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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Anil Kanda

Yesterday’s Christmas

Father in heaven, we just thank you again for the promise of the Holy Spirit.

For Sabbath morning, we ask Jesus that you would speak to us, that you would minister to us.

Lord, we pray by the time we leave This experience, we've been changed because we've encountered your word.

How many people have their Bibles right now?

Put them in the air if you have your Bibles.

Okay, look at the people who didn't bring their Bibles with a very judgmental look.

It's very important when you come to church, you bring your Bible, amen?

You know, even as a pastor, I used to always think to myself, well, I'll just, you know, borrow 1 of the church's Bible.

But friends, I want you to understand something.

There's something very special about using your own Bible.

It's important, and so I highly recommend you get a good Bible if you don't have 1, and just make it your own.

Well, today's message is entitled, Yesterday's Christmas, Yesterday's Christmas.

You know, Ellen White says something very interesting about Christmas, and this will sort of be our launching pad for the message.

The 25th of December has long been commemorated as the day of Jesus' birth, and it is not my purpose to affirm or question the propriety of celebrating this event on this day, but to dwell upon the childhood and life of our, " what?

So She essentially says, she's a very practical woman Ellen White is, and she says, look, you should use Christmas to dwell upon the childhood, the life of our Savior.

Then notice what else she says right here.

Although we do not know the exact day of Christ's birth, we would honor the sacred event.

May the Lord forbid that any 1 of us should be so narrow-minded as to overlook the event because there is an uncertainty in regard to the exact time.

You know, 1 thing I realized as I grew up, I grew up as a Hindu, I also come from a Sikh background.

And about 17 years ago I became a Christian.

But my father, who was a very devout Hindu, would oftentimes use Christmas to speak to us about Jesus.

In fact, 1 of my very first sort of images I had about Jesus was Christmas morning.

My dad turned on the TV, he sat all the kids down and he said, watch this movie about Jesus.

In fact, when he brought out all the sort of Christmas ornaments, he brought up these statues of the nativity scene and he put it up there and so we always had these kinds of images or depictions of the Christmas story.

If you go into my dad's closet where there was a lot of idols, you had a statue of Krishna, a statue of Ganesh, you even had a statue of Buddha, and then you had the statue of Joseph and Mary missing the baby Jesus.

But this is how I was introduced to the Christmas story.

And the more I've come to understand the Bible, the more I love the beautiful story that's been given to us in the Word of God, amen?

And it's a story, especially during the time of December, I really think we should study out.

Because this may be the only time that some people are actually open to the gospel, including Hindus like my family.

You know, when I first learned about these things, I thought to myself, you know what I'm going to do?

This is a little bit funny because my form of witnessing was trying to remove Santa Claus from my household.

I thought to myself, okay, the first thing my family needs to know about Christmas is, Santa Claus is fake.

These are memoirs of a conference evangelist right here.

So my little niece, she was just there 1 day.

And I said these words to her, I said, what are you doing right now, Leah?

And she says, I'm excited because Santa Claus is about to come down the chimney.

And so I stepped in a little bit closer and I said these words to her, I said, if a large man comes through that chimney in the middle of the night, I'm going to call the police.

In fact, the next day I saw my little niece, and she was putting out cookies.

I thought to myself, all right, it's time to talk to her.

So I walked up to her and I said, what are you doing with these cookies?

And she said, I'm putting them out for Santa Claus and the elves.

And then I leaned in a little bit closer and I said, the only 1 who's going to be eating those cookies is me.

She ran off again and this time my sister came yelling at me, right?

But I say this friends because you know when it comes to this whole idea this season of Christmas we need to look at the gospel stories, amen?

And let's understand what the Bible is actually teaching about this beautiful time.

Everybody, let's take our Bibles, let's go to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2.

And it's amazing because I love the Gospel of Luke.

It's 1 of the most beautiful Gospels, the most beautiful depiction, I believe, of the birth of Christ.

And we're going to notice some unusual context there in Luke, chapter 2.

Now you may think to yourself, Pastor Noel, I heard something like this before and I love when people think like that because at the end the Spirit really gives it to them.

All right, we're going to Luke chapter 2.

Notice the context in which Jesus Christ is born right here.

Those days that a decree went out from who?

Caesar Augustus that all the world should be what?

Now notice this friends because this is such a powerful concept.

When you actually study out the Old Testament, you hear about some powerful miracles.

Can you name 1 powerful miracle in the Old Testament?

You can see so many powerful miracles, angels destroying armies, the walls of Jericho are falling down, and as you read the Old Testament you're getting this sort of build-up, something big is about to happen.

You get these powerful miracles and they're all pointing to the time in which the Savior would show up and bring redemption.

But then when you actually turn to the New Testament and you look at the very chapter in which the Redeemer is born, it's perhaps 1 of the most unprovidential chapters of the entire Bible.

In fact, it's so unusual because it doesn't match the direction of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is pointing to the power of God, the glory of God, the might of God, the deliverance of God.

And then when you read chapter 2 of Luke, It's like, what?

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from who?

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Yesterday’s Christmas

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