Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Inc, 1716 Spruce St. Philadelphia, PA 19103 Second, it involved her affection, for she treasured these things in her heart. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (James 4:1-3). What Does the Bible Say About Celebrating Jesus Birthday? Thus says the Lord: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity.A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. ( John 19:14-16) Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his three-and-a-half-year ministry, so he was born in the early fall of 2 B.C.E. Luke 3:23. For most people, the answer could be obvious. I wonder if you have experienced joy at this season. The verse quoted was translated from Latin to English by Frederick Oakeley, 1841. Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. In this verse, Simeon says to Mary, "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a . Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. I have known people who have had deep and fervent prayers answered after the better part of a lifetime has gone by prayers for the salvation of a son or a daughter, prayers for success in some worthwhile endeavor, prayers for reconciliation with an erring wife or husband. G Keiper asked what he meant. Reprinted by Moody Press, 1969. "O Come, All Ye Faithful" Words: John F. Wade, circa 1743. Long ago, when the Greek language was in its infancy, the word from which the word "glory" came meant "to have an opinion." However, by the late fourth century it was generally celebrated in churches. Q Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Did they have joy? First, you need to learn about Jesus. 7. D 4. Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! One verse, which is often quoted by Christians who argue against celebrating Christmas, is Luke chapter 2, verse 34. But I imagine that the joy of this couple on this occasion was the greatest this world has ever seen. Keiper concluded, "When men are truly men of good will seeking to do God's will this text becomes a mighty force. And they know that as a result of this faith, they are at peace with one another. Here are five great appearances of angels. They had seen the angels and had come to worship the angels' King. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Does the Bible Condemn Using Tarot Cards? The difficulty with this approach does not lie in the thought that the biblical view of salvation is unrelated to such themes. . In other words, peace will come when men are truly men of good will. 2023 BGEA Now the one thing prayer will most do for us is bring our minds into a greater conformity with the mind of God. Well, the birth of Christ itself teaches us of God's love; for God loved us so much that He became man in order to die for us. Home If God did that, He would soon make a muddle of our Christian lives because "We do not know what we ought to pray for" (Romans 8:26), and we pray with wrong motives. Frank E. Gaebelein writes about this passage in The Practical Epistle of James, "A few years ago, former Chancellor Hutchins of the University of Chicago said war begins in the minds of men. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. I am glad that the angel appeared to Joseph and not only to Mary. Jesus was born to be our Savior as the carol says: Christ was born to save! And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. All Joseph could have thought was that Mary had been unfaithful. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. There are many reasons why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christ the Lord. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Perhaps you are anxious to be delivered from some tenacious sin, but you do not seem to have deliverance. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. Dont Despair: A Reminder From Anne Graham Lotz. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Publication date: Apr 30, 2023. We are told of them that they "returned glorifying and praising God." When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found . On the other hand, if man cannot save himself spiritually if he is headed for an eternity without God and is unable to reverse his condition then Jesus Christ had to come. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants. Once more they cried out, Hallelujah! L Ralph L. Keiper once said, "When we know Christ, not as a doctrine or a theory, but as Savior and Friend in our daily experience, we gain a confidence in Him which brings peace to our hearts. It is not this way with joy. Why? In all that he does, he prospers. Ponder on its meaning. Praise the Lord! Visit the Bible online to search for words if you dont know the specific passage yourre looking for. Glorify and praise God for what was done that first Christmas. Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. This is a cause for amazement. Luke 1:35 ESV / 25 helpful votesHelpfulNot Helpful. In fact, the opposite is the case. And you will enter, perhaps for the first time, into the Christmas story. Wesley was praying for the second of these rests, the peace of God that Paul was writing about to the Philippians. Peter tells us that God delays only long enough to call to repentance all whom He has before determined should believe ("He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" see 2 Peter 3:9). Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. A concordance soon gives the answer. Jesus Christ is that Savior. Psalms 118:24 - This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Have you seen that truth in the story? Have you confessed them to God and to others? 11. V First, it involved her memory; for we are told that she treasured up all these things. Christmas is always a special time for most everyone but especially followers of Jesus. 5. Answer: Your question is backward. In the New Covenant, he has given us the Lord's Supper and baptism. B Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Rather, He enables us to face them with a quietness, a calmness and confidence, which makes it possible to find a solution" 10 This is the peace that Edward Bickersteth wrote about in the late nineteenth century, in a verse which has since become one of our great hymns: The first way in which we find this peace, then, is by learning of Jesus. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. If you know this joy, then you can go on, as the angels did, to give glory to God; and you can possess that peace of heart and soul which transcends understanding. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (Great Neck, NY: Doniger & Raughley, 1955). Most people think that the day of one's birth is special. And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand hima threefold cord is not quickly broken. But it does not mean that God has forgotten. On the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a grain offering of new grain to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. Both of these ideas are related to the idea of a mediator who brings irreconcilables together. T To do so is to participate in the Christmas story. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.. Romans 14:5-6 - One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. While a lot of well-meaning, devoted, and sincere Christians celebrate Christmas, we need to think if this celebration does really glorify . And "you will find rest for your souls." Then take time each day to draw strength from His Word, the Bible, and to pray, and to have fellowship with other believers. It is based upon what God has done, and it is given to the Christian by God and is sustained by God. The passage begins by speaking of the shepherds. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. In the birth we see God's wisdom. