Seminar 2 - The Birth of Jesus Christ

Is it possible to be a Christian and not believe in miracles? Hardly! Can one be a "believer" and an "unbeliever" at the same time? We have seen in previous chapters that liberal (unbelieving) theologians seek to depopulate the life of Christ of any miracles. The now infamous Jesus Seminar has rewritten the gospels leaving little remaining of the original miraculous story. It is hard to understand why such people would even align themselves with Christianity if they are so adamantly opposed to the miraculo us. Christianity is a miraculous faith. Without the miraculous it has no power or significance other than to be another alternative self-help religion void of power or efficacy in saving the soul. We believe in the miraculous because all that Jesus was and is is miraculous and wonderful. In fact the greatest miracle of all is not the water turning into wine, or Jesus walking on water, or feeding the five thousand. The greatest of all miracles is the miracle of a hell-bound sinner being changed into a saint. We believe in Jesus Christ who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Hebrews 13:8) To be anything less is to be an unbeliever.

Every believer who is truly born-again has had a miraculous encounter with Jesus Christ, for Christianity is not a set of doctrines to be intellectually adhered to but a person to be believed and received. Receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord brings the miraculous into your life. Salvation is a miracle! I have been surprised when speaking to groups of Christians at how many Christians have no miraculous events in their life. To me that is a dead religion without a living Savior who is the same yesterd ay, today and forever. No, we are not miracle seekers but a life with Christ living within ought to be salted with miracles, or the salt has lost its savor. On further conversation with "miracle-less" Christians I have found that for those without miracles their faith is usually a shallow intellectual accent or an impersonal adaptation of their parent’s faith. The lack of miracles begins with a lack of a personal life-transforming encounter with Jesus Christ. That mir acle-less life is characterized by a ver y weak if not non-existent prayer life, or at best it is a perfunctory prayer life lacking any passion or anointing from God. That seems harsh to some but it is not meant to be. It seems to be a fact of life. There are many among us as Christians in name only who lack the marks of true "believers." Their knowledge of Jesus is intellectual. Their experience of Jesus is non-existent. As the apostle John said, "They were among us but not of us." They are chameleons of faith acknowledging the truth in word, tal king, looking, dressing, acting, and performing like Christians but without the vibrant living Lord Jesus Christ living within. God has called us to a transformed life. "Therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new." Paul prefaced those words with a corporate testimony of all true believers that "once we knew Christ after the flesh, but yet now we do not know him as such anymore. " (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

There are two words used in the New Testament to define "knowing" Christ. Some of you who speak a second language will understand this since the Greek is very similar to Latin languages in this regard. The Greek has two primary words to define "to know" – "ginosko" and "oida." The first "to know" is an intellectual knowledge, that is, to know about someone or something. The second is "to know" something or someone personally. In Portuguese for instance we use the word "saber" for intellectual knowledge or knowing facts, and "conhecer" for being intimately familiar with someone. The Greek reflects the same difference. The question for every believer is whether we know Christ after the flesh - "saber" or whether we know Christ personally and intimately – "conhecer?" Do you know Christ personally or do you just know about Christ? The word "agnosticism" comes from the Greek word "gnosis" (from "ginosko") and adds the "a" in front as a prefix to make it a negative - meaning no knowl edge. I fear that many Christi ans are agnostic, that is, having no real experiential knowledge of Christ.

This whole series of studies of the Life of Christ has in mind to know Christ in all his fullness, not just to know about him. May your heart begin to hunger to know him in all his fullness, "Whom to know is life everlasting."

Jesus’ life and ministry was filled with miracles. Some of those miracles accompanied his coming and others were done by him. Contrary to the pseudo-gospels which record alleged miracles that Jesus performed as a child, the Bible tells us that the first miracle Jesus performed was in Cana of Galilee when he turned the water into wine. Therefore we know that during his childhood he was subject to his parents and was in preparation for his earthly ministry and did no miracle. We might correctly say that Jesus did no miracle until after his baptism and subsequent anointing of the Holy Spirit when the Spirit descended on him like a dove.

