1. GOD S GRACE IS EXTENDED TO SINFUL PEOPLE Christmas Surprise Christmas Grace Matthew 1:1-18 December 24, 2016 Pastor Ryan Heller Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar) Matthew 1:3 (NLT) 2. GOD S GRACE IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL WHO WILL TURN Salmon was the father of Boaz (his mother was Rahab) Matthew 1:5 (NLT) By faith because she believed in God and his power Rahab the harlot did not die with all the others in her city when they refused to obey God, for she gave a friendly welcome to the spies. Hebrews 11:31 (TLB) 3. GOD S GRACE IS GIVEN TO THE HEARTBROKEN AND THE OUTCAST Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. Matthew 1:5 (NLT) The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18 (NLT) 4. GOD S GRACE IS GREATER THAN LAYERS OF SIN and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah s wife. Matthew 1:6 (NIV) God s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God s wonderful grace became more abundant. Romans 5:20 (NLT) 5. GOD S GRACE IS PRESENT AT UNEXPECTED PLACES AND TIMES Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah. Matthew 1:16 (NLT) Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace
Over the last few weeks we've been in series of messages called Christmas Surprise, because really the whole story of the birth of the Son of God is a surprise. Mary, surprise. Joseph, surprise. Today I got another little surprise for you. Do you guys like surprises? Come on. We're looking tonight at one of the great surprises of the Christmas story. I'm not going to give it away, though. Before I get there one of my favorite traditions around Christmas is watching Christmas movies. Christmas movies. Any Christmas movie fans? Why is it that we keep watching the same movie over and over and over again? You know how it's going to end, but we keep watching it, right? I love that. I love me some Christmas Vacation, that's high quality entertainment, isn't it? I love watching movies like Christmas Vacation because it highlights the dysfunctionality of so many families. When I look at that sometimes I'm like, "Maybe my family isn't that weird?" I don't know. Clark Griswold is just committed, committed to make sure that every person is going to have the greatest Christmas ever. He's going overboard, isn't he? Just trying to make Christmas happen. Then there's cousin Eddie. Cousin Eddie shows up unexpected in the RV and he's quite a character. He kidnaps Clark's boss for crying out loud. I mean, who does that? Every family's got an Uncle Eddie, don't we? They got the crazy aunt as well that prays and when she prays, what does she say? The Pledge of Allegiance. Yeah, you remember that. Crazy, crazy family. Then there's the Elf. Any Elf fans here? I'm talking about Buddy the elf, Will Farrell, the six foot three elf. Elf has a dysfunctional family, Buddy's got a dysfunctional family. He's got this elf family, they've been telling him his whole life that he's really an elf, but he's really not. Then he finds out that they aren t really his family and he goes on a quest to find his biological father who is really selfish and self-indulgent and Buddy helps him and he helps Buddy and it all ends so great. A lot of dysfunctionality there, right? Home Alone, how can you leave your eight-year-old at home when you're going to Europe? Who does that? Well, tonight I want to highlight for you some major dysfunction in the family tree of Jesus Christ. Jesus had a dysfunctional family. When you read the gospel accounts, you see that the family tree of Jesus highlights some of the craziest people that ever existed. I know you're going to feel so much better about your family tonight after you hear a little bit about the ancestors of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 1, the first gospel the Bible outlines for us the family tree of Jesus. It's really an odd way to kind of begin the story of Jesus if you think like a 21st Century person, because every year I'm always trying to encourage people to read their Bibles and people are always like, "Pastor, I'm reading the New Testament and I just read Matthew chapter 1 and if the rest of the New Testament is like that, then I don't think I can make it because they just list all the genealogies of Jesus." 42 generations, 47 names, and the Bible just lays it out from the time of Abraham to the birth of Jesus, all the ancestors are told. When you understand that the purpose of the gospel of Matthew is to point to the fact that Jesus Christ is the King, then the lineage of Jesus makes great sense because you can't have a King if you haven't been birthed in the right order and in the right place. Really what I want to give you tonight is not so much a history lesson as it is a picture of the grace of God. Because Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 2 of 9
