A Gift From Eternity

Intro: In a "Peanuts" cartoon strip, good old Charlie Brown says to Linus, "Life is just too much for me. I’ve been confused from the day I was born. I think the whole trouble is that we’re thrown into life too fast. We’re not really prepared." Linus asks, "What did you want . . . a chance to warm up first?"

The Advent season is supposed to be our chance to warm up. The word Advent means to await – we await the coming of the King, Jesus Christ. It’s that time to prepare our hearts and homes for the birth of the Christ child. It’s that time when we put all the decorations in their place, the presents are bought and wrapped, the cards sent out and received, and we get ready for Christmas Day. But if we aren’t careful the time of preparation will be over and the big day will be here and it will be just another day. We’ll finish opening all the gifts; the room will be strewn with scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon; the turkey or ham will have put up a valiant fight but be nothing but leftovers; and we’ll be parked in front of the TV watching one of the games. Then all of a sudden, that empty feeling will hit us. That feeling of "What’s the use?" That Charlie Brown feeling of there is something missing, as if we were thrown into Christmas too fast. That is when we’ll realize we needed time to warm up.

There are in actuality, 2 advents. One has already happened when Christ was born 2000 years ago and the 2nd is awaiting for His return when we will all be changed and we will live eternally with Christ in Heaven. I want us to see how this first advent or warming up to Christ coming started In the beginning.

Too often, we have the tendency to think that the beginning of life for Christ was in Bethlehem as Mary gave birth to him. We need to learn that the whole earth, the whole kingdom was actually preparing for this birth from the very beginning. We must understand that Christ was reigning with the Father from the very beginning.

It is important to understand that we do not merely celebrate the birth of a child who would one day take away the sin of the world, but it is actually God Himself who awakens in that manger. He stepped out of eternity and into time in order that you may believe and have eternal life. His story begins in Gen 1.

I. God’s gift to you comes from Eternity (Gen 1:26).

This passage comes at the end of the creation account. Up to this point God has created light/dark, earth (water and land), sun, and stars. He has created birds, fish, and on the 6th day He creates creatures that walk on the ground and then He created man. God saw that all of this was good, in fact, for many He said it was Very Good. It was good because God does not make mistakes.

We make mistakes, but God does not. Sometimes, we get down on ourselves because we think we are useless. But that cannot be true because God created us, we were created in His image, and He does not make mistakes. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is when most suicides take place. This time of the year is when Christians celebrate the Birth of Christ. Unfortunately, many people see nothing but their depression and/or anger and the pressure keeps building and building until they see no hope.

This text is the first clue that tells that God has a gift for you that He has planned to give you since the beginning of creation! Let’s unwrap this passage.

To have the proper view of God, I must understand the Old Testament view of the Trinity.

A. Let us make man in our image. Have you ever noticed that use of the plural language in this text? God is not alone in the creation account. Who could He be talking to? It cannot be angles because we are not created in the image of angles; Angles are created beings. We are created in the image of God.

Some have said that this is a style of writing called the “plural of majesty.” This is where a king may say, “We are pleased to grant your request…” There are letters from Alexander the Great that use this style of writing. The problem with that thought is that there is no other Hebrew literature from this time frame written in that style. Alexander the Great dates from 125BC, which was long after the Genesis, account.

The answer is that the Triune God is involved with creation. For our look this morning, Christ is present in creation.