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This
book was written by Luke, who was a doctor, and
in spite of what is commonly understood among
most Christians, Luke was most likely Jewish.
He was an very close associate of great Rabbi
Paul, one of the most important spiritual leaders
of the early Messianic Movement. Luke accompanied
Paul on many of his journeys, which were so influential
in the history of the expansion of the Messianic
Jewish movement and Christianity. Besides being
a doctor and an evangelist, Luke was an excellent
historian. He wrote this book, and the book of
Acts - two of the most important and influential
historical books ever written.
As a
good historian, Luke carefully investigated the
available information about Yeshua, including
eyewitnesses, and wrote it down in consecutive
order. Therefore this book is accurate, good,
reliable, truthful history about the Most Important
Man Who Ever Lived with the Most Important Life
Ever Lived.
The way
I want to teach this book will be a little different
than the way I have taught a book like this in
the past. Instead of commenting on each verse,
I intend to focus on parts that I feel are more
relevant for the life of our community. So, I
may summarize a section, but then give more time
and attention to another section.
I’d like
to start by summarizing the first two chapters.
God prepared the way for the arrival of Yeshua
into this world. His forerunner, the one who would
prepare the Jewish people to receive the Messiah
at His First Coming, who would help turn many
of us back to God - John the Immerser, was born
to very godly Jewish parents. His father was a
cohen - a priest, and his mother Elizabeth was
also a descendant of the coheneem and a cousin
of Yeshua’s mother Mary. John’s birth was helped
along by divine intervention, since Elizabeth
had been barren.
Advance
notice about the Messiah’s birth was given to
Mary, who was chosen to be the mother of the
Messiah. She was a special Jewish woman and a
descendant of King David. She was godly, pious,
religious, God-fearing, and knowledgeable about
the Scriptures. The great angel Gabriel was sent
to her to tell her that she would miraculously
be enabled to have a very great Son.
This
very special human being was to be called Yeshua
- which means salvation or “the Lord Saves”, since
that is what He would come into this world to
accomplish for a fallen world made of human beings
who alienated from God and eternal life, and are
in the most desperate need of salvation. Salvation
from sin and death and alienation from God is
our greatest need, and this is what Yeshua came
to accomplish; and only He can accomplish it!
He would
be called the Son of the Most High, which means
that He would share God the Father’s name and
nature, deity and essence. So, this great angelic
messenger, who came directly from God to humanity,
lets us know that this Special Individual, this
Child who is born to us - the Jewish people, this
Son who is given to us - the Chosen People of
Israel, is fully human, but also fully God.
This
unique God -Man will be the legitimate Ruler of
the Jewish people, and eventually sit on the throne
of his ancestor, King David. Once He begins ruling
over the nation of Israel, His supremely glorious
and good reign over the Jewish people will last
forever. It will have no end.
Zachariah,
the father of John the Immerser, was filled with
the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God enabled
him to understand that God was at work in a very
special way, and that through the Son of Mary,
who was a descendant of King David, the Lord God
of Israel was about to release the long-awaited
and long-promised messianic redemption and salvation
for the Jewish people.
Chapter 2
During
this crucial period of time, the Roman government
providentially issued a decree to everyone in
their empire to participate in a census. Joseph,
who was also a descendant of King David, was required
to go to the city of his family’s origin - to
the city of David, to register there for this
census.
Mary
was already engaged and pregnant, carrying the
Messiah, and she accompanied Joseph to Bethlehem.
He who is the Bread of Life, who is able to give
life and sustain life to the entire world, was
born there, in the House of Bread, in the city
of David, which is exactly where the Word of God,
through the prophet Michah, predicted the Messiah
would be born!
There
was no room for Joseph and Mary at the inn, so
Israel’s greatest King was born in the most humble
circumstances, and then placed in a feeding trough
for animals. The way He was born - in poor, humble,
even desperate circumstances, will characterize
His entire First Coming. Even though He is the
Son of the Most High, and the greatest Jewish
person who ever lived, and King of Israel, and
the Messiah, and the greatest human being who
ever lived, He came like a lamb, not a lion.
