A Messy Family Tree | Matthew 1:1-17 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] we're in Matthew's Gospel chapter 1 let me give a little brief intro and then we'll we'll pray and then we'll we'll read from chapter 1 a little bit when you take your Bibles and you go from the last book of the Old Testament which is Malachi and you turn the page to the first book of the New Testament which is where we are the Gospel of Matthew you have advanced 400 years 400 years it is known by theologians as the intertestamental period there's fancy for saying the time between the two Testaments old and new it is also called the 400 silent years because this is the time these 400 years between the last prophet of the Old Testament Malachi and the beginning of the New Testament Matthew chapter 1 these 400 years of the time during which God said nothing he didn't speak through any prophets he was silent these are the 400 silent years why was God silent like this I want you to think of it in this way if you have a major announcement to make let's say you gather a bunch of your family together you're gonna announce that you're having a baby one of those big deals the reveal right everybody's in the room they're having a lot of conversation people are mixing and talking and when you are ready to make the announcement what's the first thing you say everybody everybody Shh quiet quiet down out quiet down that's the first thing you say because you want them to hear your special announcement that's what God is doing he's basically asking for quiet in the room so he sends no prophet for 400 years Shh I've got a major announcement to make the Messiah is here so when you turn from the Old Testament to New Testament you're turning 400 years it's the silent years because God is saying quiet quiet I have a very important announcement to make Messiah Jesus is here and so that's what we're beginning to read now when we come into the New Testament it's it's a testimony about Jesus the Messiah the long-awaited and dissipate of Mosiah more than 300 prophecies in the Old Testament predicting the coming of the Messiah so God is now saying quiet quiet quiet I've got something to say Messiah is now here when you look into chapter 1 you're gonna see the genie a lot of the genealogy of Jesus leading up to his birth and chapter 2 of course is about his birth we read it a Christmas time but for today I want to focus on just chapter 1 and before we read from chapter 1 a little background on Matthew the man and Matthew the message so for those of you were taking notes here's a little bit first about Matthew the man we know very little to nothing about Matthew this much we do his name in Hebrew is methods' Yahoo Matt that Yahoo means gift of Yahweh and and so for those of you guys who are named Matthew it's a wonderful name means gift of Yahweh if you just refer to yourself as Matt than you think you're just a gift the Yahweh part is the end of the word not that Yahoo so that's what the name means it's a it's a it's a strong name it's a good name he of course was one of jesus' twelve original disciples chosen by jesus in chapter 9 verses 9 and 10 he writes of his own conversion and calling by Jesus and then Luke tells us in his gospel that Matthew made a great feast for Jesus invited him to his house made a great feast and then gave up everything to follow him now Matthew doesn't tell us that about himself he leaves that out of his own gospel I think it's commendable he doesn't go around saying by the way I give a great feast for Jesus hosted him at my house and I gave up everything to follow him he doesn't tell us that about himself he's pretty humble Luke us to tell us in his gospel what Matthew did and Luke also refers to in chapter 527 as Levi which might mean that he was a Levite of the tribe of Levi forgetting that name designation but we don't know for sure and we do know Matthew does tell us about himself in chapter 10 verse 3 that he was a tax collector that's kind of telling on himself because tax collectors were despised in the day I mean especially because he was a Jew so he's a Jew working for the Roman government taking money from his fellow Jews and he would skim some often line his own pockets that's the way the tax would make a living and and so Jews of course despised him but Matthew was at least willing to say I'm not going to tell you that I gave a great feasts for Jesus and that I gave up everything to follow him but I will tell you that I was an IRS agent alright and so that's what he's letting us know he was a tax collector now a little bit about Matthew the message or the book of Matthew it was written around 50 ad again by Matthew who was a Jew and he's writing primarily to Jews because he wants to convince them that Jesus is the Christ that he is the Messiah and in order to do that he's going to quote more from the Old Testament the Jewish Scriptures than any other New Testament writer he's going to quote more than 100 verses from the Old Testament in the course of the Gospel of Matthew and again he's doing this because he wants the juice to understand that their own Jewish Scriptures prophesied and talked about the coming of the Messiah who is none other than Jesus and therefore in the Gospel of Matthew he makes a lot of Messianic references and he will talk a lot about the kingdom you know because the Messiah is is a king but in in different terminology we think earthly Kings and these he's greater than that but he talks about kingdoms fifty-four times and the phrase Kingdom of Heaven is used only 34 times in the whole Bible and Matthew is is using it 32 out of those 34 times so he's referencing this whole idea of Messiah coming the King of Kings messianic kingdom and the whole thing and he refers to Jesus as the Christ which is just the Greek transliteration Christos Christ of the Hebrew equivalent Mashiach Messiah so Messiah and Christ are the same thing and he's the one that refers to Jesus as the Christ now the four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John I just want to point this out because we're gonna be making our way through these four Gospels over the next few years the four Gospels typically present a different angle of Jesus and his ministry it's like if if if you are called as a witness to a particular situation and and for witnesses are called in a court of law each witness may have a slightly different angle of the same thing they don't contradict each other but they just have a different angle to present the better fuller truth that's what's happening in the four Gospels and so just to highlight this Matthew emphasizes Jesus as king of the Jews and the early church fathers attached a symbol to each of these four Gospels and so where Matthew talks about King of the Jews the symbol associated with the Gospel of Matthew was a lion that's why you might might have come in you've seen the graphic design for the book of Matthew with a lion on it and you're thinking why why do we have a lion because traditionally early church fathers attach the idea of a lion to the Gospel of Matthew because Jesus has emphasized this King of the Jews like king of the jungle okay mark emphasizes rather the lowly servant that Jesus was the humble servant the lowly servant and so early church fathers attached and ox it was a beast of burden he just was you know a serving animal and so that was attached as a symbol to the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke Luke emphasizes Jesus as the Son of Man so the figure of a man is usually attached to the Gospel of Luke and finally John emphasizes Jesus as the Son of God and an eagle was attached early on to the Gospel of John symbolizing that majestic creature an eagle and by the way it's very interesting because the this corresponds exactly to the four faces of the cherubim in Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 10 the four faces of the cherubim were the face of a lion and ox a man and an eagle and these are also similar imagery to the creatures in Revelation chapter four seven not identical but similar and so that's the background and as we head in now to the Gospel of Matthew I want to pray first and we're gonna be looking at Jesus's family tree this morning from chapter one I know it's a bunch of names I'm not going to read all of them you're welcome but we will be looking at most of them today because there are some important themes within the genealogical record there are probably times that you read your Bibles and you go what's the significance of this and I'm just gonna skim through all these names we're not going to skim through them today there's an important message in the first chapter so we're gonna look at it together but let's first have a word of Prayer father we thank you for this time we can gather here again and we look forward to the day when all of the restrictions are lifted that we can gather fully with everyone present but in the meantime we thank you that we were able to open up the church again and those who are still watching online we thank you for for that as well and pray that together you would just be honored as we open up the Bible and start into the New Testament father help us guide us speak to us we thank you for all of your word even the genealogical record listed here in Matthew chapter 1 so speak to us through it today Lord were grateful in Jesus name and everybody said amen alright Matthew chapter 1 I'm gonna read the first 17 verses but I'll skip some names in the middle and they'll probably thank me later that I didn't butcher their names but here we go Matthew 1 verse 1 says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David the son of Abraham Abraham begot Isaac Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judah and his brothers Judah begat Perez and zerah by Tamar Perez begat hezron hezron begat Ram Randy got a minute AB and then adhabi got nahshon and nahshon begat Salman salmon begat Boaz by Rahab Boaz begat obed by Ruth Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David the king and we'll skip verses rest until verse 12 let's just jump down to verse 12 because it's just a list of names we're gonna highlight some of them verse 12 and after they were brought to babylon jeconiah begot shield teal and shield teal begot zerubbabel zerubbabel begot a by you'd by you'd be got le a keen le achim begat azor azor begat zadok zadok begat achim and achim begat eliud elliot begat eleazar eleazar begat in the town and Matan begat jacob jacob begat joseph the husband of mary of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ or Messiah so all that generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations all right we'll pause there your attention now the Gospel of Luke presents the genealogical record through the line of Mary when we read here the genealogical record in Matthew's Gospel this is the record through the line of Joseph that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus he was the legal father the adoptive dad God was the father of Jesus God supernaturally impregnated Mary God became flesh took on flesh and and became a man became like us and so Jesus is born of a virgin through Mary her line is given in the Gospel of Luke this is Joseph's line here in the Gospel of Matthew to let us know that Jesus was both born in a natural way though a supernatural means Andy was adopted legally by Joseph because Joseph was not his biological father now there's an interesting verse a prophecy in the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah and it is a verse that we often quote or see adorned on our Christmas cards at Christmastime it's Isaiah 9:6 for unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and we will call them wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace that's Isaiah 9:6 now it's interesting when Isaiah talks about this he uses two different words for unto us is a child is born and unto us a son is given those are two different terms the one born speaks of a natural process of physical birth but the other term given is a term of adoption that Messiah will be both born and adopted well how can that be except that Jesus fulfills that that there was a supernatural moment where God impregnates Mary and then Jesus is born in a physical way but then he was adopted legally by Joseph so unto us a son a child is born and unto us a son is given it's a term of birth and option which Jesus fulfills and another important aspect about Jesus and the fact that he was both born and given through Mary and Joseph is the fact that both when you look at Luke's genealogical record and Matthews genealogical record both Mary's line and Joseph's line trace their ancestry back to King David through two different sons of David but nevertheless both of them trace their lineage back to King David why is this important this is absolutely vital to understand the identity of the Messiah because the Bible in different places second Samuel Chapter seven Isaiah 11 Jeremiah 23 and 33 and many more verses spoke about how the Messiah would be a descendant of the line of David which is the reason why Jesus in the Gospels is sometimes called son of David he's called son of David not because he's the direct son of David but he is the the descendant of David which is important to the identity Messiah would be a descendant of King David and so Matthew emphasizes this at the beginning of the genealogical record in verse 1 and at the end in verse 17 look in your Bibles again at the way he opens up in verse 1 of chapter 1 he says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David the son of Abraham Ben Davi Ben Avraham he identifies Jesus right at the beginning he is a descendant ultimately of the father of the Jewish line Abraham but importantly to his identity because this is all part of the prophecy of the prophets he is the son of David he's in the Senate of King David so Matthew points it out right at the beginning goes to the genealogical record during which in the middle David is mentioned and then he ends with something unique in verse 17 in verse 17 matthew says so all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations now why would he emphasize that 14 14 14 matthew is a tax collector he crunches numbers he likes numbers but this is more than just a propensity for numbers he is communicating again as a Jew to predominantly a Jewish audience that Jesus is a descendant of David and so he uses something that is unfamiliar to us because most of us are we are we are Gentiles most of us not all of us we have some Jewish believers here at Cornerstone but it might escape our understanding so let me explain in the ancient Hebrew language as well as Greek and even in Arabic and other ancient languages there's a thing called gematria gematria is this that in those languages there are numerical values attached to each letter of the alphabet and thus when you have a word you can look at the numerical value of each letter and added up to a sum total what is the purpose of it well there are different reasons but in our understanding of chapter one when he uses this terminology he's declaring in kind of a veiled reference to the fact that Jesus is again a descendant of David how so in the Hebrew language this is how David's name would be spelled in the Hebrew language they don't have vowels they designate you know little marks on on the consonants to help understand how you pronounce the different words but otherwise there are no vowels only consonants so in David's name you have three letters in the Hebrew alphabet dalit valve dal --it DVD Da Lat violet in the Hebrew language every letter has a numerical value this is an ancient thing it's not a modernized thing and on the spectrum of numerical values a dollar is worth four valve is six and again Dalit is four for a total of your smart people four plus six plus four is fourteen does everybody understand Matthew is saying in triplets 14 14 14 and verse 17 he's like do you get it we're talking about David talking about Jesus being a descendant of King David now as we look here together into this genealogical record what I want to do is just point out I'm gonna highlight 10 I'm gonna go really fast rapid-fire I marvel at the people that God chose to be a part of the Messianic line leading up to Christ you'd think that God would have chosen some of the most virtuous men and women some of the most honorable and people full of integrity but far from it what we find here is that God chose some of the most peculiar for Allah irresponsible and unfit people to be part of his divine plan and why is that important for us to note and I've been saying that I'm not just trying to be critical of these people and and neither would I condone their behavior I'm just simply pointing it out for this particular reason God chooses always to use imperfect people to accomplish his perfect purposes and that should speak to you and me because God chooses to use us for his glory all of us are flawed imperfect people and God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect purposes so for example we're gonna go through some of these names if you have your Bibles open just Circle Abraham's name in verse 2 Abraham was a liar now again many wonderful things about Abraham but we're talking about the way that God uses flawed and imperfect people and Abraham had a lying problem there are two times in the book of Genesis that he lies and he does it both times to save his own skin at the expense of his wife when he lied twice he lied once to Pharaoh of Egypt and once to King Abimelech of Guerard saying that Sarah was really his sister and not his wife why did he lie about that because in ancient times if a powerful man wanted a woman to be added to his harem or to marry her he wouldn't if she was married but if her husband met with an untimely death then he could take her and that's what they would do if a powerful man your wife he'd kill you and take your wife because now she's suddenly single right that's what they would do it's sending a couple of guys from New York and rough you up a little bit they'll never find your body do you know what I'm saying to you that's what they would do and then they would take your wife so what does Abraham do to save his own skin she ain't my wife she's my sister so that they wouldn't kill him so I mean what do you think Sarah's thinking when he's saying that like oh great let them take me so that you live that's what he did twice she's not my wife she's my sister now actually that was a half truth because in Genesis chapter 20 it does tell