Matthew: Incarnation at Christmas (#79.2023.12.17)
In today's episode, Scott takes us on another journey in the book of Matthew, where he discusses predestination and the purpose of becoming conformed to the image of the Son. Scott also talks about Christmas as a reminder of the Messiah and the fulfillment of all that was promised in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear about life without God and why having a messiah is essential for hope, assurance, and purpose.
Key Topics Discussed:
- The benefits of life with the Messiah
- Exploring the Messiah's human nature and expectations
- Understanding life with a Mighty Father
- Jesus Christ is the image of God.
- God predestined us to be like Christ
Blank Workbook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uaY_1DRTSTuxIcwV0BbADIhkmQ0yWEeP/view?usp=sharing
Filled in Worksheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v1A9F1p61qRa8q6dy35tNKqya4m9k9KT/view?usp=sharing
Transcript
Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, And join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the Bible. I'm your host, Scott Gepper.
Scott Keffer [:Yeah. Good to be back. Good to be back.
Scott Keffer [:We missed you all last week. So it isn't Christmastime Unless you pull up that black and white film with that which has Jimmy Stewart, right, and Right? You go for a wonderful life. So we watched that the other night. I hadn't watched that for a couple of years, and the great reminder of, How to think and have perspective, isn't it? Because George really gets an opportunity to see life without him. So So what I want you to imagine here is life where there is no god. No god. So let's talk about what would life without god be? No god. What would it be like?
Scott Keffer [:All PA office.
Scott Keffer [:Be chaos? Yeah. K.
Scott Keffer [:No future.
Scott Keffer [:Be what?
Scott Keffer [:No future.
Scott Keffer [:No future. K.
Scott Keffer [:No right, wrong. No right, wrong. Right? No mercy.
Scott Keffer [:No peace. No mercy.
Scott Keffer [:None of the natural laws of nature like gravity and that kind of stuff.
Scott Keffer [:No peace. Yeah.
Scott Keffer [:You'll be taking control of it.
Scott Keffer [:Yeah. I had one of the guys I who I've done for a long time, is our 1st coaching member, not a believer. You know? And I said, yeah. I think it's interesting, right, The the world is random. You know? I said, in your life and in your just think about your office, how many times in your office do things naturally come together into organized systems just by themselves. I mean, does that happen often in your office So the where things come together. In fact, if you don't if you don't apply yourself to them, what does it Normally look like Disorder. Random disorder.
Scott Keffer [:Right? It moves towards chaos. Right? Interesting that the world is filled with systems. So there would be no systems in the world. Right? No systems. No god. No god. In Some cases, it could be drink and be merry. Who cares? Right? Everybody would do what is right in his own eyes.
Scott Keffer [:Right? Everybody would do What is right in his own eyes?
Scott Keffer [:Scott, what about no Satan?
Scott Keffer [:What's the what?
Scott Keffer [:What about no Satan? If there wasn't a god created everything, there would not be a Satan either, would there? Right.
Scott Keffer [:Oh, there could be a Satan. But you're right. If there were no Satan, there were no supernatural. Right? There's Wait. No no supernatural. But at the end of that, There would be absolutely zero value in you. You would have no value. You would have no purpose.
Scott Keffer [:You you would have no reason to live or die. No value, no purpose. No god. On the other hand, let's assume there is god, and there is no messiah. We got out of the bible, and there's no messiah. What's that look like?
Scott Keffer [:Pointless. No hope.
Scott Keffer [:What's that? Pointless. Pointless? K. No hope. No hope.
Scott Keffer [:No truth.
Scott Keffer [:No. Well, there is truth because there's god of the bible. Right? So think about god exists, but there's no messiah. He did. What's that? He is the truth, so there would be truth. Right? So no messiah, what would it be? You would be dead in your
Scott Keffer [:sins and trespasses.
Scott Keffer [:Sins and trespasses. Right? You would be dead, right, under the law. You are being guilty. Right? Scripture says, if you break 1 law, you've We've broken them all. The minute you break 1, you're done. 1 and done. What else?
Scott Keffer [:Why am I here? If there's no if there's no salvation, then then, like, this is pointless.
Scott Keffer [:Pointless? Yeah. We we had pointless. Yeah.
Scott Keffer [:How about fearing judgment?
