DECEMBER 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS SUMMARY 04: JQ#1-33 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 DECEMBER 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  SUMMARY 04: JQ#1-33  The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, You are Unchanging for Forever and Forever, for You are the Alpha and the Omega. Lord as I face another day in the world I praise You for the great and mighty work that You accomplish daily through the Holy Spirit in our lives and the extra blessing of YOUR Teaching us how to worship with our work and how to be a witness to Your Great Love. I pray that others will see us living our lives through You and witness to the Abundant Life that comes only from following You that they also will learn that it is following You that is the most important thing in each individual’s life — not what the owner’s of the business or our earthly bosses think about our worship at work but  of major importance is what You think of our worship! Jesus, You know our hearts and Lord, help us die to our worldly self and let Your Love show though in a mighty WAY!!!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was established in the first chapter of Matthew as the rightful Heir to the Throne of David through His genealogy through David all the way back to Abraham and then Matthew documents the prophesied “virgin birth” of Jesus thus fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Matthew then moves directly into the conflict that developed with the then earthly king of Israel, King Herod: “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.’” (Matthew 2:1-2) The fact that “wise men” from the East came seeking the “King of the Jews” and declaring that they had “seen His star in the East” and they traveled all the way to Judea to find Him is significant in the “universality” of the Jewish Prophecy that the “King of the Jews” would be born in “Bethlehem of Judea” for the prophets had written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.” (Matthew 2:5-6 and Micah 5:2) Matthew has now demonstrated 3 major prophecies that have been fulfilled by Jesus in just the first chapter and part of the second.  That put the odds of any one person fulfilling these 3 major prophecies at an astronomical number and almost certainly by mathematical odds that Jesus and ONLY Jesus by (1) His genealogy through David, (2) His “Virgin Birth”, and (3) that  “Virgin Birth” occurring in the town of Bethlehem would be totally sufficient to declare Jesus the Heir to the throne of David and therefore by prophecy Jesus would have to be declared the “King of the Jews”!  So it is obvious why this news from the wise men declared in the presence of Herod and all the chief priests and scribes in the city of Jerusalem would cause Herod to be “troubled”.  What makes the odds of Jesus being the “King of the Jews” grow exponentially is the fact that even this “trouble” that King Herod felt was in prophecy as well for Matthew records that when the wise men departed after “they saw the young Child with Mary His mother” (Matthew 2:11) that “an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’ [Joseph] did as the angel had commanded that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet [Hosea], saying, ‘Out if Egypt I called My Son.’” (Matthew 2:12-15 and Hosea 11:1) When Herod “saw that he was deceived by the wise men…[Herod] sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which [Herod] had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:16-17 and Jeremiah 31:15) Now Matthew in only two chapters, has Jesus fulfilling prophecies by Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, and Jeremiah and the miracle part of the prophecy is that in order for these prophecies to be fulfilled that the circumstances demanded that “wise men from the East” and the current king of Judea be complicit in the fulfilling of prophecy! To me it is significant that God was accomplishing His Plan and using Jesus as a Child to cause literally a Universal Response to His Arrival and that means that there will be required of the world a Universal Response when Jesus comes again! God’s complete Plan has been written down for us to read and comply with — all we have to do is accept the obvious, Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God!!!