December 17, 2007
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Attention Shoppers!
Pastor Mike preached one of those Christmas messages that I believe will stay with me until I leave this earth. I will never be able to look at a Nativity scene again without thinking of Sunday’s message.
Here are a few of my best notes. You can listen to this message at Stevinson Chapel.
..but we preach Christ crucified. 1 Cor. 1:23.
The thrust of the prophets ministry was not to preach Christ BORN but Christ CRUCIFIED.
The Christmas message can’t end with Christ being born. We can’t talk about His birth without the reason He was born. If we stop at Christ’s birth we have no atonement for our sins on the cross. The power is in the cross.
What do you think the prophets would say as they entered our malls and saw all the decorations and purchasing of gifts for the ‘birth’ of Christ with no mention about His horrific sacrifice?
The cross is a stumbling block and foolish to a perishing world. ( 1 Cor. 1:23) The world can easily talk about an innocent baby Jesus in a cradle because they don’t have to face their sin. But they won’t talk about a Christ who was sacrificed and brutally murdered on a cross because of their depravity and sin.
Isaiah’s Christmas
1. This child was tortured. Isaiah 52:13-15
2. This child was humiliated. Isaiah 53:1-3
3. This child was crucified. Isaiah 53:4-6
4. This child was sacrificed. Isaiah 53:7-9
5. This child was vindicated. Isaiah 53:10-12
Spend time on Christmas Day talking about the cross and not just the nativity.
1 Cor 1:22-24: For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Comments (8)
I had already been thinking, “You can’t think of the crib without thinking of the cross.” Have you read The InnKeeper by John Piper? That is a very sobering book. Love ya
I so agree Georgene. One of the best sermons I heard my father preach was at Christmas time. The message was on the crucified Savior. When he stood up to preach he began by quoting hymns about the cross. “Alas and did my Savior bleed and did my Soverign die?” “When I survey the wonderous cross on which the Prince of glory died…” etc. It pierced my soul and have never forgotten. I often wonder why we don’t make a bigger celebration at Easter time. What miserable creatures we would be without His death and resurrection….we would have no hope. Your post is a good reminder to keep focused on the reason WHY Jesus was born. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!
So true. He came to earth as a sacrifice for our sins, his birth is important I feel his death is even more important with out the death we would still be lost and out of the grace of God. Very good post. Dawn
Thank you for this prompting…and to vishbobu for the book suggestion.
By the way, this page truly is striking — I will hate to see everyone take down their Christmas “decor”
If I could draw, I would draw a picture of the baby in the manger, asleep and dreaming, with Christmas decorations and presents and candy canes, etc. and behind all of that, the shadow of the cross. Or maybe he should be awake and look kind of puzzled. Good post.
Thanks for stopping by my site. I am doing well, and keeping very busy at this time of year since my responsibility with TFC is the layout and mailing of our staff newsletters. Yesterday I set up my twenty-seventh newsletter since the beginning of November.
We keep our Christmas celebration fairly simple. We give money to our children and grandchildren, so I don’t shop for gifts, and since the two meals we host are in our garage, we only decorate that the day before the first meal.
Amen, amen, amen!
Christmas blessings to you and yours.