Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

The Repentance of Manasseh

About this sermon

Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, became king at twelve and did more evil than the nations Israel had driven out: he rebuilt the high places, set altars to the stars in the temple courts, burned his son as an offering, and consulted mediums. When the Lord brought him captive to Babylon, he humbled himself and prayed, and the Lord heard him and restored him. Judah’s national life depended on obedience, but individual salvation is by grace. Matthew includes Manasseh in Christ’s line, and in Christ the worst of sinners are washed and forgiven.

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Sermon transcript

Please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1. We will read one verse from Matthew chapter 1. And also turn with me to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33. 2 Chronicles 33 is in the Old Testament in the Bible, which you find in the pews on page 341. 341 in your Old Testament. Matthew chapter 1 being on page 1 of your New Testament. The page numbers begin again in the New.

I will read the Matthew portion first. This is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ by Matthew. Here now, Matthew chapter 1, verse 10. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. Now turning to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had broken down. He also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord, which the Lord had said, my name shall be in Jerusalem forever. For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon, his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever, and I will not Again, remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers.

If only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them. according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses. Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to him, he was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley even to the entrance of the fish gate. And he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. He also removed the foreign deities and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem. And he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it. And he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the Lord, their God.

Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, even his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of Israel. His prayer also and how God was entreated by him and all his sin his unfaithfulness and the sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the carved images before he humbled himself. Behold, they are written in the records of the Hazai. So Manasseh slept with his fathers and they buried him in his own house and Amon, his son, became king in his place.

That ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, praise you for your grace, praise you for your kindness, and let us not forget your love to us and your mercy to sinners. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. By God’s grace and by God’s providence, we now come in Jesus’ genealogy, by way of Matthew, to Manasseh.

Manasseh, the king of Judah. Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, Manasseh, who may be the first man who was a king of the southern kingdom, who did not know what it was like to have the brothers in the north, in Israel, to be their rivals at times, but at other times to be their brothers.

This is a man who both Kings and Chronicles say really harsh words. They say that this man was an evil man, and they even say that he did more evil than all the rest. He even became more evil than the other nations. This is God’s holy people and the son of David to sit on the throne to make the other nations, the outside nations look and make them flinch at the evil acts of this king. And this is a man who certainly could not blame this on his father. His father was king and was a righteous and great man.

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the life of Hezekiah. What an amazing life Hezekiah lived. Hezekiah was, and I’ll remind you of what we talked about a few weeks ago, a man who experienced, during his lifetime, three resurrections. He brought about the resurrection of the true worship of God in Judah. It was dead at that time and he brought it back. He also experienced the resurrection of the nation.

You see, the Assyrians were at their door and they were soon to kill them and wipe out the nation and take it over. But what did they do? They shook in their boots, their knees knocked and they were afraid. But God did an amazing thing, putting to death 185,000 of the oppressive Assyrians, and they went home.

And lastly, Hezekiah experienced a miraculous resurrection of his own in his own life, because Hezekiah was about to die. The prophet Isaiah, the biblical prophet, said to him, you are about to die. There’s no way to change it. But there was a way to change it. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord said, you’ll have 15 more years.

We talked about the way that Hezekiah was just an amazing type of Christ where he experienced in three resurrections what Jesus does in one. Jesus bringing about his own resurrection for his own eternal life. Also, bringing back true worship. by bringing back true worship, bringing true worshippers, namely the kingdom of priests, of which you are members if you are washed by the blood of Christ. How amazing Hezekiah was in the ways that he pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But Manasseh was not that way. And Manasseh comes to the beginning of his reign at 12 years old. We might be willing to think, prone to think that 12 years old, that might be a very immature person. That’s not necessarily the case. talking about one who would have been grown for this and bred for this and all of his life preparing to take the keys of the kingdom from his father one day. We certainly know that age is certainly no guarantee of maturity. We remember that Rehoboam, who took the keys of the kingdom from his father Solomon, was 40 and was a very childish man, taking his friend’s advice over the advice of his father’s confidants.

We would hope, we would hope that Manasseh would take the kingdom from his father and that he would continue the reforms and the revivals and the reformation that went on previously. There is a lot at stake here because national obedience gives to the people a national existence in the land that was promised to Abraham, and national disobedience will result eventually in banishment from the land. Manasseh does not care about this. He doesn’t believe this.

It is as if, while we read the book of Kings, or we read the book of Chronicles, you have a plane that is headed down for the ground, and you have a pilot who pulls up and saves it from certain destruction. And then another pilot comes again, a son of the first pilot, of the previous pilot, and it’s headed down again. And then the next one pulls it up from certain destruction. Hezekiah receives a kingdom that was headed down and he pulled it up so that it would not be destroyed. He hands the kingdom over to his son and Manasseh has it heading for the ground again.

Manasseh’s name. You may find interesting. His name means causing to forget. Isn’t that a good name for him? Causing the people to forget the words of God by Moses. Causing the people to forget the words of God by David. Causing the people to forget all the reforms that his father undertook. names have a lot of meaning. You may remember Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, how he was going to die.

I mentioned it just a few minutes ago. Remember how he was going to die? The Lord told him that and Isaiah, the prophet, tells him that. And he prayed to the Lord and the Lord gave him 15 more years. I want you to think about that for just a moment. The Lord gives him 15 more years and Manasseh is 12 years old when Manasseh begins to be king.

What does that tell us? It is possible that Manasseh was born in that 15 year period. How doesn’t that change things? Now, understand, not all scholars believe that. I won’t bore you with all of the details. There are scholars who believe that Manasseh was born and he was a co-king with his father. And they reigned for some time and that he became a king at 20 or so.

But it seems a little bit more likely that Manasseh was not born yet at that time. If Manasseh was not born yet, I don’t find any other sons of Hezekiah, I could be wrong, I don’t find the Bible telling us about any others. It may be the case that Hezekiah was praying for longer life Maybe that he might have a son to have an heir, so that God would be faithful to his promises to David, that there will always be a son to sit on that throne. And here I, Hezekiah, with no son, have none. And so, there’s none to pass this on. And if that had happened, then the line would be dead, and Jesus would have never come. And that would be a tragedy.

But if it is the case that Hezekiah had this son Manasseh in that 15 year period, then we see God working out in redemptive history the line that is eventually going to go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it could not be stopped, not even by God’s Word that damned Hezekiah, that would have not damned his soul, but would have ended the line. And it’s interesting as we read about that 15 years of Hezekiah. Hezekiah during that 15 years, becomes arrogant and in many ways stupid. The Babylonian envoys, military people, come down all the way from Babylon and he shows them his whole armory. He became foolish and arrogant and you have to wonder, where did Manasseh get his ways from?

Could it be the sins of the father? being given to the Son and through the Son. But we see that God will not snuff out the people that He has promised salvation and the people to whom He has promised a Savior. Manasseh brings this nation back into a nosedive. And the inspired chronicler tells us that Manasseh was evil in the sight of the Lord, as I said before. More evil than all of the other nations.

He begins to institute worship that is just like those who are non-believers. We ought to take very careful notice about this. It gives us a picture that we ought to not follow, not worshipping our God according to the ways that non-believers would do so. Not worshipping according to the tastes of non-believers, as one preacher of the 19th century said. Not entertaining the goats while the sheep are starving.

Manasseh rebuilt altars, of which his father had rid the land. His father had gotten rid of all this stuff, and he’s bringing it back. How often do sons undo the righteous deeds of their fathers, undoing the righteous deeds of their fathers with their actions.

Manasseh is causing the people to forget the Lord. Manasseh even built altars for false gods in the temple. And these defiled God’s sanctuary, making it dirty. And it assumed that Jehovah, the true God, was just one God among many. Here you have a building that’s made for a God, so we’ll put a whole bunch of other gods in there as well. And Manasseh caused his son to pass through the fire. He burned his son in worship. God never commanded that, but he did it. The other nations did it.

Manasseh allowed fortune tellers and wizards to come into the land. The Bible is very clear that in the land, those people are to be put to death within the Old Testament theocracy, the nation run by God. They were to be put to death, no questions asked, once a conviction has been made. And here he is inviting these men in, Manasseh caused the people to forget all the things Moses said, all the things David said, all the things Solomon said. God was looking for a people and for a king who would be careful to obey his commandments. As it says in 2 Chronicles 33 8, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them. All the law, the statutes, and the rules given them through Moses.

Manasseh mocked the faithful. The faithless mocked them. It is an apocryphal story. Maybe true, we don’t know, not in the Apocrypha, that is the book that’s called the Apocrypha, but it’s a story that comes down to us by tradition, maybe true, maybe not, that the prophet Isaiah was put to death under Manasseh. Whatever the case, the prophets were dead to Manasseh because he would not listen to them.

What do you have to do to get through to sinners who love death and love destruction, even their own self-destruction? What do we need to do when people will not listen to the truth, when they’re offended as if that matters about anything? The truth matters above all things. The truth didn’t matter to Manasseh.

How do you get through to someone like that? Well, it’s not for us to get through to someone like that, but the Lord has a way to get through to someone if He wants to get through to them, and that is what He does with Manasseh, because Manasseh was captured, and he was taken to Babylon.

And they put a hook in him. It may be that it was put through his jaw. You who go fishing, you may know what I’m talking about. Like a stringer. But it may have been his nose. And we have a little note in our Bible that does Intimate that. Imagine that.

This is the one who’s supposed to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords at that time with a nose, with a hook in his face being strung along to Babylon. And they probably didn’t let him ride on a horse. He’s probably walking there being dragged by his nose hook. That’s the way God gets through to those who do not love truth above all.

And so it is there that God saves Manasseh, saves his soul, saves him from eternal destruction. He prayed to the Lord and the Lord heard him. Manasseh was converted that day. Manasseh was saved that day, going from a pagan, child-killing cultist to become one who is a son of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Even though Jesus had not died yet, the death and resurrection of Christ was made effectual for him, going backwards, retroactively, being effective to save this man and to wash him. But he didn’t die there. That’s what’s amazing. He was able to go back. God had grace upon him so that he could have a son, a son who would sit upon the throne as he had.

And this time Manasseh sought to do that which was right in God’s eyes, even though he was the worst king up to that point. He tried to bring about reforms. but his attempts at reform were failures. Did you notice that? He tried to bring back a revival, but it was too little and it was too late. He had already set the wheels in motion.

His conversion is significant, but his reforms are so insignificant. Do you know that the Book of First Kings doesn’t even mention the reforms or any of these things? It doesn’t even get a mention. The ancient writers, you understand, they didn’t have a lot of space. They were writing on animal hides and things like that. You’ve got to save space. It wasn’t significant enough to include. The Chronicler does keep it, though. Too little. Too late.

Why was God so merciful, though, to such a terrible man as Manasseh? Was it to show his grace to a sinner? Yes, it was to show his grace to a sinner. But if God had kept Manasseh in Babylon, where the Assyrians were, then there would not have been an heir.

You understand? There are two things going on, two parallel lines. One is the preservation of the kingdom and the preservation of the line which will ultimately lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. And another parallel line that goes along with it And that is the salvation of individual people, individual believers. Now, one is a result of the other. The death and resurrection of Christ causes those who are individually saved to have eternal life. The individual salvation of people is wholly other. It is different than what’s going on on the national level. You may have a king who is disobeying, but individual believers who are believing the gospel. You can have the opposite.

But still, Hezekiah His son was found to be faithful in Manasseh at the end. And as we sang and as we read Psalm 132, verse 12, if your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on their throne. Manasseh was found to be, in a sense, a faithful king for the first time in a pagan land. And God showed that He is able, even in the Old Testament, to save the most awful, the most terrible, the most horrible of sinners. Jesus can atone for such as they.

But Manasseh still had to endure the consequences of his sins in the earthly realm. not in the heavenly and spiritual realm. He is forgiven, and as Pastor Knox began us today, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. There is no condemnation for Manasseh, because he is in Christ. But the consequences of seeing the wheels that he had set in motion, looking all around him, that he is the king of a pagan land, and his efforts to stop it from being pagan are not doing anything.

How awful sin is, even for those of us who have been forgiven. And this is the case even for many in our time. We may come to Christ, but there is a sense in which we still have certain consequences to our sins in the earthly realm. If a crook robs something, someone takes something, he may still have to go to jail. He may be saved for time and for eternity, but he still may need to go to jail.

Many People become believers late in life after having grown their children, raised their children in a family that was not Christian. Their children never heard the gospel and these parents come late in life to the gospel. And how sad it is that though they are saved for time and for eternity, there’s no condemnation for them. They are caused to watch as their children and their grandchildren are growing up and being raised, or maybe already adults, not knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, not having come to realize the glory of Jesus Christ and to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way, in a way that He becomes more real to us than the flesh upon our very bones. And they wonder, why did God not save me before this, so that I could have brought up my children in the faith?

In the faith. The Lord’s working is a mystery to all of us. His wind blows upon us and we are saved. But God gives us the Lord Jesus Christ to look for and to look to for time and for eternity. If Manasseh had not gone back Maybe the line would have been cut off and there would have been no Messiah to save Manasseh. But God is faithful to His promises to David. to cause there to be a king to sit upon the throne. And we have that king who presently sits upon the throne and he is never getting off of it. And he is not bringing the kingdom down low into a nosedive.

But Jesus Christ is causing to forget Jesus Christ is causing the Father to forget your sins, because they are washed. Your sins are separated as East is from West. And God’s glory reigns. God’s glory reigns in Jesus Christ, the One who washes. and causes us to forget our sins as well. For we are under no condemnation because of our glorious God and because of his Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

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April 28, 2013
Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah

About this sermon

Matthew’s genealogy continues with Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham did right but left the high places; Ahaz was one of Judah’s worst kings; Hezekiah one of its best. A quiet, faithful life like Jotham’s is no failure. Faith is not inherited: faithful parents can have faithless children and the reverse, and covenant children must believe for themselves. Through this mixed line came Christ, descended from David according to the flesh and declared Son of God in power by his resurrection, humiliation leading to exaltation.

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Sermon transcript

Please turn with me in your Bible to Matthew chapter 1 and to a parallel passage, 2 Kings 15. We’ll read just a few verses from Matthew chapter 1, continuing to read through the genealogy. And we will also read 2 Kings 15, 32 on through 16-4. Today we read the New Testament first. Please give careful attention. This is the Word of our God.

The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Turning to 2 Kings. 1532. In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, became king. He was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. Only the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

In those days, the Lord began to send Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, against Judah. And Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David, his father. And Ahaz, his son, became king in his place. In the 17th year of Pekah, the son of Remeliah, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before the sons of Israel. He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

That ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word. May it be a blessing to us, both in its read and in its preached form. Let us ask for grace that that might be the case. Heavenly Father, We thank you for this opportunity to sit under the ministry of your word, and we ask that you would cause us to be rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful, obedient son. We ask, oh Lord, that you would cause us to rejoice because of the forgiveness of sins. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. In God’s providence, I have not had many opportunities of late to preach in the mornings, and so we have taken a little bit of a break from Matthew’s genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we are, back at it again.

Today, as God’s providence would have it, the next name on the list is Jotham. Jotham, who was a righteous king of Judah. He ruled over the southern tribe of the Hebrews. He ruled over Judah. We have had opportunity to study many of the other kings in this list, and I hope that as a result of that, the names of these kings are a little bit more familiar to you.

And I hope that you recognize them a little bit better than you did previously. Each one of these kings has a story to tell, each one of these people. And many of them, the story that they have to tell, or the story that’s told about them, has to do with something that points to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the people that we’ve done in the past, in the past weeks, have led very, very interesting lives, significant enough for their lives to be shared with us. But if you were listening carefully to the reading that we did of 2 Kings and the life of Jotham, you may have been struck by nothing at all. Because Jotham, his life seems to be somewhat simple and somewhat basic.

We read about him coming to his kingship at the age of 25. We read that he reigned for 16 years. That’s common things that we read in the other kings. We read that his mother is Jerusha, who is in a holy priestly line. the line of Zadok, and we read that he lived a life that was right according to God. Now, when we read this, we don’t understand that to say that he was perfect at all, but this was a believer. This is one who trusted and had faith in God like Abraham did, but he was not perfect.

We read that he was very much like his father Uzziah. We read in Chronicles a similar passage that tells us about Jotham as well. We read that he was just like his father Uzziah, being faithful to the Lord. But he did not do. that deed that Uzziah did. And you may remember what Uzziah did. Uzziah lived for 52 years as a faithful king and the Lord blessed him. But in the latter years, he became arrogant. And what he did was to go into the temple and try to burn incense there. He tried to do the thing that only the priest is allowed to do. And in doing that, he was struck with leprosy. Just one red mark against that King Uzziah.

52 years of faithfulness, but one wrong answer right there. We read about him that Jotham did just as his father did, except for that one little thing where he went in and became leprous because he took upon himself priestly duties. Jotham was not a fully faithful man. He did not execute his office as well as he could be. Faithful, but a failure in some ways. We read that there was still paganism going on in the land. We’re not told the reasons why Jotham didn’t go the extra mile.

