Our Family Christmas Devotional

For our family Christmas devotional, I taught on a few biblical passages that record some of the events during Jesus’ life. Since it was just my wife and two daughters (14 & almost 11), I did not prepare an outline beforehand to preach from. Rather, before opening our gifts for each other I began with explaining how and why today is a day set apart to celebrate the birth of the Christ, Jesus. I basically “winged it,” but God blessed it despite my lack of formal effort in preparation.

First, I explained the pagan origins of “Easter” and its association to the fertility goddess Ishtar (Astarte, Semiramis, etc.). I gave a summary of what it was all about along with the underlying pagan worldview that supported the beliefs. I used Easter as an example of how Christians have created derivative holy-days based on pagan holidays. This set the table for a brief lecture on the origins of “Christmas.”

Needless to say, I gave a brief lecture on the winter solstice and spring equinox. The kids were hungry for more, but due to time constraints I had to somehow steer the discussion back to the Christian meaning behind the holiday called “Christmas.”

I began with the typical introduction and discussed the significance of the incarnation of the second Person of the triune Godhead. But I wanted to give them more than just the same old mental images of the nativity scene. So I related the significance of the incarnation to the Reformed doctrine of the eternal decree and showed them that the birth of Jesus happened right on schedule according to the eternal decree of God’s non-thwartable plan of predestined redemption (Gal. 4:4, Eph. 1:10, Job 42:2, Dan. 4:35, etc.).

After discussing that for a while, I returned to the baby that was born of the virgin, Mary. Since they’ve heard most of the story before, I embarked upon the task of teaching them more about who this baby grew up to be. I shared with them the many different views of Jesus held by various religious groups, including Christians. I told them that we can discuss these different views another time and that tonight we were going to be taught by God through the reading of his Word.

The first passage we turned to was in Matthew’s account. We looked at several passages that record attempts to trap Jesus in minutia in hope to catch him with something to accuse him of. In Matthew 22 alone we find the following:

• Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words (22:15).
• The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question… (22:23).
• But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him (22:43-35).

We discussed how the questions were designed with the intention of testing Jesus in front of others so that his influence on the people would become lessened. The kids picked up very quickly on how the “religious leaders” were losing power and reputation every time Jesus opened his mouth to speak! We looked at the reactions Matthew recorded after Jesus responded to the testing questions asked of him. We saw:

• When they heard it, they marveled (22:22).
• And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching (22:33).

By this time, our full attention was on the person of Jesus as revealed in the Gospel according to Matthew. We had vibrant images in our head of how the words of Jesus might have impacted his hearers. It was at this time I decided to shift the discussion to a different angle (because Matthew shifts angles too) and look at the next passage that tells of Jesus’ question asked to the Pharisees. We read:

• Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question… (22:41).

The transition appeared to be exciting for the kids because we had been looking at questions designed to test and trap Jesus, and now we were looking at a question Jesus asked to them, perhaps not to trap them per se, rather, to expose them to themselves and to others!

Jesus asks, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

My 14-year old daughter’s face lit up in amazement of Jesus’ wisdom. She loves when a skipping stone stops skipping and begins to sink down deep to the bottom! I repeated the question to both of them along with the Pharisees answer and asked her how she would have answered (note to parents: in a biblically-monitored inductive environment this is ok). She was lost for words, and after about 20 seconds of my putting her “on-the-spot” for an answer she admitted that she was unable to answer him.

I read the next verse:

And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions (22:46).

All they could say is, “wow!” They were enthused by the reading of Jesus’ encounter with the most revered “religious” authorities of the day and how he confronted them with the truth rather than succumbing to their power moves.

I used this to teach them about Jesus’ mission to give and be the truth. We talked about how often times people react violently to the truth. Violence can either be physical, emotional, psychological, etc. We looked at some examples of violent reaction to the truth Jesus’ brought. We also looked at some examples of what truth he brought and the means by which he brought it.

We looked at the seven “woes” Jesus gave to the Scribes and Pharisees recorded in Matt. 23. I did a dramatic, theatrical reading of the whole chapter and let’s just say I had more than just their attention!

Amazed at the apparent insults Jesus gave to the Scribes and Pharisees, they began to express an understanding of how angry and frustrated they must have been. They were also seeing the picture of the surrounding crowd that were hearing a revolutionary public challenge to the Scribes and Pharisees for the first time.

I led the discussion to the fact of how evil people, when unable to “catch” someone they hate in a legitimate sin that merits valid accusation, simply begin to make false accusations against the object of their hatred. This led us to discuss how it was on the basis of false accusations that Jesus eventually was tried, convicted, and killed! We talked about how the same old tactics are still used today by children of their father the devil who are held captive to do his will (Jn. 8:44).

We ended the discussion with a clear presentation of the gospel, how Christ’s death that day satisfied God’s wrath toward elect sinners, how Jesus’ punishment and death was in the place of elect sinners as a substitute for their sins, how God raised him from the dead after three days for our justification, how the elect of God are brought to saving faith in Christ much in the same way Jesus came into the world of space and time – the right time according to God’s eternal decree.

After reflecting on the suffering, slander, shame, and eventually the death that Jesus experienced in the place of sinners that deserved it themselves, I gave a testimony as to why I do what I do. IOW, what motivates me to serve Christ zealously. They clearly understood and ministered to me as well by encouraging me to stand firm as a soldier. I quoted an old poetic expression from (I think) a hymn that John Piper said was framed in the kitchen of his home where he grew up:

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed;
Only what’s done for Christ, will last.”

This quote really got them going as they were realizing the importance of time in their own lives. See, I can tell them to do good (which I often do), but I cannot make them do good. All I can ever do is “make” them conform outwardly to the expectations placed on them, but never inwardly. Since they “naturally” lack the power to do good, only the Holy Spirit can make them do good by empowering them for such service. I immediately stripped them of the false notion that they could do good if they really wanted to. I’d rather have them look to God for power so that they will credit God with their victories!

We rabbit-trailed off into several other passages here and there, but in the end I wrapped it up by telling them that whenever they are reminded of Christmas during the course of the rest of their earthly lives, unless they associate the relevance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ with the eternal purposes of God and it’s benefit to his people created for his glory, then it’s nothing more than the celebration of a human birthday. How nominal of an event it would be if all we were celebrating was the birthday of some human, any mere human.

By God’s grace this year’s Christmas season will be among the more memorable ones in our family. And since I consider the BT community as spiritual family I thought it would be fruitful to pass along the blessing that God gave to us – for his glory – in our family Christmas devotional. It is my prayer that God would fasten his truth to your thinking for 2009 in immeasurable ways unlike ever before, and that you receive profound wisdom and insight from him in order to live in a manner worthy of that to which you’ve been called! Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, and never cease to proclaim by all your temporal existence that Christ is Lord of all!

Take every though captive to obey Christ (2 Cor. 10:5)!

P.S. My wife said that she was told by them later that night that they feel so blessed of God to be led with such a godly example (In her, not me!). All I got was, “thanks for this gift, thanks for that gift,” etc. But that’s ok, as long as God was glorified! She deserves way more credit than I do anyway…