Stephen De La Vega

At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It’s not only a declaration of, “It’s a boy!”  It’s the coming of a Savior – the one the Jews waited for some 2,000 years. Some of them maybe even forgot He was coming. And when He did come, they didn’t realize it because they expected a King, not a baby. But this was no ordinary baby. He was the Son of God! ↭↭↭ (This post can be read aloud to a group. It is a gospel presentation and a celebration of the birth of our Savior. If you want to share this with a group, you have my permission to read it. That’s why I wrote it. Or, feel free to make it more interactive. Ask questions. Solicit thoughts to get listeners engaged. And pray that they will understand, appreciate, and accept the Savior and His gospel.) ↭↭↭ Most of us have lived long enough to realize we’re not perfect. Sometimes we fail people. Sometimes we wrong them. And deep down inside, we know we don’t measure up to what we consider to be God...

Alternate Title: Why Did We Hear from John the Baptist Before We Heard from Jesus? As I enjoyed Thanksgiving, I looked forward to Christmas and I couldn’t stop wondering: Why did the man we call John the Baptist need to tell the Jews that Jesus was coming? I’d never thought about it before. Why is he part of biblical history? And why did God lay out such an integrated and impossible duo of supernatural pregnancies for Baby John and Baby Jesus? The Christmas story began with the pregnancy of John, who was selected by God to be a forerunner to Jesus. He was precursor both in birth and in ministry. So the Christmas story is not complete without the birth of John the Baptist. So why did the Jews need a forerunner? Wouldn’t they still have their Messiah, and wouldn’t we still have the gospel, without John the Baptist? Let’s consider their situation… The Jews expected a Messiah as promised from God. They expected a King who would rescue them from their ...