The Name: The Son of Promise | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

So I think it was 11 years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was on this very weekend.

And when I tell you what it was, you'll realize what I remember it was 11 years ago and on this weekend.

My wife asked me to go down and get some lights for the house.

If you've been to Woodland, you know we do lights on the outside, and she wanted these nice white lights, you know, that would trim.

And I got there and I was like, look at these multicolored lights that change.

Um and you can, you know, it can kind of move with music or something.

I thought that was fun.

She did not.

But that wasn't the reason I remember this weekend.

Um she remembered it.

I didn't even I forgot about the lights.

She reminded me about the lights.

Uh is because I had Ryder and Ella 11 years ago, just think about this.

Ella was eight, Ryder was five, and we're walking downtown, and the pet store was doing a pet adoption.

Those jerks.

I mean, we stop, there's kittens, there's dogs, it's amazing.

And Ella says, Dad, can we get a dog?

And I did what any responsible parent does.

I said, Yes.

Absolutely.

Now, I to be fair, I grew up, um, my dad brought home dogs.

I don't know why.

My mom was in the first service.

I confirmed it with him.

I was like, I because I'm like, I don't remember him asking or checking.

I remember one time he just came home from golf with like a lab, you know?

And I'm like, whose lab was this?

Who's been searching?

But he would just bring home these stray dogs.

And so this is the way I'm thinking about it.

And I'm like, yeah.

And I come home, and my wife, who never grew up with pets, says, no.

And there's some really good no's, by the way.

I mean, we had a two-year-old, a five-year-old, we just planted a church.

I mean, life was chaotic, so there's plenty of really good no's.

But then we I had a problem.

And my kids reminded me of this problem constantly.

Dad, you promised.

You promised.

And by the way, this is this is free parenting advice.

Um, kids are lawyers.

Kids are lawyers.

You have to be very careful.

Make sure you construct your sentences so there's an airtight arguments, they they will call you out on it.

And so, so I they said, Dad, you promised, but here's the beautiful part.

I never said when.

You know, I never gave it time.

And so, literally, for years, writer's shaking his head in disgust.

Um, for years, Dad, when are we going to get a dog?

Dad, you promised.

Thankfully, about four years from that time, uh, my neighbor Jerry, and we'd searched, trying to find the perfect dog, we couldn't quite find it.

It was kind of the goal of the back story, except we never found the perfect dog, until my neighbor Jerry, who's uh like kind of like a nominal Catholic New Jersey guy, rough and tough, cool, like he's like, I mean, and he had my my best friend Brian, who's a police officer, and me, who's like a pastor, but he called me a priest, and so he loved it.

He's like, I got a pastor and a priest.

It sounded like the beginning of a joke, really.

Um, and we like walked on water for him.

And he says, Ryan, I don't know why I tried a New Jersey accent, by the way.

I don't, I that I apologize to all of you from New Jersey.

That was offensive.

Um, but he goes, Ryan, we just we just bred labradoodles and you get the first pick.

I know.

This is amazing.

I mean, it never in my conscience would it ever come across my mind to ever pay for a dog.

I just didn't grow up that way.

Um, and now I get a free labradoodle, and so we go over and like he has this litter, and there's all these dogs.

They're just you know puppies, they're so cute, and there was one that caught my wife's eye, and her name was Tank, because she was the biggest in the litter.

I know, isn't she cute?

And and so like she just cuddled up to Jenny, won her over, and so we called a family meeting.

We're gonna be getting Tank, our new puppy, but we're not gonna name her Tank, you know?

And so we sat, and as you can imagine, how this went with an eight, a five, and a two-year-old to figure out the name for our new dog.

And we worked on, you know, some of the regular ones, Rex or whatever.

I don't remember.

My vote was Jehosaphat.

I thought it like JFT would be kind of a cool biblical, you know, I'm a pastor.

Um I thought, JFAT, that'd be fun.

I mean, like, anyways, here's here's what we ended up calling our dog.

Finley.

Because mom finally let us get a dog.

There's something in a name, isn't there?

Something in a name.

Like, names matter.

Names have meaning, and often, isn't it true that a name represents so much more than just that name?

And today, as we kick off Advent, we're beginning a series called The Name.

