He is Worthy

The Gospel of Matthew

Today we are beginning a journey through the Gospel of Matthew, the first book of the NT.

After a year of spend quite a bit of time in the OT, as we walked through the life of David and examined the life of Moses throughout the Experiencing God Series, it seemed right to spend some good time in the NT this year.

And as I thought through and prayed through what to preach in this 50 year of ministry at EHBC it felt fitting to dive deep into the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

And what better time to start than at Christmas. So for the next 4 weeks, through Christmas Eve, we will be looking at Matthew 1-2.

Then we will spend the first few weeks of 2024 preparing for our 50 year celebration and our mission to see 50 people come to Christ in our 50th year.

Then in February we will pick back up in Matthew 3.

So turn with me to Matthew 1 and follow along as we read through our passage in a unique way: QUEUE VIDEO.

Genealogy- Why start there?

My grandma passed away back in 2020 and while cleaning out her house, they found my great grandpa’s bible.

It was common (and probably still is in some circles) to record birth dates and deaths in your bible.

We sat around my parents kitchen table and read the names of family members, most of whom my dad hadn’t even met.

One particularly interesting entry was this one…(show slide).

I don’t know the details, but evidently, my great, great, great grandmother was a Native American.

I also got both my grandmothers’ bibles and I love seeing all the notes and highlights that are like finger prints of their pursuit of Christ over the years.

By no means is my linage full of Godliness and without a fair share of drunkards, criminals, and knuckleheads, but there is something special and significant about knowing where you come from.

You might look at the first half of Matthew 1 and think “that is weird way to start a story.”

But Matthew knew how significant the names included in this list would be to those reading his account of Jesus’s life.

He is writing to a Jewish audience, some of which who had put their faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah and others who were considering putting their faith in Him.

The risk and cost of believing in Jesus was high for them.

They could lose friends, positions and prominence in society, family, and even risk their lives.

Imagine those reading this, seeing the names listed, remembering the promises made through those men and women.

They must have been asking “Is He worth it?” “Is He really who He said He was? Is He the one we have been waiting for? Is He worth all of this?

And Matthew starts His letter off saying with clear and profound certainty “Yes! Brothers and sisters, He is WORTHY!”

He is a Worthy King.

He is worth KNOWING.

Matthew intentionally picks 14 generations between Abraham and David, then 14 between David and the captivity, then 14 more between the captivity and Jesus.

These names and stories have a purpose, to show us the significance of the lineage of Christ.

The lineage of Jesus tells a really amazing story can be described as:

Profoundly miraculous

Isaac was born from parents well beyond the age of childbearing.

Foreshadowing the even more miraculous birth of Jesus.

But it was also quite colorful, and not very suitable for a king.

4 women make up the genealogy, all of their stories wrapped up in sin and scandal.

Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, and tricked Judah into sleeping with her, which in-turn produced these twin brothers mentioned among Jesus’s linage.

Rahab, was a prostitute in the city of Jericho, not quite the pedigree of a King. But God chose her to be the mother of Boaz and an important piece in His Story.

Ruth is the mother of Obed and wife of Boaz. She was a Moabite, a group known for sexual immorality. After her husband dies, she is left wandering as a widow until, by God’s providence, she meets and married Boaz, becoming another mother in the lineage of Jesus.

And finally, there is Bathsheba, an innocent woman, taken advantage of by King David, who murdered her husband to cover His sin. She is chosen to be the mother of Solomon, and is woven into the story of Jesus.

Though there are many stories to be told of those in this list, these women stand out because of how profoundly real they are and how much they display God’s amazing grace.

There lives weren’t worthy to be included in the lineage of a King, and yet here they are.

Only by God’s grace and mercy could such colorful crew be included in the family of the King of Kings.

But that is the heart of the Gospel isn’t, the center of God’s Good News!

You aren’t invited into God’s family because of any merit you can claim or gain through your own means.

God’s invites us into His family only by His mercy and grace.

