Welcome to our new site!

Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Behold, the King Has Come!

Listen on

September 8, 2024
Ecclesiastes 4:7–12
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Person of Christ

The Gospel

The Bible

Transcript

0:15The sermon text this morning is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter one, verses one through 17. Matthew one, one through 17. I would encourage you to open your Bibles and if you don't have one, there is one under the seed in front of you, and the text is on page 807, The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah, the father of Paris and Zara, by, by Tamar and Paris, the father of his room and his room. The father of Ram and Ram, the father of Amin and Amada, the father of Naone and Naone, the father of Solomon and Solomon, the father of Boaz by rehab.

1:25And Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed, the father of Jesse and Jesse, the father of David, the King. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Oriah and Solomon, the father of Rehoboam and Rejo, BAAM, the father of Aja. And Aja, the father of Asaf. And Asaf, the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat, the father of Jorah and Jorah, the father of Azi and Azi, the father of Jotham and Jotham, the father of Ahaz and Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah, the father of Manassa and Manassa, the father of Amos. And Amos, the father of Josiah. And Josiah, the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

2:21And after the deportation to Babylon. Jeconiah was the father of Shial and Shial, the father of Uba, be and Abel, the father of Abud and Abud, the father of Alki and Eliakim, the father of Zo and Zo, the father of oc. And Oc, the father of Akeem and Akeem, the father of Alud and Alud, the father of Zer and Azar, the father of Matan and Matan, the father of Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ.

3:1814 generations. Amen. That was Boaz and he did well in reading all those names. Good morning. It's so good to be together as we gather to begin our series in the gospel of Matthew. If you're new among us, maybe you're visiting. We're really glad you're here and we hope you'll stick with us for the next, I don't know, 96 sermons that we do to make our way through the book of Matthew. My name is Steven, I'm the pastor for preaching and vision here at the North Church, and it's my privilege to begin this morning. And if you're watching online, we know people watch before they come. We would love for you to join us here in person.

4:06We would love for you to come and be a part of this church family. Would you join me now as we pray, as we typically do, and ask the Lord for help. Father in heaven, we ask that you would incline our hearts to you and to your word this morning. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things here at the beginning of Matthew four, our joy and for our edification. Would you teach us to fear you and realign our hearts this morning and then satisfy us with your word and produce in us praise and thanksgiving that resound to the glory of Jesus? In his name we pray, amen.

4:50We don't care what someone says until we know what they're trying to do. We don't care what someone says until we know what they're trying to do. So imagine with me, you're at the grocery store and a stranger walks up to you and they look at your waistline, and then they look in your cart and they see two packages of Oreos and a 24 pack of Coke, and they say, you should lay off the sugar. How do you respond? Shocked, uh, incredulous. How? How dare you, uh, a stranger walk up to me in the grocery store? Now, now imagine you're at your doctor's office and they just ordered a full panel of blood work.

5:32So a complete blood count check, comprehensive metabolic panel, a lipid panel to check your cholesterol, and then the doctor walks in, looks you in the eye and says you might wanna lay off the sugar. How do you respond? Then you might be a little bit more open and receptive. You might have a few questions. You're probably less incredulous. You're eager to listen and to learn. So what's the difference in those two situations? They said the same thing, but their intentions, their purpose dictates how we respond. We don't care what someone says until we know what they're trying to do. And, and I think the same is true of this genealogy here in Matthew this morning.

6:20Some of you as that was being read, are like, what is the pastor possibly going to say? And to preach from here in those 17 verses? Why does Matthew begin his gospel with a long list of names? And we don't care what Matthew writes until we know what his purpose, what his intentions are behind what he's writing. So let's just back up for a moment. If you think about Mark's gospel, he begins with the story of John the Baptist. If you think of Luke's gospel, he begins with the purpose statement I've undertaken to compile a narrative. This orderly account for the most excellent Theophilus John's Gospel begins with the echoes of Genesis.

