Stephen spoke tonight about the relevance of Christmas – and indeed all of God’s word – to our lives today. When we buy food nowadays, there is often a ‘use by‘ date or ‘best before date’ on the packaging, which determines when it can be eaten.
We may well feel that the Christmas story as told in the Bible has no relevance to our lives in 2020 and can easily assume that the Bible itself is outdated. Nonetheless, when we read the Bible, we see that the Christian calendar is still current and relevant to our lives. Even our dating system reflects the importance of Christmas (since we date the years from Christ’s birth) and we should not simply relegate the Christmas story to history. 2 Tim 3:16-17 reminds us that God’s word is God-breathed and useful to us because it helps us to be ‘thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ When we read of angels, shepherds and a baby born in a manger, we may well feel this belongs to a different world to ours, but the truth is that this is His story as well as history, and as such has relevance to us because the Bible teaches us that the birth of Jesus was integral to our salvation. Prov 2:1-6 reminds us of the need to get wisdom and insight and grow in understanding; Prov 4:1-13 stresses the need to make wisdom our priority. Wisdom that is divorced from God is not true wisdom, so we do well to learn from Him.
The Christmas message is that in Jesus, God came to be with us: Immanuel (Matt 1:23). God with us totally transforms our lives and is vital to our everyday existence. We see that the Bible is never out of date and is as relevant to life in 2020 as it has ever been throughout the centuries. Don’t miss out on the true meaning of Christmas, dismissing the story as irrelevant fable. It is, rather, the most astounding story we can ever encounter and can be the experience that transforms our lives.
