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[0:00] book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 1 is where we will be at this morning. I want to encourage you, even if you're not traditionally coming back on Sunday nights, please come back tonight, hear what Brother Kirk has to say about the work that is going on in Springville, Utah, to hear his heart, understand the missions that are taking place there, to just see a testimony of what the Lord is doing in that place, and also to ask any questions you may have of him, and with regards to the work that is going on there, I know he will more than welcome, and he will be appreciative of those questions, so please take time to come back this evening as we get started on that. Last week, I told you we were going to be starting in the Gospel of Matthew. We introduced that by looking at the book of Isaiah, and as we introduced the Gospel of Matthew, we saw how there was an anticipation of becoming king.

[0:54] There was an anticipation of one that would arise, that would rule over Israel, that would sit upon the throne of David, the prophet who speaks more to that than any other prophet, even though that's a theme that runs throughout the Old Testament, is the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is the prophet of the coming king, and he had built this anticipation or this expectation within the nation of Israel. Matthew, I think, is prominently and intentionally first place when we open up the Gospels. Not that Matthew is the first author of the Gospel. That's kind of debated, not necessarily in a bad way. Many people believe that the Gospel of Mark is probably, in chronological order, the first Gospel written. Mark would have written after he had followed Peter and his preaching, and he had written in a Gospel account to the Gentiles or to the Greeks in particular, and he was writing just a very brief synopsis or a brief study of the Gospels, and then you would have had the other Gospel authors come in. Matthew would have followed shortly after that. But I think it is intentional that it is the first one we come to when we open up our New Testament, because that intertestament time between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew, the 400 plus years of God's silence, God was moving within his people. It doesn't mean anything, nothing happened in history. It just means we don't have anything recorded for us in biblical history, but we can study history, and we understand that this longing, this wanting of one to set them free, that would reign over them and rule over them, really grows in that 400-year period. The land of Israel, and I know we're kind of trying to set this thing historically before we open it up biblically, right? When Malachi comes on the scene, it's a little bit after, if you want to put it in connection with anything else in the Old Testament, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the Babylonian captivity and after Cyrus, King Cyrus gives the decree that the people can go back to the land of Israel, and they rebuild the temple, even though it's not the temple that it was before, and they reinstitute corporate worship, and their worship is kind of half-hearted worship. That's what Malachi is all about, right? Malachi is like, you think God accepts your worship? Why not offering to your governor what you're offering to God? You know, why not give him the lame and the defiled and the messed up, and instead of trying to give it to God and see if he'll accept that, and it's really calling people back to genuine worship, and then Malachi closes with the pronouncement, you said, I thought we were in Matthew. We are, stay with me, with the pronouncement that there will be a forerunner coming before the Messiah, and then God's silent. Not another prophet arises. Nothing else is said. 400 years. Now, in Bible chronology, that doesn't seem like a lot, because we just flip a page, and there's this title page that says the New Testament for 400 years. God says nothing. Now, there is a prophet that arises.

[4:05] The angel Gabriel goes to Zechariah as he's in the temple in the gospel of Luke. We get this, and Zechariah's in the temple, and he makes this pronouncement that his wife was going to have a child, and it's going to be John the Baptist, and John the Baptist comes as the Old Testament type of prophet pronouncing the kingdom of heaven is near. The kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus comes.

[4:26] When you read the gospels, you see this. Jesus says not that the kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is here, and the reason he could say that is because the king has come. This anticipation, this expectation, the land of Israel was transferred from person to person to person to person during that 400 years, and it was kind of shuffled around. Alexander the Great came through, and he read some of these prophecies of Nebuchadnezzar's statue, and he read some of these prophecies of all these other things, and the land of Israel, they said, hey, this is you, Alexander the Great, and really was. Alexander the Great came through, and he conquered very quickly, and he's like, hey, I like the Israelites because their prophet spoke of me, so he kind of left them alone, but then Alexander dies very quickly. He forgot to read that part in the Old Testament where it says that a ruler would arise, conquer the land quickly, and then die unexpectedly.

