WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.520 Well, I'd like us just to turn back together to the passages that Hunter read for us. 00:00:07.520 --> 00:00:13.320 And today we are going to begin a short series in the run-up to Christmas called The King 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.280 of Christmas. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:21.280 Let's read again a verse from each of the passages that Hunter read for us. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:27.240 First, Isaiah 9-2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:32.799 Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:35.960 And then the words of verse 1 and chapter 1 of Matthew. 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:46.280 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:51.320 Matthew chapter 1 is one of several places in the Bible where we find a genealogy, a 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:55.879 long list of names in a family. 00:00:55.880 --> 00:01:00.320 And I guess if we're honest, this is perhaps one of the places of the Bible where we can 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:04.040 be very tempted to just skip ahead. 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:11.560 A strange list of names, many of whom we know very little about, can seem unlikely to have 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:14.659 much for us today. 00:01:14.659 --> 00:01:21.240 Is there anything in that genealogy that's going to help you or me today or in the week 00:01:21.240 --> 00:01:22.240 ahead? 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:26.839 Well, I want us to have a look together and see what we can see. 00:01:26.839 --> 00:01:30.679 Our title, as you can see, is the Promised King. 00:01:30.679 --> 00:01:34.799 And rather than having sermon headings as such, we're just going to look at some of 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:40.079 the names that appear in this genealogy. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:44.719 If we do stop to see a genealogy, it can be quite an overwhelming thing to look at. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:49.079 You can see in the screen there, there's just loads and loads of names. 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.840 But instinctive approach to something like this can be to see it as something quite 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:55.959 impressive. 00:01:55.959 --> 00:02:00.400 And that's especially true if a family tree includes royalty. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:07.200 I remember as a child seeing a poster of all the kings and queens of Britain. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:13.360 And looking at that poster, it looked like a list of strong, successful and important 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:14.960 people. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:19.840 And even in a non-royal family, when we look back at family trees, often our attention 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:26.960 is drawn to the impressive or the successful figures in any family's history. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.960 And our first impression of this genealogy of Jesus could very easily be exactly the 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.800 same because if you look at the big list there that Matthew's got, there's many of the prominent 00:02:35.800 --> 00:02:39.080 names from the Old Testament. 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:47.760 And a key part of this genealogy is that it gives us the royal line descending from David. 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:53.000 So at first glance, it all looks pretty impressive. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:03:00.320 But if you look at a family tree in more detail, you'll see that the actual reality of the 00:03:00.320 --> 00:03:06.280 lives of the people listed is not necessarily as impressive as our first impressions might 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:09.360 conclude. 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:14.360 And that's true even of the royal family in our own nation. 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:19.840 If you go back through history, you'll see stories of heartbreak, misery and failure 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:24.719 in the lives of kings and queens who ruled our country. 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:30.319 And exactly the same is true in this genealogy in Matthew chapter one. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:38.680 If we think about the lives that these people actually had, we'll see that for most of them 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:41.199 things were difficult. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:47.359 And Isaiah describes that very powerfully when he speaks about the Old Testament community 00:03:47.359 --> 00:03:56.519 as those who walked in darkness and who dwelled in a land of deep darkness. 00:03:56.520 --> 00:04:04.120 So we might come to this genealogy and think, wow, what an impressive heritage Jesus has. 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:13.240 The truth is, this is a family line with a dark and difficult past. 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:19.960 Now to help us see that, I want to just pick four names out of this genealogy to look at 00:04:19.960 --> 00:04:21.960 more closely. 00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:24.439 There's actually lots that we could look at in this genealogy. 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:28.639 One of the things that's particularly interesting is the mention of women. 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:32.839 But what I want to do is actually just pick out four of the men and I'm going to go for 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.079 some of the slightly not so obvious ones. 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:44.439 So I have picked, slightly randomly, Hezron, Rehoboam, Abaihud and Matham. 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:50.720 So Hezron, he's probably three or four generations after Jacob. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:56.720 So that means he comes probably in between the book of Genesis and Exodus. