Is Christmas relevant in 2020?

Let’s think about some of the storylines from the Christmas story –

There’s an Angel appearing to a Jewish girl telling her she’s with child, wise men following a star, angels appearing to ordinary shepherds, there was no room at the inn and a baby was born in a manger

How are these storylines relevant to people today?

Three ways that the story is relevant to us today:

1. Jesus is here
   • There was uncertainty and darkness for God’s people at this time as they hadn’t heard from God for 400years. People were probably feeling uncertain about God’s promises and were overwhelmed and worried about the future. A census was ordered and the government had control on what they could and couldn’t do.  But amongst all that uncertainty God sent an angel to tell Mary she would have a baby
   • Luke 1:35
   • Amongst all that uncertainty and darkness God was there and he was born in a stable.
   • Jesus is still here and is at work, it may feel like a dark time here in 2020, but just like in the first Christmas, God is here.
2. Jesus came to destroy the evil one
   • What does Christmas mean to you? Christmas is a time of celebration, a time to celebrate God sending his Son to live with us.
   • 1 John 3:8
   • When Jesus was born and then lived a perfect sinless life that led him to the cross, that destroyed the work of the evil one. There is a link between Christmas and Easter and we need both.
   • 1 John 3:9
   • Today’s world is very dark, but if we see Christmas for what it truly is, the celebration of Jesus coming  and that ultimately leading to the destruction of the enemy, then we can have a hope in Christmas.
   • We benefit from Christmas because sin, death and the enemy is defeated because of Christmas.
3. Jesus will use you
   • In the first Christmas God used seemingly insignificant people, a teenage girl, a carpenter and used a political census to bring about the Old Testament prophecy.
   • God uses the foolish things in the world to build his kingdom (1 Corinthians 1:27) and we see that in many of the stories in the bible.
   • As we end 2020 with awful things happening in the world, we can wonder and ask what is God’s plan to bring light to the world? His answer is you, God will use you to bring about his plans and purposes.
   • What was special about Mary and Joseph was that they were obedient. We may feel weak and insignificant but if we’re obedient God can use us to bring his light this Christmas
   • Christmas is relevant because it’s about God using ordinary people to bring about his plans and purposes.