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KEY SCRIPTURE
14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NLT
27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
PRAYER
Father, I praise you that Your ways are not my ways. I thank you that you choose foolish things.
Holy Spirit, help me to remember that I am powerless to save myself. That I have been rescued and redeemed because of who you are and what Jesus has done for me. Help me to remember this truth, Holy Spirit.
Thank you Jesus for knowing all of my weaknesses, all of my sins, all of my failures and uncertainties, and yet, you don’t just love me, you want to know me and shape me to Become more like you.
Holy Spirit, help me see what Your Word has for me.
In the Amazing Name of Jesus!
SERMON NOTES
Have you ever had to unlearn something?
There were several things as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, I had to unlearn.
One of the big ones for me was “How to read the Bible.”
How many of you have ever heard this Acrostic, which is super-catchy.
B asic
I nstructions
B efore
L eaving
E arth
While it sounds super catchy and the Bible certainly does give us some great insights on how to live; it shares with us God’s desires for His people, for the world, and provides some very important guidelines for life.
And if I’m honest, I think many people in church today think the same way… This makes it seem that the primary purpose of the Bible is to be an instruction manual for my life. Which is why when I came to parts in the Bible that didn’t seem to apply to “me”, I either glanced over, dismissed or found a way to make about “me”.
The Problem is that we’ve created a one-dimensional view of the Bible!
The Bible does not have “a purpose” it has “it has several purposes”
One of those purposes is to give guidance to how we as His people should live, love and act.
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. —1 Peter 2:21
But there’s another purpose… the Bible points you to the God of the Bible!
God’s Word, along with His Spirit, helps you grasp “how wide, long, high and deep is Christ’s love for you so you can know and be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. —Ephesians 3:16-19
Matthew is going to show, through the story of Jesus’ Family Tree, who God is and how he’s moved and moving to save the world through Jesus!
1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, —Matthew 1:1-6
A first century Jew reading or hearing this would have known most if not all of these names. That’s exactly what Matthew is counting on. But there are 4 names that shouldn’t be there… and if you’re like I was, I completely missed them.
• Tamar
• Rahab
• Ruth
• Uriah’s wife
Why shouldn’t they be there? Jewish Genealogies are traced down through the father’s bloodline. These 4 Women shouldn’t be there, so why are they?
There’s a story within the story!
And what you’ll find if you read these stories is they’re messy, often with a high “ick” factor. They might make you uncomfortable, but each of them also shows us something about God, something about Jesus. And more importantly, something about the Gospel!
I want to point out that some of these stories are really messed up and quite frankly kind of graphic.
One of the complaints charged against the Bible is that it’s anti-women, patriarchal & that it promotes abuse and unhealthy power dynamics. Yet, when you read the Bible in light of the culture and world it was written, the Bible is counter-cultural and revolutionary. The Bible gave value, dignity & protection to people groups that were often marginalized but also neglected, forgotten and even abused.
Matthew is going to show his Jewish audience not just something about their past, or even about Jesus’ family; he’s going to show them something about God!
Kinsmen Redeemer
If a woman’s husband died before they could have a child and her deceased husband had a brother, it was his living brother’s responsibility to take her in as his wife, provide for her, protect her and give her a child. If he didn’t have a brother, it was her deceased husband’s father’s job to find someone to fulfill this obligation. A kinsmen redeemer would also incur any outstanding debts, buy back property lost because of hardship, and even buy back the freedom of those who were forced into slavery.
Tamar
Genesis 38:24-26
Cliff notes:
• Tamar’s first husband dies
• His brother takes her in but doesn’t give her a child (by his choice) and then also dies
• Her father-in-law Judah won’t give her his other son
• Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and tricks Judah into sleeping with her
• Tamar become pregnant with Judah’s child
• Judah says, ‘“She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.’
Tamar had to fight to be redeemed, to be cared for. She was not righteous because she did a good thing. She lied, deceived, prostituted herself. But what she did was out of an act of desperation!
It was Judah’s job to rescue Tamar and he wouldn’t do it… So, she saved herself. Tamar was vindicated.
God doesn’t approve of this story. But the Bible never shies away from the sin and brokenness of the people within its pages because they’re not the hero of the story.
Jesus knows exactly what Tamar went through. He was betrayed, falsely accused, even though he had done no wrong. No one fought for Jesus, just as no one fought for Tamar.
