ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS
Text- Malachi 3:1
Malachi 3:1 "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. (NIV)
Introduction
Someone has said that "Christmas seems to come earlier every year." Earlier and earlier each year the entire retail industry emphasizes the commercial side of Christmas.
During Halloween while I was in the Price Club shopping for some candy I noticed that they had already begun stocking supplies for Christmas.
It use to be where you didn't see any real evidence of Christmas until around thanksgiving.
Even without the commercial side of Christmas we as Christians are reminded of Christmas early. There are Christmas cantatas to be sung, special church programs to attend, as well as special Christmas parties to prepare for. There is the decorating of houses, the trimming of trees as well as presents that need to be bought and wrapped.
Yes, Christmas does comes earlier every year. Perhaps you have already begun looking forward to it. How many of you are already making plans for Christmas? If you haven't started making plans for Christmas by now, you are already behind.
Yet, as early as our preparation begins, we can not exceed the preparation that was made for that first Christmas.
This morning our text is found in Malachi 3:1 and the title of my message is, "Are You Ready for Christmas".
The birth of Jesus was not an after thought on God's part. But rather he had planned and prepared for it from "the foundation of the world". He even sent John The Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus and to help people understand that he was coming.
Down through the centuries over a period of almost 4000 years, God had spoken through the prophets concerning the birth of Jesus. With all this preparation you would expect that the world would have been ready for that first Christmas. Yet, it was not.
When Jesus was born the world was expecting a Messiah much different than the one that was to come.
And so often that is the same problem people have today. They are not ready to except Jesus for who he is because they expect someone or something different to save them.
For thousands of years the prophets of old prophesied how, when, where and to whom Jesus would be born, but still the world was not ready for him.
Often times, even though we hear what God says, we reject what he is saying. As someone once expressed, "We hear what we want to hear".
When Jesus was born the Jews were looking for a Messiah. But the Messiah they were looking for was different than the one that was to come.
They longed for a physical Messiah that would kick the Roman government out of Jerusalem and restore the Jewish government in the power it had during the days of David and Solomon.
Yet, when Jesus was born he did not do this, and for this reason he was rejected as the Messiah.
John 1:11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (NIV)
Many details of Jesus' birth, life, and death were prophesied hundreds of years before they were fulfilled. That this could be accounted for by coincidence is all but impossible. In his book Science Speaks, Peter Stoner applies the modern science of probability to just eight prophecies (one of which is today's text). He says, "...the chance that any man might have... fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th power. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000." (That's one hundred quadrillion.) Stoner suggests that "we take 10 to the 17th power silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state 2 feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly....Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up [that one marked silver dollar.] What chance would he have of getting the right one?" Stoner concludes, "Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man,...providing they wrote them in their own wisdom."
This morning I would like us to examine three specific prophecies that are found within the Bible concerning the birth of Jesus and see how God prepared the world for the coming of the Lord.