Hands and Feet Devo
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Matthew is the very first book in the NT. It’s one of the 4 gospels we find in the NT and one of the 3 synoptic gospels
Matthew’s primary goal is to show the kingship of Jesus
To show the readers that Jesus is the rightful and long awaited king. Not only of the Jews but the King of the world.
The beginning of every gospel is showing to their aim and purpose of writing.
The 4 gospels all share the same story, yet from a different angle, with a different purpose, and yet all are succinct and harmonious in their message.
As Matthew’s goal is to show Jesus as King, Mark will present Him in an extreme opposite role, a servant. Luke will present Him as the Son of Man and yet John will present Him as the Son of God
In presenting Jesus’ servanthood Mark gives no genealogy at all, because a servants lineage is irrelevant.
In presenting Jesus as the Son of Man, Luke traces His genealogy back to the first man in Adam
In presenting Jesus as the Son of God, John gives no human genealogy but states “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Here in the gospel of Matthew what we will see is a genealogy of Jesus going back to Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, through royal line of King David, Israel’s model king.
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
If we read through this genealogy there are a few facts that we may notice
It is a list of 3 sets of 14 or 6 sets of 7 with Jesus beginning the 7th of 7
We can notice the repetition of the title Messiah in Vs 1,16,17,18
It is used here to show the reader that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world whose coming they have been eagerly awaiting.
But I believe the big take away from this genealogy would have been, yes Jesus is the rightful king of Israel and world, but that He is a King of Grace.
As the original readers read through this list of names there would have been some names that stood out above the rest.
They would have seen Abraham’s name and remembered his faith and remembered him as one of the pillars and founders of their faith
But they would have also remembered some of his shortcomings. That He lied about his wife out of fear and lack of trust in God not once but twice
They would have seen David’s name and remembered him as the model king of Israel. A man of God. But they also would have thought about the fact that he committed adultery and had the husband murdered. They would have thought that he was often bloodthirsty, the reason he wasn’t allowed to build the Temple. He wasn’t the best father and often failed to discipline his children
They would have seen the deportation to Babylon and thought about a period filled with darkness. Marked by captivity, exile, frustration, and unknowns including the list of men in Matthew’s genealogy.
Perhaps the thing that displays God’s grace through this genealogy the greatest is the mention of the 4 women we see.
For Matthew to mention women in Jesus’ genealogy and especially the women that he mentions would have been shocking to the original readers and would have been absolutely intentional.
We see Tamar a Canaanite women who disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah and ended up becoming pregnant and having Perez and Zerah
We see Rahab, a prostitute and an inhabitant of Jericho, a gentile, who protected the two Israelite spies and because of this act and her fear of God, God spares her life. She later marries Salmon and becomes the mother of Boaz and enters the messianic line
We see Ruth. She was a godly, and loving woman but she was Moabite. Her people were the result of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his two daughters. The moabites were one of Israel’s most hated enemies.
Although Ruth was a Moabite and former pagan, with no right to marry an Israelite, God’s grace not only brought Ruth into the family of Israel but through Boaz, into the royal line
The 4th woman we see is Bathsheba. She’s not mentioned directly but rather indirectly as Uriah’s wife to remind the readers that this woman was the woman David had an affair with and he ended up murdering her husband. Her son through the adultery died in infancy but her next son would be Solomon the successor to David’s throne and continuer of the royal line that leads us to Jesus
So as we see this genealogy of Jesus is so much more than just a list of ancient names.
It’s even more than a list of Jesus’ human forebears
It is a beautiful testimony and display of God’s grace and a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry. The friend of sinners, who “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” Matt 9:13.
This is Jesus. The one who calls the broken to be healed
The dead to life
The sinner to salvation
The lost to be found
The one who calls us
Because he is truly the King of grace!
This is the God we serve and thank God for His grace
So here is how I want to encourage you this morning.
Ministry is tough
I find myself often wanting to give in and give up
Normally it’s because I don’t feel like I measure up
I’m not good enough
I don’t know enough
I don’t always do the right things and say the right things and surely there is someone more qualified than me
But what Matthew chapter 1 teaches us is that if this is who God used to bring His Son then surely He can use you
Even in our moments of weakness
Even in our moments of doubt
Even in the times where it may feel like we may not be making much of a difference and we are trying harder to just survive and get to the next day than we are trying to expand the kingdom of God and be and preach the gospel
God is a King of Grace!
16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
Notice the wording here
It doesn’t denote a sense of His grace being just enough or barely enough
no it says “Out of His ‘fullness’”
It’s this picture of God’s great generosity His grace that overflows out of Him
He’s the King of grace
So, I would encourage you.
In those tough moments, in the moments you feel alone.
In the moments you feel like you’ve completely failed and missed it
In the moments where it seems like what you’re doing doesn’t matter or no one sees
Keep strong, keep fighting, and keep leaning into the grace of Jesus.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Thank you guys for all you do!
For truly being Jesus in all the lives around you
For loving the unloved
For being the real hands and feet of Jesus
You guys are prayed for and supported here in Perry. Thank y’all!