Join us as we delve into the historical and spiritual significance of Jesus’ birth, separated from the traditional trappings of Christmas. Learn how ancient customs have obscured the true meaning of the nativity and explore compelling scriptural interpretations that paint a vivid picture of that holy night. This episode invites believers to explore the real story, fostering a more profound appreciation for the miracle of Jesus’ birth and the lessons it imparts for believers today.
00:00:00 Reflections on Christmas and Pagan Customs
It was over 45 years ago that I came to understand something that I really had never quite got my mind around before, never had really had to face before. And it was that Jesus was not born on or anywhere near December 25th. That was a fairly easy conclusion to come to at the time as I went through the studies that I went through. And I have not observed Christmas for over 45 years. And I don’t expect I ever will in this lifetime. Christmas is a strange mishmash of pagan customs and biblical events. And everybody who’s paying attention knows this. I remember the first time I really saw clearly the distinction about what Christmas and what its origins was, was in an organization, a publication called the Baptist Standard. It was a publication of Southern Baptist churches in Texas. And they put this thing out on a regular basis and it came down to December 25th. There was this column, a full column wide, one length of a page, that just outlined all of the pagan origins of the customs associated with Christmas. And I read that at the time and it amazed me that nobody thought that that was important enough to take note of. Now it’s almost as though an enemy has co-opted one of the most important truths of the Christian faith. And the result of this has been to obscure that truth from nearly everyone, including an awful lot of people who really ought to know better. People who will tell you that Christmas is pagan or everything associated with Christmas is pagan. People who can recite all the pagan origins of stuff like Santa Claus, December 25th, Christmas trees, and all the conduct associated with the Saturnalia like getting drunk and throwing up. They can tell you all of these things. But even the people who can tell you these things have been deceived by the same enemy. And in many cases, they don’t even know it. I know this is true. Because for 20 years now I have been speaking about the birth of Jesus on the opening night of the feast. It’s funny how it came about. For a long time we had stopped having opening night services. We would have a hospitality room somewhere and people would come and have some refreshments and chat and talk and shake hands and go back and fall into bed asleep and come to church the next morning. I don’t remember exactly why we decided to do it, but I think it was because I was traveling at the time, and I was going to be only in Lake Tahoe for the opening night and the next morning, and I thought I’d really, and people expressed the desire, that I really would like to speak to these people twice. So why don’t we go back to the old custom of having an opening night service? And when I did that, I did a study to prepare myself for what do I want to talk about in that opening night service. And it was in that study that I followed up on something that I had known, had looked at, hadn’t thought very much about it, and gave some time to working my way through the story. And I learned, kind of to my surprise, that E.W. Bollinger, who came to this conclusion before I was ever born, that Jesus Christ was almost certainly born under this moon. I say under this moon because trying to pin a date down like this is impossible, although E.W. Bullinger, based upon his studies, came down to the time as the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, as the day of Jesus’ birth. I couldn’t take myself quite that far. But this moon? No. Almost certainly. And the only thing that is almost to me is that based upon the courses of the priesthood, it might conceivably have been six months earlier than tonight. Six months off. Not one month, not two, not three, but six. Now, we’ve gone through that before, and I’m not going to bore you old-timers with going through all that again tonight. But I can’t help but realize that so many times we throw the baby out with the bathwater, and we don’t understand that we have lost something. When we simply dismiss Christmas with no thought about what it is that we are dismissing, we are making a very serious mistake. Because there is, again, there are things associated with Christmas that are wrong. There are things associated with Christmas that are not. And that’s where the interest comes in. Now, I said earlier that I felt that there was also another deception that was hanging around in the wings and had trapped some other people. And the scripture I want to turn to is 1 John 4, verse 1. 1 John 4, verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know you the Spirit of God. Ah, here we go. Hereby know you the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now is already in the world. Now, I would say most people are looking for some man who will play the role of Antichrist at some time in the future. And yet here’s John telling us that the spirit of Antichrist is already here. For many deceivers, this is 2 John 1, verse 7, many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh. This is a deceiver and antichrist. Now the separation of pagan customs from the nativity of Jesus is simplicity itself. You cut out the date, which everybody knows is wrong. You cut out Santa Claus. You throw the tree out on the trash heap. You get rid of all the solar images that have to do and have their traditions connected with sun worship. And, of course, the date, December 25th, is the birthday of the invincible sun. You get rid of all that. You get rid of getting drunk and throwing up. What do you retain? Well, you retain the correct time of year. As I said, we know with virtual certainty that Jesus was born under that full moon that you see outside tonight. And