Ep 11 – Divine Grace

hi there tom Mahairas with it’s all greek to me and today we want to talk about christmas again this is kind of the month of december. We’re looking at some words but you know just the word christmas what does that mean to you? You know in in English it means the mass of Christ back in 1050 1050 the middle ages there and uh so it really in in the Greek language when we say it in Greek and I’m not talking about coin a Greek, I’m talking about modern Greek Kristiana is what we say, he restores his christ and yet he sees his birth. So it’s christ’s birth. It means something totally different there. And uh so I want to talk about christ’s birth. I want to read some scripture and let me take my hat off and they just dig right into the scriptures and in the book of Galatians it says this. Now I say as long as the heir is a child he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything verse one and two, he is under guardian and manager until the date set by the father. So also we while we are Children were held in bondage, under the elemental things of the world. Now This is what precedes the next verse verse four. But when the fullness of time arrived came God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law in order that he might redeem those x colorado redeemed those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. And he became because and because you are sons, God has now sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba father because we are sons of God. We have, yes, we have the nature of God. So now we can when we’re praying Abba father, father God, we say these things because he truly is our father X. Agora. So I love that word too excellent is to buy out of in Evora is the marketplace that you go in to buy something. So God brought us out of the marketplace of sin and he brought us out of the marketplace of slavery, the elemental things of this world. And he gave us now the spirit of his son and we are adopted. Your fascia, we are really in the place of the sun Because of Jesus Christ. And what he did for us. It’s a beautiful thing. God in the fullness of time. Now, what does that mean play at all? It’s when the time just was fulfilled. All the prophecies in the old testament concerning the right time. Daniel chapter nine verse 25 and 26, 483 years after the rebuilding of the temple. That in in Jerusalem that there was supposed to be the messiah was supposed to come exactly 830 88, 483 years, precisely on the day and that block of time, that opportunity. The Karros moment. So we there was a day but there was a Kairos moment. Kara eros in greek which means this window that God gave to mankind for his own son to come and to take upon himself the sins of the world and become the lamb of God. That takes away the sins of the world. Just fantastic. And Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey as luke. Chapter 19 specifically tells us fulfilling the prophecies in the old testament. In the fullness of time God sent forth his son, God has a son. Yeah, problems tells us. Do you know his name? Do you know his son’s name? Yeah, we do. Now the logos became flesh and his name is Jesus. Jesus, Yeshua. Jesus is jesus, the greek word issues, the hebrew word, Yeshua or Joshua. The transliteration in english, which means the translation God is my salvation. Jesus, the christ christ is not his last name, jesus, the man is the messiah, the anointed one. That’s what that means, that he is the one that was predicted to come and fulfill the 365 prophecies that God had given in the old testament. I mean this, this is for tom Mahairas, this greek born in Thessaloniki That has been studying the Bible now for over 50 years. I’m exploding inside with joy knowing that I know that I know that I know that all this is true. I’ve checked it out in the old testament. And if you, whether you’re a jewish person or greek person, whether you are an atheist, I don’t care what you are, buddhist, Mohammed and uh whatever you are, muslim, just look at the old testament prophecies. There are over 360 five prophecies about the messiah. We’ve given them in programs prior to this. If you’d like to get a copy of them, I could send them to you. You know, just email me tom at city vision dot org. Yeah, just let me know And this program, it’s all Greek to me. I love going deeper. I love going in there. That’s why Galatians chapter four In the fullness of time when God was ready, When his time had come. Like time gave birth to who? To the messiah. To jesus, who is the messiah, the fullness of time. God sent forth his son. Yeah. In time he came in time from eternity. The D and B becomes mad eternity. Now becomes time. He gets into time. God sent forth his son, born of a woman Born from the human race, not of a man, but born of a woman meaning the seat of a woman. This is Genesis three verse 16. Born of a woman born under the law. That is he is now under the very law that he created in order y to keep the law perfect to fulfill everything from the law, he never did anything wrong, he always was perfect and correct. And right now one time that jesus christ ever send thinks and speaks in Doosan, think about this incredible human being. The Lord, jesus christ the one the very same one that was born in Bethlehem, the very same one that grew up in Nazareth. The very same one that they that went out preaching, repent and believe in the gospel. This jesus that they beat up and took and crucified for your sins and my sins. This is why he came Christmas time. This is why he came to save us from our sins. Matthew one oh