For Unto Us a Child is Born

The Universe

The Hubble ultra deep field telescope shows a diverse range of galaxies, each consisting of billions of stars. (NASA)

The Carina nebula

Stars being born in the southern pinwheel galaxy.

Isaiah 40:25-26

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing.

Our Galaxy(the Milky Way)

Job 38:32,33

Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

Planet Earth

Job 38:4-7

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

A Little Corner of This World(not very far away from Westview)

Job 38:25-27

Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

Job 38:29,30

From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Wisdom and Purpose in the UniverseProverbs 8:27,30,31

I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep…

Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.

John 1:1-3, 14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. …

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Handel’s Messiah - For Unto Us a Child is Born

(Isaiah 9:5)For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace

For Unto Us a Child is Born

FLATLAND

FLATLAND

This other-worldly, infinite dimensional God of the universe comes to this world as a fragile child.

Within the life of this child is all the fullness and power of God and He is the HOPE of the universe(s)!

In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still,…But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.

C.S. Lewis

Isaiah 9:5

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace

Unto us a Son is given - Hope

God reveals himself to us to become one of us, He completes His work in us to raise us to where He is. - Eugene Peterson

God reaches out to us before we are able to reach out to Him… We love because He first loved us.

John 1:9-14

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a person’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

The government shall be upon his shoulders

• God’s purpose will reign• He takes responsibility for us• He bears our burdens

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Four names of Jesus - Supernatural Power AND Love

• Wonderful Counsellor• Almighty God• Everlasting Father• Prince of Peace

A fragile child… ANYTHING BUT!!!

The life of Jesus and His life in us is meant to be an all out FRONTAL ATTACK on what is wrong with the world.

Eugene Peterson

Isaiah 42:5-7 (NIV)

This is what God the Lord says - He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

His love for you is literally out of this world!

Just as the fullness of God is manifested in the birth of this baby Jesus,

so God desires to be birthed within us.