[5:15] He forgot that part, and it happened, and then his kingdom was divided between his four generals, and then his four generals got to fighting, and two of them rose to power, and they took the land, and one said, no, I don't want the land, and he gave it there, and then the Egyptians come in, and he said, well, it's all this matter. Stay with me, and then the Roman Empire comes in, and Rome says, you don't want anything to do with you. We're going to desecrate your temple, and then Judas Maccabee stands up and goes, no, that's not the Maccabean revolt. You know about that, right? They said, worship the emperor, and Judas Maccabee said, I'm not going to do it, and he starts this revolt, and there's about a hundred years of freedom, and then they fall again, and there's just disappointment after disappointment after disappointment, because God said that there would be a king set upon the throne of David, of the family of David, that would last forever. Where is he at? Where is he? Now, you have your Bibles open to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 1, starting in verse 1. If you are physically able and desire to do so, won't you stand with me, and I want to introduce you to, I want you to meet the family of Jesus, the Messiah. Matthew chapter 1, starting in verse 1 and going down to verse 17.

[6:19] The record of 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, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerubatamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron, the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Aminadab, Aminadab, the father of Nashawn, and Nashawn, the father of Solomon, and Solomon, the father of Boaz, by Rahab. Boaz, was the father of Obed, by Ruth, and Obed, the father of Jesse. Jesse, was the father of David, the king. David, was the father of Solomon, by Bathsheba, who had been, the wife, of Uriah.

[6:53] Solomon, was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam, the father of Abijah, and Abijah, the father of Asa. Asa, was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram, and Joram, the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

[7:07] Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, Ammon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah, and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, and Jeconiah became the father of Shiltil and Shiltil the father of Zerubbabel.

[7:23] Zerubbabel was the father of Abihad, Abihad the father of Elakim and Elakim the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Echam and Echam the father of Elad. Eliad the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Mathan, Mathan the father of Jacob.

[7:37] Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.

[7:56] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. God, we thank you for the great privilege and the opportunity we have of reading your word. We pray that the expectation and the longing would resonate within our hearts to see the king just as much as the nation of Israel was longing.

[8:14] Lord, we pray that that expectation would be met by your word and we would see you high and lifted up. We would come to a greater understanding of you and we would be drawn closer to you than we ever have been before. And we ask that you would be glorified and honored throughout all of it.

[8:27] We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. This morning, I want you to meet the family of Jesus, the Messiah. Many of these portions of scripture in which we would read and we come to them, we kind of skim over them because, I mean, let's just be honest, their names are not that easy to say.

[8:44] Thankfully, I have read the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter one, verses one through 17, a number of times, even a number of times in public setting. I have preached through this passage before, really around Christmas time.

[8:55] And so I have had to force myself to at least stumble over the name somewhat. But when we get to Old Testament passages in particular, like the book of Numbers or even in other passages that have such a listing of genealogies, it is just kind of a natural tendency to say, well, I'll just kind of skim over this and kind of make my way through.

[9:13] Yet we understand that here we have names of individuals recorded for us because the Spirit of God moved the hand of man to write the Word of God so that we would read it.

[9:24] And the Bible tells us that all of the Word of God is profitable, right? We have something to gain from it. So as we come to this introduction and we are now opening up into the New Testament and we are in the Gospel of Matthew, the very first thing Matthew does for us as he introduces us to the family of Jesus, the Messiah.

[9:42] Now, we understand Matthew is also Levi. Levi, he is known by in our Gospel of Counts. He's not mentioned much at all in the Gospel that bears his name.

[9:52] He's really not mentioned much at all in any of the Gospels. He seems to be kind of behind the scenes a little bit. But we do know where Jesus encounters Levi. Levi is sitting behind the table at the tax collector's booth.

[10:03] Now, Levi is a Jewish individual who is employed by the Roman Empire to take taxes from Jewish citizens. Simply said, that means he's very unpopular, right?

[10:16] His job is to work with the empire that has at least inhabited their land, the Roman Empire, and to demand from his fellow countrymen that they pay taxes to the people they don't want there.

