Series: When God Moved In Message: Moving toward the Unfaithful Bible Passages: Mt. 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-7, John 8:1-11

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Series: When God Moved In Message: Moving toward the Unfaithful Bible Passages: Mt. 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-7, John 8:1-11"

Buddy Richards
5 years ago
Views:

1 Series: When God Moved In Message: Moving toward the Unfaithful Bible Passages: Mt. 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-7, John 8:1-11 The heart of Christmas is that God moved to our planet. In my mind, I can envision God sitting down and talking with a real estate agent about the kind of neighborhood He wants to move into. I hear Him saying, Now, the neighborhood I want to move to must have four qualities. I don t want to move to just any old neighborhood. You don t want to live next door to just anyone. The agent smiles knowingly, Of course, I understand. God pulls out a wrinkled 3x5 card and checks His list. First of all, it has to be a low-income neighborhood. I want to live with poor people. I want to be born to a dirt-poor couple and live among shepherds. Can you find that for me? The agent tries to hide her surprise: Well, it s not every day I get that request, but the good news is you have plenty of options. There are poor neighborhoods all over the world. We can put you in a low-income home. Super, God smiles, but it also has to be a dangerous neighborhood. I want to live in a place ruled by a cruel, unpredictable leader, a neighborhood where people are hurting and grieving and frightened. I want to bring hope to those people, so I just have to live next door to them. Can you find that for me? After a few moments of stunned silence, the agent collects herself. Let me get this straight. You want to live in a low-income neighborhood where your life could be threatened in the first year of your life on earth? Yes, that would be perfect! God beams. It dawns on the agent that this is not going to be her best paying job. You said you had two more criterion. I m not sure I want to know what they are. Here s the third. It s critical that I find an oppressed neighborhood, you know a place where people are exploited and avoided. I want to know what it s like to be mistreated and marginalized. I need you to move me next door to some foreigners that are mistrusted and hated. Can you find that for me? By now, the agent realizes what is going on and decides to play along. I can find you exactly what you are looking for. I can find you a dirt-poor neighborhood. I can find you a dangerous neighborhood. I can find you a hated neighborhood. And I can find you that fourth neighborhood quality. Don t tell me. Let me guess. You want to live in red-light district. You want to move in next door to prostitutes and drunks, right? That s not fair, God protests, you peeked at my card!

2 Of all the qualities God looked for in a neighborhood, this fourth one is the most shocking. It is, however, in my opinion, the most important of them all. When God came to earth, he moved into a shady neighborhood. Call it seedy. Call it questionable. God moved in with neighbors known for their moral failures. He became deeply acquainted with and irreversibly associated with people of very poor reputation. You can see it in His family line, and you can see it in His family. How many of you have done some research into your family line? It is a fascinating pursuit, and it is easier to do than ever. There are websites like ancestry.com that can help you to follow your family line back for many generations. What is the appeal of such a search? For many, it is finding out information about the people who are your distant relatives. Of special interest is discovering that someone in your family line was relatively famous. Of course, you can also discover that someone in your family line was infamous. Either way, the search is usually fascinating. God led four men (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) to record something of the life and ministry of Jesus. Two of them, Matthew and Luke, do the ancestry.com thing on the family line of Jesus and include it in their biographical sketches of Jesus. In fact, Matthew begins his record of Jesus by listing out the family line of Jesus, which I am going to read for you in a moment. Before I do, note this about Matthew s culture. Because the family names and inheritances were passed down through fathers, genealogies would typically list only the names of the fathers. Matthew, however, lists five mothers in the family line of Jesus. Given how unusual this is, Matthew s readers would assume there was a very specific reason for noting these five women. I believe there was. Listen to the family line of Jesus: A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, 6 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, 8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 1 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah [a] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all

3 from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (The Bible, Matthew 1:1-17 NIV) O.K. reading that was roughly as interesting as it would be for us to read the last forty-two generations of your family. However, Matthew s readers would know something about many of the names in this genealogy since their stories were a part of Jewish history recorded in the Law and the Prophets. Here is what many of Matthew s readers would know. They would realize that Tamar dabbled in prostitution. Rahab was a prostitute, and she was not a Jew. Ruth was also not a Jew but was instead from Moab, one of the Jew s most vicious and hated enemy countries. Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, had an affair with the most prominent king in Jewish history, King David. One would assume that if you were going to note some women in the family line of Jesus, it would be because of their exemplary character or reputation. You would list women to impress, but that is clearly not what Matthew is doing. He is candidly noting the kind of people Jesus wanted to be associated with. By the way, many of the fathers listed had deep black marks on their character as well. Matthew is not slurring women here. The unusual addition of these four women, however, would make an unmistakable statement about the kind of neighborhood Jesus wanted to move in to, about the kind of people He deeply cared about. In this genealogy, we see something of Jesus heart for moral failures, for the naughty, for the shameful, for the despicable, for the unfaithful. We have talked about the first four women mentioned in Matthew s genealogy, but there was a fifth woman mentioned. Matthew goes on to tell her story. Before we read what he writes about her, let me tell you a bit about marriage in their culture. One writer notes this: Marriages were arranged for individuals by parents, and contracts were negotiated. After this was accomplished, the individuals were considered married and were called husband and wife. They did not, however, begin to live together. Instead, the woman continued to live with her parents and the man with his for one year. The waiting period was to demonstrate the faithfulness of the pledge of purity given concerning the bride. If she was found to be with child in this period, she obviously was not pure, but had been involved in an unfaithful sexual relationship. Therefore the marriage could be annulled. (Bible Knowledge Commentary, pg. 20) Warren Wiersbe confirms: To the Jewish people in that day, betrothal (engagement) was equivalent to marriage--except that the man and woman did not live together. They were called husband and wife, and, at the end of the engagement period, the marriage was consummated. If a betrothed woman became pregnant, it was considered adultery (see Deut. 22:13-21). You should also know that according to the law of the land, those who committed adultery could be stoned to death. Okay, now you are ready to hear the story of the fifth mother mentioned in the family line of Jesus.

