Greetings everyone and thanks for joining me for this edition of our Sunday School preview. This Sunday’s lesson is entitled “Called Before Birth” and is found in Matthew 1:18-25.
The human conception and birth of Jesus is described in both the gospel of Matthew and Luke. It is prophesied is other places in the Old Testament including in Isaiah and Micah. The lesson title “Called Before Birth” can refer to the OT prophesies concerning the coming and birth of the Messiah and can refer to the interaction between Mary and Joseph concerning who Jesus was to be and their roles concerning Him.
Today’s lesson focus is on the role Joseph played in Jesus’s birth. The bible contains many events in both the Old and New Testaments that transcend human understanding of reality and what is possible. Some might justly call these events miracles. The birth of Jesus is an event in that category.
The bible says that Jesus was not conceived in the usual matter people of His day were conceived. Jesus’s father was not a man, but was God. In this respect, Jesus is referred to as the second Adam because He is only the second man God was directly responsible for giving life. The power of God in the person of the Holy Ghost caused Jesus to be conceived in the womb of His mother Mary.
Now Mary was a virgin and was engaged to a direct descendant of King David whose name was Joseph. When Joseph discovered that Mary was with child, his intent was to quietly divorce her and part ways. But before he could do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream to explain what was going on. Joseph believed what the angel said. He married Mary, named her child Jesus, became Jesus’s earthly father and had other children with Mary.
Many people read or hear the account of Jesus’s birth and get no further. They consider it impossible for something like the events surrounding Jesus’s birth to have occurred. But this is the difference between believers and nonbelievers.
Believers allow for the transcendence of the physical, natural and mental barriers of human understanding and limitation. Nonbelievers on the other hand discount whatever is implausible based upon what is known and considered likely or possible.
Christians may not understand how things that seem impossible can happen, but they don’t require the need to know or to understand how to believe. Why? Because they do know and understand that a Creator God who was and is able to create the universe, our world and people like us is beyond our understanding and transcends everything we know and understand or can possibly know and understand.
Such a God is not bound by our puny thoughts and understanding of reality. That is why they don’t try to understand how God did and does the things He does. They are just glad that He did and has told them about them.
Well, I hope you will be able to attend SS this coming Sunday. Invite someone to come and share your thoughts with the class. Sunday School at Flag Branch will begin at 9:00 am and you are invited to join us at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link.
I look forward to giving the lesson highlights and addressing questions that arose during the lesson. If you have any comments or questions before then, be sure to place them in the comment section of this preview and I will get back to you. So, as always remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
