So here we're, in this particular class,
if you haven't been in it before, we're attempting to review the life of
Jesus in chronological order, fitting all the events in sequence. Because we're
pretty familiar with the story but we haven't,
we don't always know exactly the sequence of events. Last week what we did
is, we went over the seven periods of Jesus' life. Seven periods of Jesus' life, these were not the events, the individual
events, but they were the periods, how all the Gospels are kind of divided. They
follow this particular pattern. You can chop it up in different ways but this is
a pretty recognized way to divide up the major periods of His life, His boyhood
from 0 to 12, beginning His public ministry with John the Baptist. And then
if you're looking at it chronologically, well, then what are the events in His
life that happened year after year? Well, like we say,
well, was that last Christmas or two Christmases ago? Or when the
baby was born or whatever. Well, here they use Passovers. So the third period
from the first to the second, from the second to the third, from the third
Passover to the final week, and then of course, the last Passover throughout the
crucifixion or what they call the Passion of Christ, that's the sixth
period. And the seven major period that we talked about last week, resurrection
appearances and ascension. Now you didn't miss any of the sequences.
We're starting that tonight. If you weren't here last week, last week was an
introduction, a bit of a review. Tonight we're really going to start the
actual events. Now, hopefully you've used the reading guide to read ahead because
remember I told you, we don't have time to read all of these passages of
Scripture, so I'm counting on you to read ahead. You're familiar with the things
that we're going to talk about. I'm going to try to put this,
the events in proper sequence, maybe do some commentary, fill in some information
you might not have about the various events that have taken
place. And you'll notice on your worksheet tonight, that on the back of
the worksheet you have the reading list for next week. So if you're a regular
Bible reader or a daily Bible reader you can add this or substitute
this for your time. So first event. First event is the actual
introduction, the introduction of the whole sequence of events. Only Luke and
John talk about this in both of their first chapters. Luke's Gospel is the only
one that implies that it was written as a letter and so the introduction
explains the reason for the letter. All the others don't explain why they're
writing. Luke's Gospel is the most historical in nature and contains the
most details. 119 of the total 186 events are described in Luke. So if you're
looking for a history, Luke, and you're only going to read one book, Luke is the
one to read. On the other hand John, it's not an introduction,
it's a prologue. "In the beginning was the word", John announces the theme of his
gospel not why he wrote it, but theme of his Gospel. Different from Luke in that
it isn't a letter, different from the others in that Matthew and Mark begin
by telling the story from the very beginning of their books. But John's
first eighteen verses summarizes the life and the purpose of Jesus Christ and
defines His nature and source from the very outset of the book. And then in
verse 19 he goes on to tell the story beginning with John's preaching. So he
starts with John's preaching and so you have two introductions, one in Luke, one
in John. That's the first event. Second event, the genealogies. Genealogies are
contained in Matthew and in Luke. Now, before any action or personalities are
introduced, the genealogy of Jesus is given
in order to establish several things. First of all, the genealogies are given
to establish His place within the Jewish community. I mean, you were a Jew because
you belong to the nation and your place in the nation was confirmed and
maintained in the records of the families and their descendants. They had
written records, written genealogies that were kept. That's how you prove who you
were, if you were in the priestly line or the Levitical line, of whether
you were, which tribe you were in, land rights. All of these things were
resolved because your name was part of the genealogy. You could trace your
family through these genealogies. So the first genealogy establishes Jesus within
the Jewish community. The second reason is, it establishes His direct
relationship to David, King David. Prophets told that the Messiah would be
a descendant of David of the tribe of Judah. So anyone claiming to be the
Messiah, and there were many, anyone claiming to be the Messiah would have to
be within this lineage, would have to prove that they belong to that lineage.
So Matthew's genealogy describes Jesus' royal genealogy tracing it from Abraham
to David to Joseph and thus His legal authority to claim the title of Messiah.
