Unwrapped - 1

Faustino Munoz

Unwrapped • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Isaiah 9:6

Mark 1:1–8

Luke 2:25–35

0 ratings

· 6 views

Notes

Transcript

Handout

Intro

Christmas Dinner Pictionary

One thing that I think of when preparing for a holiday, whether that be for Thanksgiving (in a week) or Christmas (a bit further away), I think of the food. So, let’s play a little game of Pictionary: Holiday Dinner Edition.

Instructions: Divide the room into two teams and compete to see how many Holiday meal items they can draw and guess correctly, like cookie cutters, a mixer, chocolate chips, ham, mashed potatoes, a gingerbread house, hot cocoa, pumpkin, turkey, garlic bread, an apron, etc. Have one contestant from each team come to the front to draw while their teams guess. You can either choose new artists each round or choose designated artists for the entire game. You’ll need a white board, markers, and large sticky notes or easel paper.

Poll

While I know that Thanksgiving hasn’t even happened yet and that is a personal and to some, unforgivable offense, I want to know how you’re feeling this holiday season. Raise your hand if this is you:

I’m losing my mind with anticipation and excitement.

I want to hide away in a cave because I’m sick of holidays already.

Thanksgiving isn’t over yet, stop talking about Christmas!

Christmas Gift Freak-Outs

For some people, the Christmas season is one of anticipation and excitement. You know the people I mean, don’t you? And if you’re one of those people, then you definitely know what I mean.

Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6juKXMUsElQ&feature=youtu.be

If you can relate to any of those kids in that video, I won’t judge you. Christmas is supposed to be a season of joy, so if that’s your style and how you show it, then scream away!

It’s Not Christmas Season Yet

Like I said earlier, I’m sure that some of you hate that I’m already bringing up Christmas because we are still pre-thanksgiving. So, if I said that Christmas season hasn’t actually begun yet, how many of you would agree? (take a poll of hands)

Some of you might think it’s an obviously dumb question, but I’ll counter my question with a question.

When does the Christmas season begin?

If you’re in the retail world, like Walmart or Target, then it starts in October (sometimes even late September). For many, it is December 1. For some, it is November 1 (the day after Halloween). Despite all of your answers and no matter how strongly you feel about them (ahem* Zara…) The Christmas season doesn’t actually start until December 25. Years ago, all the stuff that many people are doing now to prepare for Christmas (shopping, wrapping presents, decorating trees, parties, etc.) didn’t start until Christmas Eve.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to crush your Christmas spirit, but I believe that by rushing into the Christmas season so suddenly, we’re actually missing out on something really important.

Side note. Did you know that not everyone celebrates Christmas on the same day?

Out here in the west, Christians (and non-Christians) celebrate Christmas day on December 25, but many continue celebrating through January 5 - a day called Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve. If you’ve ever heard “The 12 Days of Christmas,” those are the 12 days it’s talking about.

And in countries like Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Serbia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan, Christmas day is January 6.

So, if this isn’t Christmas season, what is it?

Advent!

The season of Advent is the four weeks leading up to Christmas day, and it has a significant role in how we approach Christmas. The word “advent” means, “the arrival of someone notable.” It means someone important is on their way. (and Spoiler alert: it’s Jesus).

Advent is the season when we are reminded that we are not celebrating some-thing, but someone. This is a really important difference because...

When we get ready to celebrate some-thing, the preparation is usually all about us and what we can get from that experience. But when you get ready to celebrate some-one, the preparation is about so much more than just you.

When The Parents Are Coming To Town

At this time of the year, we’re usually busy wrapping gifts. But in this series, which will carry us through December, we’re unwrapping the meaning of the Advent season - a season of anticipating someone notable and important.

You see, when i think of preparing for notable people to show up, I can’t help but think of my parents, both my biological parents and my in-laws. Now obviously none of you are married (at least I hope not), so you may not be able to relate 100% but I think you’ll get the gist of it.

