Introduction
Each day we will be looking deep into the life of the God/Man – Jesus. We will be walking through the 33 years of the earthly life of our Lord. Let’s begin by looking at Jesus’ first look at the world. Start your time asking God to open the eyes of your understanding as He did for His disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45)
Reading [You can read as much as you can, depending on your availability]
Luke 2:1-20
Matthew 1:1-25
John 1:1-18
Meditating [Use these questions to start your thinking]
- As God took on the form of man in Jesus, what are some things He was experiencing for the first time?
- When Jesus became a man and walked on earth, He temporarily and voluntarily chose not to exercise the use of His omnipresence (ability to be everywhere at once). What are some other things that Jesus had to give up in order to be human?
- What was God’s motivation for becoming flesh and blood?
- What other questions do you still have?
Sharing: Text ONE of your answers to the questions above to your team. Each team should post a sharing from a team member in the comments below.
God became man! Is there any thought more strange or foreign than that? God Almighty took on human form and entered our world. He chose to begin as a baby and not as a grown man. The Bible says that He ‘made himself nothing’ (Phil. 2:7) and put on a body to live here with us. However, He never ceased to be fully God. He was still all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present. Yet He veiled His deity and intentionally limited Himself and His powers to become a real human. He was made like us in every way, so that He could be our representative at the cross (Heb. 2:17).
Jesus leaves heaven’s glory for earth’s insignificance. What a sacrifice on God’s part to become one of us! The Creator enters creation, so that He might not only be our God, but also our high priest (Heb. 2:17) and our way to God (John 14:6). What a strange and unusual way to save the world. God’s gift to us was a baby.
Have you ever thought about the many gifts God the Father gave His Son, Jesus, on the night that He was born? I am a dad, and I love giving gifts to my children. God is a much better dad than I am. I wonder what gifts He might have given. Think about it for a moment. You read about them, but maybe never recognized them as gifts.
How about the gift of a name? God said to call him Jesus (Matt. 1:21) and that it will be ‘the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow’ (Phil. 2:910)/ There is nothing like a good name (Prov. 22:1)!
Wow! Can you think of any other gifts? Jot them down:
Here are some that I thought of:
He receive the gift of obedient parents. Mary and Joseph were incredible parents. They did just what God asked them to do. God tells Mary that she would have a baby, even though she had never slept with a man. She said, “‘May it be to me as you have said'” (Luke 1:38). God says to name Him Jesus and Mary says “Done.” And Joseph? God says, “‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as you wife …'” (Matt. 1:20). Joseph gets up and marries a pregnant woman, who is bearing a chld that is not his. God says, “Call Him Jesus” (Matt. 1:21) and he agrees too. Wow! You know the best gift you can give to the people in your life – your kids, your parents, your friends or whomever – is to be obedient.
There was the gift of a place to be born, a manger outside an inn. Wait, what kind of a gift is that? Well, it was one of the most special gifts that God the Father gave Jesus. Think about the people who probably asked Jesus to tell them about where he was born. “Well, friends, I was born in a manger outside an inn because there was no room for my family,” he would reply. Can you hear the laughter? What was God thinking of? Why subject His Son to such humiliation? The answer may possibly be found in Hebrews 5:8. Take a look a dig a little deeper.
Some other gifts:
The gift of a birth announcement and possibly a song, sung by angels (Luke 2:9-14). I wonder how long they practiced in heaven for that performance!
The gift of a star (Matthew 2:2-10). Where did that star go? If it’s still around, I wonder which one it is.
The gift of a family (Mark 6:3). Wouldn’t that have been something to be an earthly brother or sister of Jesus, to grow up under the same roof?
As God took on the form of man in Jesus, what are some things He was experiencing for the first time?
Jesus was experiencing many things for the first time like hunger, cold and pain. Basically, a lot of the things that make us human and weak. It is amazing to think of all the comforts, power and privilege that Jesus gave up so that He could pay the ultimate cost for us.