it’s so incredible and he rose again from the dead. This very same jesus took off into heaven to reclaim his throne. And this very same jesus, the angel said to the apostles will come back and like manner as you see him go, the very same one, the same flesh, the same person, the same being incredible in order that he might redeem those under the law. Ex colorado. He came under the law kept the law died on the cross for our sins. Who broke the law. That is the sins are those things that we did, that broke the law. Why x. A garage to redeem and that’s a whole another. It’s all greek to me message because there are seven different words for redeem. There’s a garage so that means to go into the marketplace. The agora is the marketplace. Exa war as a means to buy something in the market place out of the marketplace never to be sold again in the marketplace. And if you’ve been brought out of the marketplace of sin, if you’ve been born brought out and he broke the arm and the hand of satan upon your life. If jesus christ really redeemed your body, your mind, your spirit, you’re never gonna be a slave of sin in the in the category that he’s talking about here. Sin Has a solution in your life. And the name of that solution is the blood of Jesus Christ cleans us from our sin. They overcame him. Revelation 1211 by the blood of the lamb by the word of their testimony and they did not love their life on to the very end. This is the solution for the human race. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and fornication and theft and murder and adultery and deeds of coveting and wickedness and less seriousness, envy and slander and pride and foolishness. Everything comes from inside of me and you. But he can change the inside he we can open our hearts and invite him in and let him change us to redeem those who are under the law that we may receive the adoption. Your fascia. The the word adoption means that we are standing, use his son emphasis is to stand in the place of the sun. And so God gives us now a place before him as an adopted child of God and with all the rights and and all of the, all of the benefits and inheritance of that child as a son. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son. That is the spirit of jesus christ in your hearts crying Abba. Father baba. In the greek language means father baba. When we say in greek baba, it means father. And so now I can say to God the father baba baba boo, family baba. My God, my father. Only because jesus christ redeemed me and put his spirit inside of me and I can refer to God in the most intimate way as Abba or baba my father. So this is a powerful passage. But there’s another passage here. There are two more that I like us to look at. I’ve entitled this divine grace Matthew 11 17 passage, That’s the royal connection And there is the Luke 323 through 28 passage in the scriptures and that is the biological connection. And there are two main scriptures because there’s a dilemma that must be answered. And uh, I will, I will show you what it is. But let’s let’s look at some of these statements that are made, one by sanctimonious. The roman historian said that they had spread over all of the earth over all of the orient and old and established belief that it was faded at that time for men to come from Judah judea to rule the world. That was the roman historian sanctimonious and then you had Tacitus. The historian said there was a firm persuasion that this very time the east was the, was to grow powerful and rulers coming from judea were to acquire a universal empire. This is what the historians of the day of christ we’re saying Josephus who was jewish but really was a historian for the romans and and wrote many, many first century uh insights and historical historical data that we have today about the followers of christ and all, many things like this. And he said about the time of christ birth. The jews believed that one from their country would soon become ruler of the inhabited earth. It wasn’t just for Israel and Jerusalem was for the whole earth. That joseph is one of the most respected jewish historians ever. And then Virgil, the roman poet said uh 70 between 70 BC and 19 BC the whole world was looking for a golden age. The whole world was looking for it back in those days. The Royal Connection in Matthew 1, 1 through 17. The royal connection. Let me just read that and you’ll see if you have a bible, you can grab your bible and you can look and it starts with the book of the genealogy of jesus christ, The son of David goes to David because here Matthew the tax collector is uh he’s gonna talk about the kingdom. He’s going to talk about jesus as the king. He’s going to talk about a lot of jewish concepts and a lot of jewish scriptures because he’s writing with the jews in mind. Mark wrote with the romans in mind, luke wrote with the Greeks in mind, john uh his his gospel was for the whole world and uh was was uh more universal I might say. And so here we have the most jewish gospel of them all. And uh he he goes back to the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David and then he reaches back 14 generation prior to that and he says the son of Abraham because Abraham is the first hebrew, Israeli jew. And then of course David and this connection is so very important with the genealogy of the messiah. Jesus christ. Abraham was born Isaac verse two and Jacob Jacob was born Judah and his brothers and to Judah were born. Perez, not what he’s doing is he’s tracking the genealogy of jesus christ so he’s not naming all of the brothers the 12. He’s going right to to