December 18, 2023 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in his book-turned docudrama Why the Nativity?, Dr. David Jeremiah looks in detail at the people and events that surround the Christmas story and why each of them was chosen for their specific purpose.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories and with some
of our Christmas season programming, and our next story comes
to us from the founder of Turning Point Radio and
television ministries and the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church,
doctor David Jeremiah. And every morning at six am, he's
(00:32):
my teacher. I'm a Christian and well sixty four percent
of Americans are Christians. And this story is for you
and for anybody else interested in why we celebrate Christmas
and Why the Nativity. It was a terrific book written
by David Jeremiah in two thousand and six, and it
has now been adapted into a terrific film that's.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Available for free to stream.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Just type in Why the Nativity on your browser or
go to Davidjeremiah dot org and watch it with your family.
And now here is doctor David Jeremiah to tell the
story of the Nativity and to answer the question and
many questions around the birth of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You know, we celebrate Christmas now, but most people don't
know what Christmas is about. So I decided to write
a book and answer a lot of questions that people had,
and we started out its going to be eleven questions,
then it was going to be fifteen, and then it
became twenty five. And these are key questions like why
Mary and why Joseph and where do they all fit
(01:39):
into the story. So one of the questions we talk
about in the beginning of the book is why did
God become a man? And the answer to that is
is really so much a part of the heart of
the story. He did that because of his love he
had to reach man, and the only way he could
reach man was to become a man himself. So he
(02:00):
and his own son, Jesus Christ to become a person.
The Bible says he tasted flesh, and at Christmas time
we celebrate that Jesus being born into humanity. And I
always like to say the people, because sometimes people don't
really understand it. He didn't become a man, then he
didn't become a person. Jesus has always been and he
(02:20):
always will be. There never was a time when he
was not, and there never will be a time when
he ceases to be. But in that moment, he came,
and he came through the birth canal of his mother
Mary and became a human being, so that in his
humanity he could reach down to man, and in his
divinity he could reach up to God. And one day,
(02:42):
on a cross outside of the city of Jerusalem, he
hung there as the God Man and as the man
God and paid the penalty for the sin of all
of us. A truly remarkable story that not duplicated anywhere else,
and it is so amazing. It had to be God,
because nobody else would ever have come up with that.
(03:05):
Nazareth was an interesting place. Actually, I've had the privilege
to talk about Nazareth before, and I've actually been a
Nazareth on maybe five times. And that's the place where
Jesus grew up as a carpenter. When we were building
the set for our movie that we did, we built
the set so if you walk into the set this way,
(03:27):
especially him, and if you walk into it the other way,
it's a Nazareth. And it was. It was the place
where Jesus grew up. He was a carpenter's son there,
he learned to work there, he learned to be a
godly son. And it's you know, the attitude was, can
anything good come out on Nazareth? Well, something did come
(03:47):
out on Aareth pretty good, and that was the Lord
God Why Mary is a really good question to ask.
Why would she be chosen? I'm sure she asked that question.
You know, I think about Mark Lowry's song Mary, did
you know? Did you know this was going to happen?
Obviously she didn't. And sometimes, you know, we think she's
thirty or thirty five years She was fifteen, maybe sixteen,
(04:09):
a very young child, and when the angels came and
told her that she was to be the mother of Jesus,
she was stunned. You know, in the Old Testament they
looked for the Messiah, and many young women thought maybe
they would be the mother of the Messiah because they
were looking for the Messiah. Well, Mary wasn't looking for it,
and it happened to her and the angel said she
(04:31):
would be the mother of Jesus. I always have been
struck by the fact that something as dramatic as that
happened to her. And her response was, be it unto me,
according to your word? And I thought, I wish I
had that kind of that kind of submission to the Lord.
Her submission to the Lord is amazing, and she she
(04:54):
was God's choice and she was the perfect choice. Well,
you know, Joseph was I have a a whole message
about why Joseph, and the message is the Forgotten Man
of Christmas. That's the name of the message, because he
comes on the scene for a period of time and
then he disappears and you never hear another word about him.
(05:14):
But he was the man that God chose to be
the earthly father of Jesus. As he was growing up,
he was. The Bible describes him as a good man
and a godly man, certainly as surprised as Mary was
when he got the message from But I think the
(05:35):
thing that to me is most critical about him was
his faith endured a great challenge, and that was the
challenge of Mary's pregnancy. And in our film we showed
the disappointment that he had when he found out that
she was with child. She came back from Elizabeth's house
and she was pregnant, and he couldn't figure that out.
