The Birth of Jesus Christ
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “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.”
All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” (Mat.1:18-23)
There are some myths and mysteries about Christmas. In today’s self-centered and individualistic culture Christmas has lost its meaning. Some people call it “holiday season” because it doesn’t hold anything more than just a couple of free days for having fun. For some others it is a time of family reunion-the only time of the year when they spend time together. For a lot of people in the east Christmas is the birth anniversary of the founder of the Christian religion.
Christmas is not the beginning of Christ
Many have misunderstood Christmas to be the beginning of Jesus Christ like other spiritual gurus or religious founders. But the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus was there before Christmas. He was there right from the beginning, in fact, He is the beginning. He is referred to as “Alpha” and the “WORD”.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Rev.22:13)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3)
Jesus told those who rejected His claims,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” ( John 8:58 )
He was “Immanuel”, which means “God with us” or “God in human form”, as we read in Matthew 1:23. He existed before everything else because He is the Creator.
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:15-16)
Christmas is not just another event in history
So many things happen at random in the world. Children are born and some grow to be great personalities and people of influence. No one knew about their greatness before they existed. All of them die and are no more. The greatest of them may leave behind traces of memories for a couple of generations. But about 700 years before His coming into the world the Prophet of God announced that Jesus would come as a human baby. There were about 300 prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus in the Jewish Scriptures.
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)
Those who followed Jesus realized that He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesies.
Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” (John 1:45)
Jesus confirmed this when He said:
If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. (John 5:46)
Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself…. Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled”…. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. (Luke 24:27,44,46)
Christmas will be complete at the return of Christ
The birth of Jesus Christ was announced as “Good news of great joy for all people” (Luke 2:10). It is good news that it points the way to forgiveness, to freedom, to lasting joy and peace, to eternal life, and to heaven-all available free of cost and effort. However, it is a package deal. You start enjoying these here and now, prevail through all the storms and struggles caused by the world corrupt by sin, and safely reach your eternal destination at the return of Christ. Christmas thus should remind us that we a re sojourners here and we await our transport at the trumpet call of the archangel. Then we shall be with our Saviour for ever, beyond the spell of corruption and sin, beyond the reach of tears and sorrow, beyond the powers of wickedness and evil. It will be then prove to have been Good News of Great Joy for ALL peoples, across nationalities, tongues and cultures, those who embraced it.
