Bible Study - Class meets on Thursday from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM CST.

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:19
 
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

Joseph did not want to make Mary a public example, so he decided to divorce her secretly.  He did not want a public scandal. Mary could have been stoned to death had he made it a public issue. He had the right of divorce since they had not come together sexually.


Stoning was the legal prescription for this sort of adultery (Deut.  22:23, 24).  Joseph's righteousness meant he was also merciful; thus he did not intend to make Mary "a public example."  The phrase "a just man" is a Hebraism suggesting that he was a true believer in God who had thereby been declared righteous, and who carefully obeyed the law.  To :put her away" would be to obtain a legal divorce, which according to the Jewish custom was necessary in order to dissolve a bethrothal.

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:20
 
But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

An angel appeared to Joseph, while he brooded over his situation, to inform him that the Holy Spirit caused Mary's pregnancy. The Holy Spirit did not have sexual intercourse with Mary but was the agent of her conception.

Note the phrase “son of David.” Joseph was an ancestor of David. He was in the royal line of David. This puts Jesus in the royal line of David legally.

Do not be afraid shows that Joseph needed to make his decision independent from the emotion of fear. Emotion gets in the way of clear decision making.

We can translate the phrase of the Holy Spirit with by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the agent of Jesus' conception. The Holy Spirit formed the embryo in the womb of Mary. This marks Jesus' birth as unique.

[BoyRescue]

Its actually 5 and 31.

Hope this answers your question.

31 for NIV and 32 for KJV.  

Unfortunately, it doesn't answer my question.  If the "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" are interchangeabl e (according to the article) then why does the author of Matthew use different Greek words to describe both phrases?  

• "Kingdom of God" is:  "basileia theos"
• "Kingdom of heaven" is: "basileia ouranos"

[LadyLionness]

Aha's....aka... take away...

Joseph was faced with a difficult choice ater discovering that Mary was pregnant.  Although he knew that taking Mary as his wife could be humiliating, he chose to obey the angel's command to marry her.  His action revealed four admirable qualities:  (1) stern principle, (2) discretion and sensitivity, (3) responsivienes s to God, and (4) self-disciplined.

Perhaps Joseph thought that he had only two options:  divorce Mary quietly, or have her stoned.  But God had a third option - marry her.  In view of the circumstances, this had not occurred to Joseph.  But Gdo often shows us that there are more options available than we think - we just have to ask ... as we learned in the book of James already.  Although Jospeh seemed to be doing right by breaking the engagement, only God's guidance helped him make the best decision.  When our decisions affect the lives of others, we must always seek God's wisdom.

A man who loves his wife protects her in public. This is the nobility of the husband. A noble husband rises above circumstances to do what is right for his wife.  He does not care what others think in this situation. This is especially true in Hmong marriages where "how" a husband is supposed to act and be is so well defined.

A noble person does not make a decision by fear but by objective understanding of the facts. He does not allow negative emotion to pressure his decision.

Joseph is definitely a man of courage... to do what is totally against everything that he has been taught... to live God's will and not that of his own.

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:21
 
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

Mary's child was more than a child; He would be declared a Son.  They would call His name Jesus, meaning Savior. His name represents His purpose. Jesus� is from the Hebrew Jehovah is salvation. Joshua (Jehovah saves) is the Old Testament name for Jesus.  Jesus� is the human name and Christ� is His official title. The name Jesus� occurs 150 times in Matthew.

Matthew announced that God would act uniquely and graciously through Jesus. Jesus' most single role is that of Savior. The word He� is emphatic, demonstrating that He and no other� will save people from their sins.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, Re 1:5

Jesus means "Savior."  Jesus came to earth to save us because we can't save ourselves from sin or from the consequences of sin - we will see this clearly when we get back to the Old Testament.  No matter how good we are, we can't eliminate the sinful nature present in all of us.  Only Jesus can do that.  Jesus didn't come to help people save themselves; he came to be their Savior from the power and penalty of sin.  Thank Christ for his death on the cross for your sin, and then ask him to take control of your life.  Your new life begins the moment you ask him for it.

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:21 con't

Jesus represented both man and God as a mediator in His humanity and deity.
 
Jesus had to possess humanity to be the Savior. He was both God and man. He died in His humanity, not His deity. As God, He had eternal life and eternal life cannot die. Immutability cannot give up life.

The Son had to maintain both deity and humanity to maintain His right as mediator between God and man. Man is one party and God the other. Jesus represented both God and man in salvation. It was the physical birth of His humanity that qualified Him to represent man. He was born without a sin capacity and He never committed an act of sin, qualifying Him to die for our sins.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time 1 Ti 2:5, 6
 
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Heb 2:14-15
 
Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. Heb 10:5
 
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Heb 10:10-14
 
Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. 1 Pe 2:24

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:22
 
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:

Mary's miraculous conception was a fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew quotes a 700-year-old prophecy to prove to the nation Israel that Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14.

Some of the credibility of Christianity rests on fulfilled prophecy.

There are more than 300 prophecies of Jesus' first coming. His fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 is one of them.

The Greatest Gift


 
 
 Dr. Grant C. Richison
 
 
 
Prophesies described God's greatest gift in detail hundreds of years before the giving of this gift would take place.
 
God has never had an afterthought. He has never been surprised. He has never had to change his mind. All events in the scope of time eternal are to Him as the present moment is to us. With those thoughts in mind, consider the majesty of God's plan for mankind, and how He not only humbled Himself to the point of giving His one and only Son to die for your sins and mine, but that He told the world about these plans hundreds of years before they would be fulfilled.
 
