LIFE OF CHRIST:
Birth of Jesus
Luke 1 & 2 - Part 1
Today, we are going to talk about the birth of Jesus, which we normally celebrate only at Christmas time. I have three words that go along with Christmas. The first is anticipation. That means looking forward to something. Almost everyone looks forward to celebrating Christmas, and many people have a really hard time waiting for Christmas Day. The second word is preparation. It can take a lot of time and work to get ready for Christmas. People shop for presents and wrap them. Then there is the tree to decorate and cookies to bake. The weeks before Christmas are usually very busy as people prepare for that day. The third word is realization. That just means the day actually comes. Maybe you get up early and hurry to unwrap your presents. It can be very exciting. Sometimes you are disappointed, though, because you did not get what you wanted.
Those three words, anticipation, preparation, and realization, also apply to the birth of Jesus. Many people looked forward to His coming. God prepared for that day, and finally, Jesus was born. Today, we are going to talk about the wonderful day that Jesus was born.
People began looking for the Savior almost right from the beginning. God made the first man Adam and first woman Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden to live and work. God gave them only one rule ... “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Adam and Eve disobeyed this rule, and God had to punish them and send them out of the beautiful garden. At this point sin entered the world and every person born since then has been born with a sin nature … meaning that every person thinks or does the wrong things at some time in their life. But, because God loved Adam and Eve, He made them a promise. He told them that one day He would send a very special someone who would defeat Satan (the father of sin). This someone would save humans from the penalty of sin, which is eternal death and separation from God.
After the time of Adam and Eve and throughout the Old Testament, God told men called prophets more about the coming Savior. The prophets wrote these things down and shared them with others. Many different women hoped to be the one to give birth to this Savior, but God had someone special chosen for this task. At the end of the Old Testament, God stopped talking and was quiet for 400 years. When He finally spoke again, people should have noticed, but most did not.
God sent the angel Gabriel to talk to an elderly Jewish priest named Zacharias. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had always wished for children, but they had none, and were now getting old. Upon first seeing the angel, Zacharias was afraid, but Gabriel assured him that he had good news. God was going to give Zacharius and Elizabeth a son and his name would be John. John would be a prophet to announce to the world the arrival of the long-promised Savior. Zacharias did not believe the angel at first, so the angel told him that he would not be able to speak until the baby was born. Immediately, Zacharias lost his voice. He returned home, and soon Elizabeth became pregnant. Zacharias and Elizabeth were very excited.
Six months later, God sent the angel Gabriel to the village of Nazareth to speak to a godly young woman named Mary. She, too, was frightened by the angel until he said, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28 NKJV) God chose Mary to give birth to His Son, the Savior. Mary was young and unmarried. She knew that it took both a man and a woman to have a baby. She asked the angel, “How can this be?” Gabriel told her that God would place the baby within her and that the child Jesus would be called the Son of God. It would be a miracle that only God could do.
Mary was a godly young lady, but she is never worshipped in the Bible, nor are we told to worship her now. The Bible also tells us that the sin nature is passed from the father to his children. Since Jesus had no earthly father, He was born without a sin nature. This meant that Jesus was always perfect and never did anything wrong. Mary knew that people might not believe her when she told them that the baby was the Son of God, but she trusted God and agreed to give birth to God’s Son. God placed Jesus in Mary’s womb, and He began to grow just like you did inside of your mother.
Mary was right about other people. Joseph was hurt because he thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him. Joseph and Mary were already engaged and planning on getting married. He did not know what to do. In those days, he could have had her stoned to death, or he could have just put her away by divorcing her. While he thought about what to do, God’s angel spoke to him in a dream and assured him that Mary was telling the truth. The baby she was carrying was the promised Savior. God could have told Joseph in advance, but for some reason, he allowed the struggle. Joseph and Mary got married, and he became Jesus’s earthly father.
Mary was right about other people not believing her. Mary’s fiancé Joseph was very hurt because he thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him. And even though Joseph and Mary were planning on getting married soon, Joseph did not know what to do when he found out she was pregnant. In those days, he could have had Mary stoned to death, or he could have put her away by divorcing her. While Joseph thought about what to do, God’s angel spoke to him in a dream and assured him that Mary was telling the truth about the baby she was carrying … He was the promised Savior … the Son of God. Joseph believed the angel and he married Mary.
When Mary was almost ready to give birth to Jesus, a Roman soldier came to Nazareth announcing that everyone had to return to their hometown to register for a tax. Joseph’s hometown was Bethlehem, about 90 miles south of Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph now lived. So, Joseph and Mary set out on the trip to Bethlehem. Back then this was a long and difficult journey. The roads were rough and the weather was harsh. Maybe Mary rode a donkey, but most likely she walked, as they were very poor. Again, this had to be a very difficult journey. When a woman is about to have a baby, she does not want to take a 90-mile hike across a desert! The Old Testament prophet Micah said that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) and this trip fulfilled that prophecy. It was just one of many fulfilled prophecies about Jesus.
They may have begun the trip in a large group of other travelers, but they probably fell behind because Mary had to stop often to rest. When they finally reached Bethlehem, they tried to find a room to stay in, but all of the available guest rooms were full. There was “no room for them in the inn” because of the many other people that had also returned to their hometown because of the tax. The Bible actually doesn’t say much about where Joseph and Mary finally stayed. Because of our culture we assume that they stayed in a stable or barn because that is where Americans would keep animals and a manger. But in their Jewish culture very often there was a part of their house where they kept their animals, and this could have been where Joseph and Mary stayed. What we do know for sure is that they were given a safe space and that there was a manger they used as a crib. How Mary and Joseph must have marveled to be holding the Son of God in their arms!
The Bible tells us there were shepherds watching their flocks in the nearby fields around Bethlehem. Being a shepherd meant spending loooong hours taking care of the sheep and keeping them safe. Most of their nights were probably cold, dark and boring. But, on the night Jesus was born things were very different! Suddenly, the angel of the Lord appeared in the sky. The shepherds were very afraid, as most of us would be. The angel said, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12 KJV) The angel was then joined by many more angels who were praising God.
The shepherds were filled with wonder. They had just been told that the long-promised Savior had been born that very same night and that He was nearby in Bethlehem. The shepherds quickly left their sheep and searched for the baby. They found Jesus exactly where the angel had said He would be … wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. As was the custom of the day, Mary had wrapped Jesus in strips of cloth and then, because there wasn’t a proper room available, she had used a manger as a crib. A manger is a place where hay was placed for animals to eat.
The next morning, the shepherds told everyone what they had seen and heard. They told everyone about the angel who had come to them in the field and told them about the birth of the Savior. They told everyone about the newborn baby that they had found wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger just as the angel had said. And all those that heard the shepherds marveled at what they said. The shepherds returned to their fields praising God.