So often we only hear sermons from these first few verses and first few chapters of Scripture found in the 4 Gospels during Christmas. Very little attention is given to the early years of Jesus by the Holy Spirit when He inspired the Gospel writers. In fact, Mark doesn’t mention these years at all. But they are vitally important to the foundations of Christianity. We see the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies affirming Jesus at the Messiah. There is a definitive proclamation of what I refer to as the pre-existence of Jesus, meaning He existed in Heaven before coming here to earth. And certainly let us not overlook the continuation of the narrative all throughout Scripture that God uses imperfect, ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary tasks on His behalf! But here too, we find Jesus’ purpose for being born…to die. Connecting back to last week’s message, grace is only possible through substitutionary sacrifice, and the grace needed to reconcile us to God would eventually come through Jesus’ death on the cross. These themes will open tonights message. And then I will share three phrases that I believe call to us through these chapters and verses: show up, buckle up, and open up. Thank you for joining this sermon to learn about how these three phrases speak to you!
by City Life