Christmas Special—How to Not Miss the Reason for the Season

Today's program was previously aired.

While the content is relevant, some of the announcements may be dated. For current ministry news and offers, go to thechristianworldview.org For more information, visit thechristianworldview.org For today, in the City of David, there has been born for you a Savior who is Christ, the Anointed One, the Lord. The most significant event in history was the coming of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, into our world. From being born of a virgin woman, to living a sinless life, to performing miraculous acts over and over again, to offering his life on a cross to pay the penalty for mankind's sin, to rising from the dead, to ascending into heaven and promising to return someday, all in front of a watching world, that's beyond extraordinary.

There's just no words for that kind of life. The only reasonable conclusion is that Jesus is who he claimed to be, God. Now, Christmas should be the remembering and celebrating of Christ's birth. Now, yes, Christmas has pagan and Roman Catholic roots. The Roman Catholic Church tried to appropriate a pagan holiday. I think it was the sun-worshipping holiday and tried to kind of religiousize it and so forth.

Yes, there is that history to it. And yes, we don't have record of the early church commemorating it, the day of Christ's birth, but setting aside a day to honor Christ's coming into the world seems to be a good thing, a good thing to remember. But what Christmas has become is not really that good. You take a look around at our society and you will see that the Christmas season is characterized by endless shopping, scurrying around and busyness, people are exhausted by the time Christmas gets here, partying and drunkenness, Santa Claus, endless inane movies on television, and frankly, our increasingly secular culture doing everything possible, whether in schools, corporate America, the media, you name it, to ignore or remove Christ from the season.

For example, happy holidays and have a nice winter break. You know, not Merry Christmas and have a nice Christmas break, anything we can to remove Christ from Christmas. Now, most of the world misses Christmas, but did you know that it was actually the same thing back in the time when Jesus was actually born? People missed Christmas back then as well for varying reasons.

In our last live program of 2018, we're going to examine six examples of those who missed Christ's birth for varying reasons from back in the time when he was born, making sure that we don't do the same, that we remember the reason for this most important season. So I received a booklet called Six Ways to Miss Christmas. This was a Grace to You publication, John MacArthur's radio ministry, they sent it out to some of their followers. And so I read it and it was a very good little booklet and we have it linked on our website, thechristianworldview.org.

You can read it online as well as getting it in a hard copy. And I just want to read the first several paragraphs, which sets the tone for the ways that people miss Christmas. It says the majority of people in the world will miss Christmas.

But how can that be? How can anyone miss Christmas given the amount of advertising, publicity and promotion the holiday receives each year? Because although many celebrate Christmas every year, most don't know what it's about. In spite of all the media promotion of Christmas, the majority of people will miss it because its true meaning has become so obscured. For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time to focus on his birth. But even we can get caught up in the swirl of activity around Christmas time and can miss it in a practical sense. Satan has so cluttered the Christian concept of Christmas with needless paraphernalia that his true meaning is easily lost.

And then it goes into a brief history of Christmas. Most scholars doubt that December 25th is the true date of Christ's birth. There is no biblical support for it and some against that particular date being his birth.

The church in Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, decided on that date in the fourth century and had a specific reason for doing so. Many people in the ancient world were sun worshippers because they depended on the sun to provide warmth and ripen their crops. Most people held feasts at the time of the winter solstice, which was mid-December, a time when the days were shortest. They built bonfires to give the sun god strength and bring him back to life again.

When it became apparent that the days were finally growing longer, there was great rejoicing. The leaders of the church in Rome decided to celebrate Christ's birth on the winter solstice in an attempt to Christianize the popular pagan celebrations. But they failed to make the people conform. Instead, the heathen festivities continued and we are left with the bizarre marriage of pagan and Christian elements that characterizes our modern celebration of Christmas. So that's just a little bit of the history of Christmas and the fact that even though such a significant event, people miss it all around the world. Then the booklet gets into the six ways that people missed the first Christmas. From the time of Christ being born in Bethlehem, there were six different people or groups of people and they missed Christmas for six different reasons.

And that's what I'd like to go over today here on the Christian worldview radio program. The first way that people, someone missed Christmas was given by the innkeeper where Mary and Joseph came to give birth to Christ. It says in the booklet, the first reason was that they missed Christmas because of busyness or ignorant preoccupation. Luke chapter 2 says, Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

The first person in the booklet says who missed Christmas was the innkeeper. He was unable to take in Mary and Joseph because he had no room for them. Apparently, he was indifferent to their plight.