See, when our parents come to visit, I spend a lot of time preparing for them to show up. Each week, my days off are Friday and Saturday (because Sunday is a work day for me). And usually the Friday before my parents come to town, I spend most (if not all) of the day cleaning the house and preparing for them to come. And it’s a serious deep clean. It’s not as if I just do the dishes or put my shoes on the rack. No, I have to make sure the house is completely clean. I have to do the dishes, vacuum, dust, sweep, clean the toilets and the bathroom, and make sure the beds are all washed and made, and everything. It even goes outside of my house, see my dad and I have this thing where he loves to bust my chops about me not washing my car as often as he does. So I have to do that otherwise he’ll get on my case about it.

My point is, there was a lot of effort that went into me preparing for their arrival.

One of my favorite movie clips that I think of when it comes to preparing for someone, is from Elf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFuooAeLDZc

Scripture:

During the season of Advent, our excitement and anticipation shouldn’t be about Santa, or family, or the presents, or the weather, or whatever it is that you may be looking forward to. It’s all about Jesus. Maybe it’s hard to imagine now, but thousands of years ago, countless people were waiting with excitement for the coming of Jesus - literally. He hadn’t been born yet. People knew that someone was on the way, because God had promised it to multiple people. But they had no idea who they were waiting for or when he would show up.

They did have hints from the times that God had promised Jesus.

I don’t know how often you stop to think about the time span between these prophesies and hints. For example,

English Standard Version Chapter 9

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

How many of you have heard that verse before? I would assume a lot of you. Funny story about that verse actually. Last year, Zara and I made our Christmas card, as many people do. And in the design process, we knew we wanted to add a Bible verse to it. So we combed through some and we chose that one, which is a great verse. We’ll talk more about it in a second. BUT we sent it out without thinking too much about it. Well, our families thought a ton about it because they thought we were announcing to them that we were having a baby! It was pretty funny. There were a few panicked phone calls and texts that went around. Some friends of our parents began asking them if we were pregnant. It was funny. Anyways....

I love this verse because it was one that foretold of Jesus’s birth. Oh yeah and it was still 700 years before that day.

Scripture:

For many years, God’s people were anticipating that the mighty king Isaiah prophesied about and others did too. They were awaiting a savior.

One person that was awaiting the arrival of the Messiah was a man named Simeon. See, God had told Simeon through the Holy Spirit that before he died, he would get the chance to see the promised Savior in the flesh. God made a promise to Simeon, and God kept that promise.

Can you imagine that? From what little we can gather about him, Simeon was just an ordinary guy, but God singled him out. I like to image that God was so excited to share the gift that was coming, that He wanted to hurry up and share the secret with someone. Has that ever happened to you? That you had a secret to share of something that was coming, maybe a surprise party or something, and all you wanted to do was share it with one person?

Scripture tells us that Simeon and the rest of God’s people, the Israelites, were waiting for the “consolation of Israel.” What does that mean?

“Consolation” means comfort. Israel was waiting for someone to rescue them from their hardships, and they had more than their fair share. Many of their hardship, they brought on themselves, through disobedience to God. As a result, they experienced many dark years of difficulty and suffering. Despite those difficult years of hardship, war, captivity and oppression, Israel still had the hope of their long-awaited Prince of Peace.

As Simeon held baby Jesus in his arms, I wonder if he reacted like some of those way-too-excited kids did when they opened their Christmas presents. I don’t know, but I do know that he said this moment had made his life complete. Now that he’d seen Jesus, Simeon could die a happy man because he had been given the greatest gift of all - the gift of our Savior, Jesus.

Simeon’s life is an example of hoping, waiting, and preparing for the coming of Jesus, which again, is what the season of Advent is all about.

Unwrapping the Big Idea

Each week of this series, unveil the Big Idea by removing it from a large wrapped gift box (with the bottom cut out of it).