human form because he was fulfilling the prophesies of the Old Testament.
Christmas is about the arrival on earth of the Son of God in human form. He had to live among us in human form to fulfill his purpose - he could not have fulfilled his purpose in spiritual form, which is why he was born as the baby Jesus.
The birth of Jesus is about the fulfillment of God's promises to send a Savior to save us from our sins.
What are the facts about the birth of Jesus?
Perhaps you have been to a nativity play at school, or seen a nativity scene illustrated on a Christmas card that shows the little baby Jesus in a stable with Mary and Joseph, a bunch of shepherds, three wise men, and a big star in the night sky?
You can read two accounts of the birth of Jesus: one in the Gospel of Matthew chapters 1 and 2; and another similar account in the Gospel of Luke chapters 1 and 2.
Mary was betrothed to be married to Joseph.
In our society you might compare a betrothal to being engaged to be married; however, in the culture of those times a betrothal was a much more formal commitment to marriage. Mary and Joseph were committed as a couple, but they had not slept together as a married couple - this would come later, after a ceremony, and after the birth of Jesus.
Mary had become pregnant. But she had not become pregnant by a man: Mary had conceived Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit: by God.
This is what makes Jesus so special.
This is what makes Jesus, the Christ.
The angel Gabriel visited Mary to deliver a personal message from God: “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke chapter 1 verses 31 to 33 - NIV)
As you might expect, Joseph was not impressed by his betrothed wife’s pregnancy, and he planned to quietly end their marriage because of this.
However, God hadn’t just chosen Mary as the necessary mother to Jesus; God had specifically chosen Joseph to be the earthly father to Jesus.
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew chapter 1 verses 20 and 21 - NIV)
Joseph son of David?
Joseph’s father wasn’t called David, but what is meant here is that Joseph’s direct ancestor was King David, (the David who killed Goliath the giant about 1,060 years earlier); God had told David: ‘I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for my name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.’ (2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 to 14 - NIV)
The other important point here is that Joseph, through David, is a direct descendant of Abraham, and God had said that, “all nations on earth will be blessed through him [Abraham]” (Genesis chapter 18 verse 18 - NIV)
What this means is that both these promises that God had made in the Old Testament are being fulfilled.
While Mary and Joseph were coming to terms with what was happening to them, the ruling Roman authorities had ordered a census to be taken of the population: everyone was ordered to return to their ancestral hometown to be counted.
Joseph was a descendant of David, so he traveled with his betrothed wife to the little town of Bethlehem in Galilee where his ancestor David had originally lived.
Mary was heavily pregnant by the time they reached Bethlehem; and, ‘while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.’ (Luke chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 - NIV) A manger is an open container that animals eat hay from, and which happens to be about the right size and shape for a makeshift cradle for a baby.
Nearby that same night, an angel appeared to some shepherds who were keeping watch over their sheep.
As you might expect, the shepherds were filled with fear when they saw the brightness shining all around them as the angel appeared.
The angel announced the birth of the Savior to the shepherds, and told them where they would find the baby. Then 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!”’ (Luke chapter 2 verses 13 and 14 - ESV)
Without a doubt, this was the arrival of God’s gift to the world: a Savior, through whom our sins could be forgiven, through whom we could be made acceptable to God.
After Jesus was born, a group of scholars arrived from the East. These wise men had seen a particular star rise that had indicated the birth of a new king, and they had travelled all this way just to worship him.
King Herod heard about these wise men and their search for the new king; Herod was naturally worried, because he did not want any competition for his throne.
So Herod assembled his chief priests and asked them where this new king was to be born: from the old prophesies, the chief priests were able to tell Herod that the new king would be born in Bethlehem.
Herod was very cunning: he sent the wise men to Bethlehem to find the new king, explaining that he also would like to meet and worship him; but it was just a wicked plan to discover the location of this new king, and have him killed.
The star that had told them of the birth of this new king, guided the scholars to the house where they saw Jesus with his mother. They worshiped Jesus, recognizing him as the new King.
They gave Jesus valuable gifts that were appropriate to give to a king: gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
The scholars did not return to Herod to tell him where Jesus was, because they had been warned in a dream that Herod was planning to kill Jesus; the scholars took another route to return to their home in the East.
The Bible doesn’t say how many wise men visited Jesus.
They brought three gifts, so it is possible that the Christmas cards are correct, and that there were only three of them.
The Bible doesn’t say how old Jesus was when the wise men arrived; the Bible simply refers to Jesus as a child, not a baby.
The story also says that they found Jesus living with his mother in a house, not a stable.
At this point the story becomes very distressing.
Herod was very angry when he realized that the scholars from the East had purposely avoided telling him where Jesus was.
An angel appeared to Joseph, the adopting father of Jesus; the angel told Joseph to, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” (Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 - NIV)
Sure enough, after Mary and Joseph had escaped to Egypt with Jesus, Herod ordered the execution of every boy aged up to two years old living in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.
The killing of all these innocent little boys sounds terrible, but even this mass murder was prophesied in the Old Testament. God knew what was going to happen, and he protected his Son, because Jesus had a very special purpose to fulfill.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had arrived in human form to live among us, to deliver God’s new promise.
God’s new promise allowed