The Full Christmas Story: Part 1

Today is December 10, 2023, and that means that it won’t be long before the presidential primaries where each party selects its representative. Then, in less than a year, we will have our next presidential election, after which the main problems in your life will be solved.

I hope and assume you realize what a joke that statement is. And yet, there are many people in this country who feel as if a presidential election will be life changing. They may not say it out loud, but through their actions and their emotions and maybe even their social media posts, the message is: "If only a new candidate or a new party would come to power, my life will dramatically improve!”

That sentiment is laughable and pitiful. If your greatest hope for a better life is tied to an election cycle, your priorities are completely misaligned, and your perception of reality has been greatly distorted.

Sadly, we see the same kind of distortion every year at Christmas. We are told by the culture that Christmas is a magical season of peace and hope and joy and love, but many times those ideals aren’t connected to or based in reality.

We’re told to have peace and love and joy simply because it’s a season of peace and love and joy, or because that’s what we see in the movies or in the lives of little children who believe in fairy tales.

Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with emotion, but as Christians, we need to know that real joy and love and peace and hope are rooted in something much more significant than sentimentality. We celebrate Christmas ultimately, not because we like snow, or lights, or trees, or presents. We celebrate Christmas because it is a reminder of the most significant event in human history.

The infinite and eternal God, the second member of the Trinity, became flesh. We call that the miracle of the incarnation, and it is literally the basis of our modern calendar system.

The coming of Jesus is not a fairy tale, and it is not simply a story about a sweet little baby and his poor parents. We cannot allow our own hearts or the hearts of our children to place the story of Jesus at the same level as the fictional stories of a drummer boy or a talking snowman or flying reindeer.

The coming of Christ into this world is the central event of human history. Why is it so significant? Why is it such a big deal? In my opinion, the best way to answer that question is to go back to the beginning of human history. The full Christmas story started way before an angel visited Mary, and it has continued far beyond the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

So, for today and for the next three Sundays, Lord willing, we are going to be walking through the full story of Christmas. We’re going to cover thousands of years in four weeks because if we really want to understand and celebrate the significance of the birth of Jesus, we need to know the whole story.

With that, I invite you turn your Bible to the beginning, Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. It’s probably numbered page 1. The opening verse of the Bible says: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We learn from that statement that this world is not eternal. It has not been here forever. The only eternal, uncreated “thing” in the universe is God. And He is the One who made everything else that exists, whether we see it or not.

Biblically, we only have hints of what was happening before creation, but there was an eternal God, made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they lived in perfect love and infinite glory.

For His own glory, God created the universe. In six days, God created light and energy. He created space and our atmosphere. He created the oceans. He created dry land and vegetation like trees and flowers. He created the planets and the stars. He created the sun and the moon and the stars. He created the animals that live in the sea and fly in the sky and move along the ground. It was all perfect and good.

But God’s greatest and culminating act of creation was the final one. God did something special and unique for His own glory. Look with me at Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. [28] And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God, who is the King of all creation, decided that for His glory, He would allow this planet to be filled with and ruled by royal beings who represent Him upon the earth. This is what it means to be human. You and I, men and women, young and old, were made in the image of God, and we were placed here to reflect and to magnify the God who made us.

What does the word image mean? It means something that resembles or represents or points to something else. Some of you might have ornaments on your trees or frames on your walls with pictures of people you love. That picture is an image. It directs your mind to the people whose likeness is shown.

God decided that His eternal and infinite Kingdom would be represented through an earthly kingdom—a world ruled by mankind acting as God’s representatives. So, if you wanted to know what God was like, you could look at humanity and see his heart in the way that mankind relates to the world and to one another.

As we go through the story of mankind, I want to highlight for you some key component or themes, and the first theme is this: The Design of Mankind. The Design of Mankind.

Most people go through life not really thinking about some higher purpose. They just want to live life, avoid inconveniences, and maximize their idea of joy.

But the Bible gives us a much greater calling. We were created by God and called to represent Him on the earth. We were placed here to give glory to God as this world flourishes and prospers. God is to be glorified in marriage and in family and in all the wonderful aspects of culture. Mankind is called to represent God on the Earth. That’s the design.

In Psalm 8, David humbly reflects on God’s power and man’s position in creation when he says—O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens… When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Mankind was created with a wonderful and glorious responsibility over the earth. We were given authority over this planet, so that we would reflect the love and character of God.

At the end of Genesis chapter 2, verse 25, we are told that the man and his wife were both naked and unashamed. We understand that literally, but figuratively it also expresses that they were completely innocent with no relational or emotional barriers between them. They were ready to live out their calling as God’s perfect representatives.

It would have been nice if the next verse said, “And they lived happily ever after, filling the earth for the glory of God.” But that’s not what it says, and it is not what happened.

This bring us to a second theme we see in the story of mankind, which is The Downfall of Man. The Downfall of Man.

It doesn’t take us very long to see that mankind is not going to be able to live up to its calling. In Genesis chapter 3, Satan, the enemy of God, deceives the woman into disobeying God, and the man follows. This was the entrance of sin into the world. God’s design was rejected, and His commands were ignored.