7:04In the beginning was the word. And so here in Matthews gospel we see very similarly the book of the genealogy of Jesus. And each of these gospel writers makes really clear that you can't understand the birth of Jesus unless you understand him within the big picture or the grand scheme of things, which is why they begin where they do. So what's Matthew doing here in this genealogy? Why this list of names? What Matthew is doing is he's revealing who Jesus is and where he's come from, who Jesus is and where he comes from. He shows that he's a descendant of Abraham, the father of the nation, and he's a descendant of King David Israel's greatest king.

7:55Now Matthew writes primarily to a Jewish audience, which is, which is why he cares so much about his ancestry. Jews often would keep these long lists like these genealogies to trace their heritage to a particular tribe or person. And here in Matthew's selective genealogy, it's designed to convince his Jewish readers of Jesus heritage and identity. Now let me just give a few more kind of preparatory words about the gospel of Matthew. This book is a gospel, which means good news and many believe that it was written by Matthew, who's also known as Levi, and he's a tax collector, which is why this gospel more than any of the others, talks about money.

8:39And it's one of the two gospels that are written by Jesus disciples, this one and the gospel of John. And Matthew writes to this primarily Jewish audience, which is why he cites the Old Testament as much as he does. There's over 60 quotations from the Old Testament and many more references as well. And this genealogy is answering the question, who is Jesus and why is he important? Who is Jesus and why is he important? I'm gonna tell you right at the front end what this text tells us, that Jesus is the long awaited savior, messiah, Davidic king, and the hope of the nations. Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, the Davidic king, and the hope of the nations.

9:34Jesus is the one that we have been waiting for. And so my hope is by the end of this sermon, you would see this genealogy with fresh eyes that, uh, I know we're all tempted when we, whenever we begin a, a new, you know, Bible reading plan and we get to a genealogy, that's a easy one to kind of skip over and move on to the good stuff. And yet this genealogy reveals Jesus' origin story, the origin story of the greatest person in the greatest story, in the greatest moment of all of human history. And we get it before us this morning. So I, I want to, I think of it a little bit like this. It's like holding a block of C four, the the letter C and the number four, I think it's composition four or something like that.

10:26It's a plastic explosive that appears always in the movies. It looks like a lump of clay and they kind of squish it up to something. And it can only be detonated by a shockwave from kind of a detonator. So if you shoot it, if you burn it, it cannot explode. It was usually, or it was originally developed by the British and used in World War ii. So I wanna turn kind of the lump of clay, of Matthew's genealogy into C four this morning so that it would ignite our hearts to wonder and to worship at who God is revealing Jesus to be here in this text. This genealogy should awaken us to worship this morning.

11:12So here's our plan. I'm not gonna walk through every single name 'cause that would take us far too long. But rather I want to give four answers to the question of who is Jesus and why is he important? Four answers to the question, who is Jesus and why is he important? And the first is that Jesus is the Savior. So the genealogy begins, look at verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus. The word genealogy here can be rendered genesis in the Greek or beginning. And so these words echo what we saw in Genesis that where we just spent a year long series. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth.

11:50Genesis two, four. And so here we get the genesis or the beginnings of Jesus. This is the story of this new creation. And now the name Jesus in Hebrew is Joshua or Yeshua. It means Yahweh saves or the Lord is salvation. The name Joshua reminds us of the character in the Old Testament and what is he most known for? He takes over for Moses and he is the one who brings military victory and brings the people into the promised land so that they finally get rest. He defeats all their enemies and brings them in. And Joshua in the Greek is Jesus. So all of this meaning is loaded into the name, the saving one has finally arrived.

