From the Cradle to Eternity Via the Cross

From the Cradle to Eternity Via the Cross

Good morning!

Today my message is entitled “From the Cradle to Eternity Via the Cross.”

We have just spent five Sundays looking at the birth of Jesus Christ and why it happened. God wanted to reconnect with mankind and make that relationship available easily is what we discovered. Now we sum these weeks up and look at where it leads for the new year.

So let us start with the coming of Jesus, confirm what He gives us and how we get there! The first step is to look at what was pronounced about the coming of Jesus.

Isaiah 11:1-3 NIV

1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and of power,

    the Spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—

3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

   He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

   or decide by what he hears with his ears;

This tells us that there is a person coming that will show us God’s power. This person will come from the lineage of King David and the Holy Spirit will be with Him.

Matthew 1:20-21 NIV

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Again, this is fulfilling a prophecy about the coming of Christ.

Matthew 1:22-23 NIV

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

We can see that the coming of Jesus was well pronounced for centuries. Then the actual events happened, and Jesus arrived as a baby and put in a manger for a cradle.

Luke 2:6-7 NIV

6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room available for them in the inn.

Now we look at why Jesus came to earth as a human, why He humbled Himself to be able to relate to each one of us. All Jesus did and all the ugliness of the crucifixion, were to allow us the opportunity to make our way back to God’s presence. Back into the Garden per se, to an eternal life with God.

John 3:14-16 NIV

14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

15 that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

16 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.

Can you imagine a life that never ends? Do you have any real idea of what eternity is? God wants you to be walking with Him forever, which is rather unbelievable. So, how do we get to this eternity? We have to believe that Jesus Christ was real, that He died on the cross for our sins, and that He arose to give us a new life with God. Even those who crucified Him believed after.

Mark 15:37-39 NIV

37 With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

38 The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

39 And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

The curtain torn means that we no longer need anyone to talk to God for us. Now we can have a relationship with God that is one on one, face to face so to speak.

Jesus tells us what it all meant when He talks to His disciples after His resurrection.

Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

After the Christmas birth comes a new time! Both the new year and the new way – Salvation through Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. This is a time for change to start happening, a time for all of us to look at our relationship with God.

When we believe and accept this wonderful forgiveness that Jesus provided for us on the cross, we become one of the family of God. This brings a responsibility to tell others about the family and the need to know God.

This action is the end of the old way and the beginning of the new way. As we finish and leave 2018, we start a new year in 2019. The same holds true for our spiritual lives.

I started this talk with a title, “From the Cradle to Eternity Via the Cross.” I hope you have been encouraged in your walk with God and challenged to tell others about this incredible opportunity to live forever in the presence of our Creator.

If you have not found a relationship with God, then please take what has been shared today and think on it. God wants a relationship with you, and He sent Jesus to live among us to provide a way for us to reunite with Him. That was for you!

Let’s pray!