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:01.320 Now just to note that in genealogies like this in the Bible, it's not uncommon for them 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:04.280 to skip out generations. 00:05:04.280 --> 00:05:10.480 So being the father of someone doesn't necessarily refer to immediate offspring. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:15.520 It can also refer to someone being the descendant of someone else. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:21.240 And you see that actually in verse one of Matthew where it says that Jesus is the son 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:28.519 of David and the son of Abraham, obviously in a sense of being a descendant. 00:05:28.519 --> 00:05:32.319 So Hezron, probably three or four generations after Jacob. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:38.120 So that's roughly kind of 1600, 1700 BC-ish. 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:42.719 Rehoboam, he was king after Solomon. 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:48.520 And so that was around 920 BC, his reign was 931-913. 00:05:48.520 --> 00:05:54.720 Abaihud, he is a little bit further on, probably around 450 BC-ish. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:06:02.520 Again, we don't know exactly, but he comes after the Jews have returned from exile in Babylon. 00:06:02.520 --> 00:06:06.320 And that means he's more or less at the end of the Old Testament, pretty much at the kind 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:10.120 of conclusion of the Old Testament era. 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:20.319 And then we have Mathan who comes just a generation or two, two or three generations before Joseph. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:25.720 He may have been his grandfather, he may have been his great grandfather. 00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:26.720 We can't be sure. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:30.319 He probably lived around 100 BC, maybe a wee bit before. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:34.920 The key thing is that he lived in the bit between the Old Testament and the New Testament, 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.720 what we call the inter-testamental period. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:43.400 Now I don't know very much about any of these four, except Rehoboam we know a little bit 00:06:43.400 --> 00:06:48.720 about from the book of Kings and Chronicles. 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:54.160 However, we do know quite a bit about the days in which they lived. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:58.120 And the knowledge of the periods in which these people lived can help us build up a 00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:01.640 picture of what their lives were like. 00:07:01.640 --> 00:07:05.320 And to try and kind of bring us into their lives a wee bit for these, not just to be 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:11.879 kind of names that just seem a million miles away, I thought we could interview them to 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:13.519 find out more about them. 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:19.399 So we're going to interview them in inverted commas and we're going to ask them two questions. 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:22.399 Where do you live and what's it like? 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:26.600 So let's start with Hezron, where do you live and what's it like? 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:28.319 I live in Egypt. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.159 That's not where I'm originally from. 00:07:30.159 --> 00:07:34.039 My family are from north of here where the Canaanites live. 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:37.480 That's our home, but we had to leave because of famine. 00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:43.760 We all came to Egypt as a family because my great-great-uncle Joseph was high up in the 00:07:43.760 --> 00:07:44.760 government here. 00:07:44.760 --> 00:07:46.640 He did an amazing job. 00:07:46.640 --> 00:07:51.040 He had planned for the famine and that meant there was enough food here. 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:56.640 He was also really good to our family because he gave us an area to settle in called Goshen. 00:07:56.640 --> 00:07:59.920 It was amazing how it all worked out. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.960 But it's not like that now. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:07.919 Joseph died long ago and since then, her new king has come and he's got no word of what 00:08:07.919 --> 00:08:08.919 Joseph did. 00:08:08.919 --> 00:08:10.879 He started treating us differently. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:16.519 None of us are getting good jobs and he seems to be treating us Israelites very differently 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:19.000 from how he treats the Egyptians. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:25.919 There are loads of us now and I sometimes think he sees us as a threat. 00:08:25.919 --> 00:08:29.079 It's getting harder and harder to make a living. 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.639 We are not being treated fairly. 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:37.639 I'm not sure, but the way things are going, if we stay here in Egypt, I worry that we 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.360 might end up as slaves. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:44.639 Trouble is, we have no king. 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:51.639 We have no one to lead us and we have nowhere else to go. 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:53.480 Interview number two is with Rehoboam. 00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:55.080 Where do you live and what's it like? 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:57.879 I live in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:01.799 Well, actually, it's not the capital of Israel anymore. 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:03.679 It used to be the capital of Israel. 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:09.320 Now it's just the capital of the southern half of Israel, which we call Judah. 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:11.960 When I became king, I made a big mistake. 