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The People Who Missed Christmas (Selected Scriptures) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Let's pray together as we begin our study of God's Word. Father,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: as we hear the rather plaintive echo of the song,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: No Room, we certainly are reminded that in our world today,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: it's a little different than it was then. For most people,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: there is still no room. And we pray that You
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: would take these moments before us, these truths from Your Word,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and this servant, and put it together in the lives
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of the people gathered here that we may indeed have
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: room for Christ in all His fullness and all His glory.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: We pray in His blessed name. Amen. I want to
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: share with you this morning some thoughts on the theme,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: The People Who Missed Christmas. What got me started about
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: this was that I've been watching with anxiety and concern
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the situation in Iran. As you know, the people of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Iran have taken captive the Americans in our embassy, holding
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: them in situations that we really can't understand at this point.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: We don't know all that's going on. And in recent days,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: because Christmas is such a special part of American life culturally,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the news media has been focusing on the fact that
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: these people will miss Christmas. In fact, I heard one
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: particular mayor of a town say that he was so
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: concerned that they would miss Christmas that the town was
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: going to put on a very unique kind of protest
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and what he did was he had all of the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: signal lights in the city turned to red and every
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: car stopped for 50 seconds and everyone got out and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: prayed a silent prayer that these people might not miss Christmas.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: As I began to think about the fact that these
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: people would miss Christmas, I began to think about the
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: fact that they're not the only people who will miss Christmas.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: In fact, I'm quite afraid that almost everybody in the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: world is going to miss Christmas. Most people, no matter
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: where they are or what their circumstances are, miss Christmas.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: It sounds initially like that would be a rather silly
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: statement because it's pretty hard to miss since we're all
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: drowning in a sea of advertising, publicity promotion, public relations
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: about Christmas. I know about a month ago, my children
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: started a little game. Everywhere we drive, they began to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: count the Christmas lights. And every house or every building
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that had Christmas lights, we began to count. And finally,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: it got to the point where nobody could count that
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: high anymore. And when Melinda stops counting, everybody has to
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: quit because the game's not fair any longer. So no
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: question about the fact that we know there is a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Christmas celebration. I'm just not sure we know what it's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: really about. At least pragmatically, it seems as though we're blind, deaf,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and dumb to the reality of Christmas. In spite of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the media, in spite of the public relations, in spite
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of the advertising, and in spite of all of those
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: things that attract our attention, it seems to me that
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: most people will miss Christmas, not just the hostages in Iran.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: But you know, as I thought about it, it's kind
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: of because of the fact that there's so much that's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: cluttered up Christmas. Now, for us who know and love
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time to focus
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: on His birth, the great reality of the incarnation, that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: God became a man, that tremendous, incomprehensible miracle of divine
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: energy that brought God into human history. We know that.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: But even in our own lives, because of the complexity
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: of what is happening around us, Christmas can be lost
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to us in a very practical way. I think, for example,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: that Satan has cluttered up almost every good Christian concept
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: with so much needless paraphernalia that it gets lost. Bible
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: scholars know that there is absolutely no evidence at all
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that Christ was born on December 25th. In fact, there
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is not only no evidence that he was, but there
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: is some evidence that he was not. December was the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: major month of pagan celebrations. December was the month of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: festivals and feastings and orgies and all kinds of pageants
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: put on by the pagans in honor of their gods
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: as winter had reached its fullness and they were anticipating
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the thaw and the spring and the planting and the
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: strength of the sun returning and the clouds rolling back.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And so December became a time of high, boisterous pagan revelry.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Such activities, for example, are found in pagan histories in
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: December as feasting, as adorning the homes with evergreens, as
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: hanging trinkets on trees, as lighting candles, as involving mistletoe,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: as exchanging gifts, and general merrymaking and feastings deteriorated into
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: drunkenness and orgy in these traditional heathen celebrations. Now the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: thought was this, The wild winter revelries of the pagans
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: must be sanctified by Christianity. Therefore, we will impose our
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: celebration of the birth of Christ on the pagan celebrations
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and sanctify them all. It was a nice thought, but
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: it was dead wrong because what happened was the heathen
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: festivities went on And the church was unable to make
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: them conform to the sanctification of a true Christian celebration.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: And so what you have now is a strange, weird
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: marriage of the pagan and the Christian that we call Christmas.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Let me give you some illustrations. To the Romans, the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: month of December was important because it marked what is
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: known as the festival of Saturnalia. Saturn was the god
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of agriculture, and they were then holding this great feast
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and involved in orgy with prostitution and all kinds of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: drunkenness and everything in honor of Saturn that he might
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: begin to bring the spring so that crops could be grown.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: One of the common customs among the Romans at Saturnalia
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: was giving gifts to one another and as far as
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: we can tell, that is where the idea of presents
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: came from. And by the way, in the festival of Saturnalia,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the most common gifts were little idols that were made
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: in the image of the multiplicity of Roman deities. They
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: were made out of clay and they were made out
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of marble and they were made out of silver and
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: they were the gifts that were given. They also were
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: big on evergreens, which they would hang all over their houses,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and that apparently is where the wreath at least initially
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: came from. North of the Romans was the barbaric Northlands.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: The Northland people had a great celebration during December known
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: as Yule, and in the Yule season, in the Yule celebration,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: they honored the gods Odin and Thor. If you're from Minnesota,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: you understand that. Those are the people who originated in
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: those lands. And it involved festivals, music, drinking, and so forth.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: To the east in Persia, at the time of December,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: they worshipped Mithra, the god of light. In England to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the west, the Druids, who were involved in strange priestly
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: worship engulfing demonic and occultic powers, were gathering sacred mistletoe
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: for their sacrifices, which they made in the month of December,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: sacrifices geared toward friendship and peace. And what the Druids
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: would do is this. They would march out into the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: area of the oak groves where the mistletoe grew, and
