Category: from the Pulpit at Donnels Creek

Lord’s Day: 5

Series: Matthew in Seven Movements          

Title: And So It Begins

Text: Matthew 3:13-17

Introduction

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³ God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters below from the waters above.” ⁷ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the above sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 

¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. And let them be for seasons,^[f] and for days and years, ¹⁵ and let them in the sky give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 

¹⁶ And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds^[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷ So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

And it was so. 

³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

You would recognize this reading as the Creation Account from Genesis 1. This is a very well-known passage if you have just been in the faith for a short while. 

As the first words of our Scripture open we see the Spirit of God hovering over waters and beginning to create.  As He created, it is as if He steps back and looks and says, “Good.” 

Waters, land, sky = good; Plants, stars, seasons = Good; Creatures, birds, fish, animals = good.

He gets to the end of day six, looks at man, the very created thing made in His image and likeness and considers all that He has created and says, “It was very good.”

Then God places man in this Garden named Delightful.  I can also mean pleasure. That is the Hebrew word Eden: delightful, pleasure.

It is not until we get to Chapter 2 and verse 18 that we see the first occurrence of the phrase, “It is not good.”   This, of course, is before the fall of Adam so we see in this statement, it had nothing to do with sin.  Sin was not a part of the world yet.

So, we can have something that is not good and it not be related to sin.  And God made Adam fall asleep and when he woke up, Eve.  He said, “Woah man!”  That was Adam’s way of saying, “It is good!” (true story)

Chapter 3 we all know it is the introduction of the serpent. Tempting Eve and causing her and Adam to sin was the plan of the enemy and he was successful.

Eve saw that the three was good . . .for food and that it was a delight . . . to the eyes and she ate. Enter God.  This was not good.  So much was this not good that it brought the curse of death and separation from God.

A String of Not Goods

Then we get a STRING OF NOT GOODS.  There are decades, centuries of not good.

After the sin of Adam and Eve and their removal from Eden, Adam had children, not in the likeness of God, but in the likeness of himself (Genesis 5:3). Through time God chose to work through and closely with those made in the image of Adam.

These begin a very long string of failures of which today I will only hit the highlights.  These failures that were friends of God.

Noah: It says (Gen 6:5) the deterioration of sin had gotten so bad that every inclination of the heart was always evil. God is pronouncing JUDGEMENT.

The creation that was “very good” had become “very bad.” He chose Noah and had grace upon him and saved Noah and his family (Genesis 6:8).  Noah and family were only saved because God was gracious to them. 

We see that in Noah, old habits die hard.  The earth was flooded, the water receded, and it is time for a second creation. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.

 This Noah who had received God’s grace and was saved from the destructive flood acted like a drunken sailor, passed out and then was disrespected by his son Ham. Cursed!

Abraham: An idol worshiper (Josh 24:2) was chosen by God to begin a new people. 

THE MAN OF FAITH THAT MOST OF THE TIME WAS FAITHLESS

To save his own life he (potentially) sacrificed his marriage and life by lying who his wife was.  He also, in attempt to help God along with the promise He made, participated in a plot to impregnate his wife’s servant and this turned out really well.

David: A shepherd boy who grew into a mighty warrior and great king.  We are aware of his sin and rebellion.  He stole a wife, impregnated her and to cover it, killed her husband. All to keep his sin hidden.

These are the highlights.  There is a long history of failure, Judges, kings with shallow courage and faith, false prophets and grumbling citizens.

These were NOT pleasing in God’s sight.  These were NOT GOOD.  A string of not good and more not good. 

Then there is one who was chosen.  This one is different. 

Isaiah lets us know of what this future chosen one is like.  God speaking through Isaiah we hear the word “delight” again.  Hope for the first time since the Garden, which was the last time anything GOOD was mentioned.

