Bible Stories
Bible Lessons Page
Click
here
Click
hereClick
here
The Most Important Baby Ever Born
SOME people think that when George Washington was born he was the world's most important baby, but anyone who thinks that would be wrong, because when Jesus was born he was the most important baby. No baby ever born before Jesus was nearly so important, and no baby born since has been as important as Jesus.
When Jesus was born it meant that many, many of the wonderful promises of God had come true, and that all the rest of his promises were sure to come true later. That is what made him important.
Jesus was born in a manger where cattle are fed. I'll tell you why that was so. His mother and earthly father lived in a town called Nazareth. The people of Israel no longer had a king of their own, but were being ruled by the Romans. The Roman government was getting ready to tax all the people, so Jesus' parents had to go to Bethlehem to sign their names on the Roman tax books.
A great many other people were visiting in Bethlehem at that time, and when Jesus' parents arrived, there just wasn't any room for them. All the hotels were filled, and a barn was the only place they could find in which to stay overnight.
And there it was that Jesus was born.
But that didn't really make any difference. It is what people are and not where they are born that really counts, isn't it? And the most important thing of all is what God thinks about us. Jesus was God's own Son, and God loved him and had a wonderful work for him to do-the work of making everybody in the world happy by giving them health so they will live without dying A very wonderful thing occurred on the night Jesus was born.
There was a group of shepherds out in the fields near Bethlehem, caring for their sheep. Suddenly they heard the most beautiful music, and it seemed to be in the sky above them. They looked up and saw that the sky was very bright. No doubt they were frightened, because this was unusual. Then they heard an angel telling them not to be afraid. The angel told the shepherds that he had good news for them and then joyfully told them that Christ was born that night, and that he would save the people of Israel from their sins. Wasn't that wonderful?
Christ is another name for Jesus. It means that Jesus is the One whom God promised to send to make everybody happy. For hundreds and hundreds of years God had been promising to send Christ, and now the angel told the shepherds that he would be born as a little baby that night, and that they would find him in a manger in Bethlehem. My, but those shepherds must have been excited, and glad, too!
After the angel told the shepherds this good news a great many angels began to sing, and their song told the shepherds that there was to be peace on earth, and that God had sent his Son because of his good will toward all the people of the earth. Yes, God loved all the people, and now he was getting ready to make his many promises to bless them come true.
What a wonderful night that was!
The shepherds went to Bethlehem, and there found the baby, the wonderful baby whom God had sent. They worshipped the child and gave thanks to God because he was making his promises come true. God's promise was that Jesus would be a great king to rule over the whole earth. This is the King Jesus I have told you about in other stories.
In a faraway country east of Palestine there were wise men. They were probably somewhat like the holy men of India are today. They studied the stars to see if they could find out what God was doing. Well, they learned that Jesus was born, and that he was to be a great king, so they decided that they also would travel to Bethlehem to visit the newborn king.
But when these wise men arrived in the land of the Israelites, they decided that first they would visit King Herod, who was then the ruler. He was a ruler appointed by the supreme ruler of the whole Roman world. This supreme ruler was called the Caesar, after the first one, Julius Caesar, and Herod was a king under the Caesar.
Herod could do only what Caesar wanted him to do.
Well, the wise men visited Herod, and told him that Jesus, a little Jewish boy, had been born and that he would grow up to be a great king. Herod didn't like this at all, and he decided he would have that baby killed.
But Herod did not tell the wise men what he planned to do. No, he deceived them. He told them to go and find the child and come back to him and let him know where Jesus lived, as he also wanted to go and worship the new king. That was a clever lie, but God was taking care of Jesus. The wise men found the young child and the mother, who were now living in a house in Bethlehem, and they gave him the presents they had brought, and worshipped him just as they had planned.
The day had ended, so they remained overnight before starting back. That night they dreamed that it would be wrong to visit Herod on the way back to tell him where he could find Jesus as he had asked them to do. You see God gave them this dream, and from it they learned that they were to return to the East by another road so Herod wouldn't find out anything at all about Jesus. The wise men obeyed what God told them in the dream, so Herod's plan to find the child and destroy him, failed.
When Herod learned that the wise men had returned to the East by another way, he was very angry. You see, he didn't know where to find Jesus. All he knew was that a future king had been born and he wanted to kill this baby before he grew up to be a king.
Herod did a dreadful thing.
He gave orders that all the little baby boys of the Jews in Bethlehem and in the surrounding country should be killed. He thought that if all these babies were killed the baby Jesus would certainly be among them and would be killed also. Wasn't that terrible?
Of course all those babies will be brought back to life again. The Bible tells us that they shall come back from "the land of the enemy." The land of the enemy is the land of death; so we know that they are coming back from death. God told the Prophet Jeremiah to write down that promise. It is found in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 16 and 17.
But Jesus wasn't killed when all the other Jewish babies were killed, because God was taking care of him. If God had allowed anything to happen to the baby Jesus, then all of his wonderful promises could not have come true.
So what did God do?
Well that same night he caused Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, to have a dream also, and Joseph dreamed that it was necessary for him and his wife, Mary, the mother of Jesus, to flee into Egypt and take Jesus with them. So they went to Egypt right away. Thus Jesus escaped being killed.
