December 23, 2016

Rejoice - Your Savior Has Come! - Christmas

The angels deliver this wonderful news to a group of frightened shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem. This is the one sentence version of the Good News of Jesus birth at Christmas. We are reminded that we are not alone. There is a God in Heaven who loves us and reaches out into this dark world in love to save us from spiritual death. God could have sent an army. God could have worked through the official church. God chose to do something very unusual. God chose to reach out to us through a baby born to an unwed 13 year old girl in a cattle ­­shed in an occupied country. It was a sign of God’s love – and a test of human faith and love. Each year we need to rejoice with the angels that our savior has come.

1. Luke gives us a very historical account of the Birth of Jesus
Luke’s tells us his mission is to “carefully investigate everything...” (1.3). In our time of questioning the authority and authenticity of the Bible, it is comforting to notice the historical details in the account: