It is easy to become preoccupied with Christmas shopping, decorating, and holiday activities, but we must never lose sight of what happened two thousand years ago. In this message, Dr. Stanley revisits the story of Jesus’ birth and explores the many names and titles given to our Savior.
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Dr. Charles Stanley: If someone
should ask you, “Tell me
what Christmas is all about?”
what would you say?
Would you have a
biblical answer?
Would you just simply
have a a worldly answer?
What’s it really all about?
Well, somebody says,
“Well, it’s all about Jesus.”
Well, like what about Jesus?
What’s it really all about?
I think there are a lot of
people who do not understand
what Christmas is about
because they’re confused.
And the primary purpose
for this message is
to eliminate that confusion.
So when somebody says, “Well,
Jesus Christ is our Savior,
what does that mean?”
Or that Jesus Christ was born of
a virgin, what does that mean?
And so there are
lots of questions.
And oftentimes
we’ll hear people say,
“Well, we can’t read
the Bible anymore,
and we can’t even have
a Bible on our desk.”
Or, “We can’t have one
at work,” and so forth.
You know why?
They’ll say, “Well, it’s
okay to believe in God,
but this Jesus
stuff doesn’t count.”
So, you can’t talk about
Jesus here or there
or wherever it might be.
You know why, because they
don’t understand who He is.
And secondly, many people
do not understand
what Christmas is all about.
So this message is very simple.
I want you to understand what’s
really involved when we talk
about Christmas
and who Jesus is.
And some of the terminology
that oftentimes just gets on the
background and we forget
what it’s really all about.
So I want you to turn, if you
will, to Luke chapter two,
and in the first part
of this chapter is
about the birth of Jesus.
And beginning in verse eight,
I want us to start with that.
He says, “In the same
region there were some shepherds
staying out in the fields
and keeping watch
over their flock by night.
And an angel of the Lord
suddenly stood before them,
and the glory of the Lord
shone round about them;
and they were
terribly frightened.
But the angel said to
them, ‘Do not be afraid;
for behold, I bring you good
news of great joy which will be
to all the people; for today in
the city of David there has been
born,'” now listen to this,
“‘there has been born for you a
Savior, who is the
Christ the Lord.
This will be a sign to you:
you will find a baby wrapped in
cloths and lying in a manger.’
And suddenly there appeared with
the angel a multitude of the
heavenly host praising
God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among men
with whom He is well pleased.'”
You know, people
oftentimes don’t
understand what really happened.
In fact, the most tragic
part is they don’t
understand who Jesus is.
And if I just picked up the
Bible and read this few verses,
neither would I, because it’s
not really all that simple.
And I think one of the primary
reasons many people are not
saved is because they
only have a smattering
of the gospel,
just a little bit.
We say, “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.”
Well, I think
that’s pretty clear,
but what’s the difference
between the Father and the Son?
What’s the difference
between God and Jesus?
Who is this Messiah
that you talk about,
and who is this Lord that you
say that I must believe in?
Now, what in the world is
all of that about?
Well, I’ll tell you; I want
to answer that this morning.
It’s all about the most
awesome event in human history.
It’s all about the
truth of who Jesus is,
who God is, who the Holy Spirit
is, and what God is up to,
and why He says what He says.
For example, in
this eleventh verse,
“For today in the city of David
there has been born for you,”
listen, “a Savior, who
is Christ the Lord.”
So there are three names right
there: Savior, Christ, Lord.
What’s the difference in those?
Which one of these am I
supposed to believe in?
And so, there are people who
honestly do not understand,
do not believe,
and are confused.
So we want to clarify that.
And when I think about this
passage and I think about how
awesome it is, and I think about
what people are thinking about
this Christmas, and usually
people are thinking about,
bet you’ve already started, in
fact, they started months ago.
There are people who started
Christmas shopping months ago.
And ask them why?
Haven’t got
anything to do with
Jesus or the birth of
Christ or anything.
Christmas is all about Jesus.
Jesus is all about saving you.
Jesus is all about
changing your life.
Jesus is all about a
brand-new beginning.
Jesus is all about eternal life.
