Why Music at Christmas - Part 2

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Thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Your donation today means great podcasts like this remain available to help people look to God daily. Please make your donation today at vision.org.au At this point, Dr. David Jeremiah brings good tidings about the music of Christmas, and why the joy that inspires our songs isn't limited to Jesus' birth, but also his return. Listen as David introduces the conclusion of his message, Why Music at Christmas. Well, if you have been listening to the radio at all during these days of December, you know there's a new kind of music that plays during this season. Some of the secular carols we enjoy, but many of the historic Christ-honored Christmas carols are also being played in every kind of style you can imagine. I love the music of Christmas, and we're in the midst of a discussion that we started last Friday on Why Music at Christmas. If you haven't been listening during this time, during the month of December, we're talking about Christmas by asking some questions, many of which are probably hidden in our hearts someplace.

We would like to know, but we don't know who to ask. Well, I don't have all the answers, but the Bible does, so let's finish up what we started on Friday. Let's find out Why Music at Christmas. If you read The Magnificent of Mary, you will instantly discover that that was the thing that captured her by this visitation from the Lord. It wasn't so much that she was to be the mother of our Lord, but that such a one as she would be chosen to be our Lord's earthly mother. Look with me, if you will, at Luke chapter 1 and verse 46, and notice how this is so wonderfully brought out in her song. Mary is singing this Magnificent, and in verse 46 we read, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

Now watch. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. Look down at verse 52. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel. Do you know what was going on in Mary's heart if I understand this? She was overwhelmed at the visitation. She was totally taken away by the event itself and how it was to transpire, but more than anything else, she was captured by this thought. God has chosen someone such as I am, a lowly maidservant. There's nothing for us to know about Mary that would give us reason to believe that by her own persona she had in any way recommended herself to God for this event, except that she was a righteous woman. She was a flawed human being like we are, but she was a humble, humble servant. Dorothy Sayers, picturing Mary in one of her writings, talking with the Magi about the coming of her babe, has her say this.

With me you see it is like this. When the angel's message came to me, the Lord put a song into my heart. I suddenly saw that wealth and cleverness were nothing to God.

No one is too unimportant to be his friend. This was the thought that came to me because of the thing that happened to me. I am quite humbly born, yet the power of God came upon me, very foolish and unlearned. Yet the word of God was spoken to me, and I was in deep distress when my baby was born and filled my life with love. So I know very well that wisdom and power and sorrow can live together with love, and for me the child in my arms is the answer to all of the riddles. Dorothy Sayers, what was she saying? The thing that captured me was this, that God would let such one as I am to be chosen for so unimportant an event.

And when you examine the record, what do you see? You see a manger and you see lowly shepherds. Was Jesus surrounded at his birth by aristocrats?

No, he was surrounded at his birth by simple people like you and like me. What is Christmas then, and why does it fill us with joy? There is something in Christmas about the fact that God is saying to the downtrodden and to the oppressed and to the exploited of mankind, be of good cheer, for I am here and I am your friend and I am your champion, and no one is too insignificant to be remembered by the Messiah. So that at Christmas season, while we rejoice in the celebration of our great pageants and music, perhaps Christmas is celebrated best when we take gifts to the children of prisoners who would not have gifts in any other way. And we say to them in the spirit of Jesus, no one is too insignificant to be remembered at this time of the year. Oh, there is joy at Christmas for all of us and especially for those who may feel at this time of the year in some way downtrodden, forgotten, and unimportant. Christmas message to you is that God turned himself toward people such as us and at his birth he said, I will never ever let anyone feel as if they are too unimportant to be recommended to me in salvation. There is joy and singing at Christmas because the pain of the lonely and forgotten has been remembered.

Let me suggest to you fourthly, there is joy at Christmas because the possibility of peace is renewed in everyone's heart. Do you remember the war? I don't remember much about war. A little bit about Vietnam, a very tiny bit about Korea, almost nothing about the Second World War, and absolutely nothing at all about World War I. But I do remember that during the Vietnam War and during the Korean War that at Christmas time you would hear about the negotiations between the two warring parties for a ceasefire for Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas. Do you remember that?

How they used to work that out? They'd be killing each other right and left and then all of a sudden for two days in observance of Christmas they would stop all of this. They would have a truce for two days and as soon as Christmas Day was over they'd go back killing each other again. It seemed strange to me as a young man until I realized that even that in itself is a picture of why Christ came into this world, isn't it? He came to bring peace and that is the message of the wonderful story in the angel song recorded for us in Luke chapter 2 and verses 8 and following.

