Jesus was born in a manger.

"Who is Jesus?"

 

  Jesus is the Son of God.  Yes, really.  God has a Son and His name is Jesus.

 

"How is Jesus the Son of God?  Isn't he the son of Joseph?"

 

  To answer that, let's start with Jesus being born.  We'll move on to far more information about Jesus further down below.  Jesus is the son of Joseph in the same way that any adopted child is legally the child of the adopting parent.  So, yes, Jesus is Joseph's son by adoption.  Biologically though, Jesus is the Son of God.

 

"How did THAT happen?"

 

  God sent His Holy Spirit to Mary when she was still a virgin.  You see, Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married, but they were not yet married.  God sent an Angel, named Gabrielle, to tell Mary and Joseph that Mary would become pregnant with God's Son.  When any woman becomes pregnant, at the very moment of conception, God creates a brand-new spirit to put into that baby.  But, when the Holy Spirit of God came down to Mary and touched her womb, God put the spirit of His Son, Jesus, in her womb.  That is how Jesus, who was with God long before the universe began, came to be born in Israel about 2,000 years ago.

 

  Jesus was born in a stable.  That's right, the Son of God was born in a borrowed stable for animals.  You see, 2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire controlled most of the inhabited world.  Isreal was under the control of Ceasar.  Ceasar Augustus ordered that a census be taken of the entire Empire.  Mary and Joseph were ordered, along with everyone else in Israel, to register for the census.  When Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem for the census, all of the rooms for rent were already taken.  Poor pregnant Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God and the creator of the universe in a borrowed animal stable.  The most powerful being that exists came to Earth as a poor, helpless baby.  God's Son came down to Earth in humility to lift us up... to save us, deliver us and heal us.  The Creator of all things chose to come down to us as the most humble person who ever lived in the most humble of circumstances.  The Maker of us all came down from Heaven to save us from our own sin.  To pay for our sin with His very life.

What is baptism?

 

  John the Baptiser would baptise people in water.  Even Jesus was baptised by John.  So, what exactly is baptism and why do Christians do that?  And what was so special about John the Baptiser?

 

  The Bible teaches us that God will always send His Prophets (messengers that hear from God) to tell us what God is about to do.  In the Bible, the book of Amos, chapter 3, verse 7 says, "Indeed, the Lord God does nothing without revealing his counsel to his servants the prophets."  You see, God very carefully prepares us for what He is about to do.  Especially when God is going to do something very important.  God was sending His own Son, Jesus, to the world to teach us God's will and then die for our sins.  So, God sent a prophet, John, to tell people that the Kingdom of God was about to come (through Jesus).  John warned people to confess and repent (repent means 'turn from') of their sins.  John told people to come into the water and John would lower people fully into/under the water and lift them back out.  This is symbolic of someone dying to their sin and being revived to new life, clean from their sin.  This is also symbolic of when Jesus was crucified and His dead body was laid in a tomb for 3 days and then Jesus came back to life.  Christians do this as a very public confession that they have sinned, but they repent of those sins and turn to God through faith in Jesus.  The Baptism in water is symbolic of taking a bath from sin and becoming clean by dying to this sinful life and being reborn through faith in Jesus to new life.  Just like when we physically die and are lowered into the ground in a grave, we go down into the water to die to sin.  But we come back up out of this grave of water to new life as Christians.  This baptism is a public declaration that "I am no longer the God of my life.  I surrender my will to God's will.  I declare Jesus as my new King!  I am no longer my own king.  God is now my King, forever and ever."

Jesus was baptised by John.

Jesus was tempted by Satan.

  After Jesus was baptised, He went into the wilderness and there He fasted and prayed for 40 days!  After that, He was very hungry and weak.  When Jesus was at His weakest point, Satan came to tempt Jesus to sin!

 

"Who is Satan?"

 

  In Hebrew, the word Satan fundamentally means "adversary," "opponent," or "accuser".  Satan is a powerful angel who turned against God.  Satan became arrogant and wanted to take the throne of God.  Satan even convinced many other angels to side with him against God.  But God casts Satan down and all of the rebellious angels with him.

 

  Satan is the same deciever to convinced Adam and Eve to rebel against God's authority.  Would you believe, Satan even tried to deceive Jesus, too!  Satan tried very hard to get Jesus to rebel against God.  But, Jesus is completely devoted to His Father and refused to sin against God.  You can read about that in the Bible, in the book of Matthew, chapter 4.

 

  When Jesus comes back to the Earth, He will throw Satan into the eternal Lake of Fire, where all who rebel against God will spend eternity, suffering for their rebellion.  Justice will be done!

 

 

  "Why did Jesus come to the Earth?"

 

  Jesus actually came to the Earth for many reasons, but let's start with His geneology and heritage, because there's a lot of important context that needs to be mentioned.  First of all, it's important to note that Jesus is a Jew.  Let's go over a quick, abbreviated geneology of Jesus.  Long ago, there was a man who was passionate about serving God.  This man's name was Abraham.  God promised Abraham that his children would be God's special, chosen people through whom God would bless the whole world!  Many years later, a man named Moses was born.  Moses is a descendant of Abraham.  Moses also was very passionate about serving God.  God told Moses His Laws so that Moses could teach his people, the Hebrews, God's Laws.  Many years after this, Jesus was born.  Now, the priest of God were supposed to study the Law of Moses very carefully and teach the Law to the people, but they would manipulate people for their own benefit.  When Jesus came, Jesus studied the Law of Moses and understood it clearly.  Jesus went around Israel and taught the Law correctly and turned people to God!

Jesus taught the people.