Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:​

PBS show Ancestry Roadshow?​

Ever since the first man and the first woman that God ever created fell into sin there has been a need for Christmas.

Because God is all knowing, He knew of this need even before it arrived and made plans for Christmas to come and prepared the human race for Christmas by telling them throughout history that it would come.

[The story is told of a group of applicants waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator who paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes, which began coming over a loud speaker.

Suddenly one of them rushed into the employer’s office.

Soon he returned smiling.

“I got it!” he exclaimed to the other applicants.

“How did you get ahead of us?” they asked.

“You might have been considered if you hadn’t been so busy talking that you didn’t hear the manager’s coded message,” he replied.

“It said, “The man I need must always be on the alert.

The first one who interprets this and comes directly into my private office will be hired.””[1]]

That man was alert and heard the sign that lead him to the prize.

This morning we want tunnel back into time and look at those passages where God communicated Christmas in bits that we could understand if those who heard them were alert.

It is my desire that as we look at these passages our hearts will be prepared to remember the significance of Christmas to our own hearts this year and look in anticipation to the coming of Jesus the Messiah again.

The first of these passages is the account of the fall of man through our first parents Adam and Eve.

After God had confronted them with their sin He said to Eve…[read verses]

This passage speaks of a child that would be born as an offspring of Eve.

This is very cryptic and gives no details as to who this child is or when he would be born; all Adam and Eve knew at this point was that a child would be born who would exchange blows with and conquer the spirit behind the serpent.

It was enough to begin hope and place the seed of redemption into the minds of the whole human race.

Adam lived for 930 years and passed on to 8 generations after him the hope of Eve’s seed that would come.

That left only 126 years between the death of Adam and the birth of Noah.

Noah would have heard the story from the lips of men like Adam’s son Seth and Seth’s great, great, great grandson Enoch, and Enoch’s son Methuselah.

Noah would have told his son Shem who was still living when Abram was born.

Imagine Abram sitting on Great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa Shem’s lap and hearing the story about the son who would be born from Eve who would do battle with and rule over Satan the Serpent of old.

Imagine Abram’s surprise when the God of his ancestors spoke to Him and made a promise to bless his offspring.

Abram could have asked, “Could it be that the son that was promised to Eve that grandpa Shem told me about will be born into my family?”

Each of the four Gospels has its own emphasis.

Matthew’s book is called, “the Gospel of the King.”

It was written primarily for Jewish readers.

Mark’s book, the Gospel of the Servant, was written to instruct Roman readers.

Luke wrote mainly to the Greeks and presented Christ as the perfect “Son of man.”

John’s appeal is universal, and his message was, “This is the Son of God.”

No one Gospel is able to tell the whole story as God wants us to see it.

But when we put these four Gospel accounts together, we have a composite picture of the person and work of our Lord​

Matthew, meaning “gift of the Lord,” was the other name of Levi (9:9), the tax collector who left everything to follow Christ (Lk 5:27, 28).

Matthew was one of the 12 apostles (10:3; Mk 3:18; Lk 6:15; Ac 1:13).

In his own list of the 12, he explicitly calls himself a “tax collector” ​

According to tradition, Matthew ministered in Palestine for several years after the Lord’s return to heaven, and then made missionary journeys to the Jews who were dispersed among the Gentiles.

His work is associated with Persia, Ethiopia, and Syria, and some traditions associate him with Greece.

The New Testament is silent on his life, but this we do know: Wherever the Scriptures travel in this world, the Gospel written by Matthew continues to minister to hearts.​

Matthew clearly omitted some names from this genealogy.

Probably, he did this to give a systematic summary of three periods in Israel’s history, each with fourteen generations.

The numerical value of the Hebrew letters for “David” equals fourteen​

Matthew 1:1–17 (NASB95)​

1.  Jewish Ancestry​

Only the fourth son of Jacob is here named, as it was from his loins that Messiah was to spring

Later Isaac’s son Jacob, blessed his sons under the direction of God and further clarified from whose family the promised child would come.

Shiloh is not necessarily a name or title but simply means “to whom it belongs.”

So until to whom the rulers staff belongs comes, Judah will rule the family of Israel, and another piece of the Christmas mystery was laid.

Matthew 1:5

matthew 1 6

1.  Jewish Ancestry​

2. Royal Ancestry​

After David who was of the lineage of Judah became king, the God who spoke to Eve in the garden further refined His promise through the prophet Jeremiah.

Showing that the promised king would be a son of David.

1:8 Joram the father of Uzziah.

Cf. 1Ch 3:10–12.

Matthew skips over Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, going directly from Joram to Uzziah (Azariah)—using a kind of genealogical shorthand.

He seems to do this intentionally in order to make a symmetrical 3-fold division in v. 17.​

Matthew 1:10

1:11 Josiah became the father of Jeconiah.

Again, Matthew skips a generation between Josiah and Jeconiah (cf.

1Ch 3:14–16).

Jeconiah is also called Jehoiachin (2Ki 24:6; 2Ch 36:8) and sometimes Coniah (Jer 22:24).

Jeconiah’s presence in this genealogy presents an interesting dilemma.

A curse on him forbade any of his descendants from the throne of David forever

Since Jesus was heir through Joseph to the royal line of descent, but not an actual son of Joseph and thus not a physical descendant through this line, the curse bypassed him.

Mary was a descendant of another son named Nathan.​

​1.

Jewish Ancestry​

2.  Royal Ancestry​

3.  Remaining Ancestry​

1:12 Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.

See 1Ch 3:17–19, where Zerubbabel is said to be the offspring of Pedaiah, Shealtiel’s brother.

Elsewhere in the OT, Zerubbabel is always called the son of Shealtiel (e.g., Hag 1:1; Ezr 3:2; Ne 12:1).

Possibly Shealtiel adopted his nephew (see note on Hag 2:23).

Zerubbabel is the last character in Matthew’s list who appears in any of the OT genealogies.​

Matthew 1:14

Matthew 1:15

Matthew 1:16

Whom- feminine referring to Mary.

From here God begins to really zero in on this promised king, this chosen one, this Messiah/Christ.

In

Dan.

9:25 we find one of the most amazing statements of the Scripture because of its accuracy.

“So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

7 + 62 = 69 weeks.

The word weeks is actually just the word sevens so we would read that there will be 7 sevens and 62 sevens for a total of 69 sevens.

What are these weeks or sevens?

They are periods of seven years, so 69 sevens are 69 periods of seven years for a total of 483 years.

Are you following me?

I hope so because the amazing part is that the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was issued on March 14, 445 BC by King Artaxerxes I. On April 6, 32 AD, Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on a donkey in what we call the triumphal entry in which the nation of Israel officially rejected Jesus as the true Messiah.

That is exactly 483 Jewish ceremonial years after Artaxerxes decree.

Though this wouldn’t have given the date of the Messiah’s birth, it certainly should have put them in the ball park of + or – 30 years.

Now that they knew approximately when the Messiah was to be born, then Isaiah tells who the Messiah will be when he reports in Isaiah 9:6-7, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.”

In Old Testament thinking, the name that a person is called indicates the character that they possess.

So according to His name, people will recognize that this child is no ordinary man.

Here His character includes “Wonderful Counselor” the wisdom to counsel all our troubles, “Mighty God” the power to rule as God because He is God, “Eternal Father” the love a father that has existed for eternity, and “Prince of Peace” the ability to administer peace.

In other words He will be the perfect ruler.