Matthew 1:18-25

Below are some notes on why this passage is important.

Read Matthew 1:18-25

--Why Joseph?

He was a righteous man. I would also have to believe that God chose Joseph because he was in the genealogical line that was needed, and Joseph was obviously open to God’s direction and His ability to do anything.

--Why Mary?

She was favored by the Lord. You can learn more about the birth of Jesus by reading Luke 1 and 2. She was a virgin, and faithful. Like Joseph, she was obviously open to God’s direction and His ability to do anything.

--What does it mean to “be with child through the Holy Spirit?”

It means Mary was pregnant, and Joseph didn’t do it. The thing is, no other human did either. We see in verse 19 evidence that Joseph presumed that she had been with another man. But that was not the case. The Holy Spirit of God made her pregnant. This does not mean that God had sex with Mary as some assert. Rather, it is an example of how God can cause life to begin. God made Adam and Eve. When we read Genesis 1 and 2, we see that God created life from the dirt in the ground and a bone from a man. If God can make Man and Woman out of dirt and a rib, then He can make a life in the womb of a woman.

--What was Jesus purpose in coming to Earth?

The last statement in v.21 is the answer.

--Why is prophesy so important?

Because is gives credibility to God and his plan. V. 23 refers to Isaiah 7:14, a Jewish scripture that speaks of the coming Messiah. It was written approximately 700 to 900 years before Jesus was born. You see the fulfillment of prophesy throughout the Gospels.

--Why is it important that Mary was a virgin?

It is important because it shows that Jesus was not born from the result of sin, but rather from the will of God. Notice also that in v. 25 it says that Joseph had no union with her UNTIL she gave birth to a son. Some people hold that Mary remained a virgin her entire life. This is not the case. See also Matthew 12:46-50, Matthew 13:55 and John 7:1-10 and you will see references to biological brothers and sisters of Jesus.

--What does this mean to me and the way I live my life?

It means that Jesus came to save you. It means that the Holy Spirit of God was active even then. And it means that God had a plan to save us, even before we were born.

Matthew chapter 1:1-17

Below are some notes on why the genealogy of Jesus is noteworthy in the Bible. i.e. why did it get included, who cares?

Read Matthew 1:1-17

--Why is Jesus’ genealogy important?

The book of Matthew was written primarily to Jews. And a true Jew would understand that the Messiah (=Christ, the anointed one) would have to be a descendant of Abraham and of David. (Scripture support) This genealogical line supports that Jesus really is the Messiah.

For Non-Jewish people we can still learn a lot from this list. For example, look at verse 3 and you will see the name Tamar. Tamar is know for pretending to be a harlot and intentionally getting impregnated by her father-in-law. Yet, she was used by God. She is mentioned in the birth record of the Son of God, the savior. This is a high honor. Yet we would all agree that what she did was manipulative. God has shown her mercy and used her actions for the good.

--The first three people in the genealogical line are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Who are they?

These three are called the patriarchs of the Jewish people. Abraham was known as God’s friend, Isaac was his promised son, and Jacob was the son through whom the 12 tribes of Israel originated. Jacob was renamed “Israel” when he realized his sin in Genesis. He had 12 sons, and the descendants of these sons became the 12 tribes. (Genesis chapters 15, 21, 27 and 32)

--Who is Judah, and is that important?

In Genesis 37, it is Judah who speaks and saves his brothers life. Although he did agree to sell Joseph, his brother, into slavery, he also becomes the patriarch of the largest of the 12 tribes of Israel. Jesus is known in Revelation 5:5 as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

--Who is David and why is he important?

David is the greatest king of Israel. He represents the glory of their kingdom. He is also known as a man after Gods own heart. (1st and 2nd Samuel)

--Who is the wife of Uriah and why is she important enough to list?

Bathsheba is her name. David called on her while her husband was away at war and she became pregnant. That first child died. But after her husband was dead, David and her were married, and she bore Solomon.

--Who is Solomon and why is he important?

He would become the richest king ever. God promised Solomon anything he asked. Solomon was already king, so he asked for wisdom to rule and lead the kingdom of Israel. This pleased God that Solomon would ask for wisdom over riches and the like, so he blessed Solomon with financial wealth as well as wisdom.

