Christmas Unwrapped - 1 - The Long Journey

We are starting a new mini-series this week, called Christmas Unwrapped.

Over the next two weeks we will be unwrapping the true meaning of Christmas. This week’s session is titled “the long journey” and we see what we can learn from the build up to Christmas.

Christmas is a busy time of year for lots of people for a variety of different reasons. There are parties to go to, presents to buy, things to eat and songs to sing. However what do we really think is important to make Christmas well Christmas?

As a group I want you to order these 12 things in importance, from Christmas hero to zero.

Christmas is a time when we spend time having fun and enjoying spending time with our friends and family. However we need to remember what the true focus should be at this time of year.

We need to remember that Jesus is the reason why we have this season. Handbags, Santa mince pies, parties and presents all pale into insignificance in comparison to the birth of this one little baby.

I am sure you are familiar with this story already but let’s get a refresher of the story in Matthew 1 : 18 - 25.

So what makes this birth so special? Around the world there are 4 children born every second, which is over 126 million children a year!

So why do we spend so much time focusing on just a single birth which took place more than two thousand years ago. Using the passage that we have just looked at and your own knowledge let’s complete why this birth is special.

The key reason for Christmas is the birth of Christ. His birth would change the course of history forever.

The birth of God’s son on Earth wasn’t something that just happened in secret. It was something that had been foretold by prophets for thousands of years before.

There are many prophecies, about Jesus’s birth across the Old Testament. Some of them are quite complex, but we will quickly look at a few of them. Around the room there are 4 scrolls hidden around the room. Let’s find them and see what they say…

As we can see the birth of Jesus has always been part of God’s great plan. These glimpses from the Old Testament help us to see that the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus was not simply a historical event.

It was a well-planned, superbly executed rescue mission to allow us and the rest of humanity have the opportunity to be in a relationship with God that will last forever.

Also, as we will see in our next passage, it wasn’t just Biblical scholars or prophets that God let into the secret. Even star gazers from the East, the Magi could see the significance of what was happening in Bethlehem and started on journey to discover more.

Let’s take a look at Matthew 2 : 1 - 8

The birth of Jesus was part of God’s great plan to save the world. This is the reason why we celebrate at Christmas.

So we have seen that the Magi were made aware of Jesus birth by looking at the stars, following their bright light to Bethlehem. In Isaiah 9 : 6 we see Jesus being referred to as the a wonderful councillor, mighty God and Prince of Peace.

Also see Jesus referring to himself as being the light of the worlds to himself as being the light of the world in John 8: 12.

What we are going to do is on the back of your light of the world card write a prayer thanking God for bringing his son Jesus into the world at Christmas time so that he could grow up to become our saviour.

On the back of the prince of peace card write a prayer asking God to intervene in places in our world which are still not a peace, especially at this special time of year.

These stars are to remind us that God not only came to Earth as a baby two thousand years ago so that he could become the saviour of the world at that time but for all time.

Through is birth, death and resurrection Jesus continues to work through the lives of his people.

The world is still a very broken place, and there is still suffering and pain across our world. However we can be thankful that because of Jesus’s birth we celebrate at Christmas time there is still hope.

There is still someone who we can turn to and rely on to provide a way.

We will continue looking at the Christmas story next week, but for now let’s close in prayer.