Pastor Carlton Howell
(0:00) So if you’re having bibles, go ahead and let’s go to Matthew. We’re going to start looking at chapter (0:05) one, but I’m going to have it pause right now. We’re going to go to chapter one, but I want to (0:13) introduce you.That is not what I was trying to do. So before we get to reading, let me give you (0:28) a little introduction to this book, this book of Matthew. Matthew, in this series that we’re going (0:37) to call Wonder and Amazement, this is season one.Okay, we’re going to have seasons. Matthew, Mark, (0:45) Luke, and John is going to be broken down into seasons. Season one, and we’re going to say this (0:50) is episode one because we are walking.We’re taking a journey, a walk, a path down the Gospels, (0:57) and eventually when we get done, we’ll be able to connect the Gospels and see a timeline eventually. (1:04) Matthew, he was the son of Atlas, and he was a publican or a tax gatherer in Capernaum. (1:13) On one occasion, Jesus the Messiah came up from the side of the lake, and as he passed the customs (1:21) house where Matthew was settled, he said to him, follow me.Matthew arose, he followed him, and (1:30) became his disciple. We see that in Matthew chapter 9 verse 9, and formerly the name by which (1:37) the person we know as Matthew, he was known as Levi. Now, he changed it, possibly in grateful (1:46) memory of his tall, to Matthew.The same day that Jesus called him, he made him a great feast. (1:53) We’re going to read about this later. A farewell feast to which he invited Jesus and his disciples, (2:01) and probably many of his old associates.He was afterwards selected as one of the 12 apostles. (2:10) His name does not occur in the Gospel history except in the list of the apostles. (2:18) The last notice of him is in Acts chapter 1 verse 13.There is a debate among the scholars of (2:26) the manner of his death. Some scholars say it is unknown. Some say he died in certain periods.(2:33) But what we can know is that Matthew was an outcast Jew. He was a tax collector. He bears(2:40) this book that follows his name, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, according to Matthew.He is an (2:46) apostle of the Lord. He wrote this gospel according to his own plans and his aims, and (2:53) from his own point of view as did the other apostles, or we can say even evangelists as(3:01) they evangelize the word. At the time of this conception, there is little in the gospel (3:07) itself to indicate that it was not written by him, and it was written before the destruction (3:15) of Jerusalem, and sometime after it records it.It is probably written somewhere between (3:22) 60 A.D. and 65 A.D., and the cast of the forms of expression that have been employed by the (3:28) writer of the gospel, it seems that it would be and was written for a Jewish believer in Christ (3:38) Jesus, this Jesus of Nazareth. His point throughout the gospels as we read, (3:46) as we read, the great point behind the gospel is to prove that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the (3:53) promised Messiah, and that in him are the ancient prophecies, the prophecies of his death, (4:06) of his, well, of his birth, of his death, and of his resurrection. Okay, so those things we (4:15) know to be true.Those things we know to be true. Give me a moment. Let me make sure I am (4:26) working something here.Make sure things are working right. There are expressions (4:44) in how the writer writes. I want you to please take note of that as we walk through, (4:49) and we’ll go over a brief synopsis at the beginning of the sermons to remind and catch (4:55) people who may come in at later sermons of who he was.But starting in Matthew chapter 1, (5:04) we’re going to start at verse 1, and it reads as such. This is, and I am reading from the NLT. (5:18) I’m going to be reading from the NLT today.Please, whatever versions that you have, (5:24) read from your versions as you have them. This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus, the Messiah, (5:41) a descendant of David and Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac.Isaac was the father of Jacob. (5:58) Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez.Zerah, whose (6:07) mother was Tamar, we’re going to talk about that. Perez was the father of Harazon. Harazon was the (6:14) father of Ram.Ram was the father of Anitobat. Anitobat was the father of Nasim. Nasim was the (6:25) Salmon.Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed, (6:32) whose mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse.Jesse was the father of King David. (6:41) David was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Beersheba, the widow of Uriah. (6:48) Solomon was the father of Reberon.Reberon was the father of Azeroth. Azeroth was the father of Asa. (6:57) Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.Jehoshaphat was the father of Jerome. Jerome was the father (7:05) of Uriah. Uriah was the father of Jonah.Jonah was the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Hezekiah. (7:14) Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.Manasseh was the father of Ammon. Ammon was the father of (7:21) Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jericho and his brothers born at the time of the exile to Babylon (7:33) after the Babylonian exile.Jericho was the father of Siddal. Siddal was the father of Zerubbel. (7:42) Zerubbel was the father of Abod.Abod was the father of Eklim. Eklim was the father of Ezzar. (7:49) Ezzar was the father of Zorak.Zorak was the father of Ahum. Ahum was the father of Elud. (7:56) Elud was the father of Ezion.Ezion was the father of Mathan. Mathan was the father of Jacob. (8:04) Jacob was the father of Joseph who was the husband of Mary.Mary gave birth to Jesus (8:13) who is called the Messiah. All those listed above include 14 generations from Abraham to David, (8:26) 14 from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah. (8:36) This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, (8:44) but before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the (8:50) power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want (8:59) to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, (9:07) an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.Joseph, son of David, the angel said, (9:15) do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child with her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, (9:22) and she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people (9:33) from their sin. All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message to his prophets. Look, (9:42) the virgin will conceive a child, and she will give birth to a son, and they will call him (9:48) Immanuel, which means God with us.When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded, (9:58) and took Mary as his wife, but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born, (10:05) and Joseph named him Jesus. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, during the reign of King (10:14) Herod. About that time, the wise men from—I’m in chapter 2. I’m going to stop right there.I (10:22) didn’t want to read chapter 2. I’m going to stop very quickly at chapter 1. I’m only going to cover (10:32) chapter 2 this week. I only want to cover chapter 1 this week, because I wanted to explain the (10:47) genealogy, and see if you noticed something. Something that may have struck you may be a (10:54) little unusual.We hear of the genealogy of our Lord Jesus, beginning with Abraham, ending with (11:02) Mary and Joseph. The purpose of this genealogy is to show that Jesus, first and foremost, (11:08) was Jewish, a Jewish in his ancestry. What is unusual is that there are five women mentioned (11:18) in this genealogy.According to Jewish history, women were never given a part of anyone’s (11:24) genealogy, but here on the Lord’s family tree, there are five beautiful blossoms that deserve (11:32) our attention, and I want to focus on those today. Well, these five women is seen in the (11:40) marvelous saving grace of God. So give me your attention this morning, and let’s look at these (11:47) five women of the family tree.In Genesis chapter 31—I need to get my Bible, because I’m not going (11:56) to have all those on the screen. I was going to have all that if he was in person, but I pray that (12:02) you do have your Bibles with you, because we’re going to be talking, and we’re going to be reading, (12:06) and we’re going to be looking. In Genesis chapter 38, we find this woman named Tamara, (12:16) the incestuous daughter-in-law of Judah.Tamara was a Canaanite, hence a Gentile. (12:26) Ooh, that’s two stripes. She was incestuous.She was a woman, and she was a Gentile, (12:35) but yet she was mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy. So that’s Genesis, you can look it up, (12:43) Genesis chapter 38, 1 through 30, and then you have Rahab in verse 5. It talks about Rahab (12:49) in Joshua chapter 2, verse 1 through 24. Rahab was—guess what she was? She was a Gentile, (12:57) a prostitute.She was a member of a doomed race, three stripes. Then you look at the book of Ruth, (13:06) the book that bears her name. Ruth was a Moabite.She was of the Moabites. She was a Gentile. (13:14) She was poor, a widow of an Israelite.Now, she was morally upright. She was faithful (13:24) in character, time, and spirit. She was also a believer of the God of Israel, but she was a (13:33) Gentile.Verse 6, it mentions Beersheba. She was the adulterous wife of a Gentile man named Uriah.