From Christmas To Calvary
By
Rev. Todd W. Allen

Villa Rica 12/19/04

1 Peter 1:1-13 

        It is just six days to Christmas. We celebrate the birth of our Savior and enjoy great times with our family and friends. We have more than enough to eat, at least most Americans will. Even the homeless have places where they can go and get a Christmas dinner.

    But Jesus was born in a stable, a manger. We can all picture the scene, Mary and Joseph and some barnyard type animals. We aren’t told in the scripture whether any animals were in the stable or not but we assume some were. We have those manger scenes that we put up every year. The wise men are included in those scenes, although they really did not come to see the baby until Mary and Joseph had found quarters in someone’s house instead of a stable by the time the wise men got there. I hope that truth does not ruin your manger scene.

    The birth of Christ was a most significant event and we do well to mark it and celebrate it. We have already sung and heard messages about his birth this advent season.

          But today I want to bring a message from the passage we have read that makes the birth of Christ more than just a baby in a manger. Were the birth of Christ all there is to the meaning of Christmas we might tend to trivialize it in our minds. After all, thousands of babies are born every day in all sorts of circumstances. Some are born in hospitals, some in homes, in cars or on trains, even airplanes, in restrooms, in garages, you name it. A baby can be born anywhere the mother happens to be when her time comes. I am sure that Christ was not the only baby to be born in a stable or a barn. So we cannot say that his birth was unique with respect to his having been born in a manger. No. It is not the circumstances of where he was born that gives us cause to celebrate. It is who he is and the mission he came to accomplish that gives us cause to celebrate. 

I. The Cross-Was In God’s Plan 

          From the time Christ was born he was marked for death. Herod tried to kill him while he was still a baby, but he failed because the circumstances of his death were predetermined and foreordained to be at Jerusalem on a Roman gibbet.

          The Old Testament scriptures foretold his birth and mission as far back as the third chapter of Genesis. No sooner had Adam and Eve sinned than God gave the Word of his birth and mission. The evil seed of Satan would be at enmity with the seed of the woman. God told the serpent:  ¹⁵ And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” Gen. 3:15      

And yet that bare bones announcement to Satan and his human captives who had fallen victim to his murderous lies was sufficient to let them know that the one who was coming, the promised seed, would overpower Satan and put an end to his diabolic reign.

    This was enlarged upon in subsequent prophecies as history unfolded so that by the time of the birth of Christ those who studied and knew the scriptures would understand that this mighty One who was to come via a virgin’s womb, of the seed of Abraham, of the seed of Isaac, of the seed of Jacob, of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of David, born at Bethlehem, was the promised seed.

    Even the time of his anointing and  3 1/2year ministry could have been ascertained from the prophecy of Daniel.

    Time will not permit us to go into all the scriptures that God has provided in the Old Testament and then confirmed as being fulfilled in the New Testament. But suffice it to say that our Lord Jesus knew the scriptures so well that he was able to predict all that would befall him. He knew that what the scriptures prophesied was the decree of the will of the Father. He came to do his Father’s will.

          In our scripture reading today we are given the third private prediction of the soon-to-occur climax of his ministry. It would take place at Jerusalem. He would be condemned to death by the supreme court of the Jews and be delivered over to the Roman power for mocking, scourging and crucifixion.

          You will recall that at the first prediction of this sequence of events Peter rebuked the Lord for saying such things. Let me read that first account for you: (Mat 16:21-23  ²¹From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. ²²Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” ²³But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

    Peter said no more from that time onward and so the next two predictions both confirmed that first prediction and furnished additional details as to the way it would all be executed.

    Obviously, there was good reason why our Lord saw fit to predict his suffering, crucifixion and resurrection to his select group of disciples and later apostles. For one thing, they needed to be fortified against the temptation that was sure to come upon them when all these things came to pass. They had believed in him as the Messiah but they had not believed that there was a cross in the divine plan. They simply couldn’t comprehend it when he told them what was going to happen. They were like all the other Jews. They believed the Messiah would come and reveal himself and set up a headquarters in Jerusalem and by his mighty power overcome all the enemies of Israel and be the King of the world. It was a very this worldly, physical, material kingdom they envisioned. There could be no cross in his crown.

          They were certain that he would sooner or later declare himself and set up his messianic kingdom and make the Jewish nation the super power on earth. So even though on three separate occasions he told them that there was treachery and arrest and terrible suffering that would culminate on a Roman cross, they failed to comprehend his prediction. Luke wrote:  ³⁴But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.