He certainly would have been within his right when he saw all of this idolatry and all of this wrong to speak out against it and put an end to it. He could have done that, and he should have done that. We have to wonder, was it the fear of man that he did not go that extra mile? He would not have been found as popular.

He might have had some drama in his life if he had gone the extra mile because the false priests would have fought against him. But we see then that this king lives a relatively simple life. drama free with no major stories. Yes, there began to be wars during his lifetime, but they just began to be. And those wars are not worth mentioning in great detail. When we read Jotham, we don’t read about one who has these interesting facts that stick in our minds. He doesn’t have major sins like King David.

King David, we remember seeing a woman showering upon her, a roof of her house, and him taking her to be his, having the husband of that woman put to death. and a prophet Nathan coming to him, telling him a parable, and David taking the bait, and David saying, this man must die. And Nathan saying, you are that man. You are the person who sinned in the way that I just described. And David realizing that and putting that into a psalm, Psalm 51.

We don’t have these fascinating things going on with Jotham. We don’t have about the wisdom of Solomon, like we do with the wisdom of Solomon, where Solomon’s wisdom was known throughout the ancient world so that people came to him to hear him and to see his kingdom. We don’t have that. We don’t have the fascinating facts about Jotham like we do about his father, that he was struck down with leprosy. I don’t think you’d be out of line to say it seems as if Jotham lived a bit of a boring life. Well, I would just ask you if that’s so bad.

Would you prefer a life of drama upon drama? Or The simplicity of a life in faithfulness certainly could have been more faithful, could have been stronger, could have opposed sin in greater ways, but lived a very casual life, a simpler life. Is it so bad to have a boring life? To live your life Going to work, going to school, worshipping God, and then for six more days, going back into work or for school, and then returning to worship again. Is that so bad?

Some people would look at that and they would think, that’s just, there’s no action there. But it seems to me, What a wonderful way to live life without that much drama. Certainly life always has good things happening in it. The simple things, the things that come to be appreciated. Getting married if God calls you to that and having children if God calls you to that. Certainly events that are not boring, but we wouldn’t call them drama either. Living a simple life of faithfulness to God.

I put that forward to you as not something that you ought to find discontentment in, but great contentment. Now that’s not to say that if someone lives a life with drama in it, that that person is out of God’s will or anything like that. It certainly is the case that living a life of sin will cause you to live a life of great drama. But that’s not always the case.

There are many people who try to live a humble and simple, quiet, pious life, and they’re constantly aggravated by those around them because of it. Read the psalmist and the way that the psalmist is just trying to serve God, but his enemies are coming against him. Certainly the case for preachers as well, those who are called to confront people in their sins and to risk the consequences Oftentimes there can be drama in those sorts of circumstances.

Certainly in the life of Jotham, there would have been more interest if he had gone the extra mile and pushed out all of the paganism and the false religion out of that land. And he should have. All things told, life can be relatively drama-free. And God blesses what may seem to some, though, as a boring life. And God will say to many people who live a life not making history, not seeking to be known, just keeping their nose down, worshiping God and praising Him and working But after reading about this life of Jotham, relatively eventless, we read about Ahaz. Now there’s a man who lives a life that there’s a lot to say about it.

For Ahaz was a wicked king, and we You can read about all the events of Ahaz’s life. He comes up in a number of places in Scripture. You may remember the prophet Isaiah, when the prophet Isaiah is talking to a king, and the prophet Isaiah gives a prophecy of the Christ, of the Messiah.

It’s Ahaz that he’s dealing with. We read that Ahaz was a wicked man who introduced paganism back into Judah in a way that it had not known before. Ahaz tries to make the southern kingdom to reflect the northern kingdom with all of its paganism. And we also read about Ahaz, the way that he sacrifices his son. We don’t need to talk about the other details of his life. It is this sacrificing of his son. We read about the way that he caused his son to pass through the fire.

This is an awful thing for someone to do. To take a child and desire to please a God, something that the God of Abraham and David have not required. To try to appease a God by making a child into a burnt offering. See the difference between these two men, Jotham. Simple, quiet life. and Ahaz, sacrificing his own dear son that was not dear to him. When we speak of Ahaz, we are speaking of a cruel and heartless man. A man who did not share the understanding that the psalmist had.

That understanding that we read about in Psalm 127, that children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. How glorious it is to see a family of whatever size, but the Old Testament understanding is that the bigger the better. Each child is like an arrow. And each one is in the quiver. And I have so many arrows in my quiver. How glorious and how wonderful. Because children are a blessing. They’re not simply an inconvenience. They’re not simply a pain. They’re a blessing. And this man did a wicked deed. He does not understand the significance of children. For him, a child is just a tool to get the attention of the gods. Ahaz was an awful man. What should be our assessment of this situation then? Of these two kings? How can such a simple, righteous man give birth to such a wicked son? Is there something wrong with the parents? I want to say yes and no to that.

How can any faithful, believing parent give birth to a demonic child like Ahaz was? When I say that parents, there’s something wrong and that there’s not something wrong, I mean that both ways. There is something wrong with each and every parent because each and every parent bears upon himself the imputation of the sins of the first Adam. Each parent is a sinner. and is not fully faithful to God in every single way. Every parent, when their child leaves the house, will say, there were things I could have done better. There were sins I committed that I have confessed.

But the answer to the question if there is something wrong with the parents who give birth to a poisonous viper such as Ahaz is no. In many instances, no. There may be nothing wrong with a parent. They may be raising their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord as best as they know how.

Teaching this child the Bible and the catechism But for some reason, this child grows up and becomes faithless. And it is a great burden to the parent. It certainly is strange the way that a faithful parent can give birth and have a child who becomes faithless later on. But it’s also strange that a faithless parent can have children who grow up to be believers, who serve the Lord with great zeal and love. How are we to assess this?

Clearly, our faith in God is not passed down to our children genetically. These things are of the Lord. And we call upon him to have mercy upon all of our children and to have mercy upon all of the covenant children in our church. We are like Jotham, sons of Adam, imperfect people who at best would give birth to imperfect children. We are born in sin and so are our children, immediately in need of God’s saving grace. But while on the pages of Holy Writ we see Jotham and Ahaz, an imperfect father begetting an imperfect son, we look with eyes of faith upon the Lord Jesus Christ and upon His Father. For an imperfect father can only bring about an imperfect son, but a perfect father can bring about a perfect son. And on the pages of scripture, we see what the creed summarizes for us as the one who was begotten, not made of one substance with the father.

God the Father, perfect in every way. God the Son, perfect in every way. And this is a mystery. Our God is a mystery. We know what begetting is. It’s having children. The concept though, of eternal begetting. The concept of eternal begottenness is something that is beyond our comprehension. God the Father eternally bringing forth the Son. What a great mystery this is. But taken from the Creed, which is taken from the words of Scripture, Jesus Christ was a perfect Son. And when I say perfect here, I mean perfect in every sense of His being. Perfect in His essence. Perfect in His ontological status. Perfect in who He was. Perfection was an attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father begat the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, of her substance, yet without sin. Unlike Ahaz, though Christ was an obedient son, Christ was a perfect son. Christ did not have a sin nature as we do, though he came in the likeness of our sinful flesh. Christ was perfect, and when I speak here, I’m not talking about His essence, His being, I’m talking about in terms of His perfect obedience to the Father.

The law of God is laid out for the Hebrew people. And Jesus Christ is a perfect law keeper. He fully kept the positive aspects of the Old Testament law. There is not one thing that was undone by him. And the negative aspects of the law, the sin aspects, don’t do this. Christ avoided every single one of those.

No sin was committed by Christ and no good work was omitted Such an obedient son deserves a great reward. The greatest reward that could ever be given. But what is the reward for Christ’s faithfulness in His life? The reward for the faithful life of Christ is three nails and a crown of thorns. His reward is to be made naked in naked shame for the world to see hanging upon a cross. My God! My God!

Why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? Why are you so far from the words of my groaning? Why did God forsake His Son, the eternally begotten, perfect One, perfect in eternity past, and perfect in this life? Was it because of disobedience? No! He receives this because of His perfect obedience.

In fact, Jesus Christ going to the cross and suffering that He did, and in the way that He did, was only the furtherance of this obedient Son, faithful in all things, faithful even to the cross and to the greatest humiliation and pain that has ever been known or could be known.

And we have our hope in Him, because without our faith in a crucified Messiah like Him, we have no hope. But with faith in a crucified Savior like that, we have the guarantee of eternal life, for we are His bride. Confess the Lord and the truth shall set you free. Our catechism tells us that Jesus had a state of humiliation and a state of exaltation. And this is such a helpful way to summarize the life of Jesus Christ in redemptive history.

Christ’s humiliation is His being born of the Virgin Mary and His living the life that He lived, a meager, humble existence. I would say probably boring for about 30 years. living a life of no consequence to many, it seems. But he was being faithful to God through the whole way, but it was a life of humiliation. For one who is worthy of infinite heavenly glory, this is such a low condescension. He stooped so low That his whole life is a humiliation until he goes to the cross. And the humiliation that he received before that did not compare with the cross.

But Christ was exalted! And so we have our catechism telling us about Christ’s exaltation, which is His resurrection, and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His sitting at the right hand of the Father there, and everything that comes after it. Humiliation unto glorious exaltation. That’s the incarnate life of our Savior. The book of Romans opens up telling us about Christ’s humiliation and His exaltation. And you may go there with me if you want in our closing moments.

Romans chapter 1, 3 and 4. Very briefly, I want you to see the way that Paul just summarizes what our catechism tells us. Because our catechism oftentimes, the concepts, if not the words, come straight out of the Bible. It talks about Jesus Christ in Romans 1, 3 and 4. And it talks about the Father. in the preceding verses. The Father and the Son, and what the prophets told, and it says concerning God’s Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.

That is His humiliation. Everything else in Christ’s humiliation can be subsumed under that. But verse 4, His glorification and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. The life of the incarnate Christ. Humiliation and exaltation. I want to say infinite humiliation and infinite exaltation. because Jesus Christ was infinitely high and he came so low.

But when Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, his resurrected body and the person that he is, is not less glorious than he was before. He takes upon himself our nature and he is raised from the dead in that and he is raised to an even higher height of glory, a higher pinnacle, a higher acme.

But isn’t it interesting the way that he serves? How do kings serve? Well, usually they don’t. Usually kings are served. But the Lord Jesus Christ was a king in his humiliation. And isn’t it amazing the way that Jesus washes feet? He cleanses people’s feet in his humiliation. That is to say, this is the creator of the world washing men’s feet. We’re talking about a low humiliation here. You would think though that that’s the end of Christ’s washing and serving in that sort of way. Certainly you would say, Christ’s humiliation, the washing of his disciples’ feet, that is an obedient son, obedient to the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

But in his exaltation, he washes as well. He just changes the object that he washes. In his exaltation, he does not wash feet. In his exaltation, Christ the Lord cleanses hearts and he washes minds of their filth. In Christ’s exaltation, Christ still serves you. Though it is so counterintuitive. He is exalted, ought we not to serve Him? Yes, but He serves us. And He serves His bride by praying for her. He serves His bride by interceding for her, and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for your sins even now.

And Jesus will finish the work that King Jotham left undone. purging all of the idolatry. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when he completes that work, will not just cleanse some land out in the Middle East. He shall be shown to have cleansed heaven and earth, purifying them and making you able to dwell there. because of your cleansed hearts and minds and giving you holiness and righteousness. He shall complete that work. He purges the idols from your mind and from your soul. And he shall finish that work on that day, infinitely exalted yet stooping to cleanse your heart of idols by his broken body and his shed blood.

What a faithful son, faithful to his Heavenly Father. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, please renew our hearts and minds. Help us to stand against sin, but help us to do so in the light of Jesus Christ, the One who truly stood against sin, and fought against it, and won the victory over it. We thank you, O Lord, that we are the recipients of your mercy and grace, and we shall be the same for eternity, recipients of that mercy and grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. I’d ask you to open your hymnal to page, hymn 179. 179, there we shall sing the first tune of awe. Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended that man to judge thee hath in hate pretended. 179, the first tune.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 17, 2013
Asa, the Revival King

About this sermon

Asa was the first of Judah’s reforming kings: he removed the cult prostitutes and idols, deposed his grandmother Maacah for making an Asherah, and his heart was wholly true to the Lord. Yet when Baasha of Israel threatened him, Asa took the treasures consecrated to the temple and paid the king of Syria to break covenant with Israel. Even a godly king could fail. Christ is the true King, wholly devoted to the Father, who did not turn aside even when he prayed, “Let this cup pass from me,” and was enthroned in glory.

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Let us hear now the Word of God. Matthew 1, 1 and 7. The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Verse 7, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Let’s turn to 1 Kings 15. Give your attention once again. This is the Word of God. So in the 20th year of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah. He reigned 41 years in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Ma’akah, the daughter of Abishalom. Asad did what was right in the sight of the Lord like David, his father.

He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made. He also removed Ma’akah, his mother, from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah. And Asah put down her horrid image and burned it at the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asah was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days. He brought into the house of the Lord the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things, silver and gold and utensils.

Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And king Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram. who lived in Damascus, saying, Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.

So Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel, Beth-ma’akah, and all Kinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali. When Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah, and remained in Tirzah, Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah. None was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built, and King Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin and Mitzpah. Now the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might, and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Now in the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his mothers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, may we be as Samuel of old, saying, speak, Lord, for your servants are here. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Well, we come once again to another Lord’s Day. God has been gracious in not bringing the end of the world and not bringing the last day. He very well could have done that in this week past, but He did not. And so, the Lord has left things wide open for more sinners to come to faith in Christ. And maybe that is happening all over the world this day. People are hearing the gospel, maybe many of them for the first time. And God is doing his mighty work.

But for us, it brings us to this king, Asa, who was a son of David and who was a son of Abraham. Here we have a king of Israel. But what is significant about this king is that he is in the lineage of Jesus. He is, we could truly say, a father to the Lord Jesus Christ. And in some ways, he is an apt picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ would be like.

This is a man who is twice commended here in the text that we have just read. In verse 11, it says, Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. In verse 14, it says, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days. Would you not love for the Holy Spirit to shower such verbal accolades upon you? How wonderful that would be.

Indeed, among kings of Judah, there are only two who receive greater commendation than Asa. Those two would be Hezekiah and Josiah. And if the Lord continues the delay of judgment day, maybe in His grace, He will give us opportunity to look more closely and more intimately at the lives of Josiah and of Hezekiah.

I’d like you to think of Asa as the first of what we could call revival kings. Revival kings. He is the first of the kings that seeks to bring about a revival of true religion in the nation of Judah. Previous kings had contributed to the worship of idols, either causing it to happen or being complicit in it by their silence.

At the time of Asa, idols are becoming more and more commonplace. It’s not just that people have images of family members or private personal gods in their homes. They are beginning to become more and more commonplace in the marketplace and in the public places.

And this ought not to have been the case. So what happens is Ah Sah ignores the sentiment of the people and he follows the sentiment of the creator of the world. And he seeks to bring down these towering statues that people are bowing to and kissing and worshiping. And isn’t that the way things so often are?

To please God, bring about the wrath of man. The opposite too. Please man, and bring about the anger of God. But He does not care. He wants to be commended before God, the creator of all things and the rescuer of Israel. Lest God should be angry with them and bring about catastrophes upon their nation. He must follow God. He must obey. And so he goes to do a cleaning, a cleansing of the land.

He looks to the male cult prostitutes. Now this is just an indication of how bad things have become. There are male cult prostitutes. What happens is you go into a temple or some place of quote-unquote worship, and for a fee you have a priest. who is also a prostitute who will lead the women or maybe even the men in acts of which we ought not to speak.

The apostle Paul says, we ought not to even speak of the wicked things that are done in the darkness, but these are being done in the open. This is how bad things have become. because of Abijah, because of Rehoboam, even because of Solomon, the fathers of Israel.

Assah and so he’s casting all those things out. He is getting rid of them. He’s saying tear these down all of them cast out all of these idols and maybe God will have mercy upon us and we must reinstitute true worship worship that follows the God of our nation rather than the God that our fathers have not known. He is so much seeking to be a God pleaser and so little concerned to be a man pleaser, or in the example that I’m about to give, he is not concerned about being a woman pleaser. We read in our text about another good thing that he does. A number of good things are listed.

One of them is he takes and dethrones the queen mother, Ma’aka. Now our text says that this is his mother. When we read that Ma’aka is Asa’s mother, we ought to read it in the same way that Jesus is David is the father of Jesus. Abraham is the father of Jesus. This is not his literal mother. It really is his grandmother. What happens is… If you turn back just a little bit, you’ll see that Ma’aka was actually the mother of Abijah. This is his grandmother.

