Who is this Jesus? God with us/His people.
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Who is this Jesus ? God with us/His people.
Who is this Jesus ? God with us/His people.
With the passing of time, it is all too easy to cloud or lose the true meaning of special days.
Some would suggest and probably rightly so, that we need to re-calibrate what we choose to remember to insure that we remember it accurately.
We need to do this gently and graciously - COMPARE DON CHERRY - accurate but not so gentle
So the question is how do we re-calibrate. When we allow only culture rather than original sources to re-calibrate, sooner rather than later we will lose sight and miss the mark - HUNTERS ALWAYS SIGHT IN THEIR GUNS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH SCOPES.
The accuracy of our calibration will in the end help us to or hinder us from processing/answering essential life questions.
What do we do? What are we?
Who are we? Whom do people say we are are? OR
Who/what really defines who are are and what we do?
Our answer to the following question will help us with answering these questions and re-calibrating.
“Who is this Jesus?” God with us/His people.
UNLESS WE ANSWER THIS QUESTION CAREFULLY AND BIBLICALLY, IT IS VERY EASY TO LOSE FOCUS AND ALLOW THAT WHICH IS NOT TRUE TO BE DEEMED TRUE, OR THAT WHICH IS NOT SPECIFIED TO BE DEEMED WRITTEN IN STONE AND NEVER QUESTIONED.
PPT - TWO CHOIR MEMBERS MORPHED INTO 3 WISE MEN.
“Who is this Jesus?” is the question that people should still be asking and we should able to answer.
I was greatly encouraged by a recent letter from the general manager of a local radio station. It began this way,
“May we talk about Christmas? Unfortunately, many people think of this holiday in terms of Santa Claus rather than than the true meaning of Christmas.”
Calvary Baptist, along with other congregations have been offered the opportunity to broadcast one minute messages entitled, “The True Meaning of Christmas.”
In order to answer that we must ask the Scriptures, “What is true meaning of Christmas?”
THAT IS A GOOD QUESTION, A VERY QUESTION!
BUT
AS WE OPEN THE SCRIPTURES, WE ARE LED TO CONSIDER AN EVEN MORE CONCISE BETTER QUESTION.
“WHO IS THIS JESUS?”
Matthew, in his account of the Gospel of Jesus - Jesus Christ, who was so named because “He will save His people from their sins”, explained who Jesus is by the way that He cared for His people and by the way that He was with His people - Immanuel - God with us.
Jesus’ people - genealogy:
Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ:
While we refer to the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we need to remember they did not identify themselves as the authors. Any study of the text makes the authorship very clear.
“Gospel” of Jesus Christ - only :!
Matthew - Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ - many view this as Matthew’s title - the genealogy of Jesus Christ - affirming that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the promised King of the Jews.
Royal lineage underscored by Matthew, confessed by Jesus.
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Writing primarily to Jews whose first heart language was Hebrew and also knew the LXX, Matthew’s wording was significant.
OT - begins - Biblios Genesis - LXX - book of Genesis - book of generation of the world
NT - begins - Book of the Genealogy/Generation of Him who made the world.
Genealogy very important, especially to the Jewish people
Attention to genealogy began early - where they lived in the conquered territory depended on the tribe into which born - - tribes named and numbered - ex
These are the clans of Manasseh, and those listed were 52,700.
These are the sons of Ephraim according to their clans: of Shuthelah, the clan of the Shuthelahites; of Becher, the clan of the Becherites; of Tahan, the clan of the Tahanites.
Nu 26:
These are the clans of Manasseh, and those listed were 52,700.
These are the sons of Ephraim according to their clans: of Shuthelah, the clan of the Shuthelahites; of Becher, the clan of the Becherites; of Tahan, the clan of the Tahanites.
Serving as a priest required verification of Levite genealogy
Nu 26:
Also, of the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, and the sons of Barzillai (who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name). These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
Transfer of property connected to family genealogy -
=62
NT census based on genealogy -
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
Lk
Jesus - Jeshua means “The Lord is salvation”
Christ - Christos - anointed one - Messiah - promised one
His people were connected to each other and HIM by birth & FAITH - 2 specific men - 3 eras
Son of ABRAHAM, father of Isaac, father of Jacob, father of Judah - 1:1-5
To Abraham - Abrahamic Covenant
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Gen 12:1
Reaffirmed and explained to Abraham and sons
and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Gen 22:
Son of DAVID - father of … - 1:5-11
Through the Prophet Nathan, God promised that it would be through David’s line that He establish His eternal kingdom.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
2 Sam 7
The Lord swore to David a sure oath
from which he will not turn back:
“One of the sons of your body
I will set on your throne.
