why christmas - mike woodruff, christ church, il

7/30/2019 Why Christmas - Mike Woodruff, Christ Church, IL

1/11

Why Christmas Outline

Mike Woodruff, Christ Church, Lake Forest, IL

I. IntroductionA. One of the challenges of Christmas is that for many people it just jumpsout at you.

B. It just happens.C. I dont mean that you, Cant believe that its Christmas this year because itwas just last Christmas. Time flies. What happened to the fall?

1. That happens to be sure.D. But I mean that the Christmas story with angels and shepherds and a virginbirth they all just jump out at you. Void of any real context. Like a single pieceof a jig saw puzzle.

E. And so the nativity story is expected to stand on its own as a story when, infact, that was never the intention, because the Christmas story is actually onepiece of an unfolding drama the historical account of Gods provision for our

rescue.

F. This book - the Bible tells a story1. It does more than that.2. It contains songs and Psalms and prayers and moral instruction anddoctrinal reflection.

1

G. But it is primarily a narrative. A story. A drama. Aristotle said that any drama(Greek drama) needed a beginning, a middle and an end. Well, most English

teachers would modify that a bit and say that any good drama has four parts

1. A prologue in which the characters are introduced.2. A conflict that the characters face and which makes up the bulk ofthe story

3. A resolution, where you learn whose going to win.4. And then a conclusion a wrap up.

1Michael D. Williams,Far As The Curse is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption (P & R, p. x).


2/11

H. Well the challenge of Christmas is that the Christmas story is just one part ofthe conflict.

1. Its an important part its the introduction of the hero. But its not themost important part.

2. But it cant stand alone it only makes sense if youve been followingthe story.

I. And so tonight Id like to put some of the other pieces of the puzzle togetherso that this piece which some of you know pretty well makes a bit more sense.

II. And to do that I am going to briefly summarize this book.A. Christianity is a revealed religion.B. That means that God has revealed Himself to us.C. That revelation comes our way in three ways

1. The 1st way God tells us about Himself is through what He created.2. The most complete and incredible and wonderful way He has revealedHimself to us is through His Son

a) Who is God in the flesh.3. But the most detailed way we can learn about who God is and whatHe expects is through this book.

III.This Bible is a collection of 66 booksA. That was written over 1500 years in three different languages by over 40different authors living on three different continents.

B. It is divided into two parts1. The OT, sometimes called the Hebrew Bible, and the NT

C. The Old Testament itself is comprised of 39 books, but perhaps its morehelpful to see it as divided into three sections history, prophecy and writings

1. The history sections are mainly in the beginning but are interspersedthroughout and both because of the way the 39 books are arranged in the

OT and because some of the stories are repeated by different authors, the

Bible does not unfold chronologically.

2. The prophetic books which are mostly at t end of the OT are tinspirited thoughts & recorded speeches of those tapped 2 speak for G.


3/11


4/11

1. The prologue explains that the problems they have created areproblems that they can not fix.

2. But 1 day G will send One who can fix them. And this One, thisRescuer, will right t wrongs & defeat evil even at the cost of His life.

E. All of this and more is spelled out on the very first few pages of the Bible.1. In the prologue, which means that, if the Bible were a movie and youwalked in two minutes late, you would never understand whats going on.

V. What follows next in the drama is the conflict. Which unfolds through the story ofone family.

A. To make this as understandable as I can make it Im going to divide the dramainto five acts.

B. And because Act one is so long it spans the OT, covering about 1600 years Im going to further divide it into seven scenes.C. Scene one covers the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

1. The story begins in Genesis 12 right after the Prologue ends whenGod chooses Abram a semi-nomadic shepherd wandering about theFertile Crescent and promises Him that if he will leave his country and

go where he is sent that God will make him a great nation.

a) That He will bless him give him land & descendents & makehis name great in order that he & His descendents (Jews) will be

a blessing to the world.

2. Abraham takes God up on his offer. There are some problems - Abramhad no children at the time God called him and he didnt for some time

after the promise was made.

3. But God, who keeps His promises, takes care of all that & at theridiculously old age of 90, Abrams wife, Sarah, gives birth to a son.

4. Who eventually grows to be a man, marries and has twin boys - one ofwhom wrestles with God and has his name changed to Israel and who

then has 12 sons of his own who become the founders of the 2 tribes ofIsrael.

5. This all happens in the Book of Genesis, which ends when Israel andhis sons are saved from starvation by moving out of the Promised Land to

Egypt where one of Jacobs sons has become one of the leaders of theland.


