We are beginning a new series today on Jesus and a heads up - I try and explain the Virgin Birth! I use the term 'mating' instead of saying 'sex' and speak in very general terms. I want you to know this because there may be questions about the birds and the bees, although I can imagine that many children will find my explanation sufficient. I do hope I haven't thrown anyone in the deep end but this is one part of the story of Jesus' birth that I just couldn't skip over!
After looking at the gospel over the previous episodes I am sure that you have realised that I think Jesus is pretty awesome. He is the most important part of what Christians believe and is what differentiates us from other religions.
Jesus is so awesome and he did so many things while he was here on this earth and the bible has 4 whole books dedicated to all the things he did and said, and so with this series, my hope is to give you an overview. What I hope we can chat about together will be to really discover who he is and what he came for.
I’ll tell you stories about his miracles, things he did with the disciples, I will share stories about his teaching, his parables and about what life was like when he lived, because it was over 2000 years ago and the world was very different back then.
We are going to start today by looking at his arrival, which was certainly spectacular! We celebrate Jesus’ arrival at Christmas every year, and you might know lots about the nativity story already, but let me tell it again. I don’t think even parents get sick of hearing this! This story is taken from the beginning chapters of both Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem after travelling for 4-5 days to get there to be counted. He had some fantastic visitors while he was there - shepherds and wise men, and was given expensive but unusual gifts for a baby.
Angels communicated with Mary, Joseph and the wise men and saved Jesus from coming to harm from the jealous King Herod. After they were counted, Joseph, Mary and little baby Jesus didn’t end up going home to Nazareth for quite some time. They travelled to Egypt, leaving sneakily in the middle of the night, and they stayed there until it was safe and the jealous King Herod passed away.
There was no newspaper or internet to find out news in those days, but there were angels! An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that they could go home because King Herod was dead and no longer a threat. So finally the little family got to go back home to Nazareth to live.
Discussion Questions:
What do you think the job of an angel is? Are they around anymore? Do they like earth? Do they eat, drink and sleep?
There was one big boss in this whole story, in control of every single thing that happened. Who do you think that was?
So if God was in control, why would he have worked out the story to be like this - with Jesus being born in a manger and visitors not being family members but wise men and shepherds?
