Good Savior
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Alright so let’s be honest. Most of us when we come across a piece of scripture like this we tend to skip over it. We tend to skip over the genealogies in the bible, unless you’re looking for a cute baby name like Boaz or Sal-al-theel, which I pronounce Sheil-Teil or Shaquille O’neal. Other than that, we tend to skip over genealogies. I mean we hardly study our own genealogies why would we ever study somebody else’s. So at first glance it looks like Matthew’s gospel’s gonna be a snoozer but it’s not. In fact there’s a lot we can learn from his gospel, from his genealogy of Jesus, which is why we’re not gonna skip it, we’re gonna study it. We can’t study all of it because of time, but we’re gonna study some of it. So consider this a google search. We’re gonna do a google search on a few names in Jesus’ genealogy and see what it reveals.
You ever done that? You ever done a google search on your name to see what it reveals? I’ve done it. I’ve googled my name and one of the things I learned is that my name means “warrior drummer” in Italian. It means “warrior drummer” and I was like, “Heck yeah, I like that. It’s manly. I’m a warrior drummer. I’m a warrior who can cage fight and kick a nasty drum beat. That’s manly!” But then a Puerto Rican friend of mine said in Spanish it means “Dumb Donkey”...Talk about a mood killer...So I just combine the two and what you get is a “Warrior Drummer who kicks like a mule.” Crushed it!...Google it, google your name and see what you find. It’s what we’re gonna do today with Jesus’ genealogy. We’re gonna google a few names in his genealogy and see what it reveals as we start a new series called “Incarnation.” It’s called Incarnation, and it’s all about “why God with us, is better than God above us.” It’s about why God with us, is better than God above us and I’ll unpack that series theme later in the message. But for now, let’s turn our bibles to Matthew 1:1-17 and get into it. The title of today’s message is “Good Savior.” It’s Good Savior, and what humanity doesn’t need is more good advice, we need a good savior. It’s what every genealogy reveals. We’ll see it in Jesus’ genealogy today.
Context:
Here’s your context. The Gospel of Matthew was written by a man named Matthew, also known as Levi. Matthew was a tax collector, which was a profession the Jews despised. In fact it was so despised that they viewed tax collectors as traitors and thieves. They viewed them as traitors because they were employed by their Roman occupants, they were employed by Rome. So they considered them traitors for working for Rome, and they considered them thieves because the Romans didn’t care what tax collectors charged for taxes, as long as Rome got their cut. So what tax collectors would do is they’d inflate taxes, give Rome their cut, and take the rest for themselves. They’d be like “Man, I need more money to pay my bills. I need more Christmas money. I need a new ride, a donkey, or just want to pimp my ride, pimp my donkey with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” And they’d increase the taxes. They’d just increase taxes, give Rome their cut, and take the rest for themselves. It was a shady business which means Matthew was hated. They would’ve seen him as a traitor and a thief, but Jesus loved Matthew. He loved him, reached out to him, and called him to leave his dishonest tax collecting business to follow him, which he did. Matthew left everything to follow Jesus, and what we hold in our hands is his eyewitness account, his bookkeeping record of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He was an educated man fluent in at least two languages Aramaic and Greek, and since he was a tax collector he would’ve received training in accurate record keeping, which means we can trust his testimony. We can trust it. We can trust it because his educational professional background would’ve required him to keep accurate records...and this Christmas season we’re gonna study the first two chapters of his bookkeeping records of Jesus. Let’s get into it.
The Word:
Matthew 1:1 states this, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…” I love this. I love how he starts things off. He starts it off like a bookkeeper. He starts it off with historical facts, historical names, historical records. He starts off by telling us that this isn’t a myth or a fairytale, it’s something that’s rooted in history. It’s something that’s actually rooted in history. I mean most fairytales start off with something like “Once upon a time” or if you’re a Star Wars junkie it’s “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away.” That’s how most fairytales start, and when you see the new Star Wars in a few weeks I want you to remember Matthew. I want you to remember he didn’t start things off with “once upon a time” or “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away,” he started it off with historical records consisting of real people, real names, that lived during a real period of time and one of those names was Jesus. It was Jesus. He wasn’t a myth or a fairytale, he was a real person in history who lived, died, and rose again. Matthew’s letting us know right from the beginning that it’s not a myth or a fairytale, it’s all rooted in history.