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:16.039 I wanted to prove that I was as wise as my father Solomon. 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:20.879 I thought I needed to show everyone that I was in charge now. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:25.600 So I didn't listen to the old men who had worked with my father. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.040 The people were wanting to reduce their workloads. 00:09:29.040 --> 00:09:33.200 I thought that now that I was king, I would cement my authority. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:34.200 So I did the opposite. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:37.480 I pushed them even harder. 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:39.720 But it was a huge mistake. 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:43.920 There was a massive rebellion led by a guy called Jeroboam and it divided the whole 00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:44.920 country. 00:09:44.920 --> 00:09:46.519 So now there's two kingdoms. 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:50.680 I'm still king here in the south, but our kingdom is small and weak. 00:09:50.680 --> 00:09:54.160 Most of the tribes went with Jeroboam. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:58.120 When my father Solomon died, we were a strong, prosperous nation. 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:02.759 In fact, I remember the Queen of Sheba coming all the way to see how amazing it was. 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:05.319 But now it is not like that. 00:10:05.319 --> 00:10:10.600 I am supposed to be the king, but I'm the guy who broke the kingdom. 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.719 I don't know if it will ever be reunited. 00:10:13.719 --> 00:10:18.439 My father Solomon was a good king and his father David was the very best. 00:10:18.439 --> 00:10:24.039 I don't think we'll ever have a king like that again. 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:25.839 So view number three is with Abaihud. 00:10:25.839 --> 00:10:27.519 Where do you live and what's it like? 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:29.319 I live in Jerusalem. 00:10:29.319 --> 00:10:35.240 Well, if you can call it Jerusalem, the place still looks like a war zone. 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:39.159 150 years ago, this place was ravaged by the Babylonians. 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:41.719 The devastation was unreal. 00:10:41.719 --> 00:10:45.959 My parents and grandparents were taken as exiles to Babylon. 00:10:45.959 --> 00:10:49.959 We've come back and there's been a huge effort to try and restore the city. 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:55.519 Nehemiah and Ezra did an incredible job of rebuilding the walls and the temple. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:58.360 And my own family were helping as well. 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:03.560 So things are better now and the city doesn't look as bad as it did. 00:11:03.560 --> 00:11:10.440 But everyone says that the old folk who had seen the temple before and who have lived 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:17.480 long enough to see it being rebuilt, they said that the restored one isn't a patch 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:19.519 on the original. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:24.279 I look at this city now and it's just a shadow of what it used to be. 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.240 And the biggest problem is that there's no king. 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:30.639 We just have a governor who reports back to empire headquarters in Persia. 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:39.039 I look at the ruins of Solomon's palace and I wonder, will we ever have a king again? 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:42.759 And our last interview is with Mathan. 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:44.720 Where do you live and what's it like? 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:46.720 I live in Bethlehem. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.039 A lot of my family lived in Jerusalem over the years. 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:53.199 In fact, my family is connected to the kings that used to reign there. 00:11:53.199 --> 00:11:54.519 But we don't live there now. 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:56.439 It's far too dangerous. 00:11:56.439 --> 00:12:01.159 I still remember a few years ago it was absolute chaos. 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:05.399 A Greek king called Antiochus came and he caused havoc. 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:09.719 They were even worshiping the Greek gods use in our temple. 00:12:09.719 --> 00:12:15.839 It was unreal and the fighting afterwards was brutal. 00:12:15.839 --> 00:12:17.799 We came to Bethlehem to be safer. 00:12:17.799 --> 00:12:21.599 In fact, my ancestors are from this town so I still have family connections. 00:12:21.599 --> 00:12:25.879 Things have settled down a bit but there's always rumors of fighting. 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:28.439 You see, no one knows who's really meant to be king. 00:12:28.439 --> 00:12:31.959 There's guys in Jerusalem who are ruling us but I'm not sure they're actually connected 00:12:31.959 --> 00:12:33.719 to David's royal line. 00:12:33.719 --> 00:12:39.000 And we keep hearing talk about some country in the West that's becoming really strong. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.519 I think they're called the Romans or something like that. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:46.599 I don't know what kind of country my grandchildren will live in. 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:54.000 I have no idea who their king will be. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:00.519 These four interviews are obviously illustrations that I've just provided from my own imagination. 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:06.960 But they do reflect what we know about the days in which all these people lived. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.960 It's reminding us that when we look at that genealogy in Matthew chapter one, we're not 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:17.560 seeing Jesus coming as the crowning moment in a long-standing success story. 