Sermon Tone Analysis

At a Christmas service you can go to a text for reflection that describes the Christmas events.

You could go to a text that has shepherds, angels, wise men, and the manger.

This is actually a text that is obviously not describing the events of Christmas.

It is telling us what they mean.

It doesn’t tell us what happened; it tells us what the events that happened mean.

This is the beginning of 1 John.

John wrote the gospel of John plus these three letters.

The prologue or the very first four verses of John that we just read are very like the very first few verses of the gospel of John.

Why preach on the genealogy of Jesus; especially at Christmas.

First, it is the beginning of the Christmas story.

If we skip the genealogy of Jesus we miss the story’s opening.

Secondly Paul teaches us that all Scripture is inspired and profitable.

Translation every word in the Word of God is filled with spiritual dynamite.

Our text teaches us that . . .

What I’d like to show you is there are four things that this text tells us that Christmas means.

It’s very easy at Christmas time not to actually think about what it means.

All you have to do is sort of let the nostalgia hit.

You feel warm.

You have memories.

You have some time off.

Many, many good things happen and you just feel good at Christmas.

I’d like to help you think about what Christmas actually means.

When the Bible talks about the birth of Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of heaven, coming into this world, born as a human being in the manger, what does that mean?

It means four things.

In time, God broke into human history in order to give religious rejects spiritual rest.

IN TIME

1. Salvation is by grace

In the very beginning it says, “These are the generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Right away that reminds us of something.

Jesus Christ had been promised for centuries.

God came to David and said, “I’m going to put one of your descendants on the throne, and he will reign forever.”

He said, “Abraham, come out of your tent.

Look at the stars.

Can you number them?

So shall your seed be, and of your seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed.”

However, it wasn’t for 2,000 more years before the angel told Mary, the Virgin, that she would give birth to Christ.

This revelation causes Mary to sing.

Listen to her lyrics, “He remembered his promise to our father Abraham, even as he said.”

He said, “Abraham, come out of your tent.

Look at the stars.

Can you number them?

So shall thy seed be, and of thy seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed.”

However, it wasn’t for 2,000 more years before Mary sang her song, the Magnificat, after the angel had come to her and told her about the birth of Christ that was going to come through her.

She sings a song and says, “He remembered his promise to our father Abraham, even as he said.”

Do you notice how John talks about Jesus here?

In 1 of John, he’s called the Word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

As a matter of fact, that’s the Greek en arche en logos.

“In the beginning was the Word …” Jesus is called the Word.

At least two thousand years had passed since these promises were uttered and for the last 400 years not a word from God through any prophet.

For hundreds of years, the prophets had been faithfully proclaiming God is sending the Messiah.

Andy yet 400 years have passed since a prophet had been heard uttering God’s promise of the Messiah.

It appears that God has forgotten his promises.

Here he is called the Word of life, but look more carefully.

It says this Word of life was with the Father from the beginning.

In verse 2 it says, “The life appeared; we have seen and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father …” Now we’re not being told here that Jesus Christ has life or gives life (this is not just physical life; this is eternal life, salvation); it says he is it.

The first thing the genealogies teach us is that you cannot judge God by your calendars.

God may appear to be very slow, but he never forgets his promises.

He may seem to be forgetting his promises, but when his promises come true (and they will come true), they always burst the banks of our imagination.

Here is one of the first things we always can say makes Christianity different than other religions.

In every other religion, the founder is a prophet or a sage.

The founder says, “Here’s the way for you to find eternal life: do this, do this, do this, do this and you will connect to the infinite or you will become one with God or you will be saved.

Do this, do this, do this, and do this.

This is the way to eternal life.”

God seems to forget, but he never forgets his promises.

He comes through in ways we can’t even imagine.

I say that because many of us on a day like Christmas are fighting with the fact that many of God promises haven’t come true.

Promises to bless us, to give us the desires of our hearts, to give us what we need.

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” in .

He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Christianity does not say Jesus is a great prophet pointing the way to God and how we can save ourselves.

Jesus Christ, according to Christmas, is God come to save us, to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.

To know him is eternal life.

It’s not like he comes and you follow him, do the things you that should do, live a good life and then God blesses you and God saves you.

No, no.

He is the life.

What does this teach us?

Today on Christmas Day I’m saying to you, this passage is saying to you, that the mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.

It may seem that God has forgotten his promises, but he is in the process, even now, of bringing to fulfillment His promises.

The Bible promises to those of us who believe that He is able to give us more than we dare ask or think.

A lot of you are saying, “I can imagine an awful lot.”

Over the years, I’ve had people say to me something like this, “Well, I don’t know what I believe about Jesus or I don’t know if I believe the incarnation or all these things.

Doctrine doesn’t matter.

Doctrine and dogma don’t matter.

What matters is that you live a good life.

That’s what matters.”

Some of you might say, “Well, I’m a Christian and it doesn’t seem to me like God has come through for me because I have made a mess of my life.

I am eating the bitter fruit of foolish mistakes and stupid moves.

Maybe I’ll never have all these great things God has promised.”

I always say, “When you say, ‘Doctrine doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you live a good life,’ that’s a doctrine.

Do you know what the doctrine says?

It says I actually am not so bad that I need a Savior.

I’m actually not so messed up that I can’t pull it together and live a good enough life.

When you say, ‘Doctrine doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you live a good life,’ that is a doctrine and historically it is called the doctrine of salvation by your works rather than by grace.”

And this is why this genealogy is important.

In verse 2 it says, “Isaac begat Jacob.”

Then it says, “Jacob begat Judah.”

Do you know how Jacob begat Judah?