Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Attention:

Raise your hand if you have a pretty decent idea of your families ancestry (AKA where your ancestor came from)

As far as I can tell, I am of the Celts.

So that’s good… right?

One thing that I think is really funny is when people act like their ancestors are their grandparents or something.

It seems like the one that I hear the most is “yeah I’m Irish.”

And yeah… what they mean by that is “WAY back, I am of Irish decent,” but they make it sound like their grandpa was a Lepricon

There are ways for us to try and make sense out of all of this stuff too; you can use websites like ancestry.com

to try and track down your family history

That way, when your friends don’t believe you when you say that you’re Irish, you can prove it to them!

In the same way, Jesus actually proves who He is through His ancestry, which is EXACTLY what we will be looking at today!

The Joy Journey is all the joy that results from realizing and reflecting upon the truth that Christ is the Messiah.

Tonight’s text (Matthew 1:1-17), demonstrates the first of three ways that we will see Christ prove Himself as the legit Messiah.

And the way that He does this is through a genealogy!

It is easy for us to skip past sections like this in the Bible because they seem boring, but what we are going to see tonight is that this is one of the most important parts of the Christmas story, and that it represents some profound truths that every Christian can find confidence in

Need:

You may not realize it, but you need this genealogy in your life

This past year has been pretty crazy, and because of that, its easy for us to lose sight of who Christ is, and to even begin to doubt Him

Maybe we allow difficult things at school to be at the forefront of our mind, or difficult stuff at home, and the continuation of COVID certainly hasn’t helped any of this

And at Christmas time, we are supposed to remember the reason for the season, but because of how its like “Jesus, are you really there?

Jesus, are you really who you say you are?”

This Christmas season provides a beautiful opportunity for you to regain confidence in who Christ is!

This Christmas is an opportunity to allow Jesus to prove Himself as true to you! Allow Him to do this

Body

The Big Idea: Jesus’s Ancestry Proves Who He Is

The Question: What Do We See About Who Jesus is From His Ancestry?

1.

He is faithful (1:1-6a)

Matthew 1:1

This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham:

Explanation:

At the very beginning of the book, we see three very important about Jesus (1) He is the Messiah, (2) He is a descendant of David, and (3) He is a descendent of Abraham

To say that a baby born in a manger was the Messiah, or as Jesus called Himself, “The King of the Jews,” the one that they had been waiting for, is quite the claim.

It demands evidence

And that’s exactly what Matthew sets out to do at the beginning of His Gospel, and He is going to do this by connecting Him with both Abraham and David

And He starts by by connecting Jesus with Genesis.

The literal Greek phrase for “the record of the ancestors” is the same as the Greek title of Genesis (keep this in mind; it will be helpful).

This leads us to the first section of the Genealogy: The genealogy is split into three sections of 14 generations, and it is from the first of these that we Abraham and Christ’s faithfulness

Matthew 1:2-6

Abraham was the father of Isaac.

Isaac was the father of Jacob.

Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).

Perez was the father of Hezron.

Hezron was the father of Ram.

Ram was the father of Amminadab.

Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.

Nahshon was the father of Salmon.

Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).

Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth).

Obed was the father of Jesse.

Jesse was the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).

Explanation:

Don’t get overwhelmed by all of these names: the most important thing for us to see in this section is that it begins with Abraham and ends with David (also, note Tamar.

Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba; these will be important later)

After first connecting Jesus to Genesis in verse 1, he does this even more by beginning to trace the line of Christ through Abraham

Abraham is one of the most important characters in Genesis, and this is because God makes a covenant with Him and promises to “bless all the nations” through Him

This promise led to the expectation of a Messiah who would come and save His people.

This is something that Israel heavily looked forward to

For hundreds of years, people waited for this descendant of Abraham to come and bless everyone

and then finally, it happens through Christ!

Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is descendant of Abraham, and He is the one through whom He will keep His promise to bless all nations

God is faithful to the promise He made to Abraham; He is faithful to us!

Illustration:

In my childhood, God’s faithfulness collided with my dad’s unfaithfulness my mother

This all happened when I was 8, and it was very difficult to go through.

My structure of familial safety and comfort was being torn apart.

And this made it hard for me to believe that Christ was truly faithful; if my Dad was unfaithful to us, who’s to say that Christ will be faithful?

But what I couldn’t find in my dad, I found in my Heavenly Father; he has proven Himself to be faithful to me

And when I am reminded of Christ’s connection with Abraham, I can’t help but get in the Christmas Spirit.

Jesus really is faithful!

That’s not just something for us to put on a bumper sticker; its a truth that we come face to face with as we reflect upon the manger

Application:

Are you actively aware of God’s faithfulness in your life?

Or, on account of the unfaithfulness of others, is it difficult to see God this way?

This might be your parents, your siblings, your friends, your significant other.

You fill in the blank.

At some point, we all have had someone be unfaithful towards us in some way

And is their unfaithfulness impacting the way that you view God? Do you have specific doubts about the faithfulness of Christ that you are dealing with?

Christmas is a time to remember that Jesus has been proven to be faithful!

Others will fail us, but He never will.

Find joy in this!

Stop focusing on how much other people have proven themselves to be unfaithful and start focusing on how much Jesus has proven Himself to be faithful!

Table Question #1: What are some things that make it challenging for you to trust in the faithfulness of God this time of year?

2.

He is King (1:6-11)

Matthew 1:6-11

Jesse was the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).

Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.

Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.

Abijah was the father of Asa.

Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.

Jehoram was the father of Uzziah.

Uzziah was the father of Jotham.

Jotham was the father of Ahaz.

Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.

Manasseh was the father of Amon.