A Holy Christmas, Part 2

People want a Christmas without Christ, but get the benefits of Christmas all year long. Dr. Tony Evans says candy canes, gift giving, and good cheer are perfectly fine, but if we leave out the Lord, we've missed the point of Christmas. You can say Merry Christmas all you want, but unless Jesus is the reason for the season, you wind up with another day off from work.

This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. I would like to say to all of our friends on behalf of our whole ministry a very, very Merry Christmas. As you enjoyed food, fellowship, family, and friends, make the most of this time to be reminded about the real meaning of Christmas, and that is, God become man so that men could connect with God. That's really what Christmas is all about. So have a very, very Merry Christmas. And to help you celebrate the reason for this season and strengthen your connection with God, Dr. Evans will take us back to where it all started on that first Christmas in Bethlehem. Let's join him as he gives us a look at what was going on at the time. There were some interesting scenarios when Jesus was born.

Maybe you can identify with one of them. Number one, according to Luke chapter 2, there was so much partying going on in Bethlehem, there was no room for Him in the end. So many people, so much activity, so many festivities, so much concern about census and passing new tax codes. There was just no spot for Jesus because too much was going on.

Or perhaps you can identify with this one. King Herod said, where is he in Matthew chapter 2 that I might go and worship him all the time knowing he wanted to kill him? See, the problem with Herod is there wasn't room for two kings. He can't be king and Jesus be king.

One of us has got to go. But he used worship as the excuse to get rid of him. See, a lot of folks use Sunday as an excuse to get rid of Jesus all week long. They don't want him ruling their lives, but they want to pay what appears to be legitimate homage to them.

Because there's only one place for a king, and that is me being my own king, not him being king over me. But they'll still talk worship. Or perhaps you would think like the religious leaders of the day because in Matthew chapter 2, it says that they told the wise men where he would be born. They quoted the prophecy of Micah 5-2, which said hundreds of years before Jesus was born that he would be born in the microscopic town of Bethlehem. So these leaders knew the Bible but never made the trip. They quoted Micah 5-2 but never went to meet the Savior themselves because it's easy to quote the Bible and do nothing with it.

It's easy if you've been around it long enough to know it and it not help you. So these religious leaders could quote the Scripture and it had no effect on their life, on their decision, on their choices. And so there were different reactions to the birth of Christ. But I want to look at four specific responses to the birth of Christ as recorded in Luke chapter 2, just four things that ought to call your attention to him in a fresh way.

In Luke chapter 2, the first thing that we see in verse 11, it says, For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. So the first reason you need Christmas is because you need to be saved. To be saved means to be delivered from something. The word saved means deliverance or rescued. The reason God sent Jesus is to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. Sin has separated man from God. And because God is perfect, he cannot lower his standards just because he loves us. And because we're imperfect, no matter how good we are, we can't meet the standards of a perfect God.

So we needed to be saved. When I was in school, I loved it when the teacher said, They're going to grade a test on the curve. Oh, that made my day because if I didn't do good on the test and knew that they would curve the grade, given the fact that everybody had failed, it became good news that I would be delivered by the teacher from my failure. But every now and then there'd be one nerd in the classroom. A nerd is a weird, smart person. There would be this nerd in the classroom who would make a hundred and mess up the curve.

Everybody hated the nerd because his presence didn't let us get away with our failure. His presence reminded us because now the teacher would not grade on the curve because the standard had been met by another. There was only one person in human history who's met the perfect standard of a holy God.

So God can't grade you on the curve. He cannot reduce his standard to our level of sinfulness. But what he will do is allow us to have a savior. And that's why Jesus came.

He came to rescue us. He came to deliver us from sin, from circumstances caused by that sin, and from the worst thing of all, death. Did you know that the good news of the gospel means you never get to die?

Jesus told Mary in John chapter 11, he said to her, He that believeth in me shall never die. So the worst thing you can think of in the physical life, physical death, will never happen to the believer, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. You get delivered from the thing we fear most, death.

Because we have a savior, a rescuer, and all who place faith alone in Christ alone are given the gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins so that they are saved by a savior who is Christ the Lord. So one of the benefits of Christmas and the most important one is salvation. Now, salvation ought to lead to celebration.

Because we're told in verse 10, do not be afraid. Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people. That's celebration. Celebration because there's good news. There's a lot of bad news out here.

