Matthew's Story Series

The Story Starts Here

Advent Series

Part 2: Matthew 1 & 2

Introduction:

It’s the second week of December, a bit of snow is on the ground, radio stations are playing Christmas music, Hallmark is showing one schmaltzy Christmas movie after another. If all that’s not enough to convince you that the Christmas season is upon us, then the fact that we’re into the second week of our Advent Sermon series should. And in this series, we’re taking a look at how each of the Gospel writers chose to introduce Jesus to the world.

Last week we led with the question of “Why?” Why keep looking at these stories year after year? Haven’t we told these stories enough? Well, no. We haven’t told these stories “enough”…you can’t tell these stories “enough”. Fact is that outside of the Christmas season, and more specifically, outside of the Church, you’re gonna hear these stories little, if at all.

And keep in mind that the stories you don’t tell will be the stories you forget. The untold stories are the ones that aren’t passed on to succeeding generations. The stories you stop telling represent ideas that are no longer important. The stories you stop telling will no longer frame your worldview, or the worldview of your children, or of their children. Other stories will begin to slip in to fill the empty spaces…and they’ll frame your worldview. So, we keep telling these stories year after year because the stories themselves matter and shouldn’t be forgotten. We keep telling these stories because we want them to continue to frame our worldview.

We’re going to tell these stories yet again because if we don’t do it here, where will it be done? Look…it’s very easy for us to get caught up in all the secularism and practical paganism of the season and miss the point of Christ’s Advent entirely. So, if we’re not reminded of the purpose and significance of Jesus’ arrival here, in this place, then where will we be reminded? If you don’t hear it from this pulpit, then who will you hear it from?

We can’t allow ourselves to join in the world’s chorus that what matters most during the holiday season is giving, being with family, kindness, and good cheer. As good and wonderful as those things are, they’re not what matters most! What matters most is the fact of Christ’s advent and the purpose of his advent. That’s what each of the Gospel writers told the story for; to establish the fact of Jesus’ coming and the reason for Jesus’ coming. So we’re hearing these stories again so that we don’t lose sight of what Christmas is about for us.

I. The Legitimacy of Jesus

Today’s message is drawn from the first two chapters of the Gospel of Matthew, and like all of the Gospels, Matthew was written after the Ascension of Jesus. So, the purpose of the book was to help people who’d never seen Jesus, met Jesus, or heard Jesus, to know Jesus. Specifically, it seems that Matthew was written to Jewish believers in Jesus: it has more references to the Hebrew Scriptures than any of the other Gospels…and there are so many prophetic references that some background in the Hebrew Scriptures would be necessary to understand it.

Matthew begins his Jesus story by establishing the legitimacy of Jesus.

That’s why he starts with genealogy. Genealogy had a lot of traditional importance in Jewish society. Originally, knowledge of tribal origins was used to assign people a place in the marching order of Israel through wilderness. Later it was used in the allotment of lands in Canaan. Then, to determine property rights and ownership. Of course, there was the business of marriages, of inheritances, of loans & liens…all affected in some way by the ability to prove your line of descent.

But Matthew’s use of genealogy speaks to the point of his Gospel. He’s writing to establish that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah-King of Israel’s expectation. That’s why he announces in the very first verse that the genealogy we’re about to hear shows Jesus to be both the “son of David” and the “son of Abraham.” Jesus can claim Kingship because of his descent from King David through his legal father, Joseph. And he can prove his Jewishness without question by tracing a direct line to Abraham.

So, the genealogy is about establishing Jesus’ claims and rights as Messiah-King. It was of critical importance that those Jewish believers in Jesus who’d never known him personally, or who were of the next generation of believers, be able to feel secure, established, certain that Jesus was the Messiah-King. It was important that they feel sure that Jesus was the true Deliverer, the rightful ruler of Israel.

II. The Extraordinary Difference of Jesus