In his sermon, Peter Allison discusses how Jesus fulfills the Feast of Dedication, also known as Hanukkah, which commemorates the rededication of the Jewish temple. He explains the historical background of the feast, including its origins linked to the Maccabean revolt and the cleansing of the temple after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes. The speaker draws a connection between the feast and the birth of Jesus, suggesting that Jesus' birth coincided with this celebration, symbolizing Him as the new temple and the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies and feasts. Allison highlights the significance of the date, noting that in 5 BC, the 25th of Chislev (the ninth month in the Jewish calendar) coincided with December 25th. This alignment emphasizes Jesus as the light of the world and the beginning of God's kingdom on earth. The sermon also cautions against the syncretism of pagan traditions with Christian celebrations, urging believers to focus on the true significance of Jesus' birth and the dedication of the temple, emphasizing that Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of these biblical events.

I have scripture reading from Luke chapter 2. I'd like to begin our reading at verse 1. We are reading at verse 1. And it came to pass in those days that a decree went from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. In this census first took place while Corinius was governing Syria, so all went to be registered, every one to his own city.

Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and Laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over the flock by night And behold the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. And then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into the heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us go to Jerusalem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

And now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child, and all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherd. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. May God be praised at the reading of His word.

Heavenly Father, I ask now that you would sanctify these sinful lips that they might proclaim the glory and the riches of Your grace. I ask that You would open our hearts to hear and our minds to understand. I ask, Lord, that You might speak to us and give us ears to hear. I ask Lord that through our time this morning, you might equip us, strengthen us, deepen our love for you, deepen our reverence and wonder at your beauty, at your glory, at your power. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Remember I guess it was two weeks ago, we looked at this passage and I expressed the interest in, before we moved on, in looking at one more aspect of this passage, this coming, this incarnation, this coming of Christ, being born in due time, as Paul said in Galatians, in the fullness of time. God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ. We didn't have time two weeks ago in that message on this passage. So I wanted to take a second week and focus on this one aspect, that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament feasts. They all pointed forward to Christ.

The temple itself pointed forward to Christ and to his work. And There were in the Old Testament seven different feasts that were commanded and established in Leviticus and in Exodus and in Numbers. Leviticus 23 is one place that covers all of the feasts that God ordained. And There was starting at the beginning of the year, in the first of the biblical calendar, there was the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. The Jews followed a lunar calendar, so the 14th day of the first month means full moon.

The Jewish calendar followed a lunar calendar, so their days don't always line up with with our days but this was on the 14th day of the first month then there was the feast of unleavened bread for seven days right after that and There was the feast of the first fruits, and then 50 days after that was Pentecost, then the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles in the seventh month. But There were two other feasts that are described in the Scriptures. Those two feasts were the Feast of Purim, which was established in Esther when God gave the Jews victory over their enemies. Remember Haman set about to destroy, to wipe out this line from which Christ would come, just like Pharaoh tried to do, just like Athaliah tried to do, just like other people tried to do. Haman had a plan to destroy the line of David and It was thwarted and his plan came back on his own head as he was hung in the gallows that he had built for Mordecai.

But as a result of that victory that God gave to the Israelites over their enemies, the feast of Purim was established. And there was one other feast, it was the feast of dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple on Solomon's porch. The feast of dedication, This is a feast around the dedication of the temple. It is a feast, that's what John mentions there, was celebrated.

So even though it wasn't established by Moses in Leviticus, yet this was a feast that was later established and practiced. Actually, it was practiced by Moses at the dedication of the temple, and I'd like to look at that. I'd like to, in looking at this passage of Christ's coming, see how Christ has fulfilled this feast of dedication. This was a feast that, although it wasn't established by Moses, as I said, specifically with the other seven feasts, yet it was ordained by God and it is in the Scriptures, it's referenced in the Scriptures. We find a number of examples where it is practiced and It was celebrated regularly as we see Jesus doing there in John chapter 10.

So biblically then, what is this feast of dedication and how does Christ fulfill it? And thirdly, what is the significance of the date of this feast? And how does this relate to Luke chapter 2 and the coming of Christ? We'd like to tie all this together this morning. I think it just points to God's amazing power that over this entire course of history all of these things that were pointed to in all these feasts, and particularly this Feast of Dedication should be fulfilled in Christ.

