Seven Surprises of the First Christmas

Ten years in the past at the moment was the beginning of our first daughter. We discuss her being our Introduction child, with the title Gloria. We thought November 21 wasn’t too early to begin looking forward to Introduction and Christmas.

I do know we’re every week from Thanksgiving, however wouldn’t it be okay if I talked about Introduction this morning? Kool 108 is already enjoying Christmas music. For weeks, the shops have been embellished for Christmas. Our society isn’t any stranger to doing Christmas early — as a result of it’s the primary shopper vacation of the yr, in fact. We’d do Christmas from November 1 till December 25, however what we don’t do effectively is Introduction.

Introduction is a tremendous alternative for brand new habits. I hear {that a} important facet of this program is constructing new habits. We’re, by nature, creatures of behavior. That is not the product of the autumn; that is God’s good design. Good habits assist us flourish each in our exterior lives and in our interior particular person.

In fact, sin performs havoc with the behavior characteristic of our humanity. So, an essential a part of redemption and sensible holiness, by the ability of the gospel and God’s Spirit, is the creation, over time, of recent habits — habits of holiness and fellowship, each day habits of listening to God’s voice in his phrase and having God’s ear in prayer, and weekly habits of belonging to, and gathering with, his physique in worship and upbuilding.

Annual Habits

Habits, nevertheless, will not be simply each day and weekly but additionally annual. God made seasons. And he made us to really feel one thing deep down in these first days of spring, within the hottest days of summer season, within the coziness of fall, and within the first snow-fly of winter.

For Christians, we’ve got lengthy linked the month of December with the beginning of our Savior and anticipated one in all our two highest feast days with basically a month of anticipation known as “Introduction.” Adventus is Latin for “arrival.” The arrival we watch for is Jesus’s arrival.

An essential a part of this season usually missed at the moment is that Introduction is a season of ready. Every year, in our month of ready to mark the arrival of God himself in human flesh, we bear in mind the folks of God who waited centuries — centuries! — for the approaching of the promised Messiah to rescue them.

We now reside within the period of the Messiah. Christ has come because the climax of historical past and proven us the Father and his grace for sinners. It’s good for us, although, to rehearse the affected person ready and anticipation of God’s historical folks to resume and deepen our appreciation of what we now have in him.

Introduction Will Change You

God’s good and highly effective present of behavior teaches us an essential fact for the Introduction season: holidays and feasts not solely fill our mouths with laughter, and bellies with meals, however form our souls, for good or in poor health. They type and re-form our hearts.

This Introduction will change you. You’ll not be the identical afterward. You’ll be the higher for it, or the more severe. You’ll be extra like Scrooge, or extra just like the shepherds who worshiped. Will you be nearer to Christ come December 25, or additional away? Will you be hotter towards him, or colder?

And also you gained’t take advantage of Introduction very effectively in case you don’t plan forward a bit of bit. So, right here I’m, on November 21, one week earlier than Thanksgiving and ten days earlier than Introduction begins, that I’d problem you to take advantage of this Introduction, beginning subsequent Sunday, December 1.

Primarily, what I wish to do that morning is provide you with a foretaste of the form of glories we like to commemorate throughout Introduction and stir your soul to hunt extra of the identical this Introduction. I wish to problem you to strive one thing. Learn a brief each day devotional. Or work your means slowly by the primary chapters of Matthew and Luke, or the primary chapter of John. Do one thing spiritually to take advantage of the season.

Seven Surprises

To whet your religious urge for food for Introduction, and the form of glories you’ll be in search of, let me rehearse seven surprises of that first Christmas — seven surprising methods of God by which he despatched his Son.

1. How Lengthy God Waited

God made the world, and its historical past, to make his Son its hero. As quickly because the sin and fall of Adam and Eve, God mentioned to the serpent,

I’ll put enmity between you and the lady,
     and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
     and also you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

From the start, God promised an offspring who, whereas bruising his heel, would bruise the top of the serpent. And oh what endurance God has in unfolding his plan! 1000’s of years later, and nonetheless a thousand years earlier than Jesus got here, God promised King David a descendant whose reign would final endlessly (2 Samuel 7:12–14).

Then three centuries later, nonetheless seven hundred years earlier than Christ, got here the well-known Isaiah prophecies we like to quote throughout Introduction, like Isaiah 9:6:

To us a toddler is born,
     to us a son is given;
and the federal government shall be upon his shoulder,
     and his title shall be known as
Great Counselor, Mighty God,
     Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

And Isaiah’s modern, Micah, nonetheless seven hundred years earlier than Jesus, prophesied,

You, O Bethlehem . . . ,
     who’re too little to be among the many clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
     one who’s to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of previous,
     from historical days. (Micah 5:2)

Then, three centuries later, a prophet named Malachi spoke God’s remaining phrases of anticipation:

Behold [there will be a lot of beholds in the Christmas story, because there are so many surprises], I ship my messenger, and he’ll put together the best way earlier than me. And the Lord whom you search will out of the blue come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he’s coming, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:1)

Then God’s folks would wait one other 4 hundred years. Oh the stunning endurance of God! How he deliberate and waited, and prophesied and waited, and “when the fullness of time had come, God despatched forth his Son, born of lady” (Galatians 4:4).

