THE “GOSPEL” MESSAGE

IN THE NARRATIVES OF JESUS’ BIRTH

By Larry L. Harris

PURPOSE: To discover the meaning of the gospel through the birth narratives of Jesus as found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.  From these beautiful accounts, we will clearly see a consistent presentation of the heart of the gospel.  We will understand clearly from Scriptures the reason for Jesus’ birth.  The word gospel means “good news.”  We will learn what the “good news” (gospel) that was given to Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, and to the Wise Men and King Herod was.  As we examine these passages more closely, may the Spirit of the Messiah give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and a deeper revelation of our understanding of the gospel.

OUTLINE

        I.            GOSPEL IN THE GENEALOGY ACCOUNT OF JESUS [Matthew 1:1]

     II.            GOSPEL IN ANGEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO JOSEPH [Matthew 1:18-21]

   III.            GOSPEL IN GABRIEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY [Luke 1:26-38]

  IV.            GOSPEL IN ANGEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO SHEPHERDS [Luke 2:8-20]

    V.            THE GOSPEL, THE WISE MEN, & KING HEROD [Matthew 2:1-12]

  VI.            GOSPEL IN ZECHARIAS’ PROPHESY [Luke 1:67-71]

I.                    THE GOSPEL IN THE GENEOLOGY ACCOUNT OF JESUS [Matthew 1:1]

The very first book of the New Testament in our Bible, in the very first chapter and the very first verse begins [Matthew 1:1] “The book of generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham” (KJV).  First, referring to Jesus as the “Christ” is most important, because this is the title that was given to Him—Jesus Christ.  John, the beloved disciple of Jesus tells us his whole purpose in writing the Gospel of John is that he wanted his readers to know that Jesus was the Christ [John 20:31].  The word “Christ” is the Greek word “Christos” meaning “anointed ” or “Anointed One;” that is, Jesus was the anointed Son of God, the “Messiah”—the one promised by God in the Old Testament who would save/deliver God’s people from the hands of their enemies [Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:17-26]. 

Next, this Messiah is referred to as the “son of David, the son of Abraham.”  How can that be?  They both lived and died long before Jesus was born.  Then how do we explain the reference to David and Abraham being the father of Jesus?  A good understanding of the accounts of both these men in the Old Testament will shed the necessary light on this issue.  David is mentioned first because God prophesied through Nathan the prophet that David would have a descendant whom God would raise up to establish the throne of His kingdom eternally on earth [II Samuel 7:12-13, 16].  Matthew’s Gospel is telling his readers that Jesus is that promised descendant from David’s lineage, who will set up God’s kingdom on earth eternally.  Jesus is that Messiah.

Next, we have the reference to Abraham being the father of Jesus.  Abraham is also called the father of our faith, yet, we know he is not our father either.  The Apostle Paul helps us best understand this.  He taught Abraham to be the father of all who believe [Romans 4:11].  The gospel originated with Abraham [Galatians 3:8], when he wrote that the “gospel” (good news) was preached in advance to Abraham.  What was the gospel that Abraham received from God?  To know that we would need to go back to the first book of the Bible to understand the gospel Abraham received.  It would require reading all of Genesis chapters 12 through 18, because we have multiple narratives between God and Abraham, where God reveals the various parts of His gospel to Abraham over a period of time.  All the parts taken as a whole give us a clear presentation of the gospel.  See my article entitled, “The Gospel of the Kingdom – Part Two” for a full accounting of the gospel Abraham received from God.  In summary, the gospel given to Abraham and his descendants in advance was all about a conditional promise from God of inheriting land from which God would raise up kings who would rule the nations eternally [Genesis 17:6-8].  God would save/deliver/protect them from their enemies [Genesis 12:3].  However, all this would not happen unless Abraham and his descendants were careful to obey the commands, statutes, and judgments of God [Genesis 17:9, 10; 22:17, 18].

