Lesson #66 – 12/23/2017 講員：Kevin
Berg 翻譯：Angie
Berg
I want you to know that there
is nothing wrong with bells. There is nothing wrong with snow. There is nothing
wrong with a horse drawn sleigh going through the snow. There is nothing wrong
with a snowman. The same is true of candles; or of lights of any color. There
is nothing wrong with these things in and of themselves. But, there is
something wrong if they are used to obscure the truth. There is something wrong
if they are used to distract us from the truth.
我想讓你們知道，鈴鐺並沒有錯。 雪沒有錯。 馬拉雪橇穿越雪是沒有錯的。 雪人沒有錯。 蠟燭也是如此; 或任何顏色的燈光。 這些東西本身沒有什麼錯。 但是，如果他們被慣性的用來模糊了真理，那就錯了。 如果他們被用來使我們從真理中分心，那就是不對了。
This became painfully true a
number of years ago when someone came up with a new name for Christmas. That
new name was x-mas. It is still commonly used today, and it has lead some to
come up with a motto: “Keep Christ in Christmas”.
多年以前，當某人為聖誕節帶來一個新的名字時，這就變得痛心地事實了。 那個新名字是x-mas。 它到如今仍然是普遍使用的，它導致一些人提出一個格言：“保留基督在聖誕節裏”。
注解摘自wikipedia：
Xmas翻譯自希臘語的ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ，（譯為：Χριστoς或Christ，基督），新約聖經原文是用希臘語寫成的。Xmas的X是擷取自Χριστoς的第一個字母X，Χριστoς則是Christos，解作基督；而mas就是取自mass，意則是彌撒（天主教會中的聖餐）的意思，因此Xmas的意思就是「基督的彌撒」。
Christmas is a celebration, a
remembrance of one thing: the coming of the messiah, and the birth of Jesus
Christ. The coming of the Lord, who was born of a virgin; the only person to
not have a human (biological) father, but who came from God the Holy Spirit
miraculously. The one person of all human history who fulfilled perfectly the
prophecies taught in the Old Testament. This is Christmas. But, if we look at
the traditions of our time we may not see it. We may be blinded from the truth.
聖誕節是一個慶祝活動，是對一件事的回憶：彌賽亞的到來，耶穌基督的誕生，主的再來。 主由童貞女而生; 唯一一個人沒有人類的生身父親，而是神蹟般地（不可思議）從神聖靈而來的。 在人類所有歷史中的這一個人完美地實現了舊約中所教導的預言。 這就是聖誕節。 但是，如果我們看看我們這個時代的傳統，我們可能看不到這點。 對於真相真理我們可能被蒙蔽了。
If we think that Christmas is
about bells, or snow, or lights, or even a certain type of tree, we would have
missed the point. Christmas is about the birth of our savior. It is about the
coming of a person whose coming had been anticipated for centuries. A coming
that people had desired and prayed about for generation after generation.
However, when it finally came, when the last prophet announced that the time
had come, people rejected it. People have been rejecting God, His word, and His
message for centuries. And, when God the Father sent His son, it was no
different. And, it is no different today.
如果我們認為聖誕節是關於鈴鐺鐘聲，雪花，燈光，甚至是某種樹木，那麼我們就迷失焦點了。 聖誕節是關於我們救世主的誕生。 這是關於幾個世紀以來一直預計到來的人的到來。 人們的渴望和祈禱一代接著一代。 然而，當終於來了，當最後一位先知宣佈時候到了，人們卻拒絕了。 人們幾百年來一直在拒絕上帝，祂的話語和祂的信息。 而當父神派遣祂的兒子時，這也不例外。 而且，今天也不例外。
We are here to study the
bible. This gathering we have on Saturday nights is called a bible study. The
bible teaches what Christmas is all about. And, there is one tradition
associated with Christmas that actually does have some basis from the bible. It
has been distorted like other things. It has also been taken out of context and
abused. But, the act of the giving of gifts comes from the fact that God
Himself has given us all a magnificent gift. By sending His son, He gave us an
amazing gift; and we now have the opportunity to receive this gift, or to
accept this gift. By us giving gifts to others at Christmas time we reflect
that fact. It says in Ephesians 2:8&9
我們在這裡學習聖經。 我們星期六晚上的聚會被稱為查經班。 聖經教導所有關於聖誕節到底是什麼。 而且有一個與聖誕節有關的傳統，實際上有一些聖經的根本。 它和其他東西一樣被扭曲了。 它原意也被棄絕被斷章取義和濫用了。 但是，贈送禮物的行為來自上帝親自賜給我們一件宏偉的禮物。 藉著派遣祂的兒子，祂給了我們一件驚人的禮物; 我們現在有機會收到這件禮物，或接受這件禮物。 在聖誕節的時候，我們給別人禮物，我們反映了這個事實。 它在以弗所書2：8＆9中說
8For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of
God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
8你們得救是本乎恩，也因着信；這並不是出於自己，乃是神所賜的； 9也不是出於行為，免得有人自誇。
God has given us a gift. We
don’t pay for it, but then we don’t pay for any of our gifts. When we give
gifts at Christmas it is a reflection of this gracious gift that God has given
to us. As with any gift, we can reject it. There are times in life when people
aren’t happy with each other. A gift may be given and a person may say
something like, “I don’t want a gift from you.” This is the same with us and
God’s gift; we have a choice to accept it or reject it. There are other verses
in the bible that talk of this grace gift that we have been given: In 2
Corinthians 9:14-15, it says:
上帝給了我們一件禮物。 我們不用付費，但是任何我們收到的礼物我們都不用付錢 。 當我們在聖誕節送禮時，這是對於上帝賜給我們恩典禮物的一種反映 。 和任何礼物一樣，我們可以拒絕。 生活中有時人們彼此不開心。 一個人可以給予一方一個禮物，這個人可以說：“我不想要你的禮物”。這與我們和上帝的禮物是一樣的。 我們有選擇接受或拒絕。 聖經中還有其他的經文談到我們所得到的恩典禮物：哥林多後書9：14-15說：
14while they long for you and
pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15Thanks be
to God for his inexpressible gift!
