“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
TEXT — Isaiah 9:6-7
Message
In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown a plane 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas”. Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas!” He totally missed the big news – man had actually flown in the air!
Like the editor, many people miss the good news and purpose of Christ’s advent during the yuletide. Isaiah was best known as the Hebrew prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ to save mankind from sin. Isaiah lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. His prophecy was written in present continuous tense: “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…” Christ was content to be born in a manger on earth, so mankind, by receiving forgiveness of sins through Him, might inherit mansions in heaven.
Christmas has been heavily commercialised. According to available records, Americans used about 28,497,464 rolls and sheets of wrapping paper, 16,826,362 packages of tags and bows, 372,430,684 greeting cards, and 35,200,000 Christmas trees during the 1989 Christmas season. Ironically, sin is on the increase during Christmas as people drink, party and dance in ecstasy. Some go to church only at Christmas and Easter.
The worship and remembrance of Christ should be for all seasons. His salvation was not a temporal panacea for sin, neither was his gospel intended to be preached only as a Christmas sermon. Christ should be preached as mankind’s Saviour, all-year round.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
