WEBVTT 00:00:05.099 --> 00:00:07.559 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.439 Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:12.800 series Broken Branches where we are looking at 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:15.839 Jesus's family tree. And today we come to one 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:19.039 of the first non -Israelites in Jesus's family 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:22.320 tree, but also one of only a few women who show 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:25.640 up in this family tree. But why is she there? 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:29.000 And what does she have to show us about Jesus's 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.179 family line and this new family that Jesus is 00:00:32.179 --> 00:00:34.770 building with all of us? That's what we'll talk 00:00:34.770 --> 00:00:42.409 about in today's sermon. Our reading for today 00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:46.369 is from the book of Joshua, chapter 2, verses 00:00:46.369 --> 00:00:53.649 1 to 14. Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent 00:00:53.649 --> 00:00:57.850 two spies from Shittim. Go look over the land, 00:00:57.950 --> 00:01:01.770 he said, especially Jericho. So they went and 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:05.379 entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab, 00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:09.159 and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:12.819 look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight 00:01:12.819 --> 00:01:17.180 to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent 00:01:17.180 --> 00:01:20.799 this message to Rahab. Bring out the men who 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:24.739 came to you and entered your house because they 00:01:24.739 --> 00:01:28.819 have come to spy out the whole land. But the 00:01:28.819 --> 00:01:31.599 woman had taken the two men and hidden them. 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:35.819 She said, yes, the men came to me, but I did 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:39.840 not know where they had come from. At dusk, when 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:42.900 it was time to close the city gate, they left. 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:47.239 I don't know which way they went. Go after them 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:51.579 quickly. You may catch up with them. But she 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:54.239 had taken them up to the roof and hidden them 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:57.840 under the stacks of flags she had laid out on 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:01.900 the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:06.019 spies on the road that leads to the forts of 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:09.039 Jordan. And as soon as the pursuers had gone 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:13.719 out, the gate was shut. Before the spies lay 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:17.599 down for the night, she went up on the roof and 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:21.340 said to them, I know that the Lord has given 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:25.319 you this land and that a great fear of you has 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:29.360 fallen on us so that All who live in this country 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:33.680 are melting in fear because of you. We have heard 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:37.039 how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:41.560 for you when you came out of Egypt and what you 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:45.180 did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites 00:02:45.180 --> 00:02:49.039 east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:53.719 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear, 00:02:53.900 --> 00:02:57.460 and everyone's courage failed because of you. 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:01.020 For the Lord your God is God in heaven above 00:03:01.020 --> 00:03:06.039 and on the earth below. Now then, please swear 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:09.439 to me by the Lord that you will show kindness 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:13.560 to my family, because I have shown kindness to 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:17.379 you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare 00:03:17.379 --> 00:03:21.520 the lives of my father, my mother, my brothers 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.340 and sisters, and all who belong to them, and 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:30.080 that you will save us from death. Our lives for 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.259 your lives, the men assured her. If you don't 00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:37.539 tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly 00:03:37.539 --> 00:03:41.199 and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land. 00:03:41.419 --> 00:03:44.569 The word of the Lord. If you come to Trinity 00:03:44.569 --> 00:03:46.409 Streetsville like you did this morning on a Sunday 00:03:46.409 --> 00:03:49.330 morning, you are going to be met initially by 00:03:49.330 --> 00:03:50.889 somebody at the outside doors. They're going 00:03:50.889 --> 00:03:52.530 to open the door for you and they're going to 00:03:52.530 --> 00:03:54.949 invite you to come on in. And then there might 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:56.969 be somebody inside the door to shake your hand. 00:03:57.210 --> 00:03:59.710 And then as you walk closer and closer to the 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:02.430 sanctuary, you'll probably hear some music coming 00:04:02.430 --> 00:04:04.509 out of here. There'll probably be a bit of a 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:07.189 buzz that's generating as you get a little closer. 