Christmas: The Hinge of History

Notes
Transcript
“The hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable.” — Ralph W. Sockman
The Bible tells one big story. It’s God’s story, and it is the central story of the universe.
What does this illustration represent?
This might be the most amazing data picture you see in a lifetime! It shows the 63,779 cross-references in the Bible. The white bars along the bottom represent each Bible chapter, Gen. 1 - Rev. 22. The line’s color shows the reference’s distance from the other. A cross-reference is a scripture that references another scripture. Had the Bible been written by one person or at one time this would still be amazing; however, the Bible was written by 40 authors over the span of 1500 years on 3 different continents.
The Bible is complex, diverse, and intricate, and yet it has one unified message!
And the hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable! Christmas is the hinge of history.
This morning I want to ask two important questions in our time together.
Question #1:
How is Christmas the hinge of history?
“The two halves of God’s story pivot around one central point: the coming of Jesus to rescue God’s wrecked and ruined creation— BC and AD.”
Question #2:
How does becoming a part of God’s story change us?
What ability does becoming part of God’s story have on changing the ending of our story?
If we become a part of God’s story how will He rewrite the story of our lives?
To answer both of these questions we are going to study Matthew’s genealogy. I bet you never expected to come to church this morning and listen to a sermon on a genealogy! How many of you, I wonder, skim or skip the genealogy sections in the Bible. For many of us genealogies are just not that interesting. Most of us only know our family lines going back 3 or 4 generations, if that.
To us lists of names are boring. The problem is we don’t read Matthew’s gospel with Jewish eyes.
To a Jew, the first verse of Matthew’s gospel would have exploded off the page!
Matthew 1:1 ESV
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Even our somewhat mundane and tame English translation of this first verse leaves us with a “ho, hum” understanding of what Matthew just said!
Perhaps the NASB does a better job at capturing the excitement of what Matthew is saying to his Jewish audience.
Matthew 1:1 (NASB95)
1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
This is the record of the long awaited Messiah! This is the One whom the entire OT points towards.
Charles Wesley wrote the famous Christmas carol, “Come, Thou LONG-EXPECTED Jesus.”
The Jewish nation had been waiting for their Messiah for thousands of years. And Matthew is saying He is here!
And what critical piece of information does Matthew open with? A genealogy!
I want to impress upon you just how important this genealogy is. I have four truths that will hopefully cause you to value these 17 verses in Matthew 1: (These are for free)
Matthew was the most widely used Christian Gospel in the first two centuries.
Many of the early Christian writers possessed some form of Matthew’s Gospel- this is based upon the earliest writings of the apostolic Fathers.
2. When the earliest Christians began to assemble together the different books of the NT, they always placed Matthew’s gospel first.
This is still true today. All modern Bibles start the NT with the Gospel of Matthew. This indicates the gospel’s foundational position.
3. Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, began his gospel with a genealogy.
One of the first things they teach you in homiletics class is that you always start your sermons with some kind of attention-getter. Even ancient writers knew the importance of putting attention-getting or important material at the beginning of their speeches or books.
And how does Matthew choose to get our attention? With a genealogy. Does that not indicate its importance? The entire New Testament begins with these verses.
The attention-getter of the entire NT is a genealogy!
4. Old Testament verses like Ezra 2:59-62 teach us the crucial importance of genealogies to the Jewish people.
These verses talk about the importance of genealogies when the Jewish people returned from Babylonian exile. Some of the men who claimed to belong to the priesthood were excluded because their names were not found in the genealogies and they could not prove their credentials or pedigree.
Ezra 2:62 ESV
62 These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.
I say all of this for what reason? Why are we studying Matthew’s genealogy this morning? What are we missing when we skip or skim over this text?
Matthew has some very important theological points that he wants to convey to us his readers. What are they? And why do they matter?
I think we find at least four very important theological truths from Matthew’s genealogy that have important and profound applications to our lives.

I. Jesus’ genealogy points us to God’s original plan for the universe

Matthew 1:1 is a summary statement in a microcosm of the grand plan of God for the universe. It is a summary statement of the story of God.
Remember we said that Christmas is the hinge of history? How is that so? Matthew reminds the attentive careful reader of the big story of the Bible and how everything points to Jesus the Messiah!
In order to understand this point we must review the story of the Bible. What big story is God trying to tell?