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: they would be led by their priests in long white robes,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and they would be going to their chants and their celebration.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: The priests would ascend into the trees with golden sickles,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and they would cut down the mistletoe. And when all
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of the mistletoe had been gathered and passed around the people,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: then there would be the sacrifice of two white oxen.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: And the mistletoe were then to be taken back into
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the homes, and they were to be hung in the homes.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And any time anybody came under the mistletoe, he was
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: to immediately embrace anyone else under there. It was an
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: effort to reconcile people, whether they liked it or not.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: And that's where the mistletoe came from. The drama of
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the crib, which we know as the manger scene, was
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: popularized by Saint Francis in the 13th century. Three hundred
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: years later, Luther picked up the idea of a Christmas
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: tree and brought a tree into his house and put
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: candles on it to symbolize the sparkling stars in the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: sky over the forest. But trees and trinkets hanging on
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: them had been part of festivals of the pagans for centuries.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Holland got into the act by giving us their favorite saint,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Saint Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a white-bearded bishop of Asia
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Minor who was such a popular old fellow that when
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: he died, it was believed that he came back every
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: December 6th. And St. Nicholas would come back every December
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: 6th and he would ride through the streets on a
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: white horse and all the little Dutch kids would put
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: their wooden shoes out on the porch and as he
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: came along he would put goodies in the shoes of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the good kids and where there were bad children he
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: would leave a switch for obvious reasons. And the Dutch
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: called St. Nicholas Sinterklaas, and we got Santa Claus. Caroling
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: started in the 14th century along with jesters, musicians, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: mummers who went around with funny masks, and even today
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: they still have a mummers parade. I think it's in Philadelphia,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: isn't it? Well, I was wondering where stockings came from.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: You know, hanging stockings up, it seemed a little strange.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And I read a little bit about that, and I
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: found out that Sinterklaas, St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, whatever, was
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: going through his act one year of putting things in
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the shoes, and I guess he got pretty good at that,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: so he started flipping things into the chimneys. And in
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: one home, anyway, some folks had hung their stockings underneath
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the fireplace to dry them out overnight, and the stuff
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: he was flipping in was landing in the stockings, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that's where we got stockings. Not very theological, is it?
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Christmas cards began in 1846. They were printed in London
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: by a very enterprising man named Sir Henry Cole, who
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: was the owner of an art shop and saw it
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: as a way to make a lot of money, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: all the first Christmas cards printed for him were printings
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of drinking scenes. What a mess, frankly, Christmas is. No
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: wonder so many people miss Christmas. With all the paraphernalia
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and the trappings around it, the simplicity of the birth
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: of Christ is literally drowned in a sea of paganism.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: You say, well, I guess it's true that today people
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: miss Christmas, and all you have to do is look
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: around and you know it, don't you? Busy, doing all
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: kinds of things, but missing Christ. You want to know something?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: If you think it's something that had happened today, I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: want you to know, and we're going to go right
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: back to the Bible, that when Christmas happened in Bethlehem,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: most people missed it then too. Turn with me to
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Luke chapter 2 and verse 7. Luke chapter 2 and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: verse 7. Now I want you to think with me
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: as we look at this truth. This is the story,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of course, in Luke 2 of the birth of Christ.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And I just want you to look at verse 7,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and we're only going to pick out some highlights to
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: illustrate this matter of the people who missed Christmas. Verse 7,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: speaking of Mary, it says, and she brought forth her
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloth, really, they
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: weren't clothes at all, they were just long strips of cloth,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and laid him in a manger because there was no
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: room for them in the inn. Now the first person
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that missed Christmas was the innkeeper. The innkeeper missed Christmas.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: It was right in front of him, but he missed it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: He had to confront a pregnant woman and her husband,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: but he had no room for them. And so he
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: missed it. Look back at verse 7. He not only
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: missed it by not letting them in to stay with him,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: but he missed it by being so indifferent that he
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: doesn't even appear to have called for any help for
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Mary when she gave birth because verse 7 is markedly
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: concerned with a lonely birth. A lonely birth. We don't
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: even know where Joseph was. If I know anything about
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: fathers at the time of births, especially young fathers like
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Joseph who could have been as young as 15 or
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: 16 years of age, he would have been little help
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: to at all at this time. And so it writes,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: she brought forth her firstborn son. Who did? She did.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Middle Eastern people are hospitable. Jewish people are kind and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: caring people. They were not barbaric people. They were not
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the kind of people that we might have read about
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: in the aboriginal tribes that sent their women off into
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the jungle to have their babies on a great big
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: banana leaf or something. These people are civilized, intelligent, educated
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: people who understand about human life. These are not the
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: kind of people who are going to leave a woman alone,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: or are they? Mary brought forth her own son. And
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: then it says, she wrapped him in swaddling cloth. Mary did.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Where were the midwives? Where were the people who are
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: supposed to care for things like that? Where was the innkeeper?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Didn't he know anybody that could help? Didn't his wife
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: concern herself with this? Or wasn't there some source of
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: assistance to marry? Ah, but then after all, hadn't the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: prophet said he would be despised and rejected? And wouldn't
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it be true that this could even be the case
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: at his very birth? And it says, she laid him
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: in a manger, an animal feeding trough. Swaddling cloth, by
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the way, were long strips of cloth. And when an
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: infant was born, immediately the infant was wrapped, its limbs
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: and its body in this swaddling cloth. And then, of course,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: in an outer blanket. That was the tradition. And certainly
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: there would be a midwife to clean the baby and
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to do that. But no, Mary did that. This was
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: a lonely birth. It wasn't as if somebody missed it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: She must have been obviously with child. G. Campbell Morgan
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: writes this, think of the pathos of it. She brought forth,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: she wrapped him in swaddling clothes. It is very beautiful,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: but oh the pity of it, the tragedy of it,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the loneliness of it, that in that hour of all
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: hours when womanhood should be surrounded by the tenderest care,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Mary was alone. The method of the writer is very distinct.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: She with her own hands wrapped the baby around with
