12.19.2010 The Story of The Bible - Get Involved to Make a Difference!

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Thank You, Lord, as we enter this Christmas week,, for the opportunity to remember and celebrate that You came that we might have life. Thank You for the Christmas carols we will sing – there is such rich truth and theology in them – help us to think about what we are singing. You became a baby – born in a manger – that we might become sons and daughters of You. Thank You for Your love for us – as we look at Your word – help us to learn to live as grateful children of You.

We've been looking at The Story of The Bible – this is The Story of Redemption.

We started with Genesis 1:1 and have gone through the entire Old Testament telling this story.

Historically, there has been Creation/The Fall (Alienation)/and re-Creation/redemption – God bringing Man back. This story runs through the entire Bible. Now that Christ has come, we are new creatures in Christ – something changes – we are new on the inside.

Today we are looking at Matthew 1 – very similar to Genesis 1 in many ways.

Matt 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Yep, we are going to look at the significance of every name in Jesus' genealogy. Just kidding. But Matthew does show how Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of the Old Testament

Gen. 2:4 This is the account...

This is the exact same phraseology. The Septuagint, written about 200 years before Matthew wrote this, has the Greek words exactly the same. Matthew is saying – everything you have heard, everything you have believed, is coming to fulfillment.

Matthew takes the big names – and says,

Matt 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham and David. Matthew is saying – It has happened, the promise to Abraham has been fulfilled.

Matt Cramer talked about this – To David, God said that one of his descendants would reign forever – and Matthew is saying – this has been fulfilled.

In the genealogies – there are 14 generations from Abraham to David. Then from David to The Exile – then from The Exile to Jesus.

Thus

17 Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to [the time of] Christ fourteen generations.

Jesus is the one who has fulfilled all of these promises.

To those who were receiving this – The Jewish Christians were experiencing alienation from their families – being a Jew was much more than, say, being an American – it is like being part of a big extended family. It would be like – we Americans all being related to George Washington. But for them, they were being persecuted and being told that this Jesus story is not true, and Matthew is writing a defense – that what they believe is exactly true. He shows them, through this genealogy – that this is true. When you look at genealogies – it may be kind of a fun thing to do today – to find out you had a famous ancestor – for us, the Marettes were kicked out of France for being horse thieves – some of us had IN-famous ancestors.

Everyone knew their genealogies – and they would know this is true – Jesus is a descendant of David. This would have stood in a court of law.

Joseph was known as a righteous man.

Everyone has someone in their workplace who is known as a person of character – a person of integrity. Maybe it is you!

People knew Joseph – and could attest that he was a righteous man. They could witness to his character.

Then the Magi come – and Herod brings together the Bible scholars – where is this Jewish King to be born – and they say, Bethlehem of Judea. All of the scholars agreed – Jesus fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament.

Matthew attests to Jesus' life and ministry. There are over 100 references to Old Testament promises – When the Messiah comes – He will heal the blind. When He does heal two blind men, they shout out, Son of David, have mercy on us.

How can we be sure? How can we be sure that what we believe is right?

We could go the apologetic route – that can be helpful. I am not a great expert on that – but Lee Strobel has written The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, the Case for Christmas, the Case for Easter, the Case for Everything! Go to CBD and see the list of apologetic books.

In the genealogies, there are some things to help our faith.

3 and to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born Hezron; and to Hezron, Ram; 4 and to Ram was born Amminadab; and to Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Nahshon, Salmon; 5 and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; 6 and to Jesse was born David the king. And to David was born Solomon by her [who had been the wife] of Uriah;

There are four women mentioned in these verses. This is highly unusual – that women would be mentioned in the genealogy of a king. There is evidence that all (or at least most) of these women were Gentiles. And they had questionable sexual histories. Why would Matthew put these in? Mary – she had a questionable sexual history. The leaders were probably saying – Look, we really know what happened (wink wink) – there is no scientific support for this.

Tamar dressed as a prostitute so her father-in-law would get her pregnant – that's a little questionable.

