exalted in power, majestic above all.

The heavens tell of His greatness.

The skies display His awesome craftsmanship.

Day after day they continue to speak.

Night after night they make Him known.

In creating the heavens, God also created the earth

and formed man from the dust of the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

The God of love created man and woman in His own image

to have a relationship with Him.

And so in the beginning, they revered and honored God

and lived in harmony with Him.

This continued until one day Satan tempted the woman

to eat the forbidden fruit

and she gave it to the man who also ate.

In so doing, mankind rebelled against God

and went his own way.

As a result of this sin, mankind was separated from God

and was thrown out of the Garden of Eden.

But God still loved mankind.

It was never His desire to be separate from those He created,

yet how could God be holy and the source of perfect justice

if He did not judge mankind for their sin?

In His Holy Book, God reveals His plan

to save the world from His judgment.

One of the first to see this plan unfold was Abraham.

Abraham was a righteous man whom God promised to bless

and make his descendants as numerous

as the sand of the sea and the stars of the sky.

To test his obedience, God told Abraham

to sacrifice his son as an offering to Him.

Abraham trusted God and sought to obey Him.

But as he raised his knife to kill his son,

the angel of the Lord stopped Him.

He saw that Abraham feared God and was willing to obey Him.

Then Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket,

and he sacrificed the ram instead of his son

as an offering to God.

And so God showed Abraham that a lamb or a similar animal

was to be slain as a temporary covering for sin

until God would provide His ultimate sacrifice

to pay for the sins of mankind.

Instead of sin separating man from God,

the sacrifice would restore their relationship.

The Holy Scriptures speak of One who was to come

and be the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world.

As the ram took the place of Abraham's son,

so this One who would come would take man's place

so he could be forgiven.

Some refer to this person as the Messiah,

the One who would come and reconcile the world

back to God once and for all.

The prophets predicted many things in detail about

the Messiah hundreds of years before He appeared.

The prophet Isaiah foretold that His birth

was to be a miraculous one.

A virgin would conceive a child who was to be called,

in a spiritual sense, the Son of God.

The prophet Micah predicted that the Messiah

would be born in Bethlehem,

while the prophet Zechariah foretold

His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey

and His betrayal by Judas, one of His followers.

Isaiah prophesied what the Messiah would do when He came.

The Lord's anointed will preach the Good News to the poor,

bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom

for the captives and proclaim that the time

has come when the Lord will save His people.

So, who was the Messiah?

In the first century, a prophet came called Jesus.

Some thought He was the one the prophet spoke about.

Could this be?

Did His life fulfill what was predicted of Him?

Was Jesus more than a prophet?

What follows is His story, based on eyewitness accounts

as recorded in The Holy Scriptures.

An actor plays the part of Jesus,

and though no actor is worthy of such a role,

it has been done so that we may understand

and benefit from the life of Jesus.

I am writing to you, dear Theophilus;

an orderly account of the things that have taken place among us,

so that you may know the absolute truth about everything.

In the days when Caesar Augustus was emperor of Rome

and when Herod the great was king of Judea,

God sent the angel Gabriel to visit a virgin girl in the city of Nazareth.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

Fear not Mary,

For you have found favor with God.

You will conceive and give birth to a Son

and you will call His name, Jesus.

How can this be? I am a virgin.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

For this reason the Holy Child will be called

the Son of the Most High God. His kingdom will never end.

So Mary traveled to a town in Judea

to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also miraculously with child.

Elizabeth!

Mary! Cousin Mary!

You are the most blessed of all women.

And blessed is the Child you will bear.

For as soon as I heard your greeting, the baby within me jumped with joy!

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

From now on, all generations will call me blessed.

Know all men of Nazareth,

that by command of Caesar Augustus,

there will be conducted a census

of the subject territories of Galilee and Judea.

All men must register forthwith

in the towns and cities of their ancestral birth.

And Mary went to Bethlehem in Judea

to register with Joseph her betrothed.

But there was no room for them in Bethlehem.

And the only lodging they could find was a humble stable.

Now there were some shepherds in that part of the country who were

taking care of their flock at night when an angel of God appeared to them

and the glory of God was shining around them.

This very day in David's town, your Savior was born,

Christ the Lord.

The shepherds hurried to see the newborn Babe in the manger,

and were the first to spread the Good News or Gospel

of the virgin mother and the Savior's birth.

A week later, when the time came for the Baby to be circumcised,

He was given the name Jesus

and Joseph and Mary took the Child to to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.

In the temple there was a good and devout man

who the Holy Spirit had promised would not die

until he had seen the Christ.

His name was Simeon.

Lord, now You can let me, Thy servant,

depart in peace according to Thy word.

For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.

This Child is chosen by God.

May you both be blessed.

And when they had completed all their duties

according to the law of Moses,

they left Jerusalem and returned to Nazareth.

When Jesus was twelve years old,

Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem for the passover feast.

But, when they started back home,

thinking that the Boy was with them,

Jesus stayed behind.

They returned to the city looking for Him.

And on the third day found Him in the temple

sitting with the rabbis and the elders.

Whose Child is this who asks such questions?

He's from Nazareth.

We thought He had left with us. Please, forgive Him His zeal.

All who heard Him were amazed.

Son! Why have You done this to us?

Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you.

How is it that you looked for Me?

Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?

And He came with them to Nazareth

and increased in wisdom and stature

and in favor with God and with man.

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In the fifteenth year of the rule of the emperor Tiberius,

Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea,

and Herod, the ruler of Galilee,

and Annas and Caiaphas the high priests,

The word of God came to John in the desert,

and he came into all the country near the Jordan river,

preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Turn away from your sins! And be baptized!

And God will forgive your sins!

As it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah;

Someone is shouting in the desert;