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Sermons

Subject 13 : The Gospel According to MATTHEW

[Chapter 1-1] The Genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1-6)

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
(Matthew 1:1-6)
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.”
 
 
To become a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, we need to believe in His Salvation. In other words, believing in His salvation is the only way we become part of His genealogy.
Our Father God did not send angels to save us, He sent none other than His only Son. It was Jesus Christ that our Father God sent to save us from our sins. He made a covenant that anyone who believes in Jesus, who is the Son of God and our Savior, would be forgiven of all of his sins once and for all. In such a context, Matthew 1:1 says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Here, “the genealogy of Jesus Christ” implies the spiritual world of how we can become God’s Children through the faith of knowing and believing in Jesus Christ, being delivered from the power of darkness.
This passage describes what is required of a sinner to be saved from his sins and become a child of God. In other words, to become a child of God, one needs to have the same faith that Abraham had. What kind of faith is required to enter the Kingdom of God? We need to believe in God’s Word absolutely as Abraham did. What about Abraham’s faith pleased God? He believed God’s Word in its entirety and hoped for what was impossible by human logic. He believed in God’s covenant just as He said, which was beyond human imagination. That was the full extent of his faith. Even though Abraham’s wife was past childbearing age and therefore it was impossible for her to conceive a child, Abraham believed in God’s covenant with him that his offspring would be as many as the stars in the sky. Therefore, God accounted it to him for righteousness and was pleased with him. This is how Abraham became the father of the righteous by faith.
You and I today look up to Abraham as the father of all believers because he believed exactly what God said. In the same way, we need to have the kind of faith that Abraham had to enter the Kingdom of Jesus. This is the only way for a sinner to receive the remission of sin and become a righteous person. We come to enter the Kingdom of God, and receive His salvation, by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
How do we believe in Jesus as our Savior to become a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ? In other words, how do we believe in His salvation for sinners? We need to believe in the Gospel of the water and the Spirit as it is given to us.
Our Father God sent His Son, Jesus, to this world as the Savior of the world to take away all the sins of the world. Therefore, we must admit that Jesus took all of the sins of sinners by the method of being baptized by John the Baptist at the Jordan River. And the true faith is believing that He was crucified for our sins, bled and died on the Cross, rose again from the dead, and saved the believers in Him wholly. “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:15-16).
This passage is the truth of how Jesus took on the sins of the world by His baptism. Our Father God sent our Lord Jesus to the sinners and had Him take on all of our sins as He was baptized by John the Baptist to cleanse our hearts as white as snow and to open the door to the Kingdom of God. We can become the righteous by accepting His Word in our hearts and become the members of His family. Anyone who believes in the work that Jesus did can change from a sinner to a sinless person. The way to become a family with God is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For a sinner to become a child of God, he needs to have the faith that believes that Jesus is the Savior of the sinners. In the scripture, “the son of David” means that Jesus is the descendant of Judah. In the Old Testament, God made a covenant that He will make kings from the tribe of Judah, a son of Jacob (Genesis 49:10). David is a man from the tribe of Judah of whom the Old Testament spoke. And Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah as the King. As Abraham did, we become a part of royal family by believing God’s Word. We become children of God spiritually. And anyone who has become a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ by faith has already become a child of God. Abraham bore Isaac, Isaac bore Jacob, Jacob bore Judah and his brothers, and they kept on bearing their descendants. People who believe in God’s Word continue to bear God’s children.
All who became a part of the genealogy of Jesus by faith were those who had received God’s mercy, and were not those who had anything to brag about themselves. They were humble and weak, but believed in God’s Word. Therefore, they became one family with the real King.
As we become a part of His genealogy by faith, we need to know this—that in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, there was a prostitute named Rahab as well as a woman named Ruth from the Moabites, of the Gentiles. Then, how could a prostitute have become a part of the genealogy of Jesus? It is by Rahab’s faith in God that she came into the Kingdom of God. God tells us that the only way for a sinner to become a child of God is believing in His Word. This means that true faith is not living a good life by doing good work, but believing in God’s Word. How could a prostitute have lived according to God’s Will? However, God even forgave all the sins of someone like a prostitute, who committed many sins, by the Lord’s salvation. Even a prostitute could become a child of God by having faith in the truth of God’s salvation. This means that every sinner in this world can become a child of God.
The Bible tells us about the faith that believes in Him and His Word. In Matthew 1, the Bible talks about the faith of Tamar again. Who is Tamar? She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, who slept with her father-in-law. When we look at it morally, how could a woman who had a sexual relationship with her father-in-law become a part of the sacred genealogy of Jesus? However, Tamar was approved because of her faith that believed in the covenant from her father-in-law. She became a part of the genealogy of Jesus by her faith that believed in the Word that her father-in-law conveyed.
