"The Glorious Fact of Christmas" - Dr. Gary Cass

THE GLORIOUS FACT OF CHRISTMAS

Infusion Church /  12-05-21

Luke 2:1-21

Christmas dares to provide the answers to the big questions that plague us whenever we dare to allow our hearts to be still.

I THE HISTORISITY OF YOUR HOPE

s.7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

2 Chronicles 6:18: “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!

Charles Wesley: “Born as men with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel…“Robed in flesh the Godhead see, hail incarnate deity! 

Jesus so identifies with you that He retains His glorified human nature in heaven forever.

Behind Luke’s very matter of fact, understated account of the birth of Jesus, there is an avalanche of fulfilled prophecies that all fell into place.

Gal 4:4; But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…  

In those three words – “born of woman” hangs an amazing, rich, historical tapestry with a scarlet thread running all the way through it.

The virgin Mary will be the means of heaven’s greatest invation into our world.

II. The Ancient Conflict

Gen 3:15: And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

Gen 6:5; The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

Gen 12:2-3; I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Gen 49:10: The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. 

Judge 19:19: Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal… 

2 Sam 7:12-13: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

Luke 2: And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 

Luke 2:11: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  

John 20: But Mary [Magdalene] stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb.… Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? ”Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher)…. 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

Satan is bound and can no longer deceive the nations, but the conflict is not over.

Matthew 28:18ff; Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

While the defeat of the devil is certain and sure, the conflict will continue.  

Ps 22:27; All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.

Rev 21:1-4; Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”