You read your newspaper and there's bad news every day and the news only gets worse. Well, I got some good news. Because Jesus was born on a bad day, in a bad time, in bad circumstances. And he says, I've got good news and this good news will make you want to shout because it gives you joy.

Joy in the Bible was always associated with celebration. Good news, even if you're having a bad day. And some days can be really bad. It makes me think of a doctor who called his patient in after he'd gotten his test results. He said to him, well, I got your test results back and I got bad news and I got really bad news. He said, well, what's the bad news? The bad news is based on these test results, you only have one day left to live. He said, that's the bad news? He said, yeah. Well, what's the really bad news?

I should have called you yesterday. Because sometimes the news is bad and other times it's like really bad. But I'm here to declare to you today some good news. I'm here even to celebrate joy and that is the birth of Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel that he brings that even if you're at a bad stage in a bad time and in a bad circumstance, he can give you joy in the midst of your madness and your mess.

So you can live with good news on a bad day if you really understand what Christmas is all about. So he offers salvation, celebration, and that led to a marvelous worship. It says in verse 13, And suddenly they appeared with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest.

All heaven broke out in worship at the presence of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is what I like to call the celebrity of the universe. We live in a day of saccharine celebrities, celebrity substitutes. People have a name because of their talent, their skill, their money, their presence, their power, all of which can be reduced to ashes in life and will be reduced to ashes at the end of life. So they're celebrity substitutes.

But we got some real sugar here. Worthy of praise, if you're going to give an Oscar to anybody. There's only one superstar of the universe, and that is Jesus Christ, who alone deserves the accolades and the glory that heaven offers. Because it says, glory to God in the highest. It's Jesus all by himself. He is glory to God in the highest. So no name is to be put beside Jesus's name because he is in a class all by himself. And at the birth of Jesus, it says, heaven broke out in worship and gave glory to God. Verse 14 says, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men.

Reconciliation, in other words, the answering of conflict. Dr. Evans will have more about peace on earth and what the birth of Jesus Christ really means for each of us when he continues our message in just a moment. First though, I want to encourage you to check out his brand new CD collection, The Best of Tony Evans 2020.

It contains 20 of his most hard-hitting, life-changing lessons of the past year, including messages on experiencing the power of God, coping with crisis, beating worry and anxiety, and living a life that matters. And right now, we're offering this collection as our gift to you when you come alongside Tony's ministry and make a year-end contribution. And for a limited time, when you make that donation, we'll also send you a popular devotional book from Tony that can help you understand how your passion and purpose are linked and how your obedience to God can make your calling clear. Called for a Purpose and The Best of Tony Evans 2020, yours with our thanks when you visit tonyevans.org and make a donation, but only through next week, so plan to make a contribution right away. And here's Dr. Evans with a word about why we're so grateful for your support. Paul regularly thanked those who came alongside of him who undergirded him with their generosity for the ministry God had called him to do. Well, we are doing the same. We praise our God for the friends that He's raised up who not only are blessed and benefit from the ministry, but who help sustain it through their generous financial contributions. So we thank God for you. If you're not one of those who come alongside yet, would you consider this being a great time to start?

Why? Because as we close out the year, we want to end the year in the black and we want to start the new year strong, but it takes friends and generosity to do that. We want to thank God for you because you have been used of God to keep us going. You are the wind beneath our wings. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your generous year and contributions.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Our hearts are grateful for your generosity. Please visit us at tonyevans.org and let us know we can count on your help and we can send you the best of Tony Evans 2020, as well as his popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center never closes, so don't wait. Again, dial 1-800-800-3222. Well, now let's get back to today's message.

Here's Dr. Evans. The opposite of peace is conflict. And we live in a world of all kinds of conflict. First of all, we live in a world when people are in conflict with themselves. Because if you can't get along with you, everybody else is in trouble. And then we have relational conflict with one another, whether it's in the home or at work, and we lack peace. And then there is all manner of social conflict.

The racial problem appears to get worse and worse, and the class divide continues to grow, and the political fissure continues to separate people and parties, and there is no peace. And yet it says Jesus came to offer reconciliation, people being able to get along with themselves, with others. And in a world where people are divided, that Christmas at the center of it is to give peace, and he says it is to give peace among men, people being able to answer the question, can we all get along? We've got a little reprieve for a few days, because it's Christmas.