00:13:17.560 --> 00:13:19.400 It's the opposite. 00:13:19.400 --> 00:13:24.360 The history of God's people from Abraham all the way down to Matthew chapter one, it has 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:29.080 occasional bright spots but for most of it, whether it's the days of Hezron, Rehoboim, 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:34.680 Abaihut or Mathan, these were dark and difficult days. 00:13:34.680 --> 00:13:40.639 The Old Testament people of God were meant to be a family nation united together as 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:50.279 descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, living together as God's people under the 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:55.480 King who feared God and who protected them. 00:13:55.480 --> 00:14:00.879 But they're now a broken family and a broken nation. 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:06.360 And I'm sure that Hezron, Rehoboim, Abaihut and Mathan and everyone else in this genealogy, 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:10.319 I'm sure that they would have looked at their lives, looked at their families, looked at 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:16.360 their nation and thought, I wish things were different. 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:22.120 For them, the past was a sort of pain, the present was a cause for sorrow and the future 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:26.160 was a reason to be afraid. 00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:32.360 And I'm sure that for many of us, although our circumstances are different, I'm sure 00:14:32.360 --> 00:14:37.240 that for many of us, things are the same. 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:40.639 So while, yes, we're all really excited about Christmas and looking forward to what that 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:44.639 might bring, maybe the reason we're so excited about Christmas is because it will bring a 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:49.600 kind of distraction and relief in the midst of all our struggles. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:53.919 Maybe you can look at your own life and look at your past and maybe it's left you with 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:57.159 many bruises and scars. 00:14:57.159 --> 00:15:04.000 Maybe the present right now is a struggle and maybe even no one else is aware of it. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:10.240 And maybe the future, rather than being a source of hope, is just a source of worry. 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:18.120 Maybe you look at yourself, at your family and at your nation and think, I wish things 00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:22.240 were different. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:29.840 And when we feel like that, I think that there's two things that we as humans tend to long 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:30.840 for. 00:15:30.840 --> 00:15:35.360 We don't just mean as Christians, I mean just as humans across the board. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:44.200 We long for people to lead us and we long for people to listen to us. 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:51.160 So that's why when people want things to be different, they put their hopes in a new government. 00:15:51.160 --> 00:15:55.680 For Abaihud and Reheboham, that would have been a new king for us. 00:15:55.680 --> 00:15:58.960 It's not a king or a queen, it's a government. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:03.080 But it's just the same thing, it's longing for new leadership. 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:10.560 People want new leaders to change things, to lead society into a better place. 00:16:10.560 --> 00:16:15.040 And throughout history, people have placed great hope in different political figures 00:16:15.040 --> 00:16:22.320 or political movements, whether it's Marxism or Socialism or Capitalism, Nationalism, whatever 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:25.360 it may be. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:31.279 And the reason people cry out for ideologies like that is because they want our nation 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:37.279 to be led out of dark days into something better. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:43.039 But at the same time, we want to be listened to as individuals. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:48.759 So we want our personal needs met, we want our opinions heard, we want our preferences 00:16:48.759 --> 00:16:54.920 to be respected, and we want our feeling of being wronged to be put right. 00:16:54.919 --> 00:17:01.519 We want our voice, we expect certain rights, and we don't want to be treated as just like 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:09.119 an anonymous statistic in a great population that our government is leading. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:16.000 And that's why we all hate it if a government makes us feel as though we as individuals 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.799 don't matter. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:26.599 So when we feel like we're in dark days, we long to be led as a united population, but 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:33.000 we also long to be listened to as unique individuals. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.960 We want these two things that you can see on the screen. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:47.159 But what I hope you can all see is that very often these two longings come into tension 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.279 with one another. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:56.080 So we want everyone else to listen to our preferred leader, but at the same time, we 00:17:56.080 --> 00:18:02.400 want people, including our leaders, to listen to us as well. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:07.040 And that tension then manifests itself in lots of different ways. 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:15.040 So for example, people will want national change so that things are different, but personal 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:19.639 affirmation so that they can carry on doing what they like doing. 