By Babatope Babalobi
Listen to the audio version of this sermon here
2 Timothy 2:23
But foolish and ignorant questions avoid, knowing that they do produce strifes.
New International Version (©1984)
Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
We have just celebrated Christmas, the biggest birthday celebration in the world that in honour of the King of Kings- Jesus Christ. While millions of faithful Christians used this opportunity to worship and rededicate their lives to the messiah of the whole world, there are equally several millions that missed the point about the celebration because they rather involved themselves in unnecessary controversies about the actual day Jesus was born.
These categories of people will argue that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25, because the existing weather patterns do not conform with the biblical account. Others argue that December 25, is originally a day for a pagan festival which has now been appropriated by Christmas; and by making this day, they argue that Christians are getting themselves in idolatry feasts.
Those involve in these sorts of arguments are not being controlled by the spirit of God. And the Bible clearly warns us to avoid such meaningless arguments.
2 Timothy 2:23
But foolish and ignorant questions avoid, knowing that they do produce strifes.
What Christians celebrate on December 25 every year is not a festival but a person. If Jesus was actually born on another day out of the remaining 364 days of the year, it would have taken anything from the fact that Jesus was here about two thousand years ago, that he was born of a virgin birth, that wise men visited him at birth and gave him special gifts, and that because of His star Herod killed hundred of thousands of babies in an attempt to kill him.
We may not know the actual date Jesus was born or the actual day, Jesus was crucified and resurrected, but what we know is that his first coming was prophesised by several prophets hundred of years before he was actually born, that his ancestry can be traced to Father Abraham, Judah and later David, and that though he was born of the humblest of birth in a manger, by the lowest of persons- a Carpenter, and in the smallest of cities- in Bethlehem; yet his life and ministry provoked the greatest interest when he was here and the largest followership over 2000 years after his death.
Jesus was here. You may not believe he is the son of God or accept his claim that he is the Lord. You may not agree that he was actually born on December 25, but the fact still remains that, his birthday divided the history of the world. Every event before his birth is now calculated as B.C. (before the Birth of Jesus and every event after his resurrection is described as A.D. (After the death of Jesus). He not only made History, past history ended with his birth and present history began with his resurrection.
What matters to me was not when he was born, but the fact that there came a man that turned water into wine thereby disannulling the laws of chemistry, He turned the sea into a highway and walked on it, he turned the air into living things by speaking to the air and commanding it to be still, he changed climate patterns by causing a fig tree to wither during summer and when he resurrected he upturned the laws of gravity.
Today, I present to you Jesus, who made the leper walk, restored the sight of the blind, caused the dumb to speak again, caused the deaf to hear again, and restored a decomposing dead corpse back to life. The man that multiplied food for one person into food for five thousand people and there was still left over.
As state in 2 Timothy 2:23-Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
I will not have anything to do with stupid arguments about the actual date of birth of Jesus. No matter the day he was born, what interests is that he was born of a virgin lady. Mathew 1 vs 23…Behold a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son.
Jesus reordered the law of reproduction by creating, producing and reproducing himself in the womb of his Virgin mother. The actual day of his death does not interest me. Whether it was Easter period or not is not relevant, what is important to me is that this was and is someone the graves could not contain at death. When he was buried the earth shook and rejected his corpse, the rocks cracked and vomited his body, the winds and clouds fought and blew away the heavy stones rolled over his tomb, and the Heavenly Angels turned the security officers guarding the tomb into stones.
Before birth, the prophets declared Jesus as Lord. At birth he declared himself as Lord. When he stated his miracles, the people declared him as Lord. At death, the heavens and earth declared him as Lord. Centuries after his death, hundreds of millions are still worshipping Him as Lord. Is there someone reading or listening to this message who also want to declare Jesus as Lord. Wise men follow Jesus, will you join the wise men and women today?
