Today as I sit here looking out my window and think about all the letters I have written to you, my brethren in Christ, about this wonderful story of the birth of Jesus, the Christ. We call it Christmas, but it is more than gifts being given and received. It is the true story told to us by God, through his disciples and those chosen by Him to give us the message of salvation.
I can’t help but wonder how many more messages there are hidden in the Christmas story that we read about in Matthew and Luke in our Bible. This will be my fifth attempt to give you just one more view of what happened over two thousand years ago. So many people were involved, it makes one awe struck, that God was able to get us humans to all play our part in this birth of His only begotten son.
So just what is a messenger? Mr. Webster explains it as “one who bears a message or does an errand.” This letter will be about the message and also who brought the message by doing the errand. Of course the message is about Jesus, and how he came to earth to save mankind from eternal suffering and destruction.
But I want to look more closely at how this errand came about, and what were the series of events that happened so long ago. Let’s turn the clock of time back about 2700 years or so, and look at the first messenger chosen by God to deliver the message about the birth of Jesus.
Let’s look at Isaiah, chapter seven, verse ten, KJV – “therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The word Immanuel means “God with us,” it was not to be the child’s name, only one of his titles. This special child was given his name by God to this special virgin by another messenger about 700 years later.
The second messenger was the angel Gabriel, as he came from God to this virgin, whose name was Mary. Let’s read Luke 1:26-31, “and in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said, “Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.”
Now back to Isaiah as he had set into motion this plan of God, and it takes about 700 years to be fulfilled as we just read in Luke. God always works out His plans through mankind, and time means nothing to Him. His plans will succeed! This message was given to Isaiah as he becomes the first messenger of Christmas, and without it there would be no Christmas story.
Matthew starts out his account of the birth of Jesus with the genealogy of Joseph, the husband of Mary. In verse eighteen of chapter one, we read this interesting fact that Joseph had to deal with; “When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”
Mary had by this time returned from visiting her cousin Elizabeth, and was pregnant by the Holy Ghost as foretold by Gods messenger Isaiah. Joseph was upset to find out his wife is pregnant and not by him. She was unfaithful was his first thought, and he was going to cancel the wedding by giving her a bill of divorcement. But, yes that infamous word “but;” which means except that, or with the exception of, or to the contrary; and this is where God intervenes.
Joseph was down in the dumps just sitting there alone, thinking about what Mary had just told him. As he ponders what to do next he gets drowsy and decides to take a nap. As he sleeps, a dream is sent to him by God, and in this dream an angel comes to him and reassures him that Mary has not been unfaithful, and she is to bear a man child that would be the Messiah of his people.
Verse twenty we read this message, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Matthew explains to us that Isaiah spoke this prophecy over 700 years before, and it is now being fulfilled through Mary and Joseph’s faithfulness to act out their faith in what God told them.
So Joseph gets up from his nap, being a man of action and faith, he immediately goes and gets Mary his wife, and takes her home with him just as instructed by the Lord. The scriptures tell us they lived together as husband and wife, but had no physical union until after the child was born.
Just who was this third messenger? Matthew only tells us that he was an angel of God; and in Luke we find an angel of the Lord mentioned four times, and twice he is identified as Gabriel. I believe he is the one sent by God on an errand to both Joseph and Mary, as do early Church leaders such as John Gill (1697-1771).
I love to read and study the Christmas story as told by Luke and Matthew, and I hope you all do too. There is so much information there, and it is always amazing to see it from another perspective. I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and to also say thanks for taking the time to read my letters.
Remember you will make it, just don’t give up. See you in my next letter as we study Gods word together. Merry Christmas.
In His Service As Kilted Priest
The Kilted Priest 