There is no indication from scripture that he tried to help them. I mean, think about this. We don't know the exact circumstances, but here we have a pregnant woman, Mary, who is about to give birth, bearing the Son of God, no less. And she comes to the inn, obviously pregnant, and the innkeeper doesn't take much pity on her and maybe ask someone inside the inn, hey, could you change places?

We have a pregnant woman who's going to give birth here any minute, any day now. But they have to go into a cave or maybe a stable or something, you know, where animals are. Likely where animals are because he was put in a manger, a feeding trough. And then it says that Mary bore the child herself, maybe with Joseph's health, but there's no midwife or anything. And then the Bible says that Mary actually wrapped him herself. So for all you mothers out there, just imagine giving birth with just you and your husband.

I guess that's probably not totally unlikely. They probably did that in the old days. But then having to wrap the child immediately afterwards, clean up the child and wrap him immediately. I mean, she's doing the whole thing. I mean, since when does a new mother do that?

That's not something that's done at least anymore in our in our world, at least in first world countries. So the innkeeper missed all this. Here, right next door, likely next door to where he was in the inn, the Son of God was being born into the world and he was so preoccupied and so busy that he missed the most important event in all of history.

It says in the booklet, page four here, most people are like the innkeeper. The chambers of our souls are filled with needless things, with stuff that doesn't matter. As a result, they miss the Christ of God, the anointed one of God. Our society is filled with the unnecessary, the insignificant and the meaningless. We spend a fortune to amass things so we can let our children fight over them when we die. And our time is eaten away by the demands our things place on us. And let me interject here, that could definitely concur with that. You buy something and then you have to manage that something.

It just takes time. People miss Christmas, it goes on to say, at Christmas time because he is crowded out by a world that dictates what they should think, do and buy. Like the innkeeper, people today are preoccupied.

The innkeeper didn't know anything about the baby Mary gave birth to and neither do they today. They don't know who Christ is and they don't know why he came. Instead, they're ignorantly preoccupied, busy with the mundane and the meaningless.

How sad it is that so many people live their lives in pursuit of such things only to wake up one day in eternity without God. So the innkeeper, the first person that missed Christmas from these examples, he missed it because he was preoccupied with the busyness of running his inn. And all the people in Bethlehem for the census, he was so preoccupied and so busy, he missed the Son of God being born literally right next door to his inn. The second way from this booklet, Six Ways to Miss Christmas, has to do with jealous fear. And the example of this is Herod.

He missed Christmas because of his jealous fear. It says in Matthew chapter 2, some excerpts from Matthew chapter 2, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For he saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When Herod heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. Then Herod secretly called the Magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child.

And when you have found him, report to me so that I too may come and worship him. Now, just as a little background about who Herod was, of course, he wasn't going to come and worship him. He was going to come and try to kill him because he had a jealous fear of this king.

People who were saying the king, the Messiah has come, the king of the Jews. It says that because he was not Jewish, but Idumaean and Edomite, Herod actually married Mary Ann, Mary Ann, an heiress to the Jewish Hasmonean house to make himself more acceptable to the Jews he now rules. So he married a Jew so he'd be more acceptable to his subjects. He was a clever and capable military leader, orator and diplomat, but he was also cruel and merciless. He was incredibly jealous, suspicious and afraid for his position and power, fearing a potential threat. He had the high priest, Aristobulus, his wife's brother drowned, after which he provided a magnificent funeral where he pretended to weep. He then had Mary Ann killed herself and then her mother and two of his own sons.

We'll read more about Herod and his incredible cruelty, because he was fearful and jealous of anyone taking his place as king of his life. You're listening to the Christian worldview today on this Christmas special on how not to miss the reason for the season. David Wheaton here to tell you about my boy Ben, a story of love, loss and grace.

Ben was a yellow lab and inseparable companion at a stage in my life when I was single and competing on the professional tennis tour. I invite you to enter into the story in his tapestry of relationships with Ben, my aging parents, with a childhood friend I would finally marry, and ultimately with God, who caused all things, even the hard things, to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace in the gospel, or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss, or just the dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at myboyben.com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

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So thank you to all of you who have participated in that way. Today in the program we're talking about how to not miss the reason for the season on this Christmas special. We received a booklet, as I mentioned in the first segment if you just joined us, called Six Ways to Miss Christmas, and it gives six examples of people from the time of Christ who missed the first Christmas. The first example was the innkeeper, where Mary and Joseph came for the census and then Christ was born. He completely missed Christ's birth because he was too busy and too preoccupied.

