A "Christmas" Word Through Malachi

Introduction: Malachi is the last Old Testament prophet. Haggai and Zechariah preached during the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian exile. In Malachi the temple is finished, and the worship that took place there had already grown weary to the people.

Malachi 1:13 NKJV

You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,” Says the Lord of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” Says the Lord.

In fact, since the time of the rebuilding of the temple they have already gone about conforming to the world. Divorce and intermarriage with unbelievers was on the rise,

Malachi 2:10–11 NKJV

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers? Judah has dealt treacherously, And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, For Judah has profaned The Lord’s holy institution which He loves: He has married the daughter of a foreign god.

they had already begun to withhold their tithes,

Malachi 3:8 NKJV

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.

and they had begun to oppress the poor.

Malachi 13:1-3

Malachi 3:5 NKJV

And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien— Because they do not fear Me,” Says the Lord of hosts.

There are actually some similarities to Malachi’s day and our own. The prophesies of the coming Messiah had already been given and they were in a time of waiting for the fulfillment of those prophecies. They were waiting for a temple which would be filled with the treasures of all the nations, a king through whom a new fountain of forgiveness would be opened, and a spirit of prayer of repentance that would descend on all people which would result in many nations coming to the Lord, and finally God would unmistakably be in their midst.

In Malachi the temple was finished and some time had passed. Some of the great men and women who sacrificially gave their all to rebuild the temple are dead and gone, decades have passed, and the Lord has not yet come. The people had lost sight of the promises of God and, as a result, lacked the hope needed to drive them to live a life of righteousness. Year after year as the coming of the Lord delayed, it became more and more difficult to live an expectant, faithful, holy life.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it. The temptation for Israel then and for us today is to forget that we are pilgrims in this world. Reality is, we do not belong here, and the temptation is to let the Lord’s delay make us settle in the world and forget the hope for which we wait. Forgetting that we desire and yearn for a better country ().

The danger of living in America today is not persecution for our faith, but that we are so at home here. No longer is there a sense of urgency. We are asleep. We pray, “Father, help me be more at home here,” and, “Father, help remove the friction that exists between me and the world.” When was the last time that you prayed, “Father, your kingdom come.” Outreach strategies have died. Money is funneled inward so that we have a good time for ourselves, and we have lost sight of the fact that God does keep His promises. God is coming back. As for the people that we must reach before He comes, their time is getting shorter. As the passion to reach the lost dies so the moral power of the church. The Master-God is replaced with another master-money, power, sex, or self-glory.

The Words of God Through Malachi

A “Christmas” Word

First, was Malachi prophesying about Christmas? Yes and no. In the Old Testament many of the prophets received words from God that included both the humiliation of Christ as well as the glorification of Christ.

1 Peter 1:10–12 NKJV

Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.

What Peter teaches us about Old Testament prophets is that they received the word of God that included both the sufferings and the glories of Christ and that they searched carefully to determine the timing of these things. However, they had to be content with the fact that they were prophesying to a future generation. They were not told that the sufferings and glories of Christ would be revealed through two separate comings of God. So, the prophecies of Malachi and the other Old Testament prophets includes Christmas but is by no means limited to Christmas.

They prophesied for us. So that we could look on their prophecies concerning the sufferings of Christ and see that they were totally fulfilled in the first coming. This gives us confidence that what they prophesied concerning the second coming will also be totally fulfilled in the future.

Because the people of Malachi’s day had allowed God to slowly drift out of their lives God began to feel unreal to them.

:!7

Malachi 2:17 NKJV

You have wearied the Lord with your words; “Yet you say, “In what way have we wearied Him?” In that you say, “Everyone who does evil Is good in the sight of the Lord, And He delights in them,” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”

Note Malachi’s response

Malachi 3:1 NKJV

“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts.

Jesus connects this passage with the events surrounding his first coming

Matthew 11:10 NKJV

For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’

Matthew

The Purpose Christmas

Malachi goes on to say that the purpose of the coming of God is purification.

Malachi 3:2 NKJV

“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap.

Of course final purification will take place when Christ comes a second time. However, Christmas began the work of purification.

Hebrews 1:3 NKJV

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Titus 2:14 NKJV

who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

So, the purpose for Christmas is to make us clean.

1 John 3:8 NKJV

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came not only to ransom us from sin but to also destroy the power it has over us giving us the ability to live pure lives.

Romans 6:22 NKJV

But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

The Goal of Christmas

The purpose of Christmas is to remove sin. However, this is not the goal (end result). The end result is to restore righteousness. Christ never takes away what he does not replace with something better. The work God wants to do in your heart is to make all the goodies of the world lose their goodieness in comparison with the surpassing glory of knowing Jesus and through Jesus knowing the fulness of God.

Malachi 1:11 NKJV

For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every place incense shall be offered to My name, And a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations,” Says the Lord of hosts.

Conclusion: Tomorrow is Christmas. Here’s what Malachi wants you to remember this Christmas and every Christmas, “God sent His Messenger of the Covenant in order to purify you and give you a righteousness that is not your own so that you could live for the glory of God’s name which is great among the nations.”

When this truth makes itself at home in your heart Malachi also says this:

Malachi 4:2 NKJV

But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves.