A Light When All Other Lights Go Out
November 29, 2020
Preached by Ben Bechtel
Scripture Reading
Matthew 1:1-25
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
18 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. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 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 take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
This morning we begin our Advent series called Immanuel: How God Gives Us Himself. Normally, I would feel elated to begin an Advent series. However, rolling into Christmastime this year feels strange, as most of this year has. It can seem out of step to begin out of nowhere singing about angels singing in heaven and joy coming to the world. It might feel to you a little bit like when someone makes a joke too soon after something difficult has happened. This year has been a doosy. Given the circumstances of this year, particularlygiven these circumstances, there is nothing better that we could be doing than pressing into the truths of Christmas. In The Fellowship of the Ring the main character Frodo receives this small lamp from another character as a gift, which would shine if a certain phrase was spoken. The woman giving him the lamp says to Frodo, “may this be a light for you when all other lights go out.” The truth of Christmas is a light for us when all other lights go out.
So, my question for us this morning is how is the truth of Christmas that light? What does Christmastime tell us about how to navigate hard years like 2020? What word does Christmastime speak to us when all other lights go out? Well, Matthew 1 teaches us these two realities about Christmas that speak into this present moment…
1. God’s Promises Do Not Fail (vv. 1-17)
Now be honest, how many of you during the Scripture reading by about verse 6 checked out and came back to us when verse 18 started? Why would we begin our Christmas series with a list of names? It may appear to us like just a list of names but to the original readers of Matthew’s gospel, this list of names was supercharged with meaning. This genealogy is like an overview of the Old Testament in a few short verses. Each name recounted a story of God’s faithfulness to continue his promises through the people of Israel to bring them a Messiah, a Savior.
I want us to notice this fact about this list of names here in verses 1-17: this is a realistic family tree. In each of our family trees, we have people that we are proud to point to and say those are my parents or grandparents. But then there are those people in your family tree that if you were to do some selective history, you would leave out. What’s interesting about this genealogy is that Matthew is doing selective history. He is not including every name in the line leading to Jesus. And yet, he still includes some total wrecks in this family tree!
Think about Judah fathering Perez by Tamar, his daughter-in-law who dressed up like a cult-prostitute with whom Judah had an affair (Gen. 38). Or think about David fathering Solomon by Bathsheba, the woman he coerced into sleeping with him because of his power, the same power he then used to have her husband murdered on the battlefield (2 Sam. 11-12). And then there are just the stories of suffering and waiting such as Sarah who waited to have a child well into old age before the Lord blessed her with a son (Gen. 12-17). Or Ruth, the foreigner, who was left poor and helpless as an outcast in a foreign land after the death of her husband (Ruth 1).
And yet, through all of this sin and suffering, through all of these things that seemed like they could have derailed God’s plan this genealogy ends like this (Matt 1:16):
…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Messiah.
God was not absent in the sin and suffering of his people but was working in it and through it to bring about redemption, to bring Jesus on the scene. And in the same way, he is not absent from the history of your life. He is working in all things for your good and for his good purposes even if you can’t see it, even if it’s impossible to see it.
These people in this genealogy give me such hope. Mothers waiting to have children. Men not trusting in the timing of God and thinking they know better. Outcasts feeling like they have been abandoned. People in their pride falling into sin. This sounds a lot like us! All of this did not stop God’s purposes or promises and in the same way it will not turn him aside from using you in his plan. If you trust in Jesus, God is at work right now to redeem your story, to transform it from one of sin, despair, loss, and grief into a story that shows forth the love of God in Jesus. God loves to use the wreckage of our lives to show that he is still up to something in this world, to show that he is faithful and true.
2. God’s Presence Abides Forever (vv. 18-25)
After this flyby tour of the Old Testament, the story zooms in on the last people in that genealogy, Mary and Joseph. After Mary finds out that she will be carrying the child, Joseph receives a vision from an angel explaining these things to him. In verses 21-23 we read this:
21 [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
This baby, who would be the Messiah, receives two names in these verses. When taken together, these two names showcase the consequence of this little child for all of history.
The first name, the one we all know well, is Jesus. The name Jesus, which in Hebrew is translated Joshua, was a common Hebrew name. And the name means “Yahweh saves.” This makes sense of the reason why he is to be called “Yahweh saves,” because he will save his people from their sin. Now let’s take it back a step further: who is Yahweh? Yahweh, the name God gives himself to be called by the Israelites, gives us the meaning of his name in Exodus 34:6-7. If Yahweh were to have an Instagram bio or Facebook profile description this is what it would say:
6 …“Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
That name holds some weight. That name will outlast every name in the universe.
