Great Joy For All The People Series

GREAT JOY FOR ALL THE PEOPLE

SCRIPTURE READING:

Luke 2:10 "10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

INTRODUCTION:

We have been on a series of studies from the Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope that you have been blessed by our mini Christmas message series.

Let me give you a short review regarding several things we have learned so far.

We started our series with the birth of the Savior on Micah 5:2 that says: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

We have learned three things regarding this verses:

1. The Savior''s Humble Beginnings. This talks about Christ's Humanity.

2. The Savior's Rise To Kingship. This is about Christ's Rulership.

3. The Savior's Existence from Time Eternity. This is about Christ's Divinity.

Then, we discussed Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

We talked about three things regarding the birth of the Savior from this passage.

1. The Sign from the Lord. This talks about the authentication from the Lord regarding the message of the Messiah.

2. The Virgin Birth of Christ.

We said that the miraculous virgin birth of Christ has lost its meaning during the Christmas celebration.

We need therefore to reaffirm ourselves and to re-focus to the truth of God's Word.

3. The Name of Christ - Immanuel - "God with us."

We had a lot of practical implications of His name to our every day lives.

Then, last week, we discussed the text from Isiah 9:6 "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

We said that these words: "a child is born" talks about Christ's Humanity.

Then, the words: "a son will be given to you." talks about Christ's Divinity.

Then, there are four implications of the phrase: "The government will be upon His shoulders."

1. There will be no DISORIENTATION or CONFUSION because "He is a Wonderful Counselor."

2. There will be no DISCORD or CHAOS because "He is the Mighty God."

3. There will be no DIFFICULTY or COMPLEXITY in life because "He is the Father of Eternity."

4. There will be no DISAGREEMENT or CONFLICTS because "He is the Prince of Peace."

Let me again quote to you from the Church of the Nazarene Manual specifically Article 2 on what we believe about Jesus Christ.

"We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead; that He was eternally one with the Father; that He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say the Godhead and manhood, are thus united in one Person very God and very man, the God-man, Jesus Christ."

I hope in our series in these Christmas messages, we have uncovered the truth regarding the true nature of Christ, that He is fully God and fully man.

There are two whole perfect natures in Him.

That means 100% God and 100% man.

We can't be able to fully comprehend this truth because of our very limited understanding but we believe it by faith because that is what the Bible says.

Because Christ is fully God, He can carry the sin of the entire human race (past, present and future) at the cross and offer forgiveness to whoever who who would believe Him from the time of Adam to the last man standing on earth.

His sacrifice at the cross is sufficient for all but effective for the elect of God.

Because Christ is fully human, He can relate with us, he can experience what we are going through as human beings and he had been tempted just like we have gone through in order to offer a victorious Christian life.

My prayer is that we will all be fully convinced regarding this truth.

In our message for today, we will conclude our mini-series on Christmas with the declaration of the angel to the shepherds that wonderful Christmas eve found in Luke 2:10 "10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people."

We will focus on the words: "all the people."

It said that the message of Good News regarding the birth of the Savior will cause great joy to all the people: whether rich or poor, man or woman, young and old, black or white, near and far.