And so this Feast of Dedication, we see it, we see in Leviticus, it's in Numbers 7 and 8, Leviticus 8 and 9, Exodus 40, are three places that talk about the dedication of the wilderness tabernacle. And there's a couple things I'd just like to point out about this dedication of the Wilderness Tabernacle that we find recorded for us in these passages. So in, And there's a couple different things going on here, and we're going to, we're jumping, I realize we're jumping between books and chapters, and it can be difficult to keep the big picture in view. But we have in this, in these chapters, in these passages, the dedication of the temple and the anointing and dedication of the high priests and the dedication of the Levites. And so Exodus 40 talks about the building of this tabernacle.

It's all the directions for them to do. And it says that it was completed, all this stuff was completed on the first day of the month of the first month of the second year but all of this would not have happened of course on on one day as as we see in Leviticus 8 turn there a minute this is where Aaron and his sons are consecrated. Moses was to take Aaron and his sons and the garments and the anointing oil, and so on, and he was to gather all the congregation at the door of the tabernacle of meeting." And Moses anoints Aaron with this special oil that we actually talked about last week in when we looked at Psalm 133 because David references this very anointing and then the temple itself was anointed and Aaron and his sons were consecrated or set aside and dedicated to this priesthood and to this office. They were purified for eight days. They were to stay in, therefore you shall stay at the door of the tabernacle of meeting day and night for seven days and keep charge of the Lord so that you may not die, for so I have commanded.

And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. And it came to pass on the eighth day that then Moses called Aaron and his sons and told them to offer the burnt offering. And they offered the burnt offering and dedicated Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. And then Aaron, at the end of that, Aaron lifts his hands towards the people and bless them and came down from the offering, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering and God sent down fire from heaven that burned the altar, burned up the sacrifice. So there is an seven or eight day purification period.

There is also interestingly in Numbers chapter 8 in the dedication of the temple, you remember that most, I'll say, repetitive passage in all of the Bible where there are each representative from a tribe of Israel brings a gift. You remember reading that passage right? And it's exactly the same. It repeats the exact same paragraph 12 different times. The only thing being different is the name of the person bringing the gift.

And it tells us exactly what gift was being brought and it's the exact same gift and how many animals and so on were brought. Well, this was all, this time of feasting and gift giving was related to the dedication of the wilderness tabernacle, and it went on for 12 days. There were 12 consecutive days of feasting and gift giving that were connected with the dedication of the Wilderness Tabernacle. And then immediately after that description in Numbers 7, then in Numbers 8, we have the direction about the light, the lamps being lit in the lamp stand. And then God's glory appears to the people and it was after this that the glory in Numbers 9, in the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, from evening until morning, and it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.

And so it was, the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And so it was after this dedication of this temple, which was, there was seven, eight days of, associated with Moses and Aaron, there were 12 days of gift giving for all the each representative from each tribe to be able to bring a gift then the glory of God the light of God came upon the temple. Remember in Revelation it speaks about in the new temple, in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no need of a sun because the glory of God is its light. And there is actually no night in that city and there is no sea as well. But in that city the glory of God is the light of the city.

And so after the dedication of this tabernacle, This is when God's glory came upon and rested on that tabernacle, that is, His light came down. Now, we have in Solomon's dedication of the temple, this, well, I should mention here, So this dedication of the temple occurred on On the 25th day of the month chislev The 25th day of the month chislev that's the ninth month in the Jewish calendar And So there isn't going to be an exact day between the 25th day of the 9th month in the Jewish calendar and any particular day in our calendar because it's like Easter. It varies depending on how the lunar and the solar calendars line up. But it's interesting that In the year that Jesus was born in 5 BC, the 25th of the 9th month, Chislev, is the 25th of December. That doesn't happen every year.

It's rather infrequent. But on 5 BC, those two dates coincide. So in Solomon's dedication to the temple, we see similar themes of feasting, of rejoicing, of lighting, of giving gifts. There's the same elements. Now this dedication occurred in the Feast of Tabernacles, which was two months earlier from the ninth month, it occurred in the seventh month.

