Collab Series: God’s Grace for Our Mess | Matthew 1:1–17

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. Well, good morning.

Good to see you all, good to be here.

Would you please open your Bible with me to the book of Matthew

in chapter 1? I'll give you a title of the

messages you're turning there. The message is God's grace for

our mess. God's grace for our mess.

As Casey said, we've travelled from Australia to be here and

you know, one thing having travelled the globe in different

destinations and places is yes, there's differences.

There's all sorts of things that make each country unique and

special in particular. But there's something that you

see when you encounter humanity and that is the mess of humanity

no matter where you go, right? There's all sorts of problems

that we face. There's all sorts of things that

have been done to us. There's all sorts of things that

that we have done that we'd rather not have.

Our sins of Commission, sins of omission.

And all of that just creates a lot of failure, a lot of

mistakes, a lot of guilt, a lot of burden, a lot of stress, a

lot of anxiety that that weighs heavily upon us.

And I think no matter where you go on the globe, I think that's

indicative of what it means to live life under the sun in this

fallen world in which we exist. And so I think this message out

of Matthew chapter 1 is something that will reveal God's

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

grace to us in the mess that are our lives, mess of our own

making, mess of other people's making that impacts US, mess of

governments. There's a whole heap of

tomfoolery going on out there and in all sorts of countries

with whatever government, governments are in charge and we

need hope. We need something that will

bring a cure. We need someone that will bring

deliverance into our lives and that's the hope that stirs

within us. No matter whether you're from

Australia, whether you're from Azusa, no matter whether you're

from Fiji, wherever you've come from across the globe, there is

within humanity a desire for change and for hope that comes

through Jesus Christ. So that's this morning's

message. Speaking of this morning's

message, I know that the youth are away and coming back today,

but it's a little PG13 You think of, whoa, what are you going to

be talking about? It's just because of the subject

matter of some of the individuals that we encounter.

So I think it would be helpful as a bit of a warning.

I'm not seeing too many children here, but parents, you might get

some questions afterwards about what did he mean by when he said

this and so on. So that might be helpful for

you. And So what I'm going to do is

we're going to focus on Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

We're going to read verses one through to 17 and have a look at

it together and then I'll show you why this is of great

interest to us, I think this morning.

So Matthew chapter one, verse 1 to 17, it says I'm reading from

the New King James Version, the book of the genealogy of Jesus

Christ, the son of David. You've been teaching a series

through the life of David out of First Samuel, right?

And on into Second Samuel, I believe.

So you know all about this guy, one of my favorite characters,

the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot

Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah, and his brothers Judah begot

Perez and Zerah by Tamar Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot

Ram, Ram begot Aminadab, Aminadab begot Naishon, and

Naishon begot Salmon. Now the trick with reading these

Jewish names is to read it fast and confidently, right Salmon

begot Boaz verse 5 by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed

begot Jesse and Jesse begot David the king.

David the king begot Solomon. By her, who had been the wife of

Uriah, we know her name. Bathsheba.

Solomon begot Rihabam, Rihabam begot Abuja and Abuja begot ASA.

ASA begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and

Joram begot Uziah. Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham

begot Ahazen, Ahaz begot Hezekiah, Hezekiah begot Manasa,

Manasa begot Ammon and Ammon begot Josiah.

Josiah begot Jekhaniah and his brothers about the time they

were carried away to Babylon. Verse 12 And after they were

brought to Babylon, Jack and I begot shield Teal and Shield

Teal begat Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel begat Abayud, Abayud

begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azel, Azel begot Zadok, Zadok

begot Achim, and Achim begot Iliud, Iliad begot Eliezer,

Eliezer begot Methan, and Methan begot Jacob, and Jacob begot

Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is

called Christ. So all the generations.

Verse 17, from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David

until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations, and from the

captivity in Babylon until the Christ are 14 generations.

Let's pray. Lord God, we give you great

thanks for your word this morning.

