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.

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