He was running around. And how often that happens to our own lives, we're running around all the time, and we miss Christmas. We miss who Christ is, just even in general, forgetting just Christmas the date, just Christ because society is so distracting. Number two, the second example of someone missing Christmas is King Herod during the time. He was so fearful and so jealous of someone else taking his kingship that he completely missed Christmas. As a matter of fact, he tried to end the first Christmas shortly thereafter. I was reading about what kind of man he was and how cruel and merciless he was.

I'm going to just continue here. He talked about he killed his wife's brother and then he also had Miriam killed herself and then her own mother and two of his own sons he killed. And listen to this, five days before his death, about a year after Jesus was born, he had a third son executed. I mean, what kind of person executes their own family members? One of the greatest evidences of his bloodthirstiness and insane cruelty was having the most distinguished citizens of Jerusalem arrested and imprisoned shortly before his death. Now, why would he do that? He's going to die. Why would he have some of the most distinguished citizens arrested?

Well, here's the answer. Because he knew no one would mourn his own death. So he gave orders for those prisoners, these leading people of Jerusalem, to be executed the moment he died. Thus, he hoped to guarantee that there would be mourning in Jerusalem after he died.

What kind of wicked mind comes up with that scheme? That barbaric plan was exceeded in cruelty only by his slaughter of what? Of all the male children who were in Bethlehem in its vicinity from two years old and under, from Matthew chapter two, it talks about that.

By that action, he hoped to eliminate any threat to his throne from the one the Magi said had been born king of the Jews. I mean, that is just really unbelievable that you could be so threatened by a baby being born that you would go to those lengths to try to end his life and not have any concern for the lives and the well-being of not only the children being killed under two, but the families of those you are just sending into unbelievable mourning. And it goes on to say in the booklet here, lest you think there are no more Herod's in this world today, you only need to read the daily newspaper. Humanity is depraved. There are Herod's in every society, but there is a greater lesson for all humanity. Many people miss Christmas because of the same kind of fear Herod had. Herod was afraid that someone else would take his throne.

Today, people are fearful of giving up their own plans, priorities, their own values and morals. I'll add this in the throne of their own life. They and we want to sit on the throne of our own life and we don't want Christ there.

And that's what Herod was afraid of. They don't want to come to Christ because he will cramp their style. He will lay claim to their lives and they will have to alter the way they live.

The media tells people to do their own thing, master their own fate and chart their own destiny. The world is full of kings who will not kneel before Jesus Christ. So they miss Christmas just like Herod. And that's something that I think every person before they come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, that that's the line you need to cross by faith. You know, am I willing to surrender the throne of my life to Jesus Christ? That's the bottom line because that's what happens when you become a Christian. You stop putting your faith and trust in your own ideas and yourself for salvation, your own good works. And you say, you know what, that's not going to work with God.

That's not what the Bible says. I must put my faith and trust fully in Christ. I must step off the throne of my own life. I must step away from the helm of my own ship and I must ask Jesus to take over. And now he must be Lord of my life and not me being the Lord of my own life. And that's exactly what Herod and so many people are unwilling to do.

It's not necessarily even an intellectual problem, roadblock there. It's a problem of the will. I will not step down from the throne of my life because I'm afraid what's going to happen if someone else is in control is raining on the throne of my life. But let me just say that it says in scripture very clearly, when we go God's way, his ways are not burdensome. It's better to go his ways. Your life will be better.