Jesus tells us “Abraham enjoyed . . . the thought of seeing my day” [John 8:56].  Why would Abraham welcome the coming of Jesus?  Because Jesus was saying that His coming was the fulfillment of the gospel promise made to Abraham by God.  Jesus came the first time to build the kingdom promised to Abraham in the hearts of His disciples, but will return the second time to bring God’s salvation (delivering them from their enemies) and setting up God’s kingdom on earth [Matthew 6:10; I Corinthians 15:23, 24; Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 11:15].  The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that by faith Abraham and others obeyed and received the land promised to them, but that was not the full revelation of God’s promise; they also longed for the eternal kingdom in the eternal city Jerusalem on earth [Hebrews 11:8-16, 39] from which God the Messiah would reign king and they would share in ruling and reigning with the Messiah [Genesis 17:1-8].

So, Matthew rightly begins his Gospel by connecting his readers back to the two promises God made in the Old Testament through David and Abraham and when taken together gives us the complete Old Testament  gospel.

II.                 THE GOSPEL IN THE ANGEL’S ANNOUNCEMENTS TO JOSEPH [Matthew 1:18-21]

Matthew tells us an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name “Jesus,” for He will save His people from their sins” [Matthew 1:21].  The name “Jesus” means “Jehovah saves.”  Jehovah is the special name the Jews called God.  Jehovah/God was always saving/delivering/rescuing His people from their enemies. 

Is it not interesting that the angel says Jesus came to save “His people!”  Why the specific mention to His people and not the people of the world?  Of all the people groups on this earth, long ago God choose Abraham and his descendants to make a covenant with them to be their God.  Jesus is the answer to the promises God made to Abraham and David of having a Messiah, who would deliver God’s people Israel and put them back into the Promised Land.  These gospel promises were made to Abraham and his descendants; they would have no meaning to other nations.  God had chosen Israel among all the peoples of the earth to receive the promise of inheriting the land eternally and ruling the nations with the Messiah upon His return to the earth.  However, the nation of Israel had repeatedly disobeyed God’s teachings and God allowed them to be captured and taken to other lands and Jerusalem was captured as well.  At this time it was the Romans who had conquered Jerusalem.  The reference to Jesus saving His people from their sins is directly related to this—in Christ, God was calling the Jews to repent from following other gods, so that God could restore them to their rightful place of leadership within the Promised Land.

This is why Jesus’ main teaching was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Matthew 4:17, 23].  The kingdom promised to Israel was the Promised Land (the nation of Israel, which included Jerusalem).  If they repented as a people of God, God would return their land to them from which to rule the nations.  The Jews in Jesus day were clearly looking for a Messiah to come and lead them to overthrow the Romans and set up God’s kingdom and rule on earth.  When the angel appeared to Joseph in his dream, he was telling him that this baby in Mary’s womb is the promised Messiah, who will deliver God’s chosen people, thus, fulfilling His promise to Israel.

III.               GOSPEL IN THE GABRIEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY [Luke 1:26-38]

Let us now look at the message the angel Gabriel delivers to Mary in Luke’s Gospel.  She is also told His name will be “Jesus” [Luke 1:31].  “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”  Wow!  Did you catch that?  Gabriel was telling Mary that the primary reason for her to have this son was that He would be the one to fulfill the promise made to David—about one of his descendants sitting on the throne of Israel and ruling eternally on the earth.  Nothing is told to Mary about Jesus coming to die on the cross to save the world from its sins.  His primary purpose in coming was to save Israel from her enemies, thus fulfilling the two promises God made through Abraham and David.  This was the good news!  This is the gospel!

The original gospel promised to Abraham was that his descendents would inherit land eternally [Genesis 17:8].  When Jesus returns the second time, He returns to set up God’s kingdom on earth.  This is why He taught his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth [Matthew 6:10].  Upon His return all other kingdoms will be put under His feet [II Corinthians 15:24-25].  This is the Millennium (1,000 year) Kingdom of God on earth [Revelation 20:1-6].

