Soon It Will Be Christmas Day – Part 3 December 23, 2001
INTRODUCTION
In Pleasantville, USA, there has never been any rain.
There has never been hatred, aggression or tears.
In Pleasantville, USA, there has never been a passionate kiss.
There has never been a flat tire, a red rose or a work of art.
Until now. (From movieweb.com/movie/pleasantville)
Those are the words from a trailer for the 1998 movie “Pleasantville.”
The story revolves around a teenager named David Wagner - a present day kid who is hooked on the 1950s. He spends most of his time watching reruns of a classic black and white television show called "Pleasantville," set in a simple place where everyone is swell and life is pleasingly pleasant.
But one evening, life takes a bizarre twist when a peculiar repairman gives him a strange remote control, which zaps David and his sister, Jennifer, straight into Pleasantville.
They find themselves cast as members of the TV family, the Parkers. David has become "Bud" and Jennifer has been transformed into "Mary Sue," and they are surrounded by the black and white suburbia that once kept David glued to the tube for hours.
It doesn’t take long for them to discover that there’s no news, weather or sports when you’re living in a black and white paradise where everything is always...pleasant. The sun always shines, every player on the high school basketball always makes every shot, and nobody ever questions why things are always so perfect.
But then Jennifer brings her present day attitudes into this unsuspecting environment.
Long repressed desires begin to boil up through the people of Pleasantville, changing their lives in strange ways that none of them had even dared to dream of… And when this happens, the people begin to appear in bright, vivid, living color.
Everything in Pleasantville was black and white until they received a visit from two kids who had lived in the real world.
For the past two Sundays we’ve considered some predictions in the Bible concerning someone the Jews called “the Messiah.” Messiah just means “anointed one” or “specially chosen one.”
But the truth is, the people who first heard the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament only saw the Messiah in black and white. They had marvelous clues, but not all of the details. So they anxiously waited for the Messiah’s arrival - the first Christmas Day – when everything would be clear and they could see the Messiah in living color.
One man had received a promise from God that he would meet the Messiah before he died. Luke 2 tells us about him.
Read 2:25-26
25Now 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. 26It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Simeon is a senior citizen. An elderly gentleman. He’s seen many years come and go. He was just a boy when the Roman Empire took control of Palestine almost 60 years prior to this incident in Luke 2. He undoubtedly remembers the way Pompey, the Roman general, conquered Jerusalem after a 3-month siege of the temple area, massacring Jewish priests in the performance of their duties and then entering the Most Holy Place. This sacrilege began Roman rule in a way that Jews could neither forgive nor forget. He’s even lived through the changes that have occurred because of Roman rule.
But still, after seeing all this change and all of the bloody destruction in his homeland through the years of his life, Simeon remains a man of hope. Verse 25 says that, “He was waiting for the consolation of Israel,” that is, the comfort, the relief that the Messiah would bring to his people. He most definitely remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah, words that had gone through his mind every day for many years, words that the composer Handel would later carefully put to the music of The Messiah,
“Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned” (Isaiah 40:1-2)
Simeon longed to see this comfort come to his beloved city of Jerusalem. Especially because of the promise he had received that he would not die before he had seen the Christ.
Luke 2 goes on to say…
READ Luke 2:27-32
27Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
Simeon had heard the prophecies concerning the Messiah all his life. But these predictions were only in black and white.
And then he met the baby Jesus – a kid from the real world of heaven – he saw in Color! The details were beginning to get filled in.
TRANSITION: What were these prophecies Simeon had heard?
The Old Testament is filled with predictions about the Messiah. Amazing predictions. For one, it predicts his…
Type of arrival
How would the Messiah arrive? Would he just be dropped from the sky? No. Back in the Garden of Eden God predicted that the Messiah would be born of a woman. Here it is in black and white as spoken to the serpent….
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Vague, but we get to see it in color. Galatians 4:4…
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law (Galatians 4:4)
Realizing that the Messiah would be born of a woman, The Old Testament also predicted his…
Type of birth
More than 600 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah said...
