Matthew 1-2: Joseph's Dreams

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 29 December 2013 by Captain Michael Ramsay

In the lead up to Christmas we looked at the genealogy and the lineage of Christ. Today, I want to look one more time at an important person in that list. Joseph the son of Israel is often referred as ‘Joseph the Dreamer’ for the dreams he has about his father, mother, brothers and the dreams he interprets for Pharaoh and his servants. This Sunday we are looking at Joseph, the legal guardian of Jesus. Joseph is an interesting person. Joseph is a righteous man. Joseph is Jesus’ stepfather. And this Joseph is no less a dreamer than was his namesake in the book of Genesis (Another more common OT comparison in these chapters is, of course, that of Jesus to Moses; cf. Josephus Antiquities II, 205-7, 15-16 [ix. 2-3]).[1]

When we are first introduced to Joseph, we understand that he is descended from some pretty famous ancestors who he traces all the way back to Abraham.[2] Matthew Chapter 1 reads...

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/12/matthew-1-2-joseph-dreamer-ii.html

Matthew 1:18-2:18: What is your choice?

Presented to the Swift Current Corps on 23 December, 2013 and 26 December 2010 by Captain Michael Ramsay

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In this passage that we have just read, Matthew’s version of the Christmas story, we are faced with three responses to the miracle of the birth of Christ, the coming of the Messiah, that of:

1)      Joseph (his legal father),

2)      Herod (the king of the Jews), and

3)      Some magi (astrologers, astronomers, magicians or wise men, traditionally ‘we three kings’).

I want to look a little bit today at their three responses to the news that Jesus was to be born and the news that he was actually born.

read more: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/12/matthew-118-218-what-is-your-choice.html