5/11

D. Act 1, scene 1 ends well. Unfortunately, Act 1 scene 2 which is covered inthe Book of Exodus - opens poorly.

1. A new Pharaoh arose in Egypt one who knew not Joseph - & theJews the descendents of Jacob fall into slavery.

2. For 400 years they languish and suffer until finally God calls Moses toact as their liberator.

3. Moses doesnt initially want the job, but eventually leads the Jews tofreedom.

E. Scene 3 covers the recapturing of the promised land.1. As you can tell, I am leaving a lot of the drama out of the drama. Thereis a lot more that is happening in here but Im trying to help you see the

flow of the plot.

2. Scene 3 reports the activity of regaining much of the Promised Land which is told in the Book of Joshua

F. Scene 4 covers the era of the Judges - who are not legal scholars but warriors.1. During several hundred years the 12 tribes of Israel exist in a looseconfederacy. They occasionally cooperate under the leadership of a judge

against a common enemy, but basically doing their own thing.

2. The common refrain in this book is that, Every man did what wasright in their own eyes.

G. Scene 5 we are still in Act 1! scene five spans the period known as theUnited Kingdom

1. We watch as the Jews act against their best interest and demand anearthly king.

2. We watch as Saul gets tapped first and does a poor job. And then asDavid comes next and, though clearly flawed, is a brilliant leader who

unites Israel, expands its borders and fills the treasury.

3. We watch as things continue to go well under one of Davids sons,Solomon, but when Solomon diesH. We then watch as the kingdom divides this is Scene 6

1. There is an ugly power struggle and the country splits.2. Follow the divide the northern 10 tribes turn their back on God & it isnot long before they are overthrown by the Assyrians.


6/11

a) Which is the end of the story for them.3. And our attention then shifts to the southern two tribes, who arespiritually hot and cold before being overrun by the Babylonians & hauledoff into captivity themselves.

I. They remain in exile for 70 years this is scene 7.J. Before finally being allowed to return to Jerusalem around 536 BC andrebuild the wall and the temple

1. This is scene 8.2. It is discussed in the post-exilic (exile) books of Ezra & Nehemiah.

VI.Along the way the Jews learn some very important thingsA.

The Bible is a book of progressive revelation so as the Jews move from asmall family to a mighty nation and then divide and get overrun God is

teaching them along the way, revealing more and more of Himself.

B. One of the big revelations takes place in Exodus w/ the giving of the law, thruwhich He reveals:

1. His nature2. Explains how they should live. Helps them realize that they can notkeep the law that they are broken and need help.

3. Describes what they should do when they break the law.a) Which includes a blood sacrifice the death of an innocentthird party, b/c sin is a capital offense. That was the deal.

b) But an innocent third party throughout the OT it is some sortof animal can atone for the sins of a guilty party by dying in theguilty partys place.

C. A second thing we learn is more about the promised Rescuer.1. God made an initial promise the mother of all promises back in thePrologue. He is going to send a rescuer.

2. As time passes God reveals more and more about the One He issending. He tells us

a) What He will be like, where He will be born & what He willdo.


7/11

3. These are called prophecies and by some counts there are about 450prophecies about the Messiah in the OT

a) Predictions made hundreds of years in advance aboutcertain aspects of Christs life.

4. And they are remarkable arguments for the truthfulness of this bookand for the truthfulness of the plan.

5. Hey, its easy to make a prediction anybody can do it.6. It is an entirely different thing to be right.7. And it is more remarkable to make a very specific prediction and beright.

8. And it is even more remarkable to make a number of very specificpredictions and be right every time.

9. If I were to tell you the city in which the President of the United Stateswas going to be born in 100 years and I got it right, that would get your

attention.

a) Especially if, I didnt say, LA or NY or Orlandob) You could play the odds pick a big city in a state with a lot ofelectoral votes and be better off than if you picked some obscuretown in North Dakota with 3 electoral votes

10.But lets imagine that I picked the small town and was right. Thatwould be something. Well, that is exactly what Micah did 700 years

before Christ was born.

11.He said that Bethlehem a little, backwater village outside ofJerusalem would give birth to The Ruler.

12.I read this week about a math class that figured the odds for Bethlehembeing right and after factoring in a few variables they decided it was 1 in

300,000.

13.That is pretty remarkable. But it becomes outlandish when you start tocalculate the odds that the same person is going to fulfill a bunch of otherprophecies. Including a number over which he would have no control.

a) Like what tribe hed be born tob) Or what would happen to his body after he died.

14.As I said, there are hundreds of OT clues about the Messiah.