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)
The Messiah would be born of a virgin. How could that be when you only see it in black and white. Matthew 1 allows us to see it in color…
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit…. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. (Matthew 1:18f)
The Old Testament even offered a prediction about the Messiah’s…
Ancestry
In Genesis 22 Abraham was promised that through (his) offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (Genesis 22:18)
Genesis 49 predicts that
The scepter will not depart from Judah (Genesis 49:10)
And in 2 Samuel God promises David I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom….forever (2 Samuel 7:12)
All in black and white. But we read in color Matthew chapter 1:
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David (from the tribe of Judah), the son of Abraham: (Matthew 1:1, 3, 6)
If that weren’t enough, even the Messiah’s place of birth was predicted!
Place of birth
Around 700 B.C., Micah 5:2 boldly stated…
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
Pretty clear, but still in black and white. Exactly who would this be? The opening words of the 2nd chapter of Matthew gives us color when they say…
…Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea… (Matthew 2:1)
The Old Testament also gives a black and white picture of the type of reception the Messiah would receive…
Type of reception
Psalm 72 says…
The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
will bring tribute to him;
the kings of Sheba and Seba
will present him gifts. (Psalm 72:10)
In color we know these words from Matthew 2:
On coming to the house, (the Magi from the East) saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)
The Old Testament predicts a rather unusual post-birth event in Jeremiah 31:
Post-birth event
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because her children are no more.” (Jeremiah 31:15)
Matthew 2 fills in the colorful details…
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (Matthew 2:16)
An event that certainly would have led to great mourning and weeping.
The predictions don’t end with things about the Messiah’s birth. They even gave some clues about his…
Type of mission
Black and white - Isaiah 35 says…
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy. (Isaiah 35:5-6)
Color - Matthew 9 tells us…
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. (Matthew 9:35)
Black and white – Malachi 3
Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come. (Malachi 3:1)
Color – Matthew 21
Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. (Matthew 21:12-13)
Some of the most amazing of all predictions about the Messiah concern his…
Type of death
The 53rd chapter of Isaiah gives incredible information about the
Messiah. Saying he…
(Isaiah 53:2-12)
1. Was rejected
2. Was a man of sorrow
3. Lived a life of suffering
4. Was despised by others
5. Carried our sorrow
6. Was smitten and afflicted by God
7. Was pierced for our transgressions
8. Was wounded for our sins
9. Suffered like a lamb
10. Died with the wicked
11. Was sinless
12. (In his death) Prayed for others
And just as amazing, hundreds of years before crucifixion was even imagined or practiced, the Old Testament refers to the Messiah concerning the…
13. Piercing of his hands and feet (Ps. 22:16; Luke 23:33)
14. Piercing of his side (Zech. 12:10; John 19:34)
15. Casting of lots for his garments (Ps. 22:18; John 19:23-24)
Of course this was all in black and white since no one new about driving nails in someone’s hands and feet and pinning them to a cross.
The gospels record the details in color.
Matthew 26-27; Mark 15-16; Luke 22-23; John 18-19
And then there is that mysterious black and white reference to a post-death event in Psalm 16.
Post-death event
Which says…
You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let
your Holy One see decay. (Psalm 16:10)
And in color the angel said…
Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. (Mark 16:6)
It should be abundantly clear that God kept his promises in Jesus.
There are over 300 promises in all relating to the Messiah in the Old Testament that Simeon would have heard. Could someone just accidentally line up with 300 different predictions? That would be quite a coincidence!
Illus - Two guys were in a bar. After a while, they started chatting with one another. One guy said, "Where are you from?" The other replied, "I am from Pittsburgh." The first guy said, "Really, I am from Pittsburgh too.”
“What high school did you attend?”
The second guy said, “Lincoln High.”
“Are you kidding me? I went to Lincoln High too! What year did you graduate?”
The second guy said, “1978.”
“Me too! This is unbelievable. Where did you live?"
He said, "I lived at 463 Elm Street."
He said, "That is absolutely amazing to me! I lived at 463 Elm Street."
All of the sudden, the phone rang. It was the bartender’s wife. She said, "Anything going on?" He said, "No. It is a slow night. Except the Johnson twins are here again and they are both drunk."
It’s very unlikely that anyone other than someone sent by God could match up to all of the promises made about the Messiah. And Jesus perfectly matches them all!