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:09.990 And then pretty soon, hopefully you feel just 00:04:09.990 --> 00:04:12.819 warmly welcomed and you're getting it. excited 00:04:12.819 --> 00:04:15.639 for the service and that's when you run into 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:21.550 this guy. one of our check -in stations. A check 00:04:21.550 --> 00:04:24.769 -in station is basically like a tablet or a little 00:04:24.769 --> 00:04:28.569 computer with the world's cutest little printer 00:04:28.569 --> 00:04:31.970 attached to it. And at first, it might seem like 00:04:31.970 --> 00:04:34.449 this is the least welcoming thing that we could 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:36.990 do on a Sunday morning. Welcome to Trinity Streetsville. 00:04:37.110 --> 00:04:40.410 Please give us your name and phone number, right? 00:04:40.569 --> 00:04:43.310 But let me tell you, actually, there's a couple 00:04:43.310 --> 00:04:46.290 good reasons why we encourage people to check 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:50.430 in here at Trinity. The first is because it actually 00:04:50.430 --> 00:04:53.089 allows us to care for you a bit better. When 00:04:53.089 --> 00:04:55.550 people check in and we know you're here and we 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:57.050 know you're part of the Trinity family, then 00:04:57.050 --> 00:04:59.009 we can serve you better. We can reach out to 00:04:59.009 --> 00:05:01.250 you better. We can connect with you more. It 00:05:01.250 --> 00:05:04.290 helps us actually care for our growing community 00:05:04.290 --> 00:05:08.129 when we check in. But the second reason why we 00:05:08.129 --> 00:05:10.810 encourage people to go to the check -in station, 00:05:10.910 --> 00:05:12.550 and let me just demonstrate this for you. So 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:15.509 if you go to the check -in station. You put in 00:05:15.509 --> 00:05:22.170 the last four digits of your phone number. You 00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:26.889 guys know this. And then you pick your name out 00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:30.490 of there. And then you press the button. Look 00:05:30.490 --> 00:05:33.500 what happens. It prints out. A little sticker. 00:05:33.779 --> 00:05:35.959 A little sticker for you. It's not just a sticker. 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.779 It's got a name on it. And it's not just any 00:05:38.779 --> 00:05:43.000 name. It's your name. And so you get to put that 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.040 little sticker on you. And now all of a sudden, 00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:48.519 you know what? You're not just another face in 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:52.560 the crowd. Right? We start to actually move from 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:56.000 being strangers to being community. And we start 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.399 to become a community where we know and we recognize 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:01.959 and we get to know each other. We never, ever, 00:06:02.019 --> 00:06:04.319 ever want to pressure people to check in if you're 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:05.800 not comfortable with it. But there's actually 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:07.620 a really good reason we do it. You know, it's 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:10.839 not very many places you go where you get a little 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:13.279 label, a little name tag. You don't get one at 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.439 Tim Hortons when you go there. They don't do 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:18.420 that for you at Walmart. It's kind of a Trinity 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:23.350 thing. if you will. But that actually might not 00:06:23.350 --> 00:06:25.870 be true. That might not be true because even 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:30.410 though we don't walk around with little stickers 00:06:30.410 --> 00:06:36.350 stuck to our clothing, we all do wear labels. 00:06:37.550 --> 00:06:40.389 labels on us right because as we go through life 00:06:40.389 --> 00:06:44.149 we we pick up these labels and sometimes those 00:06:44.149 --> 00:06:48.930 labels stick to us for a very very long time 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:52.569 and some of the labels that we have are labels 00:06:52.569 --> 00:06:55.970 that have been given to us by others this is 00:06:55.970 --> 00:06:59.329 what others think of us Sometimes those labels 00:06:59.329 --> 00:07:01.850 are actually given by ourselves. It's what we 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:04.189 think of ourselves. So we label ourselves. And 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:07.529 sometimes those labels are actually well -earned, 00:07:07.529 --> 00:07:10.110 right? We've done some things to earn those labels. 00:07:10.250 --> 00:07:14.910 But other times, those labels are actually unfair. 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:17.889 And we really wish that we could just peel them 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:20.709 off and forget about them altogether. Because 00:07:20.709 --> 00:07:26.720 we don't want to be labeled like that. And I 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:30.540 want to also say is that just because you can't 00:07:30.540 --> 00:07:34.199 see a label doesn't mean that it isn't there. 00:07:34.579 --> 00:07:38.120 So many times we want to hide these labels that 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:41.000 we carry with us because as we approach someone, 00:07:41.060 --> 00:07:43.439 we don't want them to reject us or think differently 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:47.420 of us. And when we approach God, we don't want 00:07:47.420 --> 00:07:51.819 God to think differently of us or God to reject 00:07:51.819 --> 00:07:55.829 us. Okay, so we're in the middle of this teaching 00:07:55.829 --> 00:07:57.610 series that we're doing throughout Advent and 00:07:57.610 --> 00:08:00.250 Christmas. It's called Broken Branches. And what 00:08:00.250 --> 00:08:02.649 we're trying to do is we're trying to look at 00:08:02.649 --> 00:08:07.089 the Christmas story from a different angle. Matthew's 00:08:07.089 --> 00:08:09.250 angle. You see, the gospel writer Matthew, he 00:08:09.250 --> 00:08:11.709 didn't start his Christmas story the way you 00:08:11.709 --> 00:08:13.709 think. He didn't start with angels and shepherds 00:08:13.709 --> 00:08:16.329 and wise men or the baby Jesus. No, he starts 00:08:16.329 --> 00:08:19.670 with a long list of names, a family tree, the 00:08:19.670 --> 00:08:23.290 genealogy of Jesus. And you and I would think, 00:08:23.389 --> 00:08:24.990 well, that's not a very good way to hook your 00:08:24.990 --> 00:08:28.589 audience. But he knew who his audience was. His 00:08:28.589 --> 00:08:32.169 audience was primarily Jewish people. And for 00:08:32.169 --> 00:08:34.309 Jewish people, it was really, really, really 00:08:34.309 --> 00:08:36.980 important. that if they were to believe that 00:08:36.980 --> 00:08:40.679 Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus was connected 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:44.200 to King David, because all Jewish people knew 00:08:44.200 --> 00:08:46.419 that the Messiah was supposed to spring from 00:08:46.419 --> 00:08:49.779 the root of Jesse, from the line of King David. 