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: those swaddling cloths and laid him in the manger. There
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: was no one to do it for her and again
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: I say the pity of it and yet the glory
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: of it to the heart of Mary. Now I don't
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: know anything about the innkeeper because the Bible doesn't say
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: anything about him. He wasn't interested so he's not even included.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: But it's interesting to think about the scene a little bit.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Some people feel that the child was born in a
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: stable and we've seen pictures and cards of stables which
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: are just kind of lean-tos with a little roof and
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: the animals are there. And others think he was born
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: in a cave because there are many caves there and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the church of the Nativity where Christ is believed to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: have been born in Bethlehem is built over a cave.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: There are others who believe Christ was born in an
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: open courtyard in the inn. There are others who say
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: He was born out in a field. You want to
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: know something? Nobody knows. Some who look at the word
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: inn here, which is kataluma, note that it is not
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the normal word for inn, and that's true. There is
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a different word for inn. which means a hostelry, an
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: inn with food and bedding and all of those things
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: where there's a host, and that's not this word. But
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: the word kataluma is used in Luke 22, 11 to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: speak of the guest room in a home. And so
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: some feel that what really happened was Joseph and Mary
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: were coming along to Bethlehem anticipating that they were going
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: to stay with some friends or relatives or acquaintances and
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: that they would use their guest room. But the hospitality
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was not available to them for perhaps the reason that
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the guest room was already occupied. And so maybe it
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: was some friends they were counting on whose guest room
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: was occupied. Maybe it was an inn that had no room.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Some commentators go even further and say the word kataluma
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: was used primarily to speak of a lean-to that was
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: built in the out-of-doors into which people could simply go
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: for shelter. It was just a wall and a top,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: and you just took your animals in there for shelter
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in the coldness of the night, and nobody cared for you,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and there was no water there, and there was no nothing,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: but people would put them on their property to assist
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: those who were traveling. We really don't know. Whether it
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: was an innkeeper, whether it was a friend, whether it
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: was simply a man on whose property was one of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: these little lean-tos, whether it was an open field, whether
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: it was a courtyard, it's impossible to know. But whatever
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: hospitality they may have sought or whatever hospitality they may
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: have anticipated was unavailable to them. The word kataluma translates
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: five different Hebrew words in the Old Testament, so it
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: has a very elastic meaning and doesn't really help us
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: at all. Whatever the situation, they were turned away. The
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: innkeeper missed Christmas. And what amazes me is that he
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: missed it, even though it might have happened on his
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: own property. And I begin to think about why he
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: missed Christmas. Simple answer. Preoccupation. Seems best to me. That
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: seems to be it. Preoccupation. You say, what do you mean? Well,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: he was so busy. I mean, his inn was full
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: or his guest room was full. Or all of his
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: little lean-tos were full. Why? Because it was the census
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: in Bethlehem. And the city was literally bulging with everybody
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: who had any ancestry there. And they were coming to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the city. And since it was the city of David,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: those who were in the line of David were there.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And that's why Joseph and Mary were there, both coming
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: from the line of David, one through Solomon and one
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: through Nathan. And so there they were. And the city
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: was bursting with people. And he was busy caring for
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: his guests in his house and whatever situation he was
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: involved in. And he wasn't hostile and he wasn't unloving
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't unsympathetic and he wasn't really indifferent. He
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: was just busy, just real busy. I guess there are
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of people like that. The chambers of their
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: souls are filled with needless things. filled with human interests.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: They're filled with the stuff that doesn't matter and they
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: miss the Christ of God. My wife and I were
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: commenting on one of our few shopping excursions some weeks ago,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: how much stuff there is to buy that nobody needs.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Have you ever noticed that? Nobody needs it. You can't
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: even use it. It doesn't do anything but sit there
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: somewhere or hang or But our society is literally filled
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: with the unnecessary, the insignificant, and the meaningless. And we
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: spend a fortune to amass it so we can die
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: and let our kids fight over it. Meaningless, needless, useless
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: human interest squeezes out room for Christ. Our time is
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: demanded by a thousand other things. Our possessions, we're so
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: busy figuring out what we want, how to get it
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: at the cheapest price, buying it, taking care of it,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: polishing it, storing it, keeping it up. And then, of course,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the games we play. We've got to be playing this
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and playing that, and that takes a lot of time.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And then all of our pleasures and all of our
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: passions and all of our parties and all of our
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: preoccupation and all of our presence and all of everything
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that doesn't amount to anything, and we miss Him. Crowded
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: out by a tyrant world that dictates to us what
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: we will think and what we will do and what
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: we will buy. And we march around with rings in
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: our noses pulled to those places that are needless. And
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I guess I never see this more obvious than at Christmas.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: So much misappropriation of the meaning of this season. I
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: have to admit this. It was an ignorant preoccupation on
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the part of the innkeeper. He didn't know. He didn't know.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Ignorant preoccupation. I look at the world and that's what
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I see. They just don't know. They don't know what
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Christ is. They don't know who He is. They don't
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: know why He came. They're just ignorant and ignorantly preoccupied
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: with the mundane and the meaningless. Oh, how ridiculous it
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: is to live your entire life in mundane, meaningless activity,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: wake up sometime in eternity without God, and look back
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: over all of the waste. The innkeeper missed it. He
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: was too busy. Look at your own life. Did you
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: spend more time shopping than you did adoring Christ? Did
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: you spend more money on stuff than you invested in
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: His kingdom? Then maybe you've been in the trap too,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: where the innkeeper was. I want you to meet another
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: man who missed Christmas, Matthew chapter 2. This man really
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: missed it. And he's very different than the innkeeper. He
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't ignorant. He was very well informed. His name is Herod.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And believe me, Herod missed Christmas. Matthew 2.1, Now watch this.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: for we have seen His star in the east and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: are come to worship Him. When Herod the king had
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Verse 7,' Then Herod, when he had privately called the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.'