As we study the synoptic gospels it is interesting to study each of the miracles that Jesus performed. There is only one miracle that is repeated by each of the evangelists, that is the feeding of the five thousand.

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ASSIGNMENT: List and count all the miracles that Jesus did beginning with the first referenced in John 4. Share with the class the results of your research. Remember we do not need to see your research. Just share the results and your observations.

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Beyond the miracles of Jesus’ ministry there were many miracles that accompanied his advent into the world. These miracles will be the focus of our study of the birth and early life of Christ. They are:

We could be more exhaustive in our treatment of miracles since there are more than the three listed here such as dreams, visions, prophetic utterances, the Magi, etc. We will leave those for another time.

Angelic Visitations

Angels have been around a long time. The first are mentioned in Genesis and the last in Revelation. The Bible does not attempt to defend or explain the existence of these heavenly messengers. It just pronounces their existence and shows us the other side of Gods creation – the side we do not see now.

Modern liberal theology, which has gradually invaded our churches and pulpits, has long rejected angels along with anything not seen with the eyes and held in the hand. That is not new. The Sadducees of Jesus’ day were the liberal theologians of that era. They too rejected the existence of angels claiming that they were simply symbolical illustrations of God’s actions and work in the world. On the other extreme the rabbinical teachings about angels became mystical and even silly at times, a mere speculative theology. And so history repeats itself. There are those today who have become enamored with the study of angelic beings (good and evil) so as to taint their view of reality so that they live in a fanciful world filled with fictitious and superstitious imaginations of what cannot be seen. God has not called us to give undue attention to his mysterious beings but to understand that they are his servants "sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation." (Hebrews 1:14)

Much can be said about angels as we learn bits and pieces about them from the scriptures but it is not our intent to dedicate this chapter to the study of angels. Yet it is important for us to highlight here the existence and ministry of angels since so many in our day are agnostic when it comes to the miraculous, yet invisible work of God in and around us every day. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that there are angels. References to angels occur at least 116 times in the Old Testament and 175 times in the New Testament. (1 Keathley III) Angels are not regulated to bible times. Angels are and continue to be God’s special agents on behalf of the heirs of salvation.

Angels do not just happen onto the scene in the story of the birth of Christ. They are part of the whole of scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. From the Old Testament we mention a few of the angelic appearances:

• Present at creation (Job 38:7)
• Present at the Fall of Adam (Gen. 3:24)
• Angels appear to Abraham to announce promise of a son (Gen. 18:2)
• Angels frequently appear in the story of Jacob (Gen. 28-32)
• An angel stood in Balaam’s donkey’s way (Numbers 22:20-35)
• An angel met Joshua at Jericho (Josh. 5:13-15)
• An angel met Gideon (Judges 6:12)
• An angel announced Samson’s birth to Manoah and his wife (Judg, 13:3-5)
• Angels were associated with Elijah’s ministry (I Kings 9:5-7)
• Angels guarded Shadrach, Mishach, and Abendigo (Dan. 3:25-28)
• Angels guarded Daniel in the lion’s den (Dan. 8:16)

A good student of the word will take each and every reference to angels and list them as we have done here and then from those encounters deduce the ministry of angels forming them into categories. For instance one might deduce that 1) Angels are sent to announce good news, a birth, or a victory 2) Often angels appear as men, not angels 3) Angels invisibly protect God’s servants from harm and so on. The biblical scholar will find great satisfaction in not depending on the study of others to guide him but w ill "rightly divide the word of truth" for himself.

The New Testament hardly gets started without angels showing up on the scene. In the story of Jesus’ birth we have numerous angelic appearances.

