When God Writes With Crooked Lines

A king arrives and every throne trembles. We open Matthew 1–2 and follow a line of imperfect ancestors to a child named Jesus, whose birth keeps ancient promises and shatters our illusions of self-rule. The genealogy isn’t filler; it’s proof that God threads grace through generations of failure, placing Jesus squarely in history and squarely in our need. From Abraham’s doubts to David’s collapse, the pattern is clear: human sin does not cancel divine faithfulness.

The story accelerates with the virgin birth. Joseph receives a message that reframes everything: name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Salvation here is not a DIY project; it is a gift to be received. Emmanuel means God with us, not God near us, and that changes how we face guilt, fear, and control. Joseph’s obedience costs him reputation, yet it places him inside God’s will—and that tension speaks to anyone wrestling with a hard yes today.

Then come the travelers from the east and the tyrant on the throne. The Magi cross deserts to bow in joy; Herod clutches power and lashes out. Knowledge sits idle in Jerusalem while worship moves, kneels, and gives. The contrast is a mirror: will we protect our small kingdoms or welcome the true King? Even as evil rages, God preserves his purpose, guiding the Holy Family, and later leading them into obscurity where character is forged. If you’re hidden, take heart—formation often happens offstage.

Join us as we explore promise, surrender, worship, and the quiet places where God does deep work. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review telling us where you see God asking for your next step of surrender.

Chapters

• 1:45 Genealogy And Scandalous Grace
• 5:20 Promises Kept Through Broken People
• 10:24 The Virgin Birth And Naming Of Jesus
• 15:30 Surrender Over Self-Help
• 18:30 Costly Obedience And Reputation
• 22:00 Magi Seek A King, Herod Resists
• 27:10 Joyful Worship Versus Self-Rule

Transcript

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552 552. The 552 Ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, Foreman Beach, Florida. Providence Church is a local assembly of followers of Jesus Christ dedicated to helping people become committed and mature followers of Jesus Christ. Now, here's Pastor Timothy Mann teaching the word.