We thank you for the wonderful opportunity of being able to

gather in Your name to worship you, to be washed by your blood

Jesus, to be able to now come boldly to the very throne room

of the Heavenly Father and obtain grace and help in time of

need. And we need you now.

We need you, Holy Spirit, to illuminate your scriptures to

us. Help us to have ears ready to

hear hearts and lives as fertile soil for the seed of your word

to bear much fruit. We pray and ask all of this in

Jesus name, Amen. Well, now, be honest.

How many of you, as I was reading through those verses,

were thinking, yeah, I can't believe I'm sitting here, this

guy came all the way from Australia and he's going to read

me the Jewish phone book, these names, these lists and surely

Israel, you could have come up with a better subject for us to

focus on today. It's not just that as we read it

that we're thinking we don't really value this.

I mean, maybe in your devotionals, when these type of

passages, the genealogies come up, you go swipe, skip.

I'll, I'll come back to that. Maybe.

And it's not that we don't value these list of names.

It's just that many times we're not sure of the application

right of of the relevance as we're reading it.

If we were writing the opening to the Gospel of Matthew, you

know, in the day and age in which we live, I used to be an

English teacher. So studying literature and, and

movies we've been speaking about.

That's my cup of tea. As we say, that's, that's my, my

field of expertise. Yet we know that you need some

kind of a captivating hook to bring the audience in with you,

that each chapter also needs to arrest the reader's attention,

that there there needs to be something that that piques our

interest, that keeps us going, that that draws us into the text

and reveals the theme of it. And, and so as we're reading

this list of names, we're going, who wrote this, right?

This is not how perhaps we would have done it.

But don't you think that the authors of the Gospels knew this

too? I mean, as you read the other

Gospels, for example, I love the book of Mark, It's so

action-packed and and there's colorful characters immediately

in chapter 1. And immediately is a word that

Mark utilizes because he's all about action.

He bounces from one component of action to the other.

And and then, and then, and then I reckon he was probably one who

was drinking Doctor Pepper from the beginning of the day all the

way through to the end. He was just ready and riding and

fast-paced. And so we're introduced to the

colorful character of John the Baptist.

From the beginning. John the Baptist is described as

being clothed in camel's hair, as eating locusts dipped in

honey, as baptizing people in the Jordan River and crying out

a message of repentance of of calling the Pharisees for who

they are and all sorts of things.

And, and then Jesus comes onto the scene in Mark chapter 1, and

Mark 1 · chapter mention

the sky opens and a voice from heaven.

This is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased, right?

And not long after that, demons are convulsing and screaming.

We know who you are, Jesus. That's action-packed, that's

exciting. That arrests our attention.

That's how you start a book, Luke.

Luke starts with a pretty bold claim.

He he says, look, I know that you've read many other books and

many other stories. Many volumes have been written

about the life of Jesus. But let me tell you, this is

going to be the best one. I'm a historian, you know, I

know it. I've I've interviewed

eyewitnesses. So that's a pretty bold

declaration from the beginning. You might have read the others,

but this is the best seller basically as Luke's message from

the beginning, eyewitnesses, investigations, he says a fuller

account I will deliver to you. That's how you start a book,

John. John starts with mystery,

doesn't he? In the beginning was the word

and the word was with God and you go, oh, you know, appealing

to the Greek audience and the message of that.

There's this whole mysterious element.

There's all these sevens that run through the book of John and

there's this wonderful thing. It's like a a new Genesis, you

know, in the beginning was God and he starts with in the

beginning was the word and, and there's this wonderful thing

and, and that's a crazy good beginning that piques our

interest. But then then Matthew, we just

read the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

So I think we're kind of missing something here, right?

Because when the Canon of the New Testament was put together,

the early church fathers, they said, you know what book we need

to start with? We need to start with Matthew.

Matthew, Are you sure you don't want to start with Mark?

You sure don't want to start with John?

