The Untold Christmas Story

Luke 2:1-40

I have seen on this website a few Sermons already on Christmas. I have

decided to add one that you probably wont read in to many other places.

I am about to expose some myths to this story.

Lets begin with the Prophesy of the birth of Christ.

The birth of Jesus Christ is in direct fulfillment of many Bible prophecies,

Isaiah 7:14 of the virgin birth; Gen 3:15 that he was born of the seed of woman,

Isaiah 11:1 that he would descend from the line of Jesse (king David); Micah 5:2 that

he would be born in Bethlehem; Matthew 2:18 Jeremiah 31:15 that Herod would

slaughter all the children in an attempt for the Devil to kill the Christ child. All these

prophecies were made at least 500 years before Jesus was born. They stand as an

irrefutable monument to the inspiration of the Bible and prove that God revealed

himself through his messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

That same night, angels announced to the shepherds that Christ was born and they

visited the newborn Christ at the manger (Luke 2:8-20). In this way, all shepherds,

were considered lowly, and would show a great interest in the Chief Shepherd (Jn

10:11; 1 Pet 5:4). Jesus is the "lamb ... who will be their shepherd" in Rev 7:17. It

was fitting for many reasons that God designed that shepherds be the first to hear the

gospel. All the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob etc., were shepherds. King

David was a shepherd. Jesus was the "good shepherd" (John 10:14). The office of

overseers of the local churches (1 Tim 3; Tit 1) uses two other interchangeable words

to describe the single office: Elders and Shepherds. (Acts 20:17,28; 1 Peter 5:1-2).

Jesus was Circumsized when he was eight days old Luke 2:21

Jesus was then presented in the Temple 33 days after the “days of Purification”

Which was the 40th day after Jesus was born. Leviticus 12:2-6 and

Luke 2:22-38

Firstly, there was Shepherds at the manger Luke 2:8-10 not wise men. By the

way the number of wise men is not outlined in the Bible, this could have been

two or twenty, The Bible outlines the three Gifts Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh

I am not saying that there wasnt three but, in saying so is beyond what is

written in Scripture.

Another glaring error in all the nativity scenes is that the wise men were

certainly not at the manger of the inn the night Jesus was born. It says that the wise

men came to Jesus' house! It seems clear that the wise men came just prior to the time

Herod issued his decree to slaughter all the children under two years. The star first

appeared to the wise men when Jesus was born, but it led the wise men to Jesus'

house. (Matthew 2:11 "And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary

His mother")

Coupled with this, the very date of the Birth of the Saviour is unknown.

However, many Bible Scholars suggest that Jesus's birth may have been in the

warmer months, this being due to the fact that the Bible talks about the

Shepherds were in the field with their Flock's, now in the colder winter

Months December and January the Shepherds did not sleep out in the fields

with their Flock, rather they brough them into the corals. There is a virtual

agreement amongst Bible Scholars that December 25th was not the birth date of

Christ. This is not even the correct Month, yet we just celebrate still on this

date. Another speculative argument is that the census that Caesar Augustus

took in Luke 2:1, would not have been done during the coldest harshest

season. Such a census would require mass migration of large numbers of the

population. Unless Augustus deliberately wanted to make life difficult, he

would take such a census during the warmer months and certainly not in

December. The Bible is absolutely silent about the celebration of Christ's

birthday. The scriptures do not tell us to celebrate the birth of Christ but His

death... and not once a year at "Easter" but every Sunday through the Lord's

Supper. (Acts 20:7) In fact we should not be celebrating Easter at all we should

really be celebrating the Passover, but thats for another Sermon. Any

encyclopedia will give you the basic details of where and how the

celebration of Christmas developed. What is important is that Christ's birth

did fulfill many important prophecies. The event brought about great joy to the

world when mankind's King and Saviour, "God with us", was born into the

world.

A-Men.