Dear friends, do take some time to reflect on the following this Christmas, a little lengthy but what's a little reading gonna cost you? (from Discover The Book Ministries)
Luke 1:78-79Christmas is all about gifts; gift giving, give buying, and gift receiving make up so much of these weeks of the year. Many are looking for the most "wanted” gifts; so much so that often these gifts are sold out and become even more sought after. As we open to the last dozen verses of Luke 1 this morning, think about…
THE MOST WANTED GIFTSThe world's largest retailers sent out a beautiful, full color glossy flyer a few weeks ago with the “gifts everyone wants this Christmas”. I was driving as Bonnie read through the items offered: diamonds, home theaters, complete “dream vacation” packages to be with music stars backstage, and on went the list. Then the “ultimate” gift was presented—a million and a half dollar personal jet that seats four! Just what we all really want—diamonds, dream vacations, and private jets, right?
Christmas in America is mostly about gifts I give and receive. Billions and billions of dollars of sales attest to the fact that for these 4-6 weeks we flood the retail outlets and search out and but the gifts that are most wanted, most sought after, most unique, most memorable and so on.
But the real Christmas was the very first one, when God confronted the world with the
only gift everyone really needs.
Christmas is about the gift no one seeks but everyone needs.In fact God came to provide the only gift that everyone absolutely, critically needs—the substitutionary death of His Son, who came to meet our critical, eternal-life-threatening need prompted by our sins.
To help us understand Christmas from God"s perspective: look over the holiday crowds that always seems to get in front of us everywhere we want to go these days; look beyond our house, our street, our city, our state, and even our planet—and look above and remember to see our God on His Throne.
GOD IS ON HIS THRONEThis very moment—as the billions of souls on this world go through their routines of eating, sleeping, working and living--our God is enthroned in the Heavens; He is sitting in power and majesty, He is surrounded by countless angelic hosts bowing before Him and reverently crying out Holy, Holy, Holy.
- Before Him, the Ancient of Days—burn seven fires, reflected in the mirror-like surface of the crystal sea.
- Around Him, the King of Glory—peal endless claps of thunder and flashes of lightning as angelic hosts and saved sinners rise and fall in adoration.
- In front of Him, the Almighty God—rises the constant incense of prayers and worship songs from His redeemed creatures.
Our God sits enthroned in Heaven, as Ruler over the entire Universe.
As the Lord looks down from His Throne upon this planet overspread with people—it looks pretty dark down here. Listen to one picture that God left us; this is His analysis of our human plight. Luke 1:78-79 Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
WE ARE LOST IN DARKNESSFrom God’s perspective, all of humanity is hopelessly lost, sitting in the dark and awaiting destruction. Christmas is the story of the Lord God Almighty, motivated by His great love, sending Jesus to provide the way of salvation to lost humanity sitting in that complete darkness.
Jesus came to Earth as the sunrise from God, to shine the light of God upon all of the lost and sin darkened people of this world. It is always darkest just before dawn, and that is just how it was. The Roman world of the 1st Century had reached the highest levels of science, literature, culture, engineering, transportation, and medicine known since Adam and Eve stepped from the Garden.
Yet with all that advancement most people were still hopelessly lost, and endlessly troubled by an inability to even control their own fears and desires—let alone know how to come to know the Awesome God of the Universe.
So in that darkest hour God sends the only gift everyone really needs. Please stand with me and listen to the entire song of Zacharias in Luke 1:67-79; especially hear these closing two verses, and experience the reality of why Christ came, as we see how hopelessly lost, critically in need each of us are before God upon His Throne this very moment.
GOD VISITS USChristmas is all about God sending the Dayspring, a heavenly sunrise to sin darkened humans on Earth. Christmas was God responding to meet our eternal-life-threatening needs; it is all about the critical care needed because we were born in such a desperate condition. Without forgiveness, justification, redemption, and adoption we would be unable to survive and live forever. Rather, we would fail to survive and die forever.
God surveyed His creation and found that the crown of creation, the only creatures made in His image had a soul threatening, terminal illness called sin. In every instance of Christ's coming (Christmas) there are clues describing what we needed as exactly what Jesus came to offer us.
If you sift through all God said in the Christmas story, we find that God on His Throne determined that He had to change seven critical areas in our lives to save us. As the Christmas story unfolds, we see more and more of God’s plan to come and rescue lost humanity.
We have already seen in Matthew 1:21 Jesus came to “save His people from their sin” and this is God meeting our first and greatest need which is
forgiveness.
Then we saw that all the rest of the critical needs we have in our lost and fallen condition are compressed into the next truth in Matthew 1:23. When Jesus came as God with us, “Immanuel” was a declaration that we would be justified—or God could never live with us. Our redemption, adoption, and so on, were all also reflected by the very statement that God would ever be able to be with us.
Now Luke notes the timing and purpose of Christ's coming.
This Christmas, we need to see ourselves as God saw us.
We are born spiritually blind, and grow up sitting lost, helpless, and hopeless in the darkness of sin; as sinners who have sinned even once in God’s sight—we are guilty of breaking all of God’s commandments (James 2:10).
Christmas from the Divine vantage point as explained in the Bible should make us see ourselves as worst than we think, rather than better; because Christ's death is only for the guilty, only for the hopelessly stained, and only for the helplessly lost. It is in that condition—that we find God’s grace.
DO YOU SEE YOUR CRITICAL NEEDS?All sinners (so that means all humans that have ever lived on planet earth except Jesus Christ) have seven basic Biblically described critical and soul threatening needs.
If you listen to the messages that God gave about His purposes in sending Jesus to the Earth you find the critical needs we have:
Matthew 1:21 is forgiveness of our sins.
Matthew 1:23 is justification so God can be with us.
Galatians 4:4-5 is redemption and adoption for us slaves to sin and strangers to God.
Luke 1:79 is peace with God and life to us at war with Him and dead in sin.
Briefly summed up, all humans are hopelessly lost, sitting in the dark and awaiting destruction unless seven critical needs are met by God through Jesus. These are forgiveness, justification, regeneration, reconciliation, adoption, redemption, and sanctification.
THE ONLY GIFT EVERYONE REALLY NEEDSAs you think about Christmas, gifts, presents, giving and receiving—
why not check and be sure that you have received the most important of all gifts.
Only if we have received Him, Jesus who came to save us from sin, do we really have anything in our possession that matters. Every other possession and gift can be stripped away from us by death, disease, or disaster. Only Jesus will never leave us or be lost; only He can save and keep us forever.
Have you received the one and only gift that you (and everyone else) really needs?
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