For Unto Us a Child is Born

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Hey, welcome to my show. This is Dr. Ray Self. Welcome to Self Talk with me. Appreciate you being a part of today's show. I want to talk to you about our Savior today. He was born. This is a Christmas show. Why was He born? What does that mean for us? Very important show. The show is sponsored by the college that I founded, International College of Ministry. We're enrolling right now with some incredible enrollment specials at icmcollege.org. If you want to get your associate's, bachelor's or master’s, or doctorate degree in an accredited, Holy Spirit-filled seminary, go to icmcollege.org. Be glad to have you. So, I'm excited about today's show. Stay tuned. It's going to be fun and hopefully life-changing.

Okay, here we go. We'll start off with prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to the show. I pray for the Holy Spirit to be here to be a part of us, to anoint us, to, uh, encourage us and give us your revelation, Father. In Jesus’ name. This show is a Christmas show. It's recorded right before Christmas. And I want to share with you a little bit about Jesus and why He came to us. In Luke 2:11, the angels visited the shepherds, and they said to the shepherds in the field of Bethlehem, “For today in the city of David, there's been born for you a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Of course, you know the story. And they begin to sing, "Glory, hallelujah,” and the shepherds run to see this incredible savior that's been born. What a story. What an incredible story. My question today is why. Why was He born? I mean, why was He sent to us by God in such a humble way and born in a, in a, probably a cave, uh, and laid in a feed trough? Very, very humble beginnings. 

But, but why? Why did Jesus come to us? And why is this important to us? And how does this impact our life? And I want to tell you something: it does. I don't want this to be a Sunday school lesson. I want this to be a podcast that changes your life. And so I think there's three primary reasons why Jesus came, and we need to understand these reasons. This does affect us in everyday living. Christianity is not just a, a belief system. It is something that impacts us every day. It's something that changes our life, guides our life. It's the reason we were created. Jesus is the center of everything. You know, I've talked before about how we like to make…we say that we have this ranking system. How, you know, we put God number one, and our, our marriage is number two, and our church is number three, our kids are number four, our dog’s number five, our cat’s number six, you know, we're number seven, something like that. I've never believed in that. I believe Jesus said this: He said, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing." And He also said, "Apart from Me, nothing exists." That's what that scripture means. Jesus is the centerpiece. So picture this. Picture your life as a wheel that's revolving around an axle. And whether you realize it or not, that axle is Jesus Christ. Our life should revolve around Him. He's the reason we were born. He's the reason we take every breath. He is the most important thing. Apart from Him, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter eternally. So no matter what we're doing in life, we can recognize Him and give glory to Him in everything we do. Whether you're a plumber or a real estate broker or an electrician or a car salesman, it can all be done for the glory of Jesus Christ. It can, and it's possible. That's what He wants because He created us for a reason, for a purpose. 

But why was he born in such humble beginnings? Well, to me, there's three reasons He came to earth. The first reason, and, and you can rank these any way you want to. Jesus was to be our mediator. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, that Man Christ Jesus…" Hebrews 9:15 says, "For this reason, He,” Jesus, “is the mediator of a new covenant." What is a mediator? A mediator is one who stands in the middle of two parties, in the middle of, of two things. And Jesus stands in the middle of us and God. See, the fact that He came to earth as a man, being fully human and at the same time being fully God, is very important because He was fully human. He could represent me, Ray, to God. Okay? He understands me. He knows me. He's a human just like I am. He was tempted like us. He was hungry. He was thirsty. Uh, He, you know, He slept. And He, He was tired. He, He experienced all the temptations. So He was a human. So He could be a very good representation of me to God. But He was also God representing God to us. It's a perfect arrangement. He is the one who stands between me and God. He is representing God to me and representing me to God. He's a mediator. That's the reason He came was to mediate us and to defend us, to, to intercede for us, to acknowledge us, to, to help us to mediate in our relationship with God. 

Let me tell you something. Because of our sin nature and because of our sin and failings, we've been separate from God. We were separate from God until the Savior Jesus Christ came. You might not know you're separate, but you were separate. Now we are connected and have a relationship with God and can come to the Holy of Holies. We can talk to God. He can talk to us. We can feel His presence. We can, we can have Him work in our life. We can experience Him and be with Him for all eternity because of this perfect mediator, Jesus Christ. 

