Christmas: Christ came to live and die for us!

Tonight is Christmas Eve, we say we are preparing for the Lord Jesus as we remember his humble birth in a manger. Lets set the scene properly for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't come to a world full of wealth and christmas trees. Jesus didn't come to a people who were righteous.

What was the state of the world?

Isaiah 9:1,2 which is quoted in Matthew 4:16 says:

the people living in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death

    a light has dawned.

We were living in the land of the shadow of death. 

We were living in darkness. 

Jesus did not just call us to love one another or even call us to that first. Jesus called us to first turn to God. 

Matthew 4 is the recording of the beginning of Jesus ministry:

Matthew 4:17

¹⁷ From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

The solution to our sin isn't just to try harder to love each other. The answer is repentance and forgiveness by Jesus. And it certainly isn't about the presents or the building of our earthly kingdom, but the coming kingdom of heaven where God reigns that Jesus began to usher in. 

Because only God can bring a dead heart to life. Only can change our hearts so that we would love one another, love ourselves and love God. 

As Jesus was born fully God and fully man he was born with a purpose. He willingly came so that he could suffer and die for us as we humiliated him. Jesus' short earthly life from the beginning was marked for his end. I think its ironic we celebrate Christmas with a Christmas Tree from perhaps Germanic traditions and yet the end of Jesus earthly story is dying on a tree made into a cross for us. 

I want to pray into all of this and remember the reality of sin and death and hopelessness without Christ. Lord let my heart know the whole worlds need but especially my own desperate need for a savior this Christmas. Father God I want my heart to break because I know I need your Son Jesus so much. And yet break my heart for the death Jesus willingly walked into even as he was born humbly as a baby in a manger. 

Merry Christmas

Amen