Matthew 1:1-17

Truth in Love and the Call to Speak Scripture in Love

Hello, good evening. This is truth in love. We get truth in love from Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15. We want to grow up in all things into Christ. And that's our goal. That's our aim in in everything that we do is to be growing up in all things together for God's glory.

Being obedient to scripture and as we talk about scripture as we talk about how we should live how God wants us to live. We want to speak that truth. We want to speak that truth in love. We want to to have a that type of attitude when we communicate with one another.

But we don't want to steer away from truth. We want to speak the truth of God's Word.

In.

In all that we do to it to a lost and dying world to to our brothers and sisters in Christ in all places at all times. Speaking that truth in love and growing up in in all aspects into Christ um, I want to Continue with a theme but before I say that Let me say this.

We always like to pray at the end. So if I can pray for you I'd love to be able to do that. All you have to do is type me and I'll see hopefully I'll see that comment. And I'll pray for you at the end if you watch the video later and you would like for somebody to pray for you.

All you have to do is type me and I'll see that notification. Excuse me, and hopefully other brothers and sisters will see that notification as well. And they will they will be glad to pray for you. If you're so inclined, let me know that you're watching.

Let me know that you're joining me. I like to know who's with me as we look at God's Word together. Would you pray for me as I pray for you as we go through this life together as we we work in the kingdom together.

And if you have any comments I always say that the floor is always yours. If you have any comments, if you have any questions, you want to talk about something else from Scripture. I'd love to be able to do that as well with you.

So ask a question. Give me a comment. It's something a question about church a question about the Bible a question about what's going on in the world. Some type of conversation that you would like to have the floor is always open.

The floor is yours and and we'll stop whatever we're doing here and and have that discussion with you. I'd love to be able to do that. This is a time that we we can spend together. This is not My show this is for the Lord and it's for us and it's for the community it's for and for God's glory, so I want to be able to do that if it would encourage you and if it would help you.

To to ask questions or talk about things.

Also, I.

Have been I don't know how many videos I've done so far on this topic. But for a while now, I continue to to end the show talking about how Jesus is a king and and living in that victory and I wanted to To do some some videos and have some conversations about living in that beater.

What does that mean when I say you Jesus is King and we want to live in that victory, you know. It's not a victory that we we accomplish on our own. The victory has been won. The victory is Christ and and in that victory Jesus is King.

He's seated on his throne. And so based on what Christ has done and based on who Christ is How do we live in in that victory? And so I wanted to do some videos Hitting on that topic of how we live in that victory of who Christ is and the victory that he won.

And I thought that you know, there's no better place to go we could we could hit different topics and and I may I may steer away from Where I'm at now to hit different topics because we can talk about that issue living in in Christ's victory.

For many different topics. But as I was thinking about that And trying to contemplate where where we could go in scripture That would help us to to navigate how how we can live in that victory of who Christ is and and the victory Christ is one where can we go in scripture?

That would help us to learn that and do that and In the book that that come to mind that popped out to me was the book of Matthew and the reason that the book of Matthew popped out to me is because The theme of Matthew is to show that Jesus is the long-awaited Anointed one the long-awaited Messiah King king of Israel and that he brought the kingdom to earth.

The thing about it is is that the Jewish people had their ideas about what and who the king would be and the kingdom and What Matthew was doing is? Revealing that You had your ideas about the king about the kingdom.

But here Here is who and and what? It really is and He he tells about Jesus and how Jesus is the the long-awaited Anointed one the Messiah the king king of Israel the king of kings and Lord of lords and so if if this is the theme of Matthew and we want to learn how to live in the victory of who Jesus is and the victory that he won.

Then what better place to go then than to dig into Matthew and see how he shows us how Jesus is is that King that anointed one the long-awaited Messiah and and then how we can live in that victory, so That's where I wanted to go.

That's where I wanted to hopefully stay for a while unless we look at some different topics some different issues so with that in mind I Have no better way to do this on my own in my own creativity other than to to go Verse by verse from start to finish and so that's that's kind of how I want to tackle.