Why though, does it use this kind of language? We shouldn’t be surprised. The Bible talks about so-and-so being the mother of and the father of when it really is talking about distant relatives. But the question is, how is it that Maaka was able to be a queen in the first place, that she could lead the land to worship female deities? How did that happen in the first place?

You see, Asa’s reign is 41 years. But the one who came before him, Abijam or Abijah, both names are used in the word of God. He reigns for three years, only three years. It seems that Abijah, his reign was over prematurely and Asa may have not been old enough to be the actual king.

And so his grandmother steps in to rule, to be a sort of council until he comes along. It’s often the case that that happens in monarchies. or someone who is born a king or becomes king at the age of five or of six or something like that. Associates watch over the kingdom until that one becomes 18 or 13 or whatever the age that that one would begin to rule. But do you see the way that he takes things so seriously? He’s dethroning his own grandmother. Goodbye, Grandmother Maaka. Your reign is over. Because you worshipped idols.

You can imagine what things might be said about that. What would she say? You know, you need to honor your father and your mother. And wouldn’t it be best if you would honor your mother, namely your grandmother, by allowing me to continue to reign that your life might be long in the land? What would a response to that be? If he’s thinking biblically, if he’s thinking according to the word of his God? And he would say, no. By deposing you, my grandmother, I am honoring God and you. And allowing my life to go long in the land. This is what is right for me. This is what is right for you. This is what is right for all of the land. Because you have brought uncleanliness on this land.

And so, he defrocks her, he deposes her. We’re told of other good things that he does. He takes sacred things, gold and silver and other things, things that belonged to his father, things that belonged to Asa himself, and he puts those in the temple. The intention is that these would be used for a holy use, for consecrated means, for the worship of the true God. He is commended and commended and commended. But anytime you have someone commended in the Bible, There’s always a but, is there not? He did this wonderful thing and this wonderful thing. But he did this and this. And he did not do that and that.

I believe every single person in the Bible, we are given major figures at least. We are told ways that they sin, just about everyone. Not Jesus, of course. He never sinned. I think of the only person who was not God, who evil things are not spoken of, is Daniel. We’re never really told so much what his sins are. Not to say he did not have sins. They’re just not told to us. The sins of men and women are laid before us in the Word of God. And there, an assah is no exception to that rule. He did evil, and there are other things that he did not do. What did he not do?

He did not take the high places down. It’s one thing to get rid of all of the idols in the city where you can just see them, but the high places, that’s where there continue to be idols. Up upon the mountains, on the hilltops, people could still go and worship false gods. Those places seemed to be safe.

We don’t know if he did not know about them. if they were outside of his sphere that he was able to see because he just did not go to those places? Or was it that he just did not go the extra distance and climb the hills and bring an army to destroy those statues and those pictures? Meanwhile, as he is conducting these reforms, Baasha, who is the northern kingdom of Jewish or Hebrew people, he is conducting war against Asa. And Asa and Baasha are at war with one another.

They have then rival religions. Asa is trying to set up the true religion down in the south in Judah and up above Baasha following after Jeroboam, his father is bringing about idol worship and the land is becoming more and more filled. And there’s rivalry between these two kings because There are cities that you’re not allowed to cross in. People are being walled in to their own places so that they can’t leave the north, the idolatrous north, and go down and worship in the pure worshiping southern kingdom.

And he begins, Baasha builds a town called Rama, which functions as a checkpoint. You may have gone to Mexico, you may have gone to Canada, you may have gone to other places crossing from one border of a country, crossing over a border of a country, and they have people who ask you questions. What is your business here? That’s what we have here in the text. Rama is that checking station.

And they would not let people down to worship the true God. And because of this, and because of the growing power of Baasha, Asa needs to go to war with him. So there’s war after war. And it certainly is not wrong for him to go to war against the idols, but it is the method by which he conducts the campaign.

You see, Asa goes into the temple and takes out the sacred objects that he had placed in there, the ones that belonged to himself and to his father. He goes in and he takes those out. And then he brings those to a king named Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria. He goes to Ben-Hadad and he says, break the covenant with my brothers in the north and I’ll give you these things.

What wickedness. to take those things out of the temple. You could say, well, I put them in there in the first place. Yeah, you put them in there. But those were consecrated to the Lord. And once you gave them into the temple, they were no longer yours to take out.

But it’s even worse, I mean, here he is using those things to bribe a pagan king to break a covenant with his brothers. You have two kingdoms, the North and the South, and neither are living up to what they ought to be, but they are brothers. They are sons and daughters of Abraham. And here, one son of Abraham, goes to a wicked king and he asks that wicked king to break the covenant with the other Hebrews. This is terrible.

What would you say of a Christian who seeks to deceive a Christian, another Christian, and he uses the means that he has, he goes and hires an atheist to help to do that. That would be a Christian teaching an atheist to be deceitful. Here you have one who is the king of the righteous kingdom, who is to be a light to the nations, and he is teaching that nation deception.

If he had trusted in the Lord, God would have given him victory over both Baasha and Ben-Hadad. But you see, Asa later in his life is as one who has lived the Christian life, in a sense, for a while. He has depended upon God in the past. And he begins to find the Christian life easy to live by his own strength. And his dependent is not upon the Lord so much anymore. His dependence is upon himself.

Surely this could be a temptation to anyone who has been a believer for a long time in the young time of your Christian walk. You trusted, you prayed, you asked God for everything. But of recent, you’re trusting in yourself and your own ability to get things done. What a picture Asa is of that.

And so he goes to war. He sends Ben-Hadad to go to war, break the covenant with Baasha in the north. And he does break that covenant. And it is very sad. He has taught deception. Now we are told elsewhere in God’s Word that a prophet comes to him. A prophet named Hanani. And he confronts him about these things. He confronts Asa. And Asa is so self-serving and trusting in himself at that time that he puts that prophet in the stocks. He punishes him publicly. Very evil. We’re told also that he has foot trouble. The book of Chronicles explains a little bit more of that.

He had foot trouble, and rather than going to the Lord and asking for healing, he goes to the physicians. Now we understand that Israel, Judah, that was a supernatural kingdom. And God had promised to David. He had promised to Asa through David that he would do things like heal his feet. But no, I will take my own resources into my hands. I’ll go to the physicians.

You see, his love for the Lord has grown cold. It’s not like it was at the beginning where the Apostle Paul There, you can imagine Paul rebuking Asa in the way that he rebuked the Galatians. Maybe the Apostle Paul would have ended up in the stocks like Hanani. But if Paul were to use the words that he used on the Galatians, you can hear Paul saying this, Asa, you were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. Oh, foolish Asa, who has bewitched you? You’re not running the race that you began. You see, Asa, he reigned for 41 years. 41 years is a long marathon. But he treated it like a sprint.

And in the end, he was unfaithful to his God. Oh, that Israel had a king. That Israel had a king that was faithful. Faithful to the end. Trusting in the Heavenly Father all the way to the very end of His life and beyond. If only Israel had a King like that.

Unlike Asa, Christ shows how great He is. Jesus Christ did not waver in His seeking of His Heavenly Father. He did not reach a point in His ministry wherein He was able to say, I’ve got this. I can take care of this on my own. Constantly, the Lord Jesus Christ was earnestly praying and seeking the Father’s will. Seeking the Father’s glory. And even in the most difficult of time, when Jesus was about to face the greatest horror that anyone could ever face, namely the cross wherein the Father poured out His wrath upon Jesus.

When Jesus was close to that, Jesus went to the Father, not saying, I’ve got this, I’ll take care of this, I’m just going to grin and bear it and endure it. He says, let this cup pass from me. He would not ignore what his father would have him do. But still he was submissive to his father saying, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And he went on. to endure the torment that came with being a ransom for sinners, showing His love for them. And after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus Christ was enthroned in heaven in yonder glory. And He was seated at the right hand of God the Father. He was enthroned to show that He was King of all things. King of the church. King of creation. King of recreation.

But his task was not finished, and it is still not finished. For that one who trusted till the end of his reign continues to knock down the idols. About 40 years after Jesus died and rose again, the Hebrew people were continuing to sacrifice. They were continuing to look to the coming of the Messiah, sacrificing animals to atone for their sins.

And that place, Jerusalem itself, after Jesus has died and risen from the dead, that place is the ultimate high place. That place is the ultimate place of idolatry. And so Jesus, the Sovereign Lord of Heaven, sends the Romans to destroy that city, calling it the abomination of desolation. And it was made desolate.

Jesus warned that He was going to do this if they did not repent in Matthew 23. And He foretells how it’s going to happen in Matthew 24. You see, Asa purged the land of idols, but he didn’t go far enough. The Lord Jesus Christ is purging the land of idols, but greater than purging that land, Jerusalem, that rival kingdom, to His enthronement. Jesus Christ is felling the idols of His bride’s heart. And He is knocking them down, and He is throwing them to the ground and trashing them.

Anytime the gospel is preached, And a sinner comes to repentance and says, I believe in a Savior like that who dies for me and gives his death for me to pay the ransom that I owe. Idols are being toppled. The idols of the heart. Anytime a Christian believer mortifies his sin, and puts it to death, and kills it. The Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King, is knocking down idols, the high places of the hearts of His people. And anytime a believer sins, succumbs to the temptation of sin, partakes of the forbidden fruit, and comes under conviction, comes under contrition, the Lord Jesus Christ is victorious still, purging the idolatry out of that person as well. Glory to our God.

Asad did not trust in God for the healing of his feet, But Christ the Lord trusted for the healing of far more than His feet. He did trust His Father for the healing of His feet, but also for the healing of His hands. For the healing of the spear that went into His side. For the healing of the crown of thorns that was upon His head. The healing of the beatings. All of the piercings. All of the horrible treatment. The Lord Jesus Christ was trusting His Father. Because He knew that His Father would heal Him. And He does heal the Lord Jesus. When he raises from the dead, he heals him for eternity and forever.

And when he heals us, it will also be the final destruction of the last idols. For when we are chained in the twinkling of an eye, all the idols will be gone. And when we are changed, when we are raised, resurrected, all of the pain and illness and sickness will be gone. At our resurrection, the destruction of the idols and our healing will come together simultaneously. to the glory of our God and Savior Jesus Christ and His Father.

And we shall rule with Christ the King because of His righteousness which is imputed to us. We serve a good God who is gracious to David through Christ. A God who is gracious to Christ through David. And He is gracious to us through both, who casts down our idols and raises us from the dead. May His name be ever praised. Let us pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 23, 2012
For David’s Sake

About this sermon

First Kings 15 gives a short, unflattering account of Abijam, Rehoboam’s son: he walked in his father’s sins, and the Lord kept a lamp in Jerusalem only for David’s sake. Second Chronicles 13 adds that when Judah was outnumbered in battle, Abijah and his men cried out to the Lord and he gave them victory. Matthew includes him in Jesus’ genealogy. His name means “my father is the Lord,” a picture of grace, and it points to the one at the end of the list who is the Father’s own Son.

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Hear now the Word of God. The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now verse 7, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Now let us turn to 1 Kings 15.

Now in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abisham became king over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Ma’aka, the father of the daughter of Abshalom or Abishalom. He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had committed before him, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David. But for David’s sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem. because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. Now the rest of the acts of Abisham and all that he did Are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David and Asa. His son became king in his place. So ends the reading of God’s holy word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Without your spirit, this is just sound and fury. It’s just a cacophony of syllables.

Won’t you, O Lord, give us the ability to bring all of these things together, that we might know Christ in our minds. We ask that you would build up those who our downcast, we ask that you would challenge the apathetic, and we ask that you would show your love to all of your people by this holy practice given to us from the apostles. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. Our study in God’s Word by way of Matthew’s genealogy finds us going into some areas that for some may be deep waters. David, Abraham, Solomon.

I feel somewhat comfortable with those people, but sometimes for some of us it gets a little bit blurry as we go deeper into the Book of Kings. It just seems like a number of strange names thrown together. May it not be that way. Today we come to look at the story of Abijah or Abijam. You may notice that I tend to emphasize the latter syllable. I think it’s more faithful to the ways of Hebrew names. I tend to do that unless there is a a standardized English pronunciation. Not David, but David.

Well, we come to this then, this piece of the Word of God, and Matthew talks about Abijah. And Abijah is the great-grandson of David, the grandson of Solomon, and the son of Rehoboam, with whom we became a little bit more acquainted just two weeks ago. I’d have you notice, though, the difference in the names. Matthew says Abijah or Abijah. We turn to the Book of First Kings and it is Abijam. I wonder if there’s something going on there with the names. Our passage that we read about Abisham in 1 Kings 15 is not very positive, you might have noticed.

Just simply by way of biography, we see that he comes to reign in the 18th year of Jeroboam. Remember the context. Jeroboam has taken over the ten tribes in the north. He’s ruling over those, and he has done so, he began that in an underhanded way, somewhat by trickery. Now, Abizham is only going to reign for three years. It seems that the Lord is not fully pleased with the reign of Abijah.

What happened was David received a promise that you will have a son to sit on the throne forever and ever. And Solomon was that son in a typological manner, just a picture of what Christ was going to be. But at the end of Solomon’s reign, things begin to fall apart. His life begins to fall apart because he goes after strange gods, strange gods of the women that he had married.

He begins to compromise, but the Lord will not go back on his promise. He will not take the kingdom away from Solomon. So Solomon has a son, and Rehoboam is his name. And Rehoboam is unfaithful by not trusting and following the advice of his elders and of those who had gone before him. And so because of some rookie mistakes, he splits the kingdom. That’s where Jeroboam comes in. Jeroboam, again as I said, takes over 10 tribes in the north. That leaves Rehoboam with just the southern tribes.

Now, we must see in this that God is still being faithful to his promises. A son of David still sits on the throne in Jerusalem and he is ruling, but His kingdom has been substantially reduced. It has not been cut away. It has almost been cut fully away, but He still rules over Judah. God is true to His promises, often despite the sin of His people.

As I said, the narrative here is not very positive because the Lord is not fully pleased with what Abijam had, the ways that he lived. Now, we are not told the specifics of the ways that he failed. We can imagine them. It may have had to do with compromising. It may have had to do with beginning to worship other gods, but we ought not to speculate very much because the Word of God doesn’t tell us. It doesn’t display for us Abijam’s dirty laundry. For some reason it doesn’t. Many of the people in God’s Word, even people we think highly of, their dirty laundry is set out for us on display. But not the case with this one Abijam.

We are just told that his heart was not wholly faithful like David’s heart was. But it does display for us just a little bit of David’s dirty laundry, does it not? It says, David was fully faithful to the Lord his God in his heart, except for that one thing that he did, that one minor issue, just a little bit of murder, just a little bit of adultery. Other than that, his heart is fully devoted to the Lord We could say, though, that the writer of 1 Kings does not idealize the life of David. It doesn’t set him up as a hero. He had faith, but he was a man with feet of clay.

He was a sinner who receives grace. To that, We must say, hallelujah. God is gracious. God is showing kindness. Jerusalem was to be a city set on a hill. A light, we are told, shines in Jerusalem. What is that light? That light is Habisham, this son of David. Jerusalem was to be a city set on a hill for all of the rest of the nations to see the greatness of God. How would they see the greatness of God? They would look and see the promises to David, even in Abizham.

Certainly, this one light does not shine as brightly as it could have. It does not shine as brightly as in the days of David. But it shines bright for all of the nations to see, even though this man is a sinner, and though the Lord is not always grateful for his lackluster service.

We are told in verse 6, and we’re told at the end, that during the whole life of Abijan, there was war. And during all of his reign, there was war between himself and Jeroboam. Jeroboam, you remember, was an idolatrous king. He set up rival religion in the north. You have Hebrew men and women being led to false gods by Jeroboam, the idolatrous king. So there you have our text. Not very positive.

God, insofar as God seems to show any faithfulness to Abijam, it is only because of David, and his kindness to David, and the faith of David. It’s interesting though, as we look in other places in God’s Word, we have two different accounts of the life of Abijam. Understand that the book of Kings tells the story of the kings of Israel and Judah, but the book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles does the same thing. But there is a different flavor to each one of those. If you were to read 2 Chronicles 13, which I thought we might be best to keep things brief, we have an expanded discussion of the life of Abijam.

It’s interesting, as we go there, it’s not as negative. It doesn’t seem to cast such a dark light upon the life of Abijam. We have a different picture. Not only that, we have different names. 1 Kings, his name is Abijah. In 2 Chronicles, his name is Abijah. Very different. Why could that be? May we wonder about that. In 2 Chronicles, we have a really riveting story, 2 Chronicles 13, where it talks about the war between Jeroboam and their, as he’s called, Abijah. And there Abijah goes to war against Jeroboam and we’re told one of the speeches that he makes there.