Luke describes His natural descendants from Adam. They're different because the
authors choose different people on the list of descendants to mention in order
to make their case. They don't mention every single person in the line of
descendants. For example, if from Adam to Joseph there were 300 descendants. Well,
each author mentions different ones in that lineage. Okay? For example, Matthew
starts with Abraham and then he mentions the 103rd descendant, the
107th descendant, the the 208th descendant, the 286th descendant, so
on and so forth. And then he gets to the final one 300, he gets to Joseph. Luke
does it exactly in reverse. He starts with Joseph the 300th, the
third, the last one down and then he mentions the 297th
one, the 295th one, the 284th one, and he works this way back, but he goes all the way back to Adam. So
genealogies are there to show that Jesus was a Jew and also that he had a
legitimate claim to the role of Messiah according to the prophets who said that
the Messiah would come through David's lineage. So that's why you have those
genealogies there. They're not... Well, they're for us because we study the prophets but
for the Jews at that time they would first and foremost look at those things
to establish His basic credibility. One thing that's interesting is that after
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. all the genealogical records were
destroyed. The Romans not only destroyed the temple and the city and the wall and
everything down, they also burned all of the genealogical records. There are no
genealogical records left. Huh? Well, except this one. That was my last point.
Thank you. Except this genealogical record. The only one that actually
kept is here in the New Testament, the one for Jesus. So some people say,
well, the Jews will try to reestablish the temple and so on and so
forth. They can't do it. Why? That's good. Everybody answers the same time. That's
good. Somebody yes, they don't have the records. How can you prove you're a
priest? How can you prove that you belong to that line? When I was in Israel
back in 2000, our guide Itzac, we went
back and forth. We're together for ten days. So finally I said, so, Itzac, I
said, what tribe are you from? Oh, I'm from the tribe of Judah. Really? I
said. And how do you know that? He says, oral tradition. He was dead serious.
Oral tradition. Okay, anyways. Number three, Third event, the birth of John the Baptist is announced only in Luke. And we know the story. A
priest named Zachariah is married to a woman named Elizabeth, who is the cousin,
they say kinsman, but cousin of Mary of Nazareth. And he's chosen by lot, it
says chosen by lot, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime privilege, chosen by
lot to go burn incense in the holy place. The holy place was the ante
room before the Holy of Holies and they would burn incense on the altar there, on
the table there. I mean, there were a lot of priests. I mean, there are a
lot of people who fit that category, so they couldn't all do it all the time. So
what if your name was drawn by lot? Wow! It's like hitting the jackpot.
That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And so Zechariah goes and
does his duty, his priestly duty and while doing this an angel appears to
tell him that his wife will have a son. She has been barren not able to
have children and now she is past childbearing age. And we know the story,
he doubts, and he's struck dumb until the child is born. Fourth event, the birth of
Jesus is announced, Luke 1:26 to 38. Like I said, Luke has a lot of historical
information. So six months after John's birth is announced, so is Jesus' birth
announced, but this time to the woman who
would bear the child herself, and that is Mary. Notice John's birth is announced to his
father first. Jesus' birth is announced to his actual mother. And the angel tells
her that unlike John who would be great in the sight of the Lord and a perpetual
Nazarite, meant that he'd taken a vow, no alcohol, no meat. He would be a servant of
God that's why he was a Nazarite and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
That was who John was. Mary's son would be conceived by supernatural means on a
completely different plane and He would be the long-awaited Messiah and both
would have missions. One would prepare the way for the other. One would
announce and introduce and the other would fulfill all that was said about the Messaiah
in prophecy. Fifth event, Mary visits Elizabeth, Luke 1:39. These are easy
because they're all in Luke. So if you read Luke, the sequence is
pretty easy. Now in the last three months of Elizabeth's pregnancy and during the
first three months of her own, Mary visits her elderly cousin and assists
her in the final months of her pregnancy. When they meet Mary pronounces a
beautiful poem. The Bible doesn't call it this but scholars have referred to it as
the "Magnificant". And in the poem she praises God for His goodness to her, the
fact that she has the honor of being the mother of the Messiah. Praises Him for
His kindness to all who fear Him, His help to those who are oppressed, sending
the Messiah and her peace and her joy at her condition. And the interesting thing
about this poem in Luke is that it completely consists of Old
Testament scripture. It's not that she's inspired to say something new that has
never been said before. She simply, well I won't say simply, but the amazing
thing about it is the entire poem is simply one Old Testament scripture after
another, which suggests that Mary knew the scriptures. She knew them well. A holy
woman of God indeed. Number six, the birth of John the Baptist
Luke 1:57-80. John is born soon after Mary's departure and his name is given
as John. A surprise because no one in Zacharias' family has this name. And
usually, at that time, usually included a name of a relative. That's why in the
genealogies the same names come back over and over and over again because
they would name their children, grandchildren the same, with the
same name. When he does he begins to praise God and he too with references
from the Old Testament. I'm going quickly here because this is familiar stuff.