(05:55):
He did, Nobody had told him that. I think in
the film we have him go away for a little bit,
but he comes back and he settles into being the
person God asked him to be, and that was the
human human father, the surrogate father, if you will, of
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, you know there's.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Why did Jesus come when he came? You know, the
Bible says he came in the fullness of time. I
don't know if you've ever seen that verse. And the
fullness of time he came. What does that mean? Well,
I think it means exactly the right time. First of all,
it's interesting if you study history. The Romans had just
paved the way with their roads to all of the
(06:35):
various regions of that particular part of the world. Greek
had become more and more common as a language, so
now you have transportation and communication coming together, and the
message of the Gospel could travel quickly to all points
of the world, just at the right time. And it
was also I think about that as we have gone
(06:59):
through what we've gone through here in our own country,
and all the stuff that goes on, and how awful
things have been in some cases with crime and all
of that. That was sort of like what it was
when Jesus came. It wasn't a good time. It was
a time they needed a redeemer, they needed to Christ,
They needed Jesus at that time. But it was perfect
because he came into the world at the right time. Well,
(07:22):
Bethlehem is a really interesting story why Bethlehem. The word
Bethlehem means house of bread, and it was the place
where the bread of life was born. It's a very
special place because there are some other famous Rachels buried there,
and it's about a few miles from Jerusalem. I've been
in Bethlehem. But this was the prophecy out of you
(07:47):
shall come he who is to come forth Bethlehem of Ephrita.
It was the prophecy that made Bethlehem so special. Interestingly enough,
when the prophet was making that prophecy, him was not
really in existence, but it became the answer to the prophecy.
And there to Bethlehem's there's Bethlehem and Bethlehem at Epheta,
(08:08):
he came to the right one. He showed up at
the right place. You have to put we have to
when you ask ourselves why there was no room in
the inn, I think we have to kind of put
ourselves in that situation. We read the Christmas story through
our Christian eyes, and we don't read it through the
eyes of the culture into which he was born. People
(08:28):
in Bethlehem, apart from some divine revelation, would have had
no idea what was going on who is this mother?
Who is this person? The bottom line, it was census.
It was census time in Bethlehem. There was no room
anywhere for anybody. I don't think they were singling out
in Jesus. They just had no room. And when he
came to the door and they didn't have any room
and ultimately gave him a place where he could be born.
(08:52):
That was a gracious thing for him to do because
there wasn't room any place else. And it wasn't hey,
we're not going to let Jesus in here. They didn't
know who he was. They have a clue who he was.
But it became a wonderful story because just as they
had no room for Jesus, in the end, so many
people that they don't have any room for Jesus at all,
(09:12):
whether it's Christmas or Easter or anytime. And I can
speak about that because I'm a pastor and I know
what that's like.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And when we come back more from doctor David Jeremiah,
the film, the book Why the Nativity, here on our
American stories, and we returned to our American stories and
(09:41):
to doctor David Jeremiah and his conversation about his film
and book Why the Nativity.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Let's pick up where we last left off. Why was
Jesus born in the stable? The stable, to me is
a picture that Jesus wanted people to know that he
came for all men, not just for the hierarchy, not
for the aristocrats.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
He came.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
In fact, this is an amazing thing that he was
first worshiped by a group of shepherds who were the
outcasts of that culture. And to be born in a
manger was to state the very obvious fact that he
had come for all people. He didn't. He came. And
if he came for the shepherds and he was born
in a manger, he came for you. One of the
(10:30):
big arguments that comes around Christmas time is the argument
of the virgin birth. Why was Jesus born of a virgin?
Why was it important for him to be born of
a virgin? Because he was God. He had to come
into this world and not lose his holiness. So when
he came through a virgin, without the male involved in
(10:53):
the birth process, he preserved his holiness. He came and
he could become. At that particular time, one sent God
in one hundred percent man and Mary had never known
a man I remember there's a funny little story about that.
I had some books some years ago that I actually
it was a little New Testament I had written, worked
(11:15):
on to make available to people. And my grandchildren were
pretty young at the time. I have twins, and they
came in and they said, hey, Poppy, can we have
one of these? And I said, yeah, but you kind
to promise me you'll read it. And they say, what
you meet, I said, starts with Matthew. I want you to.