It’s a very courageous speech and a powerful speech. They’re about to go into war. Now understand the context, the words that Abijah is saying when he is overmatched. He is going to war with 400,000 men. It sounds like a good number. 400,000 men. Until you see that Rehoboam, the idolatrous northern king, has 800,000 men. So it’s two to one. And Abijah does not cower and say, how will we win this?

He makes a courageous speech going up before the war, and he really preaches to the idolatrous northern tribes. And this is the way he begins in 2 Chronicles 13, 4 and 5. I’ll just read the first verse and a half. He says, Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel. Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and to his sons as a covenant of salt? That’s the way he begins. He’s not shaking in his boots. He seems to be trusting in the Lord here.

What is this language of a covenant of salt? That doesn’t seem very strong for us. God made a covenant of salt. You might think of something, you know, salt is just something you might throw over your shoulder or something for bad luck, not that we believe in luck. Salt is something that doesn’t seem to last, does it? What does he mean? God has given the kingdom to David and his sons as a covenant of salt. Let me explain what he means by this. It doesn’t mean something that lasts as long as a meal. You put a little salt on food and then the salt is gone.

In the old covenant God gave the Levites, and especially the sons of Aaron, to be the priestly tribe. And in Numbers chapter 18, we have God explaining to the Levites that all that you will need will come from the offerings of the people. Listen to what he says there. numbers in 1819, all the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due. For a definition of that, it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you. God is saying that the Levites are going to receive that and it’s going to be perpetual. Even it’s going to be eternal in some sense.

And so David, excuse me, so Abijah comes and he says, do you understand that the covenant that God made to David is still manifested in me? and by opposing me and my army, you are opposing God himself. He goes on in that speech, and it would be worth it for you to meditate upon it in the rest of your Lord’s Day, 2 Chronicles 13. He goes on in that speech to explain to those who would oppose him. that we have David’s son reigning in me, but we also have the sacrifices.

We have the true worship. We have the priests. We have the temple. We have all the things that God has given as a gift. And what do you have over there? You have things that are rival to all of those. You have a king who is falsely anointed as the king. You have false worship that is idolatrous.

It doesn’t sound like one who is not trusting in God in some sense. What Abijah is saying is that God has given David the throne forever and ever. Well, it didn’t do anything. Abijah’s Speech as preaching did not win him any converts, at least not from the opposing side.

So war commences. The cavalry comes. The horns are blown. War begins. And it’s not long after they have begun that war that Abijaz men begin to be outnumbered. Jeroboam, being a skilled general, not only sends people against Abijah’s front, but he sends some around the back. You see, he has men to spare. He has twice as many. And in the thick of the battle, Abijah and his men realize that things aren’t going well.

And they call out to the Lord their God. What are they doing? They’re demonstrating that they have faith in Him. And it really is not about numbers. It’s not about trusting in horses and in chariots and in swords. It’s about trusting in the Lord their God. And that is what they do. Because of their crying out to the Lord, the Lord blesses that, and He gives them victory. In fact, He wins the victory against Jeroboam and the idolatrous northern tribes, and they send them packing What ought we to think of this?

Two testimonies of one man. Ought we to privilege one and think that that’s the true one, and the other one’s just a myth, something that came along later? Are they both wrong? And they’re both just ways of writing your own history. We ought not to take it that way either. Both are true, but you certainly can look at things from a different perspective. Both are true. We have the same thing going on in our Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They don’t contradict one another. But each one is the word of God and they can certainly be reconciled, but they have worth and merit on their own to read on their own.

But what really is in a name after all? Why is it that one would give the name Abijah, first Kings, and the other would give the name Abijah? What does Abidjan mean, after all? Abidjan means, my father is the sea. Seems a bit strange. I’m not even sure what’s meant by that. My father is the sea. I don’t think that he is saying that his father is Poseidon, the god of the sea in Greek and Latin mythology. Not at all. I don’t know what to do with that. My father is the sea. His father is not the sea. His father is Rehoboam. I don’t get any help there.

Rehoboam, the best that I can uh… figure out by looking at the meaning of the word because uh… hebrew names have meanings it’s really just the pride of the people not exactly sure but if we look at the name Abijah we get a little bit more there my father is Yah Yah Just a shortened form of Jehovah.

A shortened form of the Lord. So when you say hallelujah, you’re saying praise Yah. Praise God. It’s really praise a hallelujah-hovah. But it’s praise Yah. And that’s what His name is saying. My Father is Yah. This is a man who, like any of us, did good things, but did unrighteous things.

Things that were detrimental to his kingdom, but things that were helpful to his kingdom. It may be the case that Abijah is a man who can just talk a big game, and he does that. but the Lord seems to reward it. He seems to have, in some sense, a bit of faith. Even if God was not wholly pleased with his reign, it seems that God was just a little bit so pleased with the reign of Abijah.

It may be the case that because of the wrong things that he did, The writer of 1 Kings doesn’t want to dignify this one of old with a name that says, my father is God. And so he comes up with another name. My father is God. It may be the case that here we have one who is saved by grace.

Though he did not do good things in his kingdom, he may have been saved himself.” Certainly there is redemptive history in all the things that go on in there. And what happens in redemptive history is more than not a difference. There’s a difference between redemptive history and the individual and particular salvation of a particular man. Will Adam be saved? We don’t know. Adam cast the whole world into the mess that it is in. It may be the case that he is saved. In redemptive history, he destroyed the world. But it may be the case that God applies the redemption of Christ to Adam.

And I’ll put forward to you God and His grace, that that may be what He does with Abijah as well, though not fully pleased with his reign. He’s dignified, at least in some sense, to be given the name, My Father is God. For he looked to God the Father and found respite and he found deliverance from God. But look at the name that Matthew chooses. The name that he chooses is not Abisham, It is Abijah.

My father is God. Now don’t think that Matthew did not have both Chronicles and Kings at his disposal. He would have had access to all of them. The Old Testament canon was settled. For whatever reason, he goes with Abijah. And I do believe that by the Holy Spirit and by Matthew, we have a picture of grace.

One who, though he was not perfect as a king and God is not pleased with his kingdom and his rule, one who is truly able to say, my father is God. And it ought to point to the one who is at the bottom of the list of the genealogy. The one who, in a far greater and a far truer sense, is able to say, my father is God. My Father is Yah, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus is eternally begotten of the Father before all worlds. When Jesus was resurrected, He went and talked to Mary Magdalene. And what does He say to her? He says, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Truly Jesus understands my God is Yah, my Father is God. And so, as we read and as we sang, we have the book of Psalms 45, The Father is saying, My Son is God. And Jesus understands, My Father is God. Jesus receives that, what the Father says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

Before Christ the Lord was enthroned upon the throne which is in heaven, the Lord Jesus was enthroned upon the cross. Enthroned upon the cross as King of sorrows and as King of pain. And we are told by the gospel writers that Jesus has seven sayings from the cross, and I’ll read two of them back to back before you this day.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Upon the cross, Jesus understands, My Father is God. And the same One who forsakes Him is the same One into which He would commit His spirit. Because there is none greater for the Lord Jesus Christ to entrust and to commit His Spirit than in the one who is His Father and is His God. the one who He entrusts His Spirit to, is also the one who forsakes Him and pours out wrath upon Him so that we might be the recipients of eternal life by grace alone, by faith alone, not by works of any way, of any shape, or any form. and He does not forsake you. The reason is because He forsook His Son. But there is none greater for you in whom you would commit your spirit.

But it is not only Abijah, I think, who can truly be called Abijah. For that certainly is the name of Christ. But it is a name that by grace you are able to take as well. And you are able to say, with Jesus, My Father. And you are able to pray to Him, praying to Him with Jesus. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. by grace, through faith, in union with Christ, you are those who can be found to be able to say, my Father is God. The significance of that must not miss you.

We do not believe in the fatherhood of God and the sonship or the brotherhood of all mankind in Christianity. We’re all related in some sense, born of Adam. But God is not father to everyone. And to those he is not the father to, Abraham is their father. And the death and destruction and punishment which was deserving of Adam is to fall upon all those who are found in Adam who can at best say, Adam is my father. And as Jesus would tell the Pharisees, Satan is your father. We are born in sin with Adam as our father. We can really say we are born in sin with Satan as our father, and Adam as well, both of them. But in Christ, we are able to say, Abijah. And to that, how can we say anything other than hallelujah? Let us pray.

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September 16, 2012
One King, One Kingdom

About this sermon

Matthew’s genealogy names Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, who answered the people’s plea for a lighter yoke with harsh words, so that the kingdom split, with ten tribes following Jeroboam. Even a wise father’s son may go astray, and God’s grace, not family, is the source of faithfulness. The prophets longed for the two kingdoms to be reunited under one king. That promise is fulfilled not in a future political kingdom but in Christ, the one King who gathers one people, Jew and Gentile, into one kingdom.

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Sermon transcript

to know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instruction and wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence to the naive, to the youth, knowledge, and discretion. A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Just the introduction to Proverbs while you are turning in the Bible. I know I have them backwards. Allow me to read first Kings 12 first, and then we’ll go to our Matthew passage. We’ll read the entirety of 1 Kings chapter 12. Give a careful ear for when someone reads the Word of God. God is speaking to us.

May we reverence it Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. Now when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, heard of it, he was living in Egypt, for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon.

Then they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, Your father made our yoke hard. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke, which he put on us, and we will serve you.

Then he said to them, depart for three days, then return to me. So the people departed. King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive saying, how do you counsel me to answer this people? Then they spoke to him saying, if you will be a servant to this people today and we’ll serve them and grant them their petition and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him.

So he said to them, what counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke which your father put on us. The young men who grew up with him spoke to him saying, thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you saying, your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us.

But you shall speak to them, my little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Ravom on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, Return to me on the third day. The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him, and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions. So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from the Lord that he might establish his word, which the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, what portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now look after your own house, O David. So Israel departed to their tents.

But as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel was seen in rebellion against the house of David to this day. It came about when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over Israel.

None but the tribe of Judah followed the house of David. Now when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemiah the son of God, saying, Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah, and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, Thus says the Lord. You must not go up and fight against your relatives, the sons of Israel. return every man to his house for this thing has come from me.

So they listened to the word of God and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there and he went out from there and built Penuel. Jeroboam said in his heart, now the king will return to the house of David. Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

And this people, if this people go up to offer sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their Lord, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah. So the king consulted and made two golden calves.

And he said to them, it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your God, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt. He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan, and he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah. And he went up to the altar, thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed, he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. even on the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.” Now let us turn briefly, very briefly, to first Kings, excuse me, to first chapter of Matthew. We continue reading portions of Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus.

Verse 5, Salomon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam the father of Abijah. and to Abijac, the father of Asah, signs the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word.

Let us go to the Lord briefly in prayer. Heavenly Father, we are grateful, as we often say, for every word that comes out of the mouth of you, our God. Be with us and this time. Be with us by your spirit. Strengthen us by your word. Help us to know our dependency upon you. We are sinners in need of grace, needing to see the glories of Christ, our Savior. May we see that in the preached gospel this day, even by its hearing. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

I would ask you this morning, Have you benefited from the book of Proverbs? Can you say that you have taken the book of Proverbs to heart and say, as you have read it, I have become wiser. I have begun to understand many things that I would not have known if this portion of God’s word had not been given to me.

I would think that most every Christian who’s been a Christian for just a little bit of time has come to appreciate the Proverbs in great ways. It’s really one of the most beloved portions of God’s Word, certainly of the Old Testament when we think of those portions that are especially useful to the New Testament Christian. We love the Psalms and we love the Proverbs. of people who read one chapter of Proverbs every day. because there are 31 days in most months, and there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. And so they read them, and they work through the book of Proverbs about 12 times a year.

I must confess to you, I don’t do that, but I certainly can understand people’s appreciation for doing that. The Solomons are the The proverbs are proverbs, little pithy sayings inspired by God’s word given by Solomon. Now, while you may have benefited from that book by reading it, don’t you think that if you could sit under Solomon’s teaching that you would be in the catbird seat. Wouldn’t that be wonderful to be right there and getting it first hand? Well, we come this day as we’re working our way through the genealogy of Matthew to our fifth sermon.

We’ve talked about what it means to be, for Jesus to be son of David and son of Abraham, son of Jesse, but to be of the lineage of Rehoboam. Rehoboam is not as well known as some of the major figures in our Bible. It’s not as well known as Moses, David and Solomon and some others. So who is Rehoboam? Rehoboam is the son of Solomon, the grandson of Jesse, excuse me, great, the great grandson of Jesse, the grandson of David. We here, we have Rehoboam, the one who was able to sit under his father’s teaching. He knew the Proverbs surely better than anyone else would have known. There are 3,000 Proverbs that Solomon gave. Not all of them are given to us in God’s Word. Not all of them are preserved. So we come to Rehoboam.

Will he continue the wisdom with which his father, for the most part, had? You see, God has promised to David that there will be a son to sit on the throne. That is especially fulfilled in Solomon, but it’s going to continue. What we have here in this passage is the next chapter of God’s promise to David. It’s an exciting day when we come to the beginning of First Kings chapter 12. It is a day that has a lot of pomp and circumstance and all kinds of excitement because a new king is going to be inaugurated and anointed.

This is the son of Solomon, Rehoboam, But in that crowd that day, there was a man with a name that’s somewhat similar, and his name is Jeroboam. And Jeroboam had made himself to be an enemy of King Solomon. So because of that, he has to go to Egypt. He has to flee from Solomon because he was in trouble with him. Now Solomon is dead. Jeroboam comes back from Egypt because he does not want to miss Rehoboam’s inauguration ceremony. So he causes all the people to ask a question.

Your father was a bit harsh to us. Won’t you show grace and kindness? Won’t you lighten the load for us? You can imagine what it would be. The work may have been too hard. Taxes may have been a bit high. They want some sort of relief And he says Go away for three days and come back to me and then we will talk about it.

I Now Jeroboam, excuse me, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, being the son of Solomon, what do you think that he would do in that time? Wouldn’t it be best to go before the Lord himself and say, just as my father was, so am I. I am unworthy to guide these people, and I need not riches, I need not fame, I need not victory over my enemies, I need wisdom from on high.

He sends them away. He’s not like his father, is he? He’s not like his father who, when two prostitutes come before him, before Solomon and they say, this is my son. No, this is my son. He listens to the story. One of their sons has died and one is left and they’re both claiming him. And Solomon says, well, split the child in half and give one half to both. And that was what allowed Solomon to understand that’s the mother and that’s not. There’s nothing like that with Rehoboam, isn’t there? He goes to the elders.

And he says, what should I do? What ought I to do? And they tell him, if you would be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever. If he had only stopped right there and gone to God and said, is this what you would have me do, Lord? Would you have me come before them and lighten the load and be of service to them and a help to them?

But you see, the wheels are already in motion for the dividing of the kingdom. Or shall I say, the wheels are already beginning to come off. Sin divides, and the sin of Rehoboam is going to divide God’s kingdom and David’s kingdom if you would be a servant to this people today. I don’t think that thought had even entered into his mind, the idea of being a servant to these people.

After all, I’m the king. I’m the leader. They are my servants. Isn’t that right? So he goes to his friends. That was common in that time for a young man to grow up with many friends who, while he is being groomed to be the king, they are his council and they are being groomed to be a part of his kingdom, to have high ranks in that kingdom.

He says, my friends, you’ve known me for all my life. What do you say that I do? They say, you ought to say to them that my little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. What is he saying? Some people would read into this. There’s a certain innuendo about certain body parts not little fingers. I don’t think that is what’s going on here. I maybe could be convinced of that. What he’s saying is, basically, if you thought my father was bad, just wait till you get a load of me. No way to serve a people.

Well, we can make comments about the way that youth makes great mistakes, can’t we? Some people would say, why is youth wasted on the young? Others would say, elect a teenager while they still know everything. You may have seen bumper stickers and t-shirts that would say things like this.

But youth is no excuse for the foolish ways of Rehoboam. For we need only read just a few chapters later. And his age is given to us, the age in which he begins to reign. 41 years old. His foolishness, we can’t dismiss as the foolishness of youth, seems to be the foolishness of unbelief. Again, so different than his father. His father was so young when he began to reign. There is a change going on from one to the other. How can a man who sits under the proverbs of Solomon like this, like surely no one else has ever sat under them, how can he be so foolish? It certainly ought to give us pause, should it not?

There are some who grow up under the greatest parents they could have ever imagined. And they turn out to be terrible, terrible people. Others would grow up under terrible parents. And God gives them wisdom. from on high. He gives them the Spirit. He gives them Christ that saves.

Certainly ought to cause us to understand that here’s one who surely was not spared the rod. Does not the Proverbs say, spare the rod, spoil the child? Surely it must not have been spared upon him. But what does it happen? He grows up to be a tyrant.

Certainly, certainly that’s the way we ought to raise our kids. We gain wisdom from the way the Proverbs speak to us. But there will always be exceptions. We do not put too much stock in our parents, in the good ways that they led us, though it is good. We ought not to blame our parents for our horrible childhood. We ought to praise God for his grace to us, to draw us out of a wonderful family or to draw us out of a broken family. To God be the glory in all things having to do with our parents. and our upbringing.

