The nations are on edge. Humans are literally killing themselves:
- As of August, over 500,000 young men, women, and children have been slaughtered in the Ukraine War. The number injured is over two million, with most being women and children.
- On October 7 this year, 1400 Israeli men, women, and children were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists. Israel has launched retaliatory strikes against the Gaza Strip with over 18,000 killed and 50,000 injured, most of whom are women and children.
- In the U.S. we have aborted over 63 million of our babies since 1973.
- There are over 16,000 homicides due to domestic violence in the U.S. In America, 132 people commit suicide every day–the highest since World War II.
- A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), has found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of young Americans have “more fear than hope about the future.”
- American healthcare has the worst outcomes of any industrialized nation. We are all drugged up and yet have more health problems than the top forty nations in the world.
We, as humans, continually figure out new ways to try and destroy ourselves. No other species created by God is so adept and killing its own.
No wonder that as of last year, the American life expectancy for the first time ever, decreased from 77 years to 74.
The greatest threat to civil society is humankind. We are not as smart as we thought we were. Humankind has proven that our superiority is not doing us well.
Man Makes a Lousy God!
God sent His Son to save us from ourselves! God designed man that we cannot function well without God. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once said,
“What else does this craving, and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” [Pascal, Pensees #425]
No matter how your new computer or the four-slice toaster works; how beautiful your Christmas tree is all lit up; or how wonderful and cool your Samsung, Sony, or Panasonic 98” flat screen TV is, if the electricity is not on, it doesn’t work! If we are not plugged into the Power, we cannot function as we were created to. Man makes a lousy God.
Planet earth is completely chaotic. Everything we come up with produces more problems. The solutions for earth’s problems can’t come from the earth! This Earth needs Christmas! Christmas changes everything!
The first announcement of Christmas was not to Mary, Joseph, or the shepherds. The first announcement of Christmas was not to the prophets Micah or Isaiah. The first announcement of Christmas wasn’t the angels.
The First Announcement of Christmas was to Satan!
You know the story of Eden. Satan in the form of a serpent tempts Eve to eat of the fruit of good and evil. She then gets Adam to eat. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent. God lays His curse upon Satan and make the first Christmas proclamation:
“So the Lord God said to the serpent:
‘And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall crush your head’” (Genesis 3:14~15).
In other words, God is saying, Satan, I put you on notice. I’m coming to crush your head! Christmas begins here!
Why did Mary get pregnant? Why did the angels sing? Why did God come in the flesh? What is the true meaning of Christmas. Why Christmas? This is it!! A seed, singular, is coming from a woman, who is a virgin, to crush the Devil’s head.
“Head” in the Hebrew is rosh, meaning “authority, supremacy, or chief.” God is saying I’m coming. I’m going to crush your authority. I’m coming to get My kingdom back, My authority back, My dominion back!
The Real Purpose of Christmas!
Christmas changes everything on the earth! What is the end or purpose of the Christmas Story? Jesus came to crush the head of Satan! We get all caught up in the festivities, the tree, the gifts, and the parties. But the end, the purpose of Christmas is that a Child came to take back authority away from the Devil and set the captives free. This is the meaning of the great Isaiah prophecy of the Messiah.
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
A new leader, a king, is coming! The wise men and Herod understood this before anyone else. A King is coming. He will have all authority and dominion. He’s coming to take away Satan’s authority and reign through His people, the Church! Imagine a leader who is “wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace?” No imagining needed. He came and He is our leader over the earth.
A new government is being established on the earth. The Kingdom of God has come to reign and rule over the earth. Jesus’ first sermon and the only message He continually repeated over one hundred times was that the Kingdom of God has come!
This is why Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” to all of us. For He knows that Christmas changes everything and if we, His people, will seek first the Kingdom, our lives will change everything in our world.
Christmas Changes Everything!
Pastor Steve
