Chaplain’s Corner –
December 14, 2007
Rev.
Rich Hines
Christmas - God Kept His Promises
This message is primarily for those who call on the name of Jesus Christ
as their own Lord and Savior from sin, and serve as a Chaplain or a gospel
minister in a jail, prison or a follow-up ministry such as a rescue mission –
in the
All Scripture quotes are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of
the Bible, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. When quoting a text, any
deviation from the NKJV text is placed within parenthesis signs (). These usually occur as direct translations from
the original languages, or as notes from the original
setting to help apply the text to today’s culture.
ALL CAPITAL
LETTERS are sometimes used to emphasize words in a text, or to make a comment
about a biblical text, or to emphasize a statement.
I
realize many Chaplains leave the Christmas message to someone else to
give. That's all right, as long as they do a good job of thoroughly
presenting the gospel message. If
at all possible I think the Chaplain should do the Christmas message, because
he is to be the Christian Pastor for inmates.
So if you are planning your Christmas message, you may want to use
something from this message or its main point, in that message.
As
you and the residents of the facility celebrate Christmas, I want to remind
you, that among other things the birth of Jesus Christ was a fulfillment of
PROMISES GOD MADE. It's important to
differentiate between fulfilled prophecy and fulfilled covenant promises at
Christmas. Both are important, but the
latter are more personal.
When
Jesus, the Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea, it fulfilled a 500 year old
prediction made in Micah 5:2. It
fulfilled that prophecy. The fulfillment
of predictive prophecy ought to strengthen anyone's confidence that the Bible
is in fact, the true word of a true God.
But
there's more, there’s the personal side of Christmas as well. When the angels announced His birth to the
shepherds they said: "unto you is
born this day in the city of
In
the popular Christmas Carol, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” there’s a lyric line
that says: “Word of the Father, NOW IN FLESH APPEARING.” That first APPEARING of the Christ, was more than just fulfilled prophecy. It was also in fulfillment of great and ancient promises that God had
made.
The
birth of Christ not only signaled the beginning of the fulfillment of the first
glimpse of the gospel given in Genesis 3:15, where the Seed of the woman would
come to bruise the serpent’s head. More
specifically, it FULFILLED A PROMISE God made more than once, to a man named Abram
(who became Abraham).
Note this promise in Genesis 12:2, 3 where God said to Abram -
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those
who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and IN YOU ALL THE FAMILIES
OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.
This text is part of
what is known as the Abrahamic Covenant. The other main part is a promised “land” for
the promised nation (Gen. 12:2) to live in.
Key words here in
verse 3 and elsewhere, are “IN YOU.”
That’s because the ancients saw themselves as part and parcel of all who
came before and after them. When God
said to Abram, “I will bless YOU and make YOUR name great,” He wasn’t ONLY
referring to Abram (whom He later renamed Abraham) BUT to the Christ that would
come in Abraham’s family.
The greatest part of this covenant promise was a Special Descendant, who seminally was IN ABRAHAM. That Descendant, would be the One that would be the cause of blessing or cursing to all humanity. When God said “I will bless those that bless you and” … “curse him that curses you,” He wasn’t ONLY talking about the Jewish nation but also about Abraham’s Descendant. That Descendant was Jesus Christ, who was both Man (through Abraham and his descendant, Mary) and fully God at the same time.
Again, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Christ. In that birth a part of the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled. The fact that on the first Christmas, God kept one of His promises to Abraham (and He will still keep them in a fuller way in the future) OUGHT TO INCREASE OUR FAITH IN THE BIBLE. It ought to confirm for each of us that it is indeed the unalterable and final true, written word of God that we can fully depend upon. Beyond that, the Bible in 1 John 3:23, commands us to believe in Christ.
Encouraging people
from a Jewish background to make sure they had fully trusted in Jesus for
salvation from sin, Hebrews 6:13-20 said this to encourage their faith in God’s
written promises;
13
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one
greater, He swore by Himself,
14
saying “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply
you.” (a quote from Genesis 22:17)
15
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. (meaning of course the birth of Isaac, the first one of the
nation to come from Abraham)
16
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them
the end of all dispute (can be translated ‘contradiction,’ ‘wrangling’ or
‘argument’).
