Teaching Series
The Call of Christmas
Matthew 1:18-25

Series: The Call of Christmas  
Message: The Call to Protect  
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 41:5-8.

Read: Matthew 1:18-25—As you read in the NLT translation, note 1-3 insights/questions that arise. 

Reflect: Continuing in Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary, Matthew by Ben Witherington, III, page 43 highlights:

“The concept of the virginal conception has no exact parallels in other stories of prodigious births, either Jewish or Greco-Roman stories. Furthermore, the idea was unlikely to have been generated simply by a reading of Isaiah 7:14 that is cited in Matthew 1:23, for that text could be read to mean that a woman who had previously not had sexual intercourse would conceive by normal means and bear a child. In other words, it was the story of Jesus’ birth told by early Christians that led to the reading of Isaiah 7:14 in a new light, not the other way around. If we ask the significance of the virginal conception, it stresses: (1) the holiness of the child, for he was conceived through the agency of the Holy Spirit; (2) the uniqueness of the child, for such a means of conception was unprecedented; (3) the divinity of the child because by this means it was made clear he was also Son of God.”

The miracle of the birth of Jesus, and the trust and care laid on the newly engaged couple, Joseph and Mary, was a tremendous responsibility. It was also the deep wish of every parent since Adam and Eve. Could this child be the promised Messiah? At long last they were about to bring in, care and grow the revolution.                          

Recalibrate: 

  1. What does it mean that Jesus was both man and God?
  2. What role does the Holy Spirit play in our lives today and what does that look like?

Respond: Pray for wisdom. 

Research:  Research the average age that Mary and Joseph would have been.

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