A brief overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Luke 2:1-15, for Sunday, December 24, 2023, with the title, “The First Christmas.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

Like a lot of churches, FBC Angleton is not having Sunday school on Christmas Eve day, but I know some of you will, so I wanted to get out at least a little something to help you with preparation for the lesson that day, which jumps to Luke 2 for the Christmas holiday.

I’ll give you 2-3 points you can make, and some stories/illustrations and some questions for your group that I hope will help you.  If you want a little more you can look at my blog, http://www.shawnethomas.com, where I will post my sermons from a Christmas series on Luke 2 that I am preaching at our church.

I. The First Christmas is grounded in HISTORY.

??? I might begin this section by asking my group to call out all of the historic/real life people and places they see in :1-4.

(These would include:

— Caesar Augustus

— Quirinius Governor of Syria

— Galilee, Nazareth, Judea, and Bethlehem

All these grounds this story in real-life history. This really happened. I say that because a lot of people think that religions are just all myths, stories that people made up to make people feel good, or to explain things they can’t understand.

For example, when I was in India on a mission trip about 15 years ago, I was in a boat on the Ganges River, and the man who was guiding our boat was telling us a traditional Hindu story about how the Ganges River originated. He said one day, the gods were in heaven, and a female goddess stubbed her toe, and she fell down from heaven, and when she hit the earth, the place where she landed, the Ganges River sprung up, and that is why it is such mystical, religious river today. After he shared that story, I said to him: “Do you really believe that happened; that that is REALLY how this river began?” He acted at first like he didn’t hear me, so I repeated it again: “Do you believe this REALLY happened?” — but he never would answer me! I think the answer is obvious: nobody believes that’s really what happened; that some “goddess” “fell from heaven” and went “splat,” and that’s how that river started? That’s ludicrous. It’s obviously just a myth; a story. There’s no real scientific, historical, or factual basis for it.

But that is not so of Christianity. Some people accuse Christianity of being a “myth” — but only people who are not aware of the facts. Christianity is NOT a myth, but is very firmly grounded in history.

— :1 Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that there would be a census. Augustus was a real Caesar of Rome from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14, who presided over what historians call the “Pax Romana,” or era or Roman Peace. He was a real, historic figure.

— :2 says this happened while Quirinius was governor of Syria. This was a specific, real governor. Historians tell us “Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (or Cyrenius in Greek) was a well-known Roman official who lived from 51 B.C. to A.D. 21.  He is mentioned by numerous ancient authors, including Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, Cassius Dio, Tacitus, Strabo, and Caesar Augustus himself. This was a real man, in real history.

— :4 says Joseph left Galilee, a real area of Northern Palestine, which still exists in Israel today, left the city of Nazareth, a real city there, and went to Judea, a real Roman province, to the city of Bethlehem, another real city which still exists today, to register for that census. 

All of this emphasizes: this is REAL stuff; these are REAL people; this is REAL life. The story of Jesus is not just some “religious myth” that people invented to create some kind of “morality story.” These things really happened, in real places, in real history. This has been verified time and again:

— William Mitchell Ramsey was a professor at Oxford the last century. He went to modern Turkey to write a book demonstrating how the Book of Acts could not possibly have taken place the way the Bible outlined it. When he had finished following Acts through Turkey he wrote a book, “St. Paul The Traveler and Roman Citizen,” which was now a book which demonstrates the historical and geographical accuracy of the Book of Acts!

— Frank Morison was another man who set out to disprove the Bible, this time the Resurrection of Jesus, by historical and forensic evidence. But HE ended up writing a book, called Who Moved the Stone?, on how the Resurrection is actually the BEST explanation for what happened to Jesus! 

— We just saw in our Sunday School study in Genesis 1 how Andrew Parker, a British scientist, was lecturing on bioluminescence, and someone told him, that sounds like Genesis. He wasn’t familiar with Genesis, so he bought himself a Bible and began to read it, and he said these Hebrew authors had no way of knowing that what is described in Genesis 1 accurately follows his scientific understanding of how the universe began! And HE wrote yet another book: The Genesis Enigma: How the First Book of the Bible Is Scientifically Accurate. 

All of this gives us confidence that what is written in the Bible really happened. These things happened to real people, in real history — and they will make a difference in the lives of our class and people we care about today!

II. The First Christmas took place in the midst of chaotic events

??? You might ask your group how many of you feel “pressure” and anxiety in the “busy-ness” of the season???

