Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

We’ve reached the final week of our Taking Back Christmas series. I am absolutely amazed at what happens when you explore the truth instead of relying on tradition.

Cultural and religious traditions have taken Christmas away from us. But we’ve spent this month taking it back. When we take back Christmas and we explore the truth of what God did and is doing, that’s when lives are changed.

And a ton of you have told me that this series has had a profound impact on your life. Tradition can’t do that. The truth of God can.

We kicked off the series a couple of weeks ago by taking back the Christmas story. The story of Jesus’ birth has been covered with so much lacquer that it can be very tough to know the truth. But we sanded it down and saw the rough, cold, hard truth of the story. And God used that to rock our world.

Then last week, we went deep. Way deep. So deep that several of you told me afterward, “Wow. My brain hurts.” But it’s a good hurt! Last week we saw how Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of very specific prophecies that were written hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years before He was born. Christmas wasn’t an accident. Nothing about Jesus was coincidental. His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection were all prophesied in incredible detail centuries ahead of time. We had an awesome time here last week.

If you missed a week of this series, they’re both on our website, ameliachurchofchrist.com. You seriously need to check out the podcasts from the last two weeks. God has a message for you and you don’t want to miss it.

Now, on to the last message in our Taking Back Christmas series. We have taken back the story of Christmas. We have taken back the proof of Christmas.

Today we’re taking back the cross of Christmas. Now some of you might think that I have my holidays mixed up. A lot of people, including a ton of Christians, believe that Christmas is about the manger. The cross…the death of Jesus…that is more in line with Good Friday and Easter. And according to our calendar, we’re five months away from that.

If that’s what you’re thinking…I love you. You’re wrong. If Christmas is all about the manger and not about the cross to you, do you know what you have? Nothing. You have nothing.

A baby in a manger can’t save you. And if you never let Jesus get out of the manger, if you never allow Him to grow up, and you never allow the cross to happen, you have nothing.

That’s why we’re going to talk about this at Christmas. Because we don’t preach half the story around here. We don’t preach a half-Jesus faith. We preach the whole thing. The parts that we like, and the parts that we don’t. The parts that are beautiful, and the parts that are extremely uncomfortable.

Have you noticed that, even in the middle of our insanely politically correct culture, you still hear songs about Jesus on the radio and in shopping malls this time of year? You can hear Away in a Manger right after you hear Jingle Bells. Why is that? Because there is nothing offensive about a baby. Babies are cute and cuddly. They make everyone say, “Awww…”

If we leave Jesus in a manger and we never let Him grow up, then it becomes culturally acceptable. But when you take Christmas back from that sanitized cultural tradition and you explore the truth of who Jesus was and why He came, that’s when it gets offensive. That’s when culture rejects it. But that’s exactly what we’re going to do today.

Let’s pray, and then we’re going to jump in with both feet into the Word of God.

I want to teach you a word: incarnation. It’s not a word that we use often, but it’s really important. This word sums up the truth about Christmas. Actually, this word sums up the truth about Christ.

The word “incarnation” means “in flesh.” Jesus Christ was God incarnate. He was the God man. Jesus was God in human form…God in the flesh.

Last week, we saw this verse from the prophet Isaiah. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14, NIV)

The Bible specifically prophesied that the Messiah would be virgin-born.

Two weeks ago in this series, we read this in Luke 1. “But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:30-35, NIV)

The Old Testament prophesies it. The New Testament confirms it. Jesus was born of a virgin. His mother, Mary, didn’t have sexual intimacy with Joseph until after Jesus was born. After Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary went on to have a normal marriage, complete with sexual intimacy. But the birth of Jesus is unique. There was never one before Him and there has never been one after Him who was virgin-born.

Larry King was once asked, “If you could interview anyone in history, who would it be?” He answered, “Jesus Christ.” Pretty good answer.

What would you ask Jesus? Larry King replied, “I would like to ask Him if He was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me.”

Larry King is wrong about some things. Ok…he’s wrong about a lot of things. But in this case, he’s 100% right. If Jesus Christ was virgin-born, it defines all of human history. It puts him in a class by Himself. There was no one like Him before His birth, and there has been no one like Him since.

Everything hinges on the virgin birth. Without it, Christmas means nothing. But it’s a lot worse than just that. If Jesus wasn’t virgin-born, Christianity means nothing.

The virgin birth is evidence that Jesus is divine. He is the Son of God. He had no earthly father because God is His Father.

He was also born of a woman. Other than the virgin conception of Jesus, Mary’s pregnancy and delivery were normal. Jesus was supernaturally conceived, but naturally born. His natural birth from an earthly mother tells us that Jesus is human.

