Do You Ever Feel Like You Don’t Belong

(Matthew 1: 1-17)

(2715a)

You may remember in the last episode I read the genealogy from the first 17 verses of Matthew, and I mentioned that it falls into three sections.

He tells us in verse one, Jesus Christ is the son of.Abraham. Now that’s interesting because his original name was not Abraham. It was Abram, but God changed his name to Abraham when he made a covenant with him. So, by using the name Abraham, Matthew is saying I’m talking about the one that God made a covenant with and thereby he is focusing on not just the person of Abraham, but the Abrahamic covenant, the promise God made to Abraham. 

Remember what that’s about? (Season 2) Well, in Genesis chapter 12 God promised Abraham that he would give him land.That he would give him descendants, beginning with a son and then he said this, and through you all the nations of the Earth are going to be blessed. Part and parcel of the Abrahamic covenant is that God would bless the whole world and do that through Abraham’s family line. If we had the time, we could look at the book of Galatians. That makes it very clear.That the way God did this is he sent his son who is in the line of David to die for our sins, to become the saviour of the world. That statement in Genesis Chapter 12, that through him all the nations of the world are going to be blessed, is applied in the New Testament to the coming of Christ, who died for our sins, who arose from the dead, that we could be forgiven and have eternal life by simply trusting in him as our saviour. That’s what the Abrahamic covenant is all about, and that’s what this family tree tells us, that Jesus is the direct descendant of Abraham, and as such he fulfils the Abrahamic covenant, which he means he came to die for sin and removed sin.

Now with that in mind and taking just a glimpse through the genealogy we will notice that there is some very unusual things going on in the choice of names listed. For example, in verse three in the middle it talks about Tamar and in verse five, it talks about Rehab and then at the end of verse five it talks about Ruth. Verse six it talks about the wife of Uriah, in other words, a veiled reference to Bathsheba, and then in verse 16 it says that.Joseph was the husband of Mary. So, five women are mentioned in this genealogy. Now to mention any woman would be unusual because at this time, among the Jews of that day women didn’t count. However, don’t get to judgemental about that, woman didn’t even get the vote in the UK until 1918 and then only if they were over 30 and own property, and it wasn’t any better in America the vote there didn’t arrive there for woman until 1921. But back in these days, women certainly didn’t count, and no one would put their name in a genealogy. So, the fact that we have one woman is unusual, and the fact that we have five is not just unusual, it’s highly significant. But when you look at the five, it gets even more interesting. Because three of the five were guilty of gross sin. One was even a Gentile, and you certainly wouldn’t put a Gentile in a Jewish list.

Hamar, deceived her father-in-law by presenting herself as a prostitute and as a result of that she had a son, Perez. He makes it to the list. This is what today same would call an illegitimate child, and yet he is still in the royal line. Then there’s Rehab and she was a prostitute. She was the one that was in Jericho when the Joshua and Caleb go into spy out the land. She made her living as a professional prostitute. Bathsheba is also mentioned, well sort of, it just mentioned in verse six that she had been the wife of Uriah therefore she was an adulteress. Ruth she was a Gentile. She was a Moabitess, which means she was a Gentile and according to the Mosaic law was a heathen and unclean. According to the Torah a Moabitess she could not be a member of the Congregation of Israel for 10 generations. So here you have not just women , but most of them are sinful women, and yet there seen to be in the line of Jesus Christ, in the line of the Messiah. Tamar committed incest, Rehab was a prostitute, Ruth was an outcast Gentile. They all came from lowly even sinful positions and yet they’re form part of the highest royal line, the line of the eternal, King Jesus Christ.

This genealogy all of a sudden is becoming interesting. The fact that there are women in it who were thought of as not having much value, shows that they were still valuable to God. Is our value in how we look or is it something intrinsic placed in us and put on us by God himself.

If I was to take a pristine £20.00 note and give it to you, would you be able to spend it. Then if a took this note and scrunched it up so it had all kind of wrinkles, is it still the same value. If I threw it on the floor and stepped on it and squashed my foot back and forward, rubbing it into the dirty floor is it still worth having, does it retain its value? Who wants it, I suspect everyone, this is because you see note has what is called intrinsic value. With all of its wrinkles and with all of its dirt, it still has value.

That’s what God does with us, we are born with innate value because we are created in the image of God but then life comes along and we get creased and we pick up dirt and stains, sometimes because of our own mistakes and bad decisions and sometimes because of the evil acts of others. But then God comes along, and he gather us up, and puts us in his family. In fact, we are such value he places us in the royal line of his son Jesus. So, if you feel like you’re in a bit of a mess, you may feel like you don’t fit it. Maybe in you job or even in your own family, but you fit in the family of God.

Matthew is saying. He’s the son of David, he’s a king. But he’s also the son of Abraham, and as the son of Abraham he allows people to inherit God Promises by saving sinners.

If you look beginning at verse 12 and what it says that after this point the Nation of Israel were taken into Babylon, which is a reference to the captivity. 

This is the third part. First part he’s the son of David, second part he’s the son of Abraham and now it’s getting down to the fact that following the captivity he’s arrives as the son of Mary. If you look at this list of name, and I’m not going to take the time to work through all the name you will note that a couple of things. One is there are gaps, and we know that because we have genealogies in the Old Testament and when we compare them to this one, we can see there are gaps. Also, some of the names mentioned by Matthew extend beyond the Old Testament through the 400 years between the Old Testament, the New Testament, and there’s no way we can verify that except from this list.

