What Christmas Is All About
00:00:00.000 | "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?"
00:00:09.440 | Charlie Brown with the million dollar question.
00:00:12.200 | Who can tell us what Christmas is all about?
00:00:14.920 | Today on the Ask Pastor John podcast, we find someone who knows what Christmas is all about,
00:00:19.500 | an angel.
00:00:20.500 | An angel whose priceless words are recorded for us in the Bible in Luke chapter 1, verses
00:00:24.480 | 26 to 38.
00:00:26.760 | On Christmas day 2005 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, John Piper preached
00:00:31.400 | a sermon on this text.
00:00:32.720 | He titled it, "The Child to be Born Will Be Called Holy, the Son of God."
00:00:37.240 | Here's a clip of what he said.
00:00:40.200 | In the sixth month, that is the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist,
00:00:46.700 | the angel Gabriel was sent from God.
00:00:51.760 | I think that's the most fundamental thing you can say about the meaning of Christmas,
00:00:57.520 | that it originates with God, starts with God, has to do with God.
00:01:03.800 | God sent this angel.
00:01:05.040 | God got this thing started.
00:01:08.200 | There is a meaning of Christmas without God.
00:01:12.380 | There's no biblical meaning of Christmas without God, and there's no historical meaning of
00:01:16.640 | Christmas without God, but there's an American meaning of Christmas without God, and there's
00:01:21.180 | a European meaning of Christmas without God, and I got an email this week that informed
00:01:25.120 | me that there's a Buddhist meaning of Christmas in Bangkok with all the frills minus God.
00:01:31.080 | That's a remarkable thing, but there is no biblical, true, historical meaning of Christmas
00:01:37.440 | without God.
00:01:38.440 | In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God.
00:01:43.920 | Christmas is about the creator of the universe who is not part of the universe.
00:01:52.160 | We're not pantheists.
00:01:54.080 | It's about the creator of the universe, distinct from his creation, creating what is not he,
00:02:01.360 | and then penetrating to become, become part of it without ceasing to be the uncreated
00:02:10.020 | non-part of it that he is.
00:02:13.100 | That's Christmas.
00:02:14.100 | Do you remember how God identified himself, named himself in Exodus 3, verse 14, when
00:02:20.860 | he sent Moses to deliver his people, and Moses said, "They're going to ask me who did this,"
00:02:26.420 | and he said, "You tell them I am who I am sent you."
00:02:30.980 | What does that mean?
00:02:32.300 | It means God is absolute reality.
00:02:35.860 | He doesn't come into existence.
00:02:38.560 | He doesn't become what he's not.
00:02:41.100 | He doesn't get better today than he was yesterday.
00:02:44.780 | There is zero development in the divine being.
00:02:50.180 | He simply is.
00:02:53.040 | Before you were, I am, galaxies were, or anything that could cause the Big Bang was, he was,
00:02:59.540 | is, will be, no beginning, no ending, no development, no becoming, absolute non-created reality.
00:03:09.300 | And then he created what is not God, a universe, and on Christmas he entered it.
00:03:18.740 | This universe, the moral part of it, the personhood part of it, the us, the personal part of it
00:03:27.640 | is in rebellion against the King.
00:03:30.220 | We're in rebellion against God.
00:03:32.060 | So when he's coming, he's not just coming to hang out.
00:03:36.760 | There's a problem he's coming to deal with, and we're it.
00:03:40.800 | For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in
00:03:44.960 | him should not perish but have eternal life.
00:03:49.140 | For God sent not the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
00:03:56.080 | him might be saved.
00:03:58.280 | That's why he's coming.
00:03:59.720 | I think God would say to me what he said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, "You're my ambassador
00:04:06.000 | this morning.
00:04:07.420 | This is the day of salvation.
00:04:09.360 | Go say in my name.
00:04:11.800 | There is an amnesty.
00:04:12.800 | It is still in force.
00:04:16.320 | And the amnesty is this.
00:04:18.580 | If you will lay down your sword, lay down your weaponry of rebellion against me, just
00:04:27.240 | drop it.
00:04:29.040 | In your heart right now, just drop it.
00:04:32.160 | And then kneel or fall or lie down like a little baby and receive my forgiveness for
00:04:41.800 | all the rebellion against my kingship.
00:04:44.440 | It's free.
00:04:45.440 | I paid for it with my son's blood.
00:04:49.040 | And then swear allegiance to me as king.
00:04:54.400 | And if you will, you will be a child of God and you will live forever.
00:04:58.840 | There will be a wall of fire around you called God and in the midst will be the glory.
00:05:05.400 | And you will enjoy the revelation of God forever and ever and ever.
00:05:11.960 | And death will be a portal into paradise."
00:05:19.160 | That was a clip from John Piper's 2005 Christmas sermon.
00:05:21.880 | The full sermon and over a thousand other messages are available free of charge at DesiringGod.org.
00:05:27.980 | We will be back with a new episode on Thursday morning, looking ahead to some exciting things
00:05:31.640 | coming from Desiring God in 2014.
00:05:34.680 | But until then, I'm your host Tony Reinke, wishing you a wonderful Christ-centered Christmas
00:05:39.080 | celebration.
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