This is as we go through Matthew. And again, if I can pray for you at the end, all you have to do is type me. You don't have to give any details about anything. All you have to do is type me if if this time together is an encouragement to you I would appreciate if you would you would like and and share and Share this time with others that we can spend together in God's Word.

And if there's any topic that you would like to address As I do these videos I'd like to try to touch the touch on those topics any Conversation that you want to have while I'm doing a video. All you have to do is ask a question Start the conversation and and we can go from there.

And.

Try to hit on those things that that interest you and and let me know that you're watching and I'd really appreciate that. So let's get started. The title. I hope the title was not too confusing. Sometimes it's really hard to put your thoughts into titles and and and Gather all your thoughts and put them together very well.

So that's why I really depend on the Holy Spirit to help me put these things together. As we try to communicate them with each other now, but but the title that I give as as I posted it on Facebook. Was that Jesus is King living living in that victory under God's timetable and I? think that that probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense and and I really didn't know any other way to To title it and hopefully hopefully things will become more clear as we as we have this discussion tonight.

But we want to we want to live under God's timetable. We want to know how how God works. Hey, Tammy. Hey, Maggie. Congratulations, Tammy on The birth of the little one. We're excited about that. Can't wait to meet that little one.

Yeah, so we want to live we want to know who God is we want to know his character and And his nature and how he how he works in in this world and how we can Live based on how he works and and not. Not in our own wisdom not in our own.

You know making our own path but we want to live live in such a way that we're following how how God works and how God does things and Not make him out to be a God that that's not described in Scripture.

But but look and see how God describes himself in Scripture and and live accordingly. And so we want to know how how God works in time. How he how he does things. What kind of timetable he uses? And what kind of timetable he wants us to use in in our life?

And so let's let's start moving forward and maybe that will become a little more clear. We're in Matthew because Matthew's theme is Jesus is King. He's the long-awaited Messiah. We want to learn about this King and how we can live in the victory that he won.

What we want to do is look at chapter 1 verses 1 through 17. And let me read them to you and try not to stumble over these ancient names. Verse 1 says but the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David.

The son of Abraham. To Abraham was born Isaac and to Isaac Jacob and to Jacob Judah and his brothers and to Judah were born Perez and Zerah and take Tamar and to Perez was born Hezron and to Hezron Ram and to Ram was born Amenadab and to Amenadab Nashon and to Nashon Salmon.

And to Salmon was born Boaz. By Rahab and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth and to Obed Jesse and to Jesse was born David the king and to David was born Solomon. By her who had been the wife of Uriah and to Solomon was born Rehoboam and to Rehoboam Abijah and Abijah Asa and to Asa born Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat Joram and to Joram Uzziah and to Uzziah was born Jotham and to Jotham Ahaz.

And to Ahaz Hezekiah and to Hezekiah was born Manasseh. And to Manasseh Amon and to Amon Josiah and to Josiah were born Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon and After the deportation to Babylon to Jeconiah was born Shealtiel and to Shealtiel Zerubbabel and to Zerubbabel was born Abiud and Abiud Eliakim and to Eliakim Azor and to Azor was born Zadok and to Zadok Achim and to Achim Eliud and to Eliud was born Eleazar and to Eleazar Mathan and to Mathan Jacob and to Jacob was born Joseph the husband of Mary by whom was born Jesus who is called Christ verse 17.

Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ 14 generations.

Matthew's Genealogy and the Kingly Line of Jesus

So.

What do we want to what do we want to pull out from this? Matthew if the theme of Matthew is that Jesus is King. You know, we can look at at where Matthew starts Matthew. Matthew doesn't start with Adam.

Matthew starts with Abraham and he goes to. Then he goes to King David and he gives the line. He gives the line of Joseph. So he's he's given the lineage of Jesus to show that he He is in this Kingly lineage and and we can look at the promise that God gave to Abraham and I'll probably mention that a little bit later.

But the promise is given to Abraham. The promise is given to David. David the King about his future throne. And we can look at all these things and the promises that were given to point to this Messiah that this This anointed one that would come.

That would be the the King of the long-awaited King. And of course the genealogy ends with Jesus and so Matthew was revealing to his mostly Jewish readers here that I'm at the end of this line is Hey, Pam.

Absolutely. We'll pray for you Pam. Absolutely, thank you for joining us. So so Matthew ends this lineage line with Jesus. Telling his duty at Jewish audience that this this long-awaited King and Messiah the anointed one that is to come it Ends with Jesus your your weight ends with Jesus.

But what um. What stood out to me the questions the question that I wanted to answer come in verse 17.

And.

Sometimes I ask questions that I don't have an answer for. I can't find an answer for.

Or.

Questions that we will never never have an answer for until. Until we're in glory and we can get answers for those questions. But I think there's things that we can glean and and learn even though we can't answer certain questions directly.

Verse 17 is. Gives us some unique information. It tells us about. From the time of Abraham to David. David to the deportation to Babylon and then from that point to the time of Christ. Between each point were 14 years or 14 generations, excuse me.

Between each of those points there were 14 generations. Why does Matthew share this information? Of course, I want to dig a little bit further and see if I can discover maybe the the reasoning or the point that Matt the reason Matthew gives.

And gives this type of information and these numbers that he does and Figure out why. Because he it's a mostly Jewish audience he's writing to a Jewish audience and he's wanting to you know reveal to them that and prove to them and show them that Jesus is the long-awaited anointed one the king of Israel and so.

This definitely I'm sure has something to do with that. But I looked at these numbers and I looked at what Matthew does here giving given these numbers. And and of course all this information is given to us in the Old Testament.

This this history is recorded and. And I asked myself what beyond that beyond Matthew's direct and Intentional Meaning to his audience there. What what other information? Can I glean from this? Can I what answers can I get from this?

Before I can get those other details and what jumped out to me.

Was.

Information about God's character and who he is and and how he works and and how Jesus our King works.

And.

What I discovered was this That God works.

Over.

Long periods of time. You know if God wanted to. After the the fall after Adam and Eve sinned You know, he could have rescued us immediately. But in in God's plan in in his wisdom for his glory he chose to go from Adam and.

Wait.

Thousands of years. And Then you you know at this point you get to Adam Abraham where Matthew starts and then there's 14 generations To David and then from David to the deportation the exile to Babylon.

You have 14 generations and then from there to Jesus you have 14 generations. So he Matthew was telling us there. There's this great length of time between All these things happening all throughout history where God is working.

God is working. But he is working over a long period of time.

God's Timetable, the Exile, and the Long Wait for the Messiah

So.

That's our King. That's the King that we serve. We and we are in his kingdom a kingdom that works over a long period of time. I found it interesting. We just read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1.

But I found it interesting too that when you look at When you look at Acts and if you recall In Acts you have a guy named Stephen. Let me just flip over there real quick. I'm not going to read it word for word, but I just want to reference it in Acts chapter.

Acts chapter 7 you have a guy named Stephen and Stephen was Was gathered up by this group of people and and brought. They were saying that he speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God. He's he's gathered up and and drugged before the council and They put forward false witness who said that this man Incessantly speaks against the this holy place the temple and the law.

For we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter alter the customs which Moses had laid down or handed down to us and so He was he was brought before this council and he was.

They were.

They gave these accusations against Stephen and so therefore the the priest asked him You know if these things are so. And then from from chapter 1 of 7. So all the way to.

53.

Acts records this this sermon or this defense as it says that Stephen gives not of himself, but of his message of The king that he serves and the kingdom that he is a part of he gives this defense and of course his his audience is this Jewish audience and Stephen's defense is very similar to the genealogy The the recounting of the genealogy that we find in Matthew chapter 1 and I found that so interesting.

Where Matthew in chapter 1 when he begins the genealogy he begins with Abraham and that is where Stephen begins. Stephen begins with Abraham and And I called it and I don't know if Academics and scholars would agree with me.