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. This is exactly what we have in Christianity. Colossians 2:16 Verse Concepts Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day Psalm 95:2 Verse Concepts It is recorded in Luke 1:26-38. But in the message itself, as well as in the context, the emphasis is upon the fulfillment of prophecy and upon the underlying truth that God is faithful. Perhaps you have prayed for something and have not received an answer, at least not the answer you were waiting for. Thus, the message to Joseph centers primarily on that great work which Jesus, the Messiah, was to do. I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. Nothing destroys joy except sin. Contact Us. What is the solution? Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! For, since Wesley had filled his mind with Scripture and since he used references to it extensively in his verses, it is likely that he was thinking of a verse of the Bible that speaks of two kinds of peace, two kinds of rest, and was saying that he wished to enter into the second as he had once entered into the first. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord., For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.. cit. Finally, there is the appearance of first one angel, than a multitude of angels to the shepherds as they were in the fields around Bethlehem. Spend some time at Christmas thinking over what you do know of God and trying to understand the ways of God more fully. Is there such a verse? If these four means of celebrating Christmas are new to you and if you are now desiring to put them into practice, I suggest that you begin not with the first verse, verse 17 of Luke 2, but with verses 18, 19, and 20. You do not have, because you do not ask God. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. Can we doubt that the shepherds had something worth telling? No, He has not forgotten you. Happiness is a wonderful thing at Christmas shopping, decorating, entertaining, mailing cards but it is the world's virtue, and like all the world's virtues, it quite easily passes away. In the Christian religion, Jesus Christ is believed to be the son of God. It implies a diving beneath the surface. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. May God give you grace to do that. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable: What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? Proud member One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. This has something to do with the age in which we live as well as with the general aspirations of mankind, I suppose. Although there is no mention of Jesus specifically mentioning to celebrate Christmas, the Bible does say that he was born on December 25th. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. How could their tongues be silent when they had heard such music? Local: 704-401-2432 5 Bible Verses That Celebrate the Birth of Jesus Health, Inspiration How often have we heard the phrase, "Christ is the reason for the season." To help remind us of why we celebrate Christmas, here are five key Bible verses that celebrate the birth of Jesus. For we quickly come upon the Lord Jesus Christ's great invitation recorded in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. He would say that He was the life for a world that was dying. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate. Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toilthis is God's gift to man. December 26, 2015 And there, where they had first heard the angels' song, they themselves were heard to be singing God's praise. For if their story was not worth telling, then no story that has ever been told is worth telling and life has no joy or meaning. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. What Every Christian Should Know about the Protestant Reformation. What is more, in these verses, God promises to give us all victories for peace if we ask Him. Had God forgotten His people? Publisher: OpenBible.info. Do you do that? Imitate the shepherds in spreading the word concerning what you know about the Christ child. There is a sense in which the world will never know even one of these three types of peace until the return of Jesus Christ. Do you know that you have fallen short of God's standards and that nothing within you will ever be able to move up to the fulfilling of them? Amen. Be patient! Jesus is called God-man. Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. Copyright 2023, Bible Study Tools. They would readily tell you that the Bible commands us to celebrate Jesus' birth - that it is a time of rejoicing for the coming of the Savior of the world. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. Finally, our text suggests that we can celebrate Christmas by glorifying God and by praising Him. Celebrating it certainly does seem and feel like the right thing to do. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. In the book of Philippians, Paul speaks of this peace when he says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. I am convinced that this thought was uppermost in Luke's mind as he set about to write this opening section of his gospel. This is connected with amazement, but it also goes beyond amazement as an attempt to understand it or figure it out. They must learn to love Him and to serve Him more and more. Instead they carry us deep into the mind and counsels of our great God. Would anyone want to say that these men were not authorized to spread such a message? Judging from the Christmas cards I get every year, I suspect that this is the phrase from the Christmas story that is most popular with people in our day. The exact date of Jesus' birth is not recorded in the Scriptures. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. When a person is at peace with God judicially and is experiencing increasingly in his own life that peace of God which transforms him and gives him tranquility even in the midst of great emotional turmoil and misunderstanding, then there is a firm foundation on which to overcome those interpersonal tensions that upset families, churches, cities, governments and the world. Geocoding But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Of course, you can and you should! We turn from that picture to the final pages of the Bible, and in those pages we find the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up, and all of creation is paying homage to Him. As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Music: Beecher, John Zundel, Christian Heart Songs, 1870. Blog, A On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. The first of these important appearances was to Mary. There had been revelations from God in the past. One person who has been responsible for watering down the biblical meaning of the word "salvation" is Paul Tillich, the German-born American theologian. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Jehoshua, meaning "Jehovah is salvation." She would have wondered how she could have conceived without having slept with a man. The Herald Angels Sing" Words: Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739. If you and I and all others who call upon the name of our God should do it, I suppose that the whole world would then rightly resound with His praise. But how? H So, the best way to celebrate Christmas is to believe on Jesus as your Savior. He became a man in His incarnation. They had no thought about spiritual things at least we are not told that they did and they certainly didn't expect the miracle. This can be a very trying experience. The Way! S Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. Crashaw wrote of this wonder: This is why the wonder of children seems so appropriate at Christmastime. Continue by pondering these things. Christians are to be active in many efforts to achieve social justice, improve the life of the poor, minister to the needy. Had He forgotten His promises? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. The Wise Men Were Not There. I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Pondering is work. Some even contain good emphases. Christmas time is a few days away. In other words, James is saying that war begins with men's emotions.
what does the bible say about celebrating jesus' birth