Christmas, B.C. | Jesus Before Christmas

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Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us important counsel. If you surrender to God, you will discover this simple truth.

God's plan for you is better than your plan for yourself. Some may make the assumption that Jesus was behind the scenes in the heavenlies right up until the moment He made His first appearance in the stable in Bethlehem. Some would even say the Son didn't even exist until that moment. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie sets the record straight. We'll see how the Son is co-eternal with the Father and even make several appearances in Scripture before that first Christmas.

We'll see for ourselves. Revealing insight is coming our way today. Turning your Bible to Genesis chapter 22. Genesis 22 and the title of my message is Christmas B.C. So the real Christmas story does not begin in Bethlehem or even on planet earth. It begins in heaven. Where it was determined that Jesus Christ would come to our planet because Jesus has always been there and He will always be there. As the Bible says, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So was there a Christ before Christmas? Was there a Jesus or was Jesus there before Bethlehem?

The answer is yes. So the Christmas story is not just telling us about an arrival, as in a birth, it's also the story of a departure. Back to Isaiah 9-6, unto us a child is born. That's the arrival. But then it goes on to say unto us a son is given.

That's a departure from heaven. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. That reminds us of His deity as He came to our planet. But there are pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament. Theologians call these appearances a Christophany, which are appearances of Christ before Bethlehem.

Now let's talk about three Christophanies, okay? The first one is in Genesis 22. Appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament. The first, I believe, is in the story of Abraham and Isaac in Mount Moriah. So Abraham and his wife Sarah were not able to have children and they got very old. The Lord had promised that they were going to have a son and through that son would come the Jewish race and it wasn't happening. And suddenly Sarah gets pregnant.

They're excited. Isaac is born. And the very name Isaac means laughter. He brought so much joy into their home.

That boy was the light of their life. But one day God asked the incomprehensible. He said to Abraham, take your son and offer him as a sacrifice. Genesis 22, 1. He tested Abraham's faith in obedience. Abraham, God says. Abraham says, yes, Lord, here I am. God says, take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much. Go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him.

There is a burnt offering. Now we're told elsewhere in scripture. Abraham believed if Isaac died, God would raise him from the dead. Which was quite a lot of faith considering the fact no one had been raised from the dead in the Bible yet.

But he was believing God. And as a knife is ready to come down, the angel of the Lord shouts to him. Genesis 22, 11. Abraham, Abraham, he says, yes, I'm listening. The Lord says, lay down the knife.

Don't hurt the boy in any way. For I know you truly fear God and you have not withheld your beloved son from me. Okay, so here's the Christophany.

Ready? It was not just an angel of the Lord. This angel is identified as the angel of the Lord. The angel says you have not withheld your beloved son from me. But who gave Abraham the order to do this? God. So I believe this was not an angel.

I believe this was Christ himself, a Christophany. An Old Testament appearance of Jesus right there in this amazing moment. And this reminds us that God is with us in our times of testing. Am I talking to somebody right now who's going through a time of great testing?

A time of difficulty and hardship. Here's what the Lord says to you in Isaiah 43, 2. When you go through deep waters, I'll be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up.

The flames will not consume you. Are you going through a time of trial like that right now? I'm reminded of the words of David in Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why, David? Because you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

What does that even mean? Well, he's alluding to the tools that a shepherd has. The shepherd of this time had two primary tools he used with his sheep. One was a staff, that long crooked instrument that would pull the wayward sheep back into line.

And the rod that he would use on certain occasions to discipline a sheep or drive away a predator. And sheep need a lot of attention. They have a tendency to go astray. They're basically defenseless. They don't really have teeth. They don't have claws. They can't even run fast. They're just like leg of lamb for their taking.

They need the protection of the shepherd. Did you read that news story about, I think it happened in China, 300 sheep were walking around in a circle. And this went on for, I believe, something like 12 days. They just went around in a circle. And there's footage of it.

And it was on the news everywhere. Why are these sheep walking around in a circle? What is the mystery here?

I'll tell you how it happened. They're just stupid. One sheep said, I'm going to go walk in a circle. Who's with me? The others go, let's go boys.

It's not that bad. Let's go. Stupid sheep. But one of the instruments the shepherd will use also, as I mentioned, is the rod.

Your rod and your stuff. They comfort me. Sometimes the Lord nudges us. Sometimes the Lord speaks to our conscience. We don't listen.

We ignore Him. So every now and then, whack. Right? A little moment. Where the Lord gets your attention because He loves you. Okay, another Christophany is the wrestling match between Jacob and the angel. You remember Jesus encountered the woman at the well. He went to Samaria, which was not something the Jew would normally do. Because the Jews and the Samaritans were divided. They hated each other.

