Audio Transcript:

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If you haven't been with us the past three weeks, we're in our last week of advent. This is a season, it's a tradition, in the church where we celebrate Christ coming, advent means coming, and we celebrate that Christ came in the fulfillment of the Old Testament scriptures, the first time as a baby born in Bethlehem. Simultaneously, we look ahead to Christ's second coming, where he will come not as a baby, but as a righteous judge and ruler. And so we've covered the themes of hope, love, and joy in recent weeks, and today we're going to close out this series just tapping into the theme of peace. We do not have Mini Mo today so I was put under contract to deliver a very short sermon today. There actually aren't that many children here in person and those online we're probably at 30% capacity or typical attendance right now. But my son is there with my wife so she's got me on the clock. But we're just going to have a nice sweet gospel sermon today.

We've gone through the season very topically. I don't think we've actually read the Christmas story in its entirety this year. I want to read a lot to begin from Matthew 1 verses 18 through the end of chapter 2. I want to just read through this story that is just at the center of history and just a crucial moment in the narrative of redemptive history for God's people. Matthew 1 verses 18 through 2:23. I'll cover this and then I'll go back and spend a lot of time in the genealogy of chapter 1 later on.

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and her husband, Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her shame resolved to divorce her quietly."

"But as he considered these things behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to Mary as your wife for that, which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.'"

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. 'Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.'"

"When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to his son and he called his name Jesus."

"Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.'"

"When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests, and scribes of the people he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, 'In Bethlehem of Judea for so it is written by the prophet, 'And you, Oh, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

"Then inherited summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, 'Go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.'"

After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them, until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed by their own country by another way."

"Now, when they departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt they called my son.'"

"Then Herod, when he saw that he'd been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who are two years old or under, according to the time that had been ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled with spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted because they are no more.'"

"But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and Egypt saying, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead,' and he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene."
This is the word of our Lord.

I want to begin with a simple point as we reflect on what I just read and is that we are all wicked sinners. I read this section because of its graphic nature. Of the gospels, of the birth narratives, we have Matthew, Luke and John tap into the birth narrative of Christ and this is the most jarring. There's shock, heartache, broken dreams, deception, pursuit, anxiety, pains, corruption, murder. Matthew shows us more than any of the other gospel writers that Jesus entered a world that was broken, full of conflict, full of anxiety, full of despair. Nothing that the world had to offer could solve, could improve, man's moral condition. If you study the historical Herod, this man that we're talking about, he was one of the best administrators, best businessmen of the ancient world, though he was still a pawn of the Roman world, he was as good as it gets. He had no answers and he contributed much to the moral depravity of the day.

Matthew shows us everything that the world says Christmas is not. You hear a lot, "Christmas is a feeling. It's simply a time for family and home. It's sitting under Christmas tree opening presents, a time for peace and good will," and none of those are on display right here. Nothing but the depravity of man on full display. Christ, didn't enter into a picturesque Brookline mansion living room next to a spiral staircase with a fireplace and beautiful mantle. He was born in a stable wrapped in swaddling cloth. As Pastor Jan said the other night, "Swaddled in shame in this union, the scandalous situation, between the union of Joseph and Mary."

As soon as Mary gives birth, the family has to flee a mad king. Even in the church, there's a temptation to look at this season as a kind of faux form of peace, to kind of calm, a distraction from the darkness that we're facing within ourselves, facing with the men, the man around us, in the church, out of the church, we can carry these traditions, we can think of ways to just uniquely present these themes of advent in a new fashion. We can talk about moral lessons. Let's be generous like the wise men, let's be, let's submit to God like Joseph and Mary, but that's not what the Christmas story's about.

I'm just here to say people, praise God, that the Christmas story is not about this stuff. Praise God that after living in 2020 and 2021, we can see our desperate need for the Christmas story to be true. For more than ever we see a that the world we live in is not supreme to the ancient world presented in the text. All the answers that we have today offering problems don't seem to be providing peace. Any reasons that we might have had a couple of years ago to claim that our age is superior just has been cast away. Government, medicine, education, technology, wealth, food distribution, plumbing, running water, have not improved the moral condition of man. We see the world, we see people trying to build a righteousness on their own in vain. We see the ugliness of sin dominating our society, and it's easy to believe Romans 6:23 for the first time, really in decades, multiple generations going beyond gen Xers that all have sin and fall short of the glory of God. We are all wicked sinners.

The most important thing as we process this is that this season has helped us to understand that that sin is not just out there, just in the world, outside of the church, in the people next to you here. Maybe the people next to you on the couches, that sin is in each and every one of us.

