The Journey to the “Manger” part 1
I was thinking about the Christmas story this week and how everything took place, in the town of Bethlehem.
Along with the miracle of the story, I couldn’t stop thinking about the miracles of the journey,
That had to come about and to take place, all to get to,
the ultimate miracle of the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
I thought about how, what a great planner that God is,
how God always plans to the Greatest Detail and how patient God is with our human nature and let’s us be part of his plans.
Just think how all the events had to take place, just in the right order or sequence, that led right up to the birth of the Savior of the World.
We all know, how hard it is to plan something out, such as a surprise birthday party weeks and months in advance,
To try as we may, to keep it a secret
And then to have it take place and if were fortunate, come off without to many glitches.
But the birth of the Savior, the Messiah, the redeemer of the world,
took the kind of supernatural preparation that only God could have accomplished!
Take for instance Jesus lineage, full of great men and women,
The Heroes of the Bible stories that we have read about, for thousands of years.
Were they perfect?, Not hardly, so far from it!
Would they have been the ones you and I, would have selected?
Probably not, but they were the ones God selected.
The same thing could probably be said about everyone of us here this morning,
Thank the Lord, for the Grace that He extends to all and are forgiven,
Also who are willing to respond to the call and can still, be a part of the “Greatest Story ever Told!
Matt. 1:1-17 MSG.
The family tree of Jesus Christ, David’s son, Abraham’s son:
2-6. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob,
Jacob had Judah and his brothers,
Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar),
Perez had Hezron,
Hezron had Aram,
Aram had Amminadab,
Amminadab had Nahshon,
Nahshon had Salmon,
Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab),
Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother),
Obed had Jesse,
Jesse had David,
and David became king.
6-11. David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, was the mother),
Solomon had Rehoboam,
Rehoboam had Abijah,
Abijah had Asa,
Asa had Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat had Joram,
Joram had Uzziah,
Uzziah had Jotham,
Jotham had Ahaz,
Ahaz had Hezekiah,
Hezekiah had Manasseh,
Manasseh had Amon,
Amon had Josiah,
Josiah had Jehoiachin and his brothers,
and then the people were taken into the Babylonian exile.
12-16. When the Babylonian exile ended,
Jeconiah had Shealtiel,
Shealtiel had Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel had Abiud,
Abiud had Eliakim,
Eliakim had Azor,
Azor had Zadok,
Zadok had Achim,
Achim had Eliud,
Eliud had Eleazar,
Eleazar had Matthan,
Matthan had Jacob,
Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,
the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,
the Jesus who was called Christ.
17. There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David,
another fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile,
and yet another fourteen from the Babylonian exile to Christ.
42 generations, from Abraham to Jesus,
The road to the manger indeed, was the original “Long and Winding Road”
Only God could have dealt with so many different personalities and the battle of so many different wills,
and still came out with the “absolute perfection” of Jesus, as an end result!
The books of both Matthew and Luke show that Jesus had a double claim to the throne of David:
* a legal claim through Joseph His earthly father
* and a biological one through Mary,
That’s why, Jesus is truly called the Son of David.
Matthew’s account, included four women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba in the lineage of Jesus.
Historically, it was unusual to see any women listed in a Jewish genealogy…
Even from the beginning, in Christ, men and women are equal heirs of the amazing grace of God!
Three of the women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew were Gentiles (foreigners).
The fourth, Bathsheba, was closely associated with Gentiles through her prior marriage to Uriah the Hittite.
At that time, being a Gentile had its disadvantages
and was a major obstacle in the way to fellowship with God and with His people.
The first two women, Tamar and Rahab were both Canaanites,
a group of people that committed extreme evils, especially concerning religious practices and rites.
God punished the Canaanites for their evil, when He allowed the Israelites,
To go into their land, the promised land, to conquer them and make it their own.
The third woman Ruth, was from Moab and her story, was one of the most beautiful love stories ever written of all time.
Ruth 1:16-17 MSG.
16 But Ruth said:
“ Entreat me not to leave you,
Or to turn back from following after you;
For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The LORD do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.”
But Ruth was from a nation that had refused to assist Israel on their journey through the wilderness and…
The Moabites, were the ones who hired the sorcerer Balaam to curse Israel.
In punishment for this, God had declared that Moabites were to be excluded from the Lord’s assembly even down to the tenth generation.
Yet, God chose David, whose grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite, to be a great warrior for Israel and to be King to rule over His people,
God made sure, that Matthew included this Gentile woman, whose people were once God’s enemies, in the lineage of Jesus.
Jesus came to do away with the barriers that inhibited Gentiles from being a part of the family of God.
John 3:16-17 NKJ.
16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Jesus came, to make and establish an inclusive, a who-so-ever gospel of grace, so all could and would be worthy to be a part of it!
Three of the four women in Jesus’ genealogy are remembered for their sins.
Tamar became an ancestor of Jesus through an act of prostitution with her own father-in-law, Judah (Genesis 38).
Rahab was a prostitute from Jericho, a Canaanite city.
While the rest of Canaan fought against Israel, Rahab chose to align herself with the people of God and help them.
And when the walls of Jericho, came tumbling down, only Rahab and her family were spared.
Bathsheba’s name will always remind us of David’s terrible sin.
1. The king fathered a child by her and then murdered her faithful husband to cover up his own adultery.
(2) These were grievous and well-known sins; yet, God loves sinners.
We all have questionable relatives in our own family trees,
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“the family secret” that we would rather not talk about.
But Jesus isn’t that way with His family,
Jesus is not ashamed to list sinful people as His relatives.
And I’m thankful today, that He’s not, Praise the Lord!
Cause you see, you and I are also on the list of some of those sinful people that are related to Jesus.
Thank the Lord, that He came to seek and save sinners like you and I.
Jesus came to demolish the barriers that inhibited the Gentiles from being a part of the family of God.
He came to establish the inclusive Gospel of Grace.
Help us, during this man-made hussle and bussle, busy time of the year,
To not lose to not lose sight, of the great length’s God went to, before there ever was a “Silent Night”, in a little town called, Bethlehem.
Sometimes we like to think that the journey’s we take to get to our destiny are amazing,
But they all fail in comparison to the journey, God watched over to Bethlehem
One of the amazing things, all of the people involved in the journey had one thing in common was, they were all willing participants!
What are you willing to do, this Christmas season, to further the journey of the gospel message?
Won’t you help write the next chapter, right here at Calvary Temple?
And help win someone to Christ and get them started on the journey with you.
The greatest gift you could ever give to someone, is the gift of Jesus and what He can do for them in their life.
Lets do something extraordinary this year, lets make it all about Him
and help add someone else to the lineage of Jesus and let that be our gift to Him.
Amen?
Lets Pray!
