Hanukkah, Christmas, & Krampus, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Otz, and I'm glad you joined us today for this special holiday message, Hanukkah and Christmas versus Krampus. That's right, we all know about the miracle of Hanukkah and the incarnation of Christmas. But are you aware of the demonic darkness that is invading the sanctity of the Gospel story, mocking the birth of Messiah with evil glee?

This is the pagan god Krampus, and he could be coming to a town near you. Christ in us, the hope of glory. And when Jesus comes, everything, I mean everything changes.

Changes for here and now and changes for all eternity when you receive him. Let's begin this morning in the book of John chapter 9, the Gospel of John in chapter 9, and we'll start with verse 1. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. Not only blind, but born blind. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me while it is yet day. The night comes when no man can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He, being the blind man, went his way therefore and washed and came seeing, came seeing. So the disciples saw this blind man and they asked the question, you know, whose fault is it that he was born blind, his or his parents?

Whose sin is the reason for this? Because it was a Jewish concept. And may I say still is a Jewish concept that sickness comes because of a person's sins. That's what they believed. And as you can see, it's expressed here.

Amen. But Jesus was saying there are situations where it has nothing to do with personal sin, had nothing to do with his parents personal sin or his personal sin. Now, there are times when sickness comes because of sin, but there are times when sickness comes because of sin in general. Because when Adam sinned, he brought a curse on mankind. And now we have millennia that have gone by and that curse has just been multiplied as it were. And so we have diseases and things that get worse, it seems like, with every generation because the gene pool of mankind is becoming more and more corrupted. And I'm talking about physical now, not sin.

Amen. Bad genes are being passed on. And, you know, every once in a while they manifest. But Jesus was saying, no, it's not for this cause or this reason, but that the glory of God, the works of God may be manifest. Do not misunderstand this to mean that Jesus said God made this guy be born blind so that later on he could heal him and get glory out of it.

That is not what he's saying. What he's saying is in spite of the fact that this man was born blind, God is going to use it to glorify his name. Amen. And then he said this powerful statement in verse 5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Amen. And then as if he was going to prove what he just said, he made clay and took it and put his own spit on it and made something like a paste and put it on the guy's eyes. And said, now you go and wash your eyes. And he came back seeing so many things are happening here. First of all, Jesus was going to demonstrate I'm the light of the world because the light of the body is the eyes. He was going to bring a man who had been in darkness his entire life out of darkness into light. Proving I am the light of the world because John 1 5 says he is the true light that lights every man that comes into the world. So Jesus just proved what he just said.

I'm the light of the world. And then he used his spit to make this clay paste. And it's not in your Bible, but the Jews believed that Messiah would have healing in his spit. So for all of those Jewish dissenters that would not receive him as Messiah, he just proved one of those messianic signs. And another one that they believe that Messiah would do is he would not only heal a blind person, but heal somebody born blind.

So Jesus just stacked the deck against the devil. Amen. And he did a creative miracle by healing this man who was born blind.

And I believe a creative miracle. I am led to think that perhaps maybe the guy didn't even have eyeballs because he went and stuck mud in there. Amen. Showing that just like he made Adam out of the mud and the dust and the dirt he could create in this man who was probably missing eyeballs.

Eyeballs. Amen. Now this created a huge uproar.

Well of course it would. Somebody just got an awesome miracle. Let's everybody get happy and rejoice and praise God.

Well it wasn't that kind of uproar that it created. The Pharisees got angry and stumbled because it was the Sabbath day. Completely dismissing this awesome creative miracle and the joy that man must have had. Can you imagine going and dipping down in the water and cleaning the mud out and for the first time in his entire life he could see. We need to understand that not only would he have the ability to see, but he had to also have the ability to see with perception. Because all of the sudden he'd be looking and he would be falling down everywhere because all of a sudden you can see and you don't understand depth perception because that's something that you have. I mean you can see before you can walk.

Do you understand what I'm saying? You look around and your brain starts developing distance and ratio and all before a toddler at one years old starts walking. And here is a grown man and all of a sudden he opens his eyes and he's going to walk.

He'd be walking like a drunk. It was a miraculous miracle. But what did the Pharisees do?