He will
be a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering
and grief. He will be despised and rejected by
the majority of His own people, then tortured
and crucified. He will triumphantly ride into
Jerusalem on a donkey, not on a noble stallion.
But He will also vindicated by God, and resurrected
from the dead, and will come the Second Time as
the victorious, powerful, conquering, glorious
and honored and eternally ruling King.
At the
time of Yeshua’s birth, an angel appeared to some
shepherds and informed them that good news that
would produce great happiness for the entire nation
of Israel had just happened. The Savior, the Lord
Messiah, had been born!
The most
special of all human beings, who was filled with
the Holy Spirit, and empowered by God to be good
and holy and righteous, and to be the ultimate
teacher and prophet/spokesman for God, who would
hear crystal-clearly from God and then communicate
what God wanted communicated to us; the ultimate
priest - who alone would uniquely be able to bring
humanity closer to God, and God closer to us;
the priest who would bring perfect and final atonement
by offering the perfect sacrifice (Himself); and
the ultimate King, and perfect ruler - able, just,
fair, incorruptible; the King who will usher in
mankind’s golden age - the Lord Messiah had finally
come into this world!
Then,
Yeshua was circumcised on the eighth day to bring
him into the special covenant relationship that
God made with Abraham and the Jewish people. Then,
around forty days after Yeshua was born, righteous,
God-fearing, Torah-observing Joseph and Mary went
to Jerusalem to fulfill the command of Pidyon
HaBen - the Redemption of the Firstborn Son, buying
back the firstborn son so that he would not have
to be given to God like the Priests and Levites,
and so that the Priests and Levites could be given
to God to serve the Lord at the Temple in the
place of Israel’s firstborn sons. Now Yeshua was
free to serve the Lord everywhere at all time
throughout the nation and people of Israel.
While
there at the Temple, Shimon, an old and godly
Jewish man, who was filled with the Spirit of
God, recognized that Yeshua was the Messiah whom
he had been promised to see before he died. Shimon
declared that Yeshua was the long-awaited and
much desired Messiah, and the source of our salvation
and help, and the greatest source of honor, fame
and glory for the Jewish people; and the greatest
source of light and truth and victory and salvation
and happiness for the other nations of the world!
All of
these amazing events happened within an 18 month
period, approximately around 4 BC. Providential
decrees of the mighty Roman empire that helped
fulfill the plans of God; ancient prophecies fulfilled;
powerful truths revealed; angelic visitations
experienced; new prophecies given; miraculous
births, and new prophets born, and the birth of
Lord Messiah, the Son of David and the Son of
the Most! Keep in mind that very little of the
miraculous had happened among the Jewish people
for hundreds of years. No great prophet had been
among us for 400 years, so these supernatural
events were even more powerful.
The Jewish
people had been informed that God Himself would
come to Earth one day. We were expecting God to
come, and even though there were hints among the
prophecies that God would become a man (Isaiah
9, Jeremiah 23), it was not clear to us that God
would come in this way. This was something utterly
amazing, something incredible! God had come! The
Lord had entered this world! In fact, He had entered
humanity itself! This was a new age of history,
a new era for the world. We were in the Last Days!
These are once-in-the-life-of-the-world kind
of events! Our attention, the world’s attention,
should be riveted on these events - still, after
2,000 years.
2:41-51
Luke
now skips ahead 12 years, to an incident that
took place in the late childhood of Yeshua. This
is one of the only incidents recorded for us in
these God-inspired writings about the childhood
of Yeshua, and it tells us who Yeshua understood
Himself to be - even from His youth. From His
youth Yeshua was aware of Himself, that He was
the God-Man.
Now
His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the
holiday of the Passover. Jewish men were
required to go up to Jerusalem for Passover, Shavuot
and Sukkot, and Joseph was a God-fearing, Torah-observing
man who fulfilled God’s commands.
And
when He became twelve, they went up there according
to the custom of the holiday; and as they were
returning, after spending the full number of days,
the boy Yeshua stayed behind in Jerusalem. But
His parents were unaware of it, but supposed Him
to be in the caravan, and went a day's journey;
and they began looking for Him among their relatives
and acquaintances. When they did not find Him,
they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him.