--Who is Uzziah, and why is he important?

Uzziah had led the kingdom back to righteousness after his father had led them away from God. One of the most famous passages of this king is Isaiah 53, it marks the death of King Uzziah, but the prophesy of the coming of Christ.

The Life we Face:

Matthew 13:1-9 and vv.18-23 (NIV)


1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."


18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (NIV)

Every person can grow in their faith by avoiding these pitfalls.

Pitfall #1. Lack of understanding. Usually the result of hard heartedness or unwillingness to change. V. 19
In life we often make excuses so that our daily lives and responsibilities go the way we desire.
When I was a boy, my father told me that we were to never sing ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ Whether that was more a southern thing, or a political thing, I don’t know. But one thing I do know what that his resistance to sing that song had nothing to do with his faith. It was about “northern aggression” or “the Republicans.” Now, I have read the words to the song, and I found something amazing. It doesn’t say anything about the U.S., our government, or even our land. Rather it is a song about God and his relationship to mankind, regardless of who may use it along the way. The point in sharing this with you is that for years, I lacked understanding of what this song really was about. And I was unwilling to learn the truth.
Many of us are unwilling to learn, because usually learning means change. We have learned overtime that if an automobile accident occurs, the people involved are much more likely to survive that accident if they are wearing a seatbelt. Hence the change was made to require all motorists to wear a seatbelt. Even with this knowledge, some of us do not want to comply. We do not like change.
But in our relationship to God, change in needed. We have to change our attitude, our heart toward God. That is what it is to repent. But our own hardness tries to prevent that change.

Pitfall #2. Shallow life. Usually the result of a restless and/or unsettled life. Vv.20 and 21
In many ways this is very similar to the hardness we see above. But it is a bit different.
For example, I know a young man who is willing to work hard. He knows the he needs to work in order to succeed. But he has a problem ‘sticking to it.’ He changes jobs often, and knows what he wants to do. But he will not do what is needed to be successful at what his heart desires. Because of this lack of discipline, he finds himself often in turmoil in his life. One frustrating event after another. All of these frustrating events finding their source in the fact that he knows what he wants to do, what he should be doing, but is unwilling to do what he must to find success where his heart desires.
When we slow down and allow roots to develop in our relationships with our family, friends, and with God, the rocky soil that is referred to in scripture begins to clear out. We find fewer rocky places, and more deep good soil to work with.
In our relationship to God we have to be willing to slow down and trust him. He will lead us. But sometimes, we are in a bigger hurry than He. (Psalm 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God….”)

Pitfall #3. Worldly perspective. Usually the result of a overdeveloped sense of commitment to one’s career or possessions. V.22.
Many people think that the biggest threat to Christianity in the world today is the emergence of the well spoken atheists, agnostics, and evolutionists. Many of them are very smart people. But they are not the threat that some perceive them to be. The bigger threat is found inside each of us. Our own desires for power, recognition, possession, money. We want our lives to be about us. Only problem is, our lives are not about us, they are about God and those around us. (Matthew 22:36-29, read it.)
The example here will come from the Bible. In Matthew 19:21, Jesus instructs a rich young man to sell all he has, give it all to the poor and come follow him. But the young man then turned and walked away. He could not, or would not let go of his wealth.
We often fall into that trap of the young man. We say we want to follow God and be obedient. But when the Bible tells us to give the first 10% of all we have to him, to his church, we justify our decision not to do that by saying, the church is full of flawed men and women who can not be trusted. They may take it for themselves. I’ll keep this money and use it for something good instead. But there are two problems there. First, God didn’t instruct you to evaluate his servants in the church. He can and will judge them appropriately. There level of obedience should never stand between you and your obedience to the word of God. Second, you rarely actually take your 10% and do a good deed with it. And even if you did, it goes contrary to the Bible. In Malachi 3:10 we are told directly to bring our tithe to the storehouse. In these, the days of the church of Jesus, we call that storehouse, the church.
Jesus talks more about money than any other topic. But why? Is he after your money? Is he after your stuff? NO! He’s not trying to get your stuff, He is trying to keep your stuff from getting you! (Andy Stanley said something like that in a sermon I heard him give.) The principle is made clear in a line from the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 6:21, Jesus says “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (NIV) So if you put treasure your wealth, or money, or position, more than you treasure your relationship with Christ, your heart will then be in those things, rather than in Christ, your savior. When that happens, our priorities are out of order, and we are guilty of sin.
In our relationship with God we have to be willing to put Christ first and our brother second and the things of this world third.

