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hat a wonderful time of year! I am grateful to God for this Christmas season where we focus our attention even more on the Lord Jesus Christ.
For my Christmas sermon series in December, I am preaching on “Christmas Joy.” There is much fear, confusion, and even chaos in our nation and the nations of the world, just like that first Christmas when Jesus came from heaven to earth to be born of the Virgin Mary.
My mother-in-law, Evelyn, posted a picture on social media that grabbed my attention. It is a picture of when Mary visited Elizabeth. The reactions on both their faces reflect pure joy. Luke 1:39-45 details the scene. Please take a moment and read this passage in your Bible.
When Mary, the mother of Jesus, visited her cousin, Elizabeth, she was pleasantly surprised by the reception. The babe in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptist, leaped! This was the same man who said in John 3:30 that Jesus must increase but he must decrease. He was that servant of the Lord prophesied in the Old Testament who would come and prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:3).
Elizabeth, though advanced in years, was thrilled at what she was seeing and experiencing. I love how Luke tells the reader that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not yet descended at Pentecost, but here she is being filled. Then, with a loud voice she made statements about Mary, the baby she was carrying, and in speaking she reveals much about herself.
I hope you will experience the wonder of Christ afresh this year, that you would not just go through the motions but have true excitement and genuine joy.
It was Elizabeth, not Peter, who made the first confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Scripture teaches us no one can declare Jesus is Lord unless it is granted by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). I love how Elizabeth responds to Mary’s visit with wonder, excitement, humility, and joy. Should this not characterize all the children of God especially at Christmastime? I hope you will experience the wonder of Christ afresh this year, that you would not just go through the motions but have true excitement and genuine joy. The way you and I will be blessed in these ways is through humility, recognizing we are nothing and He is everything. Jesus must increase in our lives because it is all about Him.
Look at Luke 1:44: When Mary arrived, the babe in Elizabeth literally leaped for joy! What a revealing passage of Scripture. It teaches us about the miraculous. John the Baptist was simply doing what he would do during his ministry—getting excited about the person and ministry of Jesus. This text also teaches us something else that is affirmed in Scripture: that God values life. This was not just a blob or mass or a fetus. No, these two individuals were babies, real people highly favored and loved by God like all babies in the womb.
My prayer is that you will have a blessed and excited Christmas, one with much joy. I also pray you will be surprised afresh with the wonder of Jesus and that He would do a miracle in your life even today!
