“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” Acts 2:22-24

During one of my Advent Wednesday Evening services, I showed a picture that was a composite of a Christmas tree and a cross — the two pictures standing side by side. This picture was to remind those in the congregation that Christmas goes beyond the birth of Jesus and all the way to His sacrifice on the Cross.

We have to remember often that Jesus came in the flesh, born to Mary, and lived in a fleshy body. As such, when they drove the nails through his wrists, on the cross, they thought those nails were destroying all Jesus came to do on this earth as they caused His lifeblood to flow down that cross to where they stood. And yet, as in the verse above, this had all been “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”. In other words, this did not take G-d by surprise! Just as nails were made by man to build and create, G-d used these nails not to destroy, but to build His Kingdom.

In Him (Jesus) all things hold together. Because of the nails…and the sacrifice on the Cross…the Church is held together.

On this day, seven days before the birth of the savior, we remember the hands of the baby born in a stable, the same hands that nails will one day pierce. Without those nails, the church would never have been built.

Pastor Dave