As we begin to look at the name of Jesus afresh.

I mean, do you ever think about it?

Why is it 2,000 years later, he's still a part of our cultural dialogue?

Politicians are using his name, invoking him for votes.

If you're, even if you're irreligious, you use his name when you hit your finger with a hammer.

And every person, and it's so interesting.

So many people, whether they have faith or not, when they're going through a crisis, call out his name.

What is it about the name of Jesus?

What is it about the name of Jesus?

That is so powerful and profound.

Why and what significance does his name have for us today?

We're actually going to spend the next few weeks in uh the lesser-known um narrative of Jesus' uh birth story.

Most of us know the birth story out of the Gospel of Luke.

That's where the um Charlie Brown Christmas story is written, read.

You know, remember Linus?

And the birth of Jesus.

I can't, anyways.

Why am I trying to do other people's just talk like you, Ryan?

Matthew then gives us and begins to unpack the power and was so profound about the name of Jesus.

We're going to spend the next four weeks in the Gospel of Matthew.

And so, since we're going to do that, let me give you just an overview of the Gospel of Matthew.

If you don't know, there's actually four accounts of the life of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Uh, these four accounts, Matthew was a disciple.

Uh, Mark was one of the early followers there.

He wasn't a disciple, but he's right there.

Uh, Luke was a historian.

He interviewed eyewitnesses.

John was one of the first disciples.

These are all eyewitnesses who are writing early and often about.

And so the Gospel of Matthew is first written.

It's uh the author is Matthew the tax collector.

We know this from the earliest of uh Christian tradition.

Uh I'll unpack not only later in the sermon, but next week especially, why that's so profound.

He's one of the 12 disciples, is written somewhere between 80 60 and 80 70, somewhere in the 60s, most likely, because some of the internal evidence we see in the gospel.

Uh now, if we think about this, Jesus was crucified somewhere around AD 28 and AD 33.

The uh a disciple or people uh under a rabbi, they would have memorized all of Jesus' teaching and sermon, have been teaching other people, and then eventually put it down in writing.

Now, who he's writing to is predominantly a Jewish audience.

Luke, he's writing predominantly to a Greek audience.

Mark, he's writing to, and that's the earliest gospel that we have, by the way, is the gospel of Mark, is he's writing to predominantly a Roman audience.

And Rome liked action, and so in Mark's gospel, it's like immediately, immediately, immediately.

It's the shortest one.

You can get through it.

If you're like, hey, which gospel should I start with?

And I don't have a whole lot of time, read Mark.

Uh uh and John is written for both the Jewish believers and Gentile believers alike, and so the audience is this Jewish audience, and I I want to go back because I forgot it.

Why do we call it a gospel?

You ever think about that?

Why do we call it a gospel?

And the gospel, that word literally means just good news.

And so what the early followers of Jesus said was the birth, the life, the death, and then the resurrection of Jesus is good news.

Like all of it is.

The birth, the very life, the death, and the resurrection is fundamentally good news.

News is something that has happened, and someone stepped onto the scene upon which the world is a different place.

And so we have four gospels telling this good news.

And he's writing to this Jewish audience, and the major theme is the promise and fulfillment.

That Jesus is the one long-awaited promise that the Jewish people have been hoping for.

He's the ultimate fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures.

In fact, Matthew writes to explain that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.

God's promises and prophecies to the Jewish people have come to pass in him.

Jesus is the fulfillment and the continuation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

And so he begins his gospel, his writing of the life of Jesus this way.

You ready for it?

Okay, good.

I'm glad we're all on the same page.

You ready for it?

Yeah.

Okay, thank you, thank you.

Uh the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

I know what you're thinking.

You woke up this morning, Christmas spirit in your heart, and you're like, I hope he teaches on this verse.

Right?

The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

In fact, what Matthew wants to do, he wants to help show us how Jesus is the son of promise.

That he is this long-awaited one.

And right from the outside, outset, we actually see Matthew unpacking the very theme of the entire book, the reason that he's writing, the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And so, to guide our time, I wanted to give us three words that will uh lead us through and understand how Jesus is this son of promise and what it means for us today.

Uh, the first word is Genesis.

Go ahead and say that with me.

