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Mary had the little Lamb, who lived before His birth;
Self-existent Son of God, from Heaven He came to Earth. (Micah 5:2)
Mary had the little Lamb; see Him in yonder stall—
Virgin-born Son of God, to save man from the Fall. (Isaiah 7:14)
Mary had the little Lamb, obedient Son of God;
Everywhere the Father led, His feet were sure to trod. (John 6:38)
Mary had the little Lamb, crucified on the tree;
The widely rejected Son of God, He died to set men free. (1 Peter 1:18)
Mary had the little Lamb—men placed Him in the grave;
Thinking they were done with Him, to death He was no slave! (Matthew 28:6)
Mary had the little Lamb, ascended now is He,
All His earthly work being done, our Advocate to be. (Heb. 4:14-16)
Mary had the little Lamb—mystery to behold!
From the Lamb of Calvary, a Lion will unfold. (Revelation 5:5,6)
When the Day Star comes again, of this be very sure:
It won’t be Lamb-like silence then, but with the Lion’s roar. (Psalm 2:12; Revelation 19:11-16) Marv & Marbeth Rosenthal
I am sure you have been busy this Christmas season with lots of things to do… even good things to do… but have you been too busy to ask yourself this question: what is going to determine whether or not this Christmas is a success? Has your thinking changed from when you were a child?
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Have you put away childish tings?
When you were a child what was it that determined whether Christmas was a success? Be honest now… wasn’t it whether or not you got what you wanted? If you wanted a bike and you got a bike, Christmas was wonderful. If you didn’t you might have thought Christmas was a failure, right?
Now let me press the issue… as an adult what determines whether Christmas is a success or a failure? For many it still comes down to the presents we receive. But somehow I think we all know that getting great presents is not the Biblical view of a great Christmas.
Christmas is not about getting… it is all about giving. The greatest Christmas gift ever given took place a little over 2000 years ago when God the Father gave us His Son.
St. Augustine put it this way: The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created, was made flesh and was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one day for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father He existed before all the cycles of ages; born of an earthly mother, He entered upon the course of the years on this day.
The Maker of man became man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die.
To endure these and similar indignities for us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent years. He did this although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake had done no evil and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at His hands, had done nothing to merit these benefits.
Christmas then, is all about Christ… contrary to what the world thinks, Christmas is not the same as Happy Holidays. If you are not in Christ you cannot have a successful Christmas… you can have “Happy Holidays” but don’t confuse the two. You can enjoy the family time, the shopping, the giving and receiving of presents, the food, the Christmas trees and lights and tinsel, the eggnog, the mistletoe and holly, the snow scenes, the music, and the time off from work. But you cannot have a Merry Christmas because the essence of Christmas is Christ. Trying to celebrate Christmas w/o Christ is like trying to celebrate the Super Bowl w/o football; it’s like trying to celebrate the World Series w/o baseball. It simply cannot be done. No one can celebrate Christmas w/o Christ.
Christmas is all about God becoming a Man. I love the way the Apostle Paul puts it when writing to the Philippians:
Philippians 2:6-8 – Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Jesus was about 30 years of age at the time when He officially began His public ministry and immediately the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness for a confrontation with Satan to reveal that He, the sinless Son of God, was tempted in all points like as we are, yet w/o sin. The first Adam failed the test when he was in idyllic circumstances in the Garden, but our Lord Jesus, in spite of the less-than-idyllic surroundings of the wilderness not only defeated the devil at every turn, but in so doing He gave us the pattern for victory whenever we come face to face with temptation.
How did our Lord win so convincingly? “It is written” was the resource Jesus relied upon every time. What a confirmation that our Lord has indeed already given us everything we need for matters of life and godliness. Thus our Lord’s temptation is both triumphant and instructive, and as such is living proof that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation (2 Peter 2:9).
Luke 4:13-16: Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. 14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. 15 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
It is significant that it was Jesus’ custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now I am sure that Jesus found a lot of things to be less-than-perfect in the worship of God in the synagogue, but notice, He didn’t use that as an excuse to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together.” If anyone didn’t need to “go to church” it was Jesus… yet it was His custom to do so. What a rebuke to everyone who is slack in their faithfulness to the local church. If Jesus found it important to establish this custom, what does that say about those who attend when it is convenient?
Luke 4: 17-21 – And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” 20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What we need to understand about this event is this… Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah and everyone in the synagogue understood His claim. I think a good case can be made that this claim to be the Messiah (making Himself equal with God) actually set in motion the plans to put Jesus to death.
John 5:15-18: The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
John 19:7 – The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”
Jesus was reading from Isaiah 61 and everyone in the synagogue understood that He was claiming to be the Messiah (that He was making Himself equal with God).
