Sermon Tone Analysis

Bottomline: Our past doesn’t define our future.

Intro- Christmas trivia

Who is Santa Claus inspired by and what country does he originate from?

St. Nicholas and Turkey

Which country first used the tradition of the Christmas tree?

Germany …possibly started by Martin Luther

True or False: Before turkey, the traditional English Christmas dinner included a pig’s head smothered in mustard.

Was Jesus actually born on December 25th?

Likely was in the spring.....Roman pagan holiday…sol invictus (birth of the son God).....January 6th -Feast of Epiphany

Who is Jesus’ father?

According to Scripture- How many wise men or magi came to visit baby Jesus?

We don’t know and they actually traditional are believed to have arrived 13 days after his birth.

Jan 6th

-Matthew is all about Jesus is the continuation and fulfillment of God’s promises to the Israelite people.

That Jesus is the messiah from the line of David.

By calling Jesus the "son of Abraham,” the author is connecting Jesus to the father of the people of Israel.

Abraham represents the moment when God selected and separated his family from the rest of the nations all the way back in the book of Genesis.

It was through these Israelite people that God promised to bring blessing to all of humanity (-3Genesis 12:1-3 By linking Jesus to Abraham, Matthew is bringing reader’s attention back to the promise of God’s rescue plan for the world.

Jesus points us to a God who keeps His promises.

Connecting Jesus to Abraham helps connecting the faithfulness of God and His promises from long ago to the present and future.

Jesus’ identity as a descendant of David is a major focus of Matthew’s gospel.

“Son of David,” is a term that the author of Matthew is very fond of.

Verse one is the first of ten appearances of the phrase in the book, and it draws our attention to the royal line of King David.

Abraham’s name pointed to a belonging amongst the people of Israel.

David’s name tells us that Jesus was royalty.

“Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

Jesus is the Messiah King long awaited whose reign will not end.

we read the genealogy of Matthew and see the royal lineage of Jesus.

He’s the one who will bring the blessing of Abraham to the whole world.

He’s the royal son of David that all of Israel has been waiting for.

He’s the one that the prophets wrote about, and the psalmists sang about.

He will be the king of Israel who blesses all of the nations of the world, especially the outsiders.

We know all of this because Matthew tells us in a genealogy that carefully reveals the hope that has arrived in Jesus.

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

More).

But Matthew also knows that the way it has happened is very strange.

He is about to tell how Mary, Jesus’ mother, had become pregnant not through her fiancé, Joseph, but through the holy spirit.

So Matthew adds to his list reminders of the strange ways God worked in the royal family itself: Judah treating his daughter-in-law Tamar as a prostitute, Boaz being the son of the Jericho prostitute Rahab, and David committing adultery with the wife of Uriah the Hittite.

If God can work through these bizarre ways, he seems to be saying, watch what he’s going to do now.

Judah who mistreated and slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar

Rahab the prostitute who birth Boaz

David the adulterer

God’s extraordinary is always done through the ordinary.