The late Ray Stedman, longtime pastor of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, Calif., preached a Christmas sermon entitled “When Grace Appeared.”
Stedman, who died in 1992 at the age of 75, spoke of being caught up in what he called the “hurry-burly and hustle and bustle” of the season. It led him to ask, “How did first century Christians celebrate Christmas, or did they?”
He examined the New Testament and made a “rather startling discovery,” finding “no Christmas celebration recorded at all in the New Testament” other than the coming of the shepherds and wise men. In the letters of Paul, Peter, James and John, “not one reference to a Christmas celebration.”
Why?
“I discovered,” he said, “that the early Christians, the apostles and their associates did not see the life of Jesus as we do, in segments – the birth, the hidden years, the open ministry, the cross and the resurrection. They saw the life of Jesus and his ministry as one complete whole, all the great events blended into one, which they called ‘the appearing of Jesus Christ.’ “
Stedman drew attention to the letter to Titus 2:11-14 in which Paul writes of two appearings of Jesus, the first representing “the grace of God” and the second as “the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The first appearing, Stedman declared, “is a part of history and it was so in Paul’s day.” The second appearing “is a part of prophecy, and still is today, 2,000 years after these words were written.”
The period between these two “quite different appearings,” the California pastor declared, is “what has been called, quite properly, ‘the age of grace,’ the age in which we live, and the age in which Paul wrote.”
Stedman pointed out that from the birth of Christ in Bethlehem to his crucifixion at Calvary and his resurrection at Easter, “you have that which introduces the age of grace.”
“It is all grace – God reaching out to man,” he declared.
He continued, “Grace means that the first subject on God’s agenda to discuss with man is not judgment, but love. It is amazing how many today fear that if they draw near to God, the first thing God wants to talk about is condemnation, that he wishes to punish them for their sins. But the scripture says, ‘God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.’ God’s first concern with man is not judgment.”
In Matthew 13:16-17, Jesus spoke to his own generation of how fortunate they were. “I assure you,” he said, “that many prophets and many of God’s people wanted very much to see what you see, but they could not, and to hear what you hear, but they did not.”
In our celebration of Christmas, we would be wise to look beyond the child in the manger to a fresh appreciation of the whole life and ministry of Jesus Christ and the age of grace ushered in by the birth of our Lord. To do less is to miss the full meaning of what God accomplished through Jesus for mankind and for us individually. We should highly prize these days of grace.