The Third Christmas Lesson

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Don Merritt

This is a Christmas carol that contains the essence of the yearning of a people for a savior.  “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel”

Hold on, wait!  Ransom…?

Yes, Ransom. Israel was in slavery to sin; so were we.  Being held captive to sin, living in rebellion against God because of sin… yes, “ransom” is exactly the right word.

Jesus came to this earth to pay the ransom for our release from this bondage, and He did so by giving His life for us.  By giving His life for us, He paid the price for our redemption, and by doing this, He took away sin.  Yes, I know that this is a familiar story, but it isn’t the whole story…

In a nutshell, we were living in rebellion against God from the time of the fall of Adam.  All of the rest of the Old Testament tells the story of God working to rebuild the relationship that was lost, and progress was made, but fellowship was never restored between man and God until Jesus paid the ransom for our sins.  This is the indispensable act that makes the resumption of fellowship between man and God possible.

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee O Israel!

This is our third Christmas Lesson.

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Matthew’s Genealogy of Jesus

Posted on December 9, 2025 by Don Merritt

B. Second Part

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: (1:1)

Matthew begins with this verse full of content and contextual implications. It would seem that Matthew is intent on linking the story of Jesus to the larger context of Israel’s history. Notice his reference to “the genealogy of” in language which in the original Greek parallels that of the Septuagint in Gen. 2:4 and 5:1, alongside the names of David and Abraham, two of Israel’s most illustrious heroes. That Matthew uses the terms “Jesus the Messiah” (or Jesus Christ) makes it quite clear that this son of David is special (cf. 2:4; 16:16, 20; 22:42; 24:5, 23; 26:63, 68). In putting the personal name together with the messianic concept, Matthew is referring back to the hopes of an entire Nation.

With the reference “son of David” our author is hearkening back to the glory days of his people and God’s covenant promises concerning the Davidic royal house, David may well be considered the pivotal name in the genealogy for it is mentioned 5 times, and is the only name associated with the title of “king” (v. 6), singling him out of all other royal references as the greatest. Many scholars also point out the presence of the numerical value associated with the Hebrew numeric consonants. For the name David, the numerics look like this: d (4) w (6) d (4) or 4 + 6 + 4 = 14. The number 14 is the number of David to be sure, but here it appears that, as some suggest, it has more meaning than that, for it is also arrived at by multiplying 2 X 7. Seven is the number of completeness or perfection. Jesus is the second Person of the godhead. Thus, some suggest that 14 is the number of Messiah, and when you compare that to David, and recall that the Messiah would be the son of David, these scholars conclude their case.

As for me personally, I don’t know who is right or wrong about the numbers, but in noticing how often the number 14 appears here, and remembering how the ancient Jews felt about numbers, it appears to me that at the least, Matthew is trying in every way possible, to make sure that his readers get “son of David” and “Messiah” out of this discussion.

Matthew goes on to mention that David was a “son of Abraham” which is another interesting component. Recall God’s covenant with Abraham: Isaac was the son of promise through whom all of the nations of the world would be blessed. Here, David is named “son of Abraham”. Jesus is mentioned as “son of David” and “Messiah” with the obvious attempt to reinforce Matthew’s contention that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham.

While Matthew doesn’t mention every man who could be mentioned here, the inclusion of the names of four women is worthy of our note. As scholars like to do, they often differ about why these four names are included. My thought is that these women are all Gentiles; yet here they are in the genealogy of Jesus, who is the fulfillment of the very non-Gentile Abrahamic covenant. It strikes me that this may be important for two reasons: First, because Matthew makes certain to point out when Jesus breaks the ethnic barrier between Jew and Gentile (cf. 8:5-13; 15:21-28; 28:18-20), and second because of the way that social outcasts received His message. Whether or not this was Matthew’s thinking, one thing is perfectly clear: This is no ordinary genealogy, and with the arrival of Jesus the Messiah, nothing would ever be the same again.

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Simple Things

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Don Merritt
W112313 144-LR

Maybe I’m just getting old, but it seems to me that life is getting way too complicated these days.  I can remember an earlier time when people got along in life just fine without electronics, instant information and constant contact.  Back in those times, you opened the garage door yourself, set things out to thaw and ate food that was actually what it appeared to be.  Back then, if you wanted to cool your house, you closed the blinds, and to cool your car, you rolled down the windows… with a crank. What was really strange back then was that most households survived with only one income, but then those people didn’t have bills for multiple phones, internet, cable or satellite; well you can see where we’re headed.

