Somebody shout a big hallelujah! Shall we pray, our Father and our God, we worship You this morning, we give You praise and glory and honor and adoration for only You could have kept us since last Christmas till now; for all You’ve done for us this year, those we can number, those we cannot number, Father we say thank You in the name of Jesus.
Thank You Lord because You reign and You reign and You reign and You reign forever, blessed be Your name Father in the name of Jesus. Lord even as we look forward with excitement to this Christmas, make it the best for us ever yet in the name of Jesus. Lord even as we gather this morning Lord, bless everyone here under the power of my voice in the name of Jesus; let everyone have an encounter with You today and let Your name be glorified forever, thank You everlasting Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed. Somebody shout a big hallelujah! God bless you.
Once again I want to thank my father in the Lord for this privilege, this opportunity, thank you daddy, mommy, good morning; everyone, the pastorate, God bless you; good morning church, God bless you. We are grateful that God has kept us to see another day like this and may His name be glorified forever in Jesus name.
Our text this morning will be taken from Luke 2: 1 – 11, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. 4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, onto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David;) 5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7And she brought forth her first son firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10And the angel said unto them, fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord”. Praise the living Jesus!
This morning, the topic of this message is “Why Jesus Was Born”; if you do not know or understand the purpose of a thing, it is likely that you will abuse it or you undermine its value. Many, including Christians abuse Christmas because we don’t really appreciate or understand the reason for Christmas, as we move forward this year, in the next two three days to another Christmas, it’s important for us to understand the real reason why we celebrate Christmas so that we can appreciate what God has done for us and also celebrate it in a way that will please God and our Savior, praise the living Jesus!
So that’s why this morning, we want to examine why Jesus was born, why was He born, praise the living Jesus! Why was Jesus born?
The first reason is that Jesus was born to save sinners from perishing; you see there may be a controversy about the history of Christmas or whether He was born on 25th of December or whether in fact He instructed that His birth should be celebrated, but one thing that has no controversy is that He was born, hallelujah! God gave Him to the world and there’s a purpose for His being born, for God sending Him to the world, and the first reason is that He came to save you and I from perishing.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; and Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord; so because we were all sinners arising from the sin of our forefather, Adam and Eve, we would have perished but because God loves us so much, He sent Jesus to this world, He came, He was born for the main purpose of saving us from perishing. Matthew 1: 21 says (this was the angel who went to give the news to Joseph the father of Jesus), he said and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shall call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins, hallelujah! And John 3:16 says for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life; so He came to save us from our sins and so if there is any reason at all for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it is that but for His birth you and I would have no hope, we’ll be living dead and we will never be able to reconcile with God anymore, so that is one important reason for us when we celebrate not just the paraphernalia but for the fact that but for the birth of my Savior I would have perished, nobody here will perish in the name of Jesus.
1st Timothy 1: 15 says this is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief; none of us by our own power or effort is able to make heaven or to be saved, we are all saved by grace because Christ paid the price for our sins and He died because He was born; He was born to die, hallelujah!
Here was a man who was born to die for others, to die for the sin of other people, that’s why He’s the greatest Man that ever lived even though He was God in Man, He came for a purpose that is so superlative that no other man is comparable to Him, and that is one similar reason why we should celebrate His birth in appreciation and thanksgiving for this great sacrifice, I pray that the death of Christ in your life will not be in vain in the name of Jesus.
Number two, He was born to teach us how to live to please God; because of the sin that was committed in Eden, man lost the knowledge of how to please God, no matter how we lived we could not please God, hallelujah! The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 5:9, wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him; the first thing we need to know, beloved, is that we are created to please God, God made us, He created us so that we will please Him; Revelations 4: 11, it says for thou hast created all things for thy pleasure, praise the living Jesus!
Our principal purpose and aim on earth is to give pleasure to God, to live to please Him but because of sin we are unable to please God. Bible says in John 13: 14- 15, if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you; in other words, Jesus came to show us examples in humility, examples in obedience, examples in how to relate with God and with fellow men, He came to teach us to live the kind of life that will please God, that was why He was born and if for that reason alone, it is necessary for us in gratitude to celebrate His birth, to celebrate the fact that oh but for this Man, but for this Savior I would never have been able to please God, I pray that because we realize this and we imbibe this, we shall forever give pleasure to God in the name of Jesus.
