Jesus – God’s Greatest Gift

The Best Gift

If you could have anything you wished for what would you choose? Many people would ask to be rich. Others would wish for health, happiness, or friendship: things that money can’t buy.

You might ask for happiness that would never end. But who could make you live forever? Only the Person who made you and gave you life could give you eternal happiness. This is God who made the heavens and earth and everything in them.

Everlasting happiness is not just something to wish for. God loves you so much that He sent His Son Jesus, to be your friend. Those who receive Him will have eternal happiness. So Jesus is the best gift you could have.

For You to Do

Underneath some of the questions are three possible answers. Put an X beside the one that you think is best.

1. Which would you rather have?

• a. Riches
• b. Popularity
• c. A friend who would give me eternal happiness

God’s Promise

Of course, you want to know how to receive this greatest of gifts. God tells you about it in His wonderful book, the Bible. We call it the Word of God because God told the men who wrote it just what to write.

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, God told the prophets what was going to happen. They wrote these messages from God, or prophecies, in the first part of the Bible. God promised to send His Son to be the Savior of the world. The prophets wrote that:

• The Savior would be born in Bethlehem.
• The Savior would be born of a virgin.
• The Savior would be of David’s family.

For You to Do

1. In what book does God tell about the Savior? _____________
2. Do you have a Bible or a part of it?____________

The Angel and Mary

About 675 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah had written:

Isaiah 7:14 -Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (ESV)

Immanuel means “God with us.” Finally the time came for this promise of God to come true. Almost 2,000 years ago, God sent an angel from heaven to earth with a message for a young woman named Mary. Luke, a medical doctor, wrote this in the Bible about Mary’s experience:

Luke 1:26-38 – God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a girl promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. The girl’s name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!”

Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message, and she wondered what his words meant. The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end!”

Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God.” . . .

“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary; “may it happen to me as you have said.” And the angel left her.

“The Lord” is another name for God. Mary did not understand what was going to happen but, as a faithful servant of the Lord, she was ready to do whatever He asked.

For You to Do

1. Whom did God choose to be the mother of the Savior? __________

Mary and Elizabeth

Soon after the angel’s message, Mary found that a miracle had taken place in her body. She was going to have a baby who had no earthly father. God had chosen her to be the mother of His Son, the Savior! But Mary faced a great problem. Who would believe what had happened to her? She was engaged to a good man, a carpenter named Joseph. What would he think when he found out she was pregnant? If he accused her of immorality, she could be stoned to death! What should she do?

The angel had spoken of a miracle that God had done for Mary’s cousin Elizabeth. Maybe she would understand. So Mary went to the home of Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah and stayed there three months.

Luke 1:41-43, 46-49 – Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and said in a loud voice, “You are the most blessed of all women, and blessed is the child you will bear! Why should this great thing happen to me, that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me?”

Mary said: “My heart praises the Lord; my soul is glad because of God my Savior, for he has remembered me, his lowly servant! From now on all people will call me happy, because of the great things the Mighty God has done for me.”

Mary was a lovely young woman who worshiped God and knew His Word. She was intelligent, courteous, faithful, obedient, humble, and good. We are grateful to her for her part in bringing the Savior into the world. The angel and Elizabeth both recognized that God had chosen Mary to be the mother of the Savior but they did not worship her. Mary herself acknowledged her need of the Savior when she said, “My soul is glad because God is my Savior.”

For You to Do

1. What was the name of Mary’s cousin? ___________

The Angel and Joseph

What did Joseph do when he learned that Mary was pregnant?

Matthew 1:19-21, 24-25. Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately. While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived. She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.”

So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to. But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

For You to Do

What did the angel tell Joseph?

• a) To break his engagement.
• b) To marry Mary. Her baby was by the Holy Spirit.
• c) To forget about Mary.

Born In Bethlehem

Augustus Caesar made a law that everyone had to be registered in a census. Mary and Joseph were of the family of David, so they had to go to Bethlehem, David’s town, to be registered. That is where the prophet Micah had said that the Savior would be born. There was no room in the hotel for Mary and Joseph. They found shelter in a stable. Jesus was born there. An angel gave the good news to some shepherds near there:

Luke 2:10-14. “Don’t be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people. This very day in David’s town your Savior was born—Christ the Lord! And this is what will prove it to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great army of heaven’s angels appeared with the angel, singing praises to God: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom he is pleased!”

The shepherds found Jesus Christ, the Savior, lying in a manger. They praised God for His great gift. Some wise men also came from other countries to worship Jesus. Afterwards, wicked King Herod tried to kill Jesus but Mary and Joseph escaped with Him to Egypt. Later they went back to Nazareth and Jesus grew up there.

For You to Do

What is God’s greatest gift?

•  a) Happiness .
• b) Health .
• c) Jesus Christ, the Savior, who gives eternal life