Understanding His Return: A Christmas Message

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Today on Real Life Radio.

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From that verse is an announcement that there’ll be a man born from the descendancy of Eve and he will have the power to destroy Satan, but he himself will be the great deliverer.

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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. This December, Pastor Jack Hibbs is doing something a little different and a lot special. All month long, he’s offering a double-feature Book of the Month, two very powerful resources to help you finish the year strong and step into the next year spiritually grounded. First, Pastor Jack’s annual favorite, the one-year Bible. Every year, lives are changed as people discover how simple and doable it is to read through the entire Word of God within just a few minutes a day. Also, Pastor Jack’s going to include his brand new devotional, Watching Waiting. It’s a 40-day journey designed to help you slow down, look up, and recognize what God is doing in your life. So this December, why would you choose one when you can get both and grow deeper? Visit jackhibbs.com to get your December Book of the Month double feature, the One Year Bible, and Pastor Jack’s brand new devotional, Watching, Waiting. They’re available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. Again, that’s jackhibbs.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, we’re going to take a break from 1 Samuel to bring you a special Christmas series called His Return. The return of Jesus was a promise from God, and it’s deeper than we can ever imagine. Now, Genesis 3.15 is the very first Christmas verse. God’s plan of redemption was already in motion after Adam and Eve sinned, and their relationship with God was broken. so today in this special christmas message pastor jack teaches us that christmas is god’s missionary journey to save us it’s not a story but a real tragedy that mankind once perfect is ruined by sin but it’s also the ultimate act of mercy when god offers us salvation through his son jesus christ and promises that he will return now with his special christmas series called his return part one here’s pastor and bible teacher jack hibbs