John 6:38 says, I came (that’s Jesus Christ) down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me, hallelujah! That’s to show that He was born not for any other purpose, not for His own purpose but to do the will of God, and we are also born to do the will of God and the will of God for us is to please Him; our gifts, our wealth, our positions, all that we have in this world, everything that we have is meant to be spent in stewardship in pleasing God, all that God has given us is not to be consumed on our lust to please ourselves, to please the world, but to be spent in stewardship to please God because whatever we do, if it doesn’t please God it has no reward; our positions are to please God, our services are meant to please God, the wealth that God has given us is meant to please God, the gifts that we have; commercialization, I won’t benefit are secondary, but you know once you first please God, our lives are like funnels, once a funnel remains a funnel, as you pour oil there and it goes through, it always consume the best of the oil, but the moment the funnel is blocked, the oil becomes smelly and there’s no other time better than now for us to demonstrate the fact that our life is to do the will of God, and I pray that God will give us the grace and understanding and ability to always please Him in all that we do big and small in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 25: 31-46, the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus demonstrated to us what God expects us to do; when you talk about the fact that oh I was hungry you fed me, I was naked you clothed me, I was sick you visited me and He said but when did you do it, He said when you did it to that other fellow who needed it, in other words, He’s saying there that look, this is how to please God, take care of the needy, use all that you have, as Christians you are the extended arm of God, He came to show us love, Jesus Christ was a product of God’s love – ‘for God so loved the world’, it was because God loved so much that He brought Him for our sake, and Christ came to live, He demonstrated love for us to also show love, not only to those that love us but those that appear to be unlovable, and there’s no better time than now for us to exhibit and to show that this is who we are; we must not be carried away by all the paraphernalia, all the trappings that surround Christmas and leave the substance. The best way for us to remember Him and to appreciate Him is to do as He taught us, praise the living Jesus!
Number three, Jesus was born to show us the way to heaven; He not only came to teach us how to live lives that will please God, but to also show us the way to heaven; there is no other way to heaven other than through Christ Jesus. In John 14: 1-6, after He had told us that in my Father’s house there are many mansions, He says I’m going and will come back to take you to where I am, and one of disciples said but how do we know the way to where You are going? Then He said I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to My Father, no man comes to where I am going, no man can make it to heaven except through Me; there is no other way, there’s no other device, there’s no other wisdom in this world that can take you to heaven, Christ is the only wisdom, He is the only bridge, the only link between us and God, that is more than any other reason for us to appreciate Him at a time like this, that but for Christ being born, we would never have known the way, we will be just scavengers on earth, we’ll just roam around and just perish here, but here was the Man who came that you may know the way to heaven, may we not miss that way in the name of the Lord Jesus.
1st Timothy 2: 5, it says for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, and the man Christ Jesus is the only mediator, stop making men your mediators, there’s no man, Christ is the only link; some of us have so many people who we run to, Christ is the only mediator, He is the only God, One that God looks at and sees us; when God looks at you, He doesn’t see Christ in front of you, He doesn’t see you, He doesn’t recognize you; there’s no other man that has the purity, there’s no other man that knows the way, there’s no man that has that righteousness it is only Jesus Christ, so even if you have the whole world, you have everything, you occupy the highest position, men may applaud you here on earth, but if you don’t have Christ you can’t make it to heaven; making it to heaven is not about popularity, it’s not about position or wealth, it’s not about being a pastor, it’s about relationship with Christ, that’s why you find the story in the Bible of Lazarus and the rich man, if heaven could be purchased, if there was any other way to get to heaven other than Christ, the rich man would have purchased it.
Men these days are so wealthy that if it is money that will take a man to heaven they will buy the way to heaven, but thank God that the only way to heaven cannot be purchased, Jesus is too expensive for any man to buy, all the rich men in the world together cannot buy Jesus, they cannot buy their way to heaven, so when you have Christ in you, you have all, you are richer than the richest men in the world, that’s why it is a tragedy for anyone not to accept Christ into their lives, that’s why it is so painful and pitiful that for any man to say well I don’t need Him, I’m okay, I have a good job, my family is good, I’m comfortable, what do I need Christ for, such a person of all men is to be pitied, hallelujah!
