The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season
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Have Yourself a Historical and Inspirational Christmas!
Let the Christ of Christmas prepare your heart for the celebration of His birth through a devotional journey beginning December 1st and climaxing Christmas day. Each of the twenty-five devotions includes a Scripture reading, carol, and questions for meditation and discussion. The acronym C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S (Christ, History, Resurrection, Incarnation, Santa Claus, Traditions, Miracles, Advent, Salvation) is used to focus on who Christ is and why He came.
Hank Hanegraaff
Hank Hanegraaff serves as president and chairman of the board of the North Carolina–based Christian Research Institute. He is also host of a nationally syndicated radio broadcast, which is heard daily across the United States and Canada—and around the world via the Internet at equip.org. Hank is the author of more than twenty books. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading Christian authors and apologists, Hank is deeply committed to equipping Christians to be so familiar with truth that when counterfeits loom on the horizon, they recognize them instantaneously. Through his live call-in broadcast, Hank answers questions on the basis of careful research and sound reasoning, and interviews today’s most significant leaders and thinkers. Hank and his wife, Kathy, live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and are parents to twelve children.
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The Heart of Christmas - Hank Hanegraaff
CHRIST
HISTORY
RESURRECTION
INCARNATION
SANTA CLAUS
TRADITIONS
MIRACLES
ADVENT
SALVATION
THE
HEART
OF
Christmas
A Devotional for the Season
HANK HANEGRAAFF
9781404187580_ePDF_0005_002Copyright © 2009 by Hank Hanegraaff
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.
All Scriptures are from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4041-8758-0
Printed in China
09 10 11 12 13 [HH] 6 5 4 3 2 1
www.equip.org
www.thomasnelson.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHRIST
Day 1 THE LONG-AWAITED CHRIST
Day 2 ISAIAH ’ S PROPHECY
Day 3 THE GOLDEN KEY OF MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
HISTORY
Day 4 A PAGAN FESTIVAL ?
Day 5 IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME
Day 6 GENEALOGIES OF THE BABE OF BETHLEHEM
Day 7 CENSUS CONSIDERATIONS
RESURRECTION
Day 8 TIDINGS OF COMFORT AND JOY
INCARNATION
Day 9 IMMANUEL
Day 10 ONE PERSON —TWO NATURES
Day 11 DID THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS CLAIM TO BE GOD ?
Day 12 WHAT CHILD IS THIS ?
Day 13 THE PREEMINENT CHRIST
SANTA CLAUS
Day 14 CAN SANTA CLAUS BE SAVED ?
TRADITIONS
Day 15 THE CHRISTMAS TREE TRADITION
Day 16 ARE IMAGES IDOLATROUS ?
Day 17 THE MAGI
Day 18 EPIPHANY
Day 19 THE GIVING OF GIFTS
MIRACLES
Day 20 MIRACLE OR MYTH ?
ADVENT
Day 21 THE FIRST ADVENT
Day 22 THE DAILY ADVENT OF CHRIST
Day 23 THE FINAL ADVENT OF CHRIST
SALVATION
Day 24 YAHWEH IS SALVATION
Day 25 THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
NOTES
CHRISTIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE
INTRODUCTION
Each year during Christmas, I communicate the truth concerning Christ’s coming in flesh. This year I want to take the truths of Christmas and turn them into a Christmas tradition. As such, the purpose of The Heart of Christmas: A Devotional for the Season is to ensure that just as you prepare your home for Christmas, you will likewise prepare your heart.
As the culture begins promoting Christmas shopping the day after Thanksgiving, Christians can begin preparing their hearts for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is my hope and prayer that this year you will use this devotional for the season to begin a Christmas tradition that carries on until the year in which you meet your Savior face-to-face—and that even in your absence, your loved ones will carry the tradition forward.
To make the journey memorable, I’ve organized this twenty-five-day odyssey around the acronym C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S.
CHRIST
Day 1
THE LONG-AWAITED CHRIST
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.
—LUKE 2:11
We begin our journey to the heart of Christmas by zeroing in on the word Christ. In a biblically illiterate culture, many mistakenly suppose that Christ represents the last name of Jesus. In truth, Christ is a title that comes from the Greek (Christos) rendering of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning anointed one.
As such, the Christ of Christmas is the long-awaited Messiah who fulfills all the types and shadows of the Old Testament Scriptures.
To fully grasp the significance of Christ’s messianic role, you must drink deeply from the wellspring of Old Testament prophecy. In Hebrews, as in the rest of the New Testament, the Old Testament history of Israel is interpreted as a succession of types that find ultimate fulfillment in the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Christ we celebrate at Christmas.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul refers to Adam as a pattern
(literally, type) of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14). Likewise, Paul taught the believers at Colosse that the dietary laws, religious festivals, and Sabbath of the Old Covenant were a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ
(Colossians 2:17).
The interpretive principle of typology is equally persuasive in the Gospels. Christ’s successful resistance of temptation in the desert after forty days of fasting is a direct typological contrast to the disobedience of the Israelites that resulted in forty years of wilderness wanderings (Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). In remaining faithful to His Father, Christ did what Israel was unable to do. Christ is thus the true Israel, and all who are found in Christ are heirs according to the promises God made to Abraham (Galatians 3:29).
Moreover, Jesus is revealed as the antitype (that to which the type points) of the Hebrew prophets through His preaching of repentance, His ministry of healing, His concern for the poor and social outcasts, and His death near Jerusalem. Though like the prophets in these ways, Christ is shown to be greater than all the previous prophets in the manner of His miraculous ministry, His claims to be God, and the vindication of those claims in His resurrection. According to Luke’s gospel, Jesus Himself, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets . . . explained to [his disciples] what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself
(Luke 24:27).
Today as you ponder the Christ of Christmas, remember that it is He alone who could emerge through the doorway of the Old Testament Scriptures.
READING
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
(Luke 2:11–14)
QUESTIONS
1 What is the meaning of the word Christ?
1 What are some of the Old Testament types and shadows that find fulfillment in Christ?
CAROL
JOY TO THE WORLD
Isaac Watts
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders