[0:00] Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 1. I hope you'll see a theme.
[0:12] Thanks, Rob. Do you remember we did Genesis? Genesis was the first book of the Bible, of the Old Testament. A theme of beginnings.
[0:23] Well, Matthew is the beginning of the New Testament. And it also has themes of beginnings as well. And, yeah, maybe we'll go to the end of the Bible after we've done Matthew and we'll do Revelation.
[0:40] And we'll connect it all together. But I want to just point out to you a little booklet that we have. You'll find it on the table as you go out the door on your way out.
[0:51] Pick up a copy, one per family at least to start with. This booklet is an overview of Matthew's Gospel. I put it together to help me in my studies so I know where I'm going and what it's all about.
[1:07] But it will help you too as well as we go through our studies. It will give you the big story, the big picture of what it's all about. Some of the big themes to look out for.
[1:18] And if at any point as we go through Matthew you'll forget, how did we start? Where does this bit fit in? How does it all connect? Well, you can just dip in and check the sections out and read the paragraphs.
[1:30] And it'll help you remember where we are and what it's all about. So please do pick up your copy of Matthew's Gospel. It'll help you and it will be good for you.
[1:44] Well, we're going to read Matthew chapter 1, verses 1 to 17 together. Let's read God's Word.
[1:54] This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
[2:10] Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez the father of Hezron. Hezron the father of Ram. Ram the father of Aminadab.
[2:22] Aminadab the father of Nashon. Nashon the father of Salmon. Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.
[2:37] Obed the father of Jesse. And Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife.
[2:49] Solomon the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam the father of Abijah. Abijah the father of Asa. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat.
[2:59] And Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram. Jehoram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah the father of Jotham. Jotham the father of Ahaz. Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.
[3:12] Hezekiah the father of Manasseh. Manasseh the father of Amon. Amon the father of Josiah. And Josiah the father of Jeconiah. And his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
[3:27] After the exile to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.
[3:37] Abiud the father of Eliakim. Eliakim the father of Azor. Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok the father of Achim. Achim the father of Elihuud.
[3:50] Elihuud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar the father of Matan. Matan the father of Jacob. and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
[4:09] Thus there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile to Babylon and 14 from the exile to the Messiah.
[4:22] Well, interesting start. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.
[4:39] Words that have been written down, preserved and recorded for us. And we thank you now for this gospel, the good news about Jesus according to Matthew, written down so that we can read today and learn about Jesus the Messiah.
[5:05] And we pray that this would not just be an information exercise, but that as we learn about the person of Jesus, as we discover who he is, what he came to do, what it is to follow him and walk with him, that we would experience the person of Jesus in our own life, day to day, throughout our work, whether we're at school or wherever we are, that we would know him personally and intimately.
[5:46] And that this would be a time of growing, perhaps for the first time, stepping out in a relationship with Jesus.
[5:56] So, Holy Spirit, be our teacher. Shine your light upon Christ so that we see him in all his greatness.
[6:12] And would you apply all that we learn to our life so that we love you and worship you. In Jesus' name.
[6:24] Amen. Amen. Amen. So, how has your new year gone so far?
[6:36] One week into it. In many ways, the new year gives us an opportunity for that fresh start, a new beginning. The past, all put behind us, and with wonderful hopes for the future.
[6:54] And so, with so renewed enthusiasm, we step out into our new year. And we say to ourselves, yes, this is going to be different.
[7:05] This is going to be a good year. But the problem is, sooner or later, our past catches up with us and our hopes for the future come crashing down around us.
[7:19] The memories we so desperately want to leave behind have a habit of resurfing once again as people fail us and we fail ourselves.
[7:29] And the hopes and dreams we have of the future come to a shuddering end as we receive unwanted news from the doctor or from our employer.
[7:40] The new beginning, the fresh start, eludes us once again. Or has it? Because Matthew begins his gospel with some good news.
[7:55] Look at verse 1. This is the genealogy of. Now, to our minds, that's not the best introduction or the most inspiring opening for a book.
[8:09] If Matthew is trying to entice us and excite us to continue on with his writing, it seems to have the opposite effect. A list of unpronounceable names, most of whom we've never heard of and we know nothing about.
[8:25] Well, with a little patience and careful attention, we will discover that Matthew is introducing us to someone who can give us a new beginning and a fresh start.
[8:37] Something that we all long for. Whether we say, I'm a follower of Jesus or I've been following him for 40 years. This fresh start deals with all our past.
[8:52] Gives us a new hope for the future and makes our life possible today. So as we get into this big list of names, we're going to look at three things.
[9:05] A new creation, a promised king, and a great saviour. Three things. Here's the first one.
[9:16] A new creation. The introduction takes us on a journey that brings us right to the very start of the Bible story. Look at verse 1.
[9:27] This is the genealogy of. Now that little phrase, the only place that phrase appears is at the beginning of Genesis.
[9:39] You can follow on the screen. This is what it says. This is the account of, literally, this is the genealogy of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
[9:56] Matthew is intentionally bringing us back to the creation of the world. John's gospel does something similar, doesn't it? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.
[10:08] He's taking us back to the beginning. Matthew's doing exactly the same. He's bringing us back to the creation of the world. Because we know that in the beginning the world was formless and empty.
[10:22] There was darkness and chaos and then God spoke bringing order, design and beauty. Something new had begun.
[10:35] And that's what should trigger off in our minds as we start into Matthew's gospel. This is the genealogy of here's a new beginning, here's a fresh start, a new creation.
[10:48] Not such a boring introduction anymore, is it? Because you see, left to ourselves, our life is very often formless and empty.
[11:04] Without meaning, without purpose. So often we experience darkness and chaos as terrible things happen to us. And in our desperation to change it all, we try new things, we start new projects, we make ourselves new promises.
[11:23] In our longings to be filled and satisfied, we stuff ourselves with new comforts, new relationships, new jobs. But it's into all this restless noise and into this relentless striving that we're introduced to one person who can bring about a new creation of our lives.
[11:46] And when we listen to this person, when we hear his words, he brings about an order, a design, and a beauty. When we trust him, he heals us of all our past, he secures our future, and he gives us a way to live today.
[12:08] It's the kind of fresh start, a new beginning we desire every day. Every day we wake up. A new creation formed out of our broken, messed up lives.
[12:25] So who is this person? Who's the one who brings about the new creation? Well, here we are, second, a promised king.
[12:38] The new creation comes through. Look at verse 1. This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[12:51] Jesus is the person who brings about the new creation in life. And to help us understand who Jesus is and why he's qualified to do this, Matthew begins by tracing his family line from Abraham to David to Jesus.
[13:11] That's what the list of names is. So from 2 to 6, Abraham to David and from 6 through to 16, David down to Jesus.
[13:22] So let's follow the family line and see why Jesus is qualified to be this promised king. first, Jesus is the son of Abraham.
[13:37] So we read in verse 2 that Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob and so on. You see, Matthew intentionally starts with Abraham because that's where we hear God's great promise to the world.
[13:54] Do you remember the great promise? Go back to Genesis chapter 12 in your Bible. First book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 12. Here God promises to bring blessing to the nations, to the peoples of the earth.
[14:23] Genesis chapter 12 verse 1. Abraham. The Lord said to Abraham, later he would be called Abraham. The Lord said to Abraham, go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you.
[14:39] I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse.
[14:52] And here it comes. and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. What a grand promise.
[15:05] God makes the promise to Abraham that through his family the nations of the world all the people groups would be blessed.
[15:17] Now if we're going to make sense of this promised blessing we need to remember that God had brought a curse upon the world and the people. A curse because of people's rebellion.
[15:27] We read about that in Genesis chapter 3. A curse that left people separated from God living in a world full of disorder decay and death and now in Genesis 12 God makes this great big announcement his promise to undo and reverse the curse.
[15:46] I'm going to bring blessing. And how is God going to do that? Well God not only promised to Abraham that he would bring blessing he promised Abraham that from his family there would be a bunch of kings that were going to come from his family.
[16:06] So go on a couple of pages to Genesis 17 Genesis 17 and verse 6. Again God is speaking more promises to Abraham.
[16:18] Genesis 17 verse 6. God says to Abraham I will make you very fruitful I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.
[16:34] Go on to verse 15. God also said to Abraham as for Sarah your wife you are no longer to call her Sarah her name will be Sarah I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations kings of peoples will come from her so can you get this grand big promise God says I'm going to bless the nations and the blessing is going to come through a bunch of kings that are going to come from you so he starts with Abraham Jesus the son of Abraham and then it's Jesus the son of David Matthew records for us that from Abraham comes the king of David and so we continue on with David because that's where we see God's great big promise being worked out so let's jump ahead to 2 Samuel chapter 7 just keep going to 2 Samuel chapter 7 if you're using a church bible it's on page 310 310 if you're using the church bible 2 Samuel chapter 7 you see as the generations pass by all the way from Abraham through all these people and you can read about all these people in the old testament we're introduced to one of the kings that had been promised from
[18:16] Abraham and that king is David and God restates the promise to king David but this time there's something different the promise is tied to one person to come so let's pick it up in chapter 7 the end of verse 11 God is speaking to David he says the Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you when he talks about a house not such a physical building but a nation a people he says I will establish a house for you when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors I will raise up your offspring to succeed you your own flesh and blood and I will establish his kingdom he is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever verse 16 your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me your throne shall be established forever you see
[19:35] God is promising to bless the nations but that's going to be fulfilled in one person to come one king who was to come a king who would establish a new kingdom a new creation kind of kingdom a kingdom of new beginnings and fresh starts a kingdom that would last forever where there would be no more curse let's go back to Matthew so Jesus is the son of Abraham the son of David Matthew gives us all these lists of names and he traces the genealogy from verse 2 Abraham to David and then all the way let's read verse 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah
[20:36] Messiah is a Hebrew word simply means anointed one well we're familiar with the other phrase aren't we Jesus the Christ Christ is Greek for anointed one so when someone became king they were anointed oil was poured on their head it was affirmed and confirming their position of absolute power and supreme authority well here Jesus the king Jesus the Messiah the anointed one arrives he's the promised king over all the nations the one that was promised way before through Abraham through David who was going to bring blessing the one who was going to bring a new beginning and a fresh start he has now come he's here he's arrived you see the genealogy of Jesus shows us that the coming of Jesus into the world was planned purposed and all promised by God he didn't just show up out of nowhere this is no mistake it wasn't that Jesus arrived and they're thinking
[21:50] I wonder what job will give him to do what could he possibly do no Jesus is not an afterthought he is not some desperate attempt by God to try and fix everything he is the promised king who has now come for you and for me the king promised from before time and who now enters into time that day that day has arrived he's here he's the king who brings about a new creation of individual lives the fresh start that we all long for but how will this happen how do we get to experience this promised king bringing about a new creation in our life how am I going to experience it how are you going to you well that brings us to number three a great savior you see genealogies are very helpful in tracing your family line you probably have a genealogy at home tracing your family line back to a certain date well in those times a genealogy not only helps you trace back your family line it also acted like your CV your curriculum vitae it was a way of showing this is who I am these are your credentials so in
[23:25] Ezra chapter 2 verse 6 you can look it up later we read of an account of a priest who wants to go working in the temple because that's where priests work they work in the temple and he shows up for work and guess what he's not allowed to serve in the temple why because he can't find his genealogy he's got no record to say it's me I'm a priest check me out it's really true we have something similar today don't we if you go for a job it helps if somebody knows your family it's important that isn't it they go oh Alex you're you're you're Robin's dad oh we know the Unums oh we'll give you a job or Graham you know you're you're a daunt oh perfect no problem get him in there quick it's helpful isn't it that you've got a pedigree of your your family and they go yeah that's that's great but when we read
[24:29] Jesus's genealogy when we when we look at his credentials it's really not so great it reads more like a rogues gallery there's skeletons falling all over the place open every door and another skeleton pops out it's shameful and embarrassing you don't want to read this in public but you know what rather than disqualify Jesus this only helps us to see what a great and amazing saviour he is three things it tells us first that Jesus comes for outsiders and failures surprisingly Matthew includes the names of four women it's not normal to do so but he does five including Mary but we're going to come back to her and what all these women have in common is they don't really fit in to put it politely they've all led a very colourful life so look at verse three
[25:44] Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah they were twins whose mother was Tamar well we can read about all these names in the Old Testament Tamar tricked Judah who was her father in law to sleep with him it was an incestuous relationship look at verse five Salmon the father of Boaz whose mother was Rahab Rahab who was she well she was a pagan prostitute operating in a dangerous business reserved for the lowest of the low continue on in verse five Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth well Ruth was a Moabite she came from those people over there people who were known for their sexual immorality and wild living look down at verse six
[26:50] Jesse the father of King David whose David well he was the father of Solomon whose mother had been Uriah's wife we're not told who Uriah's wife was we're not given a name but again we can read about it in Kings her name was Bathsheba and David ended up having an affair with her and she with him all these women they're not the kind of people you would want to associate with they're all outsiders ostracised excluded rejected they're all damaged goods they're the talk of the town the whisper in the street but it's not just the women who have this reputation look at the men they all may be kings with great power and political persuasion but it doesn't hide who they really are again let's look at verse 6
[27:57] David the greatest of them all the father of Solomon whose mother had been Uriah's wife well you know what David enjoyed his affair so much that he arranged for Uriah to be murdered off so that he could take Uriah's wife for himself what a scandal a political scandal front pages of the Jerusalem times king murders except for nobody really found out did they or verse 7 Solomon well Solomon was a disaster mistreating his people and accumulating women and wealth all for his own pleasure or verse 7 Rehoboam he single handedly turned the people from God and appointed his own priests and places of worship he ruined the nation or jump down to the end of verse 9
[29:03] Ahaz Ahaz in desperation sacrificed his own son in a fire in a pagan act of worship could you imagine the thought of picking up your own son and placing him in the fire that was his desperation oh they may have great titles they may be recorded in history of positions of great power but they're all failures morally spiritually socially they're not the kind of man that you would turn around and go that's my dad all these people every name in this list they're all outsiders and failures but yet they're all here it's like Jesus is saying to us look at my family this is who we are in all its mess and all its brokenness and I have come for people just like this and we may be here this morning and we can look back into our own families and we can think of things that are embarrassing and shameful and we don't want anybody to know but not just our families we look into our own life and we remember things we have done and things we have said and actions that have taken place and Jesus is saying
[30:41] I've come for you for moral outsiders for spiritual failures I have come for broken and messy people such as us Jesus comes not just for outsiders and failures Jesus has come to save by repentance and faith he comes to rescue moral outsiders and spiritual failures jump ahead to verse 21 Mary had been told by the angel that she was going to have a son and she's told verse 21 she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins that's what this king has come for this is the primary purpose of Jesus' arrival this is what he has come to do when Jesus died on the cross he became sin for us just as we read or
[31:57] Ralph reminded us that Jesus came into the world to save sinners people like you and I Jesus as he died on the cross was treated as a moral outsider he was rejected as a spiritual failure he was punished for my sin and your sin so that we could be forgiven he's saying come to me and I will deal with your past once and for all all those secret things that you hang on to that trip you up and come back to your memory time and time again and don't allow you to move on I will deal with it all and I will give you a new beginning and I'll give you a new future for now and forever how he says come to me look at chapter 4 verse 17 as Jesus began to preach as he began to explain who he was and what he did this is his message chapter 4 verse 17 from that time on
[33:08] Jesus began to preach repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near the new creation that you are all longing for has now come and you find it in me you find it as you repent repentance is always a double response it's turning from one way of living and turning to trusting in someone else something else trying turning from trying to save yourself to trusting in Jesus the saviour or we put it another way it's no longer putting faith in self but putting faith in Jesus it's owning our past it's owning our sin it's taking responsibility for how we've responded and what we've done and coming to Jesus and saying you need to deal with it you need to take it all because I can't do it that's repentance that's faith it's how we begin our journey with
[34:23] Jesus and it's how we continue with him and if you're here today and you've never done it listen to his words repent come to me if you have and you're struggling come back to the words again and see the new creation that he gives we don't have to live shaped by our past we are now living a new way for a better future so Jesus comes for outsiders and failures and he saves by repentance and faith and then third he works through weakness humility go back to chapter one verse sixteen chapter one verse sixteen Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary and
[35:23] Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah you know God could have chosen any number of ways for Jesus to come into this world he could have come through a family of influence and power he could have come through the socially wealthy and successful he could have come through a system of religious rulers or the political elite but no God the creator of the world chose to come and work through Mary a young unknown frightened teenage girl a nobody in the eyes of the world no power no influence not wealthy or successful no great background no great heritage just a weak and humble girl yet Mary is the person
[36:24] God chose to be the mother of the saviour of the world be amazed this is how Jesus works he takes the ordinary he uses those who know they have nothing and who are utterly dependent who admit their weakness and humbly follow God in all his ways and it hasn't changed it's the same for you and for I he takes ordinary nobodies and he works in us and through us in all our fears and in all our worries he uses people like us to bring the gospel to bring the good news of this new creation that anyone can find in Christ if they turn to him this is the kind of great saviour we have in
[37:26] Jesus he comes for outsiders and failures he saves as we turn in repentance and faith and he works through us through the weak and the humble do you hear what Jesus is saying to you today I am the saving king who has come to bring about a new creation in your life walk with me follow me and you will experience this life as you trust in me let's pray together our father god we are amazed that the plan you had from the creation of the world to bring your son the
[38:44] Lord Jesus to be the one who would make a new creation out of the mess and brokenness of our life to come to us and save us to forgive us of all our sin so that each and every new day as we waken up to the start of a new day we can begin afresh because of Jesus father help us to trust you to trust your son to walk with him and may we all know and experience more the new creation the new life that you have for us help us as we embark together into 2022 whatever we face whatever tears whatever joys we will follow Jesus the promised king the savior of our lives amen we're going to sing together ¿ damn you