Sermon
Thanksgiving
November 25-26, 2000
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'm going to invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. If you're using a pew Bible, you can find that at page 649. Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 and following: this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ. It's a list of names. And I don't know if you're like me, but for years and years when I would get to this part of the Scripture I would just kind of gloss over it because I couldn't pronounce many of the names, and say, well I don't know what that's there for, let me get to the rest of it. And yet, we're going to find this morning as we look at this that there is a reason why that was put there. Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 and following: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

Now the purpose for this, in part, was to provide much evidence of Jesus being the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies, and therefore the promised Messiah and King of Israel. Matthew is writing primarily to a Jewish audience and he needed to provide for them overwhelming evidence of Jesus being the Messiah. For the Jews to recognize the Messiah, the Messiah must necessarily come through a specific lineage prophesied in the Scriptures. Through Nathan God promised that the great King who would ultimately reign of over Israel and establish an eternal kingdom would come through the descendents of King David. Tracking family pedigree was very important for devout Jews. In order to qualify for priestly duty a Levite had to prove that he was a descendant of Levi. As recorded in Ezra chapter 2, after returning from Babylonian exile there were certain sons of priests who were not allowed to serve in the temple because their ancestral registration could not be located. Not only that, but property was allocated on the basis of family affiliation. When the land was divided, the Promised Land, it was divided based on family tribes. Inheritance was also received based on family lines. Even the Roman census was organized based on tribe. The Scriptures tell us that Joseph and Mary were required to register in Bethlehem because Joseph was of the family of David.

Before his conversion, the apostle Paul was preoccupied with the fact that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. Now one of the scholars has observed that since the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70, no genealogies exist that can trace that ancestry of any Jew now living. For those who are still looking for the Messiah, there is no assured way to establish the legitimacy of his lineage. There can be no fulfillment of the messianic promise. Jesus was the last verifiable claimant to the throne of David, and therefore the last of the messianic line. Now there are two earthly and one heavenly genealogies of Jesus. The heavenly genealogy of Jesus is found in the book of John the first chapter. The two earthly genealogical lines are found in the books of Matthew and Luke the first chapter. Whereas Matthew traces a descending line from Abraham through David and then to Joseph, Luke traces back from Mary's side through Nathan, another one of the sons of David. In other words, Jesus was perfectly qualified to assume and take the throne of David.

Genealogy, or Genesis, or origin, or beginning of Jesus. Now Jesus is the Greek equivalent of Yesua or Yehosua, which means Jehovah saves. It was the name that the angel, which appeared to Joseph in a dream, said to give the child. The angel said that this child would save his people from their sins. Christos is from the Greek form of the Hebrew mashiyach or messiah, which means anointed one. Throughout history Israel's priests and prophets and kings were anointed, and Jesus was all three and one; prophet, priest, and King. Now despite His royal lineage and despite His marvelous works, many refused to accept Jesus as messiah. Interestingly, some rejected Him because they knew who his parents were. Coming to His hometown He began teaching the people in their synagogue and they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and of these miraculous powers? they asked. Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And aren't his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor. So we find here the establishment that Jesus was of the royal lineage, the messianic lineage, but we also find much more in this. We find that this was a lineage that was a display of the glorious riches of God's grace.

The Scriptures refer to us as the children of God, and yet as we examine ourselves and our lives we find how very far short of godliness will live and exist. And we think to ourselves, how could God possibly consider me to be one of His children? That's something that Satan finds pleasure in whispering in our ears. In fact, that's what he whispered in the ear of Jesus as Jesus was being tempted, if You are the Son of God. If You are the Son of God then. The dimension of God's graciousness to us. His successors become more clear as we look at His ancestors. We are His successors; these are His ancestors chosen by grace. In verse 1 we find the names of Abraham and David. Both of these men were great and both were sinners, and yet, by the grace of God both were chosen to be ancestors of the Messiah, the Christ. These men were separated by generations and never met, and yet both of them were met by God who is faithful from generation to generation. Abraham was a great man of faith and yet in order to save his life on two occasions he chose to lie about the relationship with his wife and call her his sister to save his life. This means that he didn't have faith that God would protect his life. By this act he brought shame on himself, his wife, and God; and yet, God made Abraham the father of His chosen people Israel.

David was a great man of God, a great worshiper, and yet his godly reputation will forever be marred by his act of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. And yet, God promised the Messiah through his descendants. When we study the descendents of Abraham and David we find people that were characterized by immorality, idolatry, and apostasy, and yet, God remained gracious and faithful. The passage ends in verse 17 with, Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. What the author does is divide the Jewish history into three periods. The first period from Abraham to David was that of the patriarchs. These were the generations that included Moses, Joshua, and the judges. This was a theocracy. It was God who was in charge of this nation, and when circumstances arose He would raise from amongst their midst those who were great leaders. Though the nation often struggled: the mud pits of Egypt, the long desert journey, subduing the Promised Land. Yet through their struggles the nation became strong and experienced great leaders who left powerful legacies.