A. The Genesis

Matthew 1:1 (ESV)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The Greek word translated “genealogy” here in v. 1 is a very significant word. This Greek word literally reads, “γένεσις”
Genesis 2:4 (ESV)
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
If you read Gen 2:4 in the LXX, the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT, the same word is used here. These are the genesis of the heavens and the earth.
So when Matthew uses this word in the first verse of his gospel…
Matthew 1:1 (ESV)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
When Matthew talks about the genesis of Jesus the Messiah, he is doing something theological!
Matthew is bringing the attentive reader all the way back to the beginning, to the Genesis of time. This genealogy is meant to point us back to the creation of this world and it also links Jesus’s genealogy to God’s original plan for His creation!
Jesus, the Messiah, is central to God carrying out His original plan for His creation.
What is God’s plan for His creation?
Genesis 1:1 ESV
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning, God… In the beginning, before there was any beginning God already was. And God existed in perfection with Himself. God is a trinity, and existed in perfect fellowship, perfect unity, and perfect love. He needed nothing outside of Himself.
Yet in the beginning God created. Why did God create? Because creation was in accordance with the purpose of His will, and was unto the praise of his glorious grace. That’s why God created. Creation served to be unto the praise of God’s glorious grace. And for no other reason did God create.
And in the creation week, we learn that mankind was the pinnacle of God’s creation.
In Genesis 1 we get the overview of all six days of creation and the seventh day of rest. But in Genesis two we zero in on the creation of humanity. The entire chapter is dedicated to the most import of all God’s creation—mankind.
Why is humanity the pinnacle of God’s creation and central to the praise of God’s glorious grace?
Genesis 1:26–27 ESV
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
These verses are essential to the big story of the Bible. If you don’t understand this you don’t understand history. You don’t understand Christmas.
Humanity is the pinnacle of God’s creation because humanity is created in God’s very own image, after God’s very own likeness.
The two words together tell us that man is a representation of God who is like God in certain respects. — Hoekema (12)
Humanity if the only part of God’s creation that represents God, that is like God in certain respects.
David ponders the wonders of this essential truth in Psalm 8.
Psalm 8:3–4 ESV
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Now some people read these verse and they come away with this kind of interpretation, “when you compare man to the heavens, the moon, and the stars, man really isn’t all that much is he?” Maybe that is how you read these verses. I don’t think that is the case at all.
David first causes us to ponder on the majesty of the heavens. The moon and the stars really are glorious. But, humanity is even more majestic that the heavens. What is man? Why is man so majestic? Why do are you so mindful of him, and why do you care so much about him? As glorious as the stars and the galaxies are, man is much more glorious! How is that possible? Because only humanity was made in the image and likeness of God. The stars don’t represent God, the stars are not like God, but humanity is!
God made humanity alone in his image, after his likeness. Why did God do that? Because making humanity in his image, after his likeness was according to the purpose of His will and according to the praise of his glory.
This truth is essential to the Genesis of God’s story.
And what happens next? We have covered Genesis 1 and 2, what happens in Genesis 3?
Genesis 3:6 ESV
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Sin entered God’s good creation. Something when radically wrong. Humanity rejected God’s rule and so God cursed Adam. And through Adam the curse of sin has spread to all people. Not only Adam and all of humanity, but the rest of God’s creation was cursed with sin as well. Death and decay entered into Gods’ good creation.
Most significantly the image of God within humanity was corrupted. God’s image was marred by the fall. The pinnacle of God’s creation meant to enjoy God and bring him glory, humanity, was devastated by the fall.
Yet, while God’s image was devastated it was not destroyed. And God did not leave His creation without hope.
Genesis 3:15 ESV
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.”
In the midst of cursing His creation, God gives humanity hope. He gives a key and central promise to His unfolding story.
God essentially promises that one day a descendant of the woman (that is, a human being) will crush the head of the Serpent, Satan. And this descendent of Eve would crush Satan’s head at great cost to Himself. Satan would bruise his heel.
Now imagine for a moment that this is the first time you are reading through God’s story. It’s the first time you are reading of God’s creation, and of God’s image bearers, and everything is very good. Then within one chapter everything come crashing down in a flaming disaster. God curses his creation, and kicks his image bearers out of the Garden and forbids them access to the tree of life.
But, there is a glimmer of light. There is a ray of hope. God’s promise of a snake crusher. At this point in the text we have only one clue about this snake crusher’s identity. He will be a descendent of Eve. Who could this one be?

