Christmas – Christ’s Entrance into the World

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luk 2:7 ESV)

Christ’s Entrance into the World

Today, across the world, people are celebrating the birth of Christ.  Whether a person is a Christian or not, the celebrations going on in homes across the world this 25th day of December is because of the birth of the Son of God.  I would like to take the time to reflect on the circumstances and reason for His birth.  We have all seen manger scenes.  It depicts baby Jesus laying in a makeshift crib or being held by Mary with Joseph at her side.  There’s clean straw around Him.  What a beautiful and comforting scene depicting our Redeemer entering this world to redeem the lost.  That is our modern day sanitized version.  It makes for a nice, warm and inviting nativity scene at the town square, schools or in our local churches.

Here is the real deal.  The photo on this blog post is the type of manger He was laid in.  Those were the feeding troughs of those days.  It was made of stone.  Mary and Joseph were likely very tired after all that traveling.  Mary gave birth to the Son of God in a barn for animals and after giving birth, the Son of God was placed in an uncomfortable and likely dirty feeding trough.  Many of these nativity scenes will show Mary comfortably holding her newborn.  She just gave birth after a long and arduous travel on the back of an animal while Joseph walked along side her.  Birthing a child in those ancient days is vastly different that what we come to expect and certainly not in a dirty barn.  The Son of God’s first bed was nothing more than a stone designed to feed the animals.

This is the reality of the King of kings, Lord of lord’s entrance into our world to redeem man.

His Purpose

We know very little about His years here until He started His ministry.  He was born so that He may die and bear the penalty of man’s sin upon Himself.  For three years, Jesus preached the Good News to the lost house of Israel.

• These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Mat 10:5-6 ESV)
• He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mat 15:24 ESV)

That is exactly what He did with a few exceptions.  It was not until after He paid the penalty of sin on man’s behalf did He turn His attention to the gentiles and Paul was the instrument in which He used to preach the Good News to the nations.

His whole purpose while here on earth was to save that which was lost.  He spent three years spreading the Gospel and teaching and training His disciples so that they could take the Good News to the lost house of Israel and then to the nations.  Christians have been commissioned with sharing the Gospel with the lost.  While we Christians celebrate His birth today, in our lives His purpose has been accomplished.  We have received salvation.  There are countless people out there who are lost and today is a holiday of spending time with family and friends.  I pray that this Christmas we reflect on why He was born and that we may be more bold in sharing the Good News with the lost.

Here is a video that I thought was really fitting for this day.

Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.910061&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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