Look Matthew’s gospel, his bookkeeping record of Jesus is less about what Jesus came to teach, and more about what Jesus came to do. Matthew’s gospel, his bookkeeping record of Jesus, the entire message of Jesus and Christianity is less about what Jesus came to teach, and more about what Jesus came to do. It’s not that Jesus didn’t teach us anything because he did. He’s taught us a lot of things, but the primary message of Jesus, Christianity, and the gospel, isn’t about good advice, it’s about a good savior. It’s about a good savior who entered into human history to live, die, and rise again for our sins, and when I say humanity doesn’t need more good advice we need a good savior, I’m not saying you shouldn’t seek good advice. I’m not saying that. Sometimes we need good advice, sometimes we need good counsel. So the issue isn’t in getting good advice, it’s that we fail to live out the very advice we receive. I mean it’s been happening for centuries. For centuries people have been receiving good advice from great scholars, scientists, philosophers, and religious teachers but we still fail to live out the advice we receive. I mean Dr. Oz might give you some good advice telling you to not eat sweets, but eventually you’ll eat sweets. It happened on Thanksgiving!..,Dr. Phil might give you some good advice on how to change your family, but sooner or later your family’s gonna fight. Just wait until the in-laws come on Christmas Eve...Look the world’s not jacked up because we’re lacking good advice, it’s jacked up because we’re sinful people who fail to live out the good advice we’ve already received. It’s jacked up because we’re sinful people who are in need of a savior. Despite all the good advice we’ve received we still lie, cheat, steal, kill, gossip, slander, and we’re still consumed with consumerism rather than generosity. No good advice will ever help to change our corrupt sinful hearts which is why what humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior who can change our corrupt hearts. Matthew says Jesus is that Savior. He says it’s Jesus, and he starts off by saying it’s not a fairytale, rather it’s all rooted in history.
Again vs. 1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David...” There’s our first google search, there’s our first historical name in our google search. It’s David. Matthew mentions David. But who’s David? What do we know about David? Historically here’s what we know about David. It’s that he was a warrior. He was a warrior, and he received much of his combat training from his father who trained him to protect their land against raiders and wild animals. Historically we know he killed lions and bears, and without a red dot or a 30-06. He did it without a red dot, deer blind, or a 30-06. They didn’t have guns back then so in order to kill lions and bears he had to be smart, fast, and a lethal warrior. In fact he was so lethal that he was the only guy in Israel who was willing to fight a guy named Goliath. Goliath was a 9 ft killing machine in the Philistine Army, and for those who think 9 ft a myth, it’s not. In fact historically the Guinness Book of World Records recorded in the 1940’s an American by the name of Robert Wadlow who was 8 ft 11 inches tall. That’s only 1 inch shorter than Goliath. It’s historical. It’s all historical, and Goliath was a 9 ft killing machine that nobody wanted to fight except David. David fought him, killed him, and sent the Philistine Army packing. He was a warrior.
But he was also a musician, poet, songwriter, and king. He was a righteous king, a righteous man, and he’s responsible for writing a major section in the bible called the Psalms. Most of the psalms were written by his hand. Yet as righteous as he was, as good as he was, as much of a warrior as he was, he couldn’t win the fight against sin. David sinned. He sinned. He slept with another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then tried to cover it up by sending the woman’s husband to the front lines to be killed at war, which he was. The woman’s husband died at war. David committed adultery and covered it up by having the woman’s husband killed at war. He sinned, and that’s what his google search reveals. It reveals that he sinned. It’s all historical, and what David needed wasn’t more good advice, he needed a good savior. He already had all the good advice he needed in the 10 commandments, but he still couldn’t follow it. What he needed wasn’t more good advice, he needed a good savior. What humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior.