The second period from David to the exile to Babylon was a period of monarchy. The people looked around at the nations around them and decided that they wanted a king. They no longer wanted to be a theocracy. They wanted to be like the nations around them, and so they went to Samuel and said we want a king. And Samuel went to God and said the people want a king, and God said well I will give them a king if they so choose, but they need to be aware that that king will bring taxes and will put them to war. Samuel went to the people and told them what God had said, and they said we don't care. We don't mind taxes and we don't mind war. We want a king. We want to be like the nations around us. More often than not those kings did not lead that nation towards God, but rather away from God and into trouble. And with the exceptions of David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah there was very little evidence of any kind of godliness in the messianic and royal line of David. This was a period of decline, degeneracy, apostasy, defeat, exile, and the destruction of Jerusalem and that beautiful temple.

Now the third period from the exile to Christ was a period of captivity and exile. There's very little written. There's very little known. In fact, some of the names that appear on this list appear nowhere else, and this is the only insight that we have as to their existence. It was Israel's dark ages. And yet, through all of these generations, many of them godless, from Abraham to David to the exile to the Christ, God remained faithful and gracious. Now I want you, if you would, to look at your Bibles and I want you to note that there are four outcasts, four women that are noted in this genealogy. And feel free if it's your Bible, preferable not the pew Bible, to mark those or circle those names. Reading from verse 3: Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife.

You know, it is remarkable that these four women are listed in this genealogy. Not only was it exceptional because of the culture at the time, but it wasn't essential to communicating a simple genealogy. And so, therefore, there must be some other reason why these four women were specifically noted in the genealogy or the line or the family of Christ. It's even more remarkable when you see the biblical history associated with each one of them. Tamar was a Canaanite not a Jew. She was not one of the chosen people. She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, who was one of the sons of Jacob. Now in Jewish culture having an heir was exceedingly important, someone to carry on the family name. In fact, so much so, that if a man married and died before he bore a child, his brother would come and bear a child in his name and raise that child. That was the importance of having an heir, a child in your name. Tamar's husband Er, e-r, was taken by God because of wickedness and so that responsibility then would fall to Onan, but his life was also taken because of wickedness. There was a third, a younger brother, and Judah promised Tamar that when he was old enough to marry she could have him, but Judah failed to keep his promise. And Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah into having relations with her, and from that illicit union were born twin boys, Perez and Zerah. Now despite incest and prostitution Tamar and Perez were chosen by God's grace to be ancestors of Jesus Christ.

The second lady that's noted here is that of Rahab, who unlike Tamar was a prostitute by profession. It was she who protected the two Israelite spies that were sent to Jericho, and furthermore she lied to the king of Jericho in order to protect them a further. When Jericho was destroyed it was only she and her family who were with her who were spared. She became the wife of Salmon, King David's great-grandfather.

The third lady is Ruth. Like Tamar and Rahab she was a gentile. She was not an Israelite. She was not a Jewess. She was not one of God's chosen people. After her Jewish husband died she moved to Israel to serve her mother-in-law Naomi. She was a Moabite. The Moabites were the product of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters. Ruth had no right to marry an Israelite, and yet by the grace of God, and in His providence, she was chosen to be an ancestor of Jesus Christ. She was chosen to be of the messianic linage. She was chosen to be.

Now the last of the women, excuse me, the fourth outcast was Bathsheba. Now she's not specifically mentioned by name. She's merely identified here as the wife of, or former wife of Uriah. Many scholars believe that Bathsheba was not just the victim of King David's advances, but a seductress. The first child that was born to David and Bathsheba died in infancy, but the next son born was the famous King Solomon a successor to the messianic throne and messianic line.

Now there is a fifth woman who is mentioned in this paragraph in passage. It is Mary the mother of Christ, verse 16. Some churches, particularly those with high church backgrounds have elevated Mary to being virtually equal with the Godhead. Other churches, those of mainline backgrounds, have been guilty of almost ignoring Mary altogether. The truth is found somewhere between these radical extremes. The Scriptures tell us that Mary was very special to God. Luke chapter 1 verses 26 and following: In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." The Scriptures describe Mary as highly favored, and as such, she should be honored. And yet, by her own admission, Mary was a sinner in need of God's salvation.

There is a passage recorded in Luke chapter 1 verses 46 and following, sometimes referred to as the Magnificat. It is Mary's expression of praise to God and it reads; And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me--holy is his name. His mercy extends to those to fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arms; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but he has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but he has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendents forever, even as he said to our fathers." You see, Mary said my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. You notice she didn't say God 'the' Savior. She said God 'my' Savior, my Savior. Mary herself recognized that she needed God's salvation. She needs God's Savior.

So then the question arises, how then did Mary get elevated to a place of being virtually considered one with the Godhead? According to one excellent scholar, I'm going to read this for you, the notions of her (that is Mary) being co-redemptics and co-mediator with Christ are wholly unscriptural and were never part of the early church doctrine. Those heretical ideas came into the church several centuries later through accommodations to pagan myths that originated in the Babylonian mystery religions. Nimrod, a grandson of Ham, one of Noah's three sons, founded the great cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, Calah, and Nineveh. It was at Babel that the first organized system of idolatry began with a tower being built there. Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, became the first high priests of idolatry and Babylon became the fountainhead of all evil systems of religion. Revelation records in 17:5, in the last days the great harlot will have written on her forehead--BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. When Babylon was destroyed the pagan high priest at that time fled to Pergamum or Pergamos. Revelation 2:13 refers to that place as where Satan's throne is, and from there to Rome.