It was customary in Israel that when the first son is dead, the second son is given to the wife of the first son. If the eldest son does not have offspring when he dies, the father-in-law has the responsibility of marrying the wife of the first son to his second son. Tamar was married to a first son of Judah. But the first son was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. So, as the custom of Israel, Judah gave his second son to Tamar. However, the second son knew that the heir would not be his so he emitted on the ground, and God put him to death. The father-in-law had to give this third son to his daughter-in-law. However, he was too young, so the father-in-law promised that he would give his third son when the son is grown up. Tamar waited for the third son. However, the father-in-law did not give her his son, so Tamar thought of a trick.
There came a day of sheep shearing in the year. So Tamar took off her widow’s garment and wrapped herself with a veil and sat in an open place. Prostitutes in Israel must have had their head and face wrapped and covered with a veil. When Judah saw her on his way up to the sheep sheering, he wanted to be with her. So he gave her his signet, cord and staff as a pledge and slept with her. Judah did not know that this was his daughter-in-law. A few months later, Tamar’s pregnancy started showing. It was considered adultery since she was a widow then. In Israel, an adulterer was to be punished by being stoned or being burned. Judah planned to burn her to death. But Tamar said at that time “I am pregnant by this man who this staff and signet belong to.” They were the pledge that Judah gave to the prostitute. Therefore, Judah acknowledged them and Tamar would bear sons that continued the family line.
This shows that God blesses people who believe in His Word of Covenant and live by it. As such, anyone who becomes a part of the genealogy of Jesus does so by their faith in God’s Word. As is written in the passage, “Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar,” Tamar gave birth to twin sons and continued the genealogy of Jesus by her faith in God’s covenant with Judah. Here, no Israelites criticized Tamar, saying “you have done wrong.” Rather they praised Tamar for her faith, saying that it is a faith of blessing. Likewise, God accepts the faith of those who believes in God’s Word. Tamar could become part of the genealogy of Jesus because she believed in God’s covenant. If we believe in God’s Word, we can become His children as well.
We do not become righteous by good deeds. Every sinner can become a righteous person by believing in the gospel of God’s righteousness and become one family with God. The Bible tells us that it is not our holy behavior that makes us God’s children. Rather, we become children of God by our faith in God’s Word of covenant. We become children of God and enter the World of Jesus by our faith that believes the Words of God. We become the children of God through our faith in God’s Word. We must know and believe that we become righteous and sinless by believing in Jesus.
The Bible tells us that the faith that believes the Scripture as it is is the faith that believes in the righteousness of God. To become righteous as we accept Jesus, we have to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The word “Sanctification” is used often in all the religions in the world. However, Jesus tells us that there is no one who entered the Kingdom of God after being sanctified on his own. Let’s examine the Scripture. Abraham presented his wife as his sister out of fear for their safety. Isaac did the same with his wife. Abraham sold out his wife and Isaac is also a man who did the same thing. Tamar and Rahab in the passage were also some of the examples of people who could not have been included in the genealogy of Jesus if it had not been for their faith. In Christianity, sanctification means becoming holy gradually. However, Tamar had a sexual relationship with her father-in-law, Rahab was a prostitute, and Ruth was a gentile. None of these women had the status to become part of Jesus’ genealogy in human perspective. However, the reason they were called righteous and became a part of the genealogy of Jesus is due to their absolute faith in God’s covenant. This is the kind of faith that leads us to become children of God. By God’s Word of righteousness, we came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit by the faith that believes Jesus is our Savior. In other words, the fact that we became sinless people is not even 0.0001% due to our own good work. We became sinless people by believing in Jesus as our Savior, who is the Son of God, and the written Word of God, that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We became the children of God by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. God, Our King, tells us that those who are with the Holy Spirit are His people. He calls people like us who have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit “My children, the born-again.” In the Bible, the righteous children of God are different from ordinary people who are not yet saved from their sins. Those who have accepted and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are different from the rest of the people who have not received the remission of their sins. We have been forgiven for all our sins because we believe in Jesus, who is our Savior, as our Savior in our hearts. We know that we have already received the remission of all our sins because we believe that the Lord came to this world and was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River and shed His blood by dying on the Cross. Therefore, we became children of God through the Son of God and by believing that Truth.
Hallelujah! We thank our God who has given us this gospel of the water and the Spirit, the righteousness of God.
 
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