Focus on Christmas’s Purpose
It’s time to get ready for Christmas, so how do we ready ourselves for this holy day? It all starts by getting our focus back where it belongs, and that is the purpose behind Jesus’s coming.
Our society sees Christmas as a time to give and receive gifts. It’s where we can get a couple of days off work. And it’s a time where people get drunk and party, breaking just about every one of God’s Ten Commandments.
And as we can all guess, this is the furthest thing from what the real purpose of Christmas is all about.
The purpose is to remember that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Therefore, Christmas is to remember that Jesus left His heavenly estate and came down to earth as a baby for this very purpose, and that is to be one of us so that He could become that perfect sinless sacrifice for our sin so we can have an eternity in God’s presence.
Jesus was born to be the sacrificial Lamb of God.
This was initially promised through Abraham as he was about to offer his son, Isaac. The Lord said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Genesis 22:8)
I really find the wording interesting and revealing. God would provide Himself as the lamb, that is, God would be the Lamb.
And so, Jesus came just as John the Baptist declared, saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Therefore, to focus on the purpose of Christmas is to focus on Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead who came to earth to provide Himself as that sacrificial Lamb in order to die for our sins so that we can have eternal life with Him in heaven.
Dennis Lee is Senior Pastor at Living Waters Fellowship, Mesquite, Nevada. He presently has two books, “From Here to There: A Journey to Spiritual Transformation,” and “Wells of Living Waters,” He also writes a religious column for a local newspaper entitled, “Rediscover the Bible for Life,” along with daily devotionals and thoughts that he posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Living Waters Fellowship’s Website
Image by DEEPAI
Well and Good, just to endorse that Christmas’s true purpose is to focus on the spiritual significance of Christ’s coming, emphasizing the birth of divine Truth, Love, and spiritual understanding, not material things or worldly traditions. We should shift our attention from commercial gift-giving to appreciating God’s infinite gift (spiritual idea, man, universe) and embracing the eternal, healing Christ-presence, moving beyond mortal sense to spiritual demonstration.
Your Friend – His servant,
Isaac Otieno
This is so apropos to what was brought out a bible study held at Mesa Valley Estates this week that Ken and I attended. We all know that familiar phrase for us as believers, “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. The one teaching took it one step further, reversing the words, “The Season has a Reason for Jesus”. And we all know that reason is exactly what was stated in this article. Jesus didn’t just come as the baby in the manger and leave it at that. He came to give His life for us. I love the illustration mentioned here in Genesis 22:8 that just as Abraham said to Isaac that God would provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, that it was actually prophetically speaking of God providing Himself as the lamb and that He would be that lamb through Jesus Christ. That has always been the key take away from that passage that has impacted me the most. That is truly to be our focal point.