Birth and Early Life

Well, we are studying the life of Christ and we are coming to the point tonight where we actually do what this Class really will do probably the rest of the way and that is look at several different passages and chronologically move through in a survey fashion the Elements of the life of Christ tonight which really deal with his birth and Early life what we're going to do tonight is summarize the first 30 years of Christ's life Now that's a tall task, but when you realize there's really very little biblical information on those first 30 years in In the scriptures when you put together the accounts of Matthew and Luke which are the two gospels which deal with this This information you have 11 different episodes and we're going to take them sequentially chronologically Time-wise like on a timeline. We're going to start with the first and move right on through those 11 now We may not get all 11 of them tonight and all likelihood we won't but but we need to understand that there are these 11 episodes in the gospels that that describe the first 30 years of the life of Christ now They're not proportionate. They're not spread out over the life of Christ in fact the first eight of them Deal with his birth and the events surrounding the first couple of years of his life We typically think of them as the birth events of our Lord's life So the first eight of these 11 and then after that you've got three more you've got you've got one sentence That summarizes ten years in the life of Christ from age two to twelve You've got one paragraph That summarizes an event in our Lord's life when he was 12 years old And then you've got one more sentence that summarizes 18 years in our Lord's life from age 12 to age 30 So it's not proportionate even in the material that we have describing his first 30 years the bulk of it Talks about his birth Why do you think that would be true? Why do you think it would be so disproportionately? Toward his birth I'm gonna get you to help me teach tonight. Okay Pardon me It was a singular event. Okay, all right in What sense would I think I know what you mean by that singular event, but flesh that out a little bit more? Okay, it is a singular event in the sense that it is it is a once in Once in eternity once in all of human history type of event. Yes a virgin birth The Savior coming into the world now that deserves a little bit of attention doesn't it? That deserves a little bit of ink and so the gospel writers do focus on that some any other thoughts So why that might be the case Yes Yes the second Adam approaching it from that perspective of you have in a sense in that way also a singular event you have the first Adam Who comes into to this world as a Innocent man created perfect but fell into sin and you have the second Adam who's come to undo all that the first Adam brawling in and and so you've got the yeah the these two Amazing events in human history Okay, good good. Yes, Kisti Many of the details were specifically fulfillment of prophecy good. Yes, there's so much Old Testament prophecy about the first coming of Christ And and a number of those things do come to fruition in his birth. We're going to see that Especially those first eight events are packed full of Old Testament references. I mean, it's just chock full of them Okay, anything else there? It's good. You are good teachers Like the way you teach Okay, let's begin with the the first event in these eleven that summarize the first thirty years of our Lord's life and it's the announcement to Mary So look at Luke chapter one if you have your notes with you night You should already have your Bible open to Luke chapter one verses 26 to 56 now. We're not going to this again Remember this is not an in-depth verse by verse study. This is a survey So we're going to kind of hit some high points. These are familiar passages These are the Christmas stories basically this is the Christmas story and so we're going to pick out a few highlights from these stories. Let's begin with the the announcement delivered The announcement delivered in verses 26 to 38 it is delivered by the angel Gabriel in a city called Nazareth look at verse 26 in the sixth month now wait a second in the sixth month of what we've kind of skipped right to that in the sixth month of what what's No No, not quite Six month of the Jewish calendar that that you would if you just saw that phrase by itself. That's what you would think. Yes In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, I think that in the context is what he's talking about here because and I I kind of Jump right into this without giving any any warning but verses 23 talk about 24 Elizabeth became pregnant for five months. He remains in seclusion and then in verse 26 in the sixth month Well, it's talking about the six month of her pregnancy. So and that's important to remember she is six months in along into her pregnancy when the angel appears to Mary Okay, now He appears to Mary in the city of Nazareth. Let's take a look at the map. One of kind of trace the Geography here remember the different Regions or provinces the Roman provinces of the the biblical world In the New Testament here's Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Overseer, Peria, Decapolis the Ten City area Okay, in Galilee in the north. This is Nazareth Nazareth is kind of a wayside town maybe about 2,000 people in the time of Christ It was it was a town that was kind of a Roman Outpost a lot of Roman soldiers there a lot of Gentiles in that town It was