What are we missing? In fact, at the time of of the

early writing of in the New Testament, the most widely read

book was the book of Matthew. It was the most common, the most

popular. And so I think in, in, in our

time in in which we live, you know, 2025, some 2000 years

removed from, from the period of writing here, we need to

understand something about the significance of what we just

read. So here I want to try and help

you this morning. It's, it's not exactly a page

Turner by modern standards, but it is God's word and, and God

the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write it and we need to

understand why about it. So as I said, first two

centuries, this was by far the most widely read account of the

gospel. So I want to look now and see

what are we as a modern reader missing about this list of names

that we've just encountered? What is it that we we're not

getting? Why are we tempted to skip the

intro? So I want to try and help us

here. First of all, I want to try and

establish what Matthew's purpose was.

That's important to know why he was writing.

What Matthew presents all through his gospel is Jesus as

the promised Messiah King Mashiach the Christ the Anointed

1 And there's power in that. There's a a longing, a yearning

in the Jewish audience who would have probably initially received

this to, to understand all of the promises given throughout

the Old Testament. You see, any Jewish reader would

know that if Jesus as he presents were to be considered

the Messiah King, there would need to be a few attributes or

factors that he would need to fulfill in order to to warrant

that claim and that title. You would have to fulfill

specifically 2 covenant conditions.

And Matthew brings that out for us in the very first verse.

Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Now you may or may not know, but we refer to them in theological

terms as the Davidic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant.

These are promises that God Almighty gave to Abraham.

These are promises that God Almighty gave to King David that

were to be filled by someone who would come and solve all of the

mess of humanity that would restore that which separates a

holy, righteous God from a fallen sinful human being.

That's why Matthew declares this first of all, SO2 ear perking

claims as they're reading it. For the Jewish reader, that's

going to grab their attention. Wait, what son of David?

Wait, what son of Abraham, is that the the Davidic covenant

coming into mind, the Abrahamic covenant that he's referring to

here? Yes, it is.

You see, these were huge promises given by God to these

two men and David and Abraham that had massive implications

not only for the people of Israel, but the entire world,

the Jewish people, you and I, Gentiles rather.

So David, David, as you've been studying through you, you saw

that David was promised by God. You see, when David again wanted

to build the temple, the prophet said, Yep, good idea David, go

ahead and do it. But then God spoke to to the

prophet and said, no, I don't want David building it.

There's too much blood on his hands.

But you tell David this, his son will build it.

But let me tell, tell, tell this message to David that I will

establish his name, and there will be a Kingdom for

everlasting, and there will be one who will rule with

righteousness and with justice, and that'll be the promise to

give to David. That's the Davidic covenant.

And this Kingdom will last forever and there'll be no end.

Let me read what the Scriptures say to Samuel 713 and 16.

In second Samuel 7, verse 13, God says He shall build a house

2 Samuel 7:13

for my name, and I will establish the throne of his

Kingdom forever. That's God's promise to David

verse 16. And your house and your Kingdom

shall be made sure forever before me.

Your throne shall be established forever.

Man, what a promise given to David.

What a hope that this king would rule in righteousness.

In Jeremiah 23, verse 5 to 6 builds on this, says, behold,

Jeremiah 23:5–6

the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up

for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and

deal wisely. Man, isn't that what the world

needs is somebody in power who deals wisely and shall execute

justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely,

and this is the name by which he will be called.

The Lord is our righteousness. Amen.

Isaiah 9, six to seven. You familiar with this from

Christmas typically. For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his

shoulder, and his name shall be called.

Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace, of the increase of his government and peace, there will

be no end on the throne of David and his Kingdom to establish it

and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this

time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts

will do this. It's as good as done.

So God made this agreement with King David in the latter years

of his reign, that there there would be a descendant of his

whose Kingdom would be established and would rule and

righteousness and justice would flow and it would be forever and

ever and ever without end. So that's what the Jewish reader

is looking for. That's what they're anticipating

and awaiting. And and Matthew's proclamation

from the very beginning is Jesus is the promised one.

And then Abraham, you remember how God had chosen Abraham in

Genesis out of air of the Chaldees told him that Abraham

out of you I will make great nation.