uh to uh Judah and then Judah were born Perez and Zara by tomorrow, I think this is daughter in law, she pretended to be the prostitute and God puts the whole thing there, he’s not gonna minimize anything. He’s gonna let us know the fallen nature of man and why we needed a savior. Just an incredible thing. And then he says, anti RAM was born a minute Dab into a minute diverse four nation into a nation. And Salman into Salman was born boaz and boaz rehab. Now there’s another fallen lady. Ray have the harlot were told about her in the book of Hebrews. So here you’ve got uh, you know, a very, very checkered uh lean egx in these ladies. And and the other thing is usually the genealogies never include women, but God specifically by the inspiration of scripture. God’s spirit wanted to put these names there to show us that we need a savior from our sins, that this isn’t about. You know, just presenting a great picture of everything beautiful. But no, he’s letting us see the sinfulness of this line and how and how jesus christ was born into a sinful human race, even though he’s pure, even though he’s perfect, he came to bleed and die for the sins of the world. And then to rehab and to boaz was born, Oh, bed by ruth. Here’s another one who was, who was uh, an incredible woman. You have a harlot, you have a uh more bite, you have an adulterer and adulteress. And to jesse was born. David, the king and to David was born. Solomon. David was an adulterer and a murderer by her who had been the wife of Uriah look what I’m trying to say in this genealogy as God does not spare Putting in there the people that we know the stories are talking about people who are fallen people who are broken people who are sinful and that’s exactly why when you get down a little bit further and you go to verse 21, he and she will bear a son and you shall call his name jesus for it is he will save his people from their sins. I mean the direct line not not only and and by the way, mary was a pure virgin, but she still was a sinner because all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. She was a virgin. She never had sexual relations with joseph. And yet jesus christ was born through her because the holy spirit came upon her supernaturally and jesus came into this world uh without the the connection of a male. It’s just an incredible thing to me that here we have God almighty becoming flesh coming to this teenage girl and why? Because he loves us and he wants to forgive us and he wants to become our sin bearer, the lamb of God that will take away the sin of the world. And the Solomon was born real bomb. And to rio bomb a Bajor verse seven to oblige a esa and Nasa was born jehoshaphat and to jehoshaphat Joram and Joram museum and to use a a was born Jonathan and Joanna has and to has Hezekiah uh and to Hezekiah was born Manasseh Manasseh and Amon And to Amun josiah. And you say well where could you get any blessings from just going through these names? Well these were all a bunch of sinners. These were all people that needed help. Now watch this verse 11 and to josiah was born Jack gonna you gotta you gotta read this and hold on to this and to his brothers and the time of the deportation of Babylon And after the deportation to Babylon to Jay Carney was born shelter and the shelter is a rubber ball and there’s a rubber ball was born a bayou and it goes on like that. And and then it says in this verse 16 and to Jacob was born, Joseph, the husband are married by whom and that is in the a female the home was born just was born jesus who is called the christ. So it’s a it’s an interesting it it goes to Jacob was born joseph the husband of mary because it’s tracking here joseph’s Liyanage. His literally his royal connection in verse 17. Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from deportation to Babylon uh to the time of christ 14 generations. So it’s tracking and joseph is included here and then it moves over to married by whom And that is in the female. Uh huh and by whom is born to christ. But it was tracking joseph that’s interesting. It did that to give us the royal connection because this guy in verse 12 Kanaya. Let me tell you what, when you read in uh in Jeremiah 22 back in Jeremiah 22 there is a curse and a prophetic mentioned in verse 24. This is Jeremiah 22 20 for Jeremiah prophesies as I live, declares the Lord. Even though Kanaya And that’s jack and I are here the son of Joachim, King of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand. Yet I would pull you off. It goes down to verse 28. Listen to this prophecy is this man, can I despised a shadowed jar or is he an uh an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known. Old land land land. Hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord verse 30 noted Jeremiah 20-30. Thus says the lord right this man down childless. A man who will not prosper in his days for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah. So Jesus Christ could not be connected to this man who is connected in the genealogy in Chapter one by biological birth because this prohibits that. But he could be connected through adoption and this is exactly what happens here With the Royal connection through Joseph. But his physical connection is through Mary and there in Luke chapter three We have that connection and let me just read it to you. And when he began his ministry, Jesus himself was about 30 years of age being supposedly the son of Joseph. The son of Elie. Elie is Mary’s father. Okay. and Ellie uh joseph the son through marriage. Now this is very important because his biological