Christmas PROVES Postmillennialism
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In today’s special Christmas episode of The PRODCAST, we’re exploring how the Christmas story isn’t just a warm tradition—it’s a proclamation of Christ’s unstoppable kingdom. From Genesis to Isaiah, Micah to the Gospels, Christmas proves the postmillennial hope: that Jesus’ reign will grow, transform, and ultimately conquer the world. In This Episode, We’ll Explore: 📖 The Serpent-Crushing Babe (Genesis 3:14–15) Discover how the very first Christmas promise foretold the coming of Christ, who would undo the curse of sin and crush the serpent’s head, transforming the world into a garden of worship. 🔥 The World-Blessing Babe (Genesis 12:1–3) See how God’s promise to Abraham that “all families of the earth will be blessed” through his Seed points directly to Jesus and guarantees the global expansion of His kingdom. 🐏 The Christmas Child Swap (Genesis 22:15–18) Learn how Isaac’s near-sacrifice foreshadowed Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, fulfilling God’s promise to flood the world with worshipers. 🦁 The Ruler with Global Obedience (Genesis 49:8–10; Numbers 24:17) Unpack how Judah’s lion and the star of Jacob announce a King whose reign will bring every nation into joyful submission. 🌲 The Global Tree (Isaiah 11:1–4) Marvel at how Christ’s birth began a kingdom that spreads justice and peace, growing like a tree’s branches to encompass the entire earth. 🌟 His Worldwide Government (Isaiah 9:6–7) Rejoice in the prophecy of a Child who bears the government on His shoulders, ruling with endless peace and justice, and transforming every corner of creation. 🏠 The Child with Universal Greatness (Micah 5:2–4) Celebrate how the Shepherd-King born in Bethlehem is gathering His flock from every nation, building a kingdom of universal greatness that will never stop expanding. Relevance for Today Christmas isn’t just a memory; it’s the launch of a cosmic campaign. Christ’s reign is advancing, His kingdom is growing, and His promises are certain. Let this season renew your hope in His victorious plan to transform the world. Subscribe, Like, and Share! 🌟 Help us proclaim the truth of Christ’s reign by subscribing to the channel, hitting the notification bell, and sharing this teaching with friends and family. Together, let’s spread the victorious message of God’s Word! Connect with Us Online: 🌐 Website: The Shepherd’s Church 📘 Facebook: Kendall.W.Lankford 🐦 X (Twitter): @KendallLankford 📸 Instagram: @theshepherdschurch 🎵 TikTok: @reformed_pastor Worship with The Shepherd’s Church: 📍 Location: 10 Jean Ave, Chelmsford, MA 01824 📅 Service Times: Sunday School @ 9:00 AM Lord’s Day Worship @ 10:00 AM 📧 Email: [email protected] 📞 Phone: (978) 304-6265 💥 EXCITING NEWS! Official PRODCAST merch is dropping soon. Stay tuned for the launch and join us in advancing Christ’s Kingdom in style. Let’s boldly proclaim the truth of God’s Word, celebrate Christ’s covenantal victory, and live with faith and courage. Merry Christmas and see you next week! #ThePRODCAST #Christmas #PostmillennialHope #ReformedTheology #ChristIsKing #Eschatology
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- Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf. This is our last episode of the year,
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- How Christmas Proves Post -Millennialism. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the podcast.
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- This is our last episode of the year, and I wanna say a very merry
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- Christmas to everyone who watches this show and who has made this year such a resounding success.
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- May you feel the warmth and the love of Jesus as you worship him in the beauty and the splendor of his holiness this season.
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- Now, in this final episode, which is a special year -end episode, we're gonna take a break from our
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- Revelation series for a second, and we're gonna be talking about some very important, some very glorious, some very wonderful, some very beautiful Christmas passages that actually guarantee the post -millennial hope.
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- Now, and my hope in doing this is that you will be encouraged this Christmas season and that you will catch a vision for the grand and the glorious scope of Jesus's mission.
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- Jesus is not ruling over a loser campaign. He is ruling over a campaign that will win the world to himself.
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- So with that, a very merry Christmas to you. I hope you're encouraged by the verses that we share. And now, let's jump right in to how
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- Christmas proves post -millennialism. Genesis 3, and the serpent crushing babe.
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- So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field.