The Bible doesn't tell us any more about Jesus until he was twelve years old. By that time Herod, who tried to kill Jesus, was dead; so it was safe for Joseph and his family to return to their home in Nazareth. After they had returned to Nazareth, they visited the temple in Jerusalem and there Jesus talked with the teachers in the temple.
He was so interested that he didn't know his parents had started home without him. They thought he was with others in the company returning home with them. But when they could not find him among any of their friends and relatives, they returned to Jerusalem where they found him in the temple. His mother reproved him for causing them so much trouble and anxiety. He asked them if they didn't know it was necessary for him to be doing what his Father wanted him to do.
I don't know whether or not they understood what he meant, but you see, God was the Father of Jesus, and Jesus knew, even when he was only twelve years old, that his Father had a great work for him to do. When God gave his Law to Moses, and Moses gave it to the people of Israel, there was one part of it which said that anyone who would go to work for God as one of his priests or prophets must he at least thirty years of age. Jesus was only twelve years old when he was in the temple asking questions, and there he learned that he would have to wait until he was thirty years old before he could start doing the work that his Father wanted him to do.
Jesus' earthly father was a carpenter, so he went back home with him and worked as a carpenter for eighteen years. I think he must have been a wonderful carpenter, don't you?
Jesus Wouldn't Do Wrong
JESUS always did what God wanted him to do! Satan the devil tried to make Jesus do things that God did not want him to do, but Jesus always did what was right. I hope you remember the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. If you do, you know that Adam and Eve took the devil's advice and did what God did not want them to do. It was because of this that they lost their beautiful home in the garden and grew old and died.
Now Jesus had come into the world to help everybody get perfect life back again, and the devil tried very hard to make Jesus do wrong so he couldn't bring this great blessing to the people and thus make God's promises come true.
When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, and the power of God came upon him, he knew that he could do many wonderful things he could not have done before. Jesus could now perform miracles. Maybe you don't know what a miracle is. Well, a miracle is doing that which boys and girls and grown-up folks cannot perform. After God's power came upon Jesus he could do many wonderful things.
We can't make a beautiful flower, can we? But God makes them.
Did I hear someone say that flowers grow? Of course they do, but who makes them grow? It is God. We can watch flowers grow, but we don't understand what causes them to grow, nor do we know why one flower is red and another pink. Well, God who created everything, knows.
And so, boys and girls, I want you to remember that because the power of God came upon Jesus, he could do things we can't understand. It is very important to remember this, because I will be telling you of many wonderful things Jesus did, and I want you to believe that he really did them. The Bible says so, and we know that the Bible is true.
After the power of God came upon Jesus he was very happy and so interested in what God wanted him to do that he went into the wilderness to pray and to think about all God's wonderful works, and didn't eat anything for forty days. My, that was a long time to go without food, wasn't it? Then of course, Jesus was very hungry, and the devil told him that he should use the power of God to make bread out of stones so he would have something to eat.
The Bible tells us that the devil tempted Jesus.
Do you know what it means to be tempted? It is wanting or being asked to do that which we know is wrong. Jesus knew that it was wrong for him to use the power of God to make bread out of stones in order to satisfy his hunger.
Why did Jesus know that this was wrong?
Boys and girls, I want to tell you something now which I hope you will always remember. It is this: try always to think of what you can do for other people before you think of what you would like to do for yourself. That is the way God wants us to be. That's what we call being unselfish.
Well, the power of God was upon Jesus to enable him to do wonderful things for other people. It would have been wrong for him to use that power for himself. Jesus knew that he would find food after awhile, and preferred to go hungry for a short time longer rather than to use God's power to make bread for himself out of stones.
This is a lesson which all boys and girls, and men and women too, will have to learn. If you remember this story, and try always to think of others before you think of yourselves, you will be really and truly happy. It is God's way to be happy.
God is always doing things for others.
And just think of all the wonderful things he has promised to do for us! We want to be like God, don't we? Yes, that's the way God wants us to be, for he knows that is the very best thing for us.
Jesus Wouldn't Lie
WHAT do you think should be done with a man and his wife who told a lie to one of Jesus' disciples? There was such a man and a woman who did this very wicked thing. The man's name was Ananias, and his wife's name was Sapphira. The disciple to whom they lied was Peter. It is wrong to lie about anything. It is even worse to lie about the things we do in the service of God, and it was this kind of lie that Ananias and Sapphira told to Peter.
Peter and another disciple of Jesus, named John, were working together preaching the Gospel. In my last story I told you about the healing of a lame man, which was a wonderful miracle performed by Peter. Because of this good deed there were many people who believed what Peter and John told them about Jesus and the wonderful blessings which he will, by and by, give to all the people in the world.
Peter and John were preaching in Jerusalem, and in the temple of God. The religious rulers of the Israelites became jealous of them, just as they were of Jesus, and told them that they would have to stop preaching about Jesus. But these two disciples believed that it was their duty to obey God, who had told them to preach the Gospel of Jesus in Jerusalem and wherever they could throughout the whole world. So when they were told to stop preaching they asked:
The Sin Of Lying
"Is it right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God? We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
So they continued to preach.