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: search diligently for the young child, and when you have
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: found him, bring me word again that I may come
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and worship him also. Now Herod pretended to want to
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: worship Jesus Christ, but he was tremendously fearful because one
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: had been born who was called the king of the Jews.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And it says there, Herod, verse 3, the king. He
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: was a king... And when he knew there was born
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: a king, he was afraid. When it says he was troubled,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: it uses the word that means to be agitated, stirred up,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: shaken up. It is the idea of total panic. He panicked.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: He had no room for Jesus. Why? Fear. Fear. He
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: was afraid of him. He was afraid of another king.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you why. Herod was an Edomite. He
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't even a Jew. What was he doing? ruling in
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the land. Well, he was of the Edomian family, an Edomite.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: He was following along behind his father, Antipater, who had
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: done some favors to Rome, and Herod continued to do that.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: And while Rome was occupying Palestine, Herod did everything he
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: could to get into the favor of Rome. He played
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the game to the hilt. He sought political goals and
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: political ends, and the power play was going on all
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the time. And Rome really trusted Herod, and Rome really
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: kind of liked Herod. So finally the Senate appointed him
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Get this, king of Judea. And he was not even
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: a Jew. Now when he heard that there was born
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: one called the king of the Jews, it's no wonder
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he panicked. Because he was a political madman. Because he
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: sought glory and grandeur and a kingly place. He was
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: immediately threatened even though this was a baby and he
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: was an old man. The rumor of another king panicked Herod.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And he was a vile man. While a young governor
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: in Galilee under his father, he had swiftly and effectively
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: destroyed all the guerrillas that were trying to fight against him.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: He was very efficient in collecting Roman taxes and had
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: taxed the people. He had murdered all the Hasmoneans, and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: by the way, they were the sons of the Maccabeans
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: who had led the great revolution against Greek power, and
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: he wanted to make sure they didn't do it again,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: so he slaughtered them. He had ten wives, you can imagine,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and twelve children. His most notable wife, Miriamne, had a brother, Aristobulus,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: who was the high priest. He was afraid of Aristobulus,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: so he murdered him. On a hot day, he said
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: he wanted to go swimming with him, and he dove in,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and he had men dive in and drown him. And
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: then he had a funeral and stood there and cried
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: as if it was an accident. He had his wife
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: then killed. He had her mother then murdered. He was
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: afraid of his two sons that they would take his throne,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: so he murdered both of them. He hopelessly was suspicious
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of everybody so that his entire life is one of
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: plotting and execution. Five days before his death, he executed
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the rest of his sons who might have laid claim
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to his throne. And then the coup de grace on
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: his evil life was that when he was about to die,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: he went down to Jericho to pass his final hours,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and he commanded that all of those who were under
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: him collect the distinguished citizens of Jerusalem, every one of
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: them that were important. And they were all collected and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: put in prison, and he said, the moment I die,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: slaughter them all because this people will not weep when
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I die, and I want them weeping even if it's
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: over somebody else. He was a wretched man. And when
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: he heard that a child was born, it was to
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: be the king of the Jews. Verse 16 of chapter
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: 2 says, The wise men, of course, didn't come back
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and tell him. So he saw that he was mocked
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: by the wise men. He was exceedingly angry and he
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: sent forth and he slew all the children that were
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: in Bethlehem and in all its borders from two years
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: old and under. And two years old means anything from
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the first month you enter that second year to the
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: fullness of that second year. And so they were slaughtered,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: all of these children. in order to try to wipe
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: out the child. And as you know, God had already
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: warned Joseph and Mary, and they had taken Jesus and
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: fled to Egypt. Why did Herod miss Christmas? Fear, jealous fear.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: You say, well, surely there aren't any Herods left. Surely
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: there aren't any people who slaughter people. Oh, there are
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: around the world. Believe me, there are. And I think
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: we're realizing more and more about it. Man is depraved.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: There are always Herods in any society. But I think
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: there's a greater lesson for the mass of humanity than
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: just to see this as Herod only. Because there are many,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: many people who miss Christmas because of the same basic
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: kind of fear that Herod had. Herod's fear was that
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: somebody else would take his throne. That was his fear.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: And I would affirm to you that there are a
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: lot of people like that. Herod wasn't about to let
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: this little child interfere with his career, with his position,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: with his power, with his ambition, with his plans, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: with his lifestyle. He was not about to let somebody
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: else be the king. And I guess I have seen
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: as much as that as I have any other kind
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: of reason for rejecting Christ. Oh, there are people who
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: want Jesus as a resource when they get into trouble.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: There are people who want Jesus as sort of a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: nice spiritual friend. There are people who maybe even want
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Jesus as somebody to keep them out of hell, but
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: they're not interested in crowning Him Lord. And that's why
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the Bible says that when you confess Jesus as Lord,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you're saved. That's the basis of it. There are people
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: who want to add Jesus to their own lifestyle and
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: their own career and their own position and their own
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: power and prestige and whatever else they're hanging on to.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: They are fearfully jealous of losing their own self-determination. They