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Have you ever had a moment that changed everything? Had a moment that changed everything. Maybe it was the birth of a child. That'll change your life. A health crisis. Some of you have dealt with that and are dealing with that now. A hard loss. Or maybe a spiritual awakening. But whatever it was, your life was never the same after that. It became a marker in time. Something that redefined your direction. Well, Matthew begins his gospel by highlighting such a moment. But it isn't just a life-changing moment for an individual, it is history-changing. It is a history-changing moment for the whole world. The arrival of Jesus Christ is more than just the start of a story, it signals the coming of the king. The coming of the king. That's what it signifies. And his birth fulfills promises made over centuries. It represents the enactment of God's redemptive plan. And it marks the beginning of a kingdom that will never end. We want to listen to the first movement of Matthew's gospel and let it speak into our lives today as we begin this new series, The King and His Kingdom. The arrival of the King is today. And because here's what you'll see repeatedly in Matthew's gospel. And it is that Jesus is not just the son of Mary, he is the son of David. He is the son of Abraham. He is the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the one true King. That's what you'll see. And his arrival demands a response. Some worship, some resist, some ignore, but no one can stay neutral. You can't stay neutral. And so this morning, as we go through Matthew 1 and 2, I want to present to you this morning four ways the arrival of Jesus calls us to respond to the King. Four ways the arrival of Jesus calls us to respond to the King. And you can ask yourself, have I and am I responding this way? Well, first of all, the first response that we should have is this. To trust God to fulfill his promises even through broken people. Trust God to fulfill his promises even through broken people. That's what Matthew chapter 1, verse 1 through 17 is all about. Matthew starts his gospel in a very unusual way, not with a miracle, not with a proclamation, but with a genealogy. Matthew 1, 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now, to our modern ears, that might seem very anticlimactic at the beginning of this letter. I won't ask how many of you have ever just skipped chapter one, or at least the first part of chapter 1. Don't raise your hand. But according to Matthew's first-century Jewish audience, this introduction held deep significance because it declared that Jesus is not a myth, he's not an idea, he's not even an outsider. He is the promised one. He is the long-awaited Messiah. He is the king who will both take David's throne and fulfill the covenant made to Abraham, which is that through his descendants, that is to say, Abraham, all nations of the earth will be blessed. So this list, listen, this list is not filler. It's fuel. It boosts our confidence and our faith in the God who keeps his promises. Matthew, he divides the genealogy into three parts. From Abraham to David, that's verses 2 through 6. From David to the exile, when they're carried off into Babylon, that's verses 6 to 11. And then from the exile to Christ, that's verses 12 through 16. He's giving us a broad overview of redemptive history. And through this, he places Jesus clearly in real time and space. Real time and space. The king didn't just appear out of nowhere. He came through centuries of waiting and watching and wondering, and every detail was under God's sovereign control. Now let's make some observations here from this genealogy. Take a close look at who's on the list. This isn't the kind of lineage you'd expect for a holy king. I mean, there's Abraham. He's a man of faith, yes. But he's also a man who lied and who doubted. Jacob, I mean, this is a deceiver who manipulated his way through life. Judah, who fathered a child with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, believing she was a prostitute. Rahab, a Canaanite woman and a prostitute from Jericho. Ruth, a Moabite widow from a pagan country. David, yes, Israel's greatest king up to that point, yet he was an adulterer and a murderer. Solomon, wise king, wise king, born from David's sin with Bathsheba, who later turned to idolatry. And then followed by that is a series of mostly forgotten or wicked kings who caused Israel to go into exile under the rule of foreigners. This is the family tree of the Messiah. It includes liars and lawbreakers and Gentiles and outcasts. It is filled with people who failed often and failed miserably. And yet through this long and broken line, God is working out his plan. This is not, if you didn't notice, this is not a lineage of moral giants. Instead, it really stands as a testament to God's scandalous grace. His scandalous grace. Matthew ends this section with this, verse 16, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Now I want you to notice the very precise wording. Matthew does not say that Joseph begat Jesus. He simply states that Joseph was the husband of Mary. Matthew prepares us for the miracle of the virgin birth in the next passage. But he also reminds us of something very important. And that is that God's hand was on every generation, guiding up to the arrival of his son. So, what are the takeaways from this passage? What can we take away from it? Well, I would say, first of all, we ought to take away the fact that God remains faithful to his promises even when people fail. Isn't that good? I mean, this list is full of unfaithfulness, and yet it ends with God's faithfulness. People rebelled, kings fell, generations forgot God, but God never forgot his promise. What he did was he preserved the line, he protected the plan, and he brought forth the Savior right on time. But we also see that God uses broken people to fulfill his plans. I suspect that some of you, you look at your family history, and maybe you feel ashamed. Some of you believe your own past disqualifies you from being used by God. But look at this list. God used adulterers, outsiders, liars, and idolaters, not because he approved of their sin, but because his grace is greater than their sin. That's why. We also learn here that you don't need a perfect past to be a part of God's plan. Jesus entered a complicated family tree in order to bring order to ours. The king here didn't come from a perfect human pedigree. He came through a broken human pedigree to offer healing and to offer hope to broken people like us. There's a common theme, if you didn't notice it, in this list. And it's not perfection, but grace. God has always shared his story through people who are deeply flawed and are in urgent need of redemption. That should humble us. But it should also encourage us. Because you might not come from a background of faith. You carry baggage, you carry scars, and you carry regrets, but God isn't looking for perfect resumes. He's after surrendered hearts. And if he can use this history to bring Christ, then he can work through you. And he can work through me. So let me ask you this. This morning, are you actually trusting God to write a redemptive story through your life? Have you given him the broken pieces? Do you believe that his promises still stand? Even after generations of failure. Because Jesus' arrival shows us that God never gives up. He finishes what he starts, and he delights in keeping his promises even with people like us. How else do we respond to the arrival of the King? Well, second part of Matthew chapter 1. It would be this. If we're going to respond right, it needs to be that we surrender to God's saving work accomplished through his son. We surrender to God's saving work accomplished through his son. Because after tracing Jesus' royal lineage here, Matthew brings us to the moment of his arrival. And it is both shocking and supernatural. Verse 18, chapter 1. