GOOD NEWS: Christ has come to the world

About 700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven.

That time of darkness and despair will not go on forever.

There will be a time in the future when the land will be filled with Glory.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great Light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a Light will shine.

He will break the yoke of their slavery, and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.

He will break the oppressor’s rod, and the boots and uniforms of the warrior bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.

For unto us a child is born; unto us a Son is given.

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with judgment and justice from the throne of His ancestor David, from that time forward, even for eternity.

The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

Isaiah 9

The Gospel of John was penned by a man who described himself as the “disciple that Jesus loved.”

What does it mean to be loved by Jesus? It wasn’t that Jesus loved John more than anyone else — John was secure in the love of the Lord because he had a personal relationship with Him.

John sat at the Lord’s feet and learned from Him, he saw the Lord’s compassion and capacity to heal others and was there when Jesus was crucified on the cross for the sins of the world. He understood it was also his sin that nailed Jesus to the cross, for no man is without sin.

But John also understood Jesus died on the cross so He could have us forever. It was why He came. Christ came to the world, fully God and fully human, to defeat sin, pain and death forever. The cross was a battlefield — and Christmas was a war cry. Jesus came in love to give everlasting life to all who believe in Him.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him.

The Word gave Life to everything that was created, and His Life brought Light to everyone.

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn — not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

So the Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

The law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

John 1

The time came when God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David.

Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and He will be called the Son of God.

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”

The Magnificat: Mary’s song of praise.

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!

For He took notice of His lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.

For the Mighty One is holy, and He has done great things for me.

He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear Him.

His mighty arm has done tremendous things!

He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.

He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.

For He made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”

And the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped Him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them.

“Don’t be afraid!” he said.

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour — yes, the Messiah, the Lord — has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others — the armies of Heaven — praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.

All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.

The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Luke 1, 2

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus.

“How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

“How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?

"I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to Heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from Heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life."

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.

“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s Light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the Light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the Light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the Light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

John 3