No Trash, Just Truth! - Proverbs 9:10 Ministries

Episode 113 - Unto Us a Child is Born - Make Way for the King Part 1

November 15, 2021
No Trash, Just Truth! - Proverbs 9:10 Ministries
Episode 113 - Unto Us a Child is Born - Make Way for the King Part 1
Show Notes Transcript

There are medical "professionals" and even politicians who are hinting that due to Covid and supply chain issues, Christmas may have to be cancelled, or will at least be ruined. The arrogance and presumption of that statement is not only highly offensive, but absolutely impossible! In this first episode of our new series, Make Way for the King, we begin to look in depth at the birth of Christ - what it really means for us and why regardless if there are presents, decorations, feasts, or parties this Christmas, it is a day for all Christians to rejoice regardless of what is going on in the world around us!

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Episode 113 – For Unto Us a Child is Born

          Welcome Back! Chris, there has been something in the news lately that has really ticked me off.

          I’m shocked it’s just one thing.

          Well, its quite a few things, but one thing has really set me off – and that’s this talk about whether Christmas will be cancelled or if people will be able to celebrate Christmas. It started with Dr. Faucci on CNN or something with the clueless anchor asking him if Christmas needed to be cancelled because of Covid. And, obviously this guy has a god complex because he said we will see. Then I keep seeing the ocean containers still out in the water unable to be unloaded because of lack of labor (some even floating in the water because they have fallen off the ships) with the caption that Christmas may be ruined because of the supply chain issues.

          I get why this ticks you off. It does me, too. Who the heck is Dr. Faucci, or anybody else, that they think they can decide if Christmas is cancelled or that it will be ruined? You know, maybe the best thing for Christians this Christmas is to experience a serious shortage of toys, decorations, food for a feast, and even not be able to have big, lavish parties. Not that there’s anything wrong with those things, but if that is what you think is most important about Christmas, you have a lot more to worry about than merely catching Covid or not having lots of presents under the tree.

          And that’s part of the reason we decided to do this series, Make Way for the King. It will be a reminder to everyone, and to us, that nobody, not even the self appointed savior, Dr. Faucci, can cancel or ruin Christmas. So after spending 12 weeks in the very complex book of Daniel, this week, we are beginning a 7 week series looking at the earthly life of Christ, called Make Way for the King. 

          And if you think studying Jesus is less complex, you couldn’t be more wrong. Jesus definitely wins the award for THE most complex person in Scripture. Case in point, we have done an episode on Jesus being fully Man and fully God. We have done 12 episodes on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and we have even done 4 episodes on 1 parable Jesus told about the Prodigal Son. Not to mention that we show how every bit of Scripture points to Jesus in just about all of the 112 episodes we have done. But that still doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of Who Jesus is or His life and mission while He walked the earth for 33 years.

          And if we explored Jesus in every episode for the rest of our lives, we still will not have exhausted all there is to know about Him. But for this episode, in honor of celebrating the birth of our Savior, we thought we would spend the rest of this year looking at different aspects of Jesus’ life, ministry, teaching, and mission while He was physically on earth. And, Chris, you just mentioned things we have already discussed in detail, so we won’t be looking at what it means that Jesus is both Fully God and Fully Man, The Sermon on the Mount, or The Prodigal Son parable. However, there will probably be parts of all of those things that are referenced in the next 7 episodes.

          Well, we always say, the place to start is at the beginning. So let’s start at the beginning, sort of. Jesus, fully God has no beginning. John tries to help us grasp Jesus’ Divinity by starting at a beginning – not Jesus’ beginning, but the beginning of creation. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” He is directly referencing Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” So when you put those 2 statements together, you get, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Jesus was with God at creation and participated in creation because Jesus is God.

Obviously, John knew that Jesus, fully God had no beginning. But his statement in John 1:1, as well as Genesis 1:1 gives our finite minds a time reference to help us better understand the Triume God. As humans, we live within the space of time. Our whole life is based on time. God however, is not constrained by time, and that is a concept that is hard for our human minds to fully grasp. That being said, though, while, Jesus, fully God has no beginning, Jesus, fully Man does. And that’s what we are going to talk about today. But, as we said, Jesus is complex, and that includes the Person of Jesus. So we need to start before His actual physical birth.