But but as I read it, this is what come to my mind I called Stephen's defense or Stephen's speech here the Genealogy of the kingdom as as it's so familiar with the the genealogy of Jesus and Stephen begins with Abraham and he's speaking to this this Jewish audience the Jewish Council and he's He's wanting to to convince them of He's wanting their eyes to open to What has happened in the past and then of course the mistakes in the past and and that Jesus Is this long-awaited?

Messiah this long-awaited King that has come and How they've how they've done things and how they view things have went off course and they they've gone all wrong and Jesus has come to to rescue to rule and to reign and and make things right.

And of course, you know Stephen and and Peter and Paul They all they all go out to preach the message of Christ so that that men are converted and they they submit to Christ but but Stephen His his defense is so similar to the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1.

He begins with Abraham and Of course Abraham God promised Abraham an offspring. And I'm gonna try to stick with with the theme of God's God's timetable and how he does things but you look at God's promise to Abraham.

That he was he's promised an offspring. But Abraham and his wife Sarah were both old. So that this promise wasn't given and this promise wasn't fulfilled. When Abraham was young it was it was when he was old.

Abraham had to wait all these years before He would have an offspring and Even hear response from God with the promise of an offspring and.

Then.

God gives a promise also to Abraham that that he would have many descendants and That his descendants. You know, he's he's promised an offspring and he's promised many descendants. Which is great news, but then he gets this other news that his descendants will one day be enslaved In another country and that country was Egypt for 400 years and then of course, I'm trying to follow Stephen's defense here Stephen's speech.

Then he then we kind of we go towards Moses and Moses is sent of course as the the rescuer of the the Israelites out of Egypt but but Moses It doesn't seem like Moses. Stephen kind of Stephen points out That it's Moses is 40 years old it seems like when Moses begins to turn towards God's plan of rescuing the Israelites so Stephen points out that it's it's not until Moses is 40 years old that he'd be.

He goes to visit his his brethren and Then Stephen tells us that 40 years later is when God speaks to Moses in the burning bush and Then once once God Moses God through Moses Rescues Israel out of Egypt and of course, it's because of you know, their disobedience but then they they wander in the wilderness for 40 years and then Stephen picks up with with David and he talks about God.

God wanted David to find a dwelling place for him in the land of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built the the house for God. But then Stephen Changes the direction of his his defense. He goes from this history lesson, which which they all knew they were all familiar with.

But he kind of changes the direction from his history lesson to He to where it's pointed directly at the council there and he when he says He's quoting from the Prophet Isaiah that that God doesn't dwell in a building That was made by the hands of men but that However, the Most High just just to read it here.

However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands as the Prophet says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me says the Lord or what place is there for my repose?

So.

The outlook of who God is and his kingdom and how God works was all misplaced and misunderstood by their forefathers by the folks that had came before them. And Stephen is telling this council you you were falling right in line with our forefathers.

He calls them stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did and I found this so interesting. Stephen says which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute.

And we see this Several other places in scripture and Jesus even brings it up when he's speaking to the the crowds the the the Jews the Jewish leaders speaking of their fathers and Persecuting the prophets.

Stephen says something gives a Detail here that I that I find so amazing. He says. And they killed those Who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one. Whose betrayers and murderers you have now become?

You know if you if you came and and you were giving them news that they wanted to hear that tickle their ears Suited their fancy, you know you you would be fine.

Um.

But it seems to be consistent Throughout all time throughout this whole timetable. That if you were if you were prophesying about the righteous one to come. If you were if you were following Jesus. If you were one of his disciples.

Or if you're one of his followers afterwards. What was the promise of Christ? That the world hated me first and So don't be surprised when it hates you. This is a consistent theme all throughout history about how men are treated that point to Christ and I found that so so interesting that Stephen points that out and it shows us the consistency of Christ's followers all throughout history.