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- And on your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
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- And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
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- Genesis 3, 14 through 15. At the very beginning of history, God gave the very first Christmas promise in Genesis 3, 15.
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- He declared that a child was gonna come and that child was gonna undo the disaster that was caused in Eden.
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- Long before the shepherds and the wise men or even the faintest hints of rumblings in the little town of Bethlehem, God announced that the seed of the woman was going to crush the serpent's head.
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- And it was this promise that was going to set the stage for the entire
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- Christmas story and the entire story of redemption. Because in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were not created to become some kind of couch potatoes in paradise.
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- God gave them a mission and their mission was to get married, to have lots of children, to fill the earth with worshiping people and to extend
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- Eden's boundaries until the entire world became a garden paradise. But as we know from the story, not too long after God gave them this very good mission,
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- Adam and Eve had fallen and sin had entered into the world and that sin shattered humanity's relationship with God.
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- And it was at this point that the world became an enemy occupied territory where the true, the good and the beautiful became mangled.
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- And if there was ever a good time for God to wash his hands of his plans, to destroy the world that he created, to forsake his covenant, this would have been the time, this would have been the best of times.
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- But instead of God, who would have been just for saying that he was going to abandon humanity for their sin, at just the right time,
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- God responded not with judgment, but with gospel and grace. Genesis 3, 14 through 15, reveals how
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- God is gonna launch a counterattack against the enemy and against the dragon, against the serpent of old.
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- He was gonna bring a child who was going to be born uniquely of the woman's seed, a subtle but very clear reference to the virgin birth.
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- And it was this child who was gonna crush the serpent's head and it was gonna put creation back right again as the true and better Adam.
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- And we need to take a moment to reflect on the magnitude and the sheer glory of what this promise means.
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- Because I think it's easy for us to overlook how profound Genesis 3, 14 through 15 really is.
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- God is declaring that he's gonna send a child to crush the serpent. Yes and amen, but what does that mean?
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- Well, first, it means that this child is going to defeat humanity's greatest enemy.
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- And this child is going to reverse the devastating curse that was brought about by the serpent's deception.
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- But there's more because this son of Eve will be a second Adam, a true
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- Adam, a better Adam. Where Adam failed, this child was gonna succeed. And what that means is, is that he's going to reclaim dominion over the world and he's going to undo the effects of sin's curse.
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- And he's gonna transform this world from a broken, pitiful wretch, back into a world brimming with worshipers of God.
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- Back into a garden paradise. How do I know that? Because God made the world to be a paradise filled with worshipers.
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- And God called that plan very good. And do we really believe that God is gonna abandon a plan that he said was very good?
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- God could have destroyed the world, but he didn't. He kept it going. He kept it going so that he could bring Jesus.
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- Why did he wanna bring Jesus? To save sinners from their sin? Yes and amen. But to what end?
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- He brought Jesus to save sinners from their sin. To gather together a people who would fill the world with worshipers, who would take dominion over the skies and over the seas and over the plants and over the fields and over the animals.
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- Jesus, as the true Adam, will do what Adam should have done. What was
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- Adam supposed to do? Fill the world full of worshiping people and make the world look like a garden paradise again.
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- And let me tell you that we are not going to have to wait till heaven for Jesus to do this.
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- For the last 2000 years, as the true Adam, he's been chasing out the serpents. He's been crushing the enemy's head.
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- He's been raising up a people, making that people be a gathered people who worship in their
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- Edenic churches every Lord's day on Sunday. And Jesus is gonna continue doing this work until the entire world is filled with worshipers.
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- Because if you think that we stop short of that, then you think that Jesus never finished what
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- Adam started. I believe that Jesus came to perfectly finish everything that Adam failed to do.
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- And that means that before this world is finished, before Jesus returns, we're gonna have a world that is filled with Christians.
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- I think, and I'm not just trying to be hyperbolic here, that if Adam were successful, the whole world would have been believers of God.
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- And how can we say that Jesus isn't gonna be successful where Adam failed?
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- New Testament tells us he will complete what Adam failed to accomplish. And if that's true, brothers and sisters, open up your heart.
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- And if you don't have enough faith to believe this, then pray for more faith. Because what it looks like, if Jesus is successful where Adam failed, then the entire world is going to be
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- Christian. That's what Adam should have done, and he didn't. So now Jesus is going to come and do it on Adam's behalf, on our behalf.
