The Real Christmas

The commercialism and hype around Christmas create an excitement for young and old alike and it’s a season most of us look forward to. The fake snow, holly, the foreign fir trees, warm fires, the legends of Santa all have nothing to do with the real Christmas. All these things are lovely, and they have their place when held in their proper perspective.

However, the real Christmas story is simple: Mankind is desperately in need of rescuing, and someone has come to rescue us.

The only real gift of Christmas, that is waiting to be unwrapped by anyone who desires it, is that a Saviour is born to reconcile man and God! That Saviour is Jesus The Christ, the long predicted Messiah.

The birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem has more historical significance than any other single event in history.
His coming made an impact upon the world that is unparalleled.

No other event in history has had such far-reaching results. Even history itself was split into two, before His birth and after BC and AD.

The coming of the Messiah that was foretold in the prophecies of God’s Word for thousands of years was expected by the Jewish nation. What was not expected was the way in which he would come. They expected a great fanfare, and that the Messiah would overthrow the Roman oppressors who ruled Israel.

That he came in the utmost humility, born of lowly birth in a stable out back of an inn was unacceptable to the Jewish hierarchy of the day, as it is to this day.

What About December 25th?

December 25th is a highly unlikely date for the real Christmas.

The date was introduced to Christianity by Constantine in 336 probably in celebration of pagan winter solstice worship.

The most likely date put forward by some of the best bible scholars is 29th September 2BC.
We do know that the birth of Christ was not celebrated by the early church at all.

Where The Story Begins

To get the real story we need to travel back to the dawn of humanity, to the garden of Eden where the first humans lived a perfect life in perfect union with God.

This perfect harmony between man and God was severed when the first humans chose to disobey God and rebel against His perfect Word. They chose to believe the lie presented to them by God’s enemy, Satan. They believed they could be like God. You can read about it in Genesis chapters 2 and 3.

The perfect harmony man enjoyed up to that point and the authority and the influence that the first humans had over this world and all God’s creation ceased.

They fell into a state called death.
Not the death of the body although that was now inevitable even though it was not intended to be, but death spiritually. That death was the eternal separation from God.

Because of sin, God could no longer stand within their presence, and they lost the precious relationship and oneness with God.
No longer could they walk and talk with God and enjoy the wonder of His company.
Sin affected every fibre of the human being. It not only destroyed man’s relationship with God but alienated humans from other humans.

Adams reaction to God’s question was to blame it all on Both God and his wife, Eve. The very nature of mankind changed from good to evil.

In Genesis 3:12 we read; The man said, “The woman you put here with me gave me fruit from that tree, so I ate it.”

See, it was the woman’s fault because she gave him the fruit, but it was also God’s fault because He put the woman there with him in the first place.

Eve also tried to pass the blame. “The serpent tricked me”, she said Everybody else is to blame but me! How often we hear that today.

However, the accusations from the first humans about whose fault it was could not change the destiny of every single human being that would come from them. Each and every one would be born with the sin nature that was now the natural state of man.

Then, in Genesis 3:15, we have the first hope given by God to mankind that He would make a way to repair that relationship with Himself that was now destroyed.

“And I will put enmity (hostility and hatred) between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Notice not the man’s seed, but the woman’s seed!
Does the woman have the seed of the birth process? No! Only in One case in all history was a child born from the seed of a woman.

That child was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea and is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour that God promised in Genesis 3:15.

He would circumvent the seed of the man and the resulting sin nature. God, the Holy Spirit, Himself would plant His seed supernaturally inside the womb of a virgin to bring into the world the Messiah who was fully man but without sin. Fully man and fully God.

This was God’s first indication of the cross of Christ. Just under 4000 years later this prophecy along with hundreds of others became a reality.
In Isaiah 7:14 we read:
Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign; Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Immanuel means God with us.
And in Isaiah 9:6 we are told of the destiny of Christ:
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:7 tells that in addition he will rule forever with peace and justice on His natural father’s throne (King David)

When the time arrived for the saviour to be born, to take on humanity and begin the mission He was destined to before the foundation of the world, a series of miraculous events unfolded.

The Two Christmas Babies

The real Christmas is a story of not one but two miraculously conceived babies.

In the Gospel of Luke, we read about an older couple named Zacharias and his wife Elisabeth. They were a godly couple, but they couldn’t have children, even though they desperately wanted them.

While praying in the temple one day God broke His silence and sent the angel Gabriel with His first communication with mankind in 400 years.

Gabriel told Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would have a son whose whole purpose in life would be to introduce the Messiah, (the Christ), and prepare the way for Him.

Zacharias’ son would be the last Old Testament prophet, the voice for God, crying out in the wilderness. This child would be John the Baptist.

Zacharias didn’t believe the angel. Because of his unbelief the angel messenger told him he wouldn’t be able to speak a word until his child was born. He was struck dumb.

A little while later, Elisabeth, Zacharias’ wife, confirmed God’s message and told her husband she was pregnant.

A few months later in a town called Nazareth three days walk away, the same angel, Gabriel, appeared to Mary.