Now this name is proclaimed to Moses after the people of Israel have been rescued from Egypt by Yahweh and are receiving his law at Mt. Sinai. They have just been saved by Yahweh. This passage shows them why Yahweh saved them, what his heart is in saving his people, who he is down deep in his very bones. And who is he? He is gracious, loving, compassionate, and faithful but also just. God is caring and compassionate, but he is not a push over. Just ask Pharaoh and the Egyptians. We must understand that all of this character together makes up who God is. We cannot shape God’s character to our own liking.
But, notice in verse 7 how God declares that he keeps his faithful love for thousands of generations but punishes sin to the third and fourth generation. Yahweh is one who, when pricked, does not bleed justice but mercy. His default reaction is toward love and grace and compassion. He is not an angry dad waiting to fly off the handle. And he delights to draw near and save those who are in need. Jesus’ name means that Yahweh, the God whose love compelled him to save his people from their bondage in Egypt in the past, has been compelled by his love to save them again, but this time in a deeper, more ultimate sense. Yahweh will use his servant Jesus, like he used his servant Moses, to save his people from their sin.
This same Messiah who is named Jesus is also called Immanuel, the name which means God with us. God with us. That same God, Yahweh, who abounds in steadfast love and mercy, who runs toward those who run from him, is with us. Jesus is not just a man who serves Yahweh’s purposes of salvation. Jesus is Yahweh enclothed in flesh and bones, come near to bring us salvation. The way in which God saves us from our sins is by drawing near to us. He doesn’t stand back or aloof from our pain and our sin. We don’t repel him away by our sin and our weakness. We draw him to us.
Isn’t God so different than us? When things get even a little hard, our natural tendency is to run away. In a marriage, if you and your spouse are in a fight you might get in the car and go for a drive or run away to separate rooms. For children you may not run away from home when you have a fight with your parents but you probably run to your room. We think God is the same way. We believe that our sin causes God to abandon us and that suffering in our lives is evidence that he already has abandoned us. Friends, the gospel tells us that God’s natural tendency is not like ours. God’s tendencies aren’t even just to bear with us, forgiving our sin reluctantly as we might forgive someone in an argument. His ways are higher than our ways. God’s natural disposition, his inclination is to run towards us, to sit with us in our sin and shame, our disappointment and disgrace.
And we see this most clearly evidenced on the cross. On the cross God draws near in Jesus both to deal with sin and to show us his ever-abounding heart of love for sinners. God says himself that while he is abounding in faithful love, he does judge sinners to the third and fourth generation. Jesus deals with the judgment that our sin deserves while displaying the beauty of God’s love which not even our sin can keep him from displaying and lavishing on us. God’s gift in Christ proves that rather than abandoning us, God has drawn near to us. He is with us to save us.
Even more than this, Immanuel draws near not only to save us but also to dwell with us. He doesn’t just pop in to save us and pop back out. His presence remains with us always! This is how Matthew ends his gospel (Matt. 28:20):
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Church, he is here to stay! He saved us and now he abides with us and there is nothing you can do to convince him otherwise. He gives us all of himself. He is not holding back. Think about the reality that Yahweh, the God of the universe, came as a child. You can’t get more vulnerable than that!
At the end of this hard year God has something for us: he wants to give us himself. Maybe 2020 has brought with it a backslide into a pattern of sin. Maybe it has caused you to grow proud and quick to judge others rather than think the best of them. Maybe it has caused you to despair for the future. Maybe it has consumed you with anxiety and worry about yourself and your loved ones. Maybe it has filled you with loneliness and isolation. Jesus, the God of compassion, grace, and justice, wants to come into your life this Christmas. Jesus has drawn near to save you from your sin and be present with you in your trials. And in it all he is working so that you will experience more of who he is, so that you can receive the joy of his presence. We know God’s promises do not fail precisely because the presence of Jesus abides with us forever.
There is a great story from the life of Martin Luther about how his wife Kate put him in his place. At one-point Luther, who was prone to fits of depression, was particularly sulking and depressed. After it lasted for a while, one night at dinner Kate came down to the dinner table wearing all black. Luther said to her, “who is dead?” She responded, “doctor, have you not heard that God is dead? My husband, Martin Luther, would never be in such a state of mind if he had a living God to trust in.”[1]
Church, I am afraid that at the end of a hard year like this one, that we Christians are living as if all that I just preached isn’t true, that we will live as if God is dead. Friends if we have a living God, who delights to shower love on sinners and needy people, and who really does live among us empowering us with his presence, let’s take off our funeral robes. As a church this Christmas may we show the world that we have a light that endures when all other lights go out. If Jesus is really with us, may that reality be too obvious to deny. God has given us the gift of himself. That should be apparent for all to see!
[1] http://johnomalley.me/reflections/2014/4/16/kate-luther-wife-of-martin-luther-announced-god-is-dead-read-why