So the kingdom is divided. The people say, we have no portion with David. But if they have no portion with David, how can they have the blessings of David? They don’t realize. Rehoboam sends his taskmaster out. He sends out Adoram and he says, He tries to bring order to these people. This is Rehoboam throwing Hail Marys to use football language. He’s trying to keep the kingdom together that he has just torn apart. He sends adorem and they don’t adore him. They stone him. What a tragedy that is. So, another Hail Mary.

He gets together 180,000 men. These 180,000 men are going to bring war upon the northern tribes. What’s going on here is Rehoboam is going to be king of the southern tribes and Jeroboam is going to be anointed king of the northern tribes. The Lord had told him he was going to have 10 tribes. Told Jeroboam that is. So they’re ready for war. Brothers against brothers. A divided kingdom. A civil war.

But a prophet comes and his name is Shemaiah. Which means, the Lord hears. And Shemaiah speaks. But here, it’s not the Lord who hears. It’s the Lord who speaks. And it is the people who hear. They hear the word of Shemaiah. What does he say? There’s no blood shed today. This splitting of the kingdom is of me. It is of the Lord. God has planned to use the sinful and foolish ways of Rehoboam to split this kingdom. And so, the story goes on to tell us of how Jeroboam realizes that he has these 10 kingdoms on his hands.

But worship is what unites people, is it not? And worship would possibly reunite all of Israel, that is, the southern and the northern tribes. So he says, what we must do is not allow the people to go down into Judah to worship there for the feasts. He sets up rival worship places.

He goes to Dan, which incidentally is the tribe by which idolatry is originally entered into the camp of Israel during the time of Moses. And Bethel, which Interestingly is the house of God. So you take those northern tribes and he has one place in the north and one place in the south. He sets up golden calves and he says, Israel, these are the gods that brought you up out of Egypt, the land of bondage.

Certainly very significant. What else does he do? He sets up feast days. Feast days to rival the feast days of the Southern Kingdom. He doesn’t have any Levites. He takes care of that. He just makes some people into priests. You see the way that sin divides and divides and divides. Think about what he’s doing. He points to these golden calves and he says, these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt. It’s one thing to worship a false god. That is sin. But it is equally sin to worship the true God in a false way.

Dr. Gidley mentioned briefly in our morning instruction time why we worship the way that we do at Grace Church. We have other churches around, maybe by some accounts more entertaining, rock bands and things like that. We understand that we want to be very careful in the way that we worship our God. We want to worship Him according to what we believe He has told us, not according to our preferences. It’s very easy to slip into worshiping the true God in a way that is false.

We must be very careful. We must check what we do, our practices against Scripture. Very tragic. Sin divides. So, what do we have? We have two kingdoms, rival kingdoms, with rival worship now. It’s very sad. It begins to set the stage for the rest of, almost the rest of how your Old Testament is going to read. You see, this kingdom is like a plane. that comes apart in the air. And one part begins to fall, and the other part comes up a little bit high, pieces of a plane, before it begins to descend as well.

The Northern tribes continue in the wicked ways of Jeroboam, worshiping false gods. And in the 8th century BC, The Lord brings the dreaded Assyrians against them from the east, and I take them away. The other piece of the broken plain, which is descending as well, enters into much sin. Southern kingdoms last about two centuries longer and then the dreaded Babylonians, who by that time are the major kingdom of the earth, they come and take away the southern kingdoms. It’s very sad. All from the sin of one man tragedy of tragedies. I don’t need to give you examples of the way that sin divides. It can divide churches, divides marriages and families and schools, divides everything. It’s destructive.

The Old Testament prophets were looking for a day when this kingdom would be brought back together. I think of Ezekiel 37. When you think of Ezekiel 37, The portion of that that gets most of the air time is the idea of bones, a valley of bones spread out, Ezekiel prophesying to them and them being raised. A picture of our salvation, a picture of our resurrection. But if you read the other half, it’s very interesting.

The Lord tells Ezekiel, you take a stick And that stick, it represents Judah. You take another stick, and that represents Israel, and you bring these together to a point they become one stick once again. You see, what God is promising Ezekiel, that the kingdom is going to be reunited again. We read just two weeks ago from Isaiah chapter 11, where God is going to gather his people once again. Indeed, there are many places in the prophets where it’s very clear that the prophets are longing for the day when God’s promises will be fulfilled and he will bring those two kingdoms back together. Are you longing for that day? I am not. Neither should you. That day has already come. For the prophecies of the Old Testament are not fulfilled in a future Israel that is still future for us. The prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled for us in Christ’s church.

I would read to you the word from Ephesians chapter 2, where the Apostle writes to Gentiles, and he is speaking of the reuniting of Christ’s kingdom, Christ the son of David. Ephesians 2, 12. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” In the Old Testament, there is a wall of hostility between North and South. But as it is so often with God’s fulfilling of His prophecies, the fulfillment is greater than the promise. For the Old Testament prophets were looking for a day when simply this one nation would come together. But in Christ, God gathers from the whole world all types of people and he makes them to be under the one king. He makes them to be a holy nation and a royal priesthood. He causes them to have one land, be one people, and have one King.

Indeed, in Christ, we can say that the Passover is not a past event. For Christ, His blood has been put over our doorposts. We can say that salvation has come upon this house. Those who know Him And it is not simply the gathering of ethnic peoples from one nation that share for the most part a religion and a same heritage.

We read in Revelation chapter 7 that God is gathering people from every tribe and people and nation and language. Do you see the way that the fulfillment is so much greater? because Christ is gathering by His blood. That’s the thing that unites us all. He is gathering black people and white people, Asian people and Arab people, island people, making all of them one holy nation that shall enter into the new Canaan. and the new Jerusalem.

In eternity past, the Father and the Son covenanted together. They decided how they would rescue mankind, humankind. We do not know the language that was used, for God’s thoughts and His ways are higher than ours. But can you see the father saying to the son, if you would be servant to this people and you would serve them, you would die for them and give your precious blood to save them for all eternity. And if you would be a servant to this people, you would wash their feet. you would lower yourself and humble yourself that you might be exalted and that they might be exalted to sit at your right hand. Brothers and sisters, I give you Rehoboam, son of Solomon, grandson of David, uniter excuse me, divider of the kingdom. And I give you the Lord Jesus Christ, the uniter or reuniter of the people and of the kingdom once again.

We, brothers and sisters, are as a pilgrim people, wandering in the wilderness, but we will, just as the people of old, pass through the River Jordan on dry land and enter into Christ’s covenant land, namely the New Jerusalem, which will come down from heaven, the place where it is. Do you understand that David has not crossed into that yet? Moses has not, Joshua has not. Many of them, they went through that land in the Old Testament, but they have not entered into that new Canaan, that new Jerusalem, which is a heavenly land.

They’re waiting. They’re waiting for their resurrection. They’re waiting for the reunion with all of God’s people They are waiting for Christ the Lord to bring that last day. They are waiting for you. They are waiting for all the rest of God’s elect people.

For when the last elect person is saved, sometime after that, Christ will bring the last day, and He will cause us to be in a great way, that one king, that one kingdom entering into that land. And it will be forever one land, not two lands. Forever one people, not two people. And there will forever be one king, not two kings. And we will live in that land, which will be indivisible. with holiness and righteousness for all. Amen. Let us pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

September 2, 2012
A Shoot from the Stump of Jesse

About this sermon

Isaiah 10 and 11 promise that a remnant will return and that a shoot will come from the stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots on whom the Spirit of the Lord will rest. Matthew’s genealogy passes through Jesse and David, the shepherd boy anointed king. The Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation rested on Jesus at his conception and his baptism for the work of new creation. He will stand as a banner for the nations, and like the serpent Moses lifted up, he was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself.

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Sermon transcript

Firstly, Isaiah chapter 10, starting at verse 20. Give ear, this is the word of God. Now in that day, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord God of hosts will execute in the midst of the holy of the whole land. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you the way Egypt did. For in a very little while, my indignation against you will be spent and my anger will be directed to their destruction. Lord of Hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the Rock of Oreb, and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it up the way he did in Egypt. So it will be in that day that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.

He has come against Ayath. He has passed through Migran. At Mikmash, he deposited his baggage. They have gone through the pass, saying, Geba will be our lodging place. Ramah is terrified, and Gilead of Saul has fled away. Cry aloud with your voice, O daughter of Galim. Pay attention, Laishah. and wretched Anathoth. Madmanah has fled, the inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge, but today he will halt at Nob. He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Behold, the Lord, the God of hosts, will lop off the bows with a terrible crash. Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down and those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron ax and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one.

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord, and he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

His righteousness will be like the belt about his loins. and faithfulness the belt about his waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again regard will again recover the second time the will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the islands of the sea and he will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim.

They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them. And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt. And he will wave his hand over the river with his scorching wind, and he will strike it into seven streams and make men walk over dry shod. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of his people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Let’s turn to Matthew chapter 1 as we read briefly. Matthew chapter 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. So ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word. May it be a blessing to all of us today. Let us pray for that.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this word that you have given. We thank you for the promise that you have made that where your spirit is, where your word is read, those two will come together. We sense your spirit here even as we read this word. We ask that your Holy Spirit would be upon all of us as we listen and as the word is preached. May it reach down to the very depths of our hearts and our souls and our minds. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Today we continue our study of Matthew’s genealogy, the genealogy of Jesus, which is found in Matthew. It’s been a few weeks, but I might refresh us where we have been in weeks past. We have talked about what it means for Jesus to be the son of Abraham. We’ve talked about what it means for Jesus to be the son of David. But now we come to discuss what it must mean for Jesus to be born of Jesse. Jesse is the father of David.

As we examine this, as we look this first chapter of Matthew, we must have in our minds what the first century Hebrew reader would have in his mind. One who is well aware of his Old Testament, has read it, has known it from his earliest years. What does it mean? that Jesus would be born the son of Jesse. Who is Jesse, after all? We should look at first things first. As I said, Jesse is the father of King David, but David was not born a king. Jesse was the father of David in a small, obscure town called Bethlehem. We would not have known much about Bethlehem had not major things happened there much later.

But there Jesse is, just your average man, your humble man, humble by the biblical reckoning, humble in fortune, humble in societal standing. There comes a day when the Lord was angry at Saul and at his house, and no longer would the Lord have David, no longer rather would the Lord have Saul to be king over Israel. And it came time for a new king Samuel the prophet, Samuel the judge, goes looking for that king. And the Lord, by the Spirit, brings him to Bethlehem and to the house of Jesse, this obscure and average man who has many sons. And one by one, the sons of Jesse come before Samuel. And the Lord tells Samuel, you must not judge by appearance. The Lord doesn’t judge that way. I will reveal to you the one who is the son, who is to be the king. And so the first son goes before Samuel. And that first son is Eliab.

This is not the one. The second son goes by. His name is Abinadab. This is not the one. Do not judge by appearance. Judge by the heart. It’s said multiple times. Another son comes by, Shammah. That is not the one. Samuel asks, do you have more sons? Where are they? Well, we have one. He’s the youngest. We wouldn’t have thought it would be him that you would be asking for.

He’s out keeping sheep. So they say, bring him in. And Samuel lays eyes on David. And the Lord says, this is the one. This is the one who is to be king. Anoint him. And so Samuel takes that horn of oil and he pours it over King David. And then he flees. Then he leaves.

David is to be king. David later rose to great prominence in the nation. First of all, simply just playing music for King Saul to calm his nerves. But eventually there came the day when he would be king. And he had a glorious reign. A tumultuous reign at times. A reign that at times seems to hang by just a thread. But at other times is secure.

But really at all times it is secure because he stood upon the rock which was his god. Generations later, we come to our text, which is Isaiah chapter 10 and 11. What’s the context of Isaiah chapter 10 and 11? There’s still a son of David who is reigning upon the throne, but his name is Ahaz, and he is not a righteous man. The glory has faded from that kingdom. And there is terror in this king. He is afraid of other nations coming in.

So the Lord sends Isaiah to come and minister to him. Isaiah prophesied by the Spirit of the Lord. Some of those prophecies are some of the most well-known in the entire Bible. You hear them in December, in late December at the time that many people call Christmas time, where we have the prophecy of the virgin birth. Isaiah prophesies that to Ahaz. He talks about one who is going to come and God’s spirit is going to rest on him.

His name is Emmanuel, which is God with us. Isaiah prophesies to Ahaz. that one is going to come whose kingdom is so glorious and so great that its government will never decrease. David’s kingdom is decreasing with Ahaz on the throne. But this kingdom is going to expand and expand and expand forever.

We also read I should say we read in chapter 10 about the Assyrians who are coming. The Assyrians are the instrument of God to punish Israel because they have been unfaithful to the covenant as a national body. And we even read in there that they have been trusting in their enemy. They’ve been trusting in Assyria. You see, at times they are trusting in Egypt, and other times they’re trusting in Assyria. But Assyria is becoming the most powerful one.

The Lord reveals that He is going to punish the Assyrians. In fact, He is going to punish the Assyrians for what they do to God’s people. In Isaiah chapter 10, 15, we are told that Assyria is an axe, an arrogant, boastful axe that is going to come and lop off the trees.

That is, lop off the branches and make Israel into a forest, a former forest, now just a field of stumps. Rest assured, Ahaz, it’s not always going to be like that, because when I punish Assyria in my sovereignty, I will do the same, and I will make them as a forest of stumps, or a former forest, for they will all be cut down, trees chopped, the trees felled. And that’s how chapter 10 ends. But then, we have a glorious picture. The tone changes in Isaiah chapter 11, does it not?

Have you ever gone into someone’s house, or maybe you have one of these, a picture frame. A picture frame for a child. And it has a picture of the child in the middle. But all around it are other pictures of that child. Maybe some of you have that. I don’t know what the name is for such a frame. You go over to your neighbor’s house and they have children who have all moved out of the house. And you look at this frame. Well, who’s this?

Well, that’s my son, Timmy. He’s all grown up now. And you look at the first picture and you say, well, what’s this? Well, this is the time we brought him home from the hospital. This is the first picture. Well, what’s the second picture? Well, the second picture is his first day of kindergarten. Well, what’s the next one? Oh, that’s first grade. What about the next one? Well, that’s his piano recital. What’s the next one? It’s the time he was a quarterback and he threw a winning touchdown, his Eagle Scout.

Each one of these pictures tells the story of this child. This is what Isaiah is giving to us. He is giving a picture. He’s giving a frame with many pictures that we can look at all at once in Isaiah chapter 11. Picture after picture after picture of the one who is to come. But this is a very different picture. What would you say of someone who brings his child home from the hospital and he has already one of those frames. It’s already set up.

And he says, this is what my son is going to be like. This is when he’s going to earn his Eagle Scout. And this is when he’s going to be a quarterback and win the championship. This is his first day of kindergarten and first grade and second grade and on.

You would think that person was a bit strange and rightfully so. But whereas we as people would look back, our God, he gives the picture beforehand and gives us the opportunity to identify him on this frame and look into the future and see what this one is going to be like. Well, what is this one going to be like? Well, we see in the first verse that he is as a shoot that sprouts up. Now, remember what we have said.

A former forest, I think we can’t call it a forest anymore if it’s just a field full of stumps. But out of one of those stumps, a sprout comes up. What stump must that be? It must be the stump of Jesse, of the line of David. This stump grows up. It begins, it sprouts. Rather, the shoot grows. But we must understand that this shoot is greater than all of the formerly towering trees that came before. For this little shoot is our Lord Jesus Christ, and he is beginning to sprout and to come up, that he might eventually become the wonderful tree that gives fruit unto the earth.

That is how you’ll identify him. He is a glorious shoot that comes from Jesse’s line. How else will you recognize him? Verse 2, this is the man of the Spirit. The Spirit of God will rest upon him such that the Spirit of the Lord will rest giving him wisdom and understanding and counsel and strength and knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. We remember the second verse of the Bible. God’s Holy Spirit hovering over the water, creating the world. That same Spirit is going to rest on this man, and you’ll see Him if you’re able to identify Him. But that Spirit who once brought about creation will be upon this one for the purposes of recreation.

The Spirit was upon the Lord Jesus at His birth, For he was born, he was conceived of by the Holy Spirit, by Mary. When Jesus was baptized, when he was about to begin his ministry, what do we read? Nothing more than we read in Matthew. 316 that when Jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest upon him. This is the man of the Spirit.

That is the picture that Isaiah gives, that God gives through Isaiah. At his resurrection The Spirit is upon Him as well. The Spirit is upon Him in such a way that He brings Jesus back to life. It is the revivifying Spirit of God that has rested upon Him His whole life and especially comes upon Him in His death. That creating Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis 1-2, hovers over the Lord Jesus Christ at His resurrection. And Jesus is raised life-giving Spirit.

