Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel. Jesus Christ God's Only Begotten Son in the Flesh

Transcription

1 Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel Jesus Christ God's Only Begotten Son in the Flesh

2 Anciently, news of the Savior's birth was a glad tiding declared by many God had sent His Son to redeem the world. The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles declares Jesus to be the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world (Ensign or Liahona, Apr. 2000, 2 3). 2

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4 Matthew 1:21: Thou shalt call his name Jesus. Jesus is the anglicized form of the Greek word pronounced Hee-ay-sous. In Hebrew the word was Yehoushua, or Yeshua, which is usually written as Joshua in English. The word comes from the Hebrew Yasha, which means

5 Matthew 1:21: Thou shalt call his name Jesus. he saved, delivered, or made safe. Thus Jesus literally means Savior, a name appropriate for his divine role.

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7 Sometimes we foolishly speculate on how the conception of Jesus actually took place. The model for dealing with this aspect of Christ s advent can be found in 1 Nephi 11: Luke 1:35: The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. There should be a reverent passing over of specific details.

8 UNIQUE QUALITIES OF JESUS CHRIST Son of Mary (Mortal) 1. Had to die. 2. Able to suffer pain, sorrow and problems of mortality. 3. Subject to temptation and sin. Son of God (Divine Nature) 1. Power over death. 2. Had the ability to suffer infinite pain. 3. Able to overcome temptation and be perfect.

9 Joseph Fielding Smith said: "A mortal man could not have stood it... I do not care... what his power, there was no man ever born into this world that could have stood under the weight... that was upon the Son of God, when he was carrying my sins and yours and making it possible that we might escape from our sins... He was willing to carry all that tremendous load and weight of sin--not his own, for he had no sin. He did it that we might escape. He paid the price, the penalty of our sinning (DS, 1:130).

10 Alma 34:9-16 For it is expedient that an atonement should be made but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice. Now there is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood which will atone for the sins of another therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world. And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety.

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12 The word just in Greek is dikaios, which means to be in conformance to law, or to be righteous. In Hebrew the word tzadik has the same connotation. For example, Melchizedek s name is a title meaning king (melchis) of righteousness (tzadik). Matthew 1:19: Joseph.. being a just man.

13 Noah was called a just man and perfect (Genesis 6:9). The word just is often used to describe the attributes of God (see, for example, Deuteronomy 32:4; Isaiah 45:21; Zephaniah 3:5; Acts 3:14). Thus to say that Joseph was a just man says a great deal about the man the Father chose to help raise his son. Matthew 1:19: Joseph.. being a just man.

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15 Matthew 1:23: A virgin shall be with child. This significant phrase shows a fulfillment of a prophecy given by God in the Garden of Eden. He told Satan that there would be enmity between his seed and the seed of the woman and that the seed of the woman would crush Satan s head (Genesis 3:15).

16 Matthew 1:23: A virgin shall be with child. Have you ever thought that in all history only one person could be called the seed of the woman? All others are the seed of man and woman.

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18 Luke 2: 7 She... laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. Two common, but mistaken, ideas have arisen from this verse. First, in modern nativity scenes, the manger is usually in a wooden stable. This imagery comes from European farm life.

19 The traditional site of the Nativity in Bethlehem, however, is a grotto. An underground limestone cavern. Such grottos were commonly used for housing animals at the that time. Luke 2: 7

20 Second, the word inn brings to mind the quaint, rustic inns of medieval Europe. Typical inns in the Middle East, however, were khans, or caravansaries small fortresses with high walls and a large open courtyard where the animals spent the night. The rooms in such khans were not enclosures at all but a series of arched alcoves in a wall. Luke 2: 7

21 The members of each group were able to watch their animals and baggage from the rooms. In busy times, such as at Passover or the census (and both were going on at the time of Jesus birth), a caravansary would be a chaotic madhouse, and very likely more than one group would be sharing an alcove because of the number of people. Luke 2: 7

22 Russell M. Nelson, Christ the Savior Is Born, New Era, Dec. 2006, 2 At a caravansary, animals were secured for the night in the center courtyard. In that courtyard there would have been donkeys and dogs, sheep, and possibly camels and oxen, along with all of the animals discharges and odors.

23 Luke 2: 7 There would be no privacy for giving birth to a baby under such conditions, and that may have been the reason Joseph and Mary willingly accepted the more private stable. The picture of the hard-hearted innkeeper callously turning away a woman nine months pregnant is not justified by the scriptural record.

24 Russell M. Nelson, Christ the Savior Is Born, New Era, Dec. 2006, 2 Because the guest chambers surrounding the courtyard were filled, Joseph possibly made the decision to care for Mary s delivery in the center courtyard of a caravansary among the animals. There, in that lowly circumstance, the Lamb of God was born.

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26 And there were... Shepherds. M.R. Vincent s comments on this verse are very enlightening: There was near Bethlehem, on the road to Jerusalem, a tower know as Migdal Eder, or the watch-tower of the flock. Here was the station where shepherds watched the flocks destined for sacrifice in the temple... Luke 2: 8

27 It was a settled conviction among the Jews that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, and equally that he was to be revealed from Migdal Eder. The beautiful significance of the revelation of the infant Christ to the shepherds watching the flock destined for sacrifice needs no comment. (Word Studies in the New Testament [McDill AFB, Florida; MacDonald Publishing Co. n.d.], 1: 142) Luke 2: 8

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29 Luke 2: 11 A Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Although we cannot say what language the angel used to address the shepherds that night, it was most likely Aramaic (a form of Hebrew), since that was the shepherds common tongue.

30 Luke 2: 11 In Hebrew, Savior is Yeshua, another play on the name Jesus. The word Christ comes from the Greek christos, meaning anointed one. The Hebrew equivalent is meshiach, which in English is Messiah. Because of the sacredness of Jehovah s name, the ancient Hebrews used a substitute title, Adonai, which is translated Lord.

31 Luke 2: 11 The word clearly referred to Jehovah. It is therefore very likely that the angel said that in the city of David was born Yeshua, the Meshiach who was Adonai. Little wonder the shepherds were electrified.

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33 Why was reference made twice in Luke 2 to His being wrapped in swaddling clothes? I sense a significance beyond the use of an ordinary diaper and receiving blanket. Instead of those four words: wrapped in swaddling clothes in the English text, only one word is needed in the Greek New Testament. Russell M. Nelson, Christ the Savior Is Born, New Era, Dec. 2006, 2

34 That word is sparganoo, which means to envelop a newborn child with special cloth, strips of which were passed from side to side. The cloth would probably bear unique family identification. That procedure was especially applicable to the birth of a firstborn son. Russell M. Nelson, Christ the Savior Is Born, New Era, Dec. 2006, 2

35 You remember the announcement of an angel at the birth of Jesus: This shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (Luke 2:12). His wrappings surely would have been distinctive. Russell M. Nelson, Christ the Savior Is Born, New Era, Dec. 2006, 2

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38 Matthew 2:1: In the days of Herod the king. When Jacob blessed his twelve sons, he said to Judah, The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Christ] come (Genesis 49:10). Even though Israel was under the domination of foreign nations for centuries after Judah fell to Babylon in 587 B.C., any local rulers of the Jews were Jews until the Hasmonean dynasty (also know as the Maccabean) came to an end.

39 Matthew 2:1: In the days of Herod the king. At that time Rome gave the right to rule Palestine to Herod, an Idumean, and formally gave him the title King of the Jews. Herod was the first foreigner to sit on the Jewish throne, and Christ was evidently born in the last year of Herod s reign.