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Introduction
Christmas is the time where we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
This should be a time of great joy.
It should be a time to remember the blessings we have in this life.
This often though is a time when people find themselves lonely.
The Birth of Jesus
God Spoke Through the Prophets
There are many places we could look at in the Old Testament that describe the coming of Jesus Christ.
For this message, we will only look at two:
The first is in Isaiah 7:14
This New Living Translation says “God is with us”.
Many translations simply say “God with us”.
God said long ago through that He was not far off.
He was with Israel in the tabernacle of Moses but there was a separation between the people and God.
The people could not enter into God’s presence.
God wanted a closer relationship and intended to fulfill that through Jesus Christ.
Next, in Psalm 132:11 God made a promise to David.
This was not to be a cloud of the glory of God by day and a pillar of fire by night as it with Moses.
This was a promise of a flesh and bone son, a descendant of David that would rule.
God Spoke to Zechariah
Zechariah was a priest doing his duty in the temple.
He was married to Elizabeth but they didn’t have any children.
An angel appeared to him in Luke 1 and told him they would have a son.
John, who we call John the baptist, was a forerunner and prepared the way for Jesus.
God Spoke to Mary
The same angel that had delivered the message to Zechariah then came to Mary in Luke 1:26-33.
The promise to Mary was that:
“He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.
And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
Mary great response is recorded in Luke 1:38
We also should note here that Elizabeth was the relative of Mary.
The King James says Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary.
God Spoke to Joseph
God spoke to Mary in advance, but Joseph doesn’t know anything about this plan until “she (Mary) was found with child”.
Lets read Matthew 1:18-21.
The angel said “the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit” and “”he will save his people from their sins”.
The Life of Jesus
Jesus grew up and demonstrated great wisdom.
The family made their pilgrimages to Jerusalem as the were commanded under the Law of Moses.
After one of these journeys, they realized after three days that Jesus wasn’t with them.
We might think, how could they not miss him for three days?
But, this was a trip made by many people that were family and friends.
There wasn’t any fear of losing a child.
If we read all of this, what Mary found was that Jesus was “sitting among the religious teachers” in Luke 5:46.
Jesus was learning as it says in Luke 5:52.
After Jesus was baptised with the Holy Spirit, He began His ministry and there are many places we could read, but lets just look at Luke 6:17-19 in
As Jesus had been teaching and preaching in the synagogues, people were healed and now many people came from all around.
They came to hear Him and to be healed.
“and He healed everyone”.
In His life, Jesus demonstrated the will of God and that was to do good and to heal.
Jesus himself said in John 3:17
The work Jesus was doing showed that God’s will was to help people, to deliver them from their trouble.
This work that Jesus did is summarized in Acts 10:38.
Jesus was “doing good”.
Jesus was “healing”.
The Death of Jesus
Jesus also said in John 3:14-15
No one understood these words.
It wasn’t until much later that even Jesus disciples understood what Jesus meant.
What people did recognize, was that in this life there is trouble.
Our son Elias and his family were visiting from San Diego.
We hadn’t seen them in five years and it has been more than ten years since Elias has visited New York City.
We met at Bryant Park and then walked to a few local sites.
One of them was St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan.
This Church is an architectural marvel but also an historic monument illustrating some key biblical messages.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
The Stations of the Cross
Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus takes up his Cross
Jesus falls for the first time
Jesus meets his Mother
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
Jesus falls for the second time
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
Jesus falls for the third time
Jesus is stripped of his garments (sometimes called the "Division of Robes")
Jesus is nailed to the Cross
Jesus dies on the Cross
Jesus is taken down from the Cross
Jesus is laid in the tomb
Identifying with His suffering
Jesus was taken at the height of His ministry.
He had performed miracles of healings
He had fed the thousands, yet though He had only helped people, He was still put to death.
These stations are a visual reminder of the sufferings of Christ.
These are to bring us into close contact with the pain and suffering that we also bear in this world, that we share in the suffering.
As we walked through the doors of St Patrick’s Cathedral to leave we faced across the street, the Atlas statue.
This sculpture depicts the ancient Greek Titan Atlas holding the heavens on his shoulders.
Elias commented to me that one of his theology professor’s said “This is a stark reminder that we can live in the peace and joy of God’s Kingdom or carry the weight of the world on our shoulders”.
I am going to take a side trip here and talk about
The Virus
This pandemic continues to impact our lives
New Covid Cases
The highest number of reported Covid Cases for New York City was 7,252 on Jan 15, 2021
We are currently at more than double that rate with 15,213 new cases reported on December 24, 2021
Prevention
Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
Masks
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