How To Prepare For Christmas Series

How to Prepare for Christmas

Series: Encountering Jesus (though the Gospel of Luke)

Brad Bailey - December 2, 2018

Intro…

I have always found energy and excitement in sharing God’s Word …but I’m especially excited today… because we are launching into multiple new seasons…which I will explain more in a bit.

One of the seasons we start today is the Christmas season: It’s as if a public address system announcement that we are now free to go into the hustle and bustle of the holidays… holiday shopping and holiday travel and holiday movies. And before I could too cliché or grinch-like… I love the season. But I find I miss what is most profound. I sense that it’s easier to enjoy the sentiment… but harder to take in the substance…easier to enjoy the warmth than the depth.

The deepest experience of Christmas lies in a quietness… quieter reflection…a waiting… anticipation.

I felt a sense of this, when this past Monday, as many may have seen…was a remarkable moment in our ventures to Mars.

The InSight Mission was the first interplanetary launch from the West coast… and was launched from nearby… Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5 (2018).

It was the first attempt to get a robotic arm and equipment that can explore the inner nature of the planet.

Remarkable… traveled for 6 months… 300 MILLION miles…

Over half of all ventures to mars do not make it. The nearly impossible element is getting the small craft to land in a thin atmosphere that begins with it hurling over

12,300 mph… it’s heat shield is reaching 2700’ F….and they must try and create ways to slow it down to 5 mph before its three legs touch down on Martian soil.

In this process…all communication stops…and this creates what is called the…

“7 minutes of terror”

As most of you know… the Insight landed successfully on Mar.

Amazing…

But today we stand before that which transcends the mere venture within space and time… for we prepare to consider the infinite God… beyond space and time…entering our world.

Contact from the creator…outside the dimension of time and space… I will send one… a savior of the people… a king above all earthly kingdoms. He would take away the consequences of sin… on him would the punishment fall…but he would be raised up.

And the prophet Malachi wrote…

Malachi 4:1, 5-6?"Surely the day is coming…5  "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6  He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."

God would come … and would send a prophet like the prophet Elijah …to prepare God’s people. And those are the last words ever recorded by the prophets.

Silence began….and it continued… year after year…for 400 years.

Like those 7 minutes of terror… the people were left staring… listening… if the silence was not broken… it’s all dead. But it was not seven minutes of terror…but 400 years of terror…of not knowing if there was any connection with the creator… of waiting in silence to hear God speak.

That is why the season leading to the celebration of Christmas has been called the Advent season.

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” it is a season of preparing to receive. [2] Advent…helps us prepare for Christmas by connecting with the reality of waiting… of silence.

And this is where the Gospels become the announcement that breaks the 400 years of terror…the moment the fulfilment comes. And today we are going to launch into…Gospel of Luke.

Today… launching ourselves into the Gospel of Luke.

We have chosen to title this long venture… Encountering Jesus through the Gospel of Luke…because at the center we are encountering Jesus.

• Excited to begin a long journey focused on Jesus

• Excited that we will have small groups starting in January that will be engaging this encounter… in a unique way.

So today… Let me offer a short intro to this Gospel…and then hear how God begins to pierce the silence.

The word “Gospel” simply means the Good News… more accurately the Great News… Breaking News.. and was used to speak of the message of salvation… but by the second century it was also used in reference to the accounts themselves…and the four which were recognized as having apostolic authority…that is… drawn from firsthand accounts.

These four being written by Matthew, a disciple who was a tax collector; John, the "Beloved Disciple" mentioned in the Fourth Gospel; Mark, the secretary of the disciple Peter; and Luke, the traveling companion of Paul.

SO let me begin with an introduction of the Gospel of Luke. Luke begins…