THE BEGINNING OF CHRISTMAS 
I have been asked where the “Christmas Story” begins.
Here is the beginning of Christmas:
“FOR GOD SO LOVED!”
For God so loved you (you personally, fill in your name here)that out of his incomprehensible, infinite, eternal love for you, He chose to leave His glorious Heaven, put on an earth suit, suffer all of the indignity of being a human, be tempted with everything you are but not sin,
be rejected by the very people He created, be despised, beaten, tortured, crucified, and died the worst death any human could ever imagine, just for you! Because He loves you that much!
You see, you are God’s glorious inheritance! You are what He wants more than anything else. He cherishes you so much that He was willing to have His back ripped off (He was whipped with thirty-nine lashes by a rock-hard Roman soldier who was a professional torturer skilled at exacting enough pain to almost but not quite kill his victim. The whip he used had pieces of bones and rocks attached to the ends of the strands to pay for all of your sins, past, present, and future, and to remove all of your sins from His memory permanently so that He could have you with Him forever.
(Psalm 103:1-3, Zephaniah 3XJohn 1:29, John 3:16-18, John 6:28-29, Isaiah 53:4-5, 1Peter 2:24, Zephaniah 3:17 Hebrews 8:10-12, Hebrews 10:10-18)
It all started not in Bethlehem but in the Garden of Eden when the evil one lied to Adam and Eve and convinced them to disobey God. We were all poisoned with sin when they partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil.
In that very moment, the evil one led humanity into the bondage of sin. Also, in that split second of time, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit created the plan of redemption.
God declared the plan to the evil one in the third chapter of Genesis: “And I will put enmity(hostility, hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (sin leading to eternal separation from God) and her Offspring (Jesus) He will bruise and tread on your head underfoot, (He will set the captives of sin free from the price of their sins) and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15) The stench in God’s nostrils convinced the Pharisees and Sadducees to destroy Jesus’s body. So they drove spikes through His heels to nail Him to the cross.
God revealed His plan of salvation through faith in Jesus to all the prophets, which in turn taught the people of the coming of the Savior. There were more than four hundred and fifty old testament prophecies about the coming of Jesus. Jesus fulfilled more than three hundred and twenty-five of them precisely.
Peter Stoner, the mathematics and astronomy professor, stated that the odds of just forty-eight specific prophecies being fulfilled in one man’s life would be ten, followed by one hundred and fifty-seven zeros to one.
THEN IT HAPPENED
Just as He revealed to the prophets that He would, God left the glory of Heaven, put on an earth suit, and came to us in the person of Jesus.
The event known as Christmas or the birth of Jesus involved many miraculous happenings and a myriad of people personally selected by God to participate in the greatest moment the world has ever known.
Luke authored the authoritative report of the birth of Jesus. No other writer of the Gospel wrote the entire story of the greatest, most glorious moment of all time.
The report begins in chapter one, not chapter two. Most Teachers, Preachers, and Pastors start their Christmas messages in the second chapter of Luke for the sake of time and brevity.
Luke was a physician and a perfectionist. He stated that he interviewed the eyewitnesses of the birth and life of Jesus. Writing to the most excellent Theophilus, Luke described his report like this:
“It seemed good and desirable to me, also after having searched out diligently and followed all things closely and traced the course accurately from the highest to the minutest detail from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus.”
In Ephesus, on a mission journey, I learned that the Christians of Ephesus believe that Mary and Luke met there. It is a fact that the disciple John visited and taught there along with Paul. Jesus charged John with the responsibility of taking care of Mary.
Luke was a follower of Paul. He was not one of the original disciples. It seems likely that Mary was the eyewitness that gave Luke all of the intricate details of the birth of Jesus.
Who else would have known the precise details of how Mary became pregnant with Jesus and would also know her response to Gabriel when he told her what was to come?
Here are some of the people involved in Luke chapter one:
The angel Gabriel, the messenger of God, who delivered the “GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE!!” to Zachariah, Mary, and the shepherds!
Mary, a young virgin girl, living in an impoverished area of Israel known as Galilee in the city of Nazareth, a fishing and farming community; Who, by the power of belief, gave birth to Emmanuel (God Is With Us), Yeshua (the Savior/Jesus) the everlasting King of Kings of whose reign there shall be no end.
Zachariah: the high priest of the lineage of Arron who, by drawing lots, was awarded the great honor of a lifetime to burn the morning incense at the golden altar of the Holy Place in the Temple. God considered Zachariah a holy and righteous man, yet his unbelief and negative speech almost blew the whole deal.
Elizabeth: the elderly barren wife of Zachariah who, through the power of Holy Spirit, astonishingly became pregnant even though she was (well advanced in age) with John the Baptist; much to the shock and awe of the people of Jerusalem, her husband, and herself who all believed that she was childless as a punishment from God.
John The Baptist: The final prophet of God. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from the moment of conception. Six months in the womb, when Mary appeared to him, he leaped in Elizabeth’s womb. This is a biblical message from God Himself in the person of Holy Spirit that life begins at the point of conception.
(Luke 1:15)
The Shepherds: The shepherds guarding their flocks by night risked their lives and livelihoods by leaving them to obey Gabriel and go back to the village of Bethlehem to see the baby Messiah. These men witnessed a heavenly army praising God and singing, “Glory To God In The Highest,” and somehow did not die instantly from heart attacks.
Joseph: The fiance of Mary who, through the power of his astonishing belief, did not report her or break his engagement to Mary when he learned that she was pregnant but listened to Gabriel and married her. Like Mary, he believed Gabriel’s stunning report that she became pregnant due to Holy Spirit hovering over her.
Would you?
Simeon: a “righteous and devout man looking for the consolation of Israel. It was divinely revealed to him by Holy Spirit that he would not see death before seeing the Lord’s Messiah.”
Anna: The prophetess, a very old woman widowed for eighty-four years. She never left the Temple. She recognized that Jesus was the Messiah and told the people what she knew.
Read Doctor Luke’s full Christmas report beginning in chapter one. You will be amazed.
Be filled with the “Christmas Spirit”! Rejoice! (re-joy yourselves) Celebrate the infinite love that Jesus has lavished on you regardless of your performance or lack thereof. Give glory and thanks to God for His mercy that knows no end. Decorate! Dance! Sing to the Lord. Love Jesus because He first loved you. Let your lights shine and be a light to others. Jesus said that He came so that our joy and gladness would be from Him and that it would be complete and overflowing (John 15:11). Forget your cares and worries; trust Jesus! Live in this moment, receiving by faith what He has given you by Grace!
Mary’s great faith and obedience to Holy Spirit make her a faith hero to me. I call her the Queen of Faith. That is why every year, I wish you all…
A very Mary Christmas!
