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Miracles of Christmas
Sometimes we forget the many miracles of Christmas. We get lost in the planning, buying, and selling of the Christmas season. But I would like for us to go back and look at the many miracles that we can see in what we celebrate as Christmas.
Celebrating Christmas is a relatively new idea that got started about six hundred years ago. It did not become really popular until the eighteen hundreds, but since then it has grown beyond the Christian community. Today it is widely celebrated by both believers and non-believers.
Over the last two centuries, the commercialization of Christmas caused many to forget the wonders of the season.
However, you and I do not have to get caught up in buying and selling and the greed that goes with it. We can look at the miracles that gave us the greatest gift ever given. The Gift that could only be given by a loving God and His Son. It was the Gift of Jesus.
This Gift from God Changed The World!
I love to read and study history. As you study history you can see many events that have changed the world as we know it. There have been wars, medical discoveries, and of course the Industrial Revolution.
We have also had natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and plagues. Countries are in political upheaval. Wars change countries and their boundaries and cause great poverty and great wealth. The world is always in turmoil and people are always facing new challenges.
However, nothing has changed the world as much as the coming of the promised Jewish Messiah. The One we know as Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
The birth of Jesus stands out as world-changing.
His birth was foretold.
The first miracle of Christmas is that the coming of God’s Son was foretold in advance. History is the record of things that have happened and we see that in the New Testament. It is something else when it is written down centuries before it happens.
Part of the evidence that Jesus is the Christ is that He fulfilled the prophecies about Himself.
One such prophecy is from the prophet Isaiah over eight hundred years before Jesus’s birth.
6 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, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isa. 9:6
This is just one of the many Scriptures that told about the coming Massiah. Each one tells a little more about His birth and what He would do once He was born.
The Jewish people were looking for the Messiah!
Today we have a hard time waiting for any event to take place. We live in the Now Generation and expect everything to happen fast. This was not true of the Jewish people. They had experienced waiting for the fulfillment of prophecies in the past, often for hundreds of years.
The Scriptures are clear enough about the coming Massiah that the Jewish people were expectantly waiting for the event. However, they were expecting Him to come as a conquering king to set them free and certainly not as a carpenter’s son, and not from Nazareth.
It had been four hundred years since God spoke to Israel through prophets. However, the faithful were still looking for the coming of the Messiah
Then God sent Gabriel!
Gabriel was sent first to Zacharias to tell him that he was to be a father. Zacharias had his doubts even though an angel was telling him that his wife, Elizabeth was going to have a son. You see they were old and Elizabeth was unable to have children.
The Angel of God said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. Luke 1:13 NKJV
So we have another miracle as God starts preparing the way for His Son by arranging the birth of John. John will preach repentance and the coming of the Messiah.
Six months later.
We have another miracle of Christmas. Gabriel appears to a virgin named Mary in Nazareth of Galilee. He said she should rejoice because she is highly favored, and blessed among women.
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” Luke 1:26-28 NKJV
Mary, of course, was excited and puzzled by what Gabriel told her, but then he said something that she knew was impossible.
Gabriel said, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” Luke 1:31 NKJV
Mary was betrothed to Joseph and knew that she had been faithful to both God and Joseph. She was a virgin and knew that virgins did not have babies.
What was this visitor saying? Things like this just can’t happen! She would be disgraced in her village. How could she explain becoming pregnant before marriage? Would Joseph believe her? Would her parents?
So Gabriel answered her question, “How can this be?”
35 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 1:35
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38 NKJV
What would Joseph do?
Joseph’s betrothed was found with child. Would he renounce her publicly and have her stoned? Even though she had accepted the angel’s word it is human to be concerned with what she was to face.
However, Joseph being a just man decided he would put her away secretly so as not to shame her. But God sent Gabriel to Joseph as well.
20 But while he (Joseph) thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matt 1:20-21 NKJV
Matthew tells us why it was done this way. It was to fulfill Scripture. God’s prophets told Israel that this would happen.
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23” Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” Matt 1:22-23 NKJV
So it happened as foretold.
One of the Christmas miracles that we don’t usually pay much attention to is how God arranged for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem. Sometimes we forget that God is in control.
God revealed where His Son was to be born and then He made it happen. He let Rome conquer Israel and moved Caesar Augustus to call for a count of his subjects.
I believe that God did all this to get Mary to the place where Jesus was to be born.
Scripture tells us,
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered everyone to his own city.
4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:1-7 NKJV
He was born in Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy given by Micah around 750 years before the birth of Jesus.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From [a]everlasting.” Micah 5:2 NKJV
Jesus was born.
He was born according to prophecy at the time and place that God had ordained. Every event that takes place relating to His birth constitutes a Christmas miracle.
On Christmas day these miracles will be talked about around the world. It is a story of God’s love for His creation.
Christmas is not the beginning or the end of the miracles God performed. Jesus was foretold, He lived among men, He died on the cross for our sins and He rose again. Each event was a miracle. None of these events could have happened without divine intervention.
It is a life-changing story.
This story is still changing the world every day. Not just Christmas, but the story of God’s plan and how He has faithfully carried it out continues to change mankind.
Jesus was born in a manger to proclaim the Kingdom of God and die on the cross for your sins and mine.
This story will not end until Jesus returns. Then He will take to Heaven those who have accepted the truth of who He is and what He did for them. We will reign there forever with our Lord.