The Best is Yet to Come

With Christmas now 2 weeks away, I want this weeks Christmas theme to relect the thought that better things are yet to come. 

Application: As we continue through the pandemic (this past week was the worst recorded of all weeks), I want to remind us that the best it yet to come!

• We can’t give up.

• We can’t lose heart.

• We cannot fall to the circumstances and difficulties.

n: I want to take us to past, current and future were better things can always be anticipated and these matters always found born in Christmas manger.

I.

– Genesis 3:15

From the very beginning, when sin was introduced into the world and the consequences became separation (banishement from garden); toil and eventual judgment from God through sin, something better we were told was going to come.

‘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.’

As part of the curse, enmity—mutual hatred and ill will—will exist between the woman and the serpent. 

Later, the same enmity will continue between the woman’s seed or offspring (mankind in general, since Eve is the “mother of all living,” Genesis 3:20) and the serpent’s seed. Their offspring will remain enemies throughout all generations. 

The serpent’s (metaphorical) offspring are demonic forces and also those people who follow the devil and accomplish his will. 

• Jesus called the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 12:34 and said they belonged to their “father, the devil” in John 8:44. 

• In short, God says that Satan will always be the enemy of mankind. 

• It follows that people who side with Satan will be at perpetual war with God’s elect and that we are engaged in a very real battle between good and evil (Ephesians 6:12).

Genesis is the first messianic prophecy in scripture. 

• Because of Satan’s plow and Adam and Eve’s sin, Satan would in a way bruise the woman’s offspring (eventually Jesus). Satan’s conspiracy condemned Jesus to be crucified!

Application: But, something was also prophesied, the ‘best is yet to come’ part.

This same one who was to be bruised, would eventually crush Satan’s head (power, dominion, consequence). 

• Satan, although active in this world is a defeated foe. His doom is sure: ‘And the devil…was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur’ (Rev. 20:10).

So mankind was doomed! All of born humanity would be bruised by sin.

But, from the very beginning, we were told ‘the best was yet to come!’

Of Course, we believe that to be Jesus!

: Let me move from the beginning to what I will call the OT period.

II.

In this ‘OT’ period, God established a system, entered into a covenant with a people and then send individuals, (judges and prophets) to help keep people ‘on the right side of the law.’

Judges – Othniel, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson.

Prophets – In the Hebrew canon the Prophets are divided into (1) the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) and (2) the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, or Minor, Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi).

When the people got in trouble, and came under the bondage and slavery of their enemies because of their own failure, God always miraculously delivered and renewed and restored relationship to His people.

An elaborate sacrificial system for the covering of the peoples sin was established.

• Once a year, the high priest would enter the holy of holies and make atonement for the people’s sin.

But, that wasn’t the final answer, ‘The best was yet to come.’

Transition: Fast forward to the NT period, and after 400 years of silence, Jesus is born on that Christmas morning (probably not December 25th…sorry) and the course of final fulfillment was born in the flesh.

John 1:1-5; 14

As part of God’s plan, God sent a messenger before Jesus, John the Baptist. In Isaiah 40:1-5, 9, the prophet Isaiah spoke about one who come in the desert preaching and preparing the way for the Lord.

In John 1:19-28, what is John saying? I am not the one, ‘the best is yet to come!’

John 1:29, ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’ – There He is…John sees, ‘the best one who had come.’

: So that’s it right? We’re done? Sermon over? NO!

• Jesus has come, died for our sins, reconciled us to the Father.

• Satan’s head has been crushed once and for all. 

• We no longer are slaves to sin.

• The Kingdom of God has arrived!

: But, we still are here. Living in the midst of crisis, turmoil, pain, sorrow, and dying.

Guess what? You guessed it! ‘The best is yet to come!’

And not just at the rapture or when / if we die before that but now too!

• Someday soon, one day or another, we will receive the victor’s crown that we’ve obtained through the grace of God by the work of our Christ…

But also ….

• I’d like to say that in this our lifetime (whatever remains of it) we can believe God that ‘the best is yet to come.’

Application: Even as difficult as things are or may become before we meet Jesus, ‘better things can, and I believe, can & will come!

: We are definitely living in difficult or at minimal, usuaul times. But it’s going to get better.

As Christians we have a hope, yes, even an expectation that ‘the best is yet to come.’