12:43But Jesus doesn't usher in military victory, but he's going to usher in God's kingdom. What we all know that naming a child is one of the first great decisions you make as a parent. It, it says something about your hopes and dreams for that child. Like this morning we just heard two names. I think it was Noah and I think it was Lydia. Good names. I I read some not so great names. Uh, earlier this week, one billionaire tech mogul named their child techno MEUs. He's gonna get made fun of a lot. He'll probably have enough money to sort of wipe his tears with, but or there's uh, uh, uh, movie star, she named her child Apple or these musicians named their child blue Ivy.

13:34Names can be a tribute to a relative. They can reveal the hopes for that child. Or maybe you just want 'em to stand out like in this case. And here in the case of Jesus, we see what this name is revealing about him. He's come with a mission and a purpose. He is the saving one. He is the Savior. Now this genealogy also reveals God's saving work. It's not just in this name, but we kind of see it sprinkled throughout. But you kind of have to know your Old Testament history to be able to read between the lines. If you look with me at verse two, Abraham was the father of Isaac and we know Isaac, we we've studied Genesis.

14:15What is Isaac most known for? The most prominent story in the scriptures, not the one where they find his wife because that was all about Abraham's servant. But the most prominent story about Isaac is where Abraham pulls back his knife and is about to plunge it into Isaac as they're walking up to Mount Mariah. And, and Isaac looks at his dad and he is like, where's the lamb? And, and Abraham's like, God is going to provide a lamb for the sacrifice. And as Abraham pulls back the knife, he's about to plunge it into his son. God stops him and says, uh, I've made a better sacrifice available, but but that foreshadowing of, of a son sacrificing himself who we see now fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus.

15:08Or if you keep looking with me, Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. And what comes to mind when we think of Judah other than Judah and Tamar is when he, in Genesis 42 and 43 says, dad, if we go back, he will not give us anything unless we bring Benjamin and I will lay down my life for him. I will pledge my life for my little brother. He will make it back safe. And then when the man, which we know is Joseph, says Benjamin stays, Judah again says, no, no, no, I will stay in his place until we see these glimpses. As he mentions the storyline, the genealogy, that sacrifice is in view, Judah was willing to sacrifice himself.

15:58Isaac was going to be a sacrifice. And it points to Jesus has come as the Savior who would make sacrifice for sins. Now the text makes clear that the people need a savior. Nestled within this genealogy are several women. We might expect the names Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. But what we get is Tamar in verse three, Rahab in verse five, Ruth again in verse five. And then the wife of Uriah, who is Beth Sheba in Jewish genealogies, this is very unusual. Women had no rides, they couldn't inherit property. Jewish men, it was written at one point, wake up in the morning and they thank God that God did not make me a woman and he didn't make me a Gentile.

16:47And so why does Matthew include them here? These women are foreigners, most likely Gentiles, and they're all of somewhat questionable reputation. Tamar is likely a Canaanite. She commits incest with her father-in-law by pretending to be a prostitute. You can go back and listen to Genesis 38 if that doesn't ring a bell. Rahab is a prostitute from Jericho. Ruth is a Moabite, and Moabites are a product of lot and his daughters. And then Bathsheba is the wife of a Hittite who commits adultery with David. Matthew includes them here to reveal that Jesus has come not just as the Savior for all those who are squeaky clean, but he comes as a savior for gentile sinners.

17:35He has gentile sinners in his very own bloodline. And so if Jesus has them in his bloodline, how much more will he welcome them into his family to be his disciples when they're cleansed by his blood? So Jesus is not just the savior for the morally clean and pristine, but he's showing us in this genealogy with the people that are mentioned that Jesus has come for desperate and needy sinners. So who is Jesus and why has he come? Jesus is the Savior and he has come for sinners. He does not turn his back, nor does he turn up his nose at all. Those who come seeking him as those who need His cleansing, Jesus, Jesus himself declares in Matthew nine 12, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

18:36So even now this morning, Jesus comes to us and calls to us. The great Savior has come for you and for me. And this morning, what unites every single person here in this room and all those watching is that we are sinners who have fallen short of the perfect standards of a holy God. No matter how we try to slice it, we do not measure up. And yet the good news of the gospel is that Jesus has come, but he's come as a savior for sinners. And so all those who come to Jesus this morning can find forgiveness of sins and cleansing by the blood of Christ. He washes clean all those, even those with scandal or sorted sins in their background.