They had no communication. Jesus goes to this well to meet with this woman because he had an appointment with her. She shows up at the well in the heat of the day because she was ostracized by the other ladies, no doubt.

Because she had been married and divorced five times and was living with some guy. So she sits down at the well and Jesus says, hey could you give me a drink of water? She says, why would you a Jew ask for a drink of water from me a Samaritan?

Don't you know that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? He said, well if you knew who I was, you would ask me and I would give you living water. She says, so where are you going to get this living water? And then she says in John 4.12, are you greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well?

Can you offer better water than he and his sons had? Now Jacob was highly regarded by the Jewish people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this woman is kind of dropping his name like, hey I'm related to Jacob. Are you greater than Jacob? Imagine what Jesus could have said, just a little bit. In fact I wrestled with him and he finally said, uncle.

Or should I say, savior. I won. I beat him up.

I knew this guy. And that's the story. The wrestling match between Jacob and the angel. Or was it an angel? Or was Jacob actually wrestling with God and more to the point, was he actually wrestling with Jesus Christ?

You know the story. Jacob was overwhelmed and discouraged. He was reaping the consequences of his sins. The weight of the world was on his shoulders.

And we read in Genesis 32, Jacob was all alone in the camp. And a man comes to him and wrestles with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw he could not win the match he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket. And the man said, let me go.

The dawn is breaking. And Jacob said, I won't let you go until you bless me. And then he asked, what is your name? And he says, Jacob, your name will no longer be called Jacob. He said, now you'll be called Israel. And then after that Jacob says, I have seen God face to face.

Why did he say that? Because he had seen God face to face. Jacob was literally wrestling with God.

And guess what? We wrestle with God all the time. What does it mean to wrestle with God? It means when God says, I want you to do this and you say, no way.

The Lord nudges you. Why don't you go over there and share your faith with that person? I don't want to do it. Why don't you pray for this person?

Why don't you apologize to your husband or your wife? Why don't you open up the Bible? No, I don't want to do it. That's wrestling with God. Or the Lord reveals his will to you and you refuse to do his will. That too is wrestling with God. Maybe you feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.

Maybe you're trying to resolve problems that you've created. It's time to surrender to God. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hearing about listeners who find Jesus because of Harvest Ministries is so encouraging. Pastor Greg, I've watched the movie Jesus Revolution at least four times. I cried when it showed you getting baptized. I realized that if it wasn't for your salvation, I wouldn't have mine. That always has such wonderful plans. Do you have a story to tell?

If so, would you share it with us? Call 866-871-1144. That's 866-871-1144. Well, we're talking about wrestling with God today as a part of Pastor Greg's message called Christmas BC.

Let's continue. Jonathan Rumi, we all know him. He was a struggling actor, didn't have much going his way. He had no parts or money. He had $20 to his name. And Jonathan says he got down on his knees and he surrendered his life to God. And he says, I went home and I opened up my mailbox and there was an envelope and I opened it and there was a check that I didn't, I don't know why it was there, where it came from, or even what it was for. Then I saw a second envelope, I opened that one, there was even a larger check.

Then I opened a third envelope and there was even a larger check. And then a couple weeks later after that, Dallas Jenkins calls him up and says, hey, you ready to put the sandals back on? So basically Jonathan had played Jesus in a little church movie that Dallas had made. And Dallas said, I have this idea for a series that we'll put on television called The Chosen. Would you like to play the role of Jesus?

Jonathan was like, yes please, I would. And now after that's happened, some 400 million people have seen The Chosen. So why do I bring this up? Am I saying if you surrender to God you'll be in a TV program that will be seen by 400 million people? No. Here's what I'm saying, if you surrender to God you will discover this simple truth. God's plan for you is better than your plan for yourself.

Right? It's better. Sometimes it doesn't seem like it, does it?

But ultimately it is. A while ago we went into a toy store, Jonathan and I and his son, my grandson Christopher. And Christopher wanted this little Star Wars figure that was in a Lego box. So I asked the man who was running the store, do you have this figure? He says, yes we have it in two Lego boxes. We have a little one here, just the figure. Or you can get this big set with the spacecraft and the figure. So I walked over to Christopher and I said, you want this little figure?

Yeah, papa I do. Ok, I'll give you a choice. You can get them in the little box or you can get them in the big box. Which one do you want?

He looks at both of you and says, I'll take the little box. Really? Why? Well I don't want you to have to spend that money on me. So guess what happened?

