barnabas today christmas sermon shining light into the darkness paul mursalin

The most significant reason for Jesus coming to the earth is tied up in John’s declaration to Nicodemus. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. For God so loved the world.

Jesus is the manifestation of the love of God. It is difficult for the natural mind to comprehend the extent of this divine love.

God’s Redeeming Work

Despite the enormous controversy surrounding the fact that God came to the earth, yet it is the hard truth that He loved us with an everlasting love.

However, God’s Agape love for man runs deeper than just the release of Jesus into the world. It was set within the context of man’s redemption.

The purpose for His coming was to redeem man, to buy us back from sin’s enslavement and eternal punishment. Jesus, Himself endorsed that fact when He said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45.

The Blessed Hope

Titus 2:13-14 further declares, “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” 

According to the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15, the redemptive work of Jesus results in the salvation of sinners, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Doing the Will of the Father

Further, the writer of the book of Hebrews, in one of his discourses, Hebrews 9:26 said, “For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Even before the foundation of the world, as several scriptures attested to, redemption was in the mind of the Father. It was His will for Jesus to come into the world.

Evidently, Jesus was fully aware of this fact and knew from the inception that He will manifest to do the will of the Father. As such, Jesus came to do the will of the Father.

In John 6:38, Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” In Hebrews 10:7, Jesus said to the Father “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.” 

Lighting Up A Dark World

Jesus came into the world to bring light to a dark world. Sin and evil are represented by darkness.

In John 3:19-21, Jesus said, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” 

In John 12:46, Jesus said, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”  In John 8:12, Jesus made it clear, regarding who He is.

It is known as one of the “I am” statements of Christ. “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” He came into the world to bring light into darkness.


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