This rebellion against God brought disastrous consequences. It led to an alienation from God. It led to shame. It led to hiding. It led to blaming. It led to a broken relationship between the man and his wife. And it led to God pronouncing a curse on the world.

Filling the earth and subduing it would no longer be characterized by joy and ease. The world would now be characterized by difficulty and sorrow and pain. Submitting to your husband would be painful. Loving and leading your wife would be painful. Having kids would be painful. Growing crops would be painful. And rather than live forever, mankind would face death. This is the physical picture of the downfall.

As Romans 5 puts it—Sin came into the world through one man, and death [came] through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… Death reigned.

It is no longer mankind that rules over the earth. Death reigns. The kingdom God designed was broken. It no longer lives up to its original design.

And even to today, this is the situation in which you and I find ourselves. This world is messed up in all sorts of ways. We have physical diseases bringing pain and death. We have droughts and famines. We global conflicts with nations going to war. And we have interpersonal conflicts with one another.

On a more personal basis, think about whether you are fulfilling your calling as a royal representative of God on this earth. Are the love of God, and the compassion of God, and the holiness of God, perfectly displayed in your own life? Are they upheld in your sexual purity? Or in your relationship with your wife or with your husband? What about in the way you raise your children? Older brothers and sisters, what about in the way you treat your younger brothers and sisters? What about in the way you treat your neighbors, and your coworkers, and your bosses, and your friends? As a royal representative of God, are you perfectly showcasing His holiness and love and compassion?

I know the answer already. You’re not. That’s because you are a horrible human being. That sounds harsh, but that’s an appropriate way to put it when we consider the purpose or the design of mankind.

If a knife is dull, it can’t do the job it was intended to perform. The same is true with mankind. The image of God has been marred. The photo has faded. The contours of the statue have eroded. Mankind can no longer perfectly fulfill the design God gave him, and that brings God’s judgment, both physically in death and eternally in judgment.

But in cursing the man and the woman and the earth, God also pronounced a curse upon Satan, and it came in the form of a prophecy. This leads us to our third theme in the full story of Christmas—The Deliverance of Man. The Deliverance of Man.

Look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. These are the words of God to Satan, the serpent of old—I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

From that day forward, there would be a constant struggle between the children of God and the children of Satan. But one day, through the woman, a Man will come into this world who will be attacked and afflicted by Satan, but who will bruise Satan’s head. In other words, He will destroy Satan decisively. Satan brought a curse upon this world and upon mankind, but one day, a Man, the seed of a woman, will destroy him.

This is the true and enduring hope of mankind, and it began with Adam and Eve. They have their first son, and Eve responds with optimism in Genesis 4:1. She exclaims—I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Before that time, every single human was created directly by God, but now, a human came into the world from the woman, and many more children would come in the generations that followed. Which of those sons would be the promised Rescuer?

It wasn’t Cain, Eve’s first son. He turned out to be a murderer. Genesis 5 gives us a list of more men, but that chapter is marked by death as well. Every description of a man’s life ends with the phrase “and he died” except for Enoch, but He was taken to heaven. So still, the people wait in hope. They are waiting for a deliverer, a fulfilment of God’s promise.

About 850 years after Adam, there comes a man named Lamech who is especially hopefully and confident. Look at Genesis 5, verses 28 and 29. It says—When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”

Lamech is confident that this son will be the one to undo the curse on the earth. He will bring us relief or rest, which is what the name Noah means.

The downfall of man resulted in widespread violence and rebellion, but Noah trusted in God. And what do you do when your phone or your computer freezes up? What do you do when something isn’t working the way it was designed? What’s the most common solution to the problem? You turn it off and you turn it back on. You need to restart it.

And that is exactly what God does with Noah. The downfall of man resulted in God killing every person on the planet in a global flood, saving only Noah and his three sons and their wives. Jump over to Genesis chapter 9. When the flood is complete, and the waters have retreated, Noah steps out of the ark, and God repeats what He said at creation.

Genesis chapter 9, verse 1—And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Apart from the added blessing of eating meat, God gives Noah the same charge and the same calling as Adam. Be fruitful, multiple, fill the earth, have dominion, for the glory of God. The design hasn’t changed, but we’re starting all over again.

Was Noah the start of a new mankind that would fulfill its calling to walk in righteousness in accordance with the holiness and love of God? Was he the promised Redeemer or Deliverer of mankind? No, and we see that very soon afterward. Noah gets drunk and disgraces himself. And when he wakes up, he curses one of his sons for his wickedness. The downfall is still there. There’s a bug in the programming.

Generations go by, nations are formed among Noah’s descendants, but the people refuse to spread out over the earth. They made life about themselves rather than about obeying and representing and giving glory to God. So, God brings another judgment. He confuses their languages forcing them to spread out. Things don’t look good. Nations have been formed, but the divine instruction that began with Adam were forgotten. Nations were serving gods that they had invented.

The deliverance of man, however, wasn’t lost or forgotten. The hope of mankind remained, not because of man but because of God. God decided to form a new nation that would see this hope forward. This nation would be His kingdom on the earth.

