NCF Sunday Worship Livestream - December 8, 2024

Sermon Title: “The Mothers and Fathers of Jesus” (Pastor Bob)

Sermon Text: Matthew 1:1-23

Summary: 

My sermon title may surprise you. Did Jesus have mothers and fathers? We may forget that the Christmas story is not a fable. It is a historical event. Matthew shows this through Jesus’ genealogy made up of fathers and mothers or should I say grandfathers and grandmothers. When we present ourselves to others we give them a summary of our achievements, a list of our scholastic degrees, and our place of employment. Not so in Jesus’ day; it was your genealogy. Jesus was of the tribe of Judah. His genealogy says, “This is who I am.” However, though Jesus had earthly mothers and fathers, He was and is also God. He has a Heavenly Father. Tim Keller says in his book, “Hidden Christmas:” “At Christmas he [Jesus] punched a hole between the ideal and the real, the eternal and the temporal, and came into our world.” Jesus did not come into the world to give us the advice he learned from his ancestors. Jesus did not say, “I can show you the way to spiritual reality if you do these things.” Jesus says, “I am spiritual reality itself. You could never come up to me to find it. I had to come to you. You need to be saved, and I am the only One who can save you!”

Meditation: Micah 5:2

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”     

Call to Worship: Psalm 131

O.T. Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10