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: are fearful of giving up their own plans. They are
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: fearful of their own priorities, their own values, their own morals.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: They don't want to come to Christ because it will
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: cramp their style, because it will lay claim on their
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: life that means they have to alter the way they
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: live and think and talk and act. And they want
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: to run the show. They want to be their own
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Herod of their own little kingdom, their own thin, flat
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: little kingdom. The world is full of Herods who cry out,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we will not have this man to reign over us.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Today that's true. People have their little kingdoms. And they
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: want to run their own life, their own career, their
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: own fame, their own sex life, their own dissolute life
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: of drugs and drink, their own life of ego fulfillment.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: And the media just keeps telling them, do it. Grab
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: your own life. Do your own thing. Master your own fate.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Chart your own destiny. Be your own man. Be your
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: own woman. And we have a world of kings who
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: are not about to bow the knee to Jesus Christ.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: And so they miss Christmas just like Herod did. though
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: they probably wouldn't slaughter babies. Theirs is the same reason,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: jealous fear. What about you? Have you said no to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ in your life because you're afraid of the
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: claim He'll lay on you? Because you want to be
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the Lord of your life, the master of your fate,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the king of your little thin kingdom? That's tragic. His
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: kingdom is so much more glorious. There's a third group
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: that missed Christmas. Look back at chapter 2 of Matthew,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: verse 4. This is shocking. Herod heard from the wise
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: men that this child was to be born. And boy,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: he wanted to find out where immediately to put the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: child to death. And so he gathered, verse 4, the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: chief priests and the scribes of the people together and
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: demanded of them where the Christ should be born. And
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: it is written by the prophet, And thou, Bethlehem, in
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: the land of Judah, art not the least among the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: governor that shall rule my people Israel. He said he
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: called all the experts together. The brain trust. The theologians,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the chief priests were the high priest, the captain of
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the temple police, and the best of all the priests
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: out of all the orders with the great administrative skills
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and the great teaching skills and the great leadership skills.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: They had become the chief priests. They were the minds,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the brains. They were the theological minds of the day,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the Sanhedrin. And they knew all the scriptures and their friends,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the scribes, who were the linguists and the interpreters and
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: the ones who knew the culture and the history that
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: surrounded the biblical data. And the combination of all of
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: these men got together and they said, we know where
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the Messiah is to be born. And they quoted Micah,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: chapter 5, verse 2, that Old Testament prophet who said, Bethlehem.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: They knew. You know what shocks me? Just shocks me.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: They never went there. Did you ever think about that?
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: They never went there. You say, is that surprising? It
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: is to me. What was the one thing the Jews
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: had been looking for? Since Moses had said there would
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: come one known as that prophet, what is the one
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: person that they had looked for all the way through
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: their history? A deliverer. And here they were under Roman oppression.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Now always they had looked for a deliverer. They had
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: longed for such a one to come. It had been
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the great hope of all our ages. It had been
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the one that they had looked for. The destiny of
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Israel was bound up in the coming deliverer, the Messiah,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: the Christ, the anointed, the greater son than David's son,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the one who would come and establish the kingdom, the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: great hope of their hearts, the hunger in their breasts,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: illustrated in the ministry of John the Baptist as they
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: flocked to hear of one who was preparing the way
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: for the Messiah. And here were the brains of theology.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Here were the ones who knew it all and yet
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: they never even bothered to walk two miles to three
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: miles south to Bethlehem to find out for themselves if
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: this was not the Messiah. Why? Why did the Sanhedrin
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: miss Christmas? I'll tell you why. One word. Indifference. Indifference.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: They didn't care. The ultimate insult. The ultimate insult. At
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: least Herod feared the kingliness of this child. At least
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the innkeeper could claim that he was ignorant. But these
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: men had all the facts. They just didn't care. Having
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the Messiah was no big deal to them. They didn't
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: need a Messiah. Why? They were already self-righteous. They were
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: already perfect. They had already kept the law. They were
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: already all that God could ever ask of them in
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: their own minds. They were sickeningly proud. You could call
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it proud indifference. And by the way, beloved, indifference is
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: always pride. You're too busy with you to be concerned
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: about Him. Engrossed in their own pride, their self-righteousness, their self-sufficiency,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: They carried on their ritual and their legal banter back
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and forth in the confines of their own little comfortable
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: self-righteous system, and there was no room for the Son
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: of God in that. In fact, when He did show up,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: they hated Him and despised Him and plotted His murder
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: and screamed for His blood. They didn't want Him. They
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: didn't need Him. And I'm reminded of the plaintive cry
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: of Jeremiah in Lamentations 1-2 as he watched all of
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Israel going down the path to destruction. And he cried out,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: is it nothing to you all ye that pass by?
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, can you just be indifferent? The ultimate, the
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: ultimate crime against Christ is to be indifferent. You just
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: don't need Him. You're not interested. Why were they indifferent? Well,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: because of pride, or if you want to look at
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: it from the other angle, because they didn't think they
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: had a need. What did they need with a Savior?
