Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Last year I contributed to a book titled, Heal Us, Emmanuel: A Call for Racial Reconciliation, Representation, and Unity in the Church.

The book is a compilation of 30 essays written by a diverse group of pastors and elders in the PCA.

One of the chapters that bothered a good number of people was Dr. Alexander Jun’s chapter, “Unintentional Racism.”

What folks were put off by was his use of the term “microagressions.’

He defined it as “commonplace verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of a nondominant group.”

The primary complaint we received about this term was that it’s use was a reflection that we had given in to the political correctness of our day.

Dr. Jun is Asian American, Korean American to be exact.

Here’s how he related an experience that he regularly encounters.

He said,

“I was speaking recently at a Christian conference.

At the end of my talk and throughout the conference, I received compliments, as well as some interesting questions and comments.

I heard: ‘Your English is so good.

When did you come to the States?’ ‘Where are you from?

… No, where are you really from?’”

People are not intending to be offensive, but that is nevertheless exactly what they are accomplishing.

Well, this sermon isn’t about microaggressions or macroaggressions, it’s about God’s love.

The connection is in the question Dr. Jun is used to being asked.

Where are you from?

Where are you really from?

Even today, where people come from matters to us.

It’s information we want to have about people.

It helps us to know who they are.

Do you ever think about how often you ask people that question when you first meet them?

“Are you new to the area?

Where’s home for you?”

You ask it without even thinking why you’re asking it.

Where do you come from and who are your people?

Well, that’s the question Matthew is answering for us about Jesus here in the first 17 verses of his Gospel.

Who is this Jesus?

Where does he come from?

Who are his people?

I might answer that question, “I’m from NYC, Brooklyn, to be exact.

And my people are from Wilmington, NC and Port of Spain, Trinidad.”

For me there’s a source of pride in my heritage.

I wear it gladly.

The folk I think about when I think about where I’m from, what my lineage is, who my people are, the people I think about are those who by their sacrifices and faith made it possible for me to be standing here today.

But the sketchy folk, the not so faithful folk, don’t even come to mind when I think about who I am and where I’m from.

Matthew is saying to us right off the bat, as he starts his book, that Jesus is the Son of David.

He is the son of Abraham.

Verse 1 is the title verse: The Book of the Genealogy (the Lineage) of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham.

What he’s saying right off the bat is that Jesus is the King.

You’d better look at him and see that he is the one who rules and reigns over this world.

Not only that, you’d better look at him and see that he’s the son of promise.

He’s the one in whom God promised that all the nations of the world would be blessed.

Matthew gives us this genealogy because he’s got to let us know that Jesus is legit.

But even though his legitimacy comes through his biological genealogy, it doesn’t come through the faithfulness of his people.

Where’s he from?

He’s from Abraham and he’s from David.

But all the folk in the genealogy have issues!

His lineage shouts to us of God’s love through the ages.

Matthew welcomes us to come alongside in this genealogy of 3 by 14 generations from Abraham to Jesus and see the unspoken, but evident love of God permeating this history to bring us our King.

This genealogy invites us into the tension of knowing God’s promise and living like it’s true even though we haven’t yet seen the full realization of it.

We’re going to take a walk through the tension of our 3 by 14 generations and talk about Love Through the Familiar, Love Through the Famine, and Love Through the Faint.

Love Through the Familiar

Let’s be clear.

Matthew is writing his Gospel to a primarily Jewish audience.

If you read through the book you will find Matthew saying things like, “this was to fulfill what what spoken by the prophet.”

He’s taking care to show that Jesus’ life and ministry were the fulfillment of what was declared in the OT.

Matthew’s strategy is to start his genealogy with the one whom the Jewish people considered to be the father of their faith, Abraham.

The gospel writer, Luke, has a different audience.

He’s writing to a primarily non-Jewish audience, a Gentile audience.

So, in , he works his way backward from Jesus all the way to Adam in order to demonstrate that Jesus is the Son of God.

We could say that because of his audience, Luke determines that he needs to go all the way back to .

Matthew, because of his audience, needs to go all the way back to .

Look at what else Matthew is doing.

This first point is Love Through the Familiar.

His title, “The Book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ,” is meant to strike a familiar tone in their ears.

They’re supposed to hear the echo of a text like ringing in their ears.

says, “This is the book of generations of Adam.”

The connection is to say that there’s a shift with the coming of Jesus Christ.

This is a new beginning that’s taking place by looking back at what God did to bring Jesus on the scene.

The key verb in this genealogy is the word, “to beget,” “to bring forth.”

If you’ve ever read through the OT, your eyes have probably glazed over in the genealogy sections: so and so begot so and so…This one starts a little differently for you.

These are familiar people.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

And when you get to that line it causes you to pause.

Matthew, how are you not naming of all the 12 tribes of Israel?

How are you going to write eleven of them off by just saying Judah and his brothers?

Listen, there is significance to whom Matthew includes and whom he leaves out.

Jacob had a twin brother named Esau.

When you get through the first group of 14 generations down to v. 6, you’re at David.

Not only did Matthew fail to include the names of Judah’s eleven brothers, there’s no mention of Moses.

There’s no mention of the Exodus.

There’s a whole book of the Bible dedicated to God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt through Moses.

Moses who is a type of Christ.

Moses, who points us forward to Jesus.

But Matthew leaves him out!

Why?

Because Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah!

Jesus is the root of David!

He’s not showing us that Jesus is the Great High Priest who intercedes for you and I. He’s showing us that Jesus is the King!

Matthew is saying, “Do you remember when Jacob gathered his twelve sons to him in before he died?

He prophesied about what would happen to them in days to come.

He said to Judah (), ‘Judah, your brothers shall praise you…Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey my son, you have gone up.

He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples…”

The Lion of the tribe of Judah is here!

His scepter is in his hand!

His ruler’s staff is positioned between his feet!