Dont Forget (Week 2 of Advent)




    Prophets

    The prophets of the Old Testament told time and time again of the coming Messiah.
  1. Genesis 3:15 (I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.) 
  2. Isaiah 7:14 (Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.) 
  3. Isaiah 22:21 (and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.) 
  4. Isaiah 61:1-2 (The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;) 
  5. Hosea 11:1(When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.) 
  6. Isaiah 9:6 (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.) 
  7. Isaiah 11:1-6 (There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.) 
  8. Micah 5:2-3 (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.)
Wise Men

          The wise men were searching. They didn’t know where Jesus was to be born but they searched for               His coming. (Luke 2:1-2)

         They knew something big was happening.

Scribes 

  1. As for the people of Jerusalem they didn’t have a clue. 
  2. Matthew 2:3 (When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him) 
  3. They had forgotten that the Messiah was coming. They knew the place where He was to be born but they hadn’t bothered to go and check. 
  4. God didn't technically desert them but He had stopped talking to them for 400 years. That’s the difference in time from the Old Testament to the beginning of the New Testament. 400 years of silence. Just as Micah had said. But no one seemed to notice. They continued on with their rituals and tried to fend for themselves. They fought wars to preserve their traditions but God wasn't in it. 
  5. Sounds like us at times. We get up on Sunday and we go to church and we sing along and we listen, but are we just going through the motions? Is God silent in your life? Or perhaps it’s that God is speaking loud and clear, and we are just not paying attention. Heard a guy speak once and he was talking about a trip he took. He got to work with all these little kids over in Africa and when he was leaving he was waving to them from the back of the bus and all the little kids were running after him. Well at first he thought it was kind of cute, but then the guy next to him had to explain that over there waving at someone meant that you were wanting them to follow. 
  6. Maybe that’s how we are with Jesus. He’s standing over there waving at us wanting us to come and follow Him, and we are just standing here waving back saying “Hi Jesus!” and not taking any steps towards Him. If you want to follow Jesus it means doing something different, it’s getting out of our comfort zone and doing what we may think is foolish and not understandable. We can’t forget what God has called us to do and we can’t forget that He’s going to be coming back to check on us.
Simeon and Anna

  1. Simeon and Anna had not forgotten. 
  2. Luke 2:25-38 ( Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.) 
  3. I love what the Bible says about Simeon, he was just and devout and waiting on the consolation of Israel. He had not forgotten. He was doing what God had called him to do. 
  4. Now get this picture into your head. Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus entering the Temple. It’s busy, it’s crowded, it’s just chaotic. All of a sudden this old guy walks up to them and motions Mary to give him the child. I imagine she hands him the child a little reluctantly. I mean after all this is the savior of the world, need to make sure we take good care of Him right? So she hands him baby Jesus and Simeon just looks at the child, tears coming to his eyes because he knows that God has fulfilled His promise to him. He then begins to speak over the child and tells Jesus’ parents what this child is going to do for not only the Israelites but also for the Gentiles. I can’t even begin to imagine the looks on Mary and Joseph’s faces. 
  5. Now just as soon as Simeon is done talking another person comes up. This time a prophetess, Anna. Anna would have been well known at the temple seeing as how she never left. After becoming a widow she remained at the Temple and served God day and night. Now as soon as Anna even sees the child she begins to speak of the things that Jesus would do, and not only to Mary and Joseph but to anyone who was looking for redemption in Jerusalem. 
  6. Wow. How wonderful it is to serve the Lord. And yet how easy it is to forget. We can so easily get caught up in our routines and just forget the wonders that God has in store for us. Just like the people of Israel who had forgotten to look for the coming Christ and had instead gotten so caught up in their traditions, we can get so caught up in our everyday routines and forget to see Christ in the little baby. We forget to see God in the least of all people and instead try to see Him in our actions. If you want to get close to God here is what you do; you don’t forget to look for God in the little things, and in the people we often look over. I challenge you this week to get closer to Christ, not by attending church, not by reading your Bible, but instead by doing something for someone else out of love. Don’t take that as me saying not to go to church or not to read your Bible, but instead take it as an extra step. Get close to God by not only learning about His works, but by carrying on His works.

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