The only way to heaven is the way of Christ, and so the wisest decision that anybody can take this morning even as you look toward Christ to Christmas is if you not born again, don’t let this morning go away, the best gift you can give to yourself, the best decision you can take this year or in your life ever is to surrender your life to Jesus, otherwise when others are celebrating Christmas and you are joining them you are just wasting your time, your celebration is unacceptable, is an abomination, the celebration of those who don’t have Christ at Christmas is an abomination, it’s just a waste of time and effort and resources, it’s only those who accept that Jesus Christ came and died for them, He was born for them, He came to save them, He came to show them the way to heaven, that’s why you celebrate it with gratitude, with a heart filled with gratitude, with appreciation.
I always thank God for the day I knew Christ, I was born a Muslim, I had wandered all over, I had done all manner of things from Islam to other things; there was a time when I used to go to work, I would tie some things on my arm like this, I’ll put all manner of things, my mother would say ah this profession you are doing they will kill you unless you do some things, until I discovered Jesus and my life changed, hallelujah! My life changed, every day it’s like I’m intoxicated and when I see a man who doesn’t have Christ, is so pitiful because I know what I have gone through, I wish I was born into Christianity, hallelujah!
There’s no bigger thing you can have in life, no bigger gift anybody can give you, there’s no bigger possession you can have, no bigger position, nothing else is as precious as having Christ in your life; money will finish, position will end, men will depart from you, family will leave you one day but Christ is the only One that will never forsake you, there’s no friend like Him, hallelujah! No friend like Jesus, He never forsakes, never leaves, in the darkest night Christ will show up for you, when men have abandon you He will show up, even when you’re going through troubles and challenges Christ is there silently on your side, He’s only allowing you to go through the emotions and then He will arise, He will never forsake you, hallelujah!
I know how many challenges I’ve had this year but every time because of the faith in Christ I know that He will come forth and He always comes around, He will always come around in the name of Jesus. So I challenge you, if you’re already born again, please guide your salvation with everything, with your life, the greatest thing the devil can steal from you is your salvation, that’s the most expensive thing he can steal from you because that means it steals from you the grace to please God, he steals from you the path to eternal life; if he steals your house, he steals your money, good, because you have Christ they will come back, hallelujah! And whether they come back not they won’t take you to heaven; if you lose all, Bible says if you lose your life, you lose everything you have, but you have Christ you are a champion; but if you lose Christ and you have the whole world you are to be pitied, but when you have Christ, nobody, no enemy can take Christ away from you, even if you are limping, even if you have one eye you will still make it to heaven and that’s what matters, hallelujah!
And so as we celebrate Christmas this year, forget about your challenges, they’re not new, forget about the disappointments of this year, forget about the pains you’ve gone through this year, forget about the economy this year, hallelujah! Christ who has kept you till now has a purpose and a plan for your life, He says I know my thoughts towards you, they are thoughts of good and not of evil, if He doesn’t need your life, if He has no plan for you, you will not be alive again, that you are still alive to see this Christmas shows that God has a plan for you and the greatest plan of God for you is to make heaven, hallelujah! That’s the greatest plan; see the trouble it took God right from Adam, He sent all the prophets, He sent everybody until every man failed and then He said I love this man I don’t want him to perish, now I’m going to send my best, I’m going to go myself to the world as man, as God in man just for your sake, how ungrateful will it be for you to reject such an offer, the best gift you can give yourself this Christmas is to give your life to Christ, the next best is to show somebody Christ also, the third best is if you already have Christ, guide Him jealously, don’t lose Him in the euphoria of Christmas, hallelujah!
Number four, Jesus was born to deliver us from captivities and satanic oppressions. He said in Luke 4:18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised; your captivity is broken, your sickness is broken, your disease is broken, your failure is broken in the name of Jesus. But that’s only if you have Christ because Christ in us the hope of glory, He not only came to show you the way, He also came to die for you, He was wounded for your transgression, bruised for your iniquity, the chastisement of your peace lay upon Him and by His stripes you are healed; so on the cross of Calvary He paid for everything we are going through, Christianity is not a life free of stress or trouble, but it’s a life of overcoming trouble, every trouble that we face, you have faced this year, we have all faced challenges this year, different dimensions but God has preserved us, hallelujah!
