Matthew's Bold Statement...Matthew 1:1-17

 


Here is a chart hanging in the foyer/lobby/entrance of the Stillwater Community Chapel that I serve at as pastor.  It is a genealogy from God to Jesus and very detailed.  

The bold statement of Matthew is of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  All of God's word is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16).  God is speaking through Matthew to let us know who His Son is.  The genealogy is only the start to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Anointed One of God, and many other titles found in His word.  The genealogy starts this gospel off with a bang!

Matthew doesn't erase or modify history but rather exposes and uses history to make the point that Jesus is the fulfiller of the Davidic and Abrahamic Covenants.  Jesus is the everlasting King of the line of David and also the Blessing to all the nations.  Matthew shows us Jesus' very messy family tree.  

Point 1:  Our messes don't thwart God's plan and do not disqualify us of being used by God for His glory.

Maybe we could relate with Jesus' family tree.  Maybe there are things in our past that we would like to erase or modify.  Our history is our history and right now we need to be obedient to our Savior and allow Him to use our history for His glory.  We are to be so thankful that God is a transforming God who is shaping us into Christ's likeness.

Point 2:  We need the continual posture of knowing we are unworthy of God's grace rather than creating some self system of goodness.  

At the awareness of the gospel, the good news that Jesus died and rose again for our salvation and eternal life, I think we all have a response that we are so undeserving of this gift.  While the world has set up a system of goodness to satisfy this longing to be "okay" with God, I think Christians can do the same thing after awhile.  We go from what a good Christian should do to honor God with their life as recorded in the Bible and it morphs into a checklist that puts more weight on what we do rather than what God has already done.  The struggle is to not become the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14.  

How can I as a Christian for a long time keep an "I'm not worthy" attitude and action? This is a question to ponder and act upon because if we don't keep this attitude our actions will go from reaching out to others with the gospel to pointing our fingers at others as unworthy to even share the gospel with.  

The recording starts in a little from the start but the white board shows what I had covered so far as an introduction to the Gospel of Matthew.  It's author is Matthew; his audience is the Jewish people; and it was autographed about 55-65 A.D.  Matthew uses the rabbinic method of memorization and defined ages to identify with his target audience.  Luke and Matthew both have genealogies of Jesus.  Luke goes from the present to the past (Jesus to Adam) and Matthew goes from the past to the present (Abraham to Jesus).

May we learn much from this gospel about who are Jesus is.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connect a bit of Scripture with a bit of life - Spurgeon

     I heard this phrase today along with another that if you connect a bit of Scripture with a bit of life, it will end up effecting all of your life.  This came up in my study of the book of James and specifically the verses dealing with not just being a hearer of the Word but also be a doer of the Word.  It is all about application.  I can't look at preaching the Word without giving steps of applying the Word.  It really is an incomplete sermon if I don't.      Many times I think it has to be big and many points and given cute aliteration that makes it snappy and I think easy to remember and fun to write down.  Reality is, if I would make it a bit of Scripture connected to a bit of life and just that it would probably accomplish much more.  How much time I spend on the opening statement and lame joke and research and introductions and how many points and the closing statement and so little time on connecting the bit of Scripture to the bit of life.      So I guess I ha
Read more

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlier in  Ga
Read more

Sermon prep and maybe a video...

     James 4 has brought up some interesting study.  First, "the quarrels and fights among you."  Those are usually worse than you think even though we try to minimize them.  The source is simpler than you think because it is coming from within you.  The solution is easier than you think because the solution that James gives is that we need to humble ourselves before the Lord.  Any sincere resolution is specific and brief.  Beware of lengthy resolutions that usually include explaining it away or excusing some of the behavior.      As I have seen before, the words are a sign of the heart.  I read this week that if we have a critical heart we usually start by speaking evil of another to ourselves.  Then we progress to speaking evil of another to that person with a running tally in our heads of all their wrongs.  Finally, we speak evil of another to others and broadcast in a way that we are thinking that we are helping.  Giving judgment is always easier than giving mercy.  I
Read more