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Wiki Commons.Christmas
Why did Jesus come to earth?
The verses below give some of the reasons. You could take one of these verses in last week of September each year, and feed from it, and pray through it, for the next couple of months. You could look for another verse during the course of the year, and extend this list each year.
You could repeat your chosen text at all the Christmas services in a particular year. You could use the verse you have chosen to generate an overarching theme for the Christmas services, considering the text from different angles, using the text as a lens for reading the familiar Christmas stories. You could teach the verse to the children, and adults, to learn by heart. The verse could shape the intercessions one Sunday. A senior saint could give a brief testimony as to how the verse has come to mean more over the years. You could record a series of quick vox pop interviews, asking the question “Why did Jesus come into the world?” and compare the answers on the street with the answer in the verse. You could set the verse to music. How about a rap? You could use calligraphy for a poster or an invitation. You could use a classical painting with the verse as the caption.
Just a thought.
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10.45 NIVUK)
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19.10 NIVUK)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3.16 NIVUK)
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10.10 NIVUK)
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18.37 NIVUK)
… when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law… (Galatians 4.5 NIVUK)
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. (1 Timothy 1.15 NIVUK)
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15 NIVUK)
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3.8 NIVUK)
God the Son became human to redeem humans, to reconcile them to God and to one another, and in so doing, to crush the evil one and destroy his works.
Gary A Parrett and S Steve Kang, Teaching the Faithful (IVP, 2009) p22
Athanasius is also well worth reading each year.