Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Welcome to Advent.

A time of reflection on the Advent of the messiah coming into the world.

For some of you Advent may be something new.

Candles , singing, but during the next few weeks we are going to take some time and reflect upon the coming of Christ into the world.

For the people back over 2000 years ago this was a long awaited time.

God appeared to be silent, silent for over 400 years.

Can you image waiting 400 years?

Waiting.

Have you been waiting for God for something?

Have you been on your knees in prayer, asking God for something?

Advent is a time of reflection on the waiting period people experienced as they waited for the coming Christ.

What should we really be waiting for in our lives.

There is a second advent.

The 2nd coming of Christ is what should be on our minds daily, like those waiting for the Advent of the Messiah, we too should be waiting for the day Christ will return to gather His followers.

Waiting

Waiting like a child.

Remember

as a child waiting for the coming of Christmas.

I remember as a child, growing up in the church, to me Christmas was a time to receive presents.

I was a child after all.

Sure we had the Sunday School Pageant, The time I got to wear my housecoat in public as a shepherd.

I was never picked to be Joseph, always a shepherd.

Funny as today, God has called me to be a shepherd, a role I got stuck with as child in our church’s plays.

Waiting,

As a child of a city transit worker, we waited for the annual Christmas event where we received presents from my dad’s work.

We were never allowed to open the presents until Christmas, but we knew what we were getting as other children opened the same size boxes wrapped the same way as ours, but we still waited.

Waiting,

As a child we would wait for the Simpson’s store big reveal of there Christmas window display.

Each window was filled with moving parts, decorations and a sight to behold.

It’s no wonder why I passionately set up my Christmas village each year.

Waiting,

Waiting to see the excitement of my own children on Christmas morning as we spent time as a family celebrating.

Waiting,

Waiting to see how God was going to move in a situation that was far from my control.

What are you waiting for in your life?

Over the next four weeks we are going to look at the Christmas story differently than I have ever looked at it before.

We are going to look at the four evangelist, the writers of the 4 gospels to see their perspective on coming messiah.

I encourage you, if you haven’t seen in the weekly email, there is a daily Advent reading document that you can download, or we have printed out a few copies, and we can make more if needed, but it is a document to follow along with the sermon series.

waiting,

The four evangelist all waiting in a different way and their report on the greatest Christmas story in four different ways with 4 different perspectives.

I believe when we look through the four different Gospels we see an entire picture of what the wait was all about.

Matthew, the good Jew, turned Tax collector, turned follower of Christ tells us the story through the eyes of the Chosen people.

It was a story of promise, promise that the coming messiah would come through the chosen people, the Jews.

Mark, The gentile, He is one of us.

Grafted into the people of God.

We will find out his perspective as an outsider accepted into the family.

Luke, the doctor.

Detail, details, details.

This is often the source of our story, read out loud during Christmas, even made into the focal point of the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon, that is played faithfully every year.

John, The one called the Disciple who was dearly beloved by Jesus.

He began walking with Christ, talk directly by Christ, and his perspective is who is really this Child and why all the fuss.

Matthew

The advent is here so let’s begin by looking at the perspective of Matthew

A fulfilled promise to the people.

Open your Bibles, log into your Bible app and we are going to begin at the very beginning of Matthew’s narrative.

Matthew begins not with a description of Jesus’ birth but his lineage.

In other words, written to a primary Jewish audience,

He was simply saying.

He is family.

He is one of us........

Three Parts of the lineage description, generations to Jesus, generations to David, and generations back to Abraham.

Matthew points out,

Remember family,

pause

Abraham was delivered a promise that God was going to bless the world through us.

We were the chosen people of God.

Abraham was told,

from Him would be a child of promise.

Matthew begins to list family after family around 14 generations to David Another 14 generations to take the people through the rough years, then the last group through to the Christ.

Grouped in major portions of Israel’s history, but it was a reminder to the readers that this Christ was the messiah as he was of the one promised throughout the entire Old Testament.

Behind these events, the highest and lowest points in the history of Israel, stands the sovereignty of God, who works out all things in accordance with his purpose and timing

I am not going to spend time reading through the entire list, because it’s not my family and I would most defiantly get some of the names wrong, but it was Matthew’s family.

If you have a paper Bible open, scan over the names, if you are reading your app, scroll through.

Did you notice something different that was added to the genealogy?

Something most often would not be added in most genealogy of the day?

There are women mentioned in the list.

For some of you that may seem common but it was not the common practice of the day, so why did Matthew even give a mention.

Do you see the names?

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and you know, … that women… the mother of Solomon, Uriah’s wife.

Like most families I know of and talk with there is always someone in the family like you don’t like to talk about.

pause

But why did Matthew bring these names forward.

If you read the story of the Old Testament, it is filled with names of women of importance, why these names.

Scholars, who love to debate this very question come up with several conclusions.

Some make sense, others are a stretch.

The conclusions range from their apparent sins, their gentile status.

The one that appeals to me and I believe that it brings to light the reason for Christ’s coming.

First, he came into a family that was a mess to save them from their mess.

The people didn't have to be perfect before Christ came, He came even knowing the mess, our mess.

His earthly lineage was a mess.

I like how one commentary puts it,

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 33A: Matthew 1–13 (Comment)

The women listed, centers on the way in which the women prefigure Mary by calling attention to the abundant presence of both surprise and scandal in the Messiah’s lineage.

The sovereign plan and purpose of God are often worked out in and through the most unlikely turn of events, and even through women who, though Gentiles or harlots, are receptive to God’s will.

The virgin birth and the importance of Mary are just such surprising and scandalous (though in Mary’s case only seemingly scandalous) ways through which God brings his purposes to realization in the story of Jesus.

The women then serve as reminders that God often works in the most unusual ways and that to be open to his sovereign activity is to be prepared for the surprising.

waiting

Are you waiting for God to work in a marvelous way out of the extraordinary?

God can work in your life today.