Should Christians Celebrate Christmas? by David K. Bernard Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript) Kind: teaching Scripture: Romans 14, Romans 14:5 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--should-christians-celebrate-christmas Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ the bible gives us clear direction in romans chapter 14. so let me read a few verses here i've got the new king james romans 14 5 says one person esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike let each be fully convinced in his own mind and then verse 6 he who observes the day observes it to the lord and he who does not observe the day to the lord he does not observe it essentially what we have here is the concept of christian liberty so basically on any issues that are not moral where the bible doesn't give explicit teaching that it's sin or not sin that means we as christians have liberty to make personal choices and if you read the entire chapter of romans 14 it says we can have different choices but we respect one another so if someone decides to participate in a certain observance we shouldn't ridicule them we shouldn't judge them we shouldn't condemn them but if someone decides not to participate likewise we shouldn't ridicule condemn or judge them now let's talk more specifically about christmas and easter it is true that some aspects of these celebrations have uh pagan overtones of course that's true of anything in life or many things in life i would say for example in english we use the term sunday that was originally given to honor the sun god monday the moon god and so you go down through the week thursday honors thor now if i'm using those days to honor the sun so if i say let's meet on sunday and you understand me to say let's worship the sun god then that would be wrong of me but if i'm just using that as a cultural expression an english expression and neither you nor i think i'm giving any honor to the son i'm just using the conventional names then i haven't done anything morally wrong and so i have liberty now if i really feel bad and don't want to leave any wrong impression don't want to give any credence this i could i could say let's meet on the first day of the week and that would be okay in other words i have a choice it's not a matter of sin it's not a matter of biblical prohibition or command it's not a matter of evil it's not a matter of morality so i have a personal choice that's how i look at things like christmas and easter now some people say we're celebrating paganism if you're truly doing that or if the people you're associated with truly think you're promoting idolatry you're promoting pagan worship then you shouldn't celebrate but if you say regardless of the connotations of secular people or regardless of some of the origins i'm not doing this for any pagan celebration i'm not worshiping any idol and i'm not encouraging anybody to worship i have chosen this day to celebrate the lord well then you have transformed that meaning into something that is acceptable so you have a personal choice now you might say well i don't want to use the term easter i want to say resurrection sunday or whatever you want to do now i know in north america many people are accustomed to going to church on on or around those two days so as a practical matter for a pastor it's a great time to encourage people to come to church and once they come to church they get exposed to the apostolic faith to pentecostal worship to move the spirit and we might win them so it can be a great evangelistic tool i think it is a good thing to do now in some heavily catholic countries like latin america some of these celebrations so closely associated with roman catholicism or paganism that many christians say i don't want to have any part of that well in that culture that's understandable so in summary i think romans 14 does give us the answer if you feel like that participating in these events would associate you with paganism where you would feel like you're honoring pagan gods or you think your friends and family and the people you're trying to win the lord will think you're actually supporting pagan worship then by all means don't participate but if you can celebrate the day unto the lord with a true scriptural appreciation for the birth of jesus for the resurrection of jesus and you can use it for a wholesome purpose that i think scripture gives you that liberty in short i think local churches and individual believers can choose to celebrate the day as long as they do it unto the lord or they can choose not to do so now let me give you one final thought i grew up in korea where my parents were missionaries and it was a predominantly non- christian country so buddha's birthday was a holiday now they did set aside time for christmas because it's an international holiday but for the church that was a very important thing because in a in a culture that was mostly buddhist or ancestral worship or spirit worship for them to have a special day to honor jesus christ was a great thing because it told the whole nation that jesus christ was important and so the churches there would always have church on christmas so for them it wasn't a family celebration or it wasn't a personal holiday it was actually a time to worship the lord and it was a great opportunity to bear witness in that non-christian culture that jesus christ makes a difference so in that case it was a very positive thing to be able to celebrate jesus christ in that culture in short different people can have different answers but we should not judge or condemn one another we should do everything we do as unto the lord