From the Beginning.

Steve Gentry

[0:06] We’ll go ahead and have a seat. [0:07] Welcome to Village Church. [0:10] My name is Steve and I’m one of the pastors here at Village and as always I’m thankful [0:13] and grateful to see each and every one of you. [0:15] If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it to the book of Matthew. [0:18] That’s where we’re going to be this morning.

[0:20] That’s where we’ll be for many weeks to come. [0:23] You all lost an hour of sleep last night, but here’s the deal. [0:27] This is the late service. [0:29] So now it’s time to be completely over it. [0:33] Even though I know some of you, you know, you’re those people that you’re going to [0:36] take seven days to get over this and that’s called grow up.

[0:41] But in Matthew chapter one, we’re going to be there for all of the spring, some of the [0:49] summer as well as we go through this first part of the book of Matthew. [0:53] And what’s interesting is I love going through a entire book of the Bible at a time. [0:59] I like topical series as well. [1:02] But when we go through an entire book of the Bible, what we’re able to do is see how [1:07] the entire arc of the story or the narrative or the letter that is being unfolded in that

[1:13] book of the Bible takes us. [1:15] And what’s tempting, though, from our perspective, why a lot of people don’t go through entire [1:20] books of the Bible at a time. [1:21] And you’ll have a series on finances, a series on family, a series on happiness, a series [1:27] on automotive repair is because we tend to have a very short attention span where the [1:36] things of God are concerned.

[1:38] And the biggest aspect that we see that in is our inability to apply a book of the Bible [1:43] to our lives. [1:44] And instead, we just try to apply a part of our lives to the Bible. [1:50] And we say, I want to deal with this felt need rather than go into the story of God [1:56] and see the story that he is telling overall. [2:00] And so the Bible is one story from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation.

[2:05] He’s telling his story of redemption throughout history, how he raises up a people and saves [2:12] a people through his son, Jesus Christ. [2:15] And so when we get to the gospel accounts, this is the climax of the Bible. [2:21] This is everything that the Bible was building towards. [2:23] And this is everything that the New Testament bounces off of in telling us how to live lives [2:29] as we follow Jesus.

[2:31] But it requires a great faith to believe that when we go to something that we’re not necessarily [2:38] struggling with at this point in time, that God is going to teach us something. [2:44] And in Matthew chapter one, we have a great example of that because we have everyone’s [2:48] least favorite part of scripture, a genealogy. [2:53] For the most part, whenever people start a yearly Bible plan, if you’ve ever started [2:57] a yearly Bible plan, what I find with people is that they struggle in two places.

[3:02] They begin to struggle. [3:03] Well, that’s if they make it past like Genesis three. [3:06] But if you can make it past like the first couple of days, you’ll get to the book of [3:10] Leviticus and you’ll be like, oh, man, I don’t get how this applies. [3:14] Or you’ll get if you can get through Leviticus, which I think you should because it’s great. [3:18] I’d love to talk to you about it sometime about why, you know, blood behind your earlobes

[3:22] is a wonderful thing. [3:23] But if you get to first and second Chronicles, this guy, we get this guy, we get this guy, [3:28] we get this guy. [3:30] And you’re just like, oh, my gosh, are we sure that this is an errant? [3:34] Are we sure that this is the word of God? [3:39] To so much so that many people, when we get to one of the four Gospels, they will say

[3:46] finally, the real word of God.

[3:51] And I want to qualify what we’re talking about this morning. [3:53] I’m very excited to be going through a gospel account, and I understand if you’re excited [3:57] to be going through a gospel account as well, this is the climax. [4:00] But this is no more God’s word than Leviticus. [4:05] And Leviticus is no less God’s word than Matthew. [4:08] All of it is about Jesus.

[4:12] All of it is about the glory of God as he worked to bring salvation through his son, [4:19] Jesus Christ. So when you read those parts of scripture that you struggle to apply to [4:23] your life and you struggle to find your character in, understand that’s because the Bible [4:29] isn’t about you. [4:31] No part of the Bible is your story. [4:34] All of the Bible is God’s story.

