Sermon Tone Analysis

December 16, 2007

 

Introduction:

A while back I was pulled over on the highway by a highway patrolman for speeding.

My life felt intercepted by that black and white car.

This is not a confession, just a story.

The patrolman came up to my car door and asked me where I was going in such a hurry.

I said I was going to seminary for a conference.

I asked him if I was speeding.

I actually didn’t think I was speeding.

I apparently missed the speed limit sign about a mile back where the speed limit was reduced before entering into a small town.

He asked me if I was a pastor and I said yes.

He asked what denomination and I said, “Baptist.”

He walked back to his car to finish filling out the ticket or whatever they do in the car, probably laugh at the groveling attitude I was exhibiting.

He came back to the car and told me to be careful, that he was a Baptist, and that he was giving me a warning.

That was mercy.

I didn’t get what I deserved.

Do you know what would have happened if grace was also applied to the situation?

The officer would have said, “This time of day can be busy on the highway and Dallas traffic can be rough.

How about I give you an escort to seminary?”

Then he would have proceeded to give me an official escort to seminary.

That would have been grace.

Grace is favor.

Mercy and grace can create some wonderful stories.

Remember last week we talked about the sovereign story of God proclaimed in the genealogy of Matthew.

For generations, stories of people’s choices filled history but nothing could stop what God had planned.

No matter what anyone did or did not do, God was sending His Son into the world.

God’s plan would happen and did happen because God is sovereignly in control of everything.

Nothing surprises God and nothing thwarts God’s plans.

Jesus came and was born in a manger, lived a holy and sinless life, died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again from the dead according to the predetermined plan of God.

At the fullness of time Jesus came, the Redeemer and Savior.

God’s story is the bigger story in which each one of us lives.

God’s story is still unfolding to the day when the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And all those who trust in Jesus will be taken to be with the Lord forever.

Like a thief in the night Jesus will appear to steal away his people and to end this story and start the story of eternity.

That is God’s plan and nothing can stop it.

There is only one way to be ready for that day.

You need a story of grace, a story of God’s favor, a story of God intercepting your life.

I am going to read the beginning of this genealogical list in Matthew again this morning for us.

Matthew 1:2-17

/2 //Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,// //3 //and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,// //4 //and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,// //5 //and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,// //6 //and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,// //7 //and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,// //8 //and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah,// //9 //and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,// //10 //and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah,// //11 //and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.// //12 //And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,// //13 //and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor,// //14 //and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud,// //15 //and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,// //16 //and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.// //17 //So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations./

I.

God’s story – a story of grace seasoned by grace.

Matthew didn’t have to write it like this.

He could have simply said, Judah the father of Perez, Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Jesse, David the father of Solomon.

But he didn’t.

He mentioned each of these women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.

Why?

Grace.

Because they are stories of grace, stories of God’s immense favor, seasoning the story of the gospel of grace.

 

A.

Tamar and Judah - Gen. 38 – Tamar was abandoned and neglected.

Both her previous husbands were ungodly and yet she remained faithful.

Her father-in-law was not willing to take care of her but abandoned her to widowhood.

She was without hope.

She tricked Judah.

In the midst of her deception, God intervened with grace.

He gave her twins, one of which who would be in the lineage of the Messiah.

God stepped into this deception and sin and brought forth one in the line of the Messiah – that is grace.

B.

Rahab and Salmon – Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho, the city that God told his people to destroy.

She was a prostitute.

She did not deserve to be saved.

She had spent her life worshipping false gods and living a life of ungodliness.

But the spies came to her house.

For some reason she believed in God, she asked for deliverance, she offered her help, she chose the side of God, for some reason she trusted the Lord.

The reason was grace.

The favor of God.

Then Rahab found a husband in Israel.

Salmon found in Rahab a beauty that she had probably thought lost.

Salmon chose her.

Then God blessed them with a child named Boaz.

What a special man Boaz became under the parenting of Salmon and Rahab.

Why?

Grace.

It was God’s grace that transformed this prostitute into a follower of God, a faithful wife and devoted mother.

Grace.

C.

Ruth and Boaz – A man named Elimelech took his wife and two sons and left Bethlehem because things were too hard.

He was going to an easier place.

He went to Moab.

An Israelite had no business in Moab.

Elimelech died there in Moab, where things were supposed to be better.

Naomi was left with her two sons.

They took for themselves Moabite women for wives.

These Israelite men had no business taking Moabite women for wives.

God didn’t want his people marrying foreign women who worshipped other gods.

After about ten years living in Moab, both of those sons died leaving Naomi and her two daughter-in-laws.

Naomi decided to go home alone.

Ruth would not be stopped.

She would go where Naomi went and would take Naomi’s God as her own.

She was going home with Naomi no matter what.

Ruth goes home with Naomi, a foreigner, come home with as a widow responsible for taking care of her widowed mother-in-law.

She began her efforts to care for them by going into the fields to gather grain left over for the poor.

She happened to end up in a field that belonged to Boaz.

Happened to end up there?

Grace.

It’s grace.

Ruth was from Moab.

She spent her life worshipping false gods.