Matthew 1

What did I learn about Jesus?

Jesus’ lineage included both well-to-do folks and others famous for their sin.
Our God is known for his love for his love and participation an amazing diversity of lives.

What did I learn about disciple-making?

God used all different kinds of people to bring about Jesus’ ministry on earth.
I can expect God to use many circumstances and people for his purposes.

Extended thoughts and observations:

I’d like to share reflections on each day’s passage as we undertake our 90-Day challenge together. These were written over a 90-day conversation between your elders, deacons and me. Remember, it’s only one chapter a day. You can do this! Go for it…and I pray as Ellis preached last week that your knowledge of and how you know Jesus deepens as you spend time in God’s Word.

Matthew 1-A genealogy can be pretty dry reading but the stories behind those names are fascinating. Verse 10: Hezekiah “trusted in the Lord” and there was no king like him before or after…ever! Manasseh, his son, was utterly evil. David, the greatest of the Jewish kings, murdered his faithful general, Uriah, to marry Bathsheba who is not even mentioned by name. She became the mother of Solomon.

Matthew compresses the entire genealogy of Jesus into three nice round groups of 14…there were actually many more than that. And he does so to make the case that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, the father of all Jews and of David, as the prophets had predicted. The other point he makes is that the lineage of Jesus …the Messiah, the savior of the world… was a very mottled picture. Some were incredibly heroic, pure figures. Others were as vile as you might find in history.

So…two principles for us, maybe. First, our sovereign God can use ALL things… including even the vilest human being … to accomplish his will. He can do that in your life, too. Whatever you are experiencing, whomever you are enduring, God’s will WILL be done. Rest in that.

Second, one day when you are gone, your name will be written in the history of God’s earthly work. What will be the adjectives that describe you? Evil? Good? Virtually anonymous and inconsequential? What will one day be written of us will largely be determined by the decisions that we make starting this very day. Will I trust God? Will I obey God. Will I love God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself?

Write well in the journal of your life through what you do today!