Nativity - A Devotional Commentary On The Birth Of Christ - By J. Michael Herron

‘NATIVITY’ is beginning of the most magnificent story of all; the love of God who gave His Son as a gift to the world. These 17 chapters, taken from passages in the gospels, reveal the life of the Jesus Christ from his pre-existence in heaven to the manger in Bethlehem and the amazing events following his birth.

Nativity

A devotional commentary on the birth of Christ

Daily Readings From December 14 th through December 30 th

By J. Michael Herron

Foreword

Saint Paul instructs Timothy to see himself as a worker that is approved by God because he does his best to correctly explain the scriptures. (2 Timothy 2:15) I believe Mike has taken that counsel seriously for the past 40 plus years and given us sound instruction and inspiration from the Bible. In his latest contribution, 'NATIVITY' he has once again brought the relational synthesis of both Old and New Testament to life. From the genealogies which many skip over, to Jesus taking on human flesh in the presence of the animals he created, the prophetic promises of our Redeemer and their detailed fulfillment are presented in a systematic study that is informative and inspirational. Mike's insight into the cast of characters God selected to be part of the NATIVITY story opens up a pantry full of healthy thoughts to consider for our own life's narrative!

Joseph Tosini: Founder of ‘John 17 Movement'

Endorsements

I have studied to present the NATIVITY each Christmas Season for over twenty years as a Lead Pastor, and like many serious students of the Scriptures, I had stumbled across much of the material Mike presented in his Commentary, however I have NEVER found such a concise wealth of well researched material on the NATIVITY pooled together in one place and presented in such an accessible manner. The material I was not familiar with added such depth, credence and additional meaning to the birth of Christ that it left me even more grateful and amazed by all miraculous stories that led up to and followed the miracle birth of our Savior. Don't let the condensed treatment of each text fool you. Though brief, the depth and insights presented in "NATIVITY are brilliant and refreshing. Drink deep, you will not be disappointed! This is one resource you will want in your library! Thank You Mike!! DON CURRY; Lead Pastor of New Testament Church, Plattsburgh, New York

Chapter One

The Eternal Word In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1,2

Chapter 1: IN THE BEGINNING (December 14)

he Good News of the Kingdom of God begins in eternity with Jesus Christ existing in endless life with The Father and the Holy Spirit. He precedes the act of creation in Genesis; He was God the spoken Word who brought the worlds into existence. There never was a time when the Son was not. The first five verses of John 'stand out as the one paragraph that is most profound, most lofty and incomparable in every way.' 1 We start at the pinnacle of heaven and follow the Son of God as he humbles himself in human birth to bring us the light of eternal life. 1 In the beginning was the Word. (NIV) The Word , is the Greek noun (Logos). ‘a…collection both of things in the mind, and of words by which they are expressed.’ 2 The thoughts and words of God is the person Jesus Christ who was there when time began, uncreated and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He has an existence that is 'distinct from God...yet inseparable from Him.' 3 His uniqueness does not mean He is another being, He is in absolute unity with the Father and The Spirit. The tense of the Greek word was ' is the unchanging past, reaching back indefinitely beyond the instant of the beginning.' 4 By using the name (Logos) as the final revelation of God, John connected with a universal awareness in Greek civilization. Their philosophers described The Logos as: 'the principle order under which the universe continues to exist.' 5 ' Logos does not only mean word; it also means the reason.' 6 To the Greco/Roman culture, The Logos was the reason for all existence. The Jews translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic, the language spoken at the time of Christ. In these translations called Targums, they replaced every name of God with The

