Letter from Jon, December 2024
Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end
Luke 1:30-33
Dear Liberty Friends and Family
It is December, the season of Advent, a season of waiting and watching and expecting as we journey towards Christmas. Yesterday morning we began an advent season focussing on Jesus, Our King, and over these next few weeks, leading up to Christmas Day, we will look at different aspects of what this means for us and our world.
My message on Sunday was inspired by my reading of Mattew Bates’ book ‘Why the Gospel?’, which, as I mentioned yesterday, is a very worthwhile and thought-provoking read, even if you don’t agree with everything he says. The book’s focus is all around Jesus’ kingship, and how fundamental this is to the gospel message and to our salvation.
What do you think of when you think of Christmas? Is it tasteless jumpers, cheesy music, lights, trees, party food, Hallmark movies, ridiculous spending, stress, shopping, family…the list goes on? For many people that is all it is, and I have to say that I do enjoy a lot of that stuff (perhaps not the stress!). As believers in Christ, the anointed one, however, we know that at the heart of our celebrations is something much deeper and more significant. We read the Christmas Scriptures from Isaiah and the gospels accounts in Matthew and Luke, and we find great comfort in their familiarity and in the way they bring us back to the hope we have in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.
I realise, though, that the hope we have in Jesus is very much rooted in the fact that this baby in a feeding trough is the same one who hung on a cross and the same one who overcame death and is now enthroned in heaven. He is Christ the King over all creation. We find hope and strength in a manger scene because we understand that this scene is part of a much bigger plan to defeat the forces of evil and establish his rule and reign, in your life and my life and ultimately over all life and all creation.
In a world where it seems, in so many ways, that evil has the upper hand, where we are constantly exposed to the horrors of conflict and exploitation, where we face our own struggles and grief, we fix our eyes again on the light of the world; the one whom darkness will never overcome, and the hope that is ours in a King like no other. He is the King who walks amongst us and the King who calls us to walk with him, follow him, bringing glory to his name.
This Christmas I pray that you and those you love would simply know the hope, the presence, the love and the power of Jesus our King.
Much love
Jon x
Jon Farrimond, 04/12/2024