A Christmas Story Series

So, part one, will be looking at Jesus’ birth from perspective of Matthew and Luke’s gospels.

Next week, John’s gospel.

We’ll be unfolding 8 factors, as they tell the story:

Uniqueness of each gospel

Key points of each gospel

Bio of the authors

Their audience

Key figures

Intent of the authors focus

Prophecy

Places

Quick overview:

Matthew and Luke give a physical and angelic account of Christ’s birth,

while John gives a divine account.

Their are a host of well-known and not-so-well-known characters, and we’ll talk about some interesting aspects of their profiles and roles.

These key figures include:

Mary

Joseph

The angels

The shepherds

King Herod

John the Baptizer

Zacharias

Elizabeth

and the Holy Spirit

Let’s begin in Matthew:

The purpose of Matthew’s gospel is to convey Jesus Christ as King.

His audience are the Jewish people

There are a few unique things about Matthews gospel:

Josephs dream

Visit of the wisemen

Escape to Egypt

Slaughter of the male children

All found only in Matthew.

Matthew cites prophecy in the OT several times:

Matthew 1:22–23 “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.””

Matthew 2:5 “So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:”

Matthew 2:15 “and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.””

Matthew 2:17–18 “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more.””

Matthew 2:23 “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.””

Matthew begins his gospel with an in depth genealogy of Jesus, to prove that Jesus is a descendant of both David and Abraham, just as prophecy foretold.

This genealogy is important because oftentimes in Jewish culture, a person’s descent is more important than their character.

Think about it like this:

You know that boy Tristan is DelRay’s son. And ya know, DelRay, did such and such.

Don’t we, even in our own culture, judge a person’s character because of who their father, or their mother is, instead of their own character?

This genealogy is found in two places of the OT:

Ruth 4:18-22 and 1 Chron 2:1-15, so

Let’s look at a little verse by verse of Matthew.

v1-17 give the genealogy, wrapped up in:

Matthew 1:17 “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ, are fourteen generations.”

So, in 16 verses, Matthew lays out 42 generations.

Matthew 1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”

I want to jump over to Luke for a few verses.

I’ve done my best to pare this down to the highlights, to stay within the context of the message, so bear with me please.

Luke 1:26–30 “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

Luke 1:31–36 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.”