Christmas Is Christ!
A Christmas Secret
Colossians 1:15-17, 20, 27
Can you keep a secret? I’ve discovered that it generally takes a lot of people to keep a secret, but most of us are pretty good at keeping secrets. The secrets that are especially enjoyable to me are Christmas secrets.
Sometimes people have secrets which they do not reveal until Christmas. Maybe it is a secret engagement. You get the family together at Christmas time and share the secret that you are engaged. Or it may be there is a baby on the way and when you get the family together at Christmas time you tell them there is a new baby coming. You have told a secret. Or it may that at Christmas time you have a special gift. It is a secret gift that you've been hiding. You have been trying to keep the news from the person you are giving it to. It is a Christmas secret.
I have never been real good at keeping secrets. So if you have a secret you probably better not tell me. I might tell it to somebody else. But I want to share with you a Christmas secret which is really a secret which God wants the whole world to know. I want to talk to you about the meaning of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the secret which God had for the world in the birth of our Lord.
In these four Sunday mornings in the month of December I have been sharing with you four of the major passages in the New Testament which explain the meaning of the birth of Jesus.
We know that in the Gospel writers we have historical accounts. Matthew and Luke give us primarily the historical record of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. They give us the history.
But in other books of the New Testament we can find the meaning of the birth of the Lord Jesus. Why Jesus was born! What the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is all about! The meaning of Christmas! In that meaning of Christmas I have a Christmas secret for you which I want to share with you.
In Colossians 1 we find some insight into the real spiritual meaning of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins by telling us the meaning of the Lord Jesus and His birth by telling us
1. The Person of the Lord Jesus
verse 15
"He is the image of the invisible God"
He is the image. The Greek word is where we get our word icon. On your computer screen you probably have a number of icons. Perhaps you have the Google icon. When you make contact with that icon, everything that Google has to offer is made available to you.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the icon of God. That is, when you make contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, everything that God is becomes available to you through Him. He is the icon of the invisible God.
Notice also it says He was the firstborn over all creation.
That’s not saying Jesus was “created”, but rather that He was prior in time.
It’s explained in verse 17. In fact look at verse 17. "He is before all things." He is prior in time to all things. It means also that He is superior in position. Not only is Jesus Christ prior to all things, but Jesus Christ is above all things.
And what we discover here in Colossians 1 is that when Jesus Christ was born, that was not the beginning of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has existed from all eternity. He stepped into time in the very image of God as the One Who existed prior to and above all that is created.
That’s His person. And that’s an amazing thing to know. But that’s not the secret of Christmas.
These verses also tell us about
2. The Power of the Lord Jesus
verse 16
As we’ve already noted, He was responsible for creation.
Think about this: In the historical narratives we are told about the wise men. They saw a supernatural star in the heavens that pointed them to the arrival of Jesus. They followed that star as it pointed them and it led them to Bethlehem.
Now think about something you may not have thought about before.
God used something in creation to lead those wise men to where Jesus was born. So what? That's what creation always does. That’s what God intended it to do. It always points us to God.
Listen to Psalm 19:1-4 (New Living Translation)
1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
3 They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.[a]
4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world.
When we look at the creation, it’s like a finger pointing to the Lord. It is through creation that we can understand that there is a God and that He is a God of great, great power.
And these verses are telling us that Jesus stepped into this world of time and space above the creation, responsible for creation, and when those wise men followed the star, it was simply Jesus pointing toward Himself.
That means that Jesus Christ was present with God the Father in the creation of the world. Any rational person can look at the creation of the world and deduce from that that there is a God.
You look at a clock and the normal deduction from that is that there is a clockmaker. You look at creation and that says to you that there is a creator. Everything that is created has to have a creator.
When we look at the creation it tells us of the existence of God. Any normal, intelligent person looking at creation can believe there is a God.
I heard a story about some scientists who were trying to find the secret of the origin of our universe. They were given the message that at the top of this mountain they could learn the secret of the creation of the universe.
They climbed and climbed with great effort and with great toil. Finally, the scientists got to the top of the mountain. When they got there, they found a Southern Baptist pastor reading Genesis 1:1 from a black leather KJV Bible!