B. The Son of Abraham

Matthew 1:1 ESV
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
If you were a new reader to the story of the Bible you would not have to wait long for the further developing of God’s story. God gives us additional clues in his story as to who the snake crusher of Genesis 3:15 might be. God narrows the Messianic line down to one particular family in history, the family of Abraham.
Genesis 12:1–3 ESV
1 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. 2 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. 3 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.”
Of all the people of the earth, God chooses Abraham in order to reveal Himself and his plan for undoing the devastation of sin. How will God undo the curse? How will God restore His image in humanity that has been so marred by sin? The answer is in the snake crusher, in the Messiah. And this Messiah will come through the line of Abraham.
“In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Now if you were reading the Bible story for the first time and you were eagerly anticipating God’s fulfillment of his promise in Genesis 3:15 you might be reading with baited breath and expectation… Is Abraham the one? Is this the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the Serpent and set things right again?
And you don’t have to read too much further to get the answer to that question. Abraham is not the promised One. Abraham is far from perfect. He makes many mistakes— he lies repeatedly, acts out of unbelief. He is not the one to save God’s creation from the curse. But it is through the line of Abraham that the Messiah will come. One of Abraham’s sons will be the promised one.
And so we keep going down Abraham’s line. Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons. And then the line of the Messiah is narrowed even further.
Genesis 49:10 ESV
10 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.
Ahh, now we know that Abraham’s seed through the line of Judah will bring blessing to the nations of the earth through a kingly ruler (symbolized by the scepter). One of Judah’s line will be the one who will crush the head of the snake and restore God’s good creation.
But who could that be?

C. The Son of David

Matthew 1:1 ESV
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Hundreds of years later, there comes on the scene a descendent of Abraham from the line of Judah, a man named David.
Again, if you were reading the story of the Bible for the first time, when you get to David you might be tempted to breathe out a sigh of relief. Here is one who is called man after God’s own heart. He is a decedent of the promised line. Surely this is the one who will crush the serpent’s head.
But then the truth comes crashing home. Like Abraham, Jacob, and Judah before him, David’s life is tainted by sin and failure. David commits adultery, premeditated murder, national lies and cover ups. He is not the promised seed of Eve. And yet God gives David the following promise.
2 Samuel 7:16 ESV
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”
So now the promised seed of the woman would be a Son of Abraham, from the line of Judah, and now a descendent of King David. And this Son of David will rule on David’s throne and over his kingdom forever.
Surely this promised king, the snake crusher would come on the scene soon right?

D. The Dark Ages

We don’t have the time to go through the history of the nation of Israel in detail, but you probably know what happens after David dies. Things eventually get really really bad. The kingdom splits, one sinful king after another, people turn against God in rebellion, and eventually God brings captivity and exile.
Eventually, God brings his people back from exile and resettles the land, but Israel experiences nothing that could even remotely be described as the fulfillment of God’s messianic promises.
It seemed like God had forgotten about his promises and his people.
Psalm 89:1–4 ESV
1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. 2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” 3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: 4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah
Psalm 89:38 ESV
38 But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed.
Psalm 89:39 ESV
39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust.
Psalm 89:46 ESV
46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
Psalm 89:49 ESV
49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
This is how the OT ends. God’s promise are unfulfilled.
The promised offspring of the woman has not come.
The world has not yet been set right.
Blessing to all the nations of the earth through Abraham’s descendents did not happen.
The scepter has departed from the line of Judah.
David’s kingdom has been defeated and lost, no Davidic ruler sits on the throne and rules over the kingdom.
And on top of all that because of the sin and rebellion of God’s people, God curses them with a famine.
Amos 8:11 ESV
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
400 years of silence, of darkness, of waiting and wondering if God would fulfill all that he promised.

