Jesus Said Week 1: "Why Does It Matter?"
Jesus Said • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 6 viewsSUBJECT: As we set up our overall series, we will begin with the end. Jesus is God and he shows from Genesis to Revelation how and why that matters. Not only is Jesus God, but we have been given his Words! NEED: Why does it matter that Jesus is fully God?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Whats up friends! Welcome to NXT High School. My name is Matt Velasco and I’m super stoked to be with you tonight. If we’ve never met before allow me to introduce myself a little bit. I’m 26 years old, i’ve been married for about a year to my lovely wife Jae, and we have a 6 month (I think??) old puppy named Kirby or as I like to call him Korbis. I’m probably the biggest Chicago Bears fan you’ll ever meet, I believe Justin Fields will be the greatest QB of all time and Mitch Trubisky will be the second greatest of all time. You might hear me pray for the Bears every now and then, I’m sorry but I have to. Anyways, I’m really excited that all of you are here. Especially if you’re new…welcome to NXT, we’re so happy to have you. We say something around these parts, we say that Wednesday night, tonight, is the best night of the week. And we firmly believe it. Not just because you get to hangout with friends and have free dinner and a ton of fun, but also because God has a funny way of showing up in special ways on Wednesday nights here at NXT. So if you’re new, I’d really ask you to keep coming and make it a habit. You’ll notice that we have a few different people who teach throughout the year, so it won’t just be me! But I promise, you’ll love what the others have to say.
This is my second year here at NXT and I couldn’t be more excited. We are praying that the pandemic is done messing with our schedule and we can just push forward into this new normal. Speaking of new normal! We, obviously, have changed our time to 7:30. Why? So that its easier for you guys to get here after all of your school activities. Our hope is that a 7:30 start time makes it easier for you to be here and easier for you to invite your friends.
If you’re here and you don’t consider yourself a Jesus follower I would ask you to consider tonight what it might mean for Jesus to be God. If He was indeed real and was indeed God, what might that mean for your life?
There’s a Jewish convert to Christianity named Marvin Rosenthal who asked this question prior to his conversion. It was the genealogy of Jesus in the book of Matthew that led him to an answer that, ultimately, would lead to his conversion to Christianity. To explain what he meant Rosenthal used a helpful analogy from his experience as a U.S. Marine many decades ago.
He said at the rifle range, he and his fellow soldiers would practice their aim by shooting at a target from three distances—200, 300, and 500 yards. From that distance they couldn’t always tell by the naked eye if their bullets hit the target or not. So, in order to determine their accuracy, one of the soldiers would hide down in a nine-foot ravine behind the target until he heard ten shots. Then he would get up and check the sharpness of the shooter. He would add up the score and relay the results by slipping a colored disk onto the end of a pole and raising it up high. The color of the disk would communicate the shooter’s accuracy. If you missed the target completely, a big flag would be waved, a military way of saying, “You ought to be embarrassed!” Yet, for each bull’s-eye a red disk would be secured to the pole and the pole would go up and down. So if you were six out of ten, the pole would go up and down six times. Now, if you hit the bull’s-eye ten times out of ten, that same pole and red disk would simply be spun around once. Rosenthal goes on to say that, especially for a Jewish audience (who understands the significance and the necessity of genealogical records), Matthew’s genealogy hits the bull’s-eye ten times out of ten.
(Preaching the Word: Matthew. R. Kent Hughes. 2)
We are going to be launching our first series and this year’s theme tonight: Jesus Said. Where we’re going to be talking about the exact words that Jesus said when He was walking on this planet. Each series is going to address a different section of Jesus words’. These first two weeks we’re going to be walking through what I think is two of the most theologically rich and beautiful sections of scripture.... Jesus’ genealogies…
Now i’m sure you just heard that and thought something along the lines of, “that sounds like the most boring thing we could ever listen to” but I PROMISE you, you are going to be shocked at what lays beneath all of the names of Jesus’ family. Just like Rosenthal, my hope is that you will see the perfect bulls-eye that is Jesus’ genealogy. My prayer tonight is that you, if you don’t know Jesus, would come to know Him as Savior and God tonight. And, if you do know Jesus, that you will realize that beneath some of what we might call boring in Scripture, is a mine of Gold.
