Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Read the Text—”The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”—

Mt 1:1 (ESV)

Pray

There are two timelines for us to examine here:

The first timeline is when Matthew wrote this Gospel (in the first century, covering events between roughly 5 B.C. and A.D. 33).

Roughly two-thousand years in the past from where we are.

Scholars think that this Gospel was probably written about A.D. 60-70, which means Matthew is talking about events that happened roughly over thirty years in the past for him.

The second timeline is where you and I are today.

The twenty-first century.

Let’s take a look at the first timeline.

In the first century we are looking at Palestine.

This region at one time was ruled by God’s people, the Israelites.

But in 587 B.C. Babylon destroys the temple of Solomon and the people of Judah and the the capital, Jerusalem, are taken into captivity for 70 years.

In Approximately 475 B.C. there will be one final prophet to speak on God’s behalf, Malachi, and then over 400 years will pass where there is no prophetic word from God.

The heaven is brass it seems to the people of Israel.

They struggle along, trying to survive and retake their land, but it never endures.

In 63 B.C. Rome conquers Palestine and will rule over it for generations to come.

Actually, by the time we fast forward to the first-century A.D., Rome has been in power over 90 years.

Rome is a pagan nation which worships multiple false gods.

In fact, they erect stations throughout the cities with shrines to their emperors demanding that people offer incense and sacrifices in worship to the emperors as gods.

The people of Israel are beaten down.

They’ve rebelled against their conquerors time and time again, and time and time again they’ve been reconquered.

The promises of a Messiah coming who would lead them to victory against the idolaters still stirs the embers of some hearts, but some doubt they will ever know freedom from oppression and experience the blessing promised to Abraham and his descendants.

Some are disenfranchised, and some still hold to the dream of a glimmer of a hope.

They’re hoping someone will rise up and lead them to victory against Rome.

That a man some where, some how will be able to help them fix this life and make it the way it was meant to be.

Now fast forward to today.

We live in uncertain times.

Here in the United States our government structure is unstable and unpredictable, we have no idea what our leadership will do next, our culture is arguing for a morality that changes with the sinful desires of the individual (what I want as an individual person is most important), our economy is continually fluctuating on the edge of moderate stability and complete disaster, and we are facing a pandemic that has been active for almost two solid years, taking the lives of loved ones and seeming to leave our lives in a type of holding pattern.

Most people seem to be alternating between an attitude of pessimism and hopelessness.

Often times during hardship we tend to ask extremely deep questions in our own heart, but fail to take the time and consult the appropriate sources to answer those questions.

In a state of panic, fear, frustration, stress, or hopelessness we answer our heart’s questions with only our own flawed, sinful, limited understanding of our existence in the universe.

We wonder why life is so messed up.

We don’t know who to trust.

We keep hoping that presidents, senators, state officials, law enforcement,…somebody will be able to pick up the pieces of this mess and finally get things on track.

We hope they’ll do the right thing, stand against injustice, confront wickedness, help us out,…but when push comes to shove it seems like the main agenda being pushed is “whatever is good for me is what matters.

What makes me feel good.

What is going to help me survive.”

Every person comes and goes and may do some good along the way but it all ends up falling right back into a heap of dashed dreams and broken hopes.

But I have some good news.

And it’s the same good news that the people of the first century in Palestine needed to hear.

The good news is that you won’t find an answer in humanity alone.

Search the scientific fields, search artistic fields, search in books, movies, conversation, wherever you want and the only solutions you find are temporary and fleeting.

Sure, we make an advancement here, experience a minor break through there, but all in all, if we’re honest, it all ends up being the same old thing.

In fact that Bible even talks to us about this.

“18 I came to hate all my hard work here on earth, for I must leave to others everything I have earned.

19 And who can tell whether my successors will be wise or foolish?

Yet they will control everything I have gained by my skill and hard work under the sun.

How meaningless!

20 So I gave up in despair, questioning the value of all my hard work in this world.

21 Some people work wisely with knowledge and skill, then must leave the fruit of their efforts to someone who hasn’t worked for it.

This, too, is meaningless, a great tragedy.

22 So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety?

23 Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest.

It is all meaningless.”—Ec

2:18–23 (NLT)

So you say to me, “I thought you said you had good news.

This doesn’t sound like good news.”

You’d be right except for one thing.

It’s true that there isn’t any hope of ever finding any genuine peace, hope, love, goodness, or justice in humanity alone.

We’re just too far gone, too broken...But we weren’t meant to find hope in what this world offers. 1 John 2:17 says, “And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

(ESV)

The Bible says there isn’t anything you can find in this life that can be trusted to get you through to the end and truly be satisfied.

Careers, retirement, money, health, relationships, etc…all end up failing to fill the void and bring meaningful hope.

John writes that the will of God will abide forever.

God’s desires are what will ultimately stand the test of time.

But what is the will of God? Jesus tells us in John 6:40—“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

This is the point of the message this morning: You should put your absolute trust in Jesus.

I’ll say that again.

You should put your absolute trust in Jesus.

Not just some of it.

Not just the parts of your life that are easy convenient or not important.

I’m saying that God’s Word tells us that all our trust must belong to Jesus.

Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

But what does this have to do with the problems we’re facing in our government, economy, in our corporate and personal lives?

What does trusting Jesus have to do with my life here and now?

I want to give you four reasons you should put your absolute trust in Jesus today.

They are all found in the one verse we read right at the beginning.

Let’s look at it again: Matthew 1:1—“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Here’s the point of the message today:

Thesis—You should put your absolute trust in Jesus because he is the only one who brings salvation, deliverance, leadership, and the blessings of God.

Why Jesus Deserves Our Absolute Trust

You should put your absolute trust in Jesus because he is the only one who brings salvation.

The meaning of “Jesus”.

Jesus is the transliteration of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew name יְהוֹשׁוּעַ, which in English is Joshua.

The name means, “The Lord saves.”

What would this mean to a Jewish audience?

The divine Son of God didn’t come to earth to simply fix the economy, stabilize the government, destroy the Romans, and give Israel all their land back.

Jesus came for a much deeper and much more important purpose.

Jesus came to reconcile us to God.

All of humanity has sinned against God and those sins have broken our relationship to God.

Isaiah 59:2 says, “...but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”

And Romans 3:19 tells us that, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”

Most Jews were looking for someone to deliver them from Rome, but no one was expecting someone to come who would be able to forgive sins completely.

The sacrificial system that the Jews had been using for centuries didn’t wash sins away, it simply covered them or atoned for them.

But they had to keep offering sacrifices all the time to maintain relationship with God.

Hebrews 10:11-14 says, “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,...” This would have been extremely hard for a Jewish person to process.