throughout Matthew chapter 1 we see a list of all these people, and all these great stories, but the grace of God is evident in the lives of so many different people. The story of Jesus is the story of the grace of God. How many of you know this, there's always a story behind the story? The story of Jesus did not begin in a manger in Bethlehem. The story of Jesus began long before that and to really understand what transpired on the night of the first Christmas we have to look back and we have to see what God was doing for generations before. Now my father-in-law is a genealogist. He loves genealogy. My father-in-law, I'm not lying about this, I think he's published like five or six books full of family trees of all the ancestors of my wife. It is amazing the stuff that he's come up with. At all the family reunions he is asked to speak and to tell stories about the ancestors, and all of the forefathers, and all that. I mean, he's totally into it. He's considered to be the foremost scholar in the world on the Key family, so if you have any questions about the Key family, you call my father-in-law. I called Dr. Key this week and I was like, "Hey, tell me some dirt on the family. I need to know a little dirt. I only know a little bit about my family, but you guys got your genealogy back to like Adam for crying out loud, so tell me some stories." He said, "Ryan, Gena's got an ancient relative that died in 1880 at the age of 100." That's a long time, especially in 1880 to live to be 100, that's pretty spectacular. "At his funeral, he had a 78-year-old son that was there." That kind of makes sense, right? You could be like, if you were 100 and you had a 78-year-old son, okay I get that. "He also had an eight-year-old son that was there too." I was like, "Dr. Key, you have to tell me how that happened?" He said, "Well his first wife died and at the age of 90 he remarried, but he married a woman that was in her 30s." At first I thought, "That is creepy." Then I was like, "I got a lot of respect for any 90-year-old dude that can woo a 30 something year old woman." That is great genealogy, that's amazing, isn't it? Wow, what a story. You feel like you understand the family a little bit more when you hear some of those stories. Gena's also got a great uncle that was one of the vice presidents of the United States in 1845. She's also got a great story about her great grandmother. Her great grandmother was an English professor and she met her great grandfather in English class. The great grandmother was the teacher, she was the professor and the great grandpa was a student and they got married. She was always so self-conscious about being so much older than her husband, she just started lying about her age. I thought, "Ladies, that's a great thing. If you ever start getting a little older than you want to be, just start rolling it back five, ten years, just start whacking them off. Nobody will say anything." It all came out at the funeral, but for years she had this whole scheme going about how young that she really was. I want us to look tonight at the family tree of Jesus. Look with me if you would in Matthew chapter 1. The scripture gives us a ton of names here tonight, but there's five women that are listed. I want us to look specifically at the five women, because women were not typically in genealogical records like this. Anytime that a woman's name was inserted something extra special is being said about that person and about that story and there's a story behind the Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 3 of 9
story. The first thing we see is a lady by the name of Tamar and we see that God's grace is extended to sinful people. 1. God s Grace is Extended To Sinful People That's the theme of the ancestor Tamar, this great grandmother of Jesus Christ. Look with me if you would in verse 3 of Matthew chapter 1, "Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah," and then you notice in parentheses, "And their mother was Tamar." Who is Tamar? Back to Genesis 38 many years before, Tamar married a man by the name of Er. Everybody say, "Er." Er. Er was called Er because he didn't do so well in school, that's why they called him, Er. Er died and under the Hebrew tradition the wife of the brother was passed on to the next brother, so the second brother marries Tamar. Before they have children, he dies. She goes to her father-in-law and says, "Hey Judah, I need to take the third son." He's like, "Man, two of them died being married to you, I'm not about to give you the third son. Forget that, you're just going to be a lonely widow, good luck." Remember, women in the ancient world couldn't really work, and they were taken care of by their children, and their husbands, and their families and what not. Tamar's a desperate woman. She decides to put together a pretty sinister plot. She dresses up like a prostitute and she waits on a road knowing that her fatherin-law's coming with a vail over her face, she seduces her father-in-law, she conceives twins and gives birth to these two boys that are in the lineage of Jesus Christ. The oldest, Perez. What a story. An incestuous relationship here in the family tree of Jesus Christ. Judah says to the prostitute, "I don't have any cash, so I'm going to give you my seal, my cord," that went around his neck. A seal was a very personal item that was used to sign legal documents, "And I'm going to give you my staff," three personal items. "Bring this to me later and I'll give you payment." The prostitute says, "Yeah." She keeps them. Judah finds out that his daughter-inlaw has conceived and he proceeds to have her stoned, but before the whole stoning goes down, she sends a message to Judah and she says, "By the way, I just wanted you to know that the owner of this staff, this seal, and this cord is the father of my children." All of a sudden Judah changes his tune and Tamar lives her life as the mother of these two twin boys. That's why the Bible says this, "Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah and their mother was Tamar." In other words, it wasn't the normal mom, it was Tamar. It was through that lineage that the tribe of Judah was established. Did you know the most influential tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel is the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Judah. When Jesus comes again in the book of Revelation he's called the lion of the tribe of Judah, yes. We get the term Jew from the tribe Judah, Judah. How is that possible? That's the grace of God. It wasn't because Judah deserved it, it wasn't. It wasn't because Tamar was such a fantastic lady. It was the grace of God and the grace of God is extended to sinful people. How can God take something so horrific as the story of Tamar and bring about something so wonderful as the birth of Jesus Christ? The grace of God, the grace of God. Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 4 of 9