We just finished an extensive history lesson in the last couple of episodes of Reading Between the Lions. We alluded to how God used the oppression of the Greek and later Roman empires to further His plan for the coming of the Promised Messiah. And we will look a little deeper into what God was doing through secular history to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus. But first, let’s flip back to the end of the Old Testament in the book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. This little book is only 4 chapters long. The first 3 chapters is God rebuking the Israelites for their continued unfaithfulness. Chapter 3 begins with these words, ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

And then God answers His own question in Malachi 3:16 – 18, “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.” The book of Malachi and the Old Testament end with these words, ““Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Why is this important? Well, these are the last words the Jewish people, or anyone, heard from God for 400 years. His last words to His people were a rebuke, a restoration promise, and a sign to look for, yet the vast majority missed all 3. Knowing what happened in history during these four hundred years helps us better understand the world Jesus was born into.

In the series on the book of Daniel, we already talked about how the Promised Land was located smack dab in the middle of the Selecuid and Ptolemy empires and were in the crosshairs of their many wars. We also saw how first Alexander the Great, and later Antiochus Epiphanes wanted the Jews to stop practicing their religion and convert to Helenism – the Greek pagan religion, and how this was the catalyst for the Maccabean revolt. Shortly after Antiochus Epiphanes’ death, the Greek empire fell to the Roman republic in the Battle in 146 BC. 

The Roman Republic rose to become The Roman Empire and they took control of Judah and the Promised Land in 63 B.C. Even though the Roman Empire lets them practice Judaism, the Jews cry out to God to send a king to defeat the Romans and release them from their oppression. Because of this oppression, the Jewish people began to migrate and disperse to many different regions because of the persecution. They were no longer centralized in one place. This helped prepare for Jesus as it allowed the Gospel to spread faster and to more regions.

During this time, seventy-two Jewish scholars secluded themselves on an island where they transcribed the entire Old Testament from its original Hebrew and Aramaic into Greek. Their translation is called the Septuagint. They chose the Greek language because Greek was the English of that day. (Remember, beginning back in 330 BC with Alexander the Great there was a great push to Helenize the people). Almost everyone who was educated had some kind of working knowledge of Greek. That’s why the New Testament was written in Greek. Thanks to these scholars, the Old Testament was now readable to those Jewish people who couldn’t read Hebrew, and also readable to the Gentiles. This helped prepare for Jesus by allowing more people to read Scripture and understand why Jesus had come. In addition, it opened the door for Paul and others to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles offering them the opportunity to become part of the family of God as was prophesied. 

During this time, the Sadducees, the progressive liberals of the day, emerged. As we see in the New Testament, the Sadducees were often on the opposite side of the Pharisees, the conservative religious leaders, who also emerged during the 400 years. They began by helping to keep the Jewish people holy and set apart from the world by teaching them the Word of God, but as the saying goes, absolute power absolutely corrupts. Soon, they began adding so many stipulations and requirements to the Law, that it became too heavy a burden for the people to bear.

Fast forward to around 6 BC and the fulfillment of the final prophecy of Malachi that God would send Elijah the prophet to make way for the One True King. This is John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus’. Let’s stop a minute because this is sometimes misinterpreted. There is no such thing as reincarnation, so John was not Elijah reincarnated. Besides, if you remember the story, Elijah didn’t actually die, he was taken to heaven alive in a chariot. When God said He would send Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord, He meant He would send a prophet in the spirit of Elijah. Elijah’s mission was to announce the coming of the Messiah, just as John’s was. Luke 1:17 says John, “will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” This is almost a direct quote from Malachi 4:5.

