Why Do Christians Celebrate Christmas?

My daughter says that Christmas is demonic.

What do you think? Well, Merry Christmas! This is Core Christianity. I'm Bill Meyer along with Adriel Sanchez. What an interesting question to start off with. We appreciate you so much, just all the great listeners that have called in during the past year. It's such a blessing to us, Adriel, just how many people call in and say that this program has helped them to grow in their faith.

Absolutely, absolutely. It's a gift to us, truly, and I pray that the Lord gives us many more years of being able to encourage people and share the Word of God, because it really is amazing to see the fruit that's being yielded. Well, if you're listening here on Christmas Day, our phone lines are open. You can leave a voicemail for us at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We're open to your questions about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it.

You can also email us at questions-at-core-christianity.com. We should mention that Adriel has a nice little Christmas tree in the studio with him. It's actually not a real tree, and we're both Adriel and I are kind of real tree guys, but we couldn't get a real tree in the studio because, I guess, fire code or whatever. That's right, yeah. I wanted a 10-footer, that kind of a thing, and the producer just said, it's not going to happen.

Who's going to clean that up? So, maybe next year, send us a Christmas tree if you're listening to this, and we'll try to convince our producer. So, let's get to one of our voicemails.

This one came in from a listener named Jennifer. I was recently diagnosed with PTSD. I've recently found out that I've always been a people pleaser, and I need to understand more that how people's free will can overburden other people, and where does Jesus live in my heart with the free will? And I just feel I have no free will, and everyone else's free will is put on me, and I just need clarity just to understand what's really going on.

Thank you, that's right. Okay, well, Jennifer, let me just take a moment on this Christmas Day to pray for you. I can tell that you're overwhelmed, you're burdened.

It sounds like you're burdened in part by other people and the demands they're placing upon your life, and a struggle to people please to do what they say, or a struggle just to not be able to say no. So let's take a moment to pray for Jennifer, brothers and sisters. Lord, we lift our sister up to you. We come before you right now, Lord, and we ask that you would help Jennifer not to live for the praise of people, for the demands of people, Lord, but to live for your glory, to be set free from people pleasing, Lord, and to live her life before your eyes, to be able to say no, Lord God.

And Father, especially today on this Christmas Day, would you encourage our sister, would you strengthen her, would you draw her closer to you, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. It sounds like there are a number of things, Jennifer, going on here, but you did mention people pleasing and this sense of being overwhelmingly burdened. Some of us, we really struggle with that, with not being able to say no. We always have to please others.

We're trying to put on a show, maybe so that they'll like us. There are any number of reasons why we wrestle with this, but you really need to be set free, delivered from that burden. It's not a burden that God places upon you. You're called to live for the glory and honor and praise of one, and that's the Lord. One of the things we often miss in the Gospels is that one of the big problems that the religious leaders had, that the Pharisees had, was the problem of people pleasing, of doing the things that they did, the good works that they did even, quote unquote, for the praise of others. They wanted other people to see them, to praise them. They just were infatuated with being liked by others, so much so that the Son of God, God himself is there before them, and they don't care about what he has to say. They want the praise of men. Jesus said this very clearly to them in John 5, verse 44.

How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? What we need in our lives, brothers and sisters, is to seek the glory that comes from the only God, to be able to say no. Maybe you've heard this before, but when you say no to someone else, you're opening up the door to say yes to something.

Every time we say yes to something else as well, we're also saying no. When I think about this as a minister, if I said yes to every single request that came to me, I'd also be saying no to my family at times, my kids. So we have to be really careful here, because we can become so enslaved to others and their demands that we don't take heed to what God calls us to. And so may God be with you, may God free you to see you don't have to live like that, under the demands of others, and may God help you to live for the glory of Christ. And Bill, I know just as a counselor, I'm sure that you have some insight here that could be helpful for our sister.

What would you say to her? First of all, I think it's always important to remember your free will ends where my free will begins. We have to have boundaries in our lives.

And probably, and you pointed this out, where does this come from in her life and in Jennifer's life? Chances are, if you look back at childhood, Jennifer, you will find that you had a significant other, maybe a mom or a dad, who withheld their love from you if you didn't go along with what they had to say or what they wanted you to do. And you were punished overtly or actually abused. And so now, as an adult, you don't want to do anything that could rock the boat with anybody in your life because you remember that terrible pain of being either hurt physically or emotionally or having love withheld from you. And what Adriel said is there's only one person you need to please, and that is your Heavenly Father. And your Heavenly Father doesn't want you abused by others or taken advantage of by others. And so you don't need to say yes to their demands or their requests.

You can consider them. And in some cases, you may say yes, and in other cases, you may say no. And that's going to shock a lot of people in your life because, chances are, they're used to you saying yes to every demand, every request, and now it's time, with God's strength, with the Holy Spirit's power, to stand up and say no.