Did you know one of the leading pastors in our city was conceived in a rape situation? His mother was raped and now he's got this amazing ministry, he's an inspirational leader. God is using him in great ways and you wonder how could something so wonderful come from something so horrific? That's the grace of God and God is in the business of taking things that are huge messes and bringing about great good. Isn't that beautiful? The story of Jesus moves forward a little bit. Not just with a woman named Tamar, but also with another lady by the name of Rahab. Another unlikely character in the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Rahab we find in verse 5 is described here as the mother of Salmon who was the father of Boaz, or was the mother of Boaz, Matthew 1:5. In her life we see the grace of God is extended to all who will turn away from their own sins and turn to God. 2. GOD S GRACE IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL WHO WILL TURN All those who will turn the grace of God is available for those that will turn. Who was Rahab? Rahab was a prostitute. Tamar was just a want to be, Rahab is the real deal. She runs a brothel in the city of Jericho. I'm not making this stuff up, this is all in the Bible. You know what's funny? A lot of people think the Bible is full of fairytales, but people that think that hadn't really read the Bible, because the Bible gives us the dirt on people. Rahab is a prostitute. When businessmen journey to the city of Jericho, guess where they stop by? They stop by to visit Rahab. In a weird, unusual way the Israelites have sent some spies into the land of Canaan in the book of Joshua to spy out the land, they're going to destroy the city of Jericho and there's two spies and they go into the city and they're about to be discovered and Rahab the harlot, Rahab the prostitute takes them in, saves their life, and makes a deal with these spies. The deal is this, save me and my family and I'll save you now. It's a little further than that, when you read the text you see that Rahab becomes a believer. She believes in Yahweh God, she believes in the God of the Jews. When the spies come back with the armies and the forces of Israel, they spare her and her family's life and Rahab marries in to the Jewish family, leaves her life of prostitution and becomes a woman of faith. She's described in Hebrews chapter 11, which is the role call of faith, the Hebrew hall of fame, as a woman of faith. Look at verse 31 of Hebrews 11, "By faith, because she believed in God and His power, Rahab the harlot did not die with the others in her city when they refused to obey God. For she gave a friendly welcome to the spies." What's the lesson of the life of Rahab? It's that regardless of our background, if we'll turn to God we can find grace. Regardless of our background. Did you know life is not all about how you start? Life is about how you finish. Some of us have done some things we're really embarrassed about or really ashamed about in the first part of our life, but did you know that you don't have to finish your life the same way that you started? Because there's something powerful and it's called the grace of God. Rahab encountered this grace, and the grace of God Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 5 of 9
was extended to her in a way where she becomes a great grandmother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we look at our own sins and we say, "Well, I'm just going to embrace it. I can't change," or sometimes we say, "I want to ignore it, it doesn't really matter," or, "I want to rationalize it, it's not that bad," or, "I want to excuse it. Everybody else is doing it." God wants us to turn from it, turn from it. How do we experience the grace of God? Turn away from doing our own thing and go God's direction, change directions. The Bible calls that repentance. Repentance is just a fancy word that means change. It means I was going this way, and then I met the Lord, and now I'm going to go this way. If God could use somebody like Tamar, and if God could use somebody like Rahab, what could God do in your life? What could God do in your heart today? We need to chop down some sinful parts of our family tree. Sometimes we look at our family tree and we see the same sins are passed on generation to generation to generation. "My grandpa was an alcoholic, my dad was an alcoholic, I'm an alcoholic, my kids will probably drink too much." It's the same stuff over and over and over again. We need to chop down some old sins and chop down some old practices that have been in the family tree for a long time, because God is doing something new. God's doing something fresh. God's doing something revolutionary. God's doing