Dave spoke tonight from Luke 2:15-20. Babies tend to be highly popular, often making adults do strange things such as speaking in silly voices and pulling silly faces, and it’s undoubtedly the baby at the centre of the Christmas story who grabs our attention. However, we need to grow up in our knowledge of Christ and acknowledge that He is more than just a baby. Eph 4:15 urges us to grow up into Christ and we have to move from wonder to worship.
As a man, Christ accepted worship (from the cleansed leper in Matthew 8, from the ruler of a synagogue in Matthew 9, from a blind man in John 9 and from one who had been demon-possessed in Mark 5), quite unlike other men (Paul was at pains to tell people not to bow down to him because he was only a man.) The reason Jesus did this was because He was not just a man; He was also fully God.
We need to grow up so we can understand more of how God works. He is beyond our control and we need to learn to surrender to Him and do what He requires. There was no room for Jesus at the inn in Bethlehem, and so often people want the cuteness of the baby Jesus without the cross of Christ. It’s easy for us to accept the tinsel of Christmas, but not the truth or to love the wonder of the season without the worship of the Saviour. If we are to grow up, we need to move beyond decoration to dedication and understand that love was the motivation behind Jesus coming to earth.
At a children’s Nativity, each child had to hold up a letter spelling out the word ‘CHRISTMAS LOVE.’ One child held the M upside down, however, with the result that the message given was ‘CHRIST WAS LOVE.’ That is the true motivation behind Christmas and we need to understand that out of the chaos, the God of love has come to be with us, not just at Christmas, but for eternity.