Yeah, and you know what? Sometimes that's the godly thing to say is no, because we can get ourselves so caught up in all of these commitments that we've made that we do things poorly. You can't please everyone. And rather than try to please everyone and then end up upsetting a lot of people, we have to say, Lord, what does it look like for me to please you in this situation, to be conscious of my own capabilities, not to have such a high view of myself that I think I can actually do it all? And that's one of the other issues. I think beneath this, there can be a pride that is not honoring to the Lord. I know we're trying to sort of unpack, you know, where is this stemming from?

It could be things that happen in childhood. It could also be just sinful pride that says, I can do it all. Well, we can't, brothers and sisters, and if we try, we're going to be so overwhelmed and frustrated, and that's where we can be set free and say, okay, God, I really only have to, what I need to focus on is pleasing you, Lord. And that might mean saying no, even to things that seem good.

And God help me, give me the wisdom and the ability to do that. Well said. Well, Merry Christmas from all of us here at CORE Christianity. We had a question come in from James in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it's a good one. He says, Why did the Magi give baby Jesus frankincense, gold, and myrrh? Those seem random to me.

Hmm. Well, it seems, I think, like in the New Testament, that this is really echoing something that we find in the Psalms. In Psalm 72, for example, this is a text that sometimes gets brought up in the context of the gifts of the Magi, but it's really highlighting the identity of who this one is as the king, really, of God's people, the king of God's people, and the ruler of Jews and Gentiles. So Psalm 72, verse 10, really interesting text, it says, May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute.

Now, who's it talking about here? It's talking about the Messianic king. If you go back a little bit, in verse eight, it says, May he have dominion from sea to sea and from river, from the river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust, desert tribes being the Gentiles.

You're getting echoes of Psalm 2 also, you know, God's Messianic king, his ruler ruling over the whole world. May the nations come and bring him tribute. May the kings of Tarshish again and of the coastlands render him tribute. May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him. For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.

He has pity on the weak and needy and saves the lives of the needy. This is the great king of kings and lord of lords, the Messiah, the one who was born, and the kings of the earth are bringing him tribute, gold, frankincense, myrrh. You also have, maybe there with some of that, a picture of death.

So here he is at his birth, but oftentimes some of these spices were used in the context of embalming. And so even here at his birth, a sort of foreshadowing of who he was going to be, what he was going to need. He's come to bear the sins of the world, and so I think that there's something there. But especially on this Christmas day, let me just say, this king of kings, the eternal son of God who was born of the womb of the virgin Mary, for us to redeem us, he is the one who has pity on the weak and needy. And maybe that's how you feel, even today on Christmas, weak and needy, broken, on a day that for many is a time of celebration, maybe this day is a day of sorrow. For one reason or another, let me encourage you to go to this king, to render him tribute, to offer him yourself, your heart, and to know that he has pity on the weak. He delivers the needy when the needy calls to him, the poor, and him who has no helper, maybe you feel like you have no one in this world who will help you, turn to Jesus, the king of kings and Lord of lords who has pity on the poor and the needy and who hears when you cry to him. That's what Christmas is all about, calling upon the name of the Lord. And if you're in that situation today, God is calling you right now to trust him, to accept him, to ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior and Lord and guide in your life. And so well said.

And you know what? We would encourage you, if you don't have a Bible, pick up a Bible, start with the Gospel of John and find out who Jesus Christ is and what he's calling you to do. Bill, I'm glad just through that question we had the opportunity to bring that up because on days like this, really days of celebration, days of joy for so many of us, time with family, but there are a lot of people who mourn, who grieve, who feel loss more acutely on a day like this. And so it's important to remember that and to talk about really the hope that we have through Christmas, the hope for the poor, the needy, for those who feel lonely.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Merry Christmas to you and your family. And if you are a regular listener to Core Christianity and you feel that God might be prompting you to make a gift to this ministry, that would be such a blessing to us, especially maybe a year-end gift as we come up on the end of the year. A lot of people make charitable gifts to different organizations that they believe in. And again, if you believe strongly in what we do, sharing the gospel, sharing the truth of God's word every day on the radio, you can join our inner Core, a great group of people who make it a monthly donation to Core Christianity. Yes, it's a monthly donation of $25 or more, and I would just add to what Bill has already said. For those of you especially, if you've been encouraged by this broadcast, by the work that we're doing, if you're growing in your own relationship with the Lord and in your understanding of Scripture, would you consider joining the inner Core?

Again, it's a monthly gift of $25 or more, but it does more than just help us. It's a way of partnering with us to continue to get the word out. And as a thank you for joining the inner Core, we'll send you a copy of the book, Core Christianity, which is an excellent introduction to some of the cardinal truths of the Christian faith, the core doctrines that we're often talking about on the broadcast, but that, frankly, a lot of Christians don't really understand. And so thank you to all of our inner Core members, and we'd love to have some of you who aren't join the inner Core. Once again, to join the inner Core, just go to corechristianity.com forward slash inner Core, corechristianity.com forward slash inner Core, and we'd love to have you consider again making a year-end gift to this ministry.