Jesus is not about
shopping, presents,
drinking, carousing, partying
and all the other things that we
let take so much of our
Christmas time doing.
Who is this Jesus?
And what’s the
difference in all these words?
So when I think about it, I
think about the nature of this
gift, and that tells
us something
about how important it is.
And usually would be true,
the importance of something is
determined by who
does the introduction.
That is, who’s
making the announcement.
The scripture says, “An angel of
the Lord suddenly stood before
them, and the glory of the
Lord shone round about them.
And then the angel said.”
So think about this.
Whatever this message is,
it wasn’t some ordinary
person who announced it.
The birth of Jesus was announced
by a heavenly angel sent by
Almighty God to give
direction and to give
explanation what was going on.
And so, very important
that we understand
who made the announcement.
And the good news, which
something in those days
they didn’t hear much of.
If you lived in a Roman Empire,
it was difficult, harsh, hard.
There’s no joy in that.
And survival was a
name of the game.
Joy was something that was
a strange phenomenon
in Roman Empire.
It was tough, rough, power,
beaten down, and all the rest.
Joy?
Where does that come from?
So the angel’s
talking about joy.
And I love what Peter
said in First Peter,
in this first chapter.
And if you want to turn to some
of these verses, wonderful.
When he describes this, he says,
“And though you have not seen
him,” Jesus, “you love Him, and
though you do not see Him now,
but believe in Him, you
greatly rejoice with joy
inexpressible and
full of glory.”
Who is this Jesus that you
accepted as your personal
Savior maybe years ago?
Or that you hear people
telling you that you ought
to have Him in your life.
Who is He?
And you see, one of the reasons
some of you have never accepted
Christ is because you
don’t have any idea who He is.
You’ve just gotten
smatterings of the gospel.
Well, you tell somebody, “Well,
my testimony is that somebody
witnessed to me,” and they don’t
know what that means either,
“somebody witnessed to me
and told me about Jesus, and I
accepted Him as my personal
Savior, and I have eternal life,
my name’s written in the
Lamb’s Book of Life.”
What’s eternal life?
What’s this Lamb’s Book?
And what’s this thing
about it being in heaven?
So I want you to
grasp something today.
I want you to understand that
the world has lots of reasons to
be in question, because
we only give them
a smattering of the gospel.
And if–I think
about what people say.
If that’s all I heard,
I’m not sure I’d be
a Christian all these years.
So let’s think
about it for a moment.
And when the scripture says, “A
multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying,” so
that’s the way God sort of put a
crescendo to the message.
And I think about what people
think in terms of a multitude.
You know what a multitude is?
A multitude is innumerable,
as far north as you look,
as far south as you look, as
far east and west as you look,
you can’t count them.
There is no end.
When God announced
the birth of Jesus,
He put on the biggest display
the world will ever know about,
announcing the Lord
Jesus Christ’s birth.
That in itself ought to tell you
something about His importance
and His message of importance.
“Today is born to you in
the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.”
And so, when we talk
about identifying this gift,
let’s talk about
several words used,
and the first one is a Savior.
Whoever this is, God
said He was a Savior.
A Savior from what?
A Savior from our
sins, those things
that destroy people’s lives.
It’ll destroy your life.
A Savior for those people who
one of these days are going to
die, which is all of us.
And we’re going to
spend eternity somewhere.
Ignore the Savior, refuse to
believe the Savior, and you’re
going to be eternally separated
from the One who created you,
who is Almighty God.
And you’re going to be
punished according to your sins.
God gives us His warning.
So when I think in
terms of a Savior,
I just want you to follow me
through several passages of
scripture, in
thinking in terms of that.
So turn, if you will,
to First Peter and look–
let’s look in the
first chapter here.
And I want you to
notice a couple of verses.
Chapter one and verse eighteen,
and listen to what he says,
“Knowing that you were not
redeemed with perishable things
like silver and gold from your
futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers,” that’s
just the way that you’ve been
living, “but with precious
blood, as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless,
the blood of Christ.”
Who is this Christ?
He says, “This is the way
you’re forgiven of your sins:
as a result of the
shedding of His blood.”