[4:36] All of the Bible is about him. [4:39] All of the Bible is about how he moves to bring himself glory. [4:43] And we are the benefactors of his glory through the grace of Jesus Christ. [4:47] And that is why worshiping him is what we were designed to do. [4:52] And so Matthew, chapter one, though, is pivotal in our comprehension of what God is [4:58] telling us, because I believe that it is in Matthew chapter one that we find the point

[5:03] of all of the Old Testament genealogies. [5:06] Why we can see in those Old Testament genealogies and reflect on how awesome salvation [5:12] in Jesus Christ is because it is in this genealogy that he gives us historical roots [5:18] of a warranted Christian belief, because many of you will struggle until you get to [5:25] the point where your faith is not dictated by how you feel on any given day. [5:32] Because for many of us, our story is that when we feel great about our faith, our faith

[5:38] is true. And then when we don’t feel great about our faith, we have a lot of questions. [5:45] We have a lot of doubts. [5:47] And what you need to deal with is what do you do in those difficult seasons when you [5:54] don’t feel great about your faith? [5:56] And what do you do with the inevitable seasons that will come where you are questioning [6:02] whether your faith is real?

[6:04] And what do you do with the moments of doubt that, friend, I will tell you, are going [6:09] to happen in your life? [6:10] Because if you go into those seasons and your faith is only rooted and how you feel [6:17] during your favorite worship song, you’re stepping out of the ocean, you know, how [6:23] you feel during that moment. [6:25] And when that song’s not around, all you’re going to be doing is questioning why God

[6:30] isn’t doing what you need him and want him to do at some arbitrary moment in your life [6:35] when you don’t feel like he’s showing up. [6:39] Matthew, chapter one is important for that very thing, because Matthew, chapter one is [6:45] the root that your faith needs so that you can have a warranted Christian belief instead [6:51] of a feel-good Christian belief. [6:54] Because it is in seasons of doubt that texts like Matthew, chapter one, are the most

[7:01] important aspects of the word of God for you to point to and say, regardless of how I [7:07] feel in this moment, I know my faith in Jesus is true because this is how God has worked [7:14] throughout history to bring about his purpose. [7:17] And he starts in verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, [7:26] the son of Abraham. [7:28] And that’s as far as we’ll go for the first point, which is the gospel was always God’s

[7:33] plan. The gospel was always God’s plan. [7:37] Now, Matthew, chapter one doesn’t seem like a lot. [7:41] It just seems like a really short verse with a couple of names and the word genealogy, [7:46] but it’s actually three separate aspects of what’s going to unfold all the way through [7:51] verse 17, where Matthew is literally going to summarize the entire Old Testament in [7:58] 17 verses.

[8:00] Now, what’s important in this aspect is the book of the genealogy. [8:05] That’s a vital way for him to begin this, because he’s trying to make a point with his [8:10] first phrase. [8:11] And in the original language, it’s Biblios, Gineos, which literally means the book of [8:18] Genesis. [8:19] And so in our vernacular, genealogy is helpful.

[8:24] But in biblical vernacular, it’s vital that you understand the original language here, [8:28] that he is saying that this is the book of the origin. [8:34] And so what he’s pointing us to is to understand that everything that unfolds through verse [8:39] 17 is for you to understand where Jesus comes from, why he is important and why you need [8:46] to pay attention to him. [8:48] And he then connects him to the book of Genesis, which is the first book of the Old

[8:52] Testament. He’s pointing out the history of Jesus Christ begins with the history of [8:59] God. In the beginning was God. [9:04] And you can read that and say, in the beginning was Jesus. [9:09] Because he is the eternal God. [9:11] He is the one who was promised to come. [9:13] He is the one upon which all of history is built.

[9:17] It is through his word that creation itself exists and it is through his upholding hand [9:22] that creation endures and creation will come to his glory. [9:28] And so that phrase right there is vital for you to understand Matthew’s personality, [9:36] Matthew’s purpose, Matthew’s understanding of who Jesus is. [9:41] And Matthew himself is an interesting character. [9:44] In Matthew, chapter nine, verse nine, Matthew records how Jesus called him to follow

[9:50] him. Matthew was sitting in his tax booth and Jesus is coming by and Jesus does what [9:56] Jesus does. And he just says, follow me. [9:58] And he sprinkled magic Jesus dust and Matthew just said, all right. [10:02] And he followed him. That’s the whole story that we get whenever the disciples follow [10:06] Jesus. When you’re God, you can do that. [10:09] All right. And so he goes and he calls Matthew out of his tax booth, letting us know

[10:14] that Matthew was a tax collector. [10:17] The tax collectors weren’t looked upon as a highly regarded part of Israel at that [10:23] time. You see, tax collectors represented Rome, who was oppressing Judah at that time. [10:30] And Matthew was collecting their taxes and Rome would say, this is how much we expect [10:36] from you in a given period of time. [10:39] Anything that you collect over that, that’s your salary.