Rahab WAS a prostitute. That's a little questionable. Bathsheba committed adultery with David. That's a little questionable. What do we glean from this? If God can use these folks – those with a questionable past – then He can use us.

Have you ever looked at someone and it seems God is blessing their life – and you think – How could God bless that person (He should be blessing someone like me!). I think that is how God likes to do it – so it is obvious that God is the one doing the work.

Have you seen the movie Amadeus? It's not exactly true, but Mozart is portrayed like a madman, and Salieri is a pious man who believes that God should bless him, because he wants to honor God – but it eventually drives Salieri mad because God chooses to give Mozart such a gift.

1 Cor. 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, 29 that no man should boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."

No one can boast before God – because He chooses the weak.

We might think – not many wise (that means there must be some, like me!) The point of the passage – if you are thinking that – you are the problem!

God has chosen the weak to shame the wise.

This encourages all of us who have a past – let me read this

God never loses any of our past for His future when we surrender ourselves to Him. Every mistake, sin, and detour we take in the journey of life is taken by God and becomes His gift for a future of blessing. Whatever you have done at this point – He takes all of that past – and using all of that to bring about a blessing for your future. He connects all of it – for what God wants you to become. That should give us all kinds of hope. Right now it starts. Any stage of life – you can begin.

The second thing we see – God transforms lives – and that gives us confidence – God changes people.

As a pastor, I have the privilege – maybe more than others at times – to hear how God changes lives. Here in our church – there is story after story – and I will read R's story to you now.

R has been with our church for about a year and a half – and it has been encouraging –

About 2 months ago, another brother, Mike came and turned his life over to Jesus – and it is encouraging.

God changes lives.

Because of that, we can know that God has worked and Jesus is correct.

R:

To my brothers and sisters in Christ:

When Mike asked me to share him a few words about how prayer has impacted my life, I thought, sure, no problem. What I didn't quite realize at the time was just how many ways that was. Of course, you can't have a light without dark to put it in, so a little background is necessary.

As a child, and teenager, Jesus was an active participant in my life, and I worshiped and prayed regularly. I participated in church,church youth groups, and retreats. I represented all the youth in the DC metro area in the church's presbytery meetings. My home life was less than desirable, but I did trust in the Lord, and His grace was upon me and helped me. In the church He gave me positive role models, which my parents were not. As I reached adulthood and even in the service I attended services somewhat regularly and the Lord was still active in my life. Even though I married a Christian woman, life began to interfere in my relationship with the Lord.

In 1989, my wife and daughter and I moved to Akron, her hometown, and that was when I stopped participating in church - it seems that all the churches I visited were cold and my wife & I felt like outsiders. So by 1990 I was not in the church, and eventually, although I considered myself a Christian, stopped praying and lost touch with God. Not that God had lost touch with me - over the years I met many active Christians who tried, unsuccessfully, to bring me to their church.

Soon, I had become a father 2 more times, with 2 sons. We had a third son, but he passed away on the day he was born. When we had a funeral for him, we had no pastor to conduct a funeral service. It was only my wife and I standing at the grave.

My role was that of provider, for the kids I was the occasional baseball and basketball coach. I was not all that good a father or husband, since most of my energy went to my job, working both for an employer and on independent side jobs. I was usually absent when my wife did things with the kids. Christ was not really a part of my daily life.

In 2001, a life threatening condition required my wife to have surgery. She was on all kinds of machines, I prayed then. I cried and held my wife's hand and on my knees. My children were 14, 11, and 7 years old and I prayed a very selfish prayer that He would give me back my wife. My wife made it through, but came out of the hospital with an addiction to pain killers and complete personality change. It soon became obvious that the person who came home from the hospital was not the same person who went in. This change was evident not just to me, but also the children, and her family, including her identical twin sister. I felt as though God had played a horrible joke on me.

Within a year, my wife left me with the children, and was no longer speaking with any of her family. I went through several crises - medical problem, job layoff, trying to be a parent, and a pretty severe depression. I did all I could, I rose to the occasion, but like so many people trying to go it alone, I was not doing well.