Scott Keffer [:Fearing judgment. Yeah. And okay. There'd be a lot of reason to keep yourself healthy to live as long as you can. Holy smokes. Holy smokes. Right? You can imagine. Right.
Scott Keffer [:Judgment's on the other side, and it's just any day. Right? When death comes, death is now not the door. It's a yes?
Scott Keffer [:Fear.
Scott Keffer [:Fear. Lots of fear. Maybe fear. Lots of fear. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Keffer [:And so when George Bailey sees life afresh and comes back, it changes his perspective. And it's the nature of sin to take what is glorious and make it pedestrian. Right? And take it for you know, we we would normally take it for granted. It's the same. And Particularly, if you are an evangelical, we assume that we understand it when we can answer the the question, when we can get 85 on our test, when we get All the multiple choice. Right? So we are going to remind ourself afresh because I thought about, Right. We talked about last time over here because this is where we are in Adam. In Adam, there is no messiah.
Scott Keffer [:There's no hope. We're in judgment. Right? We're in fear. Right? We're and we're sick there. And we talked about In Christ, on the other side, what has to happen in the middle? There has to be A savior. There has to be a messiah. Right? There has to be a messiah. Right? There has to be a messiah.
Scott Keffer [:So that's at the top of your page. Right? In Adam, in Christ. But the the the 2 come together and they but it's not possible that they come together without Christ, without messiah. So it's a good time of the year to remind ourselves remind ourselves of the benefits, the value, if you will, of life with a messiah. So stand, if you will. Let's read the Matthew verse. If we're good, out of reverence for god and his word, An angel of the lord appeared in him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, which shall call his name Jesus, For he will save his people from their sins.
Scott Keffer [:Now all this took place to fulfill was was spoken
Scott Keffer [:by the lord through the prophets.
Scott Keffer [:Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, Which translated means god with us. The word of the lord. Thanks be to god. Jesus, The Messiah scripture says, to Jews, a stumbling block. The Gentiles, foolishness. Right? The Jews are stumbling block to gentiles' foolishness. So I thought about messiah messiah, the savior. Right? We're not we're not Jewish.
Scott Keffer [:We're not steeped in the old testament, typically. And so that waiting, that that expectation, that looking forward to the Messiah is not something that's woven into us. Right? Something that's that's part of our our DNA. So, I thought, let's take a look at What would need to be in place for the Messiah to be the Messiah. I will put the enmity between him and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. So we get the the very first gospel message. And so what do we see in there? First of all, that the Messiah would be human.
Scott Keffer [:Right? That the Messiah would be human. It said, he and I will put in the deep between you, Satan, and the woman, Between your seed and her seed, it will come from a woman, which mean the messiah will be human. And I thought about that. Well, I didn't think why did it have to be human. First of all, did it have to be human? Yes. We would understand. Right? In order to redeem us, it would have to be a human messiah, and it would be a messiah that was born supernaturally. Well, it's gonna come from her.
Scott Keffer [:It's gonna come from her seed. She doesn't have seed. So it's gonna come from her seed, so it's gotta be supernaturally. And, therefore, there would be no earthly father. You'll bruise him on the heel, which means he will die, but he will bruise you on the head, which means that the Messiah would be human, born supernaturally. No earthly father Will die, and will have supernatural authority and Victory.
Scott Keffer [:Oh, I will.
Scott Keffer [:And victory. You shall bruise him on the heel. He will die, but He will bruise you on the head, which means he has authority over you. Right? And he will have victory. He will have victory. Genesis 3 15. The plan is in place. We'll later know that the savior has been slain from the foundation of the earth.
Scott Keffer [:But here, the plan is in place. The triune god has put the plan in place, And so he preaches the gospel right after sin occurs because the plan is indeed in place. In Isaiah, he would say that the lord himself will give you a sign. Who will initiate this? The lord will. This is the lord's initiation. Right? The Messiah is his plan. It's his purpose, and he will initiate it. And I love this.
Scott Keffer [:He says behold, the virgin will be with child. And what's interesting is it doesn't in in the New American Standard translated a virgin, but in the Hebrew, it's literally the virgin. Right? The virgin will be with child And bear a son. Isn't that interesting? So born supernaturally according to the scripture and named by the father named by God. Isn't that amazing? If you're starting to think about it, the father names it. And in this case, the father named. Right? You shall call his name Immanuel. Well, what's interesting is in order to fulfill the prophecy, It it it's not it the messiah would not be Joseph's biological son.
