Day 1

Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Chur Point Church Podcast. ⁓ today we're here with ⁓ Pastor Sam, and we're gonna be doing 40 days, 40 podcasts ⁓ through the book of Matthew. ⁓ we're gonna be starting today in Matthew one, verses one through seventeen. this is a big part that usually people skip as as we know in church. And so we thought, what a better way than to tell you why it is a big reason to read it. And I'm gonna hand it over to Pastor Sam here. Yeah. So we did this ⁓ with a reading plan that'll break up the 28 chapters over 40 days. And so this is where you'll start is in Matthew chapter one. And this is the first chapter of the New Testament. And you know, when you read the Bible for the first time, you're like, What what are we doing with this? You should start in the New Testament. A lot of people like to start in Genesis, but you should start in the New Testament. But if you start in the New Testament, what you start with is A list of names and it kind of begs the question, like, what's what's with all these names? Why are we why are we doing this? So I think a way that could be helpful to understand is the writer, Matthew, is saying to you as a reader, in some ways, this is a recap of what you've already heard, what you've read from the old testament. So an example I've used before is almost like when you're going to a new season of a show and it's been a few years since it's come out, like Yeah. Stranger things or something, you know. You're like, it's been a few years and these kids aren't kids anymore. But like what happened? I kind of forgot what happened in the past seasons. And they always have that recap video. Yeah. It's kind of a recap before the intro of the new season. In many ways, this is what this is. So it's like it's it goes all the way back to Abraham, and that's like when God first lays out his covenant to say, Hey, like through you, through your faith, through your family. I'm gonna bless the whole world, but I'm gonna send someone specific that's gonna redeem the whole world. So in a way, it's kind of a recap. And then as you go further, you have names on the list that you recognize from the Old Testament that you're like, ⁓ yeah, like Isaac was a big deal, Jacob was a big deal. ⁓ we have ⁓ you know, people like King David in here, we have Solomon, and then we have a list of these kings that came after King David. And then it breaks it up into three different areas. So you have 42 generations, 14 in each of the three categories. Yeah. ⁓ that you have from Abraham to David, you have David to the Babylonian exile, and then the Babylonian exile all the way up to Jesus. So what Matthew is saying is you know, this is God's flesh and blood child that came from this family, this royal family. But he's also the promised one. He's the fulfillment of everything you've read up to this point, but he's doing it in a in a quick way. Mm-hmm. Essentially. He's basically summarizing the Old Testament in a quick way. So like when you read through this, right? If you're a new believer or whatever, a lot of these names make absolutely zero sense. Yeah, like at first you feel good because you're like, I've heard of Abraham and maybe Isaac and Jacob, but then you get down into Jehosaphat, Joram, and Uzziah, and you're like, Boy, I'm totally lost. Yeah. So like, what would you tell like someone who's first reading this? Yeah. Like, what would you say like when these names come up? Because sometimes, you know, like as you're reading, if like you don't know words, sometimes they can make you not want to read anymore. Yeah, you just want to give up. Exactly. So like when you read these lists of names and you're not have go or you might have not gone to seminary or you maybe not even read the old testament. Yeah. How would you tell them why is this important to them instead of just skipping over? I would say ⁓ there is a a movie there not movie. There's a a directoral decision called N Media Res. And you're gonna be like, Well, that's a fancy term. It's not. It just means you start the story in the begin or in the middle. A lot of movies do this. They kind of like drop you in in the middle of the war scene. They drop you in in the middle of an ER and you're like, What what the heck's happening? Like what's all this stuff? Who are these characters? And then they almost go back and and recap. In some ways that's what this is, because you're like, I don't know who Solomon is. Yeah. I don't know. But he's a character in here, clearly. A lot of TV shows do this. And then as you read, you're like, ⁓ that's who that guy was. So like you will get allusions to King David as you keep going through the New Testament. You're gonna hear about him a fair amount. You're gonna hear a lot about Abraham. Like, ⁓ this seems to be a ⁓ important guy. So even if you don't know these people like characters, you recognize they are important because they keep coming up over and over. So what my encouragement would to be is to say first and foremost, these are people, think of them as characters. And if that helps you to think of it like a story. ⁓ don't think of it like a textbook. It's not meant to be a textbook. ⁓ they're not terms to memorize per se. These are real people's lives. And they're people that you can read about in the old testament. And what I love about the Bible is it treats real people like real people. Yeah. So it doesn't sugarcoat it. Like you can go and read Abraham, the first one. You're like, ⁓ this guy must have been awesome. Well, kinda. Like he has great moments, but he also like Messes up a lot. David messed up a lot at one point right here in verse six, like as you begin from David to the exile, says David fathered Solomon by Uriah's wife. ⁓ If you're just skipping over that, you're like, Well, who's Uriah? Yeah. Some David got some other dude's wife pregnant. You're like, yeah, he did. Like in Matthew put that right there, not to necessarily shame. Mm-hmm. ⁓ you know, the woman, he's like, it's actually on David, this man of God who like had this affair. And so Matthew is and he's not pulling punches. He's not cleaning up the family tree. A lot of times if we're in maybe like elementary school and we do that family tree for the first time, yeah. You're like, ⁓ can we like leave weird Uncle Rick or whatever, like off the tree? 