Is 42:1, “Behold my servant, who I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit on him,”

The Baptism of Jesus

The water of the Jordan was the scene of John the baptizer. Person after person coming to repent of their sin and be symbolically cleansed.  (WE NEED THIS. We NEED WASHED.  WE NEED CLEANSED.  WE ARE REBELLIOUS.  We CAN’T GET OUT OF OUR WAY TO REBEL”

Then arrives Jesus.  Can you imagine?  It’s like it is mid-sermon/mid-baptism.

Jesus Baptism was covered in all four Gospel accounts.  John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus, the feeding of the 5,000 and the Passion week of Christ are the only events that are found in each of the four gospel accounts. 

JESUS was the one for whom John was looking. There is the uncertainty when we combine the texts from John and Matthew. 

Matthew says that as a part of John’s preaching he was telling people – I AM NOT THE MESSIAH.  I am not the Christ.  He who comes after me, one I am not worthy to carry the sandals.  He is the Christ.

There were people designated to carry sandals. They were lowly servants.  They were the lowest of servants.  Kings and people of status had these servants.

John is essentially saying, “I am a servant of Christ, but I am not even worthy to be the lowest of servants.”

So here in Matthew, John the Baptist is LOOKING for Jesus.  (John the Baptist and John the apostle and writer of John are two different people.  John (Johannes) is a popular name, kind of like Bubba in the south.

There seems to be a partial recognizing here of Jesus (the Matthew account).  I say only partial because John seems to know who he is but it not fully certain.  We will find this later in Matthew 11, the last time we hear of John the Baptist.  He is in prison and he sends messengers to Jesus, “Are you the one?”

John says, “I did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on who you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:33)

John sees Jesus, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” (Jn 1:29) This is NOT just the sin of the Jewish people.  Not just the family of Abraham.  This is the sin of the Gentiles too.  The Passover lamb.  The lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. (Rev. 13:8). The lamb that was to take away our sin. (Before Genesis 1:1)

This lamb comes to be baptized.   “Uh, no!” John says. “What are you talking about baptism?  Me baptize you?  No, You need to be baptize me!”

Jesus says, “John, I’ve got to do this.  It is fitting.  I have to fulfill all righteousness.”

These people lined up to be baptized.  Convicted and recognized their sin.  Feeling the need to be purified.  We are sinners.

Not Jesus!  He is not a sinner.

Jesus, pure, the second Adam (more on this next week), having never committed any offense and perfect in every way, righteous in every way. 

I have to do this.

He was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12).

Let’s put in this circle all the guilty.  Just lump them all here.  Transgressors ALL of them.  You know who is in that circle?  Jesus.  Numbered with the transgressors.

Even though perfect, he looked just like you and me.  He is God in the flesh: he has hands, legs, and feet.

He is NOT in the image of Adam.  He went into the waters as if He was.

This moment the sky opened and the Spirit . . . remember that Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation?  This is that Spirit that was creating back in Genesis 1?  He is hovering, once again, over water.  It descended upon Jesus at the waters of the Jordan.

There is debate on interpreting this concerning the dove.  Was it a real dove?  Many say, not really.  As he baptized Jesus, John saw something and the people saw something. 

This something was the Spirit of God and it descended.  They could literally see the Spirit entering Jesus and it appeared like a dove. 

Like the dove that returned to Noah?  A sign of new beginnings.  The dove that brings back the olive leaf?  There is life!  Here is proof.  And this Spirit descends up our peace, Jesus.

From heaven, the Lord said, “Very good!”  There is a theme here in Matthew where Jesus matches with Genesis.  “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Filling full the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him” (42:1)

This is the first time since the fall that God has spoken and said this is good.  With Jesus, “I am well pleased!”

This is significant.  This is pivotal.

Jesus in the baptism, is humbling himself – though in the FORM of God did not consider equality with God a thing to hold on to but made himself nothing taking on the form of a servant and was born in the “LIKENESS” of sinful flesh.  But he is not a sinner.  Yet he takes on the image of a sinner.

He became like you and me in every way, but the sin. 

Noah = failure

Abraham= failure

David = failure

Every king = failure

Every priest = failure

Jesus, “I am well pleased.”