connection to David was through mary that had no sin because God supernaturally came upon mary by the Holy spirit. And Jesus was born. Now I have a reference of this from john Macarthur study bible. I often time you know as a preacher, as a teacher as I study. I read commentaries and zodiac is my mentor uh is number one and we’re warren, where’s me, another mentor of mine and one of my dear friends, John Macarthur mentions about Josiah begat Jake Jake Anaya and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. This is, this is in uh in Matthew chapter 11, he talks about josiah begat Giancana again. Matthew skips a generation between Josiah and Giancana. Giancana is also called Joachim and sometimes Kanaya in Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 24 Japanese presence in this genealogy presents an interesting dilemma, A curse on him for bad any of the descendants from the throne of David forever Jeremiah 20 to 30 since jesus was air through joseph to the royal line of descent but not an actual son of joseph and thus not a physical descendant through his line, the curse bypassed him. So this is how God did this in order to be able to give us salvation through our Lord Jesus christ. Now there is, if I can go back a little bit uh, when it was mentioned in Jeremiah 22 again, uh john Macarthur has a comment to make about Jack and I a short form of Jonah Uh in chapter 22 of Jeremiah, he says perhaps used in contempt who was also called Jehovah kin. He ruled only three months and 10 days and gives the years and was taken into captivity and he lived out his life. He also writes that he was that he would be childish. Jack and I did have offspring, but he was reckoned child is in the sense that he had no sons who would reign sitting on the throne. The curse continued uh in his descendants down to joseph, the husband of mary, how could jesus then be the messiah when his father was under this curse, it was because joseph was not involved in the bloodline of jesus since he was virgin born Matthew one verse 12, Jesus blood right to the throne of David came through mary from Nathan. Solomon’s brother and not Solomon’s japanese line. Thus Um bypassing this curse Luke 3 31 and 32. Now I say this because sometimes people will read a passage of scripture say, oh the bible contradicts itself. Let me say this to you. The Bible does not contradict itself in Matthew 1 16 and to Jacob was born joseph the husband and married by whom was born, jesus who is called christ. Let me just go deeper into this. The seeming biblical contradiction is no contradiction because notice first of all the sure grammatical clarification and then it’s feminine gender and generative case indicates possession and the supernatural theological confession of this incredible insight. Now I know that sometimes you read these things and it goes deep into it. But the point I’m trying to make is this that the line that God gives us goes all the way to joseph. And then it flips in in that verse in from joseph it flips and it goes and you notice here it says that to Jacob was born joseph the husband and married by whom and that word whom is feminine is referring to mary. And but the line came all the way until joseph who was who was the one who gave the royal connection to the king and mary gave the the biological connection of uh Judah and coming from Judah. So at the very end of this uh passage relations for for what I want to say is very simple. The fullness of time. God sent forth his son. It was the right time. Religiously it was the right time culturally the art, the literature of the language, It was the right time politically, the pax romana and it was the right time. Prophetically. Listen christmas time we, we gather around the house, we sing our songs with choruses of christmas songs, we love it, we love the smells, we love the food, we love the family but without jesus christ there is no cristiana christ’s birth. That’s what we’re celebrating. We’re not celebrating presence, we’re not celebrating a tree, we’re not celebrating the food, we’re not celebrating all this other stuff. Let me close with this illustration, they were up in boston, they went to uh a uh child’s christening and everybody took their coats and through them at the bedroom bed inside the bedroom and after about an hour people were looking for the baby, They couldn’t find the baby and they were celebrating the birth of this baby, the christening and the celebration. And guess what? They found the baby under the coats, dead smothered to death. And let me say this to you during this holiday season, don’t let jesus christ be under the coats, under the presence, under the people all around you. But no jesus christ in your heart and realizing that he came in the fullness of time. God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to do what to redeem those under the law Except where are you going to buy us out of all the punishment, the sin, the wrath, the heartache, the Brokenness, jesus christ, We celebrate Cristiana his birth for coming to save us from our sins. As it says in Matthew chapter one in verse 23. So until the next time with it’s all greek to me, invite your friends dig, dig deeper in the word of God. Don’t just kind of peru’s read the story but find out what those words mean. Find out the pictures that God wants to paint in your heart and in your mind like this one word. X. Ahora. So to redeem us from the law, From the curse, from the sin, from the power of the enemy, out of the law. That’s why Jesus came under the law to redeem us and purchase us out. God bless you. Yeah.