Rahab
Joshua 2:1-24 & Joshua 6:17-25
Cliff notes:
• Rahab is a prostitute in Jericho
• Joshua sends spies into Jericho
• Rahab, having heard of the God of Israel, hides and protects these spies
• The spies told her to tie a red cord to her door to protect her and her household from their attack
Rahab wasn’t just saved when her city was destroyed. She became part of Israel. She was welcomed in, adopted, grafted into God’s people.
Matthew places her in the story of Jesus because God will rescue anyone, regardless of their sin, if they want to be saved if they put their faith in the atoning work of Jesus!
1 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. —1 John 1:19
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. —Colossians 3:2-4
Jesus is your Redeemer who won’t abandon you & will fight for you. Jesus is your Rescuer & you are Hidden in Him!
Ruth
Ruth 1-4
Cliff notes:
• Ruth was a Moabite, a group who despised the Jews
• A famine has swept across Judea, and many Jews in order to find food migrate to Moab
• Ruth married one of these Jewish immigrants who dies
• Her mother-in-law Naomi’s husband dies too
• Naomi and Ruth travel back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem in the hopes that one of Naomi’s male family members might become Ruth’s Kinsmen Redeemer
• Boaz, known as a good man, is a relative of Naomi’s husband
• Naomi convinces Ruth to try to seduce and prostitute herself to Boaz one night when he gets drunk
• Boaz won’t take advantage of the situation, instead blesses her and tries to find her a kinsmen redeemer
• No one wants that duty, so Boaz takes it upon himself to
Ruth is not the Redeemer, but she was redeemed.
The Apostle Paul echoes the story of Ruth in
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
—Ephesians 2:12-13
Again, Ruth tells us something about God. About Jesus. And about the Gospel.
God is good, kind and merciful. It’s amazing how God can use godly people to show His grace and mercy.
Jesus is your Kinsmen Redeemer. Jesus paid the debt of your sin with the cross. He came to set you free from the slavery of sin and death.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. —Ephesians 1:7
This is the Gospel… Jesus came to pay the debt of your sin, to redeem you, so you wouldn’t have to.
Bathsheba
2 Samuel 11
A lot of us know this story, but have had it sanitized or have understood it from a different perspective. This theological interpretation may turn this story on its head for some.
Cliff notes:
• King David is home from war while his troops are still away
• Bathsheba was married to Uriah, who was at the frontlines in King David’s army
• Bathsheba was bathing on the roof of her home as part of a spiritual ritual
• King David sees her, requests she come over by having his guards so get her and took her
• Bathsheba becomes pregnant
• King David brings Uriah back from the frontlines to try to get his to sleep with his wife to cover up this child of rape
• Uriah was more righteous than David, so he had Uriah killed
While King Solomon was from the bloodline of David, God would adopt Uriah’s family name into the line of Jesus and give dignity back to Bathsheba.
All of the women we read about either did sordid things or came from a sordid past.
Tamar – lied, prostituted herself and committed incest.
Rahab – was a prostitute and hid spies
Ruth – came from sexually immoral people and may have tried to seduce her way into being cared for.
But Bathsheba – Bathsheba was a victim. She was not the rightful wife of David. Her rightful husband was Uriah.
Jesus’ Family Tree offers hope, healing, redemption, forgiveness, restoration, and God chose to show it through unexpected people and places.
Because of that, we shouldn’t be surprised that God would choose a young virgin named Mary to bring His Son and King into the world. We shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus’ birth is filled with scandal, because Jesus didn’t just come for broken people; He came from broken people.
But Matthew had one other major reason for bringing these women to the forefront…
Just as God rewrote their stories… Jesus came to rewrite your story.
Jason, if you want me to Become more like Jesus, show me how good God is. —Marty Garret
Jesus’ family tree is a powerful reminder that God can make beautiful things out of broken people. It reminds you it’s not how big your sin is that matters, what matters is how powerful the cross and resurrection are.
You need to know that God can use your most painful moments and use them to bring healing and redemption to your story but also other peoples stories. But also, you need to be reminded that Jesus can use your life, your failures, because he understands your humanity
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION
Q: What if we think about the Bible as a book about God and to help us grow our relationship with him instead of just a way to live our lives?
Q: God uses the messiest of stories to show His glory. God can use your story How does that make you feel about your own messy story and life?
Discussion: There is a theme of sexual immorality in the stories of the matriarchs of Christmas. Why do you think this is?
Challenge: If you feel comfortable enough with your gorup, share what parts of your story that you want God to re-write. If you’re not ready, that’s ok - write them down and pray for God to make beautiful things out of the ashes of your life.
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