The King Has Come Pt. VI | Matthew 1:1-17

August 31st, 2025

In Matthew 1, we have the genealogy of Christ. In looking at the names listed, we are trying to understand the importance of the names. As we live out the Christian walk, our lives represent facets and aspects of God’s character, love and grace. It is the summation of these by which the church is to give to the world, the picture of who He is. The names of Isaac and Jacob were underneath the heading “Preserved by Mercy”. The first thing we recognized is that mercy is relational in its nature. It is not the disposition of God, but rather it is His movement towards somebody who is destitute, truly the object of God’s wrath…sinners. God forgives sins so that fellowship can be restored (Genesis 3). 

Christianity alone presents mercy as God drawing near in love to the destitute. As we look at (Biblical) Christianity, focusing on God’s movement towards sinners, the next thing we notice is the grace of God, reflected in Matthew’s listing of Judah. In Christ, not only is punishment (mercifully) withheld from us through forgiveness, blessings are (graciously) added to us, which is our inheritance. “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, also heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16-17). 

Mercy is the serene lake that feeds the river of grace that flows out of it, gaining momentum as it endlessly flows downstream into eternity. Because grace flows from mercy, grace can only make sense in the context of mercy. You cannot treasure a blessing until you have been rescued from judgment.  Perhaps, this is best exemplified in parenting. We strive to give our children the life we did not have, without suffering, often without the chastening they should receive. This sets our kids into the context of blessing (grace) without their understanding of mercy. The result is the inability for our children to grasp the very thing (wrath) from which they have been spared, often leading to a heart of ingratitude. 

Ephesians 6 provides the instruction for raising our children, instruction that sets them up to be able to understand and receive the Gospel. Again, without mercy, grace has no meaning. Moses did not want the Promised Land without the Promised One, without God coming with us. It would be like heaven without the cross. The cross must precede heaven. The pain of the cross exposes the depth of our sin and the cost of our redemption. The pleasure of heaven is heightened because we know from what we have been delivered. The cross ensures heaven is not just paradise, but paradise with God, reconciled to Him forever. What is bliss without justice, peace without pardon? The cross gives us a focus for worship, not joy in a place, but joy in a Person, the Lamb who was slain, the One who is worthy to break the seal (Revelation 5:9-12). Grace, in the context of mercy, is the symphony of heaven! Mercy is the source and grace is the lifegiving river.

Throughout Scripture, we see this recurring pattern. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8). “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious….” (Exodus 34:6). “But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved…so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-5, 7-8). Mercy moves God to rescue, grace bestows blessing.  Mercy spares and rescues, grace justifies and crowns. 

It stands to reason that grace must be irresistible by nature. Jesus stated, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). The Son cannot cast off a gift the Father has given to Him. We see salvation in the context of our personal experience and the Bible constantly gives us salvation in a universal, historical, global context, whereas, when a person comes to Christ, they come into a church fellowship, the bride of Christ, and that person is a gift from the Father to the Son. God grants us this grace on behalf of His son Who paid the price for it. So, we have this mercy and this flow of grace. 

Last week, we talked about being “preserved by grace”, walking through grace in the Old and New Testaments. Grace is very simple in its vocabulary, but as we follow this word through the Old Testament, we are introduced to its multifaceted nature. In Genesis 6, we saw that Noah “found favor” with God through no merit of his own, grace being a rescue from judgment. In Genesis 18:3, we found Abraham appealing to God’s gracious favor in the form of intimate fellowship. Wrapped up into this fellowship is God’s condescension, His willingness to draw near in fellowship with humanity, stooping down to relate. Grace distinguishes God’s people because grace is the presence of God with His people, which is what Moses cried out for in Exodus 33:12-17. We see that Moses could not stand the thought of being absent from God. Also, we saw that grace is this royal favor that exalts the lowly (Esther 2:15,17). 

In the New Testament, we saw how the current of the river picks up and continues to build momentum.  From John 1:14, 16-17, we saw that grace (charis) finds its source in the God-man, Christ, and then flows into our justification (Romans 3:24), being a gift that sanctifies us. Then, in 1 Corinthians 15:10, we saw that grace is not a passive “cover”, but a dynamic, transforming force, producing obedience and fruitful ministry. While grace is a place of rest, it does not remain still, it is a lifegiving force that moves with us. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, we found that grace sustains us. And grace keeps going, as in Titus 3:7 and 1 Peter 1:13, where we found that grace will one day crown us with glory. Grace never runs dry before completing its course. It will seat us with Christ in glory, where we continue to receive grace for all of eternity. While we walk in this world, grace governs. We do not have to strive for worthiness, neglect holiness, despair in weakness or lose hope.

