Today we're going to look at Matthew the first chapter, beginning at verse one. I'm going to talk about the genealogy of Christ, the genealogy of Christ. I'm going to read out the New American Standard Bible. And maybe some words that we come across that I am, I am not a theologian, so I may not be able to pronounce correctly.
But will you give me some grace today? If I don't say it exactly the way that you've heard it. This is what my Bible says. This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was born Isaac and Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob, Judah, and his brothers. And the Judah were born Perez and Zira by Tamar. And Perez was born Hezron and the Hezron, Rahm. And Rahm was born Amenadab and the Amenadab, Neshalon Han, and to Neshon, Salmah, and to Salmah and to Salmah and to Salmah and to Salmah and to be born Boaz, by Rahab.
And the Boaz was born, Boaz was born Obed, by Ruth, and Obed, Jesse. And the Jesse was born David, the king. And the David was born Solomon to her who had been the wife of Uriah. And the Solomon was born Reelbaum and the Reelbaum Abigai, Asa.
And Asa was born Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat, Jo Rahm and the Jo Rahm, Aziah. And the Aziah was born Jotham and the Jotham Ahas and Ahas, Hezekiah. And Hezekiah was born Manasseh to Manasseh, Amnon, and Amnon, Josiah. And Josiah was born Jehonia and his brother at the time of the portion to Babylon.
And after the portion to Babylon, to Jekoniah was born Shilitiel. And the Shilitiel is a rubable. And to his rubable was born Abahud and Abahud, Eachem. And the Eachem, Azar, and Azar was born Zaddok.
And the Zaddok, Achem, Achem, Eliu, and Eliu was born Elazar. And Elazar, Mathem, and to Mathem, Jacob. And to Jacob was born Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ. Maybe see in the house of God.
Now, the question that I asked when I was reading this, when I was reading Matthew, the question asked myself was, why is that here? Why is the genealogy of Christ here? Why does Matthew known as Levi, one of the, you know, the apostles, if you will, why does he write this letter? And who is he writing, too?
So he's writing to Christian Jews, but why does he write the letter? And why more importantly for this moment, why does he put this in this letter? So they will research on genealogy, and why people prepared genealogy, or preserved genealogy. A couple things came out.
One, it was normal for people to prepare genealogy when they had prominent, important ancestors in their background. And that would make sense for Jesus Christ. You think Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he was born. He got some important prominent people in his background.
Certainly they did. They started with Abraham. Additionally, the Levites had to demonstrate through their ancestry that they were Levites, or they were not able to participate in the Levitical rights or the Levitical benefits that they had. Third, one of the reasons they preserved their genealogy is so they could prove their purity, that they were Israeli, that they were, they would ascend us of Israel, and they weren't mixed with other, mixed with Gentiles.
And then also it provided a connection between generations. And then finally, they viewed their genealogy as a way. As you can look back to the genealogy, they could see that they prepared, it showed the favor of God. Now as Matthew's writing this, he's writing this, I believe, you know, partly because there were a lot of names here that the Jews that he was writing to, when they heard those names, they would be familiar with those names.
And these names in fact had rich nuances within the Israeli culture, within the Jewish culture. And these were the names that guided their people through history. But Matthew was making the point here about Jesus, I do believe, that Jesus was not something that was foreign to their heritage, but in fact Jesus was the pinnacle of their heritage. Now I gotta be honest with you though, as I'm going through this, I find some very, very disturbing information.
Very disturbing information. I think about Jesus, the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Enochular Conception, I think about his ancestry and what I would find in his background, I would expect it to be pristine, I would expect it to be holy, I would expect that all the people that you look at in the name of Jesus Christ, they were priests, they were prophets, they were the good kings, if you will. But I found some very, very disturbing information as I look in the background. I want to share with you the disturbing information that I found, and I want to share with you what I think, and what I believe that it means as I'm led by the whole experience.
In verse two, I found this is disturbing. In verse two, why does Matthew begin Christ's genealogy with Abraham instead of Adam? Why does he do that? Luke doesn't do that.
When we go and we begin to read Luke, we say Luke starts at Adam. Why does Matthew, who is writing to Jews, why doesn't he begin his foundation with Adam? Why does he begin with Abraham? Secondly, how is it possible that Judah, look at verse three, Judah is included as the son of Israel.