(Most likely a number of them do, and it might be good for some of them to share about that …)

But then either ask them to call out, or you point to them, all of the difficulties that Mary & Joseph faced here. These would include:

— Her pregnancy (and they were not married!) They knew the truth of this, but you know people did not understand.

— Then traveling while pregnant; and travel was difficult and dangerous, as the robbery in the Good Samaritan shows!

— And they were having to go because Joseph had to register and pay taxes! That’s pressure too!

All this and more made this a very difficult time for them. Maybe our “Christmas chaos” is not that far off of the “spirit of the first Christmas” after all!

Encourage your group that life will not always be “easy,” often there is “chaos,” even at Christmas time. But God can and will work IN all our difficulties and chaos, if we will let Him.

III. And the First Christmas brought us a Savior!

When the angels appeared to the shepherds here, the angel told them in :10-11, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; (:11) For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” 

The angel said this happened “In the city of David.” This was not a surprise. Micah 5:2, written hundreds of years beforehand had said: “But as for you, Bethlehem … from YOU One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” Micah had prophesied, 600 years before, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. AND everyone knew it, too. Matthew 2 says when Herod asked the Jewish leaders where the Messiah was to be born, they told him right off: “In Bethlehem …” and they quoted that Scripture in Micah. So everyone knew that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. Significantly, Jesus DID fulfill that prophecy. He had to be born there, and He was. He fulfilled that scripture, and dozens of others, which is significant. 

??? THEN you might ask your group to call out the description of this One who had been born. What names/terms did he use???

(Verse 11 says: “there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

— “Savior” means one who rescues or saves you.

— “Christ” is the Greek word for “Messiah,” the One the Old Testament had promised would come to save God’s people.

— “Lord” means “master” — and also “God,” the YHWH God of the Old Testament. He was saying, the Messiah has come, God Himself, to save you!

We should be so grateful that God sent “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord”! 

This is where Christianity differs from virtually every world religion, which all teach that we have to save ourselves: we have to pray so much give so much, pay so much, do so much — and then “maybe,” if we can do all that, maybe, we can be saved. This is every world religion:

— The Hindus consider the Ganges a “holy river.” They HOPE that if they wash in that river, and give enough in their “puja” sacrifices, that maybe they will come back as something better, and make their way up the chain of reincarnation to eventual salvation.

— Islam is also a very “works” based religion. I’ve mentioned before the name of Nabeel Qureshi, who wrote the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. In the book he describes how some friends invited him, as a Muslim to church to watch “Heaven’s Gate and Hell’s Flames.” After going, he talked about the play with his father. His dad asked him: “‘What is the truth about judgment?’

Nabeel said: ’Allah judges us based on our choices in this world. Everything we do is recorded by angels: one on our right shoulder recording our good deeds, and one on our left shoulder recording our bad deeds. When we stand before Allah, our deeds will be read aloud. No one will be able to intercede for us; not our family, not Jesus, not even Muhammed. Allah will weigh our good deeds and our bad, and if our good deeds are greater than our bad deeds, Allah will give us paradise.’”

(Nabeel Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, p. 96)

This is all the religions of the world right here: do this, pray this, give this — and maybe you can saved. There are so many examples of this, and you may be able to think of others that you can share. Some people even try to make Christianity into a religion like that, but it is not. Do not mistake it for that. We are NOT saved by what we do for the Lord.

For there in the fields outside Jerusalem, the angels appeared to the shepherds that day with an amazing message: “Today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Not just a King to be appeased, though He is a King; a SAVIOR. He didn’t come to “demand” of us, though He is worthy of our love and obedience; He came to SAVE us. 

— When the angel appeared to Joseph in Matthew 1, he told him, “You shall call His name, ‘Jesus,’ for He shall save His people from their sins.” 

— John the Baptist said of Him: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” 

— Jesus said “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Here’s the good news; the surprising news: WE DON’T HAVE TO SAVE OURSELVES; HE CAME TO SAVE US!  He came to do for us what we could NOT do for ourselves. 

In one thing the Muslims are right: God IS recording everything we say, think, and do — and that thought should be chilling to us! That condemns us all. We have no HOPE of salvation on our own. That’s why the message of Jesus is such good news. The Bible says “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” And when Jesus died on the cross, He cried out: “It is finished” — the words He used were a Greek commercial expression which means, “paid in full.” 

