As Time fills, we must remember the Jews are “Children of the Profits” (Acts 3:25). All believers are the family of God — Children of God (John 1:12). Through all the generations of man, God has a Plan. GOD IS PREPARING THE FUTURE OF HISTORY! Learn God! Learn the Future from the past! Watch Israel as the future unfolds according to The Plan of God. God ordained history through Jesus Christ. God is Fascinating. Learn God’s Plan. Believe in Christ. Christ — He died in your place.
The First Coming, Christ Messiah/Yeshua came to seek and save those that were lost, and He did so. Christ is coming back again (Second Coming). Until He returns let us Praise His Name. Let us celebrate His birth. Today we look up and watch for His Second Coming to set things back in order. Today let us honor the Savior of the world who brought us back to God. Rethink Christ during each Christmas season. LOVE HIM – CHRIST THE LORD. Amen.
DIVINE PREPARATION FOR THE COMING OF THE SAVIOR/MESSIAH
The Story Behind The Story of Christmas. God’s Grace Plan.
Just a few hundred years before the birth of Christ, there was a man named Philip, who was the King of Macedon. Philip had been captured and was being held hostage to keep him from waging a war against the King of Thebes. The name of the King of Thebes was Epaminondas and he was a genius in government and military action. At this time he was in a death struggle in Southern Greece with the Spartans.
Philip was finally released and returned to the hill country of Macedonia. He took with him all the information he could gather about the tactics of military strategy and government, learned while in captivity.
Soon after his return, he met and married a beautiful woman named Olympias from the city of Epirus in Greece. At the same time he put into action all the things he learned while in captivity. His marriage to Olympias resulted in one of those things that happens perhaps once every few hundred years — a genius-type individual is born. They named him Alexander. (Known in history as Alexander The Great).
By the time Alexander was sixteen he was already commander in his father’s Army. When King Philip was assassinated Alexander took the throne.
In southern Greece there were a lot of city-states and each city-state spoke a different dialect of Greek. Alexander pulled together all the city-states into one army and immediately was challenged because there was no common language for communication. For example: in Epirus, his mother’s country, they spoke Epirean Greek. In Macedonia they spoke Macedonian Greek. In Athens the cultured people there spoke Attic Greek. The Spartans spoke Doric Greek. This problem did not deter Alexander, he invented his own language — the Koiné Greek, a strict language of exact interpretation so that no soldier could possibly misunderstand his command. By the time our Savior walked the earth, it had become the common language of the Gentile and Jew — most of the known world at that time.
The stage is set; the time is right for the greatest story ever written. Some three hundred years have passed since Alexander The Great conquered the world and the Romans now rule the world.
Divine providence directs history: The great John the Baptist was given to “prepare the way of the Lord” and, the language of exactness was given (Koiné Greek) to record the greatest events in human history and the Scripture autograph of the New Testament. “God’s plan for the Ages; God’s Divine timetable; God’s Holy purposes know no delay and hasten not.”
Jesus Christ created the Heavens and Earth, and Christ filled the earth with beauty and the atmosphere with songs of the Father’s Love. Christ created the sun to give forth light to warm and sustain millions of life forms each dependent on the other and the breath of God.
THE BETHLEHEM STORY
The fullness of time had come and the Angels left their Heavenly Home to announce the birth of a Savior which is Christ the Lord …
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:8-14).
And it came to pass that God caused a star in the heavens to shine on a manger in the little town of Bethlehem. (A manger in ancient times was a place where sheep were born and they are still born in mangers in Judea today). This Heavenly star was to guide shepherds to the Lamb of God; it would guide wise men from afar to see the newborn King.
Therefore, “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).
The Light of the knowledge, of the outshining Glory, of the God, came to a sin-darkened planet — “His name shall be called Immanuel — God with us.”
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Jesus was born to be treated as we deserve so that we could be treated as He deserves. Jesus Christ was judged for our transgressions that we might be justified by His Righteousness. Christ in His humanity suffered our death in our place that we might be reconciled to God and receive His Eternal Life.
After centuries of waiting, God sent His Son to restore lost men of all the generations and bring mankind face to face with Truth … God’s Son is Truth. God’s Word is Truth.
The historical truths of the Bethlehem story are some of the most beloved of all literature because they offer hope and salvation. They tell of God condescending to become man to save man. In this brief story is revealed “the depth of the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God” (Romans 11:33). “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-18).
Jesus Christ was born to die for you … Christ took your place on the Cross so you could be saved from the wrath of God. Have you received Christ as your personal Savior? We invite you to do so. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).
Word of Truth Ministries would like to invite you to read and reread the Bethlehem story as told in the Gospels and Isaiah. The birth of Jesus the Christ is the greatest story ever told. It begins in a manger, and “it is finished” on a Cross.
Editor’s Note: Bethlehem, the city of David and birth place of Christ still exists today and is only a few miles south of Jerusalem. Bethlehem contains one of the oldest churches in the world, the Church of the Holy Nativity, built by Constantine in 330 a.d.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Studying!