you can also keep the gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. This is where the crucial part of it comes in. And so I want you to turn back to Luke, the second chapter. Luke chapter 2. And the first times, the oldest times in my life that I can ever remember hearing these scriptures that have hung in my mind was at a church Christmas play. It came to pass in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And they all went up to be taxed, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. Now, should I, because I decide to get rid of all the trappings of Christmas, not preach a sermon on this scripture? Should I not bring it out and read it to people? Should we not talk about it? Should we not make it something that’s important to us? Because it is scripture after all. Well, he said he’s going to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. I don’t know how the NIV translated that, but I just love the King James Version. She was great with child. Every once in a while, you know, in church, you’ll see the girl, one of the young women will get pregnant, and she’ll be around for a few weeks, and you watch her growing. And, of course, you can tell when it’s getting close. They walk into church kind of holding their back. with that peculiar walk that they have, and of course this rather large abdomen that she’s developed with the child, the great with child. And the image of Mary in that very same situation stays in my mind as Joseph helped her into the stable because they couldn’t find any room in the inn. Of course, if you knew what the inns were like in those days, you might be just as happy to have been in the stable, but that’s another subject for another time. And they found a place for her to lie down on some straw and some clean provender that was there, and he arranged a little bed there in the manger for her baby to be born. She brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Now, what happens after this is of singular interest. We’re all familiar with the birth of Jesus, the baby in the manger. We’ve seen the crash scenes that you can’t have on courthouse lawns any longer, but we still see them in different places. So we know about that part of the story. But there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And I’m often fascinated by this. These are the people I’m jealous of in this whole story. You know, these are the guys I would have loved to have been there. I would have loved to have been with them because this is the experience. The experience. Apart from being the one who gave birth to our midwife, Jesus, this is the experience. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said to them, don’t be afraid. I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. I don’t know how that angel appeared. I don’t know if he came down in sparklers like they’re beaming up, you know, like beamed down by Scotty. I don’t know if there were one minute there was nothing there. The next minute they were there. It was just that quick. But it’s still you’re all by yourselves sitting around a campfire outside telling stories, talking about things. And these were religious men, by the way. These shepherds were religious men, probably men who expected and looked for and hoped for the birth of the Messiah because if they hadn’t been, the announcement wouldn’t have meant a thing to them. You’ve got to understand when you read this that the announcement that was given to these shepherds meant something to them. Fear not, I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. And that by itself is an incredible revelation. It was not for all Judah. It was not for all Jews. It was for all people. And when you read Isaiah, who is the Messiah’s prophet, you begin to be painfully aware of the fact that God from time immemorial has been aiming toward the time when His word, when His gospel, when His good news would be a good word to all people, not to a nation, not to a race of people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. A Savior is an interesting word all by itself. And I think, you know, it’s entered into religious jargon. We speak of our Savior, we sing about our Savior, and it is a synonym for Jesus. We sing of our Redeemer. And it’s a synonym for Savior or a synonym for Jesus in all of our hymnody, in our conversations and so forth. But something you should know about that. The word Redeemer in the Hebrew actually means or refers to the next of kin. Because if you had done something bad, been a thief, stole stuff, sold it off, lost it, and got caught and sold into slavery, there was one person, who had the right to buy you out. And the owner of you could not say no. Anybody else could buy you if he’s willing to dicker himself. This fellow could buy you and he could not say no. He was your next of kin, and the Hebrew word is the one that is consistently translated, Redeemer. He redeems the captive. So in a sense, when we call Jesus our Redeemer, we are referring to him as our next of kin. Think about that. The Savior is the Seigneur in French. He is the Lord. He is the one who has the power to rule over a land, to take care of his people, to rescue his people. Then he says this, and this is a startling thing in a way. He says, this shall be a sign to you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. What’s the big deal about a baby? I mean, lying in a manger is one thing. But what is the big deal about a woman giving birth to a child as far as these shepherds were concerned? Well, the big deal about it is he just announced the birth of the Savior. He just announced the birth of the Messiah, and he is not in a palace. He’s not going to be in wealth. He is in a manger in a stable. His birth was as low as anyone in this room. Some of us may have had a more lowly birth. I don’t know how we could have. Born, laid in a manger in a stable. This is a sign. And it’s a crucial sign because the Messiah does not come full grown. He does not walk on the scene as one that no one has any idea where he came from. He does not simply materialize in society. He is not a spirit