The next word is David.

Go ahead.

And then Abraham.

Abraham.

Genesis, David, Abraham.

There we go.

Genesis, David, Abraham.

Matthew and his writing to show that Jesus is the son of Providence.

Let's begin with Genesis.

And here's what we'll see.

Genesis goes all the way back to the promise of the curse reversed.

That one day the curse that all of humanity sits under, that we live in this broken world, this fallen.

We don't have to look very far to recognize the hurting and brokenness in our own world, let alone around the world.

In Genesis, we see this promise of the curse reversed.

Now, what Ryan, where do you get Genesis?

In the Greek, when Matthew begins his gospel, this is how it begins: Biblas Geniseas.

Biblas Geneseis, or lysis of Jesus Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham.

This is the book of Genesis, of Jesus Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham.

This is what Matthew is saying from the outside.

Like, what is it about the name of Jesus?

The coming of Jesus is more significant than the very founding of the world.

That the birth of the world, in Matthew's mind, the deepest beginning in history is not the birth of the world, but the birth of the Savior of the world.

And he connects it all the way back to Genesis and what would come into a Jewish person's mind.

In fact, all three of those words, they act like hyperlinks.

It's like you know a hyperlink is when you're on a webpage and you see that little blue and you click on it, it takes you, gives you more information.

All three of these act as a hyperlink.

Every Jewish person would completely understand what Matthew is saying.

It's very good.

He places humanity, Adam and Eve, in the center of a garden in paradise.

To be with him forever in his presence, enjoying the goodness that is God.

And he gives one prohibition don't put a tree at the center of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and says, Don't eat from that, but everything else, everything else is for your delight.

And then if you read it, you'll recognize and go, like, man, there's it's a little strange, but a serpent shows up on the scene.

We're not exactly sure where he comes from, at least at this point in the story.

But here's what we know is that he is fundamentally out and against God himself and wants to undermine his goodness and destroy everything that is good.

And he tempts Adam and Eve and says, Did God really say?

In fact, the serpent ultimately wants to question and undermine God's goodness and God's word in your life.

Did God really say you must not eat or touch from it?

And eventually, as you know the story, Adam and Eve do grab, they do eat, and their eyes are opened.

This text says they are naked and ashamed, and they go into hiding.

And the goodness of God's creation has tragically been lost, and evil and destruction enters the world in this moment, and we fall under a curse.

And there's this line where God comes to unpack the ramifications of those decisions, what's happening, and what the curse that we live under.

And he talks to the serpent, and then he talks to Adam and Eve.

And when he's talking to the serpent, and he he's unpacking the consequences, we see this promise all the way from the very beginning, when brokenness and pain and evil entered the world, when the shadow of death fell upon the person, the son of promise, one to come, will crush your head.

Meaning he will finally and fully destroy evil at its source.

And then something interesting, and you will strike his heel.

The promised one would somehow take in the full effect of humanity's evil into himself.

The promised one, the son of promise, would suffer a fatal blow.

What is it about the name of Jesus?

Well, the first thing Matthew wants us to understand the promise of the curse reverse, that Jesus is the new creation breaking forth into the world.

Like Jesus, the genesis of Jesus, it's new creation.

It's him bringing new creation into the world.

That's why the Apostle Paul would say, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, is the solution for the brokenness of our world.

And he's the solution for the brokenness in your world.

The pain and the heartache, the addiction, the struggle, the loneliness, the isolation, the anxiety.

Jesus doesn't want to just come and dust up your old life.

He wants to give you brand new life through the power of the Holy Spirit living and dwelling in you.

The first word, Genesis, when we think about the name of Jesus, the son of promise, the promise of the curse reversed.

The second word, David, the son of David, and this is the promise of an everlasting king.

The hyperlink for the Jewish people, the minute they see son of David, they would think, Messiah.

And you remember, I almost said that like Mufasa.

That was a little weird.

Messiah.

Right?

And and um you notice that it said Jesus, like this is the genealogy of Jesus, what?

Christ, right?

You saw that?

Christ, this means yes, this means no.

Okay.

Um Jesus Christ.

Well, that word Christ, we by the way, Jesus Christ, that's that's not his last name.

Um, it's not like Ryan Ingram, Jesus Christ.