And all that affected person ready instructed the world, and ready his folks, for the way momentous a coming this was.

2. The Virgin Mom

There was an obscure prophetic episode within the days of Isaiah a few younger maiden who would give beginning to a toddler whose coming would sign that God would ship his folks from their enemies on the time. Isaiah 7:14:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name his title Immanuel.

However seven hundred years later, this prophecy involves an surprising, better success when not only a maiden however an single maiden, an precise virgin, conceives and bears a son.

“God made the world, and its historical past, to make his Son its hero.”

The ancients weren’t idiots. They knew how infants had been conceived. They knew infants weren’t conceived and not using a father. And but, on this spectacular circumstance, distinctive within the historical past of the world — to make plain how distinctive was the approaching of this child — an single maiden and virgin named Mary turned pregnant by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, as introduced by the angel Gabriel to her:

The Holy Spirit will encounter you, and the ability of the Most Excessive will overshadow you; due to this fact the kid to be born will probably be known as holy — the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

And so, the everlasting Phrase, the second particular person of the Godhead, the divine Son, turned flesh and dwelled amongst us by a miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in a virgin named Mary.

3. The Backwater Hometown

When that angel appeared to Mary, we’re instructed in Luke 1:26:

Within the sixth month the angel Gabriel was despatched from God to a metropolis of Galilee named Nazareth.

Then, in Luke 2:4–5, it says,

Joseph . . . went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to town of David, which is named Bethlehem, as a result of he was of the home and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with little one.

After the beginning in Bethlehem, after which fleeing to Egypt to keep away from Herod’s try and slaughter the infants, Mary and Joseph moved again to Nazareth, the place they had been from, and raised Jesus there, within the backwater.

So, he’s identified all through his life as “Jesus of Nazareth,” which isn’t an honorable title. It’s a slur, a means of claiming he’s a no person from nowhere. He’s a bumpkin from the boonies. “Can something good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Few, if any, exterior Israel had even heard of it.

We’d anticipate Messiah to come up from the palace in Jerusalem, or not less than from David’s hometown, Bethlehem, with its regal status, and with Micah’s prophecy. And Jesus was born in Bethlehem. However he wasn’t raised there. He was not Jesus of Jerusalem, and even Jesus of Bethlehem, however Jesus of Nazareth. And such an undignified upbringing surprises us.

4. The Worldwide Census

That is a tremendous element of the Christmas story: God moved the hand of Rome for Jesus’s beginning. He had promised a Messiah to David and from David, and so, not less than figuratively, from Bethlehem. However Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. So how would possibly God get them there, that the kid is perhaps born within the metropolis of David? How a few worldwide census ordered by the emperor of Rome himself? Luke 2:1–3:

In these days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that every one the world must be registered. . . . And all went to be registered, every to his personal city.

God moved the identified world to get the unknown virgin from lowly Nazareth to regal Bethlehem, and at simply the precise time, to meet Micah’s prophecy in a stunning, literal means.

5. The Blue-Collar Guests

That’s, these had been humble, uncouth shepherds — the usually disrespected, blue-collar employees of the day. These will not be dignitaries. This isn’t the mayor of Bethlehem, and even the native Levites, or anybody from close by Jerusalem, whether or not clergymen, Pharisees, Sadducees, or Herod himself. You recognize the story. Luke 2:8–12:

In the identical area there have been shepherds out within the subject, preserving watch over their flock by evening [working the night shift]. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round them, they usually had been stuffed with nice worry. And the angel mentioned to them, “Concern not, for behold, I deliver you excellent news of nice pleasure that will probably be for all of the folks. For unto you is born today within the metropolis of David a Savior, who’s Christ the Lord. And this will probably be an indication for you: you will see a child wrapped in swaddling cloths and mendacity in a manger.

That’s one other shock: Mary “laid him in a manger, as a result of there was no place for them within the inn” (Luke 2:7). Swaddling cloths are anticipated. Laid in a manger? No means. That’s a shock. Who is that this little one?

Then there seems with this angel “a large number of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God within the highest, and on earth peace amongst these with whom he’s happy!’” (Luke 2:14).

So, what do the shepherds do? Now, this isn’t a shock. They mentioned to at least one one other, “Allow us to go over to Bethlehem and see this factor that has occurred, which the Lord has made identified to us” (Luke 2:15). And so they go along with haste and discover Mary, Joseph, and the infant mendacity in a manger.

How wonderful, that when the Son of God himself lastly comes, in totally human flesh, it’s not the dignitaries that the angels name first, however the lowly, blue-collar shepherds, which results in a sixth shock.

