The gift of Christmas
Introduction
Is he a historical person
Uniqueness of birth of Jesus Christ
The unique birth
THE unique significance of this nativity, the fact that distinguishes it from every other birth in all earth’s history, is that the Babe, truly born of a human mother, was “The Word” who was “in the beginning with God, and was God”*—Mary’s Babe, but “Immanuel,” begotten of the Holy Creator Spirit.* In the providential ordering of human affairs, concerning whose ends the actors themselves frequently have no thought,* all the world was taxed (or enrolled) that a Jewish maiden might be brought to* Bethlehem in fulfilment of a prophecy uttered seven hundred years before.*
Literal fulfilment
Prophecy is always literally fulfilled. Isaiah had predicted that The Messiah should be born of a virgin,* Micah that He should be born in a particular village,* and Daniel that He should be born at a particular time. The slow centuries passed, but when the time came each prediction was fulfilled; not in some so-called “spiritual” sense, but with exact literalness.*
The crowded inn
The Lord of glory was cradled in a manager, the immediate reason being that the inn was overcrowded; the moral reason that the one universal Exemplar and Friend must begin His life under circumstances so lowly that no son of Adam could ever feel that Jesus was good because more fortunately circumstanced than he. He got underneath the most abject.
There was no room for Him in the inn. It was not hostility which excluded Him. The inn was preoccupied.*It is so to-day with hearts, houses, time, business, pleasure—there is “no room;” every inch of space is filled. People do not hate Jesus—they have no room for Him.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days
Purpose of Christ’s birth
Since we are human, God became a human in Jesus. (Hebrews 2:14)
2. Jesus could not die unless he became a man. (Hebrews 2:14)
3. Jesus came to destroy the devil, the one with the power of death. (Hebrews 2:14)
4. Jesus came to deliver us from the slavery we have because we’re afraid to die. (Hebrews 2:15)
How Jesus Destroys the Devil (05:20–09:11)
1. The word “destroy” clearly does not mean to put the devil out of existence. He’s still alive today. No, Jesus broke the back of Satan’s power. (Hebrews 2:14)
2. Satan has the power of death because he makes it a doorway to hell and not heaven. He condemns us by the record of our sins.
3. Jesus canceled the record of our debt. This disarms Satan, because Satan is the great accuser. (Colossians 2:14)
4. Jesus destroyed Satan by removing the weapon that is the record of our debt. Now we are free from condemnation, and therefore from death