Last Sunday we found ourselves in the first Sunday in
August. And in many ways, last weekend marked the beginning of the end of
summer. For many children, students, and families, this past week marked a
return to the routine of school. However, while school is beginning, in our
culture summer does not officially end until Labor Day.
And until then, many of us will strive to enjoy the rest
of the summer while balancing a return to the routine of fall. We will strive
to enjoy the rest of summer because there is just something about summer, isn’t
there? I mean, in our culture summer tends to be a time that is marked by
vacations. Summer tends to be a time that is marked by relaxation and
refreshment. And summer tends to a time that is marked by parties.
I mean, have you ever stopped to think about all the
parties that occur during the summer season? Beginning in May, we celebrate
Mother’s Day. Then there are all the graduation parties that begin in May and
often continue into June. In May, we also celebrate Memorial Day weekend, which
usually involves picnics and parties. In June, we celebrate Father’s Day and
many families begin to celebrate family reunions and family vacations. In July,
we have the fourth of July, which also involves picnics and parties. And the
summer season of parties and celebrations culminates and comes to an end with
one final weekend of Labor Day in early September.
We love the summer season as a culture, because deep down
as a culture we love to throw parties. After all, who doesn’t love a good party?
We love a good party because when we are at a party we
usually are at an event where we can connect with the people we care about.
We love a good party because when we are at a party we usually are celebrating
something that we believe is significant and that is worthy of celebration.
Because, at the end of the day, that is what a party is
all about, isn’t it? That is why we have a party, isn’t it? That is why we can
tend to take a great deal of time and energy to make sure that a party is
successful, right? We throw parties because we want to celebrate something that
is significant in our lives with the people who are significant in our lives.
You see, there is something within us that yearns to
party. There is something within us that yearns to celebrate something that is
significant in our lives with the people who are significant in our lives. And
that yearning was wired in us by God. When we read the letters that make up the
Bible, we discover that God loves a good party. And when we read the accounts
of Jesus life that are recorded for us in the Bible, we see that Jesus loved a
good party. Jesus loved to celebrate that things that
He viewed a significant with the people He viewed as being significant.
But if that is the case; when did Jesus throw a party?
When did Jesus celebrate? What did Jesus believe was significant enough to be worthy
of celebration? And when did early followers of Jesus throw a party to
celebrate something that they viewed as being significant and worthy of
celebration?
To answer that question, we are going to spend the next
three weeks at the church where I serve in a sermon series entitled Party. During
this series, we are going to look at three different events from history that
are found in the letters that make up the New Testament of the Bible to discover
the answer to these questions. And as we go through this series, our hope and
my prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads,
hearts, and hands to empower us to be able to celebrate that things that Jesus
viewed a significant with the people He viewed as being significant, so that we
can reveal and reflect the celebratory heart of Jesus to those around us.
Now this week I would like for us to spend our time
together looking at a section of one of the accounts of Jesus life that are
recorded for us in the Bible. In the Bible, there are four different accounts
of Jesus life, which are called the gospels. What is so interesting is that
these four different accounts of Jesus life, which were written to four
different types of people, complement one another in a way that provides us a
vivid picture of the life of Jesus and what drove Him to live the life that He
lived.
One of these four accounts of Jesus life, called the
gospel of Matthew, was written to Jewish people to explain and to show that
Jesus was the Messiah that God had promised would come to rescue and restore
the Jewish nation as His chosen people. You see, the Jewish people knew that God
had promised Abraham, who was the person from which the Jewish nation descended
from, that through his offspring that all the nations would be blessed.
In addition, God had promised the Jewish nations most
famous king, King David, that one of his descendants would be the Messiah. So
the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of
David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back
to God and back to prominence in the world. So to prove that Jesus was the long
promised Messiah, Matthew began his gospel with a genealogy to show that Jesus
had the proper family background to be the Messiah.
Now, I don’t know about you, but reading a genealogy,
which is a list of names that details a person’s family tree, does not sound
very exciting. As a matter of fact, maybe at one time you actually started to
try to read the Bible. And then you came to a genealogy. And then, after about
five minutes into trying to read the genealogy, you stopped reading the Bible,
right. I mean, who can pronounce all of those names? And reading a list of
names is so boring, isn’t it? However, for the Jewish people, being from the
right family, having the right family background, was essential to be their
rescuer and redeemer.
So for Matthew, who was writing
to Jewish people to explain and to show that Jesus was the Messiah that God had
promised would come to rescue and restore the Jewish nation as His chosen
people, the natural place to start his account of Jesus life was with a
genealogy that displayed Jesus family tree.
In addition, for Matthew, it
made sense to write his account of Jesus life this way because Matthew knew
something that they did not know and that we often do not recognize. Matthew
wrote the story of Jesus life this way because Matthew knew his story. And it
is in Matthew’s story we find a timeless truth about what
would cause Jesus to party and celebrate something that He viewed as being
significant and worthy of celebration.
Tomorrow we will begin to look
at Matthew's story...
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