[10:43] If you ever want to know what being put in a position where you’re probably going to [10:46] get greedy, that’s the one. [10:49] All right. I need to put a new roof on my house. [10:52] Well, taxes just went up. [10:53] And so Matthew was a part of this really what was a business of stealing. [11:00] And so they would just set arbitrary taxes and people would have to pay them because

[11:05] Matthew had all of the authority of Rome. [11:07] And so to the people of Israel, Matthew was somebody that you didn’t have anything to [11:12] do with. Yet here’s Jesus saying, Matthew, I want you to be one of my disciples. [11:16] Follow me. And he does. [11:18] And then Jesus goes to Matthew’s house and they’re sharing a meal and the Pharisees [11:23] take note because they’re watching Jesus.

[11:25] And for you to share what in that time in Israel was called table fellowship. [11:29] With people who weren’t of the Jewish faith or people who were oppressing the Jews [11:35] was unheard of. And the Pharisees look to Jesus and say, how can you dine in the [11:42] house tax collector? [11:46] And I don’t know if it’s God’s sense of humor. [11:48] I don’t know if he’s making fun of the Jews.

[11:51] I don’t know if he’s just making fun of specifically the Pharisees because they were [11:55] the ones that had the issue with it. [11:56] But the book of Matthew is the gospel account that seeks to prove to the Jews that [12:02] Jesus is the Messiah. [12:04] Matthew has 61 Old Testament direct Old Testament quotes. [12:09] That’s more than double any other gospel account of the four gospels.

[12:15] And so even in Chapter one, you’re going to see that the posture that Matthew is [12:21] taking is in telling the nation of Israel, Jesus is the anointed Messiah that was [12:27] promised to come to be the savior of your people. [12:30] And God uses a tax collector to do that. [12:34] But then he goes beyond just saying that this is the origin. [12:38] Here is the genesis of Jesus Christ.

[12:41] He connects them to to what I would say biblically are probably the two most important [12:46] patriarchs of the nation of Israel. [12:49] He mentions David first because that is authority. [12:53] That is the king. [12:55] That is the reign. [12:56] And that’s going to take a special emphasis specifically in Chapter one.

[13:00] But his personality throughout the entire book is to show that Jesus is the king. [13:04] But then he notes the father of Israel, Abraham, and he directly connects Jesus to [13:11] both of them. [13:13] And then we have to understand that he’s pointing back to the entire nation of Israel [13:20] from Genesis to Abraham to David. [13:24] These are the most important covenants that the people of Israel would have.

[13:28] And that is what Matthew is trying to point to the nation of Israel, that Jesus [13:33] fulfills every one of them to the very first promise that God ever made of the [13:38] gospel of Jesus Christ in Genesis 315. [13:41] In Genesis 315, God is judging sin. [13:45] If you want to know, does God judge my sin? [13:48] Yes, Genesis 3 proves that that’s as far as you need to go to find judgment for our

[13:53] sin. And he looks to the woman and he looks to the snake in verse 15 and he says, I’m [13:58] going to put enmity between you and the serpent, he says to Eve. [14:04] And then he says, there will be enmity between your offspring and his offspring. [14:09] And that’s why I hate snakes. [14:12] Now, a few Sundays ago, I said something similar, but far more crass when I said, I [14:17] don’t want to be a snake killer.

[14:18] I want to be a snake murderer so that everyone will know my intent. [14:21] I want them all dead. [14:23] And there were people that got offended. [14:26] I’m not sorry.

[14:30] I’m biblical.

[14:32] There’s enmity. [14:34] All right. And I’m just defending myself here that I do want to kill them all. [14:39] And this spring, as soon as it will stop raining, there’s one or two things are [14:44] going to happen. It’s going to stop raining or we’re going to need an arc fund. [14:47] Those are basically our two options at this point. [14:50] But once it stops raining, my reign of terror on the snake population will begin

[14:53] again. I’ll be a madman in my backyard with a hatchet. [14:57] All right. That’s just the way my spring goes. [15:00] But note the promise directly after the enmity, he says, he shall bruise your head. [15:08] The descendant of Eve and in the Hebrew, a better translation. [15:12] I understand why they translated brews, but a better translation would be crush [15:17] your head and he shall bruise your heel.

