Thinking on Christmas from the cross to the throne

Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord, 47And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

As we continue reflecting on the meaning and purpose of Christmas, we will continue surveying the books of the Bible in our effort to see Christ.  The Gospels portray Christ, and in Acts we find Christ preached. 

As we come into the various letters written by the apostles to different churches, letters which we call "epistles, we discover that Christ is being explained.  In those letters we find statements concerning the true meaning of Christmas.

In Romans He is God over all, forever praised, and is born, touching His humanity, from the seed of David.  In 1 Corinthians He is my sanctifier and in 2 Corinthians the glory of God is revealed on His face. (2 Corinthians 4:6).  In Galatians he came in the fulness of time to redeem those under the bondage to the condemnation of the Law.  Ephesians tells us of God's eternal decree to send the Son to purchase salvation.  Philippians reveals that God became man and Colossians unfolds for us that Jesus Christ, in his full humanity, is the fulness of the Godhead bodily - since He shares in the same undivided Deity as God the Fathjer and God the Holy Spirit.

1 and 2 Thessalonians emphasize His soon return.  1 Timothy 3:15-16 speak about God in human flesh, coming to this earth.  Titus reveals Him as our great God and Savior and Philemon pictures Him as our forgiveness.  Hebrews details Him coming from eternity into time, prasing God for the body, the womb of Mary into which He would enter and take upon himself a human nature.  (Hebrews 10:4-5).  James tells us that He is God with no variation of shadow or turning.  1 Peter reveals Him to be the spotless Savior and 2 Peter shows Him returning in the glory of His Father.

In 1 John He is the endurance of salvation and in 2 and 3 John He is the believer's health of salvation.  Jude tells us that He has promised to preserve all true Christians until the end.  Revelation, that great book at the end, shows us that He is King of Kings and Lord or Lords.

In His first coming he came as unknown, in His second coming He will be known by all.  At Christmas He came as a weak, frail baby and in His second coming He will come as the Omnipotent Ruler of all.  In His first coming He came to redeem and in His second coming He will come to reign.  In His first coming everyone question who He was and in His second coming all will conclude that no one has ever been like Him. 

Truly Christmas is shadowed by the cross, however it points us to the time when Christ will come again, showing Himself to be the One who sits upon the throne. 

Thinking on Christmas from the Cradle to the Cross

Matthew 1:21-22 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

Yesterday we began considering the whole Bible in light of Christ's first coming, and traced God's redemptive plan from Genesis to Malachi.  We ended at the cradle and today, we will journey from the cradle to the cross.

Seeing Christ in the Gospels
The cradle of Bethlehem is spoken of in Matthew and Luke's Gospel and the cross of calvary is spoken of in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark Luke and John.  In these four books we see Christ portrayed.  We come to understand God the Son coming from eternity into time to live a perfect life, die a sinless death and raise to victory over death, hell and the grave. 

In Matthew we see Christ our King.  he is King as it touches His lineage back to King David in the Old Testament and He is King as it touches His Eternal pre-existence as God the Son.  He is the King who came, taught, healed and was rejected by His own people.

Mark shows us Christ the suffering servant.  He came to die and give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45).  Though Mark does not gives us the early life of Christ, yet it focuses our attention as to why he was born - to die.

Luke portrays Christ as the Son of Man, full and complete humanity.  He is the Master who calls his disciples to die to themselves and live for Him.  Luke the physcian, the great doctor who penned this gospel, points us to the Great Physician Jesus Christ.  Luke begins His Gospel with the early life of Christ: His birth, His presentation at the temple and the shepherds.  We see 72 names listed in Christ's geneaology - stretching from Adam to Christ. 

John, the beloved Disciple, pens for us the glory of Christ as God in human flesh.  In John's record we see emphasis upon Christ's undiminished Deity and perfect humanity.  We see John's fondness for the number seven in telling us His version of Jesus' life: seven signs or miracles and seven times where Jesus identifies Himself as "I am".