E. The Hinge of History

With all of this background fresh in our minds, now we are ready to hear Matthew’s words with fresh ears. After 400 years of silence God again begins to speak. And how does He get our attention?
Matthew 1:1 ESV
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The entire New Testament begins with a verse that declares Jesus to be the son of David, the Son of Abraham, the long-awaited Messiah!
Finally, here is the decedent of Eve that would crush the serpent’s head. Here is the One who would undo the curse of the fall, destroy the works of the Devil, and begin to set things right!
Here is the one who would restore God’s image bearers to their rightful place. Here is the one who would enable mankind to be once again to the praise of God’s glorious grace. All of human history hinges on the birth of Jesus the Messiah.
And it is so momentous, it is so significant that it was like a glorious sunrise on a dark and fearful land.
Luke 1:76–79 ESV
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 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 promised seed of the woman is finally here! And he will save us from the curse of sin.
Matthew 1:20–23 ESV
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Jesus Christ, the one promised from the beginning, the one who is a son of Abraham, who is a son of David, who is Immanuel- God with us. He will save his people from their sins.
This is how the New Testament begins. It begins with the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, and it reminds us of God’s story, of God’s plan for the universe. And it encourages us to think about our part in that story.
Question #1:
How is Christmas the hinge of history?
Hopefully, that question has been answered very plainly.
Question #2:
How does becoming a part of God’s story change us?
What ability does becoming part of God’s story have on changing the ending of our story?
If we become a part of God’s story how will He rewrite the story of our lives?
Well a lot changes if you know Jesus doesn’t it? Jesus can save you from sin. He can undo the effects of the curse. If you know Him!
Let’s look at several other theological truths from Matthew’s genealogy, quickly, and continue to think about how being part of God’s story change change us.
Truth #1: Jesus’ genealogy points us to God’s original plan for the universe (v. 1)

II. The genealogy of Jesus points to God’s gracious plan for sinners

Matthew’s genealogy is not like our modern day genealogies. Our modern day lists of names are concerned with exacting details. As we will see in a moment, Matthew is less concerned with exacting details and more concerned with theology.
In other words when we pay attention to the unusual or the out of place listings in Matthew’s list we actually see the theological reasons that Matthew included them in the first place.
One of the unusually and out of the ordinary details that Matthew includes is the names of four women in Jesus’s genealogy. Particularly when you stop to think about who these were.
Let’s read a portion of this genealogy and see if you can identify the names of the four women Matthew includes in Jesus’ kingly line.
Matthew 1:2–6 ESV
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
Now did you find all four women?
Who was the first?
Tamar. What is so unusual about Tamar?
Tamar- a Canaanite woman who disguised herself as a prostitute in order to seduce Judah (Genesis 38).
Who is the second?
Rahab- a Canaanite prostitute who lied to protect the Israelite spies and helped overthrow Jericho (Joshua 2; 6:25)
Third?
Ruth- a Moabite woman who moved to Israel upon the death of her husband (Ruth).
Do you know anything about the Moabites? They were particularly despised in Israel’s history.
Deuteronomy 23:3 ESV
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever,
Fourth?
Bathsheba- the wife of Uriah the Hittite; King David married Bathsheba after fathering a child by her and killing her husband.
And we know that Matthew is actually drawing attention to this rather uncomfortable truth in his text. Look at the wording!
Matthew 1:6 (ESV)
6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
Doesn’t using the phrase “the wife of Uriah” instead of her name Bathsheba, make Matthew’s point rather obvious?
None of this is normal. Most genealogies read, “So and so was the FATHER of this specific SON. Father and son, father and son. But Matthew chooses to name four women. This in itself is odd, but add to that that each of these women were outsiders to the nation of Israel and all of them had some kind of questionable background!
Why does Matthew do this?
Matthew includes these Gentile women of unsavory background to foreshadow God’s plan to spread the gospel to the Gentiles! And it magnifies the glorious grace of God that actively seeks to forgive and restore sinners and to reach out to those people who are on the edge, who are viewed as outcasts and outsiders. God delights in saving the outcasts!
Remember our question?
How does becoming a part of God’s story change us?
It makes available the wonderful forgiving grace of God that reaches out to outcasts and sinners, like you and like me.
This has been God’s plan all along- to save sinners, to save outcasts, to save Gentiles! If you are a Jewish reader that truth is shocking! God’s plan is to save Gentiles!
This is a main theme of Matthew’s gospel. It is hinted at here in Matthew 1. It is further confirmed in chapter 2:1-12 when the wise men from the east come to Jerusalem to worship Jesus. And it reaches its climax at the end of the gospel
Matthew 28:19 ESV
19 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,
Truth #1: Jesus’ genealogy points us to God’s original plan for the universe.
Truth #2: The genealogy of Jesus points to God’s gracious plan for sinners.