19:36So this genealogy invites all to come and behold the Savior, but he's also the Christ. This is our second answer. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one and the Messiah. You see that there in verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. And then if you go to verse 16, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ, now we think of Christ as Jesus' last name. That is not what it is. It's the referring to, it's the Greek way of referring to the Messiah or the Anointed one. And Christ is used only 17 times in Matthew's gospel, whereas Jesus is used 150 times.

20:24And so I think every time Matthew uses Christ, he has the title, the Messianic title in view as the Messiah, the Anointed one. And we know that the Jews were waiting for this anointed one, this king who would come to liberate Israel from Rome, that they would mo remove Roman occupation and establish Israel once again. But here in this case, Jesus comes as the anointed one to bring about a much greater victory than temporary liberation. But rather he takes on all of Israel's leadership offices, prophet, priest, and king Jesus comes as the Messiah, as the anointed one, as the Christ to take on all of those leadership roles.

21:13And so as the prophet of God, he's anointed to speak for God as the priest of God. He's anointed to offer sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins as the king anointed by God, he's come to defeat our enemies of sin and death. And so Jesus is the anointed one who comes to accomplish and to establish God's kingdom and to accomplish his mission. So the rest of Matthew unfolds to show all of these various ways that Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy. He fulfills all righteousness, he fulfills all the righteous requirements of the law. Later on in Matthew, John the Baptist is in jail and he is like Jesus.

22:01He sends messenger and they say, Jesus are, are you the one or should we wait for someone else? And Jesus doesn't just come out right out and say it. He says, the dead are now alive. The the blind see the deaf here. What is he saying? I've come to do what only the prophet priest and king of God can do. And yet we see throughout Matthew's gospel, uh, Israel, the people, the Jewish people, they had misguided expectations. They thought if only he would come and establish his army, then we would be back in power. And, and in many ways they're a lot like us, aren't they? We too have misguided expectations this morning.

22:50Some of us think if only we could get, you know, a, a Christian president, then things would get back on track. Or if only technology and science could just advance enough and get over the hump, then they could reverse sin and death and disease. If only education could address global poverty and unrest. If only we could just be, be a more harmonious world if only people could just get, get along a little bit more. And yet all of those aren't bad, but they just ultimately don't deliver what they promise. But in Jesus the Christ, the anointed one, the prophet priest and king of God, he has come and he offers joy and life to all of his people.

23:36He says, I am the way and the truth and the life. So he's the climax of human history. He's the climax of redemptive history. All of the Old Testament was pointing forward to one moment, one person and Matthew is writing and he's saying, he's here. It's Jesus. He is the one you have been waiting for the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. And let me show you by giving you this selective genealogy so that you would see in no uncertain terms this is the one he's come and there is no other. And yet again and again the Pharisees are like, who's this guy? Who does he think he is? He just claimed to be God.

24:23He said, I am in Matthew's writing. He's so eager for them to see he's the one. He's the one you have been waiting for. So Jesus is the Savior, he's the Christ. And the next answer is that Jesus is the son of David, the Davidic king. You, you see that there in the very first line again. He's the son of David. And then you see that later in verse six, the father of Jesse, Jesse, the father of David the king. So Jesus is a descendant of royalty in the lineage of kings. And this is one of the primary thrusts of this entire genealogy that you would see that Matthew's audience would hear and see that he is the Davidic king.

25:15And this fulfills all of the various promises in scripture. J just follow along as I read them. God promised Abraham in Genesis 17, six, that kings shall come from you. And here he is. God promised David, I will raise up your offspring and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for an everlasting kingdom to David two Samuel seven, 12 and 13. It's in Jesus. God promised Solomon, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever. That's one kings nine, five. Solomon does not live forever. Or Isaiah prophesied of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom.