If you will look at verse 14 you will notice that suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And may I say this to you, isn't there something about the celebration of Christmas that rebuilds within us and causes to be reborn within us the hope like the shining star which became the finger of God pointing to Bethlehem. The hope of Christmas that though the outlook may be dark the only darkness we need to fear is the darkness within for the prince of peace has come and with him the faith that someday men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and there shall be peace on earth at last. For those believers who are anguishing in troubled places of the world at this season of the year the message of the prince of peace is the glad good news which makes them sing even in dark days. And let me add this one thought that here in this congregation there are some of you who are at war, you're at war with each other.

Hardly a week goes by that we don't hear about it, some couple, some family that is like this instead of like this. And for many of you, you will function just as we did during the war times. You will get together and agree for the sake of the children and for the sake of our family. Let's just have a decent Christmas Eve and a peaceful Christmas Day and when Christmas Day is over you will go back to your everlasting fighting again. I want to remind you that the prince of peace has come not only to bring peace to your individual heart but to bring peace to your family and peace to your marriage. And I pray that this year the truce will last more than two days, that something of the Christmas message and the redeeming power of Jesus Christ will capture your heart.

That you will decide maybe for the first time in a long time that you're going to live together as God wants you to in peace and love and in harmony. I'd like to suggest to you that there is joy and music at the Christmas season also because through all of these songs which are recorded by Luke we see the purpose of life illustrated. I was captured as I read through these songs again that Mary began her song like this. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Elizabeth had a little different experience.

I've never quite understood this. Her joy came from within and it was from the baby in her womb. For when she met Mary the Bible says the babe leaped in her womb with joy because she had come into close proximity with the mother of our Savior and the prophecy caused John the Baptist to do a little dance before he ever got born. Then if you read on to the Benedictus of Zacharias you hear him say blessed is the Lord God of Israel. If you hear the message of the angels song it is suddenly there's with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest.

What is all this about? It is praise and glory to God. In the songs of the nativity we see illustrated for us perfectly what we try to do in this church every week and that is to worship the Lord God and to honor Him with our love and adoration.

We know we do it imperfectly but we also know that we do it purposefully to honor and glorify God and we love Him and we worship Him. And we are in the good tradition of these early hymns for they teach us that very truth. And finally for me as I am sure it is for many of you there is joy and singing at Christmas because the predictions of Christ coming again are made secure. How do we know that Jesus is coming back for us someday? Do you remember how long I told you it was from Micah's prophecy until the coming of Jesus in Bethlehem?

Seven hundred years. And through all those years there surely must have been some who read that prophecy with understanding and thought it was foolishness. Who said well it hasn't happened yet and it probably never will. Just like there are those today who say Jesus says He's coming back but He hasn't come yet and there have been many generations that thought He would but He hasn't. I want to tell you that if you take the Old Testament prophecies of the first coming of Christ and you trace them through you will find without a flaw that every single prophecy was fulfilled to the minutest detail and on time. And interestingly enough as you study the Old Testament in the same verses where the first coming of Christ was predicted there are additional prophecies coming together with the prophecies of the first coming that guarantee He is coming back again. You see in the Old Testament the prophets look out into the future in the same way that we would look across a desert plain toward a range of mountains. And the prophets saw only one gigantic slope and that was the coming of Christ. And they would take their pen and write as the Spirit of God gave them utterance about the coming of Christ. They would write things about His coming at Bethlehem and right next to it they would write things about His being King of Kings and Lord of Lords and setting up His kingdom on this earth. They only saw the coming of Christ and it is not until you as a New Testament Christian cross that desert and get closer to the range of mountains that you see it is not just one mountain peak.

It is two mountain peaks separated by a valley. And all of the prophecies of the first coming have been fulfilled illustrated by that first mountain peak. And we live in that parentheses between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. But here is the good news men and women, just as surely as the prophecies of Christ coming the first time were literally accurately and perfectly fulfilled. We know that His prophecies concerning the second coming will likewise be fulfilled.

Now let me ask you this question. Should we not have in our hearts something of the same anticipation as did Simeon? When he had been told that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord Christ. Everyday Simeon got up thinking, I wonder if this is the day. I wonder if when I go to the temple today this will be the moment when I shall see the Christ. I fear that some of us get stuck in the rut of complacency and we get caught up in the activities of church and we lose sight of the fact that the same Jesus who came the first time is coming again. And His coming could be very near. How do I know that is true?

