Comunidad y discipulado

The Unstoppable Story of God (Mat. 1:1~17)

2014.06.08Rev. Jong Park

Matthew's genealogy is the story of God, who faithfully carries out redemption through sinners by grace, so we must read it in faith, prepare ourselves spiritually, and be sent to the nations.

Our small stories make sense only in God's story

Our age has lost the meta-narrative, the big story that gives meaning to every story, and has become obsessed with the micro-narrative, with blogs, Facebook updates, tweets and Instagram. Kanye West, a self-proclaimed non-reader who nevertheless sells his own 52-page book of sayings, shows this irony. The Bible says the greatest story is not my story or your story but the story of Jesus. Apart from redemptive history our lives are frustrating, empty and lost. But if we repent and trust in Christ, our story can become part of his story. Matthew, a former tax collector, begins the New Testament with a genealogy because he is summarizing the Old Testament and showing that Jesus did not appear in a vacuum.

Matthew's book: recreation, the Messiah, a witness (1절)

Matthew writes a book of narrative theology for the Jews, so he traces the genealogy back to Abraham, while Luke writes for the Gentiles and traces it back to Adam. The word genealogy is the Greek word Genesis, so if Genesis is creation, Matthew is recreation, in which Jesus makes all things new. Jesus recapitulates Israel's history and succeeds where Israel failed. Herod's persecution echoes Pharaoh's, Jesus is rescued as Moses was, is baptized, and is affirmed as Son. In the wilderness he answers Satan with 'it is written' rather than grumbling. The titles Son of Abraham, Son of David and Messiah show that Jesus is the covenant father's seed, the king and the anointed one who brings God's kingdom to the whole world.

Knowing the Bible is not enough; look in faith

Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, once tested the acoustics of a hall by saying, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.' A worker on the roof heard it, went white and said he had heard the voice of God. Spurgeon told him it was the voice of God to him, and the man accepted Christ on the spot, before the first service. God's word was so internalized in Spurgeon that it came out by instinct, and he trusted that God could use his word to speak to anyone. It is never enough just to know the Bible, because demons have knowledge without faith and love. We must look at God's story with faith, so that it becomes God's word to me.

God faithfully completes his story like dominoes (1-17절)

Matthew divides the genealogy into three sets of fourteen generations: promise fulfilled from Abraham to David, future hope from David to the exile, and faithfulness displayed from the exile to the Messiah. Redemptive history is like dominoes. Adam and Eve fall, then Cain, then Noah, then David with adultery and murder, and the dominoes fall furiously. Jesus is the first domino that does not fall; he stops sin, absorbs it on the cross and makes the dominoes stand back up. His teaching, healing, casting out of demons and death reverse the curse, and then he sends the restored out to Africa, Asia and the Americas. Joshua 21:45 and Matthew 16:18 show that God will certainly finish this work, and the Spirit writes it, as when Filipino-American students at our college church wept and danced to praise God.

God's story is for the nations

The genealogy names five women: Tamar, who posed as a prostitute, Rahab the prostitute, Ruth the Moabitess, Bathsheba, the wife of the Hittite Uriah, and Mary, a poor teenage virgin. It is not a list of impressive people, and it shocked the Jews, because Jesus has Moabite and Jericho blood. It is massive grace, and misfits fit perfectly into God's redemption story. The genealogy also names Abraham, the father of faith, to whom God promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). Galatians 3:7-8 says those of faith are the sons of Abraham, so we are spiritual Israelites called to fill the earth with God's glory and make Jesus look beautiful to all peoples.

Prepare in prayer before the water runs

When I tried to attach one hose to another while the water was running, I got splashed again and again. Redemptive history flows like a river and God will not stop, so we must prepare before the water runs. Life only becomes more complicated through marriage, children and work, and those who are not ready then will find it too late. A young banker in Manhattan admitted that church was the last thing on his mind, but if we follow our fleshly instincts, they become our default mode, and one day we will ask what happened to our first love. Nobody hands us our first love on a plate; it is a spiritual battle. The prayer we pray today prepares us for tomorrow's battle, so that we may flow with redemptive history and be used by God.

Apply to Life

  • Let us understand our own stories within the story of Jesus, repenting and trusting in Christ.
  • Let us read God's word with faith, not only knowledge, until it comes out of us by instinct.
  • Let us trust that God faithfully finishes his redemptive work and read the genealogy as a record of his grace.
  • Let us fill the earth with God's glory and show Jesus to all peoples as spiritual descendants of Abraham.
  • Let us prepare ourselves in prayer now, and guard our first love in the spiritual battle.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

← Volver a 영어 예배(English Service)