I want you to read Matthew this week and tell
me you read it. So about halfway through the week,
I get a call from their mom and they said, okay, okay,
(11:37):
you answered this one. Bradley came and said, hey, mom,
if Mary and Joseph never even knew each other, how
could they have a baby. I said, well, some mass
their father. But I mean so so the whole thing
about the virgin birth is the key. It preserves the
deity of Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you
(12:00):
why I know it's true. I remember reading this story
and how it helps me so much to know it's true.
When Mary was standing at the foot of the cross
and they were getting ready to crucify her, son. They
were getting ready to crucify her son because he claimed
to be God, and they said he was a blasphemer.
(12:22):
Mary could have spoken up and said, no, he's not God.
I remember the night he was conceived, he is not God.
But she never did that. She watched her son die
on the cross because she knew that what the Bible
says about him was true. And to me, you don't
(12:43):
need any other argument for the virgin birth of Christ
than that one. You know, I've gotten a little bit
involved in the Shepherd's story. Why the Shepherd's because if
you had I mean, I've got up a phone call
with somebody a few minutes ago and I'm asking him
to help was promote this film. And he asked me
this question, if I gave you the keys to this network,
(13:05):
where would you want to put this show? And I
know what he does that And I think about that
with the Shepherds. If I gave you the key to
who you want to have received the Gospel at first?
Who would you want? It wouldn't be the shepherds. You know,
when the shepherds, when the Israeli people were shepherds, they
weren't even allowed to live with other people. They were
the outcast. They had no credibility, They couldn't go to
(13:29):
the temple. They weren't allowed in the temple. Shepherds were
the lowest of the low. And yet it was to
the shepherds that Jesus first revealed himself, as if once
again to say, no matter who you are, no matter
what you've done, no matter how far you feel you
are away from God, think of the shepherds. They're the
(13:50):
picture of God's willingness. When we couldn't come up to
where he was, he came down to where we are.
And that's especially true with the shepherds. Well, why the angels.
You know, the angels are really involved in Jesus' life.
In fact, if you go through the life of Jesus,
you can almost say these are the important moments in
(14:11):
jesus life because angels were there. They were there at
his birth, they were as baptism, they were there at
as temptation in the wilderness. They're going to be totally
involved in his coming again in the Rapture and in
the Second coming. Angels were there as emissaries from heaven.
They were God's messengers. I think they were God's protectors too.
They God said, I'm going to send Jesus to be
(14:33):
the savior of the world, and you, angels, I'm sending
you down here to make sure it goes right and
take care of it.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Watch it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They were the messengers, you know, Gabriel and Michael, the
only two angels we know about by name in the Bible.
One was the protector, one was the communicator, and God
sent them both to be here when Jesus was born. Well,
you know, if you ask, if you ask scientists about
the Star of Bethlehem and why it was so import
(15:01):
they'll give you all kinds of scientific reasons why this
was a meteor that was out of control or something.
But this was God's star. The star was going in
the wrong direction scientifically. It was almost like God was
defying everything to make sure that his wise men that
(15:23):
were coming would not get lost. I don't have a
scientific explanation for the star, because there is no scientific explanation.
It was God's star, and if God made him in
the first place, he can move them around any way
he wants, And that night he moved a star to
make sure those three guys didn't miss what they set
(15:45):
out to do. Well, the wise men represent a whole
different Why the wise men is a good question. They
represent a whole different aspect of the culture. Isn't it interesting?
You got the shepherds over here representing the down and out,
and you got the wise men over here representing the aristocracy.
(16:05):
It's almost like God put this pin down here, and
put this pin down here, and he says, I came
for everybody in between. The wise men came. Their gifts
were special, they represented worship, and unfortunately they get caught
up in the major scenes all over the country, and
they didn't come when the major scenes were there. They
(16:25):
came way later. The Bible says Jesus was a young
lad when they came. But they gave gold franken sense,
and gold for his kingship, franken sense for his suffering,
and mr which was was a bitter tasting element that
(16:46):
represented his death and his sufferings. So the wise men,
they're always a beautiful part of the story, and they're
not very much written about him, except they followed the Lord,
and the journey they took wasn't like two. It was
a long journey to get to where Jesus was. This
story of the birth of Jesus, which we celebrate with
(17:07):
such exuberance in our culture today. Actually communicated in Luke
and in Matthew, and then it's referenced in Philippians and
a few other places. But the actual story of Christmas,
the story of the Nativity, is found in a couple
chapters in Luke, in one chapter in Matthew. It was
prophesied in the Old Testament, as you know, many many
(17:29):
places in the Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied, Micah prophesied it,
Jeremiah prophesied, it was foretold, and then it was experienced.
