Birth: (Luke 2:1-20) – Within this passage are all the elements of the well-known Christmas story. Mary and Joseph, no room at the inn, the babe in the manger, the shepherds with their flocks, wise men from the East following the star to Bethlehem and bearing gifts for the Christ child, a multitude of angels rejoicing—all these things make up the amazing story of the birth of the Savior two thousand years ago. But the story of God coming to earth as a man began many years earlier with the prophecies of the coming Messiah. Isaiah foretold of a virgin who would conceive and bear a son and call His name Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). The first of the key events in the life of Christ is the humble beginning in a stable, when God came to be with us, born to set His people free and to save us from our sins. …