Christmas is literally “the mass for Christ”, the day on which the world celebrates the birth of the Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Our Calendar is built on the birth of the Lord Jesus (BC and AD) This birth was so monumental that it became the high point of history, the peak, the apex. All history before this birth is B.C., Before Christ. All history since is A.D., Anno Domini, Latin for "the year of our Lord." The birth of God in human form then is the most important moment in all of history. The truth that He was born is much more meaningful than where and exactly when Jesus was born.
The Christmas story begins in the little town of Bethlehem in Israel over 2,022 years ago, a baby was born whose life was destined to affect countless millions. The world knew not of His birth. Work went on as usual. Cathedral bells failed to toll; bands were silent; no royal choruses burst forth in song. Only the music of Heaven was heard. In fact, God had to arrange a welcome for Himself, and legions of angels circled the skies and heralded His birth. “Out in the fields, an angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds who were tending their flocks of sheep by night. The angel announced that the Saviour had been born in the town of David. When Jesus was born it wasn’t just some baby born in a manger, it was the revelation of all the glory of God Himself wrapped in flesh named Immanuel-God with us (Matt. 1:23)
No wonder the angels proclaimed, the shepherds went to see, the Wise Men sought, Mary pondered, Simeon praised and Anna gave thanks for this child of the glory-this remarkable gift of the glory of God. When Jesus was born it wasn’t just some baby born in a manger, it was the revelation of all the glory of God Himself wrapped in flesh named Immanuel-God with us (Matt. 1:23) The birth of the Saviour brings glory to God. He is held in the highest opinion and esteem and therefore praise, honour and glory. He alone receives the most exalted place in the universe. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The shepherds weren't excited about meeting angels but experiencing the glory of God's holy presence. While the birth of Christ is a special and miraculous event, it isn't the primary focus. The biblical evidence is overwhelming that this child in the manger was the incarnation of God.
Usually, we are so preoccupied with the celebration that we forget the celebrant. But the Celebrant is more important than the celebration because the Celebrant is the cause of the celebration. Jesus is the centre of Christmas and He is the reason for the season. In all the joy and wonderful events this time brings, we must make sure We don't miss Christ this Christmas. What a difference the baby born in Bethlehem’s manger 2,022 years ago makes to our world today. Incredible and unbelievable as it may appear to a modern man, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was a visitor from outer space. He was God Incarnate. That virgin-born baby was God in human form.
Jesus arrived on earth to exist with us and to be one of us. The angel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a son and that His name was to be called “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). The apostle John wrote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). “The Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). That's the miracle of what happened at Bethlehem. Regardless of our background, religion, problems, or circumstances, Christmas really is the best news you could ever get. Beneath all the visible sights and sounds of Christmas is a simple yet profound truth that can transform our life for the better here on earth and forever in eternity.
If there is a single word that describes what Christmas is all about, it’s the little word “Joy.” Several of our Christmas carols mention it: We sing them in our churches; we play them in our homes; we listen to them on mobile and social media; we hear them in shopping malls. The Hymn, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” is a favourite and one of the best-known of all Christmas songs. Maybe we need to take a few minutes to open up our Bibles and pull together some verses that remind us again of the truth in those lyrics. “Joy to the world the Lord has come, let earth receives her king, let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing…….,.”
This song was written by Isaac Watts in 1719, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible.
This Psalm is nine verses long and is made up of three stanzas of three verses each. Verses 1-3 tell us to rejoice in God as Saviour of his people. Verses 4-6 tell us to rejoice in God as King over all the earth. And finally verses 7-9 tell us to rejoice in God as Judge over all the nations. In short Psalm 98 tells us to rejoice in God as Saviour of his people, as King over all the earth, and as Judge over all the nations. This carol emphasizes the joy that Christ's birth brought to mankind. So where does Christmas joy come from? The Gospel of Luke gives the most detailed story of the birth of Christ and also the most detailed prescription for joy.
Luke 2:10-11 says – the angel said to the shepherds “Don’t be afraid,” “I bring you good news that will bring great JOY to all people. The Saviour – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! The Bible gives a lot of reasons for joy. It says there is joy in obedience, and joy in the special moments of life like weddings and the birth of a baby. If you look at all the verses about joy, you’ll find that there is joy in wisdom, and in justice, and in the fear of the Lord.
But as we explore the Bible looking at each verse that included the word joy, something really significant, vital and recurring theme is this. There is great joy in the presence of the Lord!
