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Beginnings - Out With The Old, In With The New
Author:
Julia
A. Keirns
Imagine
being a new Christian, picking up the Bible for
the very first time, and just by coincidence deciding
to begin in the book of Matthew. I bet you never
thought you'd get a lesson in genealogy, huh?
So what's all this jibberish about?
One of the most important things you can do when
sitting down to read the Bible, is ask God to
open your heart to anything He might try to teach
you. Ask God to give you insight into what He
wants you to learn from your personal time in
the word. Then, before digging into any certain
book of the Bible, know first what the book is
about. Discover who wrote it and why. This can
help tremendously when trying to read the Bible.
There
are four Gospels of the life of Jesus Christ.
A Gospel is a written account of someone's life.
Matthew is the first one. The first thing we need
to understand about the book of Matthew is that
Matthew was a Jewish tax collector who became
one of Jesus' disciples. Today, in America, we
have an organization called the IRS. They make
and enforce our tax laws. And we go to advisors
called CPA's to help us understand and get around
as many of these tax laws as we can. Of course,
I guess we should feel fortunate that we have
tax laws. 2000 years ago there were no tax laws
to protect the people. Only tax collectors, like
Matthew. He was not well liked, and he was not
very honest about how much taxes he collected
from the people. But Jesus came along and changed
all that.
Matthew
was writing this book directly to other Jews like
himself in order to prove to them that Jesus was
who He said He was...the Messiah. The Jews believed
Jesus to be a great prophet, but a lot of them
did not believe Him to be the actual Son of God.
He did not come as they expected Him to come.
He was born in a stable, with a humble carpenter
for a father. This was not the background of a
king. Here they had spent all their lives being
faithful to God, reading the scriptures, and waiting
for their Messiah to come, and when He did come
most of them missed it. Matthew refers to the
Old Testament a lot, trying to show the Jews that
Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, making this
book the perfect transition from the Old Testament
to the New.
Matthew
tells us all about the life of Jesus Christ. We
will learn about His birth and childhood, His
baptism and His victories over Satan's temptations.
We will learn of the many miracles Jesus performed,
including healings and driving out of demons.
Then we will discover the different kinds of opposition
Jesus encountered in His ministry on earth. Finally
Matthew will show us Jesus' final days on earth
through stories of the Last Supper, His crucifixion,
burial, and resurrection.
There
are many life application lessons to learn in
the book of Matthew, so as we study it, and try
to figure out what all the jibberish is about,
let's listen to Matthew's message to us - that
Jesus is who He says He is, the Messiah. Jesus
is Lord. We don't make Him Lord, He already is.
Is He Lord of your life?
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