12-06-2020 – Jesus Christ was Born to Die

Christmas celebrates God’s greatest Gift to the world, but God’s gift (His own Son) was not fully understood or realized until He was unwrapped on the Cross.

About 2700 years ago, two of God’s prophets (Isaiah & Micah) both wrote about the future birth of a male child, to a virgin, in Bethlehem, in Judea; this child would be God in the flesh, God’s Salvation come to earth, and He would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus came to pay the penalty (for all sin, for all time, for all people), by His death on the cross; and three days later, He came out of the grave alive, providing eternal life to all who believe in Him.

Micah 5:2,
"² But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His times of coming forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”"

Isaiah 7:14
"¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel."

Isaiah 9:6
"⁶ For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

See Isaiah 53:1-12
"Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

² For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

³ He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.

⁴ However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated.

⁵ But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.

⁶ All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

⁸ By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?

⁹ And His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ But the Lord desired To crush Him, causing Him grief; If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

¹¹ As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings.

¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers. "

God had repeatedly announced His coming, giving special details about His arrival, and then God delivered Him in Bethlehem, just as He had said He would. Joseph and Mary raised Him in Nazareth in Galilee.

Luke 2:52,
"⁵² And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people."

When Jesus was was baptized in the Jordan River, by John (Luke 3:22), God declared from heaven, “You are My Son, whom I love, with You I am well pleased,” (Luke 3:23), “Jesus was about thirty years of age, when He began His ministry.”

God revealed His Son, and all we need to know and to have is made complete in Him.

Read Hebrews 1:1-3…
"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. ³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

See Hebrews 1:2a,
“in these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son.”

Since Jesus’ first advent, God has fully revealed all we need to know, have, and do, concerning God’s greatest gift, His Own Son.

Jesus’ birth happened just as God had announced through the prophets, everything being made ready for the advent of God’s Son, at just the right time

(Galatians 4:4-5),
“when the time had fully come (i.e., at just the right time), God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”

Politically
Rome the world ruler, had provided good roads and a time of
relative peace; the message of Christ could be taken to the rest of the world.

Culturally
The world's people were more educated and unified, even common
people spoke Koine Greek.

Spiritually
The world was more accepting of a wide variety of religious
philosophies; and the Jews had a renewed interest in the OT Scriptures that
pointed to the Messiah, God's One and Only Son.

See Hebrews 1:2b,
“whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.”

God appointed His Son as the beneficiary of all things, i.e., everything that was made belongs to Jesus Christ, God the Son, Creator of and Ruler over everything.

Colossians 1:16,
"¹⁶ for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him."

In Revelation 5:5, John records God sitting on His throne in heaven, with a scroll in His hand (the deed to the earth and everything on it). No one is worthy to take the scroll and open it, but then John writes, "one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.’"

Revelation 5:5-7
"⁵ And one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to be able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
⁶ And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
⁷ And He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne."

(Revelation 5:9),
"⁹ And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation."”

Jesus came.

God sent Jesus (Colossians 1:20)
"²⁰ and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross."

God’s plan was to provide forgiveness for sins through the shed blood of His One and Only Son.

Hebrews 1:3
"³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

Hebrews 1:3a,
“And He [Christ] is the radiance of His glory."

Christ is “the radiance of God’s glory” (lit. “brightness”) meaning Jesus is the Light of God, sent to mankind. “Light” is the revelation that brings “Life from God” to all who are being saved.

Jesus Christ was God’s Light, sent to mankind.

John 1:1-2
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God."

John 1:4-5
"⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind. ⁵ And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it."

John 8:12
"¹² Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”"

1John 1:5
"⁵ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all."

See Hebrews 1:3b
"³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

Jesus is the express image of God [in human flesh] and without Him we could not see or be exposed to God’s light, let alone could we receive life from God.

Colossians 1:15
"¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:"

Colossians 1:17
"¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

Colossians 2:9
"⁹ For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,"

God’s Son holds together, sustains, and maintains, all things by His own Word.

See Hebrews 1:3c
"³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

He created the heavens and the earth upon which we live, itself sitting out in space just the right distance from the moon and the sun, tilted at precisely 23.5 degrees, as it revolves at 1,037 mph, making a complete rotation every 24 hours; while traveling at 67,000 mph in an orbit around the sun every 365 days.

See Hebrews 1:3d
"³ And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.  When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

This is the seat of power and authority.  Wow! Jesus Christ fulfilled His sovereign work by taking the punishment for our sins, upon Himself.

Jesus took our punishment for sin.

(Hebrews 9:11-12)
"¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things having come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not of this creation; ¹² and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption. "

About 700 years after Isaiah and Micah gave their prophecies, a young woman named Mary, who was said to be a virgin, gave birth to a male child in Bethlehem, in Judea; the baby was named in Hebrew, Yeshua, the Greek rendering is Jesus [meaning Rescuer, Deliverer, i.e., God’s Salvation/Savior]; the baby was also called in Hebrew Immanuel [meaning God with us].

This child was God in human flesh, Savior to all who will believe in Him. Jesus was born in a stable and raised in obscurity; as a teenager He confounded the religious leaders, as a man he demonstrated authority over nature, healed people of every kind of disease and infirmity, raised a young girl and a man from the dead, and was then put to death on a cross, buried, and on the third day He came out of the tomb alive, and began showing Himself to His followers over a 40 day period; after which, he ascended back into heaven.

Hebrews 10:12
"¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,"

The final message from God is that His own Son was born in the flesh of a man for the purpose of dying for the sins of mankind.

Christmas is about God’s Greatest Gift:

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was born for the purpose of laying down His own life as full payment for our sins, so that everyone who repents, believing in Him, receives forgiveness and eternal life.

Revelation 1:8
'⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is yet to come, the Almighty.”'

He is the great I AM.

1John 5:11-13
"¹¹ And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.  ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

If you have never repented of your sins, believing in God’s Son to save you, why not do it right now? This is the most important decision of your life. Don’t enter the Christmas season without making sure you belong to God through Jesus Christ, God’s One and Only Son.

The reason for the season is Jesus, as Paul writes:

2Corinthians 9:15
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

The word “Christmas” is formed from two words: Christ and mass.

Christ (the Greek rendering of the Hebrew word Messiah), means Holy [or Anointed] One;
and
mass means a congregation or gathering for the purpose of a religious observance or celebration; and so,

Christmas is a celebration in honor and praise and worship of Jesus Christ, God’s Son,

Lord and Savior:
crucified, resurrected, and coming again.

Pastor Mike
>’(((><