6. The Magi and the Star

After the shepherds, it’s not as if the Jewish dignitaries come operating. Subsequent comes international dignitaries, from far, far-off. Matthew 2:1–2:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea within the days of Herod the king, behold, smart males [magi] from the east got here to Jerusalem, saying, “The place is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we noticed his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Now, don’t miss this as a result of we’re so used to the magi coming yearly: this is likely one of the best surprises of all. Behold, magi! Magi? You recognize what magi are? We get our phrase magic from magi. These are pagan astrologers, stargazers, wizards — historical counselors to pagan kings who didn’t have God’s revelation in Scripture. These guys are out-of-bounds abominations, in Outdated Testomony phrases. They’re sinners. And but God comes for them. He attracts them. And he does so by the very channel of their sin. Gazing into the celebs for steering, God leads them, attracts them, and brings them to Jesus.

This miraculous star guides them to Jerusalem, to Herod, and he and his Bible-answer guys inform them about Micah’s Bethlehem prophecy. After which, how do they discover the actual home the place Jesus is?

After listening to the king, they went on their means. And behold, the star that they’d seen when it rose went earlier than them till it got here to relaxation over the place the place the kid was. (Matthew 2:9)

That is surprising. It’s not simply the miraculous star, however this: the skilled Bible students of the day give the reply from Micah 5, and but they don’t even trouble to make the comparatively brief five-mile journey to Bethlehem. The spiritual leaders and dignitaries keep cozy in Jerusalem, whereas the pagan astrologers go to Bethlehem to search for the Jewish Messiah.

Are you able to imagine God did it like this? We actually ought to beware our preconceived notions of whom God Almighty would possibly draw close to to worship his Son.

Maybe a few of you’re feeling like outsiders to the church. Just like the magi. You’re on the skin, trying in. You marvel if folks on inside look down on you, or depend you out, or suppose you’ve wandered too far-off from Jesus. Behold, magi come. Our God likes to take probably the most unlikely and draw them close to to worship his Son. He’s carried out this for 2 thousand years since he welcomed the magi, and he does it nonetheless at the moment.

Which results in our final shock.

7. Simeon’s Prophecy

We end with this. In Luke 2, we’ve got the story of Mary and Joseph bringing their little one to the temple to be devoted, and there they encounter a holy man named Simeon. Luke says,

It had been revealed to [Simeon] by the Holy Spirit that he wouldn’t see demise earlier than he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he got here within the Spirit into the temple, and when the mother and father introduced within the little one Jesus, to do for him based on the customized of the Legislation, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and mentioned, “Lord, now you might be letting your servant depart in peace, based on your phrase; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you’ve got ready within the presence of all peoples, a light-weight for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your folks Israel.” (Luke 2:26–32)

And Joseph and Mary marvel. Then Simeon turns to Mary and says these surprising phrases:

Behold, this little one is appointed for the autumn and rising of many in Israel, and for an indication that’s opposed (and a sword will pierce by your personal soul additionally), in order that ideas from many hearts could also be revealed. (Luke 2:34–35)

New mother, a sword will pierce by your personal soul additionally. Are you able to think about how this lands on Mary? “A sword will pierce my soul? What? And pierce my soul additionally? So, you’re saying my son, my treasured child boy, will at some point be pierced?”

Her little one being the Christ wouldn’t imply immunity to controversy, enemies, and nice ache — however exactly the alternative. And Mary herself would have “a sword . . . pierce by [her] personal soul additionally.” What might this imply however that some nice tragedy was appointed? May her personal soul be pierced by something aside from his untimely demise?

Function of His Showing

This results in the query we end with: Why had Jesus appeared? Why did the Son of God come amongst us, as one in all us, totally God and totally man, at his first Introduction? First John 3:5–8 tells us twice.

• 1 John 3:5: “You recognize that he appeared in an effort to take away sins.”
• 1 John 3:8: “The explanation the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the satan.”

Jesus got here to remove sin and to destroy the works of the satan. And the way would he try this? By means of his being pierced.

He was pierced for our transgressions;
     he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that introduced us peace,
     and along with his wounds we’re healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
     we’ve got turned — each one — to his personal means;
and the Lord has laid on him
     the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5–6)

And Jesus rose once more from that deadly piercing, to declare us righteous in him by religion, and forgive all our sins towards him, and go to work on us to make us really righteous — and make us loving towards others, and fewer egocentric. To work in us good habits for the enjoyment of wholesome souls and wholesome relationships.

So, I problem you: don’t simply undergo the motions this Introduction. Method the season in religion, as God’s new-covenant folks, for Christ’s honor and your pleasure in him.

Be part of me this Introduction in admiring the numerous excellencies of Jesus Christ: he’s God and man, holy and virgin-born, upholding the universe by the ability of his phrases and mendacity swaddled in a manger. Make some particular effort with me to see and savor the particular person of Christ this Introduction. He’s worthy of our greatest each day, weekly, and annual habits.