And that is what He does. He gives life. For after He was raised, He receives the Holy Spirit. as a gift from His Father, as a gift for His obedience, so that He might dispense that Spirit to us. If we have trusted, if we have known the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have trusted alone in His resurrection and in His cross. And truly, He has given life to us. And He has given us the knowledge, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of understanding. And He causes the people of God to reverence that Son.

We move on to the next picture that we see beforehand, not looking back but before, that this one is going to be a judge. We see this in verses three through five. And he is going to judge rightly. What do we read about? As I said earlier, first Samuel 16, at the anointing of David, Samuel’s cautioned, don’t judge by appearance.

That is because the man of the spirit, the shoot who is going to come out of your Jesse’s stump, is one who will not judge by appearance. He is going to have the type of, the ability to look inside the mind of all people and know their thoughts. He is going to be one who has the ability to look into the heart of a man. There is nothing that can be hidden from this man of the spirit. and He will judge the poor, He will know the poor, and He will show graciousness to them, especially to those who are poor in spirit, that is, those who know that they are lost without the grace of God.

And he will judge between the hypocritical, self-righteous Pharisee, whose religion is only external, whose fruit is only fruit that is, as it were, stapled onto a tree. He will judge between that one, and he will judge between the one who is trusting in God, and whose fruit comes from God alone.

We move on to the next picture, that is verses 6 and 9, the next picture on the frame. And this is one who is going to bring peace. Peace of an unbelievable sort. In metaphorical language, Isaiah talks about animals that are ordinarily at odds with one another. One seeks to prey upon the other. Wolves and lambs will be at peace with one another. Leopards and young goats. Lions and fattened calves. Fattened calves. Cows and bears. All of these will be at peace.

Well, if it was only peace between animals, it wouldn’t be such a great thing. It’s really just a picture of something far greater. This one will bring peace between man and man. This one will cause people to lay down their weapons, their war, and say, no more war. You are my brother. You are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as well. This one will bring so much peace that he will bring peace between Jew and Gentile. This is something that would have been unfathomable at the time. But he brings it. But if he brought peace between man and man, as impressive as that would be, The peace that He truly brings is peace between God and man.

Do you realize that if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are at war with Him and He is your enemy? You do not want God as your enemy. So the Lord Jesus Christ sees this war and He comes in to intercede that He might be fully man and fully God, so that He might atone and make peace. God must bring wrath upon man for sin. God brings wrath upon the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Indeed, He became sin. That is, the one who knew no sin became sin, that we who are sinners might be set free. How else will you identify Him?

Verse 10. This is one who will set up a banner, a signal, a flag, a sign or an end sign. Who would do that? Well, I want to make it very clear to you that the banner that is set up is not a banner, it’s not a big blue banner that says for Christ’s crown and covenant. It is not that.

This is nothing other than Christ’s cross The agony that He endured upon the cross is something that all people are to look to and to be saved. In the same way that Moses placed a serpent up high so that those who had been bitten would look to it and be saved, equally so, the Lord Jesus Christ’s cross is set up that it draws men and women and children to it. That is how you will know this one. Jesus says in John 3, verse 14, that even as that snake was raised up even so, I, the Son of Man, will be raised up to draw all people to myself.

There is something significant about a cross. Our country was just a group of colonies until they came together, fought a war, and then had a flag so that everyone who would look at that flag would say, that’s a sign of our country. When the United States first went to the moon, what did they do? They put a flag in it to say, we were the first ones, so that all would see that we won the race. Equally, in fact, far greater, Jesus Christ raises the flag, or the end sign, and that is his torturous cross. Do you hear Him groaning upon that cross to atone for your sins, for yours and mine?

We see in 11 through 16 that this is one who is going to be a gatherer. He is going to gather. From all of the nations, his people, his elect, he’s going to draw in the people that he loves, the ones he has set his love upon. And there will eventually be a highway so that his people can come from what were once enemy lands. the Assyrians, the Egyptians, those lands will have a highway so that God’s people will go straight to Jerusalem and to Zion. but this is not an earthly Jerusalem. Christ is the one who builds the highway so that we might reach Jerusalem ourselves, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Zion which is above and which is free, that Zion which is our mother according to Galatians chapter 4.

Paul, rather, even understands it this way when he quotes this passage. Listen to Romans 15, 12. It should sound familiar to you. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles hope. We have no hope other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you were paying extra close attention, you might have noticed something a bit strange. In verse 10. I’ll read it to you. Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse. The root of Jesse.

Well, didn’t we start talking about the shoot? Is Jesus the root? Or is he the shoot? Which could it be? I think what Isaiah is saying here, subtly, he’s not displaying his lack of understanding of botany. This is not a scribal error or anything like that. this one who is that shoot that springs up out of that stump is a root as well or has a deep root you might ask yourself though why of all the biblical figures did isaiah use jesse jesse’s not as well known he’s a bit obscure he has such a minor role. Why did he not say the shoot that comes out of David? I think very clearly the reason is because Isaiah, the Holy Spirit through Isaiah, does not want to speak of Jesse. He wants to speak about someone who is with roots deeper than Jesse, one who also comes from Bethlehem.

And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For the Lord Jesus Christ is the King, but He is the Creator of all things. He is the Son of David, But, at the same time, he is David’s Lord. He is the son of Jesse. But he is the creator of Jesse. Jesse came from Jesus. And Jesus came from Jesse.

And this one, with root it that deep, died upon a cross. And here we have this picture of this One who was to come and now has come. And we can look back with clearer eyes upon this passage and see the glory of this shoot, the One in whom we have life. The One who is the radiance of the Father’s glory, shining brightly Yet dying upon the cross while the sky grows dark around him. Dying for our sins. This is what it means to be born of Jesse. And this message must get through. to the first century Hebrew, and it must get through to us as well. He is the shoot, the man of the spirit, the one who is the judge who brings peace, the one who points us all to His sign, which is the cross.

Praise be His name for eternal life that comes 100% by grace and not by works. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us not to see Jesus on the surface as He was seen, but help us to understand how deep His roots go, in fact, they grow. In fact, they go into eternity past. For He was with you in the beginning. He is the one with no beginning. Praise to His name. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

August 19, 2012
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: Son of Abraham

About this sermon

Matthew calls Jesus the son of Abraham. God promised Abraham a great name and offspring as numerous as the stars, a gift of grace, not a reward. Then he told Abraham to offer Isaac, his only son, on Mount Moriah, and provided a ram in his place. Isaac carrying the wood is a type of Christ, but God did not spare his own Son. As Galatians 3 explains, Christ is the true offspring of Abraham, and all who believe in him are Abraham’s children and heirs of the promise.

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Sermon transcript

At this time, let us open in God’s Word to Genesis 22. Genesis 22 is found on page 14 of your Old Testament. And then our other reading will be from Matthew chapter 1. That is found on page 1 of your New Testament, remembering, again, that the pagination begins again when we go to the New Testament of the Bible, which is in our pews. Here we read of the offering of Isaac. Let us give close attention, for this is the Word of God. Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. He said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. Then he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose, and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.

So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. And he said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day. In the mount of the Lord it will be provided. The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven.

And said, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you. And I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. in your seat all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Let’s open to Matthew chapter 1, just reading a few verses there. 1, 1, and 2, and then 17. Hear the Word of God once again. The record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. and then down to 17. So all the generation from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.

So in the reading of God’s Holy Word, let us briefly pray. Our Heavenly Father, We are without Christ if we do not believe in Him. Help us to believe in Jesus Christ. Help us to know Him. Cause us, O Lord, to rejoice in our Savior and to not lose heart and to not lose faith. Strengthen our faith. Give us assurance of even our own salvation. Do this by giving us assurance of all that your Son has done. For we understand, we believe, we know that He has died and He rose again for us. Empower us this day, O Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen. Well, we continue our study of the genealogy of Jesus, which is in the first chapter of Matthew.

Last week, we looked at what it means to be son of David. This week, we look at what it means to be son of Abraham. That is supposed to mean a lot to us. Jesus Christ is son of Abraham. But what does it truly mean that Jesus is the son of Abraham? Is it even that significant to be called a son of Abraham?

At church camp, many young people sing a song that goes something like this. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let’s all praise the Lord. Maybe many of you sang that. It’s been around for a long, long time.

Well, if we’re gonna say that Jesus is son of Abraham, we’re gonna think, that’s really significant. But if everyone at church camp is son of Abraham, Maybe it’s not so significant at all. John the Baptist seemed to speak about being a son of Abraham as somewhat common as well. You see, the time that John the Baptist went about preaching and preparing the day of Jesus’ coming and his ministry There were people who said, we are the sons of Abraham, so we’re blessed. Basically, people who are used to being coddled their whole life say, they’re there.

You’re a son of Abraham. And John says, son of Abraham means nothing. God can take these stones and make them into sons of Abraham. So Jesus is son of Abraham. That’s supposed to be significant, but everybody at church camp is, and God can just raise these stones to be sons of Abraham. Maybe it’s not that significant at all. Or maybe it is very significant that Jesus Christ is the son of Abraham.

We’re gonna look into that, we’re gonna delve into the significance of what that means. But first, we must just do a study of Abraham’s life. I might just go through some of the high points that are revealed to us in God’s Word about this one. In order to understand what a son of Abraham is, we have to understand who Abraham is.

This might be a little bit of review for some of you, but for some of you, you may be hearing this for the first time. Abraham was born Abram. God is going to change his name later on. It’s in the early chapters of the book of Genesis we read about Abram, who’s later Abraham.

And he lived in one of the most fabled cities of the ancient world, named Ur. And that city was famous for being a rich suburban community with high culture, with fabulous architecture, with vast wealth, with comfortable homes, with music and art. Sounds like Swickly a bit.

This was 4,000 years ago this man lived But we are told in the book of Joshua that Abraham worshiped other gods. He did not worship the God who created all things. God calls him to leave civilization as he knew it, to travel to Canaan. And there he lived almost 100 years.

So the Lord comes to Abram and he says, I will bless you and make your name great. In you, Abram, all the families of the earth will be blessed. How about that? God comes and says, I’m going to make your name great. There are a lot of people who are working very hard to make their name great. And who wouldn’t want their name to be great? We certainly would love for people to speak well of us in every household in the land. There are many people who are working very hard at that.

But God bestows this upon Abraham by grace. It’s not anything that Abraham did. God shows his grace and kindness and says, your name is going to be great in all of the land. It is God’s prerogative to raise up some of his servants and bless them beyond their own understanding, anything that they could even fathom. And that is what he does. to Abram. He blesses him. But at that time, Abram had no children. And that was a perplexing problem for him, as it would be for anyone who has an estate the size of Abram’s. So he complains to the Lord. Because who’s going to take over the estate when he passes it on?

In chapter 15 of Genesis, we have one of the high points in redemptive history. The Lord comes to Abram and he says, I am your shield and I am your great reward. God says he’s going to bless him, but he protests there. He says, you haven’t blessed me. You said I’m going to have a son. You said I’m going to have seed, but you haven’t given me that.

And if I were to die, there would be a man named Eliezer of Damascus who would just take over my estate. Apparently Eliezer of Damascus is one who was high up, maybe the highest ranking member in Abram’s household. And that’s the person who’s going to take over. He has no one to give all of these things to that comes from him.

So the Lord takes him outside of his tent And he points him to the stars. And he says, look toward heaven, Abram. Number the stars if you are able to number them. Then God said to Abram, so shall your offspring be. Can anyone count the stars? It would be a very difficult thing to do for those of us who have tried it. It doesn’t end well.

It’s at that point Abram believes God and it is accounted to him as righteous. One of the highest points of the Old Testament, as I said. He believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. What this means is that he was reckoned as righteous before God. By simply believing what God said, by trusting in God’s word, he has a right standing before God. It’s very important that we understand this passage, Genesis 15, where we read about this.

We understand that we are sinners as Abraham was, as Abram at the time was. How are we going to be right by God? How are we going to be right before him? Is there an amount of things that we can do that will eventually reach a point where God will say, now I accept you.

You have done enough good works. Not at all. Salvation is of the Lord. God gives His servants, whom He wants to bestow upon them, He bestows upon them faith as a gift. And that faith is the instrument that makes us right with God. For we throw ourselves upon God fully, acknowledging that He is right and that He is just, that we are unholy, and He saves us by faith, and by faith alone. He saves us by faith plus nothing. Abram is the model of that. He is the picture of one who has faith, and we are all to have faith in God and trust Him, for He is worthy to be trusted and praised.

It’s just a couple chapters later, Genesis 17, where we have, again, another high watermark of God’s redemptive history. In Genesis 17, we have circumcision. The whole household of Abram is to be circumcised. Circumcision is to be a sign and a seal of the faith that Abram By that time, this is chapter 17, I can quit calling him Abram. Abraham had.

It is an external ceremony. that is a picture of what God does within the person. It is, we could say, a cutting away of that which is excess. And if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what? We have had a circumcision of our hearts. God has cut away that which is vile. God has done heart surgery upon us. very significant that the whole household of God was to be circumcised in the Old Testament. All of the seed, or all of the offspring, were to be circumcised. All of the men, all of the boys at that time.

Have you ever contemplated what is the the common what brings chapter 15 and 17 of Abram’s life together what brings the stars looking at the stars in the sky and circumcision what I mean is this when we look at the stars there aren’t too many we have what is called light pollution City lights drown out, they choke out the lights that we would see.

So only the brightest stars shine for us to see, unless we go to the country, we go out of town. But even then, I’ve read of Alaskan religions that they’re losing their religion. Because they’re based on the stars, and city life is getting rid of that because they can’t see the stars anymore. Well, obviously, the right option is to become Christians. That’s what we’d hope, right?

Abram lived outside of town. He moves away from Ur, and he was a wilderness wanderer. he would have had a lot of stars in the sky. There was no light pollution. It was very dark. Now the thing that brings the stars of the sky and looking at them and circumcision, what I’m about to say, I don’t want you to think that I’m simply being provocative or crass. What I want you to understand is these are real people in our Bible. real historical people who struggled with all kinds of things. Real things.

Abram was an older man. And as an older man, some may testify to this, when you reach the point of middle age or so, things begin to change. The male bladder and the male prostate so that he’s not as young as he used to be, he begins to have to go to the bathroom multiple times in the night. And so every time Abram would wake up to go to the bathroom, leaving the tent, there he was, the most simple, the most basic of human activities.

The sand, must have reflected the stars. And there he looks up, reminded of God’s promise with circumcision, reminded of God’s promise with the stars, sometimes multiple times in the night. But also, in his intimacy with his wife, circumcision once again.

You see, the most basic and drab of human activity to one of the highest heights of his relationship with his wife, God is testifying to Abraham that you’re going to have seed, that you’re going to have seed that is going to be innumerable. You won’t be able to count them all. And that is exactly what God does. God in his kindness promises this.

But as we read the testimony of Abram, who becomes Abraham, and believe me, we’re just gonna really, we only read chapter 22. We could have read the whole thing, but I spared you that. Let me just read you some of the promises that God gives. Genesis chapter 12, seven.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your offspring will I give this land. Look at this land, it’s going to go to your offspring, to your seed. Genesis 13, 15, all the people that you see, I will give to you. And all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.

And then Genesis 17, 7, once again, talking about offspring or seed. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

If we read Genesis, who is the seed of Abraham? very clearly the seed of Abraham is Isaac, the child of the promise. He is the seed. But it goes beyond that, because God brings out of Isaac, Jacob, out of Jacob, the 12 tribes, ultimately with some distinction, and those 12 tribes They end up being so numerous that they cannot be counted. Isaac is son of Abraham. But all of those innumerable people are sons of Abraham as well. And some of the rival nations, when they went into battle with them, saw that they covered the face of the earth. They were an innumerable number to people. God knew the number.

But before all those things happened, Abraham had to be tested. And that’s why we read Genesis chapter 22. Surely a heart-wrenching thing for Abraham to endure. The Lord says, you must take your son, your only son, and you must sacrifice him Many of you, being parents, you just think, I could not imagine slitting my son or my daughter’s throat. But as anomalous as it may seem, God told him, you must do that.

Now we are told later that this seed Abraham had had confidence in what God could do for this seed. Hebrews 11, 19 tells us that Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. That is what Abraham was counting on. He was hopeful in that.

He says, the Lord has promised me great things. and how can he allow me, how can he make me snuff my son’s life from existence? Surely God is going to raise him from the dead, and out of this, my only seed, God is going to bless all of the nations. But just in the nick of time, Just as he is going to put his son to death, we hear those words that are so comforting. Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

We see that Isaac, in one sense, is a type of Christ. But ultimately, the type of Christ is not Isaac there. For Isaac is moved off of the place where the burnt offering is going to happen. Because as Abraham said would happen, it does happen. The Lord will provide the sacrifice. And it was not a lamb at that point, it was a ram. And that became the sacrifice. Really that ram ends up being, as I said, the type or the picture of Christ.