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
Listen: Belief in the existence of God and the Creator God is the fundamental postulate of all rational belief. If you do not start there you have no way really of understanding what the universe is all about and what life is all about.
And when God the Father and God the Holy Spirit brought this universe into existence, the Bible says that Jesus Christ was there. "By Him all things were created."
Think about what that means. We are celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ this time of year. The birth of the Son of God! In the celebrating of that birth of the Son of God, it means that when Jesus Christ was born the Creator of this universe was born. The One by whom all this universe came into existence was lying in the manger!
Think about that! Think about the immensity of our universe. Have you allowed your mind to give some thought to the immensity of the universe? It is mind-boggling when you think about how immense our universe is. Think about the stars in our universes. One prominent scientist has said that there are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sands on all of the seashores in all of the earth.
Yet the Bible says that God knows their number and God knows every one of those stars by their individual names. The immensity of it!
People have asked, is there life on other planets? In all of this immense astronomically large universe is there intelligent life? I read a few years ago that a group in Washington was spending a hundred million dollars to try to discover if there was intelligent life on other planets. I thought the money would be wisely spent if they would spend it to see if there is intelligent life in Washington. But that's another subject.
When I think about the fact that the Bible says, "in Him all things were created, I think about the complexity of the universe.
Take one human cell. They tell us that in the human body there are 300 trillion individual cells. You isolate one of those cells in the human body and study that cell and you discover an amazing complexity in that cell. Each cell is a very complicated factory system. Each cell has a very complex organization.
It has a wall and it has cytoplasm and it has a nucleus. In that cell you find strands of DNA which give detailed instructions for every part of the human body. You can go deeper and deeper and more and more complex. The very complexity of the universe tells us that there is a Creator God who created this universe.
The Bible says that when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem that it was this great God made flesh and dwelt among us. He is the Creator. Now remember, we’re talking about His power!
Then notice verse 17. "By Him all things consist."
The word there means that by Him all things hold together. Jesus Christ is the glue, so to speak, which holds all the universe together. All things hold together by the Lord Jesus Christ.
According to Hebrews 1, everything is upheld by the Word of His power. That means then that all of the stars are held in their places by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ says to the star, "Fall," and the star falls.
The Lord Jesus Christ says to the earth, "Spin." The earth spins. The Lord Jesus Christ says to the sun, "Shine." The sun shines. By Him all things consist. He upholds all things. He sustains all things.
One Sunday morning years ago in another church our little music director sang “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. I had an old agnostic who I had finally got to coming to church some. She happened to be there that morning.
On the way out, after David had sung that song, she said, “God ought to get his eyes off the damn sparrows and on the people who are hurting.”
Listen: By Him all things consist. Let me tell you what that means: His eye is not only on the sparrow, it’s on you also. The same Lord Jesus Christ who sustains the universe can sustain your life and mine. The Bible says we can cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us. The Bible says cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.
Christmas is the message that the Lord Jesus Christ was born, the One who is above the creation. But that's not the Christmas secret I want to tell you.
Christmas means that when the Lord Jesus Christ was born He was born to be the One who would die for our sins on the cross. But that’s not the secret of Christmas that I want you to know.
Notice what happens in verse 20.
With one sweeping stroke of the pen, he takes us all the way from eternity down to Calvary and he brings us to
3. The Cross of Christ
Last week, as we talked about the meaning of Christmas, we talked about the cross. Today, as we talk about the meaning of Christmas we'll talk about the cross. Next Sunday when we talk about the meaning of Christmas we talk about the cross. We are constantly coming to the cross. If you hear me preach ten years from now I will still be preaching about the cross.
You will never understand Christmas if you stop at the cradle. You have to go on to the cross.
Now in this verse we are told “He made peace by the blood of His cross.”
Think for a moment about the cross. We see reminders of that cross everywhere we look in the Christmas story.
When Jesus was born they wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. That was simply strips of linen cloth that were used to wrap a dead body.
What an unusual way to wrap a new-born baby! Funeral clothes for a baby!
