Summer 2011 Bible Study: Week 1 Day 1

Hello, from my crazy, comfortable, home; toddler toys are spread out, laundry is undone, or done and not put away yet and there are always dishes in the sink and dare I say messy bathrooms!

But, here we are, you, me, Jesus and a few other female friends we will get to know over the next 91 days… so… Are you ready? I am so excited I can hardly type fast enough! I can’t believe this day is here! I have thought long and hard about this and prayed over spending the Summer in the Word for a while and I cannot believe you have joined me in this adventure!

I am so blessed by each of you joining me in this Summer long adventure to know Jesus more through studying His Word and falling deeper in love with Him! I cannot wait for Him to reveal Himself through His word to each of us!

I pray you are able to read passed my spelling mistakes, poor grammar, lack of proof reading and often times Office Supplies rambling and fall madly in love with Jesus, more so today and you did yesterday!

So, here we go! Let’s open in prayer, shall we?

Lord, I invite You into this study. Thank you for hanging out with me over the next 91 days. I want to spend time in your Word, learning about You. Teach me about YOU, help me to stay focused and remember what I read. Remind me that in YOU there is freedom, the freedom to meet with You at any point during the day, come and meet with me now, as I open your Word. Change my heart, teach me about You and bless our time together. Amen

Grab your Bibles, your colored pens, sticky notes and journal, that is; if you are as obsessed with Office Supplies as I am and turn with me to the book of Matthew. You don’t need colored pens, sticky notes or a journal for this study, just His Word, I just get a little overly excited about the opportunity to open new Sticky Notes and Pens!

Take a few minutes and read Matthew 1:1-25. Leave a Sticky Note or book mark here, we will jump around a little bit in the Word, but we will always come back to Matthew 1:1-25 during our time today.

I love this book! We are going to spend some time here, in the Gospel of Matthew, the very first book of the New Testament.

One of the things I have come to know and adore most about the book of Matthew is the connection between the Old and New Testament. I love, love, LOVE, when the Word proves itself relevant from cover to cover. We start out our Summer Study in Matthew learning about the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and to be honest, nothing use to bore me more than regular old genealogy, until I fell in love with Jesus. And now, I want to know anything and everything the Word has to tell me about Him, even if it includes names I cannot spell or dream of pronouncing correctly.

So here we are, verses 1- 17 are full of names, long names, hard to spell names and names we cannot pronounce, and I couldn’t help but ask myself, why it was important to even have all of those names at the very start of the book of Matthew. I have come to learn that having the genealogy at the beginning was one of the most interesting ways for the author, Matthew, to write to his intended audience, the Jewish people. You see, Matthew began by showing that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, who Scripture often refers to as the father of the Jews. You see, aside from Moses, no other Old Testament character is mentioned more in the New Testament than Abraham. Now, Abraham was born with the name of Abram, but was renamed as Abraham after entering into a relationship with God.

James, the brother of our Sweet Jesus and author of the book that bears his name, refers to Abraham as “God’s friend”. Turn with me to James 2:23, and notice the title Abraham was given. I have yet to find another reference within the Word where the title of “God’s friend” is used in reference to describe someone else within the Word.

Now, turn with me to Galatians 3:7. It is important to note that believers in all generations are called the “children of Abraham”. Abraham’s importance cannot be overstated. If you want to read more about Abraham, you can find his story in Genesis, Chapters 11-25.

Not only is our Sweet Jesus a descendant of Abraham, He is also a descendant of David, which in turn fulfills the Old Testament prophecies regarding the life of our Sweet Jesus’ life. I pray we get to know more about David and the life he lived during our 13 weeks together, because I love studying him, I love watching his relationship with the Lord unfold and I also enjoy learning about how the man screwed up at times, it makes me feel normal when I do it.

Now, as I started to look at how the Gospel of Matthew links the Old and New Testaments together and contains references that show how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament Prophecies, throughout the entire Gospel, I started to ask myself, what kind of prophecies Jesus fulfilled within the Old Testament as I started to research WHO He is. So, let me point out the very first prophecy that jumped out at my while reading the first 17 verses of Matthew, Chapter 1.

Read Matthew 1:16 carefully. Did you notice anything different within the wording of this verse when compared to the ones that come before it? I had to sit on it for a while, but then I noticed it, Joseph is listed at the HUSBAND of Mary, NOT the FATHER of our Sweet Jesus.