And we have somebody said, why don't you have more information?
We don't need any more information. This is what God
said would happen. This is what happened. Here's the record
of it. I can embellish it if you want to.
(17:51):
And when you take the story and you go back
and get all of the prophecies and put them together,
then you have more of a body of work on
the Nativity. But the story itself is simple. It's not
hard to understand, and it's miraculous. Have your fun, celebrate
doo things you do, but don't forget Christmas is about
(18:12):
God becoming man. God loving us so much that he
left the courts of heaven to live in the womb
of a woman so he could become one of us
and go to the cross and pay the penalty for
our sin. The redemption story doesn't start at the crucifixion.
It starts at Bethlehem, because part of the sacrifice of
(18:33):
God was the sacrifice of his son, his only begotten son,
and part of the sacrifice of Jesus was leaving his
place in heaven to come down here and welcome among us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
There's no way to.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Describe that, and a great job is always by our
own Greg Hengler on the editing and production, and a
special thanks to doctor David Jeremiah and a special thanks
to Turning Point Ministries for putting this film together again.
It's free for all to stream all through Christmas season
(19:06):
and beyond. Type in the words Why the Nativity on
your browser or go to Davidjeremiah dot org. Also, you
can check your cable listings. It will be appearing throughout
the month and again check tv Guide or wherever you
get your cable listings. Why the Nativity, By the way,
pick up the book. It's terrific if you're a Christian,
(19:28):
even if you're not sixty four percent of Americans call
themselves Christians. And it's an important story, it's an important date,
and we celebrate as we do.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
But again, we want to learn why.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We celebrate and get the stories behind the stories.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Why the Nativity does that, the book and the.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Film, and doctor Jeremiah also happens to be my teacher.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We don't have a relationship.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He's on the television every day at six am Central
Time where I live, and he's been teaching and coaching
me for fifteen years and doesn't know it. Well, it
didn't know it until I met him. This is Lee Habib,
Why the Nativity, But doctor David Jeremiah here on our
American stories
And we continue with our American stories and with some
of our Christmas season programming, and our next story comes
to us from the founder of Turning Point Radio and
television ministries and the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church,
doctor David Jeremiah. And every morning at six am, he's
(00:32):
my teacher. I'm a Christian and well sixty four percent
of Americans are Christians. And this story is for you
and for anybody else interested in why we celebrate Christmas
and Why the Nativity. It was a terrific book written
by David Jeremiah in two thousand and six, and it
has now been adapted into a terrific film that's.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Available for free to stream.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Just type in Why the Nativity on your browser or
go to Davidjeremiah dot org and watch it with your family.
And now here is doctor David Jeremiah to tell the
story of the Nativity and to answer the question and
many questions around the birth of Jesus.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
You know, we celebrate Christmas now, but most people don't
know what Christmas is about. So I decided to write
a book and answer a lot of questions that people had,
and we started out its going to be eleven questions,
then it was going to be fifteen, and then it
became twenty five. And these are key questions like why
Mary and why Joseph and where do they all fit
(01:39):
into the story. So one of the questions we talk
about in the beginning of the book is why did
God become a man? And the answer to that is
is really so much a part of the heart of
the story. He did that because of his love he
had to reach man, and the only way he could
reach man was to become a man himself. So he
(02:00):
and his own son, Jesus Christ to become a person.
The Bible says he tasted flesh, and at Christmas time
we celebrate that Jesus being born into humanity. And I
always like to say the people, because sometimes people don't
really understand it. He didn't become a man, then he
didn't become a person. Jesus has always been and he
(02:20):
always will be. There never was a time when he
was not, and there never will be a time when
he ceases to be. But in that moment, he came,
and he came through the birth canal of his mother
Mary and became a human being, so that in his
humanity he could reach down to man, and in his
divinity he could reach up to God. And one day,
(02:42):
on a cross outside of the city of Jerusalem, he
hung there as the God Man and as the man
God and paid the penalty for the sin of all
of us. A truly remarkable story that not duplicated anywhere else,
and it is so amazing. It had to be God,
because nobody else would ever have come up with that.