It'd be much more than that. You'll be right with God and forgiven and eternal life, but your life will also be better when he's on the throne of your life. Now, it mentioned in that segment there in the booklet that lest you think that no more Herod's in this world exists, this godly, this jealous fear that takes place today. Listen to this article from this week from CBN describing the situation in China right now. On December 9th, Chinese authorities arrested Pastor Wang Yi and more than 100 members of the early Rain Covenant Church in China. As CBN News reported, Pastor Wang's home was raided and ransacked by police. The raid may have been triggered by a 7,000 word manifesto titled Meditations on the Religious War, which Pastor Wang wrote and posted on social media. In that manifesto, he condemns China's Communist Party and urges Christians to perform acts of civil disobedience. We're going to hopefully have some time to read some of this manifesto later today, but basically there's been a terrific persecution going on right now in China by the Chinese Communist government. Chairman Xi, I think his name is, and he has the same fearful jealousy that Herod had back in his day. He's fearfully jealous that Christianity will grow too much and take away power from him and the Communists. Pastor Yi or Wang criticized the government for forcing its citizens to engage in, quote, Caesar worship by treating President Xi Jinping like a god. He wrote that ideology is, that ideology is morally incompatible with the Christian faith and all those who uphold freedom of the mind and thought. His home was ransacked.

It's a mess, someone told the South China Morning Reporter. The police said our church is an illegal organization and we cannot attend any more gatherings from now on. And so this pastor over there wrote a manifesto criticizing the government, saying this is not just, this is not right. We should have freedom of speech and religion. And they came for him.

And right now, today, he is in jail in China and we have no idea how long he's going to be there. I'm going to read some of his manifesto hopefully later in the program today. And if I don't have time, I will link it on our website, thechristianworldview.org, because you must read it.

It's just the way of setting your mind on things above and seeing things biblically in response to a tyrannical government. So that's a second example of ways people miss Christmas. The first one, we get too busy, too preoccupied. The innkeeper was the example of that. The second one was we have a jealous fear like Herod.

He didn't want anyone else ruling as king. And it's the same thing in our own hearts. We don't, we miss Christmas because we are scared of what it would be like if Christ reigned on the throne of our life. We don't know how that would change our lives.

Well, it would change your life a lot, but for the better. And we don't want that. We like our sin.

We like things the way they are right now. And we don't want anyone else to be taking over the throne that we think we own. The third way people miss Christmas is through prideful indifference. And this was the religious leaders of Christ's day who were indifferent, who were apathetic and self-righteous.

They didn't think they needed this new baby that was being born. It says, once Herod learned from the wise men, this is Matthew 2 verses 4 through 6, once Herod learned from the wise men that the king of the Jews would be born, he gathered together all the chief priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what has been written by the prophet. And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

That's Matthew 2. The chief priests consisted of the high priest, the captain of the temple police, and the most important of the other priests, those who had great administrative teaching and leadership skills. For the most part, the chief priests were Sadducees.

The scribes were primarily Pharisees, the two main religious groups. They were the experts in the law of Moses. Those two groups knew where the Messiah was to be born because they knew Micah had prophesied that Bethlehem was to be the place of his birth. One thing the Jewish nation had been looking for and still does to this day was the Messiah. They were looking for the Messiah, waiting for him. They had been waiting for a deliverer throughout their history, especially while under Roman oppression. However, these priests and scribes were unwilling to even travel a few miles to Bethlehem from Jerusalem to find out if this baby might be the difference. Why were they unwilling to travel there? Because of indifference. They didn't care.

They thought they had all the facts and they didn't need a Messiah. In return from this break, we'll get into more why this third reason of prideful indifference that people miss Christmas. I'm David Wheaton. You're listening to The Christian Worldview. The Christian Worldview is a print letter which is delivered to your mailbox in November. It contains a year-end letter from host David Wheaton and a listing of our store items, including DVDs, books, children's materials, and more. You can sign up for the weekly email and annual print letter by visiting thechristianworldview.org or calling 1-888-646-2233.

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While the content is relevant, some of the announcements may be dated. For current ministry news and offers, go to thechristianworldview.org. How to not miss the reason for the Christmas season.

I'm David Wheaton. You're listening to The Christian Worldview radio program today. Our website is thechristianworldview.org and we're going through six ways that people miss the first Christmas and they're really the same ways that people miss it today as well. The first example was the innkeeper who missed Christ's birth because he was just too busy and preoccupied. The second way was King Herod at the time.

He would not have someone else reign as king. He had a jealous fear and so some people today will miss Christmas because they will not have Christ reign on the throne of their life. And the third way was the religious leaders of Christ's time. When Herod asked them, where's the Messiah to be born? They said in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was only five miles away. This is close to where they were. They knew where he was coming and this child was to be born there, but they didn't even think that it was even worth going down there to check it out. They were indifferent. They were apathetic. They were self-righteous and I was continuing to read about them.