The Bible tells us when the wise men saw the star announcing the coming of Messiah they were filled with joy! The message taught by Luke helps the world understand the significance of Christ's birth and the impact it has on the world. Jesus was born in a place normally occupied by animals. It was no palace or mansion, and there was certainly no doctor and probably no midwife. The circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth were humble and risky. The birth of Jesus in a lowly condition is deliberate. He came to do the will of God, to live to the glory of God. He laid aside his glory to take our nature in order to live a truly human life, the way God made man to live; not by bread alone, but by the word of God. He humbled himself even unto death, in order to take away the sins of men. The appearance of God's glory in connection with the birth of Christ signals the presence of God among men and God's provision for dealing with transgressions of his law.
God chose to reveal this wonderful news to a little group of simple shepherds on a Judean hillside, who believed the prophecies of old and demonstrated steadfastness by faithfully tending this little flock of sheep. The first Christmas to celebrate were some poor, despised and downtrodden shepherds. The angel told the shepherds not to be afraid and shared a message of good news. The good news is the "Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" has been born.
Listen to the words of Luke 2:8-10: “That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people” For over 500 years the people of Israel had not sent the visible manifestation of Yahweh's presence with them and now He revealed Himself to these humble shepherds, not the religious high priest, the Pharisees or Sadducees.
Those poor shepherds were hearing the chorus of the praise that we’ve sung ever since. The angel comes with “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” What is this “good news of great joy?” Luke Chapter 2 Verse 11 has the answer. It says “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” If you are looking for Christmas joy, you can find all you need in this single verse. Notice the simple phrase—" For unto you is born this day in the city of David.” This is a prophetical fulfilment of His Coming. Bethlehem is called the “city of David” So when we read “city of David” we should remember that Jesus was born in fulfilment of a prophecy made 700 years earlier. (Ref. Micah 5:2.) God had told prophet Micah 700 years before exactly where Christ would be born.
Today, the little town of Bethlehem lies in the limestone hill country of the Holy Land about six miles south of Jerusalem. The Church of the Nativity, the oldest Christian church in daily use, marks the traditional spot of Jesus’ birth and is considered one of the holiest sites in Christendom. The birthplace of Jesus attracts some 2 million visitors each year. Locals joke that there would still be no room at the inn for Joseph and Mary if they showed up in Bethlehem today.
The angel was a messenger, sent from the Lord, to tell His chosen nation the good news of great joy - for that very day in the city of David, a Saviour had been born. "Who is Christ the Lord." The shepherds are filled with fear, but the angel proclaims "good news." The child born in Bethlehem is the promised Messiah or Christ, and he is a Saviour for all the people. God is proclaiming peace to men through him. The angel says this is a pronouncement of "great joy," It is a great joy for all who believe; the joy of loving fellowship with God that will never end. All creation had been waiting for this moment since that fateful moment when Adam’s teeth sank into the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For thousands of years, the world had waited. Though God had walked in the garden with Adam and Eve, for millennia that abiding presence of God had been missing, and creation held its breath.
Let’s look again at the text. The angel says, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David.” They speak to the fact that what happened in Bethlehem was nothing less than the birth of a baby named Jesus Christ. This implies the Reality of His Coming, it’s important to Notice the phrase “this day” means that it really happened. Not a legend or a myth or a fairy tale. Everything about the birth of Jesus is true, including the central truth that this child was the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man fused together in indivisible oneness. He came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He put on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became the Son of man that we might become sons of God.
Now we come to the climax of this verse: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David, “A Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Here we see the relevance of His Coming. In this verse, an interesting fact comes from the Greek text of Luke 2. When Luke wrote his account, he didn’t use any commentary to describe who Jesus is. It reads this way: Saviour, Christ, Lord. Each word is vitally important. Saviour is actually an Old Testament word that means “One who delivers his people.” Lord is a term for divinity. It’s a synonym for God. Christ is the Greek version of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “the anointed One.”
When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, 'Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.' So, they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger" (Luke 2: 15-16).
The uniqueness of Christmas is that each individual must come to an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No one else's faith can count for your own. Even though Jesus Christ went to the cross and died in your place to pay your sin debt you cannot have a right relationship with God until you acknowledge to Him that you are a sinner and believe in Him. Eternal life is a free gift but it is not automatic and it is not universal. It takes personal faith in Christ to save you. The shepherds had the privilege of seeing it for themselves. They went back to their fields "glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen." Our response can be like the shepherds in Luke 2: 20. What song are you singing this Christmas?
Christmas is a time for Celebration (Joy and Peace), Salvation (Forgiveness of Sin and Eternal life) & Reconciliation.
