Satan Is Stealing Christmas
Six Ways Satan Is
Stealing Christmas
John MacArthur
The majority of people in the world will miss
the next Christmas. But how can that be?
How can anyone miss Christmas, given the amount
of advertising, publicity, and promotion the holiday receives each year?
Because although many celebrate Christmas every
year, most don't know what it's about.
In spite of all the media promotion of Christmas,
the majority of people will miss it because it has become so obscured.
For those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus
Christ, Christmas is a time to focus on His birth.
But even we can get caught up in the swirl of
activity around Christmastime and can miss it in a practical sense.
Satan has so cluttered the Christian concept of
Christmas with such needless paraphernalia that its true meaning is easily
lost.
A Brief History of Christmas
Most scholars
doubt that December 25 th is the true date of Christ's birth. There is no
biblical support for it, and some against it.
That date was decided upon by the church in Rome
in the fourth century. They had a specific reason for doing so.
Many of the earth's earliest inhabitants were sun
worshipers because they depended on the sun's yearly course in the heavens.
Most people held feasts at the time of the
winter solstice (mid-December)—a time when the days were shortest.
They built bonfires to give the sun god strength
and bring him back to life again.
When it became apparent that the days were
growing longer, there was great rejoicing.
The fathers of the church in Rome decided to
celebrate Christ's birth on the winter solstice.
It was their attempt to Christianize the popular
pagan celebrations. But they failed to make the people conform.
Instead the heathen festivities continued, and
we are left with a bizarre marriage of pagan and Christian elements that
characterizes our modern celebration of Christmas.
The following examples will give you some idea
of how much pagan customs make up what we know as Christmas.
To the Romans the month of December marked the
Festival of Saturnalia (December 17-24).
One of their most common customs during that
festival was giving gifts to one another.
As far as we know that is where the idea of
exchanging presents came from.
The evergreen wreath also derives from the
Saturnalia festival, during which homes were decorated with evergreen boughs.
The Druids of England gathered sacred mistletoe
for their ceremonies and decorated their homes with it.
It is believed that the first Christmas tree was
instituted by Boniface, an English missionary to Germany in the eighth century.
He supposedly replaced sacrifices to the god
Odin's sacred oak with a fir tree adorned in tribute to Christ.
Certain accounts claim that Martin Luther
introduced the Christmas tree lighted with candles.
"Santa Claus" is a contraction of St.
Nicholas, a bishop in Asia Minor during the fourth century known for his
extraordinary generosity.
He was later associated with giving presents at
the end of the year.
St. Nicholas was adopted by the Netherlands as
the patron saint of children. On St. Nicholas eve, the children would leave
their shoes filled with hay for the saint's white horse.
No wonder so many people miss Christmas. The
simplicity of the birth of Christ is drowned in a sea of traditions, many being
pagan in origin.
Even worse than that, when Christ was born in
Bethlehem , most people of that day missed it. In the following gospel
accounts, we will see six ways people missed Christmas, and learn how to avoid
making the same mistake ourselves.
Ignorant Preoccupation
Luke 2:7 says,
"[Mary]
gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in
a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."
The first person who missed Christmas was the
innkeeper. He was unable to take in Mary and Joseph because he had no room for
them.
Apparently he was indifferent to their
plight—there is no indication from Scripture that he called for any help.
Notice that
verse 7 says, "She gave birth to her first-born son."
Mary herself gave birth to Jesus. By herself she
wrapped Him in cloths.
Joseph was there to help, but if he was anything
like most young fathers, he would have been of little help.
Middle-eastern people are hospitable, kind, and
caring. They are not barbaric. They are not the kind of people who would leave
a woman alone to have her baby.
But in this case, they did. Where were the
midwives? You'd think the innkeeper would have known someone who could have
helped.
Luke tells us she laid Him in a manger, which is
an animal feeding trough. The cloths she wrapped Jesus in were long strips of
cloth. Whenever an infant was born, immediately the baby was cleaned.
Then the baby's limbs and body would be wrapped
in these swaddling cloths and then wrapped in an outer blanket. That was a duty
normally carried out by a midwife. But Mary had to do it all herself.
