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