CCV Christmas Service 2020

This Christmas devotion asks one question: why did Jesus have to come? Working through Matthew 1:18-25 and the opening of John's Gospel, it centers on the name Emmanuel, God with us, and the claim that the Creator entered the world as a human so we could know him. God had always revealed himself, through prophets, Moses, the Scriptures, but the message holds that his character and plan of salvation were not fully made known until Jesus came. Christianity is distinct because of Christmas: God came down, revealed himself, and opened salvation through his Son. The vulnerability of the incarnation is contrasted with the terror of God's presence in the Old Testament. The God who made all things came needing his diapers changed, so that we might draw near without fear. Emmanuel means God with us, but "us" are those willing to receive him.