Maximizing Christmas for the Glory of God

As we enter December and the Christmas season, a variety of messages are floating around American culture. Ranging from Jesus is the reason for the season to a consumeristic glut of advertisements all centered on Santa and reindeer, there exists a diverse set of ideas about how to celebrate Christmas. As Christians, we know of course that the main reason to celebrate at Christmas is to consider the wonder of the birth of Jesus Christ. God took on human flesh and our world and eternity has been permanently altered by this astounding reality. To that glorious end, I’ve put together a list of three ways to help you maximize your walk with Christ during this Christmas season.

First, let me encourage you to live generously. Gift-giving is a staple of the Christmas season and there’s no reason for us as Christians to forego this practice. While avoiding excess and debt is important (cf. Prov 22:7), using the Christmas season to provide gifts lavishly to those whom you love and support is a great practice. As a pastor, I’m always so encouraged by how our church historically gives to the work of the Lord each Christmas as typically speaking, our giving during the month of December is far and away the highest out of all the months of the year. Moreover, not only is giving to the work of the church important, but showering loved ones with gifts shows your affection, love and care for them too. Don’t be a grinch this Christmas! Instead live generously for as Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Second, please remember the cross and resurrection during Christmas. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, we celebrate the resurrection at Easter!” While this is true and I’m thankful for it, don’t miss out on the opportunity to celebrate the gospel during the Christmas season too. It’s interesting that of the four gospels, only two of them (Matthew and Luke) spend any time at all discussing the birth of Christ. Yet, in contrast, all four gospels do in fact spend several chapters detailing the events right before, during, and after the cross. So while the birth of Christ ought not to be ignored, I do find it unfortunate that our cultural calendar seems to be out of step with the Scriptural record on this front. Would that we spent a month celebrating Easter!

To illustrate, our culture largely finds the idea of a darling baby Jesus in a manger to be endearing and precious. But if Jesus figuratively “stays” in the manger in the hearts and minds of people, they will fail to understand the reason why Jesus took on a human nature and was born some 2000 years ago. His demanding preaching, astounding miracles, brutal suffering, and conquering of death and the grave demand just as much theological emphasis (if not more so – cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4) as the incarnation. So don’t allow our culture’s acceptance of a docile infant Jesus lull you to sleep regarding the reason why Jesus came as a baby in the first place.

Third and related, I want to encourage you to love the unsaved well this Christmas season. Faithful churches will seek to maximize their impact this Christmas through a variety of ministries and outreach opportunities. Perhaps you could invite an unsaved friend or family member to a Christmas Eve service or some other Christmas activity your church has. This might be an easy on-ramp for them to either hear the gospel at this event or for you to share it with them. Christmas provides a great opportunity for evangelistic outreach that we should not pass up!

In conclusion, our world readily admits that Christmas is a beautiful season full of lights, laughter and love. As Christians who are the lights in this spiritually dark world, might we use this season to meditate upon and speak about the great and eternal realities of Christ’s birth. Doing so will help us to maximize our walk this Christmas for the glory of God!