I got them both boxes. Why? Because I'm just a typical grandparent.

That's why. It's not hard for me to do something like that for my grandson. But my point is he made the right choice and I wanted to bless him and reward him. Can't you see that God wants to do that for you? Stop fighting with God. Stop wrestling with God.

And I love how this starts out. First Jacob is fighting with God and at the end he is just hanging on. The Lord says, hey man I got to go.

Oh I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. And he gets a new name. He goes from Jacob to Israel. Jacob goes from cunning to clinging. From fighting to surrendering.

From wrestling to nestling. He got it. And he surrendered to the Lord. One more Christ-offening. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. So here's three godly young Jewish men. They along with the other Jews were taken captive by the Babylonians. Because they kept turning to false gods.

God warned them and warned them again and again. And still they turned to these idols. So the Lord said, you want idols? I'm going to send you to Idol Central.

You will have more idols than you can shake a stick at. And they were taken off to Babylon. But Nebuchadnezzar saw something special in these three young men. Now these are not their Jewish names. These are the names he gave to them. And we know them best by these names.

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. And Daniel he says, I want you in my court. I'm going to enroll you in the University of Babylon. I'm going to school you in the ways of our kingdom. And you will have influence and power in my palace.

Pretty sweet deal. They played their cards right. They could have lived a very comfortable and luxurious life. But then the king erected a giant image covered in gold. And commended that everyone in the kingdom bow before the image. So the band cranked up the Babylonian idol theme song. Everyone laid down before that image except these three Hebrew boys.

They would not bow. They were wearing black leather motorcycle jackets. They had sunglasses. They had their wallet on a chain. Because if you ride a motorcycle you have to have your wallet on a chain connected to your belt.

That's mandatory. So now they weren't dressed that way. But they're like, we're not bowing.

King says, they just misunderstood. Bring them in here. Now come on guys. Just bow. And everything will be cool. No king.

We're not going to bow before you or your image. And he was so angry he decided to throw them into the fiery furnace. And he even heated it up seven times hotter. It was so hot and fat that the men who were throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the furnace died from the heat. And into the furnace they tumbled.

Three young men. And that's where our story opens. Daniel 3, 23. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego securely tied fell into the roaring flames.

And suddenly as he was watching Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors. Hold on. Didn't we throw three men into the furnace? Yes your majesty.

That's what we did. Look Nebuchadnezzar said, I see four men unbound walking around on the fire. They're not even hurt by the flames. And the fourth looks like the son of God. That's a Christophany people.

Who was walking around with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Jesus. Hey guys. Need some sunscreen? How's it going?

Nice down here isn't it? He couldn't believe it. And Jesus is walking with you through your fiery trials as well. He says, I will never leave you or forsake you. And a better translation of that would be Jesus speaking, I will never, no never, leave you or forsake you. So Jesus came to Abraham, Jacob, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in pre incarnate appearances. But then one day he came to our world in that little manger in Bethlehem.

And went to the cross ultimately for our sins and rose again from the dead. So Jesus has always been there. He'll always be here. And he'll be with you in the future. You know I think back on my own childhood, before I was a believer. Jesus was with me BC as well. I had not yet asked him into my life. I knew very little about him.

But I always believed he was out there somewhere. Because of my crazy tumultuous childhood with my mom being married and divorced seven times. With a bunch of boyfriends in between. We were constantly pulling up roots. Moved from this city to that city.

From this state to that state. So I never was able to build lasting friendships. I was always the new kid in class.

New kid right? And when I was a really little boy living with my grandparents. Sometimes I'd pull the covers over my head and I invented an imaginary character. His name was Mr. Nobody. I didn't know who he was. Mr. Nobody. And I would talk to Mr. Nobody. And then one day at the age of 17 I heard the gospel and I realized Mr. Nobody had a name.

It was Jesus. I just didn't know yet. I just didn't know yet.

I knew as much as I knew as a little kid. Trying to figure out life. And there he was and there he is.

For you. Hope has a name. His name is Jesus. He's come to us. That's the message of Christmas. Emmanuel. Which means God is with us.

Sometimes we forget about him but he never forgets about us. And you know the Christmas season is hard for a lot of people. There's a lot of people who are really sad right now.

They're dealing with problems. Maybe they don't have a family. Maybe they've had some trauma in their life. Maybe Christmas is a reminder of someone that was with them last year and is not with them this year. But there's a lot of emotion wrapped up in this season. And while some are having a great old time. It's the most wonderful time.