It says, why did they miss the first Christmas? Because of their indifference. They didn't care. They had all the facts. They were the repository of knowledge. They didn't need a Messiah.

Why? Because they were self-righteous. They saw themselves as perfect keepers of the law. In their minds, they were fulfilling all that God could ever ask of them. So if you have a self-righteousness that you think you're a really good person and you're doing all the right things in life, you're giving to charity and you're going to church and you're religious and you're kind to people and you help the disadvantaged, and that's what you think that's going to make you right with God because of all your goodness? Why would you repent and put your faith in a Savior, in Christ, who is the one who died to pay the penalty for your sin and that you must be given his righteousness by God to be able to be right with God? If you think you're self-righteous, why do you need Christ's righteousness?

It doesn't make any sense. If that's your worldview, and that's exactly what the religious leaders thought of Christ's day. We're already righteous. We don't really need a Savior.

We've already saved ourselves because we've done and are doing so much good in this world. That's the third way that people miss Christmas is because of their own self-righteousness. The fourth way people miss Christmas is based on the reaction to his birth by the people in Jerusalem at the time, and they were so focused on their religious rituals that they completely missed the point of all those religious rituals. It says here in the booklet, it says, when Christ was brought to Jerusalem for his circumcision, two special people took note of him when he was brought to Jerusalem. Luke 2, 25 and 26 mentions Simeon, a man who was righteous and devout looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And Luke 2, 36 tells us about Anna, another one, a widow who saw the Messiah in the temple and who continued to speak of him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. So Simeon and Anna, they were just two people in Jerusalem who knew he was coming and wanted to see him. But now look at the rest of Jerusalem. However, the mass of people in Jerusalem missed Christmas. The birth of Christ again took place only a few miles away.

It was the fulfillment of all their dreams and hopes, the event that would change the destiny of the world. But they missed it. But why did they miss it?

They missed it because of their religion. They were so busy with the rituals of their religion that they missed the reality of Messiah's birth. When Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? In Matthew 16, their answer was, well, some say John the Baptist and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

All the speculations were wrong. Jesus didn't fit into the religious system of his day. And the people knew he didn't after, knew he didn't after he gave the Sermon on the Mount. Religion is damning if it is anything less than the true worship of the true God.

Read that again. Religion is damning if it is anything less than the true worship of the true God. A false religious system gives a person a false sense of spirituality. People steeped in various religions and cults talk about God, Christ, and Scripture, but they don't know the Christ of the Bible. They are lost in the midst of a religious system, so the people of Jerusalem missed Christmas while they were in the midst of being religious.

How ironic that we can be so caught up in our religious rituals that we actually miss the specific point of Christmas, which is the coming of Jesus Christ and worship him in spirit and in truth. And if you listen to the program in recent weeks, you heard that interview between the Orthodox Jew Ben Shapiro, very conservative, very intelligent, shares many of the same values as Christians. And he was interviewing John MacArthur and he said this. He asked John MacArthur the difference between Judaism and Christianity.

Some of you probably picked up on this when you heard the soundbite. But listen to what Ben Shapiro says as he sets up this question. When I read the New Testament myself and I obviously am not a believer in the divinity of Jesus, when I see what Jesus actually has to say about the Old Testament, it seems to me very similar to the stuff that Zachariah is saying or that Jeremiah is saying. Jeremiah says that the sacrifices themselves are basically of no use unless there's actual meaning. Okay, I'm just going to replay that first part again. When I read the New Testament myself and I obviously am not a believer in the divinity of Jesus, when I see what Jesus...

Okay, so it's sort of said quickly in passing, I prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla. But what he said there is the most significant thing a person will believe in their life. I don't believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Did you know that that particular belief is the only thing, if you persist in that to the end of your life and you die in that state of unbelief, that is the only sin that will get you damned to hell for eternity?

And I say that with sorrow over Ben Shapiro. We need to pray that that changes in his life and he comes to a saving faith in Jesus because the Bible says in John 3.36, He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey or believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. You can be a serial adulterer, a homosexual, a murderer, a thief, you name it. And if you repent of that sin, God will forgive you when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as paying the price for your sin. But if you persist to the end in saying, I don't believe in the divinity of Christ, I don't believe he is who he said he is.

