What’s the purpose of Christmas?

Steve Brown:
What’s the purpose of Christmas? Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We’re here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend Jerry Q. Parries to do the teaching this week. Jerry is a pastor, an author, and has served the ministry for more than 35 years.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Man, we’re getting there. Aren’t we, Jerry?

Jerry Parries: Yes, we are.

Steve Brown:
We’re going to do something a little bit different this week. This is Christmas week. Now, Christmas is next Monday, but we have a week of teaching that you’re going to find really helpful. Jerry Parries is here, and as you know, he is one of the voices of Key Life. He’s a pastor, a scholar, a musician, and I could go on and on, but he’s my friend. And I love him a lot. He is such a benediction in my life. Sometime I’ll tell you the stories. But we are going to sit down, and Jerry’s going to do most of the teaching, and I’m going to sit back and learn from him. We’re going to ask the question, what is the purpose of Christmas? And we’re going to look at different Scriptures throughout the Bible as we find an answer to that particular question. It’s our heritage, it’s what we do on Mondays, we pray before we study. So, let’s do that. Father, as we come into your presence, we are overwhelmed that you would enter time and space, that you would come, and that your love would solicit the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Father, at Christmas, don’t let us forget. And the busyness of it, and the celebrations, all a gift from you. Don’t let us forget that you really came, that you were really here, that everything has changed because of that. Father, you know everybody who’s listening to this broadcast, you know the hard places and the soft places, you know the people for whom Christmas is a wondrous time of the year. And those for whom that’s not true, you’re the God of our laughter and our tears and we worship you. And then Father, we pray for the two people who talk on this broadcast, forgive them their sins because we would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Jerry Parries: Amen.

Steve Brown:
Okay Jerry, let’s get down and let’s study. You said, when we were talking about this, that the first purpose of Christmas, when you ask the question, what is Christmas all about?

Jerry Parries: Yeah.

Steve Brown:
The first purpose is to introduce Jesus Christ to the world.

Jerry Parries: Absolutely, that is the reason that it’s all about him. I really like that, that it’s all about him. You know, a few years ago, Steve, I wrote a song. You know I’m a songwriter. I know that, I’ve seen the records that you’ve done. I wrote a song called Christmas in Vain. And, and the words of the song says.

Have we forgotten what Christmas really means? Have we forgotten that Christ came to redeem? It’s not about the Christmas tree. It’s not about the gifts we obtain. But if we do not glorify God, then our Christmas will be in vain. Christmas is in vain when we glorify the gifts and not that Jesus came.

Steve Brown:
Oh, that is so good. Listen, when we get to heaven, I get to write the music. You’re going to have to listen to my lyrics instead of me listening. It really is about him, isn’t it?

Jerry Parries: It is totally about him. Isaiah 9 and 6 says.

For unto us a child is born. Unto us a child is given.

Jesus, God introduced or came into the world to, for us to get to know him by introducing us to Jesus. It says.

And the government will be up on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.

Steve Brown:
Oh my.

Jerry Parries: And that’s what it’s about, is that we get a chance to be introduced to Jesus and everything that has encompassed who he is and what he is to us.

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Counselor.

You know, those are the things that we know about Jesus and we’ve been introduced to him and Christmas reminds us, or it should remind us that that is what Christmas is all about, that we are being introduced to a Mighty God, a Wonderful Prince of Peace, an Everlasting Father, a Counselor, and most of all, he is wonderful.

Steve Brown:
Gosh. You know, when you think about it, it’s really surprising. You know, you expect God with lightning and thunder.

Jerry Parries: Yes.

Steve Brown:
You expect God to bring his armies. You expect him to clean up the mess. He is big, he’s large, he’s in charge, and he’s scary. And so, you know, if he’s going to come, if an infinite God’s going to enter time and space, you expect it to be a pretty big show. And then God does the baby thing.

Jerry Parries: Right.

Steve Brown:
You know, that is so, I can see, and of course that doesn’t happen, but I can see God sitting around saying. How am I going to say to them that I love them without scaring the spit out of them?

Jerry Parries: Yeah.

Steve Brown:
And he sends a baby. Is that something else?

Jerry Parries: That is incredible. That’s an incredible way to look at that. I’m going to preach that. That was good.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. Well, me too.