Yes, this must be the musings of someone who is ancient.

The funny thing is that back in those days, people spoke of “what is really important” and it was about the same list that we have today.  I interpret that as showing that all of the modern things that we think of as essential, haven’t really made much of anything “important” any better.  I might even go so far as to say that they may have even made some worse.  Here’s an example:  Today we have so many time-saving devices that we have no time to simply talk.  You would think that with mobile phones in everyone’s pocket, we would talk to other people more than ever, but then we started texting. You would think that in a social media world, we would really stay in contact with one another, but instead we are slaves to the very media that are supposed to bring us together.  Last Valentine’s Day, I sat in a restaurant across from a nice young couple who were sitting at their table, each of them texting other people; they hardly had time for their “Valentine” across the table!

So what is really important?  Our faith, our family, close friends… our relationships!

Maybe we need to make time for our relationship with Jesus Christ, our relationship with our spouses, or families and close friends.  Maybe this needs to be a time free from media, electronics, games, TV, and movies. Maybe we as a people need to re-discover a lost skill: Conversation!

I don’t want to go crazy here, but I wonder if so many couples would need to work so hard to make ends meet if we were willing to live a more simple lifestyle…

OK, that is crazy!

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Matthew’s Genealogy

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Don Merritt

C. The Genealogy of Jesus Matthew 1:1-17

  1. First Part

Matthew begins his telling of the story of Jesus Christ by giving us some vital insight into just exactly who this Jesus guy is, and He is no ordinary man. It is no coincidence then, that this is no ordinary genealogy. When most people look at a Biblical genealogy, we assume that this is an exact record of biological ancestry; a pedigree one might say, but this isn’t always the case, in fact, it seldom is just that. Sometimes, genealogies in the Bible don’t match up exactly, and skeptics and scoffers have no end of fun criticizing the Scriptures for what they assume to be historical inaccuracies, because they overlook the fact that the Scriptures are not like other books, for they are God’s revelation of Himself to Man, not the mere musings of the human mind.

In order for us to get the value of Biblical genealogies, we must realize that they are not so much concerned with a person’s biological ancestry as they are with demonstrating a person’s corporate and tribal status within the larger community. We can see this by noticing that in most cases, the great names are first, and the last name is the person who is being magnified by the presence of the greater names. By doing this, a storyteller can set up the basis for telling the descendant’s story by putting the descendant (last name) into the context of his great ancestors.

Matthew does not follow that pattern here, for he does not build Jesus up by associating His name with His great ancestors, rather he builds up the ancestors by associating their names with that of Jesus, which is the first and last name that is mentioned.

First off, we are looking here at Matthew 1:1-17 which is broken into three main sections. Verses 2-6 cover the time in the history of the Jewish people from Abraham to David, a period that culminates in the high point of Israelite history in the beginning of the Davidic monarchy.  In verses 7-11, Matthew reminds his readers both of the glory of the Davidic reign and the steady slide that resulted in Israel’s darkest period of captivity. The third period, in verses 12-16, extends from the captivity to Jesus, a period in which there is no king, a period in which the Jews are at the mercy of foreign powers, and in which their hopes of redemption grow and are finally met when Jesus comes onto the scene as the culmination of Jewish history. Notice verse 16 where Jesus is born and is named by Matthew as “Jesus who is called Christ”. In doing this, Matthew is making all who have gone before subservient to Jesus, the Redeemer of Israel.

Note verse 17:

Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

In this summation, Matthew has done two interesting things: First, he has tied Jesus to the history of Israel, so as to place Him at its very center, and second, he set up His arrival as the beginning of a whole new era, an era that is not like any that has come before. In doing this, Matthew has also forced us to notice the number 14, since he mentioned it three times in his summary verse.

I’ll let all of this sink in, and we’ll dive into the Genealogy in detail when we get back together next time.

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Sunday Reflection: December 7, 2025

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Don Merritt
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John’s Conclusion

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Don Merritt

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Up to this point, we know that the Word was with God and that the Word was God; the “Word-God.” We have also seen John refer to this Word-God as “he”. Now, for the first time, John identifies “him” as the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Yes, for it was none other than Jesus who became flesh and made His dwelling among us at the incarnation, it is of Jesus that the Hebrews author asserts, “and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2) which is parallel to John 1:3; there can be no doubt about whom it is that John is referring to here. It is Jesus who is the Son, having come to us from the Father.

