This past week I came across a little book called Jesus in the Bible. In it, author Kenneth Boa demonstrates that Jesus can be seen in every book of the Bible. It's difficult to improve on what he writes in his introduction.
He says, "The Bible. It has been printed and distributed more than any other book ever. It is far and away the best-selling book in history. The Bible is arguably the most beloved book of all time, and probably the most hated too. No other published work has ever had such a profound global influence. History shows that the truths of this remarkable book have not only transformed individual lives, but also entire cultures. In its breathtaking power and haunting beauty, the Bible is unique. It is like nothing else in the entire world."
"And yet the Bible remains a great mystery. Despite the fact that most homes have at least one copy, many people wonder, 'But what is the Bible, really? What is it about? What does it say? What does it mean?' And most significantly, 'How are its claims relevant to my life today?' "
"Sadly, to many, the Bible is a kind of Christian’s Almanac. An odd hodge-podge of religious trivia, hard-to-understand laws, and unbelievable miracles. To others, God’s Word is viewed as a kind of disorganized, ancient, two-part scrapbook. The first half (the Old Testament) features the Jewish people; the second section (the New Testament) focuses on the Christian church. The result of this is mild curiosity, not wonder and awe. As long as such thinking dominates, the Bible will be seen as an interesting relic and maybe a nice thing to have around, but not the great story of the universe that gives ultimate meaning to one’s individual life."
"Thus my goal is to help you see that the Bible, though made up of sixty-six books written by some forty different authors over roughly fifteen hundred years, is a single story. It is, in fact, God’s story. It is a breathtaking record of the Creator’s dealings with His Creatures."
"Moreover, I want you to see that the dominant character in this divine plot is none other than Jesus Christ. Contrary to what many believe, Jesus wasn’t a last minute afterthought in God’s eternal plan. He doesn’t just show up suddenly on page 983 as plan B (or plan G!) in God’s feverish attempt to save sinners. On the contrary, Christ is the focal point of the entire Bible, from beginning to end. He’s the one to whom the whole Old Testament points, the one on whom the Gospels focus, the one at whom the rest of the New Testament looks back."
"Believe it or not, Christ permeates the Scriptures. He is the living Word John 1:1 of whom the written Word speaks constantly. Everywhere we read, we find hints, glimpses, foreshadowings, veiled references, graphic pictures, whispered allusions, and prophetic mentions of Jesus. He moves through all the pages of the Bible, not just in the Gospels or in the apostle’s epistles. Look carefully, and you will see Him again and again in the poets and prophets."
Well said! Jesus Christ fills the scriptures. He is the focal point of the entire Bible. The Bible is one single unfolding story. God’s story. The story builds with hints, glimpses, foreshadowings, veiled references, whispered allusions, and prophetic mentions. But it crescendos with the birth of Jesus on Christmas, and loudens with his resurrection. Don’t you dare make it through the Christmas season without catching a glimpse of Christ. You are not going to find him in a storefront, in a newspaper ad, in a Christmas catalog, on a shopping list, on the television or even on the radio.
If you want to see the Christ of Christmas you are going to have to tune out the cacophony of commercialism and tame this obsessive, neurotic drive to consume. You are going to have to pull up a chair in front of your fireplace and make the Christ of scripture, the Christ of Christmas, a point of focus.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. The Christmas story is a story about how God loved the world so much, he sent his Son to die for our sins. Whoever believes in God's Son shall not perish, but have eternal life. Christmas is not about our love. Christmas is about God’s love. Christmas is not about our relationships with one another. Christmas is about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Christmas is not about getting gifts from one another. Christmas is about receiving the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
Christmas is not about hanging Christmas lights. Christmas is about seeing the light of truth and holding out the light of truth, Jesus Christ, to a world darkened by sin. Christmas is not about who is being naughty and nice. Christmas is about Jesus becoming your righteousness and my righteousness through faith, to fulfill God’s perfect law. Christmas is not about mounting more and more debt. Christmas is about Christ nailing our debt before God to the cross, washing away our sins, and making us as white as snow.
You see, in our culture Christmas has been completely redefined for us, and we cannot let that happen. This word, the Bible, is an anchor for our souls. We have the story of Christ as a reminder that our lives have meaning, that God is fulfilling his purpose in history, that he loves us and that he has a plan to save us from our sins.
Consider the hints. Catch the glimpses. Ponder the foreshadowings. Contemplate the veiled references. Look long and hard at the graphic pictures. Hear the whispered allusions. See the prophetic mentions of Jesus. Give meaning to this season of celebration. Jesus lives and breathes on every page of scripture. It is incredible.
