Intro: Do you remember the Looney Tunes cartoon with Wile E Coyote aka Ralf E Wolf and Sam the Sheepdog. Wile E is always planning and scheming to capture and eat the sheep. Wile E seems to always have the best plans, like the time he lulled Sam to sleep with sleep dog sleep music. But int the end Sam’s plan to win the sheep always succeeds. Sam’s plans were never in response to Wile E instead they were planned before Wile E ever set out to steal the sheep.
God’s plan for Christmas was not God’s plan B or a response to the disobedience of man. We have to be careful when we tell the Christmas story that we make it clear that the birth of Jesus was not the beginning of the plan!
Ephesians 1:3 – 4 “Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. 4 For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love”
Revelation 13:8 “All those who live on the earth will worship him (anti-Christ, beast), everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.”
God’s had his plan for Christmas together long before the silent night Jesus was born. Away in a manger was not a knee jerk response it was a well thought out and prepared plan.
Last week we saw God is a promise making and keeping God. This week we are going to look at His plan of salvation that was climaxed in Christmas and Calvary.
I. The precise nature of the plan
The Plan – “Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David.” Luke 2:11
A) Jesus was sent at a specific time – (Today)
Today. It was a specific time that Jesus came. Daniel 9:24-27 even tell us that He would be crucified at April 6, 32AD. The star that the wise men saw. The census that was decreed by Caesar Augustus. God planned to the millisecond the time Jesus would come and fulfill the prophecies of Scripture. Galatians 4:4 tells us in the fullness of time Christ came. When it was time for the plan of Christmas the plan of salvation to be complete Jesus came!!
Listen this we should learn. God always has perfect timing for us!
B) Jesus was sent to a specific place (“was born for you in the city of David”)
Micah 5:2 tells us that the messiah will come to Bethlehem. Jesus the bread of life was born in the house of bread.
Truth God knows where you need to be and He will meet you to complete His plan for you!
C) Jesus was sent for a specific purpose
Acts 2:23-24 “Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him
Galatians 4:5 tell us,
“to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
The word redeem means to pay a ransom to secure somebody’s freedom. God however, went above and beyond that. He freed us from slavery to sin and then adopted us. We are heirs to all of God’s creation!!
Susannah Wesley defined “sin” to her young son, John Wesley declaring...
“If you would judge of the lawfulness or the unlawfulness of pleasure, then take this simple rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, and takes off the relish of spiritual things—that to you is sin.”
In freeing and adopting us and fulfilling the plan and purpose for Christmas God went above and beyond. God is waiting to go above and beyond for you!
II. The personal working of the plan (“was born for you”)
His plan wasn’t just to rescue us from the punishment of sin it was to release us from the controlling power of sin. Christmas didn’t just usher in the savior it also gave us a clear look at our Sovereign Lord.
A) His plan to change us (It begins with adoption it ends with transformation (glorification))
1) His plan is to change what we look at (Keep your eyes on Jesus)
Again and again we are encouraged to look to Jesus to change our perspective.
Psalm 121:1 “I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Psalm 123:1-2 “I lift my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven. 2 Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand, like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand, so our eyes are on the Lord our God until He shows us favor.”
Hebrews 12:2 “keeping our eyes on Jesus,[a] the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him[c] endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.
2) His plan is to change what we think about
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.”
3) His plan is to change the way we see the world
The issues we face today can be totally transformed if we allow scripture to change the way we view the world. Abortion, homosexual marriage, money, fornication, adultery, over eating, overworking, addiction and on and on.
4) His plan is to change the way we respond to others
Love God and love others.
B) His plan to call us
Hudson Taylor had definite convictions about how God's work should be done. We can make our best plans and try to carry them out in our own strength. Or we can make careful plans and ask God to bless them. "Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes."
We were never designed to be sponges that sit, soak and sour. We weren’t designed to be containers but conduits of God’s plan of grace for everyone.
Conclusion: God doesn’t give us a roadmap he offers a relationship. We are getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ birthday why is it that we always get the gifts?
Here is an encouragement from Psalm 138:8 “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Lord, Your love is eternal; do not abandon the work of Your hands.”
