Christmas Celebrating the Birth of Jesus

By Michael McKeon

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jaco

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fountain Springs Ministries Pty Ltd
• Release date: Nov 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9780995408869

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Introduction

Christmas is celebrated all around the world by Christians and even non-Christians, why? Many people, even Christians only have a superficial understanding of this turning point of history. Luke wrote to Theophilus the Friend of God in the beginning of his Gospel that he wanted to write an orderly account so that he could be confident about the truths he’d been taught and believed. I’ve written this book as a reflection on God’s Word that will explain the necessity and purpose of the Jesus birth.

Countless people around the world think that Christianity is a western religion. However, the Semitic or middle eastern ancestry of Jesus goes back almost 4000 thousand years to the city of Ur on the Euphrates River which is in modern Iraq. Jesus the Redeemer was born of a people who come from the Middle East, not the West or the East but in some ways the middle of the peoples of the world. God was able to nurture Christianity in Europe but belief in Jesus as Son of God who died for the sins of the world is for every tribe and tongue and nation. God is God to all. We are all made in His image and born into this world to relate and communicate with Him.

Christmas and celebrating the birth of Jesus has eternal relevance for everyone.

Why Is Jesus Birth Called Christmas?

Many of us grew up thinking that Christ was Jesus’ family name. However, if you look at a concordance you will find that the English word ‘Christ’ comes from a New Testament Greek word Christos, (Strong’s #5547) meaning the anointed or the Messiah.

The word mass originally comes from a Latin word for dismiss, hence the end of the church service. Over time it came to mean the Christian Eucharist service itself as practised by a number of denominations and has been called the celebration of the mass.

Put them together and you could say Christmas means Celebrating the birth of Jesus.

The Story of Christmas

The Western calendar attributed to Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 divides the history of the world into two periods BC or Before Christ and AD for the Latin, Ano Domini, the year of the Lord or the year of Jesus’ birth. Gregory starts counting years in the year that he believed that Jesus was born. There is a shift in thinking to rename the starting date of the calendar to BCE that is Before the Common Era and CE the Common Era. That movement accommodates non-believers who don’t want to recognize the divinity of Jesus and seek to detract from the eternal consequences the life death and resurrection of the Son of God. I still like BC and AD.

At the time Jesus was born the Roman empire ruled Judea under Caesar Augustus. In the region of Galilee, a village girl in Nazareth named Mary was betrothed or promised to Joseph. The marriage ceremony was not complete, they weren’t living together but they were expected to be faithful to each other and would shortly be fully married.

Mary received a revelation from God. An angel appeared, telling her not to be afraid but that she would conceive and have a Son and call Him Jesus. Mary questioned this because she was not having the type of relationship that produces children. The angel told her that she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and that her son would be the Son of God.

An angel appeared to Joseph and revealed that Mary was pregnant by the power of God according to His eternal plan. Joseph was told to name the baby Jesus and that the child would save people from their sin. He believed and obeyed.

The Romans under the prompting of the Holy Spirit decided that a census needed to be carried out throughout their empire requiring that each person return to their own hometown for registering. Joseph and Mary returned to Bethlehem the hometown of Joseph’s ancestor Kind David. Mary travelled as well and was ready to give birth. Jesus was born in a humble place, where animals were kept, because there was no more accommodation for people in Bethlehem. Historically there were caves in the Bethlehem area used by shepherds. It is possible that Mary and Joseph found shelter in one of the caves and Jesus was born there. He was wrapped in strips of cloth and laid in a manger a feeding trough for animals.

The name of the town Bethlehem means House of Bread. There are no coincidences in God’s plan. Jesus was born to feed the world spiritually.

John 6:35

And Jesus said to them I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

A group of travellers described in Matthew 2:1 as wise men from the East had received the revelation from God of the birth of a King. They were so impressed that they travelled from their homeland to Jerusalem and asked to see the King of the Jews who had been born. They brought gifts of great value to pay homage to the infant King. King Herod the local ruler under the Romans asked the chief priests and scribes where the Christ would be born. They told him the prophet Micah (Micah 5:2) foretold the King would born in Bethlehem. Herod tried to kill the newborn King by ordering the death of every boy child two years old and younger in the area.

Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream to leave Bethlehem and travel to Egypt for safety from Herod. Then when Herod had died an angel appeared to Joseph again to tell him to take his family back to the land of Israel and they settled in Nazareth.

Spiritual Background

God, who is love, (1 John 4:8) the Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit are eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing living in a perfect state of fulfilment. God decided to share their existence with their greatest creation, made in their own image (Genesis 1:26), men and women. When God created humanity with a free will to choose for ourselves to keep His word or not, God knew that we would not always do what pleased Him.

Our human nature is weak and given the chance to choose between good and evil, right and wrong there would be times when we would miss the mark and choose what was offensive to a perfectly holy God.

The Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit decided that men and women, made in their very image and likeness would