25:58Isaiah nine, seven, Jeremiah prophesied, I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king Jeremiah 23 5. And last Ezekiel prophesied David, my servant shall be their prince forever. Ezekiel 37 25. David does not live forever. How can he be their prince forever? It's because there would come in the line of David, a Davidic king who would establish his throne and that throne would never depart. We know that God sent Jesus to establish this everlasting kingdom. And what Matthew does here in this genealogy is he traces this direct royal line from Abraham to Jesus. It's the legal throne succession.

26:52Because if you look at Luke and you compare the two, you'll see that there's some discrepancies and many have tried to say, well look, look, the Bible contradicts itself. That's not the case. It's rather that Luke shows the common bloodline. And what Matthew does is he shows the legal throne succession. Again, these are selective genealogies. It's not just a strict family tree, but he's crafting a particular purpose behind this genealogy to show that Jesus is the king, he's the Davidic king. Now this is most kinda intentional. We see this crafting of a genealogy most clear in verse 17. Look, look, look there.

27:33So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14 generations. And you're like, wow, what a coincidence. Like that's really just perfect how that lined up. Well, he, he highlights three key periods, Abraham to David, David to exile and exile to Jesus. But he leaves out several generations and several names in this selected genealogy. So it's not exactly just perfectly 14, but why does he leave out certain names? Make 14 generations in each of those three sets and then draw attention to the fact that are, there are 14 generations in those three sets.

28:16Uh, there's two theories and I'm gonna give you both. And in some ways they're not all that satisfying because that's a little bit confusing, but just stick with me. So some believe Matthew is employing something called Ria, RIA where you assign a number to each letter. So A would be one, B would be two, C would be three, and so forth. So, uh, at the risk of dating myself, it's a little bit like how people used to have pagers. How many of you had a pager? Just a minute. It's okay. Yeah. Uh, no, the only people who really need pagers are doctors on call and drug dealers. But it's, that's an aside.

28:52Back in those days, some of you don't even know what I'm talking about. You could text someone but only numbers and they would not see who it's from. It would just be a string of numbers. And so, you know, people would page like 1, 4, 3, and that would mean I love you because there's one letter in I and four letters in love and three letters in three or you, right? Uh, or you would text nine nine and it would mean 99. And so you know, your girlfriend or boyfriend, you text them nine nine, uh, or you text actually a phone number, which is mo what most people did and you could call 'em back. But if you created a code where you said A is one or uh, B is two, then you could text these hidden messages.

29:30And that's a little bit what scholars believe that Matthew was doing here. Dallet is the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Vav is the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And so the word David is spelled D which is 4, 6 4. And if you add it up, it's 14. And so the theory is that this is a very elaborate construction to show in kind of big, bright neon letters in a very poetic way that Jesus is the Davidic king, he's the son of David. So that's the first theory. The second theory is that 14 is divisible by the number seven, which is a very important number that kind of indicates fullness or completeness.

30:17And, and we've kind of saw it throughout Genesis. And so you get three sets of 14, which gives us six sevens, right? Six sevens, 14 makes two sevens. I shouldn't do math from the pulpit here, but this is, this is fairly simple math. So it's suggested that Jesus begins the seventh seven, which is sort of like the dawn of the eternal Sabbath. So Matthew's writing for a Jewish audience and maybe they would catch these subtle illusions in each of these theories. And there's many other theories. I think these are the two that are most compelling. But, but the point is Jesus is the Davidic king. That's what Matthew wants us to see this morning.

31:05Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne that has been promised to David, to Solomon, that all the prophets we're speaking about Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel. There's going to be this Davidic king that sits on the throne forever and it's Jesus, he's come, it's the one, it's the king. He's here. And that's what he wants us to see in this moment. And so when you read the rest of Matthew, you just need to pay attention every time you see the word king. 'cause the magi come from the east. And what do they say? We wanna see the king of the Jews and then wise Herod afraid because there's a new king in town that's just been born.