Lets pray.
Content
Content
We gave you journals! Use them. We want you guys to take what you’re learning and bring it into your everyday life, writing it down is a great way to be able to remember and apply it to your life outside of Wednesday nights.
Open up your Bibles to Matthew 1: 1-17
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 Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and 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 Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan 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 fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
Now, I know that was a lot of names and I do not expect you to remember all of them, so I want you to hone in on one section in particular.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
We’ll talk more in a moment about why I want you to hone in on this verse, but before that lets take the lens out a little further and look at two more verses. One from the Old Testament, and one from the new. If you can, turn quickly to Isaiah 11:10, and Revelation 22:16. Or, they’ll be on the screen for you to read.
In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
My hope is that even now you are noticing that the genealogy of Jesus is like dozens of hyperlinks that bring you all around scripture. Like Rosenthal says, this genealogy hits the bulls-eye ten times out of ten. But, what does that mean?
R. Kent Hughes, a pastor and Biblical commentator utilizes Rosenthal’s analogy with some slight modifications and we are going to do the same. Imagine the portion of the Bible that we just read as 3 targets set before us. And think of God, not with a rifle in His hand but as an archer with a bow and three arrows. In this genealogy he will take three shots and three targets, each time hitting them dead center. He wants us, like Rosenthal and his friend’s would do, to metaphorically insert the red disk, raise the pole, and turn it once showing that we see His perfect aim.
1. Right Line— Jesus is from the Line of Abraham and David
The first target, we’ll call it “God hits the right line.” Jesus is from the right bloodline, as Matthew will say from the start. Jesus is “the son of David, the son of Abraham” (v. 1).
Abraham and David are two key names in this genealogy. If you miss seeing them at the beginning of the genealogy than you miss everything.
Why are these two dudes important? Because God gives two promises. One to Abraham and one to David.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God promised Abraham that He would raise up God’s people who will be a blessing to the entire world (the Gentiles). This is what is called the Abrahamic Covenant. This is a foreshadowing of the Gospel. This Gospel glimpse is further specified by whats called the Davidic covenant, which is the second promise.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
The point? God is showing that He hits the lineage target, in other words he shows how Jesus is descendant of both Abraham and David. Jesus comes from the right line. One Biblical scholar describes it this way,
[Jesus] has the correct spiritual pedigree to be the Messiah
(Craig Blomberg)
The Messiah, also known as the one who will save us from our sin, was to be a Jew (a son of Abraham, v2), from the tribe of Judah (bloodline of Judah, v2), and from one specific member of the tribe of Judah: David (v6)
Now, whats interesting and often times ignored, is that Jesus was not the only man to have this bloodline. His 4 brothers did too. Thats why the next 2 targets are so important, because they separate Jesus from everyone else in human history. But before we get to them I want to highlight what John says in his revelation. We read it earlier,
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
He writes Jesus’ words and self proclamation of being the root and descendant of David. Another way of saying it is the creator of David. He is not just the creator of David, but also the descendant of him.
What makes Jesus so captivating? Maybe you’re in this room and you don’t have faith in Jesus or any faith at all. To which I’d respond we all have faith in something, but thats besides the point. Jesus is the most captivating human in all of history because He is the root and the descendant of David. Why does that make him captivating?
Because it tells us about His authority, and His humanity. What separates Jesus from all other humans and Christianity from all other religions is the fact that Jesus, God, the root and creator of everything ever, decided to descend. He willingly took on flesh, and willingly placed himself into the bloodline of humans. So that He could die on behalf of the very people He created and came to.
2. Right Time— Jesus Came at the Right Time
Jesus is from the right line. Without that necessary fact we stop the target practice and look for a Messiah elsewhere. But it isn’t the only target that God the 3-arrowed archer is aiming at. The second is that Jesus was born at the right time. Thats the second target we will look at. We’ll see here that God’s arrow hits the bulls-eye yet again. There’s something Matthew wants to make sure we don’t miss, so he ends his genealogy like this—
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of what the number 14 means here. Some scholars say its a Hebrew literary device that assigns a number value to a letter, others say its Matthew structuring the genealogy around whats known as “salvation history.” Regardless of however you interpret it, God is saying something very clearly: God has designed history around the birth of Jesus. And, on paper, we all agree! Everyone is living their lives in a system of thinking in regards to time and history that is built around the very person they reject. So often, this head knowledge has yet to make it to our hearts. We write B.C. (Before Christ) or A.D.... Who can tell me what A.D. stands for? (“Anno Domini,” “in the year of our Lord”), but we completely strip it of its Biblical and theological influence, and don’t allow it to emotionally impact us at all.
