Luke 1:31-35 - 12/22/2024

Luke 1:31-35 NIV

[31] You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. [32] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

[34] “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” [35] The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God."

Matthew describes Joseph's visit from an angel and Luke describes Mary's. Both were instructed to name the child Jesus. Matthew recorded the angel saying to Joseph that the reason for naming Him Jesus is because He will save His people from their sins, but Luke does not record the angel saying this to Mary. Instead he tells Mary that "He will be great and called the Son of the Most High." "Most High" is a title used for God in both the Old and New Testaments. "Son of the Most High" indicates Jesus's divine nature as the Son of God, as well as Him being the promised Messiah. His Messiahship is revealed to Mary in what he says to her next: "The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” This was God's promise to David:

2 Samuel 7:11-16 NIV

[11b] ... I will also give you rest from all your enemies. “ ‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: [12] When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. [13] He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. [14] I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. [15] But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. [16] Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ ”

Mary and Joseph were both descendants of David and therefore Jesus was "flesh and blood" and could be called a "son" of David. They were also both from the tribe of Judah, the tribe through which God said the Messiah would come. 

The angel also told Mary that the child would reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. Well, Jacob was renamed Israel, so Jacob’s descendants are Israel. However, most Israelites, or Jews (descendants of Judah or practitioners of Judaism) during Jesus's time, rejected Him as their Messiah and many still do today. As He stood trial before Pontius Pilate they proclaimed, "We have no king but Caesar!" So how then could Jesus reign over Israel forever? Simply, as Paul said, those who have faith like Abraham are the true Israel and the circumcision. Those who have faith in Jesus know that He is the King and He will reign over them forever. Just as He promised David, God began establishing Jesus's kingdom when He was here, and He continues to do so through the Holy Spirit and His people. And, just as God promised David that He would be the Father of his descendant through whom He would establish His eternal kingdom through, Jesus is the Son of God, fulfilling God's promise to David. 

Matthew 1:21-23 - 12/20/2024/12/21/2024

Matthew 1:21-23 NIV

[21] She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

The New Testament was written in Greek, therefore the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yshua (Joshua English spelling), which both mean "the Lord saves." 

***Note: The Hebrew language ceased to be spoken as early as the exilic period (586-538 BC), and Aramaic became the common language of the Jewish people. With Alexander the Great's conquest and the rise of Greek empires, some Jews in the diaspora were Hellenized, and therefore Greek became their primary language. Because of this, a Greek translation of the Scriptures was necessary. This Greek translation is called the Septuagint, (LXX), which, according to the Letter of Aristeas, is a result of an Egyptian king, Ptolemy Philadelphus, who in the third century, commissioned seventy two Jewish translators to translate the Torah (Penteteuch) into Greek for his library in Alexandria. These seventy two Jewish translators were comprised of six men from each tribe of Israel. The term "Septuagint" means "seventy", and refers to the seventy-two translators. Seventy-two is rounded down to seventy, hence the Roman numeral, LXX. The Septuagint was widely accepted and used in many synagogues. The remainder of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament were translated by others throughout the next century. 

Because of Hellenism's influence on the culture of Judea, Greek was a natural choice for the New Testament writers. Both the church and the culture consisted of both Jews and Gentiles, therefore their writings in Greek would be understood by pretty much everyone who read them, and it helped facilitate the spread of the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean region and around the world.***

[22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: [23] “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, which is the Old Testament, which is the Old Covenant. Matthew speaks of the Old Testament being fulfilled through Jesus twelve times throughout his Gospel. 

"The prophet" refers to is Isaiah (7:14). 

"Immanuel" means "God with us", indicating that Jesus is in fact God. 

In those days, in that culture, names had meanings behind them. They still do today, but we tend to name our children names that we like the sound of rather than what the meaning of the name is. Yshua (Hebrew), Yeshua (Masoretic Text when vowels were later applied to the Hebrew language by Jewish rabbis in about the tenth century AD), Joshua (English spelling of Yshua), Ishó (Aramaic - common language of Jews during Jesus's time), Iēsoûs (Greek transliteration of Yshua), and Jesus (English spelling of Iēsoûs) all have the same significant meaning: "the Lord saves". It is the meaning of His name that makes His name the name above all names, and why He tells His disciples that He will do whatever they ask if they ask for it in His name. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and it is only at His name that every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, because He is God who came down to us to save His people from their sins. No other gods have done that. 

By writing 1:21-23, Matthew makes it clear to his readers that Jesus is both Savior and God. 

Matthew was called by Jesus to follow him and he became one of Jesus's twelve disciples, and later, one of His twelve apostles. As a close disciple of Jesus, he witnessed many of Jesus's teachings and miracles, not only publicly, but also privately. I personally suspect that all of the twelve disciples, including Matthew, recognized that Jesus was the Messiah and Savior early on because they were of the believing remnant of Israel, and some of them were disciples of John the Baptist first, though they may have come to understand that Jesus was God later.  However, I could be wrong about Matthew because he quotes Isaiah's prediction of Immanuel, "God with us". So if Matthew knew and understood Isaiah's prophecy, he would have known that his Messiah was also God. But we are also told that the apostle's understanding of the Scriptures were not opened until the forty day period between Jesus's resurrection and ascension, so it's still possible that Matthew or the others did not fully understand who Jesus was until that time. 

Alongwith Jesus's life, Matthew also witnessed Jesus's death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. As an apostle of Jesus, he was commissioned to be a witness of these things in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. With this in mind, Matthew wrote his Gospel in Greek, indicating that its intended recipients were Greek speaking, which would have included both Jews and Gentiles, however his primary target is believed by some scholars to have been Jews, in order to prove to them that Jesus is in fact their Messiah. Many elements within Matthew's Gospel points to this possibility. 

 Also in accordance with his commission to be a witness to the ends of the earth, Christian tradition as written in Foxe's Book of Martyrs says that Matthew's apostolic mission was to Ethiopia, Africa, where he was beheaded in in AD 60, showing his absolute belief in Jesus as God, Savior, and Messiah, as well as his complete faithfulness, loyalty, commitment, and devotion to his Lord and God. 

Simplify Yourself 12/18/2024

Simplify Yourself

Ask yourself who's am I/who am I?

"I am the Lord's servant" - Mary in Luke 1:38

"the disciple whom Jesus loved" - John in John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20

Joy to the World - 12/17/2024

These old Christmas songs have become very much a part of our culture during this time of year, being played on the radio and in department stores every year from November to January. They may have become so familiar to us that may no longer recognize the significance of the lyrics.

"Joy to the World" is the good news that Jesus Christ came to claim His Kingdom and restore the earth back from the curse of sin - and heaven, nature, and men, all sing and rejoice at this Good News! Merry Christmas and enjoy these great songs of the faith at this most wonderful time of the year!

1. Joy to the world; the Lord is come;

Let Earth receive her King;

Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room,

And Heav'n and nature sing.

2. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns,

Let men their songs employ,

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,

Repeat the sounding joy.

3. No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make his blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.

4. He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of his righteousness,

And wonders of his love.

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