By Jeff McCarrell
Editor’s Note: This devotional can serve as a refresher of the Christmas story and the key concepts therein for all of us, and it can also be used as study material with the students. It is written in plainer English for that purpose.
“The Gospel” is the “Good News” of Jesus’ life and ministry, written by his disciples within thirty years after his life on earth. “Christmas” is the celebration of God sending Jesus to us. Jesus’ disciples wanted all to hear of Jesus’ birth so that all would believe the life-giving faith.
An angel, on the day of Jesus’ birth, proclaimed: “I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David’s town your savior was born – Christ the Lord!” You can find the whole story in the Bible at: “The Gospel According to Luke” Chapter 2.*
Our world could use some “great joy”. Our Canadian Christmas that emphasizes partying, feasting and song can miss this joy if it misses Jesus. The Bible tells the story of Jesus’ birth, plainly, with astonishing events, changing ‘everything’. Here is “The Gospel According to Matthew” Chapter 1, verses 18-25, Good News Translation:
18 This was how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately. 20 While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived. 21 She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 Now all this happened in order to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, 23 “A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel” (which means, “God is with us”).
24 So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to. 25 But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus.
Here are some explanations of the bold words:
Jesus was called Christ, a Greek word. In Hebrew: Messiah. The Bible taught, a thousand years earlier, that the “Christ” would be a male descendent (born in the family) of David, King of Israel. The Christ will be sent by God to lead his people to live faithfully with God. The Christ was long-awaited.
Mary and Joseph were engaged. In their culture this meant that they were legally married but had yet to go through a wedding ceremony and come together in sexual relations.
Joseph learned that Mary was already pregnant! God sent an angel, a spirit, a creature without a body, to speak to Joseph. It told him that Jesus was conceived miraculously, by God, the Holy Spirit, and not by a sexual relation.
An eight-hundred-year-old writing (a prophecy) of Isaiah (the prophet) foretold that a woman virgin (a person who had not yet come together in sexual relations) would bear a son. He’d be called Immanuel, which means “God is with us.” You can find this in the Bible’s “Book of Isaiah”, Chapter 7, verse 14. This prophecy, that God would visit us, is one of dozens of such Bible prophecies. Jesus is their fulfillment.
Jesus’ name explains his mission on earth. “Jesus” means: “God is Saviour.” He came to protect us from being destroyed because of our sin. With him we receive a new, reconciled life with God, now and forever.
Indeed, this is “good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people.”
*You can read Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection from start to finish. Each of the Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are reliably translated in several English translations, free at: https://www.biblegateway.com where you can find one of the best Beginners’ English translations of the whole Bible: “Good News Translation”.
You can also read the message of the Bible in hundreds of languages, accessed with no charge at: https://www.scriptureearth.org/00i-Scripture_Index.php