Commentator
G. Campbell Morgan wrote, "Think of
the pathos of it. 'She brought forth;'
'she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes.' It is very beautiful, but oh, the pity
of it, the tragedy of it, the loneliness of it; that in that hour of all hours,
when womanhood should be surrounded by the tenderest care, she was alone. The
method of the writer is very distinct. She with her own hands wrapped the Baby
around with those swaddling cloths, and laid Him in the manger. There was no
one to do it for her. Again I say, the pity of it, and yet the glory of it to
the heart of Mary" (The Gospel According to
Luke [Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1931], p. 36).
We don't know anything about the innkeeper
because the Bible doesn't say anything about him.
Some commentators speculate that Jesus was born
in a stable some think He was born in a cave, and others believe he was born in
an open courtyard at the inn.
One thing we do know: whatever hospitality Mary
and Joseph hoped to find, they found none—they were turned away.
Why did the innkeeper miss Christmas? I think
the simple answer is preoccupation. He was busy. His inn was full because a
census was being held in Bethlehem.
The city was bulging with people whose ancestors
came from there. Since Bethlehem was the city of David, all those who were in
the line of David were there, including Joseph and Mary.
The innkeeper wasn't necessarily hostile and
unsympathetic; he was just busy.
Many people are like the innkeeper. The chambers
of their souls are filled with needless things—with stuff that doesn't matter.
As a result, they miss the Christ of God.
Our society is filled with the unnecessary, the
insignificant, and the meaningless.
We spend a fortune to amass things so we can let
our children fight over them when we die. And our time is eaten away by the
demands our things place on us.
People miss Christ at Christmastime because He
is crowded out by a world that dictates what they should think, do, and buy.
Like the innkeeper, people today are preoccupied.
The innkeeper didn't know anything about the baby Mary gave birth to, and
neither do they.
They don't know who Christ is and they don't
know why He came.
Instead, they're ignorantly preoccupied with the
mundane and the meaningless.
How sad it is that so many people live their
lives in pursuit of such, only to wake up one day in eternity without God.
Jealous Fear
In Matthew 2
we meet another man who missed Christmas: "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in
Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw
His star in the east, and have come to worship Him.' And when Herod the king
heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him...
“Then Herod secretly called the magi, and
ascertained from them the time the star appeared. And he sent them to
Bethlehem, and said, 'Go and make careful search for the Child; and when you
have found Him, report to me, that I too may come and worship Him'"
(verses 1-3, 7-8).
Herod was the king of the land. He feigned his
desire to worship Jesus Christ, but he was fearful because One had been born
who was called the King of the Jews.
The Greek
word translated "troubled" in verse three means "to be
agitated" or "stirred up." It carries the idea of total panic.
Herod panicked. Why? He was afraid of
Jesus—afraid of another king. Let's see why.
Julius Caesar appointed Herod's father,
Antipater, to be procurator, or governor, of Judea under the Roman occupation.
Antipater then managed to have his son Herod
appointed prefect of Galilee.
In that office Herod was successful in quelling
the Jewish guerrilla bands who continued to fight against their foreign rulers.
After fleeing to Egypt when the Parthians
invaded Palestine, Herod then went to Rome and in 40 B.C. was declared by
Octavian and Antony (with the concurrence of the Roman senate) to be king of
the Jews.
He invaded Palestine the next year and, after
several years of fighting, drove out the Parthians and established his kingdom.
Because he was not Jewish, but Idumean (an
Edomite), Herod married Mariamne, heiress to the Jewish Hasmonean house, to
make himself more acceptable to the Jews he now ruled.
He was a clever and capable warrior, orator, and
diplomat. But he also was cruel and merciless.
He was incredibly jealous, suspicious, and
afraid for his position and power.
Fearing a potential threat, he had the high
priest Aristobulus, his wife's brother, drowned - after which he provided a
magnificent funeral where he pretended to weep.
He then had Mariamne herself killed, and then
her mother and two of his own sons.
Five days before his death (about a year after
Jesus was born) he had a third son executed.
One of the greatest evidences of his
bloodthirstiness and insane cruelty was having the most distinguished citizens
of Jerusalem arrested and imprisoned shortly before his death.
Because he knew no one would mourn his own
death, he gave orders for those prisoners to be executed the moment he died.
Thus he guaranteed that there would be mourning in Jerusalem.
That barbaric
act was exceeded in cruelty only by his slaughter of "all the male children who
were in Bethlehem and in all its environs, from two years old and under"
(Matthew 2:16).
By that action he hoped to kill any threat to
his throne from the One the magi said had been born King of the Jews.
Why did Herod miss Christmas? Jealous fear. Lest
you think there are no more Herods in this world, you need only read the daily
newspaper.