• The angel Gabriel announces John the Baptist’s birth to Zechariah (Luke 1:11)
• The angel Gabriel announces Jesus’ birth to Mary (Luke 1:26)
• The angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 1:20-23)
• Angels appeared to the shepherds announcing Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:8)
• An angel appeared to Joseph to warn him to flee Herod’s plan (Mt 2:13)
• An angel appeared to Joseph in Egypt telling of Herod’s death (Mt 2:19)

It is not surprising to us that angels should accompany he who left heaven’s glories to be born in a stable. It is the greatest event in human history. Angels seem to accompany all great earthly events and this is certainly no exception.

Angels accompanied the life of Jesus as we see in the gospels. They ministered to him when he finished his forty day fast in the wilderness. They were spoken of by him during his ministry. In the garden of Gethsemane they strengthened him. In his resurrection they rolled away the stone and announced the event to the grieving women. Angels appeared to the apostles as they stared up to heaven after Christ’s ascension.

Angels continued to minister to the church during the lives of the apostles right up to and through the book of Revelation.

• Peter and John were released from prison by an angel (Acts 5:19)
• Philip was told to go to Gaza to meet the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26)
• Cornelius was visited by an angel while he prayed (Acts 10:3)
• Peter was let out of prison by an angel (Acts 12:7)
• Paul was visited at night by an angel (Acts 27:23)

There is no reason to believe that angelic visitation ceased with the closing of the New Testament. The purpose of angelic visits was not usually to give words to write in scripture (John being the exception. Revelation 1:1) but to minister to the lives of the men and women of God. There also is no evidence that believers are to expect regular house calls by angels either. Hebrews 13:2 indicates that many of us may entertain angels without even knowing it. Do we believe the scriptures or not?

What do angels do? We will not delve into what angels do in heaven since that is not the scope of this study. What they do on earth is important to this lesson. Jesus spoke of the ministry of angels and the apostles refer to their ministries experientially. Let us look at the ministry of angels as revealed in the scriptures.

1. Angels witness events on earth (Hebrews 12:22, I Cor. 4:9, I Tim. 5:21)
2. Angels visit and/or are assigned churches (I Cor. 11:10, Rev. 2-3)
3. Angels bear the saved to heaven (Luke 16:22)
4. Angels are assigned to children (Matthew 18:10)
5. Angels rejoice over each sinner who repents (Luke 15:10)
6. Angels appear as men, unawares (Hebrews 13:2)
7. Angels execute temporal judgements (Acts 12:23)
8. Angels minister to saints (Hebrews 1:14)
9. Angels encourage/strengthen those in trouble (Matthew 4:11, Luke 22:43)
10. Angels direct evangelists to sinners ready to receive Christ (Acts 8:26, 10:3)
11. Angels appear in dreams and visions (Matthew 1:20-24, Acts 27:23)
12. Angels sometimes reveal God’s will (Acts 5:19-20)
13. Angels bring answers to prayer (Dan. 9:21-23, Acts 10:3)
14. Angels protect saints (Psalm 34:7, 91:11)

It should be abundantly clear through this short survey of angelic ministries in the scriptures that angels were, are and ever shall be God’s servants who are sent by him on special assignments to believers. They are not to be sought after. They are not to be given undue attention or worshiped. They are not to be the focus of our attention. God has revealed to us the ministry of angels to encourage us that we are not alone in this world. Not only do we have the Holy Spirit but we have those ministering spir its who are sent as special agents of God to us in our times of need. "The angel of the Lord encamps around about those that fear him and delivers them." (Psalm 34:7) In summation we can say on the authority of God’s word that angels still provide, protect and proclaim to and for the saints at the will of the Father.

Sources and Recommended Reading:
(It is not necessary to buy these books.)

Hurbert Lockyer, All the Doctrines of the Bible, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1964
L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, 1939
Josh McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Campus Crusade for Christ, 1979
Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, Compiled by Bill Wilson, Thomas Nelson Pub, 1993
Keathley, J. Hampton III, Angels, God’s Ministering Spirits Internet Article on Angels, < >