Sermon Tone Analysis

Introductory Thoughts

What is Christmas all about?

For most of the western world, Christmas is an end-of-the-year holiday marked by big meals and the giving of presents, especially to children.

For Christians, Christmas is specifically the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

We recognize this as a historical event that took place in a tiny village called Bethlehem, in the nation Israel, about 2,022 years ago.

The two primary images of Christmas are the baby in the manger – the center of every nativity set – and the Christmas tree, something we easily recognize just by its silhouette.

And that’s where we find the danger of shallow observation without meaningful reflection.

Christmas is all about the “Silent Night” when, “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks By Night,” “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” that “Angels We Have Heard On High” told them “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and see “Away In A Manger” in “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” the “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.”

They went to the stable and said, “What Child Is This?” Mary and Joseph said, “Um, what are you doing here?”,

and they said, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and told us tonight is “The First Noel,” and we thought to ourselves, “O Come, Let Us Adore Him.” Mary said, what do you mean, “What Child Is This?”

He is “Emmanuel!”

And they said, don’t get on your high horse, “Mary, Did YOU Know?”

Thanks - I’m here all week.

Even among self-identified Christians, Christmas, more than any other holiday, can be almost completely secularized.

The Lord said of Israel,

13 … this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote ()

We do want to truly reverence the Lord for His works, including the birth of Jesus, and not simply repeat words we have learned by tradition, without engaging our hearts and our minds.

We do want to truly reverence the Lord for His works, including the birth of Jesus, and not simply repeat words we have learned by tradition, without engaging our hearts and our minds.

So this morning and next we are going to talk about the birth of Jesus Christ, but seek to keep our thoughts rooted in the Scriptures and the purposes of God for the birth of Jesus.

One thought about thinking well about Christmas, and everything else around us.

Our intellects are not mistakes, but part of being created in God’s image.

While we are warned against worldly philosophies (thinking that is governed by the rebellious world), we are also commanded to exercise our brains throughout the Scriptures.

This is especially important when we come to issues and events where thinking seems to be turned off.

So let’s think together about Christmas in eternity.

Where Does Christmas Begin?

The thing is, if we begin with the Christ-child in the manger, we’re starting too far along in the story.

We can’t understand the significance of Jesus’ birth if we start with Jesus’ birth.

We have to go back before the trip to Bethlehem, or Gabriel’s visit to Mary.

We have to go back before Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin would bear a son, or God’s promise to Moses to raise up a prophet like Moses.

We even have to go back before God’s promise in that Eve’s seed would crush the serpent’s head.

We have to go all the way back to .

Yes, Romans comes very late in the Scriptures.

The books of the Bible were written over a 1,500 year span of time, from Genesis around 1,450 B.C., to Revelation written around 95 A.D. Romans was written around 56 A.D., very close to the end of God’s revelatory work.

If we think about all of the Scriptures being written in a single year, with Genesis being written on January 1st, Romans would be written December 17th – tomorrow.

But nevertheless, reaches back to eternity prior to creation, and looks forward to eternity after the judgment.

Since we live and exist within time, it’s very hard for us to imagine there being no such thing as time.

We generally look at our own existence as the main thing, and eternity “past” and eternity “future” as being vague and shapeless.

We might even put mental parentheses around eternity, as though in eternity past everything was on hold, and eternity future is really just endless time.

But there isn’t a “past” eternity and “future” eternity.

There is just one eternity, and, being eternal, it simply is.

It didn’t being.

It cannot end.

Eternity is defined by the existence of God Himself, and so eternity never changes and never ends.

In fact, prior to creation, there was nothing other than God.

The name of God, the Bible tells us, is Yahweh, which is the Hebrew word for I AM.

So it’s really time that is the parentheses; it’s time that is odd and unusual.

Eternity exists because God exists.

Time exists because God created a universe and creatures that change, and that change is called “time.”

Time had a beginning, as tells us.

Time will have an end, as the book of Revelation tells us.

What’s the purpose of time, then?

To bring about God’s decree.

Let’s look at :

29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son ()  

God foreknew His people before creation.

How do we know?

Because tells us that the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

God foreknew His people before creation.

How do we know?

Because tells us that the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

The word “foreknew” is not a noun, but a verb.

It is not information that God has about His people – a passive awareness of His people – but something God does regarding His people – He has an active relationship with them.

God foreknew His people before creation itself.

That doesn’t mean, as the Mormon’s teach, that every human being pre-existed.

It means that God, being eternal, is unconstrained by the limits of time.

Are you a Christian?

Then God has already foreknown you as His child for all of eternity.

Have you known Him that way?

No, not at all; you are constrained by time.

You and I must wait for time to unfold before we will know God in glory and perfection.

But God isn’t constrained by time, and already knows us that way.

And God predestined those whom He foreknew to become conformed to the image of His Son; that is, to become exactly like Jesus Christ in His glory as the Perfect Man.

That won’t happen for any of us until all things have been completed, until the day of judgment has come and gone, and the eternal state commences.

We must not only die in order to be freed from this body of death, we must be raised imperishable.

So the first part of – “those whom He foreknew” – reaches back to before creation, and the last part of – “He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” – reaches forward to the eternal state.

Can any of this change?

Could someone have been foreknown by God in eternity past and yet fail to be conformed to the image of Christ?

I hope that the answer is obvious: no!

There is only one eternity, and God’s knowledge is perfect and complete.

If someone is foreknown by God, it is impossible that His knowledge could wrong.

But to ease your minds, just in case you still aren’t convinced, says of the elect of Israel,

says that Christians are those

says that Christians are those

Do you see the Trinity here?

God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.

Do you see the Trinity here?

God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.

Do you see the Trinity here?

God the Father chose us; the Son justified us; the Spirit sanctified us.

God, having foreknown His people in eternity, predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son.

And so the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

The Son of God became Jesus of Nazareth – without ever ceasing in any sense to be the Son of God.

And He did this by the power of the Holy Spirit, who caused the fertilization of an egg in the womb of a teenaged girl in the ancient near east.

And this is Christmas.

Not a baby in a manger.

Not a religious festival.

Not a holiday.

But God Himself entering into His own creation to redeem and transform those whom He had already known as His.

God did not foreknow us in some vague, generic sense, but in reality and in detail.

He foreknew us as His own beloved children, who had been conformed to the image of His Son.