God designed history. with this person born here and that person born there and one event happening now and one then— all to prepare us for Jesus and to give room for faith. A lot of people ask, why didn’t Jesus come during the modern world where there could be viral TikTok’s of Jesus healing people in Jerusalem or walking on water on the Sea of Galilee? So that people when they doubt could be told, “haven’t you seen this viral video of Jesus walking out of the tomb?! Why wouldn’t you believe that?!”
Often we wish for God to have different timing, and we often believe our timing would be better than God’s. And, frankly, we often times act and wish that God took out the “faith” part of our faith. It would be easier to believe if I could see it on my for you page, but that would take the faith out of faith. Which would be like taking the mystery out of romance, or the oxygen out of the air.
God is real, and he is faithful, and we can see these real attributes of God in creation and in Scripture. Yet, God has not made himself so self-evident that no faith whatsoever is required. How boring would that be? It would be dull. Lifeless. Robotic. It would be so not like the God who created this unbelievably complex, mysterious, and beautiful universe.
3. Right Design— Jesus Came Even for Gentile Sinners
Twice in a row God hits the bulls-eye, and now for a third time he does yet again. This time on the target that we will call, the right design. Its not just that Jesus came from a Jewish royal bloodline, but also the design of it all. Why he came and for whom he came.
So, whats the design? Candidly. Its strange. Its unique, obviously. But specifically it has three peculiarities that would have offended the modern Jewish person of the first century. Why? Because Jewish people had high value on racial, moral, and patriarchal purity. All that means is that they essentially wanted to keep their bloodline clean. Now, in todays day and age we hear that and probably have dozens of thoughts flood into our heads. But back then it was totally normal and accepted. But what are those peculiarities?
Jesus includes five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah aka Bathsheba, and Mary. Women were rarely included in Jewish family genealogies and if they were it was to show the purity of the line or enhance its dignity. But here in Matthew, that isn’t the purpose. In fact,
Four out of the five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus aren’t even Jewish. Besides Mary, the women in Jesus’ genealogy are a bunch of gentiles. Tamar and Rahab were canaanites (a race of people with which the Israelites were forbidden to marry). Ruth was a moabite (the moabites trace their lineage back to Lot, who was incestuous. Then there is Bathsheba. She was the wife of Uriah before she was the wife of David, Uriah was a Hittite which means in the ancient Jewish legal system she also was considered a Hittite. In short, Jesus’ bloodline, according to Jewish tradition, was impure.
Most of these women were involved in irregular sexual liaisons. And candidly, I’m not going to go into depth with them because they may just distract you. But in order to prove the point allow me to tell you about Rahab. She was a prostitute in Jericho, that wicked town where the walls came tumbling down. Jesus was descendant of a prostitute. God’s plan.
If you look at the so-called “righteous” men of old— like Abraham who was a liar, or Judah whose idea it was to sell his brother Joseph into slavery, or David who had his friend murdered in order to cover up his own adultery, or Solomon with his polygamy and idolatry, or even Hezekiah with his pride. You thought your family tree was a mess? One scholar describes it this way, “Its as if Matthew puts a criminal lineup before us.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
But why? Why does it matter that God pierced the bulls-eye of the third and final target? Why is it important to inform us that Jesus “did not belong to the nice clean world of middle-class respectability, but rather he belonged to a family of murderers, cheats, cowards, adulterers, and liars?
Matthew wants to show us what Paul will teach us in 1 Timothy 1:15 -
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Jesus came not for the righteous but the unrighteous, for sinners— like Matthew the tax collector and Rahab the prostitute. He came for sinners like you and me.
And thats why the genealogy of Jesus matters.
I’ll ask you again… what might it mean for your life if Jesus is indeed God? Because, if Paul is right and Jesus did come into this world as the Messiah to save us from our sin, then you are in need of this Savior named Jesus.
Let’s pray.