(13:46) In 2 Samuel chapter 3, verse 3, she committed adultery on her husband while he was away at war, (13:55) became pregnant as a result of the affair, and didn’t tell him what happened, tried to cover it (14:01) up.She was probably aware of her lover’s plan to murder her husband, cover up the sin, (14:12) and do nothing to stop it. These people, Rehabi, are being mentioned in the genealogy (14:21) of Jesus, the Messiah, the coming one, Mary. Lastly, was mentioned Luke.We find her here, (14:31) you know, also in Matthew, we also find her in Luke. We find her in the Gospels. She was a young, (14:38) pure Israelite girl.She was evidently very devout and religious. She was willing to (14:46) yield her life and her reputation to the hand of God. The list of women, five are mentioned, (14:59) four Gentiles, one a Jew.Of these women, we see three of these women who are openly sinful, (15:09) two practice a religious lifestyle, and the other two practice a religious lifestyle. (15:15) Fathers who came from different naturalities, all of these are different. They share some (15:21) things in common, though.They are mentioned as ancestors of Christ Jesus, and they were all (15:29) sinners in need of a Savior. Romans chapter 3 verse 23, all of these blossoms, (15:39) all of these blossoms, these wonderful women. So, let’s take some notices.(15:45) At this point, you may be wondering, what am I to see about these women and how they are (15:53) such blossoms? Some may even say this appears to be thorns in the genealogy of Jesus, (16:00) but I would beg to differ. If we dig a little deeper into who they were, it becomes clear (16:06) that there is a tremendous blessing here for every child of God. There’s a tremendous blessing (16:12) for everyone who is a sinner.There is a blessing for everyone who has not even come to know God, (16:20) because when you think about how they listed where the Savior came from, there is a blessing (16:28) that lies in you and me, also. There is a blessing in these five ancient women who, (16:36) by sheer grace of God, became the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see His love and (16:43) grace on display.We can see the love of God being displayed through Christ Jesus, even in the (16:51) genealogy of His birth. Tamar, a palm tree, refers to stability and life-giving power, (17:06) an oasis in a burning desert. Jesus stabilizes all life.He gives perfect purpose, (17:17) perfect purpose to a wavering soul. He also is the foundation, the fountain of life. (17:25) Men are dead apart from Him.We find this in Ephesians 2 and 1. He made alive those who are (17:32) dead who believe in His name. We can find victory in Him. So, He is a palm tree.So, in the genealogy, (17:44) even though Tamar was insectuous, she was almost, when it comes to sitting intolerable, (17:53) she was but mentioned. Rahab, wide and broad, not a sought-after name among women. (18:04) How many women we know are named Rahab? How many people, when they’re picking out their (18:13) daughter’s names, pick Rahab? We look and we name Mary, we name all sorts of names, but Rahab’s not (18:23) one.It has reference to the love and the grace of God, though. Rahab has reference to the broad(18:33) and the wide love of God, because God’s love is so broad. It extends to all men.We see that (18:41) in Jeremiah 31 and 3. His grace is available in Romans 10 and 13. Jesus has the ability, (18:50) because of the broad love of God, to totally transform a sinner’s life and make that sinner (18:58) now a friend. Ruth, if there was ever a friend to a sinner, it was and is Jesus.(19:11) His love for His friends is so deep that He’s willing to demonstrate it by dying. (19:18) What He endured for His friends, what He endures for you and me, is phenomenal. (19:28) If you look at Beresheba, daughter of complete satisfaction, (19:34) what daddy has ever looked at his daughter as less than a satisfier, a father, (19:40) the sole satisfaction is found in none other than the Lord Jesus Himself.He becomes our rest, (19:52) our rest for this weary soul of ours. These five women, I want you to see the beauty of it, (20:00) these five women are seen in the complete portrait of our Lord’s love, our God’s plan (20:09) for salvation of fallen men. This is His plan.And we can see this plan being worked through, (20:20) even the genealogy of Christ Jesus. And that’s why it’s so important in Matthew chapter 1, (20:26) we read and understand the genealogy. We have to read and understand His genealogy.(20:37) It’s going forward in the rest of the gospel. If we do not understand His genealogy, how are we (20:43) going to understand truly what it is He’s coming to do? The book of generations is an expression (20:51) purely of Jewish meaning. It’s a table.The same expression occurs. So when we’re reading these (21:01) names, there are expressions, there is meaning behind it. So we have been the title, not of the (21:09) whole gospel of Matthew, but only in the first seven verses.Jesus Christ, the meaning of the (21:15) glorious words, Jesus, the name given at His circumcision was that by which He was formerly (21:24) known. We can see it in the genealogy, the evidence, not just even of how He came, but why (21:41) He came. We find that from the very first words of the gospel of Matthew recorded, there is a theme (21:53) character where everything, even the lives of those who are mentioned points to Jesus Christ (22:02) as the main character of this presentation that we call the gospels.Even down to the opening verse (22:14) connected them back to two great covenants, 2 Samuel chapter 7, the covenant with David, (22:26) the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis chapter 15. If Jesus of Nazareth is (22:34) the fulfillment of these two great covenants, He is related to the rightful one. This is a question (22:45) that Matthew was answering for the Jews at the time who would have asked or looked for.