And you know what, God doesn’t preserve us in vain, He doesn’t do anything for nothing, man can do some things and when you say why, he will say I don’t know I just did it, but when God preserves you, even in sickness, in failure, in joblessness and He has preserved you, is for a good end, He says because you have a good end, an expected end, your end will be good in the name of Jesus. Whatever you have gone through or you are going through now, you have an assurance that it will end well for you in the name of Jesus.
So He was born so that He will come and fight the battle that we cannot fight, that’s why when He came, everywhere He went He was doing good, hallelujah! No matter the nature of trouble or challenge that they brought to Him – sicknesses and diseases, satanic oppressions, all manner of things, no matter how draconic, no matter how terrible, He took care of them all, there’s no problem or challenge or trouble in this world that’s above the power of Christ, what we are going through has an expiry date, when God allows us to go through it, it’s only for a moment, that’s why the Bible says our light and afflictions are only for a moment, they’re temporary.
Oh you eager to get married, you are not yet married, it’s temporary, it’s coming to an end soon in the name of Jesus; you don’t have a job, it’s temporary, people are victimizing you, it’s temporary, God has a reason for letting us go through those things, that’s why even after all he had gone through, David was rejoicing, he said thou has set a table before me in the presence of my enemies; in other words, now I realize why I have enemies, that You are using them as my stepping stone, so please preserve them so that they can be seeing me as I’m enjoying my victory, hallelujah!
So the troubles that we are encountering in life as believers is not because God is not powerful, it’s because God wants to teach our fingers to war, it’s a battle that He has already won at Calvary, given us victory but also wants to teach our fingers to war so that we can go through the emotions with Him; He always want us to partner with Him so that we can have this joy of victory, not the sense of entitlement; we can have a feeling that oh we also took part in the battle, you fast, you pray, you come to church, you read the Bible, you are patient, you wait, all these things are God teaching us to also be partakers of the victory; if we just sleep and all the troubles go away, we won’t appreciate it, but when we go through the motions like that knowing that we are fighting a battle that He has won for us already, we have confidence that no matter what happens we are going to overcome; that sickness you will overcome in the name of Jesus; that failure you will overcome in the name of Jesus, because the Bible says He reserves the best for the last, the end of this year will be better for you than the beginning in the name of Jesus.
He not only came, He not only did good and took away our troubles, He also taught us; Jesus never wants to leave a gap in our lives, He’s not selfish, it is man that will say okay what do you need I’ll do it for you and then he keeps the secret, no matter how much the man loves you, he will say ah, the place where you make your life, don’t show to other people, don’t show the secret of your to other people, hallelujah! But Jesus Christ doesn’t hide anything, but Jesus taught us in Luke 10: 19, He said behold, I give to you the power that I have; He gave us the power of authority, I give you power to step on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you; in the name of Jesus, nothing covers all troubles shall by no means hurt you.
He says I give you the power, you can do it; you remember when they were in the boat and there was a storm, He was sleeping, expecting that the disciples would order the storm to be still, that was why He was sleeping, He said I’ve given them the power already; but they woke him up and He said you these people, what’s wrong with you now, okay, all right, storm, stop; when He went out, He sent them out to go and cast out demons, they went and they came back and said ah, there was one that was very hard to do, oh my goodness, okay, okay, this is how you do it, because He wants to sit back and enjoy seeing us decapitate the devil; from now on because you know what you have, you will decapitate the devil, you will overcome all challenges in the name of Jesus.
Number five, Jesus was born to give us abundant life; not just to live a life of management, a life that is scruffy, a life of unhappiness, no, Jesus wants us to live well both here on earth and also in heaven, He only doesn’t want us to live sinful lives. Some people think that Christianity is imprisonment, is a life of suffering, no, God wants us to have the best of life, the best things of this world, Christianity is not synonymous with poverty, that’s wrong theology, you may say but Lazarus was poor, Lazarus chose to be poor, it’s your choice, you can go to heaven poor or rich, Abraham was rich, he was in heaven, so don’t ever think that oh if I’m rich I’m not going to go to heaven or poverty is a license, poverty is not a license or visa to heaven, poor men may not make heaven, rich men may not make heaven, it’s a question of the wisdom that God has given you, how do you utilize it, how do you understand the Christ that you have?