What Does This Mean?

1. There were many people APPEARING before John the Baptist to repent because there was a lot of rebellion, and this continues to be the case. 

I was praying earlier this week concerning our nation.  Much pondering to the rebellion that is happening.  Tina and I chat about, I just miss the old days. 

But as I was praying I said to the Lord, Going back to the old days is not going to fix anything.  There was rebellion then, it just wasn’t as contentious.  It is more visible and in your face.

It is so easy to idolize a time period and think that just a return to that and things will be fine.  Absolutely not. 

There was sin in 1985. There was sin in 1971.  There was sin in 1950.  There was sin in 1800, 1700, 1492 and you just name the date, Jesus was always needed. 

In Genesis there were four people and one of those committed murder.  25% of the Earth’s population was guilty of murder. 

The people in John’s day felt the need to repent, to be washed and they were.  There were a lot then and there still remain a lot. 

We have right here what many people need.  Not a lot of finger wagging and I told you so’s but Jesus, the Savior.  Jesus the righteous.  Jesus, the one in whom God is well pleased.

He is the ONLY one in whom God is well pleased. 

You think God is pleased because you come to assembly? 

You think God is well pleased because you read Scripture occasionally? 

You think God is pleased because you come from a family that has gone to church since Thomas Jefferson?

He is well pleased because of Jesus.  And those who are IN JESUS, God is well pleased.

• Jesus is the ONLY offering that is not filthy rags (Isaian 64:6)

If we go back to the first part of this study on the Advent, we had Joseph.  He finds out that his wife to be in pregnant and he knows he is not the source of that pregnancy. 

Joseph had every right to put Mary away!

You know what he had the right to do?  He was fully and legally right to put her away.  But he did not.

The angel came and instructed him about what was taking place.  He did not put Mary away, though he had the legal right to do.

This made for an interesting public appearance. 

In every way our Savior appears as fallen, yet He is the only one in Whom the Father delighted.

THE HEBREW WRITER SAYS: He became like us much in every way, He was made like his brothers that he might be a service to God.

For those of us in Christ, for those of us who are by faith in Jesus, this is how we stand before God.  We don’t stand before Him putting on our fig leaves to hide our shame.

We appear before God in Christ.  This is the one in whom God delights. 

I am with Him!

• In Him we are a new Creation

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.   

Explain how it should read –

Spirit hovering over us and sprinkling us with water

Those in Christ are a new creation – old things have passed, the new HAS come!

Date: January 4, 2026

Lord’s Day: 1

Series: Matthew in Seven Movements: Advent

Title: New Beginnings

Text: Matthew 1:1-17

Introduction

Today is a first, and this is not only in reference to the first Sunday of 2026 but most likely you have never heard a sermon on this text which is just a family tree or a lineage.  I never thought I would deliver a sermon on this section of Scripture.

A quick review of the travel logs for 15 years of moving showed we had done over 1400 moves of businesses and homes.  You show me a picture of a house and I can tell you how many bedrooms, floors and if it had a basement or not.  Ask me their names?  I would forget them mid move.  I have been horrible remembering names.

There are many occasions when a text would come in and someone is moving again and they want help.  I will ask them for their last address and do a Goggle Earth Search or street view search so I can see the image of their house and then I would know who it was. (see if they were on the naughty or nice list)

Most of us, if we do read it in our yearly Bible reading, whiz right by it or skip it entirely.  “All Scripture breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16 and this is no less true here in this case.

RC Sproul was sharing a story concerning a missionary with the Wycliffe Bible Translators who went into a land that had no written language.  All their communication was oral and the people could not read or write. 

She had to first learn the language and then she developed it into a written form. This took many years and then she was able to teach it to the people and translate Scripture. 

The first book translated was Matthew and because she was in a hurry these first 17 verses were left out thinking that it was not of big interest to them.  When the book of Matthew was delivered to the village it was a disappointment for the people had more interest in the truck that brought the Bibles than in the book itself.

