Suffering for the Gospel

The Christmas story is such a familiar one that sometimes its meaning gets overlooked. That’s a shame, because the story of the arrival of Jesus is one of the most transformational in the history of mankind. Think about it. The humble birth of Christ was God becoming flesh so that ultimately he could die for the world. The magnitude of this event in history cannot be overstated. Christ’s birth has eternal ramifications on our lives and because of that it demands our attention. So often when Christmas approaches we sort of shrug our shoulders with a “been there, done that” attitude. Thankfully, the Gospel writer Luke knew the significance of Christ’s birth, and carefully recorded the historical event. Luke’s gospel is the account of what he discovered through eyewitness testimony and then wrote down for his friend Theophilus. The first few chapters of Luke focus on several of those eyewitness accounts, and these will be our points of study throughout this series.