He's included in Christ's genealogy. If you know anything about Judah, in the name of Jesus Christ, you know that he was a liar and a fornicator. Judah was the one who in essence tried to rob his daughter-in-law of a seed in the name of Jesus Christ. Kmart, remember Kmart?
He tried to rob his daughter-in-law of a seed, and she tricked him. He ended up sleeping with his daughter-in-law in birthing parents, who's also in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. How does Judah and Tamar get in the genealogy of Jesus Christ? I'm telling y'all, it's very, very, very disturbing.
That's a most inappropriate relationship, and certainly the outcome of it, some might even call it a bastard child, is a most inappropriate for it. Not to be in the history of Jesus Christ. Hello, this is Pastor Tony Collins. I'm the senior pastor at the House of Worship in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
And I want to tell you a story. A few years ago, about eight or nine years ago, actually, we helped plan a church in Mexico and the Playa del Carmen area. And while we were down there, we were confronted, if you will, by the truth, the reality of homeless children. Just a few points of fact that, if you will, in regards to street children, to homeless children in this area.
First of all, these children are at a higher risk of danger than anyone else. They go through severe hunger, they go through depression, and in many cases, most cases I would say, that the food that they have is waste food, which is a bad source of nutrition, which leads to malnutrition, and sometimes it can even lead to death. These are children that are dealing with all the issues that are on the street. They're dealing with criminals, they're dealing with violence, they're dealing with drugs.
So our desire, our call, if you will, for this community is to build a home for the homeless, to build a home for homeless children. And there is no home, there is no home for homeless children in this area. So really, what we need now is, we need the resources, we need the funds to be able to do that. And we're estimating that it's going to cost about $250,000 to buy the property and to build this facility.
And so if you won't give, who's going to give? If you won't help us, who's going to help us? Whatever it is that you give, the God tells you to give. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, my His power in his authority, that 100 times what you give would come back to you.
So thank you in advance for your gift. We praise God for you, and we praise God for the vision. We praise God for the mission that He's given us to be able to touch the lives in Mexico and the lives of homeless children. Bless you, praise God for you, and we give them all the glory in advance.
Verse 3, How did the harlot, Rahab, a harlot, a woman of ill repute someone who made a living from doing the things that God says are abominable. How does she end up in the genealogy of Jesus Christ and not just in the genealogy, but if you go to Hebrews 11, you'll find her in the faith hall of fame. Very, very, very, very, very, very disturbing, very disturbing. You know Joshua 2 and 1, talking about Rahab, says, so they went and came to the house of a harlot.
This is Jericho whose name was Rahab. So we know that Bible documentation that Rahab was a harlot. She's in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Let's go look at Ruth.
Ruth is in verse 5, and we know that Ruth was a Moabite. If you know anything about a Moabite and being a Moabite, we know that God cursed the tribe of Moab. Go look at Deuteronomy 23 and 3. It says, No, Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, none of their descendants, even to the 10th generation shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord.
Very disturbing news. Because if you look at this, you understand that David is within the 10th generation of the Moabite. It seems like God is contradicting himself. I'm telling you, this is very disturbing, very disturbing information we have here.
We see that she was cursed, and we go to Ruth 1, 3 through 4, it says, and Emilek, Naomi's husband died, and she was left, and her two sons, and they took wives of the women of Moab. There it is. The name of one was Orpah, not Oprah, orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. So we have documented evidence that we got Jewish people marrying Moabites, and somehow they end up in the lineage of Jesus Christ.
And then there's David, who, if you know the thing about David, who was a murderer, and an adulterer, and a schemer, and a manipulator. He was a horrible father, because he did not put down Absalom's rebellion, and he allowed his son, Emnon, to him. That's his right, Timar, and did nothing about it. Take a look at 2 Samuel 11, 3, 4.
So David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bathsheba? The daughter of Elian? The wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was one of your great men, who was the son of one of your counselors? David sent messengers and took her.
And when she came to him, he laid with her. That word, took is a forceful word. It's not like she really had a response to it. She really couldn't say no to it.
He took her. I'm telling you, y'all, this is very, I don't know about this, getting out of your crack. And what about Solomon? That David's son, Solomon, who was not necessarily so much a chip off the old block, who Solomon was the biggest womanizer in human history.
