Sermon Tone Analysis

We’re going to play a little game this morning.

The purpose of this game is to test how willing you are to say what’s really going on in your life.

You all know that we ask each other, “How are you doing?”, and we all know that even though we say “Good” or “fine”, a good portion of the time we are not really good or fine.

We’re having a hard time.

Here’s how this will work.

I’m going to ask you guys a series of questions.

Actually, I’m going to give you guys a set of statements and you have to either agree or disagree with the statements.

These questions are going to go from really innocent and easy to answer, but then they’re going to get progressively harder to answer.

So when I ask the question, you’ll raise your hand if you agree with the statement.

The purpose of this game is to test how willing you are to say what’s really going on in your life.

You all know that we ask each other, “How are you doing?”, and we all know that even though we say “Good” or “fine”, a good portion of the time we are not really good or fine.

We’re having a hard time.

First, the easiest ones:

“I have brown hair”

“I like Buffalo Baptist Church”

“I use social media”

Here’s how this will work.

I’m going to ask you guys a series of questions.

Actually, I’m going to give you guys a set of statements and you have to either agree or disagree with the statements.

“I like Christmastime.”

Well done.

Now for the next set:

“I have a character or personality flaw that I have a hard time fixing.”

“My children or grandchildren sometimes disobey.”

These questions are going to go from really innocent and easy to answer, but then they’re going to get progressively harder to answer.

So when I ask the question, you’ll raise your hand if you agree with the statement.

“I sometimes feel like a bad person.”

You’re doing great!

Now, for the hard ones.

Can you raise your hand in agreement to these questions?

“I have a family member who is lost, and I have not tried to share the gospel with them like I know I should.”

“My spouse and I had an argument this morning before church.”

First, the easiest ones:

And then here’s the last one: “My family is a messed-up family.”

How many of you would be honest enough to admit that this morning?

Here’s why I ask that question: Jesus’ family line was the very same way.

We knowMary and Joseph were upstanding Israelites, but their family line, Joseph’s family line had plenty of dysfunction in it, plenty of brokenness in it.

“I have brown hair”

“I like Buffalo Baptist Church”

And this morning, I want us to see this.

I want us to examine the family tree of Jesus Christ, because in doing so, we learn something very fascinating and not a little bit comforting: We learn that Jesus’ family is alot like our own.

There are some saints in Jesus’ family line.

And there are also some scoundrels in His family line.

There are some wonderful stories of faith and godliness and piety.

And there are some sordid details about family secrets and some of the worst crimes imaginable, even by today’s standards.

And Jesus does this - God has orchestrated this - the Holy Spirit has inspired this text in order to show us that Jesus is, really and genuinely and truly, God with us.

“Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus - our Immanuel!”

So notice with me five markers of grace in Jesus’ family line.

Five markers of grace.

The first marker is that of hard times.

#1: Hard times

“I use social media”

What do I mean by hard times?

Are we going through hard times now?

They say inflation is the highest it has been in this country since President Reagan was in office, 1982.

COVID-19, still circulating around the globe, two years into it.

Do we know something about hard times too?

Yes, we do.

Well, Israel did too - worse times, in fact.

We know the Jews experienced the Holocaust in the late 1930s and early to mid-1940s.

But there was an event that was more significant even than that, and it’s what Matthew calls the deportation.

Also known as the exile.

The exile was probably just as significant.

Because exile or deportation - that is a forced exit from your home country.

So what was the exile or deportation?

Well, it was the worst thing the Israelites ever experienced in the history of their nation that is found in the Bible.

That’s what happened to Israel.

Around 586 BC, the nation of Babylon invaded Israel, took the city of Jerusalem, invaded the city, burned the temple to the ground, forcibly removed Israelites from their homes, slaughtered countless numbers of them and the ones they didn’t kill, they loaded up like animals and deported them back to Babylon.

It would be like our biggest and most powerful adversary — China — invading our country, destroying the Capitol Building and the White House, slaughtering as many Americans as they could find.

And then, as if that would not be enough, it would be like the Chinese forcibly removing each family in this country from their homes and hauling us all to the other side of the world to live in China.

“I like Christmastime.”

And this was even worse for Israel, because in being deported to Babylon, they were being removed from their land.

The land - the promised land!

The land of flowing milk and honey!

The land God had promised to Abraham to give to his descendants after him.

The land God had prepared for them when He rescued them from Egypt.

The land where God promised to bless them with His presence and His law and His name and glory, that they might bless others by reflecting the Lord’s righteous character.

Now the land lies empty and devastated, like one of those scenes after a major tornado when houses and buildings are flattened and trees are uprooted and everything has become a wasteland.

That was Israel after the exile.

Why did God allow this?

Because of their sin.

They worshiped other gods.

So the exile was God’s discipline upon Israel.

And yet, during this time, during this period of darkness, during these hard times, God is at work.

How is he at work?

Well done.

Now for the next set:

Look with me in your Bibles at Matt. 1:12-16

What was happening during this time?

God is still preparing the way for His promised King, the descendant of David, the promised offspring of Eve who would destroy the serpent and reverse the curse and undo all that sin has undone.

Like a good father, even as the Lord disciplines His chosen people, He is also simultaneously bringing history to the perfect moment to introduce to them their Savior.

And church, our good, wise and all-powerful God is using these hard times to bring about His glory and our good and our ultimate salvation.

He is working behind the scenes now, no less than He was then.

COVID-19 will one day end.

We don’t know when.

And it’s probably best not to put our hopes in COVID-19 coming to an end soon.

Instead, why not place our hope in the only One who is worthy of it?

Why not trust in the Lord who will get us through this crisis and the next one that comes?

At Christmas we’re reminded of the hope that is ours - Immanuel, God with us.

“I give them eternal life,” Immanuel says, “and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28 ESV).