Malachi 4:1-6, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
When you read through the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi (and we just read through the last chapter of that book), you recognize that it’s a climatic finish. A real page turner that creates excitement. You’re just itching to turn the page to discover what happens next, but when you do, your excitement might falter just a bit because the next book, the first of the New Testament, begins with a genealogy, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).
No one would blame you if you were tempted to skip Matthew and try another Gospel altogether, but keep in mind that the promises God made to His people in the OT looked forward to their fulfillment, which is what we find in the New. The OT is promises made and the NT is promises kept, and as you discipline yourself to not skip the genealogy and as you read through the NT, you realize that in fact it could not open in a more fitting manner, since the genealogy in Matthew draws the line from Abraham to David and at last to Jesus as the One who fulfills all the OT promises. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, “For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (1:20).
Now, if you had gotten disappointed with the genealogy that begins Matthew’s gospel, and you skipped over to Mark, you would soon discover no genealogy, but he does reach back to the prophets who pointed forward to the One who was yet to come. Mark uses the OT to set the stage for the glorious Good News of Jesus Christ. Mark quotes the prophets Malachi (3:1) and Isaiah (40:3) in vv. 2—3, “As it is written in the prophets…” (read vv. 2-3). Then, the first recorded words of Jesus in Mark are found in v. 15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” The people during Jesus’ day had the privilege of witnessing what prophets and kings, had longed to see (read Luke 10:24), a privilege that even angels wish they understood (read 1 Peter 2:12), an honor still continued through the illuminating work of God’s Word.
The New Testament shows us that the means by which God’s promises are fulfilled can be summed up in two words: Jesus Christ. God’s promises, those OT prophecies, are all fulfilled in the person of the Christ and discovered by knowing Him through repentant faith. The only way that any of us meet with God is through His Son, the Lord Jesus, and we enjoy His presence through the Holy Spirit, who transforms and empowers the lives of believers to daily grow in Christ and joyfully serve the King.
Christ is the perfect fulfillment of all God’s promises. He is the reality of all God’s assurances. That is simultaneously a profound and simple truth. The beauty, joy, and reality of celebrating Christmas in your heart, year round, has nothing to do with sentimentality or magic or myths and everything to do with the revealed and fulfilled truth of Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, in a barn, according to God’s eternal timetable, so that He might save His people from their sins, and that was accomplished by paying the price for sins, which is death. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in our place condemned Jesus stood. Sealed our pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! We know that His sacrifice was accepted by God because on the Third Day up from the grave Jesus arose, with a mighty triumph over His foes.
Wait no more, then, to see how God will fulfill His every promise. We know now that each one was, is, and ever will be satisfied through Christ. He has promised to be with you, to work for you and through you, and to bring you to an eternal kingdom of perfection. There are times when it is hard to hold on to those promises. When those times come, look back to a man born of Abraham and David’s line, conceived of the Spirit, lived a perfect, sinless life, who willingly, voluntarily hung on a cross and rose from the grave so that all God’s promises would become “yes” in Him. Therefore, He was able to announce, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.”
We are able to do just that, and then we are privileged to proclaim the same message. Merry Christmas!