In 2010, Christopher J. H. Wright, PhD, pronounced a sermon titled Jesus Before He Was Born. I'll be jotting down some notes here from my own listening to this recording, hoping to encourage you to listen for yourself, and on that basis, stimulate a conversation about the major points being made by Dr. Christopher J. H. Wright.

This message aims at helping us understanding Jesus better: who He was. Who is Jesus everyone talks about at Christmas? If someone asks you, you might hand him over a New Testament, where one is confronted with a genealogy of Jesus. What Matthew is doing here is introducing Jesus to us in order to locate Him in the Scriptures from which He has come. This sermon's title, Jesus Before He Was Born, of course, refers to Jesus before his birth on earth. What the author had in mind was Christ and Old Testament Scriptures.

Correspondingly, the sermon is structured around six ways in which Matthew introduces Jesus to us through the Scriptures: the Old Testament tells the story which Jesus completed; the Old Testament declares the promise which Jesus fulfilled; the Old Testament paints an identity which Jesus accepted and His disciples recognized; the Old Testament programmed a mission which Jesus accomplished; the Old Testament reveals the ethical value and way of life which Jesus endorsed, enhanced and deepened; the Old Testament reveals the God whose presence, and authority, and identity, and incarnation are embodied in Jesus of Nazareth.

As you listen to Christopher J. H. Wright's sermon, Jesus Before He Was Born, how do you respond to the author's concluding challenge that if you want to be close to Jesus, read the Scriptures that He read, out of love for the Scriptures that He loved? In what other ways does listening to this sermon challenges your thinking about Jesus, His person, His work, and your relating to His story?

Edited 2021.05.02: Obsolete links removed.