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Date: Second Wednesday of Advent
Text: Matthew 1:1-6
Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.
And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our text today is.
Taken from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 -6. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac the father of Jacob. Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And Perez the father of Hezron. And Hezron the father of Ram. Ram the father of Amminadab. And Amminadab the father of Nashon. And Nashon the father of Salmon.
And Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed the father of Jesse. And Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.
Jesus the son of Abraham. That is the focus of our meditation. This second midweek service of Advent. And we considered our Gospel text which clearly laid out the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now not long ago I did one of those DNA tests at Ancestry .com and now I can definitively say that both my DNA and my family tree prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am no one special.
There are no highlights to report. In fact some lowlights if I'm being honest with you. So I don't have any famous people of history as my ancestors. In fact it looks like all of my ancestors are your garden variety hardworking European peasant nobodies whose births and deaths were met with very little if no fanfare at all.
They kind of came and went and nobody even wrote a paragraph about them. They were lucky if they got their name put in the white pages when there used to be these things called phone books. But all of that being said I will say this and that is that Christ in his genealogy there's some pretty big highlights there.
Abraham, David, Solomon, well he's kind of getting sketchy. But then next week we'll consider some of the scandalous ones in his genealogy. But you'll note that in Jesus' time in fact we'll take a look at the preaching of John the Baptist tonight from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3.
In Jesus' time and even to this day there are some people who for some weird reason put their faith in the fact that they are physical descendants of Abraham. It's the weirdest thing. In fact there is one particular fellow who I've critiqued on my YouTube channel and on Fighting for the Faith who claims that he's half Jewish.
But when I checked his ancestry family tree which was paid for by a professional genealogist turns out he's as Jewish as the Lucky Charms leprechaun. But that's a big deal for him and there are a lot of people in evangelicalism that gave him some kind of teaching credentials based upon the mythology that he is half Jewish.
And so there is this big misconception that somehow being a physical descendant of Abraham that it gives you street creds with God. Like you're born with certain merits in your favor as it relates to the favor of God.
But here again the preaching of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ himself. And here's what he says. It says in Matthew 3, in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And you note the text says very clearly where he was preaching. In Judea. And so he was telling all of these physical descendants of Abraham that they needed to repent.
And for this is he who was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when he said the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his paths straight. Apparently all these descendants of Abraham had crooked paths that needed straightening out.
Now John wore a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist and his food was locust and wild honey. I still haven't figured out why somebody hasn't figured out how to package locust and wild honey and call it the John the Baptist bars.
That would be worse than keto anyway. But it's biblical man. I'm just saying. There's always somebody trying to make money on those things. So when Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him they were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism he said to them you brood of vipers. I always liked Walter Martin's explanation of what that particular phrase means. Brood of vipers.
His loose translation is your mothers are snakes. John the Baptist apparently didn't go to political correct rhetoric training school and so he was a little spicy there. Your mothers are snakes. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruit in keeping with repentance and do not presume to say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
Now even the axe is laid at the root of the trees every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. In other words being a descendant of Abraham doesn't automatically make you a good tree that bears good fruit.
Something to consider there. But Christ is truly one of the descendants of Abraham and it's important to note that he is prophesied of scripture along with Abraham the man of faith the ones to whom the promises were given.
Not one person but two. One person was given the promises and that's Abraham and Abraham believed God it was credited to him as righteousness. But as Paul points out in the epistles of the Galatians chapter three that the promise was not given to Abraham and to his offspring plural but to his offspring Zerah singular and that is Christ.
So in other words having faith that you have an inside track with God because you're descended from Abraham is if you think about it a foolish faith. Abraham was a sinner just like you and I. He was not the Messiah.
Faith in your Abrahamic descent is not even remotely the same as faith in Christ. And notice where the focus of the faith is. I've said it many times that faith is like eyesight. It always has an object to which it looks to.
Does your faith look to Jesus or does your faith look to your great pedigree? Whether it be Abraham or some other thing. The nice thing is I don't have that luxury. I come from well the salt of the earth.
You get the idea. But all of that being said faith in your ancestry is not faith in Christ. Plus if you pay attention to scripture Abraham was a sinner just like you and I. We would note that Abraham flat out lied about his marriage to Sarah and told his wife because he was afraid that he was going to be murdered because she was a beautiful woman that if they knew that he was married to her that they would kill him.
And so he got her to go along with his idea. Let's just lie and say that we are siblings, brother and sister. And in one particular text in Genesis this particular lie of Abraham's nearly resulted in her being sexually violated by another man who took her to be his wife.
And then remember when Abraham's wife Sarah got impatient waiting for God's promise of a son. She came up with this brilliant idea and said to Abraham you should sleep with Hagar my maidservant. And Abraham went sure that sounds like a great idea.
And let's just say there's been trouble in humanity ever since. Sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac continue to argue and quarrel to this day. So if we're talking about Abraham let's make this clear scripture is very clear that Abraham was saved by faith not by his good works.
In fact if you're trying to be saved by your good works you had better be 100 positive that you are sinless because that's about the only way you're going to make it. But Romans 4 helps us out in this regard reminding us of the faith of Abraham.