31:53And then when Jesus stands on trial, what's the question that they keep lobbing at him? Are you the king of the Jews? And how does Jesus respond? You have said so. He doesn't deny it because everything that Matthew is pointing to, everything about human history, all of redemptive history is pointing to this reality that the king has come in Matthew 28, great commission. What does Jesus say before he commissions them all? Say it with me. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. What does that sound like? Sounds like a king to me. A king who's been given all authority, commissioning his disciples and subjects to go and make disciples of all nations with his all encompassing authority so that they would do all that he has taught and commanded and proclaimed.

32:59So the, the thing that we're supposed to see throughout this gospel is how do people respond to the king? The king has come and you either bow the knee in allegiance and loyalty and willing submission, or you reject him and say, we don't want your rule. We will overthrow the king or at least attempt to. And so that's what Matthew writes for us this morning. That's the intention is how will you this morning respond to King Jesus?

33:35Jesus is the savior, he's the Christ, he's the Davidic King. And now fourth, Jesus is the son of Abraham, the hope of nations. You see that again, the fourth item pointed out in verse one, the son of Abraham. And then he begins with Abraham and moves all the way to Jesus. It means that Jesus can trace his ancestry back to Abraham. And Abraham is the father of the nation. He is the one that God called out out of ear of the Chaldeans and said, come, I'm gonna make you into a great nation. And gave him promises in Genesis 12, it it would be a little bit like a presidential candidate getting up and saying, I, I've taken a test on ancestry.com or 23 and me and I can trace all the way back that I'm a long lost descendant of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

34:28Like I have the finest pedigree on the face of the earth. That's a little bit like what Matthew is trying to show that Jesus is indeed a son of Abraham. In fact, this is so important to the Jews at that time. We don't really care. We don't know, you know, past our great grandparents. But Herod the great was embarrassed that he was half Jew and half edomite. So he was left off the genealogies. And so he ordered that all those genealogies would be destroyed so that no one else could point out that they had superior heritage, superior lineage, then him. And after our year long series in Genesis, Abraham should be fresh in our mind, shouldn't it?

35:12Jesus is the offspring of the woman. Genesis three 15, Jesus will become the instrument in Genesis 12, three that through you, I will bless all the families of the earth. Or when Jacob gives his final blessing to Judah and his brothers, what does he say about Judah? The scepter shall not depart until the obedience of the peoples. Jesus is the lion in the tribe of Judah and showed Jesus fulfills the promises of God in Genesis and throughout the entire Old Testament. But this good news is not just for the Jews. Matthew is writing to try to convince the Jews this is your Messiah. Like let me try to make it as obvious as possible.

36:01He's from Abraham. He's from David. This is the anointed one. But he's also trying to say, and he is for all, he welcomes gentiles as well. And the way he does that is again the mention of Tamar Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah. The mention of these gentiles in his family line show that Jesus has come not from a pristine family line, but in order to bless all the families of the Earth. And the implicit message is message is if Tamar Rahab, Ruth and Beth Sheba could be brought in eng grafted in to this line. So too can you. No one is too far from the reach of God's love, from the reign of this king.

36:58He comes not just for the Jews but for gentiles as well. And that's good news for us this morning. 'cause that's probably 99.9% of us we have been grafted in. This is not just the king of the Jews, but this is king over all creation. And and this genealogy, if you, if you study all the names, you'll see all sorts of terrible people. A has is a renowned for burning his sons as an offering. In two Chronicles 28, 3, Manasseh is one of the most wicked kings in Judah's history. He rebuilt the altars, he practiced false worship sorcery and sacrificed his own son. And there were good kings as well. But all of this is pointing to the fact that Jesus did not come with this squeaky clean heritage, but rather full of sword, sorted and scandalous sins to show that Jesus came to redeem mankind no matter what they have done, all who believe can be saved.