And out of this nation will be a seed who will be a blessing to

all of the earth. And Abraham's looking around at

he and his wife Sarah, and they've got no children.

And it seems an impossible thing, but it was a promise that

God had given Genesis 12 verses one to three.

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.

I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a

blessing. I will bless those who bless you

and and him who dishonours you. I will curse and in you all the

families of the earth shall be blessed.

Abraham was given a promise that not only would he have a son,

but he would have multiple descendants, that a nation would

come out of it and that out of this nation would come someone

who would bless all of the nations.

As a consequence, there's a wonderful promise given by God

to Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 22, verse

Genesis 22:18

18. And in your offspring shall all

the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed

my voice. That's us here in America.

That's us back there in WA. That promise is to all of us.

So everyone knew that this Messiah who was to come, this

promised one, that he would have to fulfill these two covenants,

these agreements that God made with David, with Abraham.

He needed to be a descendant of David and a descendant of

Abraham. And God would rule through this

individual, love and bless and bring the Kingdom of God for

Israel and the whole world on the earth.

This is Matthew's contention. This is Matthew's purpose.

This is his point in all of this.

You see, at the time of writing, and even at the time of Jesus,

many had laid claim to be the Messiah.

There are messiahs here, there and everywhere and all sorts of

people laying claim to I'm the one promised to have come from

David. I'm the one promised to have

come from Abraham. Follow me.

But Jesus is the only one that rightfully fulfilled that.

So this is the whole point of this genealogy.

Now think of the Israelites, the Jewish mind in encountering and

reading this and, and knowing in the background all of their

promises that have been given to them via Abraham and, and via

David and this fulfillment and the hope for the future of

righteousness and justice and mercy and, and all that is wrong

in the world. All of the mess, all of the,

the, the debris of humanity being rectified and fixed and,

and they're living for some. It's been 700 years since Isaiah

and nothing, whereas this one, who was promised, how come it

hasn't happened yet? It's been 400 years since the

last Old Testament book was written.

And there's this relative intertestamental silence that

seems to be evident in the time in which Matthew is writing.

And all through this time, you, you know, anything about the

history of the people of Israel is that there's been suffering,

there's been pain and they've been languishing and, and

hopelessness and, and wondering in hope for the Messiah.

But all of their circumstances, all of their situation, all of

their experience reveals anything but that which was

promised. And so where is it?

Where is this hope? And, and the air is thick with

expectant anticipation of the one to come.

And has he come yet? Have we missed it?

Are we to give up on this promise, on this hope?

And they're wondering and worrying, when will salvation

come? When will Messiah come?

When will these promises be fulfilled?

Where is the king? Where is the Kingdom promised by

God through to Abraham and David?

And this is what Matthew starts with.

Now, as Israel had hoped for this and longed for this and

yearn for this in their their national psyche, they had to do

so in the midst of brokenness, as I mentioned, pain, missteps,

much trauma, abuse done against them from different people and

nations trampled on by them. Circumstances look messy,

unlikely even that these promises would ever be

fulfilled. And so for Matthew to write

this, it comes at a time where it's unexpected.

It's like this radical plot twist in an introduction, in a

writing. We weren't anticipating this,

but now here it, here it is. Here it has come upon us.

The promise has finally been fulfilled.

You see, inherent in these promises are are things of power

and of glory and, and ruling the world.

And all of this implies prosperity and military might

and political prestige, success, prominence, victory, everything.

But what the Jewish people were experiencing at the time of

writing, Israel have been slaves in Egypt for 400 years.

They're wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

The whole generation had died out.

They're entering into the promised land.

Things look hopeful to begin with, but then all sorts of

conflict with the surrounding nations come in and, and, and

under the kings, through the descendants of David, there's

these good kings and there's these bad kings.

And there's times when maybe this is it, This is now.

But then, no, inevitably a bad king would roll around.