being who only appears to be flesh and blood. He comes into this world having been carried down to Bethlehem in the womb of a mother. who gave birth to him by the normal process of birth, with all the pain and all the discomfort, and perhaps with a few yells coming out of that stable when he came out. He came into the world totally helpless. And so when the shepherds came there, they found a man and a woman and a baby, nothing else. And even the baby was just wrapped up in what they had. It was not some fancy rich blanket. For the king of all the universe came to earth completely vulnerable, completely at risk, as low a birth as one could find. And when the time came to announce his birth, it was not announced to the priests. It was not announced to Herod. It was not announced to the Jerusalem religious establishment at all. It went to what I would have to assume, if it’s anything like it is today, to the lowest rung of the social ladder of the time, sheepherders. And it was to these men that the announcement was made, and it was in that stable that the Lord was born. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Now I’ve heard Handel’s Messiah’s version, his version of that. And you have to turn it up good and loud, you know, so the chorus comes in, Glory to God. But even that had to be nothing compared to what these shepherds heard. That’s why I’m jealous. That’s why I would love to have been there to have heard that song sung in that time. Well, it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see what’s happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” Now, there’s one crucial thing about this story that is difficult for some people to grasp. I mean, you can agree with it intellectually, but it’s difficult for people to grasp. Jesus was a baby entirely dependent on his mother. And all you mothers know precisely what that means. In every way, Jesus was helpless. Completely helpless and totally vulnerable. We know this because Joseph and Mary had to flee to Egypt. If they hadn’t have fled to Egypt, that snake, Herod, would have had him killed along with all the other babies around about the Bethlehem that were born anywhere near that time. Jesus was completely at risk in the world. As I said, people have a hard time getting their minds around this. They still want to think of Jesus as being some sort of Superman. He was not. If you cut him, he would have bled, which we will find out later on in the gospel story that he did, very much so. He was flesh. In Hebrews, the second chapter, comes this profound statement. profound theological statement about Jesus, who he was, and more precisely what he was like. For as much then, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” And that in itself is a fascinating revelation that it is the devil who actually holds the power of death. And he is destroyed in the death of Christ. And to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Is there anybody here who doesn’t know what that means? Is there anybody here who really doesn’t fear death at all? Doesn’t kind of dread the prospect. You may be comfortable in your eternal life, but nobody looks forward to dying. The fear of death dogs us every day, every step, every night of our lives. He came to set us free from that fear. And he goes on to say, verily he didn’t take upon himself the nature of angels. He took upon him, and again the implicit thing is the nature of, the seed of Abraham. So in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Because for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. There is absolutely no temptation, no trial that you’re going to have to face or deal with in this life that Jesus does not understand. He has not experienced in some degree, in some way, in some comparison, precisely the same thing that you’re experiencing. He has walked down that road. He was flesh. He could have failed. And this is the reason why an angel was sent to him in Gethsemane to see to it that he did not fail. That humanity, that weakness of the flesh that goes with the flesh, inevitably goes with the flesh, was with Jesus in the garden. And as he prayed, and as his sweat was like great drops of blood, an angel came to him and strengthened him. And you have to ask yourself, what would it have meant if that angel had not come? It was obviously necessary that the angel come. Therefore, you have a right to ask, what if he had not? It was essential that he be there. Now, you’ve probably been to the circus and you’ve seen a man walking on a high wire. What is the difference between watching a man do the high wire act in the circus with a net and without a net? It’s a profound difference, isn’t it? Because you know what this man who is walking at wire without a net is putting at stake. The guy who has the net below him is putting only his, you know, a little embarrassment, and he won’t even experience that for any moment, is at stake. But for the man who does it without a net, everything is at stake. Jesus, high wire walk, was without a net. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like we are, and yet without sin. And you know, the theological arguments have raged for generations about whether or not it was possible for Jesus to commit sins. The thing is, if it was not possible, the whole thing becomes irrelevant. The struggle is meaningless. It was possible. It could have. The important fact is he did not. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may find mercy and grace to help in time of need. Whatever path you walk, Jesus walked it before you. Whatever pain you suffer in life, Jesus suffered it before you. And if you want him to, he’ll walk your path with you today, and he will suffer your pain with you today. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. And the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We’re camping out here. We’re temporary. We’re passing through. And Jesus came and camped out with us for a while. He understands us. He knows us. He cares for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him would not perish… but have everlasting life.
