Matthew chapter 1 verses 18-23

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. 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.

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. She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus – because he will save his people from their sins.”

Now all this happened in order to make what the Lord had said through the prophet come true, “A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel” (which means, “God is with us”).

The reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus. Christmas marks the day Jesus came into the world. For billions of Christians across nations and centuries, this is the greatest event in the history of mankind.

This account of Jesus’ birth in the Bible is strange and wonderful. It tells of an angel giving a message to a man in a dream and the miraculous birth of a baby to a virgin bride. But more than this, it tells us about God, the creator of the world who exists beyond time and space, and how he became a man to live amongst us.

Jesus shares the same humanity as all of us. He was born, raised by a mother and father and experienced love, friendship, sadness and pain. He was with us and yet he was God himself, fully human and fully divine. Jesus is the one person in the whole span of history who can show us, not a vague, theoretical idea of God, but what God is actually like.

Being God, Jesus was different from the rest of humankind. In his life he never did anything wrong. He never lied, cheated or hurt anyone, but was loving, compassionate and merciful to friends, strangers and even his enemies.
Ultimately he gave up his life for others.

The angel told Joseph in his dream to call the baby Jesus, which means ‘God saves’. And that is what Jesus did. As a young man he died on a cross to save people from their sins – that is you, me, and anyone who believes in him.

There is a very famous verse in the Bible that tells us about Jesus. It says: ‘For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life’.

Because Jesus came into the world we can know God, ask for his forgiveness and put our trust in him for now and for
eternity.

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