Solomon had a thousand women. Really man? A thousand women? Look at Deuteronomy 17, 17 says, this is the law that God lays down about the king, and it says, He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away.
Nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold to himself. And then look at 1 Kings 11, 1 through 3. It says, now, King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter Pharaoh. It says, Amoebite, cursed, and Ammonite, cursed, and Edomite, Sedonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord has said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them.
Not much less married, you must not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, but they will surely turn your heart away from them after their gods. Solomon held fast to these in love. In other words, Solomon ignored the word of God, and he fell fast to the women in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines.
And his wives turned his heart away. In case you're trying to figure out what a concubine is relative to a wife, a concubine is a lover. Not a wife, not someone that you said I want her to be my wife. It's just one that's kind of hanging around.
Solomon is in the genialial of Jesus Christ. The other issue here, and that's a problem, is rarely do you see them biblically in genealogies, do you find women that are included in the genealogy? And here you have four. You have Tamar, you have Rahab, you have Ruth, and Bathsheba, and all of them are women that are on the edge at best and over the boat at worst.
And the craziest part about it, I think, and all of that is also, there are Gentiles. Wait a minute. Jesus' genealogy from a Jewish perspective is impure. It is not all Jews.
There are Gentiles in it, for Rahab was a Gentile, and Ruth were a Gentile, and they were unwanted. They didn't fit in anywhere, and they were most certainly not accepted. Very disturbing, very disturbing. Does anybody else find that disturbing?
I just find it very disturbing. Now, after I've gotten over my being disturbed, I had to ask the Holy Spirit, what does this mean? Why is God trying to say, what's the message that God is saying when even Jesus Christ himself, look at his genealogy, it's really all out of whack, and if any of us, and we probably do, have this type of genealogy in our background, we would not want to post it as chapter 1 in any book that anybody would write about us. So this is what Holy Spirit told me to tell you today.
I asked him, Holy Spirit, why does he start with Adam? Why does he start with Adam? Why does he start with Abraham? Holy Spirit says that we don't begin with God until we choose faith.
Abraham is the Father of faith. The reason that Matthew, the very first book in the New Testament, begins with this, and he begins with Abraham is because the Holy Spirit wants you and out of it. We don't even begin to have any significance for the Kingdom of God until we begin with faith. Yes, yes, yes.
God is aware of you, God is concerned about you, no question about that. But in the name of Jesus Christ, we don't begin to have any significance in the Kingdom of God. We don't begin to do anything that really is important to God until we begin with faith. And this place of faith, and not just faith, but trusting God.
Faith is just simply believing that something that is real, right? So I can say that I try faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, enough faith to get me to go to heaven, but I don't trust God with my situation today. Amen? And we look at these people, these are not people that only have faith in God, these were people who trusted God.
They had developed an understanding of the character of God, of who he is, to the point their relationship was so strong that they could say, I know how God's going to respond in this situation. And if he doesn't respond the way that I think he's going to respond, I still know that's the best thing for me. Can I get amen today? In the name of Jesus Christ.
They have moved from just faith to a place of trust. And that's where Rahab was. Rahab, when she heard about what had happened in Egypt, and she saw the rumors about what had happened in Egypt, the rumors about the hand of God in the plagues, how he destroyed Egypt, the rumor about how God had delivered his people. They were slaves, they were poor, they had nothing.
How he devastated the biggest, the baddest nation on the planet at the time and took all of the wealth and gave it to his people and brought them out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea. I have been to the Red Sea and I'm trying to tell you something, God parted that and they walked over on dry land, that is a significant thing that the whole world heard about. And Rahab, even though she was a hard one, she had grown up, whooshing other gods, even though she had grown up, growing her own way and doing her own thing, when she heard the rumor about the power of God, she made a choice to trust in him in spite of all the things around her that said there's no way that could ever happen. And she chose to trust in him, versus what her eyes saw, what her ears heard, what her flesh felt, it's the same thing with David.