The scripture says, “For He was
foreknown before the foundation
of the world, but has
appeared in these last days
for your sake who
through,” listen,
He says the sake of you, “who
through Him are believers of
God, who raised
Him from the dead,
gave Him glory, so that your
faith and hope are in God.”
So think about this.
This Savior of ours is the Son
of God who laid down His life on
the cross, and that’s the way
we’re forgiven of our sins,
because of His, what we
call His atoning death.
And then if you’ll turn to
Ephesians chapter one for a
moment, and these
epistles have awesome verses.
In the first
chapter of Ephesians,
the scripture
says in verse seven,
“In Him,” that is,
the beloved in Christ,
“we have redemption,”
forgiveness, cleansing,
“we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according
to the riches of His grace,
which He lavished on us.
In all wisdom and insight.”
That is, in order for a person
to have a right relationship
with God, God had
to do something.
And He sent His
only begotten Son,
Jesus, into the world, not for
the purpose of being an example,
but for the purpose of dying.
And He was born of a virgin.
He didn’t have an
earthly father.
He was absolutely sinless.
The only way He could come into
the world and be sacrificed for
our sins is to be
absolutely sinless.
And so we think in terms
of Jesus being a sacrifice.
Then if you’ll turn
on over to Colossians,
chapter one, and
look at these verses.
They’re all talking about
Jesus and who He is
and why He came and so forth.
And if you’ll look in, beginning
in the thirteenth verse,
the scripture says, “He rescued
us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the
kingdom of His beloved son in
whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins.”
There are only two kingdoms:
the Kingdom of Light
and the Kingdom of Darkness.
Now, watch this.
Whether you
understand it or not,
you are either walking in
darkness or you are walking in
the light of the
gospel of Christ.
If you have never
trusted Him as your Savior,
no time for God, don’t
understand who Jesus is,
you’re walking in darkness.
You’re not happy.
You put up with a lot of things.
You hurt.
You go through situations
and circumstances that
you don’t really like in life.
In fact, you find yourself mired
up in trying to find happiness
and peace and joy.
So what is he saying?
He says, “In whom
we have redemption,
the forgiveness of our sins.
He is the image of
the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.”
And so, the scripture’s very
clear about who Jesus is.
He’s the Son of God.
Watch this.
There is only one true God.
Now, there are lots
and lots of gods in
the world, always have been.
But there’s only one true God.
So the scripture says here
God has given us some that
we–someone that we are to
share with the whole world.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of
Luke, listen to what he says.
Jesus, before He had
ascended, He said that,
“repentance of–forgiveness of
sins would be proclaimed in His
name to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.
You are to be
witnesses of these things.
And behold, I am sending forth
the promise of My Father upon
you; but you are to stay in the
city of Jerusalem until you’ve
been clothed with
power from on high.”
So that
interjects somebody else.
Well, who is this that’s
coming to empower us
to talk about Jesus?
That is the Holy Spirit because
He’s the one who gives us
understanding and helps
us understand who He is
and what this is all about.
And He’s the one
who, watch this,
He’s the one living within us
who empowers us to understand,
empowers us to
speak and to preach,
empowers us to bear witness.
He’s the one who empowers
us to go through difficulty,
hardship, trial, pain, and
suffering, and whatever, and
we come out smiling because we
know who lives within us.
The person, for example,
who has never been to church,
or even if they have,
multitudes, millions of people
in this country have
never been to church.
They’re not
interested in church,
not interested in God.
Now, there are
probably a lot of reasons,
but one of the
primary reason is,
listen to this, they
don’t know who He is.
And the reason they don’t know
who He is is because no one’s
ever explained who He is.
Doesn’t mean that some
people don’t understand,
surely many of us do, but
the majority of people
don’t know who He is.
We not only ourselves need to
desperately understand what we
believe and why, and we
also need to be able to say to
others, “This is what
the scripture teaches,
and there are no conflicts.”
And so He’s our Savior.
And the scripture talks
about not only our Savior,
but the scripture talks
about Jesus being the Christ.
And, in our
scripture here, for example,
He says, “There’s born
for you today a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord.”
