The most popular Christmas special of all time next to “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It has been shown every year and often twice a year since 1965. It is the only Christmas special to clearly present the true reason for Christmas and point us to God.
Here are 5 facts about the show you probably didn’t know AND 5 Truths About God that Linus’ quote from the Bible teaches us about God. 1. The show was developed in less than 7 weeks on an extremely small budget. 2. The show almost never aired. CBS executives originally didn’t like it for reasons ranging from not having a laugh track to the Biblical passage recited by Linus. 3. The first special was commissioned by the Coca Cola Company as an exclusive advertising opportunity. 4. The final program was finished just 10 days before the premiere. 5. The negative view of aluminum trees presented in the show ruined the aluminum Christmas tree market. They were no longer manufactured after 1967. As mentioned above, the Bible quotation has caused some controversy over the years. However, Charles Shultz, the creator, said that it had to be included since it was the true meaning of Christmas. The inclusion of the passage from Luke chapter 2 reminds us that the perfect answer to the question “Who is God?” is found in the Christmas story. Here are 5 key truths about God’s revelation of himself through Jesus’ birth and what practical significance that has for our lives. 1. God wants to be known. The entire Bible is filled with hundreds of accounts and stories of God revealing himself to people and communicating with them. Many people wrongly believe that God is distant and inactive in the world or in our lives. They believe that he is real, maybe even that he created the world and set it in motion – but that he has been “hands off” ever since (Deism). This is false. Scripture teaches us that God is actively involved both in world affairs and in our personal lives. He is both transcendent and immanent. That is, he is above and beyond all that we can comprehend and imagine, and yet he has chosen to be active among us and communicate with us and seek relationship with us. God wants to be known. He wants humanity to know him and has proved himself willing to go to extreme lengths in order for that to happen. 2. Through Jesus, God reveals his identity. We know that God wants to be known because of the many ways that he revealed himself to his people throughout the Bible. God walked with Adam and Eve. He spoke to Noah. He called Abram to uproot his life and move to the place he had for him – and so on and so on throughout the Old Testament. He spoke through visions and dreams. He spoke to Judges and through prophets. He gave his written Law. He spoke in a still, small voice; and he spoke through thunder on Mt. Sinai. The Psalms declare that God can be known by the great things he has done in our lives and Romans even tells us that creation itself proclaims the identity of God to the world. And the list could go on for hours, but none of these, NONE of these – even if you added them all together, come even close to the fullness of God’s revealing his identity that exists in the person of Jesus Christ. God wants his identity to be known and Jesus’ is the ultimate proof of that. 3. Through Jesus, God reveals his character. Throughout the Gospels, we see God’s character made vividly clear in the person of Jesus. The Old Testament gives us a taste of God’s character and heart – but Jesus is the perfect and complete picture of God’s character. Sometimes it can be difficult to read through books like Leviticus and Numbers that contain chapter upon chapter of laws. But even these laws, along with the entire rest of the Bible, give us a glimpse into the character and heart of God. But Jesus himself is the ultimate revealing of God’s character. In Jesus, we find the heart of God. We find him caring for people, loving people, rebuking the hypocritical religious people, healing the sick, setting the demon possessed free of spiritual oppression, letting children come to him, bringing people back from the dead, and much more. In each teaching of Jesus and in the life of Jesus; in every story and every parable; every healing and every exorcism; we see the character of God clearly made known. As we read through the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings, we see the heart and character of God on display. 4. Through Jesus, God reveals his purpose. There is perhaps no clearer description of Jesus own mission and purpose in this world than we find in Luke 4:16-21 – Jesus’ mission statement: Though many of the people of Jesus’ day thought his purpose was to set them free from Roman oppression, Jesus came to set them free from something far more powerful and far more oppressive – sin, evil, and death – an oppressor that only God could conquer and overcome. Jesus came to set humanity free from enslavement to sin once and for all. He didn’t do this just to do it. He didn’t set us free for freedom’s sake – he set us free so that we might be in relationship with him and know him and love him. In short, Jesus’ purpose in coming was to do what was necessary to set us free from sin so that we could enter into a loving relationship with him. In Jesus, God made his purpose known, not only for the world at large, but also in our individual lives. His overarching purpose was to set each person AND all of humanity free from enslavement to sin and to provide a way for his people to be in healthy and holy relationship with him. Through Jesus’ teaching and his death and resurrection, we have the perfect revelation of God’s purpose. 5. Through Jesus, God reveals his love. The love that Jesus exudes throughout the Gospels is the perfect display of love. Jesus himself said that the greatest and purest form of love is to lay down one’s own life for the sake of others (John 15:13). In Jesus life and especially in his death, God’s deep and unfathomable love was perfectly revealed as he laid down his life, not just for his friends, but for his enemies – those who hated him (Romans 5:8) – and for all of humanity. Even though we were still sinners, Christ died for us so that we could be made right with him – so that we could know him and commune with him forever. He was willing to endure the punishment we deserved and die the death we should have died, simply so that we could know and love him. His birth, his life, and his death are the perfect revelation of God’s love to humanity. Christmas is an important time for believers to reflect on these truths and their importance for their faith. Christmas reminds us in ways that few other things can, about the true identity, character, purpose, and love of God. Only in the person of Jesus can we see all these things in their full and complete form. During this Advent season, as we approach Christmas Day, there will be nothing more spiritually meaningful than to reflect on and grow in our understanding of who our God is and what he has done for us. We hope you affirm these truths and celebrate Christmas not only as a special time of year but in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you have questions about these truths or about a relationship with Jesus Christ, please contact us here or visit us for a service. We also have some wonderful Christmas events this month at our church. Follow the links below for more information and we hope you enjoy a very Merry Christmas. Information on “A Charlie Brown Christmas” gathered from Wikipedia. Read more at this link.
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Author & EditorArticles are written or selected by our Pastor Keith Carnahan Archives
June 2023
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