Turn with me to Genesis 12, verse 1. God calls a man named Abram whom we now know as Abraham. Look at Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. [2] And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. [3] I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Through Abraham, a new nation will be formed, and through that nation, the global curse will turn into a global blessing. Deliverance is coming, and it’s coming through Abraham.

Now, in order to turn one man into a nation, one of the things you need is a land for that nation to live in. And so, God sends Abraham to a new land.

At the end of Genesis 13, Abraham arrives at the land, and God says to him—Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”

So now we have the hope of Abraham starting to be fleshed out. Land and descendants have been promised to him. But what makes God’s promise special is that some of Abraham’s descendants will be royalty. The royal calling of this nation will be expressed corporately, but it will also be expressed personally through a king.

Jump over to Genesis 17, and let’s see what God says to Abraham in verse 6. Genesis 17:6.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

This is an amazing promise! God is going to bless the world through a nation that will come from Abraham. And as the story continues, the line of Abraham grows, but God specifies His promise a little at a time.

Jump down to verse 19, and you’ll see that God names one of Abraham’s sons.

Genesis 17:19. Abraham doubted he and Sarah could have a son, but God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

The hope of Abraham passes on to become the hope of Isaac. The scope is being narrowed just a little bit. And it gets narrowed again in the next generation because the promise passes to Isaac’s son Jacob. Listen to what God says to Jacob in Genesis 28:13—I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

In other words, “I have not forgotten My promise to your father and grandfather. I will fulfill my word through you, Jacob. Deliverance will come.”

As many of you know, God gave Jacob the new name Israel, and he was blessed with 12 sons. The final part of Genesis focuses on a son of Jacob named Joseph. And while he is a good man, he is not the one from whom the final deliverance will come.

Go with me to Genesis chapter 49—almost the end of the book. Genesis 49, verse 8. Jacob is dying, and God gives him a blessing to bestow on his sons. This is what Jacob says to Judah, his fourth son.

Genesis 49:8—Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

What does that mean? It means that the hope and the deliverance of mankind is going to come through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, and now through Judah. From the line of Judah, a lion will come. A king will come who will rule over the earth and fulfill God’s promise, not just to Abraham, but to Adam and Eve. And so, as more and more generations pass, God faithfully preserves the sons of Jacob, also known as the nation of Israel, because through them a Savior will come to rule the earth and conquer Satan and undo the curse.

As many of you know, the sons of Jacob end up in Egypt because of Joseph. And there, their numbers grow. They start with about 70 people, but over the course of 430 years, they grow to about 2 million. Now, they are a nation, but they need to go back to the Land, and they need to be instructed to be God’s special nation.

The leader that God provides is a man named Moses. Through Moses, God leads the nation out of slavery in Egypt and He gives them His law so that they can represent God on the earth.

Listen to God’s message to Israel in Exodus 19:5-6—Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

What an Amazing promise! What Adam failed to do, and what Noah failed to do, Israel was now being called to do. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden separating themselves from God, but now God was going to dwell with His people again. This special nation was called to represent God upon the earth. They were called to fulfill God’s design.

Did they do that perfectly? No. Over and over again, they fail. We see the downfall of man again and again. But God stays faithful to His promises; deliverance will come.

In Numbers 24:17, we find another reminder of this promise, even though it’s from the mouth of a wicked man. Speaking through a man named Balaam, God says—A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. Edom shall be dispossessed; Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly. And one from Jacob shall exercise dominion and destroy the survivors of cities!

At that time, Israel still hadn’t made it to the Promised Land, but God reminded them that they would be victorious. A king would come to give them victory over their enemies.

I have one final passage I’d like you to turn to with me, and that is Deuteronomy 34. It’s the fifth book of the Bible, and the final chapter describing the life of Moses. Moses was not from the tribe of Judah. So, even though God used him in a special and mighty way, Moses was not the promised Deliverer the world was waiting for. But, his life did give us a picture of what it would be like to be under a great leader.

Look with me at Deuteronomy 34, verse 10. This is describing the Israelites after the death of Moses. Deuteronomy 34:10—And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

This was Israel’s hope and expectation. How amazing would it be if we could see a new Moses—a prophet who speaks the truth of God teaching the people, a man who performs miracles helping and providing for the people, a leader who frees the people from the tyranny of wickedness, a Savior who undoes the downfall and the destruction of mankind! When will He come?

I hope to continue the story of mankind next week, but what a blessing to already have the answer. We know who the Deliverer is. It’s Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the new Moses, the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Corporately and individually, we have fallen so far from the design and purpose of God. We can’t live up to our calling. We have been corrupted too much, and we deserve the judgment of God.

But God has given us the only answer to the wickedness in ourselves and the wickedness in the world. It is His Son Jesus Christ. He is the one, true Deliverer.

The solution to this world’s problems is not going to come from any election. It’s not going to come by us trying harder to do better. It only comes to us in Jesus Christ who came to this earth to conquer sin, and who will come again to make His victory final. May the people of God wait for Him again in peace and love and joy.