You know all that. They're like man it's the most miserable time of the year for me. But here's the real message of Christmas. Jesus was not born so we could go shopping. Jesus was not born so we could put up Christmas trees and have festive parties.

There's nothing wrong with those things in and of themselves. He entered our world so we'll know the simple fact we're not alone. And he wants to come into our life. So I want to close my message today and simply say that he can come into your life right now. He stands at the door of your life and he knocks.

And he says if you'll hear his voice and open the door he'll come in. Jesus Christ can forgive you of all of your sins. And give you the purpose and meaning in life you've been looking for.

Let's all bow our heads. Father speak to those here that do not yet know you. Help them realize you sent your son Jesus for them.

To be born in the manger, to die on the cross, to rise again from the dead. And they can enter into this whole new life with him. Help them to come to you we pray.

Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie today on A New Beginning. And if you need to make a change in your relationship with the Lord, there's no better time than the Christmas season to do that. And Pastor Greg will help you in just a moment. Well Pastor Greg, just a few hours ago now you sent a comment to me, you forwarded it to me, it was from one of our listeners. And I thought I'd read it for the rest of our listeners.

It says this, I think she had been listening to today's program and she said, Love this message, Greg. Here I am 50 years after first meeting Jesus then shunning him and now back in the fold and using your online classes to help others know him. See what we all started back then, brother? Me, the worst prodigal with a messy, messy past, finally helping others know the love and forgiveness of our Abba. Nice. Yeah, it is really great. And you know, I don't know if you know about this, but we have a lot of resources in addition to our radio program or our podcast, A New Beginning.

If you go to Harvest.org, it's a whole world of great tools. We have a daily devotion. We have linked to our television program. We have online classes, as she mentioned, that we will take you through to help you get equipped in the faith. We have online small groups where we go through books of the Bible together and so much more. So this is something we're very passionate about because our mission statement is to know him and to make him known. In other words, we want to make him known, that is, bringing the gospel to people like we do here in A New Beginning, but we also want to know him.

And the way we know him is through prayer and Bible study. And that's why we have such a focus on that here at A New Beginning and at Harvest Ministries. So there are people that have fallen away, prodigal sons and daughters. And that's why I'll often say maybe you need to make a recommitment to Christ. So pray this prayer with me because I know there are prodigals who have strayed and maybe they've made some bad choices and they don't know how to get right with God and they come across our broadcast and we throw them a lifeline. And I want to keep throwing that lifeline out to as many people as possible.

And that will happen with your help, with your prayers, and with your financial investment in A New Beginning so we can continue to reach people like this lady that wrote and the many others that are impacted by this ministry each and every day. So would you prayerfully consider making a generous year-end gift to us here at A New Beginning so we can continue to bring the gospel? Hey, it's Christmas time. We're out shopping for everybody we can think of. Most likely, let's not forget whose birthday it is.

Because to me, when you go to someone's birthday party, you should always bring a gift. Let's bring a gift to the Lord at the end of this year so more people can be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's right. And you can take care of all the details easily by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number. Again, 1-800-821-3300.

Or just go online to Harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg, I know there are some in our audience who felt God speaking to them today and want to make a change in their relationship with the Lord. Could you help them with that? Yeah, you know, Dave, the Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So I want to lead you in a prayer where you will be doing just that, calling on the name of the Lord. So listen, if you want your sin forgiven, if you want to know that when you die you will go to heaven, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life and take away your guilt and your shame, then just stop what you're doing and pray this prayer with me right now.

Pray this after me if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I have broken your commandments.

I have fallen short of your standards. But 2,000 years ago you died on that cross for me. Then you rose again from the dead. So Jesus, come into my life and be my Savior and my Lord and my God and my friend. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and accepting me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Amen. Listen, if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, well, first of all, let us welcome you into the family of God. And then we want to help you get started in your new life of faith. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible. It's an understandable translation and has hundreds of helps and special features with the New Believer in mind. So let us send you this resource free of charge. Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Hey everybody, I want to encourage you to check out the new Harvest Plus app. It's on Roku, Apple TV, and Google Play, among others. And you can stream incredible content on all major platforms for free. You're going to find live events, our evangelistic films like A Rush of Hope, Johnny Cash, The Redemption of an American Icon, Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, and our newest film, Fame. You can also stream our feature film, Jesus Revolution, as well as the entire library of the Kingdom Story Company films. Plus, our TV programs, our podcast, Harvest at Home, and a lot more.

You can stream it all on any device for free using the new Harvest Plus app. Well, next time, Pastor Greg brings some surprising insight into the earthly genealogy of Jesus. The message title says it all, A Twisted Family Tree. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.