Because I have read the word of God and I have seen the accuracy with which the prophets spoke and I believe that that accuracy extends to the future yet unfulfilled prophecies as well. My good friend Max Lucado has captured something of that and a thing he wrote some years ago and I want to finish what I have been saying to you today by helping bring these two moments together. Listen carefully. It all happened in a moment. Most remarkable moment. As moments ago, that one appeared no different than any other. If you could somehow pick it up off the timeline and examine it, it would look exactly like the ones that have passed while you have read these words. It came and it went.

It was preceded and succeeded just like the others. It was one of the countless moments that have marked time since eternity became measurable. But in reality, that particular moment was like none other.

For through that segment of time, a spectacular thing occurred. God became a man. And while the creatures of earth walked unaware, divinity arrived and heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. The omnipotent in one instant made himself breakable.

He who had been spirit became pierceable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo. And he who sustains the world with a word chose to be dependent upon the nourishment of a young girl. God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb.

The creator of life being created. God was given eyebrows and elbows and two kidneys and a spleen. And he stretched the walls and floated in the amniotic fluids of his mother. God had come near. He came not as a flash of light or as an unapproachable conqueror, but as one whose first cries were heard by a peasant girl in a sleepy carpenter.

The hands that first held him were unmanicured, calloused, and dirty. No silk, no ivory, no hype, no party, no hoopla. Were it not for the shepherds, there would have been no reception. And were it not for a group of stargazers, there would have been no gifts. Angels watched as Mary changed God's diaper. The universe watched with wonder as the Almighty learned to walk.

Children played in the street with him and had the synagogue leader in Nazareth known who was listening to his sermons. Jesus may have had pimples. Perhaps a girl down the street had a crush on him or vice versa. It could be that his knees were bony, one thing's for sure, he was while completely divine, completely human. And for 33 years he would feel everything you and I have ever felt. He felt weak, he grew weary, he was afraid of failure, he was susceptible to wooing women.

He got colds, he burped, he had body odor, his feelings got hurt, his feet got tired, and his head ached. To think of Jesus in such a light as, well, seems almost irreverent, doesn't it? It's not something we like to do, it's uncomfortable, it is much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean the manure from around the manger, wipe the sweat out of our eyes, pretend he never snored or blew his nose or hit his thumb with a hammer.

It's easier to stomach that way. There is something about keeping him divine that keeps him distant, packaged, and predictable. But don't do it, for heaven's sake, let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world, for only if we let him can he pull us out.

Listen to him. Love your neighbor was spoken by a man whose neighbors tried to kill him. The challenge to leave family for the gospel was issued by one who kissed his mother goodbye in the doorway.

Pray for those who persecute you came from the lips that would soon be begging God to forgive his murderers. I am with you always are the words of a God who in one instant did the impossible to make it possible for you and me. It all happens, said Max Locato, in a moment, in one moment, in one most remarkable moment, the Word became flesh, but there will be another. The world will see another instantaneous transformation. You see, in becoming man, God made it possible for man to see God.

When Jesus went home, he left the back door open. As a result, we will all be changed, and the Scripture says it like this, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The first moment of transformation went unnoticed by the world, but you can bet your sweet September that the second one won't. The next time you use the phrase, just a moment, remember, that's all it will take to change the world. In a moment, he came, so that in a moment, we shall be like him. Amen. Amen.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today. As we enter into the Christmas week, we are talking about Christmas. Why music at Christmas and tomorrow? We're going to begin two days discussing my favorite Christmas name for Jesus.

His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. Don't miss tomorrow and Wednesday, and then on Thursday and Friday, why call him Savior, and we will be at Christmas by the time we get to Friday. So, join us this week as we prepare our hearts for the celebration of our Lord's birthday. Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor, Dr. David Jeremiah.

We'd love to hear your story of Turning Point's impact on your life. Please write to us at Turning Point, Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio. Ask for your copy of David's 365-day devotional for 2021.

It's called Strength for Today. It's filled with biblical truth for each day of the year ahead, and it's yours for a gift of any amount. And to keep your spirits bright through the holiday season, visit the Home for Christmas channel at turningpoint.tv. It's your free source for Christmas music, videos, messages, and more. The Home for Christmas channel at turningpoint.tv. I'm Gary Hoogfleet. Please join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Why the Nativity. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.