          Scripture seems like it might be contradictory. We just saw that the Malachi prophecy meant that someone (John) would come in the spirit of Elijah. However, in Matthew 11:13 - 14 Jesus says John is Elijah. He says, For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” Now add that to John’s outright rejection of being Elijah when asked directly in John 1:21. So how do we reconcile these three teachings? There is a key phrase in Jesus’ identification of John the Baptist that must not be overlooked. He says, “If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah.” In other words, John the Baptist’s identification as Elijah was not predicated upon his being the actual Elijah, but upon people’s response to his role in the spirit of Elijah. To those who were willing to believe in Jesus, John the Baptist functioned as Elijah, because John paved the way for Jesus. To the religious leaders who rejected Jesus, John the Baptist did not perform this function.

          And John outright rejects being Elijah because the Pharisees ask him if he is literally Elijah, and he says no. He says though that he is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’ So he is acknowledging that he is functioning in the spirit of Elijah. Okay, before we delve into Jesus’ birth narrative, let’s look at how each Gospel handles it. Matthew gives us a birth narrative, but before that, he gives Jesus’ genealogy. This is the genealogy of Joseph, his step father. And Matthew’s purpose is that before he gives details of the birth of Jesus, he wants his Jewish audience to understand who Jesus is – the Promised Jewish Messiah. What he does include about Jesus’ birth are fulfillments of prophecies we find in the Old Testament. Again, to solidify for the Jews, that Jesus is the Promised Savior. Luke also gives Jesus’ genealogy in chapter 3, but it is the lineage through Mary, not Joseph, who is also from the house of David. This is to show that Jesus’ lineage on both sides is completely from Judah and David.

Mark, on the other hand, skips over both Jesus’ genealogy and birth narrative and dives right into John the Baptist beginning his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus. Since Mark is writing to a mostly Roman audience and is writing to portray Jesus as the servant King, he begins Jesus’ earthly life narrative at the beginning of Jesus’ mission. We already looked at how John begins his gospel – by identifying Jesus as God and being present and active in the creation of the world. That leaves Luke, who has the most extensive and detailed narrative on Jesus’ birth. Luke is writing to the Gentiles. He needs to fully explain things because most would have no clue about the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus. 

We are going to mostly look at Luke, but will reference Matthew’s account, too. You all probably know the story of John the Baptist’s birth foretold. His father, Zechariah, a country priest, got his big shot to serve as high priest and make atonement for the people’s sins. The angel tells him that his wife Elizabeth will have a son and they are to name him John. Zechariah doubts this and says, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) As punishment for his doubt, he is struck mute until John is born and he tells everyone his name is to be John. So now let’s more onto the birth of Jesus foretold.

You know, the virgin birth of Jesus has been attacked, by Christians, for centuries. Some even say belief in the virgin birth is embarrassing, and they have spent a lot of time and energy trying to prove that there was nothing supernatural about Christ’s birth. But besides it being completely ridiculous to think that God couldn’t impregnate a woman who is a virgin, the Apostles had no doubt about Jesus’ miraculous conception, and as we are going to see in Luke 1:34, Mary, herself was as surprised as any woman would be if she were told that she would be pregnant without ever being with a man. Mary knew she was a virgin and that it is ordinarily impossible for virgins to conceive and bear children.

Let’s read this account. Gabriel, the angel, and you may remember him as the angel who also visited Daniel, comes to Mary, and tells her in Luke 1:30 - 33, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Let’s unpack a few things here. Why was God having Jesus born of a virgin? Was it just to make His birth special and miraculous? Yes, but that’s not the only reason. Remember that since the fall of Adam and Eve, every human being is born with an inherent sin nature. That sinful nature makes it impossible for a fallen human being, one conceived and born through ordinary means, to atone for sin, as Paul tells us in Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. God overcame this problem through the virginal conception of Jesus. He provided a fully human Mediator (as He had to be to atone for human sin) who is not tainted by Adam’s sin. 

As John 1:14 tells us, in the incarnation, the Son of God, the Word truly became flesh. He took on a true human nature and He did so without inheriting the inborn sin nature because He was not conceived the way every other human being was. Chris, we talk about essentials to Christianity, and how regardless if you differ on secondary and terchiery issues in the Bible, you cannot differ on the essentials, because the Bible makes the essentials crystal clear so that there is only one possible interpretation of them. Jesus’ virginal birth is one of those essential truths. Belief in the virgin birth is crucial to salvation, for this miracle is the means by which God gave us a sinless Mediator. So anyone professing to be a Christian yet says they don’t believe in the virgin birth, is lying – they are not a Christian.

