The Gift of God

 

As we look at the Birth (Christmas), we have to remember that the Birth, death, Resurrection and ascension are all part of the same life, the same death, the same purpose: To redeem mankind.

Luk 2:11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

Luk 2:12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 

For if we have The birth of The Savior announced we must ask saved from what? Saved from poverty? Saved from disease? Saved from traffic jams? To what end does the Savior strive? Why should I care?

Christ the Lord is born in the city of David, a sign was given meaning a detail for them to know that what the messengers said was true, you will find the babe in a manger in swaddling clothes and the shepherds found exactly what they were told to look for.

Luk 2:16  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 

Luk 2:17  And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 

Luk 2:18  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 

When the Shepherds (yes I capitalized this for now they are Good Shepherds telling all the good News of Christ) heard saw and verified they went out telling all they saw. Then those that were told wondered at the things they were told. A grand scale announcement made to Shepherds who were then telling all they come across of this Savior, this Gift of God to a lost and dying world.

On a side note here, just for the sake of symmetry this field, this area where the shepherds are just outside of the city, about 5000 feet (just shy of a mile) from Bethlehem, was the very same place that David watched over his father flocks. David was a Shepherd from whose line the Good Shepherd was coming from so the shepherds of David’s town get to announce the Birth of David’s final successor to the throne.

Yet when the Shepherds heard of this Gift they went out and told all they came across, they made known abroad, meaning they didn’t just tell the locals they went throughout the land telling of the wondrous events of that night. Of the Gift of God that was given and announced by a multitude of Angels in the sky.

The Angels announced a Savior, the Gift of God and the Shepherds took that knowledge that gift to all the world around them (as far as they could anyways).

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

What was the Gift of God? Jesus the Savior is the gift of God. He was given why? So that we should not perish but have life everlasting. The fires of Hell, the flames, the place of eternal darkness where the worm dieth not, that place of torment eternal and unforgiving is what we are to be saved from.