00:18:19.639 --> 00:18:26.639 So for example, nationally, we all want emissions to be reduced. 00:18:26.639 --> 00:18:31.460 Individually hardly any of us want to use any less electricity. 00:18:31.460 --> 00:18:37.599 People want national boundaries, but at the same time, they want personal freedom. 00:18:37.599 --> 00:18:42.079 So the national boundaries are to restrict people, but we want personal freedom to step 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:49.759 over the line, and of course, lockdown has been a very, very powerful example of that. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:55.119 People want national fairness, but personal advantage. 00:18:55.119 --> 00:19:01.419 And that's why as a nation today in 2020, we simultaneously cry out in outrage about 00:19:01.419 --> 00:19:06.639 slavery and exploitation, but at the same time, we always pursue and demand the cheapest 00:19:06.639 --> 00:19:08.119 prices. 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:11.319 And we never dare to stop and ask whether there might be a connection between the two 00:19:11.319 --> 00:19:13.399 things. 00:19:13.399 --> 00:19:19.519 In a similar way, people want national generosity, but personal increase. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:26.639 That's why we can be equally enraged by a shortage of nurses and a higher tax bill, ignoring 00:19:26.639 --> 00:19:29.279 the fact that the latter pays for the former. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:35.519 Now, I acknowledge that in all those examples, I am oversimplifying things, but even so, 00:19:35.519 --> 00:19:39.960 I do think it's true today that many of the difficulties we face are because of the enormous 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:47.279 tension that exists between our longing to be led as a united society and our longing 00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:52.880 to be listened to as unique individuals. 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:57.039 And that was true for people like Hezron, Rehoboam, Abaihud and Matham. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:19:59.720 They're not disposable, nobody's. 00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:03.079 They're not just numbers and a statistic, names and a list. 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:08.279 They were all unique individuals living in their own circumstances with their own challenges, 00:20:08.279 --> 00:20:11.079 their struggles and their needs. 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:16.720 But they were also part of a wider society that desperately needed a leader, someone 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:22.200 to rule, defend and unite the nation. 00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:28.039 But without that king, they were a people with no one to lead them and no one to listen 00:20:28.039 --> 00:20:29.399 to them. 00:20:29.399 --> 00:20:36.839 They were a people who walked in darkness and who dwelled in a land of deep darkness. 00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:43.919 They longed for things to be different and we are the same as individuals, as families 00:20:43.919 --> 00:20:48.720 and I think as a nation. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:51.319 So what's the answer to that? 00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:59.579 Well, I think the answer is in this genealogy, but to see it, we need to look a little bit 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:01.519 more closely. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:06.839 So if we look again at Matthew 1, we'll see that although there's many, many names mentioned 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:14.559 prior to Jesus, there are two that are most important, Abraham and David. 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:19.240 And we know that they are most important because Matthew highlights them in verse 1, the book 00:21:19.240 --> 00:21:24.119 of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 00:21:24.119 --> 00:21:29.039 For Matthew, the key point he's making in this genealogy is that Jesus is connected 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:32.159 to David and he's connected to Abraham. 00:21:32.159 --> 00:21:35.319 Now why is that so important? 00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:40.920 Well Abraham and David are key figures in the Old Testament and their lives mark crucial 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:47.839 moments in God's, in the outworking of God's great plan of salvation. 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:52.359 This is where it's helpful to think about the Bible as a whole and when we think about 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:59.439 the Bible as a whole, really it's all about humanity's relationship with God. 00:21:59.439 --> 00:22:03.799 That relationship was established at the beginning when humanity was created. 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:08.000 That relationship was broken when we sinned and rebelled against God. 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.919 All that happens in the first three chapters of Genesis and the rest of the whole Bible 00:22:12.919 --> 00:22:20.799 is about how God responds to this and reveals his plan to save us and restore us into a 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:24.960 relationship with him. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:32.399 Now to describe that relationship, that concept of relationship, the Bible uses a key word 00:22:32.399 --> 00:22:35.720 and that word is the word covenant. 00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:42.879 It's really what the Bible is all about and it's referring to a committed, serious, deep 00:22:42.879 --> 00:22:45.839 lasting relationship. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:53.119 The Old Covenant or the Old Testament as we tend to call it is showing us bit by bit how 00:22:53.119 --> 00:22:55.919 this relationship is being restored. 00:22:55.919 --> 00:23:00.480 It's a bit like a series of foundation stones being set out, that line, that arrow there 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:06.559 that you can see for the Old Covenant, it's like bit by bit setting out stones for how 00:23:06.559 --> 00:23:12.279 God is going to restore this relationship, each one being pieced together as a shadow 00:23:12.279 --> 00:23:17.879 pointing forward to the New Covenant or the New Testament as we tend to call it, where 00:23:17.879 --> 00:23:24.839 God's ultimate plan to restore our relationship is accomplished and revealed through Jesus, 00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:26.079 Christ. 