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Today at this special time, we pause and we dive in for these next couple of Sundays leading up to Christmas to celebrate, to prepare. to get ready to take advantage, actually, of the age in which we live in. All of us can discern that there’s somewhat of a heaviness. People are a little bit skeptical. People are a little bit fearful regarding the economy and all that kind of stuff, and justifiably so. Well, that’s where we get to come in. We, the church. We’re the voice. Lord, you’ve given us your word, and you’ve asked us to proclaim your truth. So Father God, we pray that the message of Christmas and the purpose of Christmas and the proclamation of Christmas, that we would all be so filled with your Holy Spirit that we would be on mission, on target, as it were. Literally spending the next two to three weeks being so used by you that the greatest thing of all could be that a life, a home, a family could receive the greatest gift of all And we hold that gift. We’ve got that gift residing in us, the treasure of the eternal gospel. So Father, we pray now that you would school us in your truth, empower us by your spirit, and send us out to the ends of the earth in this world, Lord God, that you have created and that you will someday redeem back to your possession. We pray in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen. The intention that I have over the next few weeks regarding this Christmas series is not to necessarily give you some warm and fuzzy feelings and stuff. That’s fine. If you feel a fuzzy, if you feel a feeling, that’s great. There’s various ways that you can approach the Christmas message. My intention is to pitch to you right down the middle. I want you to hit… these pitches of truth and use them in your life leading up to Christmas. I mean, it’s the word of God, you can use them forever. But I’m just gonna hereby declare all of you and myself as Paul told Timothy to be doing the work of an evangelist. Isn’t that a great way that Paul said it? Timothy was not an evangelist, he was a pastor teacher, but Paul told Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Every believer is to do the work of the evangelist. Does anybody know what the evangelist does? They tell people the evangel, the gospel. And we’re gonna be looking a lot the next few weeks about the gospel and how you and I can be instruments of bearing the message and the word of Christ, Christopher pops into my head. Christopher, if your name is Christopher, like Christopher Columbus’ parents named him Christopher because they dedicated him to the advancement of the gospel. I don’t know if you know that or not, but in the writings of Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Columbus’ mom and dad… That was their declaration. They dedicated their newborn son to be one who takes the gospel to the world. And that’s why they named him Christopher. Christ bearer is what Christopher means. And so I want all of you to be Christophers, as it were, during this season. We approach this time of the year with all kinds of different things going on in life. Everybody does. But as we do, this is a time for some people to take advantage of other people. This is a time for some people to kind of bury their head in the sand for whatever reasons. There’s some people who they lament the approaching of the holiday season for fear of loss, pain. We understand that. But one thing is certain, that if you and I are drawing breath right now, we’ve got to mitigate and we’ve got to understand the time and the age in which you and I live in right now. And you guys probably well know that all around the world, Christmas is celebrated more than any other holiday of any other faith or belief group in the world. It’s fascinating. Even in Muslim nations, they celebrate Christmas, but they don’t celebrate it with the same message that the Bible has to… proclaim, but they celebrate it. And that’s rather interesting. So this is the series. You have to pay attention, though. The series is called His Return. You say, oh, there’s going to be a prophetic teaching? It could be. Or maybe it is. Because when we talk about His Return, we’re actually talking about the fact that after God created everything, and after the fall of man… The word of God was constantly being produced outward from that epicenter of God returning and God redeeming. God returning and God saving. God returning and God establishing. So at the top of your notes, write down his return. That’s what we’re gonna be looking at as a theme. Before we do this, I’ve gotta work this in. And I don’t tell jokes, but this is a cute joke that I’m stealing from J. Vernon McGee. And so I am reminded about this because Christmas time is a time of anticipation. It’s also, if you have little kids in your life, it’s a time of manipulation. Let’s be honest. And so J. Vernon McGee talks about the little boy who wanted a bike for Christmas that he could hardly contain himself. And so he plotted and he planned and he schemed. He thought of everything he could to manipulate mom and dad into considering his request for a brand new bike. He felt that his request wasn’t getting anywhere with mom and dad. Well, mom picked him up from school on the last day before Christmas break. But on their way home, she had to stop quickly to pick up something at the local store. So as little Johnny sat there, he suddenly noticed on the dashboard was