Exactly. So let’s just take a minute and talk about Mary. We did a 2 part series on her, so we won’t go into great detail, but Gabriel calls her, “Favored one.” The text says Mary is great troubled by this greeting. It’s probably more accurate to say she was confused or felt unworthy at such a title – probably just like any of us would be. Why was Mary chosen? Well, at about 14 years old, she may have been a godly, faithful girl. But she was chosen ultimately for the same reason every other person in the Bible and in history was chosen to be used by God - because it pleased God to do so. To her credit, unlike Zechariah, she does not doubt what the angel tells her, only asks how it will come to be since she is a virgin. And demonstrating even further faith, she says, “Behold I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your words.”  

Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Here’s how the betrothal worked back then. In that day, a Jewish marriage began in two stages. First came betrothal. The man and the woman, standing before chosen witnesses, gave their formal consent to marry one another. By this exchange of vows they became legally married and it was appropriate to call them husband and wife. (The NIV correctly uses the words  "husband" and "divorce" in Matthew 1:19.) But it was usually another year before the second stage of marriage was reached. During this time, the girl (who was usually about 13 or 14 years of age) continued to live with her parents. This is where we are in the story of Jesus’ birth being foretold. The second stage had not yet been reached and Joseph had not taken Mary to his home yet to live with him. Here’s something to note, though. While God’s plan is for Jesus to be born of a virgin, it is not to be born of a single woman. Mary is already betrothed. God sends Jesus to be born into a family. So even without having a biological father, God is sending the message that Jesus having an earthly father is very important.

And we should note that God doesn’t give us details at how Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35’s description is pretty ambiguous. It says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[e] will be called holy—the Son of God.” And Matthew 1:18 is no better. It simply says that Mary was found to be with child. God did not feel it necessary to give us details. But one thing we can say with absolute certainty is that this was not a case like in Gen. 6:1 – 4 where “the sons of  God took the daughters of man to be their wives. To suggest that the Spirit "mated" with Mary as pagan myths often said pagan gods did is a disgusting perversion that has no basis whatsoever in Scripture. It is the utmost in blasphemy towards God, and reduces a beautiful, holy mystery into an absurdity.

          Yes! So Joseph finds out that his “wife” for all intents and purposes is pregnant and decides to divorce her quietly. Mosaic Law said a woman caught in adultery (along with the man) were to be stoned to death. But Joseph isn’t pursuing that, and yet is still called a “righteous” or “just” man. How can he blatantly disregard the Law and still be called “righteous” or “just”? Righteousness and just are used here is regards to his compassion and mercy for Mary. There was no man to convict along with her, and Joseph probably loved her. He didn’t want to see her publicly disgraced and possibly stoned. He chose mercy over judgment. James, Jesus’ brother and Joseph’s biological son picks up on this in his book. In James 2:13, James says, “For judgement is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

          Joseph, like Mary, shows himself to be godly. We see this again when Joseph readily accepts what the angel tells him about Mary’s baby. And, again, Matthew takes the time to show how all of this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 which says, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” After the visit from Gabriel, Mary “went with haste” as Luke says to visit her relative Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. The text says that when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Elizabeth had no way of knowing anything that had transpired between Mary and Gabriel. This is her prophesying because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, through Elizabeth, God was talking to Mary.

          And given all that had happened, that would have been an incredible comfort and encouragement for Mary. And it was, as right after this, she breaks out into song praising God – called her Magnificat. So Mary stays about 3 months which would be to about right after John the Baptist’s birth. Sometime after she returns home, a decree comes out from Caesar Augustus that everyone needed to be registered in their home town. This was all about tax collection. When we look at secular history, the biblical account of a census ordered by Caesar Augustus is consistent with the type of registrations history records that he decreed. 