But when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and the father smiting the son, there is no one who held back his hand. There was no one who could call to God the Father and say, God the Father, hold back your hand from this, your only begotten Son. We read of the power of our God. Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel chapter four, learns of God’s great power. And he specifically says there, in four, I believe, 35, I believe it is, that no one can hold back God’s hand. No one can say to him, what have you done? No one will be able to say that. Nebuchadnezzar the king, he felt God’s wrath, at least mildly. He understood that no one can hold back God’s hand. No one holds back God’s hand from smiting His Son so that we might be found in Him, so that we might have the forgiveness of sins, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and in Christ alone. Paul the Apostle writes about all the things that Abraham endured.

But if you would, open to Galatians chapter 3 if you’d like, or I’m going to read Galatians chapter 3 to you. Specifically just verse 16 I’m going to read, not the whole chapter. Listen to what Abraham, what Paul says about Abram, Abraham. Now the promises were made to Abram, Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring, who is Christ. many times in genesis the lord says i’m going to bless your seed i could count i read some of them for you and as you read it you it really appears to be the case that god is talking about the multitude of his seed the many many people who eventually become the ethnic people of Israel.

That’s the way you’d think about it as you’re reading it. But Paul understands differently, and Paul understands better even, that embedded within those promises of seed, there is a promise of seed. What I mean is, collective singular. Paul is using the collective singular. He says seed. Even Greek and Hebrew you can do this. Both languages.

You can speak of seed and you can mean many or you can mean one. It’s like us when we think of deer. You have one deer or you have many deer. You don’t have Lots of deers, right? Equally so, you can have seed or you can have many seed. It’s all the same. What I talked to you about last week was, I use the language again, the total eclipse of the sun.

God promises David a son to sit on his throne and God gives the Lord Jesus Christ so that there’s Solomon, but Christ comes and he takes the place so that ultimately we see that the long-term fulfillment is what it was really about. The same goes on here.

When God promises that there is going to be seed, it’s Isaac. But it’s also all of the many Israelites, all of the Hebrew people, but Jesus Christ, son of Abraham, Matthew 1, 1. He is, in a special and in a significant way, the one that it was really about.

So that you have Isaac, but Jesus comes along and replaces him, and he eclipses that son so that Jesus is truly Abraham’s son, the one that was looked for, the one who was promised. And Abraham looked forward to Jesus’s day. Jesus said so in John chapter 5, John chapter 8, 56, Father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. When Abraham heard that, He somehow was looking forward to Jesus Christ, the Messiah who was going to come. So we have Jesus eclipsing Isaac.

But it is certainly the case that that song is right. If we are trusting in Christ, if we are trusting in God alone, then we are sons of Abraham. Not in the same way that Jesus is, but by faith, for Paul tells us as much. He says, know then, Galatians chapter three, that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham. and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, i.e. us. God preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. If we have faith like Abraham, then we are blessed.

But if we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are Abraham’s sons. So we can say in a very real way, Father Abraham had one son. One son had Father Abraham. And that’s true, Jesus Christ is the son of Abraham, par excellence. But by faith in Christ, we are sons of Abraham as well. And we inherit an eternal and heavenly New Canaan land. It is ours by God’s gift if we have faith in Christ. Let us pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 8, 2012
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: Son of David

About this sermon

Matthew calls Jesus the son of David. In 2 Samuel 7 the Lord promised David a son on his throne whose kingdom would never be taken away, as Saul’s was; Solomon was an immediate fulfillment. When David’s line seemed to fail, Psalm 89 asked where the Lord’s steadfast love to David had gone. Hebrews applies the promise “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” to Jesus. The near fulfillment is eclipsed by the greater one: Christ, raised from the dead, reigns forever on David’s throne.

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Sermon transcript

Reading from Matthew chapter 1, the genealogy. The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Now verse 6, Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. And then lastly, verse 17, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.

So ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word. May it be a blessing to us all here today. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the beauty of this day. This day will not be beautiful unless you make good upon your promises to be with us by your Spirit and by your truth. And this, this practice, this activity, which is foolishness before the world, but which is mighty and powerful and glorious in heaven and glorious to your saints, to those who are believers in Christ.

We might even say to those who are knowers of Christ. For we know the Lord Jesus Christ. For to know Jesus Christ and to know you is to have eternal life. Bless us, O Father, in this, the preached word. In Jesus name we now pray. Amen. I would like to remind us of what we talked about last week because it is pertinent to what we’re going to talk about this week. But also it is the case that many people were gone last week and weren’t unable to be with us. Last week we read the entirety of Matthew’s genealogy and we looked very broadly at that. I pointed out to you last week the way that Matthew breaks this down.

He breaks down redemptive history or God’s story of redemption into 14 generations and then 14 generations and then 14 generations with each in between those 14 generations major portions or major eras of church history of the Old Testament, of redemptive history of the Old Testament. And what I put forward to you is that what Matthew is doing is proclaiming Jesus Christ to be the Sabbath and he is putting forward a literary week What he’s doing is taking 14-14-14, which comes to 7-7, 7-7, and 7-7. Six sevens. Six literary days, in a sense, before the Lord Jesus comes.

Well, while we looked at that last week and the way that Jesus is our Messiah and He’s the dawning of a new Sabbath day because Jesus in this literary week, He is the sinless one. We want to look not so broadly this week. We want to just focus in on what Matthew has to say. Some of the specifics of what he talks about.

You might look at the first verse where it says, the genealogy of Jesus, son of David, son of Abraham. Now last week, we wanted to look at this in the way that a first century Hebrew, a first century Jew would have read this gospel. equally so we want to do that today we want to see what it would mean for a first century jew to see jesus this messiah this christ this anointed one is son of david and so we look at that today David was a man who was in a covenant relationship with God.

Certainly all of us are in covenant relationship with God. We’re all either covenant breakers in Adam or we are covenant keepers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But within Old Testament redemptive history, certain people, God lays down covenants. Now a covenant is normally just an agreement between two people. They might shake hands or they might sign a paper to say that they are in covenant with one another. A married couple is in covenant with one another. They both agree to be so. But that’s not the way that biblical covenants work, at least in redemptive history. There’s no bartering or discussion. David’s not going to talk to God and talk about the stipulations and bargain. God comes and He lays down a covenant.

He says, this is the way it is going to be. Sometimes those covenants have burdens laid down upon the person, but there are rewards for obedience. And David must obey the Lord. But in this situation in which we find ourselves, 2 Samuel chapter 7, David has a little bit of peace. Understand, he is a man of blood. He is a man who has endured much war in his lifetime, but God gives him rest on all sides.

And he has some downtime, some free time. David is one who made good use of his free time, usually. When he was making good use of his free time, he’s praying and he’s writing Psalms to be used in the Old Covenant. So he’s thinking, what can I do? How can I serve the Lord? What can I do for him? He says, I’ve got a great idea. I want to build a house for the Lord. How can I live in a house or in a palace myself when the Lord lives in a tent? Now, how does the Lord live in a tent in the Old Covenant? The Lord lives in a tent in this way.

We must understand the Lord fills heaven and earth. Nothing can contain him. But the furniture of the Old Testament, particularly the Ark of the Covenant, that major piece of furniture that the Hebrew people took around with them for 40 years in the wilderness, It lives in a tent. That is a sign of God. God is with his people when that particular piece of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant, is with the people. God is with them, and they are with God. So Nathan, he says, sure. Sounds like a great idea.

Do whatever is in your heart. But it’s not long after that, it’s just later that night, that the Lord reveals himself to Nathan the prophet and he says, you need to tell my servant David a few things. First of all, you tell him he does not need to build a house for me. Have I asked for this? It certainly is an important lesson to learn that we do what God commands and not do what he has not commanded. God said, have I asked for that? Have I asked for you to build a house for me? No, I have not. And really God pours it on a bit saying, have I lacked anything while I have been living in a tent? Obviously the Lord, he lacks nothing. So I didn’t ask for it, and I have not lacked. And so the Lord kindly turns down David’s offer, doing it through Nathan the prophet. But never fear, David.

It is not as if the house of the Lord is never going to be built. The Lord will have a house built for him. And the Lord is going to build up David’s house as well. You see the grace of God here. Here’s this one who maybe somewhat misled, but had the right motive, says, I want to serve God in this way. I want to build him a house. David’s not asking for a house for himself, But the Lord in his grace and kindness says, you don’t need to do it, but I’m going to build up your house. That is what I am going to do. God’s grace, God’s kindness. But how is the Lord going to build the house of David?

It is in verse 12 where it begins to explain this and ultimately it’s going to be a family and a kingdom and a person, though it does come with a literal house at first. But God says to David, I’m going to give you a son. and he is going to sit on your throne. You’ll always have a son that’s going to sit on the throne. And I will not take away the kingdom from this son.

Now this is very important language for David to hear. He says, if this son of mine sins, it won’t be the case that God takes away the kingdom from him like he did to Saul. It’s important as we read God’s word, we read it in context. What happens to Saul? He sins and then the kingdom is taken away from him. He’s no longer the king of Israel because of the sins that he committed. Now, four chapters later, four chapters after 2 Samuel 7, David is going to sin. And we have that psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, where he says there, after having sinned, do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

It’s very important that he asks this, David. Some people would look at that, where David says, do not take your Holy Spirit from me, and they read it as if David is saying, do not take salvation from me. Do not take eternal life from me. There are people who say, who think that you can lose your salvation, and that’s a proof of it. Now there are others that would say, he’s praying that, but he’s just praying it in a hypothetical sense. He knows that once he is saved, he cannot be unsaved. See, to read it either one of those ways is to read that amiss.

That passage where he says, do not take your Holy Spirit from me, He’s saying, do not take your Holy Spirit from me as you did to Saul. You took the kingdom away from him. You took the spirit away from him. And he was molested by many types of spirits after that. And so David is saying, yes, I have sinned.

Please don’t let me lose the kingdom. That is the importance of what God is promising to David, that when David has a son and that son sins, God is not going to take the kingdom away from that one either. God is going to be merciful and gracious to that son. Undeserving mercy and grace is going to be his. David’s house, David’s throne, and David’s kingdom is going to be built up. That is the promise. that God gives.

Now we must understand that in a very real sense the Lord does fulfill this prophecy in Solomon. For Solomon does all the things that are promised here in a very real sense. You might go look at first Kings 5 through 8 where we have very careful descriptions of what Solomon does. Solomon builds the house of the Lord, and he also builds a palace for himself. He makes a deal with Hiram, one of the fellow kings, to get some of the wood and he builds it, and it is glorious.

You can read about it. There must have been nothing like it in all of the ancient Near Eastern world. I can’t imagine anything comparing to it. Sure, the pyramids must have been grand, many other temples to other gods, but this must have been something to see. The Lord fulfills it. God has been kind. setting a son to sit on his throne, giving him peace, building up David’s house.

But it’s not long after that that the kingdom is going to be divided. After Solomon passes, his son Rehoboam takes over, and he makes some very terrible youthful mistakes that end up splitting the whole kingdom. So we might explain just in broad strokes what goes on in our Bible. All of the Israelite nation, it is split up with Rehoboam, the literal son of Solomon. He’s in the south, and he rules in the southern kingdom. But above him is Jeroboam, Jeroboam was a wicked man who brought idolatry and worshiping false gods into the community.

And it is a split kingdom after that. All of the northern tribes, all of the kings are wicked. None of them is commended. but some, but not all, of the southern kings are commended for their righteousness and for their works and for their trust in the God of heaven and of earth. But what happens after that? The sinfulness of the northern kingdom spiraling out of control, the Assyrians come and take them away. The southern kingdom lasts a good while longer, but the righteousness of its kings, the righteousness of its sons of David, are not righteous enough. And eventually, generations later, the Babylonians come and take the southern kingdom away.

And so, what does that do to the prophecy? The prophecy is that a son is going to sit on the throne, fulfilled in Solomon, but there seems to be a continuation of it, or there should be a continuation of it forever, that always and forever God is going to have a son of David, maybe generation after generation after generation, but the sons have been unfaithful. God never took the kingdom away from Solomon, but he does take it away many generations from those who come after him. So what are we to do with this sort of conundrum? God says a son’s going to sit forever, and a son is not sitting on that throne during the time of the exporting the exile to Babylon.

It was right in the Old Testament for the covenant people to complain to the Lord, not against Him, but to complain to Him on the basis of things that He has promised but has not yet fulfilled. To pray and to pour yourself out and say, Lord, You promised this, this, and this, and You have not brought it about. If you were to look and meditate upon Psalm 89, you see just such a one. The psalmist there, his name is Ethan the Ezraite.

And he complains to the Lord, he says, Lord, don’t you remember what you said? Don’t you remember what you promised? Psalm 89, 49 says, Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. You think, don’t you remember? Aren’t you going to be faithful to what you said?

He is reminding the Lord even before that, before verse 49 of Psalm 89 in 89 29 he recites the words back to God he recites the the promises that God gave he says I will establish his offspring that is David’s offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens God promised it and the psalmist says please Lord I I’m being mocked. Your people are being made fun of because you won’t make good upon your covenant promises.

Now the Psalm 89 has a heading, as I said, Ethan the Ezraite. Who is Ethan the Ezraite? You might think with the way that this psalm reads, Psalm 89, you might think that this is a psalm that was composed during the time of the Babylonian exile. But what are we to do with the headline that says, Ethan the Ezraite? Ethan the Ezraite is named one time in our Bible.

He’s named in 1 Kings chapter 4, right at the end. I believe it’s 31. You might be thinking, I know what happens in the early parts of 1 Kings. That does not sound like a Babylonian exile. Ethan the Ezraite is compared with Solomon because Solomon’s wisdom is being spoken of. And the writer of 1 Kings is saying Solomon was wise. He was even wiser than Ethan the Ezraite. What are we to do with that? Exile’s not coming until generations later when they’re taken off to Babylon.

Is it possible that Ethan the Ezraite is not a Babylonian exile? Is it possible that the writer of Psalm 89, Ethan the Ezraite, is the same Ethan the Ezraite who is compared with Solomon? That is to say, Ethan the Ezraite is a wise man, but oh Solomon, that is a wise man. Is it possible that Ethan the Ezraite was there compared to Solomon, continued to live, saw Solomon’s death, saw the rising of Rehoboam, his son, and then saw the splitting of the kingdom And then from that he writes this psalm.

As if the people are already in exile. Already in exile because the kingdom is split. It does not look like the promises that God gave to Solomon. It’s very possible. In fact, I believe it to be so. That this one, Ethan the Ezraite, lived that long so that he was able to see the splitting of the kingdom and the torments that must have come upon him when he saw this. God was under no covenant obligation to answer Ethan the Ezraite’s prayer right away. But God promises, therefore, it is going to happen. And so, it does happen.

We could say that Matthew answers Ethan the Ezraite’s prayer. He answers it in Matthew chapter one. Jesus, the genealogy of Jesus, son of David, son of Abraham. What are we to make of this? How are we to understand our Bible? The way that we ought to understand any prophecy is that God gives an immediate fulfillment And then he gives a long-term fulfillment. This is not all of his prophecies, but especially the covenantal ones. So what is the immediate fulfillment of 2 Samuel chapter 7?

It is Solomon in a very, very real way. But there is also that long-term fulfillment. We could say the eschatological fulfillment. Fancy word just means the end of days. And when Jesus comes, that is the beginning of the end of days. It is the dawning of the end, the eschaton, which is what that means.

We see this as we’ll see it next week with Abraham. Abraham has a promise that a son’s going to come. Immediate fulfillment, Isaac. Long-term fulfillment, the Lord Jesus Christ. Immediate fulfillment here, Solomon and his glorious kingdom and building up the house of David in that way. But the long-term fulfillment is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be that king Listen to what the writer to the Hebrews says. To prove that Jesus is great, to prove that Jesus is divine, that he’s superior to angels and eventually to the Old Testament law.

Hebrews 1.5. Just listen very carefully. You’ve heard this recently. For to which of the angels did God ever say, I will to be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” Where have we read that? We read that in 2 Samuel chapter 7. The apostle who wrote Hebrews understands that ultimately the prophecies that are made in 2 Samuel chapter 7 are about the Lord Jesus Christ. What we have when we have Old Testament covenant prophecies with our immediate and long-term fulfillment, something I like to call the total eclipse of the sun.

But it’s different than a solar eclipse. You think of a solar eclipse, you see, the sun gets covered up by something else. The sun is there, but you can’t see it anymore. But what I want to say about Old Testament prophecies and the way that they’re fulfilled in Christ is it is a total eclipse of the sun in the sense that Solomon is there as the legitimate and true fulfillment until the Lord Jesus comes and he eclipses Solomon in all of his glory. The apostles understand that the glory of Solomon has been surpassed. The Lord Jesus Christ has come so that they wouldn’t even talk of Solomon. In Acts chapter 2 verse 30, Peter’s preaching, he says, David, being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ.

