"GOD GIVES THE WORLD A SAVIOUR-KING IN JESUS CHRIST."

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 89:2
Hymn 12:1,2,3
Psalm 89:7,8
Psalm 89:9,13,14,15
Hymn 12:4,5

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Last Thursday’s edition of The Australian printed an article exploring how different people celebrant Christmas in 2001. The attacks against America have resulted in a renewed interest in thew western world in religion, and so the paper wanted to find out what impact this development had on Christmas celebrations. Conclusion: most people still have no place for Christ in their Christmas. But there are exceptions. "Members of other faiths," says the article, "are turning the [Christmas] festival into a celebration of goodwill without necessarily agreeing about who the baby Jesus was, or what difference his coming has made." A Turkish Muslim family, for example, "thank Allah for the gift of Jesus, one of the prophets in Islam" – and so have cause to celebrate Christmas. A Jewish acknowledges that Jesus was one of influential rabbis of his time – and that’s cause to celebrate Christmas now. And a Christian mother says that at Christmas she celebrates "the mystery of God becoming a human person, and being born in the baby Jesus." Her husband, though, claims he’s probably an atheist, though "he appreciates the values of Christianity" – and so has reason to celebrate Christmas. The article concludes: "What an encouragement it is … that Christmas should be taken so seriously by three families with differing beliefs not only about the festival but about the character and role of Jesus of Nazareth…. A rabbi in Judaism, a prophet in Islam, and a Saviour in Christianity."

That conclusion, congregation, places us directly in front of the big question of Christmas: why are you going to celebrate Christmas this Tuesday? The world has gone through a change since September 11; how will the events of the past year affect the way you celebrate Christmas? Will you celebrate because a noble man was born, one who gave many gifts to poor people? Will you celebrate because Jesus of Nazareth was an important rabbi? Or an influential prophet? Or will the events of the year add a new depth to our celebrations this year?

In the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, the Holy Spirit answers the question of Who Jesus is. Via a structure of 3 times 14 the Holy Spirit would impress upon the church of all ages that God sent into the world the Saviour-King, in order to restore the world of the beginning. Christmas celebrates the coming of none less than the King whom God sets on His own throne – for the salvation of the world blown apart by the fall into sin. As we set ourselves to celebrate Christmas at the end of a very turbulent year, the identity of Jesus Christ determines how we celebrate – and live in the weeks beyond. I summarize the sermon with this theme:

Our text for this morning, brothers and sisters, begins with the little word ‘so’. That is to say, our text is the conclusion of the material written in the preceding verses. Given all these names and generations, Matthew feels justified to conclude that "all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David to the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations."

That’s all fine…, until we look closer at the names in the list. The first list of fourteen, from Abraham to David, gives little problem since it agrees with the information we glean from the Old Testament (cf Ruth 4:18ff; I Chron 1:28,34; 2:1-15). But what do you think, beloved, of the second list of fourteen names, from David to the exile? The children at school get taught the history of the kings of Judah. How does this list compare, children, with your recollection of Bible History? You’re right: there’s some kings not on the list! Between Joram and Uziah three kings are missing (Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah). As to the third list of fourteen, from the exile to the birth of Jesus Christ, the names give no problems (for they’re mostly unknown to us from anywhere else in the Bible), but the simple fact is that the fourteen names mentioned there represent only thirteen generations! Yet Matthew says in our text that: "all the generations from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations." What are we to conclude from it all, brothers and sisters? Didn’t Matthew know his Bible? And couldn’t he count?

The problem becomes bigger when we consider how Matthew begins this chapter. He introduces this list of 3 times 14 with a highly unique title. He writes in vs 1 the words: "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ." As it turns out, this phrase is found in only two other places in all the Greek literature available to us. Those two places are both in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in Gen 2:4 and Gen 5:1. In our English translation, Gen 2:4 reads like this: "This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created…." Gen 5:1 reads like this: "This is the book of the genealogy of Adam." But in the Greek translation of the Old Testament –and that’s the translation Matthew and his readers were using- the words are exactly the same as what Matthew uses in 1:1 – words that appear nowhere else. We understand: Matthew is laying a link between his genealogy and the material of Genesis.

Genesis. In Gen 2, the phrase headed a section of Scripture that related what happened to the heaven and earth God had made. On the earth God made, the Lord placed the man and his wife, put them in a garden of plenty with the instruction to till it and keep it. But the perfect world God made did not continue, for man listened to the advice of the serpent, fell into sin, and was expelled from God’s nearness and favor. The result of the fall was that brother rose up against brother to kill him. That’s what became of the world God made…; it fell into hopeless disarray. Gen 5 repeats the expression "book of the genealogy of," and relates how Adam and Eve had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren…, but they all died. That’s what happened to Adam; he and his offspring "died." It came to pass as God had said in the beginning; those who sinned would die. True, God had come with the gospel in Gen 3, had told how the Seed of the woman would crush the seed of the serpent. But Gen 5 shows nothing of God’s promised redemption. Sin had come into the world, and the ultimate result is God’s curse, God’s sorrow for having made man…. It’s all so bleak, so hopeless…. See there, beloved, the content of the "book of the genealogy of heaven and earth," and "the book of the genealogy of Adam"….