When you put those two together, you get the incarnation. Jesus was supernaturally conceived and naturally born…meaning that Jesus was God in the flesh. Jesus was God and Jesus was human, at the same time.

The Bible says in Colossians 2, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” (Colossians 2:9, NLT)

This is why Christmas is so important. This is why we can’t allow our culture or traditions to dictate what this season is about. This is why we have to take Christmas back.

Because it’s about the incarnation. It’s about God coming to us. This is what sets Christianity apart from everything else. In every other world religion, it’s all about us trying to work our way up to God. Try harder, do more, be better. Through your good works, you work your way up the ladder. You work your way up to God.

It’s incredibly prideful. The basis for every other religion of the world is human pride. Believing that we can ascend to God is the height of human arrogance.

You know what Christianity is about? You want to know why we’re different? Christianity is not about us ascending to God. It’s about God descending to us.

Jesus had no earthly father because He was the Son of God. God the Holy Spirit miraculously allowed Mary to conceive. The baby she bore was God in the flesh.

God the Son, who is equal to God the Father and God the Spirit within the Trinity…who has existed for all eternity…who created everything that exists…God the Son descended to us. He didn’t wait for us to figure out how to get to Him, as if that is even possible. He came to us.

The Bible says it this way in 1 John. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10, NIV)

This is why our faith stands out from any other religion on earth. It’s not about pride or arrogance. It’s about humility. It’s not about us trying to get to God. It’s about God coming to us. It’s not about we can do for Him. It’s about what He has done for us.

Our culture will lump Christmas in with every other holiday that exists this time of year. Go to a store and they’ll wish you a Merry Christma-hanu-kwanzaa. It’s the seasonal synthesis. All of these holidays deserve equal billing because none is better than the other.

Now, I want to make this incredibly clear. I’m not suggesting that we lose our minds over the names of all these holidays, none of which are found in the Bible. When Christians fight to the death for the term “Christmas,” they need to at least realize that they are fighting for the name of a holiday that is not in the Bible anywhere.

But there is something greater going on here. The reason all these holidays deserve equal billing in our culture is because all faiths are equal. Every religion has the same claim to truth. No one faith is better than any other.

Honestly, I don’t care if someone wishes me a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” It doesn’t matter to me, because neither of those phrases is Biblical. But if the motivation is to communicate that all faiths are equal, that Christianity is just one of many ways to God, that’s when I’ll jump into the fray.

The reason we are passionately setting out to take Christmas back is because it’s about Christ. It’s not about trees, egg nog, presents, or mistletoe, or even the term “Christmas” itself. None of those are Scriptural. We could lose every one of them tomorrow and it wouldn’t matter.

What matters is Jesus. And here is where our culture gets it so very wrong. The virgin birth of Jesus is the game changer. The incarnation is unique. Jesus living as God AND man, as evidenced by the virgin birth, separates Him from any other founder of any other religion.

And maybe that’s why the virgin birth has been attacked so vehemently. It is the second most controversial miracle in history…second only to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

There are a lot of influential leaders in Christianity today who discount the importance of the virgin birth. There are a lot of don’t believe in the virgin birth at all.

So what’s the big deal? If Jesus wasn’t virgin-born, what does that really change? Everything. It changes everything.

First of all, if Jesus wasn’t virgin-born, then this whole Christmas thing is a total joke. It’s a season to celebrate two Jr. High kids who had sex, got pregnant, and then made up an outlandish story to cover their tracks. Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Merry Christmas.

Much more importantly, if Jesus wasn’t virgin-born, then the Bible can’t be trusted. The virgin birth was prophesied in the Old Testament and reported as fact in the New Testament. If it didn’t actually happen, then the Bible is propagating a lie and we should question the validity of everything it says.

But here is the biggest problem of all. If Jesus’ wasn’t virgin-born, the cross is worthless.

If Jesus didn’t have an earthly mother, then He wasn’t fully human. If He wasn’t fully human, there was no blood sacrifice for our sin.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, NIV)

Jesus bore our sins in his body. We are healed by his wounds. He couldn’t have been wounded if he wasn’t human. He couldn’t have bore our sins in his body if he didn’t have a physical body. If Jesus wasn’t fully human, the cross is worthless.

If Jesus had an earthly mother AND father, then He wasn’t divine. If He wasn’t divine, He couldn’t have lived a sinless life. If He didn’t live a sinless life, then He wasn’t the perfect sacrifice for our sin.