You know what you're doing? You're calling God a liar. 1 John 5, the one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself, the one who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God gave concerning his Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.

He who has the Son has the life and he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. That is incredibly troubling that Ben Shapiro would even say that. Because again, that's putting your own eternal soul at risk to reject the Christ of Christmas. Now Ben Shapiro in that interview, he's very steeped in the religious rituals of Judaism. He's very fastidious about keeping.

He's an Orthodox Jew. But that's not what saves us. What saves us is what we do with God's offer of his Son. Are we going to accept or receive God's offer of his Son to pay the penalty for our sins? There's really only two choices. We can pay the penalty for our own sins ourselves and eternal death and hell, or we can accept God's gracious gift to have Jesus Christ pay the penalty for us.

Those are really the only two options. So let's pray this Christmas that Ben Shapiro would perhaps think back to that interview with John MacArthur and have a change of mind, a change of heart, just like the Apostle Paul did. Apostle Paul, religious Jew, kept all the rituals. Pharisee of the Pharisees, he said, Hebrew of the Hebrews, going off to Damascus to persecute Christians.

He met Jesus on the way. Let's hope that happens to Ben Shapiro as well. Otherwise, Ben Shapiro is going to miss Christmas this year and next year. Eventually, he's going to miss his soul for rejecting the Christ of Christmas. Let's move on to the fifth way that people miss Christmas. And this was the Romans of Christ time missed Christmas because of their idolatry, because of their over familiarity with who this Christ was. It says, perhaps the status of all the people of... Not the Romans, I'm sorry, the people who lived in... Sorry, I back up one, made a mistake there in the notes.

Number one, number five, not six. Number five is the Romans missed Christmas because of idolatry. It says, throughout the life of Christ, we see the presence of the Romans. Before his death, Christ appeared before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. He was executed by the Romans.

Roman guards lied about his resurrection, propagating a story to cover up the reality that he rose from the dead. Despite all their interactions with Christ, the Romans missed Christmas. They had their own gods. They had multitudes of them, the pinnacle of their worship being emperor worship. Christ didn't fit in with their idolatry. The Romans had the true God in their midst, but they missed him.

They missed Christmas. And the world today is full of people, goes on to say, who worship their own gods. They don't worship idols like the people at the time of Christ, maybe in America, but there are still idols and gods. Some people worship money, some people worship sex, some worship cars and boats and material things and houses and lands. Some worship power and prestige. Those are the pagan gods of today, the idols of the 21st century. And if that is what you're worshiping, you're going to miss Christmas too.

You may receive some presents, eat a big dinner, enjoy a beautiful decorated pine tree, but you're going to miss Christmas because your idols are not who it should be, should be focused on Christ. More after this. David Wheaton here to tell you about My Boy Ben, a story of love, loss and grace. Ben was a yellow lab and inseparable companion at a stage in my life when I was single and competing on the professional tennis tour. I invite you to enter into the story and its tapestry of relationships with Ben, my aging parents, with a childhood friend I would finally marry and ultimately with God who caused all things, even the hard things to work together for good. Order the book for your friend who needs to hear about God's grace and the gospel or the one who has gone through a difficult trial or loss or just the dog lover in your life. Signed and personalized copies are only available at myboyben.com or by calling 1-888-646-2233.

That's 1-888-646-2233 or myboyben.com. There's an abundance of resources available in Christian bookstores and online, but the sad reality is that many of them, even some of the most popular, do not lead to a sound and strong faith. A key aim of the Christian worldview is to identify and offer resources that are biblically faithful and deepen your walk with God. In our online store, we have a wide range of resources for all ages, adult and children's books and DVDs, Bibles and devotionals, unique gifts and more. So browse our store at thechristianworldview.org and find enriching resources for yourself, family, friends, small group or church.

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Our website, as always, is thechristianworldview.org. We're talking about how not to miss the reason for the season based on six ways to miss Christmas, the booklet. The innkeeper missed Christmas because he was too busy.

When we get so busy today, we can miss Christmas, the meaning of Christmas. Number two, Herod, the king, the cruel king, missed Christmas because he would not have another king reigning. He was so jealous and so fearful of someone else reigning in his place that he missed the birth of Christ.

