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Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 1
Introduction
Imagine for a moment that you walk in during the middle of a movie.
You’re not sure what the movie is about—all you know is the title.
“Star Wars” An odd name for a movie—”What’s it about, I wonder?
Stars declaring war on each other?”
As you walk in, these funny looking fighter jets are shooting laser beams and there are references made to a “Death Star.”
Then, this large moon looking thing explodes and everyone screams for joy!
But you’re sitting there wondering, why is everyone so happy?
See, the climax isn’t so climactic if you don’t have the back-story.
That’s one of the reasons, I think, that many people just don’t get the excitement over Christmas.
They don’t have the back-story!
To fully appreciate the moment when the Death Star explodes, you really need to have seen the previous two movies.
You need to see the evil that Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are inflicting upon the universe.
You need to watch the Death Star destroy entire planets.
When you do, it all makes sense, and you can enjoy the rush of joy in watching the Death Star and the evil Empire be blasted into oblivion.
That’s kind of what Matthew chapter 1 does for us.
At first glimpse, it’s just a genealogy.
A list of names and who-begat-who.
But, it’s there for a reason.
It’s the synopsis of everything that preceded this moment.
Without it, we can’t really understand what John meant when he said,
and,
Or Paul’s words when he said,
So, I have a very simple goal for you this morning.
I want to open the Christmas story to you anew, so that you can experience the climax of God himself taking on human form as a baby.
I want you to see the joy, the awe, the glory of Christmas.
Prayer for illumination
The Patriarchs (vv.
1-2 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)
Faith and failure
God chooses one old man to be the father of a nation and to carry on his plan for saving mankind
Abram grows impatient and has a child (Ishmael) by his servant Hagar.
God is faithful even when his people are faithless
But God reaffirms his promise to Abram, and Abram believes, and we find out here that God counts faith as righteousness.
God pours out more blessings and promises upon Abram and gives him a new name
Abraham & Isaac point us to the manger and the Cross
But Abraham’s sins show us that we need more than a king.
Even Abraham, as blessed as he was by God, was still plagued by sins.
He sleeps with his maid, he repeatedly lies and pretends that his wife is his sister—even being willing for her to be taken away by another man, so long as it will save his neck!
If this is as good as humanity gets, we’re in trouble!
So, Abraham still has to perform sacrifices to atone for his sin.
But one day, God asks the unthinkable.
Abraham must have been filled with fear and doubt as he walked toward that mountain.
But he shows faith.
They get to the top of Mt.
Moriah and Abraham reveals his intentions to Isaac.
Issac, who is old enough to carry the firewood (a substantial amount of wood, no doubt), is old enough to resist, but doesn’t.
As Abraham prepares to strike the death blow and kill his son, his only son whom he loves—at the last second, God provides a ram in the place of Isaac.
God himself had provided the offering needed to atone for sin, and one day, he would do it again.
God’s story moves on, and the plot thickens...
The Outcasts and Sinners (vv.
3-6 Judah & Tamar, Rahab, David & Bathsheeba)
Those who ought to be righteous are often not
Judah becomes the father of Perez by accident, thinking that he is sleeping with a prostitute.
Turns out, it’s his daughter in law, Tamar!
Those who are outcasts are included in the promise and made righteous
Rahab, a gentile, pagan, prostitute, gets included into the promise because she shows faith.
As the Israelites are preparing to enter the promised land, she hides the Hebrew spies as they are spying out Jericho.
Her life is spared in the following conquest.
Joshua saves his people and leads them into the Promised land.
Rahab marries Salmon.
She has a son named Boaz.
Boaz later marries Ruth—a Moabite woman (another Gentile).
Ruth had been married previously, but her husband had died.
Instead of returning home to Moab, she decided to stay with her Israelite mother in law, Naomi.
She chose to worship God and live with his people instead of returning home to her people.
God blessed her by bringing her and Boaz together, restoring her happiness and prosperity.
Boaz and Ruth have a baby, Obed, whose grandson is King David.
David, like Abraham, is godly but deeply flawed
David starts off great.
He has faith enough for all of Israel, it seems, and he walks with God
God chooses him as the next king, and he consistently makes godly decisions.
He spares the life of the wicked king Saul, even when Saul repeatedly tries to kill him.
He refuses to seek revenge.
He worships God, he doesn’t fall into idolatry.
But eventually, we see that not even David can defeat sin.
In a moment of weakness, he commits adultery.
Then he lies, and even has the woman’s husband killed to cover up the affair.
David repents, but the damage is done.
The remainder of his life is plagued with family problems and scandals.
If not even good ‘ol David can defeat sin, is there any hope?
As we look at the next set of names on Matthew’s list, it seems not...
The sky darkens (vv.
7-11) Solomon, Rehoboam, Joram, Ahaz)
Hope is fading, the situation is growing desperate
Solomon was blessed with wisdom and knowledge, yet he lusts for more.
More money, more power, more women—more of all of it.
He becomes rich beyond his wildest dreams, but his riches, women, and idols lead his heart astray.
Rehoboam follows in his footsteps.
His lust for money and power leads him to jack up taxes on the people to support his empire, which leads to a revolt and civil war.
The nation splits in two.
What follows are a string of ungodly kings and further deterioration:
Joram
Ahaz & Manasseh
The only two Israelite kings (Mannasseh being the other) said to have participated in child sacrifice
Sometime during this period, even God’s Word is lost.
It’s not found for decades, until King Josiah finds it.
Despite God’s repeated warnings and many chances to repent, God’s people persist in their sin.
It seems as if nothing can fix this problem.
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