The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Matthew 1, Luke 1:1 – 2:38
Act 3: God’s New Covenant People
Scene 1: Christ’s Coming; God’s True King Arrives
Background Information: Matthew 1, Luke 1:1 – 2:38
This carpenter’s son from nowhere has a lineage that is an Old Testament who’s who of Jewish royalty. However, it also includes five women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife), and Mary. Including women in a genealogy was unusual for the time, but even more unusual are the women Matthew chose to include. He doesn’t include the famous Jewish matriarchs like Sara or Rachel, but instead he includes four women who were foreigners to the old covenant. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba were all non-Jewish women. Perhaps he included them because their stories were so noble and pure? No, the opposite is true. Their stories all included sexual immorality. Jesus is the direct descendent of women whose backgrounds were tales of sin and shame. Matthew includes them to show that the New Covenant in Jesus tears down the barriers of male and female. He includes them to show that Jesus is not ashamed to call sinners his friends or his family. He came to save us from our sin; Matthew makes this clear even in something as simple as a genealogy. Luke had a scientific mind. He went about compiling his gospel carefully, gathering eyewitness testimony. Like all good historians, he uses great precision in how he dates key people and events. Imagine this serious, thoughtful, and beloved physician (Colossians 4:14), going about his work to interview all the surviving witnesses to the life of Christ. Did Luke have doubts when his witnesses began to tell him the story of Mary giving birth to Jesus despite never having been intimate with a man? No, I’m sure he didn’t. He had been saved by Christ himself. He was the author of Acts, and he knew firsthand the powerful, inexplicable spread of the gospel across the world. He knew that the virgin birth was historical fact. He knew that there is nothing “unscientific” about the God who made the cosmos doing unusual things in the cosmos to accomplish his purposes. As you read the gospel of Jesus, start from a position of belief, never of doubt. What you are reading is true–all of it. You need not question its validity. Your task is to understand it, believe it, and obey it. As you do, you will see God unleash his word in your own life.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Ask God to give you opportunities for gospel conversations. Pray that the many conversations that have happened over the last few weeks would bear fruit as the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of unbelievers.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.