something big and it all begins with His grace. We have to decide tonight, "I don't want my family tree to be like the family tree that was before me if it was one that was filled with sin." The grace of God. Rehab met the grace of God, the grace of God. The third woman in this list is really different. She's not a prostitute, she's not Rahab, she's not Tamar, her name is Ruth. Ruth has an amazing story. By the way, Ruth is a Moabite, and the Moabite people are a whole generation, a whole race of people actually that were born in incest. If you go back to the book of Genesis there's a man by the name of Lot and Lot's had two daughters. Lot runs to the mountains because he's afraid that the end of the world is coming and the daughters get lonely and they're like, "There's no guys up here. Nobody's asking us on a date. We're not going to have a husband. We're not going to have children." They get their father drunk and they conceived children with him and the oldest of which is a boy by the name of Moab. The Moabite people had this stigma that they were a people born in incest. You can imagine how the Jewish people reacted to that. That was pretty amazingly disgusting, even in the times of the New Testament, generations have past, but people still saw the Moabite people the same way. Well this woman Ruth is a Moabite and she marries a Jewish man and the husband dies. Her father-in-law dies, her brother-in-law dies. As the story of Ruth unfolds, there's Ruth, the mother-in-law who's a widow, the sister-in-law who's a widow, and Ruth comes to the two daughter-in-law and says, "I'm going to go back to Bethlehem where I'm from. I'm going to go be with the Jewish people, the famine's over and you guys just stay here with your family and I'll see you guys later." Ruth says, "No, your people will be my people and your God will be my God." Ruth has a faith moment. She says, "I'm going to go with you Naomi," and she goes back to the town of Bethlehem because of her faith in the Lord and her love for her mother-in-law. Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 6 of 9
They're a destitute group of women. They don't have any husbands to take care of them, they don't have any children, they don't have any education, they don't have any training. They're destitute, they're heartbroken, their husbands have died, they're outcasts, they're nobodies. 3. GOD S GRACE IS GIVEN TO THE HEARTBROKEN AND THE OUTCAST Yet, in an unusual way the grace of God shows up and Ruth meets a man of God by the name of Boaz and the couple is married and Ruth's life is forever changed. That's the story of Ruth. That's why Matthew chapter 1 says in verse 5, "Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab and Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth." Boaz and Ruth had a boy named Obed and Obed was the father of Jesse and Jesse was the father of King David and so Ruth is the great grandmother of the great King of Israel, King David. I love this story of Ruth because it reminds us that the family tree of Jesus is multiethnic. Did you know that? Ruth was a Moabite, Rahab was a Gentile, and in the family tree there's people from all different ethnicities. It's amazing, isn't it? That's why Edge Church welcomes people from all different ethnicities, because it's in the story of grace, and it's in the story of Jesus Christ, it's in that story. She marries Boaz, she finds God's grace in her life. The Psalmist said this about the broken heart, "If the Lord is close to the broken hearted, he rescues those whose spirits are crushed." The grace of God is not just for people who are prostitutes, the grace of God is for people that are hurting. The grace of God is for people who are struggling tonight. I know that Christmastime can be a great time of joy, but it can be a great time of pain as well. Man, the grace of God, the grace of God is the thing that sustains us and lifts us up when we feel broken and uncertain about the future. We need to be reminded today the grace of God is for us. It's for us. It's for us. In verse 6 we learn of another woman. Her name is not given in the scripture. Look at this, "And Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon whose mother had been Uriah's wife." Why did they not put the name of Uriah's wife in the passage? It just says, "Oh yeah, she was Uriah's wife." Isn't that funny that Uriah's wife had a son by a man named David. How does that work, right? There's something funny going on there. Well, when you read the Old Testament you see that David had a relationship with someone that wasn't his wife. Her name was Bathsheba and I think the Hebrew writer just didn't want to put the name in there because the name Bathsheba was always associated with the adultery of David. David was looking out from the palace one evening and he saw a woman bathing. I for the life of me have never figured out why Bathsheba was bathing on the roof. I mean, I don't know if you do that, that sounds a little odd to me. The Bible says it, so David saw her. He inquired about her, he sent for her, they had a consensual relationship, she conceives. Now David's in trouble. People are going to know, this isn't good. David's like, "I got this. Her husband's Uriah the Hittite one of the great warriors of Israel. I'm going to bring Uriah back to the palace and tell him he's doing a great job and tell him to go spend some time with his wife. Take some time off Uriah." Uriah comes to the palace, David gives him his orders and instead of going home, he sleeps on the steps of the palace. He doesn't want to enjoy being Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 7 of 9
