Quest 2
Genealogy of Jesus
Reading: Matthew 1:1-17: Luke 3:23-38
Sometimes life is like the back of a needlepoint - you can’t see the pattern.
Example: Story of Joseph (Genesis 50:20) - As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The genealogy of Jesus demonstrates God’s plan.
Jesus was a real man with a real family tree.
God uses people to accomplish his purpose.
The people God uses are not perfect.
Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law to have a child as an heir.
Rahab was a pagan prostitute.
David and Bathsheba: they had a scandalous affair and David had her husband killed.
God prescribed us at birth.
Psalm 139:16 - Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Isaiah 45:9-10 – “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
Differences in unchangeable features are God’s special frames to highlight his unique message in us.
Your unchangeable features include appearance, aptitudes, parentage, and social heritage.
Example: outward beauty is not related to inward happiness. This is said of Jesus (Isaiah 53:2) - For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
God uses your “frame” to make himself known, as the Apostle Paul found out through his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:9) - But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God wants you to work with him on the picture on the canvas of your soul, not complain about the outward frame around the picture (Isaiah 45:11-12 NIV) - Do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
God’s work and reputation is at stake in our inward message and outward frame.
No matter what our outward frame is, use it to glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Our transformation is from the inside out (2 Corinthians 3:18) - And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Quest 2 Sermon from January 9th, 2022