She was just a young girl, engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, who was in the family line of David. This is very important because Old Testament prophecies pointed to this family line. Gabriel told Mary she had been chosen to bring the long promised Redeemer into the world.

In Luke 1:26 – 29 we read – Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then in Luke 1:30, 31 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name Jesus.”

Then the angel gave her important information about this miracle baby.

Jesus would be in the family line of David to fulfill all of the prophecies that spoke of a king who would rule a kingdom and sit on the throne of David.

In Luke 1:32 – 33 The angel Gabriel told Mary that this baby would be the ultimate ruler of all. “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 Jacob (Israel) forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” –Luke 1:32, 33

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” –Luke 1:34, 35

Now, Mary knew she was a sinner—that is, she had a sin nature as all of us do—and she sang in Luke 1:39-56 celebrating how God is her Saviour as well.

When Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, learned she was pregnant, of course he wondered who the father was. But God sent an angel once again with a message for Joseph. In a dream, the angel told Joseph to go ahead with the marriage because God had included them in His plan to save the world. In Matthew 1:21 the angel tells Joseph “She will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”.

Meanwhile, three days walk away, in Zacharias’ home, John the Baptist had arrived. Zacharias still couldn’t speak, so they asked him, “What shall we name the child?” Zacharias, by faith, wrote out the name, “John,” the name

Gabriel told him had already been chosen by God. Then God immediately opened Zacharias’ mouth, and he spoke and praised God (see Luke 1:57-64).

Zacharias took his son into his arms, and he offered another great song of Christmas:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins.” –Luke 1:76, 77.

Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Taxes

All this activity around Jesus’ conception took place in Israel in the city of Nazareth, so how come Jesus’ actual birth was in Bethlehem about 175km away?
At that time the Roman Empire ruled the known world, including the land of Israel.

Caesar Augustus was the emperor and he announced that a census was to be taken, and that everyone had to go to their family’s lineage city to register to be taxed. Joseph and Mary’s lineage or family city was Bethlehem.

As a side note, imagine the disruption to the whole of society and think of what that level of government control must have been like. First a government ruling for a census that was so they could track the forthcoming taxation that was to be introduced.

Nothings change in government, has it?

Sceptics used to argue that Caesar Augustus never ordered such a taxing as the Scripture records. But then the Temple of Augustus in Turkey was excavated between 1926 and 1938, and a copy of the tax bill was discovered. So now we know the exact spot where the decree was made. It is written in Latin, and it says that all the Roman Empire was to be taxed.

That decree was read in every town, at every crossroad of the Roman Empire, and it was what brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem.

So, Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth to the Judean town of Bethlehem for the census. They travelled the treacherous road together, even though Mary was far along in her pregnancy.

It was under these conditions with Bethlehem packed with travellers arriving for the census that Mary and Joseph arrived in the town. Public accommodation was full, and Joseph could find no available room for his wife who was due to give birth. In desperation, preparation for the birth was made in a stable with all the smells and sounds of the animals of travellers and the other animals owned by the innkeeper.

Here, under the humblest of circumstances Almighty God, creator of the universe, took on the form of man in the birth of Jesus Christ for the one purpose of saving mankind from eternal destruction.

Jesus is born in “Davids City” the birthplace of His ancestor King David on whose throne He will rule the world.
The “City of David” is also the name for Jerusalem because King David conquered that city and eventually set up his palace and his rule from there. It is eight kilometres from Bethlehem.

The Shepherds

In Luke 2:8 we read that there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Ever since the days of Abraham, shepherds have kept sheep around Bethlehem. It’s still a common sight today. But one day something very uncommon happened.

An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the night sky.
In Luke 2:9 -12, we see the announcement of that angel.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” –Luke 2:9-12

God sent this announcement to the lower strata of society, largely uneducated, and poorly paid people rather than announcing it to the religious hierarchy with great pomp and ceremony in the temple.

To God, position, and power means nothing. It is the heart that’s important to Him. Also, God makes sure we know that Jesus is human. He came into this world just like we did.
He understands us because He came into this world a human being. This also means we can know something about God because He took upon Himself our humanity.

In Luke 2:13 – 14, we read, 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, goodwill toward men!”

Notice that if the angels had been praising that there would finally be peace on earth from that time on, they were very wrong. No, it was not peace on earth between nations and cultures they were prising, it was that peace was now possible between man and God.

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. –Luke 2:15, 16.

God could have entered the world in power and great glory, as He will when He comes to earth the second time. But this first time, He came in the lowliest way possible.

Luke 2:17-18 tells us, Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marvelled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Because of God’s unexplainable love for us, He had left eternity, left the glory and magnificence of heaven to enter the filth of humanity and eventually die for the payment of our sin.
It is far beyond our ability to fully grasp.

The Emperor and the King

At the time of Christ’s birth, Augustus Caesar was the emperor of the Roman empire which had control over Israel.
Herod “the Great” ruled as king of the Jews under Roman authority. It is this Herod who appears in the account of Jesus’ birth.

