The Temerity of Hope & Promise
Christmas Advent • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Scripture: Matthew 11:1-17; Luke 1; 2 Samuel 7; Genesis 12:1-3
Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Point: God looks upon His people with favor to take away their shame and disgrace and provide justice and life, even when we have made a mess of things. Have an extreme boldness and rashness to do the things that ensure a hope and future.
Adam and Eve deceived in the Garden - Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The Lineage of Jesus - Mt 1:1-17 - Read
In the ancient Middle east your lineage was your resume. Unlike Western Culture and Society, your family lineage, connections, and reputation meant everything; not your work history, work strengths, and skill development. Matthew starts his account of the Gospel of Jesus with Jesus’ credentials. Why is Matthew led to do so? He is applying for the job of Messiah.
The curious thing about resume that Matthew submits is what is included. If we were applying for a job we would include our strengths and avoid any questionable jobs and references in order to avoid being rejected. Matthew does not do this. He includes all the persons in Jesus’ family legacy.
Here are the highlights: Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Boaz, Rahab (prostitute, woman, gentile-Canaanite), Ruth (gentile-Moabite, woman). King David, King Solomon, King Asa, King Jehoshaphat, King Hezekiah, King Josiah, Jacob the father of Joseph, Joseph the father of Jesus, Mary the mother of Jesus.
Here are the lowlights: Jacob (deceit, theft), King David (adultry, murder, theft, liar), Judah (idolatry, incest, drunkeness), Tamar (deceit, incest, woman, gentile-Canaanite), Uriah’s wife Bathsheba (adultry, accomplis to murder, deceit), King Rehoboam (idolatry), King Jehoram (Joram - idolatry), King Ahaz (idolatry - walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel), King Manasseh (idolatry - imitated the detestible practices of nations dispossessed by the LORD, shed innocent blood), the sons of King Josiah (Judah’s eventual downfall and captivity led by these sons - idolatry, paid tribute to foreign powers).
Would you entertain Jesus for the job as Messiah? Let’s see your great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Jacob was a liar and a cheet, stealing his brother Esau’s blessing and birthrite. Of his twelve sons, ten of them conspire to kill their own brother, and then instead sell him off to foreign slave traders, going to Egypt, for a few pieces of silver. Then break their father’s heart by implying that the best loved brother was killed by a wild animal.
Your great, great, great, great grandfather was an adulterer, who had his friend killed because he impregnated his wife and then married her, pretending to do the noble thing and take in a woman who would have been cast aside and shunned by society and would have had to make it on the streets, while trying to raise a child. A1 character I am looking for in a Messiah.
But to top it all off, amongest all the idolatress kings, women are mentioned on the job resume. Those considered mere property and the lowest in society, whose testimony and witness was not accepted by the courts as valid, are lifted up as credible testimony for Jesus’ consideration as Messiah. Not to mention, one, Tamar decieved her father-in-law to lay with her and conceive two sons of incest. Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute, Ruth a Moabitess, Bathsheba an adulteress and associate to murder.
Would you believe and accept Matthew’s testimony that Jesus deserves to be your Messiah coming from a background like this? Most likely not. But there is something else significant about the lineage presented by Matthew. He mentions Abraham and David. Why? Everybody traces their lineage back to Abraham, he is the Father of all nations, from Him come all peoples. That’s where King David comes in. David is not the father of all peoples, so what is the common denominator between the two? A promise.
The Promise
The LORD God makes this promise to Abraham:
Genesis 12:1 (ESV)
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
Genesis 12:2 (ESV)
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Genesis 12:3 (ESV)
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God makes a promise of land, nation, and blessing to all people, to Abraham and through Abraham.
The Promise of Land
God would bless His people with land.
The Promise of Nation
God would bless Abraham with a great people.
The Promise of Blessing to All People
God would bless all the people of the earth through Abraham’s offspring.
This same promise is seen fulfilled in King David, the king of the promise, but not yet fulfilled.
2 Samuel 7:9–10 (ESV)
And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.
Promise of land
2 Samuel 7:11–12 (ESV)
Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
Promise of lineage
2 Samuel 7:13–14 (ESV)
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
2 Samuel 7:15–16 (ESV)
but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
Promise of Blessing and Eternal Kingdom
The promises to Abraham and King David are the same. Just as the promise to Isaac and Jacob were: land, numerous descendants, blessing to all nations (Gen 26:2-5; 28:15). the additional promise to Jacob is made aswell, of God’s continuing presense to be with Jacob and his offspring, wherever they go (Gen 28:15). It’s the same promise that Jesus makes to His disciples, and their disciples, and their disciples throughout time going forward (Mt. 28:20).
Matthew 28:20 (ESV)
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
God’s promise of His presense to be with his disciples, is a promise for the remainder of this Age. Are you His disciple? Are you His follower?
The Peculiarities of Matthew’s Resume of Jesus
The geneology is a list of individuals who are representative of a nation, God’s ancient people - Israel. Particularly from Judah, which the name Jew came to represent - a resident, or descendant, of Judah practicing Judaism. Of particular attention is drawn to this fact that of all the sons of Jacob, or Israel, Judah is the one mentioned specifically, not the brothers (they are mentioned as a side note). Why? Because Matthew is fine tuning our attention to a particular fact, the Messiah to be would be from the line of Judah. Jacob’s last words before he passes, he says this,
“Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
This lineage that Matthew gives, is a lineage specifically highlighting the line of Judah. Not Reuben, not Dan, not Levi …it is of Judah. The promised Messiah would come from which line? The line of Judah. The same line that has King David as it’s promised heir, and his promised heir of rule and kingdom that will be established forever.