Very clearly do we see this grace on display in the life of Judah. It stands to reason, this being the genealogy of Jesus Christ, that the Holy Spirit, working through Matthew, brings salvation to fruition through the lives of the people listed. We move from mercy in the lives of Isaac and Jacob, to grace with Judah. By the Spirit’s power, may we realize the significant impact of mercy and grace, how they affect every moment of every day. May God, through His grace, grant us understanding and the help we require in the application of this truth, for the glory of God and for His name’s sake, that the lives we live and the words we speak to this world would correctly represent Him.  

The Person of Grace - Judah 

Meandering through all the nuances of grace, we see that grace is simply the positive flow of God’s favor. We see that grace was at work in Judah’s life even before he came into being.  Through conflict with Esau, we find Jacob fleeing Beersheba, with Isaac sending him to the household of Laban, the father of Leah and Rebekah, that Jacob might find a wife from his own kin. During Jacob’s journey, we find that God reaffirms to Jacob the covenant promise made to Abraham and Isaac, promising that His presence and protection would go with him, reaffirming Jacob that he is not aimlessly wandering. 

Providentially, as Jacob arrives at the well in the land of his kin, Rachel arrives at the very same time with the sheep of her father, Laban. Shortly thereafter, Jacob finds himself invited into the household of Laban, all of this guided by the hand of the Lord. God is saving His remnant, bringing his people to faith, continuing His redemptive plan. This is the mercy of God working itself out in the life of Jacob, whom He loved. 

In a way only God can do, He joins the loved (Jacob) with the less loved (Leah). Upon completion of seven years laboring for Laban with the promise of marriage to Rachel as his reward, Jacob is deceived by Laban who gives him Leah, not Rachel, for his wife under the cover of night. Appealing to custom, the older daughter being married before the younger, Laban defends his actions. Then, a new agreement is struck and Jacob ends up with two wives, Leah, the unloved, and Rachel, the loved. Yet it is through the one unloved through whom God ultimately brings His own Beloved, the Messiah. 

In Genesis 29:35, we have Judah’s birth. Having given Jacob three sons, then comes Judah and Leah says, “ ‘This time I will praise the Lord’. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.” God opened and closed the womb of Leah, bringing forth His line. Out of a heart of gratitude, Leah names him. Judah, whose name means “praise”, enters Scripture in the

womb of the unloved wife. From the start, we see the grace of God at work, choosing the unwanted, raising up the overlooked, beginning a line of praise that would climax in the Lion of Judah. We can only understand grace in the context of mercy. 

The next time we encounter Judah, we find him a betrayer (Genesis 37:26), profiting from the sale of his brother, Joseph, into slavery. The voice of Judah first speaks of greed, covetousness and betrayal. As we progress through Judah’s life, we find him in Genesis 38:1-11 moving deeper into sin, leaving his covenant family and going down into another land to live among the Canaanites. We need to remember that grace addresses guilt. Most believe that it was Judah’s guilt that drove him from his family. Judah continues his downward spiral, marrying a Canaanite, fathering three sons. Through the death of two sons, each married to Tamar, Judah withholds his third son, assigning Tamar responsibility for their deaths, not seeing the wickedness of his sons. Faithless, compromised, unjust, greedy and a betrayer, Judah leaves Tamar rejected, unloved and destitute, exactly as was Leah. 

After the death of his wife, Judah goes up to shear sheep. For the record, sheep shearing was not an innocent occasion, but rather a “Mardi Gras like” event flowing from prosperity that led to feasting and excess, to indulgence, licentiousness, excess, drunkenness and sensuality (reference 1 Samuel 25:36 and 2 Samuel 13:23-28). Judah went to party! It is in this “party” atmosphere that Judah unknowingly encounters his bitter daughter-in-law, whom he has rejected, disguised as a prostitute. Judah solicits her for sex, giving her his seal, cord and staff as pledge for payment. At this point, we need to take note that Judah is cloaked in shame and guilt, very deep into sin, guilty of sexual sin, indulgence, negligence, and hypocrisy, added to his love for gain and the selling of his brother. 

By Judah, Tamar is found to be pregnant and his own hypocrisy is soon exposed, he having condemned her to death for her sexual immorality. Judah is proven to be the source of her pregnancy. Judah is humbled. “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah”(Genesis 38:26). Grace is beginning its transforming work as Judah acknowledges his guilt. From Tamar, the twins, Perez and Zerah are born, and through scandal the Messianic line continues. 

Genesis 38 is a very interesting “interruption” in the narrative of Joseph’s life. What value is it to pause and detail the capitulation of Judah’s sin at this point in that narrative? It is so that against this dark backdrop, the flow of God’s mercy into grace might be made visible. Although Joseph is the righteous brother, the line of Christ flows through the unrighteous brother, the scandalous. 