III. The genealogy of Jesus points to the accuracy of the virgin birth

Mary is actually the fifth surprising woman in the genealogy of Jesus. She is unusual because of the odd, questionable, and shocking manner of how her child was conceived.
Matthew 1:16 ESV
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Again, we must notice the breaking of the normal patter on Matthew here in v. 16. In all of the other verses of the family tree Matthew’s pattern is,
“[father’s name] was the father of [son’s name].”
Matthew 1:2 ESV
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
And so on…
Matthew repeats this pattern for every single father-son pair until we get to v. 16. Until we get to Joseph. Notice the difference.
Matthew 1:16 (ESV)
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
The wording is very precise here. The original Greek specifies clearly that Jesus is the biological son of Mary but not of Joseph.
Importantly, Joseph is the legal adoptive parent of Jesus, but he was not the biological father.
This detail anticipates Matthews next details in the Christmas story.
Matthew 1:18–25 ESV
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
And why is the virgin birth so important to God’s story and to our own story?
Because no mere man could save us from our sins. We needed the God-man. We needed Jesus. Thus Jesus was conceived not of Joseph, but from the Holy Spirit.
And because of this, Jesus, the Messiah, could save us from our sins.
Truth #1: Jesus’ genealogy points us to God’s original plan for the universe.
Truth #2: The genealogy of Jesus points to God’s gracious plan for sinners.
Truth #3: The genealogy of Jesus points to the accuracy of the virgin birth

IV. The genealogy of Jesus points to the truth that God is in control over all periods of history

The last unique feature of Matthew’s genealogy that I want us to think about this morning is how he divides Jesus’s line into three periods of time. This is quite unique.
Matthew 1:17 ESV
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
So Matthew divides salvation history into three periods of fourteen generations each. Abraham to David; David to the exile; and the exile to Jesus.
And Matthew divides each of these three periods into 14 generations each. Now what is so unique about that?
Matthew’s Generations
From Abraham to David was around 700-800 years (hard to fit 14 generations into that time)
From David to exile was around 400 years
From the exile to Jesus was around 600 years
R.T. France:
The Gospel of Matthew A. The “Book of Origin” of the Messiah (1:1–17)

It seems then that Matthew’s list, like some other biblical genealogies, is selective, and that the scheme of three fourteens is doing something other than recording statistical data.

What then is the purpose of these three periods of 14 generations? There are at least two: 1. By placing the idea of Jesus being the son of David in the middle of the three sections Matthew is drawing our attention to the fact that Jesus comes from a royal line. Jesus is the Messiah from the Davidic monarchy who will fulfill all of God’s promises and make possible God’s intended story for creation.
2. Matthew communicates the theological truth that God was in control throughout even the most difficult periods of Israel’s history— the Babylonian exile— to move history toward this climactic point in the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
Kostenberger, Andreas J.; Stewart, Alexander. The First Days of Jesus (p. 41). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Think of where the readers of Matthew’s gospel were historically! They were in the dark ages. They were in that period of time after the exile where it seemed like all light had gone out.
Psalm 89:49 ESV
49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
And yet, God was in control of every period of History and by His divine will He brought about the sunrise of the birth of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah! And if God was in control of those difficult periods of history that led up to Jesus’ birth, then He is still in control of the periods of history that follow Jesus’ birth. He is in control of our history right now.
The Light of Christmas Morn:
‘Twas when the world was waxing old,
And night on Bethle’em lay,
The shepherds saw the heav'ns unfold
A light beyond the day;
Such glory ne'er had visited
A world with sin outworn;
But yet more glorious Light is shed
On happy Christmas morn.
O then rejoice, good Christian men,
Nor be of heart forlorn;
December’s darkness brings again
The Light of Christmas morn.
John 12:35 ESV
35 So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
When Jesus came into this world it was like a sunrise from on high. And for a while we had the very light of lights among us! But, Jesus did not stay. He returned to heaven and is seated by His Father’s side. And our world is again very much in darkness.
But, the same God is in control over all periods of our history. And no mater how dark things get we can trust in the promises of God that one day Jesus, the light of lights, will come again and make all things new. And that is part of the hope of Christmas! December’s darkness brings again
The Light of Christmas morn.
So what is the proper response? O then rejoice, good Christian men,
Nor be of heart forlorn!
Revelation 22:7 ESV
7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Revelation 22:12 ESV
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
Revelation 22:16 ESV
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
Christmas is the hinge of history. This Christmas may you be reminded of God’s story, and of your place in it. May the darkness of this December bring again the Light of Christmas morn. May you look back to the hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable, and may you look forward to the bright and morning star!
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