It’s December—Christmastime. Let the concerts, festivities, and shopping begin! But don’t forget the Baby, because the Baby changes everything.
Rewind to Luke 1:26-38. On Sabbath we revisited the meaning of Christmas and observed several potent ways the incarnate Lord changes everything. In verses 26 and 27, we first see that The Baby changes our plans.
God interrupts the important, but ordinary, plans of this ordinary couple with something infinitely more important, and something way beyond the ordinary—a personal encounter with Himself.
The Baby proves that God doesn’t just want to rule over us, He wants to be a part of us. And to have a personal encounter with the Almighty God is always going to cause a change in plans! You can’t encounter God and remain the same.
Those who don’t want their plans changed prefer to keep Jesus as a figurine in a nativity set instead of as Lord of their lives. They wish to keep God in a box where He can be easily retrieved or put away according to the need. When we keep God in a box, the glory departs and we are defeated. (Read 1 Samuel 4 to see a tragic example of this.)
Mary asked the angel a practical question about the How of her becoming a mother, since she was a virgin (Luke 1:34, 35, 37). Mary was young, but she understood where babies come from. She wasn’t being rebellious, just curious. She knew the facts of life from a human perspective, but she didn’t know the facts of life from the Creator’s perspective. The Baby changes our concept of the power of God. “Nothing is impossible with God” (vs. 37).
The baby proves that God is God. He does what He pleases and just because we can’t wrap our puny minds around something we call a miracle, doesn’t mean God can’t wrap Himself in flesh if that’s what it takes to save us.
Mary wondered how because she was virgin; we wonder how because we are sinners! But He comes to inhabit your life the same way He came to inhabit Mary’s—through the power of the Holy Spirit. If it’s possible for love to become flesh, then it’s possible for your flesh to be changed by His love. The baby changes everything.
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Jesus had already made the decision to come, but he needed someone who was willing to allow him to be born. And He still needs someone(s) who are willing to allow Him to be born in their lives. The baby changes everything for those who are willing to receive Him.
The baby proves God is in control. Rewind to Luke 2:1-6. Caesar Augustus may have thought He was pulling the strings of power, but God was using Caesar to fulfill prophecy and carry the greatest news ever given to man to all the world. Don’t worry about the chaos in the world. The Baby in Bethlehem proves God is in control. As in preparation for Christ’s first coming, God is setting things in motion again to prepare for His second coming. And when the time comes, nothing can stop it.
“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Gal. 4:4-5). In “the fullness of the time,” Mary’s waters were broken and she uttered three words that changed the world: “Joseph, it’s time.”
“God’s purposes know no haste and no delay.” Though the promise was given in Eden, repeated through patriarchs and prophets, and looked forward to century after century without fulfillment, God’s cosmic clock was neither fast nor slow. After 400 years of silence the time came! (Do a quick read of Luke 1 and 2 and underline all references to “time.”)
Just when things were at their worst, God intervened and gave His best. When all hell is breaking loose, that’s when all Heaven breaks in! To many it feels like the days of Ezekiel when people said, “The days are prolonged, and every vision fails” (Ezek. 12:22). This is because the world has put God in a box and all hell is breaking loose. But remember, Jesus came the first time when all hell was breaking loose. It’s breaking loose again! Get ready! It’s time! Time to let the Christ change everything. –Pastor Randy