When Jesus was born, the Bible says that the wise men came and brought gold and frankincense and myrrh. Myrrh is an antiseptic which is used to embalm bodies. What an unusual gift for a baby! It would be like you going to a shower of a friend who had just given birth to a baby and bringing that baby a funeral wreath.
When it came time to present Jesus to God as the Law required, Mary and Joseph brought him to Jerusalem. There they found an old man named Simeon who had been instructed by God to go there.
You can read about it in Luke 2. You will discover as he blessed that baby and spoke words of prophecy over him. He prophesied to Mary also, by saying, "A sword will pierce your own soul also."
Flash forward 33 years, and you will find Mary at the foot of the cross, her heart breaking as she looks up at her Son of that cross.
When you read about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find intermingled all through the statements and the stories of His birth, there are references to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't understand Christmas if you don't get to the cross. The message of Christmas hasn't really hit you until you understand that this Jesus, this baby, was born to die.
"Having made peace by the blood of his cross."
Let me ask you some questions. What is the cross?
When we think of a cross today we think of something on top of a steeple on a church. Or sometimes we think about a beautiful piece of jewelry wrapped around the neck in necklace form.
What is the cross? When you read the New Testament you will find that there is very little description of the cross. We would expect that when we open up our New Testament that there would be all kinds of vivid, graphic details.
Yet, when you read your New Testament you are left to your own imagination and the readings of secular history to find just exactly what this cross is.
When we read some idea of what the cross was all about we generally think first in terms of the physical pain that Jesus went through.
Think about the pain that Jesus endured on the cross. Think about the nails in His hands and the spear in His side and the thorns on His brow. Think about the bones pulled and the tendons shredded. Think about the muscles pulled. Think about the severed nerves.
But it was more than just physical pain when Jesus died on the cross.
Think about the spiritual pain that Jesus went through. On that cross you find Him saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There for the only time in eternity He experienced separation from His Father as He Who knew no sin became sin for us. We can’t begin to understand the spiritual pain that Jesus endured. That's what the cross is.
Then I want to ask you this question. Whose is the cross?
Notice the reference is to “His cross." Whose cross? The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. His cross. Not Buddha's cross. His cross. Not Mohammed's cross. His cross, the Lord Jesus Christ!
This is the One who is the image of the invisible God and the first born of all creation. It’s His cross! The One who planted the seed and let the shoot grow and let the branches and the leaves come out is now nailed to a tree Himself. His cross!
The One who created the oceans and the seas, the rivers and the fountains and the streams is now asking for a drop of water on the cross! You would think that Calvary’s hill would have flooded as every ocean and sea and river and lake in the world would have rushed to quench His thirst. Whose cross? His cross!
The One who made the sun who is now burned by its presence and chilled by its absence. His cross! That's whose the cross is.
I have another question. Why the cross? This verse of Scripture says, "Having made peace by the blood of his cross." That’s the result of the price He paid when He died on the cross.
Sin is the most disruptive, most destructive force in all of human existence. Think about what sin does. At Christmas time it's such a sad thing to see what sin does so rampantly. It tears families apart. It embarrasses people. It results in shame and sorrow.
People don't understand the sacredness and beauty of it all, and they desecrate the lovely name of Christ at Christmas time in all their sinfulness.
It separates people from one another. It separates people from God. Yet, when Jesus died on the cross the Bible said He made peace by the blood of His cross.
David Livingston was one of the pioneer Christian missionaries in Africa. He was negotiating with an African chief who was at war with a neighboring tribe.
Livingston was trying to get him to reconcile with that tribe of people. The chief said, "How can I be at peace with them while they hold my son prisoner?"
You cannot be at peace with God as long as you reject His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way you can really have peace in your heart is to make peace with God through the precious blood that Jesus shed on Calvary's cross.
What is the cross? Whose is the cross? Why the cross?
"Having made peace by the blood of His cross."
But in reality, it wasn’t “His” cross, it was “our” cross. When Jesus was dying on that cross, He was dying for your sins and my sins.
Mine were the hands and yours were the hands that nailed Jesus to the cross. Oh, the price He paid as His blood was shed on Calvary’s cross. ! He made peace with God and peace with man through the blood of the cross.