(03:05):
Nazareth was an interesting place. Actually, I've had the privilege
to talk about Nazareth before, and I've actually been a
Nazareth on maybe five times. And that's the place where
Jesus grew up as a carpenter. When we were building
the set for our movie that we did, we built
the set so if you walk into the set this way,
(03:27):
especially him, and if you walk into it the other way,
it's a Nazareth. And it was. It was the place
where Jesus grew up. He was a carpenter's son there,
he learned to work there, he learned to be a
godly son. And it's you know, the attitude was, can
anything good come out on Nazareth? Well, something did come
(03:47):
out on Aareth pretty good, and that was the Lord
God Why Mary is a really good question to ask.
Why would she be chosen? I'm sure she asked that question.
You know, I think about Mark Lowry's song Mary, did
you know? Did you know this was going to happen?
Obviously she didn't. And sometimes, you know, we think she's
thirty or thirty five years She was fifteen, maybe sixteen,
(04:09):
a very young child, and when the angels came and
told her that she was to be the mother of Jesus,
she was stunned. You know, in the Old Testament they
looked for the Messiah, and many young women thought maybe
they would be the mother of the Messiah because they
were looking for the Messiah. Well, Mary wasn't looking for it,
and it happened to her and the angel said she
(04:31):
would be the mother of Jesus. I always have been
struck by the fact that something as dramatic as that
happened to her. And her response was, be it unto me,
according to your word? And I thought, I wish I
had that kind of that kind of submission to the Lord.
Her submission to the Lord is amazing, and she she
(04:54):
was God's choice and she was the perfect choice. Well,
you know, Joseph was I have a a whole message
about why Joseph, and the message is the Forgotten Man
of Christmas. That's the name of the message, because he
comes on the scene for a period of time and
then he disappears and you never hear another word about him.
(05:14):
But he was the man that God chose to be
the earthly father of Jesus. As he was growing up,
he was. The Bible describes him as a good man
and a godly man, certainly as surprised as Mary was
when he got the message from But I think the
(05:35):
thing that to me is most critical about him was
his faith endured a great challenge, and that was the
challenge of Mary's pregnancy. And in our film we showed
the disappointment that he had when he found out that
she was with child. She came back from Elizabeth's house
and she was pregnant, and he couldn't figure that out.
(05:55):
He did, Nobody had told him that. I think in
the film we have him go away for a little bit,
but he comes back and he settles into being the
person God asked him to be, and that was the
human human father, the surrogate father, if you will, of
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Well, you know there's.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Why did Jesus come when he came? You know, the
Bible says he came in the fullness of time. I
don't know if you've ever seen that verse. And the
fullness of time he came. What does that mean? Well,
I think it means exactly the right time. First of all,
it's interesting if you study history. The Romans had just
paved the way with their roads to all of the
(06:35):
various regions of that particular part of the world. Greek
had become more and more common as a language, so
now you have transportation and communication coming together, and the
message of the Gospel could travel quickly to all points
of the world, just at the right time. And it
was also I think about that as we have gone
(06:59):
through what we've gone through here in our own country,
and all the stuff that goes on, and how awful
things have been in some cases with crime and all
of that. That was sort of like what it was
when Jesus came. It wasn't a good time. It was
a time they needed a redeemer, they needed to Christ,
They needed Jesus at that time. But it was perfect
because he came into the world at the right time. Well,
(07:22):
Bethlehem is a really interesting story why Bethlehem. The word
Bethlehem means house of bread, and it was the place
where the bread of life was born. It's a very
special place because there are some other famous Rachels buried there,
and it's about a few miles from Jerusalem. I've been
in Bethlehem. But this was the prophecy out of you
(07:47):
shall come he who is to come forth Bethlehem of Ephrita.
It was the prophecy that made Bethlehem so special. Interestingly enough,
when the prophet was making that prophecy, him was not
really in existence, but it became the answer to the prophecy.
And there to Bethlehem's there's Bethlehem and Bethlehem at Epheta,
(08:08):
he came to the right one. He showed up at
the right place. You have to put we have to
when you ask ourselves why there was no room in
the inn, I think we have to kind of put
ourselves in that situation. We read the Christmas story through
our Christian eyes, and we don't read it through the
eyes of the culture into which he was born. People
(08:28):
in Bethlehem, apart from some divine revelation, would have had
no idea what was going on who is this mother?
Who is this person? The bottom line, it was census.
