Anticipating the Gift
Notes
Transcript
God’s Promises Provoke Anticipation and His Faithfulness Commands Celebration
God’s Promises Provoke Anticipation and His Faithfulness Commands Celebration
Anticipating gifts on Christmas
God’s Promise Provokes our Anticipation (Luke 25-28)
God’s Promise Provokes our Anticipation (Luke 25-28)
What are we waiting for?
What are we waiting for?
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
We wait for what God has Promised
If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
He was waiting for the παράκλησις “comfort” of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Jesus would later call the Holy Spirit the Paraklete or comforter.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
Why are we waiting?
Why are we waiting?
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
A promise is only as good as the person making. Consider all the many “doomsday predictions”: the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse; Harold Camping’s had had too many to keep track; Y2K; and the list goes on and on.
We wait because the Lord is trustworthy and He has remained faithful
God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
How are we waiting?
How are we waiting?
Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Waiting requires watching/vigilance
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
We must trust fully to wait faithfully
Dr. George Sweeting once estimated that “more than a fourth of the Bible is predictive prophecy…Both the Old and New Testaments are full of promises about the return of Jesus Christ. Over 1800 references appear in the O.T., and seventeen O.T. books give prominence to this theme. Of the 260 chapters in the N.T., there are more than 300 references to the Lord’s return—one out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 N.T. books refer to this great event…For every prophecy on the first coming of Christ, there are 8 on Christ’s second coming.” (Today in the Word, MBI, December, 1989, p. 40)
“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ ”
God’s Great Faithfulness Commands our Celebration (Luke 2:29-35)
God’s Great Faithfulness Commands our Celebration (Luke 2:29-35)
What will we do when the promise is fulfilled?
What will we do when the promise is fulfilled?
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Anticipation will give way to celebration
300 Quotations and Prayers for Christmas Thanksgiving for Fulfillment of Promises
And as we praise you for your past promises, which you have graciously fulfilled, so may we be ever looking for the fulfillment of those that yet remain.
The Lord fulfills all His promises in His perfect time
The Lord fulfills all His promises in His perfect time
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
We should anticipate only what He has promised
His time is always the right time
Those who have Him have everything
Those who have Him have everything
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”
The gift of God is the gift that keeps on giving
The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
“To see Jesus is to see God’s salvation. They are inseparable. There is joy, even in the face of death, when one has seen the source of life.”
Christ is a practical gift that is not always accepted
Christ is a practical gift that is not always accepted
The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.
He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.
For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
God’s Promises Provoke Anticipation and His Faithfulness Commands Celebration
God’s Promises Provoke Anticipation and His Faithfulness Commands Celebration