One of the things I’ve noticed about the human expirience is that we have a strong tendency to celebrate events, places and people, but with the passing of time the significance is usually lost. This principal is evident through out history and is certainly evident in our day and time. Valentines day is suppose to remind us to love each other. In spite of its pagan origin Easter is suppose to remind us about the significance of the death of our Lord Jesus. Thanksgiving is suppose to remind us to stop and give thanks for all our blessings and Christmas, well I’m sure its not news that many Christians have become disenchanted with the big business mind set that is so prevalent during the holiday season. Ironicly, now many are trying to find ways to bring back the significance lost by reminding us of the reason for the holiday. In other words in my humble opinion, holidays that are suppose to remind us about specific events or cause us to display Christian virtue really don’t work very wwell. I believe this is the reason Jesus did not allow us to know the date of his birth. I believe another reason is that He wants us to look forward continually to the day and time when all will be fulfilled.

Why do so many of us forget the meaning these special times of celebration are supposed to help us to remember? I’m not sure I have an answer, except to say that maybe its because of our fallen natures. When Jesus walked on the Earth among his own people, the majority of them did not recognize him because they were fixated on the temple, their ceremonies and their sacrifices. Jesus said “in this place is one greater than the temple”, Matthew 12:6) but it was almost imposible for them to recognize their messiah because they had not allowed their hearts to be transformed by the power of the promised one represented in the temple, ceremonies and sacrifices. The prophet Daniel prophesied of his coming almost up to the year, (Daniel 9:25-26) The prophet Isaiah provided them with the info on how he would come (Isaiah 7:14) and Micah the prophet even gave the location of his birth. (Micah 5:2) In spite of all this info, God still had to send angels to a lonely hillside to tell the shepherds to go to Bethlehem to welcome his son. The wise men who were not Jewish, had to be lead all the way from the east to worship him. Through out the Bible we can see that the mejority of God’s people are never prepared when they need to be. Usually its the humble and the people who are lowly esteemed by the rest of society that accept God’s messagess.

God wants us to use the past to bring the future in to greater focus. I just reread Acts chapter 2 and one of the things that jumped out at me right away is that when the Gospel was first preached, Peter only refers to the Cross once and he used it to talk about current and future events. In fact the first thing Peter does is point them to the future. Check it out for yourselves read acts chapter 2 very slowly and pay close attention to Peters sermon. His first point is found in verses 15 through 21. I hope you don’t get the impression that I’m belittling the Cross I am not, its just very interesting to me that the first time the Gospel is preached, Peter immediately points his listeners forward to the second coming. This is the main point of what I’m saying, Jesus came so he could come again. His birth and his crucifixion is of no significance if we can’t see them in light of his most precious intention which is to rid the Earth of sin and to settle in the minds of all that his judgements are just, true and righteous. I am not saying that it is wrong to remember that Christ was born or that he died on the Cross for our sins, but these events are to help us to focus on the fact that this world will not remain this way forever and that his wonderful kingdom of grace which all who believe can be a part will soon become the kingdom of his glory.

Let me leave you with this last thought. Just as Peter pointed his hearers to the future in the first point of his sermon, I would like to show you from God’s word that Jesus is not just in Heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father doing nothing. He is our high priest interceeding on our behalf, cleansing his temple in Heaven and us his temple on Earth from sin. When he is done he will return as King of kings and Lord of lords. check out the bible verses below
which speak about the role of Christ as our high priest.

(Revelation22:11-12)
(Malachi 3:1-3)
(Hebrews 9:22-24)
(Romans 8:34)
(Hebrews 7:25)

I realise that some of the things I have said may be new to some of you. So I’m encouraging you to be a Berean and check out these verses for yourself. there are more verses in the bible that teach this prinsiple, but I’m giving you these to get started: especially since some of you may be new to the concept of Jesus cleansing his temple in Heaven and us his temple on Earth. If you have any objections or questions, please feel free to use the contact link in the menu of this website to reach me or just send me an email neville@nevillepeter.com.


May God’s richest blessings be yours.