LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: MATTHEW 1:18-25
Lesson 2 December 12, 2020
Key verse
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:20-21
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
What’s in a name?
Most parents who are expecting a baby as well as family members and friends often get together to select a name for the child that is about to be born. Sometimes parents and family know whether it’s going to be a boy or girl and they talk among themselves over and over as to what name would fit the child. Sometimes they decide on a name because it was the name of their parents or grandparents and sometimes they decide on the name for the child because it fits with the family name.
Some names have a special meaning but nowadays people don’t seem to bother about that. They just make a selection because it sounds nice. Or maybe it is the name of a famous movie star or actor or actress or athlete and they would like that child about to be born to be like those famous people.
Some names have special meaning. We often see the list of popular names from time to time and we can list some of them:
Among the 1,000 Top girl babies are names like Olivia, Emma, Ava, Sophia, Isabella, Charlotte. It might surprise you but among the top 1000 baby boy names are Oliver, William, James, Benjamin, Elijah.
But some names have meaning. For example
Grace means a blessing.
Emily means industrious.
David means beloved.
Michael means resembles God.
William means determined.
But we are now studying about a special person that lived in Heaven and came down to Earth as a human being in order to teach us about what God the Father was like. God had created us but human beings did not really obey Him very much and so it was necessary for a special person who was God in Heaven to come down and show us what it was like to live and show to other persons a special kind of love, compassion,, mercy, patience, kindness, caring, and all kinds of great personality and habits.
Besides that He needed to bear our sins on the Cross and give His life so that we would not have to die for the sins that human beings have committed for many thousands of years.
Long before Jesus came down from Heaven and was born many prophets and writers of Scripture taught a lot about this great future event and what Jesus would do while He lived on earth.
So we know that Jesus was called to do this great work for us a long, long time ago. He was anointed and selected to do this job and so He was called the “Christ”.
It is really something very nice and very gracious of God to realize that God the Father would anoint and call a special person many thousands of years ago to come down to help us when we could not help our self
There were many special names for this baby who was going to be born in Bethlehem. One very important name was the name Jesus. But we know that He had other names such as the Messiah, the Word, the Son of God. These names mean special things and they tell us what He was going to do and what He had done.
One very important name for the baby was Jesus. This name means “He would save His people from their sins”. It tells us that Jesus though He lived in Heaven loved men and women so much that He for a while was willing to give up His throne in Heaven and become a human being to live among us and experience all the problems and pressures that human beings experienced. But He overcame everything and did not sin or do anything wrong because He depended on the Holy Spirit. He wanted to show us that if we live and depended on the Holy Spirit who was the Spirit of Love and Wisdom we too would overcome a lot of the problems that we have.
Before Jesus was born an Angel appeared to Joseph who was in line to sit on the throne of David his great ancestor or forefather. God had promised David that one of its sons would eventually sit on his throne and his throne would last forever and it would rule over the entire earth. So David was very happy at this promise of God.
But Joseph was only the stepfather for Jesus had been put into the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit and so Mary was the real mother of Jesus. She too was a descendent of David but God chose Joseph to be the stepfather of Jesus for it was only Joseph that could give Jesus the Legal right to sit on the eternal throne of David.
Joseph did not quite like the idea that he would only be a stepfather for he did not know that it was God the Father and the Holy Spirit that had performed the amazing miracle of making Jesus become a human baby and go into the womb of Mary so that He would be born as a normal human being. Of course we do not understand how God did this but we are glad that they did send Jesus down to Earth to teach us about Heaven and to die on the Cross and bear our sins, sins that we could not bear.
When the angel appeared to Joseph, he told Joseph that Mary would give birth to a baby boy and that he should call the baby Immanuel which means, God with us. This other name for Jesus showed that Jesus was not an ordinary person but actually was God and He had made a great sacrifice to become a human beings. Jesus therefore was happy to help us and he reminded us that He could call us His brothers and sisters and He was happy doing that for He became like us.
When Jesus grew up He performed many miracles and showed us that He really loved us. He made great preparations after His death and resurrection so that we too would eventually live with Him and His Father forever. Once we believe in Jesus as our Saviour everything would be all right and we would be given eternal life so that we too would live forever.
So remember that God the Father loves us so much that He called on Jesus to do a special and great work for us even before Jesus was born. Of course Jesus was very happy to take on that job.
Always remember that God the Father always loves you and always will make great preparations for you. Once you believe in him and trusted him he would protect you and guide you and teach you. Even if your life on earth is not as pleasant as you think it should be remember that He will watch over you and in due time give you eternal life so that you will live in Paradise with God and Jesus.