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: What did they need with a Messiah? They were all
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: right the way they were. And Jesus points this out
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: in the ninth chapter of Matthew with a very stinging,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: sarcastic rebuke. In fact, it may be the most sarcastic
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: statement Jesus ever made. In Matthew 9, 10, it came
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: to pass as Jesus sat eating in the house, behold,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Him and His disciples. When Jesus had a meal in
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: the house, He invited the people who needed to come.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: He invited the people who had problems and knew it.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And so He invites the riffraff, the scum, the outcast,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the tax collectors, the collaborators with Rome, the traitors and
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the sinners, the vile, evil street people. And He sat
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: down with them. And the Pharisees, who were the holier
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: than thou's, said unto His disciples, Why eateth your master
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: with tax collectors and sinners? And then Jesus rebuked them
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: in blistering sarcasm. He said, They that are well need
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: not a physician, but they that are sick. You who
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: are so well, you don't need a physician. They were
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: the sickest of all but didn't know it. And then
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: He said, go and learn what it means, I will
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: have mercy and not sacrifice. Mercy means you can't make
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: it on your own. Your sacrifices are insufficient. Your sin
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: is too great and God must be merciful. I offer
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: you mercy. I don't tolerate your sacrifices. And then He says,'
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: For I am not come to call the righteous, but
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: sinners to repentance.' Jesus is saying, when you make a feast,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: you invite the coldly orthodox, the piously self-righteous. When I
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: make a feast, I invite the ones who need to
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: come and want to come. He says, I didn't come
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: to invite people who are so self-satisfied they're convinced of
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: their own goodness and don't need anybody's help. I came
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: for the people who know they're broken and sinful and
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: desperately aware of their need for a Savior. You see,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the problem of indifference is the problem of not realizing
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the state of sinfulness. I think there are many people
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: who miss Christmas today because of that. They ignore Christ
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: because they don't know they're sinful. They don't care about
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the Savior because they don't understand that they need to
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: be saved. They don't understand that the wages of sin
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: is death, that sin plummets people into an eternal hell.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: They don't understand that. So consequently, they ignore the remedy
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: because they don't even qualify the disease. The innkeeper missed
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: Christmas because of ignorant preoccupation. Herod missed Christmas because of
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: jealous fear. The Sanhedrin missed Christmas because of indifferent pride. Fourthly,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem missed Christmas. Isn't that amazing? Jerusalem, right there, missed Christmas. Shocking.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Back to Luke chapter 2. Let me show you something.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: In Luke chapter 2, verse 8, there were in the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: same country shepherds abiding in the fields. keeping watch over
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: came to them, and you know the rest of the story.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: The angel told them what to do, and the shepherds came,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: and they saw the Christ child. And verse 20 says,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: things that they had heard and seen as it was
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: told unto them. Out of the whole of Jerusalem society,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: you know who God picked to tell us to? Shepherds. Now,
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: let me tell you something, folks. Shepherds were not the aristocracy.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: Shepherds were not at the top of the list. They
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: were at the bottom of the list. Did you know
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: that the shepherds were really a despised group because they
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: couldn't maintain all of the ceremonial washings and couldn't carry
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: out all of the ceremonial activities and all of the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: festivals and feasts and all of those things because of
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: their occupation. They were busy tending to the sheep all
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the time. And there is some historical evidence of quite
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: an interesting nature that the sheep which were kept for
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: use in the temple as sacrificial lambs were kept on
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the hillsides of Bethlehem. It may just well be that
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: the shepherds in Bethlehem's hillside were caring for sheep which
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: someday would be used as sacrifices in the temple. How
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: fitting it would have been had that been true, if
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: it is true, that the very shepherds who cared for
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: sacrificial lambs were the first to know of the one
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: born lamb. as the ultimate lamb. These outcasts were the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: ones who knew and they came. No one else came.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Did you know that? And if you read further in
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the narrative of Luke, you don't hear much beyond the shepherds.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: For example, in verse 25 of chapter 2, and behold,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: There was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. And then
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: it goes on to tell how Simeon waited for the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: consolation of Israel. Simeon was righteous and Simeon was devout
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: and Simeon wanted to see the Messiah and Simeon did
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: see the Messiah and he glorified God and said, I'm
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: ready to die now. There was a man. Is that all? No,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: there was a lady too. Anna, verse 36, a widow.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: And she saw the Messiah. And then in the end
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: of verse 38, and she spoke of Him to all
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Anna told a
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: few others. But the sad thing is, listen people, the
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: mass of Jerusalem missed Christmas. Totally. It happened a couple
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: of miles away. It was the fulfillment of all their
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: dreams and all their hopes that It was that great
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: event which was to change the destiny of the world.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: But they missed it. Why did they miss it? Why
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: did Jerusalem miss it? I'll tell you why. Religion. Religion.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: They were very religious. They were so busy with their religion,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: carrying out their ritual, that they missed the reality. Oh,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: they had all their feasts and all their festivals and
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: all their ceremonies and all their washings and all of
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: their rules and regulations and laws and myriads of things
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: that had grown up around their religious system that were
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: not even biblical at all. All kinds of rules they
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: had to keep. And in the midst of all of
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: their religion, they never got the message. In fact, when
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 16, whom do
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: men say that I am? Their answer was, some say
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: you're Elijah, some say you're Jeremiah, and some say you're
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: one of the prophets, and they were all wrong. They
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: never got the message. They screamed, we'll not have this
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: man of rain over us. Get rid of him. They
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: missed him. Why? Religion. They were busy worshiping the right
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: God in the wrong way. They had the God of
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: the Scripture, but they had it all twisted up, and
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: so they missed the point. Oh, listen, religion will damn
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you faster than anything else if it's false religion or
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: if it's the true religion in the wrong way. Because