I mean, you have to look no further than David's own son and

Solomon, who began so well. And then all of a sudden, Nick

minute, as we say back home, he's got 700 wives and 300

concubines going on. God had said one Solomon and

then on after king after king, after king, where's the hope,

where's the where's the promise? Where's the fulfilment of all of

this? Then captivity for 70 years, as

he mentions here, gone into Babylon, the Grecian Empire

taken over and now at the time of riding the Roman Empire in

power and all of the oppression that came with that.

And so under these kings, descendants of David, up and

down, honouring the Lord, good king, bad king, many of them

sacrificing to false idols, even their own children, some of

them, the question would be for the people of Israel, this, this

is the promise. When is the promise coming?

When will the hope that has been given to Abraham and to David

come and be our experience and our existence?

When will these covenantal promises come true?

And all of that to ask this question of you this morning.

Do you ever think like this when it comes to the promises of God

in your life? You hear them, you read them,

you listen to them maybe in a message or in a podcast.

And yet you look around at the mess of what is your life, and

you go, this can't be it, God, God, what are you doing?

And you're waiting and you're wondering and you're questioning

and you're hanging on barely for hope for, for the promises to be

fulfilled. People of Israel knew this all

too well. And so Matthew's introduction

would tell us this, that God knows exactly what is going on

in the mess. The God is intervening that He's

entering in that He's taking care of all of the mess that is

our existence, that He is able to work out His sovereign plan

perfectly, no matter what curveballs life will throw at

you. That may seem to upset maybe

some of these plans put into place as you read through it.

Matthew wants us to understand this, and Matthew doesn't

include everybody in the genealogy, but he picks out

certain types of people to focus on.

There's the 14 generations, There's some symbolism and

patterns included in that 14 generations from Abraham to

David, David to the captivity, from the captivity in Babylon

and to Jesus. Something called grammatea,

which is the assigning of numerical value is going on in

here. So there's a whole number of

symbolism and focus going on that.

Even Dave, David's name value has 14.

And so the 14 generations derive from that.

David's names, even the 14th in the list.

So the Jewish mind is, whoa, well, Matthew, what are you

doing here? What's going on?

So they're really drawn to it in what he's writing.

So there's certain type of story, certain uniqueness to it,

a certain type of people that he desires to focus on.

And the people included in this list might seem odd to the

original Jewish audience. Some would even see certain

names here and be offended as we read through them.

You see, the Jewish mind understood in you that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the Gentiles will be

blessed through it. But the promise is specifically

for us. And that was their hope, what

they were hanging on to. And it'll be through US first.

And and we're the priority and paramount and all of this.

And so it's very much an insider movement.

But I want to consider a few individuals that are outsiders

as we dig in, many of them Gentiles who weren't seen as

important in the story and more or less a byproduct of the

Jewish existence going on. But Matthew, Matthew does it on

purpose. He weaves Gentiles in the Holy

Spirit, guiding him in his writing.

And there's some really messy stories included in these list

of names. Let me tell you a couple of

these stories, messy stories. We'll focus on the women in

particular out of this genealogy.

Matthew mentioned Mary, of course, as the mother of Jesus,

but he makes mention of a few other female names in here.

And it's interesting that in genealogies, women were not

typically mentioned. It was just the the time

patriarchal society in which it was written that that they

weren't as significant to the lineages as the men were.

And so this is way outside of the norm for Matthew to include

the the female names and references to them that he does

here and the type of women included.

Very messy. Matthew 1 two to three.

Look again back with me. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot

Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.

If you know anything about the book of Genesis and the story of

Jacob, he's a shifty guy, men of his sons.

And here we have one verse 3 mentioned Judah.

We got Perez and Zerah by Tamar and this is who I want to draw

our attention to. Her story is found in Genesis

38. Tamar was the wife of 1 of

Judah's sons, a Canaanite woman and Judas son ER.

That's a disappointing name, isn't it?

What's your name? Judas son ER was, was married to

Tamar, but he was wicked, the Bible says, and God killed him

and that's God's prerogative. But God did that and, and the

custom, the practice was that without any descendants having

been born with, with Tamar's union with ER, that the, the

next son in line was to, to marry Tamar and that he was to

propagate and the seed and, and that would be then a descendant

in the name of Ur who had been deceased.

