TEEN TREE OF LIFE
The Birth of Our Savior
Part 3
December 29, 2019

Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1JOHN 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

As we know as Christian’s, through His Birth, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ accomplished exactly what He had been sent by the Father to do. His Work is the most significant prophecy that was ignored back when He walked the earth. And sadly, it’s still being ignored today.

This promise of The Messiah goes all the way back to the prophecy in GEN 3:15 (The Message Bible) which is a conversation between God and Satan: God told the serpent: “Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed, cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals, Cursed to slink on your belly and eat dirt all your life. I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel.” This verse teaches us that The One Who, would crush the serpent’s head, would come from the seed of the woman. It’s the promise given to Abraham that through him all the families of earth would be blessed.

The promise was that there would be Someone in the future that would be able to deal with the curse of sin. He would be the Suffering Servant of God and He would be despised and forsaken. He would also be oppressed and crushed and poured out in death as the sacrifice for sin. ISA 53:4-6 (The Message Bible) talks about this: The servant [Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ] grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. This explains the central purpose of His coming.

Do you remember what the angel told Joseph after he found out that Mary was pregnant? Joseph didn’t believe her and was going to send her away to give birth privately. Because of his disbelief, God had to send an angel to convince him that Mary was telling the truth about how she became pregnant: While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term: Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”). (MATT 1:20-23 The Message Bible) The angel shared with Joseph, The Messiah’s central purpose in coming, which was to redeem man from his sin so that we could be forgiven and reconciled with God. This is why Our Savior was born!

It’s important to understand that Our Savior was born without a human (biological) father, and because of this, He was born without an old sin nature. Biblical documentation of the sin nature is found in ROM 5:12 (New International Version): Therefore, just as through one man [Adam], sin [the sin nature] entered into the world, and [spiritual] death through [the] sin [nature], and [spiritual] so death spread to all men, because all sinned [when Adam sinned].” Immediately after Adam sinned, he acquired an old sin nature and became spiritually dead. Adam’s old sin nature is passed down through his seed to all his offspring (including every person who is ever born). Because of this, every old sin nature originates biologically from the seed of the father.
The old sin nature exists in the cell structure of the body and will not be removed from the body until the moment of physical death. But it has been crucified positionally in every believer: For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin… (ROM 6:6 New International Version)

Though Jesus Christ was tempted during His life on earth – just like we are – He never sinned. Look at HEB 4:15-16 (The Message Bible): Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. He willingly gave His Life as the payment for sin by His Death on The Cross. His Resurrection from the dead proved the claims He made about Himself – that The Sacrifice had been accepted and that His Promises are true. Jesus Christ is able to forgive sin and grant eternal life to all who believe in Him. That is the good news and it is without parallel.

One last thing the angel said to the shepherds about this Child born in the city of David needs to be pointed out. It’s found in LUK 2:11: …for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Let’s look at the term lord. Lord can be used as a title of respect similar to “sir.” (That’s the way that the woman at the well in JOHN 4 used it, when she first met Jesus.) But the term Lord is also used as one of God’s titles. That’s how it’s used in all the Hebrew scriptures in which it occurs. It’s used that way extensively in both the Gospels and Epistles, too. When the term Lord is joined with the title of Christ, it’s a reference to the deity of The Messiah. Just like you see it in LUK 2:11. This is often missed – even today among those who claim to be His followers.

Now, after announcing Our Savior’s Birth, the angel gave the shepherds additional information by which they could verify the truth of the announcement: This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (LUK 2: 12-14) Back then, it would be normal to wrap a baby in cloths to keep him warm and comfortable, but it was unusual for a newborn baby to be lying in a manger. And one thing you may not know is that back then, at the time of the Birth of Our Savior, even shepherds studied Hebrew scriptures. So they would have been familiar with ISA 9:6-7: For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So, their recall of the scripture “a child will be born” is no doubt what prompted them to go out and look for the “baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” after hearing the angel’s announcement.

It’s safe to bet that both the angel’s message and the Bible doctrine they had learned prompted them to tell others what they had seen and heard: As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed. Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told! (LUK 2:15-20 The Message Bible)

There’s an important lesson we should learn from the shepherds and that is to take advantage of every opportunity to tell others about the Child Who Was Born in a Manger in Bethlehem and how by simply believing in Him, we have Eternal Salvation!
Faith Alone, In The Lord Jesus Christ Alone!