The Meaning Behind the Christmas Story

As told by Rick Renner, from his book, Christmas, The Rest of the Story.

“The Christmas story is the most wonderful story that has ever been told and this is the time of the year when you and your family need to fall in love with a miracle that took place on Christmas.

Luke 2: 6 and 7 says, ‘The time came for her baby to be born and she brought forth her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him on a manger because there was no room for him in the inn.’ 8 and 9 says, ‘And they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night.’

The angel of the Lord appeared to this particular group of shepherds, because this was not just any group of shepherds, these were shepherds under Levitical care whose charge was to raise lambs, which would be offered as sacrifice at the time of Passover. And when the angel of the Lord appeared and said, ‘This will be a sign to you, you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes’, this literally meant, ‘Guys! You’re looking at the wrong lamb! The real lamb of God has just been born in Bethlehem.’   

"But you may ask, ‘What are swaddling clothes’? To make sure that they were unblemished they would take little bandages and would wrap the legs of newborn lambs to make sure they were protected. So, the first time that Jesus ever appears in the Bible, he appears as a little lamb wrapped in swaddling clothes and that’s because he was born to be the lamb of God to take away the sins of the world.'”
  
"In Matthew 2, 1 and 2, the Bible says, ‘After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where’s the one who’s been born, King of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’" 

"You may ask, ‘Who are Magi?’ Well, in the world today we do not have the equivalent. Magi were priests, they were astrologers, they were scientists. Wow! These were powerful people. In fact, Magi had so much power with a single word they could install a king and with a single word they could depose a king, and that’s why King Herod was so upset when they showed up saying, ‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews?’ And when they came, they came with caravans, they came with troops, soldiers, and armor because they were carrying a whole caravan of gifts which they were bringing to the King that had just been born."

"Matthew 2:11 says, ‘And when they had opened their treasures, they had presented to him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” 

"When they came, they didn’t come to Bethlehem, they went all the way to Nazareth where the holy family had been living in their house already for two full years. And when they came into that house, they saw Mary, and the toddler king in front of them and they fell down and worshipped him. And they gave him treasures of gold, which was significant because this was a gift given to a king at birth. Frankincense was a perfume, which was used in high priestly ministry. Myrrh was actually an embalming fluid. And in these three gifts there’s a prophetic statement: that Jesus is the King of all Kings, he is the high priest, and he was born to die as the lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He was born as the lamb of God, he was introduced by John the Baptist as the lamb of God, and Jesus died on the cross as the lamb of God." 

"From my family to your family I want to say, have a wonderful Christmas and remember that - Jesus really is, the reason for this season!”