Classic Friday: Christmas or the Lord\'s Day?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I have several books in front of me here. I am working on a couple right now. One is Discovering Colossians, and that is S. Lewis Johnson�s book that I�m adapting.

Hopefully that will be out in March 2017-ish. And then I will be on a sabbatical next year for a while, and I have a book about hell that I�m working on, a shorter book, at least in my mind now. It�s, you know, 100 pages kind of thing, smaller, but with some key issues regarding the death of Christ and what he accomplished, and that�s it.

The other six you can order online. I don�t know if anybody�s read them all or ordered them all. Sexual Fidelity and Things to Go Bump in the Church, you can only get those from our website, nocompromiseradio .com.

Huge sellers, huge sellers. So big was the Things to Go Bump in the Church that you can�t get at Harvest House anymore. I used to be an author for Harvest House, and now if you go to their website, I guess I am not.

But we have a lot of those books available, and they�re about half price, $7 .99. That�s nocompromiseradio .com. Or Sexual Fidelity, like I said, I just received an order for 100 copies of Sexual Fidelity for a men�s conference on sexual purity, and we sent those out at a 40 percent discount if you want to order 100.

You don�t even have to order that many, but if you order a whole gaggle of books, you get a lot of discount if you just order ones or twos. You don�t through�you know, you get discounts as long as I have them.

I still have a few cases at home. Try to get rid of those. But if you want to order 10, 20, 30 copies, perfect for a youth group, perfect for a men�s discipleship, perfect for a men�s conference. Plenty of ladies have read the books.

If you�re married, I encourage you to read the book. Again, I wrote Sexual Fidelity in light of conversations I had with my son, who was probably 15 at the time. He is 20, almost 21 now, or maybe he is 21.

I don�t know. How old is he? He�s 20. Anyway, Sexual Fidelity, No Compromise, 30 chapters, one chapter a day, a short chapter a day on the topic, �Everything from Pornography to Enjoying Your Spouse in Marriage.

All right.

What else is happening here on No Compromise Radio? I need a new intro and outro. Working on those. We�ve got a bunch of new videos. We took a short break. I just did not have the capital to do it. I don�t mean financial capital, although we�ve kind of switched over from the church to No Compromise, NoCo Media.

We need some new headphones. We need some recording things. Maybe I should put a little list up there, and then you could send them. I know ministries that do that. Of course, we try to avoid all that, but we have recorded.

Ben and I recorded some NoCo videos, and you can just go to YouTube, then type in �No Compromise Radio and then there�s 150 videos there. There should be a new one out every week or so. The one I just did on discipleship or Bible study, I think, is provocative, right?

Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, and if you want to pull up things there, you can, or go to Germany and Switzerland. Where else are we going?

Where is Geneva?

Geneva, Switzerland. Both of those, Zurich and Switzerland, own Geneva. It�s close to France, though, close to France. Anyway, that�s it. That�s enough self-promo, huh?

Yeah?

We have promoted ourselves enough. We have in front of us today 77 Habits of Highly Ineffective Christians, a little book written by Chris Fabry. I was surprised to find out that it�s an IVP book. Is that true?

It seems like one of those little table books that actually was published by Inter Varsity.

Press.

It looks like highly effective leaders kind of book, but here�s ineffective Christians.

All right.

So, what I do is I just use this as fodder to springboard off. Springboard used to be a noun. On NOCO, it�s a verb. Here�s one. Rush to Easter and skip Good Friday, Habit 64. Now, before we talk about that, I know this show will already have played by Christmas time, but if you are a church leader and you cancel Christmas service because it happens to fall on the Lord�s Day, Sunday, December 25th and January 1st, both fall on Sunday this year, if you cancel Christmas service because of well, let me switch that around.

If you cancel the Lord�s Day worship service because of Christmas, I think you�re a fool. If you cancel the Lord�s Day worship service because you�re renting a building and you can�t get it at 10 o�clock in the morning so you have to postpone it until 4 o�clock in the afternoon, this has nothing to do with you.

If you cancel it because there�s 40 inches of snow and the governor says you can�t drive on the road on Christmas morning, i .e., Sunday morning, this isn�t for you. But if you say, �You know what? People aren�t going to show up and it�s a family time and there�s hot toddies to be served and the special Jingle Bells carols.

I just think you�re foolish. I think you are not thinking and the Lord Jesus is raised from the dead on Sunday. He ascends to heaven on Sunday. It�s the Lord�s Day and the Lord�s Day. While I am not Sabbatarian, it�s the Lord�s Day.

