November 15, 2018
Today Leak amd I told the story of why we celebrate Christmas. This is what we told:
The story of Christmas starts back at the beginning of time, back when the earth was created. In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
(John 1:1-5)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) He created it in 6 days, on the last day he created people in his own image; God created humans to be like himself (1:27). The first was a man named Adam and using a rib from Adam he created a woman, named Eve. Adam and Eve were the first humans created. God had created a perfect world where there was no evil. No one ever cried, there was no pain, sadness or hurt. While their garden was a place of peace there was still the enemy of God, his name was Satan, he hated God because he wanted to be in charge. In the garden, it was Adam and Eve’s job to fill the earth with people and to be masters over all the animals. God told them they could eat from all the trees and plants in the garden, all BUT the Tree of Good and Evil.
One day Eve was near the Tree of Good and Evil and the enemy of God, Satan, told Eve that God was hiding things from her and didn’t want her to know everything. He told Eve that if she ate its fruit she would know Good and Evil and she would be wise like God. So, she ate the prohibited fruit and then she convinced Adam to eat the fruit as well. Right away they could tell something was wrong, they had lost their connection to God. They had not trusted him and now they knew what evil was, it was called sin- it created sadness, pain, hurt, hunger, fear and death. Its biggest problem was that sin separated them from God—the life-giver. Adam and Eve broke the rules and they could no longer stay in the garden, they had to leave their perfect home and they were sent to earth. God explained to them that because they sinned they lost their connection to him, without their connection to God they would die, that all things now would eventually die.
The cost of sin is separation from God—the life-giver, it’s death. Adam and Eve and everyone born after them would die a forever death.
What Adam and Eve did not know was God, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit had come up with a plan to save all of humanity from forever separation from God, from forever death. It was a plan that would take time but God was willing to wait for the perfect time. It was a plan to bring us back together with God. So, as they left the garden God gave Adam and Eve hope, something to look forward to. He said that one day Satan would be defeated and they would be connected to God again, that death would end. They left the garden knowing that one day the Savior would come.
As each new generation was born the people of God wondered if this would be when the Savior would come. Each mother looked at her baby and wondered would he save the world? Years and years went by. In that time, a prophet/messenger of God gave messages to the people to know what to wait/look for:
Isaiah said:
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). (Isaiah 7: 14) And he also said:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Another messenger of God told the people where to look for the birth of the Savior:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel,
whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. Micah 5:2
After even more time passed, in a small village, called Nazareth, a young woman named Mary was engaged to be married to a good man named Joseph. One afternoon God sent Gabriel, an angel to visit her. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:28-33)
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin, I have never been with a man.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:36)
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
When Joseph, her fiancé found out about her pregnancy he was shocked and not sure what he should but that night, the angel, Gabriel visited him.
Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
So, Joseph agreed to marry her.
Just before the baby was due to be born the King wanted to count everyone in his kingdom. That meant poor, pregnant Mary and Joseph had to travel to Joseph’s province, Bethlehem. It was a very hard journey for a pregnant woman. They traveled on a donkey over many hills.
When they arrived in the village they looked for a place to stay but every single hotel was full. There were no rooms left in the entire place. Things were getting more desperate because Mary was going into labor, the baby would be born that night! Finally, there was one hotel owner who said they could sleep in his barn, the house for goats, cows, and other animals.
The family was poor. They didn’t have a fancy things or much money. They were not important or famous. Joseph was a carpenter not a king, they were simply people who loved God and were willing to obey.
That night Jesus became a human. He chose to leave heaven, the perfect garden where God was and there was no sin—death, hunger, pain or sadness. That night the Son of God was born
to Mary and Joseph. The King of the world, the creator of everything shared his bed with farm animals.
That same night there were shepherds watching their flock of sheep. Suddenly an angel appeared before them and they were terrified. The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Saviour—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will know him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a whole bunch of other angles—an army of angels from heaven—praising God saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth, goodwill to all people.” (Luke 2:10-14)
The shepherds ran all the way to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and there lying in the manger was the baby Jesus, Immanuel—God with us, just like the angel said. They praised God and told everyone that they had seen the Messiah.
There were also Three Wise Men from the east. They had been studying the stars and they discovered one that announced the birth of the King. They followed the star for months until it lead them to Bethlehem where Jesus, the Savior, was born. These three men were the wisest wealthiest men and they came to worship the King of the World. They each brought him a gift—gold, frankincense and myrrh.
These three gifts had meaning too.
The gold was a symbol of kingship on earth, because he is the rightful king of the Jews and of the world.
Frankincense is an incense and a symbol of deity.
Myrrh is an embalming oil and is a symbol of death which pointed to his plan to save all of humanity from forever separation from God.
The baby that was born, baby Jesus, was both God and Man. He went on to grow up and become a teacher, a healer, and to ultimately bring us back together with God, our Life-Giver, by defeating sin--the power that separates us from God. He wanted people to understand that God was good and He loves us. Most importantly Jesus wanted to bring us back together with God by taking the punishment of death on a cross when he was only 33. With his life he taught us how to live and love. This is why the creator of the universe chose to become a baby, born to a virgin and into a poor family in an unknown town of Bethlehem.
We are in a world of sin and that separates us from God--the life-giver. Without that connection, we have no life. Christmas is a day to remind us that we don’t have to be alone, we were given the perfect gift, the gift of JESUS, Immanuel--God With Us.