David had been anointed but not your pointed and saw ran him out of town and he was here and he was there, he was at the springs if you will. And Saul came running after him, ended up in a cave where David was, and David put, he could take his destiny in his own hands, he trusted God more than he trusted his own thought process in the name of Jesus Christ. So that is the type of faith that God says will remove the stain of sin from our lives. How else can a Gentile prostitute end up in a genealogy of Jesus Christ?
How can she end up in the faith hall of fame, if not by faith and trusting in Jesus Christ? And the Holy Spirit wanted me to tell you they magic, close your eyes just for a moment. Imagine if you can, a white t-shirt or a white dress, and we have taken it outside and thrown it into the pit with all the pigs. And it's been there all day and the pigs have walked over, the pigs have done whatever pigs do in their pin, if you will, name a Christ Jesus.
And you now, they go out and bring that dress, that white dress or get that white t-shirt, it's useless. You can open your eyes now, it's useless. The name of Jesus Christ. He says, that's who we were without faith.
All of your righteousness, all of my righteousness, as a filthy rag without faith, without trust in Jesus Christ. And when we put our trust in him, he washes that dress, he washes that t-shirt, he washes our souls in the blood of Jesus Christ. And we go from useless to useful. We go from being thrown out to being a prized possession, and that's what happened to Ruth and David and to all of these.
What's us to know when we look at this, the name of Jesus Christ, that the faith is spiritual oxyglein. Hello, this is Pastor Tony Collins, I'm a senior pastor at the House of Worship in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And I want to tell you a story. A few years ago, about eight or nine years ago, actually, we helped plan a church in Mexico and the Playa del Carmen area.
And while we were down there, we were confronted, if you will, by the truth, the reality of homeless children. Just a few points of fact, if you will, regards to street children, to homeless children in this area. First of all, these children are at a higher risk of danger than anyone else. They go through severe hunger, they go through depression, and in many cases, most cases I would say, that the food that they have is waste food, which is a bad source of nutrition, which leads to malnutrition, and sometimes it can even lead to death.
These are children that are on the street that are dealing with all the issues that are on the street. They're dealing with criminals, they're dealing with violence, they're dealing with drugs. So our desire, our call, if you will, for this community is to build a home for the homeless, to build a home for homeless children. And there is no home, there is no home for homeless children in this area.
So really, what we need now is, we need the resources, we need the funds to be able to do that. And we're estimating that it's going to cost about $250,000 to buy the property and to build this facility. And so if you won't give, who's going to give? If you won't give, who's going to give?
If you won't help us, who's going to help us? Whatever it is that you give, that God tells you to give. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, by His power and in His authority, that 100 times what you give would come back to you. So thank you in advance for your gift.
We praise God for you, and we praise God for the vision, we praise God for the mission that He's given us to be able to touch lives in Mexico, the lives of homeless children. Bless you, praise God for you, and we give them all the glory in advance. Amen. What an amazing message.
That's a good word. That's really an encouragement, no matter who you are, no matter where you find yourself, that Jesus Christ wants you to be part of His family. And there's only one way to do that, and that is to ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart and to make Him Lord of your life. Once you do that tonight, I want to tell you it's the best decision that you'll ever make, and you can do it in as little as 15 seconds.
And all you have to do is just ask Him. Just say it out loud. Lord Jesus, I give my heart to you. I ask you to be Lord of my life.
When you've done that, just let us know. We want to share with you and give some information that will help you to get started in your new journey, in your new life with Jesus Christ. Also, I want to encourage you tonight. We just came back from a mission trip in Mexico, and it was an incredible, incredible time.
We planted some 12 churches down there in conjunction with another church. And we were really burdened while we were down there to build a home for homeless children. And if you go to our website www.thehouseofworship.com, if you go there, you'll see information about our trip to Mexico. And there's a place also for you to help us to fund this orphanage.
God's going to bless you. God's word tells us that it's not His will to any of these little children's appearance. And we're asking you to partner with us to accomplish God's willingness plan. Let me pray for you before we leave tonight.
Father, the name of Jesus Christ, we simply ask that you would touch the heart and the lives of those who are watching this program even now for your glory and for their benefit. We pray that you would encourage them, Lord God, to continue to walk in obedience to you, Father, and show them that you really do care about them, that you are in fact proactively working on their behalf, that you really are on their side. We pray this prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We wish that you have a blessed week, and we'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye-bye.