Will You Miss Christmas?
An Sermon For Week Three of Advent
Various Scriptures
Presented by
Pastor Paul Newell
December 14, 2003

Top Ten Signs Your Christmas Is Way Too Commercial

10. The only time you’ve heard Jesus mentioned is when your neighbor opened his Visa bill!

9. You mentioned the “Star in the East” to someone and they thought you were talking about Jackie Chan.

8. You son thought St. Nick, Kris Kringle, and Father Christmas were the Three Wise men.

7. You’ve got more Christmas cards from companies than friends.

6. When you hear the name Bethlehem, you think…Ah, steel manufacturing!

5. You asked your neighbor to come to church on Christmas Sunday, and they said, “What’s Christmas got to do with church?”

4. The last time you said “Merry Christmas” to someone, they called the “Politically Correct Police”.

3. When you got to the part in the Christmas story about there being “no room in the inn”, your first thought was, “Maybe I should invest in the hospitality industry!”.

2. When the Pastor mentioned the wise men’s gifts you started wondering about their current market value.

And the number one sign that your Christmas is way too commercial...

1. Simple, you spent more time running and buying than you did bending to worship.
(copied & adapted)

It’s easy to get caught up in Christmas and actually miss what Christmas is all about, isn’t it?

I’ve got some friends who just skip Christmas all together. No gifts. No trees. No celebration. They tell me that the holiday that we celebrate as “Christmas” is never even mentioned in the Bible.

They may be right about the holiday – but the event…well, the birth of Christ is something worth celebrating! Because (as we’ll see in more detail next week) without the birth of Jesus there would never have been the cross, the resurrection and ultimately our hope of heaven and eternal life.

If Jesus had never come as a baby we would not be able to worship Him as our Savior and Lord.

So we celebrate Christmas. We observe four weeks of Advent. We celebrate the fact that Jesus came and that He is coming again. And most often our celebrating involves gathering with others to remember Christmas.

Christmas seems to be the one time of the year when everybody is partying…well maybe Christmas and New Years. But there is always a huge focus on gathering at Christmas.

Some of you may already have attended the “office Christmas party”. There will be school parties. And many will either invite or be invited to someone’s home for a special Christmas event. Everyone seems to be gathering at Christmas.

And it was no different that first Christmas in Bethlehem.

As Melinda shared a few minutes ago, the Shepherds gathered at the manger to see the Baby Christ Jesus for the first time. They gathered and then they celebrated! They told everyone who would listen, what they had seen.

They told about the angels in the heavens that gathered to sing about Jesus’ birth. Then they shared of gathering themselves at the crib-side of the One that God had promised would save the world!

That was the first Christmas gathering…but would it amaze you (as it did me) to realize that while those few were gathering around the Christ Child that most people simply ignored it?

This morning we are focusing on “Seasoning Our Gatherings”. We want to refocus our reason for getting together with others at Christmas. We want to sort of kick it up a notch as we get together with friends and others to “celebrate the season”.

Let me put it another way…

What if you were invited to a really great party, the celebrations to best all celebrations – and you missed it?

How would you feel?
Maybe someone forgot to give you the invitation.
Maybe you had other plans or commitments.
Maybe you forgot.
Maybe in the end you were just not interested.
But still, you missed it and it turned out to be the best party ever.

That’s what happened that first Christmas night. People actually missed Christmas. More tragically, they missed the Christ!

That night most everyone missed Christmas for the exact same reasons people will miss the real reason for the season this Christmas.

Let’s look for a few minutes at why they missed Christmas. And while we are looking, let’s turn it back on ourselves and see if these same attitudes cause us to miss what God is trying to do in our own hearts during this Advent season.

Four attitudes that cause us to miss the blessings God is trying to give us at Christmas.

So, who missed Christmas?

I. Who missed Christmas? The people in the Bethlehem inn missed Christmas.

Luke 2:6-7 (NCV)
“While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for Mary to have the baby, and she gave birth to her first son. Because there were no rooms left in the inn, she wrapped the baby with pieces of cloth and laid him in a box where animals are fed.”

You’ve probably heard that phrase before “no room in the inn”. Well it wasn’t the local Motel 6 or even Holiday Inn that is referred to in this passage.

More than likely this “inn” was a small compound surrounded by four walls with a small entrance. Around the inside of these four walls would be a sort of raised platform with partitions dividing the area into small cubicles, each facing the center of the square. When people would enter they would let their animals lose in the center and the travelers would find an empty cubical to set up camp. Of course those who arrived late would find no room in the inn and would be left to set up camp in the center among the animals. Not a pleasant picture.

It wasn’t an innkeeper who missed Christmas; it was the whole inn.

Imagine a woman giving birth out in the courtyard while you were trying to have dinner or get some sleep. What would you do? Would your attention be drawn to the young couple? Don’t answer so quickly…

The people in the inn missed Christmas simply because they were preoccupied!

Remember why everyone had returned to Bethlehem? That’s right, they were returning to their hometowns to be taxed. Tax time is not usually a celebration time, but going home would have been. It was a chance to see old friends and reunite with family. I’m betting that there was sort of a “family reunion” atmosphere tinged with the frustration of being taxed and taking the census.

People were simply too preoccupied to pay attention to Christmas.