Check out these verses from the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 4 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, NIV)

Jesus is our great high priest. He was tempted in every way that we are, yet He did not sin.

And because He lived a perfect life, He could be our perfect sacrifice. Hebrews 9 says, “For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” (Hebrews 9:14b, NLT)

If Jesus wasn’t divine, then He couldn’t have lived a sinless life. It is something that is beyond human ability. If Jesus wasn’t divine, then He wasn’t sinless. And if He wasn’t sinless, He wasn’t the perfect sacrifice for sin. And if He wasn’t the final, perfect sacrifice for sin, the cross is worthless.

It all comes back to the incarnation. God in flesh. Jesus was Immanuel, which means God with us. God in human flesh. God with skin on.

That’s why Christmas matters so much. Christmas is different because Christ is different. Christ is unique. If the virgin birth is true…if the incarnation really happened…if Jesus really was God and man at the same time…then you can’t honestly lump Him in with anyone else. He has no peer. He has no colleague. He has no equal.

The incarnation means that Jesus was God in human flesh. And it means that God died on a cross to pay the price for our sin. And that is ultimately what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

It’s not just about a baby. It’s about a man who was God. It’s about God in the flesh loving you enough to die on a cross for you. The cross is everything. Jesus’ death on a cross is the centerpoint of human history. It is the pinnacle of God’s plan to love us and rescue us.

Some of you are getting ready to celebrate a very empty holiday called Christmas. You’ve got the tree and the stockings. You’re sending your cards. Santa is coming. Maybe you’ve even got a nativity scene. You have the baby in a manger…but you don’t have a Savior on the cross. That’s why this Christmas will be just as empty and hopeless as every other one before. And that’s why there is a void in your life that is unfilled.

The cross of Christ is our only hope. The only thing that keeps our lives from coming apart at the seams is the cross.

I heard Louie Giglio talk about this, and it just messed me up. Have you ever heard of laminin? Laminin is a protein molecule in your body.

There are somewhere between 10,000-60,000 proteins in the human body. We don’t even know how many there are. But one of them is a cell adhesion molecule called laminin.

Laminin is like the rebar of the human body. It’s like the steel that is laid in the concrete for a building’s foundation. That’s what laminin is in our bodies. It’s the glue of the human body. It’s what holds your body together.

And at this point, you’re probably thinking, “Dude, I flunked out of biology. I don’t know what laminin is. I don’t care what laminin is.”

Oh buddy…you couldn’t be more wrong. When I first saw a scientific diagram of laminin, I almost lost it. It absolutely blew me away. Do you want to see a diagram of Laminin? This cell adhesion molecule? This glue that is holding you together?

Here it is.

Here is an actual picture of laminin. An electron microscopic image of an actual laminin protein molecule.

The stuff that holds us together…the stuff that holds your organs together…the stuff that holds your skin on your body is perfectly shaped like the cross of Christ. It just blows me away.

It kind of gives new meaning to this verse from Colossians. “[Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17, NIV)

The cross of Jesus Christ is what holds us together. Without it, nothing works. We don’t have access to God. Our sins are not forgiven. Our lives don’t make sense and our eternity is hell.

But through the ridiculously huge love of God, we do have the cross. Immanuel, God incarnate, died on the cross. He took the punishment of our sin so we wouldn’t have to. He paid the price that we could never pay. It’s not about what we can do for God. It’s all about what He has done for us.

We opened the service with some fun stuff today. We handed out hot chocolate and cookies as a small gift to you. There are fun celebrations that happen at Christmas. We’ll take part in them, and that’s cool.

But a holiday celebration alone will fall flat. It will ultimately be a foolish, empty charade. But we have something more than a season to celebrate and party. We have more than a season. We have a reason. The reason is Immanuel. The reason is Jesus and what He did for us.

The celebration at the beginning of the service was cool, but this celebration is what matters. The cookies and hot chocolate were fun, but this bread and this juice is where the real party is. And yes, it is a party. It is a celebration.

Jesus Christ died for you and for me, and because of that we can have joy. So communion is going to feel a little different today. There is a place for quiet reverence before God, and that’s what our communion service usually is all about.

But today, we’re going to do something that is just as Biblical. We’re going to celebrate. Jesus died for you. He died for me. He is the laminin of our life. He is the glue that holds us together. He is our hope for all eternity. He bought us with His own blood. God in the flesh died for us, and we’re going to celebrate that today.

Tags: Christmas, cross, incarnation, Jesus, Jesus' death, Jesus' divinity, Jesus' humanity, Taking Back Christmas