He, the Lord, tells us to get together with other sinners saved by grace and sing songs about Jesus and his redemption, hear from the Word of God and Scripture reading, watch things like baptism be included in things like the Lord�s Supper, and we�re to sing and pray and give and preach and all those things that go along with it that are prescribed in the New Testament for worship.

So, if you say, �Well, nobody�s going to show up anyway. I won�t have service. Now, that doesn�t work. That�s not leadership. Hopefully, the elders in you will show up. Somebody will show up and you�re going to soon teach people on the priority of the Lord�s Day.

If you say, �Well, you know what? I particularly like to get up and our Christmas is Mom and Dad get up. It�s seven and then they have some coffee and they let the kids get up and then the kids come out and they�re all excited and they get a check on the tree and they have to do this, that, and the other, and then we have our little breakfast thing and then we have a little pause and then Sainty comes, Sainty Claus comes, and then the reindeer have to be fed, and we have all these traditions.

It�s the Lord�s Day. It�s crazy. Now, if you�re a leadership, I have no respect for you if you�re going to cancel because of that. If you�re a congregant and you don�t go on Sunday because you�re in Timbuktu 4 and there�s no other church.

It�s a communist place and it�s underground. You�re on vacation. You don�t speak the language. Well, you could have your own little service, couldn�t you? Yes, you certainly could. But if you�re at home or you�re close by a real Bible-teaching church and you go, �No, you know, it�s Christmas.

We don�t want to go. You�re a fool too. What are you teaching your kids? Of course, we are far from perfect people, but as a pattern of your life, here�s what I think you should aspire to. Your children say, �Where are we going today on Sunday

They never say, �Are we going Now, maybe one of the kids is sick. Maybe mom and dad and children are all sick. Well, then you say, �We�re not going today. Are we going today because we�re so sick

Well, we don�t have a ride, so today we�re all going to stay home kids because mom is sick and dad is sick and diarrhea isn�t working out too well. We try to arrange some rides, but the people don�t want to bring you because they think you might have the cooties as well.

I�m not talking about these kind of things, but your kids should wake up in the morning on Sunday. Actually, Saturday night, they�re getting their clothes ready. Where are we going? Well, we�re out of town, so we�re going to go here, there, the other.

We�re at home, so we go to our home church. We don�t say, �Are we going We are just, �Where do we happen to go today That�s it. And then you say, �Well, I�m not really going to go because we�re going to read the Bible at home and we�re going to read Matthew 121 and have some special thoughts on it.

If you�re snowed in, okay, on all these other excuses, I get it, but just to say it�s Christmas. Well, my mother-in-law is in town. She doesn�t want to go to service. Really? Okay. Here�s how you should approach that.

Mom, you can call your mother-in-law Mom. Mom, glad to have you here, just to give you a little heads up. Tomorrow�s the Lord�s Day. We�re all Christians. We�re going to go to the service. We, particularly here at Bethel Bible Church, we�re not going to have Sunday school that day, and we�re just going to accommodate it that way.

So, there are going to be some changes, but the changes are things that are extra things. Sunday school is extra. Bible study is extra. Discipleship is extra. My preaching discipleship class we�re not going to have.

That�s extra. But we�re still having a Lord�s Day service where the saints get together. Now, will there be a lot of unbelievers that day? I doubt it, because unbelievers aren�t going to wake up and go, �Huh, I�ll go.

Can we make some changes on Christmas Eve and Saturday night service? We�re not going to have that. We�re going to have Christmas Eve service on a Friday night, because there are pragmatic reasons for that.

You know, to have a service, excuse me, any other night of the week is fine, but not in lieu of, not in place of, not instead of Sunday morning Lord�s Day. And whether it�s Easter, whether it�s tax day, no matter what, there�s 52 times a year where we get together on the Lord�s Day and we proclaim Christ Jesus and we sing about Him and we remember Him and we worship the triune God.

Well, what does the dad do who says, you know, the mom-in-law, and she said, �Well, that�s not how we do it. We have our, you know what, Mom? Glad you�re here. We�re going to leave at 930. We�re going to be back around noon.

How�d you like to get up early and open up some presents? How�d you like to go along with us? Or you want to just wait till we get home? What would work out the best for you? And you�re just sweet about it.

That�s all you do. What if your mom invites you over and every Christmas you go over to her house at 10 o�clock in the morning? What do you do? Well, Mom, thanks for the invite at 10 o�clock in the morning.

