Celebrate God’s love as we enter into a new year

For those who are unaware of why the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhedo Church celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ on January 7, the answer rests in the calendar differences.  

In Ethiopia, the tradition is to follow the “Julian” calendar, while those in the West follow the “Gregorian” calendar.  

We cannot think about the birth of Christ without thinking of the infinite love of God, and we rest on the promise that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  

Sins of the world

While the Bible makes no mention of when the birth of Christ should be celebrated, it clearly teaches us that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was born into the world as a child, and dies as a “perfect man” to cover the sins of this world.  

God’s purpose for manifesting himself was to save humanity, to bring fellowship and to break the bond that sin had over man.  

While we can all recount the events of Jesus’ birth, life and death, we should not take these events lightly, the issue that I would like to address is as the Bible stated, the most important commandment of all, and that is love.

The love that I am speaking of is not what is experienced and shared by a man and woman, but instead of the love of God and of all mankind.  

Agape love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself.  

The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John; 4:8 – God is Love.  

The second and equally important commandment is: Love your neighbour as yourself. No other commandment is greater than this.  

If we are to love as God loves, that love, that agape can only come from its true source because that love is now in our hearts, we can obey Jesus who said, “I give you a new commandment that you love one another.”

This new commandment involves loving one another as he loved us sacrificially, even to the point of death, but again, it is clear that only God can generate within us the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are his children.

Did you not know that Jesus Christ is the centre of Christianity, in fact he is the centrepiece of all history, but the world seems to struggle with his identity.  

Who is he they say: Is he God? Is he man? Or is he both?  

Well the Bible answers all these crucial questions. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He is God for he was with God before all time. 

John makes it clear that the one born Jesus of Nazareth did not have his beginning in his earthly birth, rather he is the eternal son of God without beginning.  

There never was a time when the Son of God did not exist. He is also man, for he became flesh, he has become one of us, being like us in all things without the exception of sin. 

He came into this world and joined the human family.  

Jesus Christ was just as man as though he wasn’t God, and just as God as though he wasn’t man. 

Jesus Christ has been given a name that has echoed throughout all eternity. His name as the Bible says is sweeter than a honeycomb.  

He was given a name that voluntarily shared our human condition, went to his cross and dies vicariously, but got up for another man’s redemption.  

He tasted death for every man and unto him at last every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess him Lord to the Glory of God, the Father. 

He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. At his birth, he was worshipped as a King. 

Let’s be clear about the true Christmas. Rome 8:5 tells us: for what the law could not do in that it is weak in the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, he condemns sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who, walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.  

Lavish

The object of God’s agape love never does anything to merit his love. 

We are undeserving recipients upon whom he lavishes that love. His love was demonstrated when he sent his Son into the world to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10), and provide eternal life to those he sought and saved.  

This then reminds us as Christians, we should not appear the same as those in the world, for we are born anew, washed clean in the blood of Christ. 

Instead what we see nowadays are Christians doing the same as those in the world; ignoring the sacrifice God made when his son Jesus died on the cross for our sins. 

We know that the son has come and he has given us understanding, so that we can know the true God and the true meaning of Christmas.  

So what about you? What do you want more than anything else? Fame, influence, or power?  These are all worthless.

 In the end, all of these things that people spend their lives pursuing are unsatisfying.  

Perhaps some of you instead more than anything else want, a happy life, a good marriage or a satisfying job.  

I want to call you to something greater. Without this relationship, without knowing the power of his incarnation, we will never have true happiness, we will never have true joy, and certainly will never accomplish anything of lasting value.

As we enter into 2014, don’t let Satan overwhelm you with doubts. There may be valleys, but the Lord will walk beside you and will bring you out of them.  

My hope is that this promise will ring in your memory all year through, that with God all things are possible.

We celebrate our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, let us espouse to help and support our brothers and not get caught up in the materialistic and selfish value that those in the world are concerned with.  

Instead let us be selfless, standing out different from those in the world, proud to be members of the body of Christ, willing to sacrifice, just as the Father who made the ultimate sacrifice did to save the sins of all mankind to bring us back, closer to him.

There is nothing more important to do, as the renewal of every year is inextricably tied to and brings nearer, the cataclysmic events which will open the final chapter in the successive celebrations of new years, when God in that eternal new earth will crown salvation history with a new heaven and a new man. Amen.