Success: Success comes when these pitfalls are avoided. And we take hold of the whole message, we listen, understand, apply it day in and day out and we put Christ in his proper place, number 1.
A truly successful life of faith comes when we know what God would have us do and we do it.
Many examples of that exist, from people who have had to leave the teaching of the culture they grew up in to obey Jesus. Others have gone into ministry’s such as mission work, prison ministries, working with the poor, or volunteering to help those in need. Whatever way you find to serve Christ, just remember to put him first. There are many statistics that say that one of the biggest observations about Christians by those who are not, is that they can not tell the difference in a Christian and anyone else. Their behaviors are the same. That is not the goal.
We must not only have faith and be saved, but also obey his teachings. That is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. It doesn’t mean to ignore the world, or to even withdraw. But it means to stand by the principles found in the Bible at all times, regardless of the situation.
In our relationship with God we have to walk with Christ. Day by day, we carry our cross (our burden) and we do what Jesus has commanded along the way. The end result is not only our salvation, but better lives for us, and all those around us.

REPENTANCE

Repentance is an often misunderstood subject. Strangely enough I think we often confuse repentance with belief. They are two different things. They go hand in hand, but they are two things.

Repentance is the starting point of Salvation. I say that simply because is it where and how Jesus began his public ministry. We see it in Matthew 4:17; “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (NASB)

Repent: Repent means more than regret. It means regret plus a sincere change of heart toward God. To break that down a little bit, lets look at the two steps.

• Regret is when we have done something wrong that we with we had not done. Many times in our day to day life we say that we regret something, when in truth, we really just regret getting caught at that something. Sin (the violation of the laws of God, and thereby the person of God) is something all of us are guilty of (see Romans 3:23). We often regret sin, but all to often the problem is that we regret that we now have to face the penalty for that sin, rather than regretting the actual transgression of the person of God. That is where the second part of true repentance comes in.
• A sincere change of heart toward God is the second part of true repentance. For that to occur, this idea by its very nature implies an acceptance that God is real, and that he has authority over you. But it also says that where as before this moment of repentance that we were living in a way of life that is contrary to what God desires of us and for us. Some may say, no, I do not live contrary to God, rather I live in apathy to God. Those who live this way, are mistaken because to do second is to do the first. (Matthew 12:30)
• To better understand the differences between repentance and regret, we will look at the story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32. (Read it)
• -The story, told by Jesus, features three people prominently; the Father, the eldest son, and the younger son. In Jewish culture, the eldest son would be entitled to two shares of the inheritance; where as the younger son would receive only one share. We see in the story that the younger son get in a hurry and asks his father for his share of the inheritance early. When he receives what he has asked for, he goes and spends his wealth on ‘loose’ living. Later, after all the money is gone, he finds himself feeding pigs, and longing to eat the very food he is throwing to them. Remember, pigs are unclean animals to a Jew, and therefore this was considered a very demeaning job. What we see here is that the young man got to such a point while working this job, that he was nearly starving himself.
  
  -What causes a man to do that to himself? Why didn’t he return home as soon as he realized he could not support himself any longer? Because he suffered from the same issue that many of us suffer from; PRIDE. He was too proud to go home. I feel safe in saying at this point, this younger son, was filled with regret. But his actions remained the same.
  
  -Later, the bible tells us that that young man ‘came to his senses.’ He came out of the pit that pride and arrogance can put us in. And he realized that his Father might be willing to receive him back. Not as a son of course, but as a hired servant. He would at least have enough then to eat. (And chances were slim that he’d have to feed hogs.) From there, he went back to his fathers house and was received, not as a hired man, but as a son. WHY?
  
