A Sign, the Virgin Birth.
The prophet Isaiah foretold the birth of Jesus Christ when he said the Lord himself will give you a sign: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to tell her that she will conceive and give birth to a son, and she was to call him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever.
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said:
Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Joseph did what he was commanded – he took Mary home as a wife but never consummated their marriage until she gave birth to a son (Luke 1:26-29; Mathew 1:18-24).
Bethlehem, the Birth Place.
The Prophet Micah foretold the birthplace of Jesus Christ when he said: “You Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2).
In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son (Luke 2:1-7).
Egypt, the Escape Place.
The prophet Jeremiah said a voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, “Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they were no more” (Jeremiah 31:15).
Herod gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
The Magi, from the east, had gone to Jerusalem to search for the king of the Jews, after seeing his star rise. However, this disturbed Herod and all Jerusalem. After consulting the chief priests and teachers of the law, Herod sent the Magi to Bethlehem, with the following instructions – search carefully for the child, and as soon as you find him, report back to me so that I too may go and “worship him”. The Magi were, however, warned not to go back to Herod but to go to their country by another route.
An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to escape, with the child and his mother, to Egypt for Herod was going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and told him to take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life were dead.
And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet Hosea: “Out of Egypt, I called my son” (Hosea 11:1).
Nazareth, the Return Place.
So Joseph took the child and his mother to the land of Israel, but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.
So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene (Mathew 2:1-23).
Fast Forward>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We read in Mathew 13:53-57 that Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown, and taught in the synagogues. Those who heard him were amazed.
Where did he get such wisdom?” they asked, “And what about his miracles? Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t Mary his mother, and aren’t James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas his brothers? Aren’t all his sisters living here? Where did he get all this?
And so they rejected him. Not even his brothers believed in him!
In fact, John writes that when the time for the Festival of Shelters was near, Jesus’ brother told him to leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that his followers would see the things that he was doing. For no one hides what he is doing if he wants to be well known. “Since you are doing these things, let the whole world know about you!” (John 7:1-52).
Who Do People Say the Son of Man Is?
When Jesus was near the town of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Their response was based on how people viewed his ministry: “Some say John the Baptist,” the disciples answered. “Others say Elijah while others say Jeremiah or some other prophet” (Mathew 16:13-14).
During the Festival of Shelters, there was much whispering about him in the crowds. “He is a good man,” some people said. “No,” others said, “he is misleading the people.” But no one talked about him openly, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities.
Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the man the authorities are trying to kill? Look! He is talking in public, and they say nothing against him! Can it be that they really know that he is the Messiah?
But when the messiah comes, no one will know where he is from. And we all know where this man comes from. But many in the crowd believed him and said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more miracles than this man?
On the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice: “Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.”
He said this about the Holy Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time, the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not been raised to glory.
Some of the people in the crowd heard him say this and said, “This man is really the Prophet!” Others said, “He is the Messiah!” But others said:
The Messiah will not come from Galilee! The scripture says that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David and will be born in Bethlehem, the town where David lived.
So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus.
The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus, so they and the chief priests sent some guards to arrest him. When the guards went back, the chief priests and the Pharisees asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Nobody has ever talked like this man!” “Did he fool you, too?” the Pharisees asked them. “Have you ever known one of the authorities or one Pharisee to believe in him?”
One of the Pharisees there was Nicodemus, the man who had gone to see Jesus before – In John 3:1 we read that Nicodemus went to Jesus at night and acknowledged that he was a teacher sent by God for no one could perform the miracles he was doing unless God was with him.
Nicodemus said to the others, “According to our Law we cannot condemn anyone before hearing him and finding out what he has done.” “Well,” they answered, “are you also from Galilee?”
Study the Scriptures and you will learn that no prophet ever comes from Galilee.
Thematic Bible Study 