Herod secured from Augustus Caesar the title of “King of the Jews.” However, it was not for three years (including a five month’s siege by Roman troops) that he was able to occupy his own capital city which was in a rebellious buffer state situated between two mighty contending empires.

There was the Romans and then there was the Parthian empire who had mounted successive, and successful military campaigns against Rome.

At any time, Herod’s own subjects might conspire in bringing the Parthians to their aid. The Parthians were already planning a revolt against Rome (which was successfully accomplished within two years).

Herod constantly feared conspiracy. He executed his wife when he suspected she was plotting against him. Three of his sons, another wife, and his mother-in-law met the same fate when they too were suspected of conspiracy.

The Wise Men and the Star

In Mattew 2:1 – 3 we read, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Their request of Herod regarding the one “who has been born King of the Jews” was an insult to him, a non-Jew who had contrived and bribed his way into that office.

Of course, the familiar Christmas scene of the three wise men in attendance at the manger is only tradition. The bible never mentions the number nor that these men were at the manger just after Jesus’ birth. The inference that there were three men probably comes from the three gifts they bought as stated in Mathew 2:11.

From Matthew 2:16 we see that their visit was well after the stable and the manger, probably from 6 months to 2 years after Jesus’ birth. They visited the young child in a house.

Also, the resulting decision by Herod to murder all children in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas was based on the dates received from the wise men, so they could have visited the young child anywhere up till 2 years old.

There’s no use trying to explain the star on a natural basis. Was it an eastern star? Scripture says, “We have seen his star in the east.”

But it was the wise men who were in the East, not the star. If the star had been in the East when the wise men saw it, they would have ended up in China, because that’s the direction they would have gone. So, it was not an eastern star but a western star, and they travelled west—which is how they came to Jerusalem.
The star was a supernatural occurrence.

When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

It is most unlikely that three men on camels would trouble this powerful king along with the entire population of Jerusalem as is stated in Mathew 2:3.
The sudden appearance of the Magi, probably travelling in force with huge pomp and accompanied by a cavalry escort to ensure their safe passage through the Roman territory, certainly pushed Herod’s paranoia button and the whole population of Jerusalem.

It would easily seem to Herod as if these Magi were attempting to perpetrate a border incident, which could bring swift reprisal from Parthian armies.
After consulting the Magi and his scribes, Herod discovered from the prophecies in the Old Testament that the Promised One, the Messiah, would be born in Bethlehem. Hiding his concern and expressing sincere interest, Herod requested the Magi to keep him informed as to the place where this child was so that he himself might go to Him and worship Him.

After finding the babe and presenting their prophetic gifts, the Magi “being warned in a dream” departed to their own country by a different way, ignoring Herod’s request.

Then, in Mattew 2:16 we read, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Imagine the horror of the genocide of all children under 2 years old!
However, Just as has happened many times in history Jesus escapes the satanic attempt to destroy Him. Joseph was warned in a dream to take Mary and the child and escape to Egypt.

The Gifts

Let’s look at the gifts the Magi bought to Jesus.

The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were prophetic. They speak of our Lord’s offices of king, priest, and saviour.

Gold speaks of His kingship; frankincense was a spice used in the priestly duties, and myrrh was an embalming ointment signifying His death.

In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold and frankincense, but no myrrh. His death was once and for all.
What strange gifts for a child? But not for this Child. Even in His birth, Jesus’ death is there. He was born to die, no less.
In John 1:29, John the Baptist said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

We don’t know exactly how long Mary, Joseph and Jesus stayed in Egypt, but God told them when it was time for them to leave.

Matthew 2:19-23 tells us, “Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.”

Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” Archelaus was Herod the Great’s son and was a disastrous ruler.

So, that’s how Joseph and Mary settled in Nazareth, the place where our Lord was brought up and entered the so-called silent years, during which the New Testament tells us of only a single incident when Jesus was 12 years old.

Then there was nothing more for about 18 years until the announcement of John the Baptist: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Why He Came

The Christmas story is usually thought to be about a birth, the beginning of life. But it’s really about death. Our death. Jesus Christ was born into this world to destroy our greatest enemy— the enemy that no doctor, no scientist, no world ruler can deal with because death deals with all of them.

When death knocks, they have to put down whatever they are doing.
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. –Hebrews 9:27

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. . . . For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience, many will be made righteous. –Romans 5:12, 19

Death is the result of sin that entered our world and our nature way back at the beginning of the human family.

We all sinned in Adam—that is, Adam’s sin is made over to you and me. We are all born with it. Just as we have inherited a sin nature, death will come to us.

Until we come to Jesus Christ, we’re eternally separated from God. He alone can make us righteous. Christ came to deal with that sin nature, which no man can deal with.
It’s the last enemy that will be destroyed. As He takes our sin in

His death on the cross, He gives us His righteousness.
Now when you die, you will join Jesus in heaven. Either you have as much right in heaven as Christ has, or you have no right there at all. Your right is His right, for He has made over to you all that He is.

That’s the only thing that can get you and me to heaven.

Over 2000 years ago He took upon Himself our humanity that we might be made righteous and complete in Him.

So that as sin reigned in death, even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. –Romans 5:21