On the eve of something.
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORDGod among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Luke 2:1-20 NIV
The Birth of Jesus
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
A tale of two Eves.
At the dawn of time as God has revealed Eve and her husband Adam walked in perfection truth and with an absolute seamless relationship with God. Eve woman of God – the woman who had everything – security – everything any human being could want. Eve in Hebrew is ?awwah, meaning "living one" or "source of life".
Loved by God and respected by her husband – Eve with an eternal relationship with God. There was only one thing she had to be careful of – avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil other than that. She could have what she wanted and do what she pleases.
But eve seduced by the snake and dependent on her own good will and like a shopoholic in at a sale rushes for the devils bargain basement deal not realising that death will follow.
Can’t resist the bargain!
She is drawn to the one thing in all the world she could not have – to take that one thing would be to rebel against God to leave it there would be, to her a crying shame. End result tragedy.
While Shepherds watched their flocks at night at a different eve – not a person but a time – at night
Shepherds watched their flocks at night. What happened all those years ago through eve was already being reversed – as night time hovered over Bethlehem.
The first thing I wanted to draw out about this day is it replants hope that hope makes a difference in how you live and what you do. Christians have one reason for hope and that hope is located in a manger and Shepherds found it
The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city's hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child's name and room number and talked briefly with the child's regular class teacher. "We're studying nouns and adverbs in his class now," the regular teacher said, "and I'd be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn't fall too far behind."
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, "I've been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs." When she left she felt she hadn't accomplished much.
But the next day, a nurse asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. "No, no," said the nurse. "You don't know what I mean. We've been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He's fighting back, responding to treatment. It's as though he's decided to live."
Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn't send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"
We also need hope and -It occurred to me, that in the Christian church our lives are likely to be determined by what or whom we have put our hope and our faith in.
There come moments where our faith is tested and tried and it is out of such great moments in our lives that our faith and therefore our lives are defined.
It is out of such moments, also, that boundaries and limits to our faith are draw. Sometimes in the life of someone who has stood for decades for Christ, they may feel they have not made great inroads, but the satellite picture of their lives reveals the word faith spelt out around them.
In the 2nd Century A.D a young Berber woman of Carthage found herself torn between Motherhood and belief. With Christianity outlawed by Roman rule, she refused to renounce her religion and along with five others preparing for Baptism was condemned to death by the sword. While imprisoned, Vivia Perpetua began a diary, in which she recorded her relinquishing of her infant through the cell bars, the ultimate sacrifice for her faith.
In Romans chapter one we look at the verse that has been said to be the key verse to the whole book.
What is it?
17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, And hope tracks back to the day that God’s son was born and was placed in a manger and history depite her efforts has failed to suppress it.
As I previously said let us hold fast to the word of God in hope.
Col 1:23
Tools
If only you remain true to your Faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the Good News to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
G. K. Chesterton, Quoted in Signs of the Times, April 1993, p. 6
Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength
The first Eve and Adam ushered in hopelessness and Christmas eve ushers in hope and all the hope in the old Testament is based on what Jesus will achieve it says in
Psalm 3
2 Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”
3 But you, LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4 I call out to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy mountain.
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.it comes out of hope that will emerge in the future –
None of that comes out of Eve nor Adam it will comes out despite them and emerges on the eve of Jesus birth. Paul describes as the new adam
"The first man Adam became a living being" the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45-48).
One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone. Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."
Halford E. Luccock, Unfinished Business.
Hope is certain is the message of Christmas Eve.
Secondly – We learn that there is no plan B.
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Eve thought she knew better. So did so many other people in history.
A woman writing in the paper recently on euthanasia commented – We are all entitled to our own opinion – but with God it is his opinion that really counts. It was Eve’s opinion influenced by the devil that bought death into the world.
Matthew chapter 11 verse 3 2Meanwhile, John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent two of his disciples 3to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?” 4Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:…
The Shepherds were given no alternative destination – the manger was their destination, the manger ultimately led to the cross and we have to come to God through the cross and have to pick up our cross and follow Jesus.
The devil would want to suggest that we don’t have to do certain things that God has called us to do and would encourage us to not to get too excited about what God says. The biggest growth inhibiter for Christianity today is the dilution of the call of God and the message of God, not by the world but by Christians.
Never water down a glass of coca cola and never water down the word of God
Eve did and bought down hell on earth – every war that ever was and every horrible thing that is knitted into history tracks back to that one decisive moment when Eve dared to listen to – “Did God say.”
Hebrews 3:14
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, - Hold fast in hope.
Over the last centuries there have been a number of plan “b’s” held out to the world. Some of these have been Communisim, Nazi’sm. Moslem – is, Atheism and Capitalism – each one has failed to produce life and death nd destruction have inevitably followed.
There is no plan b.
Capatalism certainly doesn’t work – Howard Hughes one of the 20th centuries most famous Billionaires had it all - He produced many successful movies, set air-speed records with his ever more advanced aircraft and developed a reputation
For romance with famous actresses.
But the billionaire spent the final decades of his life as an increasingly agoraphobic recluse, fueled in large part by obsessive compulsive disorder and chronic pain caused by a near-fatal airplane wreck in the mid-40s Despite his wealth a movie on his life shows him bedridden and disheveled in an Acapulco hotel, his appearance is indeed drawn from the real Hughes’ regular refusal to trim his hair or fingernails.
Plan B didn’t work for Hughes – Nor for Stalin, Hitler or Mussolini all who are despised in their own countries.
Jesus once said – John chapter 14 and verse 6 ” 6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Thirdly – Give glory to God.
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Giving Glory to God is life changing – the Angels did it and it is deeply embedded in Church history.
In fact tracking back to the reformation in England:- The Westminster divines had profound insight into God’s Word when they wrote the first question and answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “What is the chief end of man?” Answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” If we could just get that fixed in our minds and live each day in line with it, God would use us to accomplish His purpose and we would be greatly blessed. It is a statement that should govern my thought life and all my behavior: Does this glorify God? In simple terms, to glorify God is to make Him look good, as He truly is. It is to display, as much as we are able, His perfect attributes, His moral excellence, and His infinite greatness and worth.
Think how much happier our marriages would be if we only stopped to think, “Will my words, attitudes, and actions toward my mate, glorify God?” If not, I shouldn’t do it, even though I might feel like doing it. The same applies to our relationships with our children and with all people. If I’m not demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, then I’m not glorifying God and I shouldn’t act that way. If I’m disobeying God’s Word, then I’m sinning and not glorifying Him. It’s an overarching principle to govern all of life: Live so as to glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31). Psalm 115 is not comprehensive, but as far as it goes, it tells us how to live that way:
(Steve Cole)
We are on the Eve of Christmas – These three things will help us celebrate it well.
Take Hope – God has your future in His hands
Understand that there is no Plan B – Don’t be distracted by other plans
Thirdly Give God to Glory and live your life glorifying god.