'Cause you know, I we just don't talk about him. He doesn't do that. He puts them all in there and specifically points out Uriah's wife that you're like Yeah. What and then you're like, wait, what? And you go back and you read that story and you're like, David not only took this woman, had an affair with her, and then had his the the guy killed in order to marry her, and then you find out Uriah is one of his best friends. Yeah. You're like, ⁓ That's far more interesting than thinking of it like a textbook of like, Yeah, well, I need to know who Ahaz is. Well, you you'll get there. But like what you need to know is that these are stories, these are names, and they're some of them are horrible, horrible people and some of them are amazing people that followed God passionately, but it's a very mixed bag and Jesus shows up in this very mixed up family. So when you're looking at this, right, You know, he starts out with all of this, but maybe give us some of the context of why where Matthew is when he's writing this out and like I mean you're you've kind of explained like why he's doing it, but yeah kind of like where is he? 'Cause you know, you turn that book from Malachi, right, right to the New Testament. Yep. Why does it start in Matthew? Why where is Matthew? So each of the gospels, which is just a word for the biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John All have a different take on them. Matthew is doing this intentionally to point to Jesus as like the new king. So let's think about it like this. If if you or I like just lost our mind and said, I am the king of England, we just came into church and said, Hey, I don't know if why you're talking about Sam. I'm the King of England. They'd be like, You're crazy. Like, I mean, this like a common thing that g ends up with people in a nut house saying, like, I'm the king of England, because no one's ever like, I'm a peasant, it's always they're important, they're a king. This proves it that Jesus wasn't walking around saying, I'm a king with no proof. Yeah. If if there was a r ⁓ new baby that was born in the royal family this week in over in England, it would be worldwide news because everyone's been tracking this family lineage, not just like In tabloids, but everyone's been tracking this family lineage for hundreds, thousands of years. We yeah we always do this as a society, like every culture tracks like royal line, and in many ways that's what Matthew is doing. He's like, Here's the royal line all the way back to Abraham, and you can chart it. And then you're ⁓ we read about this in the old testament, and then but the family tree continues after the exile in verse 12. When things still got messy and everything got decimated in Israel, but they're going back to their ⁓ home country, he's like, Hey, we still kept records. You can look these up, you can pull the files. ⁓ Jesus was born into this family, and it's been verified by the Romans, it was verified by the Jewish people because they kept these records. So you're like, Yeah, he's not just the carpenter's son, he is of royal lineage. Yeah, and it kind of flips like You know, when you think of the royal family, you think of like this pristine, perfect family. But right here in this lineage you can go through and like one that sh could stick out to people is Ruth, right? And you're like, so you're telling me Jesus came from Ruth. Yes. Like a lot of times you would think like, ⁓ if you come from a royal family, like it's almost like again, I'm using all examples, but Harry Potter, they talk about pure bloods. Exactly. Yeah. You'd ⁓ is there a pure blood? But then you have Ruth there. Ruth is not Jewish. Like she was not an Israelite, but she was a person of great faith who followed her mother in law and you know remained loyal to her. Yeah. And God honored that and allowed her to have a family that grew in Bethlehem. And her grandson or great great grandson was David. So but she is mentioned here. As someone who's definitely not a pureblo, by the way that we would think of it. So it's like so clearly God is communicating through Matthew to us that this is like Abraham founded the faith, but what founded the faith or the family is that he trusted God. Yeah. And that was the criteria. Yeah. And so in many ways, God's like, I'm more than looking for who your lineage is, like, yes, like that matters. ⁓ but I'm also looking for are you faithful do you want to be in my family tree? And that's that's really the what Jesus does is he's like, come join my family, the family I'm I'm building. And so with Jesus, like coming from this lineage of, you know, very important people, people that really Like are just kind of whatever. Some get like one sentence in the old testament. Yeah, like some get one sentence, one are very bad, some are crazy, like all this lineage, like some people would look on the outside and be like, Okay, so your Lord and Savior comes from this messed up p place and everything else. Yep. But why is that so important to us to see the example of that? ⁓ I think it's so important because who among us one comes from a perfect family? Mm-hmm. If you do, you're lying. Two Who comes from a perfect life? Yeah. Yeah. Nobody. Like nobody. And I think what what again is being communicated is if you go back and read, like again, the recap, yeah. Of the old testament, and you're like, ⁓ Jesus comes from murderers, adulterers, he comes from thieves, he comes from idolaters, he comes from people like there's a king mentioned in here who literally sacrifices his son in an altar fire. Like so he comes from these people of deep, deep evil. And it's not their goodness that Jesus comes for. It's that Jesus redeems even the worst of us. And so no matter who you are, you can find yourself in this lineage saying, ⁓ I've done that. ⁓ I've I've been guilty of this too. And Jesus still comes and Jesus is still willing to be not only a part of our story, but he's willing to bring us into his family. Yeah. It kinda Like you said, anyone could pick out someone in this lineage and be like, ⁓ I've done that. Yeah. And if we're being honest with ourselves, if we're honest, yeah. And it's like Jesus is showing us the example before even arriving through his lineage. Exactly. And that's how amazing God works. Yep. In that. And so, you know, with that, we don't want to get too far ahead ⁓ for tomorrow. ⁓ we're gonna get some exciting stuff coming. Yeah, we're gonna be picking up tomorrow. Like a Christmas massacre and touch your stuff. It's gonna be fun. So thanks for tuning in everyone and ⁓ we'll see you next time.