December 24, 2023 -- Isaiah 40:1-2 -- What is the Most Important Date of the Church Year?

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Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.
Isaiah 40:1-2 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
II Corinthians 1:3-5 ESV

What is the most important date in the church year? Many people will say it is Christmas. There are so many things associated with Christmas, food, presents, trees, lights, decorations, songs, get togethers and all sorts of traditions. It makes sense. Yet, the celebration of first importance is actually the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is what is celebrated on Resurrection, or Easter Sunday. In fact we celebrate His resurrection every Sunday; it is the reason people meet together on Sunday (instead of following the Old Testament pattern of the Sabbath, Saturday). Our whole calendar changed because of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

Why mention this? Many Christians are so caught up in the secular celebrations of Christmas. There is a vague sense of disappointment if their local church doesn’t do this or that. The Bible gives the birth of Jesus its appropriate place in the Father’s plans of salvation. Look at Isaiah. After 39 chapters of judgment and making the people aware of the greatness of their sin and the fullness of the wrath of God that is to come (note that there are 39 books in the Old Testament) Isaiah begins the next section with comfort (which is like the start of the New Testament which has 27 books. Whereas Jesus was concealed in the Old Testament, in the New Testament He is wondrously revealed). As Isaiah proclaimed it, when Christ the King comes His people's warfare is ended. Christ will bring the LORD’s gift, a double portion for all her sins.

This is echoed in II Corinthians 1, that the Father is the God of all comforts. He has provided salvation for His people in Jesus Christ. Our affliction was our separation from God. Our affliction was the fact that our sins provoke the Father of Mercies and incite His just condemnation on our sins. However, the Father has provided, from before the foundation of the world, a Savior. Jesus Christ, His Name means: He is anointed by God to save people from their sins and the wrath of God.

That is why Isaiah says a double portion. Jesus’ work is not barely sufficient to free us from our sins. It is more than enough. It is a full portion, overflowing so that the people of God can be comforted and assured that all their sins have been fully covered and they are made right with God. Christmas is celebrated with a view to the fact that this Child is born so that people who believe in Him will have comfort beyond description. Even in the days of godlessness and suffering, the hope of the Christian is not centred on governments, human intelligence or AI (Artificial Intelligence). Our hope is firmly fixed on Jesus, born a Child, and yet a King. Born to suffer, having His life fixed on the glory of God to be revealed at Calvary, so that three days later, at His resurrection, the comfort of God would reach us all.

Yes, sing the Christmas carols. Delight in the blessed comfort of Christmas. The most appropriate way to celebrate though, is to view this wonderful season in the proper context. Jesus Christ was born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. That is, new life which is freedom from the Father’s curse on our sin (won for us by Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary), so that in Christ we can receive the Father’s mercy (wonderfully, and extravagantly confirmed in comfort at Jesus’ resurrection).

ALMIGHTY GOD, Who hast given us Thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon Him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; grant that we being regenerate, and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

CHRISTMAS. “Divine Service Book for the Armed Forces” 1950. page 37

https://youtu.be/Xw38pGhPXIk?si=ov3Ww7XMCbFa-pde “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”

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