Isaiah 61:1-3: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Combining Luke 4 with Isaiah 61, Jesus was announcing that He was the Messiah and He said His ministry was to:
- to bring good news to the meek (the poor in spirit)
- to bind up the brokenhearted
- to set the captives free
- to give sight to the blind
- to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord
What more could anyone hope for? Yet instead of receiving this for the Good News that it was, distrust filled the hearts of those who heard His words of grace. How sad.
Jesus came to bring good news to the poor… not just the economically poor, but also the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are blessed because they recognize their spiritual depravity. We get a glimpse of this in Mark’s Gospel.
Mark 2:15-17 – Now it happened, as Jesus was dining in Levi’s house, that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and His disciples; for there were many, and they followed Him.
16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, “How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?” 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
The religious crowd in Mark 2 asked, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” It is important to understand these folks had morality without holiness/ they could look good but they couldn’t be good/ they could act righteous but they couldn’t be righteous. Their question was intended to be a stinging rebuke, a bitter, vindictive attack against Jesus, but in reality it was the greatest compliment they could have given Him… it wasn’t just Good News, it was the Best News than mankind could possibly hear.
Romans 4:5 – But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
The Gospel is a conflict between grace and all other religions which are forms of law/ between faith and all other religions which are forms of works/ between divine accomplishment and all other religions which are forms of human achievement as a means of salvation. Jesus is saying to the religious crowd (to the ones who are not poor in spirit), “You think you are righteous, and because you think you are righteous you don’t see how sick you really are. You think you are righteous, and because you think you are righteous you think you don’t need Me, and because you think you don’t need Me, I can’t help you. I came to call sinners to repentance.” Oh how they hated Him for this.
The prerequisite to forgiveness and redemption is this… a person must see his need of a Savior. God has never saved a person who didn’t think he needed to be saved, and in Mark 2 the Pharisees didn’t think they needed to be saved. Just as a sick person goes to a doctor to get well, so a sinner goes to Jesus to get well… to receive righteousness.
Many people don’t understand that the church is not made up of good people, it’s made up of bad people. It’s not made up of people who think they’re righteous, it’s made up of people who know we’re not. It’s not made up of people who have achieved righteousness on our own, it’s made up of people who have received righteousness from God as a gift. This is the Gospel.
Jesus also said He came to heal the brokenhearted. What mere man can claim the ability to heal the brokenhearted? This in itself is a claim of deity. The most godly man or woman you know could never heal a broken heart… but what we can do is point the brokenhearted to Christ.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.
Jesus also claimed He came to set the captives free. We need to understand the worst prison of all is the prison of sin.
John 8:31-34: Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
It is one thing to be saved from the penalty of sin… that is salvation. It is quite another to be set free from the power of sin… that is sanctification.
I would suggest to you that 99.9% of the lost people today think they are free. In fact, not only do they think they are free, but they also think that Christians are in some kind of bondage… and they think they’re the ones who are free. The Bible, however, makes it abundantly clear that the lost are not free… the only thing they are free of is righteousness. The Bible calls them prisoners.
John MacArthur says this: Sin has indebted them to God. They cannot pay that debt. They are held prisoner to God, really, by His justice and His holiness. They are in bondage and they are awaiting death. Satan wields, according to Hebrews 2:14 and 15, the power of death and holds them in bondage all their lifelong by the fear of death. They are the children of wrath, of whom Eph.2:1 and 2 says, they are under the power and authority of Satan. So there’s a sense in which they are captive to sin, captive to Satan and to the dominion of Satan, the prince of the power of the air, and yet all of that is only a sub-definition. The real sovereign over them, the real Judge over them who has imprisoned them and held them guilty and sentenced them to death is God Himself. It is God who destroys both soul and body in Hell. So the sinner is a prisoner. He is a prisoner of Satan, he is a prisoner of sin, but more than that, he’s a prisoner of the eternal Executioner who is God who holding him accountable and has him awaiting his eternal execution.
Jesus also claimed that He came to give sight to the blind. In John 9 Jesus healed the man who was born blind.
John 9:1-7 – Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
Jesus is again proving He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Creator of all things, the One by Whom all things exist. Who else can take dust from the ground to fashion eyes for a blind man?
And did you notice how straight forward the command was… “Go and wash.” Now put yourself in the blind man’s shoes… wouldn’t a command like this put hope in your heart? This command was a test of the man’s faith. Now to the natural man it would seem like a foolish thing to do in order to obtain your sight, but obedience to the Word of God always brings a blessing. So w/o delay the blind man obeyed the divine command… he went, he washed, he saw.
When he came back seeing, those who knew him could hardly believe their eyes. Let’s not miss the big picture here… a transformed life is a powerful testimony. People want to know what happened when selfish people become concerned about others… when immoral people turn from their wicked ways and start living a holy, righteous life… when drunks are no longer controlled by the bottle but instead are controlled by the Spirit of the living God.
