A Message by Pastor Katsumasa Hirota
3rd Sunday, at Oita Evangelical Christ Church, on December 19th, 1999
Sermon: "The Word of Christmas." John 3:16.
Sermon: "The Word of Christmas." John 3:16.
When I think of the coming new year, I recognise that this is the last
Christmas of the 20th Century {the 1900's}. It is my 29th Christmas
this year since I became a Christian at the age of about 18. The first
Christmas I still remember very clearly. It was held by the missionaries
from South Africa, and the special gathering for Christmas was so lovely
and the place was decorated so happily and beautifully. After the
worship, we went caroling until early into the morning of the following
day. At a party we also exchanged presents and I am sure
this custom comes from the real Christmas Present that is written about
in John 3:16. In receiving the true Christmas present we are to think of
the birth of Jesus. "Happy birthday to You, Jesus!"
As is written in Luke 2:11, and the passage we read last
week, Isaiah 9:1-7, the birth of Christ had been prophesied long ago and
was truly fulfilled.
John 4:42: Here in this story a lady from Samaria became a
Christian and still more she was the first fruit of her town. Her
salvation flew out into the people of this town, which is what caused them
to give us their own profession of faith. (Also in Acts 4:12 we can read
about people who bravely and faithfully confessed their faith in public).
A certain pastor from England once proclaimed that in Japan he had seen so
many people who were healed their disease by praying to idols, but none of
them had experienced the true salvation by doing so.
Here is another truth on Jesus: Jesus had been even before His own birth.
John 1:30. John was one of Jesus' relatives, who was born a year before
Jesus' birth.
John 12:41. Even Isaiah who lived long before Jesus, confessed that he
had seen the glory of Jesus. John 5:45-46. Do you remember Moses? Yes,
he lived 1500 years before Jesus' day. Moses wrote 5 books on Jesus who
physically lived on the earth 1500 years later.
Then Abraham comes. John 8:56-58. Jesus Himself said that He had been
here even before Abraham was born -- Yes, this Hero of Christmas is
somebody. In the Bible it is said that Jesus is the same, who was and
will be so. Ga.4:4-6. In His time, Jesus was sent to this world so
that He collect His people to Himself. It is for us to be saved that
Jesus came down to the Earth on Christmas Day.
I John 4:9-10. Here we read that God, the Father, who is united with
Jesus, loved us and stretched out His arms so that we could receive His
salvation.
John 14:1. Then He promised that He would be coming back here to complete
the plan of salvation.
In I John 2:28 and 3:2-3, we find again the promises that Jesus is coming
back again. On Christmas Day, Jesus became incarnated as a man so that His
people could recognise God's true love for us all, and get started. God's
salvation is for us, and to complete it, Jesus will be coming back again.
Very often in the Bible we [His Church] are compared to Jesus' bride, having
Jesus as our bridegroom -- just try to imagine the real wedding. A bride
puts on a very white wedding dress. This colour white
represents the
purity and holiness of the person wearing it. Before the bride, as she
walks down the aisle to her groom, there is a Virgin Road. (Recently, and
I am being reminded of the non-Christian wedding services I have led, I
have been thinking that I should call this "the Wedding Road" for those who
have not come to know Jesus yet.) Well, any way, we are to be as a bride
to our Lord Jesus Christ who keeps herself in pureness and holiness with
the work of the Holy Spirit until our bridegroom's coming.
On this Christmas, let us remember the true meaning of Christmas and His
Second Coming; when Salvation will be completed.
Sermon translated by Junko Okamoto
- Edited for the Net by Shido
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