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- He's going to be the true Adam who leads his family in the world dominion. Dominion. He's gonna lift every single curse.
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- And what's that gonna look like? That means there's no more atheism, no more paganism. That's not gonna exist anymore. The only thing that's going to remain is a world filled with followers of Jesus Christ.
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- You see, if this baby born as a descendant of Eve truly crushes the serpent and truly finishes the mission that Adam failed to finish, then what we have is not defeat, like the pre -millennialists say.
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- What we have is a post -millennial world filled with God's people, giving
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- God glory, where the earth is filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
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- That's our first passage. Our second passage is Genesis 12 and the
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- World Blessing Babe. Now the Lord said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation.
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- And I will bless you and I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing.
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- And I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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- Now, long before the angel sang over the city of Bethlehem or the star led the wise men to the stables,
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- God made a promise to Abraham that changed everything. He said, in you, all of the families of the earth will be blessed,
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- Genesis 12, three. And this wasn't just about land or descendants, it was about redemption. It was pointing to a child who was gonna bring blessing to all of the nations, to every family in all of those nations.
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- What this means is nothing short of every family on earth coming into the blessings of God.
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- That's what God is promising Abraham. And do we really believe that God will fail to accomplish his promises?
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- Now, the question we need to ask ourselves is what does it mean to be blessed? Well, at the heart of it, to be blessed according to scripture is to know the living
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- God. There is no blessing apart from knowing him. All blessings flow out of knowing
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- God and being in right relationship with him. So when God promises Abraham that all the families of earth are going to be blessed, this is not a general blessing.
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- This is not all the families on earth are gonna have some sort of abundance or some sort of material blessing.
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- No, this is the true biblical blessing of his face is gonna shine upon them. This is
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- God foretelling Abraham thousands of years before Jesus even comes that his ultimate descendant,
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- Jesus, who is gonna be the true seed of Abraham, Galatians 3 .16, is going to bring the knowledge of the glory of God to every square inch of earth.
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- This promise guarantees that history is not going to end until the whole world is
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- Christian. There's no backup plan. There's no chance of failure. God promised, and he never lies,
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- Titus 1 .2, that Jesus, the son of Abraham, is going to make every tribe, every tongue, every nation saved.
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- He's gonna bring them into the knowledge of God. He's gonna bring them into the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that they will know
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- God and love God and worship God. It's going to eventually be, when it finally finishes working its way out, that every person on earth is gonna call upon the name of the
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- Lord. What else does it mean that every family on earth comes under the blessings of God?
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- What else does it mean that Paul says that Jesus is the true seed of Abraham who will make sure that this promise happens?
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- What does it mean other than Jesus, the true seed of Abraham, will make sure that every family on earth know
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- God? And if that's true, then how could we possibly have discouragement, fear, anxiety, depression, or any of those other things?
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- How could we possibly grumble about the state of the world? Because the world is a world that is moving towards a total redemption.
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- And maybe you say, well, that's not the world that I live in. Oh, yes, it is. The world that you live in 2 ,000 years ago started with 12 men who now has grown into 2 .5
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- billion people who call upon the name of Christ. I don't know the math here, but let's say there were 500 million people on earth 2 ,000 years ago, and 12 of those people were
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- Christians. Okay, 12 out of 500 million is a very small percentage of the world's population.
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- I think we can agree with that. Today, there's 2 .5 billion Christians out of a total of 8 billion people on earth.
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- Is it possible that we've missed how glorious Jesus's kingdom is?
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- Is it possible that we've gotten so bogged down with our defeatism that we've missed that his kingdom really is conquering the world?
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- More families today believe in Jesus than ever before. And in the next 100 years, more families still are going to believe in Jesus than ever before.
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- Jesus's kingdom has won every 100 years that it's been on earth.
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- It has continued to push back the gates of hell, and they have not been able to stop it.
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- What I'm pointing out to us is that God's word is true. God's promises are true.
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- And maybe, just maybe, we haven't had enough faith to believe them.
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- But this Christmas, we realize that the true son of Abraham and the true seed of Eve has come.
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- And I pray that that would increase and strengthen our faith so that we no longer go on doubting.
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- Doubting is not a Christian virtue. Faith and hope are. That's our second passage. Number three,
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- Genesis 22 and the Christmas child swap. Then the angel of the
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- Lord called Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the
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- Lord, because you have done this thing and you have not withheld your son, your only son.
