From youth communities in church
From church's Christmas celebration
And I felt somehow it was all connected
Dec 15: Youth Community's Christmas
"The Simplicity of Christmas"
AH preached from Philippians 2 : 1 - 8
He underlined verse 6 - 8
Where Jesus came down from Heaven to the earth to be human
More than that, to be the lowest from the human
For what? To save humankind
And He did it in simple ways
The preacher gave 3 very different examples:
- The shepherds - Luke 2 : 8 - 15
- Paul - Acts 9 : 1 - 9
- Samaritan woman - John 4 : 1 - 26
For the shepherds whose status were the lowest at that time, the Angels appeared and told them "Do not be afraid...." (10) It happened when the shepherds were watching their flocks (8) which they do everyday -it was an ordinary task to do. That alone made them believe.
For Saul -the name before Paul, it's totally different. God had to make it hard, because Saul is hard. God even made him blind for 3 days (9). This happened when Paul were doing his job, murdering Lord's disciples (1-2). This, too, were ordinary task for him. After that, Paul totally changed and became God's servant to the end.
For the Samaritan woman, Jesus went and spoke to her Himself. This, too, happened when the woman was doing her ordinary task, to draw water (7). But she specially came at noon, because of a certain reason, she had been married 5 times and the man she was with was not her husband (17-18).
These 3 different people, God showed His love in unique ways, different for each of them, but in simple ways, while they were doing their ordinary tasks. And for each of them, He showed His love, His great and same love which He showed to us as well.
Dec 21: Teen Community's Christmas
"The Greatest Gift of Christmas"
The same preacher with different topic
Now AH preached from Matthew 2 : 1 - 12
The greatest gift as may you have expected is Jesus' birth
And His humbleness to save us, human
But what interests me in the preach is he underlined for whom the invitation was
The invitation to see Jesus, the newborn King
And he mentioned Herod
Herod was also invited to see Jesus' birth
He was even closer geographically than the Magi from the east
The Magi told Herod that they saw the star leading them to where Jesus was born (2)
Even the priests and teachers of the law confirmed it (4-5)
But that wicked Herod, he didn't want anybody to have his throne
So he rejected that greatest gift
Dec 24: Christmas Eve's Celebration
"The Road to Bethlehem"
Here, the preacher JS underlined Joseph and Mary's big responsibility to bring Jesus to Bethlehem
How they struggled on the road
Even until they have arrived at Bethlehem
Searching for a place to give birth
Gave birth and put the Baby in a stable
Dec 25: Christmas' Celebration
"Believing the Impossible"
And at last, the preacher YC also preached from Philippians 2 : 3 - 10
But he preached in reverse
He started from verse 8 - 10 : Jesus as man was lifted by God to be a god
Then he continue to verse 6 - 7 : Jesus a God became human
These two parts seemed opposite, is He the same in verse 8-10 and 6-7?
YC believes it's different
- In verse 8-10, Jesus is a God in eternity; in verse 6-7, Jesus is a God in history
- In verse 8-10, Jesus, objectively, is a God Himself; in verse 6-7, Jesus, subjectively, is a God
And then he continue to verse 3-5 : Jesus showed us the way of living in heaven
by not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (4)
This, however, can not be done in this world
It can only be done in heaven
That's why Jesus came not only to show how to live
but also, to redeem humanity from sins and deaths
And that is what we celebrate at Christmas!!
♫ Man will live forevermore because of Christmas day ♫
Merry Christmas to all of you!
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