All the worst times of my life have been when I tried to go it alone.

My middle child went over to a friends house one Saturday, and, unsupervised with his 'friend', decided it might be fun to spend the afternoon jumping off of the garage roof. When he came home coughing up blood I took him to the emergency room. He ruptured his spleen and wrecked his gall bladder and did a lot of damage to himself. He spent several months of his 9th grade year in the hospital. He, like his mother before him, came out of the hospital with an addiction to pain killers. Far behind in school, he soon became a problem, and was hanging out with the wrong crowd. After the 9th grade, he spent the summer at a rehab place in Youngstown. As soon as he got out, he started using again. I got him involved in Narcotics Anonymous, where his 'sponsor' also happened to be selling him drugs. In his 10th grade year he threatened to kill his assistant principle. He was kicked out of school. I sent him back to rehab, this time at Edwin Shaw. This also did not solve anything.

He has having a terrible impact on his brother and sister and me. He was constantly in trouble with the law, stealing from his family, and violently out of control. After a couple more years of trying everything I could to help him, I told him he needed to leave my house and not come back. This was a tough thing to do. I had given up on him.

Sometime during this period, God made himself apparent to me again, this time through a fellow named Jeff. Jeff hired me as a contractor to help him with a project. He hired me simply based on a phone conversation, with no real job interview - just a 'Can you start Monday?' Once again, it was another coworker who brought Jesus to work with him. We talked about God. I told Jeff I was a Christian - I never stopped believing - but that I was not involved in a church. You would have to ask Jeff, but I'm certain his whole family was praying for me. Not just praying, but praying in overdrive. Once a week for 2 years he asked me to come to his church on Sunday. So it was that one Sunday I felt compelled to go to Jeff's church.

As soon as I entered this building, I was greeted by the warmth of God's love - that day in the form of Gigi & Joe Montgomery. Right behind them were Annette & Alan Shirley. I will never forget the immediate love and kindness they gave me. God had put the right people in the right places that day - and He did it for me - because Jeff and Melissa were praying for me.

I reconnected with God. More people were praying for me. Immediately, my life began to improve in so many ways:

• The company Jeff brought me to advised me that I was diabetic.(I hadn't been to a doctor in years)

• I developed positive relationships with other people.

• Lots of life's little annoyances stopped bothering me.

• I found peace.

• I feel loved.

Prayer has been working in my life. Could it work for my son?

My son had gotten worse. He was into alcohol and every type of drug. Really bad stuff. Heroin even.

One of his 'close friends' had been shot with a shotgun by another of his 'close friends'. A couple of nights later, he broke into my house and stole the flat-screen off the wall. My neighbor saw him leaving the house with it, and called the police. I went down to the police station and filled out an arrest warrant at 3 AM that night.

As I became involved in the men's bible study, I discussed my son with the men. The men have a meeting on Thursday nights. Typically, we'll do a little bible study, then an open discussion, followed by prayers. We prayed for me. We prayed for my son.

My son was arrested and went to Summit County jail for 6 months. He spent 86 days in jail and went to the Interval Brotherhood home, where he is in rehab again. The counselor called me and asked me to come down and talk to her and she said he wants to see me. I hadn't seen him in 5 months. So, I went there one day after work. After talking about his background, and letting the counselor know my thoughts, she brought in my son. She told me how well he is doing and that she thinks he has turned his life around. He told me he does not want to get involved in that lifestyle again. He was wearing a cross around his neck. I asked him about it and he told me he was 'getting into Jesus a little'.

On the way home I rejoiced. I cried. I gave thanks.

Prayer works.

R

Let me close with this:

Get involved with people. Get involved with small groups so you can hear these stories. Get involved in ministry where you can connect and get involved with people. Get involved with this lost and broken world – like Jesus did. He came to places of great darkness – that lives may be transformed.

And He calls us to do the same.

Lord, we thank You – for this Advent – this coming of Jesus – each of us can give testimony to how You changed our lives. As we light the advent candles, they progressively get brighter – may our light continue to grow and shine.