TACF Journal

Ah, the Christmas season! The colored lights, the tinsel; the festive music playing everywhere! Radio stations transformed in an instant to all-Christmas, all-the-time! It is awesome to hear Christmas carols in Wal-Mart and at the mall; when else do we hear Christ proclaimed on the public address system? It’s part of the Sound of Christmas. Let the Sound go forth, I say!

I’m thankful for the sound of Christmas carols permeating the atmosphere of the crowded malls at Christmastime. And yet, in my spirit there is also a grieving at this time of year. There’s a sadness that so many are deceived by a “new” Christmas, this celebration of traditions, devoid of any real spiritual impact. Oh, they may know a little about a baby born – it’s in the music after all – but they know a whole lot more about Santa Claus, Rudolph, and a snowman named Frosty; they know a whole lot more about pine trees invading our living rooms, surrounded by colorful packages tied up with pretty bows.

Beyond Santa Claus and his reindeer, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of a baby. A Special Baby to be sure, but a baby nevertheless. This is great, but if that is as far as our Christianity takes us, it is not enough. So we add in the Cross; now we get from the Baby to the foot of the Cross. And this is where many Christians stop. I’m forgiven, I’m going to heaven, and all I’ve got to do is wait-it-out until Jesus takes me there.

As a young man, I hadn’t even got to the foot of the Cross! Like much of the church, I was half-heartedly embracing a powerless Christianity that had little affect on my life apart from Sunday morning services and Thursday night choir practices. I was on my way to living out 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

“Baby” Christianity is merely “a form of godliness but denying its power.” Living at the foot of the Cross is too a mere shadow of what God has planned. It was at the Cross were Christian was freed from his heavy burdens in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress; but the book wasn’t over yet! There was a long, exciting road that still remained for Christian. What a blessing it was to meet somebody who helped me to change directions, to expand my revelation past the baby in the manger, past the foot of the Cross!

Bill Johnson notes that, “While most of the church is still trying to become as Jesus was, the Bible declares, ‘As He is, so are we in this world’” (1 John 4:17) Jesus was the suffering servant, headed for the Cross. But Jesus is triumphantly resurrected, ascended, and glorified.” (When Heaven Invades Earth, emphasis mine) Are we seeking after the WAS, or the IS? In Revelation 1:13-16 John saw

“… in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.”

This is the IS of the exalted Christ! And we are supposed to be like He IS; we are to “come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;” (Ephesians 4:13) Do we measure up to the IS, or are we closer to the WAS?

And yet there is something else I want to show you as we examine the Sound of Christmas. Let’s go way back, before the first Christmas every happened. In the beginning there was a Sound. It was the Sound that created everything that has been created; it was the Sound that created Adam and Eve in the Garden. The Sound was the voice of God. In those early years, people could hear the Sound. Simple men and women could hear God’s Sound, His Voice, and respond to it. Adam heard the Sound; so did Enoch, Noah, even Cain! Average guys. Normal Joe’s you could say. In Exodus 20 as God spoke to Moses we learn that ANYONE could hear His Sound – it was God’s plan all along, even as it was in the Garden!

Sadly the people turned away from God; they said, “Moses, you go listen to God and tell us what He said. We can’t bear to hear His Voice ourselves!” In that moment something changed. The Sound was silent – God no longer spoke to His people directly. For hundreds of years, the Sound, God’s Voice, was heard only by a select few. The priests and prophets became God’s voice on the earth.

Then suddenly God released the Sound of Christmas.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1,14)

And in an instant, the world was changed again. The Voice was amongst us, talking with us, sharing with us the deep secrets of God and His plans for our lives.

Today we need to hear the Sound!! The Sound has returned! Let us not deny its power by dwelling in the manger. Jesus was certainly born there as a baby, but He’s not there now! Jesus certainly went to the Cross, but He’s not there now either! He has triumphed over the Cross and now dwells in our hearts in great majesty and power!

Jesus proclaimed that He is the voice of the Father. (John14:9-10) But then He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12) By this He is telling us that we – you, me – are to become the voice of the Father too! Let us hear the Sound today! Then let the Sound reverberate through us to change the world again!

As you listen to the sound of Christmas carols this year, let the sound be a prophetic reminder of the unfathomable greatness of the true Sound of Christmas.

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:

      KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19”11-16