Where Did the Baby Come From? // Message in a Bottle, Part 2

Christmas – they talk about baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph – but this Jesus … is He who He says He is? Can Christmas really make a difference – I mean in your life and mine?

 

WILL THE REAL MESSIAH PLEASE STAND UP?

Well, welcome to the second message in a series that I have called, "Message in a Bottle" – in these weeks leading up to Christmas. We are going to take a look at this most amazing night – this Christmas story. You know that wonderful Christmas carol, O Holy Night, the stars, the stars are shining – the shepherds and the angels and Mary and Joseph and that baby Jesus; God in the flesh. And for me, you know, when you strip away all the noise and the rubbish and the commercialism around Christmas, it is the most wonderful celebration.

But it struck me how the very beginning of the story of Christmas in the New Testament – if you have a Bible, go and grab it – we are going to Matthew, chapter 1 – it struck me how often we skim over the first dozen or so paragraphs of what God writes about Christmas.

If you open up the very first page of the first Book of the New Testament – it's the Book of Matthew and it begins, of all things, with a genealogy; a boring list of names. Now I love doing things that surprise people and a few years ago I was sharing a message leading up to Christmas on this passage in the beginning of Matthew and I asked a lady, a friend of mine, Pamela, to do the Bible reading and I ask her to read through this genealogy. Now fortunately, I gave her a week's notice, because some of the names are just a little bit difficult to get the old tongue around. And when she sat down everybody gave her a standing applause for managing to make it through the genealogy.

And I guess most of us haven't heard a message on this genealogy in a long, long time, if ever. I know what you are thinking – genealogy? Berni, are you going to be talking about a genealogy? But listen, listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in Second Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. He says:

Every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness, so that – what? – so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

In other words when I read through this genealogy, and I probably like you, skip through genealogies in the Bible, you know, I kind of don't like to read every word. But as I began to read through this particular genealogy I thought, hang on a minute, God decided to begin the New Testament with a genealogy. Why did He do that? What was going on? This Book of Matthew – "Matthew" literally means, "a gift from God" and it starts with an account of Jesus blood line; His birth line.

Jesus Christ – "Jesus" means "Yahweh saves"; God saves. "Christ" means "Messiah" – so you put all that together and this book is a gift from God about God's anointed Saviour. So I'm thinking, I've actually got to get into this genealogy and say: why did God put it here? What does it mean that the Christmas story begins with a genealogy? What is God trying to say to you and me, here and now?

Now it's probably not the way that you or I would start a biography of some great leader but genealogies were significant to the Jews. They were about purity of lineage – firstly remember that land was given to Israel by tribes. So your right to own land was affected by your genealogy. If you were a priest, your priestly authority came from your genealogy. And your legal standing – if you were in line for the throne, royal succession came through your genealogy. And the genealogies of people were kept on the public record. In the Sanhedrin and in the temple, you could go and verify that somebody was who they said they were.

So to the Jews it wasn't just a boring list of names – it was fascinating. And have a look to see how Matthew, chapter 1 actually starts out. The first verse, "An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" – three main characters, Abraham, David and Jesus. And Abraham and David being referred to here, point back to some promises. We are going to look at those promises today because they have everything to do with Christmas.

People were expecting a Messiah – we are going to look at why a little bit later in the programme. But at this point in Israel's history in the first century, they were definitely looking for a Messiah.

So God is the keeper of promises and let's just have a quick look to see what the promise is. If you want to flick back to the promise that God made to Abraham, you go to Genesis, chapter 12, verses 1 to 3. Lets have a look at that – Genesis 12:1-3 says this:

The Lord said to Abram, "Go from your