The other thing we know is he gets down to verse 16 and he says that Jacob [another Jacob] was the father of Joseph, who was the husband of Mary. Interesting choice of words in that he not mentioned as the biological son of Joseph, He is just the biological son of Mary, who had a husband called Joseph. All that means is simply this, Jesus Christ coming through the line of Abraham is the legal heir to the throne of David and the inheritor of the promises made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob, but he is not the biological son of Joseph. Luke will also trace the line of Jesus, and again bring up Joseph but avoid mentioning any reference to his status as the biological son of Joseph. Because yes, Mary is Jesus mother by Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father.

One last thing. The conclusion is in verse 17 is an interesting verse.

Thus, there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

(Matthew 1: 17)

If you add these all together you get 42 names, but did you notice in this list he names David twice. Bible experts will tell you that Matthew deliberately arranging the list in a certain way. He’s not trying to give us an exhausted list. He’s trying to give us a representative list that demonstrates that Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham and that the whole terms of reference Matthew is working within. That’s all that’s going on here, as I said at the beginning Matthew had a purpose, and the purpose is to show that Jesus Christ, as the son of David, is the king and as the son of Abraham he fulfils, perfect’s and in fact, completes, the Abrahamic covenant. 

And as far as we are concerned, the part of the Abrahamic covenant that he fulfils is the ability to atone for sin, not by animal sacrifice as according to the Old Testament but he came to save sinners as the Messiah who will suffer and lay down his live for many. And that is what is going on here. But why did he put the names in groups of 14? That’s an interesting question, and I’ve heard all kinds of answers, and I’m not sure I know, but I think the best answer I’ve heard is this. In Hebrew they didn’t have numbers. Letters represented numbers, and if you take the the letters in the Hebrew named David, those letters added up they come to 14. many Bible experts have suggested this is another way of just highlighting the fact that he is the son of David and because of that he is the kin.

As the son of Abraham, he came to save sinners. Which ties in with fact that this list of names of people from very different background, good and bad, rich and poor, men and women God loves them all. God loves each of us so much he wants you be adopted into the family line of the Messiah. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. He sends you flowers every spring and sunrise every morning and whenever you want to talk, he’ll always listen. Face it, friends, God really loves you.

Summary

Two things summarized in verse one. Jesus Christ is the son of David. Which means he is king of the Jews and the inheritor of the thrown of David. He is also the son of Abraham, which means he can save sinners. If you qualify, and you want you to be a member of the family, he’ll put you straight in the royal line and you can inherit the blessing due that family line. So, what is the qualification is to be place in the 

Remember he's the son of David which means he’s the King of Israel and he’s the son of Abraham, which means he’s the saviour of sinners. So, could we sum all this up in one little brief sentence and say Jesus Christ is the sovereign king who saved sinners? The gracious God, the merciful Messiah, the living Lord Jesus Christ is also a gracious king. Let me tell you how gracious he is by looking at some of the names in this list of ancestors. David committed adultery and murder and he was also a polygamist and a failure as a father. Abraham lied about his wife and pretended she was his sister, but that wasn’t bad enough, he did it twice. He also did not believe God promise concerning him having a son, so he committed adultery with his maid Hagar. Solomon, who’s in the line was on a wise man who did foolish things. As a matter of fact, it’s probably not too much to say that for a wise man he did some things sometimes that were surprisingly stupid. For example, he married foreign wives and had hundreds of concubines who turned his heart from the Lord yet still God not only forgave him, but he put them in his family and made them part of the family tree of God listed here…. That, I say, is the work of a gracious king.  This is the message of this passage, and it is the message of this book. 

I favourite illustration I have heard that helps illustrate this point of this perspective was told by the testimony of a retired prison officer. As the story goes, there was a prisoner who had in his charge a prisoner from a severely disadvantaged background who was illiterate himself as were his parents. During the time he lived in a very depressed area he made a connection with a local church through the youth club and even went to the occasional church event. But he got sent to prison when he was tempted to take something of high value from one of the members of the church that wasn’t his and he was caught. After he was sent to prison there was no communication with him or anyone else at the church or on the estate where he lived. As he was about ready to get out with the help of this warder, he wrote the minister a letter and said I can understand how you would feel and would not want to welcome me back, so I don’t want to force myself upon you. So, here’s what I will do, when I get out of prison, I’ll be coming home by train, and I will go past the rear of the church. If you want me to come back to church, please tie a white ribbon on the tree at the back of the church. So, he got out of prison, he got on the train and as the train slowed down as it approached his hometown and he neared the church. He began to get nervous ad he thought I can’t look, and he said to a passenger sitting beside him, next to the window. We are about to come to a little church and there’s a tree at the back, would you look, and would you tell me if there’s a White Ribbon tied to the tree. He closed his eyes and a few moments later the passenger tugged on his arm, leaned over and whispered in his ear, and he said. “The whole tree is covered with ribbons”.

The whole congregation of the church had each tied a white ribbon to the tree. God the Father has a tree in his back garden, it shaped in the form of a cross. And that makes it possible for him to accept sinners and forgive them and put him in his family, and also make them part of his royal family.

That’s what this Gospel of Matthew is going to be about. To begin, begin by saying, I’m a Sinner and I need to be forgiven, so I will trust in Jesus Christ and then God fills the tree with ribbons and says, welcome home, I’ve been waiting for you.