But see: the Holy Spirit moves Matthew to write a new book, and introduce it with the same phrase as we find in Gen 2 and in Gen 5. The two books from Genesis are bleak, hopeless. But what about this one in Matthew? We understand: "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ" is meant to be a new beginning. By repeating the phrase, Matthew would give hope to his readers. This time God shall restore the world to how He intended it in the beginning!

So we look into "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ" with great expectations, hoping to find gospel here. But all we find is a list of names, names that are incomplete and numbers that don’t add up to the desired fourteen! And we’re puzzled, dismayed: how can a list with mistakes represent a new beginning, one that restores the perfection of Paradise?!

Matthew, brothers and sisters, has put this genealogy together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes no mistakes (for He’s true God), and so we stare at the wrong point when we focus our attention on the three missing kings in the second list, or the fact that the third list mentions but thirteen generations. The Holy Spirit moves Matthew to write that the number ‘fourteen’ dominates each of the three periods, and even adds that this structure of 3 times 14 is so significant that this list of names serves as a new beginning, as "the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ" that will give hope where "the book of the genealogy of heaven and earth" and "the book of the genealogy of Adam" gave no hope. That’s then the question: why is Matthew imposing this 3 times 14 structure on the redemptive history of the world??

To answer the question, congregation, I need to tell you something about the Hebrew language. You know that the English language has two groups of symbols, one group for making words (we call that group of symbols the alphabet), and the second group for making numbers (we call them numerals). The Hebrew language, though, has only one group of symbols, has only the alphabet. So, if the Jews of the Old Testament wished to write down a number, they couldn’t write down a numeral as we do (for they didn’t have numerals); they would instead use the symbols of the alphabet. For the number 2 they wrote write down the letter b, and for the number 4 they wrote the letter d. Etcetera.

That meant too that words had numerical value. You added up the value of each letter in a word to find the total value of the whole word. And here’s now the key to the genealogy of Mt 1: the word ‘David’ in Hebrew has a numerical value of 14! Matthew says that the number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen, and his point is that David is the climax of these 14 generations. The number of generations from David to the captivity in Babylon is again fourteen, and his point is that David –somehow- is the climax of these 14 generations. Again, the number of generations from the captivity in Babylon to the birth of Jesus Christ is fourteen generations, and the point is that somehow David is the message of the 14 generations. If we are to understand the word of the Holy Spirit in Mt 1, we have to come to grips with David. That brings us to our second point:

Who, beloved, was David? We know him from the Old Testament as the first successful king of Israel. That’s also how Matthew introduces David, for when he first mentions him in vs 6 at the end of the first list of 14 generations, he calls him "David the king." Similarly, when Matthew begins the second list of 14 generations, he lists David first and again calls him "the king".

As king, David was the fulfillment of prophecies given in the first part of the Old Testament. Out of all the families of the earth, the Lord God chose Abram to be the father of His special people. So God said to Abram that God would bless him and make him a blessing to the nations (Gen 12:2f). As part of the blessing-to-the-nations, the Lord added that "kings shall come from you" (Gen 17:6; cf vs 16). The same promise was given to Jacob (Gen 35:11), and in due time to Judah (Gen 49:10). But for a long time Israel’s history didn’t taste this reality, for God’s people-by-covenant were for generations at the bottom of the international pile. In the course of time, though, God’s people rose from the depths of slavery to being a free nation in the desert. From being a free nation in the desert they rose to be the conquerors of the Promised Land. That slow climb upward was for a while hindered by the apostasy in Israel in the days of the Judges, but it came to its climax when God placed on His throne in Zion the man of His choosing – David. Under David as king-over-Israel and king-under-God the promises of God to Abraham began to be fulfilled. Here was the first of the kings to be born from Abraham, the first of the kings that would make Israel a blessing to the nations.

That slow climb upward for Israel –whereby Israel would be made a blessing for all the nations (and so ultimately the blessings of Paradise be restored to people of every tribe and tongue)- was meant to continue after David received the throne in Jerusalem. As God said to David in II Sam 7:

That, brothers and sisters, is the message Matthew wants to capture with his first group of 14 generations. Fourteen: that’s the value of David’s name. Fourteen generations: that’s to say that David is the climax, the first fulfillment, of God’s promises to Abraham about Israel. Whereas "the book of the genealogy of heaven and earth" had to relate the fall into sin and its bitter consequences, and "the book of the genealogy of Adam" had to record that death took each subsequent generation –people could not rise above the bitter curse of the fall- the first group of 14 generations shows God’s work of redemption for the world; from barren Abraham God has formed a people that climbed to the top of the world ladder – David is king as a blessing to the nations! And after him will come a Son whose kingdom shall last forever! For God is at work, God is destroying the devil, establishing an eternal kingdom in the world of men. David: climax by the grace of God!

