MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

"Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out Again and said to them [the Jews], "See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!" When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him."

…So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is Called Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them….After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished," and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit."
(Summary of John 19:1-30)

You may well be thinking to yourself…”huh?” After all, tomorrow morning is Christmas
Day and here I am writing about the crucifixion of our Lord rather than His birth! Well
don’t fret too much…I’ll get there!

I thought it would be appropriate for us to look at this passage in John because if we are
to remember and celebrate the birth of Christ then we must keep in mind as we give each
other presents that this joyful day happened for a reason. Jesus was not born just so we
could give each other presents. If we focus on the materialistic aspect of the celebration
then we are no different than all of secular society and the unbelievers who are ignorant
of the significance of this day.

Brothers and sisters, WE must remember that Jesus came into the world for a purpose…and that purpose was to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10)

So as we contemplate the baby in the manger…as we consider the joy of Joseph and
Mary…imagine that beautiful Child, that adorable Baby wrapped up and lovingly held in
a mother’s arms; and read again the passage above. Because that sweet Baby came for
the specific purpose of dying that horrible death on the cross. Did you know that? Jesus came to die on the cross!

And guess what?

He did it willingly!

The only hesitation ever entertained by our Lord was the thought of bearing our sin, NOT our punishment. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Can you fathom that? I sure cannot! Yet the Word is clear on this point…One who knew no sin, BECAME sin…for our sake…so that we could become adopted members of the family and so that we would not have to be punished
for our sin!

So again…Jesus came to be our sacrifice. What a wonderful day indeed! What a gift we
have received from our Lord!

But you know what? Let’s make sure this is a gift we tell everyone we know about!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in theinn.
(Luke 2:1-7)