What Christmas is all about
Now all four of these Gospels take us to the cross, then the empty tomb and then His ascension.  When you put them all together, you have a complete picture: the babe in Bethlehem would be the Savior on the cross.  The Savior on the cross would rise again, demonstrating Himself to be the God of glory.  This is what Christmas is all about.

Thinking on Christmas from Creation to the Cradle

Luke 24:44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

As Jesus was speaking to his disciples prior to His ascension into heaven, He was pointing back to the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke concerning Him.  It is true that even though I may not be able to find Jesus Christ in every verse of the Bible, yet from every verse of the Bible I can get you to Jesus Christ.  As we think about Christmas today, and how the Bible focuses so much on what Christ would come to accomplish in His First Coming, as well as what He will accomplish in His second coming, I want to take these next several blogs and survey the whole Bible in light of Christmas and beyond.

From Creation through History we see Christ
As we start at Genesis we see Christ the creator.  The Gospel of John tells us that without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).  Christ is the Origin of all things, Who along with the Father and Holy Spirit, as One God created the Heavens and the earth.  In Genesis He is Creator.  As you go through the rest of the Old Testament books, we discover Christ pictures or spoken of in the following ways:

In Genesis He is my Creator.  In Exodus, my Redeemer.  Leviticus, my Perfect sacrifice.  In Numbers, He is the God who leads me and in  Deuteronomy, the Living God.

From History to the Prophets we see Christ
 In Joshua He is the Captain of my Salvation.  Ruth tells me He is my Kinsman Redeemer.  In Samuel He is my Prophet and in Kings and Chronicles He is my Sovereign God.  In Ezra He is my Faithful Scribe and in Nehemiah He rebuilds what the enemy has torn down.  In Esther He is the God who is always on time. 

In Job He is the the midst of my suffering and in Psalms he is the Song of my salvation.  Proverbs tells me His is wisdom and Ecclesiates reveals Him to be the meaning of life.  Song of Of Solomon presents Him as my beloved Bridgegroom.  Isaiah, the prince of the prophets, shows Him to be Holy God.  Jeremiah shows Him to be the one who weeps and Lamenatations, the one who mouurns.  Ezekiel shows him to be the Glory of God and Daniel tells me His is the fourth man in the fiery furnace.

Hosea shows Him to be the Faithful spouse and Joel shows me the Holy Spirit whom He would send to help.  Amos communicates Him as the Plumbline of Truth and Obadiah reveals Him as Humility against my pride.  Jonah reveals Christ as the one who died, buried and rose again, the Great Foreign Missionary coming to seek and save the Lost.  Micah tells me there is no God like Him and Nahum reveals His way in the whirl wind and the clouds to be the dust of His feet.  

Habbakkuk understands Him to answer my prayers and Zephaniah tells me that He rejoices over me with singing and quiets me with His love.  Haggai unfolds Him as the treasure of all nations and Zechariah shows the purpose of His first and second comings - to provide salvation and bring forth His glory.  Malachi, that great last prophet, tells of the time up to His first coming, and that He will come again as the Sun of Righteousness with Healing in His wings.  

From the Prophets to the Cradle we are led to meet Christ
After Malachi, 400 years passes, with heaven closed and no word from God.  Israel was awaiting the arrival of their King, their Messiah.  Then we come to Matthew and we find out that the long awaited Messiah would be born in Bethlehem's cradle.  By the time Christ would die on the cross, 109 propecies would be fulfilled.  The shadow of the cross was never far from the cradle. 

The Scarlet Thread's purpose in Christmas

Exodus 26:1 “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.

The Scarlet Thread that would bring about Christmas
Yesterday we talked about how God would use Judah, Jacob's grandson, to be the ancestor from which the humanity of the Savior would come on that first Christmas.  The idea of a "scarlet thread of redemption" signals God's intention of using a particular bloodline to accomplish His plan of salvation by the sending of the Savior.

