Birth of Jesus — the unseen meaning shown by prophecies
1. Fulfilled the promise to David. “The angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever: his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:30-33). Therefore all the prophecies about the “Messiah” show who Jesus is.
2. Fulfilled the prophecy about Bethlehem. Matthew 2 starts “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked “Where is the one to be born king of the Jews?” … In Verse 4, Herod asks his scholars where the Messiah was supposed to be born. In Verse 5, they answer: “In Bethlehem in Judea, and then they quote a prophecy. Here is the original prophecy, found in Micah 5:2, around 700 BC: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah (the name of the region) though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come one who will be ruler over Israel.” The prophecy continues: “whose origins are of old, from ancient times.” and in verse 4, “his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth, and he will be their peace.” The true Messiah would be born in Bethlehem; the prophecy provides the description of the Messiah: ruler for entire world, eternal origin, will bring peace.
3. Overcoming difficulties. The prophecy was not easy to fulfill, since Mary did not live in Bethlehem. Luke 2 shows how God made the prophecy come true: The emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken “and everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth, in Galilee, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.” That’s where Jesus was born.
4. Why did God take on human flesh? Hebrews 1 says “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times in and various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son … through whom he made the world.
(the ant story)
5. How can God be “one,” and yet Jesus is God? Hebrews 1:3: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
(the sun comparison)
6. Jesus revealed details about God. In John 14:16, Jesus says, “I will ask the father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth.” These three persons in the one God are summarized by Jesus in Matthew 28:19: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
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Amazing Details of the Birth of Christ – written 2024
- About the phrase “according to the scriptures.”
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, … He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
Those “scriptures” are in the Old Testament, and they tell us how to identify the savior when he comes, and what the deep significance is of his life and death. Here are highlghts:
1.Eve – God told her: your descendant will crush Satan (Genesis 3:15)
2. Abraham – your descendant will be a blessing to all peoples. (Genesis 12:3)
- David (hometown was Bethlehem) – God told him: your descendant will be king forever. (1 Samuel 7:16). In Psalm 2, David calls the Messiah (anointed one) “God’s begotten Son.” (Psalm 2:7)4. Isaiah – In chapter 7:14, He prophesied that a virgin will bear a son who is called “God with us” (Immanuel). In chapter 53, he describes the suffering of the messiah: Verse 4 “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Verse 6: “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Verse 10 “When his soul makes an offspring for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.” (that is, he will live again after he dies).
- Daniel in a vision saw “the son of man.” (Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus used this term about himself.6. Micah– the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2-5)
7. Malachi – there will be a fore-runner, and then the Lord will come. (Malachi 4:5, also Isaiah 40:3-5). (Jesus said this fore-runner was John the Baptist).
- About the phrase “Fulness of time.”
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5). What made 2000 years ago a good time for Christ to be born?
1. There was a common language – Greek
2. There was a single empire (Roman) – safe roads and no passport needed to travel.
3. All the prophecies necessary to identify the savior had been received.
4. There was a great yearning for the Messiah due to oppression by Greeks and Romans.
III. Details of the birth account. Luke 2:1-2 show it is a historic event:
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole empire. This was the first census to take place while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register. (Joseph went to Bethlehem).
1.These historical figures have all been established from other records beside the Bible.
2. The census that was commanded by Augustus is recorded in records in Armenia..
- Quirinius is in the records as leading Roman troops from Syria against rebels from the years 12 BC to 1 BC. He took a second census in 6 AD.
- Going to one’s hometown was a standard Roman method to avoid duplication.
- Luke makes a point about Joseph going to Bethlehem, to establish that Joseph was a descendant of David. (the Messiah had to be a descendant of David.)
- About when the exact year was:
1. About King Herod. (Matthew chapter 2 says the wise men went to talk to Herod). Herod died in 2 BC, so Jesus had to be born before then.
2. How could Jesus be born “before Christ?” The reason is that the method of counting time with the birth of Jesus in year 1 was not created until the 500’s, by a Christian historian named Dionysius Exiguus. Considering that all he had to go on was which kings overlapped with which kings, he did a pretty good job by getting that close to the correct year.3. About the star. Here is one person’s theory. Kyle Davison Bair, a pastor in Minnesota, writes: “In June of 2 B.C., Jupiter approached Venus. Both planets shone at their brightest. When they neared, they did not cover each other, but rather aligned immediately next to each other. On June 17 they add their full brilliance together, becoming the brightest star in the nighttime sky. After the Magi witnessed the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in June of 2 BC, they began traveling. Such a journey would take months, particularly if they left from the regions around Babylon, where many people of Jewish descent lived at the time.It’s reasonable to suppose that they arrived in Jerusalem at December of 2 BC. If they did, and they looked south to Bethlehem (which lay a mere five miles away), they witnessed Jupiter standing directly above Bethlehem in the night sky. As the Magi left Jerusalem and looked to Bethlehem, they saw Jupiter hanging immediately above the tiny village.” From we-can-see-what-the-wise-men-saw
- About the genealogies
Both Matthew and Mark include genealogies to prove that Jesus was a descendant of David. However, these two genealogies are different! To find out why, a Christian historian named Julius Africanus went to visit Jesus’ family members in Nazareth during the second century. (Jesus did not have descendants, but his brothers and sisters did, and these descendants were well known in Nazareth, and were even given a nickname that meant “those who are from the Lord.” They told Julius that both genealogies were correct, because the mother of Joseph had married twice. Her first husband was the natural father of Joseph, and was descended from David thru his son Solomon. When that husband died, she married a man who was descended from David’s son Nathan. Moreover, Mary herself was a descendant of David.
IN CONCLUSION: Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil. Hebrews 2:14