Scott Keffer [:The messiah would not be Joseph's biological son. Why, no descendant of Jeconiah on the throne of David. Thus says the lord, for for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David. So Messiah must come from the line of David, But not from the line of Jeconiah, which is Joseph. He came from that line. So I put in there from, Jews for Jesus, unlike Matthew, Luke follows strict Jewish procedure and custom that he omits no names and mentions no women. So in Matthew, names are are, omitted. Right? They skip they'll skip generations here.
Scott Keffer [:By strict Jewish custom, no. He says if by Jewish custom, one could not mention the name of a woman but wished to trace her line, he would do how would he do it? He would use the name of her husband, trace the line. Right? That would raise a second question. If someone studied the genealogy, how would he know whether the genealogy were that of the husband or that of the wife since in either case, the husband's name would be used. The answer is not difficult. The problem lies with the English language. In English, it's not good grammar to use a definite article. Right? The Matthew, the Luke, the Mary.
Scott Keffer [:Right? Doesn't make sense for us, but, however, is quite permissible in Greek grammar. In the Greek texts of loose Genealogy, every single name mentioned has the Greek definitive article the with one exception, the name of Joseph. What does that mean? Someone reading the original would understand by the missing the definite article in Joseph's name that it was not really Joseph's genealogy, but his wife's marriage. So thus missing in that. Furthermore, although Many translations read being supposedly the son of Joseph, the son of Eli. Because of the missing Greek definitive article before the name Joseph, The same verse could be translated, being the son as was supposed of Joseph, the son of Elah or the son of Eli. In other words, the final parenthesis could be expanded to to so that the verse reads that although Yeshua was supposed or assumed to be the descendant of Joseph. He was really the descendant of Eli Eli.
Scott Keffer [:Eli was the father of Mary. The absence of Mary's name is quite in keeping with the Jewish practices on genealogies. So what it shows us, of course, is Matthew is is is is Joseph's, not biological, but his connection to the kingship in the line of David, but he was not the Biological father. So Messiah must come from the line of David, but not from the line of Jeconiah. And also to fulfill the pros prophecy, Messiah must be born of a woman, therefore, Mary's biological son. Yeah. You will conceive in your womb. Right? Literally would be carried to bear a son.
Scott Keffer [:You shall call his name Jesus. Right? And you will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. How will this happen? Well, the most high will overshadow you, and for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God. Right? Then to fulfill the prophecy, a child would be born And a son would be given. Child would be born And the sun given, big difference. The sun is given. The sun preexists. The sun preexists the birth of the child.
Scott Keffer [:Right? For a child would be born to us. The son will be given to us. The government will rest upon his shoulders. His name shall be called wonderful counselor. 1st stop right there and think about his name shall be called wonderful counselor. We need wonderful counsel from a wonderful counselor. Don't we need wisdom? We pray for wisdom. He's a wonderful counselor.
Scott Keffer [:He's also Mighty, and he's a mighty god, which means he's sovereign. His providence reigns over all. So this one who will come who will be a child and a son Will be a mighty god. He'll also be an eternal father, eternal father. For some folks, the thought of father is a good picture. When they think about their earthly father, loving, caring, involved, right, connected, or many others, it's not a great picture. And I'm not sure which camp you're in, but it's a reminder, the eternal father is not your earthly father, not like your earthly father at all. And for me, mine was not a great experience at all.
Scott Keffer [:Not not close, not connected, not firming, not loving. And so having an eternal father Who is loving, caring, connected. Right? It makes a big difference. Right? And this one would be the eternal father and the prince of shalom Prince of shalom. Who needs shalom in their soul these days? Right?
Scott Keffer [:Yeah. Who
Scott Keffer [:needs shalom in their soul in the midst of all the uncertainty? What do you need? You think about this. Counsel, right, protection, A father and peace, and there'll be no end, right, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, the Messiah. And a reminder, if we flip over, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with god, and the word was god, and the word Enfleshed, the word tabernacled, the word, The eternal one, the uncontainable, stepped into a human container. What? To Jews, a stumbling block. To Gentiles, foolishness. The Jew is a stumbling block to Gentiles' foolishness, and it became flesh and tabernacled among us. We saw his glory, glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten god, the son, has brought him out into the open.