You can find out more at our website. Love to have you part of that wonderful group of folks. Well, we do receive voicemails here at Core Christianity, and here's one that's really appropriate for today. It came in from one of our listeners named Charlotte.

My question is, my daughter and I are having a heated debate over celebrating Jesus' birth at Christmas time. She says that's demonic. I say it isn't.

Could you please give me an answer to resolve this? I thank you very much. Goodbye. All right.

I always love to settle family debates on the broadcast, especially when it has to do with something like this, and so maybe you can share this answer with your daughter. Here's what I would say. One, no, I don't think it's demonic. Now, can the Christmas season and the celebration of Christmas become something that's demonic, become all about consumerism and money?

Can that take over? Yeah, tragically, and for many, I think it has, and so that, we could say, there's something wrong with that. That doesn't honor the Lord. That can be demonic, but if we're talking about praising God and joining the choir of angels who celebrated, if you will, at the word of Christ's birth, because the Son of God had entered into the world to redeem sinners, we should give thanks to God for that. It's at the heart of what God has done to redeem mankind. At the heart of the Gospel, really, that the Son of God and Second Person of the Holy Trinity had to assume human flesh, humanity, for us, to restore us, mankind fallen through sin, and so this really is God's rescue mission of sinners, and that's worth celebrating. That's worth saying, God, thank you.

It's worth marveling at. I mean, I think of the incarnation of our Lord, one of these great mysteries of the faith, and I'm just overwhelmed with, wow. You can't even wrap your mind around God Himself assuming humanity from the womb of the Virgin Mary, this great miracle, this great mystery, for what? For us, and for our salvation.

It should cause us to marvel, and it should cause us to worship. I think of what the Apostle Paul said in the book of Galatians in Galatians 4, verses 4 and 5. As the hours of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Because this Son, the eternal Son of God, has come into the world, we can be made adopted sons of God the Father, sons and daughters, through what Jesus has done for us, and again, that is worth celebrating and praising God for. The good things that we celebrate can be twisted, and maybe that's what your daughter is referring to, but we should marvel, not just at this time of the year but throughout the year, at what God has done for us and His Son Jesus to redeem us.

Amen. This is Core Christianity, and by the way, if this is the very first time you've heard the Core here on Christmas Day, we want to mention that this program is on Monday through Friday, 1130 a.m. Pacific time, the live version. Translate that into your own time zone, so 1130 a.m. Pacific, 1230 Mountain, 130 Central, 230 Eastern time, and then some radio stations actually air this program at a later time. We'd love to hear your question, and you can always call and leave us a voicemail anytime, even today on Christmas Day. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Matt calling in from California. Matt, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi, thanks for taking my call. My question is, how important is it for a Christian to believe in the virgin birth? I'm a Christian, I've accepted Jesus into my heart, but I'm just having a tough time understanding this. Thank you.

Matt, thank you for that question. So how important is this? I would say it's very important, and in part because it's, one, central to God's revelation, what God has revealed about His Son coming into the world. There have been some who have looked at that text in Isaiah 7 and said, well, this is not referring to a virgin birth, this is just a young maiden or something like that. But when you look at the Gospels, the passages that quote that text in Isaiah 7, it seems to me very clear that what's being communicated is that this is not just some young lady, this is a woman who had never been with a man.

I mean, that's part of a miracle. One thing that's interesting, by the way, is throughout the Old Testament you have this sort of theme of barren women giving birth to a great redeemer of God's people. Even with Elizabeth, prior to, or closest to, I would say, the birth of Christ, Elizabeth isn't able to have children until all the fun she conceives and gives birth to John the Baptist. And then in the Old Testament you see this as well over and over again. You think of Abraham's wife, Sarah, and many other instances where you have these barren women who are giving birth to these great redeemers or saviors of God's people, quote unquote.

Same thing with Samson in the Old Testament, for example, in the book of Judges. Well, here you have the most barren woman of all, if you will, a virgin. Impossible for her to get or to have a child, and yet she gives birth to the greatest savior of all. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. This took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. There it is again.

It's just so clear. This is a virgin birth, and he called his name Jesus, Jesus who came to save his people from their sins. But one of the reasons so many people reject this, Matt, is because it is such a miracle. And the folks who have the hardest time with passages like this are those who deny the reality of miracles.

And I think there's a slippery slope argument to be made here. I don't really like those arguments, but I think I would make one here. When we start rejecting the miracles that we see in the Bible, minimizing God's ability, God's power, trying to be, well, you know, Jesus didn't really walk on water, there was a sandbar there, or Mary wasn't really a virgin. However we're doing this, it communicates a real lack of faith, a lack of belief in the omnipotence and power of God. And if we're going to begin undermining these miracles, denying them when they're so clearly taught in the scriptures, it's not long before we start saying things like, well, Jesus didn't really bodily raise from the dead. You know, that was more spiritual. That was just a story, a nice story for us to follow, to grab some lessons from.

No, Jesus, the Son of God, really was born of a virgin, and he really did live and suffer and die and rise again from the dead to save us from our sins. Those miracles matter. God bless. Go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.