The Need of a Saviour for the Good and the Bad!

So we turn to God's word this morning and we turn to Matthew.

And it's probably one of those passages where a few of you have

been very honest with me over these past number of years and said

you read that passage and I had absolutely no idea what you were

going to do with it.

Well, let's begin by thinking of what Matthew is about.

Matthew is about the life of Jesus, which is good news for everyone.

And so from this word, that good news goes out to the ends of

the earth.

That's what we know Matthew to do.

And so to help us understand exactly what this first section is,

these first 17 verses, I want you to think about home for a moment.

And I imagine that for every one of us here today or watching,

online, lists of are a big part of our lives.

We make them in one way or another.

Our young people.

You make lists, you make lists about your homework, you make lists

about your timetable, what you need to pack in your bag.

It may not be a written down list, but it's in your mind.

The rest of us make to do lists or shopping lists.

We know what we want from the shop and we have it down so that

we methodically go through not in forgetting anything and also not

picking up things that we really didn't go into the shop for.

Now, if it's only two or three, we'll probably have that list

in our mind.

But one way or another, we have a list.

And our lists tell us a lot about who we are.

Because a shopping list will tell us what our likes and what our

dislikes are.

It'll tell us what we will buy, but it also reveals what we

won't buy to do.

Lists give insights into our priorities and they also tell us

about our passions as we rank the importance of jobs, the more

important ones at the top and possibly the less important ones

closer to the bottom.

Well, one list that I remember well in our house growing up was

my parents Christmas card list.

Now I'm sure there were well over 150 names listed.

And at that time, of course, postage was affordable, so that was

very manageable.

But it communicated to me who our family are, how we're connected.

And there were of course names that were familiar to me because

they were my aunties and uncles and there were names of friends

that I knew just simply being around the area.

But every so often as I'd go down the list, you'd come across

a name that I didn't recognize.

And these names would be either distant relatives in America

or Canada, or they'd be people that my parents had met on a holiday

to speak in the early 1970s, never spoke to each other since,

except for 20 years of exchanging Christmas cards.

And I know there's a certain generation of people that that's

still true for you today.

For us in younger generations speaking to someone on holiday, that's

a big no for us, never mind asking them for their address.

So lists do reveal a lot about us.

And as we begin this morning with a new series in Matthew's Gospel,

we begin with a list.

Now, we can be quick to skip over this list because like my parents

Christmas card list, there's names here that we either do not

know or there's ones that we do.

But this list, known as the Genealogy of Jesus, is a fascinating

look at not only his family line, but at how God worked in human

history and how he used our human history to make ready for the

coming of his one true son.

But before we launch into it this morning, we need to get a bit

of an overview of this book.

The Gospel of Matthew is technically anonymous.

Matthew doesn't tell us that he wrote it.

It's not like an epistle that Paul or Peter would write.

But yet every Greek copy of Matthew bears the heading according

to Matthew.

And so we firmly believe that it was written by Matthew, who is

one of the disciples known as the tax collector.

This is an eyewitness account of a man who comes from a particular

perspective.

Although he was a Jew, he worked in the civil service of the

Roman Empire.

So he has seen both worlds.

He's grown up a Jew, but he benefits from the enemies of the

Jews, the Romans.

And in fact, he might have to undertake certain hard orders from

the Romans against his own people.

So as Matthew writes, he's an eyewitness who understands the Jews

because they are his people, but he also understands the Romans

who, who are his employers.

And very much the culture in which he is drawn into very different

from Jewish culture.

So he's seen both worlds and he does bring a certain perspective

because of that.

Now, Matthew is written for Christians.

It's written for Christian readers who had both Jewish sensibilities

or were former Jews or were sensitive to to the Jews, and also

an interest in the mission that was ongoing by the time it was

written to the Gentile nations.

Now it's believed that it was written for Christians in Syrian

Antioch, which had a sizable Jewish population.

And it was also there, at Syrian Antioch that the first missionaries

to the Gentiles were commissioned in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

So it's a very Jewish book in its approach so that they too can

come to understand who Jesus is and the salvation he brings.