Luke 18:34

    This is the case yet today. Men simply refuse to believe that God could ever have had a plan such as this. A plan that would have God himself come to the earth in the very humble way that he did, without the trappings of wealth, power and position, distancing himself from the chief priests and scribes who sat in Moses’ seat of authority, and then allow himself to suffer the gross indignities and physical suffering before and up to his actual death on the cross.

    This is a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to the Jews and foolishness to most other men because it seems to be an utter absurdity that God would do such a thing. They dismiss it as being of no concern or meaning for them.

    But I believe a second reason why our Lord wanted them to know this in advance was so that they would know after the fact that he had foretold all these things. It had not been a surprise to him. Had he wished to avoid the cross he could have. He could have easily evaded it or as he told his disciples at the time of his arrest he could have called for legions of angels to rescue him.

    Christ’s going to the cross was a completely voluntary act on his part. He did not relish the thought of the cross. He shrank from it and prayed that if it were possible the cup of woe and death might pass from him, but he desired the Father’s will. That is why he came -- to do all God’s will. If this was the only way that the redemptive purpose of God could be achieved he was willing to drink the cup. He understood that he was to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He knew the covenant arrangement was to the end that the heathen might become his inheritance.

    It was his assignment to execute the will of God by dying on the cross as Savior of all who would believe in him.  

II. The Resurrection Was Also A Part Of The Plan 

          Included in these predictions made privately to the twelve before his scheduled time to die at Jerusalem on a cross is the prediction of his rising from the dead. This is his triumph over sin, Satan and death. This is the seal to all the claims of Jesus Christ. Had he remained under the power of death and were we still able to visit his tomb, his death would really have no meaning for you and for me. There would be no gospel to proclaim because death would have continued in force as before. There would be no salvation for any one.

    But God ordained that through Jesus Christ death was to be abolished, Satan was to be defeated, the original plan of God for man to be in eternal communion with himself and be given dominion over God’s creation was reactivated.

    Beloved, it is through faith in Jesus Christ that man regains the paradise lost at the fall. He is assured a home in glory and an everlasting inheritance with Christ. This is a fantastic and absolutely wonderful plan of redemption and recovery. The same God who made man in the beginning now recovers man from his fallen estate and restores him to the original intention God had for him in the beginning. Satan temporarily interfered with God’s original intention at creation but God foresaw all that the enemy could and would do and devised a plan that frustrated and defeated the serpent.

          The apostle Peter came to see all this. When the first prediction by Christ of his suffering, death and resurrection was made Peter did not see it. He was thinking like Satan, not like God. But after the resurrection he preached this gospel of salvation. He wrote: 1 Pet 1:3-5  

      ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1 Pet. 1:3      

    ¹³But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 2 Pet. 3:13-14

          Peter did not see God’s plan at the first.  But after the resurrection Peter understood very well the things of God. He rejoiced in God’s most excellent plan in sending his Son to die for our sins. Without that cross there would have been no salvation, for Peter or anyone else.

          But the same dullness and blindness obscures the plan of salvation from many men today. Peter had this blindness even as he walked the dusty roads and trails with Christ. So it ought no surprise us that many are yet in darkness. Paul gives a good explanation of this in his second letter to the Corinthians.

           ³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, ⁴in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Cor. 4:3 -6 

    Christmas can be obscured if we do not see the cross and the resurrection as the means whereby God has accomplished salvation for all who believe. How can you believe something you do not know or if you know it do not believe it?

    For many years my family celebrated Christmas and knew nothing of the cross and it’s meaning for us. Certainly I did not know even if any other members of my family did, though I don’t believe any of them did during the years of my childhood and youth. I was blinded by the gifts and the myth of Santa Claus. It was just a sentimental time and a gift giving time. It did not impact my soul until I came to understand the meaning of the cross and the resurrection.

          A person must first come to see that the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth was in order to save us from the eternal death that awaits every sinner without Christ. And also, like those apostles of old, we need to be fortified against the temptation that comes to all Christians, to doubt him, to deny him, to give up our faith in him.

    Steve Brown relates the story of a British soldier in the First World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted. Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he ended up wandering in the pitch-black night, hopelessly lost. In the darkness he came across what he thought was a signpost. It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could read it. As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ. He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had climbed a roadside crucifix. Brown explained, "Then he remembered the One who had died for him ‑‑ who had endured ‑‑ who had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches. "