The Scarlet Thread appears once again
As time marched onward from Judah, over 250 years would pass until the days of Moses and the nation of Israel in the book of Exodus.  Most are familiar with the Exodus out of Egypt.  The reason why God redeemed the people of God out of Egypt was so that they could worship Him in the wilderness.  In order to make this goal a reality, God revealed to Moses instructions for the building of a mobile worship center called "The tabernacle".

Many details were revealed - one of which included the materials making up the construction.  The Bible says that in the coverings for this worship center (which was really a tent of sorts), there was to be woven into much of the fabric fine linen dyed red or "scarlet". 

What the Scarlet Thread points to
Why was it that God wanted His worship center to have scarlet thread in its design?  because Scarlet thread would remind the people of God for the need of blood-bought salvation.  The scarlet thread, picturing redemption, also pointed the the price of redemption - blood.  The Jews would bring sacrifices for their sins, and the priests would represent them.  The whole worship system in the Old testament pointed to the time when the ulitmate sacrifice would be made by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Why the babe in the manger was born
Matthew 1:21 reveals why Jesus was called "Jesus": He shall be called Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins".  Jesus literally means: "The Lord saves".  Christ alone fulfilled the intentions of God's redemptive plan.  He alone completed the long line of the scarlet thread of redemption.  This is the chief purpose and meaning behind Christmas. 

The Scarlet Thread of Redemption

Genesis 38:28 Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”

The Scarlet Thread
In my Bible I have a red piece of yarn that I call "the scarlet thread".  The reason I have this yarn in my Bible is to remind me of the redemptive plan of God that took place in bringing the Savior to the world.  In several places in the Old Testament we find remarkable events and people that constituted the bloodline that God would use to bring about Christ's humanity.

Mankind is broken before God
In Genesis 38 we meet one of Jacob's sons - Judah.  Now Judah was a man who lived by his desires and by the moment.  Unlike his father Jacob, we never see Judah exhibit any major quantum leaps in the walk of faith.  In this chapter, we see hypocrisy, treachery, lies, immorality, intrigue, injustice and betrayal.  Judah's spiritual life was littered with the trash of the sin nature he inherited from his father going all the way back to Adam. (1 Peter 1:18)  Judah is a small picture of humanity in need of a Savior.  Little did he know that God was going to use his rebellion and unsavory decisions to Sovereignly work forth the bloodline of redemption.

The bloodline issuing from Judah to Christ
God's hand was upon and in history as He was preparing the way for the arrival of His Son on that first Christmas night.  When we compare the birth records of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, we discover some remarkable features:

-From Adam to Noah is ten generations
-From Shem, Noah's Son, to Abraham is ten generations
-From Judah, Abraham's great-grandson to King David of Israel is ten generations
-Judah and his wife Tamar here in Genesis 38 appear in Christ's geneaology in Matthew
-King David was of the tribe of Judah, which came from Judah the man here in Genesis 38
-The second major prophecy about Christmas was about Judah in Genesis 49:10

The Scarlet thread of redemption signals the hand of God in salvation
At the end of Genesis 38, after a series of shocking events, Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law, has twins by Judah.  The twisted set of events in this chapter underscore the falleness of man in need of a Savior.  As the twins are being born, the first one pops its hand out and the midwife ties on its wrist a scarlet thread.  Suddenly it goes back in and the little brother forces his way ahead and becomes the first born!  Just like grandfather Jacob - who steals the blessing from his older brother Esau, and just like great-grandfather Isaac whom God chose over the older brother Ishamael, God once again is working to remind man that He is charge. 

Only One who is both God and man could fix what man had broken before God
God was not and could not be twarted in bringing about that first Christmas.  God came through a broken humanity to redeem all who by grace through faith would believe on Him. (John 1:12-13).  A man, Adam, had broken things with God - thus God's justice demanded that man is responsible to fix what was broken.  Likewise, God and God alone could provide salvation - however God is too Holy to just right out forgive sinful man.  God took upon Himself humanity in order to satisfy both conditions. 

That little scarlet thread shows us that God's plan was continuing onward.  God was going to accomplish what He set out to do - to bring the Savior into the world. 