But today we read it understanding that in the Jewish

mind there were prophecies to be fulfilled from the Old Testament

and how Matthew presents them to us, demonstrating that Jesus is

the fulfillment of those prophecies.

So Matthew wants to present this to us in a clear but also in

a convincing way.

So it's then no accident or simply a paper filler that he begins

with the family line of Jesus.

Not only would this have been an important thing in ancient tradition

for people to know their lineage, but it helps us understand

how God has been sovereign in his work.

So the focus on Jesus is for one purpose, and that is that the

church would be always looking beyond itself and to the world around

it, knowing God at work, but also knowing that the proclamation

of the Gospel would go far and wide based on the names that we have

here.

And so as Matthew leads us through the accounts of Jesus, he's

actually building the church to a call to action.

Matthew's gospel is about doing something with what we learn.

Not only does he want his readers to understand the gospel

message, and not only does he want them to believe it deeply, but

he wants them to do something with it.

Because at the end of chapter 28, in the closing words of this

gospel, Matthew records the command and the commission of Jesus.

Therefore, go and make disciples, Jesus says, of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of

the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded

you and and surely I am with you always to the very end of the

age.

This gospel wasn't supposed to be for a small focus group or for

the church to hold onto for itself.

It was the message that was to be brought to the nations, just as

the children of Israel.

Abraham's seed had been told to be a blessing to the nations.

And that's where Matthew begins in the lineage of Jesus.

He starts with Great Father Abraham.

Now, we're aware that there were people before Abraham, and we

know that he in fact, was a man beyond the borders that Israel

would inherit.

But Matthew doesn't start with Adam.

He doesn't start with Noah, but he starts with the one whom God

made his covenant of salvation with, because this is what we read

in Genesis 12, 2, 3, as the Lord says to Abraham, I will make

you into a great nation, and I will bless you.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and whoever Curses you, I will

curse.

And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

And so, if this covenant promise is to be revealed and.

And fulfilled, then Matthew shows us how, beginning with Abraham

and taking us through the generations, he comes to the Christ.

And so the ultimate blessing that the children of Israel were

to be to the nations around them is so that they would know salvation,

which for us today can only come through Jesus showing us that

the promises from Genesis 12 still have importance for us today

as they point us to their fulfillment in Jesus.

And that's what Matthew's communicating to the people of his

time, that all the promises find their fulfillment in Jesus and

are relevant for them.

So Matthew begins his journey with the patriarchal family of Abraham

and his sons Isaac and Jacob, all through whom the covenant was

confirmed.

And, you know, if you glanced through the list, we'd see names

that we recognize, great names, all of people who did great

things.

We see Boaz, who became the kinsman Redeemer of Ruth.

We see King David, the man after God's own heart.

We see his son Solomon, the wisest man ever to live.

We see Josiah, the young king, who rediscovered the law of God and

led the great religious reforms described in 2nd Kings 22:23.

And then there's Joseph, right at the very end, the humble carpenter

of Nazareth, who took seriously what the angel said to

him and was obedient unto the Lord.

This is what we read of him.

And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom

was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.

He's not left out, he's not insignificant.

He's the humble carpenter because his obedience is marked here

for us.

But his obedience can only be displayed because of Mary's faithfulness

in the task that she had been given to carry and give birth to

the Son of God.

She is here at the end of the list because it is with her that

the prophecies of the Old Testaments, of the Old Testament

prophets are fulfilled.

She's just a young, humble girl, but she takes seriously the

comforting words of the angel and, and does what is unknown to

her and to the outside world what is, or what was culturally a

taboo.

And she gave birth to the Savior.

Now, I think any of us, Boaz, David, Solomon, Joseph, Mary, we'd

be happy to be among this as part of our family list, a list of

those who took seriously the law of God and followed his way.

But when we read the list, there are those in the list who are

more suspect.

Even with Abraham's grandson Jacob, we're Aware of his deceitfulness

and his feelings of how his sin infected his whole family.

And looking at the list, we see names like Rahab, who was a prostitute.

David had a man killed to cover up his sin.

