The Birth of Jesus

                               

                             

 

 The Birth of Jesus

Taken from Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:28-38, and Luke 2:1-20

                                        An Angel Came to Mary

This is the story of how Jesus the Messiah was born.  Long, long, ago God sent the angel Gabriel to a village by the name of Nazareth in the land of Galilee.  The angel had a message from God for a young virgin woman by the name of Mary.  Mary had promise to marry a man by the name of Joseph, who was from the family line, of King David

The angel, Gabriel went to visit Mary and told her that God was very pleased with her.  God was watching over her, and she was more blessed than any other woman.  That she was going to be with child, and have a son, she was to name Him Jesus.  Her son would be a very great man, and He would be called the Son of God.  That God will give Him the throne of King David, and He will rule over Israel forever, and His kingdom will never end!

Mary became troubled and mixed up over what the angel said to her.  She was not married and had never been with a man.  How could she have a baby?  But, the angel said that the Holy Spirit would come to her, and the power of God would guard her, the baby would be holy, and He would be the Son of God.

Mary said that she was the servant of the Lord and would do whatever God wanted her to do.  Let everything be done as God has said.  Then the angel left Mary.

An Angel came to Joseph

Mary told Joseph, the man she was to marry, that she was going to have a baby.  Joseph became very upset.  But, he was a good man, so he decided to break his promise of marriage very quietly, that way he wouldn't cause Mary any shame in front of the people.

As Joseph was thinking about everything that Mary had told him he fell asleep.  And while he was sleeping Joseph had a dream.  An angel came from God to Joseph, and said, "Joseph from the line of David, don't be afraid to marry Mary.  For the baby Mary is going to have is from God.  She will have a son, and you are to call His name Jesus.  He will save His people from their sins.  All of this will happen so what God said to the prophets will come true.  For God had told His prophets, "A virgin will be with child.  She will give birth to a son, and He will be called "Immanuel."  Immanuel means, "God is with us."

When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord told him.  He went to Mary, and took her home with him to be his wife.  But, Mary didn't lay with him until after her son was born.

Joseph and Mary go to Bethlehem

At the same time Joseph took Mary home to be his wife, the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, send out an order across the land to all people in the Roman Empire.  Everyone had to go to their family's hometown to write their name down in a book for the counting of how many people were from that town.  Because Joseph was from the family line of King David, he had to go to Judea, to a village named Bethlehem, since King David was from there.  So Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem.

Can you image that trip?  It was a very long trip, with a dusty, dirty road.  Mary must have had a hard time riding on the back of a donkey, and it must have been a bumpy ride.  And on top of all of that, it was getting close to the time for the baby to be born.  So you know, it must have been a hard trip for Mary.

The Baby is Born

While Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem the time came for the baby to be born.  But there was no room for them in the village inn.  They had to go to the stables.  This is a place where animals are kept.  There Mary gave birth to her first child, a son, and Joseph named the baby Jesus.  Mary wrapped the baby tightly in strips of cloth and laid Him in a manger.  A manger is a wooden box, where hay and straw is put in to feed the animals.

The Shepherds

The night Jesus was born some shepherd were in the fields outside the village.  They were guarding their flocks of sheep.  When suddenly, an angel of the Lord came among them, and the light of the Lord surrounded them.  They were terribly afraid.  But the angel told them, "Don't be afraid!  I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!  The Savior, the Messiah, the Lord has been born tonight in Bethlehem, the city of King David.  And this is how you will know Him, you will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped tightly in strips of cloth."

Suddenly, there were many angels in the sky, and they were praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to all whom God approves of."  After the angels had returned to Heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Come on!  Let's go to Bethlehem!  Let's see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

 

The Shepherds Went to see The Baby

The shepherd's ran to the village, of Bethlehem, and found Mary and Joseph with the baby, Jesus was lying in the manger just as the angel had said.  Then the shepherds told everyone who would listen what had happened and what the angel had said to them about the baby Jesus.

All who heard the shepherd's story were greatly surprised at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary quietly stored these things away in her heart, and she thought about them often.