I know you and Dad aren�t going to church. I know my other brothers and sisters will be over at some such time and for the big meal. Would it be okay if we got over to your house about 1130 or so? I know that�s about an hour later than normal, but we�ll be at church.

It�s Christmas Day. It�s the Lord�s Day, more importantly, and then we�ll be right over. We won�t stop and do our normal things and go let the dog out. We�ll just get over here as fast as we can. And what�s wrong with that?

People have lost their minds, totally lost their minds. I was at the concert the other night. We have an outreach concert, and I said, �If you�re here visiting, we welcome you, and if your church doesn�t have a Sunday morning service on Christmas, we�d love to have you come and worship with us.

Back to the book here, 77 Habits of Highly Ineffective Christians. Rush to Easter and skip Good Friday. Good Friday is one of those holidays you should just let slip by without much fanfare. Of course, you should let your children get into the eggs and the bunnies and the pretty outfits that cloud Easter fairly well, but I find that those who are ineffective treat Good Friday with a blas� attitude.

Good Friday isn�t as easy to celebrate as Easter or Christmas. You don�t say, �Merry Good Friday to people passing. You don�t have the warm, fuzzy I don�t even know what this is C-R-E with a backwards slant accent, C-H-E, crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet, and a baby to catch your attention.

You have spikes driven in flesh, a crown of thorns on a pure head, and a crude, splinter-laden cross. Good Friday reminds you of the suffering Christ endured for your sin. Good Friday shows you the extent to which God would go to redeem your soul.

One thought of the punishment of Jesus on the cross and half of the things you do during the day would be re-evaluated. Therefore, you must not think about it too much. Rush to Easter. Do not dwell on the crucifixion.

Do not linger on the passion of the Christ. His blood spilled for you. His hands inside pierced. Run to the empty tomb first. Dodge the scenes of agony. Skirting Good Friday makes your holiday much more positive.

People will feel less sensitive over the price God paid to obtain their salvation. Ineffective exercise. To better celebrate the meaning of the day, use Good Friday to get things done around your house.

Now, I don't think there's a calendar day for Christians that says, Good Friday, got to take the day off. If they give you the day off, fine. Post-Christian culture, they're not going to give you the day off, fine.

What are the holidays in the New Testament that must be celebrated? Every Sunday, fine. Christmas and Easter, if the pastor wants to preach a special message in light of those topics, fine. What about Good Friday service?

Fine. When I grew up, there was a Lutheran church, ELCA. That's what I think it went into. It was LCA for a while, ELC. The Friday night service at that church, something about the death and burial of Jesus would take place, and then they put a black curtain over the church.

They had all kinds of fishing line, like four-pound tests to help get it over the cross, the large cross in the, what's it called? Not the narthex, but up on the platform area. There's a certain name for that, the nave or something, nave's topical Bible.

Remember those were hot? Never used them once. Okay, a few times. Treasury of Scripture knowledge, okay, twice. And then Sunday morning, Easter morning, resurrection Sunday morning, the pastor would stand by the cross that had the black over it.

By the way, you'd walk out of the service on Good Friday, not too happy, can't talk about too many things, kind of sad. Let's get home, have a Corona. And then he would cut on Sunday morning the four-pound test line.

It's just the right spot. I think it only took one cut, and the whole thing tumbled down, and he said, he is risen. And we all as Lutheran said, he is risen indeed. I know. What about the service? I've thought about having Friday night services here for Good Friday to talk about substitutionary atonement, penalty substitution.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What did Jesus mean when he said those words from Psalm 22 verse 1? That's a time to remember. I totally get all that. And I think the author of this book, Chris, is right to make sure we have those connected.

Good Friday, why is it good? And how does Easter confirm what Jesus did on that Friday? I understand that. I think it is off base for him to say, celebrate the meaning of the day, use Good Friday, get things done around your house.

Friends, since we don't have to pay for our sins, since we don't have to work our way to heaven, I know it's an impossibility, but just imagine if you had to somehow do that. Well, you have time to clean up the house.

It'd probably be a good thing to get the house clean. If they give you the day off on Friday, why would you not take the day off? But we're not Roman Catholics. It's not some kind of Lent thing. We're not Sabbatarian Jews that can't clean on a holy day.

Jesus has been raised from the dead. Jesus died on the cross once, and he did it to bring us to God. He, the just, died for the unjust, and he's raised from the dead. We are free. We are free people. You're free to clean the house.

Now, of course, if you're a Sabbatarian and it happens to be the Lord's day and you think, how much cleaning can I get done? Is that a day for me or is it a day for the Lord? How much work can we do? And if it's not a matter of, you know, I've got to work because I saw my neighbor's oxen in the ditch and the cars in the lagoon or whatever, I've got to work to get that out.

