CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS
INTRODUCTION: Like the carol says, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go." It's that time of year again. We've transitioned from Thanksgiving to Christmas; or if you're in retail you transition from Halloween to Christmas.
But now is the time for preparations to be made. You decorate, you get the tree out of the shed, or the woods-whichever you prefer. You make your shopping list and then put on your helmet and pads and head to the mall. You go to the grocery store and get the items for that extra special Christmas dinner and all the yummy desserts.
Some of us make travel plans and we make sure everything is packed and ready to go. Plans and preparations for Christmas-we all do it. Well, God was no different. He also made preparations for that first Christmas.
1) Preparation through prophecy.
Some people wait until the last minute to do their preparations. They're the ones going to the store on Christmas Eve to look for cards or presents. Then there are those who start planning on December 26th for the following Christmas. Not that it's a bad idea-a lot of things like wrapping paper are marked down and you can get a lot of bargains that way. You can get that marked down fruit cake and save it for next year.
God started planning early too. Of course sending Jesus was the plan from the very beginning. And we see that God started revealing the coming of Jesus right from the very beginning. After Adam and Eve sinned, God meted out his punishments. When he addressed the serpent (Satan) he said this in
Genesis 3:15, "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."
Here is the first prophecy pertaining to Jesus. You might be thinking, 'what's this got to do with Jesus?' First we see that there would be ongoing hatred and hostility between mankind and Satan. Just as Adam and Eve's choice through Satan's tempting made a mess of things, from then on we would see the dynamic between Satan and man. Satan hates God and in turn he hates us because Satan hates what God loves. So Satan's purpose is to always get man to go against God.
Then we get to the second part of that verse-'he will crush your head and you will strike his heel'. Notice the 'he' in this-he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. And notice that God is referencing only Eve here-'the seed of the woman'. Jesus was born of a virgin. There was no "Adam" in the sense of a human counterpart to the birth of Jesus. Jesus is the offspring that was sent to crush the head of Satan by triumphing over evil at the cross. Satan may have struck his heel when he was crucified but Jesus got the victory when he resurrected; he crushed the head of the serpent.
Col. 2:15, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
From the beginning God wanted to communicate that there would come a time when the damage that Satan caused would be rectified and the hostility between man and God because of sin would be wiped out through Christ. The power of sin and death would be crushed by Jesus. That was the hope of mankind. That's why he came. 1st John 3:8 says the reason Jesus came was to destroy the devil's work. Jesus came was to destroy what Satan was doing.
Satan tempted Eve and he knew that would trap Adam and they disobeyed God. And that ushered in the need for Jesus to come and destroy Satan's work. So we see God revealing his plan from the beginning for Jesus to come into the world.
And from there on you will see multiple prophecies pertaining to the coming of Jesus. Micah 5:2 states that the ruler of God's people would be born in Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem (Mt. 2:1).
When Herod sent out the decree to kill all male babies two-years-old and under Matt. 2:13 says that an angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt. Matthew connects this to the fulfillment of Hosea 11:1 when God said, 'out of Egypt I called my son'.
In Matt. 21 when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey verses 4-5 highlight the fulfillment of Zech. 9:9 which talks about Zion's king coming to you riding on a donkey.
The book of Isaiah has a lot of prophecies about Jesus. Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." I don't see how much clearer a sign you can get. Chapter 53 very clearly depicts the suffering Jesus would go through for us.
There are actually hundreds of prophecies pertaining to the coming Messiah throughout the OT and all of them were fulfilled in Jesus. Peter Stoner calculated that the probability for one person to fulfill just eight of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power.
That's equivalent to filling the entire state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep and then marking one with an 'X', mixing it in with all the others and then having someone who's been blindfolded be able to reach in and pull it out.
That's how improbable it is and yet Jesus didn't fulfill eight prophecies; he fulfilled them all. There was no coincidences, there was no dumb luck, there was no manipulating events to produce fulfillment (besides, how could he be able to do that concerning when and where he would be born). No, it all points to the fact that only one conclusion can be drawn-Jesus is the Messiah.
Peter tried to put it all together in Acts 3:17-24, “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’ “Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days.”
Peter saturated his discourse with confirmations from the OT to show that Jesus is legit. God used Peter to explain how from the very beginning the preparations were made for the coming of Jesus.
2) Preparation through anticipation.
Part of God's preparations for Christmas included anticipation for its arrival. We get more excited about something the more we're looking forward to it. When I was a kid, we had this special 'countdown to Christmas' December calendar.
My mom would place a cotton ball on each of the days leading up to December 25th. Each day my brother and I would take turns pulling off a cotton ball. As you can imagine, the process built up our excitement as the day grew closer. Mom was preparing us for Christmas through joyful anticipation.
God did that too. In Deut. 18:15, God spoke through Moses a prophecy concerning Jesus. "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him." And so, from there on the Jews had been looking for this Prophet. Yes, there had been many prophets since Moses but the Jews knew that this meant a special prophet was coming; the prophet.
John the Baptist was asked if he was this long-awaited Prophet, which of course he answered no. When Jesus was starting his ministry, people were putting the prophecy pieces together and their anticipation was fulfilled. In John 6, after Jesus fed the 5,000+, the people took notice and drew a conclusion.
Vs. 14, "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, 'Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world'." They saw that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Deut. 18 but they misunderstood the purpose behind it. Vs. 15, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself."
Though the arrival of Jesus was anticipated, it wasn't truly understood for what it was. There was enough there to understand it but the people were confused.
John 7:25-27, "At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
Not true. Micah 5:2 mentions a ruler who will come from Bethlehem who will shepherd Israel.
Vs. 37-44, "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said [Isaiah 58:11], streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him."
