Christmas ABC’s

Ladies Bible Study by Mrs. Rick Jackson

I have been constantly praying about the direction to go with our lessons for the remainder of the year.  As I read my Bible, I like to ask the Lord to guide me with our study together, and be sensitive to His leading.  You remember how we spent a couple of years on the Bible ABC’s?  For me, that was so much fun!! Well, I thought it might be interesting to tackle that again in an abbreviated form and concentrate it to the theme of CHRISTMAS!! So for the remainder of this year, we are going to study Christmas ABC’s.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have already been enjoying the study myself.  Are you ready?? Let’s jump right in!!

 A is for Angels

Angels are real.  They are spiritual beings created by God to serve Him, who take on human form when they appear to man.  Hebrews 1:7 tells us, “And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” One cannot think about Christmas without angels – God sent them to be involved in every aspect of every stage of the beauty of God becoming man!

Do you remember the first angelic appearance in the events surrounding Christ’s birth?  Let’s begin in Luke 1. Here we have the account of the angel Gabriel being sent to Zechariah to announce that he and Elizabeth would be having a child in their old age, “¹³But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. ¹⁴And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.” And Zechariah was told this child would be the forerunner of the Messiah. (Luke 1:5-25)

 Then, Gabriel appeared to sweet, young Mary to give her the blessed news that she was the one honored to be the mother of the holy Child, “³¹And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.” Mary questioned the how in faith and yet happily submitted to the will of God, to be “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit, so the Word could become Flesh! (Luke 1:26-38)

 Now, in the book of Matthew, chapter 1 we find Joseph who was engaged to Mary and had learned of her pregnancy. He is upset, knowing he is not the father of the child, and has to make a decision about what to do.  He loves her, but because of her unfaithfulness (so he thinks) he ponders putting he away quietly (sort of like a quiet divorce) as being the best way out of this situation.  But as he sleeps he is visited by. . .an ANGEL!! “²⁰But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, 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.²¹And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:18-25)

And we know that Joseph accepts this vision and acts upon it faithfully.

The next appearance is in the field where shepherds were watching their flocks by night! Mary had given birth to the Christ-child in Bethlehem and the shepherds were going about their normal routine when Luke 2 tells us, “⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid . ¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” And this angel, we are told, was joined by so many, many more – “¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ¹⁴Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

 Again, Joseph would receive two more angelic visits warning him how to protect his young family, giving him traveling orders, so to speak.  Angels are ministering spirits, servants of God, messengers who sometimes take on human form in order to assist us as we serve God! Hebrews 1:14 – “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

 B is for Bethlehem

Bethlehem is the town where Jesus was born.  It was not the home of Mary and Joseph.  It was, however, prophesied to be the birthplace of the Messiah seven centuries before it took place!  We find in Micah 5:2, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  “Bethlehem” means “bread of life” and “Ephratah” means “fruitful” because the land around Bethlehem was especially productive – fruitful!  Isn’t it wonderful that the Saviour, the ultimate “Bread of Life” was born in such a place?  God makes no mistakes!  Turn with me to John 6--

 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 

It cost Jesus His life to give the bread of life to a world of lost sinners.  Eat the bread of this world, Jesus is saying, and you will always hunger, but receive Jesus as your Saviour and you will never hunger!

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  It reminds us of a sleepy little town unaware of such a momentous event – the birth of the Messiah – “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight!” (Micah 5:2) “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

 

C is for Christmas

I’m going to give you a bit of a linguistics lesson with this letter tonight.  Linguistics has to do with the study of language.  Christmas is a very old word.  It dates back before the twelfth century and comes from the Old English combination of two words, Christes maesse, and the Middle English word, Christemasse.  Literally it means, “Christ’s mass” and referred to the special worship service held on December 25^th in celebration or honor of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.[1]  Now, in Greek, the name Christ is spelled Χριστός, with what looks like the English letter X, but is the Greek letter “chi.” The early church, as do all of us, would use the first (and sometimes the second) letter as shorthand to represent the entire word that began with Christ, so Xmas became an honorable abbreviation for Christmas. It was not intended to take Christ out of Christmas. It may be that not everyone understands that today, but let’s not be guilty of getting offended when we see Xmas, rather, let us teach others that the X actually stands FOR Christ! (Thus endeth the linguistic portion of the lesson!)

Unfortunately today we often want to make Christmas “all about the children” or get caught up in the parties and the multitude of lists or “what I’m going to give to whom.”  It’s time we slow down and remember what Christmas is all about – Christ!! What was it the angel said to Joseph? “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) Christmas is the time for us to remember that Jesus came to bring salvation.  And the angel’s announcement to the shepherds made it clear that this salvation is for EVERYONE – “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people

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[1] David W. Wiersbe and Warren W. Wiersbe, C is for Christmas (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 38.

” This is the meaning of Christmas!  John 1:11 & 12 reminds us, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”  This is what Christmas is all about – helping others to “become the sons of God.”

D is for Dreams

I think it’s an interesting part of the Christmas story that God used dreams to direct Joseph and the wise men to protect His Son and His servants in this unique saga.

 Here we can look to the book of Matthew for the five accounts of the dreams.  We start with Matthew 1:20 – “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, 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.”  This is what we discussed earlier when we talking about angels.

 Now we turn to Matthew 2.  Here we find the time when the wise men came to see the young family, maybe a year or two after the birth in Bethlehem –

 

11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

After their visit, what happened?  God had to protect this young family because, as you remember, Herod had told the wise men to report back to him after they found “the King of the Jews.” God directed the wise men not to return to Herod because of his wicked intentions, now He had to see to safety of the young family.

 

13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

 And how long should the family remain in Egypt?  Why, until God tells them otherwise, of course!

 

19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.
21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

Finally, where should Joseph settle his family and raise this holy Child for

whom he is now responsible? Once again, God led him through a dream –

 

22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:

 Should we be looking for God to guide us in dreams today? Not likely.  Today we have God’s inspired Word to direct us, the Holy Spirit indwelling us, the church of fellow believers around us to reach out and gain loving support – we have all these resources that believers then did not have.  The question is what are we doing with what we’ve been given?

E is for Elizabeth

 

I think one of the many bright spots in the Christmas story is that of Elizabeth!  The wife of a priest, her life was one devoted in service to God, much more so, because she remained childless.  Being barren also lent an air of sadness to the household, yet she and Zechariah remained faithful, always praying for that missing child. Do you know what the name Elizabeth means? “God of the Oath,” meaning, “God keeps His Word.”  And in her twilight years, God fulfilled His oath in the life of Elizabeth, letting her and Zechariah know their prayers were not forgotten. I wonder what it was like the day Zechariah came home from his priestly service in the temple and had no voice? He had had a special visitation, so much to tell her, but no words were spoken!!  Signs.  He had to make up signs and write to get the message across – they were going to have a baby!! Imagine the joy and excitement that must have been theirs! God had heard their prayers!

Then, six months into her pregnancy, Elizabeth had a visitor – her cousin and the mother of the Messiah! As Pastor has reminded us several times recently, when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the babe in her womb leaped for joy and she was filled with the Holy Ghost and praised God.  Luke 1 –

42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

We have now studied A to E, Angels, Bethlehem, Christmas, Dreams and Elizabeth.  Where do you think I’m going for our memory verse? My favorite from these five points was what the angel said to Joseph in the dream,

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)