Category: Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew, Life of Jesus as a Boy

Father Figure

father-and-daughter-1556508Matthew 1:18-24

Sometimes when I laugh, I can hear my father’s laugh. It surprised me the first this happened. It’s called genetics. Half of my DNA comes from him, so I inherited a certain amount of his physical traits.

My mother’s father died at the age of fifty. In the photos I’ve seen of him, it’s feels odd that he will never be older than that. Now that I have reached that age, I see a certain traits I inherited from him, specifically, his eyes. From him, and then through my mother, I get the shape and color of my eyes.

Whether you are the biological child of a man or the adopted child of a man you call “Father”, your life was and is somehow affected by the person in this role.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus had God as his Heavenly Father and Joseph as his earthly father, also a descendant of King David. Joseph could have walked away from the situation: Mary, pregnant, and it wasn’t his. They were engaged, which by Jewish customs meant they were married in every way except the one way that would bring about Mary’s pregnancy. Even though he believed the baby had been conceived of the Holy Spirit, no one else would.

But Joseph chose to obey God and risk humiliation. He adopted the baby as  his son. What a great reflection of God this act was. Didn’t God adopt us as his children, just as Joseph adopted Jesus?

Do we take this for granted? Think about it. We may have earthly fathers, biological or adoptive, but as believers, God is our Heavenly Father. Sometimes it’s easy to forget this. Let Joseph’s unselfish act remind us how wonderful it is we are heirs of the Father.

Don’t forget. Father’s Day is June 18th.

Further Study:

  • Romans 8:17
  • Titus 3:7
  • Ephesians 1:11

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Gospel of Luke, Gospel of Matthew, Life of Jesus as a Boy

Child of God: Have You Really Thought About It?

old-photos-1434453Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38

Child of God. Adopted by God. Heirs of God. These are things I’ve heard so many times, I took them for granted. I have earthly parents, but as a Christian, I need to remember I am actually a child of God.

I have to sit down and take that in.

Because I am an actual child of God, I have worth. Sometimes, that’s the only thing that gets me through the day. If you need the proof, here it is:

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:10, NIV.

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16, NIV.

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba,  Father.‘ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:4-7, NIV.

“… if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ …” Romans 8:17, NIV.

Jesus is God’s son, but he also had a human lineage. I can only name my ancestors back a few generations, but for Jesus, two separate lists record his ancestry. Check out Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38.

These may seem like boring lists of ancestors, but each had a point. They signified Jesus belonged to a lineage of God’s chosen King of Israel. The ancestors of Jesus were the most famous figures of the Old Testament.

Matthew, being Jewish, focused on showing how Jesus’ ancestry went back to Abraham, the first Jew, while Luke, being non-Jewish, listed a genealogy going back to Adam the first man. Jesus is called the Son of David, and both of these lists show King David as a forefather of Jesus.

Jesus is the son of God. We are children of God if we believe and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives. Take time today to think what it means to you to be a child of God.

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