The folk will be singing songs of celebration, joy to the world. They will, at this point in time, do what is in Luke 2. But come post-Christmas and post-January 1, the lights will go out, the trees will be taken down, size 38 will become size 42, and we will enter back into this world of confusion and conflict, which is just the opposite of what Jesus came to give.

But what went wrong then, and what is going wrong now? He actually answers it in verse 14. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men, and we cannot leave out the verse with whom he is pleased. You see, people want a Christmas without Christ. They want to displease God, but get the benefits of Christmas all year long. They want to make God unhappy while God makes them happy.

They want to sing God bless America while America refuses to bless God. And when God is not pleased, because Jesus has been relegated to the sideline, worship has become an event and not an orientation to life. Pleasing him does not become our goal. Then the thing he came to give, you don't get. You don't get the harmony, you don't get the good news experience. All you wind up with is a holiday and not a holy day.

You wind up with a moment, not an orientation to life. If you want what Christmas is designed to give, it says it is offered to those who please him. Which means my orientation, your orientation, and our orientation must be as a way of life as we approach the new year to say with Paul that I might please him. And that means that I want to live my life in such a way that his truth is controlling my decisions.

That I am living to please him. And as a result of living to please him, the benefits of Christmas become the benefits of you. So many people this holiday season will be like the Christmas boxes outside of my home. You were to drive by the front steps, you would say it's Christmas.

But what you have to know about those boxes is that they're all empty. But they look the part. People all over the nation will look the part. They'll go to church, they'll put on their red and green colors. They'll say Merry Christmas, they'll have up their Christmas tree. They may read the Christmas story, but there'll be no Jesus. And if there is no Jesus, that's called fake news. That's fake Christmas. It's not the real thing. No Jesus, no real Christmas.

You can give it whatever name you want. You can say Merry Christmas, all you want. But unless Jesus is the reason for the season, you wind up with another day off from work.

And so the challenge today is to turn Christmas into what it was designed to be. The recognition of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, you have a one of a kind person. Humanity and deity wielded together without mixing so that he would be fully God and fully man in one person. And because he's God, he can reach down.

Because he's man, he can reach up. Because he's both, he can take us with him and connect us to a holy God. So don't let this Christmas find you without Christ. First of all, as your savior, and then following to please him as your Lord. And if you will do that, if you will come to Christ, he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him, simply by an act of faith, placing faith alone in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins and for the gift of eternal life, he promises him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.

He wants to give you the reality of himself, if you will come and accept him as your personal sin bearer. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a final thought to wrap up this Christmas Day message. If you'd like to get your personal copy of this lesson for yourself or to share with a friend or family member, you can visit TonyEvans.org and request the title, A Holy Christmas. And while you're there, don't forget that special year-end offer I mentioned earlier today, the brand new audio compilation called The Best of Tony Evans 2020, a giant assortment of Tony's most requested messages of the past year, and Tony's popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. They're both yours as our thank you gift when you make a year-end contribution toward the ministry of the alternative. Dr. Evans is reaching out across the country and around the world through radio, TV, training and equipping events, resources, and more. But it's all supported completely by friends just like you who believe in Tony's ministry and want to help keep his teaching on the station.

People often assume that somebody else is going to step up and meet needs like this. But if we're going to end 2020 strong and kick off the new year with all of our outreaches up and running, we need to hear from you. Please get in touch with us right away and let Tony know he can count on your help. You can donate online at TonyEvans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

Either way, we'll send you the special year-end thank you gift, 20 Lessons in the Best of Tony Evans 2020, as well as his popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Again, that's TonyEvans.org. Or let one of our team members help you by calling 1-800-800-3222 any time of the day or night. Our resource center never closes.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. On Monday, Dr. Evans will explain there are two parts to revival. And being only half-revived doesn't get the job done. Right now, though, he's back to close out today's Christmas message with this important thought for you. If there's any question about whether you possess eternal life and the forgiveness of sin, I want you to go to Christ right now and say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior. I believe you came in the world to be my Savior, that you died on the cross for my sin, that you rose from the dead for my salvation. And because I now receive you as my personal substitute, believing your promise to give me eternal life and to forgive my sin, I claim you now as my Savior. And may I move forward in a way that will make it my lifestyle to be pleasing to you so that I can have Christmas every day. .