Now that we are certain of just who John has been talking about, we can look at the attributes John mentions about Him, He was full of “grace and truth.” Notice the balance between those two; how many of us maintain that kind of balance between grace and truth when we are interacting with others? Some of us have a great deal of grace, so much so in fact, that we can overlook almost anything; we might even make the truth hard to find. Others are so strong on truth that we find ourselves pointing fingers at those around us, seldom displaying love or compassion or understanding.

John’s text continues as he mentions that John the Baptist testified concerning Jesus in verse 15, and then in 16-18 gives his own testimony about Him.

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 1:16-18

John’s first statement is about the abundance of grace that we have received through relationship with Christ. Then, John expands on his statement, pointing out that while the Law was “given” grace and truth “came.” I think that’s worthy of a little thought, for as John has structured this, the Law is a rather top-down thing. The Law was handed down by God to Moses, and then from Moses to the people; the people could take it or leave it. They took it, and then for the most part, they left it; there was no relationship with Law, for Law just is. The result was that the very Law became their condemnation, not their salvation.

And then, grace and truth came to them…

Grace and truth came to them in a person; they could talk and laugh and cry and walk together; there is relationship with grace and truth, for grace and truth become a part of who we are as human beings; there is no fear in grace and truth.

In the remainder of this text, John reveals to us that through Jesus, God can be known to Man, for Jesus is Himself God. Through Jesus, therefore, we can have relationship with God, the Creator of everything: Grace and Truth.

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True Love

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Don Merritt
W112313 145-LR

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that  whoever believes in him shall  not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

This verse may well be the best known of all the New Testament, yet how often do we really think about that kind of love?  Yes, God sent Jesus to die on the cross.  We know it, we recite it, and we have feelings about it; some shed tears at the thought. Do we ever actually think about it clearly?

Let’s give it a try now…

What does that really mean?  It means that Jesus was willing to set His life aside for others.  In order for this to happen, it was necessary that he consider everyone else as being more worthy of life than He.  Oh, yes, He was really dead when they put His body in the tomb! We mustn’t rush past this fact so quickly that we forget it: He was really dead! When I was a kid, I used to think that Jesus’ going to the cross wasn’t really that big of a deal, because He was the Son of God and knew how the story would end, but that was the understanding of a child.

 He really died!

So then, how much did God love us?  How much did Jesus love us?  Enough to put the life of Jesus to an END. In so doing, Jesus brought glory to God because He accomplished that deed that changed everything: He set self aside completely in the service of His Father in Heaven.  Jesus glorified God in this; God responded by raising Jesus from the dead and put Him over all things. In the process, Jesus paved the way for us to be forgiven our sins and to inherit eternal life. Now, this is the part of the story that we love to hear, but let’s not forget how it came about: Jesus put us over Himself and set His life aside.

What does God expect from us in response to this?

Oh, was I not supposed to ask that question? Sorry, but God expects us to love one another as Jesus loved us.

Scary though, isn’t it? Don’t worry though, it really isn’t that big of a deal, because we also know how our story ends.

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John’s Next Point

Posted on December 5, 2025 by Don Merritt

B. John’s Introduction The Middle Part John 1:5-13

Verse 5 begins the next little section of John’s text, a section that continues through verse 13. The theme is that of the manifestation of the Word in this dark world, and in this it is interesting to note the transition from the Word, to God and then of Word-God into “light”. We can easily see, through this device, that the three terms, Word, God, and light are being used interchangeably to describe attributes of God, thus they are One in their reference to Christ, who is as yet unnamed in the text.

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:5

Once again, John has put into one simple statement a fact that theologians have struggled with for centuries; the world around us just doesn’t “get it”. OK, those poor souls who live in the darkness of this world don’t always understand the light; why does this surprise us? We have been called to reach out to the world around us to deliver the message of light to them and help them to see it for what it is: grace and truth. Why should we be surprised to be called to help others understand?