Scott Keffer [:He has explained him. He has made him known, his son. And I love this. God, who spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in His son, his son is the word in fleshed. He appointed him heir of all things whom also he made the world, and he's the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his Nature. The only way to be the exact representation of the nature of another is to be of the same nature. He's the radiance of his glory. He's the exact representation.
Scott Keffer [:Who can represent God the father, but the son. He's the exact representation. He had told all things by the word of his Power. What if he upholds all things in your life by the word of his power? Is he upholding all things by the word of his power? Is he upholding all things for you by the word of his power? Yeah. But you don't want my kids, my grandkids, my health, my future, my money, my stuff. Does he uphold all things By the word of his power. But if he does, he reigns. He made purification of sin, and I love this, and he sat down.
Scott Keffer [:No priest no high priest was able to sit down. He would go into the holy of holies, and they put a rope on because if the bell started stopped ringing, right, they drag him out because that mean he died in there. He sat down. I love this. Right? Which means he is fully god and fully man. The Jews, stumbling blocks. The Gentiles, foolishness. What? The incomparable and incomprehensible in fleshing.
Scott Keffer [:It is the incarnation. It's the in fleshing The inflashing of the god of the universe. What? It's interesting as, I was going over again the History to each one of the councils and all the fussing over the nature of Jesus Christ. Lots of fussing. Believe this, believe that. See, we we're sort of on the settled side of, oh, yeah. He's fully god, fully man. He's fully god, but that was not settled.
Scott Keffer [:A lot of fussing over that. Right? So at the, Kelsadan, right, they they recognize they wrote this, recognized in two natures, god and man, Without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the distinction of nature is being in no way annulled by union, But rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form 1 person and substance sustenance, Not as parted or separated into 2 persons, but 1 and the same son and the only begotten god, the word, lord Jesus Christ. What's that for? Because they were fussing over. He was different. He wasn't sun. He was created. All of that. Is that happening today? Yeah.
Scott Keffer [:Is this trying to put into words what is incomparable and unfathomable? Yes. It is the enfleshing of the god of the bible into our world. He stepped into our world. And I wanna say, what the heck for? Who would do that? He enfleshed. He tabernacled. Now when you think about this, he stepped into our broken, sinful, dark, and evil world. And he's a reminder for me, he's not afraid Step into your darkness and your sin and your brokenness and your unbelief In in the craft of your life, he's not afraid of that. Even the darkness is not dark to him.
Scott Keffer [:Whatever darkness is in your Soul, he's in there to bring light. Whatever darkness is in your life, he's there to bring life. He can do that. He still does that. He is the in fleshing one, The incarnation of the lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis 5:3, it says, Adam Beget. What did he beget? He became the father of a son in his Own likeness according to his image. Only Adam can beget more atoms In their own image, he beget those who are of the same image.
Scott Keffer [:Well, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of all creation. He is the last Adam. It's not the image of Adam. So it says, therefore, just as through 1 man who's that? Adam's sin entered into the world death through sin, and so death spread to all men Because all sinned. So then as through 1 transgression, Adam, there resulted condemnation for all men, even so Through one act of righteousness, there resulted justification of life dullment. For us, through the 1 man's disobedience, The many remain sinners. On the other hand, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.
Scott Keffer [:So he is the last Adam, and he is not in the image or the likeness of Adam. He's not in the image or the likeness of Adam. So the first Adam says in in first Corinthians, he became A living soul. Right? Formed out of the ground, god breathed forth life into him. He's a living soul. Well, The last Adam is a life giving spirit. He gives life For the the how are the spirituals not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. 1st man is from the earth.
Scott Keffer [:2nd man from heaven. 2nd man from heaven. So the last Adam, he's not in the image in the likeness of Adam. When the fullness of time came, From the fullness time game. Beginning of Lord of the Rings, Gandalf shows up, And he says, the wizard is neither early nor late. He arrives at just at the time he means to. I love that. Love that.
Scott Keffer [:Well, god's the same way. He's neither early nor late. And the fullness of time means right on time, right at the right time. And if you're around for, who's our our buddy in our series? Wallace. Jay Warner Wallace. Jay Warner Wallace. Boy, you saw really the new meaning to in the fullness of time and how it was like a bull's eye in all of time. Right? The window was a a small window in which he should appear.