It was census time in Bethlehem. There was no room
anywhere for anybody. I don't think they were singling out
in Jesus. They just had no room. And when he
came to the door and they didn't have any room
and ultimately gave him a place where he could be born.
(08:52):
That was a gracious thing for him to do because
there wasn't room any place else. And it wasn't hey,
we're not going to let Jesus in here. They didn't
know who he was. They have a clue who he was.
But it became a wonderful story because just as they
had no room for Jesus, in the end, so many
people that they don't have any room for Jesus at all,
(09:12):
whether it's Christmas or Easter or anytime. And I can
speak about that because I'm a pastor and I know
what that's like.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
And when we come back more from doctor David Jeremiah,
the film, the book Why the Nativity, here on our
American stories, and we returned to our American stories and
(09:41):
to doctor David Jeremiah and his conversation about his film
and book Why the Nativity.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Let's pick up where we last left off. Why was
Jesus born in the stable? The stable, to me is
a picture that Jesus wanted people to know that he
came for all men, not just for the hierarchy, not
for the aristocrats.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
He came.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
In fact, this is an amazing thing that he was
first worshiped by a group of shepherds who were the
outcasts of that culture. And to be born in a
manger was to state the very obvious fact that he
had come for all people. He didn't. He came. And
if he came for the shepherds and he was born
in a manger, he came for you. One of the
(10:30):
big arguments that comes around Christmas time is the argument
of the virgin birth. Why was Jesus born of a virgin?
Why was it important for him to be born of
a virgin? Because he was God. He had to come
into this world and not lose his holiness. So when
he came through a virgin, without the male involved in
(10:53):
the birth process, he preserved his holiness. He came and
he could become. At that particular time, one sent God
in one hundred percent man and Mary had never known
a man I remember there's a funny little story about that.
I had some books some years ago that I actually
it was a little New Testament I had written, worked
(11:15):
on to make available to people. And my grandchildren were
pretty young at the time. I have twins, and they
came in and they said, hey, Poppy, can we have
one of these? And I said, yeah, but you kind
to promise me you'll read it. And they say, what
you meet, I said, starts with Matthew. I want you to.
I want you to read Matthew this week and tell
me you read it. So about halfway through the week,
I get a call from their mom and they said, okay, okay,
(11:37):
you answered this one. Bradley came and said, hey, mom,
if Mary and Joseph never even knew each other, how
could they have a baby. I said, well, some mass
their father. But I mean so so the whole thing
about the virgin birth is the key. It preserves the
deity of Jesus Christ. And I want to tell you
(12:00):
why I know it's true. I remember reading this story
and how it helps me so much to know it's true.
When Mary was standing at the foot of the cross
and they were getting ready to crucify her, son. They
were getting ready to crucify her son because he claimed
to be God, and they said he was a blasphemer.
(12:22):
Mary could have spoken up and said, no, he's not God.
I remember the night he was conceived, he is not God.
But she never did that. She watched her son die
on the cross because she knew that what the Bible
says about him was true. And to me, you don't
(12:43):
need any other argument for the virgin birth of Christ
than that one. You know, I've gotten a little bit
involved in the Shepherd's story. Why the Shepherd's because if
you had I mean, I've got up a phone call
with somebody a few minutes ago and I'm asking him
to help was promote this film. And he asked me
this question, if I gave you the keys to this network,
(13:05):
where would you want to put this show? And I
know what he does that And I think about that
with the Shepherds. If I gave you the key to
who you want to have received the Gospel at first?
Who would you want? It wouldn't be the shepherds. You know,
when the shepherds, when the Israeli people were shepherds, they
weren't even allowed to live with other people. They were
the outcast. They had no credibility, They couldn't go to
(13:29):
the temple. They weren't allowed in the temple. Shepherds were
the lowest of the low. And yet it was to
the shepherds that Jesus first revealed himself, as if once
again to say, no matter who you are, no matter
what you've done, no matter how far you feel you
are away from God, think of the shepherds. They're the
(13:50):
picture of God's willingness. When we couldn't come up to
where he was, he came down to where we are.
And that's especially true with the shepherds. Well, why the angels.
You know, the angels are really involved in Jesus' life.
In fact, if you go through the life of Jesus,
you can almost say these are the important moments in
(14:11):
jesus life because angels were there. They were there at
his birth, they were as baptism, they were there at
as temptation in the wilderness. They're going to be totally
involved in his coming again in the Rapture and in
the Second coming. Angels were there as emissaries from heaven.
