Santa Claus: Harmless Fun or Tragic Distraction?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2016

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for your Christmas, you don’t know him well.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We've never been afraid of ruffling feathers on the podcast and as we move into the epicenter
0:05.6	of the Christmas season, that's good because no APJ question is more common this time of year
0:10.3	than questions over what Christian parents should do with Santa Claus. What should we do with
0:15.8	old Saint Nick Pastor John? It's been asked of us over 70 times now in the APJ inbox. Every year
0:23.6	this question comes up over and over again. Now of course, Pastor John, as you know, there's a
0:28.8	four-century Greek historical figure named Saint Nicholas, but most of the questions, in fact,
0:33.0	I think all 70 of those questions that we have received are all about the mythic white bearded,
0:38.7	red-suited reindeer flying Santa Claus, that guy. And James from Ontario recently wrote in to ask
0:46.0	us, Pastor John, what do you think about Christian parents who allow their children to believe Santa
0:50.4	Claus is bringing them gifts on Christmas? Cut it straight for us, Pastor John, what do you say about
0:57.2	Santa this time of year? After Easter, Christmas should be the happiest day of the year in Christian
1:02.9	worship. The reason I say after Easter is that good Friday and Easter is the goal of Christmas.
1:11.8	The death and resurrection, the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus is
1:15.8	the goal of Christmas. Christmas is not the goal of Easter, Christmas is a means. The salvation of
1:22.3	sinners on good Friday and Easter is the goal. Jesus came at Christmas to seek and save the lost,
1:28.8	Luke 19. Jesus came at Christmas to save sinners, 1 Timothy 115. Jesus came at Christmas to give his
1:36.8	life a ransom for many, Mark 10. Jesus came at Christmas, not to call the righteous, but sinners,
1:42.4	Matthew 9. Jesus came at Christmas to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3. Jesus came at
1:48.4	Christmas that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death Hebrews 2.14.
1:53.8	So the birth of the Son of God, the very, very God, very man is simply stunning and glorious and
2:01.2	infinitely serious and overflowing with happy news. The angel called it good news of great joy, great joy,
2:09.7	not small joy, not a little bit of joy, but great joy. So my question is this, how could we possibly
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