Man is depraved. There are Herods in every
society. But there is a greater lesson for all humanity.
Many people miss Christmas because of the same
kind of fear Herod had. Herod was afraid that someone else would take his
throne.
Today people are fearful of giving up their own
plans, priorities, values, and morals. They don't want to come to Christ
because He will cramp their style—He will lay claim on their lives.
That means they will have to alter the way they
live. The media tells people to do their own thing, master their own fate, and
chart their own destiny.
The world is full of kings who will not kneel
before Jesus Christ, so they miss Christmas just like Herod.
What about you? Have you said no to Jesus Christ
because you are afraid of the claim He will lay on you?
Do you want to be the lord and master of your
life and the king of your little kingdom? That's tragic—His kingdom is so much
more glorious!
Prideful Indifference
Once Herod
learned from the wise men that a child would be born who would be King of the
Jews, he gathered "together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, [and]
began to inquire of them where the Christ was to be born. And they said to him,
'In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, "And
you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of
Judah; for out of you shall come forth a Ruler, who will shepherd My people
Israel"'" (Matthew 2:4-6).
Herod called in the experts.
The chief priests consisted of the high priest,
the captain of the Temple police, and the best of the other priests—those who
had great administrative, teaching, and leadership skills.
For the most part the chief priests were
Sadducees. The scribes were primarily Pharisees.
They were the linguists and interpreters who
understood the culture and history of the biblical data.
Those two
groups knew where the Messiah was to be born because they knew Micah had
prophesied that "Bethlehem was to be His place of birth” (Micah 5:2).
One thing the Jewish nation had been looking
for, and still does to this day, was the Messiah.
They had been waiting for a deliverer throughout
their history, especially while under Roman oppression.
However, these priests and scribes were
unwilling to travel the few miles to find out if this baby might be the
Messiah.
Why did they miss Christmas? Indifference.
They didn't care. They had all the facts, but
they didn't need a Messiah. Why?
Because they were self-righteous - they saw
themselves as perfect keepers of the law.
In their minds they were all God could ever ask
of them. You could say they were filled with proud indifference because
indifference is always a result of pride.
There was no room for the Son of God in their
system. When the grown child arrived on the scene, they hated and despised Him.
So they plotted His murder and screamed for His blood.
Jesus
pinpointed their indifference in a stinging rebuke from Matthew 9: "It
happened that as He was reclining at [the] table in the house, behold many
tax-gatherers and sinners came and joined Jesus and His disciples"
(verse 10).
Jesus sat
down to this meal with people who needed His help: outcasts, tax collectors,
traitors, and sinners. "When the Pharisees saw this, they said
to His disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with the tax-gatherers and
sinners?' But when He heard this, He said, 'It is not those who are healthy who
need a physician, but those who are ill. But go and learn what this means,
"I desire compassion, and not sacrifice," for I did not come to call
the righteous, but sinners'" (verses
11-13).
When the Pharisees held a feast, they invited
self-righteous people. When Jesus held a feast, He welcomed those who knew they
were sinners and were desperately aware of their need for a Savior.
Many people today miss Christmas because they
don't realize they are sinners. Thus they ignore Christ. They don't show any
interest in the Savior because they don't understand their need to be saved.
They don't understand that the wages of sin is
death (Romans 6:23) - that sin plummets people into an eternal
hell.
Consequently they ignore the remedy because they
don't even know they have the disease.
Religious Ritual
Luke 2
indicates another group of people who missed Christmas: "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"
(verses 8-9).
The angel proclaimed the birth of Christ, and
the shepherds went to Bethlehem to see Him.
Verse 20
says, "The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that
they had heard and seen, just as had been told them."
Out of all the people in Jerusalem, God singled
out shepherds to receive the great news about the birth of Christ.
Shepherds were a despised group of people. They
couldn't maintain all the ceremonial washings and activities because they were
busy tending to the sheep.
Yet no on else from the city came to see the
Christ child except these "unclean"
shepherds.
However, two special people did take note of Him
when He was brought into the city.
Luke 2:25-26 mentions
Simeon - a man who "was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel ;
and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ."
Luke 2:36-38 tells
us about Anna, a widow who saw the Messiah in the Temple , and who "continued
to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem
" (verse 28).
However, the mass of people in Jerusalem missed
Christmas.
The birth of Christ took place only a few miles
away. It was the fulfillment of all their dreams and hopes - the event that
would change the destiny of the world - but they missed it.
