The wonderful account of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is presented here. How wonderful to learn from God’s Word that the eternal Son of God was born a baby into the world that He had created. In this Gospel, the Lord Jesus comes to His people (the nation of Israel) as their Messiah. He was to be received by them as their king and to be honored and obeyed.
Over 4000 years before Jesus was born, God told the woman in the Garden of Eden that her seed would bruise Satan’s head. He was telling us that His Son, the woman’s seed, would defeat Satan’s effort to destroy man (Genesis 3:1515And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)). Satan would be defeated by a man. Over 1800 years before Jesus was born, God told Abraham, “In thy seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:1818And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18)). He then made Abraham to be the father of the nation of Israel.
If He was to be their king, His genealogy must be through David, the first king chosen by God for the nation. So, of course, it was.
Now the time had come for God to fulfill His promises for His people to have a Messiah, king and Savior. He carefully names, one by one, the 42 generations of people from Abraham to Jesus Christ, the promised One.
Then God tells us a wonderful, unique fact: The conception of the virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not by her husband but by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God and He is man.
Only God could know what name to give the child. He instructed, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus.” The name “Jesus” means Jehovah the Savior. In His Old Testament relationships with the people of Israel, He often called Himself Jehovah. More than that, they were also to call His name Emmanuel, which means, “God with us.”
1. The New Testament is God’s wonderful book about __________. Matthew 1:___
2. Over 1800 years before his birth, God had promised __________ that by his seed all nations would be blessed. Matthew 1:___
3. He was to be Israel’s promised king, so His genealogy is through “__________ the king.” Matthew 1:___
4. Unlike anyone else who has ever lived, Jesus was born of a virgin, whose conception was by __________. Matthew 1:___
5. God said He was to be given the name of __________, for He would save His people from their sins. Matthew 1:___