8/11

15.And Christ fulfills all of them.16.A professor at Westmont College had 600 different students work onfiguring out the probabilities on of one person fulfilling 8 of the majorprophecies

a) He decided that a conservative number was 1 x 10^17 th.b) Or, roughly the same as if you buried the state of Texas 2 deepin silver dollars, marked one and gave a blindfolded person one

chance to pull out the right one.

c) This is for 8 of the 400+ prophecies17.There has been a cash reward available for forty years for anyone whocan find anyone living or dead, other than Christ who fulfills 24 of the

prophecies about Christ.2

D. As the Old Testament goes on we learn more about God and more about theOne He will send.

VII. Well, Act 1 ends in the 4th century BC & is followed by an intermissionA. If this were a play the next scene would contain a bit of an update. It wouldstate that:

1. It is now 400 years later2. And that during the last 400 years the fortune of the Jews hascontinued to rise and fall, but mostly fall

3. They enjoyed a bit of freedom after their exile in Babylon but thenAlexander the G conquered the world & they lived under Greek rule

4. And then the Romans took over and they had become a small,backwater part of the Roman Empire.

5. At this point they are:a) An insignificant player in the first century worldb) With a non Jewish kingc) A heavy tax burdend) A major division between their own religious leaders,

2Josh McDowell,Evidence that Demands a Verdict, 9. 175.


9/11

e) And little hope for the future because God has been silent for400 years.

VIII. And then.the curtain is lifted for Act 2 we see an old man named Zechariah, apriest who has been chosen from among the priests to make the sacrifice in the temple.

A. And as he does the Lord breaks the silence and speaks to him through theangel Gabriel and says that He was going to give Zechariah and his wife a child

who will be great and will call people back to God and point to the One to come.

B. And then that same angel visited Mary a young women recently engaged.He tells her that though she is a virgin she will give birth to the Son of God.

C. And then in Luke 2 and Matthew 1 & 2 we read the account of the birth ofthe Christ child.

D. It is here in Luke 2, which is Act 2 scene 2 of the drama that our piece ofthe puzzle fits.

E. And as I said, its an important piece angels, virgin birth, wise men, stars ithas some human interest.

F. But the piece by itself doesnt pack nearly the punch that it does when youhave been following the story

1. Then you see that this is the piece that everyone has been looking for.2. This is the piece that starts to pull everything together.

G. As promised thousands of years earlier, the Rescuer has arrived.1. God Himself the second member of the Trinity who has existedfrom eternity past is suiting up for battle

a) He is taking on a human body in order to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

H. What Christmas does is introduce the hero.I. And then we get to watch as the rest of the story plays out.

1. Now not much happens for a while Christs early years are quiet2. There are a few clues and confirmations about how special he is.3. And then He turns 30 and the public ministry begins.4. And we look on as:


10/11

a) He is tempted by the devilb) Calls his disciplesc) Begins to travel & teach & care for the poor & heal the sick.

5. And we watch as the crowds begin to gathera) Rumors start to circulate as to who He really isb) He plays very coy because the political and militaryexpectations for the Messiah are very strong and He has no

intention of fulfilling them.

6. He begins to make bolder and bolder statements.7. The disciples clue in more and more8. He takes a few of them aside and lets them see Him in His glory

a) There is a transfiguration in which His deity is not veiled.9. And then, as Passover approaches, He marches towards Jerusalemwhere He knows that He will die as the Passover Lamb for our sins.

J. You see, it all leads to the cross. Which is the biggest piece of the puzzle.1. Christianity is not primarily about the manger. It is primarily about thecrucifixion.

K. Jesus was born to die.1. Now His death was shocking at the time a huge surprise to thosewho were there.

a) They didnt get it. Hadnt been able to see it in the context thatwe have.

2. Hadnt understood how the prophecies, like Isaiah 53 which spoke ofHis suffering and death for others were to be understood.

3. They didnt yet understand that His virgin birth was to keep Him freefrom the stain of sin that infects everyone else so He would be theperfect sacrifice.

4. Whose death was not required of his own sin, so he was free to die forus.

5. Able to shed His blood to satisfy the justice of God.


11/11

L. They didnt see that at first.M.But when he came back from the dead another big piece of the puzzle theystarted to see the whole picture for what it was.

N. And after his final instructions & ascension into heaven it was all clear.IX.Which led into Act 3

A. The birth of the church His church. His followers who were commissionedto tell His story.

B. This church started in an upper room in Jerusalem. It spilled out into the streetin Acts 2 and has been expanding every since.

C. In fact it is still going. We are living in Act 31.

It is unfolding before our eyes.

2. We are for better or worse helping to write the story.D. Though the plot line has been clearly established, because the author of thisdrama has made it clear that there are two more Acts to follow.

E. In Act 4 Christ will return1. The one who came as a baby will come back as a King.

a) To set things rightb) To make things newc) And to judge the world

F. And then Act 51. Which we either spend with God or forever separated from Him.

X. That, my friends, is the whole storyA. You are right to get excited about this one piece of the puzzle because itpulls together so many others.

B. As C.S. Lewis wrote, J is the chapter on which the plot turns.C. But be sure to celebrate the whole story. Jesus didnt come to give us a yearend party. He came to die in our place and give us eternal life.

D. If that is a present you want to unwrap, then you need to follow Him.

why christmas - mike woodruff, christ church, il

Documents