She was crushed for this whole process had taken 10 years and the people did not care at all.  In the second edition of her translation, it did include the genealogy of Jesus and the tribal leader was excited. 

“You mean to tell me this Jesus you have been telling us about is a real person?”

“Yes” she said.

The tribal chief thought she was teaching about a mythical character.  It was only after he could see that Jesus came from real people, in real space and real time that many, including the chief, came to Christ.

This is not a fly over text.   Even though this is a family tree there is A LOT here.  I think it will blow your sock off, so be prepared.  Bring high expectations here.

The Thick Hebrew of Matthew

There needs to be some review that was shared in the adult class last week as this series was introduced. The gospel of Matthew was written to the Hebrew or Jewish audience.  The purpose of this book is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ.

There was an “anointed one” introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures and Matthew seeks to prove that this Jesus is him.  How do we know this?  Is it because somewhere in the book of Matthew he says, “Ok, I have written this so you will know that this man called Jesus is the anointed one.” 

Kind of 1:1. BUT also the MAKE UP OF THE BOOK.

This must be understood that the people to whom Matthew was written had a HIGH literacy rate.  Matthew is reflecting on centuries of knowledge and this book is intelligently laid out.  What will be shared today, as said earlier, will amaze you but the readers would have picked up on it.

I had to dig and find it.  Classes and books by Tim Mackie, Steven Bryan and Jacob Stromburg. The first readers of this gospel would not have needed that.  They would have automatically understood.

Take for instance the progress of the book:

• Creation and Adam vs. Genealogy and creation of second Adam (Holy Spirit involved in both)
• Fleeing to Egypt for protection with Joseph vs. Fleeing for protection to Egypt with Joseph (and his dreams)
• The killing of the babies (Pharaoh) vs. The killing of the babies Herod
• The deliverance from Egypt to the wilderness vs. The deliverance from Egypt to the wilderness with Jesus
• Going through the sea with Moses vs. Jesus being going into the waters of baptism
• Going into the temptations in the wilderness 40 years vs. Jesus going through temptations in the wilderness for 40 days

This would have been evident to the original readers of Matthew.  What we see in the first 4 chapters of Matthew is this unfolding.  We also see in the first 17 verses of chapter 1 a very similar unfolding.  It is a picture that Matthew is painting and he is saying- THIS IS THE SAVIOR.  THIS IS THE MESSIAH.  PAY ATTENTION!

Gematria and Scripture

Let us take a look at this list.  Matthew says, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.” (1:17)

There is one other account of the family tree of Jesus and it is in Luke.  There are a couple of issues here that the Bible critic will quickly attack:

1. The lists are mostly the same but do differ significantly
2. There are A LOT of things Matthew leaves out.

What do we do with this?  It appears to be a fallacy in Scripture and for those who have a high value on the reliability of Scripture, how do we resolve this?

I want to introduce you to a term called Gematria.  It is the process of assigning value to a letter and then adding the letters together.  Our text in Matthew is FULL of this practice.  It is something that was FREQUENTLY done in the day of Matthew, not so much today.

Example: A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on.  So my short name M=14, A=1, T=20, T=20 would be 55.  14+1+20+20=55

There is a really long Psalm, most likely you have read it or seen it in the book of Psalms.  It is Psalm 119, it is the longest chapter in the bible and it is an acrostic. 

Turn to Psalm 119.  What you will see there before each section is the Hebrew alphabet.  The fist word in that section begins with that letter.  Aleph is the first letter and so that section begins with the letter Aleph.  The second section is Beth and that section has a word that begins with the Hebrew letter Beth.  This continues through each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. 

 Let us combine these two concepts here: the Gematria and the Acrostic:

• Jesus is of the line of David
• Matthew is proving through the genealogy that Jesus is of the line of David
• The Messiah will come from David’s family
• David’s name in Hebrew is spelled (Daleth, Waw, Daleth)
• Daleth = 4, Waw = 6, Daleth = 4 which totals 14.