So Jesus was communicating that he was the fulfillment of prophecy and that their eager anticipation was over but they were not able to embrace it because of their confusion. They didn't realize that their statements were true without being contradicting. Jesus is the Prophet and he is the Christ. He came from the line of David and he came from Bethlehem, even though he was in Galilee later on.
A big part of the confusion problem lay with the ones who were supposed to have seen it clearly and confirmed with the people that the anticipated Messiah was here. The religious leaders, who supposedly knew the prophetic scriptures were responsible to recognize, confirm and communicate to the people but instead, because they despised Jesus, they confused them to where they weren't exactly sure what to think.
Vs. 45-52, " Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
The religious leaders were wrong because the prophet Jonah came from Galilee. But that's just it-their hatred toward Jesus allowed them to miss the obvious. God had been preparing the people for the arrival of Jesus and the people, including the religious leaders, were waiting in eager anticipation for their deliverer to come.
But when Jesus did come he wasn't the militaristic deliverer they were expecting. And since a lot of the events surrounding Jesus' life-from his birth in a stable, to the announcement coming to shepherds instead of religious leaders, to Jesus' desire to associate with 'sinners', along with him going after the religious leaders for their injustices all caused them to question Jesus' authenticity as the Messiah.
Their pride kept them anticipating instead of being able to enjoy the fulfillment of their anticipations. They were looking but they missed it when it was right in front of them. It's still true for most of the Jews today. Not only them, but so many others in the world are confused and missing it.
In reality, everyone is looking for Jesus although they don't realize it. They're looking for the answers to their unhappiness, loneliness and despair but they're looking in all the wrong places. They have failed to check the only places where fulfillment is found-the manger and the cross.
The world is in hopeful anticipation to find what will truly fill the void in their lives. The fulfillment has come and it's up to us who have found it, who aren't confused any longer as to what it is, where it is, and who it is to reveal it to them.
3) Preparation through patience.
I'm sure when you were a kid Christmas couldn't get here fast enough, right? Knowing there were presents that you had to be patient to unwrap was agonizing. I remember one year I chose not to deprive myself any longer and I unwrapped a present I had badly wanted. It was an electric guitar and so it wasn't too hard to figure out which one it was. And I thought I was going to be able to wrap it back up and my parents would be none the wiser. Apparently my wrapping skills were not as refined as my mom's and the jig was up.
It wasn't easy to be patient, I didn't like having to wait for the fulfillment of my anticipation. The Jews felt the same way. The prophecies concerning Jesus continued to come but generation after generation came and went and still no Messiah.
And then, as if the long wait wasn't agonizing enough, that was followed up with 400 years of silence. No more prophecies; just waiting. I'm sure the Jews were wondering what was taking so long and we might wonder as well, 'why didn't God send Jesus sooner'? It's hard enough to be patient for Christmas and we know when it's coming but how much more agonizing is it to wait for something when you don't know when it's coming? You wonder, 'will it be today'?
Although it may have seemed unfair to make the world wait so long for the coming of Jesus, the reality is, God's timing is perfect. Gal. 4:4, "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights as sons."
Things had to take place first to set the stage for the arrival of Jesus. Obviously prophecy had timing that needed to be adhered to in order to be properly fulfilled. Things were happening politically that played a role in the right timing. It all might not make that much sense to us but God understood and that's all that mattered.
But we have to wait for Jesus' arrival too; not his first one, but his next one. That's the next great event in history-the return of Jesus. We might not understand why we've had to wait so long for Jesus to come back but we need to understand that it's all in God's perfect timing.
2nd Pet 3:8-9, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
The Lord is patient, waiting for that last one who is to be saved before he returns. We can be more patient as we have the mindset of God knowing that the longer he delays in coming back the more opportunities people have to be saved.
And, we know that a watched pot never boils, so, another good way for us to be patient is to be busy doing the Lord's work until he returns. Time flies when you have plenty to do. Jesus' first coming was in God's perfect timing and the next one will be too. The Jews had to be patient then and we have to be patient now. But the wait will make Jesus' return that much sweeter when it happens.
4)Preparation through preparation.
God was giving his people messages through his prophets about the promised Messiah. He was laying out all the prophecies along the way to their culmination when Jesus was born. They would all serve as proofs to support the validity of Jesus as the long-awaited Savior. This was God's way of preparing for Christmas.
We can do the same thing. We have the opportunity to prepare people for Christmas. God prepares us to be able to prepare others. We can drop little messages like responding with Merry Christmas when someone says Happy Holidays. We can do research on popular Christmas subjects and then take opportunities to talk about them.
Take for instance the legend of the Poinsettia. There was once a poor boy in Mexico who had nothing to give the Christ-child on his birthday. So, he gathered some weeds into a lovely bouquet and went and offered the only gift he had. When he brought his thoughtful gift to the manger these simple weeds were transformed into a brilliant red bloom. And thus, the poinsettia was born. The poinsettia became known as the "flower of the holy night".
Whether the legend is true or not people will still find it interesting. But then we can take that and use it to talk about the transformation that Jesus is able to produce in us. He has the ability to take us "weeds" and transform us into beautiful flowers-if we are willing to present ourselves to him like the Mexican boy did when he went to the manger.
It's stories like these that can give us the opportunity to prepare people for Christmas. We can help people's anticipation for Christmas to be about more than just presents and family gatherings. These things are enjoyable but they still miss the mark on what the true meaning of Christmas is.
When Charlie Brown's frustrated voice rang out, asking if anyone knew what Christmas was all about, Linus stepped in and gave the answer. By pointing people to the birth of Christ, Linus was prepared to prepare people for Christmas.
1st Pet. 3:15, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." We need to always be prepared so we can help to prepare others for Christ.