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- Blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.
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- And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, your seed, all the nations of earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.
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- Genesis 22, 15 through 17. Now, first glance, the story of Abraham and Isaac might not seem that Christmassy, but it points directly right at the little town of Bethlehem.
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- Because on the lonely mountaintop, Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice, but God spared him at the very last moment, promising
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- Abraham that he would have blessings, that his blessings would be as big as the amount of stars on earth or even grander than the sand that inhabits the seashore.
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- That promise was gonna echo throughout history, waiting for the day when God would provide his own son as the true sacrifice.
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- And there you have the Christmas baby swap. Abraham got to keep his son, but God was gonna give his one and only son.
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- And that time, when God gives that son, he wasn't gonna put a ram in the thicket in order to stand in Jesus's place.
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- The baby in Mary's arm, Jesus, the true seed of Abraham, was gonna be the one to carry his wooden cross.
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- And he was gonna carry it willingly up the mountain like Isaac. But instead of like Isaac who was spared,
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- Jesus was gonna face the knife of God's divine justice. His death wouldn't just save a few, it was gonna shatter the grip of sin.
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- And look at this, God is promising that Abraham is gonna have blessings as much as the stars that are in the sky.
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- He's gonna have descendants as numerous as the sand that's on the seashore. How? Because of Jesus.
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- Through Jesus, through him dying on the cross and resurrecting from the grave and ascending to heaven and sitting on the throne,
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- Abraham is going to have descendants that are as numerous as the stars in the sky. He's gonna have descendants who are counted more numerous than the sands on the seashore.
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- This joy, this promise is undeniable. And if we recognize what
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- God is saying in the Bible, we're not gonna have a defeatist mindset where we think that, gosh, the world's gonna continue to get worse and worse.
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- The church is dying, the Christians are watered down now. That may be true today, but if God's promise is true that Abraham is gonna have more descendants than the stars in the sky, then
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- I think what we are looking forward to is not defeat, but total, utter victory.
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- Brothers and sisters, we're going through a downturn right now where the world looks a little bleak, where inflation is running high, where our leaders are stupid or immoral.
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- I get it. But widen your vision a little bit. Don't stare down such a small tube of information and think that, gosh, because this year looks bad, the world's getting worse.
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- Or because the last 20 years look bad, the world's getting worse. Look at the world in a 2000 year scope.
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- Like Abraham looking up at the midnight sky and God in the flesh standing beside of Abraham and saying, can you count all the stars,
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- Abraham? Can you count every little grain of sand on the seashore? Because if you could, that's how many descendants that you're gonna have.
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- And in Christ, that promise will come true. And it's gonna come true in space and time.
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- And it's gonna come true before Jesus returns. So brothers and sisters, in this season, remember that when you celebrate
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- Christmas and you celebrate it with your figgy pudding and your hot cocoa and your ham and your roast beast, remember that this little baby child guarantees that God is gonna own the world and he's gonna fill it with his worshipers.
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- And it's gonna be so numerous that it's uncountable. That's our third verse.
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- Number four, Isaiah 11 and the global tree. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
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- The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and a fear of the
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- Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears.
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- But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
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- And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked.
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- Now, when you think about Jesus's birth, Isaiah's words remind us that the manger and the stables and all of the
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- Christmas scene aren't just some cozy little holiday nativity scene, but it's the turning point of world's history.
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- Out of this seemingly dead stump of Jesse's lineage who was the father of David, a new shoot is gonna spring to life.
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- God isn't gonna merely revive the house of David, but he's going to expand it to encompass the entire earth.
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- It's not just gonna be one nation anymore, it's gonna be all nations. It's gonna be the child in the manger who's coming not to gather together a gaggle of a remnant small group of believers.
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- He's going to bring armed with the Spirit's wisdom, power and justice. He's gonna bring relief to the oppressed. He's gonna bring judgment to the wicked.
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- He's going to crush his enemies underneath his feet. When we look around and we see a wicked government or wicked attorneys or wicked
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- Hollywood, brothers and sisters, you've got to remember that they're not in control of the world.
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- The only reason that they're allowed to stand, the only reason that they're allowed to continue is because God has not yet curb stomped them and that is coming in Jesus Christ.