[15:21] Now, this is what’s known as the proto evangelium or very simple. [15:24] The first gospel. [15:26] In other words, he’s saying that God is promising what would happen in Jesus Christ [15:31] all the way back in the book of Genesis. [15:34] And what happens is that Jesus fulfills this because Jesus comes to this earth. [15:39] He humbles himself. He suffers on this earth.

[15:43] Then he goes to the cross where he puts himself in suffering for sin. [15:48] And that is how Satan bruised Jesus’s heel. [15:52] But I would rather have a hurt heel than a crushed head. [15:56] I don’t know about you. And in the moment that Satan believed, maybe that he had won [16:01] some type of victory over God at the death of Jesus Christ. [16:04] Jesus takes his body up, rises from the dead.

[16:08] And that is how the head of Satan was crushed from the promise in Genesis, Chapter [16:12] three, because the crushing of the head was symbolic for the power of sin has been [16:17] undone. Jesus has defeated sin. [16:21] And so when we look, when he goes backwards into history, he’s going backwards into [16:26] promises like this to prove to us that the roots of our faith go deep [16:32] into the Old Testament.

[16:35] And he starts with Abraham. [16:40] Look in verse two.

[16:43] Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of [16:48] Judah and his brothers, Judah, the father of Perez and Zirah by Tamar and Perez, the [16:54] father of Hezren, Hezren, the father of Ram, Ram, the father of Aminadab, Aminadab, [16:58] the father of Nayshan, Nayshan, the father of Salman, Salman, the father of Boaz by [17:03] Rahab, Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed, the father of Jesse.

[17:10] Number two, this morning, the genealogy establishes Jesus as the blessing to the [17:15] nations. The genealogy establishes Jesus as the blessing to the nations. [17:21] Now, Abraham is the father of Israel to this day that he is the pivotal figure in [17:29] the beginning of the nation because Abraham was not pursuing God. [17:34] Instead, God pursued Abraham. [17:36] Abraham was worshipping false gods, and then one day he’s going about his business

[17:40] and God just intervenes in his life. [17:42] God comes to Abraham and says, Abraham, this is what is going to happen through you. [17:47] And we get to Genesis, chapter 12. [17:49] Look in verse two, God looks to Abraham and he says, I will make you a great nation. [17:55] I will bless you. [17:56] I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

[17:59] I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. [18:02] I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. [18:07] This is God’s great promise to work through the descendants of Abraham to form for [18:13] himself a great nation. [18:16] And ultimately, we know that the descendants of Abraham would become the nation of [18:22] Israel. But what’s fascinating about this promise is that it begins a trend by God

[18:28] to make promises that are never dependent on the person that receives the promise. [18:34] Note that God says nothing about Abraham in this passage. [18:39] God says everything of I will. [18:41] I’m going to. [18:43] I will bless. [18:45] And then Abraham goes through his life.

[18:47] And what’s fascinating more about this promise is the age of Abraham and his wife. [18:51] They were beyond childbearing years. [18:55] But it says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. [18:59] And so Abraham and Sarah, after a number of years and after a series of unfortunate [19:02] events where they believe, then they struggle, then they believe Isaac is born. [19:09] And Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah when they quite frankly should have been moving

[19:13] into a nursing home, which is rare. [19:15] You do not often see people in nursing homes request a crib. [19:20] It just isn’t the way it typically works out. [19:23] And so Abraham and Sarah are entering into the season of their life and there they have [19:27] their firstborn son because they had been barren all of this time. [19:32] But God opened up the womb.

[19:33] He fulfills his promise. [19:35] And now Abraham has a descendant by which he can have a lineage through the original [19:43] couple of Abraham and Sarah. [19:45] But what’s fascinating about the work of God is God is never satisfied just giving us [19:50] the promise without showing us a picture of Jesus Christ in the promise. [19:54] And in Genesis, chapter 21 and 22, God looks to Abraham and he says, Abraham, this child

[20:00] that was promised to you, this child that I have given you, take this child to the [20:05] mountain of sacrifice and sacrifice your son to me. [20:09] You can only imagine the frame of mind that Abraham was put in when he’s been hoping, [20:14] he’s been praying, he’s been trusting. [20:16] God delivers on his promises and God looks to Abraham and requests of him what to me [20:22] is the unthinkable.