Number seven, the angel appears to Joseph. That's the seventh event in sequence,
Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 to 25. So Matthew tells the story
from Joseph's perspective and Luke tells the story from Mary's
perspective. That's the difference. Okay? So they were betrothed meaning that the
dowry was set. The families got together agreed on a dowry. The dowry had been set,
had been paid for, the commitment to marry was done. The house was chosen. All
that was left was the wedding feast and the wedding feast was usually one year
after the official betrothal. So the idea was the dowry was set, the families would
meet, that betrothal was made public, roughly a year later the couple would
have a wedding feast. And from the wedding feast they'd moved straight into
their home. The betrothal was a binding agreement. If you wanted to
break the betrothal you had to get a legal divorce. You had to put someone
away legally even though the couple had not "consummated" their marriage,
they hadn't lived together, slept together or anything like that.
Nevertheless they were considered betrothed, promised to one another. Now
let's see... Now before the wedding feast, of course we know the story, Mary is
pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Now some people doubt this. They deny it using
several arguments. And you've heard these arguments from agnostics and others. They
say that this part was added later on by unknown and uninspired
writers. Or they claimed that virgin birth was not held by the early church
because the epistles don't write about it and it's true. If you read the
epistles none of the writers and the epistles refer necessarily to the
virgin birth. And some say, well it's just impossible naturally. In other words, they
don't believe in miracles, so they deny the idea of the virgin birth. Of course
the answer to this is that both Matthew and Luke both mention quite
specifically the fact that Mary conceived in a miraculous fashion. So
if we're going to choose, I'm gonna go with the Gospel writers first not
with the 20th century commentator. Okay? Just like they both mentioned that Jesus
resurrected in a miraculous fashion. So in my mind, what's more difficult for God to do? To
resurrect someone from the dead or to to have a woman conceive
a child through a miraculous act? To me one is not anymore...
if you can do one you can do the other. Right? And people who deny the
virgin birth, what else do they have to deny? Well, yeah, because if you're denying
it as a miracle then you have no business believing in the
resurrection either. Alright? So let's see... Okay, so Joseph is told by the angel that
Mary has conceived by the power of God and he will name the child Jesus. And
as you see by the notes, the term "Jesus" is the Greek form of the name, the
Hebrew name "Joshua". And the Hebrew name Joshua means the Lord is salvation. Like
Mary, Joseph believed the angel and followed through in obedience. Boy, that
pattern always comes back over and over and over again. You believe, you obey. You
believe, you obey. Always like that. So she accepts to be pregnant and have
the baby. He accepts her pregnancy and prepares to be the father by providing
her his name and a home to live in. In Luke 1:25 it says, he "kept" her a virgin
until she had his son. This means that after she had Jesus he no longer kept
her a virgin and this explains the sons and daughters spoken of in other passages (at least 4 brothers and 2 sisters). We read about that in Mark
chapter 6 verse 3. So basically, Jesus is the eldest of seven that we know of,
seven that are mentioned. Eighth event, the birth of Jesus, Luke chapter 2 verse
1 to 7. Something interesting about this. Isn't it interesting that the world
places so much importance on the birth of Jesus? I read in the paper today that
stores are already putting out their Christmas merchandise.
I mean, really? I thought they were going, they were over the top when
they did it around Thanksgiving. But man, it's coming out now. It's amazing.
They're putting it... So my point is, the world puts so much emphasis on the birth
of Jesus but only one writer describes it. The birth of Jesus is only described
by one of the four writers. So Jesus was conceived while Mary was betrothed to
Joseph, legally married but not yet living together. He was born in Bethlehem,
the City of David, according to prophecy, Micah chapter 5 verse 2. The actual
giving of names in long distance prophecy is very rare, very rare long
distance prophecy. I don't mean like 10 years tomorrow, 50 years, but in
long centuries in the future. Very rare that the prophets use names, the actual
giving of names and long distance prophecy, the prophecy is very rare. But
Micah the Prophet actually gives the name of the city where the Messiah will
be born, Micah chapter 5 verse 2. And the reason historically was that there was a
census and you had to go to your native city to be counted. And
Joseph, as we learned through the genealogy, was of the house of David and
probably owned a small plot of land so had to be there for counting purposes.
