The "White" Sheep Of The Family

THE “WHITE” SHEEP OF THE FAMILY

Matthew 1:1-17

S: Salvation

Th: The Need of Salvation

Pr: We need grace, just like Jesus’ family.

?: Why?

KW: Illustrations

TS: We will find in Matthew 1:1-17 Five Illustrations that

demonstrate the same need of grace in our lives.

The _____ Illustration that demonstrates our need of grace is...

I. Jacob the Liar

II. Judah the Fornicator

III. Rahab the Prostitute

IV. David the Murderer

V. Josiah the Ignorant

GBC of S 12/18/94 AM (2x)

RMBC 12/7/97 AM

New Mt. Ararat Temple of Prayer 29 Dec 02 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1) What do you know about your family tree?

I have taken time in my past to discover my lineage.

And I have some really good parts.

I have a great-grandfather on my mother’s side, who was a Baptist

pastor in western N.Y. during the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

In fact, I have many of his sermons written in his own handwriting

and some of his books on my shelves in my office.

In addition, that same lineage can be traced back to the Puritans on

the Mayflower.

That’s all really neat.

But my dad’s side of the family, though, is a much different story.

I have some scoundrels in mine.

And the spiritual heritage, well, let’s just say it is quite lacking.

We don’t know a lot about the Decker side.

My great-grandfather, Pier Decker, was divorced from my great-

grandmother in a day that it was uncommon and looked down

on.

So we know very little, because he was an outcast and no one would

talk about him.

We are fairly sure that he was murdered because he got mixed up

with the Rochester mafia.

I also have a great-great-grandmother that had an only child out of

wedlock, and because of the stigma of that, never married, and

raised my great-grandmother alone, and away and a part from the

rest of the family.

It wasn’t until three generations later that anyone was willing to

talk about it.

2. Do you know what my genealogy tells me?

It tells me who I am...

Where I have come from...

What I might be or repeat...

Personally, for me, my genealogy is a story of grace!

Why?

Because, God has reached down to me, not on my merits, not by

anything I have done, and certainly not because of my lineage.

But He has saved me from living the life of many of the scoundrels

in my family.

I am like them.

And yet not...

Why?

God’s grace, and His grace alone.

TRANSITION:

1. The interesting thing about this is that Jesus’ genealogy is also a story of grace.

Jesus’ family tree is a story of grace.

When we look down the list of Jesus’ family tree, we see a lot of

scoundrels.

These were people that needed grace and experienced it.

You have heard the phrase "the black sheep of the family."

"Oh, he’s the black sheep of the family."

The reason could be a variety of things that someone gets referred

that way.

Typically, it means someone went a different way than the rest of

the family, whether for good or ill.

But most of the time, it means for ill.

2. You know what?

There were plenty of “black” sheep in Jesus’ family tree.

The fact was is that they all were.

And each one of them needed grace.

3. What is grace?

Grace is a gift.

It is receiving favor from God even though it is not deserved.

That’s what it is all about.

The reception of what is not deserved.

4. Many of them experienced this grace through the "white" sheep of the family.

Our first verse tells us that this is "a record of the genealogy of

Jesus Christ..."

Jesus...

We avoid using the name Jesus in terms of naming our children.

But it was an ordinary, common name.

In the Hebrew, it is pronounced, “Y’shua," or Joshua.

The name means "the Lord saves" or "the Lord is our salvation."

Jesus Christ...

Christ is the Greek equivalent of messiah.

The messiah was to be of the lineage of David, and would be a great

king.

He was the great hope of Israel.

Why?

Because He would save them.

(pause)

5. We need grace, just like Jesus’ family.

Each one of us that are sitting here.

We need grace.

Everyone one of us...for the testimony of Scripture is that

no one is good...none of us can be good enough to earn God’s favor.

You see, Jesus’ coming was not for Jews alone.

It was for all of us.

Look carefully at Jesus’ family tree.

It was not a pure Jewish heritage.

It had a Canaanite, a pagan from Jericho, one from Moab, and a

Hittite.

I think that this shows that Jesus came for all of us, so that we