A Perfect Tree

the living room was nearly lost in branches. For hours we labored, fastening the thousands of lights I had purchased, finally I reached the top, only to realize that there was no way to place the angel which needed about six inches of clearance as the top branch was touching the ceiling. With no way to remove more from the bottom of the tree I suddenly remembered my fathers technique of tree cutting and decided to lop nine inches off the top. Fortunately Michelle’s angel had a big skirt and hardly anyone noticed that tree was less than pointed; I guess it helped that you had to stand in the kitchen 15 feet away if you wanted to see the whole thing.

So much is made today of the true meaning of Christmas, many people look at the Christmas Tree and see it not as a true part of the holiday season, but as a pagan imposter. However I believe that just as we no longer recognize our days of the week or months of the year as the names of pagan gods, so too the Christmas Tree has become simply a part of our Christmas ritual; and I am reminded that Jesus was often one to use a popular image or scene at hand to illustrate important spiritual truths, so tonight I want to talk to you about God’s Christmas tree.

Proposition: As we look at the Christmas tree we can find a picture of what Jesus came to do and we discover that just as we pile gifts under our tree; Jesus has given tremendous gifts to each of us and they can be found under his tree.

I. The Tree of Jesus
1. The Greek word for tree is XULAN which in the Bible is used five times to refer to the cross on which Jesus died and four times is used for the tree of life in Revelation.
2. 1 Peter 2:24 – Is an example of how it is used to picture the cross as a tree.
3. Luke 23:31 – Shows us a unique example where Jesus refers to himself as a tree, when women were mourning as he was led to the cross. He told them, if men do this when the tree is green, what will they do when it is dry. He was pointing forward to a much more terrible reality that would come upon the Jews after his rejection.
4. Throughout the Old Testament the Messiah is likened to a tree. In Isaiah he is seen as a shoot from the stump of Jesse and also the Branch of the Lord and the Righteous Branch.
5. Appl.: We must never lose sight of the fact that the angels who announced the child’s birth announced him as the Savior and we know that from the beginning there loomed a tree in the path of the Christ, the tree of the cross that would bring salvation to many. God’s Christmas tree is the person and work of his son.

II. The Gifts That Are Found Under Jesus Tree
1. It is always exciting to watch the gifts appear under the tree every year, and to speculate as to what they might contain, but much more than salvation has come to us as a free gift under the tree of the cross.
2. Romans 5:1-11 – Here is one list of the many gifts that we have received as a result of our savior’s cross work.

a. As we open the first gift we find inside the record of all the sin we have ever committed and all those that we ever will commit, and written across the front in blood the word – Justified. We have been made right with God, not because of what we have done, but based on the cross of Jesus – our criminal record has been expunged.
b. As we open the second package we find a dove, the symbol of peace and attached to it a note