The People of His birth.
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MARY
MARY
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.”
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Virgin ( Isaiah 7:14) has sometimes been translated as young woman. The Hebrew word is Alamah and can be translated as young lady. However the Greek word is Parthenos and means virgin. When we look at the prophecy in the O.T. and the wording of the N.T. it is clear that Mary was a VIRGIN.
An unknown girl.
An unknown girl.
We find very little information about Marry.
She came from Nazareth. A town of around 400 people.
Nazareth was a small town surrounded by hills with only one well as its water supply. Very little is known about this town and the only surviving thing is the well.
If you take 400 people and remove the men, we are down to 200 ladies. Then we must remove the mothers, children, and elderly, what we are left with is probably only a handful of girls that were capable prospects.
Little more is known. We do not know any details of her early life, or the life of Jospeh. However, in a town this small there would be no hiding that she was pregnant. The entire town would know.
The only information we have as to why she was chosen comes from the genealogy and from her life after Jesus was born.
She was obedient to God.
She was a faithful mother, even when facing adversity.
She loved her son to the end.
A Selfless Mother
A Selfless Mother
There is no record of Mary doing anything to supersede Jesus.
We have no mention of her birth, death, and little of her life (apart from Jesus).
She recognized her need for a savior.
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
She received no praise apart from Elizabeth, who praised her for giving birth to the messiah.
She lived for the glory of God and recognized that Jesus was that God for whom she lived.
Jesus was the savior of the world and that included Mary. We do not worship her but we can rejoice in the miracle that God performed through her life.
Mary needed faith in Jesus the same as you or I. Yet we never see that her faith wavered.
She even pointed others to follow him.
At the wedding in Canna she said, whatever he says do.
The miracle of Mary is two-fold.
A virgin would conceive. The child was God incarnate, Deity.
That God could use a human do to such a wonderful thing as to introduce the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
THE WISE MEN
THE WISE MEN
What we know about the Magi.
A. They were Gentiles.
A. They were Gentiles.
They were Gentiles yet they recognized Jesus as the Savior. (They worshiped Him.)
They are the first Gentile to believe in Jesus.
Because of their faith their lives were preserved. v. 12
Even though they were not Jews the traveled to see this Jewish king.
They brought three gifts.
Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.
It has often been joked that diapers, and blankets would have more fit for a baby. However, let us look at these gifts and see what God had planned.
B. They Worshipped.
B. They Worshipped.
They worshipped through humility and sacrifice. They sacrificially gave gifts.
1. Gold
1. Gold
An unusual gift for a baby but standard gift for a king.
He was just a baby yet the expenses facing this family were immense. They were getting ready to flee to Egypt. This would have been a costly affair and the gold would provide the necessary resources for this journey.
19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
2. Frankincense
2. Frankincense
Frankincense, like myrrh, was made from tree sap. Frankincense came from the Boswellia tree and was often used as incense.
Frankincense
Frankincense, like myrrh, was made from tree sap. Frankincense came from the Boswellia tree and was often used as incense.
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
3. Myrrh
3. Myrrh
Myrrh, like frankincense was made from tree sap. particularly myrrh came from the Commiphora tree.
Myrrh was primarily made for perfumes instead of incense.
In Exodus 30 we see that Myrrh was used to make anointing oil.
We find that it was the same type oil that was used to anoint David while he was still a shepherd boy.
Myrrh showed that Jesus was anointed, by God, to be the King of the Earth.
C. Theylistened.
C. Theylistened.
Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
THE SHEPHERDS
THE SHEPHERDS
A. They were faithful.
A. They were faithful.
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
The shepherds were attentively watching the sheep and were proven stewards over their flock.
Shepherd is the word were we get the term minister. Thus, the first men called to Jesus was those who cared for others.
B. They were obedient.
B. They were obedient.
15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that 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.”
C. They had a great witness.
C. They had a great witness.
18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.