not it was kind of a notorious town. It was kind of a military town and Was known for all the the negative things that sometimes that can include in a town So Nazareth is where this happens. Let's take a look at some pictures of modern-day Nazareth modern-day Nazareth is a town of about 60,000 people and Is a very a bustling city another picture of the city as a whole You can see it's a fairly good-sized City now. Let's go to the next one. Okay right in the center of the city is this building guess what that is a Mosque Get I think if I'm picking the right building think that's a church Church of the enunciation. Let's take another look this this Complex here is a church that was built by the Roman Catholic church over The place where the angel is supposed to have appeared to Mary now Nobody really knows for sure if that's the real place, but you find that a lot in Israel where churches have been built For centuries these sites have been kind of dedicated to some biblical event. Okay, do we have any other pictures of Nazareth? I can't remember if that was it. That was it. Okay, all right. Let's move on then We're talking about the announcement to Mary being delivered by the angel Gabriel look at verse 27 This announcement comes to verse 27 an a virgin Pledge to be married to a man named Joseph the Senate of David the Virgin's name was married twice She's called a virgin so the Bible makes it very clear that She was a virgin She had not known a man to this point in in her life now This does not mean that she was selected to be the mother of the Messiah because of any any Sinlessness or any other merit on her part The angel speaks to her in verse 28 says the angel went to her and said greetings you who are highly favored? The King James says hail thou who art highly favored and because of that There there is a phrase that has been taken Hail Mary full of grace because the word highly favorite comes from where I mean grace hail Mary full of grace and and Those who teach that and say that phrase typically mean that Mary holds an exalted position She is full of grace in the sense that she has grace to dispense just like God does to us and That is not true. That is not what this verse is saying Greetings or hail the old King James word greetings to you who are highly favorite of God You have been chosen by God's grace. It's not that she's the giver of grace. She's the recipient of grace Mary was a sinner just like any of us who needed the salvation that God offers Through his son and through her son Jesus Now she was a very godly woman as you'll see the picture as it comes along through here of her life and her response But Mary is not Mary is not a sinless woman She is not someone who gives grace. She's one someone who receives grace and Is the recipient of God's grace and is chosen by God to be the mother of Messiah Now notice the person of the Messiah as you read on down through look at verse 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus now the name Jesus means what? You caught it didn't you that's what God with us is Emmanuel right right Jesus means I think I heard it Jehovah says it's actually the the Old Testament in Joshua Jehovah saves Jehovah and and so Really it's it's the word for savior the idea here with Jesus is savior remember when and we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit And Matthew one the angel appears to Joseph and he says you shall call his name Jesus why because he shall save his people from their sins You shall call him Jehovah saves because he shall save his people from their sins so He is savior but notice also in verse 32 he is the king He will be great will we call the son of the most high the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David He will reign over the house of Jacob forever his kingdom will never end so he's the king He's the savior he's the king and then notice verse 35. He is also the son of God Middle of the verse well. Let's read the whole verse the angel answered the Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the most High will overshadow you so the Holy one born to you will be called the son of God So he is savior he is the king and he is also God that's description of the person who is to be born on on this first Christmas is Jesus the son of God the Messiah the savior the king Now verse 35 describes the the virgin conception The angel answered the Holy Spirit will come upon 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 notice all three members of the Trinity are involved The Holy Spirit will come upon you now what how that happens? We don't know other than this was a special miraculous Placing of Jesus in the womb of Mary It should not be seen as some kind of cohabitation with the Holy Spirit, but it should be seen simply as a direct intervention of the Holy Spirit to perform a miracle to implant Jesus in the womb of Mary and and so the Holy Spirit's involved The most high the power of the most high speaking of God the Father and the one who is Is beginning his human existence in Mary's womb is the son of God. So you've got Jesus all three members of the Trinity there All three acting at the same time. This is one of those passages where you have a beautiful picture of the Trinity because all three are acting at the same time All three separate persons Involved at the same time now it's important for us to recognize that the miracle of Christ's coming into the world is not Now please hear this Because if you report the wrong thing to the community out there. I