Okay, that's an argument for a different day. Here, to feel guilty on Friday, what else am I supposed to do? Sit around the whole time and think of what? Now, it says here, dodge the scenes of agony. Skirting Good Friday makes your holiday much more positive.

You know, here's what I would probably say. I think a more frequent problem would be on Sunday, talking only about the resurrection and new life and turning over a new leaf without referencing what happened on Friday to make Sunday so great.

Friday had to be so great. So awfully great, obviously. But those are tied together. You look at 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It's just there. It's according to the scripture.

He died. Christ, the Messiah, died for our sins. Not his own sin, but ours. And he, in fact, was dead because they buried him. And he was raised from the dead. The tomb could not hold Jesus. And this was the Father's affirmation of Christ's substantiating work on Calvary.

Yes, he defeated the cosmic forces of darkness on the cross. Yes, it was an example of love. Yes, it was a demonstration that God's laws must be kept and justice must be meted out. But at the top of it all was the lamb that was slain.

This is the language of substitution. This is the language of Passover lambs slain, 1 Corinthians 5. This is the language of Day of Atonement. So on No Compromise Radio, you want to celebrate Easter? You know, you want to celebrate Good Friday?

You want to do any of that? That's fine. But if you say on Christmas morning we're not going to go to worship service when you're able to and you normally do, well, no wonder everything in your life is so messed up.

Because it's just foolish. That's not wisdom at all. It has nothing to do with wisdom. It has to do with, you know, you don't want to upset the kids. And, you know, think about it this way. As much as we like to say, you know, let's make sure this year we're not going to go all materialistic.

Let's try to teach the kids about the Bible. Why is Christmas important? Why Jesus is the reason for the season? You really mean to tell me some five-year-old is going to go, oh yeah, it's not about presents.

Let's say you don't even do Santa Claus. I mean, we didn't do Santa Claus, but there's still plenty of Christmas presents there. Plenty of things in the stocking, plenty of things under the tree. I remember growing up, hey, is Jesus the reason for the season?

Yes, putting Christ back into Exumas. But we had it all planned out. Grandma and Grandpa Abendroth was Christmas Eve. We'd go there, open presents, you know, have dinner, open presents, hang out, have a few highballs.

Then we'd drive home. We'd wake up, so that was Christmas one. We'd go home. We would finish putting together the presents and wrapping what was needed there. We'd wake up in the morning, and we would get what Santa got us.

That was Christmas two. We would have a little breakfast, a carnation instant breakfast drink. We would—Apple Jacks, probably. We would then have Christmas number three. Our family would exchange gifts.

Then we would drive over to Grandma Uphill's house, Nona Anderson. She was the originator of the word Henno. And we would open presents there. That was four. Then we'd come back home. We'd go play. Go play Tarzan or something.

Jesus is the reason for the season. Just, you know, your kids are going to be—I'm actually very happy. Yeah, I wish Christmas, every Christmas, was Sunday morning. Every Sunday morning was Christmas. Well, see how we could make that preach, too.

My name's Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. I have received my training at the Master's Seminary and at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I do some teaching for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

It's preaching class. The European Bible Training Center, I teach preaching class and other classes there over in Europe. And I've been doing some mentoring work for the Master's Seminary for their doctorate classes in preaching.

And I got an email the other day and said that I was an adjunct professor for the Master's Seminary for the preaching thing. So, see, I thought I was a hired gun. And so on my book I think I just said mentor on Evangelical White Lies, you know, that number one bestseller, religious category.

They said I was a mentor. But now they said in this new email, because I had to fill out all the tax things, that I was an adjunct professor. How about that? I mean, can you imagine? Adjunct professor, that's got to qualify for something.

I don't know what it qualifies for, just more taxes. I want to say I've had 24 students that I've helped at the Master's Seminary individually. And then I taught a different class where there were 60 people or whatever.

But anyway, I'm thrilled with that, thrilled about that. I have a large debt to John MacArthur and the men at the Master's Seminary. And that's that. You can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. That would be my friend Spencer's account.

He'll forward me things unless they're hate letters or if he can just answer the question. If you want to particularly ask me a question, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. Unless it's, you know, if it's I disagree with you, perfect.

If it's I hate you and you're going to use a bunch of bad language, delete, baby. You're going to get deleted. I think we've got special programs for that. I've got Breathe Prayers for that. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio.

Thank you.