They were God's messengers. I think they were God's protectors too.
They God said, I'm going to send Jesus to be
(14:33):
the savior of the world, and you, angels, I'm sending
you down here to make sure it goes right and
take care of it.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Watch it.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They were the messengers, you know, Gabriel and Michael, the
only two angels we know about by name in the Bible.
One was the protector, one was the communicator, and God
sent them both to be here when Jesus was born. Well,
you know, if you ask, if you ask scientists about
the Star of Bethlehem and why it was so import
(15:01):
they'll give you all kinds of scientific reasons why this
was a meteor that was out of control or something.
But this was God's star. The star was going in
the wrong direction scientifically. It was almost like God was
defying everything to make sure that his wise men that
(15:23):
were coming would not get lost. I don't have a
scientific explanation for the star, because there is no scientific explanation.
It was God's star, and if God made him in
the first place, he can move them around any way
he wants, And that night he moved a star to
make sure those three guys didn't miss what they set
(15:45):
out to do. Well, the wise men represent a whole
different Why the wise men is a good question. They
represent a whole different aspect of the culture. Isn't it interesting?
You got the shepherds over here representing the down and out,
and you got the wise men over here representing the aristocracy.
(16:05):
It's almost like God put this pin down here, and
put this pin down here, and he says, I came
for everybody in between. The wise men came. Their gifts
were special, they represented worship, and unfortunately they get caught
up in the major scenes all over the country, and
they didn't come when the major scenes were there. They
(16:25):
came way later. The Bible says Jesus was a young
lad when they came. But they gave gold franken sense,
and gold for his kingship, franken sense for his suffering,
and mr which was was a bitter tasting element that
(16:46):
represented his death and his sufferings. So the wise men,
they're always a beautiful part of the story, and they're
not very much written about him, except they followed the Lord,
and the journey they took wasn't like two. It was
a long journey to get to where Jesus was. This
story of the birth of Jesus, which we celebrate with
(17:07):
such exuberance in our culture today. Actually communicated in Luke
and in Matthew, and then it's referenced in Philippians and
a few other places. But the actual story of Christmas,
the story of the Nativity, is found in a couple
chapters in Luke, in one chapter in Matthew. It was
prophesied in the Old Testament, as you know, many many
(17:29):
places in the Old Testament. Isaiah prophesied, Micah prophesied it,
Jeremiah prophesied, it was foretold, and then it was experienced.
And we have somebody said, why don't you have more information?
We don't need any more information. This is what God
said would happen. This is what happened. Here's the record
of it. I can embellish it if you want to.
(17:51):
And when you take the story and you go back
and get all of the prophecies and put them together,
then you have more of a body of work on
the Nativity. But the story itself is simple. It's not
hard to understand, and it's miraculous. Have your fun, celebrate
doo things you do, but don't forget Christmas is about
(18:12):
God becoming man. God loving us so much that he
left the courts of heaven to live in the womb
of a woman so he could become one of us
and go to the cross and pay the penalty for
our sin. The redemption story doesn't start at the crucifixion.
It starts at Bethlehem, because part of the sacrifice of
(18:33):
God was the sacrifice of his son, his only begotten son,
and part of the sacrifice of Jesus was leaving his
place in heaven to come down here and welcome among us.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
There's no way to.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Describe that, and a great job is always by our
own Greg Hengler on the editing and production, and a
special thanks to doctor David Jeremiah and a special thanks
to Turning Point Ministries for putting this film together again.
It's free for all to stream all through Christmas season
(19:06):
and beyond. Type in the words Why the Nativity on
your browser or go to Davidjeremiah dot org. Also, you
can check your cable listings. It will be appearing throughout
the month and again check tv Guide or wherever you
get your cable listings. Why the Nativity, By the way,
pick up the book. It's terrific if you're a Christian,
(19:28):
even if you're not sixty four percent of Americans call
themselves Christians. And it's an important story, it's an important date,
and we celebrate as we do.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
But again, we want to learn why.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
We celebrate and get the stories behind the stories.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Why the Nativity does that, the book and the.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Film, and doctor Jeremiah also happens to be my teacher.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
We don't have a relationship.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He's on the television every day at six am Central
Time where I live, and he's been teaching and coaching
me for fifteen years and doesn't know it. Well, it
didn't know it until I met him. This is Lee Habib,
Why the Nativity, But doctor David Jeremiah here on our
American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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