us that Abraham and Sarah were half brother and sister they had the same dad different mom which means they were from I'm not gonna say well West Virginia not gonna say that I was thinking Kentucky this time but anyway so so he was a liar all right looking for a look at Jacob in verse two he was a deceiver his very name in Hebrew Yaakov means deceiver he deceived his brother out of his birthright even though God had predetermined that the older Esau should serve the younger jacob but jacob like many of us think we have to help God out and so he tried to help God out which you don't have to do God will deliver on this promises Jacob deceived his brother out of his birthright deceives his father out of the blessing deceives his father-in-law when he takes the best of the Sheep out of the flock from his father-in-law and runs off with his daughters and the guy's a mess until God gets ahold of him and literally wrestles with Jacob and then God changes his name from Yaakov to Israel changes it from deceiver to Israel means governed by God the whole nation will end up being named after this guy but not until God gets ahold of his heart because he's a deceiver we see somebody else here in verse three Judah Judah and verse three he's a philanderer Bible tells us that he he sees a prostitute along side of the road and and so he offers a cup of coffee and her prices and he sleeps with her and she gives birth to twins Perez and zerah her name is Tamar she actually had veiled herself and so Judah ended up sleeping with what ended up to be his daughter-in-law you know the children of your daughter-in-law are supposed to be your grandkids right in this case they are his kids how confusing for his kids like do we call you grandpa or daddy yeah I mean they don't even know but that's the kind of guy that Judah was in verse five circle the name Rahab Rahab was a Gentile prostitute she wasn't even a Jew she was a Gentile she lived in Jericho she ran ran a brothel when the spies came into the land to spy out the land they stay at Rahab's house and she hears and knows already the testimony of God and she she gives shelter to these spies and she says to them when you come back to take the city please remember me and spare my family she ties that scarlet that red cord on the window so that they can see the mark it's a beautiful typology the blood of Christ that rescues us and and so when the Jews came back the Israelites came back they spared her they took her with them and she becomes a punt she's a Gentile and a prostitute she becomes a proselyte to Judaism she marries a Jew on the list here Salman it's kind of a fishy guy but anyway she marries him come on welcome back friends welcome back all right it's the gift of sarcasm come on it's in the Bible somewhere and so she marries a Jew by the name of Salman and so she becomes a proselyte to Judaism but listen these are the people that God is incorporating into this Messianic line if you've ever looked at your life and thought I've done too many terrible things for God to ever use me for ever God to ever love me forgot to ever forgive me look at the people that God chose to use here she's a Gentile prostitute she becomes a proselyte to Judaism she marries she's in the genealogical record of Jesus Christ we here also Ruth and verse five Ruth is a Moabite all Moabites were children of incest there's another tragic occasion when lot is being rescued before Sodom and gomorrah's destroyed and when sodom and gomorrah destroyed his two grown daughters apparently thought that with the destruction of sodom and gomorrah was the destruction of all the other men on the planet which wasn't true but then they began to think that how were they ever gonna get married and have kids and so the family line is gonna die out so they decide to get dad drunk one night lot sleep with him and they each get pregnant it's incest and they have two boys mo love and am on the Moabites and the ammonites were a people the result of incest and God has incorporated a Moabite into the family Ruth look at David verse six of course we know a lot about him but the fact of the matter is he didn't just break one of the Ten Commandments adultery that's number seven he broke three out of the ten at least he broke commandment number ten which is you shall not covet your neighbor's wife he did that when he took Bathsheba slept with her committed adultery that's commandment number seven and in addition he ends up being an accessory to murder he gives orders for Uriah the husband of Bathsheba to be put on the front line of battle so that he would be killed he was murdered he did die that's commandment number six you shall not murder David appeals to the mercy of God repents God forgives him and still uses him so it's it's marvelous how God's redemptive plan is revealed through this genealogical record - look it's solomon in verse six the son of david he was an idolatry no one eyes ur 700 wives 300 concubines a thousand women in his harem idolatry reached an all-time high underneath his leadership the wisest man who ever lived but also did some of the dumbest things that could happen and and it's all a testimony that you know you could be given wisdom from God and still resort to your own flesh and that's what Solomon did he resorted to his own flesh on many occasions and Israel had a very low spot during his life there's some sense that maybe he got wise at the end of his life but yet he's included here rheya Boehm just a couple more here real quick verse 7 Rehoboam in verse 7 he was divisive he divided the kingdom and a power struggle after the death of his father Solomon civil war ensued with him his mother was Naima she was an ammonite back to the children of incest she was an ammonite in verse 8 you have Jehovah Jehovah was a murderer he was the fifth king of Judah he killed all six of his brothers to make sure that they would not be a threat to his reign killed all six of his brothers this dude is listed in here last one we'll look at his Manasseh verse 10 you can circle his name Manasseh was just pure evil he engaged in sorcery and the Bible says in second Kings 21 that he sacrificed his own son in the fire in worship of false gods