[10:30] They don't want the Romans there. That's why the Romans there. They don't want the Roman occupation. They don't want to pay taxes to the Romans. It's really amazing. I'll do a study sometime, and we'll see it when we come to it. The group of people that God put together in Jesus Christ, because Jesus says, you have brought these people to me.

[10:46] That's what he tells the Father. All that you have given me, I have lost none, save Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition, who was foretold or foreordained from the foundation of the world. But what we see here is you have Levi, the tax collector, and then you have an insurrectionist, right?

[10:58] We have one that was trying to kill tax collectors. He is there too. So they're all gathered together, right? So people who hated each other. It's amazing to me that he who was probably hated more than any other of the apostles, especially by fellow Jewish citizens, Matthew slash Levi, is the one who writes the gospel that is geared to the Jewish people.

[11:19] The one that they really didn't want, the one that they really wanted nothing with, because he is the very one in which the first encounter he has with Jesus, Jesus says, to follow me, and Levi gets up from his tax collector's table, which, by the way, would have made you pretty wealthy because the Romans paid you pretty good.

[11:33] And what most tax collectors did, if the tax was 50 cents, they would say, well, the Romans said, we don't care how much you charge as long as you get us 50 cents. So what most tax collectors did is they would say, your tax is 75 cents.

[11:46] So they would keep, you know, some for them and give Rome their part. And they would always kind of pad their pockets a little bit. This is why nobody really liked them. And what we understand is Levi has this encounter with Jesus, and he says, why don't you come and eat with me?

[11:58] And he throws this big party, and at this big party, there's all these other tax collectors. Remember the Pharisees getting mad about that? He is eating and dining with sinners and tax collectors and all these awful people. So Levi, Matthew, is part of the awful people.

[12:12] Okay? He's also the one who is writing an account to the Jewish people more than any other. He is writing his intended audience to his fellow countrymen, those who despised him, who hated him, who wanted nothing to do with him.

[12:26] And he wants to tell them that which we have all been looking for has come. It is Jesus, the Messiah. Messiah, the King, the Anointed One, the Deliverer.

[12:39] And he's introducing them to his family to validate. Because the reason we don't really have such an excitement when we come to listing of genealogies is because it doesn't appeal to us much, but it would have to a Jewish audience.

[12:53] because your right to set up on the throne of David is completely determined by your right to prove you are a descendant of David. And when Jerusalem fell in A.D. 70, when the Romans finally got tired of all of Jerusalem's bickering and fighting and resistance and the Romans finally besieged the city and they came in in A.D. 70 and Jerusalem fell.

[13:18] The very first thing that the Roman soldiers did is they went in and they desecrated the temple they destroyed the temple Herod the Great's temple and they set the temple on fire and burned it. Now they didn't burn it just because they wanted to burn it.

[13:30] They burned it because there was so much gold inside the temple that they wanted to catch it on fire to melt the gold and they would get the gold as it came through the rocks and they were trying to get the gold out.

[13:41] So to build a fire that hot they completely destroyed everything in the temple and that which was contained in the temple was the genealogy of all Jewish people. So we say that because historically there's only one person alive who can ever prove they are a descendant of David that is Jesus.

[13:58] He's the only one. Everybody else's family records have burned. They're all gone save Jesus Christ. As we meet his family I want you to see a few things.

[14:09] Number one we look at the historical reality of Jesus the Messiah. The historical reality of Jesus the Messiah. He actually lived. He lived in time in space in history.

[14:20] He has a family. It is amazing. It says the record or the book of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David the son of Abraham. Historically there's no two people more important to the nation of Israel or to the nation of God's interactions with man than Abraham and David.

[14:36] There are two covenants represented here. The Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant. Right? The Abrahamic covenant was in particular to the nation of Israel that they would be a people of multiple descendants that they would have all kinds of people that they would be a people of the land that they would be a blessing to the world that those who bless them would be blessed and those who curse them would be cursed and there's all these things tied to the covenant of Abraham.