Okay, now wait a minute.
Savior, Christ, who is Christ?
That word means
the Anointed One.
The Anointed One.
The Lord Jesus Christ
who walked among men.
Jesus Christ, the same.
Look, if you will, in Colossians
chapter two, and verse three.
The scripture says,
speaking of, “Christ Himself,
in whom are hidden
all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge.
I say this so that you
will–no one will delude
you with persuasive arguments.”
That is, when you
understand who Jesus is,
you begin to understand
what life’s all about.
You begin to
understand who God is.
You begin to understand
what the Holy Spirit is about.
Things begin to fall in place
when you understand who Jesus is
and this is what He’s saying,
“In whom are hidden all the
treasures of
wisdom and knowledge.”
Don’t let anyone delude you.
And I think there are many
Christians who get saved.
They understand about
Jesus being their Savior,
but they never
learn how to walk.
They never understand,
they don’t take the time to
understand, okay now, I
hear about these other terms,
Messiah, Lord, God,
Holy Spirit, Christ.
How do–how does all
this fit together?
The reason if fits together
is because of the
oneness of the Godhead.
God Almighty: God the
Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit,
three Persons of the Godhead.
So they say, “Well, do
y’all believe in three gods?”
No.
It is God who
expresses Himself: Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
And so, when you trust the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Savior,
you get more than just
forgiveness of your sins.
You get a Heavenly Father.
You have, listen, you receive
the power of the Spirit of God
within you to enable you to
become and to do all that God
would have you to become and do.
And then, of course,
there is the word: the Lord.
So think about this.
In this announcement, and
the announcement came with,
“There has been born
for you a Savior,” okay,
forgives my sins, “who
is Christ,” the Messiah,
the Anointed One, “the Lord.”
Now, what’s the
difference between those three?
Are these three
different persons?
No, they’re not.
Jesus is the Messiah,
Jesus is the Christ,
and Jesus is the Lord.
But I want you to
look, if you will, in
John chapter
eight for a moment.
And I want you to see that
there’s no confusion in the
Bible about all this.
In John chapter eight,
and look, if you will,
as Jesus in this eighth chapter,
especially eight chapter here,
explaining who He is and how
He’s working with the Father,
listen to what He says
in the nineteenth verse.
He said in verse eighteen, “I am
He who testifies about Myself,
and the Father who sent
Me testifies about Me.”
So they were saying to
Him, in verse nineteen,
“‘Where is Your Father?’
Jesus answered, ‘You know
neither Me nor My Father;
if you knew Me, you would
know My Father also.'”
And so, somebody says,
“Well, I don’t get it,
how you can have a Father
over here and Jesus
here and the Holy Spirit here.”
Because they’re all one.
And so the
disciples understood that.
And they were–He was
explaining right then
what all that was about.
And then, let’s go
to John chapter ten,
and look, if you will,
in this thirtieth verse.
Listen to what He says.
He says in verse twenty-eight,
“And I give eternal life to
them, and they
will never perish;
and no one will be able to
snatch them out of My hand.”
Once you’re saved
by the grace of God,
you’re eternally
saved, “My Father,
who has given them to
Me,” this is Jesus speaking,
“given them to Me,
is greater than all;
and no one is able to
snatch them out of My hand.”
Listen to this, “I
and the Father are one.
If you have seen Me
you’ve seen the Father.”
Somebody says, “Well, I
don’t understand all that.”
Well, let me just say this.
Jesus Christ came as our Savior,
sent by the Father to do His
work, primarily to
die on the cross,
shed His blood, make it possible
for you and I to be saved.
We aren’t just saved, we’re
sealed by the Holy Spirit.
That is, He put a
stamp on us, so to speak.
Now we’re the child of God.
God the Father has His part.
Jesus has His part.
The Holy Spirit has His part.
And if you’ll
notice in our passage,
he talks about the Lord.
So I want you to turn to Romans
chapter ten for a moment because
this is a passage oftentimes we
want to lead somebody to Christ.
And this tenth chapter,
listen to what he says.