Let me be clear and repeat, this was a high literacy culture.  The symbolism would not be a mystery.  It would have been picked up on immediately. 

When you and I do our family tree, we are careful to get every detail possible.  I am a direct descendant of the Hatfield family (on my father’s side, Hatfield and McCoy).  So one branch of my tree is very easy to follow and has been well researched.  As I recall I am third generation from Devil Anse Hatfield.  (Don’t mess with me!)

The omission of names and generations is alarming to us.  We do not leave those things out.  We look over at the other genealogy in Luke and see differences and the critics who want to discredit the authority of Scripture immediately say, “There is a problem here.  Different names mean there is a contradiction.” 

The reply is we live in a different culture.  Biblical authors employ numbers as vehicles of meaning.  This does not just apply to Scripture.  The practice holds up in literature outside of the Bible in the same period.

• Pythagorean used this device
• Euclid’s Elements used this device
• Very common in Egyptian, Greek and Indian culture
• It was used to convey deeper meanings

Matthew was more interested in showing the David roots of Jesus.  Steven Bryan shows how this plays out in many ways in these first 17 verses in Matthew.

Total 14+14+14=41?  Jesus the Messiah is the 42^nd so in reality Jesus name is mentioned twice.  Once as his early name, second as the anointed of God, Messiah.

Why the Differences?

Last week we introduced the idea of the Gospels being written to difference audiences.  Matthew as stressed earlier, was written to Jewish audience.  It would emphasize specific things.  Luke was written to a different audience and his genealogy goes:

1. Back all the way to Adam (not just Abraham like Matthew)
2. Focuses on a different branch in the tree at David’s son Nathan not Solomon

A Message of Hope

Matthew begins this long list of names, and it takes us back to this message of HOPE.  Begins with Abraham in that God sovereignly binds Himself to the promises that He made and unfailingly kept them through a flawed people.

• Abraham among other things twice in fear asked his wife to misrepresent herself as his sister
• Isaac who did the same thing once
• Jacob whose name meant trickster
• His sons sold their brother into slavery, some wanted him dead
• David was not without his issues either and we see in here four women (unusual)
• Bathsheba whose name is not mentioned specifically but only David was with the wife of Uriah
• Rahab who was a sex worker but was redeemed by her faith
• Tamar who played the role of a sex worker to trick Jacob
• Ruth who put herself in a very vulnerable situation to trick Boaz

How is this a message of Hope? We are like them.  We may or may not have committed the same trespasses but we bring our own baggage to this relationship. 

We bring trespass, God brings redemption.

We bring trespass, God brings redemption.  Don’t miss that.

“When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4-5 LSB

It was not a moment too soon and it was not a moment too late.  At the exactly right time. 

God was weaving this tapestry, through time, through a flawed people to bring redemption.  That is why we do not skip over this list of names. 

You and I are in there.  We received a NEW BEGINNING.  This is the NEW CREATION. 

Brothers in Christ

Do not allow culture to blind you from what happened here.  This says brothers . . .for a reason.  Even for you here who are my sisters in Christ. 

This is about inheritance.  We are all, in this state, brothers in Christ.  We can see this throughout Matthew and it begins here in Matthew 1.

• 1:2 Jacob the father of Judah and “His brothers” ((off to exile)
• 1:11 Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers (off to the exile)
• No brothers in the 3^rd set of names but Jesus used brothers in His ministry with the apostles
• 10:1-7 Simon Peter and Andrew (his brother)
• James and John (his brother)
• 12:46-50 “Who are my brothers? Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother, sister and mother.”
• Matthew 28:9-10 “⁹ And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
• Hebrews 2:11 “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source, that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
• Romans 8:29 “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Isn’t this beautiful?  Our elder brother Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.  He is the firstborn among MANY.  It includes us.

You see this in our confession today.  We are adopted by God’s free grace into this family. 

We are, by an act of God’s free grace, received into the number and have a right to all the priviledges, of the sons of God. 

Oh what a beautiful reality!