[14:56] The Davidic covenant was that a king would arise from the lineage of David who would set upon the throne of Israel and reign forever and these are two covenants that are intertwined because they're intertwined because the Abrahamic covenant does not say and to your seeds with an S on it to your seeds for like to all your descendants.

[15:15] Be careful when you read the Old Testament because it does not say all your descendants will be a blessing to the nation. It doesn't say that. It says and to your seed singular that there would be one seed of the family of Abraham who would be a blessing to all the nations.

[15:29] That seed is Jesus Christ. And then when God makes the covenant with David he does not say and to your seeds plural or to your descendants plural he says to your seed singular who is Jesus Christ.

[15:42] I've even looked at and I know it's kind of splitting hairs a little bit but when God makes this promise to David that his seed that is his descendant would build the temple of the Lord we always assume well that's Solomon right?

[15:55] Because why is King Solomon built the temple of the Lord and Solomon's temple was amazing. But look at the rest of that prophecy because it says your seed singular would build a temple that would never fail never fall never be destroyed never go away and his name would be Prince of Peace.

[16:10] Now when I think of Solomon I don't really think of peace. Right? Maybe. I mean he didn't have much war but he created a little bit of havoc right? But we do know one who is the Prince of Peace who has or is erecting a temple that will never be destroyed because Peter says you are a temple unto the Lord stone upon stone upon stone upon stone and that seed is Jesus Christ.

[16:32] See there is this historical reality that everything that matters in the history of the nation of Israel points to one person and one person alone and that person is Jesus Christ and what should amaze us is this fact that he who is above time space and history that is the Lord God Almighty chooses to intervene in history to encounter man for his redemption and when we look at the historical reality of Jesus the Messiah he who is above all things chose to came to us to redeem us he chose to intersect history to meet man God does not see time past God does not see time present God does not see time future what God says sees is everything right I know this blows our mind because we are confined we are bound by a start date and an end date God is the great unbounded one he is infinite and he looks out and he sees everything as one occurrence he sees everything that ever will be that ever has been as one great happening yet he chose to come through a family in history so that he could be the king of kings and lord of lords and redeem men and women for all of eternity and when we look at the historical reality of Jesus the Messiah we understand he is not just a figment of the imagination he is not just a hope so think so maybe so he is someone that can be proven he is someone that we have a settled conviction that he did live even non-believers admit this reality there was a man named Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah who claimed to be the son of God who lived in the land of Israel around a particular date somewhere around 4 BC to 30 AD there was an actual man whose earthly father is Joseph his earthly father is Mary we can prove these things throughout history we have his name recorded throughout history in other passages other than the Bible we haven't reported in historical artifacts but what should amaze us is that Matthew introduces us to something that might not be but to someone who is he is a reality the king has really come that which we had a longing for and an anticipation for and a hope for he's here he's come here's the king and he starts with the historical reality of Jesus the Messiah the second thing we notice when we look at the family is the ongoing reliability of God to his purpose the ever going ongoing reliability of God to his purpose when we read these names we are reading names of events right because we can go back to the Old Testament and we can see what happened we can see how these people behave we can see how these that's why we understand what you have before you is not 66 books it is 66 books that really tell that is one book combined that tells but one great story the whole reason you encounter these people in the Old Testament is so that you can come to the

[19:41] Gospel of Matthew and know about them and think about that think of everything that God has revealed about these people and think of everything that God tells us we can pick any number of these people and talk about the things that they did we see their failures we see their stumblings we see their mess ups we see their faults we see over and over and over and over again listen the people in this list messed up any one of these people any one of their occurrences Satan tried to hinder the purpose and planning of God Satan's always been against it the great enemy of our souls he understands things that we cannot understand and he is moving keeps trying to interfere keeps trying to interfere keeps trying to interfere and he keeps trying to stop it but what we see in reading this name is that what God has purposed will come about and this amazes me God is not dependent upon the faithfulness of man to bring about that which he has purposed and planned okay let me slow it down and say it this way God is not dependent upon how faithful