That's what Christmas means. Christmas means that the Lord Jesus Christ was born, the One who is above the creation. It means that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
But that's not the Christmas secret.
So let me give you
4. The Secret of Christ
Notice verse 27
Notice the word “mystery”. It’s an interesting word. The root of the Greek word is really where we get our word "mum." "Mum’s the word!" A secret is something that is to be kept mum.
But in the New Testament when the Bible talks about a mystery, it means a truth which could not be known unless revealed it.
Verse 26 tells us that all through the ages God had a secret. Now, it says in this day, the New Testament day, He has revealed this secret to His saints, God's people.
In verse 27 he talks about the glory of this mystery.
What is the mystery? What is the Christmas secret? Keep on reading in verse 27 and you find it. "Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
The secret of Christmas is the secret that the same God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is above the creation and is the same God who became a man and was born in Bethlehem's manger, and the same God who went to the cross and died on the cross for our sins lives in us to give us the hope of Glory!
The God who was born. That's God with us. The God who died on the cross. That's God for us.
Now, He will come into the human heart of the saint of God, the heart of the Christian, the person who receives Christ. He will come and live in your heart.
That's the mystery. That's the secret.
Christmas means that the Lord Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem will condescend to be born into your heart.
Think about the marvel of that. I think that may be the most astonishing statement in the whole Bible. God come to live in your heart! Jesus comed to live in your heart! How is that possible? How can the God who is bigger than this universe come and live in a heart?
It's a miracle. It is the miracle of the new birth. It is the miracle that by faith when you turn from your sins and invite Jesus into your heart and life, He comes to live in your heart. If you are saved this morning, Jesus Christ lives in your heart.
That means that you have a solution for the problem of your sinfulness. You say, "I would like to be a Christian if I thought I could live it." Have you ever heard anybody say that? I've got news for you. You can't live it. I have further news for you. I can't live it.
But that's what Christmas means. It means that though you and I can't live it, because of our sinfulness and our weakness, because of our sinful nature and our sinful behavior, if we will invite Jesus into our heart to live, He will give us a brand-new nature. It's a born again nature, the new nature of God. He can improve and change and revolutionize our behavior. It is a solution to the problem of our sinfulness and our weakness.
It's a solution to the problem of your loneliness. Some of you are pretty lonely. Your loved ones have gone on. You find yourself this Christmas without a
mate or a family. But Christmas means that Christ is right there with you. You are never alone if you have Christ.
It also means that Christ is the solution to the
problem of your usefulness. To have Christ in your life means that you have a meaning and a purpose in life. You are useful. You are precious in His sight. You are not unimportant. He has come to live in your heart. No one is useless who has made his heart a home where Christ can be born.
I think one of the most meaningful stores around Christmas I have ever heard was the story that was shared by Jess Moody who for a number of years was pastor of First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach, Florida.
A number of years ago he was attending a benefit dinner for retarded children, $100 a plate benefit dinner. He sat with Mrs. Rose Kennedy that evening. She died at 105 and had probably as much tragedy as any one individual you have ever heard of. Her oldest son killed in the war. Two of her sons were assassinated. As he sat by Mrs. Kennedy that night, she turned to him and said, "Pastor, you may be surprised to know that I'm a born again Christian."
Then she proceeded to give her testimony. She said, "When Joe and I married, it was the social event of that part of the world. The first years were wonderful. Our first boy was born and everything was just wonderful. When our second child was born, she was retarded, and Joe just couldn't handle it.
He turned bitter. He blamed me for it. I turned bitter and cold and turned to drinking and pills. I became a hard, cold individual." One day her maid had displeased her and she said to her maid, "You make me so unhappy." Her maid said to her, "Mrs. Kennedy, you will never be happy until you make your heart a manger where Jesus can be born."
She fired the maid in a rage. Then she said at two forty-five that morning she woke up and thought about how miserable and cold and empty her life was. She said she got down on her knees and said, "Lord Jesus, I want to make my heart a manger for You to be born." And she said, "I was born again."
What some of you need this morning is to turn your heart into a manger where Jesus can be born.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