We had a contractor over to our house the other day to do some work, and when he was finished we paid him, and he gave us a receipt, and it was stamped in big red letters, “PAID IN FULL.”  The Bible says that is what Jesus has done with our sins. Through His death on the cross, He has stamped “PAID IN FULL” across everything we ever said, did, or thought!  So if we trust Him as our Lord & Savior, we will NOT be judged by all that we did, but by what JESUS did for us! 

THIS IS GOOD NEWS! We aren’t saved by all that we do for God, we’re saved by what GOD did for US, in Jesus’ death on the cross. “There has been born for you a SAVIOR, who is Chris the Lord.” It’s a surprising message — but the best news ever!

And here’s MORE good news: note that :10 says it is “For ALL the people;” then :11 says to the shepherds it is “For YOU”! For YOU! 

Even for these shepherds! The lowest of the low in their society. It is even for them. That reminds us that it is truly “for ALL the people” — even ME! Even YOU!

And maybe the biggest surprise of all, he said it is “TODAY”! “TODAY there has been born for you …”!

People knew that the Messiah was going to come “one of these days.” But all of the sudden, the angel says “IT’S TODAY!” It’s NOW!

It’s like in John 4, when Jesus is speaking to the Woman at the Well, and He tells her about sin, and eternal life, and real worship, and the woman says, “one day Messiah will come and tell us all things …”, in other words, she was saying, “Some day” He’ll come, and we’ll know …

But Jesus smashed that! He said to her: “I who speak to you am He!” He’s saying, Woman, it’s not “some day,” it’s NOW! I’m here NOW! This isn’t “someday”; it’s NOW!

And this is what some of us need to get today. Maybe you’ve been saying, “Some day” God is going to speak to me; “Some day” I am going to get right with God. But He’s saying to you today, I am here RIGHT NOW — I am speaking to you right now — just as surely as I spoke to the shepherds that day in Israel, I am speaking to you NOW. And He says “NOW is the time; NOW is the day of your salvation”!  The “surprising message” is that true religion is not what you thought it was; it’s not about what you have to do for God, but it’s about what GOD will do for YOU! “There has been born for YOU a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And He came to save you, right now! 

And encourage your class:  if you DO give your life to Him, He’ll give you an eternal life that will impact your real life, right now.  He’ll lead you, He’ll direct you, He’ll speak to you through His word. He’ll give you joy and peace in real-life situations. And He’ll give you confidence, even as you face death, that you have eternal life.

You may want to close with a story like this: 

John Newton is the former slave trader who got saved, and wrote the great hymn, “Amazing Grace.” He shared the story of a conversation he had with a young lady in England who was dying. He said: 

“She was a sober, prudent person, of plain sense, could read her Bible, but had read little besides. Her knowledge of the world was nearly confined to the parish; for I suppose she was seldom, if ever, twelve miles from home in her life. She had known the gospel about seven years before the Lord visited her with a lingering consumption, which at length removed her to a better world. A few days before her death, I had been praying by her bed-side, and in my prayer I thanked the Lord that he gave her now to see that she had not followed cunningly-devised fables (which is a quote from II Peter 1:16 in the Bible). 

When I had finished, she repeated that word, ‘No,’ she said, ‘not cunningly-devised fables; these are REALITIES indeed; I feel their truth, I feel their comfort. O! Tell my friends, tell my acquaintances, tell inquiring souls, tell poor sinners, what Jesus has done for my soul. Tell them, that now in the time of need I find him my beloved and my friend, and as such I commend him to them.’ 

She then fixed her eyes steadfastly upon me, and proceeded, as well as I can recollect, as follows: ‘Sir, you are highly favored in being called to preach the gospel. I have often heard you with pleasure; but give me leave to tell you, that I now see all you have said, or can say, is comparatively but little. Nor, till you come into my situation, and have death and eternity full in your view, will it be possible for you to conceive the vast weight and importance of the truths you declare. Oh! Sir, it is a serious thing to die; no words can express what is needful to support the soul in the solemnity of a dying hour.’” (John Newton to Lord Dartmouth, The Letters of John Newton, Josiah Bull, ed., pp. 100-101)

There in her last hours, dying of consumption, that young lady could say, NO; these are NOT “cunningly devised fables;” she said “I feel their truth” — and the truth of Jesus carried her through her last hours, to eternity. THAT is what the Gospel is all about. That’s really what Christmas is all about. That is why Jesus came: a real-life God, came to a real-life Earth, as a real-life Man, to save real-life people like you and me, and help us in our real-life needs.

I hope there is something here that will help you with your lesson Sunday.  Some of this has come from some sermons I am preaching at FBCA on Luke 2, you can read those full sermons on my blog.

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