That's how the Jews decided where you could own land,
because the tribes had been divided geographically. Alright? Number
nine, now we get in some interesting stuff. Angels announced Jesus's birth, Luke 2:8 to 20. Now historians tell us that
shepherds had their flocks out grazing between March and November. So the time
of Jesus's birth is somewhere between March and November. There's a long story
about how December 25th was arbitrarily chosen at one time but we're really
stick to the events on the Bible here. Try not to go in
too many directions here. Now that Shepherds are the first to know
is unusual. This is a more interesting idea than Christmas on the 25th
of December which is a another story altogether. They were the first
to know because they were poor and unimportant. Why would that
count? Anybody know? Yeah? {Inaudible speaking in the background} And what's the best example of that? I'm
sorry I didn't hear you. Shepherds are common people. And what's the best
example of Jesus using lowly people to accomplish His will? The Apostles. But
He'd go before that and we've got an example right here. Jesus is
born into whose household? Yeah, a young maiden,
simple, Joseph's a carpenter, working-class people.
They were not part of the religious establishment, the shepherds were not.
They were however, symbolic of the type of Messiah Jesus was and representative
of the nation of Israel. And so the Shepherd's represent those who come and
worship the new Messiah from His people. Next event,
Circumcision of Jesus, Luke chapter 2 verses 21 to 38. Now here's where it gets
interesting when you follow the timeline. Being devout Jews, Mary and Joseph take
Jesus to Jerusalem. By the way, from Bethlehem to Jerusalem five to six miles,
not far. They take Him in order to have Him circumcised. How many days?
Anybody know? I'm ready. Remember? After the birth, eight days. Eight days, that was
the law eight days. So she has the baby. She has time to rest and
feed him and so on and so forth. And then they're off to Jerusalem to have him
circumcised. A month later, they return 33 days later for purification rite.
Because the law said that after a woman had a baby, a month later she was
to go and have a purification rite. And you could offer two turtledoves if you
were too poor to offer a lamb. And that's what they did. That's what Mary and
Joseph did. They were poor. And it was at this time that they met who? Simeon. And who else? And Anna. And tell me
what is the significance of meeting those two? Okay... {inaudible talking} Yes, that is correct. It isn't complete. There's another piece to that. Okay. {inaudible talking} Okay. Yes. That
was fulfilling a promise to Simeon that God had made to him. But I want you to
imagine for a moment that you're Mary and/or Joseph. Okay?
And you've conceived in a miraculous way. And you've learned through a dream that
your wife is conceived in a miraculous way. And this child is going to be the
Messiah. Who else knows about this? So you have the pregnancy and
the pregnancy is the pregnancy, morning sickness and this and that
whatever and so on so forth. You have the baby. And having a
baby is having a baby. Nothing has changed. Doesn't say that it
wasn't without pain or distress or whatever. And then you feed the
baby and you get back into your routine and have the baby
circumcised. And then a month later you go back to the temple and do all your
religious stuff. And then you start saying to yourself, did this really happen? I mean, you understand what I'm saying?
They're human beings. They're thinking wait a minute, is it just me? Am I just imagining
this? And so Simeon and Anna confirmed to Mary and Joseph, no you're not dreaming.
This is not just in your mind. This is of God. This is really happening.
God takes care of every single angle, emotionally, spiritually, prophetically,
for Mary and Joseph. Number 11, the visit of the Magi. Magi,
so many pronunciations. Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 to 12. Now tradition shows that
the Magi... Where are they? Where do you usually see them? The manger
scenes. Where do you usually see them? Yeah, they're in front of the
manger. Right? There are the shepherds and there's the cow and there's the donkey
and so on and so forth. The Magi are there and the baby
Jesus is in the little manger thing. In the little... Actually
it was a trough. It wasn't a wooden trough. It was a stone trough.