This
word “Oath” in verse 16, comes from the root word
“fence,” or “enclosure.” Hence this word
came to mean that which would restrain a person’s words in keeping them from
going beyond, or around what was said or promised. Hebrews 6 continues -
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to
the heirs of promise the immutability (the
unchangeableness) of His counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, (as we shall see in Genesis 15:8-18, and
again in Genesis 22:16,17)
18 that by two immutable (unchangeable)
things, (God’s promise and His oath)
in which it is impossible for God to lie (compare Titus 1:2), we might have strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Wow! What a statement! To think that God would stoop and condescend
to encourage believers, AFTER HE HAD ALREADY PROMISED THEM, by using what’s
needed between sinful humans to confirm a promise, that
is to CONFIRM His promise WITH AN OATH, is truly remarkable!
In
verse 17, God did this literally with “overflowing resolve.” Why?
Verse 18 answers that question when it literally says: “so that we
(believers) might have mighty comfort
or MIGHTY ENCOURAGEMENT” to believe Him.
The final phrase in verse 18, referring to fleeing “for refuge to lay
hold of the hope set before us” - is the Hebrew writer’s way of saying “we who
have believed the gospel.”
I think it will be
helpful to look at what the writer to the Hebrews was talking about when he
said God “confirmed” His promise to Abraham with “an oath,” in Genesis 15:8-10
and 15:17, 18.
8 And he (Abram) said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" (in context, he meant the land for the great nation and the One that would be a blessing to all the families of the earth)
9 So He (the Lord God) said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three-year old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon."
10 Then he brought
all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece
opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
You may be thinking,
“What in the world?” In the ancient
world when two parties felt they needed to confirm binding promises to each
other, this is what they would do. They
would offer sacrifices and then cut the carcasses in two and walk between the
severed halves of the dead animals’ bodies.
This was in effect saying our covenant together is made with blood, and
if we do not keep it may we become like these sacrifices.
God is altogether
righteous and everything He says is reliable - because He is God, yet in an
amazing act of condescension, the LORD met Abram on his level and said in
effect, "OK, set up the sacrifices of a binding covenant so that we two can walk between the
pieces!"
But instead,
according to verse 12, God put Abram in a deep sleep. Then, beginning in verse 17, we read:
17 And it came to
pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a
smoking oven and a burning torch (compare this to Exodus 13:21, where the
presence of the LORD is described in similar terms – as a “pillar of cloud” and “pillar of fire”) that
passed between those pieces.
So, instead of the
LORD and Abram walking between the pieces together, the Lord God walked between
the severed carcasses BY HIMSELF! This
signified AN UNCONDITIONAL COVENANT. That
means even if some of Abram's descendants proved unfaithful, the LORD would
still keep His promise to send a Savior through whom all the world could be
blessed with salvation from sin! Do you
see why I say at Christmas, covenant promises were being fulfilled?
Now, note how the
LORD then gave the covenant promise in the very next verse, Genesis 15:18 -
18 On the same day
the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying" "To your descendants
(that word, DESCEANTS, includes Christ) I have given the land, ... ."
Next,
note Genesis 22:16,17 – a further, later
reconfirmation of the covenant with Abraham,
16
… “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and
have not withheld your son, your only son – (an act of complete faith in the
LORD)
17
“blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants (this
is what’s quoted from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in Hebrews
6:14) as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and
your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 “In YOUR SEED (one
distinct, Special Descendant) ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSSED,
because (in faith) you have obeyed My voice.”
Getting
back to the blessed Hebrews 6 passage, the Spirit inspired writer closed his
thoughts with a wonderful sentence in verses 19,20. Note how he used both nautical and temple
terms as illustrative of the security in Christ which all believers have.
Hebrews
6:19,20 -
19
This hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast (fixed), and which
enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High
Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
In
explaining this Scripture, first it’s important that people understand Old
Testament tabernacle and then temple, worship.
The
Holy of Holies, or the
Now
consider the nautical illustration. In
stormy weather a ship needs a solid anchor
to hold it from being driven out to sea.
If at all possible, it needs the safety of the calm protected
harbor. In the ancient mid-eastern
world, when rough or stormy seas made entry into the harbor dangerous, the
anchor would be taken into the calmer harbor by a little boat technically
called “the FORERUNNER.”
The
imagery means, Jesus our Forerunner and Great High Priest, takes the anchor of
our faith and hope into the very presence of God the Father in heaven and
secures us forever. Because He (Jesus)
is the antitype of Melchizedek, a King-Priest who had neither beginning of his
days or his death recorded, Jesus alone is eternally, forever High Priest and
Sacrifice, for the believer. He was
their sacrifice for sin at the cross.
That’s
true because at the first Christmas, God kept His promise and sent Him for His
people – to eternally save them from their sin.
The birth of the Christ at Christmas was the beginning of the final
stage of God’s great promise being realized.
Therefore, it’s only fitting that we should celebrate Christmas with
faith, thankfulness and great joy!
Rich Hines