could be run out on a rail The miracle is not a virgin birth the miracle is a virgin conception The miracle is how Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary From that point on through the nine months of development and the birth it was normally human It was very normal. The birth itself was a very normal human birth It was the conception that was miraculous And so although we all understand what is meant by the term virgin birth that Jesus was born of a virgin The point where the miracle really takes place is not the birth. It's the conception Nine months earlier is where the miracle takes place So it's the virgin conception literally of the Lord Jesus one other thing I'd like to point out about this story and that is Mary's response at first she's bewildered The angel's telling her she's going to have a child in verse 34. How will this be Since I am a virgin she simply doesn't understand how she can have a child without the help of a human father That's a normal question. How's that going to happen? How can that be and when the angel then explains This is a miracle to the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit will come upon you the power of the most high will overshadow you This is going to be a miracle of God then notice her response in verse 38 sweet submissive spirit This is one of the things that indicates she was a godly young woman I am the Lord servant Mary answered may it be to me as you have said then the angel left her now I think That response comes with a full awareness And over the next few months that awareness will know that grow so maybe it's not a full awareness now But she has at least an initial awareness of what this is going to cost her And nobody's going to understand this nobody's going to believe this It's going to cost her dearly But she is if this is God's will she she allows herself to be God's instrument of bringing his son into the world and she has a sweet submissive spirit She is the Lord's servant And you know we all are really we all are the Lord's servants really Which if we have the same heart as Mary means that we're willing For him to use this in whatever way he wants to It's not our choice and even when the way he wants to make create some difficulty in our lives Some even embarrassment maybe some misunderstanding We are his servants and we're willing to be used however he wants us to that's the sweet spirit of Mary Okay, so that's the announcement delivered Any questions about that beautiful part of the story comments Yes Yes That's a good distinction Steve it Steve is saying that she doesn't ask the question like Zacharias did this is not a question of doubt No, God, I don't I don't see how this can happen. This is a question of confusion I don't understand how this can happen. I don't not questioning that it will or that it can that you can do I just don't understand how and so God explains Yes, well You Yes Yeah, they're all miracles the miracle of the conception of Christ in the womb the the miracle of and I'm assuming you're talking about the miracle of any conception and how that happens But especially this one you're talking about this one. Yes. This one is the real miraculous Yes Yeah, yeah Something only God can do that's miraculous Let's take a look at the the announcement confirmed the announcement is delivered by the angel, but the announcement is confirmed by Elizabeth There's a human instrument here and so this announcement is confirmed in verses 39 to 56 Her visit with Elizabeth notice the first thing she does Verse 39 at that time Mary got ready hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zacharias's home Zacharias home and greeted Elizabeth now An amazing response happens and you're familiar with this story probably where the the John the Baptist who is six months along in her womb Recognizes the mother of the Messiah This is miraculous leaps in her womb and then the Bible says Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit She recognizes something is happening and no doubt these next three months she was there three months by the waiver She was 56 says she stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, which means she probably stayed till John the Baptist's birth six plus three equals nine. I think that works out kind of right. Yes. It's probably about the the birth She stays till John the Baptist is born and then she goes back home, but can you imagine those three months? Can you imagine? There's nobody else that she can talk to who she gonna talk to her parents? Are they gonna understand? Is Joseph gonna understand we know later that Joseph doesn't understand Um nobody's gonna believe her nobody's gonna understand her she can't go tell this wonderful news You know that got that got us shown her i'm who's gonna believe that But Elizabeth will Now You know whether or not Mary had heard about Elizabeth the news that spread around about her miraculous but amazing Well, yes miraculous Ability to bear child in her old age Maybe Mary had heard about that they were relatives You know what she was thinking what god had spoken her own heart about we don't really know all it was going into this But she felt safe with Elizabeth And so can you imagine those three months of conversation and talking and affirming and confirming what god was doing Was indeed his plan and his his perfect will for Mary's life that must have been a wonderful time Um versus 46 to 56 Mary's song often called the magnificate which is Latin for Uh the first word the first Latin