Jerry Parries: Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Steve Brown:
And when you, and as you said, it’s about him. You know, this is the center focal point of everything, all human history, every created thing. What God was about from the beginning, from the fall to everything that happened in world history. This is what it’s about.

Jerry Parries: It’s about Christmas. It’s about Christ’s mass. It’s about him. And the world has just commercialized this moment, so that we’ve pushed him out. And Christmas really is to remind us, even when you say the word Christmas, Christ’s mass, you know, that it reminds you that, don’t forget what this is really all about. I know some people out there, they’ve got a week to go and you’re struggling and can I buy these gifts? Can I do this? Can I do that? You know, and you’re putting all this pressure upon yourself. And I heard my old pastor say, it’s not your birthday. So, stop trying to get yourself in debt, take a moment, take a breath. It’s not your children’s birthday. It’s not your birthday. It’s Christ’s birthday, is the day that we remember him. And the best gift that you can give him is your love and your commitment to him. And that doesn’t cost you anything. Well, it cost you a whole lot, but it didn’t cost you monetarily. It just costs you to present your body to live in sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him. It is about him. It is not about the gifts. So, don’t allow these pressures on this, or the commercials that you’ve seen, or all the things that you feel that you have to put under the Christmas tree. Take that pressure off of you. It’s not about you. It’s about him.

Steve Brown:
Do you get upset when people say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas?

Jerry Parries: I don’t get upset because one of the reasons why I don’t get upset is because everybody don’t know Jesus. And when they say happy holidays, it gives me an opportunity to say, Merry Christmas.

Steve Brown:
I do.

Jerry Parries: Yeah.

Steve Brown:
But, you know, I’m already a Scrooge at Christmas, so I want to grab him by the collar and say, what are you an idiot? This is not happy. What are you celebrating a holiday? Did something happen that maybe changed things? Did you ever think that it’s Christmas? But I don’t do that. I smile and do like you do. I say Merry Christmas, but I say it loud.

Jerry Parries: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They get the message. They get the message. But at the end of the day, some people have rejected Jesus throughout the year. So, you know, and there’s some people that accept Christmas, but don’t accept Christ. So, it is just,

Steve Brown:
That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?

Jerry Parries: It is. It is. It is. But our job is to show the love of Jesus and to approach it as the baby and not as the God that’s going to tear up, you know, everything. So, that’s the reason we do it.

Steve Brown:
You know what I think of sometimes when Christmas is over? I think of a family where Jesus has not been a part of it. There have been a lot of presents and the trees and the decorations and the dinners and the celebrations. And they’re putting the Christmas decorations back. And she says to her husband, you know, something was there, something was there, and I think we missed it. And that is so sad to me, I just don’t want them to, you know, there’s probably no time, and that’s where you’re right, when people are more open to the message of Christ than at Christmas.

Jerry Parries: That’s correct.

Steve Brown:
And so, it’s our job to make sure at some point we tell them.

Jerry Parries: Yeah, but, you know, but I found that sometimes we as believers get caught up in the paganism

Steve Brown:
That’s true.

Jerry Parries: of Christmas more so than we do in the name.

Steve Brown:
We really do.

Jerry Parries: So, I think that we have to be careful and remember that we must put Jesus first. It’s his day.

Steve Brown:
And so, if you’re doing that, if you’re caught up in the Christmas, enjoy it, but put it on the back burner and remember it’s always about Jesus. It’s about him. Hey. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and Jerry. That was Steve Brown and Jerry Parries kicking off a very special Christmas week edition of Key Life. And as our gift to you, we’ll have Steve and Jerry teaching us all this week through Friday. Hope you will join us for that. Well, speaking of Christmas last year’s Christmas edition of our talk radio show, Steve Brown Etc was a blast as always. We shared stories and laughs, but we also did a fun recap of our favorite guests from the previous year. Not only that, we capped the thing off with Steve’s reading of the Christmas story from Luke. You are going to love hearing this full show. So, get your copy on CD for free right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the Christmas episode of Steve Brown Etc. Finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you support that work through your giving? You can charge a gift on your credit card, you can include a gift in your envelope. Or simply pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter. Text that to 28950 and hey, if you can’t give, we understand, seriously. But if you think about it, please do pray for us, would you? Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And as always, we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.