Again vs. 1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” There’s our second name. There’s our second name in our historical google search. It’s Abraham...and who’s Abraham, what do we know about Abraham? Historically we know he was a rancher and a shepherd. He was a rancher and a shepherd that God called to leave his home country to start a new life and a new nation, and because Abraham trusted God, he did it. He packed his bags, loaded up his things, and left his country to follow God. He was faithful. Abraham was very faithful. In fact Abraham was so faithful that he was willing to sacrifice his son (not “only” son) Isaac just to prove his faithfulness to God, but God intervened. God stopped him and in the process He grew Abraham’s faith even more. Abraham had great faith, and today Christians, Jews, and Muslims all have great respect for his faithfulness. But he still sinned. As faithful as he was, he still sinned. He sinned by lying, pimping out his wife to a king on multiple accounts, and he slept with another woman. Just like David, Abraham sinned. It’s what his google search reveals. It reveals a man who couldn’t live out all the good advice he had already received. He still sinned. It’s all historical, and what both David and Abraham needed wasn’t more good advice, they needed a good savior. What humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior. Let’s do one more google search.
Again vs. 1, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth...” Alright three things I want you to notice about this part of the genealogy. Three things. First I want you to notice the names Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. They’re all women. It’s all women names, which isn’t typical for a genealogy back then. Genealogies back then didn’t include women, but Matthew includes them anyways. He also includes Gentiles, which is the second thing I want you to notice. It’s that he includes gentiles. All three of these women weren’t Jewish they were gentiles, which again goes against a typical Jewish genealogy. He includes women, gentiles, and he also includes sin which is the third thing I want you to notice. It’s that all three of these women sinned. Just like David and Abraham, they all sinned. Tamar and Rahab sold themselves as prostitutes, and Ruth under the influence of her mother manipulated a relationship to secure her and her mother’s future during a famine. All three of these women sinned. Man I love Matthew’s record keeping. I love it because he’s obviously not a conformist. He’s not writing to appease a Jewish culture or to gain status. If he wanted to do that then he wouldn’t have included women, gentiles, and sin in the genealogy. But he’s not writing to be a conformist he’s writing to be historically accurate, to be historically truthful even to the point of sharing some of the dirt in Jesus’ family. I mean most of us want to hide the dirt in our family, not show it. It’s why our facebook and Instagrams are filled with ideal images of ourselves. We rarely show pictures like this...show picture...That’s my family. It’s dirty sometimes. But we don’t like to post the dirt, we like to post the ideal images of ourselves. Matthew’s posting the dirt. He’s posting the dirt, he’s being truthful and honest about Jesus’ family history by including women, gentiles, and even the names of a few prostitutes. You can trust Matthew’s gospel. You can trust it. It’s a very real, raw, and truthful book about Jesus.
Now overall here’s what Matthew’s saying, here’s what he’s teaching us by including women, gentiles, and sin in Jesus’ family history. He’s saying regardless of our gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status you can’t escape sin. You can’t escape it. It’s in everyone’s life, family, and genealogy. You can’t escape sin. Jesus had men, women, Jews, gentiles, rich, poor, and some of the greatest patriarchs of our faith in his family and they all sinned. Sin is in every life, family, and genealogy and what Matthew’s saying is Jesus is the good savior who’s come to save us from our sins. He’s come to save us regardless of our gender, ethnic, socio-economic status, and regardless of the sin we’ve committed. He wants us to know everybody sins, everybody’s in need of a savior, and Jesus is that savior. He wants us to know that what humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior, and Jesus is that savior. Check out vs. 16.
Vs. 16, “...and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born...” Historical. Again that’s historical. Jesus was born. “...and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” Jesus is called “Christ,” which means “anointed one.” It means anointed one and in this context Matthew’s using it to mean “anointed savior.” He’s saying Jesus is the anointed savior who was promised to come through the lineage of David and Abraham. He’s saying Jesus is the promised savior who’s come to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of our sins. He’s the promised savior who’s come to begin the process of restoring our sin fallen dysfunctional world that we live in, and what makes Christianity so unique, what makes Jesus so unique is the incarnation. It’s the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus is about both the transcendence and immanence of God colliding in bodily form. The transcendence of God means that God’s holy and set apart from creation, while the immanence of God means He’s actively involved in creation. The incarnation brings the two together. It’s about Jesus being transcendent, set apart, and fully divine, yet he’s also so loving that he chooses to be immanent, to enter into creation, to become fully human. It’s a unique turning point in human history where God doesn’t say, “Here’s some more good advice, some more rules you’ll never be able to live up to. Good luck!” Instead he says, “I’m gonna give you something better than good advice and rules, I’m gonna give you myself.” It’s why God with us, is better than God being above us. It’s because if Jesus just remained transcendently above us, then it makes him just another advice giver. It makes him just another advice giver, another good moral teacher who’s advice we’ll never be able to live up to. It makes Jesus pointless.