word that appears in verse 46 the word glorifies my soul glorifies the Lord um We're not going to take the time to go through her song but every phrase in that song is either a quote from an Old Testament scripture Or is built on Old Testament thought And how god deals with his people which shows something about this young teenage girl She knew the word of god She evidently came from a godly home and a home where she herself Took great interest in the word of god. She was a godly young woman and um When I say that she was a sinner just like everybody else you you understand I'm saying that she was Like all humans a sinner, but she was a godly young woman who loved the Lord Love his word and her mind and heart was filled with the word of god. It's amazing if you have a concordance or or a regular um um Study Bible that will give you cross references Then you can trace a lot of these statements right back to the Old Testament. It's really an amazing study So the announcement is confirmed by Elizabeth and Mary responds with just wonderful joy In what god is doing in her life the announcement to Mary what a tremendous story Okay Question or comments about the announcement to Mary Okay 20 minutes on the first one I knew we wouldn't get through 11 tonight Some of them aren't very long the announcement to Joseph we won't take quite as much time on this one Matthew chapter 1 The next event the gospels describe is the announcement to Joseph okay, no, let's get the picture here Mary has been gone for three months When she comes back Um, she's three maybe Four months close to four months pregnant by the time this this next part of the story happens because Joseph has had enough time to find out She's expecting and he's had enough time to process that think it through figure out what he's gonna do and then Versus 18 through 25 take place. This is amazing part of the story verse 19 Uh, whoever's 18 before before they came together their pledge to be married It's a patrol time which is just as binding in Jewish culture as a marriage would be in our time and in their time it required a divorce to break this This in Betrothal period this engagement type period Before they came together she was found to be with child through the Holy Ghost first 19 because Joseph her husband was a righteous man And did not want to expose her public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly now really there's much more tension here than what is apparent in our English versions when it says Joseph was a righteous man Uh, it means he was zealous for the law He was zealous for the law he was he was a man who loved his Old Testament just as much as Mary did And no doubt his heart was filled with the Old Testament His mind was zealous to keep the law to live according to the Old Testament law He was he was what one would call a sadik a a righteous man in the best Hebrew tradition a man who loved the the Old Testament law And so he knew what the Old Testament law said about a woman who was found to be unfaithful in this Betrothal period According to law of Moses she could be stoned to death public disgrace and her life taken So he's balancing his his love for the law with his love for Mary and there's a lot more tension here than what we may may assume He loves her he loves the word He knows that he must take a stand But he doesn't want her to be killed and so there is a second option for him and that is he he will divorce her But he will do it privately um Verse 19 says he will divorce her quietly He's deeply grieved by what he sees as her unfaithfulness. That's the only way he can understand this. She's been unfaithful to him And so he knows Because of his zeal for the Old Testament law he he must break off this relationship He does not want to see her die doesn't want to see her publicly disgraced and so he is determined to just go through a private divorce When the angel comes to him and says okay, we got to move in on Joseph here. He's got to get a little bit of Understanding of what's going on here? And so now the angel comes to Joseph Verse 20 after he considered this an angel the Lord appeared to him in a dream Said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit She will be give birth to a son you're to giving the main the name Jesus Because he will save his people from their sins. This is to fulfill Old Testament prophecy verses 22 and 23 And Joseph then wakes up and realizes wait a second I'm a player in this great fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy the Messiah and and my place is to go ahead and take her now as my wife and provide shelter and protection for her And and be the legal guardian of this Messiah who is coming into the world. That's my role And so he adopts that role willingly this is just as much a humble Servanthood commitment of his as it was for Mary Because he's going to face disgrace. He's going to face misunderstandings. He's going to face ridicule probably Many will think that he is the father The scriptures say in some places that Even as we saw in the genealogies that as was assumed or as it was thought Joseph was the father Okay, so he's going to face a lot of misunderstanding and ridicule Imagine from his perspective telling his parents. No, I'm not the father But you're going to marry her anyway, even though she's been unfaithful She hasn't been unfaithful No, wait a second Joseph that doesn't add up. She's pregnant You're not the father Come on be real things like this don't happen Okay, there's there's a lot going on