4 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (The Bible, Matthew 1:18-25 NIV) In our day, many would consider Mary one of the most respected women in all of ancient history, but she was not seen that way by her neighbors. It became clear, during her betrothal period, that she was expecting a child. It would seem obvious to those around that she had been unfaithful to Joseph. When Joseph, however, decided to marry her, it would certainly give the impression that both of them had violated their marriage vows. What God asked Joseph to do cost him his own reputation. He and Mary would, for their entire lives, live under the cloud of ignoring God s sexual boundaries, and their son, Jesus, would be the one neighbors would whisper and wonder about. Jesus was born under the cloud of scandal and impropriety intentionally. He moved as close to our scandal-ridden lives as He possibly could without ever doing evil. Given how Jesus chose to be born, it should shock no one that He ate meals with and befriended prostitutes, adulterers, traitors, and people who slept around. The number of accounts in the Bible where Jesus spent time with the unfaithful, the naughty, and the whispered-about is really quite remarkable. No wonder, he was given the accusatory nickname, friend of sinners and drunkards and prostitutes and traitors. It was true. I share one of the many recorded in the Bible. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 "No one,

5 sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin." (The Bible, John 8:1-11 NIV) Understand this: Jesus could uniquely relate to this woman. He had seen the same judgmental eyes, and He had heard the same degrading comments. I am not exaggerating the stigma He walked with for His entire life. In fact, just a few verses later, in this very same chapter, religious leaders dismissed Jesus words with this biting accusation: we are not born of fornication. (Jn. 8:41, KJV) He moved into the neighborhood of the unfaithful; they were and are His people. As such, He could relate to the pain and humiliation of their world. Just a few weeks ago, it hit me with full force that what these men--stones in hand--were ready to do is exactly what could have happened to Jesus own mother. Are you beginning to understand just how closely Jesus walked with the broken and unfaithful? This leads me to two conclusions about Christmas that I hope you never forget. We sing a variety of songs in the Christmas season. Help me finish out the words to a couple of them. One you will readily know; the second will be known only by people as old as I am. Here s the first song: He s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who s or -. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you re sleeping; He knows when you re awake. He knows if you ve been or, so be for goodness sake. Are you seeing a theme? Here s the second song: I m getting nuthin for Christmas. Mommy and Daddy are mad. I m getting nothing for Christmas, cause I ain t been nuthin but. The common thread through these songs is that Christmas is for the good. Those who are bad or naughty or rebellious or unfaithful should not expect anything for Christmas except perhaps a lump of coal in your stocking. Christmas is for the good. A close look at the first Christmas and the people Jesus moved next door to reveals just the opposite. In reality Christmas is for losers, for the shameful, for the naughty, for the abusers, for the arrogant, for the haters, for the killers, for the self-righteous, for the selfish, for the adulterers, for monsters.in other words, for me and for you! Christmas is for Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, John Edwards, Carrie Prejean, Marion Jones, Bernard Madhoff, and Roger Martin. We are specifically the reason for the season. God moved to our planet to rescue the unfaithful. I don t know about you, but that is extremely good news for me! The reality is that not one of us comes to the Christmas season untainted by scandal and shame. Along with our nice is our naughty. Yes, we have done nice and noble things, but every single one of us have thought things or said things or done things that we want no one to know about, things that might change our

6 nice reputations. Not a single one of us was all nice this past year. Even more, our niceness often leads to broken attitudes and choices. We think we are superior to other people. Our niceness can lead us to believe we don t need God after all and cause us to ignore Him altogether. Even our niceness leads to evil and brokenness. One of our great fears is that if people really knew everything about us--the nice and the naughty--they would not want to be with us, much less love us. The Christmas story is just the opposite. God does know everything about us, and He wants us to be in His family. He wants to live in our neighborhood. Christmas, is, in reality more for the naughty than the nice. Christmas is the story of the God Who moved to our planet into the neighborhood of the poor, the oppressed, the hurting, and the unfaithful. He moved in next door to convey just how much He loves hurting and broken people. More than that, He moved to our planet in order to give His life for us. He sacrificed His comfort, His reputation, and His very life in order to secure hope, peace, and forgiveness for us. He came, not simply to live in our neighborhood, but to change our neighborhood. He came to love people as no one had ever before loved. Christmas is for Christians to follow Jesus and befriend the broken. Here, then, is the disturbing quality of Christmas. Jesus calls those who follow Him--His family--to love others just like He did. It s a command. We are to move toward the poor and the oppressed and the hurting and the unfaithful and love them like Jesus Himself did. Way too often, we see Christmas as a time to take it easy, enjoy our gifts, and look out for ourselves. In reality, the Christmas story is a powerful reminder of our call to move out, to act on behalf of hurting and broken people. It s time to lose our self-righteousness and our complacency and to move toward people as deeply broken as we are. It s time to put up the for sale sign, move out, and take to others the hope and grace that has changed our own lives. That is the reason for the season. Hope Church

1. This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac.

Chapter 1 v1-2 1 1. This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father Chapter 1 v2-3 of Jacob. Jacob