Last week we explored how from the earliest time, God promised a child. Shortly after Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3:14-15 (NIV) God warned Satan, "You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." This is an explicit promise that one day a child would be born. But this would not be just any child. This would be a child who would utterly crush the head of Satan and forever destroy sin.
As we saw last week this child would be the seed of a woman, the seed of Eveinstead of the seed of man. This child’s birth would be cloaked in the mystery of a virgin birth. That is, the child would be conceived in the womb by God, and not by man. It is amazing that Isaiah the prophet picks up on the promise of a virgin birth. Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) says, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
Fast forward a few hundred years to the Christmas story in Matthew. Matthew 1:18-24 (NIV) says, "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. (In those days, engagement was as strong as a marriage vow.) But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel— which means, 'God with us.' "
Health class 101. When Mary told her fiancée Joseph that she was with child, she could physically prove that she had not been with a man, was truly a virgin, and had in fact conceived through the Holy Spirit. And she had Genesis 3:14-15 and Isaiah 7:14 as a defense to back up such a seemingly outrageous claim! This may be why after learning from an angel about her divine conception, Joseph was willing to take Mary as his wife. The Jewish people had waited centuries for the promise of Genesis 3:15 and Isaiah 7:14 to be fulfilled. The sign of a pregnant virgin.
Another thing we chatted about last week was the promise that God made to Abraham. Abraham, like all of us, was a descendent of Adam and Eve. Throughout the generations God would renew his promise of a child. In Genesis 12:3 (NIV) he promises Abraham, "...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." That is, all peoples would be blessed through Abraham's seed, or child.
But Abraham was an interesting character. Neither Abraham nor his wife Sarah trusted in God’s promise. For one, they were well along in years. They were senior citizens! But even more, Sarah had been childless her whole life. In Genesis 17:15-16 (NIV) God says to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
Genesis 17:17 (NIV) says, "Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, 'Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at age of ninety?' " In Genesis 18:10 (NIV) the Lord renews his promise to Abraham yet again. "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Genesis 18:10-12 (NIV) continues, "Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of child-bearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, 'After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?' "
But in Genesis 18:13-14 (NIV) the Lord confronts them saying, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord?" About a year later at over ninety years of age, Sarah finds herself with child. The Lord instructs them to name the child Isaac which means, "he laughs." Thus, we understand that God always gets the last laugh! Throughout Israel’s history, God would continually get the last laugh as he would prove his doubters to be fools, and those who trust in his promises, no matter how outrageous they seemed, wise men.
There was one final event in the life of Abraham that I will mention briefly. Some time after Isaac was born God decided to test Abraham. In Genesis 22:2 (NIV) God said, "Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will you about." After all the hassle of having this child, God was now asking Abraham to put this child to death on an altar. He was asking a father to sacrifice his son! As outrageous as it may seem, Abraham trusted God and through faith, he obeyed. Abraham gathered wood, grabbed his hunting knife, took his only son, and he carried a fire to the place where God asked him to go.
Genesis 22:9-12 (NIV) says, "When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and arranged wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But (presumably at the last second) the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am', he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.' " In that moment God spared Abraham’s only son by providing another sacrifice.
But what is this story really about? Is it really about Abraham sacrificing his only son? Or could this be a foreshadowing of another day, when a heavenly Father would face same choice of whether to sacrifice his only Son or to spare his only Son? Let’s zoom in on Genesis 22:12 (NIV). "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." The Christian knows what this verse is foreshadowing and what it is talking about. We know how this story unfolds.
John 3:16 (NIV) says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Romans 8:31-32 (NIV) says, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him (Christ), graciously give us all things?"
Romans 5:8 (NIV) says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Speaking of us, God tells Malachi the prophet in Malachi 3:17 (NIV), "They will be mine, says the LORD Almighty, in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him." Interesting isn’t it? That in compassion God spares Abraham’s son, but not his own son. In compassion God spares all of us, but he offers his only Son on the cross as a sacrifice for the sin of the world.
Every good story has surprising twists and turns. The story of God sending his one and only Son into the world to die for our sins certainly is not without its own surprises. We question Abraham’s love for his son Isaac because of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac to God. But we measure God’s love by his willingness to sacrifice his only Son, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world.
This word, the Bible, is an anchor for our souls. We have the story of Christ as a reminder that our lives have meaning, that God is fulfilling his purpose in history, that he loves us and that he has a plan to save us from our sins. We're just touching the tip of the iceberg here. This Christmas, consider the hints. Catch the glimpses. Ponder the foreshadowings. Contemplate the veiled references. Look long and hard at the graphic pictures. Hear the whispered allusions. Explore the prophetic mentions of Jesus.
Give meaning to this season of celebration. Jesus lives and breathes on every page of scripture. It is incredible. It is marvelous. It is awe-inspiring to read and understand the greatest story of all— the Christmas story.