38:05And if you look at verses 12 to 16, that's probably the section that has the most kind of obscure names where you're like, who are those guys? In fact, some of those names only show up in genealogies like Solomon, which looks a lot like salmon, right? Uh, you're like, where does he show up? Only in genealogies. No other mention at all. And I think it's a reminder, God uses the foolish and the weak people of the world to show his overabundant power and wisdom belongs to him. So if you feel like you're outta place this morning, maybe this is your very first time and you're like, man, everyone looks like that.

38:49They know what they're doing. They know where to go. They have it all pulled together. Don't be deceived. We are not an impressive people, but we serve and worship a very impressive savior this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who gathers people from the four corners of the earth, Gentiles and sinners and those mired in scandal. And he says, come, I'm making a new people. I got first pick, but I picked the last pick and and I'm bringing all those that no one else wanted so that I might show my infinite power and love to redeem and to wash clean. And so what Matthew wants us to see is that the king has come.

39:37So those are the four answers. Savior, Messiah, son of David, hope of the nations. And so Jesus is that long awaited savior, Messiah, son of David and hope of the nations. He takes two major figures in Israel's history, the two greatest figures, Abraham and David. And he says he's from them and he takes all of the anticipation and all the suspense that's waiting for the Messiah. And he says he's here. He's come in Jesus and his name is Jesus. And we live in this present age where all of these things have come to pass. Jesus is now establishing his kingdom. And as sure as he's come the first time he is coming again.

40:24And so this genealogy is not just a lump of clay, but let it be C four. Let the shockwave of Jesus' identity ignite in you. Fresh praise and worship and excitement that in light of this broken world that we live in, and we think, is it getting worse? Is it gonna get better? What's the election gonna be like? What are the wars gonna be like? What's the economy gonna be like that the one great reality is true, the Savior has come and he offers salvation to all. Who will come that the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, the one that all generations have been waiting for, he's come. He is the son of David.

41:10He is the son of Abraham, and he comes and he rules and he reigns. Not a square inch of this universe. Does Jesus not look over and say it's mine. I am the king. He is king of the Jews, but he is king of the world. He's king of all creation. He's king of the cosmos. He's king over Kastan and Kenya and Kyrgyzstan and Korea and Kuwait. And he's king over every heart this morning who will come and say, oh Lord Jesus, be my savior and sit on the throne of my heart. He is the great and glorious king. And so a, as we unfold the rest of Matthew, over the next several months and even years, may we be reminded that Jesus is the Savior, the Messiah, the Son of David, the son of Abraham, and may ignite in our hearts, fresh waves of Thanksgiving that we would be able to sing.

42:19Thank you Jesus, for your blood, for your rescue, and for what you have accomplished. Let's pray. Father in heaven, our longing is that you would do that work in an awakening our hearts to see you afresh. And that even in reading a long list of names, that we would see the glory veiled within it. Oh, we have a great savior. We have a glorious king. We have the long awaited Messiah. Oh, igniting us fresh joy, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Jump to live

Jump to live

Sermon Text

Ecclesiastes 4:7–12

Previous
NEXT
Phone
(612) 455-0800
Email
info@thenorthchurch.com
Address
5151 Program Ave,
Mounds View, MN 55112
AboutI'm NewBeliefsLeadershipSundaysWednesdays
ConnectMinistriesEventsNorth UpdateGroup Finder
ResourcesBusiness DirectoryLibrarySeminars & ConferencesWeddings & FuneralsJob Opportunities
AccountHouseholdGroupsGivingLog Out
Copyright © 2026 The North Church. All rights reserved.
Staff LoginPrivacy PolicyTerms & ConditionsSite by Volente

Connect

Submit

Thank you!
Your submission has been received.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.