Isn’t that significant? In Peter’s mind, in the Hebrew, the writer to the Hebrews mind, all of the Old Testament prophecies are about Jesus. They don’t even speak of the things that come before. It is about Christ. So what is the burden that is laid down upon the first century Jew who reads this, reads this genealogy of Matthew, which as I said last week, would be very offensive in many ways to a first century Jew.

Son of David. They know what that means. This one, Jesus the Christ, is God’s Son, the Messiah. If you read through the book of Matthew, it talks about the Son of David a lot. Many people call Jesus, Son of David. In closing, I’ll just mention a few of them to you. In Matthew chapter 12, a demon possessed man is healed by Jesus and the crowd wonders, is this the son of David? In Matthew chapter 15, a Canaanite woman says, son of David.

In Matthew chapter 20, two blind men call Jesus son of David. It doesn’t mean as much to us, but it meant a lot to a first century Jew. So if any first century Jew who is reading Matthew’s gospel from beginning to end, sees, son of David, son of David. It’s almost like these would be in bold and in 18 point font, son of David, every time he would read it. The crowds on the way to Jesus’ crucifixion before they knew he was going to be crucified, called him son of David. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So who calls him son of David?

A blind woman, a dirty pig and lobster eating Gentile. Crowds of people. Matthew is an evangelist. hoping that people would come to believe that Jesus is the Christ. A Gentile woman knows Jesus is Son of David. A blind man knows. If a Gentile woman knows, and if a blind man or two blind men are able to see that this is the Son of David, Why do you not see that this is the son of David and David’s greater son?

That would be the implication of Matthew’s gospel. You have no excuse. Clearly this is the son that God has exalted. This clearly is the son who died for his people and was raised from the dead, as the Old Testament scriptures clearly foretold and clearly proclaimed. First century Hebrew would have no excuse And neither do we. May He be exalted in our hearts, because He is exalted outside of them. He is exalted in heaven, and His name is praised upon the earth. Let us pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 1, 2012
The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: A New Beginning

About this sermon

Matthew opens his gospel with “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” echoing the generations of Genesis. Written for Jewish readers, the genealogy announces a new beginning, a new creation. A first-century Jew might be offended by the sinners it names, yet all are sinners and none can look down on others. As God rested on the seventh day after creation, Christ was enthroned at God’s right hand as Lord of the Sabbath, and believers find rest in him.

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Sermon transcript

Genesis chapter 2 is our first reading. We will read four verses from there. That is on page 1 in the Old Testament and most of the Bibles that are in the pews. And then let us also turn to the New Testament, where we will read Matthew chapter 1, 1 through 17. That is also on page 1 in most of the Bibles that are in the pews. Let us give careful, close attention for when someone reads the Bible God is speaking to us. May we revere him. Hear the word of God.

Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts. By the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord made earth and heaven.

Now let us turn to Matthew chapter 1. I would encourage you not to lose heart as we are reading through these verses in Matthew chapter 1. It is a long list of names. Hopefully you will see the significance of it afterwards. Matthew chapter 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Aminadab. Aminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah.

Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, and Ammon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihuth, and Abihuth the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor.

Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So, all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.

Thank you for your endurance through that. May the Lord bless the reading, but also and especially the preaching of his holy inspired word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us to see the beauty and the glory and the significance of Your Word. May there not be one word in Your Word which we despise or think ill of. May we rejoice in everything that You have given and every single name that You have included in Your Word. Help us, O Lord, to ultimately see the name that all names and all words in Your Word Point to namely Jesus our Lord the one who loved us with that Everlasting love it is in his name that we pray Amen Our first reading was from Genesis chapter 2.

In Genesis chapter 2, we read about the seventh day. whole bunch of things precede that, that is all of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 tells us what happens the first six days. God created the world in the space of six days and all things very good. You might wonder, well what did he What did he create on each day? I point you to that. Go back and look at what he created on each of those six days. Each day is very significant.

But there’s something even more significant about the seventh day, which we read about in Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, we see that God rested from the works of creation. Now, why did God rest? Some people might say, well, because He was tired, because it’s difficult to create the world.

Well, I don’t even want to say that’s a good guess. That’s not a good guess because the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is not tired on day seven. He did not have trouble getting up. He does not go to sleep. He is not like us who would push the snooze on our alarm. He never sleeps. So why? Why is it that he sits? Why is it that he rests on that day?

The seventh day is our God’s Sabbath enthronement. After doing work for six days, he sits as the king of creation, ruling over it. and admiring the glory and the beauty of the work that he has done. A king who sits on a throne does not sit on a throne because he is tired, necessarily. He sits because when you see a king sitting on a throne and he has the garb that he’s wearing and he holds a scepter, you know that he is in charge. Equally so, when we see the Lord taking the day off, He is proclaiming His rule and His reign. So I would say that, again, hyphenated, the seventh day is our God’s Sabbath enthronement.

He is King. Then we come to Matthew chapter 1, page 1 in most of our New Testaments here. It begins somewhat like we would expect if we know just a little bit about our Bible. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He is the son of Abraham and he is the son of David, as it tells us. We might know a little bit about Abraham, father of the faith, in a sense, father of the faithful. We know a bit about David, King David, conquering king, ruled in ancient Israel.

And he also had some missteps along the way. Those are famous as well. So we think of Jesus Christ, and we have a genealogy, David, Abraham, and then in verse two, it gets a little interesting. Or does it get interesting? Verse two, does it get a little boring? You can be honest if it got a little bit boring. I hope you won’t think so at the end. We have a list of names, genealogical names.

It says so-and-so was the son of or was fathered by. in the Old Testament, or excuse me, in the King James language, we would say, the begats, so-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so. We might be of a mind to read through the whole entire Bible, and I think it’s certainly worthwhile for Christians to read through the whole entire Bible at least once in their life. For some who really want to benefit from the ministry of the Word, it’s worthwhile to do once a year, if you like, or once every two years. Sometimes you might have a system of reading through the Bible, and you’re working your way through, and you find interesting stories, interesting narratives.

Then you come to a portion like this, and you wonder, Should I just skim this? Can I count that as reading if I just skim this? It’s just a list of names. I think it’s something to say about the time and place that we live. A list of names like this does not mean a lot to us. But what would a list of names like this mean? to a first century person. What would a list of names like this mean to a first century Jew? He would not see it as boring in the least. He would want to go through each name with a fine tooth comb and see who is in this genealogy. Genealogies are very, very important.

Matthew is an evangelist. He desires to proclaim the gospel with a hope that people might come in and come in and believe the gospel and enter into the kingdom of Christ. as an evangelist, he has a particular interest. His interest is the Jewish people. I’m fully convinced that his target audience is the Jewish people. Matthew’s gospel has a distinctly Jewish flair to it. It has more quotations from the Old Testament than all the rest of the gospels, the other three gospels. Matthew seeks to reach Hebrew people with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, a first century Jew would look at that first verse and say, son of Abraham, very good, very good. Son of David, very good as well. Now we understand that the Messiah has to come out of David’s line. Very, very important. First century Jew, though.

I think he might be quite offended by this list. Very offended. Let me explain to you what I mean. I was a teenager during the time of the 90s and during the 90s there was a terrible terrible thing on tv ruled the tv it seemed they were they were talk shows and they were at their worst during the 90s it was entertainment in the 1990s to see love triangles and all these terrible things going on in people’s lives, and people would get in fights on stage, right? And chairs would be thrown at people. It was absolutely terrible.

It’s gotten better, believe it or not. As I understand, I really don’t, I have utter disdain for TV. If you watch TV, that’s fine, but I just don’t like it anymore. Probably much because of what I watched in the 90s. There are people, there were people who were living horrible lives. We have in this genealogy people who notoriously lived horrible lives. Let me just give a couple of examples for you. Look at verse 5. Verse 5, we see.

Rahab. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Who is Rahab? Rahab in Joshua chapter 2 is a prostitute. She becomes a believer in the Messiah but she is a prostitute. Not only that, she’s not Jewish. Rahab is a Canaanite whore. Are you telling me that Messiah is born of a sinner like that? You have got to be kidding me. I think that’s how many a first century Jew would read that. Though she becomes a believer, assembled into the community, that’s the mother, the distant grandmother of Christ, in a sense. Look at verse three, if we just might move up a bit.

Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Judah has Perez and Terah by Tamar. Judah and Tamar. Who are these people? Judah was one of the sons of Jacob, and he is ultimately one of the fathers of the 12 tribes. And he had sons, and the sons were disobedient. They had wives, but the son would not give, that is Judah’s son, would not give his wife a child. His wife’s name was Tamar.

You can read about it in Genesis chapter 38. So at a time when Judah is going to shear his sheep, he sees a prostitute by the road and unbeknownst to him, he picks her up and he has relations with her. But this is his daughter-in-law. The line of Christ contains such a relationship Are you telling me that Messiah, the Christ, has this in his line? Surely you cannot be serious. Look at verse 6.

David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. In the Greek, it does not even say Bathsheba. It just leaves it out. Who is Bathsheba? Who is David? As I mentioned before, some things went on between Bathsheba and David. You see, David is guilty because he takes another man’s wife. David is guilty because He has that man, that wife’s man killed.

But Bathsheba is guilty as well. You may remember what she does. Showering on the roof of her house in plain view of the king. She seems to have been up to something. Now, David is restored. We all know that. He is restored. God is kind and gracious to him. But he had many wives, not as many as his son, Tecumseh. He had many wives, though.

Could not the Messiah have come of David out of one of those other wives? Now, out of that line, you’re telling me that the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One comes? Maybe you begin to see how someone who’s thoroughly versed in the Old Testament and in Jewish traditions would see these things. But the thing is, All of these people on this list are sinners, are they not? We’ve just talked about David. He’s one of the headliners. David and Abraham. Abraham is one of the headliners, too, on the first verse.

The man who trusted God, believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. But he was a man with feet of clay, and he was a sinner as well. distrusting God’s provision, he follows his wife’s advice and takes his wife’s handmaiden, seeking to fulfill God’s promises on his own, rather than waiting on God and trusting God. We’re talking about a man who would go through hostile territory and says to his wife, lie to them and say you’re my sister. brother and sister have a little bit more opportunity to go through safely, or at least so he thought. If they’re married, they might take her hostage and kill him. That was at least his fear. He did not believe that God is going to take care of him.

And so this whole list is a list of sinners, of weak people, I dare say that a first century Hebrew who would look at this list, if he looked at it with a pharisaical disdain, if he looks at this list with disdain of the people on it, he has bigger problems. Bigger problems because this list generations functions as a mirror that would be shining back at that first century Hebrew and showing and demonstrating that we are all sinners, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And none of us really are able to look with disdain at other sinners, for we are all worthy of God’s condemnation. We must be very, very careful to pile on the condemnation that comes to someone else when they are found out to be sinners. We must be very careful. I hope we were careful Friday night when we heard news of terrible things. It is God’s grace that withholds us from our sin as well. We have all fallen short of God’s glory. You are sinners and so is this whole entire list. All are sinners. But did you notice the structure of what we read? Isn’t it interesting? The structure is summarized for us in verse 17. I’m going to read it because it begins with so. Anytime it starts with so or hence or therefore, it’s summarizing what has gone on before, right?

So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations. 14 generations list of sinners. 14 generations list of sinners 14 generations list of sinners and then Jesus Christ comes Those 14 generations are very significant First we have Abraham the man of faith to David a lot goes on during that time during that time are not the people of God enslaved to Egypt and Pharaoh and then freed from it and enter into the promised land and then Eventually, they have kings.

So the high point of that kingship is David a Lot of things go on in that time, but then a lot of things go on after that after that David dies passes away and The theocracy, the national religious nation of Israel begins to plummet into darkness because they begin to sin by worshiping other gods, worshiping statues that God said, do not worship statues, do not adore statues as I’ve told you.

I said, well, these are the gods that we worship. No, they are not. There’s one God and he says, you will not make pictures of me and you will not make statues of me. They go, they are eventually kicked out of their nation for their sin. There are many, many sins, idolatry, just being one of them. So then they spend 70 years in captivity. And that’s where the third one begins. Then we have the time basically from the end of our Old Testament to the time when Jesus comes. What Matthew’s doing is he’s summarizing redemptive history for us by way of these names. But here’s what’s interesting. 14, 14, 14. There are gaps in this genealogy.

Okay? There are some people who are left out. Liberal scholars will say that, but conservative scholars will say that as well. This is no creeping liberalism in here. It’s universally understood. Sometimes there are gaps and they just leave those out. It’s not because Matthew’s being deceitful, and it’s not because Matthew is deceived. Neither of those are the case. It was common in that time to leave out some names. It’s possible that all of biblical genealogies have some names left out because sometimes some person does not live so significant of a life that someone who’s going to be putting a genealogy together will find it helpful or needful or useful.

So he’s left out. So then, if there are gaps in it, and they’re not errors, they’re not deception, and they’re not the author being deceived, then what are we to make of 141414? What are we to think of that? Matthew is not making a statistical point. Matthew is making a theological point. If I might hyphenate, he is making a literary theological point for us. What is half of 14? So if you have 14, 14, 14, then what do you have? You have 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7. Seven is the number of completeness in God’s word. You really seem to have a complete unit, a complete unit, a complete unit, really six complete units.

It’s almost as if he’s saying that there are six days. Six, in a sense, literary and theological days leading up to what Matthew wants to get to, what Matthew wants to reach. What he’s looking for is Messiah’s coming. After six days, What comes? After six days, the Sabbath comes.

In a literary and theological way, Matthew is making the point that Jesus is your Sabbath. Jesus is, if you trust in him, your eternal rest. Matthew is looking for the dawning of the new day. For when Jesus comes, when Jesus arrives on the scene, it is the fullness of time. And that is the day that Matthew wants to proclaim. The dawning of the new day. When the Lord of the Sabbath is being enthroned. That’s what Matthew wants us to see.

For it is, if we might take Matthew’s literary week, it is on the seventh day that Jesus Christ is born and lives the life that he lives, which is free from sin, unlike all of us, unlike all those in the previous six days. and He dies on a cross to die, to be raised from the dead, to save sinners. We only have life in Christ. We only have life in His death and His resurrection.

After Jesus comes back from the dead, He spent some time upon earth, but then He enters into heaven, He ascends to heaven, and He sits at the right hand of His Father in heaven. both in creation and we can say in recreation, we have days and then the Sabbath day.

In creation and redemption, we have the exaltation of the Lord, but it comes on his Sabbath enthronement. For when Jesus arrives on the scene, he is a king. But when he ascends to be with his father in Acts chapter 1, he is proclaimed and enthroned as Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of creation and Lord of salvation, redemption, Lord of our lives as well. He is enthroned to be Lord of the universe.

Those six days filled with sinful people, the seventh day filled with the glory of the sinless one. The only one who could be a mediator between us and God. And there He sits. There He is enthroned and He offers and He guarantees eternal life only to those who trust in Him. Who do not try to do good works so that they can be saved. We cannot do good works to be saved. It is God’s gift that saves us. and as the enthroned king he offers and he gives eternal life to his people.

The people of the old testament in exodus wandered around for 40 years and they did not enter into the new land because of their unbelief. the Bible commenting on this later on makes use of that literary, the issues going on literarily back then, and the idea of entering into the land, of our entering into heaven if we’re believing in Christ. The author of Hebrews chapter 3 says, therefore, As the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. The people did not enter into that literal land because of their unbelief. That land is considered to be a Sabbath rest land.

It might make even more sense to you now when we think of Matthew’s literary week, when we read what I’m about to read to you. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says about the day. He’s talking about non-literal days. He’s talking about this day that we live in as the day. Hebrews chapter 4. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

We read that. Genesis chapter 2. And again this passage, in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day. Today, saying through David so long ago, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Let me explain what that is saying.

Today is the day of salvation. Today, the day of the sinless Sabbath-keeping man. Today is the day in which we enter into eternal life, not by what we have done, but what He has done. And it is pictured in our Old Testament by them entering into the land. Joshua brings the people into the land, and it was a Sabbath-resting land. But, the writer says, if that had been sufficient, that certainly was not sufficient. It certainly was not. If it had been sufficient, there would not have been need for another day. But there was need for another day.

So we, by faith in Christ, are partakers in His Sabbath rest. The glorious brightness of Messiah’s day has dawned. The sun has risen. As Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they rest in thee. That is the one in whom we rest, the one who is resting from his creation and from his salvation work. Our hearts are as restless as those in the first six days, as sinners defiling ourselves. But when The new day dawns and when the new day dawns, as Peter says, in our hearts, the brightness of his glory shines down upon us. Then we find a Sabbath rest for our eternal soul. May you find the Sabbath rest of your eternal soul this day as long as it is called today. Let us pray.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 24, 2012