Rehoboam foolishly rejected the advice of the older counselors,

and he contributed to the division of the kingdom.

Manasseh promoted idolatry, occult practices, and violence in

2nd Kings 21, although he did later repent.

And Ammon followed Manasseh's wickedness and was assassinated after

only two years as king.

Jeconiah or Jehoiakim, who reigned as king, that reign was characterized

by evil.

And so these are names that we would perhaps rather weren't in our

family line.

And, you know, Matthew could easily have constructed a genealogy

that made Jesus ancestry look impressive.

Instead, he gives us a family tree full of sinners, failures, morally

compromised people, and people in need of grace.

And the reason for the inclusion of the good and the bad

is given to us in verse 21 of chapter 1, where the angel says she

will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.

Why?

Because he will save his people from their sins.

You see, from the outset of this gospel, from the outset of the

Gospel message, we are told that each and every one of us is

a person who needs the Savior.

Now, we may consider ourselves to be like Boaz, that we always do

the right thing in what is honest, true and good.

Or perhaps we consider ourselves like Tamar, whose situation

was morally complicated but was trying to do what was right.

Or we think we're like Joseph, quiet and in the background, doing

good and doing what was right.

Because we don't want to think of ourselves as the Manassehs or

the Ammons of this world who rejected God and were evil.

We don't want to be thought of as the Rehoboams or even the Jacobs.

Yet from this list of the good and the bad, we see one message.

And that message bookends this section, because in verse one, we're

told that this is a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the

son of David, the son of Abraham.

And this is repeated for us in verses 16 and 17.

So three times in the opening of this Gospel, we are told the vital

piece of information that we need.

What is Christ's title?

It's not Pastor.

It's not Rev.

It's not Mr.

It's not sir, but it is Christ.

The word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, which means

anointed one.

It's the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Mashiach, which gives

us the word Messiah.

Israel was waiting for a deliverer.

They were waiting for the Mashiach.

They were waiting for the Christos, the one who would truly

save them.

And they had waited tirelessly for generations.

And as the generations continued, they became, they began

to give this Savior a name, that being Messiah, the one sent

from God.

And so as Matthew now gives this to us three times in these opening

verses, it's Matthew here who is saying that the Promised One has

arrived.

He is here.

Now sit up, wake up and pay attention.

Matthew is the herald of great news, that there is now a way for

humanity to be saved.

And it is this salvation that we all need.

We need to be assured of this salvation in the midst of our day

to day lives.

You may have trusted in Christ as your Savior.

It might have been months ago, years ago or decades ago, but he

still must have a place in, in your daily life.

Being a Christian is not simply giving yourself a name, nor

is it simply something that happened way back when, but has no

impact on your day today.

Knowing today you have a Savior tells you that all will be

okay.

That through the trials and temptations of life, you have one

who will keep you to the end.

So you need to look to that salvation daily, to sustain you and

to keep you.

Because I don't know how you get through life if you don't.

Jesus is not a badge.

Jesus is not a convenient label that we can brandish and say,

oh, I'm a Christian.

If you're not living for him day and daily, if you're not thinking

of him day and daily, then the question has to be what kind of faith

do you have and who is it in?

We must know this Savior because how can you go through work

life?

How can you go through the hassles of work or the stresses of

business?

If you don't know Jesus daily, how can you cope with what's going

on in home?

You'll be maybe dealing with things in a very quiet way, but they're

upsetting, they're concerning.

How are you going to get through that?

You can only do it because of Jesus.

Never, never, never allow the name of Jesus to simply be a label

or a badge.

And please don't walk around telling people you're a Christian.

If that day you have not thought once of Jesus and, and his

great salvation for you.

But you say, oh, it's too much, it's too much.

No it's not.

How quickly will we talk about our favorite football team or football

player?

How Quickly will we talk about what's in the charts or what's played

on the radio?

How quickly will we talk about what's in the news that is here today

and gone tomorrow?

Yet we refuse to talk about the One who lasts forever.

We're into September.

There's a shift in gear.

We need to be people who are sincere about who Jesus is to us

so that we can live for him today.