in idolatry and in sorcery here's the point when you look at the genealogical record of Jesus you can see how tarnished it was there were some sinful evil characters in the family tree there rely or prostitutes there were murderers there were deceivers there were adulterers but the important point is that Jesus's family tree did not define him it did not define him his identity his purpose and his mission came from God the Father that's what defined him and your family tree they're probably some bad apples in the family tree too every family has some bad apples in the family tree even as I say that probably a few names come to your mind immediately oh yeah yeah there's this guy and there's this lady that they're family every family has bad apples in the family tree and unfortunately over 30 plus years in ministry I've heard some very disheartening tragic stories from people based on their family I've heard the stories of abuse the sexual and physical abuse of people have sustained in their family I've heard stories of abandonment mom left dad left I've heard the stories of mental illness where a mom or a dad would would lock a kid in the closet for a few days at a time just because they were mentally unstable the kids had to grow up with this family trees that have I've even heard about incest within family trees people have shared stories about alcoholic moms and alcoholic dads and or how they grew up under such impoverished conditions that they ended up living on the streets or living under a bridge I've heard those stories some of those stories are yours but here's the good news in Christ you're not only given a new heart you're given a new start you're given a new beginning a new purpose you're given a new mission and you're given a new legacy that you can leave to your kids that maybe you didn't have but a new one that you can hand to them because that's what Christ does he's a part of new beginnings you were not destined to repeat the sins of your father's you were not destined to be defined by the sins of your father's in Christ we are new creatures Paul would write about in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 he said therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation all things have passed away behold all things have become new second Corinthians 5:17 hold on to that verse your past does not have to define you Jesus makes us new creatures and gives us new purpose and new identity tragically I think too many Christians have spent far too much time looking in the past instead of looking ahead too many times Christians spend a lot of time trying to untangle their messy family tree rather than grabbing hold of the message that they are new creatures in Christ don't get me wrong there is a place in a time to deal with some of the mess of our family tree and sometimes with the help of good godly Christian counselors there's nothing wrong with that that can be helpful but then there's also a time and a place to move on and to say be that as it may I had no control over my family that I was born into but in Christ I have a new family and a new identity in him and that's important for us to understand jesus said in luke's gospel chapter 962 no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God there is a forward look that we need to have in our walk with him in Philippians 3 13 and 14 Paul said it this way forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus now again it's important to recognize number one you had no say about what family you would be born into Jesus didn't this is his record and number two you can't change what was handed to you but when I look here at at how messy Jesus's own family tree was it speaks to me in two ways number one I'll close with these last two points number one it speaks to me in this way that it did not define Jesus he lived his life for the glory of God the Father without letting his family tree define or deter him it's important for all of us we're new creatures in Christ don't let your family tree define you or deter you from who you really are in Christ as a believer and number two this is important also God used some pretty messed up people to accomplish his glorious purposes though the genealogical record of Jesus is littered with a trail of human failure it is I only highlighted a few God will use imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan and some of you just need to hear it said like this as plainly as I can say this the heritage you have received is not nearly as important as the legacy that you will leave everybody here that the heritage you have received is not nearly as important as the legacy that you will leave why because the heritage you received you had no choice in but the legacy you leave is all your choice leave a legacy that glorifies Jesus and live out your life in a way that exemplifies you are a new creature in Christ amen let's pray together amen father we thank you that even in the geological record of Christ we can see important principles how you used very flawed people to do your good work how you redeemed people's lives and accomplished your purposes through them through this record we see here we see ourselves we see our own flawed sinful lives that you can redeem and forgive and give us a new identity a new heart a new beginning so that we might leave a legacy to the next generation of you that we would live a life in such a way that you'd be honored and glorified and that's the legacy we want to leave we want to honor you in such a way that the next generation sees you honors you glorifies you wants to walk with you in relationship and so Lord despite our own family history some of it good some of it may be not good we thank you that we have a new family identity in you and Lord a new legacy we can leave because of you thank you Lord for your redeeming work we praise you we look forward to continue our study through the Gospel of Matthew as you would speak to our hearts we love you and praise you together in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

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Length: 35min 58sec (2158 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2020