As we see from Matthew’s lineage, and Old Testament Prophecy, Joseph is from the house of David and must return to Bethlehem to register. This fulfills several prophecies including Micah 5:2 – 5,“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 

So Joseph takes a very pregnant Mary to Bethlehem with him. The trip was about 90 miles. They would have began by going south along the flatlands of the Jordan River, and then turning west over the hills surrounding Jerusalem before going into Bethlehem. A man who regularly leads excavation parties along this same route says it would have been a grueling trip for them. Can’t even imagine what that trek would be like under normal circumstances, let alone being pregnant! And they reach Bethlehem only to find out that there’s not a room to be rented anywhere. I think if I were Mary, I would have just collapsed and cried. This fact is only mentioned in Luke and is just given one line. But it’s a big deal. This was an object lesson about Jesus’ ministry. The “world” would have no place for a Savior. Their hearts were too filled with corruption, darkness, and sin. Jesus would be rejected by many of the Jews and “educated” world. Instead, like the dirty stable He had to be born in, He would bring His message to the outcasts, the rejects, and those who knew they were sinners. 

And we see this by who are the first to receive the news about His birth. God chose the shepherds – both because of their lowly social status and because of the significance “shepherding” plays in Jesus’ ministry. Here’s what Got Questions says about shepherds, “A shepherd during the time of the Old Testament was often, but not always, a child. Whatever his age, the shepherd’s job was to protect his flock and guide them to good pastures with plenty of food and slow-moving, easily accessible water. 
 During biblical times, families in the Middle East relied upon sheep to provide food, wool, and sheepskin. Because sheep were so valuable, shepherds would stay with the flock to protect them day and night. Frequently, the youngest boy in the family served as a shepherd until he grew older and could do harder manual labor. 

And hearing that should make us think of David and his 23rd Psalm. Back to these shepherds. Throughout Scripture when even one angel appeared to someone, they would always say, “Don’t be afraid.” Gives you an idea that people must have been afraid when they saw one. Here, the shepherds see a multitude of angels! I don’t know how many a multitude is numerically, but it was enough to “fill them with great fear” as Luke tells us. But their terror doesn’t last long. The angel says one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture to them. ““Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

The shepherds rush to go see the promised Messiah. And I love this part. After a pregnancy that probably had a lot of people snickering at her and maybe even shunning her, and then a 90 mile trek over rough terrain only to arrive at Bethlehem to find that the best you can do is have your baby in a dirty, smelly stable, Luke says that “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” We see Mary truly having a mother’s heart here. The minute she saw that precious baby, she quickly forgot all the pain and anguish she had endured. Following Jewish Law, 8 days after birth, they circumcise and officially name Jesus.

At this point, you have to read both Luke and Matthew’s accounts to get the full picture. Matthew doesn’t include the circumcism or purification we are going to talk about in a minute because his audience was Jewish people. They would have known all of this. Luke does include it, but he goes from Jesus’ dedication at the Temple to Mary and Joseph’s return to Nazareth, skipping the Herod, Egypt, and Wisemen narrative. So let’s put them both together. According to the Law of Moses, 40 days after giving birth to a boy (60 days for a girl) a husband and wife would present their child at the Temple. Leviticus 12:6 – 8 says, ““And when the days of her purifying are completed, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, 7 and he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her. Then she shall be clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, either male or female.8 And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons,[a] one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”

So Jesus would have been around 40 days old when they bring him to the Temple to present Him. In addition, they brought Him to the Temple because according to Mosaic Law, the first born of every living thing (including humans) belonged to God. According to Numbers 18:15 – 16, “Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16 And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels in silver.” And Luke tells us both of these things in Luke 2:22 – 24. Remember, he’s writing to Gentiles so he needed to explain Jewish Law to them.

While they are at the Temple, they meet 2 people, Simeon and Anna. Simeon was “righteous and devout” according to Luke who had the Holy Spirit upon him while he was waiting for the promised Messiah, whom God had promised He would see before He died. When Mary and Joseph enter the Temple, he sees them and takes the baby in his arms and prophecies, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples; a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” He goes on to say, “This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also) so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” The Holy Spirit give Simeon full comprehension of who Jesus is and what His mission will be. He even sees that Jesus’ mission will cause Mary’s own heart to be pierced – a foreshadowing of Jesus’ crucifixion.