Some 70 major prophesies and over 200 others describe the coming of Christ in staggering detail. To the people of Israel, this plan was so clear that they eagerly awaited the coming of the Saviour, the Messiah who would deliver men and women throughout the world from the clutches of sin. The plan was outlined in a way that provided mankind with an exact address in time. Only one Man in all of recorded history could possibly fulfill all those specific requirements.
 
According to historian Peter Stoner, the chance that any one man could fulfill the eight most significant prophesies alone is one in 1017. That's 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. It's equivalent to a blindfolded person finding one marked silver dollar in a pile covering the state of Texas to a depth of two feet! The chance that any one person could fulfill 48 of the prophesies is one in 10157 (one followed by 157 zeros).
 
Here are some of the most significant prophesies concerning the birth of the Messiah, with a principle and application attached to each one. We suggest that you study them one at a time, giving yourself an opportunity to digest the information provided before moving on to the next.
 
Part I The first prophecy of the coming of Christ from the book of Genesis, which is also a prophecy of the work Christ will perform.
 
Part II God told king Ahaz that the Messiah would be born to a virgin, and that His name would be "Immanuel" which means "God with Us."
 
Part III God announces that unto us a Child would be born, and that the government would be upon His shoulders, and that He would be everlasting and the Prince of Peace.
 
Part IV Eight centuries before Christ was born, Mica prophecies the place of His birth–a small community with an unremarkable history.
 
Part V God uses the prophet Daniel to describe to the exact year when Christ would enter Jerusalem in triumph–the date which would prove to be Palm Sunday the very week of His crucifixion.
 
Part VI Matthew quotes a number of passages from the Old Testament to show that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy, all of them written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.
 

[yajmafia]

You know of an online one or one that is soft copy?

Online? No.  Hard copy, yes.  CM&A has one.  My dad has one in white dialect.

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:23


Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.

This is a quotation from Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah gave this prophecy of the virgin birth as a sign� of authenticity.

Isaiah 9:6 speaks of the Son� as the Mighty God.
 
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Is 9:6

[venom]

Online? No.  Hard copy, yes.  CM&A has one.  My dad has one in white dialect.

Dr. Nyaj Looj Yaaj is working on that getting the latest version (which I think he's finishing up) out; hardcopy and online/software copy.

[LadyLionness]

Online? No.  Hard copy, yes.  CM&A has one.  My dad has one in white dialect.

Hard copy as in the Bible?  

We wanted something that is soft copy.  For now, it's for our own use only.  In time, we are thinking of adding a commentary in Hmong.

[LadyLionness]

Dr. Nyaj Looj Yaaj is working on that getting the latest version (which I think he's finishing up) out; hardcopy and online/software copy.

Are you sure about that?  Because if that's the case, then we may not need to do this...

[LadyLionness]

Matthew 1:24-25
 
Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.


Joseph, upon waking from his dream, took Mary as his wife and abandoned his plan to divorce her.
Joseph did not have sex with Mary until after Jesus was born. They did eventually have sex and that produced a number of children. By Joseph's adopting Jesus, Jesus became the legal heir of Joseph - thus fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus being from David's line.

The strength of what we believe is measured by how much we are willing to suffer for those beliefs.  Joseph was a man with strong beliefs.  He was prepared to do what was right despite the pain he knew it would cause.  But Joseph had another trait - he not only tried to do what was right, he tried to do it in the right way.

When Mary told Joseph about her pregnancy, Joseph knew the child was not his.  His respect for Mary's character and sthe story she told him, as well as her attitude toward the expected child, must have made it hard to think his bride had done something wrong.  Still, someone else was the child's father - and it was difficult to accept that the "someone else" was God.

Joseph decided he had to break the engagement, but he was determined to do it in a way that woudl not cause pulbic shame to Mary.  He intended to act with jsutice and love. 

At this point, God sent a messenger to Joseph to confirm Mary's story and open another way of obedience for Joseph - to take Mary as his wife.  Joseph obeyed God. 

We do not know how long Joseph lived his role as Jesus' earthly father - he is last mentioned when Jesus was 12 years old.  But Joseph trained his son in the treade of carpentry, made sure he had good spiritual training in Nazareth, and took the whole family on the yearly trip to Jerusalem for the Passover, which Jesus continued to observe duirng his adult years.

Joseph knew Jesus was someone special from the moment he heard the angel's words.  His strong belief in that fact, and his willingness to follow God's leading, enabled him to be Jesus' chosen earthly father.

Strengths and accomplishment s:
- A man of integrity
- A descendant of King David
- Jesus' legal and earthly father
- A person sensitive to God's guidance and willing to do God's will no matter what the consequences

Lessons from his life:
- God honors integrity
- Social position is of little importance when God chooses to use us
- Being obedient to the guidance we have from God leads to more guidance from him
- Feeling are not accurate measures of the rightness or wrongness of an action

[yajmafia]

Are you sure about that?  Because if that's the case, then we may not need to do this...

I believe so.  If I see him, I'll ask.

[LadyLionness]

Jesus Christ is both God and man.

The New Testament nowhere explicitly calls Jesus Immanuel, which means God with us. However, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy. The person of Jesus is indeed God with us.  Jesus came to be with us by virgin conception.  The New Testament does describe the God-man in Philippians 2:5-8 and other passages.
 
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jn 1:14
 
Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM. Jn 8:58
 
I and My Father are one. � Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jn 10:30,31
 
Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, Show us the Father Jn 14:9
 
Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Ro 9:5
 
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell Col 1:15-19
 
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily Col 2:9
 
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. 1 Ti 3:16