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- He promised in this passage that he would slay all of the wicked. Psalm 110,
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- Psalm 2, 1 Corinthians 15, 25. Let us not forget these verses that promise that before Jesus returns, he's going to crush every single enemy underneath his sandals.
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- And if there's ever anyone who's got the strength under the weight of his own boot to crush his enemies, it is the second person of the
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- Trinity, Jesus Christ, who has already crushed the greatest enemy, Satan, who is crushing sin, who is going to in the future crush death.
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- This Jesus is going to put Hollywood under his boot. He's gonna crush abortion underneath his sandal.
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- He is going to come and he is going to bring his justice and righteousness until there are no more enemies left.
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- So what kind of world are we looking at here? If we're looking at a world like Genesis 3, where he's gonna crush the serpent, if we're looking at a world like Genesis 12, where he's gonna bring all the families on earth under his blessing, and we're looking at a world like Isaiah 11, where he's going to kill, slay and crush all of his enemies, the only way that this is possible is if you have an entirely
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- Christian world and before Jesus returns, you will have an entirely
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- Christian world, which means Jesus is not going to return until that is so.
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- Instead of doubting, look at these passages that I'm reading from. I'm not making up what they say.
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- He's gonna crush the serpent. He's gonna bless every family on earth. He's gonna bless all the nations and he's going to crush all his enemies under his feet.
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- I would invite you to consider what kind of a world does that look like? Does that look like a pre -millennial world where everything spirals into a cataclysmic doom?
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- Is that an amillennial world where some of the enemies get to continue all the way to the very end and Jesus doesn't do anything about them.
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- He just kind of lets them remain? Or do these passages tell us of a post -millennial world where every enemy is judged and all
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- God's people remain so that the only thing left on this earth are
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- Christians? Every family, every tribe, every tongue, every nation under the blessings of God.
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- If that's not a Christian world, I don't know what is. That's verse number four.
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- Number five, Isaiah nine and his worldwide government. For unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called
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- Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.
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- Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever, the zeal of the
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- Lord of hosts will perform this. Isaiah nine, six through seven. Now here we've reached the summit of all
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- Christmas prophecies. This is the creme de la creme. This is the heights of Mount Everest of biblical
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- Christmas passages. Here you have the crown jewel that leaves no room for any half -hearted dispensational interpretations to remain.
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- Isaiah nine, six through seven is not just a Hallmark card verse. It is a thunderous declaration of the fact that the child born in Bethlehem is the unstoppable architect of a never -ending kingdom.
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- This is heaven roaring at us, saying for us to think about these things. The fact that we celebrate
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- Jesus's birth every single year but we've not let Isaiah's word sink in is a tragedy. Listen to what it says.
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- Unto us a child is born. That's the birth of Jesus. But we haven't recognized what comes after that, the earth -shaking promise that this child is gonna bear the weight of the government on his shoulders.
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- What government? The world's government. All authority in heaven and earth,
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- Jesus says, now belong to me. He's saying that all authority on earth belongs to him, that all rule on earth belongs to him, that there is no other authority but him.
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- How do we know this? Well, it says in this passage, unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given.
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- The government shall be on his shoulders. And what do we call this baby? We call him mighty
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- God, which means that he has omnipotence, omniscience. He has all power and authority, everlasting father, which reveals his not just oneness with the father but also his care for the nations, the prince of peace, which promises that he's gonna bring harmony to the nations, he's gonna end war.
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- He is going to end war. All this talk about nuclear warfare and all this talk about Israel and Hezbollah, Ukraine and Russia, China and Taiwan, all of this are temporary conditions.
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- And I would challenge anyone here because people will say, okay, Kendall, yes, he's gonna end all war in eternity.
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- Yes, he's gonna bring his perfect peace in eternity, but that's not what this passage is saying. For unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given.
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- And it does not say that, oh, wait a minute, that part, that applies to the incarnation.
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- But the everlasting father, prince of peace, mighty God, and the extent of his peace and his reign is gonna no, no end.
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- Oh, wait, that applies to eternity. The passage doesn't say that. I'm gonna look at dispensationals right in the eye here.
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- I love you, I'm your brother, but you are distorting scripture.
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- The passage says that this baby is going to reign until there is no more war on earth.
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- This baby is gonna reign as mighty God, as everlasting father, as the prince of peace until all government rule and authority has been put down.
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- I'm the one here who's reading this passage and literally not you. And I would call you to repent.
