"CHRISTMAS LOST AND FOUND!"
Written and preached by David P. Nolte



MATTHEW 2:1-16

We all know how frustrating it is to lose something of worth. We seek high and low for it. When, and if, we find it, there is a sigh of relief and a feeling of happiness. Dr. James Dobson tells the story of William Lambert, a college student in Pennsylvania who lost Christmas for awhile back in 1975. Due to family financial stresses he was unable to go home to Boise to be with his family for Christmas. With the exception of a foreign student who spoke little English, all the other students had already left for home. Pennsylvania was bleak, cold and desolate. William grimly focused on his almost unbearable pain, concentrated on his grief, and looked at the lonely prospect of spending a holiday away from family and home. William Lambert lost Christmas for awhile. Perhaps you identify with him and have somewhat lost Christmas. If we go back to the beginning we'll find a Christmas lost and found, too.

  1. CHRISTMAS WAS LOST BY HEROD: VV7, 8:
    1. Note Herod's wrathful and hypocritical reaction to the magi's query:
      1. Though he feigned a desire to worship, Herod saw the Christ Child not as a King to be served, but a competitor to be eliminated. Do we see Him as in competition with our own plans and goals? If so, you will lose Christmas.
      2. Herod's focus was on his own earthly position, the material kingdom he had amassed and his own secular power. Do we focus on the worldly, the temporal, the material and on our own concerns? If so, Christmas will be lost to you.
      3. Herod's intent was purely self-serving, self-absorbed, and self-benefitting. Where does self come into the picture with us? If too prominent, you'll lose Christmas.
    2. Herod was not the only one to lose Christmas. Jesus was generally rejected, and unfortunately, still is.
      1. Isaiah prophesied it: Isaiah 53:3 "He was despised and forsaken of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him."
      2. John records it: John 1:11 "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."
      3. Jesus acknowledged it: John 15:18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you."
    3. Why? Why would people treat him so?
      1. They expected a military messiah and Jesus didn't fit the bill.
      2. They considered Him just a simple carpenter, only an itinerant teacher, another religious zealot, a pious fanatic who would come to no good. To His question, "Who do men say that I am?" the disciples answered, "Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Matthew 16:14.
      3. They thought He was a lawbreaker, a rebel, a threat to the status quo of their religious dominance.
      4. Today people chalk Him up as just a good man, a moral example, a top notch spirit guide in the new age hierarchy, a god [with a little "g"], a martyr, even a prophet -- but not God incarnate, Emmanuel, the one and only Lord and Savior of the world.
    4. The commercial world has lost Christmas as evidenced in these ads: "What greater treasure of Christmas could you give than sheets and pillowcases?" "The crowning gift of all: our lovebird scarf of Russian sable, $9000." "Christmas everywhere! And in America it's cashmeres." We can never find Christmas wrapped in paper, shrouded with tinsel, poked under a tree, coming down a chimney, or purchased at Mervyn's! Christmas isn't even the shepherds, the wisemen, the angels, the manger -- it's a Person: Jesus Christ! Let's not lose Him and thus lose Christmas in the world's mad rush to materialism!
Herod lost Christmas. And so did William, at least for awhile. He went down town to lose his sorrow in the crowds and the hubbub of the shops. It reminded him of downtown Boise. His parents had sacrificed to send him a $50.00 bill to buy something special, but nothing appealed to his sad heart. Late in the afternoon, William saw a little boy looking longingly at a train in a store window. He remembered his own unsatisfied boyhood longing for a train set and on impulse introduced himself to the boy whose name was David. He asked if David would like to have the train. The boy admitted that he would but that his mother could never afford anything like that. They entered the store where William bought the train for $46.95, and helped the boy take it home. The boy's mother, a widow of the Viet Nam era, welcomed William into the home and invited him to stay for Christmas dinner which she was preparing for the boy and herself. David took him to his room and showed him a couple model trains he had built and after dinner they assembled the new train set. William was beginning to find Christmas in the home of a widow and little boy who had only been able to dream of owning a new train set. Some others in our text also found Christmas.