[20:42] I am or how faithful you are to do what he's going to do he's not dependent upon us but he invites us to live faithfully to participate in what he has planned that's big because if God is dependent upon you then he is limited by you and nothing can limit God but God invites you to join him in the unlimited purpose and plans of God which means that if you strive towards faithfulness and obedience and you're joining with God as Jesus says I see the Father work and I join the Father in his work so if we are joining God in what he is doing what we are doing will not fail it cannot because God is absolutely reliable to the very things he has purposed this is why I say listen friend I understand in the day and time in which we live and all the events going on even in the southern

[21:43] Baptist life and I get asked about these things all the time right now the things don't look too good for the church right? the church isn't looking too good time and space in history right now especially in America and things kind of look down and we can put it down and we can pick apart churches but I tell people all the time if you want to join something that I can promise you will never fail join a good Bible believing Bible preaching faithful church the reason I can tell you that is because Jesus says my church will not fail it's not based upon man man's going to fail you man's going to stumble don't join a man don't ever join a man don't join a pastor don't join a fellowship join the always going to look messed up as long as I'm a part of it but here's breaking news it's always going to look messed up as long as you're a part of it too because messed up people are part of a beautiful thing called the church and we have a tendency to bring our mess up inside the church but the church will not fail in spite of my mess ups and it's not going to fail in spite of yours so when we look at this and

[22:45] God is absolutely reliable to what he has purposed and planned and God has told us that the church will prevail against the gates of darkness and that it will push forward against those things the church is the only thing that we are promised it will be victorious in this life and it will be called to this great marriage supper of the lamb listen my bridegroom is coming back someday for me and he told me that God is faithful and reliable to what his purpose we can just pull one person out of this genealogy probably one kind of obscure person that you won't see very much and you don't hear much and I know I've done this before but read that individual named Jeconiah right Jeconiah he became the father Jeconiah before the Babylonian deportation and after the Babylonian deportation Jeconiah became the king of Israel right Jeconiah begot this person Jeconiah's name is mentioned twice now that's important it's important because God repeats his name now if there is a name in the list that I would not repeat it would probably be Jeconiah if I am Matthew and I'm recording a listing of the family of God it would probably be Jeconiah that I wouldn't repeat twice the reason is is because

[23:48] Jeconiah is also known as Coniah when you get to the Old Testament Coniah was a king of such rampant unfaithfulness and rampant idolatry God made a vow to Coniah right Jeconiah in the New Testament God told him God made a vow God says no descendant of Jeconiah will ever sit on the throne of David curse no descendant Jeconiah even so unfaithful no descendant now that is a spiritual vow God made this promise God said no descendant of Jeconiah will ever set on the throne some of you now going red flag red flag red flag why does Matthew record him because I don't know if you realize it or not but man has deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg deleg political right to the throne of David through Jeconiah.

[25:03] But in the eyes of God, he has no right to the throne of David because of the curse placed upon Jeconiah that no descendant of Jeconiah would ever stand upon the throne. But come down with me to verse 16.

[25:17] Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. This wording by whom, by whom, by whom in its original language is feminine singular.

[25:33] It is feminine singular in the Greek, which means it points to Mary, not to Joseph. Someone has said it is probably one of the greatest defense for the virgin birth because it does not say Jesus was born by Joseph.

[25:49] It says, Mary, by whom? You know, that girl by whom feminine singular, only speaking of one woman, Jesus was born. Now, Luke records for us a genealogy as well.

[26:03] We don't have time to go there. Luke chapter three is a genealogy of Jesus. Luke brings that genealogy through Mary because Jesus is, if we want to say blood inheritance, comes through Mary, right? The blood is flowing through Mary because he has none of Joseph's blood.

[26:16] And when you trace that, it is a different son of David. It is not Solomon. Because Mary is a descendant of David through one of those obscure children. It's only mentioned one time in the Old Testament that David had, remember all those wives, and why do we need to know how many sons David had and why do we need to know who was his son but through this wife when that son doesn't do anything?

[26:36] Oh, that son does something. You have to go all the way down to Luke chapter three and see that that son is in the family of Mary. And the promise was not to Solomon. The promise was to David. Wait a minute.

