Aletheia Tampa Advent

JOHN 3:16-17: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

1 TIMOTHY 2:5-6: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

LUKE 24:44-48: Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.You are witnesses of these things.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

JOHN 1:29: The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”


www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

MARK 10:45:
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

At this point in the story, the long awaited Savior, Redeemer, and Messiah has come! Jesus, who was in the family of King David, was humbly born in Bethlehem, and all of the angels and the heavenly hosts rejoiced at his coming! God made sure that Jesus was safely delivered and protected from King Herod and now this little child was to grow up in the city of Nazareth. God has faithfully kept all of His promises and nothing was going to stop Jesus from coming to the earth and being born exactly as it was promised in God’s Word.
In this Christmas season, we celebrate the birth of Jesus as the King of the world who will set his people free from sin. But the story doesn’t end at his birth; Jesus will grow up into a toddler, a teenager, and eventually an adult, living a relatively ordinary life on earth. But then the time came for Jesus to continue to fulfill the plan that God had all along- the plan he had been slowly unraveling from Adam and Eve all the way to John the Baptist. Jesus would soon shake the world with his life, ministry, and teaching. Jesus did not simply come to live among us- he came to die for us, to take our place, and to save us from our sins. This week, we will consider the importance of what happens after Jesus was born. Why exactly is Jesus here on earth? What is he here to do and accomplish?

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

MATTHEW 2:13-15: Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

MATTHEW 2:7-12: Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent

MATTHEW 2:1-6: Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

www.aletheiatampa.com

JOHN 1:14-16: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

www.aletheiatampa.com/advent