Merma, Aramaic for The Word because they thought the names of God were too holy to even pronounce . 7 In the Targums Genesis 1:1 reads, ' In the beginning, The Merma (The Word) created the heavens and the earth.' Both Jew and Gentile were prepared by Scripture and Philosophy to understand Christ as The Word, The Logos. 1 The Word was with God, ... ‘Was with God’… describes the most intense closeness possible. Jn 1:11 portrays the intimacy as ' ... the unique One, who is himself God, is near the Fathers heart.' Other uses of this phrase give the meaning of being face to face, at home in His presence. 'The Word is not an attribute of God...but a person...turned in loving, inseparable communion toward God and God equally toward him.' 8 John knew The Word through the avenue of his three senses; hearing, seeing and touching Him. He invites us into this relationship with God and His family. ‘ We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word (Logos) of life.’ 1 Jn 1:1 1 ...and the Word was God. The Logos has been in an unchanging, timeless existence forever, distinct yet indivisible with The Father and the Holy Spirit. ‘God was what the Word was.’ 9 The Good News is this Word became human and spoke the wholeness of salvation to everything that is destroyed by sin. 2 He existed in the beginning with God.’ John restates the previous thoughts into one sentence, a literary technique that he employs throughout his writings. The

use of the personal pronoun He reminds us that the Word is a person distinct from the other members of the Godhead. Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, Mark begins his gospel with the preaching of John the Baptist, Luke begins with an explanation of his ‘ carefully investigated everything from the beginning…’ John’s beginning takes us back to the origins of everything where we are allowed a cosmic glimpse into eternity before time.

Chapter two

He Created All Things All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:3-

Chapter 2: HE CREATED ALL THINGS – John 1:3-5 (December 15th)

od created everything through his love. The focus shifts from the Word, the audible revelation of God to the Light, the visible revelation of God. ‘Divine being gives way to divine action.’ 1 Jesus the Word participates fully with the Father and the Spirit in the creation of everything that has come into being.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing

was made that has been made. (NIV)

The entire intellectual world outside of Judaism and Christianity believed that the universe was uncreated and eternal. Christianity has always believed in a creation out of nothing. Through him …reveals Christ as the spoken Word of the creation account in Genesis. ‘ In the beginning God (the Father) created the heavens and the earth…And the Spirit of God (The Holy Spirit) was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said (Christ The Word) , “Let there be light,” and there was light.’ The plurality of persons within the Trinity is also alluded to in Genesis 1:26 ‘Let us make man in our image, to be like us.’ In the first sentence of verse 3, the creative act is stated positively and then reinforced by being repeated negatively. The positive statement encompasses the totality of everything that has been created. The second negative statement refers to each individual created thing. ‘Every single thing that now exists traces its existence back to the past moment when it first entered existence.’ 2 The most profound question of the human heart, ‘where did we come from?’ is answered by this prologue to John’s gospel. The only logical answer to the existence of a creation is a creator. Hebrews tells us the way of understanding this mystery is by faith; ‘By faith we understand that the entire universe was

formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.’ (Heb 11:3 NLT) There are exceptions in the act of creation. Christ the Word was uncreated as well as the eternal attributes of God such as His love, wisdom, truth, mercy, holiness and power. The eternal life that is in Christ would not be eternal had it come into being in the creation. In the Kingdom of God, the natural order of things is reversed. In our physical world, light is the source of life. In God’s Kingdom the Life that is in Christ comes first and gives light to each person. There are two aspects as to what this ‘light of all mankind’ truly is. One is that ‘the light of humans is a capacity for love and understanding given to every human being…as is physical birth is a source of light to every human.’ 3 This is ‘natural, animated life’ that is given to all mankind. But this verse is also referring to the eternal life that comes through believing in Jesus Christ. We receive animated life when we are birthed into existence and we receive the light of grace when we are called unto salvation. The aspect of eternal life is not concerned with length but with quality. ‘ My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.’ (Jn 10:10 NLT) Both light and life are equivalents for salvation in John’s gospel and we enter into this life by believing in Christ. Life (Zoe) occurs more than fifty-four times in this gospel and light, twenty-one times making them major themes for understanding salvation. ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’ (Jn 8:12 NLT) Life and light are meant to attract us to Christ. Light as it is used here is referring not to the rays that diffuse, but to Jesus who is its source. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has

not overcome it.’