  1. CHRISTMAS WAS FOUND BY THE MAGI: V11:
    1. Pagans though they must have been, they knew a divine sign when they saw one. And they knew a king when they met Him, too! What was their attitude?
      1. He was worth going far and wide to find. Have we truly sought Him?
      2. He was worth giving their best. What have we given?
      3. He was worth worshiping. Do we truly honor Him as Lord of all of life?
    2. What an example they set for us all! Wisemen still
      1. Seek Him,
      2. Bring Him gifts,
      3. Worship Him!
    3. And to those who do seek and bring gifts and worship Christ, Christmas is never really lost.
    4. It is sort of like the story by Edgar Allan Poe: "The Purloined Letter!" Have you read it? The event took place in Paris in the 1800's. The Prefect of the Parisian police came to his friend, M. Dupin, to tell him about a stolen letter. The letter was of great political importance and a huge reward was offered for its return. The police knew who had stolen the letter, it was an official in the government, but in spite of all their best efforts, they had not been able to recover it. In the official's absence, they had searched his apartment from stem to stern without success. Dupin himself decided to give it a try and visited the minister in his apartment. Forgetting about all the places the police said they had looked, he casually glanced around, unobtrusively looking for the less obvious hiding places. He finally figured out where the letter was hidden and left, only to return the next day to retrieve the snuff-box he had purposely left behind. Meanwhile, he paid a man to create a disturbance in the street below so the minister would be distracted. He then grabbed the stolen letter and replaced it with a look-alike. The Purloined Letter was always right in plain sight in a mail rack. It had been slightly crumpled, dirtied and altered to look like an ordinary, valueless letter. It's very obviousness made it well hidden from those who searched more probable and concealed hiding places.
Christmas, too, is there for the finding if we simply look for it where it is. William brought joy and happiness to a poor and sad home and in so doing, found it for himself. As he was preparing to leave the home of his new friends, David came out of his room carrying a package he'd wrapped himself. In that package was a model train he had assembled. He said, "it's not as good as the one you gave me, but at least we both got a new train for Christmas!" William said, "This is the nicest thing anyone ever gave me." He departed knowing what it was to truly experience the joy and love of Christmas. Christmas lost was found. So it is today.
  1. CHRISTMAS IS ALWAYS LOST IN SELF AND FOUND IN LOVE:
    1. The selfishness of Herod and the love of the magi are a universe apart.
      1. Herod was jealous, they were zealous!
      2. Herod abhorred Him, they adored Him!
      3. Herod was heartless, they were hearty!
      4. Herod lost, and the magi found, Christmas!
    2. Things haven't changed since then.
      1. Christmas is lost in lives that are full of self but it is found in hearts that are full of Christ's love.
      2. Christmas is lost where hate and anger and bitterness control but it is found where His love rules.
      3. Christmas is lost where self dominates, but it is found where Jesus is Lord and His love constrains us.
      4. Christmas is lost where materialism has priority, but it is found where Jesus and His love are first
    3. Love doesn't exist in order to get what it wants but empties itself to give what the other needs.
      1. Its motives rise wholly from within its own nature. 
      2. Love lives in order to die to self for the blessedness of caring for another, spending for another, expending itself for another.
    4. That's the kind of love in which you'll find Christmas. Any other so called "love" is a synthetic, counterfeit imitation. Christ's love replicated in His disciples is the essence of Christmas and where there is that kind of love, Christmas is found.
You can't really know love until you know Christ's love. Don't be fooled by what the world glibly calls love. If you want to know love, look to the incarnation, look to the manger, look to the cross. That's where you'll find real love -- and that's where you'll find what the season is all about; that's where you'll find Christmas, because that's where you'll find Christ's love in action! He left the splendor of heaven knowing His destiny was a cross. He came to seek and save the lost. Nobody ever loved you like Jesus loves you, and when you rest in His love you'll find Christmas because you've found Christ -- and what's more, in finding Christmas, in finding Christ, you who were lost yourself will be found!
 


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