The story of Christmas starts back at the beginning of time, back when the earth was created. In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
(John 1:1-5)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) He created it in 6 days, on the last day he created people in his own image; God created humans to be like himself (1:27). The first was a man named Adam and using a rib from Adam he created a woman, named Eve. Adam and Eve were the first humans created. God had created a perfect world where there was no evil. No one ever cried, there was no pain, sadness or hurt. While their garden was a place of peace there was still the enemy of God, his name was Satan, he hated God because he wanted to be in charge. In the garden, it was Adam and Eve’s job to fill the earth with people and to be masters over all the animals. God told them they could eat from all the trees and plants in the garden, all BUT the Tree of Good and Evil.
One day Eve was near the Tree of Good and Evil and the enemy of God, Satan, told Eve that God was hiding things from her and didn’t want her to know everything. He told Eve that if she ate its fruit she would know Good and Evil and she would be wise like God. So, she ate the prohibited fruit and then she convinced Adam to eat the fruit as well. Right away they could tell something was wrong, they had lost their connection to God. They had not trusted him and now they knew what evil was, it was called sin- it created sadness, pain, hurt, hunger, fear and death. Its biggest problem was that sin separated them from God—the life-giver. Adam and Eve broke the rules and they could no longer stay in the garden, they had to leave their perfect home and they were sent to earth. God explained to them that because they sinned they lost their connection to him, without their connection to God they would die, that all things now would eventually die.
The cost of sin is separation from God—the life-giver, it’s death. Adam and Eve and everyone born after them would die a forever death.
What Adam and Eve did not know was God, his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit had come up with a plan to save all of humanity from forever separation from God, from forever death. It was a plan that would take time but God was willing to wait for the perfect time. It was a plan to bring us back together with God. So, as they left the garden God gave Adam and Eve hope, something to look forward to. He said that one day Satan would be defeated and they would be connected to God again, that death would end. They left the garden knowing that one day the Savior would come.
As each new generation was born the people of God wondered if this would be when the Savior would come. Each mother looked at her baby and wondered would he save the world? Years and years went by. In that time, a prophet/messenger of God gave messages to the people to know what to wait/look for:
Isaiah said:
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). (Isaiah 7: 14) And he also said:
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
Another messenger of God told the people where to look for the birth of the Savior:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel,
whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. Micah 5:2
After even more time passed, in a small village, called Nazareth, a young woman named Mary was engaged to be married to a good man named Joseph. One afternoon God sent Gabriel, an angel to visit her. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:28-33)
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin, I have never been with a man.”
The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:36)
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
When Joseph, her fiancé found out about her pregnancy he was shocked and not sure what he should but that night, the angel, Gabriel visited him.
Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
So, Joseph agreed to marry her.
Just before the baby was due to be born the King wanted to count everyone in his kingdom. That meant poor, pregnant Mary and Joseph had to travel to Joseph’s province, Bethlehem. It was a very hard journey for a pregnant woman. They traveled on a donkey over many hills.
When they arrived in the village they looked for a place to stay but every single hotel was full. There were no rooms left in the entire place. Things were getting more desperate because Mary was going into labor, the baby would be born that night! Finally, there was one hotel owner who said they could sleep in his barn, the house for goats, cows, and other animals.
The family was poor. They didn’t have a fancy things or much money. They were not important or famous. Joseph was a carpenter not a king, they were simply people who loved God and were willing to obey.
That night Jesus became a human. He chose to leave heaven, the perfect garden where God was and there was no sin—death, hunger, pain or sadness. That night the Son of God was born
to Mary and Joseph. The King of the world, the creator of everything shared his bed with farm animals.
That same night there were shepherds watching their flock of sheep. Suddenly an angel appeared before them and they were terrified. The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Saviour—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of David! And this is how you will know him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a whole bunch of other angles—an army of angels from heaven—praising God saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth, goodwill to all people.” (Luke 2:10-14)
The shepherds ran all the way to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and there lying in the manger was the baby Jesus, Immanuel—God with us, just like the angel said. They praised God and told everyone that they had seen the Messiah.
There were also Three Wise Men from the east. They had been studying the stars and they discovered one that announced the birth of the King. They followed the star for months until it lead them to Bethlehem where Jesus, the Savior, was born. These three men were the wisest wealthiest men and they came to worship the King of the World. They each brought him a gift—gold, frankincense and myrrh.
These three gifts had meaning too.
The gold was a symbol of kingship on earth, because he is the rightful king of the Jews and of the world.
Frankincense is an incense and a symbol of deity.
Myrrh is an embalming oil and is a symbol of death which pointed to his plan to save all of humanity from forever separation from God.
The baby that was born, baby Jesus, was both God and Man. He went on to grow up and become a teacher, a healer, and to ultimately bring us back together with God, our Life-Giver, by defeating sin--the power that separates us from God. He wanted people to understand that God was good and He loves us. Most importantly Jesus wanted to bring us back together with God by taking the punishment of death on a cross when he was only 33. With his life he taught us how to live and love. This is why the creator of the universe chose to become a baby, born to a virgin and into a poor family in an unknown town of Bethlehem.
We are in a world of sin and that separates us from God--the life-giver. Without that connection, we have no life. Christmas is a day to remind us that we don’t have to be alone, we were given the perfect gift, the gift of JESUS, Immanuel--God With Us.
Comments
What a beautiful summery of God's love for mankind!
And a great reminder of what Christmas is really all about.
Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you,
Stan