Now, turn with me to Isaiah 7:14. This scripture states that a virgin will become pregnant with a child and give birth to a son, who will be called Immanuel, which means “God with us”. Now, because Mary was a virgin when she became pregnant, Matthew only lists Joseph as her husband, simply because Joseph was NOT the father of Jesus. This might seem insignificant, but in 16^th verse of the very first chapter of the 1^st book of the New Testament, there is clear evidence that Jesus Christ, our Sweet Jesus is the Messiah, our Savior, the one and only Son of God.

Not only do we learn from the beginning that our Sweet Jesus is our Savior, we see the very first connection with the Old Testament. One of the reasons the connection between the two portions of the Word is important to me is because more than 400 years passed between the Old Testament and New Testament. These people, specifically the Jewish people, had been waiting for a LONG time to see if these “stories” they had been told would ever come true!

I don’t know about you, but I HATE to wait! And there have been countless times that I have come before my Sweet Jesus time and time again, asking Him to prove Himself to me within the pages of His word, and today, my sweet Summer Study Girls, HE DID! But the first chapter doesn’t end there.

Read Matthew 1: 18-25

I personally have a hard time wrapping my mind around the virgin birth portion of my Sweet Jesus, I do not doubt the Word of my Sweet Jesus for a minute, I just couldn’t imagine how hard it would have been for Mary to tell her finance that she was pregnant, and that the baby was obviously not his, since they had not gotten married yet. And not only was the baby not his, but it was the child of God. God made her pregnant. I don’t know about you, but very few people would take that as the truth. Not only would very few people believe her, I am not sure there would be many people that would be concerned for her reputation, as an unwed single mother. Now, this makes me love my Sweet Jesus even MORE. Why?

Because, according to what I have discovered, a Jewish wedding consists of the two families agreeing to the union, then, a public announcement would be made, which would “pledge” them to be married, so they would be publically engaged at this. The difference between an engagement today, and being “pledged” to marry someone in Mary’s time, well, the relationship between Joseph and Mary could only be ended through an official divorce or death. Finally, after the couple had married, they would then live together. And since Mary had gotten pregnant prior to marriage, her reputation would be severely hurt, but there were also consequences for her actions that could be severe, she could be divorced by Joseph, disowned by her father and possibly stoned. However, the Lord had a different plan for His Son, my Sweet Jesus.

Verse 20 -23 tells us that, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and he married her, Joseph took an unwed, pregnant, teenage mama as his wife.

Again, we see scripture fulfilled here; we see the son of God, born of a virgin, carefully read verse 22 & 23.

They sound a lot like Isaac 7:14 don’t they?

This is where I get excited because I LOVE when the Lord makes HIS POINT in the Old Testament and the New Testament. My Bible has a little notation in it that says that the name Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua which means the Lord Saves.

I love that the Lord, who created the Heavens and the Earth named HIS one and only Son “the Lord Saves.” Not only do I love that little fact, I also love that through prophecy, Jesus was to be called Immanuel, which means “God with us”. Jesus was GOD IN THE FLESH! Jesus couldn’t be separated from God, as Jesus walked around the Earth, GOD in the FLESH, literally walked the land He, himself, created.

I love getting to know Him, just a little bit more, don’t you! We are going to spend some time in Matthew, Chapter 2 tomorrow. But for now, our time for today has ended. Our day must continue outside of our blog Bible Study. But fear not, I will be here tomorrow, Bible in hand, a plethora of Sticky Notes in tow and a few new pens. Will you join me?

Before we close in prayer, leave a comment today so that we can get to know those who are in the Word with us each day – answer this question: Do you have a silly obsession/love for Office Supplies? If not, what is your silly obsession/love?

Lord, until we are able to come together as a group of Blog Summer Bible Study Girls, bless us. Remind us of how perfect YOU are, how loving YOU are and how YOU came to save US. Thank you for fulfilling prophecy. Thank you for entering into the world through a teenage mama, who was pregnant by your Father before birth so we might be able to relate to you just a little bit more. I love how you do things. I love that you can relate to me, so teach me. Remind me of your Word, open my eyes so that I may see the wonderful things you have within your Word. Praises Be unto You, my Sweet Jesus, Amen