They didn't use wooden troughs in those days because they leaked. They used
wooden troughs that they carved out and they stoned out, it was a stone trough.
But anyways you always see that picture. But this picture is not accurate. In
chapter 2 verse 16 it says that Herod killed children. How old were they? Two
years old and under according to how old the child was based on the information
that he got from who? The Magi. Magi we're looking for this kid here. So if you
put all the verses together here's the order of events. They leave Nazareth to
go to Bethlehem for the census. Jesus is born there. They then go to Jerusalem
eight days later, not far away five, six miles for the circumcision. And then they
go back to Nazareth to pack up. And then they go back to Jerusalem for the
purification rites one month later. And they settle in Bethlehem. Why? They settle
in Bethlehem because they believe Jesus is the Messiah. And where do you think
the Messiah should be raised if you're a normal person, a normal Jew, a mom and a
dad? We got this Messiah, we had two prophets confirm that to us. We're gonna
go to the City of David, the city of the Messiah. This is the normal place
where you're gonna raise the leader of the people. And after a year or so
the Magi arrived looking for who? The Messiah according to the star. In Matthew
chapter 2 verse 11 it says that they came to a house, not a manger, not a barn.
They came to a house. Why would they be in a house? Well, they were living there.
Where? In Bethlehem where Joseph and Mary had settled. They didn't come to a manger
as the pictures and the traditions indicate. The weirdest thing ever seen
once was in Japan. Well, I didn't see it. But I'm saying, the description of a
scene in Japan at Christmas time and they had Santa Claus crucified. And they
weren't trying to be disrespectful. They were just trying to be all in
the confusion that reigns. So Jesus has been announced to the Jews through whom?
Through the Shepherd's. And he's been announced to the Gentiles
through whom? Through the Magi. Already when He's born the announcement of His
birth is made through these two vehicles. And His position is confirmed how? Two
prophets, men and a woman at the temple. And we know or we, some scholars believe
that the Magi actually were astrologers and they were counselors to the king in
Babylon. Alright? The next one, flight into Egypt, Matthew chapter 2.
So Jesus' life and movements were dictated by the prophets words
concerning Him, very important. Remember, everything He did was according to
prophesy, especially in Matthew's Gospel. Because Matthew is always saying
according to the prophets, according to what it is written, according to this,
it's always about Him fulfilling every single prophecy, hundreds of them
concerning Him. So, in Hosea chapter 11 verse 1, the Prophet speaks of the nation
of Israel and their experience in Egypt when he says out of Egypt I will call my
son. Now Matthew, what Matthew does is he reaches back
and he takes this passage and he applies it to Jesus as He is embodying
the Jewish nation's experience in His own lifetime as He also is forced to live in
Egypt for a time just like His people were forced to live in Egypt for
a time under duress. Jesus embodies that history by His
time in Egypt as a child under duress. Joseph is warned that Herod, in a dream,
that Herod will try to destroy the Messiah and told to flee to Egypt. This
is after the Magi have come. Now, he could have fled to any town, could have gone
anywhere in Israel, but in order for scripture to be fulfilled
they had to go to Egypt. The Gospel writers and I read a
book about this, the most brain breaking book ever read, very complicated book,
about how the New Testament writers used the prophecies from the Old Testament.
The variety of ways that they used them. And one of the ways is, or one of the
ideas is that even if the prophets words did not specifically state something in
context, the Gospel writers would use their words to express certain ideas
regardless of context. In other words, they'd reach back and grab a passage and
they'd pull it out and put it into their writings to fit what it is that they
were talking about regardless of the context. So this was is called the
liberty of inspiration. God created the proper context and meaning using the
same words from the Old Testament to the New. So their move to Egypt was
probably financed how? They were poor. Yeah, the Magi. Didn't they bring precious
things, gold, incense, myrrh? These things were precious things so that finances
their trip and their stay in Egypt. Herod's murder of the
innocence, Matthew 2. So soon after the escape Herod tries to eliminate a
seeming threat to his throne. I mean, he didn't get it did he? He didn't really
understand. He just saw, Oh! Somebody's gonna rise up as a king. People are gonna
recognize this family as an heir to my throne. So he's going to get
rid of everyone. And this was Jesus' maximum age according to the Magi
account, couldn't have been older than two. Now we know that Herod died in 4 BC
so this is why we say, remember, first lesson? I explained to you why you
know Jesus was born in 4 BC, somewhere around there. So He was
probably a year old when He was taken to Egypt. Stayed in Egypt about a year.