He says in verse nine,
“If you confess,” that is,
you’re willing to
agree to, you state it,
you say, “I believe this,”
“if you confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in
your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, he
says you will be saved.”
Then he says, “For with
the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness,”
or godliness, “and with
the mouth he confesses,
resulting in salvation.
For the Scripture says,
‘Whoever believes in Him
will not be disappointed.'”
And then he says in the
thirteenth verse,
“For whosoever will call on the
name of the Lord will be saved.”
You’ve got God the
Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit.
Now, what’s this Messiah?
That’s the name that
they were looking for.
If you read the fourth
chapter of John and Jesus,
woman at the well and
so forth, and they said,
“We found the Messiah.”
And so, all of these are
different words that describe
our Savior, our
Redeemer, our Lord,
our Master, the Person we
have living within us in the
Person of the Holy Spirit.
And so, when I
think about Christmas,
and I think about all the
things that people believe,
and they wonder why we
believe what we believe,
God has made it
clear in His Word.
So, when you’re talking to
somebody about Jesus and talking
about their sin, which they
don’t particularly want you to
talk too much about that,
but let’s just say that you’re
talking to them
and they say, “Okay,
I want to get out
of this mess I’m in.
I do want to feel that God up
there somewhere has forgiven me.
And I do want to believe
that what you’re saying,
that He writes my name in
the Lamb’s Book of
Life, whatever that means.”
In other words, a person
needs to understand that God the
Father, God the
Son, and God the Spirit,
three persons of the Trinity,
always working in our behalf.
And so, when he says in our
text here about all this,
he says, “For today in the city
of David, there’s been born for
you a Savior, who
is Christ the Lord.”
Somebody says, “Well,
now, if I believe in Jesus,
do I have to believe
in the Holy Spirit?”
Put it this way,
you believe in Jesus,
you will believe in
the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the One
who gave you the capacity to
understand what
Christ is all about,
and His death at the cross.
And so we have,
think about this,
we have God the Son in
Jesus, who also is Messiah.
And we have Lord–the Lord.
We have all of these words
referring to the same Person.
So you know what?
Nowhere in the
Bible does it say,
“Well now, let me explain
in detail all of this.”
You read the Word of God,
do you know why you
and I understand it?
Because the Spirit
of God enables us
to have understanding.
So a person says,
“Well, I believe in God
and I think that’s enough.”
Well now, put it this way.
You believe in God and
you think that’s enough.
Identify your god.
Tell me who He is.
Identify your god.
You say, “Well, I believe in
God and that should be enough.”
It depends on who your god is.
Is your god the Eternal
Creator who sent Jesus to be our
Redeemer, the Holy
Spirit to be our enabler?
Is that the god
you’re talking about?
The One True God is
the God who hates sin,
loves the sinner,
provides the best,
enables us to live out this
life in the power of the Spirit,
and who’s written our name
in the Lamb’s Book of Life,
from which there
are no erasures,
and who will call you Home one
day and before whom you’ll give
an account for your life.
And you will be
rewarded according
to the life that you’ve lived.
You cannot escape the
truth of that statement.
That is who God is.
So when you say, “Well, God
and Messiah and Savior,” we’re
talking about the same person.
They are simply
aspects of the same Person.
Now, watch this,
you can’t, listen, you can’t
walk in darkness on the one
hand and light on the other.
In other words, if
you’re walking in darkness,
you’re walking apart from
the will of God the Father,
God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit.
God has the best
provided for us.
And what I want you to see is
this: when we quote this verse,
“For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only Begotten
Son, that whoever
believes in Him
would have everlasting life.”
Watch this, “For God,” the
Father, “so loved the world,”
all of us sinners, “that He
gave His only Begotten Son,”
that’s Jesus, the
second Person of the Trinity.
Does that mean one’s
higher than the other?
No, because they all make up
the Godhead: God the Father,
God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit.
Willing to
forgive us of our sins,
watch this, not based
on how good we are,
not based on what we promise,
but based on the fact that He
was the virgin-born Son of God
who came into the world to be a
sacrifice on the
cross, shedding His blood,
and making it possible for all
of us to be forgiven of our sin.
