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This season of the year is called “Advent,” which means, “coming.”
It is the time where we prepare our hearts to celebrate and receive Jesus even more deeply as our Savior.
I’ll be honest, I’m not always ready for Christmas when it gets here. If you’re scrambling at the last minute, it doesn’t always turn out well, either. You know what I mean? You can’t think of what to get, or the store is out of it, or you don’t have time to wrap it… etc. You’re Just not ready.
Ask my wife, she’ll tell you about last minute gifts, and she better not tell you about the lucky bamboo I got her that was not a big hit.
ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?
God gave lots of forethought to Christmas: He had a plan.
God’s timing was amazing. His planning was amazing.
Daniel 9:21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
22 He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.
23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.
The word translated “weeks” means in Hebrew “a group of 7.” It is often used to refer to a group of 7 years.
The idea is that there will be 69 groups of 7 between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus, when he is revealed as the Messiah, and then he will die...
> The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given in:
Nehemiah 2:1-8 Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" ...And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, I ask that you send me to Judah, that I may rebuild it." ...So it pleased the king to send me... I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region ... and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams ... And the king granted them to me.... in the month of Nisan, the 20th year of Artaxerxes.”
This was on Nisan 1, 444 BC. (This is March 5, 444 BC.)
Now, we have to carefully calculate to make sure we are accurate. The way we calculate time has changed in the last 2,000 years... so we need to start by converting their years to ours.
> 69 sets of 7 years = 483 years.
> Prophetic years in the OT are always based on a 360 day year, since that was the way they calculated time. But we have to adjust it for our time calculations, since we calculate with a 365 day year.
> So we multiply 69 “weeks” X 7 X 360 days per year = 173,880 days, then divide it by 365.
> This equals 476 years in our system.
Now we have to calculate down to the exact day... and to do that, we have to adjust for leap years, right?
> Multiply 476 years X 365.242198 (adjusting for leap years.)
> This gives us a day count of 173,855 days between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and Daniel’s prophecy.
> This brings us to an exact date of March 30 (Nisan 10 on the Jewish calendar), AD 33.
> This is the date of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
5 days later, Jesus was crucified.
What does this mean?
Don’t panic, or get impatient – God knows the future, he’s in charge, and he can handle your problems.
1. Faith.
The one who were waiting and found the Messiah were ready because they were believing God's promise, in spite of the delays in its coming.
Luke 2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.
Here's a guy who was ready when Christmas showed up... he had spent years believing and following the Lord's voice in his heart... knowing that GOd's savior was going to show up at the right time.
Do you need to believe that God will be with your family? That He will be especially close at this Christmas season? That he will help you and your family solve some of the tensions that show up this time of year?
Do you need to believe that He can help you conquer some of the sins that you have struggled with? Do you need to believe he really loves you, no matter what you’ve done? That he has come to you in Christmas, no matter what your past is like? That he can heal your relationships? That he can give you real peace?
Do you need to believe that God will be close, and show up in your Christmas?
2. Humility.
Luke 2:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
The angels came… and without them, people wouldn’t have known. But notice who they came to. The humblest and lowest.
They didn’t come to the arrogant, rich, powerful.
3. Repentance.
Luke 5:32 I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Romans 2:4 … do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
“Let every heart prepare him room…”
How does that work?
There are some things that in your quiet moments, in your honest moments, you know are crowding out your time with God. In your more honest moments, you know that they are crowding out Christ.
They have become, maybe quietly, subtly, more important than he… and when he tries to show up this Christmas, there will be a sign on your hearts’ door saying, “NO ROOM.” Not because you hate him, but because you’ve put other things before Him.
There’s only one way to change that. Repentance. Godly sorrow for having kept him out of his rightful place. A readiness to see things God’s way, a change of thinking, a quickness to agree with God.
That’s repentance, and it keeps you ready for Christmas.
Perhaps you’ve let things pile up that you really don’t want to talk to God about.
Talk to Him. Repent. Get ready for Christmas.
4. Awe.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
I don’t want to sound too cheesy. But there’s something neat about watching the awe of little children at Christmas, isn’t there? The big eyes, the excitement, the expectation.
Sometimes, I think it’s a shame that we lose that. Somewhere along the line, we get so in awe of the things that the world can do with it’s technology, and fame and money… we get so plugged into those values, that we lose the awe of redemption – the story of a Christ who comes to the lowest, and humblest and comes to completely restore and save the world from sin.
The new catches our attention, the old becomes commonplace.
There’s a reason why the Bible says, that we must “become like little children” if we are going to enter the Kingdom of God.
I don’t ever want to lose the awe, the wonder, the emotion, the rawness of what Christmas is. God came to me, when I couldn’t go to Him.
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HANDOUT
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This season of the year is called “_____________________,” which means, “_____________________.” It is the time where we prepare our hearts to celebrate and receive Jesus even more deeply as our Savior.
ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS?
God gave lots of forethought to Christmas: He had a plan.
Daniel 9:21 while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
22 He instructed me and said to me, "Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.
23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
24 "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
25 "Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.
The idea is that there will be 69 groups of __ between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus, when he is revealed as the Messiah.
> The decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given in:
Nehemiah 2:1-8 Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" ...And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, I ask that you send me to Judah, that I may rebuild it." ...So it pleased the king to send me... I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region ... and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams ... And the king granted them to me.... in the month of Nisan, the 20th year of Artaxerxes.”
This was on Nisan 1, 444 BC. (This is _______________________, 444 BC.)
Now, we have to carefully calculate to make sure we are accurate:
> 69 sets of 7 years = _________________ years.
> Prophetic years in the OT are always based on a 360 day year, since they used a lunar calendar. First we need to adjust to a 365 day year.
> So we multiply 69 X 7 X 360 days per year = 173,880 days, then divide it by 365… This equals _____________ years.
Now we have to adjust for leap years.
> Multiply 476 years X 365.242198 (adjusting for leap years.)
> This gives us a day count of 173,855 days between the decree to rebuild Jerusalem and Daniel’s prophecy.
> This brings us to an exact date of ___________________ (Nisan 10 on the Jewish calendar), AD 33.
> This is the date of Jesus’ ___________________________ into Jerusalem.
What does this mean?
Don’t _______________, or get impatient – God ______________ the future, he’s in _____________, and he can handle your ________________.
So how can I prepare my heart for Christmas?
1. _____________________.
Luke 2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts.
What do you need to ask God for faith to believe this Christmas?
2. __________________________.
Luke 2:8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
Do you need to humble yourself to be ready for Christmas?
3. ________________________.
Luke 5:32 I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Romans 2:4 … do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
“Let every heart ______________________________________…”
Do you need to make a list of things that need repentance in your life?
4. _____________________.
John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Have you sat down and let the old story become new to you again? Do you need to re-start the “wonder” about Christmas again?