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:32.759 In the Old Testament, Abraham and David are two of these big covenant foundation stone 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:36.200 moments. 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:41.759 God came to them and he makes a covenant with both of them, each of which reveals a key aspect 00:23:41.759 --> 00:23:44.799 of God's plan to save us. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:49.400 With Abraham, the key word is family. 00:23:49.400 --> 00:23:53.440 God comes to Abraham with a covenant promise that he'll have a family and he did. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:59.879 In fact, the whole nation of Israel are descendants from him and their whole society was structured 00:23:59.879 --> 00:24:03.879 around their tribal connections within that family. 00:24:03.879 --> 00:24:11.480 But on top of that promise of a family nation in Israel is the promise God gives to Abraham 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:19.160 that one day all of the world's families will be blessed through Abraham's. 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:21.559 So for Abraham, key word is family. 00:24:21.559 --> 00:24:25.240 For David, the key word is kingdom. 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:31.120 God comes to David with the covenant promises that his family, his descendants will be the 00:24:31.120 --> 00:24:34.400 ruling dynasty in Israel. 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:40.960 But again, on top of that, God promises that one day one of David's descendants will be 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:44.200 a king who reigns forever. 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:47.840 So whenever you see Abraham, I want you to think family. 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:51.840 Whenever you see David, I want you to think of the word kingdom. 00:24:51.840 --> 00:25:00.759 Both of these are key parts of God's covenant plan to restore us into a relationship with 00:25:00.759 --> 00:25:02.559 him. 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:08.680 All of that means that when Matthew highlights these two names, Abraham and David, he's telling 00:25:08.680 --> 00:25:15.400 us that Jesus is coming to fulfill the covenant promises made to these men. 00:25:15.400 --> 00:25:21.360 In other words, Jesus is part of the family line going back to Abraham and he's part of 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:27.600 the family line going back to David. 00:25:27.600 --> 00:25:33.120 That means that Matthew is telling us two crucial things about Jesus. 00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:39.239 He's telling us that he is family and he is king. 00:25:39.239 --> 00:25:44.719 That means that for Hezron, Rehoboam, Abaihut, Mathan, everyone else in this genealogy, everyone 00:25:44.719 --> 00:25:50.239 connected to the family nation, full of unique individuals who've walked in darkness and 00:25:50.239 --> 00:25:54.599 dwelt in a land of darkness and who desperately need a king to lead their family. 00:25:54.599 --> 00:26:01.159 For them, a brighter future has come and it's described so beautifully by Isaiah when he 00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:06.400 says the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light and those who dwell in 00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:11.600 a land of deep darkness on them a light as shone. 00:26:11.600 --> 00:26:19.240 In that passage in Isaiah 9 that we read, Isaiah is prophesying about Jesus who comes 00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:23.000 to fulfill and restore all these things. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:29.800 I want us to focus especially on what he says in verse 6 where it says, For to us a child 00:26:29.799 --> 00:26:33.399 is born, to us a son is given. 00:26:33.399 --> 00:26:38.919 And the government shall be on his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, 00:26:38.919 --> 00:26:43.799 mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:26:43.799 --> 00:26:48.720 Here Isaiah is saying that Jesus is family. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:53.720 He says to us a child is born, to us a son is given. 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:58.680 For the family nation of Israel walking in darkness and sorrow, here is the promise of 00:26:58.680 --> 00:27:02.400 a savior who will be one of us. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:04.440 He is family. 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:07.680 And Isaiah is also saying that Jesus is king. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:11.279 He says that his government will be on his shoulders. 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:17.200 That family nation who desperately needs a king is finally going to get one. 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:21.560 Matthew's telling us therefore that for the people in this genealogy and for the whole 00:27:21.560 --> 00:27:28.320 Jewish nation in the first century, for whom whose past is so dark and bleak, for them the 00:27:28.319 --> 00:27:35.480 future is bright because Jesus is a son and a brother in this family and he's a king and 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:39.000 a governor who will lead them. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:46.200 The years of waiting are over and for the Jews, this is a brilliant moment. 00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:52.559 The promised king has come. 00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:58.399 But if you read on in the Gospel of Matthew, you'll discover that for many of the Jews 00:27:58.399 --> 00:28:06.279 and especially for their leaders, the coming of Jesus was a big disappointment. 00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:11.079 And that's because they got their expectations wrong. 00:28:11.079 --> 00:28:18.359 Their great expectation was that Jesus would restore their family and restore their nation. 00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:24.719 So that meant getting their kingdom back, driving out foreign rulers and rebuilding their territory. 