Jesus is not a poor man, He’s the owner of the heavens and the earth, there was no time He lacked anything, it’s only that He didn’t hoard, He didn’t hoard money in the bank, He didn’t hoard any currency in the bank, when He needed currency He said go to the water and bring it, whatever He needed He had, hallelujah! So whatever we want on earth, whatever we need, He’s always there to provide; our lives as God’s children is a life of provision, is not a life of denial or deprivation, hallelujah!
He said in John 10: 10, the enemy comes but to kill, to steal, and to destroy, that’s the mission of the devil, he wants to kill, he wants to destroy, he wants to steal everything, but He said I have come to give you abundant life. Abundant means a life that is fulfilling, a life that is full, a life that is victorious, a life of testimonies, a life that overcomes challenges by the help of God, that’s abundant life, is not the life of a beggar, is not a life filled with sickness and pains all the days of your life, there may be challenges but He says until now you have never asked, but He says ask that your joy may be full, there’s nothing we want that we need that Christ has not already done, what you need now He’s not just going to manufacture it, all the things that will make us happy, joyful in life is already done, the question is do we know how to draw them? He says ask me anything in the name of the Father, I will give to you, how well are you asking? How well are we asking? Do we appreciate the power that we have?
Ephesians 3: 20 makes it clear that with Christ in us we can have exceeding abundantly all the things that we want, everything – abundant life, so as a child of God ask for big things, the good things of life are for us, hallelujah! Don’t feel guilty, you can only feel guilty if what you have is by sin or you stole it or you defrauded or you did something evil, that is like poison and God will never sanction what is evil, He expects us to work hard, He expects us to be diligent, to live a life of righteousness, not to undercut other people, not to cheat other people, and there are so many examples of God’s children who are following the principles of the scriptures and who are doing very well in life, Biblical scripture does not make you poor, it makes you have a life of substance and still please God, so if your hand is not clean – that’s why sometimes when you come to Christ, if you have had some baggages of things that are not of God, it dislodges you of them, that’s why you say but when I was in the world things were better but why now, because He loves you, He wants to take away all those worthy things and then begins to fill you with His own.
And so as we celebrate Christmas this year, for me to conclude, let us appreciate the fact that it is not the paraphernalia, it’s not all those side effects, it’s about the fact that Christ was born to save me from my sin, He was born to show me the way to heaven, He was born to show me how to live, not only with God but with my fellow men, He was born to give me abundant life, hallelujah! And that He was born to deliver me from all manner of oppressions and troubles, if you realize this our celebration will be different, it will be with gratitude with thanksgiving, acknowledging the fact that the greatest thing that we have is the gift of Christ in our lives, and I pray that gift will be permanent in the name of Jesus,
I want us to rise to our feet; now I said earlier that the best gift you can give to yourself is the gift of salvation, as the rest of us will bow our heads and just be saying Father, I thank You for this gift of salvation, thank You that You were born, You agreed to come to save me for my sake…
[Altar call]
Let us pray; I want you to just say Lord Jesus I am grateful for Your coming and for Your blessings in my life, let the blessing of Your coming be permanent in my life forever in the name of Jesus. Lord I thank You for the gift of Your presence in my life, thank You for coming for my sake, thank You for saving me, I appreciate now why I must rejoice in Your birth, let the gift of Your blessing be permanent in my life in the name of Jesus, in Jesus name we prayed.
Say Father, according to Your word, the end of a thing is better than the beginning thereof, as this year is coming to an end, bless me much more than ever before in the name of Jesus. Lord, as the year is coming to an end, Lord Jesus according to Your word, bless me much more than ever before in the name of Jesus, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
Heavenly Father we thank You, Lord one prayer we want to ask this morning is that the gift of salvation we shall never lose it in the name of Jesus, thank You precious Father, in Jesus mighty name we prayed.