They got angry. And they kept asking, how did he heal you? How did he heal you? And the man told him over and over again how that he laid hands on me and he put dirt in my eyes and he told me to go wash and I came back seeing. He didn't even know at that point that it was Jesus. He didn't know who it was that did it.

Amen. And so they just kept harassing him. How did he do this? And finally he said, you know what?

All I know is I was blind and now I see. So what they did was they sent for his parents. Now he's not a child. He's not a teenager. This is a grown man.

An adult. But they sent for his parents. They wanted to make sure that he was actually born blind. And his parents came, but they were quite intimidated. They were intimidated standing before these Pharisees and religious leaders.

And they were keeping their answers really short. They told him this much we know. We know he was born blind. And he's been blind his entire life. How he sees right now, we don't know. You should ask him. He's of age. He's a grown man.

You ask him how he sees. We'll vouch for the fact he was born blind and we can't say anything beyond that. Amen. And so they called the blind man back again. And of course he said, I'll tell you this. I was blind but now I see.

And you think it's such a marvelous thing that now I can see. Let's drop down to verse 24 just to get the real feeling of it. Then called they the man that was blind and said unto him, now give God the praise. We know this man is a sinner.

They knew Jesus was a sinner. I mean when the devil doesn't like you, he's going to call you all kinds of names. Amen. If they called Jesus Christ a sinner because he healed a blind man, I know we get upset when people call us names.

When they call us really mean names, we get upset. Amen. It hasn't been too long ago someone called me a reprobate and I got upset about it. But you know I read here they call Jesus a sinner so I'm in good company.

Amen. They said give God the praise because we know this man is a sinner. And he answered and said whether he be a sinner or not, I know not. One thing I do know, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him, these people will not let up, what did he do to you? How opened he your eyes? He answered them, I have told you already and you did not hear. Wherefore will you hear it again? Will you also be his disciples?

Oh wow. Then they reviled him. Ever been reviled?

I know what it's like to be reviled. Then they reviled him and said you are his disciple but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke unto Moses but as for this fellow, now this is a slur, it's a slander, it's a put down. As for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. And the blind man answered and said why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is and yet he opened my eyes. He's on a roll. He says now we know that God hears not sinners but if any man be a worshiper of God and does his will, him he hears.

Uh oh. He's given it back to him. Amen. This guy, you're calling this fellow? Well this fellow is a worshiper of God obviously and does God's will because God heard his prayer. And since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind?

If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, you were altogether born in sins and do you teach us? And they cast him out. And see what I just read there, it confirms what I said earlier that they believed that the condition was from sin.

So they're saying you were born in sin. If you weren't, you wouldn't have been born blind. And they threw him out.

Amen. And so I love how the blind man was so bold. You know, think about it because they intimidated his parents. And his parents, they said very little and got out of there. And think about how down the road Peter is going to deny Jesus three times around these guys. But this blind man stood up boldly. Amen.

Now think about this. They had absolutely no compassion on him. They didn't care about his situation. They didn't care about this man who had been blind for his entire life.

They had no joy over his miracle and his healing. Instead, they were infuriated and threw him out of the synagogue. But let me tell you folks, the issue did not die down. It was a huge debate. And some were saying Jesus was of God and he had to be and others were saying he wasn't. Let's look over to chapter 10 and look at verse 19.

There was a division, therefore, among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, he has a devil and is mad. Why are you listening to him?

Why do you hear him? Others said, these are not the words of him that has the devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

So we have this huge debate that's going on, arguments between different people. In the meantime, they had thrown the blind man out of the temple and who knows what he was doing. He's probably going out there seeing birds and trees and flowers. I mean, he was doing a tour of Jerusalem.

Amen? And so while they're arguing and going back and forth, Jesus just went his way. I want you to pay attention that it says it was at Jerusalem. We know it was in the temple.

It was the feast of dedication and it was winter. Do you know what the Hebrew word is for dedication? Anyone know what the Hebrew word for dedication is? Okay, I don't see any hands.

I will tell you. It is Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for dedication. And Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration.

It's going on right now. It started at sundown last Sunday and it will run to sundown tomorrow because it's for eight days. It's also called Hanukkah. It's called the feast of dedication. It's called the festival of lights. It's celebrated in winter and it usually always coincides with the month of December and often overlaps Christmas.