Why the Beloved Son was born

Genesis 37:18 When they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death.

Matthew 26:4 they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.

Why did Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, enter into time through a virgin's womb, develop his humanity for 9 months and begin his human life in a manger on that first Christmas night?  As we look at the accounts of Joseph and Jesus, the plots for both required that someone plot their death. 

A deadly plot against a beloved son
Joseph, the son who had been born to take away reproach, would be sent by his father to be rejected by his brothers.  He was now being plotted to die.  The brothers had enough.  They had went 20 miles North of where their father thought they were.  In Genesis 37:18 the beloved Son, sent by his father Israel, is sent on a mission to find the lost brothers.  Once he approached them, and once they saw him, they plotted against him to put him to death. 

The deadly plot against the beloved son - some remarkable parallels
As we saw in the opening verses of today's blog, Jesus Christ was also plotted to die.  In the plot of both sons, the name of the betrayer is identical.  In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament in Genesis 37:26, we read that it was Judah, one of the twelve brothers, who would suggest selling Joseph for silver. 

In Matthew 26:14, the Greek of the New Testament identifies a man by that same name, Judas.  Like Old Testament Judah, Judas was one of a group of twelve men.  Like Old Testament Judah, Judas Iscariot was looking for a good opportunity to betray the Beloved Son.  In both cases the timing was right.  In the case of Joseph, he was plotted to die and ended up living.  In the case of Jesus, he was plotted to die, was crucified, and then lived again.

Why the plot to die is essential to the meaning of Christmas
Like Joseph, Jesus was sold for a slaves price, weighed out in silver.  On and on the parallels go.  Are these accidents of history?  Hardly.  Rather these are marks of the mind of God behind both incidents.  Both incidents required a Sovereign God orchestrating event to where the beloved son would be plotted to die.  That plot is essential if Christmas is going to have any meaning and purpose.  A beloved Son, born to be rejected, would be plotted to die for the sins of the people. 

The Beloved Son Sent and Rejected

Genesis 37:3-4 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored tunic. 4His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.

John 1:11  He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

A beloved son of the father 
We read twice that Joseph was loved more than all of his brethren by his father.  This fact clearly caused animosity to arise against Joseph.  Then to add insult to injury, Joseph began to share a series of dreams that he had about himself and his family - dreams the depicted the family bowing down to him.  To hear that they were going to bow down to their youngest brother was just too much to bear. What was annoyance with a little brother quickly snowballed into outright hatred. 

A beloved son sent by the father to his brothers
Jacob, who is also called Israel, sends his beloeved son Joseph to check on his brothers who are supposed to be shepherding their father's flocks.  Since Joseph had a special relationship with his father, the Bible tells us that Jacob (israel) had made him a coat of many colors.  When Israel was ready to send his son, he called for him to get ready.  In Genesis 37:13, we see the sending off, and Joseph simply and voluntarily expressing his willingness to do the father's bidding. (Genesis 37:13).

God the Son, Eternally beloved by God the Father, was sent on that first Christmas
The Son loved the father, and did not go out of compulsion, but out of a willing love.  John 3:16 tells us familiar words regarding the Eternal Son doing His Father's will: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

Just as Joseph was sent to his brothers, who would ultimately reject him, Christ experienced the same exact thing.  In John 1:11 we read: "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him."  To further compound the level of rejection, we read in John 1:5 that the whole of humanity was in opposition to the One being sent to them. 

Thank the Lord for Christmas
Praise be to God for His grace.  Though God knew that the world and Jewish nation would reject Christ, He and the Son still followed through with the original plan of Christmas.  Saving grace was purchased and as a result, we read these words in John 1:12-13: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

Thus the logic of John follows the logic of Genesis 37: The Father sent His beloved Son to those who would reject and betray him.  Once again the awe of Christmas is inseperable from the agony of Calvary.  What seemed to be a mission frought with danger and risk would be accomplished and victorious.  Why?  Because the babe in the manger would prove to be the Beloved Son who would overcome death, hell and the grave.