But in the dedication of the temple under Hezekiah, because remember Hezekiah's father had defiled the temple and so the temple is rededicated under Hezekiah, you have the same themes. You have eight days of purification, you have this dedication, and you have feasting. These same elements are present in Hezekiah's dedication to the temple. You can read that in 2 Chronicles that pretty much that whole chapter. How he gathered all of the people together, how they had sacrifices, and they had people were bringing, so the assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings gifts and as many as over a willing heart brought burnt offerings in other words these were not things that were commanded, that were required, but these were sacrifices that people were bringing because they wanted to.

This was not something God said you had to do, this was something they were doing because they desired to do so. Those who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. See there were commanded offerings and there were also in the Old Testament what the Bible calls free will offerings. So Hezekiah and all that people rejoice that God had prepared the people since everything took place so suddenly. But in the post-exilic temple, remember Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed that temple that Solomon built and the Hezekiah rededicated.

And that temple was rebuilt under Ezra, by the people that went back to the land of Israel. And we read this in Haggai. Haggai came to God's people to encourage them, to exhort them, to admonish them, to rebuild the temple. And so the prophecy opens with God coming by Haggai saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways, you have sown much and bring in little, you eat and do not have enough, you drink but are not fulfilled with the drink, you close yourselves but no one is warm, And he who earns wages, earns wages to put them in a bag with holes.

Consider your ways. God is saying, this is coming upon you because of your ways. You're dwelling in these houses, in paneled houses, and the temple is God's house, is in ruins. And so, this is what we read though in the second chapter, when God's, in the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet. The 24th day of the ninth month, that's Chislev, the 24th day of Chislev.

So we might say, now ask, well I'm not going to read that whole thing, but down in verse 18 it specifically says, Consider now from this day forward, from the 24th day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. So this temple, the altar was dedicated on the 24th day of Chislev the ninth month this this temple was rededicated and so after This temple was rededicated. What happened next in the history of the Jewish people is God raised up Alexander the Great. And Alexander the Great conquered, as you know, conquered the Persian Empire, conquered the Medes and the Persians at the end of the 4th century. After he defeated Persia, Israel began a long period under pagan rule and there were no prophets.

This is the period of intertestamental silence. God did not send any messengers, any prophets to his people. There was no word, there were no visions. We have nothing recorded in scripture from this period. So the people of Israel now fall under Greek rule and these were pagan people who did not respect, have any respect or any regard for their ways.

In fact it was just the opposite. This was in general a period of persecution and so by the start of the second century BC, the spiritual state in Israel is quite deteriorating. There is a state of apostasy. The Jewish people have syncretized with all the Gentile nations around them. They've adopted their ways of doing things, they've abandoned the way that they were to live and the law of God, and they're living like everybody else, many of them.

You can read some of this history in the book of Maccabees, and that's not part of the canon, it's not part of the scriptures, but it is a good source of history like other history books. It explains some of how this happened and it talks about some of the gross immorality that the Jews practiced in this time. And so in about 167 BC, after defeating Egypt, Antiochus Epiphanes is coming back through to Damascus where the center of his empire was and he came through Jerusalem. Now he was a vile man, He had an intense hatred of the Jews. So he came into the city, he destroyed a large part of the city.

He's really flush from a great victory over Egypt and he's carrying out all of his intense hatred of God and His people. He destroys a large part of the city. He slaughters men, women, and children. And he invades the temple. He does everything he can do to deliberately insult and denigrate God and his people.

And so he went into the temple, he carried away the altar, the golden altar, the candlesticks, the vessels, the show table, the show bread, and all the other sacred utensils in the temple. He just, he took this all away. And then to further show his contempt, his utter contempt and hatred of God, he sacrificed a pig to the Greek god Jupiter in the temple on the altar. And then he cooked the pig and he poured its broth all over the law and the altar to defile them and he the date that he chose to do this was very significant it was the 25th day of the ninth month December 25th or chiseled see this is the same day that the, why would Satan pick this day? Because this day was significant.

This is the day that the wilderness tabernacle was dedicated. This is the day that the altar of the post-exilic temple was dedicated. This just shows Satan's hatred, utter hatred for Christ and for God. So he deliberately picked this day to defile it. Now this action is discussed in Daniel chapter 8.