II. Who missed Christmas? King Herod missed Christmas.

Matthew 2:1-3 (NLT)
Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him.” Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, as was all of Jerusalem

We shared a little of Herod’s story last week at Bible study. He was an evil, paranoid man. He was known for killing off his own family for fear that they would replace him as the Jewish king. He wanted all of the fame, the power, the glory. So when the wise men appeared looking for a “king of the Jews” Herod obviously reacted out of both fear and jealously.

Herod missed Christmas because he was afraid, afraid of losing what he had fought so hard to keep. Did you catch that, it said deeply disturbed.

Herod was afraid of losing control. These wise men from the East were talking about a new king - someone who would take his place.

Herod sent the wise men off too look for the new “king” asking them to return and tell him so he too could worship. But we know Herod’s true motive – he wanted to destroy the king. All he was concerned about was keeping what he thought was his.

Herod missed Christmas because of fear and jealousy.

III. Who missed Christmas? The religious “know-it-all’s” missed Christmas.

Nothing is more tragic to me than someone who assumes they have all the answers and still miss the point. Does that make sense to you?

Matthew 2:4-6 (NLT)
He [Herod] called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law. “Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?” he asked them. “In Bethlehem,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ‘O Bethlehem of Judah, you are not just a lowly village in Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”

They had all the right answers. There was going to be a Messiah. He would be born in Bethlehem. They even knew where to find it in the Bible! They knew it all!

They knew it all. They had all the right answers, but missed it all at the same time.

Sad as it may seem, there are lots of people walking around today that can still give all the right reasons for celebrating Christmas. They can tell you the Christmas story. They can recite that Jesus was born of a virgin, placed in a manger, attended by shepherds and wise men. They even know that Christmas is a time to go to church.

But with all they know, they still don’t really get it. They know the story, but they don’t really know the One who the story is really all about – Jesus Christ.

Why did these priests and scribes who knew all about the Bible miss Christmas? Because they just didn’t care: indifferent pride.  They already knew what was going to happen – they didn’t need to worry about it. They didn’t need to be looking for it. They were already “all that” as far as they were concerned.

Last Sunday night we mentioned the tragic fact that the ones who knew the most seemed to care the least while those who knew very little were still seeking.

You see, it’s not how much you know, it’s what you do with what you know that really matters. And that is never more true than with Jesus.

The  religious “know-it-all’s” missed Christmas because they didn’t think it really mattered that much to them.

One more…

IV. Who missed Christmas? The whole town of Nazareth missed Christmas.

Matthew 2:23
So they went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophets concerning the Messiah: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Eventually Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus made it back to Nazareth where they had come from. There Jesus grew from a baby into a man. He grew up right under their noses and they missed it.

The Gospel of John tells it this way:

John 1:11
Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted.

Can you imagine growing up around someone who never did anything wrong, who never sinned? Living with someone who really was perfect?

That’s what it was like growing up in Nazareth with Jesus. Yet the Bible tells us that when Jesus returned to Nazareth as an adult they would not accept him.

Matthew 13:54-57
He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was astonished and said, “Where does he get his wisdom and his miracles? He’s just a carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. All his sisters live right here among us. What makes him so great?” And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.

Why did they miss Christmas? Familiarity.

They had known Jesus from the time he was a toddler. You would have thought that such a remarkable child, and then as an adult, that it would have made a huge impact on Nazareth – but it didn’t. They were simply used to Jesus, used to the way He was. They were just too familiar.

Nazareth missed Christmas because He was just too familiar.

OK, so what’s the point?

Here is it: Are you missing Christmas this year? When you gather with others, when you take time to be quiet and alone – are you going to miss Christmas this year?

Will you be so preoccupied with the season that you miss the One that it’s really all about?

Maybe you are facing the next two weeks with a lot of fear, afraid that if you don’t hold on to your selfishness that you will lose out.

Do you even care? Maybe you find yourself with that “I already know all this stuff” attitude that really doesn’t want to see anything special in the season. It just doesn’t matter.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s too familiar, so traditional that you risk not really seeing what it’s truly for in the first place.

These past few weeks we have been focusing on how to “catch Christmas”, not miss it. You don’t have to let preoccupation, fear, pride or familiarity keep you from the party.

As I look at the story I notice three groups of people who discovered Christ that first Christmas. They didn’t miss it – they really got it!

Mary and Joseph found Christmas because they were obedient!

The shepherds found Christmas because they were willing to leave behind what was familiar (their flocks) to discover what was most important.

The wise men found Christmas because they were watching, waiting for it.

You don’t have to miss Christmas if you are willing to genuinely accept the Christ of Christmas. Remember that passage we read a moment ago…

Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. (John 1:11)

Well, that wasn’t the end of the passage, John 1:12 tells us,

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

All you have to do to not miss Christmas is accept the Christ of Christmas and become a true Child of God.

Don’t let preoccupation steal Christmas from you this year – take time to focus on the Christ of Christmas.

Let go of the fear of losing what you are holding so tightly to – and allow God to give you something even greater this Christmas.

Take a fresh new look at what you assume you already know so well and don’t allow pride to keep you from asking God to do something new, something powerful in your life.

And don’t allow your familiarity with the story of Christ to keep you from really accepting and enjoying an intimate relationship with Christ.

Don’t miss Christmas. Don’t miss the real party!

(c) Paul Newell 2003

FamilyFellowship Church

P.O.  Box 465, Beaumont, CA 92223

churchforfamily.com