I know that a lot of us today, we're scared of the circumstances that we're facing, by God's Providence, God's appointment. We're scared of just the craziness that we see around us, but really the scariest thing that lot of us are dealing with is how we're reacting ourselves. How many of you have learned about a new side of yourself in this season? When your opposition says something, you slander them, you call them moron, you cancel them. You essentially treat them as if they're inhuman, an act that scripture says, Christ tells us, is the same as committing murder in the heart. How many of you have just struggled with envy, seeing other people, the comforts they have to get through this season while you're trapped in some sort of hard situation, a hard job, a small apartment? How many of you have struggled with greed? Just buying more and more and more to satisfy yourselves? How many of you have struggled with overeating to distract yourself from the pain, the challenge, the anxiety?

It's shocking. We feel guilt, we feel shame. A lot of pastors, I searched the country, what are they saying? They're saying, "We've had it hard. We've had it hard." Yes, we have, but scripture tells us we need to be angry and do not sin. If anything can weigh more heavily on us than challenging circumstances, it's the weight of guilt and shame of our sin staying on our shoulders.

I just lead with this point that as 2021 comes to an end as part of this 20 month period, 22 month period, going back to March of 2020, we are wicked. We can't deny it. This story, praise God, we can look into this story and say, "These are the same circumstances that Jesus Christ came into." This same story was not just an abstract story. It's not a fable, a parable that we place our hopes into. It's a concrete story that we can place our hope in. This time of year, as we feel the gravity of the year we rest in the fact that Jesus did come.

What does that mean for us? My second point is simple. God offers peace to wicked sinners. As Matthew in chapter 1, he provides this genealogy, and I'm not going to go through all of the names for you, but he continues pointing out the wickedness of man and it's in there that we find our hope, we find our option for peace as we process just the guilt and shame that looms over us as individuals, looms over us collectively as a church, looms over us as a nation.

Really want to take some time, let me read verses 1 and 17, just to cover, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham," that's how it begins. And then it ends, "And so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations."

These verses, they specifically show us that Jesus comes from the line of Abraham. Specifically, Abraham was told that he'd be a blessing to many people, the nations, and in Genesis 12, the first book of the Bible, 12 chapters in, and we have this text telling us that Jesus Christ is his heir. He is a descendant. He is the recipient of the promises. Furthermore, King David was told a thousand years before Christ's birth, that it would have an heir to the throne of Israel forever and so this genealogy shows us that Christ is the king in that line to David. This gives us evidence to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. This is the good news.

But as you dig into the genealogy, when you look at who's included in the genealogy start saying, "Why are these people in here? Why would these people be mentioned in the line of the king? These people are wicked. These people are sinners. They're the wrong race per the Old Testament's standards." It's really hard to just process. In the Old Testament times when Matthew wrote this, a genealogy would be especially a Hebrew's pride. If you were a kid back then at the playground, you would make sure that all of your buddies, all of your friends, knew the good names in your line.

It's hard for us to relate to this. Most of us can't go back one to three generations, but the way they did it was just the same. Let's keep the good stuff, let's hide the bad stuff, that crazy uncle, that crazy grandfather who lost all the family money. It's a lot like on LinkedIn we have the opportunity to present ourselves, show our connections, and what do we do? We present ourselves perfectly. But we see here just the line of Jesus Christ. You'd think if someone was conjuring this up, they would make it a little bit more publicly correct but we don't see that. Why would they do that? Because it's true. Let's notice just these people who by societal standards, moral standards of that time, should not have been in the genealogy.

First notice Matthew 5, it includes five women. You have Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Mary, and Bathsheba, directly. In a patriarchal society, you don't include women in the genealogy period to establish your ethos, your credibility to garner praise for someone. More shock in this list includes moral outsiders. There's verse 3, "And Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram."

This Tamar. Tamar pretended to be a prostitute. She slept with her father-in-law, she gets pregnant. This is an incestuous relationship in the line of Jesus Christ. Why is it in the text? It happened. Rahab was another moral outsider. Before she got saved she was a prostitute in Jericho. The genealogy goes even further to say in verse six for King David, oh, and furthermore Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, they were Gentiles. Ruth from Moab, the other two from Canaan. Even further you think it starts to get looking better when king David's brought it up, but specifically it mentions with David, it mentions Uriah.

