Stand-alone Messages

Summary not available

I. A Common Element in Luke’s Birth Narrative: Laid in a Manger (Lk. 2:1-20)
A. The humble birth of Jesus (vv. 1-7)
1. The Imperial setting (vv. 1-3)
2. Traveling to Bethlehem (vv. 4-5)
3. Jesus laid in a manger (vv. 6-7)
 
B. The Shepherds are given a sign (vv. 8-14)
1. Shepherds watch their flock by night (v. 8)
2. Angels appear & declare God’s good news about the newborn baby (vv. 9-11)
a) He is the long awaited Savior
b) He is the promised Messiah
c) He is the Lord, God himself
3. The sign: a baby lying in a manger (v. 12)
 
C. The shepherds find Jesus (vv. 15-20)
1. They respond to what they heard (vv. 15-16a)
2. They find Jesus lying in a manger (v. 16b)
 
II. The Vulnerability of God (Lk. 2:11, 7, 12, 16)
A. Jesus is God’s long-promised Saviour for mankind (v. 11)
 
B. The lengths God will go to in order to reach us (vv. 7, 12, 16)
 
III. Vulnerability Leads To True Connection
A. God became vulnerable to connect with us
 
B. Will you be vulnerable to connect with God?

Judaism, Christianity, & Islam are related religions. Each worships one God, the Creator, venerates the patriarch, Abraham, and holds a sacred text – the Torah (Old Testament), Bible (Old & New Testaments), and Qur’an respectively. Islam defines itself in relation to its predecessors. It claims all faith-adherents are equally “Peoples of the Book,” yet the prior texts – Old & New Testaments –were hopelessly corrupted during scribal transmission. In contrast, it alleges the Qur’an has been perfectly preserved and is uniformly recited across the globe.

We examine these claims. Is the New Testament so corrupted that the original text is unrecoverable and essential biblical truths compromised? Is today’s Qur’an identical to the original conveyed to Muhammad? Are Christians accurately described as “People of the Book”? Does the Christian Bible have the same role as Islam’s Qur’an? Most significantly, for Christians, God’s ultimate self-revelation is not found in the Bible, but in Jesus Christ, the incarnate “Word of God.” In this contest, Jesus Christ, God’s living ‘Word,’ is infinitely superior to the Qur’an.

Summary not available

Summary not available

Summary not available