14他們也因神極大的恩賜顯在你們心裏，就切切地想念你們，為你們祈禱。 15感謝神，因祂有說不盡的恩賜！
Romans 6:23
23For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
羅馬書6:23
23因為罪的工價乃是死；惟有神的恩賜，在我們的主基督耶穌裏，乃是永生。
John 3:16
16"For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have eternal life.
約翰福音3:16
16「神愛世人，甚至將他的獨生子賜給他們，叫一切信他的，不致滅亡，反得永生。
No gift that we can give
during Christmas time can come close to this, but in a small way it can reflect
the gift that God has given us … the gift of His son.
我們在聖誕節期間可以送的禮物沒有一件接近這件禮物，但從小的方面來說，它可以反映出上帝賜予我們的這件禮物......祂兒子這件禮物。
There is a popular Christmas song
(some may argue that it is an x-mas song) that is called Jingle Bells. It has a
nice melody, it is catchy, it is even fun to sing, but if you look at the
words, there is no mention of the true meaning of Christmas. There is no
mention of the birth of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. It is not the only
Christmas song like this, but it is still considered a Christmas song. It
probably would be more correctly called a winter song, even though after
Christmas it is no longer sung. I have been in a church before where there were
songs like this sung. It is tradition in our society. It is normal in our
society. However, some Christians would argue that in Church only songs about
our Lord and Savior’s birth are appropriate, but it isn’t always the case in
every church.
有一首流行的聖誕歌曲（有些人可能會說這是一首聖誕歌曲），叫做聖誕鈴響。 它有很好的旋律，很吸引人，唱起來甚至是有趣的，但是如果你看這些歌詞，是沒有提到聖誕節的真正含義的。 沒有提到我們的主和救主耶穌基督的誕生。 這不是唯一的聖誕歌曲是這樣的，但它仍然被認為是聖誕歌曲。 即使在聖誕節過後它不再被唱了，它可能應該更準確地被稱為冬天的歌曲。 我以前曾經去過一個教堂，在那兒有唱像這樣的歌曲。 這是我們社會的傳統。 在我們的社會是正常的。 然而，有些基督徒會爭辯說，在教會裡只有關於我們的主和救世主誕生的歌曲是合適的，但不是每一個教會都是這樣的。
As a group of believers it
isn’t up to us to try to change these traditions. Believe me, they will
continue. They may even get worse at some time in the future. But, let’s not
get caught up in them to the exclusion of remembering the birth of Christ.
Let’s pause and be thankful for what God has provided us. Let’s praise him.
Let’s worship him. Let’s not forget. We don’t need to be kooks: we don’t need
to stand up on a soapbox and criticize, but in our hearts and minds let us not
forget. And, let us appreciate the fact that during this time of the year we
can hear our Lord being sung about on regular radio and on non-faith based
television. Some people resent it, but it is actually a beautiful thing. We hear
songs about jingling bells, sure, but we also hear songs about our Savior’s
birth. And, in other parts of the year we don't usually have that joy. The
Christmas songs that sing about our Lord’s birth are songs of praise, and songs
of worship. Let’s not focus on the distraction, let’s focus on the truth. Even
in the traditional Charlie Brown cartoon we get to hear Luke 2:11, which I
believe is a blessing:
作為一群信徒，這不由得我們試圖改變這些傳統。相信我，他們會繼續。在未來的某個時候，他們甚至可能會變得更糟。但是，讓我們不要陷入其中，忘記了基督的誕生。讓我們停頓一下，並感謝上帝為我們供應的一切。讓我們讚美祂。我們敬拜祂。我們不要忘記。我們不需要成為一個瘋子，我們不需要站在一個肥皂箱（站在高處）上批判，但在我們的心思意念中，讓我們不要忘記。而且，讓我們欣賞這樣一個事實：在這一年的這段時間裡，我們可以聽到我們的主在普通電台和非信仰電視上被頌唱出來。有些人憤憤不平，但實際上是一件很美的事情。我們聽到關於聖誕鈴聲的歌曲，當然，但我們也聽到有關我們的救主誕生的歌曲。而且，在一年中的其他時候，我們通常不會有這樣的喜樂，唱著我們主的誕生的聖誕歌曲是讚美的歌曲和敬拜的歌曲。我們不要關注在分心上，讓我們專注於真理。即使在傳統的查理布朗漫畫中，我們也能聽到路加福音2:11，我相信這是祝福：
11For unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12And this will
be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying
in a manger." 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"
11因今天在大衛的城裏，為你們生了救主，就是主基督。 12你們要看見一個嬰孩，包着布，臥在馬槽裏，那就是記號了。」 13忽然，有一大隊天兵同那天使讚美神說：
14在至高之處榮耀歸與神！在地上平安歸與他所喜悅的人 有古卷：喜悅歸與人
Even if other people do not,
let us keep Christ in Christmas. Merry Christmas everybody!
即使其他人沒有，讓我們 保留基督在聖誕節裏。 祝大家聖誕快樂！
The suggestion was made that
we might be able to sing some Christmas Carols together tonight. I believe that
there have been some songs prepared in both Chinese and English.
有人建議我們今晚可以一起唱聖誕報佳音的詩歌。 我相信有是預備了一些中英文的歌曲。
[After the music, we will
close in prayer.]
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