Daniel prophesied about this event happening. So even though There is no scriptures that were given at that time. Daniel told, we do have God's word telling us that it would happen. I'm in the wrong chapter, that's why I can't find it. It says in verse 10, and it grew up with this male goat.

He's talking about a male goat here that has a very large horn. That's Alexander the Great. That horn is broken. And then the four little horns come up in Daniel 8 verse 8 come up for those are the four generals that took over from Alexander the Great and one of them in verse 9 and out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land, toward Israel. And it grew to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.

He exalted himself as high priest as the prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. Because of the transgression an army was given over to the horn to oppose daily sacrifices. He cast truth to the ground. He did all this and prospered. Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, How long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot.

And he said to me for 2, 300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed." There is Daniel giving this prophecy about what Antiochus Epiphanes would be, and Jesus makes reference to that in Matthew 24, calling it the Abomination of Desolations. This is what Antiochus Epiphanes did. This was accompanied by, in general, very severe persecution. He forbade the Jews to observe the law of God. He forbade them to circumcise their children.

He forbade them to observe the Sabbath. He forbade them from practicing all the laws regarding clean animals. And he commanded that only pigs could be sacrificed in the temple. He sent officers into all parts of the realm in order to enforce these commands. And so many people fled into caves, but many others capitulated to his demands.

And so this was a period of very, very great persecution in the land and a period of great apostasy. But not everybody apostasized. God preserved his remnant just as in the days of Elijah or the days of Ahab. There were those who did circumcise their children. Oftentimes they were horrifically butchered in graphic and unspeakable ways for simply circumcising their children.

One day there was a man by the name of Apeles, an enforcement officer of Antiochus. He arrived in the small town of Moden, three miles north of Jerusalem, and commanded that the assembled Jews there sacrifice a swine. This is the, he's enforcing the edict that Antiochus had given. And he's, and this is what he meant by they're going around and making sure that this is done. This isn't just a command that was given in some faraway place, but there were people in everywhere making sure that they were doing these things.

And Matthias or Matthew, a Maccabee, who was head of a priestly family and faithful to the Lord, and he was a father of five sons, five courageous sons, he was enraged at this wicked decree. And he killed the first priest who was about to comply with this. And then he and his five sons fell upon Appellus and his group of soldiers and killed them all. Now in doing this he's acting just like Phineas did. He's a high priest.

Remember Phineas took that spear and ran into the tent and put it through the man and the woman who were fornicating. This was because Moses had issued a decree that all these people who were fornicating were to be executed. And so Phineas is zealous to do this. And Matthias now, as essentially as a priest, like, and because of that God gave to Phineas a perpetual or eternal covenant of priesthood. So Matthias acting in the same spirit and that the same authority executes a priest who is about to obey this wicked order and sin against God by sacrificing a pig on the altar.

And so he is he kills Appellus and all his soldiers well That of course is going to declare war against the might of the Greek army. But soon after that he died, but one of his sons, Judas, he assembled a band of courageous Jews and like many other Men who have fought just like David did in in the days of Saul, you know people came to him as he was successful as a warrior People would come out to him and his band grew and he had 400 and 600 people following him well in the same way Judas gathered together courageous Jews Who waged a guerrilla warfare against the Seleucid army and against Antiochus's army and as they had success God gave them success. God blessed their obedience God blessed their resistance of this tyranny, that more people came to them, more people had the courage to join them and they were able to, using guerrilla tactics, continually harass and fight the Syrians until finally they gained enough strength that they were able to meet them in open battle and defeated them. And they were able then, by the grace of God, to drive out the Syrians from the land of Israel.

And they stopped their battle once they had driven them out or recaptured the temple. And they cleansed the temple from all of the defilement, just like Hezekiah had done. Now in doing this, they weren't inventing their own practices. They looked back to the Word of God. They looked back to how did Moses dedicate the tabernacle?

How did Hezekiah dedicate the tabernacle? How did Solomon dedicate the temple? How was it dedicated under Ezra? And so they followed the scriptures in setting up and dedicating the temple. These were faithful Jews who were willing to die, who were willing to die in order to follow and be obedient to God, and to keep His Word, and to keep His covenant, and to keep His seals, and to keep his worship.

