I
It is the
1st of December, which means ITS CHRISTMAS!!!,
It is the most wonderful time of the year!
Traditionally,
the 4 weeks before Christmas are known as the “Advent”, Advent: is the fact of
an event happening or a person arriving.(definition)
We of
course are going to celebrate Christmas, along with millions of people across
the world, and in the coming days all aspects of this “coming/arrival” will be
celebrated, and rightly so, and no doubt we will hear about the “How”-
Tableau/Virgin Birth, the Where- O little town of Bethlehem, there will be a
recounting of all the stories associated with the Birth of Christ. And all of
these have a certain glory, but it all fades in the light of the glory of the
One who came- Jesus Christ. (eg- If Sachin comes in his Ferrari, there is some
glory of the car, but not as much as Sachin)
We are looking at
- Who?- Whose arrival are we talking about
- Why?- Why He came.
- What? - What his coming means to us.
THE
ETERNAL ONE
John 1: 1
&14
In the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus
Christ- the maker of heaven and earth, the creator, as it says in Colosians-1:16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones and dominions or principalities or power. All things
were created through Him and for Him.
He is
Eternal, Everlasting, forever Exalted- Lord of Hosts, King of kings, and He
chose to lower himself.
If you were
here a few weeks ago, I had spoken about the Love of God which made him come
for us and the Joy that was set in front of him for which he lowered himself.
What
amazing love! And how privileged are we! We are the subjects of His love. It is
for us, for you and me that He came. It was purposed by God from the beginning-
1 Pet 1:20- He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you.
(Transition
from 1st point to 2nd point-??)
THE
MOMENT THAT CHANGED IT ALL - GOOD NEWS (can think of another header?)**
Luke
4:17-19, Isaiah 61: 1-2
And he
was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when He had opened the book, He
found the place, where it was written:
The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. Because He has anointed Me to preach the
gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted. To
proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the acceptable year of
the Lord.
Verse
21: Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing
Jesus’
coming in his own words was so that we could receive the Good news of Liberty,
of healing from the pain of a broken heart.
Gospel : We were separated from God and his Love, the
fall of the man brought death- separation from God, we were alienated and
enemies in our mind by wicked works (Col 1:21). but praise be to God that he
sent His Son to reconcile us with Him. We are now elevated to an amazing
position as 1 Pet 2:9-10 says
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, His OWN SPECIAL people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who once were not a
people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have
obtained mercy.
So you are His SPECIAL people, no longer
alienated, no longer without mercy.
That the significance of Jesus’ coming for us,
the moment He stepped into the transient, changed history, changed our lives
forever. We would never have made it into the presence of God, we would never
have known God if it wasn’t for His son Jesus Christ who came as a man for us.
Healing:
There are 2 greek words used for ‘Broken
Hearted’ is:
- syntetrimmenous:
Its a difficult word to pronounce, it means to crush completely, to shatter,
break in pieces, broken to shivers. Basically, it means to be broken to a point,
where it is not possible to be broken further.
- kardian:
which means the heart, the thoughts or feelings and also by analogy ‘the
middle’
Jesus came to heal people who have
nothing left to be broken further, to heal the emotional pain of people.
Freedom:
The word used for Captives in the greek
paints a picture of a prisoner of war, the word used there is that of a Spear.
The image is of a prisoner of war walking and being held at the tip of the spear,
who cant move anywhere else without being poked by the spear.
So we were prisoner, and could not try to come
out from the kingdom of darkness, could not do any good even if we wanted to,
but Jesus came to transform us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
Light, to free us to do the good works prepared for us to do.
Recovery of Sight:
The word used for blind means murky vision, so
those who are in the world and looking for God have a murky vision, they don’t
have a clear vision of who God is and what He has done for you, Jesus came to
show the world who God is, He is the visible image of the invisible God.
HOPE-
(Positive expectation)
We heard
Navaz talking about Hope last week, about how we as believers have Hope, which
is different from the world, where theirs is just a wish, our is a positive
expectation.
The Good
news of the Advent of Christ, and His Cross has given us a living hope. So
this morning I want to again encourage you
- if you
are broken-hearted: Jesus came to heal you.
- if you
are in despair- Jesus came to proclaim the good news to you
- if you
are oppressed- Jesus came to set you free and to give you the liberty
- if you
are struggling with any addictions- Jesus came to set you free of those
addictions
- if you
feel ordinary- Jesus came to make you HIS Special people.
- if you
are sick- Jesus came to heal you. (Isa 53)
- if you
are yet blind as in you don’t know who God is- Jesus came to show you the
Father, He is the image of the invisible God.
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