(22:58) So Matthew traced Jesus’ lineage in detail. Matthew gave this lineage to his legal father,(23:07) Joseph. This is genealogy traced right to the throne of David, which has to come through Solomon (23:20) and his descendants.But again, I focus on something that many gloss over, and that’s these (23:33) women. There is beauty in this, that there’s been preaching that may not make sense to you, (23:46) and you say I would have gotten a lot more out of the no cowballing maybe, (23:52) but just maybe. But I want you to take a moment, I want you to hear what I’m saying.(23:57) If you were to get nothing else from this, regardless of anything that you have going on,(24:03) you can know and you can go and spread to others that Jesus can and will save you today.(24:11) When we go back and we look at these women, Samara, this insidious daughter-in-law of Judah, (24:23) this Canaanite, this Gentile woman, Rahab, this Gentile, this prostitute, this member of a doomed (24:33) race, Ruth, a Moabite, a poor widow, a worldly upright, Beersheba, this adulterous wife of a (24:49) Gentile man, were counted worthy, were counted worthy in God’s grand plan to bring forth the (25:02) Messiah. So I don’t want to look at Mary right now, I really don’t want to look at Ruth right (25:09) now, I really want to focus on Samara, Rahab, and Beersheba.There is a plan for each and every one (25:17) of your lives, and if we trust in the plan that God has, we know that there is nothing that is (25:23) too hard for Him. Look at Samara, Rahab, and Beersheba. There is nothing that Jesus can’t do, (25:35) there’s nothing that Jesus can’t save if we call upon His name.(25:43) It doesn’t matter where your origin started, it doesn’t matter where you were, it doesn’t matter (25:50) where they are, it doesn’t matter where we started, and it doesn’t even matter—the Messiah didn’t have (25:57) the most luxurious ancestry. He had a prostitute in His ancestry, the Messiah had an (26:06) instriguous woman in His ancestry, He had a liar, He had a murderer, this is all in His bloodline. (26:17) His ancestry—yes, but God put Him as Messiah.He decided to bring Him that way. (26:25) He showed you that even Him alone can be saved. It was mentioned for a reason.(26:46) We’re moving forward, not looking back. No matter what happened, and what father, or mother, (26:55) or grandmother, or great-grandmother, or great-grandfather—who cares? Today is your salvation (27:05) day. Today is your healing day.Today is the day where you can put all those past things behind, (27:13) those past sins behind, in the name of Jesus. He can take them away, and you can rely on His (27:19) future plans in your present state. Now remember, they only mention His genealogy one time here.(27:31) Matthew goes through it, and it’s not mentioned again. Tomorrow’s not mentioned again,(27:44) but it’s focused on Jesus. If you come and you ask the right questions of the Lord, (27:53) if you ask, what do I have to do to be saved? I want to miss hell and go straight to heaven.(28:04) This is the message of the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew is saying, (28:10) avoid hell and get to heaven. The Gospel of Matthew is telling you, avoid hell and get to heaven.(28:19) And if that is your goal, if that’s what you want to do, then come to Jesus. (28:24) As we go through the Gospel of Matthew, we’re going to go through some hard truths, (28:28) and those truths are going to help you decide, heaven or hell, which one do I want? (28:37) You can’t be a part of His ancestry, but you can be a part of His lineage. You can’t be a part of (28:45) His ancestry, but you can be a part of His lineage, and all it takes is for you and I to take that one(28:52) step and call upon the name of Jesus, knowing that we shall be saved.We call upon His name. (29:00) If we call upon the name of Jesus, we know that we shall be saved. We will be saved.Matter of (29:06) fact, for many of us, we are saved. Why? Because we call upon the name of Jesus. It is by grace (29:15) that you have been saved through faith, the Bible tells me.And it’s not for ourselves, but it is a (29:20) free gift, a gift that was given to you freely. We read through the genealogy. We read through (29:28) the ancestry.It was a gift that is given. It doesn’t matter of your parents. It doesn’t matter (29:33) what your mama did.It doesn’t matter what your father did. It doesn’t matter what your sister (29:37) did. It doesn’t matter what anybody did.It matters that you receive this free gift, not by works, (29:45) because you’re not going to be, you or no I will be able to boast. Not by works. Not by works.
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