“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Cor. 15:14).
On July 21st 1969, when astronaut Neil Armstrong began his slow descent, from the ladder of the Eagle landing craft to the moon’s surface, an awe-struck, worldwide TV audience watched on in breathless wonder.  I was one of millions of UK teenagers whose eyes were then glued to a small black and white TV screen in the early hours of the morning.
As Armstrong took that final step onto the Moon’s surface, he looked into the camera attached to the Eagle and made one of the most memorable statements of the last century: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The Apollo moon landing is one the few events in history about which most people have felt "we did it" rather than "they did it".
It was hailed as mankind’s greatest single accomplishment, it was a breath-taking moment, it was truly awe inspiring, it was a momentously historic event...it was  nothing. It was nothing compared to an event that happened almost 2,000 years before, in a small inconspicuous area outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, from within a new tomb carved out of the rock face, the entrance to which had been sealed by a great stone.
In the chilled and deadly silence of that darkened tomb lay all the hopes and dreams of mankind, his deepest need,
his ultimate joy and lasting peace, his salvation and his future hope.  The fate of all mankind lay wrapped and shrouded in the grave clothes that en-cloaked the battered and torn body of Jesus of Nazareth.  Without the
resurrection of Jesus, all would be in vain.
When at last Jesus’ eyes opened to the surrounding darkness, he raised himself up and, setting aside his carefully folded grave clothes, he stepped out of that sealed tomb by his own power (John 10:18).
That event changed everything for every human who ever lived or will live.  Jesus had conquered sin, death and the grave.  His death and resurrection paved the way for all humanity to be reconciled to God and to receive from him life everlasting (John 3:16).
That small step from the tomb was the greatest leap mankind could ever make.  It was the
leap from death to life; but we didn’t do it. “He did it!”  And he did it for us.
Richard Dempsey

“Jesus Wept.” (John 11:35) AV
 
Sometimes, a few sincere, heartfelt words are all that are required to express our feelings of sympathy; to show that we share the pain and feel the sadness of those who are bereaved. To “weep with them that weep...” as the Apostle Paul instructs us, is of real comfort to those who mourn (Romans 12:15).
In just two words, one noun and one verb, John makes a statement, in his gospel, about Jesus that is truly profound.  John’s statement, “Jesus wept” is reputed to be the shortest verse in the Bible and yet is sums up the entirety of scripture as it speaks of God’s deep love for man and his identification with human suffering.
Like the two plain wooden beams that comprised the cross upon which the Saviour died, these two simple words convey a complexity of meaning that stretches human understanding and speaks mightily of God’s eternal love for us.  As Jesus stood that day among the mourners, gathered round the tomb of his friend Lazarus, surveying that scene of deep sorrow and sadness, the air heavy with cries of pain and loss; he wept.  
Was Jesus weeping for his friend, Lazarus, soon to be miraculously raised from the dead?  Or were his tears shed on behalf of the mourners at the graveside, who would soon be rejoicing with him?  Or could it be that those tears, flowing hot down the face of Son of Man were being shed for all who mourn and for all who would suffer the pain of loss down through the ages.
Those two simply words: “Jesus wept,” which John records in his  gospel, speak volumes of the extraordinary love that Jesus has for each and every one of us.  Jesus was intensely aware of how real and brutal an enemy death is and of its devastating effects on the human heart. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), Jesus promised, and his tears, shed on behalf of all those who mourn, are a real and present comfort.  These few words, comprising as they do the shortest verse in scripture, are perhaps the most profound of all.
Richard Dempsey

“But the angel said to her, “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” (Luke 1:30-32).
Jesus was certainly a man of many mysteries, but all of the mysteries
revealed in the New Testament concerning him grew out of the initial mystery of the incarnation.

In the New Testament, the word ‘mystery’ is often used to refer to a profound truth which God has revealed but which remains outside of our full grasp.  God, after all, is eternally spirit and we are but mortal flesh.  In this sense, even for believers, Jesus remains ‘a man of mystery’ as there is so much we don’t yet know about him.
The incarnation remains an essential truth which has been clearly revealed, but which still stretches our understanding and comprehension.  We do not know how God who is spirit can become flesh, but we do know that he did and that Jesus, born of the virgin, Mary, was both fully God and fully man. This is why Paul refers to Jesus as “the Mystery of God” (Colossians 2:2).
The main point to the story, however, is not how a child was born through the power of the Holy Spirit via the ‘miracle’ of human birth, but that, as a result of this event, God became incarnate.  The simple fact is that Jesus was truly unique.  The person we meet in the pages of the New Testament and who remains forever shrouded in mystery, had his origins in this event.
Here are just a few of the New Testament scriptures which light on the significance of the incarnation: 
(Matthew 1:20-23) The annunciation to Joseph revealed how God and man ‘came together’ in the person of
Jesus. (Luke 1:35; 2:7) The annunciation to Mary referred to Jesus as both God’s son and also her son.
The apostles John and Paul take us ‘behind the scenes’ as it were, to reveal the magnitude of what really took place when the child, Jesus was born:
(John 1:14; 1:1) John tells us how the Word of God, the eternal self-expression of God penetrated our human experience and revealed God to man, in the person of Jesus, to make known the unknowable.
(Phil 2:6-7) Paul reveals how the eternal Son of God ‘emptied himself’ of his former glory to take on human form.  Not laying aside his deity but changing its ‘form’.  Though still fully God, Jesus took on the form and the role of a servant.  
The scriptures reveal so much more about the man Jesus, but, principally, what is revealed is that, by means of the incarnation, there came into existence a unique person who was in all points human but in all essentials divine. 
It was at the birth of Jesus that a new humanity was born (1 Corinthians 15:45-49), and it is our union with the incarnate Son which enables us now to share in his eternal communion with the Father, through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
As Christians, we can make use of the Advent season to remember and celebrate the incarnation event and to worship Christ, the mystery of God.
Richard Dempsey