Christmas with Spurgeon

Exactly 166 years ago this week, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon about the child who was born a King. On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols explores the rich insights of Spurgeon’s Christmas sermon.

Well, it's Christmas this week. So here at 5 Minutes in Church History, let's talk about Christmas and let's spend Christmas with one of our favorites, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Back for Christmas of 1855, to be exact on December 23rd, 1855, Spurgeon preached a Christmas sermon on Micah 5:2. So, tomorrow will be the 166th anniversary of this sermon. Early in the sermon, Spurgeon says "Christmas day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us assemble around the family hearth and meet our friends once more." Well, let's hear what our friend Spurgeon has to say about Christmas.

Toward the end of the sermon, he writes,

"A very singular thing is this, that Jesus Christ was said to have been ‘born the king of the Jews.’ Very few have ever been ‘born king.’ Men are born princes, but they are seldom born kings. I do not think you can find an instance in history where any infant was born king. He was the Prince of Wales, perhaps, and he had to wait a number of years, till his father died, and they manufactured him into a king, by putting a crown on his head; and a sacred chrism, and other silly things; but he was not born a king. I remember no one who was born a king except Jesus; and there is emphatic meaning in that verse we sing,

 ‘Born thy people to deliver; born a child, and yet a king.’

The moment that he came on earth he was a king. He did not wait till his majority that he might take his empire; but as soon as his eye greeted the sunshine he was a king; from the moment that his little hands grasped anything, they grasped a scepter, as soon as his pulse beat, and his blood began to flow, his heart beat royally, and his pulse beat an imperial measure, and his blood flowed in a kingly current. He was born a king."

And then Spurgeon says,

"But one says, 'I have professed his religion, and I am his follower.' But does he rule in your heart? Does he command your will? Does he guide your judgment? Do you ever seek counsel at his hand and in your difficulties? Are you desirous to honor him, and to put crowns upon his heart? Is he your ruler? If so, then you are one of Israel; for it is written, 'He shall come to be ruler in Israel.' Blessed Lord Jesus! you are ruler in your people's hearts, and you ever shall be; we want no other ruler save you, and we will submit to none other. We are free, because we are the servants of Christ; we are at liberty, because he is our ruler, and we know no bondage and no slavery, because Jesus Christ alone is monarch of our hearts."

Well, as Spurgeon brings this sermon to a close, he says something directly to Christ Himself. He says,

"Sweet Lord Jesus! you whose goings forth were of old, even from everlasting, you have not left your goings forth yet. Oh! that you would go forth this day, to cheer the faint, to help the weary, to bind up our wounds, to comfort our distresses! Go forth, we beseech you, to conquer sinners, to subdue hard hearts, to break the iron gates of sinners' lusts, and cut the iron bars of their sins in pieces! Oh, Jesus, go forth."

And then, in the final words of his sermon, Spurgeon turns to us, his congregation, and he says to trust him; trust this one who was born a king: “Trust him, trust him, trust him; and he will go forth to abide in your heart for ever." Well, that was Charles Haddon Spurgeon and a sermon from December 23, 1855. And I'm Steve Nichols, and I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.