[26:47] Now, we don't go through Jeconiah and God's reliability says he has a spiritual right to the throne through his mother, Mary. He has a legal right to the throne through his begotten stepfather, Joseph.

[27:00] But he bypasses the unfaithfulness of man. I want you to understand, listen, God is absolutely reliable to those things he has determined he will do.

[27:12] And when you read the word of God and you see what God has promised, he will bring it about. It will happen. Because every time we think we fall upon something, oh, look, God messed up here.

[27:23] We go, wait a minute. No, he didn't mess up. He's absolutely reliable. Number three, I've kind of already spoken to this a little bit, but it bears repeating. Number three, there is the bold refusal to pass over the ugly.

[27:38] There is the bold refusal to pass over the ugly. When we meet the family of Jesus, understanding Jewish genealogy. In Jewish genealogy, you could pick and choose who you wanted to claim as your family.

[27:53] Some of you, you know, we wish we could do that, right? We wish we could pick and choose. Some of you, I'm glad Billy Joe's not my family. Some of my family wishes they could pick and choose and just kind of keep me out of the family, right?

[28:05] In our home, we have a family tree. There's a family tree. The Calverts kind of know a little bit of the history, even before anybody was looking at their ancestry, like before Ancestry.com and all that other stuff.

[28:17] Just kind of growing up, it was kind of unique. We kind of wanted to know a little bit of our family history. Family history is, I always point back to it, it really doesn't matter in time and space, at least in me, but the state of Maryland, Maryland State Fag, is actually the family crest, is the Calvert family crest because the Calverts founded Maryland.

[28:34] We bought it from King James of England. Now I say we, see how I just threw that in there because I want to tie myself to the good stuff, right? And all that's good stuff. But, you know, I can trace that all the way back and say, you know, they bought the land from King James.

[28:47] They came over here. Maryland and named after Queen Mary. There's Calvert Cliff State Park where the Calverts landed there. It's Calvert County. Maryland's where Baltimore is. Baltimore's named after Lord Baltimore Calvert. And there's all this history and you can read and you see all these names.

[29:00] And, you know, Obed Calvert. Obed was a really popular name. People named, I don't know, there's like three or four generations of Obeds. I'm so glad that stopped. I don't want to be named Obed. And then there's Cecil Calvert and there's all these things.

[29:11] But there's all these names listed, right? And you just underline, they underline the one that is tied to me. And there's all these other Calverts and they just kind of disappeared out there. We don't know where they're at.

[29:22] Somebody knows where that, you know, that Obed's other children did something. They had kids too, but it doesn't really pertain to me. And I didn't really listen. But Jewish selection was so much more because they would only pick and choose the ones they wanted people to know about.

[29:34] You know why it says the 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian captivity and 14 generations from Babylonian captivity to the Messiah. We look at that and go, so? When you do the alphanumeric numbering of David's name, DVD, again, doesn't mean anything else.

[29:50] That doesn't mean, you know, DVD like you would watch in a DVD player. That's just, they didn't use vowels. So when you do the alphanumeric counting of David's name in Jewish thought, it added up to 14. 14. So Matthew is writing to Jewish people.

[30:03] David is the king they're looking for, right? He picked 14 generations. There are more people included in the family of Jesus than what we have listed here. Understand that. Okay?

[30:14] There are more people. But he chose the 14 that would add up. And that was absolutely acceptable among Jewish practice. So he was showing that 14, 14, 14, pointing to the Messiah.

[30:25] This is the one we're looking for. But if I'm picking 14, I wouldn't pick these. Right? Would you pick Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived?

[30:37] And his downfall was the fact that he had so many wives and concubines? I mean, the start looks great. But he's also the one that says, vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. Nothing matters anymore.

[30:49] I tried this, I tried that, and I tried this. I mean, maybe I would have been more like Luke and picked that genealogy. It took me down the quiet road, right? If you're really writing to the Jewish island, would you pick these people? I mean, Judah and his brothers, and we need a line from the tribe of Judah.

