Unto You Is Born - The Christ Series

Alba 12-10-2023

UNTO YOU IS BORN – THE CHRIST

Luke 2:11

Christmas is a time for gift giving. When you were young, is there something that you seriously wanted and hoped it would be one of your presents for Christmas? Perhaps you were excited to open the gift and find it was just what you wanted. Or maybe it was another year of disappointment because it was not there.

Let me tell you of my experience. I had friends who had electric trains, and I wanted one. One of my friends, whose name was Wally, seemed to have everything. He was a boy with some problems with an official diagnosis of being spastic. He couldn't talk plainly. A lot of conversation was with hand gestures. His parents provided him with as much as they could to encourage him and increase his abilities. I remember that he had an amazing Erector set and could build interesting mechanisms complete with a motor that made things move. He also had an electric train (or two).

Then on Christmas another friend, whose name was Gerry, got his electric train. I really wanted one. So by the next Christmas, I strongly hinted, probably even boldly stated, that I really wanted an electric train. So I was pretty sure it would happen. I even told my friend I was expecting to get one.

Then came Christmas morning when we all went into the living room together to open gifts.

And there was a box with my name on it. It looked like the right size. It just had to be that electric train I so desperately wanted. It wasn't the first gift I was allowed to open, but finally the time came. I felt excited and knew what my reaction would be.

Anticipation, hope, delight and wonder all wrapped up together. That was my feeling. And it was also the feeling of the Jewish nation as they were awaiting the Messiah who had been promised to them for so many years.

And then, an angel appeared to lowly shepherds with an announcement that fulfilled that promise. In Luke 2:10-11 it records the angel's message. “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

How do we know that was the fulfilling of the promise? It is because when the angel said this child was the Christ, it was the same as saying this child is the Messiah. The one they were waiting for.

The terms Christ and Messiah are synonymous. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew language and the word Christ is from the Greek language. But they mean the same thing. They both mean “the anointed” one. People who were set apart for a special purpose were anointed. It included prophets, priests and kings.

Jesus fulfilled all three of those places. He is The Christ. The Messiah. The anointed One, prophet, priest and king.

1. Jesus is the priest who offered the sacrifice that makes salvation possible for us. That is why he had to come to earth in human form. Hebrews 2:17 says, “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.” (NLT)

This was promised from the beginning of time when in the Garden of Eden, God told the serpent that the seed of the woman would give a death blow to Satan's head. The seed of a woman is the child, Jesus. And He delivered that death blow to the devil when He arose from the grave.

The old devil must have thought he had canceled God's plan of salvation when Jesus was put to death on the cross. But the resurrection proved him wrong. And because of that, His one sacrifice that He offered, which was Himself, is sufficient to take away all of our sins, yours and mine.

Hebrews 9:24-28 says, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another.... He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”