Let's take a journey to discover this Jesus of Nazareth.

2. NIV You know what has happened
throughout the province of Judea, beginning in
Galilee after the baptism that John preached—
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around
doing good and healing all who were under the
power of the devil, because God was with him.

3. Come with me on a journey to discover this
Jesus of Nazareth.
In the calling of His apostles we find the
instance when in excitement Philip runs to
Nathanael with wonderful news.

4. NIV Philip found Nathanael and told
him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about
in the Law, and about whom the prophets also
wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
"Nazareth! Can anything good come from
there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said
Philip.

5. Firstly we discover Moses and the Prophets
wrote about this Jesus of Nazareth, furthermore
Philip and Nathanael new of these prophecies.
Why would Philip mention it if Nathanael wasn’t
aware of these prophecies? I submit all of Israel
knew these prophecies well. I also submit they
didn’t connect these prophecies with the literal
dwelling of Nazareth…it is not mentioned in the
Law and Prophets. Where then is the
connection?

6. Let’s start this journey of discovery with a
passage of scripture where the angel Gabriel is
sent to Nazareth & gives Mary shocking news.
NIV In the sixth month of Elizabeth's
pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,
a descendant of David. The virgin's name was
Mary.

7. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings,
you who are highly favored! The Lord is with
you." Mary was greatly troubled at his words
and wondered what kind of greeting this might
be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be
afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
You will conceive and give birth to a son, and
you are to call him Jesus. He will be great
and will be called the Son of the Most High.

8. The Lord God will give him the throne of his
father David, and he will reign over Jacob's
descendants forever; his kingdom will never
end." "How will this be," Mary asked the
angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel
answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you. So the holy one to be born will be called
the Son of God.

9. It is evident from the writing of Luke that Mary
was a resident of Galilee specifically in the
village of Nazareth.
Now we know why the Savior is called Jesus of
Nazareth. But how can that be? He was born in
the city of David, Bethlehem and taken to Egypt.
We see in Matthew’s Gospel Joseph and his
small family returned to dwell in Nazareth.

10. ESV But when he heard that
Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of
his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and
being warned in a dream he withdrew to the
district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a
city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by
the prophets might be fulfilled, he would be
called a Nazarene.

11. Again we see reference to the Prophets that
Jesus will be from Nazareth, yet the words
Nazareth or Nazarene do not appear in the Law
or Prophets.
How can this be?
Our deepest beliefs dwell in the inherent Word
of God!
We must dig deeper and reveal this mystery.

12. So was fulfilled what was said through the
prophets, etc.
The words here are not found in any of the
books of the Old Testament; and there has been
much difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of
this passage.
Some have supposed that Matthew meant to
refer to Samson as a type of Christ;

13. NIV You will become pregnant and
have a son whose head is never to be touched
by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite,
dedicated to God from the womb. He will take
the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of
the Philistines."

14. 5139 naziyr (naw-zeer');or nazir (naw-zeer');
from 5144; separate, i.e. consecrated (as prince,
a Nazirite); hence (figuratively from the latter) an
unpruned vine (like an unshorn Nazirite): KJV--
Nazarite [by a false alliteration with Nazareth],
separate (-d), vine undressed.

15. Others believe he refers to where the
descendant of Jesse is called "a Branch; " in
the Hebrew Netzer.
NIV A shoot will come up from the
stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will
bear fruit.
5342 netser (nay'-tser);from 5341 in the sense of
greenness as a striking color; a shoot;
figuratively, a descendant: KJV-- branch.

16. Some have supposed that Matthew refers to
some prophecy which was not recorded but
handed down by tradition.
But these suppositions are not satisfactory.
It is a great deal more probable that Matthew
refers not to any particular place, but to the
leading characteristics of the prophecies
respecting Him.
The following remarks may make this clear:

17. 1st. He does not say, "by the prophet, but "by
the prophets, " meaning no one particularly, but
the general character of the prophecies.
( )

18. NIV All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
NIV "In Bethlehem in Judea," they
replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
NIV where he stayed until the
death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the
Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of
Egypt I called my son."

19. 2nd. The leading and most prominent
prophecies respecting Him were, that He was to
be of humble life, to be despised, and rejected.
( )

20. NIV He grew up before him like a
tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to
him, nothing in his appearance that we should
desire him. He was despised and rejected by
mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with
pain. Like one from whom people hide their
faces he was despised, and we held him in low
esteem.

21. NIV He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its
shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken
away. Yet who of his generation protested? For
he was cut off from the land of the living; for the
transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and
with the rich in his death, though he had done
no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

22. NIV Therefore I will give him a
portion among the great, and he will divide the
spoils with the strong, because he poured out
his life unto death, and was numbered with the
transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors.

23. NIV
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from
my cries of anguish?

24. 3rd. The phrase " will be called," means the
same as he shall be.
4th. The character of the people of Nazareth was
such that they were proverbially despised and
contemned,

25. NIV "Nazareth! Can anything good
come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and
see," said Philip.
NIV They replied, "Are you from
Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a
prophet does not come out of Galilee."

26. To come from Nazareth, therefore, or to be a
Nazarene, was the same as to be despised, and
esteemed of low birth; to be a root out of dry
ground, having no form or comeliness. And this
was the same as had been predicted by the
prophets. When Matthew says, that what was
spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, it
means, that the predictions of the prophets that
He should be of humble life, and rejected, were
fully accomplished in His being an inhabitant of
Nazareth, and despised as such.

27. NIV Surely he took up our pain and
bore our suffering, yet we considered him
punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he
was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment
that brought us peace was on him, and by his
wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep,
have gone astray, each of us has turned to our
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.