a statue of the Virgin Mary. Then bam, he had the answer to his problem. He suddenly made the connection between Mary and Jesus being the Son of God. And at that, he reached out and snapped Mary off the dashboard at the ankles. He stuffed her in his lunchbox, looked around, and then bowed his head in prayer and said, Lord, if you ever wanna see your mother again, you’ll get me that bicycle. That’s one way of anticipating a gift. But it’s pretty amazing. When you talk about anticipation, you cannot have a title of this series, His Return, without thinking about it. Not only the advent of Christ 2,000 years ago, the Bible tells us, we often forget this, that they were those who were actually looking for the coming of the Messiah. They knew the Old Testament, friends, listen carefully. We often miss it. There’s a man, we’ll read about him later, Simeon. Do you remember the old man Simeon? He actually knew the scriptures, the Old Testament, and figured out that the Christ was about to be born. Wow, he was waiting. And the Lord had told him, you are not gonna die until you see my salvation brought into the world. And that’s why you read that tremendous account in the Gospels. As he holds baby Jesus, he says, that’s it. Thank you, Lord. Now I can die in peace. Wow, anticipation. It’s part of our human creation that God has put in us. Talk about anticipation. If I had to sum up the entire Christmas message into a few verses, it’s this, believe it or not. It’s John chapter one, beginning at verse one. In the beginning, that is of the physical universe, was the word. And the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him, that’s key. And without him, nothing was made that was made. And the world became flesh, verse 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld, says John, his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Man, I’m telling you, if you want to sum up Christmas, that’s it. That the word of God came into the world in human skin. and revealed to us the very nature of God for our redemption. So church, as we look at our study today and for this season, I’m gonna ask you to write it down. Number one is this. His return is the promise of his return breeds anticipation. The fact that it is the promise, write that down. His return is a promise. The Christmas message is anything, friends. You’ve heard me say this recently. I’m gonna really dial down on it in this season. The Christmas message is anything but a story. I just refuse to have it be addressed as a story. I know it’s in the movies. I know it’s in songs. I know it’s in tradition, but it’s not a story. In my opinion, stories are made up. All around the world, it’s the greatest story ever told. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. The fact of the matter is the Bible declares that it’s the greatest fact ever told. I don’t care what you put up there. Say, oh no, this was the greatest miracle. That was the greatest miracle. Even, you know, our salvation? Yes, yes, our salvation, yes. But wait a minute, the greatest fact of all is not that God created the heavens and the earth. He could do that all day long. It’s the fact that he came into the world. that we call this Christmas. We’re not pausing for a tradition. We are celebrating actual biblical truth and facts as we look at Christmas. And I want to equip you over the course of these next few weeks. The greatest Christmas message of all is a missionary message. for you and I to announce to the world that he has come and that he’s come to rescue us and that he’s come to redeem us. So number one, as we look at this, the promise of his return is this. It’s a promise deeper than what we had thought. When you look around at all of the Christmas trappings and the nativity and the trees and the stuff, Don’t get caught up into it. Mark it down if you would. It’s the greatest announcement of Christmas ever found in the Bible. I wonder if you know where it is. It’s Genesis 3.15, the very first Christmas verse. Did you know that? Genesis 3.15. By the way, are you guys with me? It’s the first prophecy of the Bible. It’s the first Christmas message of the Bible. It’s the first evangelistic message in the Bible. In many ways, it’s the first found right there in Genesis 3, verse 15. And here it is. And I, that is the Lord speaking, will put enmity between you, that is Satan, and the woman, that’s Eve. And between your seed, that’s always chilling. Satan has children. And her seed, notice, in your Bible, it’s capital S for a reason. Her seed, meaning women do not have sperm. There’s something going on here that is absolutely divine. She doesn’t have this sperm. Makeup, we’re talking about a miracle announced regarding something. He, who’s he? Whoever the seed is. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. A remarkable statement. When Jesus Christ comes into the world, when the promised Messiah arrives through the woman, he’s gonna crush the seed of the serpent. But the serpent, he will inflict a wound on the heel of the Messiah. That verse, friends, listen up, especially if you are viewing from the Middle East or especially if you’re Jewish. Genesis 3.15, Moses is saying this. From the descendancy of Eve. Notice, he doesn’t say Adam, does he? That’s a whole Bible study in itself. It’s huge. Jeconiah, Adam, the connection with Joseph, a carpenter, mind-blowing. None of Joseph’s blood could be in Jesus Christ or else he could not be the Messiah.

