Lord God, thank You that You sent Your Son into the world; that He is Jesus, the One who saves us from our sins; and that He is Immanuel, God with us. Help me this day to live for Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. I ask this in His Name, Amen.

Scripture

Devotion

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Life doesn’t begin with the familiar events of the nativity. It goes a lot further back. We’re given a long, seemingly mundane genealogy. We’re tempted to skim through the list of names until we get to where some real action begins. However, this genealogy reminds us that Jesus’ Story has a context. God has long planned the arrival of His Son.

In ancient times, genealogies functioned a lot like a modern-day resume. They were a way of saying to people, “This is who I am”. Notice two features of Jesus’ Genealogy.

First, it contains some incredible people to whom God made incredible promises. To Abraham, God said “I will bless the whole world through one of your descendants”. To David, God said, “One of your descendants will rule forever”. When Matthew includes this genealogy at the start of his Gospel, he’s saying, “Jesus is the one through whom God is fulfilling all His promises to His people.”

Second, this genealogy gives us a hint of how God relates to His people. In a list full of men, there are four women included: each of them social or moral outsiders. There’s Tamar, with whom Judah committed adultery; there’s Rahab, a pagan prostitute; there’s Ruth, a foreign Moabitess; and there’s Bathsheba, with whom David committed adultery. In Jesus’ Family Tree there are broken outsiders. What does this tell us? It shows us that no-one is excluded from God’s Kingdom. God doesn’t relate to us by our merits and pedigree. He relates to us entirely by Grace.

Intercessory Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we embrace You for the Unity in Christ that we celebrate as believers in Christ. Jesus, we come to You at the beginning of the ONE2024 Campaign and acknowledge You as Messiah, Lord and Saviour. May You use this Campaign to unite churches and believers everywhere. We pray for our church leaders and ask for an increasing knowledge that they are not alone. Help us to support them and encourage them to draw close to other church leaders. We want to thank You because You enable saints to unite in the Resurrection of Jesus and to share in the Love of Jesus Christ that was bought by His Death at Calvary for our sins and the sins of the world. At this time, we pray for churches which are making preparations for the Easter Festival. May the Holy Spirit move saints to actively participate in ministries promoted by churches of all denominations and styles. May the churches enjoy favour in our communities, as the power of Jesus’ Resurrection is manifested in different groups. Give us an evangelistic zeal as to reach the lost souls and care for the poor, the sick and those marginalised. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!