Dr. Peter Stoner, Mathematics professor of Pasadena Community College calculated that for just one person to even fulfill eight of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, the probability of that occurring is one in ten to the 157th power. That is a big number. So there is not much chance that even one person could fulfill only eight of the prophecies.
Let me give you a familiar illustration, but I think it helps us get a picture. I’m assuming a mathematician with not much of a social life figured this out. The odds of someone fulfilling even 8 of the prophecies would be like the odds of filling the state of Texas with silver dollars, two feet deep. We take one of those silver dollars and put a big red X on the back of it. Then we stuff it into the state of Texas and get some of the big guys here in church and mix it all up. Then we will take Greg Boldt and blindfold him. We send him to Texas. We would actually take him to Texas first and then blindfold him because he would never find it. We would put him in Texas and let him wander around.
As he is wandering around, finally Greg bends down the first time and picks up a coin. The odds of that coin having the X on it are greater that he could do that than one person fulfilling even eight of the more than three hundred prophecies about the Messiah.
ILLUS - Let’s think about this in slightly different terms. Here is a sampling of risks that a typical American encounters in everyday life. The odds that:
You will crush a finger with a hammer in the coming year - 1 in 3000
Your child dislikes school - 1 in 3
Your television set will catch fire this year - 1 in 7500
You will have an operation requiring a hospital stay in the coming year - 1 in 12
Your doctor is an imposter - 1 in 50
Your next meal will be from McDonalds - 1 in 8
(New York Times Sunday Magazine)
The odds that one person could fulfill just 8 of the prophecies made about the Messiah in the Old Testament are 1 in 10 to the 157th power.
There are 60 major prophecies and 270 minor prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of them.
Because he has made good on His promise concerning Jesus, God can be trusted to keep His other promises too.
Like I’ve been saying, we can see each of these predictions now in color. But for the people who lived prior to Jesus, it wasn’t very easy to figure out all the details.
I think for them, it would have been something like how we see the book of Revelation. We know it tells us about victory and the end of the age, but there is a lot we don’t quite understand. To us, much of its language is in black and white – we lack the colorful details – like, when will this all happen?
But we also have this promise
Promise
“Behold, I am coming soon! Revelation 22:7
He is coming again.
TRANSITION: Even though we don’t have all the details now, soon things will be very clear.
CONCLUSION
Illustration – (Pick up Magic Eye book) A few years ago these Magic Eye books were really popular. They are computer generated pictures that just look like a bunch of nothingness at first glance. You could find large prints of these for sale at most malls.
But we were told if we stared long enough, an image would appear. When I first saw this book, I tried and I tried and I tried. I couldn’t see any images. I thought people were lying. Or maybe even believing they saw something because they had been told it was there.
Then one day it happened. As I stared at the picture, it became clear….Boxing kangaroos! I see! I see! This makes sense! This page has meaning!
Before my eyes shifted, the page was just stuff. But once the shift occurred, the image was clear.
I think the prophecies concerning the Messiah were a lot like that for people in Simeon’s day and before him. There is something here, but we don’t know quite what just yet.
Simeon waited and waited for Christmas #1. We have the details he did not have. We see in color what all his life he only saw in black and white.
But then after meeting the baby Jesus Christ, Simeon’s life was complete. He could die fulfilled, because his life had not been lived in vain. There is hope after all. Hope that life carries on.
Unfortunately, not everyone has the same experience that Simeon had. Many people are dying before meeting the Lord’s Christ. Some of them will die before the day is over. They will die without knowing that all of life makes sense. They will die without knowing the joy of having the Holy Spirit live inside them. They will die with no assurance that their life will carry on. They will die without understanding that each person’s life is part of something bigger, something beyond us that cannot see with our eyes. They will die with spiritual eyes that only saw black and white.
God’s desire for you is that, like Simeon, you will not die before meeting the Lord’s Christ. My hope for you is that God will one day dismiss you in peace, because you met Jesus Christ, and because you understood that through him your life has been made complete.
It’s going to be Christmas day again real soon. Since we see it in color let’s worship the King. The one who is coming again.