[20:25] Abraham, kill your son. [20:27] Because he doesn’t belong to you after all. [20:30] He belongs to me. [20:33] And fascinating about this aspect of the story is that God will often demand a trust of [20:40] you that you do not believe you are capable of giving him because God often doesn’t work [20:46] in the way that we expect him to work.

[20:48] He works in ways that make us endure seasons that we don’t want to endure. [20:54] But he does it to his glory. [20:56] And Abraham actually obeys this unthinkable call of God, and he takes Isaac to the mountain [21:03] of sacrifice, puts him on the altar of sacrifice. [21:07] And right at the moment where Abraham is going to obey God to the fullest, God stops [21:13] him and says, look in the thicket, I’ve provided a ram as a substitute for your son.

[21:19] So God provides that sacrificial ram and Isaac gets off the altar. [21:24] The ram is put on the altar. [21:27] And right there, we have a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the story of Abraham [21:34] and Isaac, where Jesus would not request us to die for our sins. [21:39] Instead, in judgment, he would lay his life down for our sins as the substitutionary [21:46] ram.

[21:48] And Genesis 22 foreshadows the gospel of Jesus Christ. [21:51] And then in response to it, God looks to Abraham and he says, I will surely bless you, [21:57] Genesis 22, 17, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as [22:03] the sand that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. [22:07] And in your offspring here it is, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because [22:14] you obeyed my voice.

[22:17] And when you obey God, you enter into an environment where he can show his substitutionary [22:23] power, mighty in your life.

[22:27] So Abraham is the father of the nation of Israel and Jesus becomes the ultimate fulfillment [22:34] in Matthew chapter one.

[22:38] God looks to Matthew, speaks through Matthew so that he can speak to the nation and he [22:43] will ultimately speak to us today and say every promise that was ever made to Abraham [22:48] finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. [22:54] If you want to experience the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, there is nowhere [22:59] to look other than Jesus Christ, because all of the promises that were ever made to Abraham [23:05] find their fulfillment and their yes in Jesus is the only place that you need to look so

[23:11] much so that upon Jesus becoming the fulfillment of that sacrifice, he gives us the mission [23:17] go take this good news of the work of Jesus, this warranted historical truth, and you [23:23] take it to the entire world because the nations will be blessed by the news that God has [23:29] provided a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin. [23:35] And he gives a church the vision in Revelation seven, nine, when he says, after this, I [23:42] looked and John got a vision of the future and he said there was a great multitude that

[23:47] no one could number from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages standing [23:51] before the throne, before the lamb, Jesus clothed in white robes. [23:56] Why are they clothed in white robes? [23:58] Because Jesus has paid the price for their sin. [24:01] They’re no longer stained for their sin. [24:04] So you want to know how the nations are blessed through Abraham.

[24:10] They are blessed when we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, because he is the fulfillment. [24:16] But God wasn’t done through the nation of Israel. [24:20] Look in verse six.

[24:22] Jesse was the father of David, the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife [24:28] Uriah. It’s an interesting thing that he right here, unlike he does anywhere else, he [24:34] doesn’t use the mother’s name. [24:37] He doesn’t say Bathsheba, he says the wife of Uriah. [24:40] Why? Because God is not sweeping Israel’s sinful history under the rug. [24:47] You see, God is pointing to Israel.

[24:49] You see, this is not about me making you look great. [24:54] This is not about me making your name wonderful. [24:57] This is not about me rising your nation to prominence because you don’t deserve it. [25:03] You are sinful. [25:05] This is about God graciously, even working through circumstances that were sinful and [25:12] staying faithful to his promise that he was going to make the name of God great.

[25:19] And Solomon, the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam, the father of Abijah, Abijah, the father [25:24] of Asaph, Asaph, the father of Jehoshaphat. [25:26] And I just want to pause really quick. [25:29] I’m all for biblical names. [25:31] My two sons have middle names that are prophets of the Old Testament, Samuel and Elisha, [25:37] my two favorite prophets, because one heard the voice of God.