Not every time, but sometimes. Because, remember, they're going by a different calendar. Jesus chose this festival, Hanukkah, the festival of lights, to demonstrate and to declare, I am the light of the world.

Amen? He said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world. I want you to consider this great contest of light and darkness and the context in which it took place. Jesus used this festival of lights to heal this blind man, bring him out of darkness and into light, and to declare to everyone that was buzzing and buzzing about this miracle, I am the light of the world. And when he said that, there was a menorah, a nine candlestick menorah, not the normal seven candlestick menorah that was always in the temple, but a special one that was only used for Hanukkah. It had nine lights. This menorah that was at least five foot tall was standing there with nine blazing candles, burning brightly when Jesus said, Ha olam, I am the light of the world. So to better appreciate the impact that it would have had on those people, we have to look at this special celebration of Hanukkah.

And you may know some of it, but some of you may not. First of all, we found out it takes place in winter and it lasts for eight days. It's usually in December. It is not one of the feasts of the Lord that God gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel that they were to keep forever every year. It is not in the Bible. The reason why it's not in the Bible is because it occurred during the intertestamental period, the 400 years between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament. And how many know that during that time, the heavens were silent. There were no prophets receiving words from God.

The heavens were silent. And this occurred during that time. The rebellion of Israel by this time when we get to Malachi, we know that both Israel and Judah had gone into captivity. There were no kings sitting on the throne.

Amen? Because of their idolatry and their rebellion, God allowed them to go into captivity to the Assyrians and the Babylonians. About halfway between this period of 400 years, around 165 years into that period, Alexander the Great conquered the known world. And he was a Greek. And it began what is called Hellenization. Hellenization. And don't think of Hell, the place of fire and brimstone.

It's not what it means. Helen is a Greek word. And it included Greek culture, Greek mythology, Greek religion, Greek language, all things Greek. Because after all, he had conquered most of the world, especially east of the Mediterranean. He had conquered all that. And wherever he conquered, they brought in Greek culture, Greek language, Greek teachings, et cetera.

Amen? Now, Alexander only lived to be 33 years old. He died young, and he died of diseases that were brought on from sexual diseases like syphilis.

And he was a genius, and he was definitely a genius at warfare. But when he died, they split the kingdom up among four of his generals. And one of his generals, Seleucus, was given the portion of the kingdom that included the land of Israel. And so gradually, the people of Israel, the Jewish people, they began to speak Greek instead of Hebrew. And they gradually began to leave their covenant with God and began to embrace the pagan culture of the Greeks and of the Grecian Empire. And when Seleucus first became the ruler over this part of the world, it wasn't long after, I don't know exactly how long after, that his son took over.

And his son's name was Antiochus. Amen. What a truly eye-opening word of the Lord. Hanukkah and Christmas versus Krampus. The miracle of Hanukkah is a warning to all Christians what can happen if we allow political liberalism and evangelistic inclusivism, put out the light of gospel truth. It is also an inspiration to rally us to stand against the infiltration of godlessness and paganism in America. When you take a stand for God, He will stand with you and for you.

The Maccabees' cry was, who is like you, O Lord, among the mighty? And God intervened to chase the enemy out of Jerusalem. The incarnation of the Son of God is why we celebrate Christmas.

It's not just a particular day on the calendar, but the miracle of redemption when the Word of God became flesh and dwelt amongst us. But not only has this holiday been secularized by the world, snuffing out every inference of Jesus Christ, it is now becoming demonized by a new generation of atheistic scorners who have defiled Christmas into a Halloween theme, even changing lyrics of holy carols into profane mockery. And their God is a two-horned half-goat demon named Krampus, meaning claws, a sinister alter ego of Santa Claus. He is neither jolly nor nice, but evil.

And it is dubbed fun, family fun, but make no mistake, it glorifies Satan and advances his agenda. To order Hanukkah and Christmas vs. Krampus, send a minimum love gift of $10, request SK203, to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or shop at our e-store at soundoffaith.org. But to order Hanukkah and Christmas vs. Krampus, send your love gift of $10 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, and request offer SK203. And if you appreciate this ministry and the messages we air, please tuck in an extra year-end gift to help us maintain Sound of Faith Radio. Thank you. Until next time, this is Sharonat saying, maranatha.