Charles H. Spurgeon - Joy Born at Bethlehem: 19 Christmas Sermons from the Ministry of Charles Spurgeon

Joy Born at Bethlehem

19 Christmas Sermons from the Ministry of Charles Spurgeon

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Introduction

They called him the Prince of Preachers.

In the late 1800s, he was the best-known preacher in London and arguably the best-known preacher in the world. Since his death in 1892 Charles Spurgeons fame has only increased with the passing of time.

Although Mr. Spurgeon lived in an age before TV, radio and long before the Internet, in his own way he was very media-savvy. During his lifetime his sermons were printed and sold by the tens of thousands. He left behind so many unpublished sermons that new ones were published continuously for 25 years after his death.

The advent of the Internet age has only caused his popularity to rise. Now the whole world has access to his incomparable sermons through the miracle of digital media.

Thats why Im excited about this collection of Spurgeons Christmas sermons. Each year when Christmas rolls around, preachers wonder how they will find a new way to tell the old story of how Christ came to the earth and how his coming changed everything. It would surprise some listeners to know that preaching Christmas sermons is not the easiest task because you are dealing with story that has been told many times before. Sometimes we just need a new set of eyes to help us see things we havent seen before.

So heres a new look at Christmas through the eyes of the Prince of Preachers.

As you read these sermons, you will see that Spurgeon is not concerned at all with our modern talk about keeping Christ in Christmas. Christmas in Victorian England was not the hyper-commercialized affair it has become in the 21st-century. Mr. Spurgeon focused much more on the who and why of Christmas. He glories in the fact that God gave his one-and-only Son to save us from our sins. That one fact ought to fill our hearts with joy.

Like all of Spurgeons sermons, these Christmas messages are very clearly outlined and filled with solid biblical truth. It isnt likely that a pastor will preach any of them verbatim because we live in a different time and place, and the world has changed greatly since Spurgeon preached to thousands at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. But if you read these sermons for your own personal profit, you will find your heart stirred and your mind filled with glorious Bible truth. And you may just find inspiration for your own Christmas messages because in an ever-changing world, Gods truth remains the same.

Christ came into the world to save sinners.

We need that message more than ever.

So read these sermons and let them lead you back to Bethlehem as you celebrate what Charles Spurgeon called The Great Birthday.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Dr. Ray Pritchard

President, Keep Believing Ministries

Dallas, Texas

The Incarnation and
Birth of Christ

December 23, 1855

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.Micah 5:2

T his is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Saviour Jesus Christ was born on that day, and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are Catholics have a right to hallow it, but I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred. However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt labouring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us; particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus. We do not wish to be classed with those

Who with more care keep holiday

The wrong, than others the right way.

The old Puritans made a parade of work on Christmas-day, just to show that they protested against the observance of it. But we believe they entered that protest so completely, that we are willing, as their descendants, to take the good accidentally conferred by the day, and leave its superstitions to the superstitious.

To proceed at once to what we have to say to you: we notice, first, who it was that sent Christ forth . God the Father here speaks, and says, Out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel. Secondly, where did he come to at the time of his incarnation? Thirdly, what did he come for? To be ruler in Israel. Fourthly, had he ever come before? Yes, he had. Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

I. First, then, who sent Jesus Christ ? The answer is returned to us by the words of the text. Out of thee, saith Jehovah, speaking by the mouth of Micah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me . It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ, did not come forth without his Fathers permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men. We are, alas! too apt to forget, that while there are distinctions as to the persons in the Trinity, there are no distinctions of honor; and we do very frequently ascribe the honor of our salvation, or at least the depths of its mercy and the extremity of its benevolence, more to Jesus Christ than we do to the Father. This is a very great mistake. What if Jesus came? Did not his Father send him? If he was made a child did not the Holy Ghost beget him? If he spake wondrously, did not his Father pour grace into his lips, that he might be an able minister of the new covenant? If his Father did forsake him when he drank the bitter cup of gall, did he not love him still? and did he not, by-and by, after three days, raise him from the dead, and at last receive him up on high, leading captivity captive? Ah! beloved, he who knoweth the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost as he should know them, never setteth one before another; he is not more thankful to one than the other; he sees them at Bethlehem, at Gethsemane, and on Calvary, all equally engaged in the work of salvation. He shall come forth unto me . O Christian, hast thou put thy confidence in the man Christ Jesus? Hast thou placed thy reliance solely on him? And art thou united with him? Then believe that thou art united unto the God of heaven; since to the man Christ Jesus thou art brother, and holdest closest fellowship, thou art linked thereby with God the Eternal, and the Ancient of days is thy Father and thy friend. He shall come forth unto me . Did you never see the depth of love there was in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped his Son for the great enterprise of mercy? There had been a sad day in Heaven once before, when Satan fell, and dragged with him a third of the stars of heaven, and when the Son of God launching from his great right hand the Omnipotent thunders, dashed the rebellious crew to the pit of perdition; but if we could conceive a grief in heaven, that must have been a sadder day, when the Son of the Most High left his Fathers bosom, where he had lain from before all worlds. Go, saith the Father, and thy Fathers blessing on thy head! Then comes the unrobing. How do angels crowd around to see the Son of God take off his robes! He laid aside his crown; he said, My father, I am Lord over all, blessed for ever, but I will lay my crown aside, and be as mortal men are. He strips himself of his bright vest of glory; Father, he says, I will wear a robe of clay, just such as men wear. Then he takes off all those jewels wherewith he was glorified; he lays aside his starry mantles and robes of light, to dress himself in the simple garments of the peasant of Galilee. What a solemn disrobing that must have been! And next, can you picture the dismissal! The angels attend the Saviour through the streets, until they approach the doors: when an angel cries, Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors, and let the king of glory through! Oh! methinks the angels must have wept when they lost the company of Jesuswhen the Sun of Heaven bereaved them of all its light. But they went after him. They descended with him; and when his spirit entered into flesh, and he became a babe, he was attended by that mighty host of angels, who after they had been with him to Bethlehems manger, and seen him safely laid on his mothers breast, in their journey upwards appeared to the shepherds and told them that he was born king of the Jews. The Father sent him! Contemplate that subject. Let your soul get hold of it, and in every period of his life think that he suffered what the Father willed; that every step of his life was marked with the approval of the great I AM. Let every thought that you have of Jesus be also connected with the eternal, ever-blessed God; for he, saith Jehovah, shall come forth unto me . Who sent him, then? The answer is, his Father.