It says, "And David was a father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah." This is a king, but Matthew doesn't just leave it at that, at king David, he mentioned Uriah. Who's Uriah? The story goes that your Uriah was one of David's top men, top soldiers, most faithful guys, but David fell in love with Uriah's wife. David tries to get rid of Uriah. He tries to bring him home, to spend in time with her to cover up the pregnancy. Ultimately, Uriah, David sends him off to die at the battlefront. This is the king, the Messiah, the man after God's own heart, and Matthew mentions this sin.

Furthermore, a lot of these kings listened in verse 7 through 11 did some horrible things for Judah's religious worship of God. They were just bad people led the country, astray, the nation astray in their worship. Ahaz offered his child as a sacrifice to a foreign God.

As we look at this genealogy, we feel more deeply depravity of man, not just in our day, not just in Matthew's day, but throughout the history of the world. Why is it here? Because it's true. But it's here more to make the point that God is saying upon Christ's coming, "I'm taking ownership over my people." At advent, Jesus comes and he takes ownership over his people in all of their glory and all of their sin. When he is born, he accepts these sinners, these sinners outside of his bloodline. Though he never sinned himself, he takes the punishment for the guilt of their sin and covers their shame. He's making it clear, "Yes, I'm in the line of Abraham, I am in the line of David, but your pedigree, your spiritual, religious, racial, pedigree, Jew or Gentile. Does not matter. I welcome you into my family out of sheer grace." Flipping that it's saying, "No matter how good or religious you've been in your life, it's not enough to commend yourself to my line." Rahab the prostitute is in the line, but so is king David and the greatest and the least in Jesus line are not beyond the need for his grace, his unmerited favor to cover their sin.

John 1:12 to 13 says, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." This is the great news for all of us. This is the good news of the gospel, the good news in response to my first point, that we're all wicked sinners that God graciously offers peace to us in our sin. That's the Christmas story.

Jesus does come into the world, judging us right away. He's sent to communicate to people from God, "I want relationship with you. I want peace with you." The infinite breaks into the finite and he wants relationship. It's all by belief, believing in this message that Jesus Christ lived the life I could not live, died the death that I deserved, resurrected on the third day, ascended into heaven, where he is ruling all things in this life at the right hand of the father, until his appointed time to return. It's when we believe that we can have salvation from our sin. The guilt, the shame does not have to weigh on our shoulders. We can have peace with God, but furthermore, we can have peace with ourselves. When we see the ugliness that comes out in tension and conflict and isolation, when the pleasures of life are taken away, when we turn to him, we can always receive grace.

My question today, before you turn into this next year, those of you who are Christian, you've been walking in the Lord for a while, maybe this season did shock you, maybe you saw darkness, you saw the depravity in you that you had never seen before. You can always just bring it back to the Lord. We've all seen people flail around with guilt, with shame, of sin on their shoulders, and what does that lead to? It leads to them projecting that guilt, that shame onto other people, especially in the church. But no, take that to the Lord, receive His grace, see that He owns you, he loves you, he doesn't reject you.

Those of you who just don't know Christ, if you've never received him as the Christ, the Messiah, the king of your heart, and you have this weight and shame on your shoulders, I beg you receive his offer of peace. This is the good news that we preach all year. This is the good news that we need take into the new year. This is the good news that we need to preach into our hearts every day. It's in this that we find peace and it's from this position of peace. In scriptures, peace means eirene, comes from the verb eiro, to fill. The opposite is anxiety. The verb, it's to be broken up. It's in God that we can have fullness and from the position of fullness, we can go to Him, have peace in a vertical sense and look upon the situations around us, in our lives on a horizontal level. Look at the relationships, look at the greater societal problems, and approach them from a position of fullness. I encourage you today just to spend time in the coming week, be filled in the Lord, find joy in Him. See how loving He is that he sent Jesus Christ to come for us into this dark, wicked world, into the depravity, with Herod coming to chase him at his birth, into the depravity that continues into our day, and just rejoice. Enjoy Him, love Him, and find your peace.

Let's pray.

Lord, we just come to you, perhaps after an age where we've been reliant upon just the comforts, the pillars, the horses and chariots of this world. Lord, we repent of that. We pray please forgive us for not thinking that ultimate peace, ultimate forgiveness, joy, love is found in you, and hope, our hope is rooted in the promise of your return.

Heavenly father, we just pray, give us hearts of longing that more would be saved. Lord, give us daily reminders in this next year of just the abundance of your grace, the depths and length and height and breath of your love to us in Jesus Christ. Lord, when we look upon those in sin, let us not look upon in judgment, but look upon them in compassion in the same way that you looked upon us in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly father, we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.