Sermon Tone Analysis

/Alêtheia Christian Fellowship, Christmas, Dec. 25, 2005 #102/

Some *deny Jesus even existed*.

The Mishnah, Josephus & Philo, as well as first-century Gentile historians, Thallus and Tacitus etc. --all testify that the one called Christ lived in Palestine and died under Pontius Pilate.

"The historicity of Christ is as certain as the historicity of Julius Caesar"

The man lived and so He was born.

*WHO CARES?*

Who cares?

Why celebrate a birth?

We only do that if the person so honored is I personally important to us.

I celebrate my wife’s birthday and those of my children, I’m sure you celebrate birthdays of people who mean something to you.

*1-* Most people today *don’t celebrate* the birth of Jesus, they simply enjoy the party, because Jesus doesn’t mean anything to them, they don’t celebrate Him they celebrate Santa Clause.

*2-* Others, assemble because of *guilt, duty, insurance or to appease* other people.

Two times some people go to church are Christmas and Easter.

Both extremely pleasant rememberances His birth and His ressurrection.

Yet the Lord specifically commanded his church to regularly remember Him in *His death*.

*3-* Some of us are different, some of us genuinely celebrate the birth because Jesus is important to us, but not because He was born in a manger, it’s because of what He did with His life after that night.

That's the crux of it.

We either believe there is something *worth celebrating* or we don't.

I personally applaud the *honesty of people* who do not act as Christians throughout the year not insulting my intelligence by acting like Christians two days a year.

It’s not enough to be great though, the birth of some guy, no matter how great he was, is nothing to celebrate unless His life has an impact on our own.

Alexander the Great was arguably the greatest General-King in human history.

He was truly great, conquering the known world by the age of 32.

Yet as much as he interests me I don’t celebrate his birth!

So what is it that Jesus accomplished, who was He and why does it matter?

According to the eyewitness accounts, Jesus was born of a virgin who was literally impregnated by Almighty God.

Jesus was therefore fully human and at the same time fully God.

*John 1:1 ~~* In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

\\ *3&4 ~~* All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

\\ *14 ~~* And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

\\ *18 ~~* No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

*1*, says that in the beginning, before anything was created there already existed the Word and the Word was in perfect harmony and equal relationship with God and the Word was the same perfect essence as God.

In *verse 3*, it goes on to say that through the Word all things were created and that nothing came into being apart from the active agency of the Word.

In *verse 14*, it says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

This is the scandal of Christianity that God would give up a portion of Himself to become human.

*Very carefully read and examine the first 34 verses of chapter one of John's Gospel*

*Hebrews 1:2-3 ~~* in these last days /God/ has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.

When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high

Not only did God create all things through the Word, it is the Word that actively holds all things together.

Without the active work of the Word we and our universe would literally fly apart at the speed of light.

This Word who is a portion of God is the Bridge between God and man.

He humbled Himself and stepped out of light into darkness to enable peace between God and mankind because God loves you so much.

*John 17:3-5*, Jesus Himself *praying to the Father* says, “This is eternal life: that people can know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ the One You have sent.

“I glorified You on the earth, by accomplishing the work which You gave Me to do.

“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world began.

The Bible says God is our Savior, but *what are we saved from*?

God, of course, He is the only possible judge but is full of mercy to those who are righteous.

What is righteousness?

*Hebrews 11:6* And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

*Rom 1:17* For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

We resist accepting God because He may want something from us, we may not get our own way, so we say there is no God.

The Bible says in *Romans 1:20* that since the creation of the heavens and the earth God’s invisible qualities have been obvious and so people are *without excuse* because simply from the world around us we know in our heart that God exists.

*Since we know that there is a God we must contrive a way so that we don’t have to listen to Him*.

We say you can’t know for sure what God wants so why try?

We resist accepting the Bible because if we do then we have to make a choice to either obey what it says or to reject God.

You see if it is God’s Word, His revelation to mankind we are no longer *rejecting religion or a preacher or an ancient book*, we are actually rejecting God Himself.

So it’s far easier on our conscience to say that we can’t know what God wants.

It's far easier to remember a helpless baby.

A baby lying in a manger is *harmless, non-threatening*.

But a man dying on a cross--a man who claims to be God--that man is a threat!

He /demands/ our allegiance!

We cannot ignore him.

We must either accept him or reject him.

He leaves us no middle ground.

But why resist doing what God wants?

We are, by nature, totally self-involved.

It is like the scorpion on the foxes back, we can’t help it, because it’s who we are.

True Christianity based on the plain reading of the Bible is God’s Truth and is completely different than what man creates.

It says we are nothing, totally incapable of any good in the eyes of a perfect God and therefore fall before Him humbly pleading for mercy which is selfless love.

Fortunately that’s what God is, selfless love.

He has already paid the ultimate price, but you must accept with your heart.

Jesus is the Word, He is God and He humbled Himself to a life among humans and an imbuement of sin and a sacrificial death and then death could not hold Him.

What are the facts?

The Gospels tell us that his birth was shortly /before/ Herod the Great died.

Herod's death can be fixed with certainty.

We can pinpoint Herod the Great's demise as occurring between March 29th and April 4th in /4 B.C./ (In A.D. 525.

At that time, Pope John the First asked a monk named *Dionysius* to figure it out {he translated from Greek into Latin 401 ecclesiastical canons, and the decrees of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon and Sardis}) Through a variety of other time indicators, we can be relatively confident that Jesus was born no earlier than the Spring of 6 B.C. and probably in either late /5/ or early /4/ B.C.

If we were to accept a December 25th date then the year 5 B.C. is right and Jesus would have been about 3 months old when the babies were killed.

*Three Kings Day Celebrated Jan. 6* Also known as the Epiphany, (Día de los Reyes) They weren't kings and we have no idea how many there were.

They show up at the house probably in Nazereth not the manger in Bethlehem.

*Lk 2:39* When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.

The ancient magi were reilgious and political advisors to eastern kings

If we're right then today, which is almost tomorrow, Jesus would be exactly *2,009* years old.

The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.

About A.D. 200, *Clement of Alexandria* says that certain "overly curious" Egyptian theologians assign, not the year alone, but the day of Christ's birth

The tradition for December 25th is first found in the writtings of anti-pope, *Hippolytus*, in 202 A.D. (a disciple of St. Irenaeus) We know the Western churh was celebrated Christ's birth on Dec. 25th no later than 340 A.D.

In 386 A.D., *John Chrysostom*, (347-407 Born in Antioch, bishop of Constantinople) argued that December 25th was the correct date and from that day till now, the Church in the /East/, as well as the West, has observed the 25th of December as the official date of Christ's birth.

Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.

John Chrysostom a contemporary of Jerome and Audustine.

He was a prolific writter~/speaker Golden-mouth.

*"**Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan."*

*"Although it be with truth thou speakest evil, that also is a crime."*

*"To be another than I am, I must abandon that I am."*

Now admittedly, the sheep around Bethlehem were the exception, not the rule.

But these were no ordinary sheep.

They were sacrificial lambs.

In the early spring they would be slaughtered at the Passover.

But an early winter date seems as reasonable a guess as any.

And December 25th has been the frontrunner for eighteen centuries.