SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2019
10:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Intro to the Virgin Birth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
1:18-25
Message of the verse: “18 Now the birth
of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to
Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy
Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to
disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered
this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the
Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a
Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their
sins." 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord
through the prophet: 23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR
A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means,
"GOD WITH US." 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the
angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept
her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”
When
the cannon of the New Testament was settled it is no accident that in the very
first chapter of Matthew, which is the very first chapter of the New Testament
that we see in that chapter both the regal humanity and the deity of Jesus
Christ. I realize that the chapters were
not put into the Bible until latter, but none the less this is the first thing
we read about when we begin reading the New Testament that Jesus Christ was
100% man and 100% God. If this were not
the case then there would not be any gospel at all. No man only born of a woman like every other
man born would be able to save humanity because the seed of all persons born
with the exception of Jesus Christ is passed on by the man. Let us look at Genesis 3:15, the first
prophecy of the coming Messiah: “And I
will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you
shall bruise him on the heel.’” This is
the only time in the Word of God you see the phrase “her seed” and her seed is
that of the birth of the Messiah.
John
MacArthur writes “The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the central fact of
Christianity. The whole superstructure
of Christian theology is built on it.
The essence and the power of the gospel is that God became man and that,
by being both wholly God and wholly man, He was able to reconcile men to
God. Jesus’ virgin birth, His substituionary
atoning death, resurrection, ascension, and return are all integral aspects of
His deity. They stand or fall
together. If any of those teachings—all clearly
taught in the New Testament—is rejected, the entire gospel is rejected. None makes sense, or could have any
significance or power, apart from the others.
If those things were not true, even Jesus’ moral teachings would be
suspect, because if He misrepresented who He was by preposterously claiming
equality with God, how could anything else He said be trusted? Or if the gospel writers misrepresented who
He was, why should we trust their word about anything else He said or did?
Let
us look at what Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 22:42-45 “42 “What do
you think about the Christ, whose son is He?" They said to Him, "The
son of David." 43 He said to them, "Then how does David in the
Spirit call Him ’Lord,’ saying, 44 ’THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY
RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET"’? 45 “If David
then calls from that day on to ask Him another question.” In these verses Jesus tells them who the
Christ is and it is He.
How
was Jesus conceived in the womb of Mary is a question that we really cannot
answer. There is a verse in the book of
Revelation that tells us about people given a name which no one else can know
and in one of John MacArthur’s sermons he states that people would come up to
him and ask him what was the name. Well
we get the same answer to how the Lord was conceived in the womb of Mary: We don’t know, but we do know that it
happened and that is where faith comes into play as God gives us the faith to
believe it, but not truly understand how it happened.
We
will conclude this portion of this SD by quoting the last paragraph of
MacArthur’s introduction which will help us understand where we will be going
after this:
“After establishing Jesus’ human lineage
from David, Matthew proceeds to show His divine ‘lineage.’ That is the purpose of verses 18-25, which
reveal five distinct truths about the virgin birth of Christ. We see the virgin birth conceived,
confronted, clarified, connected, and consummated.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
Without faith it is impossible to understand what the Word of God is
saying to me, and I am thankful for the faith given to me so that I can
understand the wonderful truth of who Jesus Christ is.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Humility is
a big part of faith as I have to be humble to realize my need to understanding
the Word of God, knowing it has to come from the Spirit of God.
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
is from Genesis 2:25 and Genesis 3:7.
They were naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.
They sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves coverings.
11/26/2019 11:33 AM
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