And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Do you realize that this line of Judah, would not have produced Jesus, if Tamar, the Canaanite woman, had not tricked her Father-in-Law Judah, to sleep with her (Gen 38)? Judah’s firstborn, Er, the Bible says, “was evil in the LORD’s sight, and the LORD put him to death” (v.7). Judah orders Onan, Er’s brother, to perform his duty as brother-in-law to Tamar, to sleep with her, and produce offspring for his brother. Onan sleeps with Tamar, but does not perform the duty, the Bible records, because the offspring would not be considered his. This is evil in the sight of the LORD, and LORD puts Onan to death also (v.9-10). Judah tells Tamar to wait for his young son, Shelah to grow up, and he, Judah, will give her to him, to produce offspring (v.11); but Judah fails to do so (v.14). Thus Tamar takes matters into her own hands, and dresses up like a cult prostitute and presents herself to Judah, in Timnah, at the sheepshearers (v.12). Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, had died, and following his mourning, Judah proposes that Tamar sleep with him. She does for a cost - his signet ring, cord, and staff (v.18). Why? To confirm the identity of the father or her future children - Perez and Zerah (v.29-30). Also for protection and provision, as she would be considered a woman of reput, who gave herself to a man out of wedlock, and would be shunned by the people. But by doing so, Judah would be responsible to provide and protect her. The signet ring, cord, and staff were insurance for her future, and actually the future of her people; for without her doing, Jesus the Messiah would not have been born.
Principle: Just when you think all is lost, the LORD God provides. Unbenknowest to the people of Israel, their future saving, was in jeapordy, if it was not for the shrewd actions of a gentile woman, who would not be denied her future. What lengths are we willing to go, to ensure our blessing, and our future blessing of life with the Messiah Jesus, in His Kingdom? What about your spouses future? Your children? Your relatives? Your friend? Your neighbor? The stranger? Would we have the same temerity as Tamar? Temerity - a willingess to do or say something that shocks or upsets other people (Cambridge Dictionary). Or as the American Dictionary of the English Language 1828 - Temerity - an extreme boldness or rashness, an unreasonable contemt of danger.
Note: The LORD God does not put Tamar to death, not even Judah. It was not evil in His sight. Because of the temerity of Tamar, the promise of the blessing of the nations was not lost. The blessing of Israel was not lost. The Savior Jesus’ future was still intact by the actions of a woman who would not be denied her future. What lengths are you willing to go to ensure your future blessing in the Kingdom of Christ? Your children? Those that you love and care for? When you look at Matthew’s resume of Jesus, he in no uncertain terms points to the fact that all people have a future with Christ Jesus. Three of the five women, that Matthew includes in the lineage account, are gentile women. The Gentiles are included in the lineage of Jesus, the Savior and LORD of the world, not just of the Jews! This is indeed Good News! The promise to Abraham, the promise to Isaac, and to Jacob, and the promise to David, is also to the us! Jesus would be the Blessing to all people.
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.
And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The King of the Promise - 2 Samuel 7
David receives the covenant promise of God descendants and an everlasting kingdom. Today the Jewish people continue to look to the fulfillment of a descendant of David to sit on the physical throne of Israel who will establish an everlasting rule, over all nations.
And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
The problem is they do not recognize him as already having come and been - Jesus. The people of the promise do not realize that Jesus established His throne by suffering as a lamb and dying on the cross. They do not recognize Him except for the few.
Read Isaiah 53 - A king does not suffer, a king rules. A king wears fine clothes, is handsome, he rules. Jesus would not come that way, He would not rule that way. Instead Scripture says He will ‘carry their iniquities” (v.11), He will bore their sin, and intercede for the rebels (v.12). He will be a Servant. This does not sound like a king. A king is served, the people serve the king. That’s seems to be in the world of a different authority structure. Israel desired to be like the world around them. King David had a moment where he wanted to be and live like the other kings of the world and that ended in adultery, coverup, murder, and death of a firstborn. Hope would be lost, surely God would bring David to ruin …but not. Because David had a heart after God (1 Sam 13:14). David repented after his sin, changed his view, his actions, his approach to be in agreement with God’s. The promise remained in tact. God confronted David, like He confronts us, because He has a plan, a hope and a future for each of us, and He does not want us to throw that away.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
But that good future and hope is only found in Christ. Even if we do not recognize it as being so at the time; just as Israel has not recognized Jesus as being their future and hope. Do you recognize that Jesus can only be your good future and hope? And are you tenascious about that? Will you ensure that future with the temerity of Tamar, of David after being corrected?
The Loss of the Promise
Abraham received the promise. King David is the king of the promise. The Babylonian Exile is the lose of the promise. But God preserved a remnant. The Babylonian Exile represents the ultimate rejection of God’s people of His ways, His will, and HIs means. But when God said, “I will never forsake you, I will always be with you” He meant it, He means it. That was part of the promise to Jacob.
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
That is Jesus’ same promise to us.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We lose sight of the promise of God, the hope of God when we focus on the things that are not God, or of God. Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
A great darkness came over Judah and they were taken into captivity, just like Israel was. All hope seemed to be lost. But yet Luke reports:
because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
King Ahaz, in the face of destruction, is confronted about his faith in God.
Isaiah 7:9 (ESV)
If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”
How is our faith in Christ in the face of seeming hopelessness? the LORD Himself has given you His assurance that His promise of a hope remains.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Will you hope in belief, no mattter the odds. Do you have a temerity of hope? A temerity of faith that Jesus is still on the throne? That Jesus still reigns? That Jesus is here? That Jesus will remain? That Jesus will return?