Again, 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” First reason He came was to be mediator. The second reason was to make a sacrifice. Jesus needed a body in order to die. Boy, that's a tough thing to say, isn't it? He needed a body in order to die. You see, Hebrews 9:28 says, "For Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, He needed a body to make the offering for our sins." He needed a body to die. See, the wages of sin is death. I had a death sentence on me. You had a death sentence on you. Jesus offered His body to die in replacement for me. He replaced me on the cross. He replaced you on the cross. He took our punishment. He took what we deserved. He needed a body to do that.

First, uh, Peter 2:24 says, "For He Himself bore our sins in His body..." It's why He had to be born. “...bore our sins in His body on the cross so we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds we were healed.” He came to earth to mediate and to offer Himself as a sacrifice. But the third thing, while He was here, He wanted to teach us and show us by example what it means to be a Christian. He lived a life that was perfect and holy and gave us example after example after example of how to forgive, how to heal, how to walk, how to love, how to show compassion, how, how to serve God, how to minister. 1 Peter 2:21 says, "For you've been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” He came to earth to be a mediator. He came to earth as a child to offer His body as a sacrifice. But while He was living, especially His three years of ministry, He came to earth to be an example for us. John 13:15 says this very clearly, “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” Those are the words of Christ. 

So Jesus came to mediate, to offer His body as a sacrifice, and to give us a living example of what it means to be a Holy Spirit-filled Christian. The Bible says that “Those that believe in Me,” Jesus said this in John 14:12. He said something very powerful: “Those that believe in Me,” do you believe in Him? “...will do the same works that I do and even greater works because I go to the Father.” Jesus came as our example, saying that we will do the same things He did because we believe that's the sign of a Christianity– a Christian is to do the works of Christ. We will do the same things that He did and even greater things because He is going to ascend to the Father, which He actually ended up doing. 

So at Christmas, “For unto us a child is born.” What a, what a great scripture. “For unto us a child is born.” It's an amazing scripture. An amazing, amazing story. The angels went on to tell the shepherds in Luke 2:12, "This will be a sign for you, for you'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Continuing on, “And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.’" This is the story of Christmas. I think it's important that we understand why the birth of Jesus is important for us every day. Without that mediator, we'd be guilty. He mediated peace between us and God. He mediated, uh, our justification and our redemption. He fought for us. He died for us to give us a right standing with God. Is that not important? He showed us how to live. He showed us how to walk as a Christian, you know, by His life. An incredible, incredible example. 

And then He offered His life as a sacrifice because God had said the wages of sin is death. The wage, the cost of your sin, of my sin, of everyone's sin, is death. But Jesus said, "I will give My life for you." He offered His life for my life and for your life. Are we grateful? Are we glad He came? Do we understand why He was born? Do we know what that means to us every day of our life? We should never forget this and always have that incredible attitude of appreciation and gratitude, “For unto us a child is born.” Merry Christmas. Let's close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this podcast. I pray that this truth will just be implanted in our hearts. That our appreciation and understanding of you and why you came to earth as a baby and grew and were tempted– and grew up as a man of just, just like we all have, Father. Why you did this, let us understand it, appreciate it, and live by the principles you have given us, Father. Lord, thank you for your son, Jesus. Jesus, thank you for coming to mediate and offering yourself as a sacrifice for us. We praise you. We honor you. Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit to live inside of us. Thank you for that, Father. And Holy Spirit, I ask you now to touch everyone listening to this show with a fresh anointing, a fresh filling, a fresh revelation of you. Help those that are sick. We speak healing to those that are suffering in their body right now because as you said in your word, “by His stripes we are healed.” We rebuke every disease. You said we should submit to you, resist the devil, he'll flee from us. I rebuke every assignment of the enemy against everyone listening in this podcast. And I ask now for a fresh filling, fresh fire, fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. 

And now, as you listen, feel the Holy Spirit upon your life. Feel the Holy Spirit touch you and know you will never be the same. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. God bless you. Thank you so much for listening to my show. It means a lot to me. Uh, the show is growing. Be sure and download it and share it. You know, you know what we're supposed to do. I just want to get this message out to as many people as possible. This show does not make money. It’d be, be nice, but it doesn't make money. This show costs me. And I'm not asking for a donation. If you want to donate, great. I'm not asking for that. I'm just saying I want the message to be heard. I want the message of Jesus Christ to be heard. That's my heart, and I want you to be blessed. So have a merry Christmas and an incredible, blessed new year. Amen and amen. This is Dr. Ray Self, and thank you for listening to my show today, Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self.