To us,
12 year olds are more like children. But at that
period of time in that society, 12 years of age
was close to adulthood. As he matured, Yeshua
became more and more independent of His parents
- which is a good, normal, necessary thing.
For reasons
not given to us, 12 year old Yeshua stayed behind
in Jerusalem, and didn’t leave with his parents
when their caravan left to go north. Most 12 year
old boys from a small town, if left behind in
a big city, away from parental control, would
seek out things that are interesting to them -
sports, entertainments, girls, alcohol, trouble.
But what is fascinating is that when Yeshua stayed
behind, He naturally migrated to the Temple, to
the House of God, to the place where God’s presence,
and God’s teaching, and salvation, was most concentrated
on planet Earth. That was where He was most comfortable.
That was where He was most at home.
Then,
after three days they (they - his parents
who must have been frantic and terribly upset)
found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst
of the teachers, both listening to them and asking
them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed
at His understanding and His answers.
The rabbis
and teachers taught in the Temple complex, and
there was 12 year old Yeshua, in the midst of
Israel’s great sages, interacting with the wisest
of the world’s wise men on their level, listening
to their exposition of Tenach and Judaism, and
asking them questions and also being asked questions
and giving great answers. So, already, by the
time He was 12, this Very Special Human Being
was the equal of Israel’s Rabbis in wisdom and
understanding. And, after this, Yeshua became
even wiser!
That
tells us that He is the kind of Messiah who really
knows the Torah, who really understands all of
the Word of God, who deeply and profoundly knows
Judaism. Because He is Israel’s Supreme Sage,
each one of us who knows Him and believes in Him
and is close to Him, can go to Him with our questions,
and receive from great Rabbi Yeshua, who is alive
now, all of the wisdom, counsel and understanding
that we need.
He is
Israel’s greatest Rabbi - still!, but He is more
than a Rabbi. When they saw Him, they were
astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son,
why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your
father and I have been anxiously looking for You."
And He said to them, "Why is it that you
were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had
to be in My Father's house?" But they did
not understand the statement which He had made
to them. Yeshua fully understood who He was,
even if Joseph and Mary did not. Yeshua was aware
about Himself that He was the divine Son of God
who came into this world - sharing God’s name
and nature, deity and essence.
Joseph
and Mary should have understood that Yeshua would
be inclined by His nature to be in God’s Holy
House, close to God His Father, participating
in the godly things that took place at the Temple.
From
His childhood, Yeshua was aware that He was the
Messiah, the unique God-Man, fully God, and fully
human, and who, as a human, was required to live
according to the Torah, which meant that He had
to honor His human parents, and submit Himself
to their authority. And He went down with them
and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection
to them.
Luke
has given us Gabriel’s testimony about Yeshua
- that He is the Son of the Most High, and the
Messiah. He is the God-Man.
Luke
has given us Zachariah’s understanding of Yeshua
- that He is the King Messiah who will bring salvation
and redemption.
Luke
has given us the testimony about Yeshua of the
angel to the shepherds, that He is the Lord Messiah,
the Savior of Israel.
Luke
has given us Shimon’s Holy-Spirit-inspired declaration
about Yeshua, that He is the source of salvation
for Israel and the other nations of the world.
Luke
has given us Yeshua’s understanding about Himself,
His self-awareness that God was His Father, and
that He was the unique Son of God.
My friends,
Yeshua is the Messiah, and the only true Savior,
and the only genuine source of help for Israel
and the rest of mankind’s most serious problems.
He is the source of life and goodness and blessing
and help and happiness and meaning.
You must
know about Him, trust Him, get connected to and
stay connected to Him. You must be focused on
Him, and be learning from Him, and continually
be following Him. Is that you? Good! If it is
not you, meet with me, talk with me, and let’s
make sure that it is! This is too important, and
you have too much to lose not to!
And,
if you know Messiah, won’t you make it one of
your very highest priorities to communicate to
the rest of a lost and dying world this saving
knowledge about Him?
And,
won’t you give yourself to build up and strengthen
His Community of Jew and Gentiles who know Him,
love Him, serve Him and proclaim Him?
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