Well, Onan was a wicked fellow. The Bible says that when it came

time to come into Tamar, that he would withdraw and, and his seed

would spill on the ground. And that's, that's the story in

the Bible there that it's told for us.

And so God kills him for not honoring that which he should

have done and being faithful to that.

So, so Tamer is a victim of circumstances here at this point

in time. She's done nothing wrong.

There's been injustice committed against her and her and Onan and

Judah has a third son, a younger son.

And so he makes a promise to Tamer, you know, go back, live

with your family and, and just sort of resume life as it was

before. And I promise you that I'll give

the younger son when he grows. But Jude, I was thinking she's

bad, bad news. I mean, there's a common

denominator here in my two sons having passed.

I ain't giving my third one up for her.

So he doesn't follow through with the promise.

And so Tamer, maybe you can think of her predicament.

She's been waiting and waiting and waiting in hope for a

promise to be fulfilled that has not.

So she decides to take matters into her own hands.

She knows where Judah would come into the city and frequent and

see. She poses and presents herself

as a prostitute, a temple prostitute and and Judah

propositions her. So how's this?

She knew her father-in-law, well, type of individual he was.

And so they sleep together but make an arrangement for payment

and and she takes Judah's staff and his signet ring, sort of

identifies it's kind of today the equivalent of somebody's

maybe credit card and driver's license or passport or

something. And then, you know, they they

disappear. It's like, you know, transaction

done and away they go. And, and Judah goes to send

payment back so he can retrieve his signet ring and staff and

asking around, you know, where is the temple prostitute that

was on the way? And there's no temple prostitute

here that they're never. And he goes, yeah, you know, the

one that was there. No, there's never been one.

Never was one. Don't know what you're talking

about. So he's like and goes off.

Well, nine months later, word gets to Judah.

Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, is pregnant.

What's Judah's response? Bring her out?

Kill her. Let's burn her.

So she comes. And I don't know how that event

took place, but you can imagine it, right?

What have you done, Tamar? And what does she do?

She presents the staff, the Signet ring, Judah tamer, an

outsider, A Gentile, victim of circumstances, yes, but took

matters into her own hands. What a mess of a life, right?

What a mess of an experience. And yet she's mentioned in the

lineage in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, her and her two

sons, despite those events and all that took place.

The next Matthew one, verse 5 says Salmon begat Boaz by Rahab.

You know the story of Rahab in the book of Joshua, She's a

Canaanite. And when the spies were sent in

by Joshua to spy out the land, they go and they reside in her

residence. But what the Bible tells us

about Rahab's residence is this is that Rahab was a prostitute,

a harlot. I don't know what the the guys

were doing there. Maybe we can give them the

benefit of the doubt. And some suggest that's the the

place where accommodation was most easily found.

Or you could as a spy, you know, infiltrate into society.

Maybe they were having a prayer meeting there.

I don't know. We can give them that.

But it does sound a little not the best place to spend the

night. But Rahab, you remember her

story. She's one who'd heard of all

that God had done even way back in Egypt, news had travelled and

and how fear is gripping the hearts of the people in Jericho.

And the promise was given because of the help that she had

given to these two spies, that if you would gather as many of

your household to enter into the place when we when we attack and

inevitably defeat Jericho and you let out that scarlet court,

then then you'll be saved. And so by faith, she puts her

trust in that promise and they're delivered, They're set

free and she becomes part of the people of Israel.

There's a story there. What a wonderful thing, but it's

a messy story, right? It's in the genealogy of Jesus.

She become somewhat of a hero in the history of the people of

Israel mentioned in the book of Hebrews and the book of James.

But it's a messy story and it's a story that's part of Jesus

story on through in verses 5 and 6 we're introduced to the next

lady. It says in verse 5 Boaz begot

Obed by Ruth and Obed begot Jesse and Jesse begot David the

king. You know the story of Ruth?

