Many people in Bishopton will visit a church over the Christmas period and hear the message of Christmas: “For unto you is born in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” Luke 2:11. Perhaps these familiar words are mixed up with thoughts of celebrating with family and friends, Santa Claus, turkey and reindeer. It is good to strip away all the modern ideas that have attached themselves to Christmas and go back to the beginning and hear the very first Christmas message that was preached in our world!
The good news of the birth of Christ is set against the background of the bad news that the first man and woman, Adam And Eve, rebelled against God, broke His commandments and decided to take control of their own lives. They brought into their lives the principles of sin and death. If you don’t believe the Bible’s account of mankind’s beginnings in the book of Genesis, there is an easy way to prove it is wrong – just stop sinning and don’t die!
The statement in Romans 5:12 has never been successfully challenged: “..by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” This is the bad news that we all need to face – we are sinners who will die and face the judgement of God.
The good news that was declared to Adam and Eve at the beginning of time came from God Himself! God preached the first Christmas message to a sinful man and woman; “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel” Genesis 3:15. God told them of a man who would come into the world who would be born of a woman but would have no earthly father. He would come to undo what the devil had done and what man had introduced into the world. This Man is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was born for a purpose and that purpose was to crush Satan’s head! On the cross, Christ destroyed sin, death and Satan! The picture is of a champion taking his heel and grinding the head of the serpent to destroy it. The heel of the champion would be temporarily wounded, but the serpent would be destroyed. This is exactly what Christ did upon Calvary. His heel was wounded, he suffered temporarily upon the cross. But His suffering upon the cross was the means by which the head of Satan was crushed and his works destroyed forever. That’s the Christmas message!
“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself took part of the same that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14