And that's the way we are today when we refuse to step down off the throne of our own life because we're afraid of someone else being on that throne. Number three, the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the leaders of Christ's day, they missed Christ's birth because they were self-righteous. They didn't think they need it. They didn't need a savior, Christ the Lord. They had saved themselves through doing all kinds of what they believed were good works. That's how they missed Christ's birth. Number four, the people in Jerusalem, except for a couple, they were so focused on their religious rituals and performing religious acts that they actually missed the point of all those acts, which was to worship the Son of God. So they missed Christ's birth. Number five, the Romans who were occupying Israel at that time, they missed Christmas because they were all involved in their own idolatry. They were focused on their own gods, their own idols, just as we today have our own idols of materialism and sex and power and position and all the things that we put as idols, as important things that we worship in our lives today. And finally, the final group of people who missed Christ's birth, who missed Christmas, were the people who lived in Jesus' own hometown of Nazareth. They missed it because of over-familiarity with him. And this one is perhaps the scariest one of all, because this applies to all of us who have grown up or been around the church and so forth, who are so familiar with Christ.

Let me read just a few paragraphs from this booklet. Perhaps the status of all the people of Nazareth missed Christmas, Luke 2 says, When Jesus returned to Nazareth, he was unlike any other child. He accompanied his parents to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover when he was 12 years old. He proceeded to confound the doctors of theology in the temple.

Remember that? He spent 30 years of his life in Nazareth. Yet the residents failed to recognize who he actually was, who his true identity was. Luke 4 unveils the tragedy that took place when Jesus actually clearly revealed his identity to the Nazarenes. This is from Luke chapter 4. He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as was his custom, he entered the synagogue of his own hometown on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read, and the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, And Jesus closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. This is in his own hometown synagogue. I am the one this book these prophecies are writing about. I'm the Messiah.

I added that part, but that's what he's saying. And all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. And they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son? And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. And it goes on to say, The people of Nazareth missed Christmas because of over familiarity. They knew Jesus as Joseph's son, the guy who lived down the street, and they didn't view that as anything special. After Jesus finished speaking at the synagogue, the people, it says, got up and drove him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff.

But passing through their myths, he went his way. It goes on to say, Over familiarity is a deadly thing. I come across so many people who say they were brought up in a Christian environment but are not Christians.

Fear grips my heart when I hear that. Over familiarity strangles conviction. When you've heard something so many times without acting on it or doing anything about it, such familiarity can breed contempt. Mark 6 gives us Christ's own analysis of the people of Nazareth. He wondered at their unbelief. Matthew 13 adds, He did not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief. Over familiarity with Christmas, truth can breed a stony, hard heart.

So respond while your heart is soft, lest you become hard in what you won't have the ability to respond. And this is the case in American evangelical Christianity today. We wonder why our kids grew up. We take them to church and youth group and we read Bible stories to them and we do all the quote unquote the right things and they grow up and they walk away from the faith. They live nothing life like God commands us to live or believe what God commands us to believe. Familiarity with it has not led to conversion but truth heard and rejected leads to a hard heart. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 7. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And your name cast out demons and your name performed many miracles. In other words, we've been around the church. We've been doing all these things in your name. Verse 23, And then I, Jesus said, will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. That's a scary place to be, to be over familiar with Jesus. But never having softened your heart, repented of your sin and put your trust in who he is, the Son of God and what he did for you on the cross, paid God's required penalty for your sin. When you do that, you go from being a professing Christian to being one who actually possesses genuine saving faith.

And so just in conclusion today, only about a minute left. What's behind all these reasons for missing Christmas? It's an unwillingness to believe, whether it's the busyness of life, the jealous fear of Herod, the self-righteousness of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the focus on religious rituals of the people of Jerusalem, the idolatry of the Romans or the over familiarity with the people of Jesus' hometown, Nazareth. It was all because of unbelief. Many people simply refuse to believe in Christ, the booklet closes by saying. The Apostle John says he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own, the Jews and those who were his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, that's open to all, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. If you've been missing the reality of Christmas in your life, know that if you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation, Christmas will become real to you. It can happen today and that Christmas is between you and God. Thank you for joining us this year on the Christian worldview.

We will have another previously aired program next week, next Saturday, because we do live in a changing and challenging world, one that tries to take the eraser and erase Christmas. If there is one thing we can always trust in and count on, Jesus Christ and his word are the same yesterday, today and forever. The Christian worldview is a weekly one hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll free at 1-888-646-2233 or call us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.