There’s also a woman named Anna at the Temple. After being married only 7 years, her husband died, and she spent the rest of her life at the Temple worshipping God by fasting and praying. She was 84 when she encounters the baby Jesus. She thanks God and begins to speak of Jesus to all of those who, like her, were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Flipping back to Matthew’s Gospel, we don’t know exactly how long, but Mary and Joseph stayed in Bethlehem for some time. They have moved out of the stable and were probably renting a house. At some point after Jesus’ birth, Wise Men, received a sign about the baby. They have been called kings, but they were also probably astrologers or astronomers to be able to interpret the star in the sky. They were wise, because despite not being Jewish, the y knew Jewish prophecy about the Messiah. They make the very long journey to see Jesus, stopping at Herod’s palace on the way.There’s a few Herod’s in Scripture. This is Herod the Great who reigned from 73 to 4 BC. 

Unknowingly, the Wise men tip off Herod about Jesus, the King of the Jews being born. All the Herods in the Bible are mentally deranged. This Herod, Herod the Great was so paranoid that people wanted to take away his throne, that he had already killed one of his wives, her mother, two of her sons, and his own eldest son. This led the Roman Emperor Augustus to comment that it would be safer to be Herod's pig than his son. So this psycho had no problem ordering all boys 2 years and younger to be slaughtered at the possibility that one of them may be a threat to his reign. Matthew recounts this horrific incident because, again, it fulfills Old Testament Prophecy spoken by Jeremiah, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more. “

Further fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, an angel appears to Joseph and tells him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s insanity. When this Herod dies (by a kidney infection and complication of gonorrhoea that caused gangrene of the genitals) the angel tells Joseph it is safe to return to Israel. This fulfills the prophecy in Hosea 11:1 that says, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” The Lord doesn’t tell Joseph exactly where to go to, just to return to the land of Israel. From there, Joseph makes his own rational decision. Herod’s son, Archelaus was reigning in Judea, so he doesn’t go there after being warned in a dream. He goes to Galilee to a city called Nazareth. Joseph made his own earthly decision to return to his home town of Nazareth to settle his family, but God’s sovereignty was all over it, as again, Matthew tells us this fulfills an Old Testament Prophecy that “He would be called a Nazarene.”

Why do we celebrate Christmas every year – even when Dr. Faucci or others say we shouldn’t or can’t? Why do we sing the same familiar songs every year? Why do we recite the same passages like Isaiah 9:2 or Isaiah 9:6 – 7. Why does the very thought of Christmas spark such joy in us? 

Hopefully, the answer for us is the same for why we celebrate communion. It’s a reminder. It’s a reminder of the incredible love and mercy that God has for His people. Christmas reminds us that Jesus left the glory and majesty of heaven to confine Himself to a fleshy prison and put aside His glory to pay the penalty we owed to God. From the very beginning, when there wasn’t even a decent room for Him to be born in, the world has hated Him. He knew all this, yet He came anyway. He came because of it. He came to show what the Old Testament clearly illustrates and what the New Testament cements – there is a distinct difference between the people of God and the rest of the world.

When I think about Jesus, God, forsaking so much and being born as a baby, it blows my mind. Why not come into the world like He will the next time – fully grown, fully glorified, and fully displaying His divinity? Why would He put Himself in the position to be totally dependent upon earthly parents – who were obviously loving, but still sinful. He did it out of love. He did it so what is said about Him in the book of Hebrews 2:14 - 18 is completely true. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

That’s a good place to end for today. Our prayer is that regardless of the circumstances this Christmas season – whether narcistic doctors or politicians tell us we can’t celebrate Christmas with our families or at church, or whether there isn’t money or product to have presents under the tree, or even if our Christmas dinner is very modest, we pray that we will all rejoice in the true meaning of Christmas – Christ’s birth! A cause of celebration and joy no matter what! Join us in the next episode as we continue to look at Jesus’ earthly life and the start of His ministry. Have a blessed day everyone!