[25:40] And I pray that that son will hear the voice of God in his life. [25:44] The other had a double portion of Elijah’s empowering of the Holy Spirit. [25:48] My prayer for my oldest at his birth was God, let him have a double portion of the Holy [25:52] Spirit that I experienced in my life. [25:55] But if you name your child Jehoshaphat, that doesn’t show holiness, it shows dumb [26:01] dumbness. He’s going to get picked on.

[26:06] And I want to prevent that. [26:09] So this is how childhood works. [26:11] They get on the playground and one kid’s like, I have a normal name. [26:15] The other kid’s like, I have a normal name that makes sense. [26:18] And the other one’s like, hey, I’m Jehoshaphat, huh?

[26:23] And if you’ve named your son Jehoshaphat and you’re in here and you’re getting angry, [26:27] I’m not sorry. [26:28] You made a mistake. [26:30] Go to the courthouse. [26:31] It can be undone. [26:33] It really can.

[26:35] All right. Some of the looks you all give, is that literally on the list of potential? [26:40] I wish I could put you under church discipline for that. [26:45] I don’t know if I want you here. [26:46] And I mean, I love biblical names. [26:51] It makes me look holy. [26:52] I know. But some of them don’t.

[26:55] Jehoshaphat, you don’t even know anything about Jehoshaphat. [26:58] Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram, Joram, the father of Uzziah, Uzziah, the father of [27:02] Jopham, Jopham, the father of Ahaz, Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah, the father of [27:07] Manasseh, Manasseh, the father of Amos, Amos, the father of Josiah, Josiah, the father of [27:11] Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. [27:16] We’ll get to the deportation in a minute.

[27:20] But number three, this morning, the genealogy establishes Jesus as king. [27:24] The genealogy establishes Jesus as the king. [27:28] Now, what’s vital to understand here is that when King David rose to his throne, there [27:33] was a continuation of the Abrahamic covenant that was made more distinct in David. [27:38] And that’s what in the Old Testament we call the Davidic Covenant. [27:43] And here’s what the Davidic Covenant is in First, excuse me, Second Samuel, chapter

[27:47] seven, starting in verse 12. [27:50] God looks to David and says, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your [27:54] fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you and shall come from your body. [27:59] Who shall come from your body? [28:00] And I will establish his kingdom. [28:01] He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom

[28:06] forever. Verse 13 really happened in the life of Solomon. [28:10] Verse 14, I will be to him a father. [28:13] He shall be to me a son. [28:15] When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men and stripes of the [28:21] sons of men. But note this verse 15, excuse me, verse 15. [28:26] But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away

[28:35] from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before [28:40] me. Your throne shall be established forever. [28:43] This is a vital aspect of the Old Testament that many people don’t really pay attention [28:47] to. And here’s the key. [28:49] Note again that the promise is completely contingent on God and not David. [28:56] He says, David, I’m going to do a work.

[29:00] I will establish my throne three times. [29:02] He uses the word forever in this text. [29:04] He says it’s going to be from your lineage forever. [29:08] Your son’s going to build me a great house. [29:11] Solomon built the temple and I’m going to dwell there. [29:15] But even the generations after him, I’m going to establish my throne.

[29:20] I took it away from Saul’s family, but I’m not going to take it away from your family. [29:26] It’s contingent on me. [29:27] And in there, he gives a pronouncement on sin where he says, if there is sin, I will [29:35] discipline you. [29:38] But note what the discipline looks like. [29:40] He says, I will discipline you with the rods of men, with the stripes of the sons of

[29:48] men. And that’s what happened in Babylonian captivity. [29:53] God brought other nations in. [29:55] Those nations oppressed Israel. [29:57] Those nations sometimes would take Israel back to their kingdom. [30:01] Happened in the Babylonians, happened under the Assyrians. [30:04] And at the time of Jesus’s birth, it was happening under the Romans.

[30:09] And so God looks to them and says, I’m going to judge your sin, but understand that in [30:15] those seasons of sin, I’m still going to stay faithful to my promises. [30:20] God never revokes the promises that he makes because the promises are not about our [30:27] greatness. The promises are about his faithfulness. [30:30] And so God works through the genealogy of David to bring for himself a eternal throne [30:39] upon which a descendant of David would rule.

