Don't Lose the Expectation
Notes
Transcript
Waiting is Hard
Waiting is Hard
It is hard to wait when we are expecting something to happen is it?
Tomorrow begins the wait for next Christmas.
We know it will be here on December 25th, but we have to wait for it to come again.
The 26th was always kind of a bummer of a day when I was a kid. All the waiting, anticipating, expectation and then the calendar changed to the 26th and the wait starts again.
Though it doesn’t make sense to celebrate Christmas all year long (and none of us would be able to afford it anyway), the expectation of Christmas doesn’t, and really mustn’t, end when we go to bed tonight.
Faith without expectation really is just stale, pointless religion.
What motivates us to live our lives for Jesus is the expectation that something better is coming, that what He has promised will come to pass.
One of the most dangerous things for Christians is for us to loose our expectation in Jesus.
The expectation of the first Christmas started long before Joseph and Mary showed up in Bethlehem and long before the Angel told Mary she would give birth to a son.
Matthew understood this Gospel of Matthew begins quite oddly.
Rather than starting with the birth of Jesus, it starts with a genealogy.
Though it is odd, there is a really powerful purpose behind Matthew’s logic.
He is tracing the promises of God through biblical history in order to show that Jesus is the answer to those promises.
1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: 2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, 4 Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife, 7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa, 8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah, 9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah, 11 and Josiah fathered Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon Jeconiah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor, 14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud, 15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob, 16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations; and from David until the exile to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon until the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Living with Expectation
Living with Expectation
1) Expect God to GUIDE your STORY.
1) Expect God to GUIDE your STORY.
The people who make up the 42 generations listed here didn’t know the WHOLE story.
They didn’t know how the joys and struggles they faced in life were being used by God for a greater purpose.
They lived with faith. We see that in Hebrews 11 as many of these same names show up there, commemorating their faith, but recognizing that none of them were able to see the fruition of their faith.
39 All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised,
There faith was rooted in the expectation that God was working, even when it didn’t seem like it.
Christmas can be stressful, but the opportunities we have to spend time with loved one, eat a bunch of sweets, and celebrate the season give us a break from the stresses of life.
But now tomorrow in December 26th…does that do something inside you like it does me?
The growing since of anxiousness, stress, and apprehension.
But aren’t those feeling partially rooted in a lack of expectation, coming from a lack of faith in God that He is working in all things?
No one but Jesus was perfect in that list, but what gave them perseverance and motivation was an anchored faith in God and an expectation He was working in ALL things in their lives for good (how He defines it).
Though it might seem like God has lost control or is asleep on the job of guiding your life, we must remind ourselves of His limitless power and unfathomable wisdom.
He is working all things out according to His will and in His timing.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.
2) Expect God to FULFILL His PROMISES.
2) Expect God to FULFILL His PROMISES.
Matthew intentionally does not include every person and every generation that make up Jesus’s linage.
He instead chooses the ones that help him reveal who Jesus is to those reading his account of Jesus’s life.
Matthew was a Jew writing to what seems to be a primarily Jewish audience.
So he want’s those reading to understand the significance of the birth of Christ.
He was not just an average man, He was the descendant of Abraham and David.
Many years before God came to Abraham and made him a promise.
He promised that Abraham would be the father of MANY sons and daughters, enough to outnumber the stars in heaven.
At the end of the OT, this promise seemed to be a farfetched idea.
But in the birth of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, and His establishment of His Church, God has fulfilled His promises.
Many years later, God makes a promise to David that his decedent would rule over the people of God forever.
Again, at the end of the OT this seemed like an unlikely scenario.
But in the birth of Jesus, God raised up a king that will rule over all other kings.
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords…Jesus.
God fulfills His promises.
Do you expect God to fulfill his promises to you?
How would we live differently if we lived with genuine expectation in God to fulfill ALL of His promised?
3) Expect God to SATURATE your story with His GRACE.
3) Expect God to SATURATE your story with His GRACE.
If your story is anything like the stories of many of those that make up Jesus’s family then there’s a reason to rejoice.
Jesus’s family isn’t a grand and polished list of dignitaries and royalty.
There are quite a few blemishes and a whole lot of stories of screwing up.
Perez and Zerah we're born from Tamar's inappropriate relationship with her father-in-law.
Rahab was a prostitute
Ruth was from the pagan people of Moab
Solomon was born out of adultery and murder
Jesus’ family line was populated not with righteous Jews, but with sinners like you and me.
God used the faults and failures of each of those on the list to guide and orchestrate His plans.
Abraham’s lack of faith.
David’s lack of self-control
Solomon’s lust and self-indulgence
The cycle of good and bad kings when the Kingdom divided.
Even through the fall of Jerusalem and the exile into Babylon,
Matthew doesn’t doctor the list to exclude the ones who screwed up along their way.
Rather he leans into the reality of God’s grace in how He uses some pretty messed up situations and broken people to work out His plans and purposes.
God sustained His people and maintained His purpose and plan, even when those He called stumbled and screwed up.
The story of Jesus’s family is full of stories of God’s grace toward a broken and sinful people like us.
As believers in Jesus, we can expect our stories to be saturated with God grace.
His grace to provide for us.
His grace to forgive us.
His grace to protect us.
And His grace to save us once and for all.
Expect God’s grace brothers and sister.
Don’t lose the EXPECTATION of Jesus after Christmas has past.