And so they cleansed the temple and on the 25th day of the 9th month, on the 25th of Chislev, exactly three years after it had been defiled, they rededicated the temple amidst a great rejoicing and they put a new altar there in the place of the old one. Now part of that rededication of the temple, remember, has to do with the lighting of the lights, the menorah. Well, there was only, apparently, according to Jewish history, there was only enough oil there in the lamp, or There was only enough pure oil for one day, but in what would seem to be a miracle, God enabled that oil to burn for eight days until new oil could be prepared and sanctified. So they set up a dedication of the temple exactly following the pattern that had been given to us in the scriptures that involved eight days of purification, that involved giving of gifts, that involved feasting and rejoicing before the Lord. And this then is the celebration that became known today as the feast of Hanukkah.

Now Hanukkah is just a Hebrew word that means dedication. And so what Jesus was celebrating in John 10 is the feast of dedication. It is this feast that was celebrated every year, what's called Hanukkah, where the dedication of the temple, where the temple was rededicated following the abomination of desolation by Antiochus Epiphanes. Jesus was celebrating this because this was the Lord's doing. The Lord gave them victory over the Syrians.

The Lord led them to rededicate the temple on the 25th of Chislev. So Christ now comes in John 10 and proclaims himself as the temple that God is sanctifying. Remember he told the Jews in John 2, I believe it was John 2, that you destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." And the Jews said, well it's been 46 years that you've built this temple and you're going to raise it up in three days? Jesus was referring to his body, himself. And the disciples, after Jesus was raised up, remembered those words that Jesus had said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

Well that was earlier, now in John 10. This is the Feast of Dedication in its winter. Feast of Dedication happened in the ninth month, which is winter. It's November, December in our solar calendar. And the Jews are asking him, are you the Christ?

Tell us. And he says to them, I and the Father are one. And they take up stones to throw him. And Jesus said, many good works I have shown you from my Father, for which of these works do you stone me?' And the Jews said, For good work we don't stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man make yourself God.' And Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are God's? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken Do you say of him whom the father has sanctified?

Consecrated and sent into the world Jesus said to them on this day of dedication to the temple that he was the one whom the Father had dedicated. This Greek word here is the same word that's used in the Greek translation of the dedication of the temple in numbers. Jesus is saying the Father has sanctified and dedicated me. Jesus said I am the temple. So Jesus is both the high priest of the temple and the temple himself and his dedication combines in elements of both the temple dedication and the dedication and anointing of the high priest.

So if you see this comparison, and I didn't have a chance to print this out for you, I wanted to do that, but it was providentially hindered. But the tabernacle was started in March and would have been finished in the 25th of Chislev. There were eight days of purification and on the eighth day there's a sacrifice and God sets the altar apart with fire. And the firstborn of the Levites are dedicated. We didn't read that, but that's also a part of this dedication of the temple and So Christ then it would have been if he was born on the 25th of chislev He would have been conceived in March.

There were eight days of purification as we read in Luke. Remember and when they and There in in Luke 2 the verse 21 in Luke, remember, and they're in Luke 2, verse 21, and when the eight days were completed for the circumcision of the child. What is it talking about when the eight days were completed for the circumcision of Jesus? Well, Leviticus 12 gives us the process of purification after childbirth. And males were baptized on the third would have been baptized on the seventh day they were purified under a process that is given in numbers 19 with the waters of Nidah and so this process then is applied to the mother and and to the baby and so on the that's seven day process and on the eighth day was the circumcision.

So Jesus then, when the eight days it says were accomplished for his circumcision, when he's been purified, then he is circumcised on the eighth day. As the firstborn of God he is he is dedicated see so Christ beautifully fulfills the feast of dedication The 25th of Chislev is about the time of the winter solstice when the sun begins its annual rising. And so too, the Messiah is prophesied as being the rising of the sun in Luke 1, 78. So this whole feast of dedication, celebrating the rebuilding of the temple, points to Christ, who is the temple and who will begin his work of temple building. It spells the beginning of the reversal of the blackness and the cold of winter.