IV.                THE GOSPEL IN THE ANGEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE SHEPHERDS [Luke 2:8-20]

Shepherds were guarding their flocks in the field when an angel from the Lord appears to them.  The very first thing the angel tells them is that they are not to be afraid, because the angel was bringing “good news” of great joy to them.  These were Jewish shepherds and among the poorest of men, so what would be good news for them to hear about from their God?  Every Jew, even among the poorest of them longed for the day when they would be given back their own land and to once again have God bless that land fruitfully as He had promised to them from the time of Abraham. 

In order for this good news to be fulfilled, God had provided Israel a “Savior.”  This Savior would be the one who would lead them to return to their land and defeat whatever enemy stood in the way.  No longer would these shepherds be working in someone’s field, but these fields would be returned to them.  This Savior would ultimately lead them to defeat their enemies, the Romans, who now control their fields. 

This Savior is the Promised Messiah (Christ) that all of knew about and had waited to come.  At the very beginning of His ministry, He declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Matthew 4:17] and “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel (“euaggelion”) of the kingdom.” [Matthew 4:23].

So, what was the good news (gospel) that the angel spoke to the shepherds?  It was that the newborn baby Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, the Christ, that Israel had looked forward to for hundreds of years.  This Savior was the Promised Messiah, meaning He would deliver them from their enemies and regain the Promised Land that was given to them.

V.                THE GOSPEL, THE WISE MEN, & KING HEROD [Matthew 2:1-12]

The wise men, Magi, from the east, came to Bethlehem to find “the one who has been born king of the Jews.”  Having come from the east, it is highly unlikely that they were Jews or Jewish converts.  They were more likely Persians, possibly from Bagdad (Babel), where astrology originated.  The Persians over the years would have an enormous amount of cross-cultural exchange.  Consider Abraham was originally from that region and the Israelites were taken captive into that region there for quite a period of time.  Is it not possible that these Magi had heard about the prophesy that the God of Israel would raise up for Israel in the lineage of David a king who would rule eternally on the throne of King David.  Also, is it not possible that these magi had access to certain portions of Old Testament writings.  Note that they were traveling to Judah, to worship and pay homage to this new king of the Jews.

Word spread quickly in that region that the birth of baby Jesus was the promised Messiah.  These Magi arrived in Jerusalem looking for the "King of the Jews."  Herod, the Roman appointed King of the Jews, likewise heard about these stirrings and called his scholars together to determine where this "Messiah" was born.  They found from Scriptures in Bethlehem [Micah 5:2].  Herod secretly called the Magi to determine the exact time the star appeared.  He sent them to Bethlehem to search for the child, who was born King of the Jews, and asked them to return to him upon finding where the child could be found.  The Magi left and followed the star till it led them to Jesus.  They presented expensive gifts to this child, fit for a king.  The Magi were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod.

When Herod realized the Magi did not return to him, he became enraged and had all the male babies  in Bethlehem and its vicinity from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined killed.  Why would Herod want these innocent babies murdered?  Because the birth of the Messiah would be a threat to him or any of his sons being King of the Jews.  Herod, a Jew himself, wold seek to destroy anyone who would take away his kingdom on earth.

However, God had already warned Joseph in a dream to flee Bethlehem and go to Egypt to fulfill the prophesy [Hosea 11:1], "Out of Egypt I called My Son."  It would be God's Son, Jesus, who would fulfill the prophesy to David that one of his descendants would sit on his throne and rule the nations eternally.  This is the main reason Jesus came into the world--to save/deliver God's people from the hands of their enemies and put them back into the Promised Land, from which they would co-reign with Jesus the Messiah.  

  

VI.              THE GOSPEL IN ZECHARIAS’ PROPHESY [Luke 1:67-79]

Zechariah, a priest and father of John the Baptist, was unable to speak for a period of time because he doubted the message from the angel Gabriel that he and his wife Elizabeth would be given a son in their old age [Luke 1:18-20].  When John was eight days old, he was taken to the temple to be circumcised.  When Zacharias was asked his name, the Lord opened his mouth and he declared, “John.”  The people were all amazed, wondering, “What then is this child going to be?” [Luke 1:66]—who is this child named John?  John the Baptist was the forerunner announcing the coming of the promised Messiah [Matthew3:1-3].

