February 22, 2019 – Click here to listen
I am going through the entire New Testament with a friend of mine beginning with Matthew Chapter one today. He immediately made it known that he did not understand why it begins with genealogy and then of course the virgin birth. He remarked, “What pregnant teenage girl wouldn’t want to use that excuse?”
So what does it all mean? This book was written for the Jews to convince them that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Matthew was a tax collector and decidedly Jewish. Throughout this book he goes through a plethora of Old Testament prophecies to verify to the Jews that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. The Jews were/are keenly familiar with Old Testament prophecies. He begins by giving the genealogy of Jesus which seems boring for us but is vital because it establishes for Jews that He descends from the line of King David as foretold. He then jumps to the virgin birth and describes it.
The sticking point for many concerns the visitation of an angel whose purpose was to convince Joseph to marry her in spite of her being pregnant. On the surface it seems incredulous, but not to me. I’ve had angels appear to me on two occasions and it was indeed a hair-raising indescribable event loaded with spiritual goosebumps. I wish everyone could have been there for those experiences, but for those who have not I can understand how it is difficult to envision the life-changing impact it had on Mary and Joseph.
Mary is the flesh-side and the Holy Spirit is the God-side of His parentage. Thus, Jesus Christ took on human nature without ceasing to be God. He is true God and true Man. It is also essential to know that Christ does not have a sinful nature, and neither did he ever commit sin — even though he was tempted in all ways (Hebrews 4:15). Thus, Jesus is fully and perfectly man and has also experienced the full range of human experience. We have a Savior who can truly identify with us because he is man and who can also truly help us in temptation because he has never sinned. That is an awesome truth to cherish and sets Christianity apart from all other religions.
Just who was Jesus? Was He human or was He divine? If someone were to ask you these questions, how would you answer, and better yet, how would you prove it? The answer: Jesus was both Man and God. That’s what the Bible teaches; that’s what the apostles taught; that’s what Jesus taught; and that’s what the church teaches today. Jesus was both man and God so that He could be a perfect sacrifice to save all of mankind from the penalty of death.
On the surface considering that God created all that we know, one merely need look at the heavens on a dark star-filled night to understand that this was not an extraordinary feat for Him. It evokes the question, most anyone who has ever looked upward on such a night has asked, How did He create the heavens and the earth? The answer: He is God, and nothing is impossible for Him including Holy-invitro. There are many things in the Bible we must accept by faith and this is one of them.
If your faith is shaky concerning this subject and you still doubt, then consider this: Down through history, God provided us a roadmap. He foretold various signs and conditions through His prophets. These prophets spoke of things that mankind should watch for so that the Messiah would be recognized and believed. These signs or prophecies were given to us in the Old Testament, the part of the Bible written before Jesus was born. The Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, contains over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through His life, death and resurrection.
I saw some figures from CBN that stated: “Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling this amount of prophecy are staggering. Mathematicians put it this way: 1 person fulfilling just 8 prophecies: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (A thousand millions is a billion: 1,000,000,000. A thousand billions is a trillion: 1,000,000,000,000. A thousand trillions is a quadrillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000. A thousand quadrillions is a quintillion: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000.) 1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10 to the 157th power 1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies: Only Jesus!
1 Peter 1:19-20
“He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose Him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, He was sent to the earth for all to see. And He did this for you.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday! Also don’t forget the Send is this Saturday in Orlando . . .