[31:04] I understand. But why do we have to bring up Tamar? We'll get to that in just a moment. But what you see is that God, the Spirit of God, moved the hand of Matthew to write the Word of God, and God didn't skip over the ugly parts.

[31:20] Because when the king comes, he comes for the ugly stuff too. We have a tendency to skip over the ugly parts, right?

[31:31] We want to paint it all good. We want to make it look right. We want to kind of whitewash the tomb, as we will find later in Matthew. We want it to look good on the outside. God doesn't do that. He just opens it up.

[31:41] He starts the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gospel means good news. He starts the good news by opening up the door and showing you everything that doesn't look good. It says the king came for the ugly stuff too.

[31:56] Because the gospel of Jesus doesn't pass over our bad stuff. It doesn't pass over our mess-ups. It doesn't pass over the things we don't want anybody else to see. It doesn't pass over all that stuff. It doesn't pass over, because there are things you go back, I can highlight the good part of the Calvert history.

[32:10] I can go back and highlight some dark areas of the Calvert history too, right? Because it's in every one of our families. But when we highlight that, we don't put that on the wall, right? How many of you at home have written on your wall all the bad stuff your family ever did?

[32:23] Do you hang that up on your family tree? Just highlight, this is the things my family did. Boy, they were terrible. Look at that. I want you to really know me. This is what we did. We did some good stuff. We did a lot of bad stuff. This is what we did. That's what they do in the gospel. Why?

[32:34] Because when the king of kings comes, he comes for that ugly stuff too. The stuff we're trying to hide from everybody, the stuff we're trying to push back, the stuff we hope nobody else ever sees, God knows it, and he publicizes it because until he makes it public, he can't deal with it.

[32:48] Until he makes you go, oh man. And I'm glad Jesus chose to come through a messed up family because that means I'm welcome there.

[33:02] And it means you're welcome there too. Because when we join the family, we don't bring peaches and buttercups and everything sweet and nice, right? We bring problems and pasts and ugly stuff and stuff we want to cover up and hide.

[33:17] And God looks at us and goes, so what? I got some of that in my family. I'm not going to bring my family down anymore. Come on, it's okay. He's not going to pass over that. He's going to welcome that.

[33:29] What a king. Right? What a king. What king would you know that would stand up and say, this is what my family's done? None. But Jesus, the Messiah.

[33:42] Fourth and finally, and I'm done. We see here, not only the historical reality of Jesus, the ongoing reliability of God, the bold refusal to pass over the ugly.

[33:56] Number four, we see the outcast. This is probably the best news of it. We see the outcasts reassured of their welcome. We see the outcasts reassured of their welcome.

[34:11] Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience. And I know we've said this, and it bears repeating because we always want to take things in the right context so that we don't take them out of context.

[34:23] And I mean this in no disrespect whatsoever to anyone present. But in Jewish society, the genealogy of the ladies really didn't matter.

[34:33] At that time, it really didn't matter what women were in your family. It only mattered what men because the blessings and the promises came through the men.

[34:47] Right? So there's no need to even mention ladies in the family tree. There's no need to even talk about that because in their line of thought, you're the seed of a man.

[34:59] You're not the seed of a woman because that just doesn't make sense. It just doesn't add up. You know, biologically, it doesn't happen until you get to Mary and then all of a sudden you realize that Jesus isn't the seed of a man because God is his father.

[35:11] He is the seed of the Holy Spirit. He's the child of Mary. There's no man involved. But you don't include ladies. But Matthew chooses to include five women.

[35:25] Chooses, moved by the Spirit, to include five women. And none of these women are of good report. They have issues.

[35:37] Right? You have Tamar and Judah. We talked about that just a minute ago. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. She had two of Judah's sons. Both of those sons died because of the unfaithfulness.

[35:49] So Judah decided, well, I'll give you my younger. He told Tamar. He said, I'll give you my younger son. Just wait on him to get old enough. And Tamar went and moved away and kind of stayed away. Tamar was a Canaanite woman, by the way, and they were living in the land of Canaan.