Uh, there.

And it's okay if you thought that.

This, I mean, it would make sense because you say Jesus Christ all the time.

It's actually a title.

Christ is the Greek word for Messiah, the Hebrew word.

Those are the same words.

So you see the word Messiah and Christ, they mean exactly the same thing.

Uh, it literally means anointed one.

It's a royal title.

In fact, it's a job description.

It came to have particular reference to a king whom God would provide from David's line, who would rule over Israel and eventually all nations.

Now, David, he was Israel's greatest king.

He was not a perfect king.

In fact, he had a major type of one who would bring deliverance and freedom and life.

And so there was this promise that God gave to Abraham.

We see it in 1 Chronicles 17, 11.

When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I'll establish his kingdom.

He will build a house for me, and I'll establish his throne forever.

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

I will take, I will not take my steadfast love from him as I took it from uh who was before you, but I'll confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.

This is a thousand years before Jesus, that this promise of an everlasting king, and they have in this mind that what there would one day come someone who would restore Israel and establish Israel as forever.

Now, the problem, if you know the history of Israel, is after David, the kings led them and they fell away from God, and the nation of Israel fell apart.

So much so the disarray that then Babylon came in, conquered them.

Israel is no longer its own nation, it's now subjugated and ruled over.

The best and the brightest were taken off into captivity.

And Israel from that day and that point forward was simply a puppet kingdom and ruled by different occupational forces and nations.

And then there was these prophets that picked up this theme, this hope, that a king would come, a deliverer would come, a leader would come that would restore us.

And you can only imagine if you have been occupied, if you have been waiting for a leader to come, there's this what they called a messianic high.

The prophet Isaiah picks up on this, and he writes some very familiar words for us in the tension of the darkness waiting for this coming king.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.

And the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness.

From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish in the Son of David the promise of an everlasting king, a righteous, a true, good king.

A king who is a wonderful counselor.

What our soul All that you face and what you're walking and going through.

An everlasting Father who loves you with an eternal love.

The Prince of Peace.

See, Jesus is the forever king to replace all kings.

Jesus is the forever king to replace all other kings, all other things that we're looking to lead our lives.

You know, earlier this year, my wife and I we had the incredible opportunity to go to England for a conference.

It was the Alpha Conference.

And it happened to be the very same week of the coronation of King Charles.

Wow, what a time to go to London.

We're in London, and this place is amazing.

I mean, there's flags, British flags everywhere, and I mean we went down to the royal palace and you could barely get there and seeing them prep prepare for this, you know, coronation.

Now, don't judge me.

Um, it's been 70 years since a coronation had happened.

And we would ask all the time, like uh, you know, if it was our Uber driver or we're at uh you know a restaurant or just what do you think about the coronation?

What do you think about King Charles?

Now I know nothing about him either, so forgive me there.

And you know what people their most often response was, now this wasn't a formal survey by any means.

It was like, yeah.

Like, like this hasn't happened in 70 years.

You know what they're most excited for?

A holiday.

Seriously.

They're like, we get a day off.

Like, no way.

You get like you don't care that a new king has been installed in your country because you're disconnected from that reality and it has little impact, and you don't really care for him, anyways.

And so you're apathetic, you're indifferent, but what you really do care for is the holiday that you get because the king gets from him, but we don't actually make him king of our lives.

And there's an apathy and there's an indifference.

And Jesus is the forever king to replace all other kings in our lives.

He is the one true leader that will actually lead your heart to a place of peace and hope in life.

And where we don't just allow, yeah.

We sing about it, King of Kings.

Lord of Lords.

Oh God, would you be the king in me?

Because who is the leader of your heart right now?

Let me ask you.

For most of it's it's ourselves.

It's our our desires.

I like Jesus, but I don't want him to be king.

I mean, that's even the way you remember the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus would teach us how to pray.

We want our will to be done.

Jesus, you can be king as long as I get my way and I get my holiday.

And we wonder why we're not experiencing the power and presence and transformation of Jesus.

Because the name of Jesus is the name above every name, the rightful king and the only true leader for your heart.

First word, Genesis.

The promise.

The promise of the curse reversed, the second word, son of David, it's the promise of the everlasting king, the final word, Abraham, son of Abraham.