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: religion gives you a place to hide and think you're spiritual.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I think about so many people who come to Grace Church.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: And we baptize them. And the testimony goes like this,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: week after week when we do this. I was in
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: the Roman Catholic Church for years and years and years,
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: but never met Jesus Christ until so-and-so talked to me
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: about Christ and I gave my life to Him. Listen,
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: you can be lost in any system and never know Christ.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: There are people who come and say, I came from
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: such and such a church and such and such a background,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: never knew Christ. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian science, on and
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: on and on. All the cults. and they don't know Christ.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: They talk about God, the God of the Bible. They
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: talk about Scripture. They miss Christmas. In the midst of
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: their religion, they're lost. You see, Jesus didn't fit their
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: system the way they had outlined it. And after the
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount, they knew He didn't because He
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: set aside their whole system. You see, some people are
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: already so secure in their religion, they won't listen. You
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: ever try to reach somebody like that? You ever try
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: to talk to somebody who's all bogged down in a religion? Tough.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Especially if it's got something to do with the Bible
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: because they think they've got their system right. Religion will
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: damn people to hell. Satan's ultimate disguise is as an
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: angel of what? Of light. And so Jerusalem missed Christmas.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: while they were religious. Fifth, the Romans missed Christmas. The Romans.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: You say, well, the Romans, what do you mean? Listen,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: this whole thing was set around the Roman scene. Luke
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: gives us that. Matthew sets the scene around Herod, the
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: king of the Jews. Luke sets the scene around Caesar
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Augustus because Luke is a Gentile. And in Luke 2.1,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus. And the
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: decree that everybody be taxed was made when Quirinius was
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: governor of Syria. And when that decree went out, that
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: set in motion the events that made Christ born at Bethlehem.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: In other words, the prophecy of Micah was really set
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: in motion by a Gentile emperor named Caesar. Who was
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Augustus Caesar? It's fascinating to get into the background of
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: this man. His name is Octavian. Have you heard that name?
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: He's the grand nephew of Julius Caesar. He was the
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Roman emperor from 27 BC to 14 AD. He was
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: basically a good man. He brought about the Pax Romana.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: He had a lot of reform. He did a lot
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: of things to keep peace in the Roman Empire. He
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: accomplished many, many things. Octavian... When he found out Julius Caesar,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: you know, was assassinated, and when he was, the will
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: was read, and the will left all of his inheritance
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: and all of the throne to Octavian, who was a grandnephew.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Caesar bypassed everybody else and left it to Octavian. Octavian
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: immediately changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar, and that's
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: why he was called Caesar. The Augustus means the revered,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: majestic one. That's just a title. So this man ruled
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: during this time as the Roman Caesar. He was the
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: one who made the decree. The Roman soldiers were the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: ones making sure the people did it, registering the people,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: taking the census. All through the life of Christ, the
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Romans are in the scene at all times. At the
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: death of Christ, He appears before Pilate. He is executed
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: by the Romans. The Romans lie about His resurrection, fabricating
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: a story so as not to at all have to
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: face the reality that He rose from the dead. The
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Romans are woven all through the biblical record. But they
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: all miss Christmas. You know why? They had their own gods.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Christ didn't fit in. And there are people in the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: world like that, too. The Buddhists miss Christmas. They're worshiping
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the wrong god. Oh, Jerusalem, they worship the right God
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: but in the wrong way, and they missed it. And
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: you can be a Protestant, and you can be in
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: a church and miss it. I couldn't be helped but
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: notice they sent clergymen, a couple of Protestant clergymen to
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Iran to minister to those people. Neither of those two clergymen,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: as far as I know, either believe the Bible or
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the deity of Christ. A lot of help they are.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: But we have all kinds of clergymen like that. I
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: don't know if you read the Garbage in Newsweek magazine
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: this week on the search for the historical Jesus, just
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: propagating all the lies that have come down the line
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: from higher criticism that you can't believe the Bible and
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus isn't really God and on and on. But we
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: have that. We have the religion that doesn't have the reality.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, like the Romans, we also
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: have idolatry. And some people just are just pagan and
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: they miss Christmas. Not only because they worship Buddha or
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: something else, but they have their own gods. By the way,
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Octavian took the title of Pontifex Maximus, which means the
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: highest priest. He deified Julius Caesar with temples and deified
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: himself by building temples to himself. The Romans worshiped multitudes
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: of gods, and the pinnacle was the worship of the emperor.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: So in all of this thing was this idolatry, just
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: gross idolatry. And as I mentioned at their Saturnalia feast,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: they passed out little gifts of idols. And in the
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: midst of their pagan idolatry, they missed it all. They
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: missed it all. You know, I think we have it
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: today in our world. Oh, I don't think people worship
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: the idols like they did then, but I think we
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: have our idols and our gods. Some people worship money.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Some people worship sex. Some people worship cars, materialism, boats, power, houses, whatever. Prestige, popularity, fame.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: And those are the pagan gods. Those are the idols
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: of the 20th century. And if that's what you're worshiping,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: you'll miss Christmas. You may get some presents and eat
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: a big dinner and see a tree, but you'll miss it.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: And you'll be nothing different than the Saturnalians who feasted
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: in drunkenness and orgies and never even knew the point
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: of Christmas. So many people, beloved, miss Christmas because of
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: false gods. Others because they worship the true God supposedly
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: in the wrong way. Others because of a chilling prideful indifference.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: Others because of a ridiculous preoccupation with things that don't
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: even matter. Finally, and maybe this is the saddest of all,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Nazareth missed Christmas. Nazareth. It says in Matthew 2.23 that
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: after Herod had died, Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the child Jesus, and went back to Nazareth. And in
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: Luke 2.39, it says, performed all things according to the
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: was upon him. And that verse is saying when he