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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now let’s get back to today’s message. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.

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There’s going to be enmity, warfare between two warring, can I put it simply, two warring clans. Two warring clans. Entities, darkness and light, death and life, Satan’s desire to hold you bound and captured by your own sin. And God’s desire to have you set free by the offering of his son. That in that verse is the promise. And my Jewish friends, listen. From that verse is an announcement that there will be a man born from the descendancy of Eve. And he will have the power to destroy Satan. But he himself will be the great deliverer. Genesis 3.15. We can go home right now. Seriously, if you wanted to take the Bible seriously, Genesis 3.15 is enough for you to find the gospel and come to Christ right then and there. Amen. No doubt about it. See, friends, the reason why it’s not a story. People think so, say so. No, it’s not a story. But it is a tragedy, if you think about it, that mankind was once perfect in this created state of life. Listen, mankind was created perfect. Some people have a hard time with that. Doesn’t matter. Because, you know, listen, some people say, I don’t believe that man was created perfect because if he was created perfect, he wouldn’t have sinned. Listen. Listen. Mankind was created perfect. Adam and Eve were perfect. It’s no story, but it’s a tragedy. that you having a choice is God’s embedded function of the human psyche. For you and I to actually be viable human beings before God in the area of making a decision, yes and no, Christ or not, God gave you, I think it’s supernatural, it’s amazing, but God gave you this ability to say no to things and yes to things for choice. And yet, Adam and Eve had choice and they were perfect. You wonder how long it lasted, though, you know? How long? It’s not a story, but it’s a tragedy that mankind would decide to ruin his own life and generations by his own choices. See, everybody’s getting closer to home. Adam and Eve were created perfect, but God gave them the ability to choose. Why is everything so messed up? Because man makes his choices. And listen, you and I are no different than our original mom and dad, except we’re fallen. We are fallen. God told them the moment that you sin against me, you’ll die. And they died spiritually. They lived on 900 more years, but they died spiritually. They exercised a choice and they went against the will of God. You say, how can they be perfect if they did the wrong thing? Ah, my friend, because perfect love is very risky and very dangerous. Perfect love. He loved us with a perfect love. And to do that, he engineered within us choice. to choose, to pick, to have the desire. Somehow, and we’ll get this into the book of Romans after the new year, think of this, that God somehow engineered within you the sovereign ability to choose and be responsible for those choices. That doesn’t mean you’re responsible for getting yourself into heaven. When you say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ, you are willfully responding to his offer. He made the provision. He paid the price. He calls it Christmas. He comes into the world to save all those who put their trust in him. He doesn’t make you choose, but he gave you the choice to make the choice. He gets all the glory for providing the way out, but should you reject the Christmas message, All of the damnation, think about that, all of the condemnation comes upon the individual, like Adam and Eve, who rejected God’s plan. They wanted to do it their own way. It’s no story, but it is an ultimate act of mercy that mankind would be offered salvation at all. God did not have to do this, and according to the Bible, friends, God promised to return to his creation as its redeemer. Genesis 3.15, as I said. Also, Philippians chapter 2, verse 5, mark this down. Remember, we’re talking about it being a promise that is his return that’s deeper than we had thought. Philippians 2, 5 to 11. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Let this attitude, let this view, let this thought or the way of thinking be in you. who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. This is amazing. Notice this, this is Jesus coming into this world. He comes in as a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Look, you and I are born in the likeness of men because we had to be born in the likeness of men. He came here choosing to be born in the likeness of mankind. This is called Christmas. That’s what he’s doing. And became obedient to the point of death even, the Bible says, the death of the cross. Verse 9, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess, oh I hope your tongue is has confessed this confession, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father and all God’s people said. For you to make that confession is for you to say that I believe that God sent his promised one. His return was actually him not leaving us alone in Eden, vanquished by Satan and by our own flesh, but his return, we can at least talk to the point of him coming to a little town in Bethlehem. He returns. Can I put it this way? He returns to the scene of the crime. He comes back to earth where it all started. Having made it perfect, establishing Adam and Eve, they reject him. Instead of him writing to us, look, he could have bundled up our universe and just threw us out into oblivion. Did you know that? He could have. He could have just flicked us like that. He could have. He didn’t. He returned to the scene of the crime to buy us back.

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pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his special Christmas series called His Return. Thanks for listening today and Merry Christmas from Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio. You know, our prayer for you this Christmas is that your 2026 be filled with contentment and joy that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Christ is the reason we celebrate Christmas and we look forward to His return. It’s given us great joy sharing our Real Life Radio program with you today and throughout the past year. Thanks for welcoming us into your home and into your life. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. So, Pastor Jack, we have listeners all over the world. And this Christmas season, anything special you want to say to those folks that spend some time with us as Real Life Network folks?

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Yeah, I mean, it is our hope. And I hope people have come to realize this, that we’re not in this for the… for the show of it, for the microphone of it, for the light of it. We’re in this for the word of God being placed in the hearts and minds of people. We take that extremely serious. And so I hope if I could communicate anything to our audience at this time of the year, it would be, we value you so very much that we haven’t even met you. We know that Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach this gospel and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, right? In the name of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And he said, and behold, I’m with you always, even to the end of the world. I think one of the key points to having Jesus with you is doing his business. And his business is for this audience to be well taught to know that we are as much as we can be in this world that we’re with them. I know that we’re limited in time and space, but we can communicate via these platforms of media. That we want them to be strong in Jesus and know his word. And don’t let anybody or anything take that from you. Because economies come and go, seasons come and go, but the wealth of knowing Christ and being invested in his word can never be taken from you. And so I think it’d be good for us to just pray right now. Always, always good to pray no matter what. And Father, we pray that we would enjoy you more now than ever as the waves, as it were, begin to rage in our culture and the sky is darkening. Lord, may we be able to stand bold and strong in you because you are the one in whom we stand. And we, Lord, get to be bold because you are bold. You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And for us, that will be enough. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Amen. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.