That's why near to the end of the Bible, we have the Book of Jude,

that is just verses, no chapter.

And in verses 24, 25, Jude says to him who is able to keep you

from falling and to present you before his glorious presence

without fail and with great joy to the only God our Savior, be

glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our

Lord, before all ages now and forevermore.

Amen.

Do you see what Jude says?

He will keep you.

He will keep you from falling, and he will keep you to the end to

present you before his glorious presence.

But that's not going to happen if all you're doing is walking around

saying, I'm a Christian.

There must be true conversion.

There must be a true life lived for the Savior daily so that

we can get through this life, not based on past efforts or our

perceived good works, only in and through the salvation that he

brings.

Salvation is active every day and we must keep living in it because

we are being kept from a multitude of sin.

I wonder, do you realize it?

You see, we're being kept, but it's not of our own doing.

It is of the one whom we have covenanted to in salvation.

So we must daily acknowledge him and the salvation that he gives

us, that keeps us.

But you also need salvation if somewhere in your mind you think

you're good enough.

Because the reality is that none of us are ever good enough.

If you were good enough, then Jesus needn't have come and gone

through the darkness of Calvary, the cross and the grave.

If your goodness could save you, it would.

But it can't.

And so that's why we need a Savior.

And the genealogy of Jesus tells us that each of our lives,

that in each of our lives we have something that we can't solve.

There's a problem that we can never satisfy God's righteous anger

towards our sin because it is he who has provided a way through

Christ.

And so today I can never be good enough to save myself, and neither

can you.

This may be a truth that you don't want to hear, but that doesn't

make it any less true as we Begin Matthew's Gospel and see Jesus

presented to us.

Even in this long list of names, we are assured that he is

enough for all our needs and our greatest need of salvation.

This is why Paul writes what he does in Romans 3, verses 23 to

Romans 3:23–24

24.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are

justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came

by Christ Jesus.

We're told four things in this verse.

In Romans 3, we're told there's a problem.

We've all sinned, every single one of us, myself included.

We have sinned.

That is the problem.

And our failure then, because of sin, is that we fall far short.

We do not rise to God's glory, the standard that he gives us.

We fall short of it, but we have no answer for it because we

can never be good enough.

So it's God's answer that we must obey, which is that we're justified

freely by his grace.

God has done something and he gives it to us freely.

And what this means then?

That we trust in Jesus because it is through him and through him

alone.

You have the good and you have the bad.

In the list of Christ's family telling us that each of us need the

same Saviour that they did and the generations that followed.

I cannot save myself.

I can never be good enough.

I must trust in the Savior, and so must you.

And now that I know that salvation well, I need to keep looking

to him every day, because he is the only one who can keep me.

He's the only one who will keep me to the end.

And so each of us today, the good news for everyone is that we

are to trust in Jesus and to be assured of his great salvation,

because he gave his life so that we could go free.

We need to commit this to heart and memory for each day.

But we need to come in the first instance to Christ for that

salvation.

For there is nothing else that will save us and nothing else that

will take us home to heaven.

Allow God's word to fill your heart, even in a long list of names

that are hard to pronounce because they tell the story of who

our Messiah came to save.

He came to save sinners like them.

And like me and like you.

Trust in Him.

Don't walk away from him and know the complete life that he brings.

Let's pray.

Our Father God.

We have a list of names, people that were known to you, people

who we have no idea of everything of their lives, but yet

they're given to us so that we can learn what it means to why there's

a Savior for we're not good enough.

But Lord, it's not shameful to come to Jesus.

It's not weakness to come to Jesus.

In fact, it's great strength and great trust.

So may we not leave this building thinking that we're simply

okay because of our own merits and our own works.

Maybe not leave here too afraid or too embarrassed.

For the loving, kind and good Savior gave His life so that indeed

we can come to Him.

So whether there's young people here who are not even in their

teenage years, or those who are teens, Those in their 20s, right

through to their 80s, this is a message for us all.

Maybe wake up and pay attention to what this truth is,

for it changes us now forever.

And we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.