The Jews were very exact in preserving their pedigrees, and there was a providence in it, for the clearing up of the descent of the Messiah from the fathers; and since his coming that nation is so dispersed and confounded that it is a question whether any person in the world can legally prove himself to be a son of Abraham; however, it is certain that none can prove himself to either a son of Aaron or a son of David, so that the priestly and kingly office must either be given up, as lost for ever, or be lodged in the hands of our Lord Jesus. Christ is here first called the son of David, because under that title he was commonly spoken of, and expected, among the Jews. They who owned him to be the Christ, called him the son of David, ch. 15:22; 20:31; 21:15. Thus, therefore, the evangelist undertakes to make out, that he is not only a son of David, but that son of David on whose shoulders the government was to be; not only a son of Abraham, but that son of Abraham who was to be the father of many nations.
Not fulfilled in Solomon or in any of the successive Kings.
GOD KEPT HIS PROMISES TO ABRAHAM AND DAVID
Even though about 2,000 years
Even though though 3 by 14 generations - generation skipped - 1 Chron 3:
14 generations since a King - waiting for the promised monarch.
Son of/descended from those who were taken into captivity and brought back - 1:11-15
Parallels and comparisons with OT genealogical records are not as easy to not - records were scattered - in broad strokes understood - they had their own version ancestry.ca.
As promised, God brought the back.
Jer 29:
These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Moses told them on the eve of entering the promised land that they would reject God, He would scatter them and bring them back.
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
BUT, this would only be completely fulfilled when God renewed their hearts - Jer 31:31-34
And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Deut
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
Ezek
2. His people connected by FAITH:
With the mention of each of these men, the NT and Jesus made it clear full and complete connection with the promises of God came not through physical but spiritual new birth by faith.
Abraham - 1:1-2
By faith Abraham responded by God’s promise -
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Gen 12:
Abraham’s faith was not perfect. But it was in God who is faithful.
Abraham trusted God to provide for him.
After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”
Offering Isaac
Gen 22:
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
Heb
Isaac - 1:2
God’s promise to Abraham reaffirmed - conditional on obedience and faith.
And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Gen 26:2-
By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
Jacob - 1:2
In blessing his sons, the blessing of Joseph focused on God’s covenant promises
“Joseph is a fruitful bough,
a fruitful bough by a spring;
his branches run over the wall.
The archers bitterly attacked him,
shot at him, and harassed him severely,
yet his bow remained unmoved;
his arms were made agile
by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob
(from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
by the God of your father who will help you,
by the Almighty who will bless you
with blessings of heaven above,
blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,
blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
The blessings of your father
are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents,
up to the bounties of the everlasting hills.
May they be on the head of Joseph,
and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.
Gen
By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
Heb 11:
Uzziah - 1:8;
Matthew skipped over several generations between Joram & Uzziah - Ahaziah, Ahaz & Amaziah - BUT the succession was clear and true.
Matthew had also skipped generations between Rahab & Salmon - 1:5
UNFAITHFUL - entered temple and burned incense - leper for the rest of his life
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
Hezekiah - 1:9-10; ; 2 Kings 16:29-20:21
Trusted in God - none like him - before or after
He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.
2 Kings
Illness, prayer - no indication that prayed for healing and life extended 15 years
In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’ ” Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Now, O Lord, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.” And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”
And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.
2 Kings 20:
Sin of pride - parading his wealth before the envoys of the king of Babylon - nothing would be left -
Joseph - 1:16, 17-25
Not perfect - early in life probably a bit precosious
BUT lived by with God is view as one of His people.
With regard to overtures made by Potiphar’s wife to seduce him - refused her
But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
Gen 39:8-
With regard to being sold into slavery by his brothers - refused to hold onto bitterness and be defined by the abuses of others.
So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 45:
Willing to care for and continue to forgive his brothers - after Jacob, their father died.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Gen 50:
At the end of his life mention of the Exodus and his bones.
Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
Gen 50:
By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
Heb 11:
Matthew would have us understand “who this Jesus is”and “who are His people”.
Understand and remember
God’s loving care is extended to all.
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matt 4:4
Jesus’ people are His by faith and birth/new birth.
At issue here is the difference between affirmation in the truth of facts and embracing/personalizing those facts.
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Did Paul accurately understand and explain the OT?
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
How in Abraham would all families be blessed? When they made Abraham’s God their God.
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
Gen
No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Rom
2. Jesus’ people include ALL who by faith believe that He has/will save them from their sins.
Jacob - deception
David - adultery and conspiracy to manslaughter
Tamar - seduced father in law - Judah who went looking for a prostitute
Rahab - the women involved in the sex trade who protected the spies and came to believe in the Lord God.
And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”
Josh 2:11-
Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household.
Josh
3. Jesus’ people are those who by faith believe that what they were, is not what they are in Christ.
4. Jesus’ people have a great faith heritage and an even greater faith future.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
Heb 11