to remember is this:

If you’re driving in snow, try to keep as close to a Chick-fil-A store as you can. You never know when you might need them.

(Copied from the Conservative Tribune)

With Great Anticipation We Wait!

We await the day with great anticipation when we can join in with the 24 elders and say, "We give You thanks, O Lord God almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned." (Revelation 11:17)

Spurgeon and Christmas Part 3

I came across this in an internet search. It is supposedly a quote from Spurgeon regarding Christmas. I have not been able to document this at this point. It does sound like something Spurgeon would have said.

Regardless of whether it was spoken or written by Spurgeon, it does express my heart, therefore I include it as part of this little series.

"Now a happy Christmas to you all; and it will be a happy Christmas if you have God with you. I shall say nothing to day against festivities on this great birthday of Christ. We will to-morrow think of Christ's birthday; we shall be obliged to do it, I am sure, however sturdily we may hold to our rough Puritanism. And so, 'let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavend bread of sincerity and truth.' Do not feast as if you wished to keep the festival of Bacchus; do not live to-morrow as if you adored some heathen divinity. Feast, Christians, feast; you have a right to feast. Go to the house of feasting to-morrow, celebrate your Saviour's birth; do not be ashamed to be glad; you have a right to be happy. Solomon says, 'Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.'

"Religion never was designed to make your pleasures less."

Recollect that your Master ate butter and honey. Go your way, rejoice tomorrow, but in your feasting, think of the Man in Bethlehem; let him have a place in your hearts, give him the glory, think of the virgin who conceived him, but think most of all of the Man born, the Child given. I finish by again saying, ---

"A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL"

Spurgeon and Christmas Part 2

Spurgeon was somewhat impatient with his fellow brothers who chose to be overly devoted to a ‘religious’ aspect of Christmas Day. However on the other hand, Spurgeon was not a Scrooge. He certainly did not think it was unscriptural or unbiblical to use this season to preach on the significance of the incarnation. So you can find a number of sermons by him related to this topic.

In December of 1855 he preached on "The Incarnation and Birth of Christ" from Micah 5:2. He began his sermons with these thoughts:

THIS is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Savior Jesus Christ was born on that day and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred. However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus. We do not wish to be classed with those ‘who with more care keep holiday the wrong, than others the right way."

Spurgeon and Christmas Part 1

Some have wondered about Spurgeon's view of Christmas. A fellow blogger once said, “I like Spurgeon on this subject because he does not fit easily into either of the simple pre-cut molds that tend to dominate those with strong opinions on whether Christians should even acknowledge, much less celebrate Christmas. In one corner you have those who give a resounding "NO" to this question. After all, the Bible does not even hint at celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ annually. Furthermore, Christmas is an adaptation of a pagan festival and "what hath light to do with darkness?" In the other corner are those who seem to think that anything less than an all-out celebration of Christmas--even by those who are not Christians--is an assault on our faith and one more indication of how godless our culture has become.”

Spurgeon was very clear on the subject of Christmas. He was clear that Christmas is not a biblical holiday and so minces no words in criticizing the attempt to equate it with vital Christianity. He sometimes ridicules and chides the observance of Christmas as a "popish festival." Here is an example from the opening words of his sermon On Sunday morning, December 24, 1871, entitled, "Joy Born at Bethlehem,"

Spurgeon began his sermon with these words:

"We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior; and consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. Superstition has fixed most positively the day of our Savior's birth, although there is no possibility of discovering when it occurred. ... 

It was not till the middle of the third century that any part of the church celebrated the nativity of our Lord; and it was not till very long after the Western church had set the example, that the Eastern adopted it. ... Probably the fact is that the "holy" days were arranged to fit in with the heathen

festivals. 

We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the twenty-fifth of December. Nevertheless since, the current of men's thoughts is led this way just now, and I see no evil in the current itself, I shall launch the bark of our discourse upon that stream, and make use of the fact, which I shall neither justify nor condemn, by endeavoring to lead your thoughts in the same direction. 

Since it is lawful, and even laudable, to meditate upon the incarnation of the Lord upon any day in the year, it cannot be in the power of other men's superstitions to render such a meditation improper for to-day. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son."

Happy 83rd Birthday Dad!

Happy 83rd Birthday to my Father, 
Glenn F. Metcalf of Modesto, CA! I love you Dad!