A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE! Text: John 1: 6-7, 19, 23-29 Subject: When God Became a Man Theme: Why In Heaven Would God Come Down? When the Son of God was on his throne in heaven, the angels cried “Holy!” and the choir sang “Gloria!” Pure light radiated from his shimmering garments. Like diamonds, his eyes shone; like thunder, his voice rumbled. On his fingertips, lightning dance! Then he left his home and entered the womb of a teenage girl. And when the time came, she gave birth to him on the dirty floor of an animal stall and laid him on a feeding trough. Because – it’s embarrassing to say – there was NO ROOM for the Son of God anywhere else that day! Questions… Why would the Son of God want to become human? Why would he leave his celestial home to enter our world of pain and sorrow? Why would he forsake the worship of angels to be spat upon by hateful people? Why in heaven would God come down? Answers… It has to do with a SPECIAL PLAN God had formulated long before the first Christmas – a plan whose beginnings can be found on the scrolled pages of the Old Testament. I. THE HISTORICAL RECORD: Where It Started? We can trace God’s plan all the way back to an event in the book of Exodus. Although the names and events differ in the two stories, the central “theme” is the same: deliverance! Migrated to Egypt! Having migrated to Egypt four centuries earlier, the Hebrew people had become a nation of slaves. Their backs and spirits broken, they cried out to the Lord, who sent Moses and Aaron to set them free. “Thus, says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go’”, the two men announced to Pharaoh. But he refused, so the Lord sent a series of plagues on the Egyptians: plagues designed to “change” his HEART and MIND… (See Exod. 5: 1- 10: 29) They worked momentarily! The Lord then formulated one “last plague” that would surely dissolve Pharaoh’s obstinacy: “I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments – I am the Lord”… (See Exod. 12: 12) Specific Instructions! In order for the Hebrew’s firstborn to be spared, God gave Moses specific instructions for the people: each family had to select an “unblemished” one-year-old lamb and kill it at twilight on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan. Smear some of the blood on the doorpost of their houses. Roast the lamb and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They needed to eat in haste… (See Exod. 12: 3-11) The Passover! God called the meal “the Passover”! “The blood shall be a sign fro you on the houses where you live; and when I see the BLOOD I will PASSOVER you and NO plague will befall you to destroy you when I struck the land of Egypt”…. (See Exod. 12: 13) Don’t let the familiarity of this story dull its impact! God is a “master teacher”, and this is one of his finest object lessons: he was teaching his people a never-to-be-forgotten lesson – deliverance from “judgment” comes through the BLOOD of a pure lamb! At Mount Sinai! God instructed Moses as to HOW the people should “approach” him in the tabernacle: in the book of Leviticus, God emphasized the SIGNIFICANCE of blood. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make ATONEMENT for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement”… (See Lev. 17: 11) APPLY: God requires “blood”, instead of something else, for the ATONING of sin because blood contains LIFE – the life of the sacrifice! The sinless “substitute” DIES so the sinner might be “forgiven” and live! This is the method of “atonement” God chose, anticipating the once-and-for-all SACRIFICE of the coming Lamb of God – the Messiah! II. THE PROPHETIC PROMISE: How It Unfolded? Centuries after the Exodus, God summoned prophets to peer into the spiritual horizon and foretell the “characteristics” of the future Messiah. According to Isaiah! “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”… (See Isaiah 9:6) Gazing deeper into the misty future, the seer reveals more of the Messiah’s “character” and future reign of RIGHTEOUSNESS, DELIVERANCE, and HOPE. “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah. And his delight shall be in the fear of Jehovah; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins”... (See Isaiah 11:1-5) Such a RIGHTEOUS and REGAL King – surely he will be born into Jerusalem royalty! But According to Micah! “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting”… (See Micah 5:2) APPLY: A humbly born King, a righteous Judge, and a sacrificial Lamb – these Old Testament THEMES and PROPHECIES stir within the reader feelings of HOPEFUL expectation. III. THE MESSAGE OF THE FORERUNNER: What It Included? When the doors of the New Testament finally swing open, ushering us in to meet the “all-in-one” Messiah is John the Baptist. “There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, and that all might believe through him”… (See John 1:6-7) His Pronouncement! “And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, who art thou? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”… (See John 1: 19, 23, 29) Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose blood MARKS the doorposts of our hearts! At the coming judgment, God will PASS OVER us, like he passed over the Hebrew families in Egypt, and LEAD us into the celestial Promise Land! NOTE: Christ is not just the PASSOVER LAMB; he is also our SACRIFICIAL LAMB, slain on the “heavenly altar” and obtaining for us eternal redemption! “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”… (Hebrews 9:13-14) Why in heaven would the Son of God come down? He came not to show off his PERFECTION or to make our lives more COMFORTABLE but to offer himself to God as our SACRIFICIAL substitute: the Lamb of God was born to DIE! The Practical Meaning: Why He Departed? With a crown of thorns crushed on his brow, spikes hammered through his wrists and feet and a spear thrust in his side – the Lamb of God was slain on the ALTAR of a rough wooden cross! Why? Deliverance comes through the “blood of a pure lamb! Through the blood, God’s wrath toward “sin” was SATISFIED – propitiated – ONCE and for ALL! “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world”… (See 1 John 2: 1b-2) Christ the Lamb has secured our DELIVERANCE and offers it to each of us a CHRISTMAS GIFT – placed with love under a cross-shaped tree! Conclusion… In many ways, Jesus’ blood was no difference than ours! It coursed through his veins just like ours, and it, too, flowed crimson when he pricked his finger. Yet we sing: “There is power, power, and wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb!” What power does Christ’s blood have that ours doesn’t? How could his blood accomplish so much? Certainly, if we had been nailed to his cross, there would have been NO peace or forgiveness offered anyone. The difference is that his “blood” represented his SINLESSNESS and his DIVINE LOVE – the love that led him from heaven to Calvary and into our hearts! So the next time you prick your finger, think of the “blood” of Christ that he SHED for you and the LOVE that once flowed crimson, a long time ago! Amen!
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 07:51:25 +0000
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