When Adam sinned in Genesis 3:6, he ushered in death for all humanity. To be spiritually dead is to be separated from God. Unfortunately, this spiritual – and eventually physical – death was not confined to Adam and Eve. As the representative of the human race, Adam carried all of humanity into his sin. Paul makes this clear in Romans 5:12, telling us that sin and death entered the world and spread to all men through Adam’s sin. Additionally, Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death; sinners must die because sin separates us from God. Any separation from the Source of Life is, naturally, death for us. Sin leads to death. The only way to escape that death is to come to Jesus through faith, drawn by the Holy Spirit.
Faith in Christ leads to spiritual life, and ultimately to eternal life. But it is not just inherited sin that causes spiritual death; our own sinfulness contributes. Ephesians 2 teaches that, before salvation, we are “dead” in trespasses and sins (verse 1). This must speak of spiritual death because we were still “alive” physically before salvation. While we were in that spiritually “dead” condition, God saved us (verse 5; see also Romans 5:8). Colossians 2:13 reiterates this truth: “And you, who were dead in your trespasses . . . God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.” Since we are dead in sin, we are completely unable to trust God or His Word. Jesus repeatedly claims that we are powerless without Him (John 15:5) and that we cannot come to Him without God’s enabling (John 6:44). Paul teaches in Romans 8 that our natural minds cannot submit to God, nor please Him (verses 7-8). In our fallen state, we are incapable of even understanding the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The Bible teaches that apart from God humans are spiritually dead. Spiritual death is the consequence of sin. Faith in Christ allows us to be born again and we move from spiritual death to spiritual life. The act of God whereby He makes us alive from spiritual death is called regeneration. Regeneration is accomplished only by the Holy Spirit, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we are regenerated, we are made alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5) and renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). It is like being born a second time, as Jesus taught Nicodemus in John 3:3, 7. Having been made alive by God, we will never truly die – we have eternal life. Jesus said often that to believe in Him is to have eternal life (John 3:16, 36; 17:3). The key to truly knowing God is found in what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible. Jesus revealed to us who God is, so in knowing God we must look to Jesus: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. . .. Believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me” (John 14:9–10; cf. John 17:6). Every work that Jesus did was in obedience to the Father in heaven (John 5:19). Every word Jesus spoke was straight from the Father (John 12:49). To know God, we must know Jesus.
Bible says “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God created you. Not only that, he loves you so much that he wants you to know him now and spend eternity with him.
We were created to have fellowship with God, but because of our stubborn self-will, we chose to go our own way, and our fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is what the Bible calls sin. This image illustrates that God is holy and people are sinful. A great gulf separates us. We are continually trying to reach God and the abundant life through our own efforts, such as a good life, philosophy, or religion – but we inevitably fail. Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.
Jesus came so that each of us could know and understand God in a personal way. Jesus alone can bring meaning and purpose to life. Jesus said, “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10) — that is, that life might be full and meaningful. Jesus says that the reason He came was to give us life abundantly, to restore God’s design for our lives (John 10:10).
God originally made a perfect world and said it was very good. God made a world without brokenness – without war, sickness, or death. However, as we look at the world around us today, we see that we live in a world of brokenness. Depression, anxiety, fear, sickness, war, and more… We try to get out of the brokenness by looking for other relationships, careers, religion (trying to be good enough), or looks for ways to numb our pain through things like drugs or alcohol. The Bible says that it was mankind that choose to not follow God’s ways, but to go our own way. This is what the Bible calls sin. And sin is what leads us into brokenness (Rom. 3:23). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Bible also says “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Death is spiritual separation from God.
Life Without the Knowledge of God Leads to Emptiness and brokenness. God does not leave us in our brokenness. He enters into our brokenness. The way He does this is by sending Jesus. Jesus was born as a baby, grew up and lived a perfect, sinless life. Then, He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Rom. 6:23). God raised Him from the dead. Jesus is called the “Author of life” (Acts 3:15; see also John 1:3). When we put our trust in Him, we can begin to understand the real meaning of life.
According to the Bible, knowing God is the meaning of life because He is the “author of life” (John 17:3). The meaning of life is not based on things we see in the world “for life is more than food, and the body more than clothing” (Luke 12:23). God is not only the author of life; He is our Father. In John 17:3, we read “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” the meaning of life is to know Jesus Christ. The meaning of life would be incomplete without knowing Jesus as the one who came to restore God’s original design in us. Meaning in Life Comes from Knowing God as Our Father.
Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) The Bible defines Jesus Himself as the author and giver of life, but also as the definition of life itself. Jesus also claims that there is no other way to God, the Father, except through Him. Jesus is the One that the Father has sent. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God adopts us as His children and a cry comes out of us: Abba! Abba is the Aramaic word for father. (Gal. 4:6)
