Are you ready for Christmas?

I don’t just mean do you have all your gifts bought, wrapped, and sent. I don’t mean do you have all your Christmas cookies baked and iced. I don’t mean do you have your Christmas cards sent. Rather, are you spiritually and emotionally ready for Christmas?

All the holiday cheer can mask the difficult reality of this season for so many—broken families, loss of loved ones, loneliness, and pain. But it was exactly into the backdrop of brokenness and darkness that Christmas started!

700 years before the birth of Christ, God’s people were reeling from the occupation of their enemies into their land which was the result of their forsaking God. God, through Isaiah the prophet, spoke this prophecy in Isaiah 9:1: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan.” Isaiah sees these events in the future as so certain that he speaks about them in the past tense.

In Matthew 4:13-17, Jesus is seen as fulfilling this very passage when he begins his public ministry. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, and Jesus is the light of the world! The Christmas message is that Jesus has come to bring good news and great joy that will be for all people! If the reality of Christmas is actually true, then Christians ought to be the most joyful people on the face of the planet.

A pastor from centuries ago named Octavius Winslow put it like this:

“The Child of God is, from necessity, a joyful person. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness—with such a God, such a Savior, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?”

The promise of gloom to glory and joy is only possible because of the Gospel that Jesus was bringing.  Jesus was no ordinary man who came born from a virgin in a feeding trough for animals. This baby boy was and is King of the world. Isaiah 9:6 describes what Jesus will be called. He will be called Wonderful Counselor because He is supremely wise. He will be called Mighty God because He is absolutely strong.  He will be called Everlasting Father because He will never leave nor abandon you. He will be called Prince of Peace because He came to bring peace between you and the Father through his death and resurrection. The wisdom and beauty of the incarnation (God becoming man) were that Jesus was born to die. He had to be human because only humans can die, but He had to be God because only then could His death count for everyone!

“Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” - Isaiah 9:7 (NIV)

This is what Christmas is about.

This is the reality that exists right now in the backdrop of any pain and darkness you’re currently experiencing. His reign and peace will never end. But make no mistake about it—these great promises that Christmas represents are not true for everyone. They’re not true for everyone who goes to Christmas Eve services. They’re not true for everyone who opens Christmas presents across the globe on Christmas morning. But they can be true for ANYONE. For anyone who acknowledges their need for a Savior and with repentance and faith receives this free gift that Jesus offers the right to be called children of God!

Our only hope this Christmas in life and death is Jesus Christ who right now is not the tiny baby born in a manger but a conquering King who is ruling at the right hand of God in all authority. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He will reign forever and is coming back again. The light and good news of Christmas shine bright against the backdrop of pain and darkness. Therefore, and only because of Jesus—Merry Christmas!