A Christmas Story

Hi, I'm John Humenik. Welcome to the channel. I've got this beautiful Christmas story I want to share with you today on this December 25th. It's going to be an amazing story. We're going to go ahead and read through the scriptures to talk about the beautiful story that is the Christ and how he came to die for our sins. But first, he had to start in a humble beginning, in a manger in Bethlehem, and allowing the story to unfold before the most unlikeliest of places, in a small town, in a great country that was under siege by Rome at the time. It's filled with glamour, excitement, and all kinds of beauty. And let's go ahead and hop into the scriptures right now to see and understand all the things that God has for you this Christmas Day. So I'm gonna be reading from Matthew chapter 1, starting in verse 18. So what we see here is the birth of the Messiah. This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, She became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. One pause thing for here is, is that had he not done this, Mary actually would have been stoned to death, which is why he did it this way, or at least was planning on doing it. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and he said, Joseph, Son of David. The angel said, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, and he will save his people from their sins. All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through the prophet: look, the virgin will conceive a child, and she will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God's with us. When Joseph woke up, as he did, as the angel of the Lord commanded, and he took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born, and Joseph named him Jesus. And so we'll see, this is the story of the Magi. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. About that time, some wise men from the eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, where's the newborn King of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose And we have come to worship him. King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem, and he called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, where is the Messiah supposed to be born? In Bethlehem in Judea, they said, for this is what the prophet wrote: And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, you are not the least among the ruling cities of Judah. For a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel. Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men and learned from them the time when the star first appeared. He told them, go to Bethlehem, search carefully for the child, and when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him too. After this interview, the wise men went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy, and they entered the house and saw the child was with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. And they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which in the ancient times was really expensive. And even today it still is. And when it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod. Now let's go ahead over to Luke 1 and talk about how Luke's story talks about Mary's perspective. And so we see this in Luke chapter 1, verses 26. In the 6th month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. And she was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, greetings, favored woman, the Lord's with you. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you have found favor with God. And you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. And he will be very great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will not have an end. Mary asked the angel, but how can this happen? I'm a virgin. The angel replied, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, The power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. And what's more, your relative Elizabeth had become pregnant in her old age. People used to say that she was barren, but she's conceived a son and now is in her 6th month. For the Lord— the word of the Lord will never fail. Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true. I want to encourage you today to have an amazing Christmas. Jesus came to us thousands of years ago for the fact that he wanted to save you from your sins. He loved you that much, that there is a hope for your future, that you will have an opportunity to live out this life in total domination. You may not be in a position today to receive that message, but I can assure you that if you walk out the Christmas story today and every day, remembering what he did for you as well as what he did on the cross, that you'll start to understand the depth of his love for you and the fact that it will also come with his power. And with that power and the Holy Spirit, you're able to walk out life in victory. So I just want to encourage you today that you have a heart of expectation this Christmas and every season from this point forward, knowing that God truly loves you, that he truly cares for you, and that he only wants the best for you. And when you truly understand the promises of God apply to you today and for every day forward, they're sure and you can stand upon them. You can trust in him to continue to be him in your life so that you can be you in your life in the best way possible. If you love content like this, I would love for you to consider partnering with us. You can go to patreon.com/johnhumenik. There you can partner with us. We have 3 different levels and everything you donate to the ministry goes back to spread the gospel throughout the world. God bless.