[36:02] Remember, they were supposed to kill the Canaanites? Tamar was a Canaanite woman. And Judah said, well, I'll bring you my youngest son when he gets old enough. And Judah's like, I'm not giving that woman my youngest son because my other two sons have already died.

[36:13] I'm not letting. She must be poisoned. That's Judah's thinking. Now, Judah, right? The faithful in here. And he kind of puts aside, well, Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute. Judah meets her. And Tamar ends up having two children by her father-in-law through trickery.

[36:27] It was a Canaanite woman. And Judah wanted to stone her to death for her unfaithfulness, for waiting for his younger son. And then she said, I am pregnant by this man who bears this staff. And it came back to Judah. And Judah's like, oh no, I've been found out, right?

[36:39] So there's Tamar. We wouldn't really include her normally through trickery. But then not only do they include Tamar, they include both children, right? Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And then we move on and say, well, okay, well, that's one thing.

[36:51] But then we keep going down, we keep going down. So we see Tamar. And then Salmon's the father of Boaz by Rahab. Rahab. Rahab is another Canaanite lady.

[37:03] She lived in Jericho on the city wall. Everywhere else you find her in scripture, she is referred to as Rahab the harlot. Really not another good one of good repute, right?

[37:14] Rahab the harlot. We want to have her in the family tree because she believed God. She trusted God. But she's kind of an outcast. It was really not supposed to be there. It was really not supposed to be there.

[37:24] But then we move on through Rahab. And then we keep going down. And we come down to Obed. And Obed by Ruth. Now Ruth seems to be pretty good other than the fact that she was a Moabite.

[37:35] Ruth was a Moabite who ended up her... She was a widow of a Jewish individual. And she moves back. Remember, where you go, I'll go. Your people will be my people. Your God should be my God.

[37:45] Remember that from the book of Ruth? But Ruth was a Moabite. And God had cursed the Moabites. I said, you know, completely, utterly destroy. Separate yourself from the Moabites.

[37:56] Don't have anything to do with them. But now Ruth is included. And we keep going down. And there's Bathsheba. And no one does it mention the name of Bathsheba, but it also mentions who was the wife of Uriah, which often brings that whole debacle to our mindset.

[38:12] It makes David look worse than he would have been without it, because rightfully so, David. And we understand that. Some people believe that Bathsheba was probably a Hittite. So now you've got a Canaanite, a Moabite, and a Hittite.

[38:26] And then we meet Mary, who just seems to be this outcast, estranged teenager who shows up pregnant. And makes this great accusation.

[38:37] I'm pregnant through the Spirit of God. Unbelievable. Right? Each one of these would have been outcast. But here we find, when Matthew opens it up, he reassures the outcast, you're welcome.

[38:53] You can come here. You know why he does that? Not for the women, but for each and every one of us who realize that our sin has made us an outcast to the kingdom of heaven.

[39:07] That our failures, our mess-ups, our mistakes, our rebellion, the choices we have made, because each of these represent choices, the things we have done, make us outcast before a holy God.

[39:18] And he looks at us and he says, the outcast is welcome here. The outcast can be a part of my family.

[39:31] This is the family of Jesus the Messiah. And if I'm not mistaken, I think we opened up our worship service this morning with, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

[39:45] By the way, I had no idea. We don't plan things that well around here. I'm not that good of an organization. But I'm so thankful that God is.

[39:56] Because when I read this family, I look at that and say, that's the family I need to be a part of. I'm the outcast. I'm the person with the ugly past.

[40:07] I'm this person. I'm so glad I'm a part of that family. And my longing is for each and every one of us to have the same assurance to say, that's my family too.

[40:23] Let's pray. Lord, I thank you so much for this day. Thank you, God, for your faithfulness. I thank you, God, for your goodness and your mercy and your kindness towards each and every one of us. Lord, we pray that each of us would see the king.

[40:35] We'd be amazed at the king. Lord, we would also feel the welcoming, the calling, and the longing to be a part of your family, for your glory. We give you the glory.

[40:46] We give you the praise. And it's all for your namesake. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Page 320.

[41:09] Page 320. Page 320. Thank you.

[41:46] Thank you.