Advent is the season in which we anticipate the Savior’s birth, His wondrous entrance into our world. It is a season of expectation, of hope, and of joy as we try and imagine those long centuries in which Israel yearned for the Messiah. Advent is a season in which we go over familiar traditions and truths and yet a season in which we’re always hoping for new revelations of God’s mercy in our lives. For the Advent leads to Christmas.But be careful. Don’t allow the commercialism that has overwhelmed the holiday to engulf your understanding and appreciation of it. Neither let a narrowness of imagination about the stable surroundings themselves hide the immense significance of what Christmas is all about. For Christmas is not only an expression of the infancy of Jesus; it is also an expression of the deity of Jesus.
The infant Jesus in a cradle is a Jesus that we can become too comfortable with, feel sorry for, keep in our control. But Jesus is the Son of God, the 2nd Person of the Trinity, He Who holds all things together by the word of His power, the Lamb of God Who, just a few years after Bethlehem's stable, would suffer the indignities and cruelties of Calvary’s cross to pay for man’s sin. Risen from the dead, He now is exalted as the King of kings and the Lord of Hosts.
These truths we must never forget or even de-emphasize – even at Christmas time. For it is those very truths that reveal the wonder, the splendor, the awesome mercy of God that is the real Christmas. Keeping things in their full biblical perspective will help us not only worship the baby Jesus as the magi did but also to obey and faithfully serve Him Who now sits at the right hand of the Father in glory. And it will help prepare us for that amazing day when Jesus returns on a fantastic white horse to judge the quick and the dead. Oh yes, a proper celebration of Christmas makes us more ready for Christmas Two – when Jesus comes back to earth. And this time, He's not coming as a baby!
As I mentioned, the Messiah’s arrival was the hope of Israel for millennia and, though the specific details were not known to them, the God-fearing Jews and all others who believed in the promises given to Israel of a coming Savior, longed for His appearance.
This is reflected in several Old Testament Scriptures, just a couple of which I'd like to draw your attention to in this two-month LifeSharer letter: Isaiah 9:6-7 (considered by some to be the centerpiece of Messianic prophecy) and Isaiah 7:14, the remarkable verse which foretells the miracle of the virgin birth. They make a superb start to our preparations for Christmas...
Read the rest of Denny's November/December LifeSharer letter at the Vital Signs Ministries website. Just click on "Monthly LifeSharer" on the left sidebar.