here that it's just really deep and And very personal for Joseph and for Mary and a tremendous commitment on their parts One of the amazing things about this passage Doctrically is that it makes it very clear from Joseph's perspective. He's not the father It presents the virgin birth clearly from Joseph's perspective because verse 24 is his response when he wakes up He did what the angel the Lord of command named took Mary home as his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son And he gave him the name Jesus So it is clear that they do not come together as husband and wife in sexual union until after the birth of Jesus The gospels make it very clear. He is not the father of Jesus this is a miraculous birth of a virgin He takes her to protect her to guard her to care for her During these times of great misunderstanding on the part of everybody else Okay, so the announcement to Joseph of a beautiful and tender part of the story any questions about that comments Yeah, is there such a thing? Yeah, this is a regular angel. Yeah No, and what Steve is referring to is in the Old Testament You'll find this expression sometimes the angel of the Lord and Whenever you find that expression in the Old Testament The angel of the Lord has miraculous powers divine powers and he has worshipped his God and most Bible scholars believe He is an Old Testament appearance of Christ Before he comes into the world as incarnation and here it is not the angel of the Lord. It's not Christ. It is an angel So you could say regular ordinary angel Okay The other question comment Okay Okay, let's just quickly touch on on the birth of Jesus and we'll have to pick up there the next time in Luke 2 Go back to Luke's gospel the next event that takes place is the actual birth of Jesus You've got these two announcements to the to the key players Mary and Joseph now you've got the actual birth described This is a very familiar record probably the most familiar story in the gospels of the Christmas story of the birth of Christ And let's just touch very briefly on the time of Jesus birth in verses 1 and 2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world and then Luke dates this census first two this was the first census That took place while Karenius was a governor of Syria Now The time of Christ's birth you say well it was zero right? I mean everything before that is before Christ everything after that is Is after Christ so it had to be zero actually because of a change in the in the Roman calendar Later on the birth of Christ actually takes place in four to five BC So you've got Christ being born four to five years before Christ Okay, but we know that for a couple of reasons one is the very clear Statement here about this was the first taxation Karenius was governor twice on two separate occasions Separated by about ten years the first taxation During his reign was in around four to six BC Second was a few years after a day The second thing the second reason we know about the time of Jesus birth is because history records the time of the death of Herod Herod the great Herod the great died in four BC So according to the modern calculations of the Roman calendar four BC so The gospels record that he died soon after the birth of Christ so somewhere in the year four to five BC would be the time when Jesus was born there are other ways to do that Professor at Dallas. I don't know that he's still there John Herald Honer I don't know if he's still there or not, but he was was at Dallas for many many years Great New Testament scholar wrote a book called the chronological aspects of the life of Christ And he dealt that was his doctoral dissertation He dealt with all of these chronological features and he has page after page after page of historical verification And also other Bible characters that are mentioned and when they ruled when they reigned when things happened And he nails it down four to five BC pretty clearly when Christ was actually born Okay, so that's the time of Jesus birth four to five years before Jesus Okay, take that home chew on a little bit You can't see the time in the book What month he was born? I think if I remember correctly, I think Harold Honer deals with that some But I don't recall the specifics of that so I would be shooting in the dark to try to answer that anybody have any information on it Go from there work it work down You May not have been December I mean there's nothing sacred about December 25 And I'm not going to get into the discussion of the pagan holidays right now, but you know that that that date was assigned later obviously So there's nothing sacred about that date. Obviously we're not tied to December 25. It may well have been another time probably was Okay And thankfully our time is up so before we go any further on that one All right, our time is up. We'll come back to this next time Lord willing Let's pray Father, we're so thankful for just the beauty of these events And as we we just we really just stand in awe of how you introduced your son to the world with these announcements By the angels angel to to Mary to Joseph and then Lord how you the fullness of time in the very perfect time brought your son into the world We just stand in amazement at the fact that you're your God you are in control of all things Father, I thank you for giving us your son It's one thing to say that it's another thing to revel in the details of it and to see how you did it and We thank you for that. Thank you for the beauty of your word In Jesus name we pray