That was a little side note and I knew I would get a little off track with that that side note. But we're wanting to look at how God operates in his timetable and how we can live. How we can live in the victory of our King and In his timetable and and live live in a time his timetable and how he works and not how We envision it and so we've got to learn how he works.

Stephen doesn't bring up here. Stephen goes through Abraham. He talks about Moses and he talks about David but the thing that that Stephen doesn't talk about that that Matthew talks about is the the dispersion to Babylon or the exile and.

We.

We can read a mention of that. Since Matthew talks about it Matthew brings it up in chapter 1. We can go to chapter chapter 9 of Daniel and I've done some videos and I've talked about Daniel chapter 9 before but Daniel was was in that exile he was a part of that and How that relates to what we're talking about tonight.

It was promised in or prophesied in Jeremiah. How long this exile would take. And Daniel was was reading that and seeing that and he was noticing that they were at the end of the prophesied time Of the exile and and that prophesied time was was 70 years that they would be in exile.

You see all these numbers. 14 generations 14 generations 14 generations. Moses Abraham was was his old age. When when he got the promise and then that promise was fulfilled of an offspring. They were his people his descendants were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years.

You have a wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

You have.

And it you know this many of these things are consequences, of course of the people of Israel. But you have the deportation of the exile to Babylon which lasted for 70 years and then after Daniel You know reflects on this time He he receives a visit from the the angel Gabriel giving him another prophecy of time and At the end of that time period the the Messiah would come to the long-awaited Anointed when the King he would come and Daniel calls him the prince and the Messiah Prince and that number is 490 years 490 years.

Look at all these numbers. We can see throughout Scripture that that God is Not a God and and we do not live live in a kingdom. We are not part of a kingdom where our King Works instantly and.

And.

Immediately his plan is working out over time.

Abraham.

In Genesis 49 10 God promises Abraham a Savior will come. Moses. God promises Moses that One will come. God will raise up one like him. David is promised from God that that one day One will sit on his throne.

And so and and then God promises gives the gospel proclamation of the gospel promise in Genesis to Adam and Eve and then all the prophets that that Stephen mentions. That that are prophesying about the righteous one to come all throughout these years.

They're they're waiting. They're looking. God is speaking and prophesying that there's there's one to come. I'm promising One in your line. I'm promising one for your throne that there's one coming there's one coming.

And it happens over years and we it's so important that we that we don't look at history as.

If.

We're reading we're reading a little booklet in in one sitting for you know, 20 minutes to an hour. This time period Lasted over thousands of years. That God promised and promised and promised. And we can look back to the Old Testament and we can.

You know looking back we can see how and where God worked and moved. But but God's people the people of his kingdom lived in faith because of his promise. Knowing that they they would not see probably the fulfillment of That ultimate promise the anointed one in their lifetime.

But they lived in such a way Because they believed and they trusted in God's promise that one day the anointed one would come. That's how they lived their lives. That's how they lived in the victory of their king.

Looking forward to that promise and and lived their lives in such a way that they knew they had Faith that God was going to fulfill that promise. And there have been others who live that what that way as well.

And when I say thousands of years.

From.

Let me just give you some dates. Abraham around the the year 1996 BC. Moses 1245. David 1491. The exile was around 772 and Jesus around the year four. So between Abraham and Jesus was around 2 ,000 years.

That's that's the time frame that we're talking about. Where? The believers and the Messiah to come lived by faith and they they lived out their everyday life in view of a future promise a future King a Future Savior.

And we we need to absorb that and Learn how to live that way.

Jesus Saving the World and Reigning Until His Enemies Are a Footstool

Um.

Let's look at a few more points. Now that we've made it to Jesus John let's look at the kingdom the kingdom of God the the kingdom that Christ rules and reigns over. That he brought to this earth. Jesus tells us in in John chapter 3 verse 17.

This is about his kingdom he says. Well, I didn't run out the whole verse and I want to read it. I apologize who am I here that was quick. John chapter 3 verse 17 we're familiar with verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his One and only Son that everyone believing in him should not perish but have eternal life.

