Christmas, The Story Of God

I hope you’ll join me next week (January 2, 2011) for our church’s time of worship. In place of the normal sermon, we’ll mix things up a bit and take questions from you. You can consult this week’s guide for the basic instructions on how things will play out. Let me give you some brief examples of the kind of questions some are asking:

“Do you have to be baptized to participate in the Lord’s Supper?”

“My friend has buried all three of her children & her husband. Why do godly people suffer so emotionally, mentally, and physically?”

“Why would it be important for the family to be members of a church?”

I’m really glad God came up with the idea of Christmas. But what did God have in mind when He created Christmas? What motivated Him to bring Christmas to us? When we think about Christmas, we normally turn to passages inside our Bibles that give us the story of Jesus’ birth. We want to hear about the angels, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the wise men. Yet, scattered throughout your New Testament are breadcrumbs, little statements of why Jesus came. Like Hansel and Gretel so long ago, these breadcrumbs tell you why Jesus came to earth that first Christmas. Now you have to look for these breadcrumbs – they’re not obvious at first. If we’re not careful, we’ll simply drive right by them.

So why did Jesus come, after all? Buried inside in our Bibles are God’s reasons for creating the first Christmas.

Today’s Scripture

"For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”

10 And again it is said,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

11 And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.”

12 And again Isaiah says,

“The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:8-13)

Christmas is the story of God.

Today’s Big Idea: God Designed Christmas for Fervent Worship Among All Peoples.

1. Christmas was a Long Time in Coming

Have you given much thought to how long God prepared for the first Christmas? Paul had given it a lot of thought. “For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs…” (Romans 15:8)

Paul records that Jesus Christ “became a servant.” Or, Christ became a man, the Incarnation. Paul records that Jesus did this so that the “circumcised” would see “God's truthfulness.” Or, Paul puts the same thought another way when he says the first (1st) Christmas occurred so that Jesus would “confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.” From the foundation of the world itself, the Godhead planned and plotted. God planned not only history’s first Christmas but the timeline of salvation itself.

And along the timeline of salvation, God made promises. What some people call the drama of redemption. Christmas took a long time in coming because God designed it for this reason. Just a quick look at any Bible will show that approximately two-thirds of the Bible is devoted to what happened before the birth of Jesus. Or to what we call the Old Testament. Like a young father waiting on the birth of a child in a nearby hospital, there was a lot of waiting going on for the birth of Jesus.

Allow me to walk you through a brief timeline of salvation history.

And while God oftentimes moves upon the timeline in slow and plodding ways, our brief survey will but show two Himalayan peaks that emerge from the pages of the Bible. What you need to know is that… The Trinity plotted and planned the first Christmas. God designed history to culminate in His Son’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Imagine watching a TV documentary where they offer a beautiful timeline across the bottom of your TV screen. We learn from the last book of the Bible that the death of Christ was no afterthought. Our timeline begins at the end of your Bible. In fact, it’s the last book of the Bible that tells us that Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). John confirms this as well where Jesus says (and I paraphrase), “No one takes my life from me. I have come to die” (John 10:18). Jesus Christ came to die.