God's Word for Me Today
Saturday, December 22, 2001
Unwrapping a Christ-Centered Christmas!
A note about online study
Introduction to God's Word for Me Today
Gifts Or THE Gift?
Today we start our final week of studies in our series: Unwrapping a Christ-Centered Christmas. Our subject for the coming week will be: “Gifts Or THE Gift?” At this time of year most children and many adults have one question on their minds, “What am I going to get for Christmas?” The gifts we will get (or hope we will get) are the primary agenda for Christmas day. But, this week in our daily readings, we’ll look at THE Christmas gift—Jesus! After all, Christmas is about Jesus. He is still the “reason for the season.” As we move into Christmas week, may we literally “unwrap” a Christ-Centered Christmas.
Please pray that God will use tomorrow’s worship service, and the services on Christmas Eve to draw people into a relationship with His only Son, Jesus. May the true meaning of Christmas come home to many for the first time this Christmas, and may all of us experience the joy of Jesus at the center of our Christmas giving and living!
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us the greatest gift anyone has ever given—Your Son, Jesus. As we move to the celebration of His birth on Tuesday, prepare my heart and my life to welcome Him in, to make room in my life for Him to be first, before any other priority or allegiance. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may know the fullness of Your love and power. These things I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word for Me Today: Matthew 1:18- 2:12
18 Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiance, being a just man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly. 20 As he considered this, he fell asleep, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All of this happened to fulfill the Lord's message through his prophet: 23 "Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us)." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded. He brought Mary home to be his wife, 25 but she remained a virgin until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
2:1 Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We have seen his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him." 3 Herod was deeply disturbed by their question, as was all of Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law. "Where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?" he asked them. 5 "In Bethlehem," they said, "for this is what the prophet wrote: 6 'O Bethlehem of Judah, you are not just a lowly village in Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.' " 7 Then Herod sent a private message to the wise men, asking them to come see him. At this meeting he learned the exact time when they first saw the star. 8 Then he told them, "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!" 9 After this interview the wise men went their way. Once again the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
Questions for Reflection
What is the best Christmas gift you ever gave anyone?
What is your favorite part of the Christmas story from Matthew’s gospel?
Questions for Exploration
(See tomorrow’s study)
Questions for Understanding
(See tomorrow’s study)
Questions for Application
What gift can you give to someone today that will show them that Jesus Christ is the greatest gift ever given?
Pray for God to show you who you need to invite to worship tomorrow or on Christmas Eve, that needs to experience the Good News of Jesus’ birth.
The Fulfillment of Prophecy!
Since Matthew wrote his gospel to folks of Jewish background, he consistently reminds us of how the events in Jesus’ conception, birth, life, death and resurrection are the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Indeed, Jesus fulfilled nearly 200 Old Testament prophecies through His coming to live among us. In today’s Scripture alone we find Matthew telling us that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem of a virgin mother fulfilled two biblical prophecies. Imagine the difficulty Joseph had in believing Mary’s story that an angel had come to her and told her that she would bear a son, and that the “father” would be the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Scripture tells us that Joseph was a righteous man, but the story was simply unbelievable. Thus, he didn’t exercise his rights according to the Law of Moses and have Mary stoned to death. Rather, he decided to break the engagement “quietly.” Once again God intervened. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and verified Mary’s account. Matthew tells us that this was to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, who said that a virgin would conceive a son, and give him the name Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”
Then, when the wise men came to present their gifts to Jesus, they asked King Herod where they would find the baby. Herod didn’t know, but the religious leaders knew that the prophet Micah had predicted he would be born in Bethlehem. As followers of Jesus of “Gentile” background, our faith is made even more sure by the realization that Jesus life, and how He lived it, even including his amazing birth, was all predicted hundreds of years before He was born. As we reflect on Jesus’ birth over this coming week, may we, too, remember that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah awaited by the Jews, who alone fulfilled so many prophecies and who is surely our Savior and Lord!
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