And then Jesus says. And a lot of times we forget about this verse. Verse 17 for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. But that the world should be saved through him. That the world should be saved through him.

So What what is this kingdom? What did this kingdom come for? What is Jesus doing? As the anointing was the king he's he's saving the world. What a huge task and. And they waited Abraham waited 2 ,000 years for this promise to be fulfilled even for Adam and Eve even longer than that and so Jesus saving the world.

Should we think that that's going to happen? Immediately if we if we look at how God has worked in his kingdom in history over time. It seems as though the character of God the character of his kingdom is that he is going to work through time to accomplish this goal and.

And what is he going to be? What else is he going to be doing? He's gonna be saving the world. And also if you look at Hebrews 113 Hebrews 10 13 acts 2 34 and 35 and 1st Corinthians 15 25. They all say the same thing or in Psalm 110 1 which all these New Testament verses point back to Psalm 110 1 but it says that That he is going to reign.

Jesus is reigning until all his enemies are made his footstool and that last enemy is going to be dead. So you have Jesus saving the world and then you have his enemies through this time period. Being made his footstool and then that the last enemy is going to be dead and then his second coming.

So all this is happening over the over this period of time that we're living in his kingdom. Hey, Tammy, good evening. Hope you were doing well. It's good to see you. Thank you for watching and so You know, we want to know we want to try to understand why does God work in such long periods of time.

We can't always answer those questions with with great detail. But in some ways we can answer that question and I look at 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 9. You know, why would God work for such a long period of time?

And I think Peter Kind of gives us a glimpse of of God's character and and why he would work in this way. 2nd Peter 3 verse 9 says the Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness but Patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

So it's the patience of God which is which is compassion and kindness and merciful and grace graceful to us a Gracious to us that he would have patience that he would work over a long period of time so that People can not come to repentance and and not perish.

Living with a Kingdom Perspective in Family, Work, and Future Planning

So now that we've looked at that we're Gonna try to wrap it up and come to an end. We've looked at God's character we've looked at his kingdom and and how he has worked his kingdom throughout history and how He's worked it over long periods of time that's his character.

That's our kingdom that we live in. That's our King. So, how do we live in that victory that Jesus has secured Jesus one? The victory of Christ. How do we live in that? And and and live in the kingdom of a Long-term God a long-planning God.

We can read in Proverbs chapter 6 Chapter 10 verse chapter 21 chapter 6 chapter 10 chapter 21 and that there's plenty of other places as well. That we can read this this wisdom literature that we're given to live by that.

We we are to plan. We are to work and we are to prepare for the future. That's God's will for us is that while we are working in and We part of his this kingdom this kingdom that that works over a long period of time.

We are to have that type of mindset that type of ethic. That we that we plan that we work and we prepare for the future and I'm not sure if if you See this like as I see it. But it seems like this This type of mentality is.

Different.

Than the mentality that we have as Christians today many of us. Can you see that difference yet? That we we do live in the reality is that we are living in a kingdom. We serve in a kingdom of A long-term God a long-term King who's working his plan over a long period.

But our mindset how we want to live in this kingdom Seem to be a little different than how our King operates. So, let's let's make it a little more personal a little more personal and I'm just gonna bring up one one aspect of our life to to kind of show.

You know, of course this is going to apply to every every aspect of our lives but the Proverbs. And the end scriptures bring out an example of How we should think? How we should live? And we want to look at one example Proverbs chapter 13 verse 22 and we'll look at several verses.

But it's speaking kind of this the same subject. Then it will apply also to every every part of life. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 22. It says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children, no, that's not what it says a good man leaves an inheritance to his Children's children and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.

Why would wisdom literature teach us to to leave an inheritance for our children's children if We are to be living in a kingdom that will shortly end.

That.

That we should be looking for the world to end Instead of looking for Jesus to be saving the world. We are looking for the world to end. You see the difference in our thinking. Instead of looking at how God's working and how Jesus is is saving the world saving people and being a part of that and also Leaving an inheritance.