Getting Ready For The Big Day Pt 1 The Announcement Series

Matt 1:18-25, Luke 1:26-45

This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. Hebrews 2:3

The Big Day

I want to spend the run up to Christmas talking about “Getting Ready for the Big Day.” The 25th of December will come and go just like any other day. It has 24 hours, or 1440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. It is a Big Day for most people because of the commercial and media’s hijacking of Christmas.

Despite the significance the Christian world attached to 25th December, most Christians will spend 99% of this day sleeping, eating, drinking, watching T.V, playing with their gifts and maybe fighting.

Now before I begin to sound like “Humbug” or a “kill joy,” the Bible tells us “God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” If you want to wait until the Big Day, then so be it. I hope and pray you have a great day on the 25th, doing whatever you enjoy.

1Tim 617Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

The Greatest Day

We have all had great days in our lives. To date, I have had four great days: the day I was married, the day my children came into my world, but the greatest day of my life, which is the foundation for all the other great days, was the 29th March 1979 when Jesus became my Lord and Saviour.

However, these great days in my life are a result of the Big Day or the Greatest Day in human history, which is the Day that God send His Son Jesus into the world to be our Saviour from Sin and Satan. (John 3:16)

The Great Days in my life were preceded with an announcement, “I am going to be married on the 18th of July 1987,” and “I am going to be a Dad.” My announcements were about events that would bring great joy to Lizzie and I.

God’s announcement was about an event that would bring great joy to all those who received God’s salvation through faith in His Son Jesus.

God’s first announcement, that He had a solution to Sin and Satan, came in the Garden of Eden, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Genesis 3:15

The Old Testament makes many pronouncements about Jesus: He would come from the seed of Abraham, He would be a Prophet, a Teacher, a Ruler, a King, He would suffer and die, He would be born in Bethlehem. (Many more of these pronouncements and their fulfilment in the New Testament can be view at the end of these notes.)

The Response

What matters most when God makes an announcement is the Response. God, I am sure, has said many things to you in your spiritual journey. What makes God’s promises, callings or correction effective in our lives is our response.

For many, God’s announcements are in one ear and out the other. For some it’s like looking in the mirror and forgetting what they look like instantly, and for some God’s announcements are life changing. James 1:22-24

When the Angel announced to Mary, and then Joseph, what was going to happen their responses were similar.

1. Fear and Confusion was their natural response, as would be our response if an angel appeared and said, “you are going to have a baby without any sexual intercourse.”

This announcement was, and continues to be, an interruption in the natural order of events. You get married, and then you have sex and make babies and not the reverse, which Satan has promoted as normal.

God’s announcements in our lives: to be, to do, to go, to stay, to change, to speak, to give - whatever they may be, will be an interruption in the order of our world. We all like the security of routine, the comfort of knowing what is going to happen next. No one enjoys uncertainty. God interrupted Noah’s world, Joseph’s world, Jonah’s world and the personal worlds’of the disciples, so it most likely God will disturb our worlds if he has an announcement to make.

When God interrupts and disturbs our personal world, as he did for Mary and Joseph, fear and confusion will arise in our hearts, asking, “is this God? Is this possible?”

Sometimes, shocking news can fill us with fear and confusion, leading us to ask “where is God? Why doesn’t God help?”