Well, if anyone knows tragedy, it's Ruth.

She's a Moabitess. She's married to a guy from

Bethlehem who dies. Not only does he die, but Ruth's

brother-in-law dies and Ruth, father-in-law, dies.

You talk about tragic circumstances.

I think many of us have experienced the tragedy of death

and the sting that that brings to us.

But you think of Ruth and and Naomi and and OPA.

It was the sister-in-law as well and what they experienced and

went through it. Man victim of circumstances and

in that patriarchal society in which they live, I mean, there

was no way of provision for them.

So they, they go back into the land of Israel, hearing that the

famine is over and, and they they encounter this guy Boaz.

You know, that wonderful story of redemption that is found in

the book of Ruth. But you know what Ruth's

ancestry is? She's a Moabitess and how the

nation of Moab came about. It's told for us in the book of

Genesis at the time of Lot and, and the, the judgement that fell

on Sodom and Gomorrah. And when Lot and his wife and

his two daughters escaped, his wife turns around, she's she's

vaporized or turned into a pillar of salt.

That's where her heart was. And so it's Lot and the two

daughters and the two daughters are freaking out wondering,

well, where are we going to find husbands?

So they get their dad drunk and night after night one of them

sleeps with their own dad. It's a story of incest that's

found in the Bible. And and one of these sons is

called Moab. That's the nation that Ruth is a

part of the Moabites. And yet she's mentioned and

brought into the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

What a messy story that is the story of things done against

her, a story of things done before her and the impact that

that's had what a victim of circumstances.

And yet she's mentioned Ruth here in the lineage of Jesus

Christ. The last one I want to mention

for us in verse 6, Jesse begat David the king.

David the king begot Solomon by her, who had been the wife of

Uriah, her name's Bathsheba. You know the story in the sort

of latter more prosperous years of David's life when it says at

the time when kings go to war, David stays home and it's a hot

night and he's walking around the palace rooftop and he spots

Bathsheba. Bathing is her purification.

He inquires about her and word comes back.

It's Bathsheba, the son of the the daughter of so and so the

husband of Uriah. I think that's what the the

messaging is to to David here. She's married and David should

have at that point gone. Oh, but he didn't.

He brought her in, had an affair and word gets back David I'm

pregnant. And what does David do?

He goes into cover up mode, tries to get Uriah back from the

frontline, plies him with alcohol to try and get him to go

home to make it look like that it was when, well, you know,

everybody knows it was when Uriah went home to the

battlefront. But Uriah's such a right man and

an honorable man that he goes how how can I go home and

experience the pleasures of home when, when all of my comrades

are out fighting and and serving you, the king?

And no matter it seems what David did, Uriah would not go

home. So he had written instructions

to go to Joab, the commander of David's army, and this is how

trustworthy Uriah was. He gave effectively Uriah's

death warrant into Uriah's hand to deliver to Joab back to the

battlefront. Put Uriah in the frontline, and

when when the battle isn't fiercest, withdraw the troops

and have it so that Uriah's left.

And sure enough, the inevitable happens.

Uriah is killed in conflict, murdered by David, which you

can't cover up when it comes to God, can you?

And word comes by Nathan the prophet through the story and

eventually, after the story is told, when David's injustice

flares up about the story of sheep being stolen from a poor

man by a rich man and so on. David, you're the man.

Bathsheba, she's brought into the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

She eventually becomes queen. Solomon rules as king after

David and and there's wonderful messaging there of of the

blessing and graciousness of God despite what happens in our

lives and to us. Bathsheba's story is 1 here.

It's a messy story, but it's a story that's in the genealogy of

Jesus. So all of that to say, this is

the story that Matthew is telling out of this genealogy,

this this list of names, the Jewish phone book, as I

mentioned to you at the beginning, and he's careful to

include these characters in his story.

Why? What does this teach us?

What is the the impact, the application?

Why include these? Why?

Why does the Holy Spirit have David mention Matthew rather

mention these names in the the history, the lineage of David

and of Abraham and on pointing to Jesus?

