Today’s message summary from Pastor Gus Brown:
I want you to think about The Christmas Story in the way that it was planned well before the time we normally discuss Christ’s birth and His time on earth. It was God’s plan long before that time that mankind would need a Redeemer.
Note that we, as humans, always note that good and evil have existed from the very beginning. Scripture, however, challenges this thought. There was a beginning to sin, and in Revelation 21 and 22 it will also come to an end. A new heaven and a new earth will be created where sin will no longer have a foothold on us, God’s creation. Even before God made Adam, there had to be something that took place.
Genesis 1:1-2
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
First, note that God already existed before He created the earth that we reside upon. We don’t exist to support Him or make Him comfortable. For our existence, we desperately need Him. He does not need us.
Job 26:7
He stretches the northern skies over empty space;
He hangs the earth on nothing.
God has the ability to exist in nothingness. He is the great I AM. No one can change who He is.
Exodus 3:14
God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
Revelation 22:13
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Next, God created us out of love but with free will. He knew that we would need a Redeemer because, on our own and without God’s provision, we would destroy ourselves. We often don’t look at God’s instruction as beneficial to us, but it is absolutely true that His Word and His commands are for our good.
Acts 17:23b-31
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it—He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28 For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Being God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
John 8:54-58
54 “If I glorify Myself,” Jesus answered, “My glory is nothing. My Father—you say about Him, ‘He is our God’—He is the One who glorifies Me. 55 You’ve never known Him, but I know Him. If I were to say I don’t know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. 56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day; he saw it and rejoiced.”
57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t 50 years old yet, and You’ve seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”
Jesus was present at the time before Abraham was born, before Adam was born, and even before the world was created. He is the “I AM” who is eternal.
God created us in order that, according to His will, we would rely upon Him for our existence. God’s plan is to help humanity and prevent our own destruction. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer who was sent to take away our pain and our difficulty, yet many reject Him. Sin is what creates the conflict between God’s creation and Satan, and between believers and non-believers.
Genesis 3:15
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
(also see Revelation 12:4-6)
God is putting the plan in action back in Genesis 3:15 for a Savior to be brought before the people. This was planned before the world was ever created. He is an awesome God!
Revelation 13:8
All those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
1 Peter 1:20
He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you
Galatians 4:4
When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.
God gives the sign—a virgin will be with child.
Isaiah 7:14
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
Isaiah 9:6
For a child will be born for us,
a son will be given to us,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
He will be named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Satan’s work has been to hide Christ from the world, especially during the Christmas season. After all of the gifts and presents and greetings of “Happy Holidays,” it is still about Jesus Christ.
So, your greeting or salutation to others is not “Happy Holidays” — it is “Merry Christmas!”
Christmas is not about a time to give a bunch of gifts–it is about sharing the greatest gift of all–Jesus Christ.
It is not about just showing love to everyone during Christmas but sharing that God revealed His love to each of us through Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-17
16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Christmas is about the world’s need for a Savior. It is about the love of God and the presence of a Savior in Jesus Christ. God saw the greatest need for mankind was the need for a Savior even before the world was created. He loves us more than we can imagine.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 