Now if you continue to read thru the rest of the chapter you know that not everybody was thrilled for this blind man. Do you remember who was upset? The Pharisees were upset. What/who did the Pharisees think the problem was? They thought the problem was Jesus, Now I think it is obvious that Jesus wasn’t the problem, so how could they be so deceived?
In a word… pride. Pride is like the aids virus. Aids is a disease that renders the body’s immune system unable to resist infection. According to the encyclopedia, “the aids virus causes so much damage to the immune system the body becomes susceptible to a variety of opportunistic infections… infections that are less harmful to people with normal immune systems, but take advantage of the breakdown in an aids sufferer’s immune system to produce devastating and eventually lethal diseases.”
When people die as a result of contracting aids, they do not die of aids; they die of aids complications such as pneumonia or tuberculosis. Aids works like this… it puts out the eyes of the auto-immune system. The body can’t see other dangerous micro-organisms, and since it can’t see them, it can’t go after them. And this is what the sin of pride is like… it puts out our eyes (it blinds us) to the other sins in our life. It causes us to hate correction and reproof. It hides our sin from us. It justifies our sin. It excuses our sin. It minimizes our sin. And it keeps us from repenting of our sin. It deceives us into thinking we are spiritually well, when in reality we have a deadly disease and are in desperate need of the Great Physician’s balm.
One last point we need to take note of. This blind man not only received his sight, he also received insight.
John 9:24-33 – So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” 26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?” 28 Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. 29 “We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 “Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 “If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
Jesus also came to relieve the oppressed. Ask the woman at the well if Jesus was able to take the burden off her shoulders. Ask the Syro-Phonecian woman if the Lord Jesus was able to relieve her burden. Ask the leper (who was required to cry out “unclean, unclean” everywhere he went) if Jesus was able to relieve his burden. Ask the father of the little boy who was sick… the father who cried out, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief”… ask him if Jesus was able to relieve his burden.
Jesus also said that He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. What in the world does this mean? Well, it means the time when God is looking in grace upon poor sinners. It is the time when the Gospel is going out to lost men and women. It is this current dispensation of grace.
2 Corinthians 6:1,2: We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Hebrews 3:7,8: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts…
Isaiah 1:18: Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
When we think about the many lost people in the world, (and that is the majority of the population) we need to understand they are poor, they are blind, and they are in the biggest prison of all… the prison of sin. They may, in fact, be rich in this world’s goods. They may, in fact, have no physical infirmities whatsoever, let alone blindness. They may, in fact, think they are as free as a bird… and they may appear to be on top of the world, wildly successful. But the fact of the matter is, every lost person falls into these categories. Apart from the salvation that Christ brings, they are poor, they are prisoners, they are blind and they are oppressed. This is the desperate condition of the sinner (as God sees him) and until the sinner recognizes his condition, he will have no desire to seek a remedy.
There is something fascinating in verse 19 where Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:2,to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Jesus stops in the middle of the verse because the rest of verse 2 in Isaiah says, And the day of vengeance of our God… and Jesus leaves that out. This is not the Day of vengeance. This is not the Day of judgment. Today is the Day of salvation.
And then in Isaiah we read more about the Savior’s ministry:
Isaiah 61:2,3 – To comfort all who mourn, 3 To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
Ashes speak of consequences of sin… they speak of sorrow, grief, bereavement, failure, and despair. Nobody is immune from tasting the ashes of sin… let me quote Cornelius Plantinga Jr. in his book, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be… A Breviary of Sin,
If he is very proud, an envious person will resent not only a superior good in somebody else but also an equal one. Thus, if he gets an A on an examination in school he’d like to be the only one. If he wins first place in a piano competition, the envier wants to win it alone. Having to share first place makes him fee like a loser. If he wins the Nobel Prize, thereafter each year’s announcement of it makes him melancholy, for now others are prizewinners too, and their prizes are newer than his. To the truly envious person, other persons and their goods are so much underbrush that needs to be trimmed away so that one’s own tall tree can stand unobscured. We might say that the proud envier keeps running for the office of God – not the biblical God who creates and cherishes good in others but the pantheist God who swallows all good into himself.
This is who we are apart from the grace of God. But Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves so we don’t have to live under sin’s reign. He has come to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.
Luke 4:20,21 – Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:21 – Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Christmas then, is all about Christ… contrary to what the world thinks, Christmas is not the same as Happy Holidays. If you are not in Christ you cannot have a successful Christmas… you can have “Happy Holidays” but don’t confuse the two. You can enjoy the family time, the shopping, the giving and receiving of presents, the food, the Christmas trees and lights and tinsel, the eggnog, the mistletoe and holly, the snow scenes, the music, and the time off from work. But you cannot have a Merry Christmas because the essence of Christmas is Christ. Trying to celebrate Christmas w/o Christ is like trying to celebrate the Super Bowl w/o football; it’s like trying to celebrate the World Series w/o baseball. It simply cannot be done. No one can celebrate Christmas w/o Christ.
