We
once again have come to that wonderful time of year, called Christmas. It is a season that can be fun and enrich our
lives in many ways as we enjoy great Christmas music and share life with family
and friends. At our house, my working theory is that one can never have too
many lights, and so, I work at installing as many as I reasonably can. And as we
decorate outside, it is with the intention of letting folks around us know that
Christmas is about Jesus the King and Savior entering this world. During this
season on TV, Hallmark and other channels work hard at producing dozens and
dozens of Christmas stories (usually of a romantic nature with basically the
same plot) to help us enjoy the season. Many other programs appear on
television with the subject of Jesus’ birth. So this time of year has its
upside.
But
the culture has generally so diluted the account and purpose of Jesus’
birth (Amazon recently referring to
it as the “myth” of Jesus birth), that no one without some biblical background
would really figure out what the Christmas season is all about. Satan and his
minions have successfully disfigured the event. If my neighborhood represents
the culture at large, then the Evil One has done a pretty effective job. Decorations are on most all the homes near us
but their relationship to Jesus’ birth is completely unclear. I have yet to figure out what a group of penguins,
Sponge Bob and Darth Vader have to do with that event 1900 years ago. And was
Santa Claus really at the manger with Mary and Joseph?
There is a reason why the Devil
messes around with our Christmas celebration. He simply wishes to blind the
minds of people (2 Cor. 4:3-4) to the reality that God took on human flesh
(John 1:14) in order to deliver people from their spiritual condition of being
separated from Him (John 3:16). By
disfiguring and distracting, he helps folks not to think about their guilt,
anxiety and emptiness, and God’s solution to it all. In a Christmas past, a
young couple was standing in front of a store window with a manger scene in it,
and they were overheard saying, “Why do they have to bring religion into
everything?” The sheer ignorance of that statement is hard to fathom. But it
does show how effective the Enemy’s work has been.
Surely part of our task, as those who
understand why Jesus came into the world, is to counter this demonic work of
disfiguring and distorting and clearly share that the Savior came long ago to
completely take care of our sin and guilt and to bestow eternal life on all who
believe (Acts 4:12). He may not have come on December 25th, but He
came….and that is the point.
When
Jesus was born, Satan and Herod teamed up to try and destroy Him (Matt. 2:16;
Rev. 12:3-5) but could not do so. They were dealing with God who became flesh
in order to follow through on His deliverance of mankind, by dying on the cross
and coming back from the dead. Jesus’ entrance into this world was validated in
many ways over many years. For example, the “star” informed the Wise Men that
the king of the Jews had been born and was alive in Israel. And while the Wise
Men were never at the manger the night of Jesus’ birth, they did arrive in
Bethlehem a year or so later and saw the King-Savior in the house where Joseph
and Mary were living (Matt. 2:7-11). The “star” was not some existing heavenly
body but was a dramatic, dynamic declaration that God had come into the
world. It was supernatural. I would
concur with Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum when he said,
“By this star coming in the form of light, what we actually have is the appearance of the Shechinah Glory....The Shechinah Glory is the visible manifestation of God’s presence. Whenever God became visible in the Old Testament, this is referred to as the Shechinah Glory. In most cases, the Shechinah Glory came in the form of a light, fire, cloud or some combination of these three things. Over in Babylonia a light appeared, a brilliance, a radiance that may have looked like a star from a distance and yet had actions and did things which no star can do or does do. What these Wise Men actually saw was the Shechinah Glory. When they saw this…unusual brilliance, they deduced from it that is was a signal that the King of the Jews, the Messiah, had been born.” (Messianic Christology, pp. 143-144)
Angelic
announcements (Luke l:11, 26; 2:9-11), unusual workings of the Spirit of God
(Luke 1:41, 67; 2:25-32) and the word of a prophetess (Luke 2:36-38) all
declared this to be an watershed moment in human history…a Savior had come who
would restore all that was lost millennia before in the Garden of Eden. And
later, Jesus would validate all this by performing thousands of miracles. Full, complete salvation would now come to
believing people. It should not surprise
us that the Evil One (the god of this world) works tirelessly at disfiguring
Jesus first coming. So to distract, he suggests that this be a “December to
remember” by buying a new car, or perhaps getting some fine jewelry from Jared
to really make life worth living.
And
what should not go unnoticed is that this one also works tirelessly at
disfiguring Jesus Second coming, and it is tragic that the church today gives
him great aid in the matter. Jesus’ powerful return will end Satan’s career and
will bring in that long awaited “return to Eden” in the Messianic kingdom and
the eternal kingdom. Churches and denominations in America today are
consistently downplaying Jesus’ return to this planet in power and great glory. The Apostle Peter observed that this is false
teaching and must be resisted by believers (2 Peter 3:2-13). After describing the characteristics of false
teachers, he noted that their teaching is focused on living large in this
present world. (2 Peter 2). This world is their focus, not the world to come
where the Savior returns and His power and glory are seen. Thus Jesus’ return
is apparently not that important as we live in this present world. This reality
is reflected in church life today.
And
so church after church downplays, dilutes or removes altogether clear statements
about events surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus to this world. In our
culture, and its influence on church culture, talking too much or precisely
about the return of Jesus Christ is rather divisive and much too dogmatic. And
besides, really cool preachers need to stay away from prophecy, since that is
domain of really unbalanced Christians. But
this was not attitude or approach of the Apostles or of Jesus Himself. Prophecy shows that Jesus will bring about the
fulfillment of His magnificent promises to His people, and it will be done in
an unmistakable way.
In
Matthew 24:30, Jesus taught that immediately preceding, and in connection with
His Second Coming to earth, a sign would appear in the sky; something which all
on earth would see and understand its significance. The word “sign” (semeion) is used to refer to an unusual
or miraculous event. (This word is used by John to refer to the miracles of
Jesus). The sign given, in connection with the Second Coming, is a miraculous
event that points to something very great; namely, the Second Coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I would suggest that the sign is yet another appearance of
the Shechinah Glory, indicating the presence of the Son of God.
It
is true that the “star” in connection with the first coming of Jesus has often
been misunderstood, but we can say with confidence that there will be no such
misunderstanding at the Second Coming when the Savior-King returns in power.
As
we come to this Christmas season, we can enjoy God’s many good gifts to us, but
let’s also keep an eye toward heaven for our Savior’s return to take us back to
the Father’s House. And let’s also be
ready to swim against the strong cultural current this season and let those
around us know that the Savior came that glorious night to do the hard work of
delivering us, a lost race of people.
