I have been away from this subject for about 5 years. I am currently teaching all 4 Gospels at the same time. Each Gospel looks at a different side of Christ, this is the reason I am looking at each Gospel at the same time. This provides a better look of Jesus Christ. Matthew shows Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Mark shows Jesus as the suffering servant. Luke shows the historical Jesus. And John shows Jesus as the Son of God. All of these views are important, because they show Jesus as the Real Messiah, The Son Of God.
Before I get into the study, I would like to remind you that God has been silent to the Jews for a period of approximately 430 years. During this time, man has been leaning on his own understanding, and not God's understanding. Before Jesus' birth, the world was becoming a very dark place. This is what the Gospel of John Chapter 1 is describing. On the night Jesus was born, only the shepherds watching their flocks on the hill side outside of Bethlehem were visited by the Angels. The Angels of the Lord appeared to these shepherds and told them about the "new born" in Bethlehem. The shepherds went into the city to see this fact that the Angels had told them.
Matthew Chapter One lists the Genealogy of Jesus. This is not really the Genealogy of Jesus, but that of Joseph, Jesus' step Father. Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that the whole world had to be taxed, and the whole world had to be registered, each to his own town. It was this decree that caused Joseph his step-father to have to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in Judea. Bethlehem was the birth place of David; and Jesus was to come from the line of David. Joseph's line was not a direct line to David, so Jesus could not be born of Joseph. Jesus needed Joseph's genealogy, in order to be born in Bethlehem. King Jechoniah was king when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar took him in bondage to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar killed Jechoniah's sons before him and then gauged out Jechoniah's eyes so that was the last thing the king saw. This made a cut in Joseph's direct line to David. Now Joseph was betrothed to Mary to be his wife, Mary's genealogy is listed in Luke chapter 3. When you compare Joseph's and Mary's genealogies, you will notice that Joseph's line starts with Abraham. Mary's genealogy starts with Joseph, and goes through Adam. This was necessary, in order to connect Jesus to Adam. Adam brought sin into the world when he disobeyed God and ate of the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Jesus' name means "To Save Us From Our Sins". Jesus' suffering and death was necessary for Him to be able to reconcile us back to God. Mary was not part of Caesar Augustus' decree so there was no reason for her to leave Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem. In order to accomplish Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, both parents needed to be in Bethlehem at the same time. When you consider the size of Nazareth, and its population, this makes the odds of these two coming together at the right time highly unlikely. God's prophecy had to be fulfilled, Micah 5: 2; in order to be a prophet of God, you needed to be 100% accurate. I will talk about this later in this study.
Genesis Chapter 3: 15, talks about the curse of the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. It is this curse that made it necessary for there to be a Savior. We will show in this study that Jesus Christ is That Savior.
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