00:28:24.719 --> 00:28:30.319 And that meant getting their family back, getting rid of foreign influence and re-establishing 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:32.000 their national identity. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.279 They wanted Jesus to restore things back to the way they were in the days of David, back 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:40.240 to the days of old in this genealogy. 00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:44.319 But that was never what Jesus came to do. 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:51.720 He did not come to go back to the old days because they were dark days. 00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:54.759 Jesus did not come to restore the family. 00:28:54.759 --> 00:28:58.720 He did not come to restore the kingdom. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:03.399 He came to expand them. 00:29:03.399 --> 00:29:09.559 And that is because that is exactly what God promised Abraham and David and everybody 00:29:09.559 --> 00:29:12.200 else in the first place. 00:29:12.200 --> 00:29:16.920 The goal for the covenant family promise with Abraham is not just for his family nation, 00:29:16.920 --> 00:29:20.360 it was for all nations and all families. 00:29:20.360 --> 00:29:26.440 Jesus has come to call everyone into his family and we are united together in him as brothers 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:28.120 and sisters. 00:29:28.120 --> 00:29:33.680 And the goal for the covenant kingdom promise to David is not for Jesus to reclaim a throne 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:39.120 in Jerusalem, it's that Jesus would reign over everything as king of kings, as ruler 00:29:39.120 --> 00:29:41.920 of every square inch of the universe. 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:48.000 The bright future that's come in Jesus is not just for the people in this genealogy, 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:50.480 it is for everyone. 00:29:50.480 --> 00:29:54.480 Jesus has come to be king over all. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:59.120 He is and he's building a family that stretches across the nations. 00:29:59.120 --> 00:30:07.320 He's not come to restore this family nation or this kingdom, he's come to expand it. 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:15.599 But the key thing I want us to see is that the fact that Jesus is family and the fact 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:26.639 that Jesus is king means that he will do two things for you that no one else can. 00:30:26.639 --> 00:30:33.879 He will lead you and he will listen to you. 00:30:33.880 --> 00:30:42.840 So in other words, he is able to govern, guide and lead a united body of people that no one 00:30:42.840 --> 00:30:47.800 can number and he can show us all a better way to live. 00:30:47.800 --> 00:30:53.360 And yet at the same time he will never forget that you are a unique individual and he will 00:30:53.360 --> 00:30:59.760 never stop listening to you. 00:30:59.760 --> 00:31:02.480 How do we know that? 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:06.680 Well we know it because of how Isaiah describes him. 00:31:06.680 --> 00:31:12.759 He says his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:14.400 Prince of Peace. 00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:17.759 Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:22.599 That means he's got the sense to know how to lead well. 00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:26.400 And you see that so clearly if you read through the rest of Matthew, you see that he shows 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:32.319 us all a far better way to live that is counter-cultural to all the darkness that we see. 00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:34.399 That we see in society around us. 00:31:34.399 --> 00:31:39.000 It also means that he's able to guide you as an individual. 00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.759 He's always able to meet you where you are. 00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:43.439 He will never abandon you. 00:31:43.439 --> 00:31:49.759 He will always listen when you pour out your heart to him. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.240 Jesus is also Mighty God. 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:57.519 That means that he doesn't have the strength and resources of a powerful emperor. 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:03.079 He has the strength and resources of God Almighty. 00:32:03.079 --> 00:32:06.519 But what does he use that strength for? 00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:08.879 He uses it to protect you. 00:32:08.879 --> 00:32:16.519 That's why he's able to say to you, no one, absolutely no one can snatch you out of his 00:32:16.519 --> 00:32:19.599 hand. 00:32:19.599 --> 00:32:21.319 Jesus is also Everlasting Father. 00:32:21.319 --> 00:32:26.839 Now that might sound confusing because usually we refer to God the Father and Jesus as Son. 00:32:26.839 --> 00:32:28.199 And that's absolutely true. 00:32:28.199 --> 00:32:33.199 But I do think it's the case that the whole of verse six is referring to Jesus. 00:32:33.199 --> 00:32:40.519 And the term Everlasting Father here is being used in the sense of a king being Father over 00:32:40.519 --> 00:32:45.119 his nation, which is a phrase that you do see in the Old Testament. 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:50.000 And I think that the truth that that image is presenting to us is the fact that Jesus 00:32:50.000 --> 00:33:01.319 is compassionate and that he cares about his people and that compassion will never end. 00:33:01.319 --> 00:33:07.759 And Jesus is the Prince of Peace in a world where so many societies are in conflict, where 00:33:07.759 --> 00:33:12.319 so many individuals are in distress, Jesus has come to give us peace, peace with one 00:33:12.319 --> 00:33:16.240 another and peace with ourselves. 00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:21.200 Jesus has not come to restore one particular family to a position of territorial or political 00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:23.880 dominance in a small region of the world. 00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:32.000 He's come to expand that family and that kingdom and to transform it from a crushed family 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:42.240 dwarfed among the nations into a church family stretching across all nations. 