Christmas is for Everyone

Christmas for everyone

Matthew 1:1-17

Nothing disqualifies you from Jesus and nothing disqualifies you from Christmas.

Abraham and unbelief

  • Matthew 1:2
  • Abraham was a man who walked with God, but he was a man who often faced doubt and unbelief. But God wasn’t angry at Abraham’s disbelief, he told him to look up and still fulfilled all of his promises to Abraham.
  • We can often be Abraham, we’re so busy doing that we stop trusting.
  • Mark 9:24
  • If you’re struggling with doubt, Christmas is for you, God will not give up on you.

Jacob and lies and deception

  • Matthew 1:2
  • Jacob was someone of scheming, lies and deception. Are we so different? Often look to enhance ourselves and look after ourselves first.
  • God didn’t give up on Jacob, but he humbled him for his sin and gave him a new name, Genesis 32.
  • When we lie and deceive we need to come to Jesus and get a new identity from him

Rahab and her past

  • Matthew 1:5
  • There are 4 women in the genealogy and all 4 are gentiles and 3 are morally dodgy, but the gospel is for all people.
  • Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho, but she housed 2 of Joshua’s spies and married one of them. She went from being despised because of her profession to being mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy.
  • No matter your past, no matter what you’ve done, Jesus came to save us from our sins.

Ruth and outsiders

  • Matthew 1:5
  • Ruth is one of the most famous women in the Bible and she’s a gentile, an outsider. Boaz married an outsider and Ruth inherited his wealth, it’s a foreshadowing of Jesus.
  • There are no outsiders when it comes to the gospel and to Christmas.

David and lust

  • Matthew 1:6
  • David slept with someone else’s wife, arranged for the husband to be killed and had to cover up his shame and guilt, but in Psalm 51 he owns up to his sin and only then is he forgiven and free.
  • Lust is stealing a love that doesn’t belong to you and is a slippery slope. Will we follow the slippery slope?
  • If we struggle with lust, God is a God of gracious, unfailing love who washes away our iniquities.

King Solomon and greed

  • Matthew 1:7
  • Israel’s kings were charged not to do 3 things, not to go after horses (which equalled power), many wives and silver and gold, but Solomon went after all of these things. Did they make him happy? No, we see this in Ecclesiastes 1.
  • We live in a culture that says more and more is better and we’re burdened by this culture, greed is a weapon of mass destruction.
  • Whatever greed is inside of us or whatever destruction that greed has caused we are not beyond God’s Grace, Jesus alone is enough.

Jehoshaphat and relationships

  • Matthew 1:8
  • Jehoshaphat walked in obedience with God but he had one major blind spot and that was the relationships he entered into. He married the daughter of the man who killed their prophets, he set up an alliance with the evil King Ahab and then later his son
  • 2 Corinthians 6:14 shows that relationships matter, Jehoshaphat made bad friendships and alliances and it had consequences.
  • We may have bad relationships as well or we may have a bad alliance with the world, but Christmas is still for everyone, but it’s time to say sorry and turn back to God.

Christmas is for everyone and we can all be written into the Christmas story, when we put our faith in Jesus.