God, when Christ came, no longer would nations need to come to Israel, but rather God would send his victory of his kingdom throughout the world and would gather in his harvest from every tribe and tongue. And the candles that are lit in the temple as a part of this feast of dedication were beautiful symbols of this light going out. Every night, additional candle was lit as an expression of the increase of Christ's Kingdom. This dedication of houses is a significant thing in the scriptures. You remember in Deuteronomy 20 if a man had a house that he hadn't dedicated, he was exempt from the war.

He was to go home and dedicate his house, lest he die in battle and another man dedicated. David wrote Psalm 30 at the dedication of his own house, the house that he built for himself. The dedication of homes was a big thing because it pointed forward to Christ. Christ who is the temple, we are, We dwell in Christ and He fulfilled this feast. And so when it says that in the fullness of time, God was born, Christ was born, God made flesh was born.

Think about all the days, down to the very day that God sent his son on the 25th of Chislev which in 5 BC when Christ was born was on the 25th of December and there are many There are many records pointing to the 25th of December as being the birth date of Christ. This is when the 25th of December and the 25th of the ninth month overlap. Phil Kaiser in his book on this topic has a number of references and I'd just like to in closing point up to a couple of them. Cyril of Jerusalem asked Julius to assign the true date of Christ's birth from quote the census documents brought by Titus to Rome Julius obviously had access to the actual census documents that Titus brought to Rome and after investigation Julius assigned the date of December 25th for Christ's birth Chrysostom says that he saw the actual census and tax records that contained the names of Joseph and Mary When they were registered in Bethlehem and he too dates the events to December 25th upon these records. These are eye witnesses to the actual census records that were taken in Bethlehem.

And there are many of these kinds of references in the early Church fathers. To the early Church fathers, these who are eye witnesses of these actual records, testifying that Christ was born on December 25th in fulfillment of the Feast of Dedication. There are just a number of indirect references, like there was a debate in the second century about what day they ought to celebrate Easter on it wasn't a question of whether there was Easter meaning the The path the Pentecost Or Passover It wasn't a question of whether they celebrated or not. It was a question of what day they should be celebrating it on. And so we we have record then that the Christians have been celebrating this Feast of Dedication in Jesus' time and have continued to celebrate this Feast of Dedication now being fulfilled in Christ.

It wasn't that the church decided to create a holiday on a pagan day, but rather it was the pagans creating a holiday on a Christian day. Because Satan is a great deceiver, And if he cannot corrupt the gospel directly, then he seeks to do it indirectly by causing us to be syncretized with the world and causing our practices to be corrupted. And what better way to do that than to put a pagan holiday right on top of a Christian holiday. It would appear that it wasn't the church copying the pagans, but rather the pagans copying the church when the winter solstice holiday was set and made a big deal on the 25th of December. So this then, Jesus Christ came as a fulfillment of the feast of dedication.

Many of these things that we have in our celebration of Christ's birth today, you can see how they have become syncretized with the world and with a pagan celebration. We've lost in some ways the rejoicing before the Lord and the day now we're trying to push out all these pagan practices of Santa Claus and other things that have nothing to do with Christ. Nothing to do with Christ coming as the temple of God. Nothing to do with the dedication of that temple. So we are in some ways, a lot like the Jews in the time of the Maccabeans.

Our worship, our celebration, our feasts have become corrupted. And that which is true and taught in the scriptures has become diluted. So you see many of these elements that we've talked about. Where did the 12 days of Christmas come from? Maybe they were a part of the 12 days of gifts of the tribes bringing their gift to the temple.

We see the times, the gift giving is an element of all the dedication. But it's a gift giving, it's a rejoicing before the Lord at what he has done at Christ fulfilling this feast. May God sanctify our worship in our life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that your scriptures are complete and accurate, that they contain everything that we need, that we might be thoroughly furnished into every good work.

And we ask Lord even in our feasting and our rejoicing in our days of celebration and thanksgiving which you call us to have at your mighty works. We ask that our worship might be sanctified, that it might be free of the corrupting influences and practices of all those who do not know you. Father, may our celebrations be pleasing May our celebrations be pleasing to you. May they be done through you and offered to you in holiness. May you receive them for Christ's sake.

In whose name we pray, Amen.