The light of Christ’s life, truth, love and wisdom are superior to the darkness (skotia), the realm of sin, evil and the hostile powers of the spiritual and natural world. The potential for sin and darkness was present when God created the order of the universe. A class of angelic beings chose the dark path of rebellion and set in motion the events that made our salvation necessary. The darkness has made every effort to overcome (katelaben) the light: ‘to pounce upon something…so it won’t assert itself,’ 4 but has remained unsuccessful. ‘A confrontation between light and darkness has taken place once and for all, light has emerged victorious.’ 5 Now begins the earthly story of Jesus who has forever destroyed the power of darkness by His life and light.

Chapter three

The Gospel Of St. Luke Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.

Luke 1:1-4

Chapter 3: LUKE’S INTRODUCTION – Luke 1:1-4 (December 16th)

uke has been called ‘the loveliest book in the world.’ 1 It is generally acknowledged that ‘Luke, the beloved doctor…’ (Col. 4:14) and companion of Paul is the author of both this narrative and the Book of Acts. Luke-Acts…’is one of the first examples of a type of history, concerned ‘to present a true account of something,’ which began to be written in the first century BC. 2 The two volumes are carefully researched by his highly educated and observant mind. This introduction would be much like the previews on the jacket of our modern books intended to inform the reader of its contents. The introduction, written in the finest style of Koine Greek in the Bible, was intended to assure its recipient of the truthfulness of Luke’s account of the life of Christ. We are not told how many written and oral records Luke is referring to but the use of the word ‘many’ would indicate that it is more than two or three. He is not claiming superiority to the previous accounts, but he acknowledges their validity although none survive today. Hippocrates, the famous Greek doctor, uses the word ‘undertaken’ in the ‘introduction to his medical work’ to enforce the thought of careful investigation. The events of Jesus’ life ‘fulfilled’ the prophetic Scriptures of the Hebrew Old Testament perfectly. 2 …just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Two of the accounts that were handed down to Luke would have been the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of 1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,… (NIV)

Matthew. Both Matthew and Mark were eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus’ life, death, burial and resurrection and servants who preached his word throughout the world. ‘Eyewitness’ is used only here in the New Testament… ‘We have the very word in the medical term autopsy.’ 3 All Luke’s investigations with regard to the eyewitnesses mentioned here were made during the years prior to Paul’s death.’ 4 Luke would have met Mark in the early 40s AD in Antioch of Syria. Both he and Mark were companions of Paul during his 1 st imprisonment in Rome in 62 AD. ‘ Aristarchus, who is in prison with me , sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin…Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings…(Col 4:10,14 NLT) Luke was most likely with Mark and Paul during Paul’s second imprisonment and death in 66 AD. ‘Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry.’ (2 Tim 4:10 NLT) Mark was also with Peter during his imprisonment and death in 64 AD. Peter writes; ‘ your sister church here in Babylon (Rome) sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark.’(1 Pet 5:13 NLT) Luke spent time with Mark as well as Peter and Paul going over their direct recollections of the events of Christ’s life. Even with the Gospels of Matthew and Mark in hand, Luke felt there was room for another account of the life of Jesus. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you,… Carefully investigated is the Greek word (Akribos) meaning ‘accurately…going into minute details, from (akron,) the topmost point.’ 5 1 Corinthians 15:5,6 gives us the scope of the many persons Luke might have interviewed in his carefully investigated gospel: ‘ He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time,

most of whom are still alive…’ The accounts of the Birth of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel indicate that he most likely had a direct interview with Mary, the Lord’s mother. His detailed version of the story of the two followers of Jesus on the road to Emmaus supposes that it was an eyewitness account by them.

3 …most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know

the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Theophilus means ‘dear to God, or lover of God.’ 6 The word ‘excellent’ was a title reserved for Roman political officials or other people of advanced social status. Luke’s use of the word ‘taught, ’ (catechumens , ) indicate that Theophilus was being instructed in a class prior to his baptism into the Christian faith. The introduction has one main purpose, to address the mental state of Theophilus and provide for his soul and mind ‘that the faith he has embraced has an impregnable historical foundation.’ 7 . Although intended for one person, the benefit of Luke’s Book has transcended the ages and touched the hearts of countless individuals.

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