This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look through Matthew chapter one. Yesterday we began
the story of Jesus through the book of Matthew with a look at the fact that this
story didn't begin, didn't begin with the day that Jesus came into this earth.
It began with the plan of God from the very beginning.

And we looked at the genealogy. You may not have picked up, as I read through
that genealogy yesterday, that there were four women before Mary came, there
were four women in Jewish history that were mentioned in this genealogy. Now
those who would have first read this, those who thought with a Jewish mind,
that's what the first thing they would have seen, is that there were four women
mentioned, because it would have been very unusual for women to be included in a
genealogy.

Almost always the genealogies went through the men, went through the dads. And
so because of that, to see a woman's name in a genealogy, there would have been
a striking moment to say, "Why is that woman's name there? What is this all
about?

" And the fact that women's names are included in the genealogy of Jesus,
there's a couple of things that are important here. First it tells us the
attitude of the church towards women, that they would allow those names to be
included by the power of the Holy Spirit. They wouldn't try to take them out
somehow.

But it also tells us the importance of these women. The four women were Tamar,
Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. She just called the wife of Uriah here, but we know
that her name was Bathsheba.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Let me tell you about these four women. They
all had struggles in their life.

Tamar, it's a long story, the story of Tamar from the book of Genesis. Her
husband dies. Her husband's family will not take care of her as the law
requires.

So she takes matters into her own hands, and she dresses as a prostitute to
seduce her father-in-law without him knowing who she is. In this long story, she
has children out of that, and the father-in-law is going to have her killed, but
she reveals that she is indeed that prostitute that he was with, and he stays
his hand and doesn't kill her. Quite a story.

Here she is in the genealogy of Jesus. And then there's Rahab. You might be more
familiar with her.

She's the prostitute from Jericho. Jericho, that city who was going to be
destroyed, and the spies went in and they met with her, and she said, "If you
will save me, I will get you out of this city. " And then there's Ruth.

The whole book of the Bible is written about this woman who was a Moabitess. You
may not know that the Moabites were a cursed people because they not helped the
Israelites as they left Egypt. Not only was she a Moabitess, she was also a
widow.

In that day, to be a widow and a woman, that meant you had no future at all from
a cursed people with no future. And then there's Bathsheba. You know the story
of David and Bathsheba, that she committed adultery with this king.

You look at these four women, and there are many who have pointed out that the
common thing, why would these four women be included, is that all these women
were victims of deep shame, some because of their own sin, some because of their
situation, and that Jesus came to release them from that shame. And that is true
about these four women, but it's also true about every man that's in this list.
The important matter is, every one of us, because of our sin, is a victim of
deep shame.

And just as much as Bathsheba was a victim of shame, so was David. In fact, even
more so, you might say. We all face this shame.

So yes, that is true of them, but that's not what is unique about them. Why were
these four women mentioned? I'll tell you why.

They were all Gentiles. These four women did not come from the Jewish faith.
They were all Gentiles.

Both Jews and Gentiles are here in the family line, the family tree of Jesus.
And Jesus came to invite both Jews and Gentiles to come into his family. So
Matthew is letting us know from the very beginning in this story, it's a story
of Jesus coming to reach all people.

Even in the genealogy, the family line of Jesus, by the way, here's some Gentile
women, he's saying. Now, in our day, we might say both Jew and Gentile, the Jews
also? The Jewish people are invited to come into the family line of Jesus?

Well, of course they are. Jesus was a Jew. He first invited Jews to come into
his family line.

In Matthew's day, it was the opposite question. The Gentiles also? Wouldn't it
be just the Jews?

Aren't they the chosen people of God? But the answer is, of course. Here they
are even in the family line of Jesus from generations before.

As you look closely in a personal way at these women, they tell us the truth
that nothing disqualifies you from the work of God's plan in your life. Nothing.
Not their situations, not their sin, not their circumstances, nothing
disqualifies you from the work of God's plan in your life.

Not the fact that they were Gentile women. They still were involved in God's
plan. Tamar made some terrible choices, yet God's plan was still working.

Rahab was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, and yet God's plan was still
working. Ruth was in a terrible circumstance, and yet God's plan was still
working. Bathsheba was caught up in a terrible sin.

And yet God's plan was still working. And the truth is, although we suffer the
consequence of our sin, although we suffer the pain of our circumstances, they
cannot keep God's plan from being at work. Tamar's seduction of her
father-in-law didn't keep God's plan from working.

Rahab being a harlot in a doomed city did not keep her from being part of God's
plan. Ruth being a widowed foreigner did not keep her from being part of God's
plan. Bathsheba's sin with David did not keep her from being a part of God's
plan.

Now as shocking as that is to you, as you hear that, as shocking as that is,
there's something even more shocking here. God did not just use them in spite of
their sin or sorrow. The truth is, he wove the sin and sorrow into his plan.

I would not have done it that way. But that's the way that God works. Because
guess what?

We all have sin and sorrow in our lives. If he could not weave the sin and
sorrow into his plan in our lives, what plan could he have? It's amazing to me
that Tamar's sons become a part of Jesus' family line.

It's amazing to me that Rahab is not only brought into the people of Israel,
even though she is this foreigner, but she becomes the great-great-grandmother
of David. It's amazing to me that Ruth not only becomes one of God's people
despite the curse on her people, she becomes the grandmother of David. That's
amazing to me, maybe most amazing of all, that Bathsheba, although she suffers
great sorrow because of her sin, and even the death of a child, the Lord then
allows her son, her son Solomon, to become the one through whom the line of
Jesus will go forward.

Why would he choose Bathsheba? Why not one of David's other wives? No, it's
through Bathsheba.

Now God works even through the sin and the sorrow. He weaves even that into his
plan. Does that make the sin and the sorrow good?

Of course not, of course not. But it does tell us, what happens in this
genealogy does tell us that the sin and the sorrow that we all have, that you
have, it does not prohibit the plan of God from working through your life. So
stop telling yourself that God is through with you.

Stop telling yourself that God has no plan left for you. And start seeing in a
new way. These four women can help you to begin to see life in a new way, that
God has a plan.

God has a purpose through your life, through Christ, that no sorrow can defeat,
that no sin can destroy. Let's take a moment to talk to God about that. Would
you pray with me?

Our Father, we thank you for your plan, a plan in Christ that's above and beyond
anything that happens in this world. Lord, we never want to make an excuse for
our sin, or to use our sorrow as something that we would blame, that would cause
us to think that those things are things that we would want in our lives in some
ways, or that we would use as an excuse in our lives in some ways. But instead,
we want to see life in a new way.

We want to see that from the very beginning, even though there is sin and
sorrow, you are still working. And even though there are the consequences in our
lives of those things, it doesn't mean that your plan has stopped working in our
lives. Never let us confuse the fact that there are consequences with the fact
that you still love us, the fact that you still have a plan.

Lord, in those places in life where we might have given up, given up on the
plan, given up on you, help us to see that although it may not be our plan, you
still have a plan, you are still working. You work above and beyond our
circumstance. You work even above and beyond our sin.

Thank you for the great news of grace. Thank you for the great news of your
plan. Lord, fulfill your plan in our lives.

From this moment forward, fulfill your plan in our lives, in my life, in our
lives, we pray. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at what we can learn from the faith of
Joseph.