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:50.319 That means that we can all be part of this family and we can all be citizens of his kingdom. 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:55.480 And this fact that Jesus is family and the fact that he's king, it means that two amazing 00:33:55.480 --> 00:33:58.019 things are true. 00:33:58.019 --> 00:34:05.960 The first is that we can be united together as part of something better. 00:34:05.960 --> 00:34:11.920 So that craving that we all have for a fairer society, for a kinder community, for loving 00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:17.519 friendships, for warmth and generosity and justice and goodness, that is the kingdom 00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:22.280 society that Jesus is calling us to be. 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.840 And that's what the church is meant to be like and if the church fails to be like that, 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:29.000 it's because we've stopped following Jesus's leadership. 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:34.480 Jesus is calling us all to be part of something better, something beautiful, something that 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:35.880 we all long for. 00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:40.800 And this is where we see the tragic reality of present day politics where people are 00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:46.120 pouring their hope into people to give them something better and they can never deliver 00:34:46.120 --> 00:34:48.760 it. 00:34:48.760 --> 00:34:51.160 But Jesus can. 00:34:51.160 --> 00:34:56.039 And in him we can be united together as part of something better. 00:34:56.039 --> 00:35:05.820 But the second thing is that as we are united together under his leadership at the same time, 00:35:05.820 --> 00:35:13.880 you will never, ever stop being unique to Jesus. 00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:17.080 Because to him you're never just a citizen. 00:35:17.080 --> 00:35:21.880 You're never just a number in a population or just an unknown name in a genealogy. 00:35:21.880 --> 00:35:24.840 To him you are family. 00:35:24.840 --> 00:35:30.480 You are his precious sister or brother who he loves, who he knows, who he died for and 00:35:30.480 --> 00:35:34.080 who he will never stop listening to. 00:35:34.079 --> 00:35:38.920 That means that if you are a Christian or if you become one, that means that you are 00:35:38.920 --> 00:35:45.880 part of something special and it means that you are someone special. 00:35:45.880 --> 00:35:48.519 Jesus is the promised King. 00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:50.920 He's the perfect brother. 00:35:50.920 --> 00:36:01.179 That means that he is ruling the universe and at the very same time he's holding your 00:36:01.179 --> 00:36:08.799 hand and he'll never let go. 00:36:08.799 --> 00:36:13.599 And if you're a Christian, I hope that shows you three things. 00:36:13.599 --> 00:36:18.599 I hope it shows you how amazing Jesus is and what a massive difference he makes for today 00:36:18.599 --> 00:36:21.719 and for this week and for the rest of your life. 00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:27.559 I hope it shows you how precious and safe and secure you are. 00:36:27.559 --> 00:36:35.599 And I hope it shows you that genealogies in the Bible are seriously cool. 00:36:35.599 --> 00:36:39.980 But what if you're not yet a Christian or you're not sure? 00:36:39.980 --> 00:36:41.320 What should you do? 00:36:41.320 --> 00:36:46.440 Well, that depends on how you feel about it all. 00:36:46.440 --> 00:36:52.199 If you are not really bothered by any of this and maybe you're not and it's okay to be that 00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:58.679 honest, if you're not really bothered and if you've had to endure the last 30 odd minutes 00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:04.919 of this sermon, all I would ask you to do is make a comparison. 00:37:04.919 --> 00:37:17.559 Try and look a bit more closely at the community leadership that Jesus offers and the individual 00:37:17.559 --> 00:37:20.559 compassion that he constantly displays. 00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:21.799 I want you to look at that. 00:37:21.800 --> 00:37:27.920 Look at how Jesus leads a group and look at how he cares for the individual. 00:37:27.920 --> 00:37:34.519 And then I just want you to compare that to whoever it is that you normally vote for. 00:37:34.519 --> 00:37:40.920 And you need to use your head to think that through. 00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:45.519 But if you are bothered by this, if you long to know the peace and security that you can 00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:50.640 see Christians have, if you know that you need Jesus more than anything else, if you 00:37:50.639 --> 00:37:57.039 long to be part of his family, if you wish that things were different, then it's not 00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:03.839 so much your head that you need to use because you actually already understand enough. 00:38:03.839 --> 00:38:10.079 What you need to use is your heart. 00:38:10.079 --> 00:38:14.319 You need to pour out your heart to Jesus. 00:38:14.319 --> 00:38:17.400 Ask him to forgive you. 00:38:17.400 --> 00:38:23.480 Ask him to miss your Savior and just start following him. 00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:27.039 And he will do the rest. 00:38:27.039 --> 00:38:28.039 Amen. 00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:35.920 Let us pray. 00:38:35.920 --> 00:38:43.280 Dear Father, we thank you so much that you are the God who keeps his promises. 00:38:43.280 --> 00:38:50.360 And we acknowledge that we desperately need leadership to show us all how we can live 00:38:50.360 --> 00:38:56.040 together as a community and how things can be made better. 00:38:56.040 --> 00:39:01.560 But we also desperately need your care for each of us as individuals. 00:39:01.560 --> 00:39:06.640 And so we just thank you so much that Jesus is able to do both of these things and that 00:39:06.640 --> 00:39:09.080 He's able to do them perfectly. 00:39:09.079 --> 00:39:15.759 The perfect King, the perfect brother, our amazing Savior. 00:39:15.759 --> 00:39:19.079 We thank you so much for everything you've done for us. 00:39:19.079 --> 00:39:41.719 Amen.