Jesus Is Born

Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. On December 25th, friends and families gather together to open gifts and spend time together. Most people that celebrate Christmas know about its origins. Christmas was and is still a day that Christians celebrate Jesus being born into the world. In hectic and busy times during the holidays it is easy to lose sight of the meaning behind Christmas. So, we must ask ourselves why we are celebrating in the first place?

The meaning of Christmas goes much deeper and further back than the night Jesus was born. In the Old Testament, God’s people were struggling. Because of sin, there was a gap between people and God. This gap made it hard to connect with God, therefore, people continued to sin and turn away from God. However, God gave them a promise. Throughout the Old Testament, the promise of a Savior emerges time and time again. This Savior would be a person that could bridge the gap between people and God and allow for a new relationship to take place.

For years God’s people waited for this promise to be fulfilled. The New Testament picks up with this promise coming into fruition. Matthew 1-2, and Luke 1-2 tell the story of Jesus being born.

Here we see that God sent angels to visit Mary and Joseph (Jesus’s parents). Even though Mary and Joseph were not married yet, the angels told them that the Holy Spirit would conceive a baby in Mary’s womb and that baby would be Jesus, the long awaited Savior.

The Bible explains that Jesus was God’s son, even though he had human parents. Because the Holy Spirit put Jesus inside Mary’s womb it became clear that this child was special. Mary and Joseph were entrusted to raise and care for Jesus, but they knew that Jesus was God’s own son.

The backstory behind Jesus’s birth is very interesting, but the reason we still celebrate it is because of what it continues to do for us. A significant part of the promise of the Savior was for God to be with humanity. Jesus was with his father in heaven but came to the world so that he could relate to us. While Jesus was 100% God he was also 100% man. Jesus knew what it was like to laugh and have fun, he knew what it was like to have pain and to be sad. Jesus was God with us, he helped those around him to see God in new ways and to further their journey with him.

But the promise did not stop there. Jesus was killed on the cross, but arose three days later. This proved to people that he really was the Savior that the Old Testament talked about. It is through Jesus’s death and resurrection that we can be saved from our sins, be connected to God, and have eternal life.

We celebrate Christmas because Jesus became God with us and became our Savior.

Key Takeaways:

• Jesus is the promise of a Savior

• Jesus is God’s Son

• Jesus is God with Us

Parents, 3treesKIDS will be covering “Jesus is Born”, both in-person and online this week.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.

People of the Bible: New Testament Review

The Bible begins with the account of the creation of the world and it ends with explaining how God will one day create a new world. In the beginning, God created a perfect world, but through sin, the world became corrupt. The devil deceived Adam and Eve, and through their sin, death and suffering entered into the world. Humanity became separated from God through sin, and ever since we have been trying to recover what has been lost.

For a long time, humans tried to do this on their own but the gap of sin was too wide. God would intervene in certain situations and reveal glimpses of his everlasting love that put our “love” to shame by comparison. But even then, humanity failed to recover the relationship they had with God in the beginning. Thankfully, however, that is not the end of the story.

The New Testament begins with a long held promise from God coming to fruition. God sent His only son, in the form of a human to live with us. Jesus, being the son of God, came down from heaven as a baby. Jesus lived a perfect life and would eventually reveal that he was the Messiah, the person everyone had been waiting for. As the Messiah, Jesus would bridge the gap between humanity and God and allow for this relationship to be recovered once and for all.

However, many did not believe Jesus. Those who did not believe him sent him to die on the cross. The devil thought he had won once again, but the story wasn’t over. Jesus rose from the grave three days after his death. Through the cross and his resurrection, he has died for our sins and he has given eternal life to anyone who believes that he is the son of God.

Before Jesus returned to heaven, he gave his followers commands. He has told all those that follow him that we should spread his message far and wide. We should strive to live like Jesus and tell those around us what he has done. We are to show love to one another because of how much love Jesus has shown for us by dying in our place and giving us eternal life.

The Bible is God’s story, and we are a part of that story. The New Testament specifically tells us about how Jesus has paved the way for us to live with him forever; as well as teaching us how to live more like him.

Key Takeaways:

• God Created Everything

• Christ Gives Us Eternal Life

• We Should Love Others

Parents, 3treesKIDS will also be reviewing the New Testament this Sunday, both in-person and online.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.

People of the Bible: John

Who was John?

John the apostle was one of Jesus’s earliest followers. He was a part of the original twelve disciples that lived and traveled with Jesus during his earthly ministry. While these twelve were extremely close to Jesus, there were three men who were even closer. John was one of these men, alongside James and Peter. These three men were invited by Jesus to see things the others weren’t. We learn that Jesus had a special relationship with these men and wanted to teach them everything they needed to know.

Another aspect of John’s relationship with Jesus is made clear in the New Testament. John is often referred to as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. John is often pictured sitting close to Jesus. John wanted to experience Jesus as much as he could because he knew he was the source of eternal life. Jesus loved that John sought this relationship and we see that he was often rewarded for it. We see how much Jesus trusted John when he was on the cross. One of Jesus’s last dying wishes was for John to take care of his mother Mary.

After Jesus’s resurrection and ascension, John emerged as one of the main pillars in the early church. There are five books in the New Testament that most people believe John wrote. These books are; the gospel of John, 1,2, & 3 John, and Revelation. Two of John’s main topics in these writings were truth and love. John made it his personal mission to share with everyone what the truth really was and how to live that out in a loving, godly way.

John was so effective in his teaching that many people urged him to stop. His teachings, along with those of his fellow disciples turned the first century world upside down. People were coming to faith in Jesus and becoming mature disciples. This angered those who were in charge at the time because it disrupted their life. Every single one of the disciples died as a martyr (dying for one’s faith), except for John.

It is believed that people tried to kill John by throwing him in a vat of boiling oil, but God saved him from death. Because they could not kill him, the people exiled John to the island of Patmos to live out the rest of his days. During this time, John wrote the book of Revelation where he explains a vision that was given to him from Jesus. In this vision, Jesus lines out what the end of the world will look like.

We learn a lot from John and his life. He teaches us about truth, and love, and what the end times will look like. But more than this, he teaches us what a relationship with Jesus should look like. We are all Jesus’s beloved. Jesus died for us so that we could have an everlasting relationship with him.

Key Takeaways:

John was…

• In Jesus’s inner circle

• The one whom Jesus loved

• A pillar of the Church

Parents, 3treesKIDS will also be learning about John this Sunday, both in-person and online.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.