Herod dies in 4 BC and Joseph and Mary returned at that time,
somewhere around that time. Number 14, returned to Nazareth.
So Joseph and Mary had tried to settle in Bethlehem. This is where the Messiah
should be raised. So they try to return there after they come back from Egypt.
Notice it says they came back to Egypt. Went to Bethlehem figured it's
still the same good plan, maybe we'll get close to Jerusalem. So God
informs him that Herod is dead and he can return to Israel. When he realizes
that Herod's son is reigning in the area where he wants to return, which is
Bethlehem, he's told to go back to his original home up in Nazareth. And
Nazareth was a region further from Herod's headquarters. It
wasn't a place where anyone expected the Messiah to come from. He was safe. He was
kind of hiding in plain sight. It was the city that the Prophet said
the Messiah would emerge from but not be born in and there's the subtle
difference. He would emerge from Nazareth. They didn't say He'd be born there. The
Prophet said he'd be born in Bethlehem. But people at the time, especially the
Pharisees and the leaders, never quite saw the subtlety between these two
ideas. And then twelve-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem, that's event number 15. I
believe that's the last one, yep for this time. So Jesus is required
to go to the temple for all the feasts or the Jews were
rather, but by the first century this had dropped to one festival per year and
that was the Feast of the Passover. And Jewish boys reached accountability at 13
years of age. One of the terms they used was a son of the commandment. You became
a son of the commandments at 13, age of accountability. A lot of boys went to the
temple at even earlier ages and this was the case with Jesus. The rabbis, I mean
the custom is that the rabbis would often find large crowds to teach at
those times. And many times the young boys, what do they call
that today when a young boy reaches that age? What are they? What happens to them?
Huh? The bar mitzvah. Same idea. So in those days the boys would go, they go to
the temple, they discuss things. And so we know Jesus loses or the parents lose
sight of Jesus. They find Him in one such group. They always have a painting of
Jesus in the middle of the temple with all... but this was a
regular thing. The young boys would go there and they would learn and
they were the age of, they became men. And so Jesus follows through on that
tradition. And yet, He's there doing what the others were doing. And His reply to
His mother when they found Him, "Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's
home," shows that He was already, at 12, aware of His divine nature and mission.
He knew at 12 and these are His first recorded words. After this there is
silence concerning Jesus' early life until the beginning of His ministry at
30. All we know is that He remained with His parents in Nazareth and served as a
dutiful son until His public ministry began. I'm not a patient guy. I
hate to wait two minutes for my burger at McDonalds. So can you imagine the Son
of God knowing His divine mission 18 years in submission to His
parents? When in Hebrews He says He learned obedience
where do you think He learned it? Alright? Some lessons, gives us a little
information about Jesus but a great deal of information about His parents. We can
learn a great deal about them. Two things I just want to mention. They were true
believers. Their faith cost them something and yet they continue to
believe. I've always said it and I'll say it again. There is no faith without risk,
no faith without risk. If it's a sure thing there's no faith involved and that's for anything, that's relationships, church
projects, stepping out. If there's no risk there's no faith
involved. I mean, that's okay. Sometimes there is no risk involved. That doesn't
mean we have to be on the edge all the time.
But when we're talking about faith there's always that element of risk
there. And sometimes people say, Well, I don't know, I want to be sure.
Well, sometimes you can't be sure. Sometimes you have to
take the step. Can you imagine their life, what it was
like? And then secondly, they believe despite their lack of understanding. They
continue to believe even though the events were unfolding around them.
We believe based on a complete story. We have the complete story, the
beginning and the end. Now, we don't have the end of our story
but we've been promised what the end of our story will be. But these people, they
didn't know the end of the story. Things were just happening as they
were living. They didn't know the end but they trusted the Lord day by day by day.
Some things in our life are like that and we need to trust and obey
even though the things are not fully worked out yet. Some things just take
time to work out in our lives. Those are the moments when our faith is truly
tested and formed in the crucible of not knowing the end. Alright,
that's it. That's the first 15 events. I thank you for your attention
