announcement of the birth of jesus

7/30/2019 Announcement of the Birth of Jesus

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Announcement of the birth of the Messiah(A pre-Christmas discussion between five friends about incidents recorded in the Bible i.e in the Gospel of Mathew & Luke)

Roshan : Welcome to all for this discussion on the announcement of thebirth of the Messiah as recorded in the Gospel of Luke & Mathew.

All : Hi

Roshan : If you have your Bible please turn the pages to the portionLuke 1:26-38. Rohit will read it aloud for us. Others please listen &follow carefully.


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Rohit :

Announcement of the birth of the MessiahLuke Chapter 1 Verses 26 to 38(NKJV)

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name wasJoseph, of the house of David. The virgins name was Mary. 28 And havingcome in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is withyou; blessed are you among women!

29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and consideredwhat manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, Do not beafraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you willconceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name J ESUS .32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the LordGod will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

34 Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know aman?

35 And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come uponyou, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, thatHoly One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed,Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this isnow the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothingwill be impossible.

38 Then Mary said, Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to meaccording to your word. And the angel departed from her.

Roshan : Thank you Rohit. Turn the pages of your Bible to the portionMathew 1:18-25. I am reading it aloud for you

Mathew Chapter 1 Verses 18 to 25(NKJV)

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not


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wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lordappeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraidto take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of theHoly Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His nameJesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by theLord through the prophet, saying: 23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child,and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated,God with us.

24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lordcommanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she

had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

Before we continue, let us pray

Our Loving Heavenly Father, we pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding as we discuss about your word. Please speak to us. In

Jesus Name we pray. Amen

I think all of you would have understood the story that we read. Pleasespend a few minutes reading once again silently.

Rohit :This incident recorded in Luke happened first then the incidentin Mathew must have followed later. Luke records the incident fromthe point of view of Mary while Mathew records it from the point of view of Joseph.

Pooja : This story reminds me of the fairy tales that I used to listen andread as a child. Fairy tales are not complete without angels.

Preeti : I find the conception of a baby boy in a virgin unbelievable. Itis a medical impossibility

Rahim : During our discussion on Freedom from a Legion of Demonswe discussed about the existence of evil spirits. If evil spirits exist thengood spirits should also exist. Angels exist for doing good works.


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Roshan : The Bible says what Angels are, They are spirits who serveGod and are sent by him to help those who are to receive salvation.

Rohit : We read of many amazing births in medical history. Test tubebabies are becoming more common these days. We had heard of onlytwin babies upto 19 th century but now we are hearing of many multiplebirths.

Preeti : There are new developments as a result of stem cell researchand cloning. You would have heard of Dolly, a sheep which was theresult of the first successful cloning. Have any of you heard of parthenogenesis?

Pooja : No

Preeti : Actually parthenogenesis is a Greek word which means virginbirth. In biology, it refers to a form of reproduction in which the ovumdevelops into a new individual without fertilization. Naturalparthenogenesis has been observed in many lower animals especiallyinsects and also in some form of snakes, lizards, fish etc. Artificialparthenogenesis has since been achieved in almost all major groups of animals.

Rohit : Has this artificial parthenogenesis been used in medical scienceon humans?

Preeti : Yes, I have read in Wikepedia about some South Koreanscientist who had unknowingly produced human embryos resultingfrom parthenogenesis.

Rahim : Then why did you say that a virgin birth is a medicalimpossibility.

Preeti : It is impossible to produce a male child from a female becausethe male has XY Chromosome while the female has XX chromosome.Without using the Y Chromosome of a male, it is impossible to producea male child by parthenogenesis


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Roshan : With God nothing is impossible. If God can create man frommud, he can also create an embryo with the required DNA and place itin the womb of the mother.

Roshan : The Bible has lot of stories of people who had miraculousbirth. We can read about Abraham and Sarah, Elkanah and Hannah inOld Testament. We also read of Elizabeth and Zacharias in Luke 1. Allthese births were in old age but there was no precedent for a virginbirth. Let us discuss about the passage. It says that in the sixth monththe angel Gabriel visited the house of Mary in Nazareth. The sixthmonth is actually not the calendar month but refers to the sixth monthof Elizabeths pregnancy which we can infer from verse24 of Lukechapter 1.

Pooja : It says Mary was betrothed to Joseph. What is betrothal?

Rohit : Betrothal is a contract between two families about the promiseof marriage in future between the bride and the groom of the respectivefamilies. In those days, Betrothal is confirmed marriage; a divorce isrequired for breaking the contract. However no physical contact isallowed prior to marriage.

Roshan : Mary is afraid after seeing the angel and hearing his greeting.What did the angel say?

Pooja : We can read what the angel said in verses 31 to 33. Angel toldthat she will conceive and bear a son and that she should name himJesus. Subsequently I do not understand anything that he says. Whatdoes he mean by Son of the Highest, throne of David, house of Jacob etc.

Roshan : By Son of the Highest it is meant Son of God. Becausethere is no one higher or greater than God.

Rahim : During the discussion on the story of the compassionate fatheryou had mentioned that we are Gods sons & daughters. That meansthat there is no difference between Jesus and us other than the fact thathe is a prophet and that he is born of a virgin.

Rohit : By Son of God I think it means he is God. He has theattributes and qualities of God. His nature is like God, the Father.


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Roshan : The Bible actually says that God is Triune i.e though God isone he has three personalities, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. TheTrinity is actually a mystery. We would not be able to understand itadequately through our finite minds.