The religious rulers of the people were really afraid to punish Peter and John, because so many people in Jerusalem believed that they were servants of God. The good news about the crippled man who had been healed caused them to think a great deal of these two servants of God. Thousands of people believed the story of Jesus, and decided that they would become his disciples.
These people were all very enthusiastic, and they wanted to do all they could to tell others about Jesus. In order to do this, they decided among themselves that they would put all their belongings together just as though they were one large family, and in this way use everything they owned in the service of God. Those who owned land or had other valuable belongings sold what they had and put all the money into the one common treasury. Then this money was used to buy food and clothing for all the disciples, so they could be free to preach the Gospel of Jesus.
Now, Ananias and his wife learned about the arrangement of the disciples to sell everything and use the money in the service of God, and they pretended to do this just as the other believers had done. But they lied about it. And it was Peter who discovered that they had told an untruth. No one told Peter that they had lied. The power of God helped him to know that Ananias and Sapphira were deceiving him. They sold a valuable possession, and kept part of the money for themselves. The Bible says that Satan filled their hearts and caused them to lie to Peter, telling him that they had put all the money into the treasury of the disciples.
Satan causes people to lie whenever he can. Probably that is because he lies so much himself. I wonder if you remember the wicked lie Satan told to Eve in the Garden of Eden? He said to her:
"You will not surely die."
God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree of which he told them not to eat they would surely die. But Satan lied about it, telling them that they would not surely die. Of course they did die, as we know, and that is why everybody dies now. And because Ananias and his wife lied to Peter, God caused them to be put to death suddenly so that everybody knew they had done wrong.
Then, more than ever, the people knew that God was blessing Peter and John, so the religious rulers became even more jealous, and they caused these two servants of God to be put into prison. But that night one of God's angels opened the prison doors and set them free, and told them to return to the temple and continue to preach about Jesus. They did this, and still more people believed.
Again the religious rulers arrested Peter and John. But this time the chief one among them advised that it was not wise to try any longer to interfere with the disciples of Jesus, because they might be working against God. The others agreed. So, after giving Peter and John a severe beating, they set them free. Thus God protected them, and they were able to continue preaching the Gospel.
The Seven Responses to Jesus:
The Miracle of the Loaves & FishesKey Scripture: John 6:1-13
A little boy had five loaves of bread and two small fish. Not a lot of food if you want to feed 5,000 people. It doesn't even seem like a lot of food for the little boy, if he was going to be there all day, or if he had traveled a long way to be there. But this little boy was willing to give it all to Jesus.
But there are seven responses that this child could have given when the Lord asked for his food. Let's take a look at each of them.
#1) He could have said, "It's my lunch -- those people should have thought to bring their own lunch". A selfish spirit of the heart and mind. Looking out for "self". An attitude that says, "I don't care if the rest of the world perishes, as long as I'm taken care of".
#2) He could have said, "I would like to give it to you, but I may need it later". The heart is willing to do what he knew was right, but his sense of doing what is practical and realistic takes over, and he becomes afraid of running the risk of totally trusting Jesus to take care of his future.
#3) He could have said, "I'll share it with those are are sitting with me". A sensitive heart, but a concern only for those few within his own circle. Five thousand people are hungry on the hillside, but he's only concerned about his few chosen friends.
#4) He could have said, "I brought it, I'll break the bread and pass it around". A willingness to do, but for a selfish motive. He brought the food, so he should get the credit for it. But 2,000 years later, no one knows who this child is -- he is nameless to us. All we know is that his generosity enabled Jesus to perform one of the most well-known miracles of the entire Bible ... one which has bless people throughout the ages.
#5) He could have said, "Let me cook it first, let me prepare it before you take it". This is saying, "Jesus might be able to perform the miracle, but He can't do it until I set it up for Him -- He can't do it without my help".
#6) He could have said, "I'm pretty hungry, but I'll share my lunch with you". Giving himself peace of mind by giving the Lord a little, but not giving Him enough so that He's able to do much with it.
#7) He could have said, "I want to give my food to Jesus for HIS lunch. Willing to serve the Lord, but doesn't possess a concern for anyone else. Going to church, never missing a service, but never getting involved in doing anything for others.
But instead of all of these responses, when Jesus asked the little boy for his food, he answered, "Here it is, take all of it".
He trusted the Lord to take the bread and the fish and to be able to do a great miracle with it. To feed those people there that day, and for all people of all times to read about it and to learn the power of God from it.
That child gave his humble meal that day, and he got back more than he could eat in a lifetime. The same is true for us. If we give a little, whether it it time, money, talent, or any gift we might have, Jesus will multiply it. We can not outgive the Lord.
But the Lord is unable to give us the help we are seeking until we turn all of it over to Him. If we hold on to even one small part of the problem, He can't deal with that small part -- and that may be the very area where the miracle lies.
We are a small group of people -- just as this was one small boy. But if we give our ALL to Jesus -- unselfishly, wholly, with trust and believing, and for the motive of building the Kingdom of God -- Jesus can not only work a miracle, I believe we could change our churches, our community, and someday our world.