There was a guy who answered this calling, and his name was John. This John is not the same guy who wrote the gospel, yet both of them were only too happy to share the light with a dark world. Verses 5-9 set up what follows by pointing out that this John (the Baptist) was sent to prepare the way for the Messiah who was about to burst upon the scene in the person of Jesus. John was not the light, just as you and I are not the light, yet he was sent to prepare the people to hear the message that would come in Christ.

In our time, the light has already come, and we have received it and received grace as a result.

This “light” who is also the Word-God, came into this world of darkness, and even though He made the world, the world simply didn’t recognize Him for who He really was. He even came amongst His own covenant people, the ones who had received the message of the prophets concerning Him and His coming, yet they, for the most part, didn’t recognize Him any more than they recognized the prophets when they came. Yet, for those who did see Him for who He was, He made it possible for them to be reborn as children of God.

There’ one last part of John’s Introduction, and we’ll see that next time!

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The Second Christmas Lesson

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Don Merritt

The second Christmas lesson, is just who it was that was born in Bethlehem so long ago.  John makes it clear at the beginning of his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:1-5

The One who was born was the Word, and the Word had been with God from the very beginning, and in fact was God in John’s rather heavenly perspective.  That baby was responsible for creating the entire universe. That baby brought “light” and that light was the life of men, and yet this dark world did not understand the light.

I will concede that this might be a little too lofty a perspective; unless you read the entire Gospel of John.  Throughout the book, John uses “light” as a metaphor for Truth, and darkness as a metaphor for Evil.  With that in mind, let’s try again:

That baby was full of truth, that truth brings and gives life.  He came into a dark (evil) world, and the inhabitants of that dark world did not understand who the baby was, and for the most part, they rejected Him.

How can we be sure this is correct?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

We know all of this because John told us so!  He also mentioned that he was an eye-witness to this One, and that he personally saw who He was (and is).

What shall we conclude from this view?

That baby in the manger was God become flesh. This was no normal birth.

What are we celebrating this Christmas time?  We are celebrating the merger (so to speak) between God and Man, a whole new epoch.  This season, therefore, is not just about parties, entertaining, buying things and amusement.  It really isn’t just “for the children,” it is very much more than all of that.  The Christmas Season marks the day when God began to manifest His ultimate purpose: The redemption of all Mankind to fellowship with Him.

I think that it is safe to say that this time of the year is kind of a big deal. I’d love to hear what you think.

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John Takes a Strategic View

Posted on December 4, 2025 by Don Merritt

B. John’s Introduction  John 1:1-18

The Beginni9ing

John begins his account with the words, “in the beginning” with a very different beginning in mind than we find in Genesis 1:1, for while Genesis begins with the creation, John begins with God alone.  The “God” that John refers to here is first called the Word (logos) God, the uncreated Creator, before the creation of anything… The Word. That “Word” was there first of all… with God; in fact, the Word was and is God.

We throw those terms around in our day, don’t we? “The Word” referring to the Scriptures, and we seem to like to use it to prove our various points in arguments with each other as though the “Word” is our own very precious tool for debating. Yet John, the Apostle of Jesus Christ uses it as a name for Almighty God.

Notice how the Word becomes God, and then in the next verse God becomes “he.” He was with God in the beginning. The Word was with God in the beginning: “The Word” “God” and “He” were all together in the beginning, before anything had been created.

They are One.

Jesus is God’s messenger to mankind, as well as being the embodiment of God’s message (Heb. 1:1-4).  It was by His Word that the universe came into being, and it is by His blood that we may enter into relationship with Him, as told in His Word.  Thus, we may say that the Word is not only God’s person, essence, and power, but that it is one and inseparable from the person of Jesus Christ, who is entirely one with God. Verse 2 is set up as transition in the sense that it begins the move from “what” to “whom”; from “the Word” to “he”: Jesus was there.

Now it becomes clear and unambiguous that this “he” is the one through whom all things have been made.  This is stated positively “all things” and negatively “without him nothing…”  Within Him was life which reminds us of God breathing life into Adam. (Gen. 2:7).  “He” contained life, was its very source, and this essence will be the light of the world.  Life and light are two themes that carry throughout the entire gospel of John, and will become more and more clear as we go on.  For now, suffice it to say that His very essence is “Truth” and that will illuminate a dark world that carries on without either Truth or God’s presence, since fellowship with God had ceased after the entry of rebellion into the world.

We will continue with John’s Introduction next time; see you then!

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