Sermon Tone Analysis

It is, as always, a distinct privilege to be here this morning with the opportunity to walk through the Word of God together as a church.

There is a lot of excitement in the air!

Decorations are up, gifts are being purchased.

We’re gearing up for a big souper Sunday next week!

There have already been some Christmas parties, with others on the docket.

Unlike the house in the Night before Christmas, many a creatures are stirring all about.

This morning we were graced by some wonderful Christmas music!

These songs always bring a smile to my face.

As we talked about last week, there is a direct connection between expressing joy and singing loud.

So it was incredible to be a part of a group singing loud, proclaiming the coming of the Messiah through song.

This is a busy time, but it is a joyous time.

So, why then, if everything is moving and going, energy is high, smiles are big, why then would I choose to preach through a genealogy?

Today, as I read earlier, we are going to be looking through Matthew’s presentation of the genealogy of Jesus.

This genealogy walks from Jesus through Joseph all the way back to Abraham.

We see that Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah, and on and on and on and on.

We see over forty different generations represented in this lineage.

If I'm being honest with you all this morning, it can absolutely be intimidating to try to read all of those names in such succession.

So for all of our sakes, I’m not going to try to read through the whole things again!

But today, as we are discussing the importance of this lineage, it is my prayer that you would be as captivated by the genealogy of Jesus as I was this week when preparing for this message.

When you get over the hurdle of pronouncing every name, you will see the glorious purpose for which the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew, the tax collector turned disciple, to write this whole book and the necessity of beginning with this genealogy.

If you’d like, you can open to Matthew 1.

But before we start working through the text, I want to expound upon why it important to study these genealogies.

Two reasons.

Number one:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, through the study of which we are equipped and built up in the faith to be ready for every good work.

So the genealogy is important for the very simple fact that it is Scripture and all Scripture is beneficial to us.

Now, some people suggest that when Paul was writing this verse to Timothy that it would have only been referring to the Old Testament because the Bible had yet to be canonized as we know it today, but the letters of the apostles had already been making their rounds.

The book of Matthew was written well before the book of 2 Timothy and the eye-witness account would have been circulated and accepted by the churches that were able to see it.

Furthermore, in the book of 2 Peter, Peter refers to Pauls letters as Scripture.

This means that the apostolic writings were seen on the same level as the Old Testament texts and thus what we receive from Matthew should be regarded as profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.

So the genealogy is important for us to study because it is breathed out by God, that is written under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

It has inherent value due to the fact that it is Scripture.

But this genealogy is important for another distinct reason that will serve as the overarching theme of our message this morning.

Let’s go over some Bible basics.

There are four gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Each of these four books look at the life, ministry, death, and resurrection, of Jesus Christ.

There are many stories that overlap between the gospels.

There are also differences.

These differences are not contradictory, rather they compliment one another.

You see each author, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are telling of the life of Jesus from difference perspective.

They are also focusing on different themes.

Do not get this twisted, the fact that there are different themes in the gospels do not mean that they are contradictory!

I cannot repeat this enough.

Just because they hone in on different details, it does not mean that they cancel one another out.

In fact it is a great grace that we get these four perspectives on the Life of Jesus, because it allows us to see the fullness of who He is.

For instance, in the book of John and the epistles like 1 John that we looked at just a few weeks ago, John focuses on the deity of Jesus.

He shows us Jesus, the Son of God.

Luke focusses greatly on the humanity of Jesus showing Him as the Son of Man.

That is what Luke’s genealogy connects Jesus all the way back to the original man, Adam.

Here’s the thing we must know Jesus is BOTH the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Jesus is fully God and fully Man.

How that works out can remain a mystery to us on this side of glory, but the fullness of God’s Word declares as much.

Jesus is the Son of God and Son of Man.

In Mark, the shortest of the gospels, Jesus is shown as the servant.

And in the book of Matthew Jesus is presented as the Sovereign, The King.

The wonderful thing about Jesus is that He is both Sovereign and servant.

King and helper.

Each of the gospels point out these complimentary aspects of Jesus as King, Servant, Son of Man, Son of God.

And genealogies in each of them help explain this function of Jesus.

But you might say, Brad, there is no genealogy in Mark or John.

Well Mark presents Jesus as the servant, and a servant’s lineage is considered irrelevant.

And John, as we see in our Scripture proclamation for this month, does include a genealogy of sorts.

This is a divine genealogy pointing out the eternal nature of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Son of God, the Son of Man, the willing servant, and as we are focussed on here in Matthew: The gracious King.

Look with me at verse one.

In this very simple statement Matthew speaks with a round purpose.

He is writing of this man named Jesus.

Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus’ last name, despite modern perception, was not actually Christ.

So when Matthew says “the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” this is a much bigger statement than saying “the genealogy of Charlie Davis.”

The word Christ, in Greek Christos, means the anointed one!

Now let me ask you a question.

For what roles were people in that day anointed??

In Scripture there are three primary roles someone is anointed into, prophet, priest, and … KING!

Now Jesus, being the anointed one, would fulfill all of these roles in His ministry, but there is a definite connection to the Kingship of Jesus when we read later on in the verse that Jesus Christ is called the son of David.

But before we start looking at any of that, I need all of us to understand just how big of a deal it is that Jesus Christ is the Christ!

We see those words together so much that they lose impact on us.

Those receiving the gospel of Matthew would think it very audacious for someone to be called the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed one.

So Matthew here comes out the gate here swinging.

He’s saying this man, Jesus, is the Messiah that all the Jews had been looking for.

He’s the Son of David.

He’s the Son of Abraham.

All of the Jewish readers would have understood exactly who those were and the claim that He is the Christ could only be proven through proving Jesus’ connection to those two guys.

That is why this genealogy is so important.

It shows the connection of Jesus to the promise of God to build a great nation.

It shows the connection of Jesus to the king who’s heir would reign forever.

The Jewish people had been looking for that promise to be fulfilled.

Through the lineage we read today, Matthew legitimizes Jesus as being that very promised king.

Folks, this is a big deal.

These aren’t just a list of arbitrary names given to us as a fun tongue twister.

Through this list of names were are shown the faithfulness of God to keep His promise and give us a Savior!

Man, the Word of God is good for the soul!

There are those that doubt that Jesus is who Christians claim He is.

This is nothing new.

Even in His day, Jesus was met by many people who denied that He could be who He said He was.

So Matthew uses this genealogy to establish and legitimize Jesus’ royal lineage.

It’s not necessary to know everything about every single person listed in those 17 verses.

The main point is to simply establish that Jesus is the rightful heir.

When it comes to royalty, bloodlines are a big deal.