Wednesday, December 17, 2014

"The Angel" - Doug Rehberg

It’s hard to imagine a time in human history where the signature of Jesus was printed more indelibly than at the time of the first Christmas.  At every turn in the story the Lord’s justice and loving kindness is on full display. 

As we mentioned in our first week of “The Signature of Jesus – First Penned”, Matthew’s radical departure from the standard Hebrew genealogical presentation of Jesus of Nazareth is astounding.  It is unprecedented to include even one woman in a Jewish genealogy.  It was simply not done!  And yet, the Holy Spirit inspires Matthew to include four women in the progenitors of Jesus.  And as we underscored this point two weeks ago, we detailed the corruptions, the weaknesses, and the brokenness of each one of these women.  As we dug into their identities we were painfully aware that the words of the angel of the Lord are unassailably true – “…you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  There’s no more striking picture of the Lord being on the side of the poor, the broken, the orphaned, the widow, the stranger, and the guilty than in the first six verses of Matthew’s gospel.
This week (Christmas Sunday) is no exception.  In Luke 2:8-20 we again find the angel of the Lord coming not to kings and princes, not to the moral upright and the well-respected, but to the despised and distrusted shepherds.  Again God sets human propriety on its ear!  Not only does He come to these shepherds who are out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night, but He declares that “the good news of great joy” is for them!  He says it this way, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Now this account includes some of the most familiar words recorded in the Bible.  From “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” to the plethora of Hallmark cards, many of the words of the angel are at the forefront of American minds this Christmas season.  However, familiarity often breeds blindness.  I would venture to say that while these words are some of the most familiar words of Scripture, they are among the least understood.  And that’s a real problem, because if we miss the meaning of the words, we miss the signature of Jesus.  So this Christmas Sunday we will dig in and see the wonder of these first pennings.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the following:

1.      How does the coming of the angel to the shepherds speak of God’s generous justice?

2.      What was the common opinion of shepherds in the Old Testament?

3.      How had that opinion changed by the time of Jesus’ birth?

4.      Look at verse 15 – how is it that this statement is called “the core of the Gospel”?

5.      What is the “city of David”?  (I thought Jerusalem was city of David.)

6.      What is meant by the words “this day” and “Christ the Lord”?

7.      What is Luke’s opinion of the link between David in II Samuel 7:9-16 and Jesus in Luke 1:32-33?

8.      What is the correlation between Genesis 35:16-21 and this text?

9.      How is Benoni/Benjamin a foreshadowing of Jesus?

10.  In what way are the shepherds the first evangelists? 

See you Sunday for a Merrier Christmas!