Why not some good Jewish girls like Rachel, Rebecca, Yeah, Leah

even and on through the list. I mean, they're good stories.

They make for a better, you know, if you're going to

highlight some women, why not highlight those wonderful women

in the stories of the Bible because of this?

You see, the purpose of the gospel message is to preach the

good news of Jesus Christ. And Matthew begins to preach it

from the very first line in the very first chapter.

Son of David. Oh boy, what a mess.

David and his descendants were son of Abraham.

Oh, what a mess. The nation of Israel.

These guys aren't worthy. They're not deserving.

And yet that's who the Messiah came for.

That's exactly what the promise is all about.

You see, the Gospel is meant for is needed by those that don't

deserve it. The story is meant for the

Sinner, the ashamed, the guilty, the burdened, the outsider, the

outcast, the ostracized ones, the unwanted ones, the sinful,

the broken. Jesus Himself said these words

in Luke 5I have come to call the sinful to repentance.

These are messy stories. Let me tell you this.

These are messy stories. You know, each and every one of

us would hesitate to have our life, if it were recorded,

flashed up on screen for all to see.

All of the details, all of the things done to us, all of the

things done by us to others, the things that we've failed to do,

maybe because of cowardice. And we know what the right thing

to do is, and we've not done it. The times where we've behaved in

certain ways and fashions in the workplace or in our families,

amongst our friends, wherever we find ourselves, we know this,

that man using the word mess is a polite way of describing my

life. And so we find ourselves here in

Matthew chapter one. We find ourselves desperately

needing the hope of the Messiah. And so here is Matthew's point

is, let me tell you the story of Jesus Christ.

But the background is that's it. There's mess after mess after

mess after mess. But here's what Matthew says.

That's not the end of the story. The end of the story is Jesus

the Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham, the

fulfillment of the promise. The time has come.

It's now, it's here. This is what I want to declare

to you, says Matthew in those words.

And so the reader, the listener recognizes I'm hearing this, I'm

guilty, I'm ashamed, I'm outcast, I'm rejected, I'm

unwanted. I need someone to fix all that's

going on, to clean up the mess. And enters in Jesus, enters in

Messiah into them to the promised one, the blessed One,

the one who had been given from the very beginning, enters into

our mess to clean up. So there's hope, there's good

news that comes through Jesus Christ.

And when Jesus arrived on the scene, he said in Luke chapter

Luke 4:18

4, verse 18 and 19, quoting out of Isaiah 61.

In fact, I'll finish up with this.

You can turn with me in your Bible to Isaiah 61 and listen to

the hope that is found in Jesus Christ in this and we'll read a

few verses. I'll jump ahead in them.

But in verse one of Isaiah 61, it says the Spirit of the Lord

God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.

And here's what Jesus does to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim

liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those

who are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year

of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.

To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion.

To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the

garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be

called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that

He may be glorified. Do you think if Ruth, if Rahab,

if Bathsheba, if Tamar could have read these words, they

would have gone, oh, thank you Jesus.

And we read them and we say the same.

Thank you Jesus and move ahead. Verse 10.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.

My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He has clothed me with

the garments of salvation. That's what Jesus brings.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

That's what Jesus brings as a bridegroom decks himself with

ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its blood, as the garden causes

the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God

will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before

all the nations, America, Australia, everything in

between. See what this whole passage

should tell us? That the one who is writing this

story is bigger than any mistakes that we made, any that

have been made against us. That no one is beyond the reach

of God's grace. That our lives like Judah and

Tamar, like Rahab the prostitute, Ruth the Moabitus,

like David and Bathsheba. Listen to this that our lives

like theirs can be redeemed in Jesus the Christ.

This message is about the good news.

This is about the grace of God and about Him being faithful to

what He has promised and of Him bringing His grace into our

mess. It's about Jesus making

something wonderful and beautiful out of that which is

destroyed and lifeless, and making it all new in Him.

Let's pray. We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.