This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Matthew 2:13 Hope is born. With great attention to detail God unveils the plan of redemption from Job to the Pentateuch (first five books of the law), to Malachi, penned by multiple authors in 39 books. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because it represents the beginning of our personal journey from darkness into his great light. We celebrate the beginning because we already know the end result. We understand the importance of humble beginnings. We glorify his name as the angels did because we know that a great King, the savior of the world, is born, was born in the flesh and lived out his destiny. Just as He was born facing insurmountable odds, in great poverty with the King desirous to kill him, we too face great difficulty becoming born again and warring against the former king of this world. In a similar way the king Herrod was looking for a way to destroy Jesus and his birthright, the devil whose reign and rule isn’t long for this world wishes to destroy us before we walk in our destiny. His birth that day is what lead us to our new birth in him. If he were not born we would still be wondering in the dark without any hope of ever being free or even knowing that our sins lead to both physical and spiritual death. We would be totally hopeless if it were not for God’s precious gift. God spends a lot of time in the first testament about how we should be a father to the fatherless. That is reiterated again in the New Testament. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. Psalm 68:5 so that the Levites) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 14:29 because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them. Job 29:12 Jesus was adopted in every sense of the word by Joseph and then we never hear about him again after the incident in the temple when Jesus was 12. So, somewhere between 12 and 30 Joseph dies. God in the flesh experiences the loss of an earthly father and has to learn to be completely reliant on Daddy God, father God for every decision and for daily direction. He models; Jesus models how to overcome again and again in every trial he faces. We have someone to look to for every broken path we take. He overcame and so we’ll we with His redemption and Spirit living inside of us. He adopted us and became our father when we believed. When we are born again, hope is born in us as new babes in Christ. Just as his heavenly father taught him the word and guided him through victory after victory through countless battles, he promises us the same HOPE. We are victorious because He was and continues to be victorious. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15 Jesus the Man, tempted in every way. Chased, threatened, hated, envied, maligned by people who didn’t understand him. Even the very people he loved and healed turned their back on him. The people he wanted to know and accept him the most rejected him. To top it all off he spent his life feeding the poor, healing the sick, and setting people free from every kind of demon and broken experience you could have, only to be abandoned. His life of love and preparation lead him to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 Just as the angels celebrated the birth of Jesus the angels celebrate when one person turns from sin and believes in him, his birth, life, death on a cross and resurrection is both his story and OUR story. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:7 We are born again with seemingly insurmountable odds, a wicked king chasing us, brokenness at every turn. We face temptation and fail. We walk through trials and fall down, struggling at times to get back up. We can now face All the things that Jesus faced. He won the victory so we could rely on him. Trust in him. Follow him. We can Be led by the Spirit and listen to our heavenly father for victory, direction, and comfort. Jesus is our standard and our answer. We celebrate the beginning because we know the power and victory of the end result. That’s why the angels celebrate when we repent because they know that HE who began a good work in us will complete it! being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 We can the same confidence in our redemption at the beginning or somewhere in the middle like we might be today, or even at the end when we draw our last breath because He has overcome. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 21:26:32 +0000
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