By the fourth century A.D. much of the polytheistic paganism of Rome had found its way into the church. It was from that source that the ideas of Lent, of Mary's Immaculate Conception, of her being the queen of heaven originated. In the pagan legends Semiramis was miraculously conceived by a sunbeam, and her son Tammuz was killed and was raised from the dead after 40 days of fasting by his mother, which is the origin of Lent. The same basic legends were found in counterpart religions throughout the ancient world. Semiramis was known variously as Ashtoreth, Isis, Aphrodite, Venus, and Ishtar. Tammuz was known it has Baal, Osiris, Eros, and Cupid. Those pagan systems had infected Israel centuries before the coming of Christ. It was to Ishtar, the queen of heaven, that the wicked and rebellious Israelite exiles in Egypt insisted on turning as recorded in Jeremiah. While exiled in Babylon with his fellow Jews Ezekiel had a vision from the Lord about the abomination some Israelites were committing even in the temple at Jerusalem, practices that included weeping for Tammuz, Ezekiel chapter 8. Here we see some of the origins of the mother child cult, which has drawn Mary into its grasp. The Bible knows nothing of Mary's grace except that what she received from the Lord. She was the recipient never the dispenser of grace. The literal translation of favored one is one endued with grace. Just as the rest of fallen mankind, Mary needed God's grace and salvation, and that's why she rejoiced in God her Savior. She received a special measure of the Lord's grace by being chosen to be the mother of Jesus, but she was never the source of grace.

And so we find in this passage that this is more than just simply a list of names or a simple genealogy. This is the proclamation of the lineage of grace. It is a testimony of the graciousness of God and God's Savior. These people were chosen by God to be part of His lineage. Now there are many among us who feel unworthy of God's grace and being called children of God, and we are unworthy of God's grace. There is nothing that we have done, or said, or thought, or not done, or not said, or not done that can qualify us or allow us to earn favor with God. And yet, the Scriptures are quite clear, God has chosen you. God has chosen you. And you might say, well Pastor, you don't know what I've done. The wretched things that I've done and said and thought. And you might be right, I don't know, but God does, God does. He knows everything. When I look out over our congregation from week to week and service to service, I look at faces. Many of you have come to me and told me about the situations that you've come from, and when I look out week after week I see a sea of souls saved by grace. In the midst of us who meet together in this place week after week to worship God there are former drug dealers, prostitutes, adulterers, murderers, homosexuals, perverts, Satan worshipers and occultists, liars, cheaters, swindlers, backbiters, gossips, glutens, and so many other activities, behaviors, and lifestyles that do not bring on honor and glory to God. And we who are so sinful and so undeserving have been chosen by our gracious Lord to be part of His eternal family, adopted, my children. Can we say thank you Lord for that? Thank you Lord.

You know this is a cause for thanksgiving, giving thanks to the Lord for His kindness, His mercy, His graciousness towards us. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads right now because there might be some among us this is morning who have not experienced that graciousness. Perhaps you've been sitting here maybe just today, or maybe for the last number of weeks, and Satan's been whispering in your ear reminding you of how undeserving you are of God's grace, reminding you that you have sin that's displeasing to God and telling you that God wouldn't accept you or doesn't like you. Perhaps what has been ministered to you by the Holy Spirit this day has revealed to you that God is gracious and God has extended an invitation to you and the Holy Spirit is tugging at the strings of your heart; You know that. Perhaps this is the day that you'd like to say, Jesus, please make Yourself and make Your graciousness real to me. Reveal to me Lord Yourself and Your graciousness. Would this be today? With heads bowed and eyes closed if this is your day to make that profession of faith I invite you right now to just raise your hand as an acknowledgment to the Lord - this is the day, this is the day. Thank you. I see the hand. Thank you. I see the hand. Anyone else? This is the day. This is the day. You can put your hands down.

Lord we thank you that souls have made this the day of decision for You and we acknowledge that it's Your Holy Spirit that has put the desire in them and in us to draw us into relationship with You. And Lord we just ask that Your Holy Spirit reveal to them the glorious majesty of Your graciousness in the hours and the days and the weeks to come. Protect them Lord from Satan who would like to steal that seed of faith away, whispering in their ear reminding them that they are unworthy. We acknowledge this day that we are unworthy, but You have chosen us anyway. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord.

(Singing)

Give thanks with a grateful heart.
- Let's stand -
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son
And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
And now let the weak say I am strong
Let the poor say I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us
We give thanks
We give thanks
We give thanks

We do indeed Lord give thanks this day. Thank you Lord for Your marvelous gracious gift to us. Lord it's with joyful hearts that we go forth from this place to serve You and to worship You, not just here, but in every moment of every day in every place our feet may trod. May You be glorified in us we pray, in Jesus' name, and together we say, amen. God bless you.