[30:42] And that descendant was Jesus Christ. [30:45] Note what is said in Psalm 132, starting in verse 10. [30:49] This is a prayer of Israel. [30:50] They’re reminding themselves of the promise from Second Samuel. [30:53] For the sake of your servant, David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. [30:57] The Lord swore to David, a sure oath from which he will not turn back one of the sons

[31:02] of your body. I will sit on your throne if your sons keep my covenant, my testimony [31:07] that I shall teach them their sons also forever shall sit on the throne. [31:11] And here’s where I think Israel got themselves into a pickle because they made it more [31:16] about their faithfulness than they made it about God’s faithfulness. [31:20] And that’s why when Jesus shows up on the scene, they are surprised that the Messiah is [31:25] not someone who is going to immediately enact a military coup over Rome.

[31:31] Even the disciples got confused on this. [31:33] After Jesus had rose from the dead, they looked at Jesus and they say, OK, now are you [31:38] going to reestablish Israel? [31:39] They expect Jesus to put on a metal helmet and march into Rome and take the empire down [31:46] because Israel will reign forever. [31:48] And Jesus looks at them. This is not about a physical kingdom.

[31:53] This is about you go make disciples of all nations because Jesus is ruling and reigning [32:01] over the church right now before he establishes his physical kingdom that will reign forevermore. [32:07] And so people always get confused about the covenants of God because we do not look at them [32:12] from the perspective of the work that God promised to do and the work that God wanted to [32:18] do for his people. Because if you look at the life of Jesus and he’s going to present this [32:22] throughout Matthew, you see an uncommon authority over and over and over again.

[32:28] Every time Jesus would preach the word, they would look to him in the crowd and they say, [32:33] what is this authority? [32:34] He doesn’t teach like any rabbi. [32:36] He doesn’t teach like any Pharisee or Sadducee that we have ever heard. [32:40] He has an uncommon authority because Jesus was teaching his words. [32:47] Jesus would heal the blind.

[32:49] He would make the deaf to see. [32:52] He would make the lame to walk. [32:55] Exercising authority over all the curse of sin. [33:00] He would make Lazarus rise from the dead, showing that he did have power over death, but [33:05] not just other people’s death. [33:06] When Jesus was crucified, where he laid down his life for his subjects, his kingdom,

[33:13] three days later, he had the authority to take his life back up again, showing that he [33:19] had power over sin and death in Satan, where he crushed his head. [33:24] And so we see that Jesus exercised ultimate authority. [33:28] And what he’s pointing to is that Jesus will always exercise authority. [33:33] But then note how it happens when Israel is unfaithful in verse 12.

[33:39] After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. [33:43] Shealtiel, now, if you really want to scar your child for life, either Shealtiel or [33:48] Zerubbabel, that’ll show him.

[33:52] And Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel, the father of Abed, Abed, the [33:56] father of Eliakim, Eliakim, the father of Atzor, Atzor, the father of Zadak, Zadak, [34:00] the father of Akeem, Akeem, the father of Eliad, Eliad, the father of Eleazar, Eleazar, [34:05] the father of Mathan, Mathan, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of Joseph, the [34:09] husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.

[34:15] Every aspect of God’s work is showing his hand over the history of the world. [34:25] God bent entire nations to accomplish his purposes. [34:31] So if God wanted Israel out of captivity for a season to endure them, they would be [34:36] out of captivity. If you wanted them in captivity for a season, the nation that of [34:41] his choosing would rise up and come and bring them into captivity. [34:45] And God made the birth of Jesus Christ happen in the exact way that he wanted it

[34:52] to happen at the exact time that he wanted it to happen so that we would look and say, [34:59] this is a faith that is orchestrated, organized and designed by the hand of God to [35:07] the perfect level. [35:08] And then he finishes in verse 16. [35:11] With the genealogy by saying that Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of [35:17] Mary, of whom Jesus Christ was born, and the most important words for a Jewish

[35:21] audience, who is called Christ. [35:27] See, that term is not Jesus’s last name. [35:32] That term in the original language is the same term that the Old Testament would have [35:37] translated into Messiah. [35:40] Christ means the anointed one, the promised one, the one who would bring salvation. [35:47] And he’s pointing to this audience, he’s saying, do you not see how God has worked?

[35:52] And then he does this in verse 17.

[35:56] He says, so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 from David to the [36:01] deportation of Babylon, 14 from the deportation of Babylon to Christ, 14.

[36:09] Why 14, 14, 14? [36:14] It’s not because of numerology, I can promise you that. [36:16] There are no hidden phone numbers in the Bible. [36:19] All right. [36:19] But you’re always going to find somebody that tries to tell you they’ve added F here [36:23] to Q over there and they got eight and eight is somehow the year of Jubilee.