Shortly thereafter Zacharias prophesied about “a horn of salvation” coming from the house of David, as prophesied by the Old Testament prophets, who would bring “salvation from our (Israel) enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us (again, reference to Israel).”   In raising up this Messiah, God was “to show mercy toward our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to Abraham our father.”  What covenant?  What oath?  It was the promise God made to Abraham back in Genesis that He would give land eternally to Israel from which they could rule the nations, if they would only be careful to obey all God’s ordinances, statues, and judgments.

Zacharias was now prophesying that the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, was the fulfillment of God’s gospel promise to Abraham and his descendants.  This Savior Jesus main purpose in coming was to fulfill God’s promise of rescuing His people from hands of their enemies.  Note that in this brief prophesy that Zacharias repeats this twice so that it would be clear to all about the purpose of Messiah.  Jesus’ primary purpose in coming was not to die on the cross to forgive sins; He does do that, but it is not “the gospel”.  The gospel is that the salvation that Jesus brought was to deliver His people from the hands of their enemies and to set up God’s kingdom on this earth eternally.  In Jesus’ first coming, He begins the building of the kingdom of God within people’s lives, but when He returns, He will build God’s kingdom permanently on this earth, beginning in the Promised Land.

CONCLUSION:

Our purpose was to discover the meaning of the gospel through the birth narratives of Jesus as found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke.  We searched thoroughly these Scriptures and related passages.  Each and every one of these narratives pointed us back to one of two Old Testament references: the eternal promises made to Abraham and King David.  They were all about the promise of a Messiah, a Savior, who would come and set up God’s kingdom on earth by delivering God’s people from the hands of their enemies.  They would be put back into that Promised Land.  This message is the heart and soul of the gospel message!  This is what “good news” to all of them was!

Amazingly enough, the only reference to Jesus coming to save people from their sins was in reference to what the angel spoke to Joseph, and that reference was to save His people—the chosen people of Israel.  There is no mention of the main purpose of Jesus’ birth to be—dying  on the cross to save the world from its sin, and that whoever invites Jesus into their life, can receive eternal life, and go to heaven when they die.  Now that is truly amazing!  Why no mention whatsoever to this purpose of Jesus’ birth?  Because, it was simply not the gospel message!  Yet, God is totally consistent in the message that He gives to each of His messengers in sharing the main reason He was sending His Son into the world to Zacharias, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, Magi, and King Herod respectively.

How did and why did the people of God get so off course?  The Scriptures make it abundantly clear about the main purpose of Jesus’ first coming to earth.  How did we get away from the truth of the gospel?  Believe it or not the answer is quite simple.  First, we believed what others taught us and never searched the Scriptures for ourselves to see if what they were teaching was true.  Remember the Bereans [Acts 17:10, 11]?  The gladly listened to Paul’s message about the gospel, but returned to their homes daily to search the Scriptures to see if what Paul was sharing was correct.  The only Scriptures they had to search would have been the Old Testament.  They knew well the gospel God shared with Abraham and David and concluded that what Paul shared about Jesus being the Messiah was true, so they believed Paul.

The second reason that the meaning of the true gospel is easily missed is that it is not connected to the Old Testament.  In fact, the gospel was first given in the Old Testament—to Abraham as already mentioned Galatians 3:8].  You must first know from the Old Testament Scriptures what that true gospel was.  The New Testament does not give us a new or another gospel; rather, it fulfilled the gospel of the Old Testament.  When you understand the gospel of the Old Testament, then you can clearly understand what was the “good news” that God’s messengers proclaimed in the birth narratives of Jesus. 

THE TRUE GOSPEL IS THAT JESUS AS MESSIAH CAME TO SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR ENEMIES AND RESTORE THEM TO THEIR LAND!

                                    AUGUST, 2012     [see also Psalms 145:10-13; Revelations 2:26. 27; 3:21, 22]