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Now, in first century Jewish culture, betrothal was more than just an engagement, it was actually a legal commitment. Mary and Joseph were legally promised to marry, but they had not yet consummated the marriage. So when Mary is found to be pregnant, Joseph knows one thing. He knows that. And so from Joseph's perspective, this seems like a betrayal. But Matthew tells us the real story. Mary is not unfaithful. She is miraculously chosen. And she bears a child, not conceived by man, but of the Holy Spirit. And so Joseph, a just man, a righteous man, and a compassionate man, intends to divorce her quietly. But then God steps in. Verse 20. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. So God speaks to Joseph during his wrestling with this. And what he says, what God says, changes everything. Verse 20. So this child is not a result of sin, but of God's grace. And then the angel tells Joseph what to name him. Verse 21. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus, the Hebrew name Yeshua, means the Lord or Yahweh or Jehovah, depending on how you end up pronouncing that. The Lord saves. The Lord saves. His name, Jesus' name, reflects his mission. The Lord saves. He did not come, listen, he did not come to teach moral lessons. He didn't come to inspire spiritual thinking. He came to save sinners. That's why he came. He came to save sinners. And Matthew adds, he says in verses 22 through 23, he says, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which is spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. This is the fulfillment from the Old Testament prophet of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. So we need to understand this morning that the virgin birth is not just a theological detail. It's not just a theological point. It's actually very crucial. Because Jesus is not only human, he is also fully God and fully man. He's conceived by the Spirit and born of a woman. And his coming to us is not just near us. It's actually God with us. God with us. So what are our takeaways from this passage? Well, it'd be this. This is a very important one. God's salvation is not something we achieve, it's something we receive. His salvation is not something we achieve, it's something we receive. Joseph couldn't have planned this. In fact, he wouldn't have. He couldn't have planned this. Mary didn't do anything to deserve this calling. God stepped in. And I want you to know this morning, he continues to do so. You don't earn your salvation, you believe, and you surrender to it. You receive the grace offered through Jesus Christ. Another takeaway, I think, would be this: Jesus came to save you from sin, not just from struggle. The angel did not say he will save his people from sadness. The angel did not say he will save his people from Roman oppression or any other kind of oppression for that matter. The angel says he will save them from their sins. You need to understand this morning, your greatest problem is not outside of you, it is in you. It's in you, not outside of you. You need to redirect your attention there. And your greatest hope is not self-help. Your greatest hope is not self-affirmation. Your greatest hope is not even religious or spiritual discipline. It's a savior. The only savior. Something else we need to learn, take away from this passage is that obedience, obedience might damage your relationship, your reputation. Obedience might damage your reputation, but it leads you to God's will. It might damage your reputation, but it leads you to God's will. I mean, imagine this morning how Joseph's decision looked to others. He chose to stay with a woman who was pregnant. And the child wasn't his. In fact, this comes up later on in their life. Things are said about Jesus. That he was an illegitimate child. That absolutely would have caused whispers and judgment. Because we're very good at judging each other, aren't we? But Joseph, he obeyed God rather than worry about public opinion. And he took Mary as his wife and he named the boy Jesus. So he surrendered to the plan. Even though he did not fully understand it. I suspect even in a room this size, with this number of people in here this morning, there's probably at least one, maybe a few more than one. Some of you are standing where Joseph stood. What do I mean by that? I suspect you're facing a decision that the world doesn't understand, but it's clearly guided by God. Maybe God is calling you to stay when it will be easier to leave. Maybe God is calling you to forgive even when it feels safer to protect yourself. Maybe he's calling you to surrender control, to surrender even when everything in you wants to control. I would say the main message of Joseph's life and this passage is surrender. Surrender in faith. Not resignation, not passive acceptance, but I'm talking about active, surrendered trust in God's saving work through Jesus. This is the gospel that God became man, he entered the womb of a virgin, and he stepped into the mess of humanity, and he did it for you. Not to make you religious, not to boost your self-esteem, but he came to save you. He came to be with you, he came to redeem you from sin and to reconcile you to God. And you can't earn that. You just humble yourself and accept it. So have you done that? Have you done that? Have you surrendered to the saving work of Jesus Christ and repented believing in Jesus? Or are you still trying to fix yourself? Or have you surrendered to the one who was born to save? Well, we see another response, Matthew chapter 2. How do we respond to the arrival of the king? Another response that we see is this. We have to choose worship instead of resistance when Jesus confronts your kingdom. You choose worship instead of resistance when Jesus confronts your kingdom. That's Matthew chapter 2, verse 1 through 18. Matthew now shifts to a new scene. Jesus has been born in Bethlehem. But the ripple effects of his birth begin to spread far and wide, reaching foreign lands and the highest levels of earthly authority. Verses 1 and 2 says this. