Should we celebrate Christmas?


Memorial
God instructed Jews to mark a milestone with twelve stones when they cross the river Jordan
Joshua 4.

Purim
14th day of the month of Adar, got relief from their enemies, turning sorrow into gladness, sending gifts and food to one another Esther 9:20-21
John chapter five hints that Jesus attended a feast of Purim, what the feast was is a matter of debate.
The Jews celebrated the feast of Purim that God did not command, this was not a sin, a group of people and their children celebrated a milestone of being saved from a genocide, their lives, a blessing on its own were spared from certain death.

Synagogue
A synagogue was attended by Jesus and the Apostles, sometimes synagogue gathers people for evil/hostile intentions (Psalm 21:17) (Truth or Tradition, 2012). The origins of the synagogue are obscure, but it seems they began in Exile (Truth or Tradition, 2012).
If the synagogues were observed by Jesus himself, those who say Christmas must not be celebrated because it is not commanded they have a lot of work to do than simply saying it is not commanded. We can’t fail to celebrate the incarnation because someone out there is confused about scripture and have his confusion binding on our conscience.

New Practice
The angel of the lord appeared before the shepherds and they said – we have to go to Bethlehem and see this thing that was just reported (Luke 3:15). If the shepherds were rejoicing, visiting the baby joining the choir of heaven happened to thousand years ago and we remember that, we cannot then say Christianity is a new practice. It’s as old as the incarnation itself.
Romans 14:5 “One esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”.

Corporate Worship
Celebrating Christmas is not done in a corporate worship and the regulative principle of worship does not apply
This is also in the realm of Christian liberty, each must be convinced in their own mind, those who want to celebrate Christmas and those who refuse to are all ok.

Jesus commanded us to remember him
Do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19), even though this was in the context of his death, Jesus said we must remember him (Incarnation, His righteous life, His teachings, his death, burial and resurrection, his priestly office, his kingly office, his prophetic office, the hypostatic union) we must remember all this things and rejoice, marvel and worship him for all that he is.
The bread that was broken, before it was broken it was bread of life given to all of humanity to at the birth of Jesus, as he broke the bread Jesus said the bread “given”, when was it given? At his birth.
The birth of Jesus was the fulfilment of prophecy
Many books were written thousands of years before Jesus was born and when God became flesh we celebrate a Go we can trust who keeps his promise.

Christmas began as a pagan holiday
So what? If people go to worship their Gods, and I turn towards my church towards God to worship him, am I sinning, is there anything wrong with that? Paul went into the heart of Greek pagan culture and used their own altars and redeemed them and appropriated them to the right God. This is called contextualisation – Tim Keller “Giving people the Bible's answers to questions about life that people in a particular time and place are asking , in language and forms they can understand and thorugh appeals and arguments with force they can feel even if they reject them” (9 Marks, 2018)
“God streak the sky with multi coloured finger painted every morning, and every night and every morning again and we say NO! this is a God who refuses to celebrate, and that is why the world turns away and say, there is something missing here” Donald Owens II (Owens, 2010).

Bibliography

9 Marks. (2018, 11 02). Episode 66: On Contextualization (with John Folmar and Trip Lee). Retrieved 12 23, 2018, from 9 Marks: https://www.9marks.org/interview/episode-66-on-contextualization/
Owens, D. (2010). Is Christmas Pagan. Retrieved 12 23, 2018, from Sermon Audio: https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1226111531554
Truth or Tradition. (2012). The Synagogue. Retrieved 12 23, 2018, from https://www.truthortradition.com: https://www.truthortradition.com/articles/the-synagogue



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