But David the king –O bitter lamentation!- was a sinner…. Notice, congregation, the painful way in which Matthew begins the second group of 14 generations. "David the king," he says in vs 6, "begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah." We recognize the reference; Matthew reminds us of David’s adultery. God had said about the house of David –I just quoted it from II Sam 7- that "if he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men" (vs 14b). David –from whom so much was expected, who was the climax of the first 14 generations- fell before temptation like a house of cards, and so God –faithful as He is to His promises- had to chastise him…. And see what happens, beloved. Matthew lists 14 generations of kings, and by the end the dynasty to which God promised such a glorious future … is carted off into exile in deep dishonor…. Sin ensnared the house of David through the generations, and therefore what became of the house of David had to be the same as what became of heaven and earth after the fall into sin, and what became of Adam…; all had to taste the curse of God….

But what then becomes of the promises God had voiced through Abraham?! Will there be no blessing? Will there be no hope for the world? Must the curse of Genesis 3 be the last word after all?

Matthew mentions the third set of 14 names. They’re largely unknown names. Sure, we know that in Babylon Jeconiah was restored to some place of honor at the Babylonian palace, and we know that Zerubbabel was involved with the returned exiles (Ezra 3:2). But the rest of the names are unknown, are people of no stature in the recorded history of God’s people. That’s the point: they’re nobodies, and so serve to point up how bankrupt the house of David was. Though God had begun a work of salvation for the world when He raised up David’s house to its glorious height, but it all came tumbling down and none of the generations after the exile were able to restore anything of the hope David gave. That’s to say: all that God had promised to the world through Abraham had come to nothing…; there was no return to the blessings of Paradise….

Tell me, then, beloved: do you see any sense in acknowledging this God? Huge promises for the world through Abraham, and in the first set of 14 names He brings those promises to pass in initial fulfillment…, only to see the man He put on top of the ladder collapse in passion of adultery and so bring God’s judgment on his house through the generations…. As you go on holidays, shouldn’t you better ignore this God? As the world comes to grips with the atrocities of the year past, ought we not to counsel disregard for this God?

But here, congregation, is the golden nugget in the genealogy! For after three periods of 14 –and three is a full number- after three periods of David-the-failure God considers the time to have come when He sovereignly steps into world history with a new work. Generation after generation was begotten; father begot son, and son begot grandson, and on it went, generation after generation. Vs 15: "Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary," - and there the begetting stops in favor of a new way in which God generated life on earth. How God generated life? Vs 18: "Mary … was found with child of the Holy Spirit." David the king was raised so high, but David the king is a sinner, cannot supply the redemption the world needs, David –not even through the generations- can undo the bitter consequence of sin that befell the heaven and earth God created. But the God who created this world is not bound to the patterns of this world, and so He could step in to do something new – and so bring about the arrival on earth of a new King, a better King, a sinless King, and therefore One who could be a blessing to the nations!

David, fourteen generations, failures all. After three times of Davidic hopelessness, the Holy Spirit came upon Mary to begin something new – and so bring into the world the great Son of David! That’s our third point:

For what David the king through his sinfulness could not accomplish, congregation, Jesus Christ in His perfection could accomplish – and did! God had said to Abram that God would make him a blessing to the nations. The promise received initial fulfillment in David the king – only to be dashed so bitterly on account of David’s sinfulness. But in Jesus Christ a Son of David has come into the world who was not touched by sin, and with Him the window of blessing was opened – for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. God had said to David in II Sam 7 that He would establish the kingdom of David’s son so that his throne would endure forever. That is the promise fulfilled in Christ. David the king lost His kingship on account of his sinfulness, but the Son of David shall be king forever! On the cross of Calvary this sinless Son of David conquered the devil who ruined God’s world in the beginning, and destroyed also the death that claimed every man since Adam.

This is the one who today is King of the world still. The nations of today’s world are in His hands, and He rules America sovereignly, and Afghanistan and Iraq and Somalia too. His birth we remember at Christmas, remember how God responded to human failure by sending into the world the perfect Son of David – for the world’s redemption.

Is Jesus but "a rabbi of his time," one of the many who exercised some influence? O yes, He was a rabbi, but –thank God!- He was more, much more than a rabbi! Pity the world if He were only a rabbi….

Is Jesus but "a prophet"? O yes, He was a prophet, but–thank God!- He was more, much more than a prophet! Pity the world if He were only a prophet….

Is Jesus the Savior? O yes, yes! He’s Savior because He’s King, the better David, eternal King! This is the One who conquered sin and Satan, bound all forces of evil so that they serve His noble purpose throughout church history. Christmas: we remember the birth of the king who controls both Osama bin Laden and President Bush – and everyone in between.

That reality invariably determines in what manner and with what mind-set we celebrate Christmas. At the center is Christ the King.  Amen.