  -He was received back as a son, and not a hired man because of his change of heart toward his Father. Now, we do not have time to discuss the actions of the Father, but what we do see here is that the son’s regret, combined with his change of heart toward his father, leads him home. Away from his ‘loose’ living, away from his suffering, but toward and into his fathers house. That change of heart is what Repentance is. That is the same kind of change that we are called to exhibit toward God the Father in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Kingdom of Heaven: Notice Jesus statement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven….” In this statement, he makes no effort to apologize for the kingdom. (To apologize in this sense is to offer a rational explanation.) He just asserts that the kingdom is real and exists.

• The evidence for and about the Kingdom. First, what is the Kingdom of heaven? Is it just heaven? No, it has to be more, otherwise it is just a place. Rather for the kingdom of heaven to exist, heaven must exist, but also the King there of must also exist. So in other words, the statement is self apologizing. The assertion itself explains itself. But if that is not enough:
  
  - When Moses asked God for his name, the answer is “I AM” (Exodus 3:14)
  - When Jesus was being questioned by some of the local Jews, he told them plainly, “before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58)
  -In both these verses, the assertion itself is the witness to the validity that God is real, and that Jesus is divine.
• But what does that mean for us? For the answer we will look at Romans 1:18-20. (Read it)
  
  -In this passage we see that Men (Humanity) are without excuse. The Bible says that the creation itself is a testimony to the creator. But humanity chooses to disregard Him. We look for every other excuse we can find. (Example: Matter + Chance + Time = Life)
  
  -I have spoken to many people who think, “if God would only show himself, I would believe.” “If he cares so much, why doesn’t he come down here and help?” “Why not just come?” What we forget, is that that is an age old question, and the answer to the question is - He did. God showed himself to us through Christ. He became Human, and lived and walked with us. He showed us miracle after miracle attesting to who he was. But even with his presence and his miracles, we (humanity) did not recognize him. (John 1:10) So when the presence of God on earth combined with sinful men came to an impasse, the creator (Jesus) would not hurt the children that had been created (humanity), and the created crucified the creator. So he, Jesus, gave us one last miracle. This time, the miracle would be the one that would shake the world from that day on. Three days after Jesus’ death by crucifixion he rose to life. He physically got up out of the grave and walked out. He was and is alive.
  
  -So the point here is if we are ever temped to say, God if you would just show yourself, I would believe… we need to remember, that is exactly what he did in Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand: In this last part of Jesus’ call to repentance, we see one last assertion. It’s ‘at hand’ or ‘near.’ In Jesus day, people were still awaiting the messiah, let alone the end of time, and the rapture was not even a thought in their minds. But Jesus’ assertion is that not only should we be looking for all of this, but the time is ‘at hand.’

• As followers of Christ, we can see plainly through the reading of the New Testament that we are to live in full expectation of his imminent return. (Example: I Thessalonians 4:14-17)
  
• The world (all of humanity, regardless of belief) awaits the day when the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (That doesn’t mean that all the world accepts that, or even knows it. But the entire world will know it when it happens.)
  
• For that we look at Revelation 19:11-21. (Read it)
  -Another question that people ask about God is if he is all powerful, why doesn’t he just exterminate evil? Well, the victory was won at the cross. That was Satan’s defeat. But the vanquishing has not yet occurred. The passage we just read shows that the victorious king is coming, and when he does, all evil will be done away with.
  
  -These are the words to what we know as the ‘Battle hymn of the Republic’ by Julia Ward Howe. Most of us hear it as a patriotic tune. But this time, read these words as a statement of the coming Christ.
  
  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
  He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
  He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
  His truth is marching on.
  
  I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
  They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
  I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
  His day is marching on.
  
  I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
  "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
  Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
  Since God is marching on."
  
  He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
  He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
  Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
  Our God is marching on.
  
  In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
  With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
  As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free,
  While God is marching on.
  
  He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
  He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave,
  So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
  Our God is marching on.

Jesus is coming back: We all need to know that. And it is 100% irresponsible to talk about the return of Christ without talking about how to be saved. We make it so hard, so often. But it really is simple.

• Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
• That is a very short statement. But it is simple and straight forward. Will you believe? Will you do what Jesus first called us to do? Hear him now, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
  
  -Will do as Jesus says? I hope so.