Preeti : I remember the story of a young boy David who killed a giantGoliath with just a sling and a stone. Is King David the same person?

Rohit : You are right. Jacob refers to the ancestor of the nation Israel.His twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel.

Roshan : Angel tells that Jesus will become a king like David and thathe will have a Kingdom that will never end.

Pooja : Jesus did not become any king and he did not establish anykingdom while he was on earth. How is it applicable to Jesus?

Roshan : Jesus said that he would be coming again to the world. Whenhe comes again he will establish a kingdom on the earth and rule for a1000 years. He will judge all the people who ever lived on the earth.Then a new heaven and earth will be created and he will rule for ever.We can read about this in the book of Revelation in the New Testamentof the Bible. What does Mary say to the angel?

Rohit : She asks the angel how she can bear a child when she does notknow any man. That is when she has not had any sexual relation withany man

Preeti : Why cant it be that the angel told about a child that she wouldbear after her marriage to Joseph?

Roshan : You have to read the next verse to know why it cant be

interpreted that way. The Angel says that Mary will conceive becausethe Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the highest willovershadow her. A birth after marriage as a result of sexual relationwould be natural and does not need any divine intervention.


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Pooja : Mary believed the angel and submitted herself to God. Shemust have been very good and a worthy woman to have been given theresponsibility of bearing Gods son.

Rohit : Bible doesnt say anything about how special or good she was.In fact there may have been many women whom God would have foundsuitable but He needed only one womb. Mary was Gods sovereignchoice. Mary says she is Gods maid servant, but many people havegiven her the exalted status of Queen of Heaven, Mother of God etc.which is not biblically correct.

Roshan : If we use todays medical terms we can say that Mary is thesurrogate mother of Jesus and not the biological mother. Lets nowdiscuss about the second passage i.e the incident in the gospel of

Mathew. What would have been Josephs reaction when he came toknow of Marys pregnancy.

Rahim : He might have been shocked. He would have never expectedsuch a thing of his fiance, Mary.

Pooja : I recently read an article about Indian actresses who becamepregnant before marriage. The article said that Sridevi was the onlyactress who acknowledged that she was pregnant before marriage. Inother cases it was found out because the delivery of the child happenedbefore 9 months after marriage.

Preeti : Mostly abortions are carried out discreetly so that no one willknow. Premarital sex is the predominant cause of abortions in thewestern nations and is also increasing these days in our country.

Rohit : What Joseph went through was normal. Nobody in history hasever heard of a woman becoming pregnant before marriage but theBible says Joseph was a just man and wanted to divorce Mary privately.

Roshan : He could even go for a court case and bring Maryspregnancy matter to public knowledge. But he decided not to put herthrough public shame because she would have told him about Gabrielsmessage. While he was thinking about these things the angel appearedto Joseph. What did the angel tell him?


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Preeti : The angel told him that Mary has conceived because of the HolySpirit and that she would give birth to a son whom he shall name Jesusbecause he shall save his people from their sins.

Rohit : Because Jesus saves people from their sins he is referred to asthe Messiah or the Saviour. All these things happened asprophesied by the prophet Isaiah. This verse is found in Isaiah 7:14. Hehad prophesied this about 700 years before the birth of the Messiah.Infact there are over 300 prophesies of Jesus in the Old Testamentwhich were literally fulfilled in his life. The probability of any persontrying to fulfill all these prophesies deliberately on his own is verynegligible.

Rahim : What does it mean to say that he will save his people from their

sins.

Roshan : You can read about creation and about how sin entered theworld in the first book of the Bible called Genesis. Man disobeyed Godby eating the fruit that he was forbidden. He had told them that theywould die if they would eat that fruit. Ever since then every humanbeing born into this world is born spiritually dead i.e with sins. Thepurpose of Jesus coming into the world was to die as a sacrifice on thecross for the sins of the world. For the sins of the world only a man candie as a substitute for fellow human beings. However there is no sinlesshuman being as all are born as sinners. Hence God decided to incarnateas man and die for our sins. He came as Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus isGod with us in human form. That is why he is called Immanuel.

Rohit : Joseph was only the legal father. He did as he was told by God.Jesus is called son of David because David was the ancestral father of both Mary and Joseph.

Roshan : Actually the first announcement of the birth of Messiah was

made by God himself in the Garden of Eden. The Messiah was referredto as Seed of a Woman implying virgin birth. What have you learntfrom these two passages?

Rahim : I have learnt about the virgin birth of Jesus and why he cameto this world. Though I do not agree with everything, I know why youbelieve what you believe.


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Pooja : It is really wonderful to know that God himself incarnated asman to save us from our sins.

Preeti : When I heard the verse Nothing is impossible with God. Itreally gave me hope. When I face some difficult situation I can go toGod.

Rohit : Joseph and Mary believed the words of God and obeyed itcompletely. They submitted themselves fully to God. What God speakswhile reading the Bible, I will obey it completely even if it means that Iwill have to through some difficulty as a result of obeying God.

Roshan : We should be the messengers sharing this good news that God

became man to save our sins to all our friends. May I request Rohit topray for all of us?

Rohit :Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending Jesus to this worldto save us from our sins. We pray that you would help our friends whoare in difficulty. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen

Roshan : May all of us experience Gods love reaching out to forgiveour sins. May the Messiah take care of all you. Bye to all. See you soon.

announcement of the birth of jesus

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