As Judah is swept downstream from the lake of mercy, grace has its effect. We clearly see this in Genesis 44:18-34, when with grace Judah steps forward and offers himself as a substitute for his brother, Benjamin, accused of theft and condemned to slavery. Grace is sanctifying in Judah’s life. This is one of the clearest demonstrations of grace and the Gospel in the book of Genesis. Out of self-sacrifice and love for his father, Jacob, Judah makes this appeal. Grace addressed Judah’s guilt and then it led him into sanctification. This is the work of grace…being taken from a lowly place to a place of exaltation through sanctification, culminating in glorification. In the blessings offered by Jacob for his sons, Jacob says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah….” (Genesis 49:10). Despite Judah’s past, the grace of God chooses him as the tribe of kings from which will come the Messiah. 

Grace not only pardons sinners, it also transforms them into servants and then exalts the servants into saints. Judah, the sinner, is the forefather of the King. God chooses the weak and despised, “so that no human being might boast…but that Christ would be our righteousness” (I Corinthians 1:27-31). Any of us who have received the mercy of God, rescued by Him, and have then experienced the blessing, the grace of God, understand and know this same truth. 

In Judah’s life, grace turned a betrayer into a substitute. It should have the same effect on our lives, too. Grace, like mercy, is a one-way street, flowing downstream. We are to cherish this grace received, the inheritance we have been given, the forgiveness that has been granted, the rest we have been given through justification and the hope that carries us forward into eternity such that this becomes the music in our lives. Grace is our encouragement, our source of joy, but unlike the Hoover Dam that holds back the waters of the Colorado River, we are to be like the Colorado River, allowing the grace of God to be released from us, to flow from and through us into the lives of believers and unbelievers. All too often, we live as the Hoover Dam and hold within ourselves the grace of God we have been given, yet we are commanded by God to be a conduit of His mercy and grace, without reservation, to all around us. 

By God’s power, we are being filled up with mercy and grace, so that we can then freely give it to all. Within the interactions of the members of the church, in giving grace to one another we are effectively giving grace back to God in worship, by the Holy Spirit because of the Son. To withhold the giving of grace to another then grieves the Holy Spirit. Grace must be given, but in what ways? We find in Ephesians 4:29 and Colossians 4:6, that grace should be given in our words. Grace is favor that covers guilt, that pulls others up from despair, guilt and anger. Grace is fellowship that provides intimacy, drawing people closer together, not words that push others away. Grace sustains, transforms, exalts and offers a favored position. It is in our words that we see most clearly we are instruments and conduits of grace. Our words should mark us as God’s people, so that people hear the character of God in them. They should be life-giving.

Grace is not just to be received, it is to be given out in word and in deed, as we see in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” God’s grace is dispersed throughout the church, taking many forms, no one person embodying all of it; therefore, God’s grace must be stewarded by each member, given away. We work hard with grace, as Paul tells us, “By the grace of God I am what I am…I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (I Corinthians 15:10). We are to live generously with grace (2 Corinthians 8:7) and we are to live uprightly through grace. In Titus 2:11-12, we see that grace not only pardons but trains our daily conduct. God’s grace transforms sinners into saints…just like it did Judah. Grace is never out of reach for any sinner. Judah’s scandal did not disqualify him; it became the canvas for grace.  Grace redeems broken stories. Tamar’s shame becomes honor in the genealogy of Christ. Only God could do that! 

To the unbeliever, grace is our appeal. It is that which draws the unbeliever to the well that never runs dry, so that he can be introduced to the one who knows all things. We have to go into the world as recipients of grace, being conduits of grace, with the appeal of grace, given in the name of Jesus Christ.  Grace given is the way in which we are to live. Going back to our walk through grace, we see Judah and Tamar wandering in Canaan, caught in sin and feeling the pain of rejection, both in need of the Gospel.  The giving of grace is the call on, the work of, every believer…giving common grace in the way God does and specific grace in the sharing of the Gospel. 

Let us give thanks for grace and for the way in which God has shown His grace towards us in the person of Jesus Christ. By the Spirit’s power, may we be conduits of that grace because of the mercy God has so freely given to us. May the sacrificial offering of our bodies be pleasing to God and may God transform our minds by the power of His grace through the words of grace. 

Selah 

● The mercy and grace of God should impact every moment of every day in the life of the believer. Does the life you live give evidence to this truth? 

● By the mercy and grace of God, the unlovable comes to Christ. As a believer, have you truly paused to consider that you were once unlovable, undeserving of such grace? Has this sermon given you occasion to do that with honest humility? 

● Having considered your previous condition, giving thanks for your salvation and the depth of love, mercy and grace God has gifted you, is your heart properly motivating you to be the

Colorado River, to allow God’s grace to freely and generously flow from you into all the lives of believers and unbelievers God brings into your life? 

● Is there a specific unbeliever in your life to whom you are now strongly compelled to offer God’s specific grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Will you promptly, obediently, graciously act on that compulsion?