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- And I would call anyone who doesn't see this passage in its fullness to repent because the passage is so good.
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- This baby is gonna bring a government and the increase of his government will no, no end.
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- What does that mean? Well, his government began in Bethlehem in those stables that day.
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- His government spread to his 12 apostles. His government spread to a discipleship community of 70 people.
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- His government spread to about 500 after his resurrection where there were 500 eyewitnesses who called upon the name of the
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- Lord. His government spread to 3000 believers in Jerusalem when Peter preached his first sermon at Pentecost.
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- His government continued to grow until Pharisees were coming in, priests were coming in, scribes were coming in,
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- Judeans, Samaritans, Gentiles, Galileans, all were coming in. Roman centurions were coming in.
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- And by the end of the first century, you had nearly 100 ,000 people who were under the government of Christ.
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- And then in the second century, in the third century, by the fourth century, Jesus' government had actually toppled the government of Rome.
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- Why? Because it was increasing and the increase of his government will no, no end. By the 15th century in the
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- Reformation, you have his government now spreading to Europe and Africa and other parts of the earth.
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- By now, right now, what we have, brothers and sisters, 20 centuries later, is that his government is now in every country on earth.
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- His government is now in every time zone, in every latitude and every longitude. His government has been and will continue to faithfully spread until it overtakes all rebellion.
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- Because of the increase of his government, there will be no end. It will increase until it overtakes every rebellion so that the world will be filled with worshipers, all the world's families will be blessed, all of the world's nations will be blessed under this reign of Christ.
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- Isaiah 9, six through seven guarantees that the entire world and all of its war and rebellion and machinations is going to be conquered by Jesus on this side of heaven, which is going to lead to a world filled with worshipers.
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- That's our fifth verse, and it's a doozy. Now, number six, Micah 5, the child with universal greatness.
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- But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.
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- Therefore he shall give them up until the time that she who is in labor has given birth. And then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel, and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the
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- Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, and they shall abide.
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- For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. Micah 5, two through four.
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- And here we have arrived at the crescendo of Christmas. There's more passages that we could share, but I know it's
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- Christmas, and I know you wanna spend time with your family, and I don't wanna take up all of your time. I think the passages
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- I've shared, though, are pretty clear. Isaiah 9 says he's gonna crush all rebellion, his government's gonna continue to spread until there's nothing left to conquer.
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- Micah 5 says the equal and opposite counterpunch, that not only will he crush all rebellion, but he will also be great among all the nations.
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- Two things are going to happen because of Christmas, and that's what I wanna end with. Number one, all enemies, foreign and domestic, on earth that still exist are eventually going to be crushed by Christ, so that there will be no rebellion left on earth, but when
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- Jesus returns. When he returns, he's not gonna return to a world at war, he's gonna return to a world that's been conquered. That's the first action that Jesus does, and Christmas guarantees that,
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- Isaiah 9. The second action that Jesus is gonna do, and this is what Micah 5 is talking about, is not only in his left hand is he going to crush all of his enemies, but in his right hand, he's gonna raise up all his elect.
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- He's going to put Christians in every corner of the world, and he's gonna make them fruitful, and he's gonna multiply them until the entire world is filled with the glory of God.
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- You know, in the Bible, great means multiplied. So Jesus is gonna be great among all the nations.
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- What does that mean? He's gonna multiply his people in all the nations until there is no one left but his people.
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- Both things are true. The manger in the Christmas narrative guarantees that he will put all his enemies away, and he will fill the world like Adam with only his worshipers.
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- That is the Christmas promise. That is the Christmas promise that I'm asking you to herald.
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- I'm asking you to believe. Christmas is not about wrapping paper and boxes and feasting and gluttony and fancy drinks and parties and tinsel.
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- Christmas is not about that. Christmas is about the fact that Christ will defeat all his foes, and he will fill a world full of his people before he returns.
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- And that, when you really start to contemplate what the future of the world looks like, that is a glorious vision.
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- And that is the Christmas vision. So from the broadcast to you, Merry Christmas.
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- Thank you for all your support this year. I cannot believe how far we got together this year. I can't wait to see what happens next year.
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- From me to you, God bless you. Dwell upon this Christmas miracle. And remember, when you're discouraged, that Christ is
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- Lord, and Christ will do what he promised to do. Until next time,