Title: Mystery of Christmas
Contents
Fulfillment of the covenant and the mystery of Christmas (Matthew 1:21-23) 06/12/17 (Sunday noon)
When referring to Christianity, there are several expressions depending on its characteristics. To name a few examples, it is called Jesuitism because they believe in Jesus. Faith in the cross and resurrection is called the religion of the cross or the religion of the resurrection. It is also known as the religion of love. It is even called a Western religion because it came from the West. It makes all the difference, but one important thing is that Christianity is a religion of covenant or religion of the Word.
All words and events were made according to God's plan and promise. First of all, the Bible that Christianity believes in is called the Book of Covenant. Therefore, the Bible is divided into two books, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Just as history is divided into before (B.C) and after (A.D.) the coming of Jesus, the Bible also refers to the words before the birth of Jesus as the Old Testament, and the words after the birth of the Bible as the New Testament. And the standard and core of all Christian faith is the Bible, the Word of God. No one, no law, surpasses the Bible.
But this Bible is made up of God's promises from beginning to end. And that promise will surely come true. Heaven and earth may change and all systems and customs of the world may disappear, but God's promise, the word of God, is eternal. Jesus also said in Matthew 5:18, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, even one jot, one tittle, one jot, one tittle, of the law will not pass away, but all will be fulfilled.
1. God is the God of covenant.
The Bible is the Word of God, and the Word itself is the covenant of God. The God we believe in is the God of covenant. The Bible is full of God's covenants from Genesis to Revelation. One of the main reasons we do not receive blessings and answers is that we do not believe in God's promises. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flower withers, but the word of our God stands forever.”
People often say, “Dreams come true.” It makes sense and is true to some extent, but dreams are very personal and may or may not come true depending on the person's circumstances or abilities. However, God's promises must be fulfilled because they are God-given. 1 Samuel 15:29 says, “God, the Most High, does not lie or change; since he is not a man, he will never change.” The problem is with people. People who receive God's promises do not have faith, but if they believe, it will surely come true.
2. The coming of Christ is the fulfillment of the promise (Galatians 4:4).
The center of the Bible, the book of God's promises, is Jesus Christ. So, when Jesus came to this earth, he accomplished a watershed in history. History is divided into before and after. And the Old Testament is the book that promised the coming of Jesus and made us prepare. Therefore, the entire Old Testament focuses on Jesus, the Son of God.
Galatians 4:4 says, “When the time was fulfilled, God sent his Son…” Here, the time is fulfilled, which means that the time has come for the fulfillment of the promise. For this reason, Christmas is the greatest day of mankind and the day of blessing when promises have been fulfilled. On this day, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to live, and all mankind came to have dreams and visions. John 3:16, the Bible verse in the Bible, says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
3. God's promise is the mystery of Christmas (Matthew 1:18-23)
God brought Jesus to this earth as a fulfillment of His promise. What kind of person did that Jesus come as? Although he is the greatest Jesus, his birth is extremely mysterious. This is also the mystery of Christmas.
First, He came as a descendant of a woman (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 7:14).
The prophet Isaiah once prophesied, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This is one of the mysteries of Christianity, the virgin birth. This already refers to Jesus Christ, “the offspring of the woman,” who will bruise the head of the serpent (Satan), who, in Genesis 3:15, tempted and corrupted humans and caused them to be expelled from the Garden of Eden. God's promise to send His only begotten Son in human form is truly a wonderful and mysterious grace. He was not born through a relationship between a man and a woman, but was born from a woman's body through the Holy Spirit.
The second Word became flesh (John 1:14).
The third is the mystery of Immanuel (Matthew 1:23).
Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.” The purpose of God's coming to this earth after taking on a physical body is firstly to save mankind and secondly to be with us.
When Jesus was resurrected, he was with his disciples for 40 days and when he ascended into heaven, he promised them, “Behold, I am with you to the end of the world. Also, even before he was crucified, he promised his disciples that he would send the Counselor the Holy Spirit to you when I leave. Although Jesus was physically born on this earth 2,000 years ago, He was with us as the Word from the beginning (John 1:1) and is with us as the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, until the end of the world. And he promised to be with us in heaven. Although we celebrate Christmas every year, what is important is the faith of Emmanuel.