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born, king of the Jews? Now, these wise men, probably astrologers or scholars from Persia or Babylon, they were not Jewish. They were Gentile seekers. And yet somehow, through God's providence, they saw a star, they recognized it as a divine sign, and they traveled many miles to find the child it announced. And they asked a loaded question. Now that title isn't just symbolic, it is political and prophetic, and for Herod, it poses a threat. It's a threat. Herod, he's known as Herod the Great. He ruled Judea, which is the southern part of the Holy Land. He ruled Judea in the Holy Land as a client king of Rome, meaning they allowed him to as long as he agreed and did what they said. He was renowned for his impressive building projects, his very cunning and shrewd political skills, and he was renowned for his paranoia. He had murdered his own wife and his sons to secure his throne. And so when the wise men arrive looking for a child who has been born king, Herod panics. And he says in verse 3, it says in verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. So what does he do? He gathers the chief priests and the scribes, and he asks them where the Christ, the Messiah, was to be born. And they quote Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. Bethlehem. That was the prophecy. The Messiah would come from King David's hometown. Then Herod pulls the wise men aside in secret, and he tells them, Go search carefully for the own child, and when you have found him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also. But it's a lie. It's a lie. He doesn't seek to worship, he wants to destroy. He wants to destroy. And meanwhile, the star guides the wise men to the exact house where the child is, not a baby in a manger now. A house where the child is. And when they see him, the Bible says verses 10 to 11, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. So they bow, they give gifts, and they celebrate. These Gentile men recognize what most, the vast majority in Israel, do not. That this child is the king of all kings. And then, warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they chose a different route. The Bible says when Herod basically realizes this, that he's been outsmarted, his true nature, his real character emerges. Verse 16. Then Herod was exceedingly angry, and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under. The arrival of Jesus always leads to confrontation. What's the significance of all this? What's our application? What's our takeaway? I would say it's this. It's that Jesus confronts our self-rule. He confronts our self-rule. Herod represents every human heart that desires to stay on the throne. I mean, the thought that someone else, even God, could rule over us offends our pride. You know what I've noticed? I've noticed we're very comfortable with Jesus as long as he stays in the manger. Right? But as soon as he demands our loyalty, as soon as he demands our obedience, man, the real struggle begins. We need to ask the question this morning of ourselves. When Jesus presses in, even for you as a believer today, you're a believer, but when, and you believe in him as your Savior, but when Jesus presses in as Lord, as King, do you submit or do you resist? I think another takeaway here from this passage is that worship is more than adoration, it's surrender. The wise men did not just acknowledge Jesus, they bowed, they gave gifts, they rejoiced. Worship is not passive, worship is not polite, worship is costly, it is joyful, and it is filled with reverence. They traveled a long distance at great expense to honor the king. What are you willing to do? What are you willing to do? I think we also have to note here, a takeaway is that we have to note that religious knowledge does not equate spiritual response. Religious knowledge does not equate spiritual response. The chief priests and the scribes knew the scriptures well and they could quote the prophecy. However, they didn't go to Bethlehem. I mean, they had all the information, but no transformation. Many people attend church for years with Bible knowledge, but lack a genuine heart movement toward Christ. Let that not be you. Another significant takeaway right here is, and it's a good one. God protects his purpose even in the face of evil. We need to remember that today. Even in our culture, in our current day. We need to remember that God protects his purpose even in the face of evil. An angel here warns Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt. Jesus is protected. The promises of God, listen to me this morning. The promises of God are not stopped by the rage of kings. The promises of God are not stopped by communism. The promises of God are not stopped by socialism. The promises of God are not stopped by a particular political party. And even at the end of it all, the promises of God will not be stopped by the Antichrist. You need to understand, and look, listen to me very carefully. The presence of suffering in your life, the presence of suffering that could easily come in our culture, the presence of suffering does not mean that God's rule is absent. It doesn't mean that things are out of his control. It does not mean that. Even in the darkest moments in your life. Even in the darkest moments. Herod's story is tragic. He had access to the scriptures. He lived near Bethlehem. He heard the same message. But instead of surrendering, he held on to control. And by doing so, he fell into paranoia, he fell into violence, and he fell into eternal hell. The wise men, however, they were outsiders. They didn't grow up in the Holy Land. They didn't grow up in the covenant community. But when they heard the truth and they saw the sign, they came running. Well, walking, probably. And they bowed. And I would say this morning that the same choice lies before every person who hears the gospel. The same choice. Will you try to keep your kingdom or will you submit to his? Will you rage or will you rejoice? Will you resist or will you worship? Listen, you need to be reminded this morning that Jesus does not come just to be part of your life. He comes to be your king. And the only proper response to the king's arrival is worship. There's a fourth response here. The last section of Matthew chapter 2. To the arrival of the King. And that is that we need to embrace God's hidden work when he guides you into obscurity. So I want to say to you this morning that if you feel like God has you in a time and a place of obscurity, don't assume that he's forgotten about you. He might very well be shaping you in private before he uses you publicly.

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You've been listening to Foundations of Truth, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann and Providence Church, Orman Beach, Florida. Providence is located at 1151 West Guinado Ford, Ormond Beach, Florida. If you'd like to contact Ormond or Providence Church, go online to ProvidenceChurch.org.