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: got back to Nazareth, he was not like any other
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: child in Nazareth. He was different. The grace of God
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: was upon him in a marvelous and an incredible way.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: The child grew in wisdom and stature. This was an amazing,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: remarkable child like no other child who had ever lived.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: And there's an illustration immediately following of the remarkable nature
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: of that child when he went to the Passover at
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: 12 years of age and said he had to be
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: about his father's business, confounding the doctors of theology. No
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: child like him. And he spent 30 years of his
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: life in Nazareth and they missed him. They missed it.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: There was no room for him. Nathaniel expressed the attitude
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: about Nazareth, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nazareth
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: was a crude, rude town and the people were violent
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: and they had a bad reputation. And thirty years, and
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: it's only a village people, thirty years Jesus in that
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: place and in the fourth chapter of Luke, a tragedy
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: takes place. Finally, Jesus realizes it's time to tell the
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: Nazarenes who He is. In verse 16, He came to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Nazareth where He'd been brought up. And as His custom was,
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: stood up to read. And there was delivered unto Him
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: opened the book, He found the place where it was written.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: And this was His message. He was declaring who He was.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: to set at liberty those that are bruised, to preach
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: book and gave it to the minister and sat down.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: And the eyes of all them that were in the
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm the Messiah. They knew that was a
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: messianic scripture from Isaiah. He said, I'm the fulfillment of
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Isaiah 61. And what was their reaction? And they all
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: bore him witness and wondered. And they said, is not
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: this Joseph's son? Is he kidding? This is Joseph's son.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: In verse 24, he said, Verily I say unto you,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: no prophet is accepted in his own country. You know
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: why Nazareth missed Christmas? Familiarity. Familiarity. They knew him so well,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: he wasn't special. That is a deadly thing, people. And
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: whenever I come across somebody who is not a Christian...
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: And I ask them if they've known of Christ and
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: they say, oh yeah, I was raised in that. But
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not a Christian. A fear grips my heart because
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: familiarity strangles conviction. You've heard it so many times, so
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: many Christmas stories, so many Christmases, so many sermons, so
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: many Bible lessons. Familiarity breeds contempt. And so in Mark 6, 6,
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: the rather pensive, tragic word, he marveled because of their
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: unbelief and he went around about the villages teaching. He marveled.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: A Nazareth's unbelief. And by the way, beloved, in Matthew 13, 58,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: it says He did not many wonderful works there because
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: of their unbelief. You know what happened at Luke chapter
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: 4 at the end of the chapter? When Jesus got
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: done with His message in the synagogue, it says they
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: grabbed Him and they took Him out to the cliff
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: on the edge of the town to throw Him off
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: to crush Him to death for blaspheming. But He passed
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: through their midst miraculously They would kill him. That's what
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: I call missing Christmas. Oh, the deadliness of familiarity with
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Christmas truth breeds a stony heart. I'm telling you, you
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: better respond while your heart is soft or your heart
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: will become hard and you won't have the opportunity to respond.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: Some of you have been raised in Christianity, raised in
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: a Christian home, and you've never responded to Jesus Christ,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and if you keep hardening your heart, you never will. Listen,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: there are lots of reasons why people miss Christmas. They
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: miss it because of ignorant preoccupation. They miss it because
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: of jealous fear. They miss it because of prideful indifference.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: They miss it because of religious ritual. They miss it
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: because of false gods, and they even miss it because
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: of being so familiar with it. But behind all of
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: those reasons is one basic reason. Unbelief. They won't believe.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: They refuse to believe. And so said Jesus. He came
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: into the world. And the world, what? Received Him not.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: And John says the world was made by Him. And
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: the world knew Him not. But then he says this
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: in the first chapter of John, the 12th verse. But,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: now mark this, this is the turning point. But as
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: many as, what, received him, to them gave he the
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: power to become the sons of God, even to them
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: that believe on his name. Whatever your excuse is, Whatever
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: the reason you've been missing Christmas, if you receive Christ
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: and believe, on Him, Christmas will become a reality in
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: your life. It can happen today. That's between you and God.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Father, we have to think that the real
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Scrooges of this world are not the people who miss
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: the joy of giving, but the people who miss the
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: giving of joy that comes in receiving Christ. And so
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: we pray right now for those here who have not
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: received Christ, who have not believed. Oh God, may this
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: be the day they open their hearts. While your heads
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: are bowed for just a closing moment, You can reverse
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the whole of your life in one simple prayer of
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: genuine faith. All that's really necessary is for you in
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: your heart to say, Lord, I believe and I receive
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: you with all of my misunderstandings, with all of the questions.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: I believe like the man who said, Lord, I believe,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: help my unbelief. In your heart, just say, Christ, I
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: receive you. take over my life, forgive my sin, be
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: my Savior. And in so doing, Christ is born in you,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: and that's what Christmas really is. Oh, Father, I pray
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: that You'll bring those that need to come and that
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: You'll touch the hearts of those who need to put
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: their faith in You and receive Christ this day. And
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: all of this we pray for Your glory, that Christmas
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: may be what it is in reality. God becoming human
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: flesh to save sinners. We pray, Father, that this might
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: be a Christmas of salvation for many. And now dismiss us, Lord,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: not from Your presence, nor from fellowship, nor from obedience
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: to Your Word, but just from this place to take
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: the living Christ out into the world. Bring us together
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: tonight again with hearts ready to praise you. And we'll
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: thank you in Christ's name. And everyone said, amen. God
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: bless you. You've been listening to John MacArthur, Bible teacher
• 1:01:44
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• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: John's lessons and a listing of study Bibles and books
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: available for sale, visit Grace to You's website at gty.org.
• 1:01:56
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• 1:02:00
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• 1:02:05
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• 1:02:10
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