Scott Keffer [:In the wholeness of time, he did appear. He did appear. He god sent forth his Son. Right? The child is born, a son is given. Born of a woman, born under the law, there's a reason. What was it? He would redeem us, redeem a people for himself, That we might not just be redeemed, but adopted. And we're not just adopted. We are adopted as Sons, firstborn, right, in the place of of prominence.
Scott Keffer [:And I love this. It says when he comes into the world, Jesus, right, the messiah, sacrifice an offering you have not desired. Right? What were all those? They were pictures. They were pointings. You checked the feasts. You check all the sacrifices. You check the tabernacle. You check all the old testament.
Scott Keffer [:You go through there and and you see what you're supposed to see, Jesus. Every page, every word is pointing forward. There's one who will come, the messiah. And if you look at All that was necessary for that to be the messiah. He said, you, lord, you don't sacrifice an offering you've not desired, but a What a body you've prepared for me in full burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins you have not you have taken no pleasure. By this will, We have been sanctified where we've been sanctified through The offering the offering, right, of his body, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, he offered himself as the sacrifice for your sin, sanctified once for All, how do I know? The high priest sat down. He sat down. It's done once for all.
Scott Keffer [:You were sanctified once for all In Jesus Christ, the messiah, sat down at the right hand of god. And you just know he sat down, he sat down in the place, Right right hand. Forget that once for all. Once for all. Is that good news? It is. So So he says you are a chosen race. Let's read this. You are a chosen race, a robe, a holy nation, a people for god's own possession So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Scott Keffer [:For you were once not a people, But now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have mercy. He says, remember, George Bailey. Remember, you were not a people. Now you are the people of God. You were not a son, but now you're a son of the most high. You had not received mercy. You were dead in your sins and trespasses, but now you have received mercy.
Scott Keffer [:He says, remember, George Bailey, whom you were. Right? And he talks about the seed. Right? The descendants of the original prophecy. Lead. Right? He says he will be the firstborn Among many brethren, he would be the firstborn. He would be the new Adam, a new seed. Right. And all those who would come from him.
Scott Keffer [:Right? He also those whom he called, he also just right? But he says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of the son, underlined, so that That's the purpose. What's the purpose? He would be the firstborn Among many brethren, the seed that would come from in Christ. We are his seed. We come out of him just like we came out of Adam before, and now we come out of Christ. We're not only out of Christ, we're in Christ. He's the head of the body of the church. He's the beginning the firstborn from the dead. What's that mean? He's the firstborn from the dead.
Scott Keffer [:That means he was he not only came, he was resurrected. Right? He was resurrected. And he should come to have 1st place in everything. His father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, Through him to reconcile all claims to himself, having made shalom to the blood of his cross. Through him, I say all things, Whether on earth or in heaven. He's the head of the body. He's the firstborn from the dead. He's the firstborn from the dead, which means we are the next born from the dead.
Scott Keffer [:He is the firstborn among many brethren. We are the next born among many brethren. Right? We are his seed. We are his seed. So So it's a great reminder that Christmas is about the Messiah, and it's about all that was promised From eternity and all that was fulfilled in the lord Jesus Christ in the Messiah. Right? All that he had to be. Right. All that he had to be promised before the foundation of the earth.
Scott Keffer [:Alright. Put down an insight. Without messiah,
Scott Keffer [:we do get we would get what we deserve.
Scott Keffer [:Yes. It's interesting because Jonathan Edwards would say, most people think of god's Judgment coming that it's gonna show up, like it's coming here. It's gonna show up. He said, no. It is like we are walking on a a worn, net. And God's judgment is below us at every moment. It's not as if it's gonna show up somewhere in the future. He said it's as if we're walking on this war net, and right below us is the judgment of God at any moment.
Scott Keffer [:Right? That it's Always there. It's not for some point in the future. So yes. And we have been rescued. And may the god who redeemed us. May he bless you. May he keep you. May he cause his face to shine on you.
Scott Keffer [:May he lift up his countenance and his shalom deep in your soul. May the grace of the lord Jesus Christ, the love of god the father, and the fellowship The Holy Spirit be with you now and with your soul always. Grace of the lord Jesus Christ be with you always. Amen. Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper for trust in the God of the Bible and his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Scott Keffer [:May the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, and may the lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may god bless you and keep you.