And this is the promise of blessing for all people.

After the Genesis account and before King David, right in the middle of there, twelve hundred years before David, the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I'll show you.

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

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

I'll bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse.

And notice, all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Son of Abraham, the promise of blessing for all people.

In fact, every reference to Abraham in Matthew's gospel relates to the promises of God to all of humanity.

That God called out a specific individual, a specific family, not for just their own sake, but he called them out for the sake of the entire world.

Like I chose you, I called you out, and I'm gonna bless you, and your name is gonna be great, but it's not for your greatness, it's so that you will be a blessing to the entire and become the frozen chosen.

Where God has chosen me, and I'm just gonna focus on me instead of realize that no, you've pulled me, you plucked me out so that I might be a blessing to everyone else around me.

This was Israel, this is what they forgot.

Like God called them out to be a blessing to every single person, to all nations, and yet what so easily happens is when we get called out, get comfortable, we get focused in, isn't it true?

But God promised that there would be someone, a son of promise, that would be from this line, a blessing to all people.

Jesus is the blessing through which all people are blessed.

Now think about who pinned this.

Matthew, the tax collector.

He was on people and most likely cheating them and profiting for himself.

There's good reason people didn't like him.

And Jesus walked in the middle of what he was doing by his tax booth.

He hadn't repented yet.

He hadn't said, no, this is a bad idea.

You know, I'm better I need to change my ways, and um, Jesus, would you give me a chance?

He didn't even ask Jesus, Jesus asked him.

When he was in the middle of it all, sitting, doing taxes, Jesus said, Come follow me.

Because I'm a blessing for every single person on the planet, not just the right people, not just the people who have it figured out, not the people who put on the pretty face, who fake it at church.

I'm a blessing for all the messes in the world because we're all a mess without Jesus.

Jesus is the blessing through which all people will be blessed.

It is through the salvation available.

Abraham and David.

He says, Christ redeemed us or bought us back from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is risen, cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole, redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

What is it about the name of Jesus?

What is so significant?

He's the Son of promise, and his promise is true to you in this day, in this moment.

I mean, for years my kids said to me, Dad, you promised.

And finally, we got a dog.

When we celebrate Avent, we celebrate the finally.

We celebrate the finally.

Like God grew up, and there's no way in and of myself I can make it up to you.

You promised, and Avent is the finally.

This is what Matthew's saying.

He's finally here.

And the promise is for you and for me.

One last thing, and we're going to take communion.

I don't know if you noticed the order that seemed a bit odd.

Genesis, David, Abraham.

It's like, Matthew, you went out of order, right?

Genesis should be Abraham David.

But Matthew wrote this very intentionally for us to understand how do we experience, how do we receive the Son of Promise?

Well, Genesis, you have to recognize.

You have to recognize you need a rescuer.

That's really hard for us.

In fact, there's many who's a king, but you have a savior.

God, I I need rescuing.

Would you come be the leader of my life?

The way I've been leading my life is not working.

Would you come be the leader of my life?

And then Abraham, the promise.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is what the Apostle Paul said that's the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, now lives and dwells inside of every single follower of Jesus.

Not so that you can have your old life just a little bit better, but you have new creation breaking forth into your life right now.

That's for all people.

And so we're going to take communion that just reminds us that our rescuer and our leader has finally come.

The Son of Promise is here.

His body broken for us, his blood poured out for us, that we might be healed, that we might have once again be the rescuer and leader of my life.

I've drifted.

Would you come be the rescuer and leader of my life?

I invited you to do that years ago, but I've been doing my own thing now.

Would you come be the rescuer and leader of my life?

And then there's others, you've never called upon the name of Jesus.

The Bible tells us that all who call upon the name of Jesus will be saved.

You'll experience the Son of Promise and His kindness and His rescuing in your life.

And I want to invite the band up and we're just going to pray.

And if you've never received Jesus as your Savior, as your rescuer and leader, I just want to invite you to pray with me.

Jesus, I need you.

I've done life on my own.

And I need you.

Rose again for me.

And that you want to bring a new life, a new creation.

Holy Spirit, would you come into my life and make me new?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand and worship as we partake.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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