Why did they miss it? Religion.
They were so busy with the rituals of their
religion that they missed the reality of His birth.
Their answer
was: "Some
say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of
the prophets" (verse 14).
All the speculations were wrong.
Jesus didn't fit into the religious system of
His day. And the people knew He didn't after He gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Religion will damn a soul faster than anything
if it is anything less than true worship of the true God.
A false religious system gives a person a place
to hide - a place where he can mask his spirituality.
People steeped in various cults talk about God,
Christ, and Scripture, but they don't know Christ.
They are lost in the midst of religion. So the
people of Jerusalem missed Christmas while they were being religious.
Idolatry
The Romans
also missed Christmas.
Micah's prophecy that the Christ child would be
born in Bethlehem was set in motion by a Gentile emperor.
Luke 2:1-2 says,
"It
came about in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a
census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken
while Quirinius was governor of Syria."
The Roman soldiers registered the people and
took the census. Throughout the life of Christ we see the presence of the
Romans.
Roman guards lied about His resurrection,
propagating a story to cover up the reality that He rose from the dead (Matthew
28:11-15).
They all missed Christmas because of their
idolatry: they worshiped their own gods.
Christ didn't fit in with them. They worshiped a
multitude of gods, and the pinnacle of their worship was emperor worship.
So in the midst of their pagan idolatry they
missed Christmas.
The world today is full of people who worship
their own gods.
They don't worship idols like they did at the
time of Christ, but we still have idols and gods.
Some people worship money.
Some people worship sex.
Others worship cars, boats, and houses.
Some worship power and prestige.
Those things are the pagan gods of today - the
idols of the twenty-first century.
And if that is what you're worshiping, you'll
miss Christmas, too.
You may receive some presents, eat a big dinner,
and enjoy a beautifully decorated pine tree, but you'll miss Christmas.
Over-Familiarity
Perhaps the
saddest of all, the people of Nazareth missed Christmas.
Luke 2:39-40 says,
"When
they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned
to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth . And the Child continued to grow and
became strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him."
When Jesus returned to Nazareth, He was unlike
any other child in Nazareth .
He accompanied His parents to Jerusalem to
celebrate the Passover when He was twelve years old.
He spent thirty years of His life in Nazareth,
yet the residents failed to recognize Him.
Luke 4
unveils the tragedy that took place when Jesus revealed His identity to the
Nazarenes: "He came to Nazareth , where he had been brought up; and as was
His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And
the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and
found the place where it was written,
“'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because
He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim
release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those
who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.'
“And He closed the book,
and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the
synagogue were fixed upon Him. And He began to say to them,
“'Today this Scripture
has been fulfilled in your hearing.' And all were speaking well of Him, and
wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were
saying, 'Is this not Joseph's son?' . . . . And He said, 'Truly I say to you,
no prophet is welcome in his home town'" (verses 16-22, 24).
The people of Nazareth missed Christmas because
of over-familiarity.
They knew Jesus as Joseph's son, and they didn't
view that as anything special.
After Jesus finished speaking in the
synagogue, the people "rose up and cast Him out of the city,
and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in
order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His
way" (verses 29-30).
Over-familiarity is a deadly thing. I come
across so many people who say they were raised in a Christian environment but
are not Christians.
Fear grips my heart when I hear that.
Over-familiarity strangles conviction.
When you've heard something so many times
without doing anything about it, such familiarity can breed contempt.
Mark 6:6 gives
us Christ's own analysis of the people of Nazareth : "He wondered at their
unbelief."
Matthew 13:58 adds,
"He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief."
Over-familiarity with Christmas truth can breed
a stony heart.
You had better respond while your heart is soft,
or your heart will become hard and you won't have the opportunity to respond (Proverbs 29:1).
Conclusion
There are
many ways to miss Christmas: ignorant preoccupation, ritual, idolatry, and
over-familiarity.
But behind all those reasons is unbelief. Many
people simply refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.
The apostle
John said, "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the
world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not
receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:10-12).
If you've been missing the reality of Christmas
in your life, know that if you receive the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in His
name, Christmas will become real to you.
It can happen today; and it's between you and
God (2
Corinthians 6:1-2; Romans 10:8-11).
John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community
Church in Sun Valley, California, as well as an author, conference speaker,
president of The Master’s University and Seminary, and featured teacher with
the Grace to You media ministry.
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