Origins of Christmas - (Episode 1)

[Upbeat Music] - There is absolutely no question, Christmas is MY favourite time of the year. Everything is so colourful and jolly. All the shops have bright lights and decorations. I love how everyone gets into the giving mood, and being friendly becomes the norm, it really is the most wonderful time of the year! [Upbeat Music] - “Dazzie the Elf, what’s your favourite colour?” There’s nothing better than the whole family squeezed onto the couch, with the fire lit, watching some Christmas classics on the telly! ‘Elf’ is hands down the best Christmas movie with Home Alone coming in at a close second. They just put me in such a good mood. Finding the perfect Christmas tree is the best. The long search, the tough choice, the chop. You bring it home and it takes over the house in the most amazing way possible... the smell!! And then the magic comes alive with one flick of a switch. [Upbeat Music] - Have you ever wondered though why we have Christmas? Like, where did gift-giving come from? Why do we sing carols and stuff our faces with Chocolate? - The word Christmas is actually full of meaning. The first part ‘Christ’ refers to Jesus as the chosen one who would rescue the world. The full word ‘Christmas’ is a celebration not only of the birth of Jesus, but also that he died and came back to life. Jesus has literally shaped the history of time as we know it, in fact, our calendars are based on his life. - Whatever year, it happens to be that you're watching this video is exactly how many years it's been since Jesus was born, but the question is, why did He have to be born in the first place? And if He is the saviour of the world, what did He save us from? To understand that, we have to go back to the start, the very beginning… [Upbeat Music] - As we read in the Bible, it says that it all started with the creation of the Universe by a very creative and loving God. God displayed all of his amazing works of art, the planets, the stars, the Galaxy. But there was one planet he made unique with incredible detail, Earth! Details like how the earth is the exact right distance from the sun so it doesn’t burn up, or how it has just the right amount of tilt which gives the different seasons, and the right amount of gravity for life. God then made creation complete by forming his Masterpiece which is you and me. - And then God rested! It was all so good, in the first book of the Bible called Genesis, we see that for every act of creation God announced, ‘that it was good’ (Gen 1), but only after creating people does God say that it was very good. Humankind walking side by side with God in the Garden of Eden and it was bliss! - And then it all went a bit pear-shaped. In God’s love and kindness, he gave people the freedom to make their own decisions. The first humans, Adam and Eve were given everything. God asked just one thing, eat from any tree He said, ‘except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...’ (Gen 2:17). But after being led astray by a serpent Adam and Eve were tempted and chose to go against God by eating from the forbidden tree. This is what the Bible describes as sin. - Sent out from the Garden, their connection with God and with one another was now damaged. But God as a loving father was not going to let evil triumph, He promised to never leave them, and that one day God himself would make things right again. This event started the countdown timer to the very first Christmas. - All through the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible and before the first Christmas, we read about how God was so faithful and loving. Through a man called Abraham, God formed a community of people, and through this family line, He was going to send someone who would rescue the world. However, God's people really struggled to follow him and obey him. But every time it looked like their end was near God stepped in. - Take Moses for example, the sea-separating, sandle-wearing, stuttering-shepherd. This was a time when God’s people the Jews were now enslaved by an Egyptian Pharaoh. It looked as if there was no hope, but God used Moses to miraculously rescue His people from Egypt and into a new land. And all seem good for a while but soon enough God’s people were facing the threat of extinction through the might of the Giant Goliath, but God stepped in and used David, the stone-slinging, harp-playing, giant-slayer to remind his people that the first Christmas was coming, that someone even greater than Moses and David would rescue the world. - As the first Christmas drew near God spoke through people called prophets, these were important people with the unique task of bringing messages, called prophecies, from God to others. They were constantly trying to remind others that He will fulfil his promise of bringing light into the darkness to undo the effect of sin and to restore the connection between them and God. God shared very specific details through these prophets about how the first Christmas would look like, and bear in mind this was 750 years before it actually happened. - Oh, wrong scroll, Written down on these really old scrolls the prophet Isaiah foretold that the first Christmas would be about a very special birth. Isaiah wrote ‘For a child is born to us, a son is given to us... And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ And then another prophet led by God even foretold the place where the baby Jesus would be born. Micah wrote ‘But you, O Bethlehem...are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins arein the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.’ And these are only two prophecies out of over 300 prophecies given over 100s of years about the coming of the saviour. These details matter because God wanted us to believe that not only was this a historical eventbut that God himself entered human history. - But then God stop speaking through the Prophets and the waiting began. I don’t know about you but for me, one of the toughest nights of sleep in the whole year is Christmas Eve. There was just so much going on in my head, the anticipation, the excitement, the nervous waiting. My dad used to tell me to try and count sheep, I’m not sure if it worked but I suppose Christmas did come in the end. So, imagine that kind of waiting, well the people of God who eagerly anticipated the first Christmas, had the nervousness of a Christmas Eve night for over 400 years, and when it actually happened, it was nothing like what the people were expecting. Hey guys; Mark, Sarah? - Get back here, - Wait for me.