He is Worth knowing.

And yet, it was perfectly planned and orchestrated by God.

Regardless of how crooked and knotted Jesus’s family tree may seem, history, HIS Story, is not an accident or a coincident

God used fearful men, sinful women, selfish, irresponsible kings, and some straight up evil dudes to write His Story and bring His presence and His salvation into our broken world.

Jesus is a King Worth knowing because in His story is hope, joy, peace, and salvation.

He is worth FOLLOWING.

Unlike your typical biography, the Gospel of Matthew isn’t a detailed, chronological account of Jesus’s life.

Matthew chose various stories and recorded different teachings that Jesus taught in order to accomplish his purpose of showing his readers that Jesus truly was (and is) the promised Messiah and worthy King.

The structure of Matthew begins with this genealogy and the account of Jesus’s birth, baptism, and temptation/testing in the wilderness.

But then in chapter 5 He begins the first of 5 teaching blocks, where Matthew records the messages Jesus spoke to His disciples and the crowds as He went throughout the Roman world.

These discourses teach us what is looks like to be a committed and convicted steadfast disciple of Christ.

These teaching discourses ultimately answered the question “what does it look like to follow Jesus?”

The first block, chapters 5-7, is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches the reality of a radical everyday discipleship lived in the presence and power of the Christ and Kingdom of God inside our everyday world.

The second discourse comes in chapter 10. Jesus teaches His disciples about their call and commission as missionaries to this lost world.

The third block is in chapter 13, where Matthew records a number of parables, teaching His disciples how to live in a world that isn’t yet fully submitted to Him as Lord and King.

The forth discourse is in chapter 18 and is all about community and the church. What does it look like to live in community as disciples of Christ?

And finally, the fifth discourse is the Olivet Discourse, Jesus’s final message to His disciples before His death. How show they live with heavenly hope and expectation?

Not only is Jesus a king worthy to Know, as we read about where He came from, how He was born in human flesh, and all the stories about His journeys and miracles.

He is a king worth following. Living according to His ways, embracing a way of life the promises to be an abundant life as it is lived under the grace-filled authority of King Jesus.

He is worth following.

He is worth SHARING.

As one of Jesus’s followers for most of His 3 year ministry, Matthew had experienced Jesus in a way that only a handful of people were able to experience Him.

And his life was transformed.

Much like anything in life that transforms us, the natural response is to share what changed us with others.

When you have kids your life is dramatically transformed in great and difficult way. But every chance you get you will most likely share with others just how beautiful and precious your baby is.

So for years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Matthew worked to put together an account of the life of the man who not only changed his world, but changed the whole world with His life, death, and resurrection.

We will see throughout the gospel, Matthews painstaking intentionality to show those reading just how gloriously good and profoundly powerful Jesus was.

He couldn’t help but share, because He was a King worth sharing.

There were likely other ways for Matthew to end his account of Jesus’s life, but he chose to end with the call Jesus gave His disciples before He ascended into Heaven.

The Great Commission is a call to share Jesus with the world, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, and whoever we are with.

This king who was born in a manger in Bethlehem wasn’t like anyone who lived before Him, nor anyone who will ever live.

And He is a King worth sharing.

Three Groups of People

Throughout the gospel, three groups of people provide a backdrop for Matthews account of Jesus’s life.

The Religious Leaders

Who are the antagonists, who refuse to believe Jesus is the Messiah and so refuse to submit to Him as King.

The Crowds

Who follow Jesus as long as He gives them what they want and entertains them in the moment.

But ultimately they never decide Jesus is worth submitting their lives to.

The Disciples

Who are the true followers of Jesus, who listen to Jesus, who learn from Jesus and who submit their lives to following Him, even to death, because they have come to understand that He is Worthy.

Who will you be?

Like the leaders, will you completely reject Jesus?

Like the crowds, will you casually observe Jesus?

Like the disciples, will you unconditionally follow Jesus?

Is He worthy? He is!