[36:29] That is just bunk. [36:31] That’s not good theology. [36:32] So never listen to anybody that does that. [36:35] Why 14? [36:36] Why is that so vital? [36:38] Because God was orchestrating history to show Israel.

[36:42] Look, I worked from Abraham to David in this amount of time. [36:45] I worked from David to Babylon in this amount of time. [36:47] And I worked from Babylon to Christ in the same amount of time, because everything is [36:54] pointing to Jesus in exactly the way that the father designed it to point to Jesus. [37:03] In Ephesians, chapter one.

[37:07] We read an amazing revelation about our faith. [37:11] Paul writes and he said, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who’s [37:17] blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. [37:22] Note verse four, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that [37:30] we should be holy and blameless before him. [37:34] Sometimes when we look at promises and details like that, we struggle to see.

[37:43] How can I understand that? [37:45] How can I believe that? [37:47] How can I look and say, before he even created the world, he knew that in 1992 he was [37:54] going to save Steve Gentry. [37:56] How could God do that? [37:57] How can I trust that God would have that kind of power?

[38:04] That’s why Matthew writes Matthew one, because he’s showing not only does he have the [38:10] power to know what he’s going to do in my life, he knew what he was going to do [38:15] generation after generation after generation in order to bring a promise that he made [38:22] with Adam and Eve to Abraham, to David, to Babylon and fulfill it through these [38:29] unremarkable people in a unremarkable area of Israel named Mary and Joseph.

[38:39] See, when you want to look at how do I know if I have a warranted, a valid, a rooted [38:48] Christian belief that will endure every moment of my life. [38:53] And I’ll tell you, a lot of it’s in the genealogies, because in the moments where I [38:58] don’t feel him, I can find him. [39:01] And the moments where I don’t want him, I know he worked through history to get me.

[39:09] Matthew is going to pose a lot of key elements of what faith in Jesus Christ looked like [39:16] throughout his book. But he begins by making you reckon with a very important question. [39:23] And that is, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? [39:27] Do you believe that he is the blessing to the nations? [39:31] Do you believe that he is the king? [39:35] Because in light of all of that, he looks to the church in Revelation 17.

[39:41] And he says, people will come against the Lamb, Jesus, and they will make war on the [39:45] Lamb. The Lamb will conquer them. [39:48] For he is, and here’s the vital phrases, Lord of lords and King of Kings. [39:57] Those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

[40:06] I know who Jesus is to Matthew. [40:10] But the question that you’re going to have to grapple with through this series, who is [40:14] Jesus to you?

[40:18] Every Sunday, we reflect on what’s called the Lord’s Supper. [40:24] You see, when Jesus was sharing table fellowship with Matthew, he was making a [40:31] statement to Israel that he came to bring the sinners into his presence. [40:40] And the meal that Jesus shared with his disciples the night before his crucifixion, [40:46] he did the same thing. [40:48] And throughout the history of the church, we’re told to reflect on this and we do it

[40:51] every week here at Village. [40:53] The bread on the plates represent the broken body of Jesus. [40:58] The cup and the juice in it represents the shed blood of Christ. [41:04] And when we come, it means that Jesus has invited us to share table fellowship with [41:10] him. But there is a barrier between you and that type of fellowship with God. [41:15] And that barrier is sin.

[41:17] And Jesus says that if you trust in him, if you believe that he is Lord, if you believe [41:23] that he is the King of Kings, if you believe that he is the Savior, then that barrier [41:29] that prevents you from having fellowship with him has been torn down. [41:32] It’s been done away with. [41:34] There’s nothing preventing you from being in the presence of Jesus Christ in every [41:39] moment of your life.

[41:42] And communion is a public testimony of that salvation. [41:46] So this morning, if you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ and you come and you eat and drink, [41:52] you are sharing that testimony with everyone in this room. [41:55] But if you don’t believe, I’m going to ask you to instead step out into the foyer or [42:00] someone would love to talk to you, someone would love to answer any questions that you [42:04] might have about the gospel of Jesus.

[42:06] Maybe they’ll just pray with you if that’s what you want. [42:09] But if you believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, then these tables are open [42:16] for you when you’re ready. [42:18] Come.