C.S. Lewis puts it like this, “There’s been no lack of good advice for the last 4000 years. A bit more wouldn’t have made any difference…We’ve never followed the advice of the great teachers. Why would we be likely to begin now? Why would we be more likely to follow Christ than any of the others? Because He is the best moral teacher? That makes it even less likely that we would be able to follow Him, because if we can’t follow the elementary lessons, is it likely we’re going to follow the most advanced ones? If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then Christianity is of no importance.” If Christianity, if Jesus is just another piece of good advice, then it’s of no importance because we’ll never be able to live up to that good advice anyways. But Christianity’s not just about good advice, it’s about a good savior who’s come to live, die, and rise again for our sins. Matthew says that savior is Jesus, and it’s all historical.
The Big Idea:
Let’s get to the big idea of the message. Here’s the big idea. What humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior...What humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior...Look here’s what we can all agree on. It’s that the world’s a bit jacked up. The world’s a bit jacked up, and you don’t have to be a Christian to realize that. You don’t have to be a Christian to realize that there’s something just not right with our world. It’s full of hurt, pain, death, and sin. It’s jacked up. It’s what sin does, sin jacks everything up. It hurts you and everyone around you. Again you don’t have to be a Christian to realize that. I mean when you sin against someone or they sin against you does it pull you closer together or further apart?..When you sin against someone or they sin against you does it pull you closer together or further apart?...It pulls you apart right? It doesn’t pull you together it pulls you apart. It creates a wedge, a disruption, a dysfunction in that relationship. What was once functional is now dysfunctional. What was once going well, isn’t going well. It’s because of sin. Sin put a wedge in that relationship, it created separation in that relationship, and so what’s it gonna take to restore that relationship? It’s gonna take both people humbling themselves, repenting of their sins, and extending forgiveness to each other. You can get all the counseling and good advice you want, but if you don’t repent and extend forgiveness to each other, the relationship won’t be restored to health. You may sweep it under the rug for a bit, but it’s not gonna be restored to health.
Listen City Awakening! Listen! The process of restoration you experience over and over again in your relationships is pointing us to an even greater process of restoration. The process of restoration, the process of sin, repentance, and forgiveness is pointing us to an even greater process of restoration which is our restoration with God. Our sins created a wedge between us and God, and the world’s been jacked up ever since. We’ve been feeling the pains of our separation from God ever since. Just like you experience pain when your relationships are separated by sin, the world’s been feeling pain because of our separation from God. Just like you experience joy when your relationships are restored through repentance and forgiveness, the world will experience joy when our relationship with God is restored through repentance and forgiveness. The process of restoration that you experience in your own personal relationships is pointing us to an even greater process of restoration that God wants for you and our world. The world’s not gonna be restored by having more good advice when we don’t even live out the good advice we’ve already received. It’s gonna be restored when we repent of sin, receive the forgiveness of sin, and have our hearts changed by our good savior. Bookkeeper Matthew says Jesus is that savior, and it’s all historical. What humanity needs isn’t more good advice, we need a good savior. You can’t escape sin, but you can receive the forgiveness of sin.
PARENT COMMISSIONING
Today we have a few families who believe that message and want to pass that message onto their kids. They believe that message, they believe Jesus is our good savior who came to live, die, and rise again for our sins, and they want to pass that message onto their kids. So we’re gonna pray for them. We’re gonna pray for them to lead their families well and for their kids to one day receive Jesus as their good savior so they can be a part of his family tree, his family history. So let’s have those families come on up to the front of the stage at this time.