Two Truths about the Christmas Story...
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Jesus Came from Just the Right Family Line
Jesus Came from Just the Right Family Line
Matthew 1:1–17 (ESV)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
The gospel of Matthew is all about one person…the person who carries the Title: Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ last name was not “Christ”, believe it or not.
“Christ” is a Title.
It is a Greek word that was used to refer to the Messiah. It literally means, “annointed.” So by calling Jesus the “Christ” Matthew is saying that this is the anointed one of God...
Matthew says, this is the book about the story of Jesus Christ…effectively.
This is the story about the anointed Messiah.
This is the the story of the Savior.
He is David’s Son...
He is the one that God promised in 2 Samuel 7
2 Samuel 7:11–14 (ESV)
11b And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men...
Matthew is saying...Jesus is the offspring of David...
He is the Son of God that was promised.
He is the one that God has established the throne of God’s Kingdom forever.
He is ruling and reigning...
He is from the Line of David...
He is the Son of David…but Matthew also testifies that Jesus is “the son of Abraham...”
v. 1—The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David…the Son of Abraham
18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Paul comments on this passage in Galatians 3:16
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.
What Matthew is saying very clearly is that this Jesus who has come…in the Christmas story…is the promised one of God who would bring the Kingdom of God to earth…and would fulfill the covenantal promise of God.
The Promises of God are fulfilled through Jesus...
Its really easy to get in a passage like this one and get to talking about covenantal promises and the like that we miss the forrest for the trees...
When you read this story…you might be tempted to just fly through the genealogy…but when we do that we miss out on one of the most wonderful truths of the Christian message. The God condescended.
That God has a genealogy at all should blow our minds...
Jesus Christ, chose to come and dwell with man…he chose to be born. He chose to subject himself to what it meant to be human. The limitless God of the universe limited himself to humanity. The God who doesnt need sleep or food…subjected himself to both.
He came to dwell with us...
This is what led Paul to say in Colossians 1 beginning in verse 15 write,
Colossians 1:15–20 (ESV)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
I love what Spurgeon says about this passage.
“Marvelous Condescension” he writes...
“That God should be man, and have a genealogy, even He who was in the beginning with God, and thought it not robbery to be equal to God’!”
The fact that God became a man at all should blow our minds...
But this isnt all…The design of Jesus’ Lineage is hugely significant.
Jesus came from a perfectly imperfect family line.
There are five women in this lineage: Tamar (v.3) Rahab (v.5) Ruth (v.5) The Wife of Uriah—who we know to be Bathsheeba—(v. 6) and Mary (v.16)
Notice…the women who are absent—Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah…the Matriarchs of the Jewish lineage...
Even more bizarre…5 of the 6 women mentioned here arent even Jewish… (Mary was the only one…)
Tamar and Rahab were Canaanites—a race of people with witch Israelites were forbidden to marry or associate with)
Ruth was a Moabitist—a Jewish half breed that traces their linage to incestous relationships.
Bathsheba— the wife of Uriah—before David lustfully forced himself onto her and got her pregnant…Uriah was a Hittite…A Gentile...
Just look at the men…
David—an adulteror
Abraham—sold his wife as a prostitute (twice)
Rehoboam, abijah, Ahaz…AHAZ
2 Kings 16:1–4 (ESV)
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
Here’s My Point:
The Family Line of Jesus…would have made good reality TV
The Linage was impure…both the men and the women were problematic characters...
I said it last week…Jesus came from a rough crowd…because he came to save a rough crowd...
He came from the people he came for...
You feel like a mess? Jesus came from a mess of a family…because he came to save messy people...
Are you a great big sinner this morning?
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
Jesus Came at Just the Right Time
Jesus Came at Just the Right Time
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
The Geneology is divided into 3 groups of 14…the number 3 is obviouslt significant.
It represents the number of fulfillment or completion.
But the list can also be divided up into 6 groups of 7...
7 Begining the number of perfection in Jewish worldview.
Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–15 (Jesus’ Genealogy (Matthew 1:1–17))
Matthew emphasizes that Jesus isn’t just one member in an ongoing family, but actually the goal of the whole list, he arranges the genealogy into three groups of 14 names—or, perhaps we should say, into six groups of seven names. The number seven was and is one of the most powerful symbolic numbers, and to be born at the beginning of the seventh seven in the sequence is clearly to be the climax of the whole list. This birth, Matthew is saying, is what Israel has been waiting for for two thousand years.
Jesus came just at the right time...
The People of Israel had been in Exile for hundreds of years…they had waited on Jesus for millinia…they had gone through the ups and downs of faith and doubt…and then like the blink of an eye…just at the right time…Christ came.
God will show up for you on time....it may feel like you are in exile…or the wilderness....
It may feel like you are stuck…hopeless…helpless...
But God shows up to fulfill his promises on time...
For your marriage…God is always right on time...
For your family....
For your job...
In Cancer
In your child’s sickness
In your spouses time of trouble....
In financial struggles....
In your wrestling with sin....
You dont need to look to someone or something else this morning to fulfill your wants and desires…you can trust that God will show up for you on time…at the right time…everytime...
He did it at Christmas…he will do it again for you today…so trust him.