Romans 4 verse 1 begins with these words. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? If Abraham was justified by works then he has something to boast about but not before God.
For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteous apart from works.
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. And that is truly a blessing indeed because on the face of planet Earth right now we're looking at somewhere between 7 billion and 7 .5 billion people on the planet.
It's a little tough to keep up with the count because it keeps going up. And of the 7 billion plus people on planet Earth right now how many of them are numbered among the godly by nature? Not one of them.
Not me. Not you. Not anybody. Regardless of the highlights that may exist in your ancestral tree. We are all sinners. And so you'll note the blessing that Abraham experienced was the blessing of the forgiveness of his sins.
Abraham believed God regarding the promises and God credited to him as righteousness. And these same promises now come to us. The blessing of Abraham is more to do with the arrival and the birth of his great, great, great, great, great, great grandson Jesus.
The one who would be sinless. Sinless in our place. Perfectly keeping all the law of God. Who never compromised to the point of sinning even once. Neither in thought nor word nor in deed. In fact, Christ kept the law perfectly.
And so it is in him that we receive the promises. The promises of full pardon, forgiveness of sins. These are only for the ungodly. And life eternal and peace with God. All because of what this son of Abraham accomplished.
The very things that Abraham himself could not accomplish. And so Paul asks the question then, is this blessing only then for the circumcised? The ones who are the physical descendants of Abraham? Or are these promises not only also for the uncircumcised?
For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. So how then was it counted to him? Was it before or was it after he had been circumcised? And if you know your Genesis well, then you'll note that Paul is correct when he notes, it was not after, but it was before he was circumcised.
Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So the purpose then was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.
And this is the great mystery, the great amazing thing about being a Christian. About being united with Christ in his death and his resurrection. Of having all of our sins washed away. Of trusting and having the same faith as Abraham that God then numbers us among the children of Abraham.
Those who have the same faith as Abraham are also the children of Abraham and he is truly then by descent one of their fathers even if their DNA says otherwise. So the purpose was then to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well.
And make him the father of also the circumcised who are not merely circumcised in the flesh but had before circumcised let's see I lost my place. Small text. Ah here it is. And make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but also who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring singular that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law. It came through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherence of the Torah who are to be heirs then faith itself is null and the promise has been voided.
For the law brings wrath but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all of his offspring you and me included.
Not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. And with a text like that from Romans 4 16 that says so clearly that everyone who shares the faith of Abraham that Abraham is the father of all who have that faith it makes no sense then that somebody would want to fake their DNA.
Fake their heritage and claim to be a physical descendant of Abraham when they are not because in Christ Abraham is truly according to this text the father of us all. It is one of the weird things when somebody does something like that they clearly do not understand how descent works regarding Abraham.
It is not according to the flesh it is according to the promise. That was the whole point of Ishmael versus Isaac the son of promise versus the son of the slave woman and Paul bears that out in Galatians 4.
So in hope Abraham believed against hope that he would become the father of many nations as he had been told so shall your offspring be. And you'll note that we in Christ we hope against hope that we would be declared righteous by God by grace through faith apart from our works all because of the mercy and merit won by Christ on the cross for ungodly and miserable sinners like you and I.
So he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.
And you'll note we too then by the power of the Holy Spirit even though the reflection that comes back to us from the mirror of God's law says that we are sinners we trust by faith in the promises of God and we do not waver in unbelief we believe what Christ has spoken to us that we are forgiven that we are pardoned that we are absolved that we are reconciled to God and that we truly have peace with him.
So no unbelief made Abraham waver and through the working of the Holy Spirit our faith doesn't waver either in the promises that have been given to us. So fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised we also are fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised to us to save even us to bring us safely across the final Jordan into the real promised land of the new earth.
He is fully able to do what he has promised and there is no reason for us to cower in fear before God because of what our brother Jesus has done. That is why Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness and Paul then says but the words it was counted to him were not written for Abraham's sake alone but they were also written for our sake and see it is our faith that will be counted to us who believe in him who raised Christ from the dead our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and also raised for our justification.
And isn't it amazing that Abraham trusts the promises of God and we too are counted as children of Abraham trusting in the promises of God. Now God has not promised us in this life you know descendants as multitudinous as the sands on the seashore but what he has promised us is full pardon and peace full forgiveness and grace and an inheritance given as a gift so we do not waver just like he doesn't waver.
And so note then Romans 9 then goes on to say but it is not as though the word of God had failed talking about those who are true physical descendants of Abraham yet who do not believe in Jesus for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all are children of Abraham because they are his physical offspring but it is through Isaac shall your offspring be named and this means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God it is the children of the promise that are counted as offspring and the children of the promise that's us and it's amazing when you think about it.
So know then Paul writes in Galatians 3 that is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham and the scripture foreseeing that David would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith.
So let us cast aside the works of darkness and all pretenses that are genealogy or heritage or good upbringing can somehow merit favor with God and let us recognize then that we by faith have something in common with Jesus.
All who have faith in Christ, Abraham is their father and so when it says Jesus the son of Abraham we can by faith regardless if we are Norwegian or German or Polish or Japanese or Korean or Australian or Irish it doesn't matter all of us because of our faith in Christ we can say that along with Jesus that Abraham is our father.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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