
Heatherside Advent 2024
..that means Christmas is coming!
Heatherside Celebrates Advent 2024
What did Jews expect from a Messiah?

Messiah -
(Pronounced me-schi-ach) - written in Hebrew and read from right to left
It's quite easy for us to look at the Old Testament prophecies and ask, "How could the Jews not see that Jesus was the expected Messiah?" but the Jews had been oppressed, living under Roman rule, for a long time. And before that they'd been ruled by the Assyrians. They wanted to be in charge of their own country again. They needed a king. They thought!
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Instead they got the Messiah ' the Anointed One', 'the Chosen One'. To be anointed meant to be blessed with oil (a bit like the King at his coronation), but more importantly it meant to be set apart by God for a purpose.

Christos is the equivalent Greek word. So to call Jesus the Christ we are giving Him a title - 'the Anointed One'. It's not a surname or a second name of any kind, but a title saying what we believe Him to be.

Ichthus - the Greek word for 'fish' provides one of the best summaries of faith. An early symbol shared by believers in the catacombs of Rome.
The initial letters of the words spell Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour
As we listen to this song with its message of Emmanuel (meaning God with us), let's stop to reflect on what we expect from the Messiah.
Is He, to us, the fulfilment of God's promises?