The blood was a
reminder, listen,
we’re saved through the
blood of Jesus Christ.
I mean, God could have
sent all kind of things.
But He, listen, watch this, He
came Himself in the Person of
Jesus Christ in order
to die on the cross,
shed His blood which was
payment for your sin and my sin.
And now when you and I are
willing to accept Jesus Christ
as our Savior and our Lord,
we are forgiven of our sin,
not based on what we do,
but based on what He did.
And then to enable us and to
encourage us throughout our
Christian life, He sent us the
Holy Spirit to live within us.
To give us understanding,
and to give us the faith,
the capacity to trust Him.
You say, “Well, do you
understand everything
about God?”
No.
I’ll tell you one thing.
I understand enough to praise
Him and thank Him and live for
Him every single day.
Because He’s
everything He said He would be.
And He did not say that I’d
have to understand everything.
I understand enough to know
when I sin, get rid of it.
I understand enough to
know when I’m blessed,
where it came from.
I understand enough
to know that when I
die, I’m going to heaven.
I understand enough to know that
I don’t have to fret and worry
about things in this life.
This life is short lived.
And one of these days when He
calls your name–and I would say
this, you may be
hiding out somewhere today.
One of these days, God’s going
to call your name and you’re
going to wonder
where that came from.
It came from a God who warned
you about a coming judgment,
warned you that one day you’d
have to give an account for your
life, warned you that one day
you will pay for your sins.
Listen, God doesn’t
want anybody to be lost.
This is why He’s got
a–this is why He’s
got all this in the scripture.
God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit.
If you’ve seen Me,
you’ve seen the Father.
I and the Father are one.
God so loved the world that
He gave His only Begotten Son,
whoever believes in
Him would not perish
but have everlasting life.
What more could God do in
expressing His love than give us
His Only Begotten Son?
Nothing.
He did it.
So, I want you to see
it’s really not complicated.
When you receive Jesus as your
Savior and you understand that,
you’re receiving the Father.
And you’re
receiving the Holy Spirit.
I was saved at
the age of twelve.
I didn’t understand any of this.
But you know what?
I didn’t have to.
At twelve years of age, I just
needed to know that I’d sinned
against God, which
was not a question.
I needed to know that
I’d sinned against God,
and that He died on
the cross for my sins.
And He said that if I’d confess
that, yield myself to
Him, He’d save me,
and He did.
And then the enlightenment of
who He is and what He’s all
about came with time.
So it’ll be with you.
You won’t understand
everything at first,
but I want you to see this:
there are no contradictions.
There’s no difference in the
Messiah and the Savior
and Jesus and Lord.
Now, do you
understand why you can’t say,
“I believe in God, but
I don’t want anything
to do with that Jesus.”
Listen, watch this why.
Because Jesus said, “I
and the Father are one.”
To reject Jesus is
to reject the Father.
Then where do you go?
What’s behind the Father?
What’s behind the Father?
Nothing.
The world thinks they have
all kind of explanations.
Let me just say this to
you: there’s one explanation.
God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit make up
the–listen, make up the
creation of this world.
They’re the ones who created it.
And then because of our sin, He
sent Jesus to die a bloody death
on the cross as an
expression of His love for us.
He was the only sinless
one there’s ever been.
He came to the cross.
He laid down His life.
He made it possible for
all who believe in Him
to be forgiven of their sin.
And then, to top it all off, He
gave the Holy Spirit to walk
within us every single day
to enable us to face
life and face it triumphantly.
And your salvation is based
on your response to Jesus
as your personal Savior.
All will be accountable to Him.
And if you’ll think about
how simple He made it to a
twelve-year-old boy, He–He told
me enough: that I was a sinner,
Jesus died for my sins, He
shed His blood on the cross,
and if I were willing to
accept Him as my personal
Savior, I’d be forgiven.
And God would work in my life.
That’s what I did.
That’s why I’m where
I am, because of
the grace of Almighty God.
It’s yours for the
asking, if you will.
And Father, I pray that every
person who hears this message
will have understanding
which requires faith,
but a faith that
results in eternal life.
In Jesus’s name, amen.
♪♪♪