with his wife while his buddies are on the field of battle. He felt like that was unfair. Now David's like, "You jacked up the whole plan." David sends a death wish, a message in the hand of Uriah the Hittite that is given to Josiah the general, that tells him what to do, "Have him murdered on the battlefield." Now what started as one sin, adultery, has escalated into a whole mess of sins and we find that God's grace is greater than the layers of our sin. 4. GOD S GRACE IS GREATER THAN LAYERS OF SIN Everybody's got layers of sin. I mean, in this story alone there's ten commandments, David breaks five of them, he covets, he lies, he commits adultery, he steals, and he murders. Wow, let me just wipe out five of the ten in one story. It's bad. Did you know where sin abounds the grace of God abounds even more? Notice what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:20, "God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were, but as people sin more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant." This is never a license to keep sinning, but what it is, it's good news because all of us have layers of stuff that we wish we would have never done, we wish we could go back and do it over again, but the Bible says that where sin has abounded, grace has abounded all the more. That's the story of David and Bathsheba. The grace of God allowed David to be called a man after God's own heart. How is that possible? The grace of God. How could someone that had embarrassed himself so badly be a man that is called the man after God's own heart? It wasn't because of the wrong that David had done. I believe it's because the way that he turned away from his own sin and decided to go a new direction. The grace of God. The grace of God was also evident in the fact that David and Bathsheba they lost the first child, but they married and she conceived again and Solomon, their son, became the second King of Israel and he was called the wisest man that ever lived. The grace of God, the grace of God. David and Solomon and all of the subsequent generations were ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of God. Sometimes I talk to people who say, "Pastor, thanks for inviting me to church. If I came to church I'd burn the place down." I hear that sometimes. People are like, "You don't know who you're inviting to church." I'm like, "Actually, we have a lot of people at Edge Church that should've burned the place down." It really is true, but you know what the difference is? The difference is the grace of God, that's the difference. That's the difference, that's why we use the slogan right here, No Perfect People Allowed. It's the grace of God. You can't understand the story of Christmas if you pull grace out of the story, and you can't understand the birth of the Messiah if you don't understand the grace of God in the family tree of Jesus. There's a fifth woman that's mentioned and in verse 16 the Bible tells us that Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah. That's the virgin Mary. That's Mary the mother of Jesus. In and through her life we see God's grace is present in unexpected times and places. I mean, the grace of God shows up in some pretty unusual unexpected places, does it not? Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 8 of 9
5. GOD S GRACE IS PRESENT AT UNEXPECTED PLACES AND TIMES I mean, a manger, a teenage unwed mother, could the grace of God be there? Oh, yeah. The grace of God was there. It was the grace of God that allowed Mary to have the privilege to carry the baby Jesus, and it was the grace of God that allowed her to have the strength to be this unwed teenage mother that everybody in town was gossiping about. That was grace, that was grace. The grace that we find in the life of Mary is a little bit different from the grace and the story of Rahab, and it's a little different from the story of Tamar, and it's a little different from David and Bathsheba, but it's the same grace. Every person has a story, you have a story, you have a story. For many of us, the story is still being written and when the grace of God is the focus of our life, guess what? There's nothing that's impossible for God. There's nothing that's too big for Him. There's nothing that's too great for Him. The family tree of Jesus is filled with people who ethically and morally had no business being there, but the grace of God showed up anyway and they were. In the family tree of Jesus we see people that are rich and we see people that are poor, we see people that have completely embarrassed themselves in their sins and other people who were very self righteous, both needed Jesus, both needed Him. We see both Gentile and Jew, we see male and female, we see all kinds of people, but their lives are all changed by the same God. That same God wants to come and live in your heart tonight, did you know that? I can't think of a greater time to begin a spiritual journey with Jesus Christ than on Christmas Eve, the night that we celebrate His birth. Are you in the family tree of Jesus? Has your name been penciled in in the family tree of Jesus? The way we enter into His family, is by inviting Him to come into our heart and into our lives. God has extended to us a great invitation, but we have to open the invitation and say, "Yes, I'm coming to the party." Christmas Surprise- Christmas Grace Page 9 of 9