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:52.620 And so what Matthew is doing by putting down 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:55.019 all these names in this long, long genealogy 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:57.600 is he's trying to say, see, everybody, look, 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:01.519 Jesus is connected to all the right people. He's 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.100 connected to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and 00:09:04.100 --> 00:09:06.679 Jesse. and David. He's connected to them all. 00:09:06.740 --> 00:09:09.200 He's connected to the right people. He's legit. 00:09:10.279 --> 00:09:12.440 But in the course of doing that, Matthew also 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:14.480 does something very interesting. Not only does 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.179 he show us that he's connected to all the right 00:09:16.179 --> 00:09:18.600 people, but he actually shows us that Jesus is 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:21.279 connected to a whole lot of the wrong people 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:26.949 too. Lots of people in Jesus' family tree. are 00:09:26.949 --> 00:09:30.309 people with labels, bad labels, labels you don't 00:09:30.309 --> 00:09:33.110 want, people with histories, messy, messy histories. 00:09:33.250 --> 00:09:36.669 And ancient historians, they would normally have 00:09:36.669 --> 00:09:40.129 just edited out all that embarrassing, those 00:09:40.129 --> 00:09:42.690 embarrassing details and those seedy stories. 00:09:42.850 --> 00:09:45.970 But Matthew seems to do just the opposite. He 00:09:45.970 --> 00:09:47.610 says, hey, everybody, gather around, gather around. 00:09:47.669 --> 00:09:51.490 I want you to look at him. Take a good look at 00:09:51.490 --> 00:09:58.919 her and what she did. Why? Why does he begin 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:03.149 this way? Why does he begin by showing us these 00:10:03.149 --> 00:10:04.769 kind of details? Let's just remember where we've 00:10:04.769 --> 00:10:07.429 been so far. This is how Matthew starts his gospel. 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:10.049 He says, this is the genealogy of Jesus, the 00:10:10.049 --> 00:10:12.909 Messiah, the son of David. See, the son of Abraham. 00:10:13.450 --> 00:10:15.429 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the 00:10:15.429 --> 00:10:18.250 father of Jacob. Jacob, the father of Judah and 00:10:18.250 --> 00:10:21.330 his brothers. And if you were here last week, 00:10:21.370 --> 00:10:24.070 you'll remember we learned a bit about Judah. 00:10:24.490 --> 00:10:27.049 And man, oh man, Judah had a lot of labels. If 00:10:27.049 --> 00:10:29.389 we were to have hooked Judah up to this cute 00:10:29.389 --> 00:10:32.289 little printer, it would have... Send out a label 00:10:32.289 --> 00:10:36.029 like Judah the liar. Judah the betrayer. Judah 00:10:36.029 --> 00:10:41.129 the unfaithful. Judah the hypocrite. If you missed 00:10:41.129 --> 00:10:43.750 that teaching, you can visit our website. You 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:45.570 can visit our YouTube channel and catch up. But 00:10:45.570 --> 00:10:48.570 Judah did horrible things to his brother Joseph. 00:10:48.769 --> 00:10:51.070 He did horrible things to his daughter -in -law 00:10:51.070 --> 00:10:54.470 Tamar. But Matthew doesn't hide it. No, no, no. 00:10:54.509 --> 00:10:57.070 Matthew says, hey, look. See what Judah did. 00:10:57.149 --> 00:11:01.519 See this seedy story with Tamar. He puts all 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:06.620 this stuff in the family tree. Why? Well, as 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:09.399 we've been learning, it's because Jesus didn't 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:13.639 just come for sinners. Jesus came from sinners. 00:11:13.940 --> 00:11:17.000 And Matthew wants to make something very clear 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:19.100 right at the beginning of the Christmas story, 00:11:19.179 --> 00:11:21.460 right at the beginning of his story about Jesus. 00:11:21.539 --> 00:11:26.279 And it is this, that this is not a story about 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:31.139 how good people... Earn their way to God. This 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:36.820 is a story about God's grace and God's love and 00:11:36.820 --> 00:11:40.399 how that grace and love comes crashing in to 00:11:40.399 --> 00:11:46.779 the broken branches of this family tree. It carries 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:49.179 on. The family tree carries on. Judah was the 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:52.019 father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was... 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:54.519 Tamar, that's the one we learned about last week. 00:11:54.740 --> 00:11:56.980 Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron, the father 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:00.340 of Ram. Ram, the father of Amminadab. Amminadab, 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:02.840 the father of Nashan. Nashan, the father of my 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:07.460 personal favorite, Salmon. Love Salmon. Nashan 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:10.580 was the father of Salmon. And Salmon was the 00:12:10.580 --> 00:12:13.500 father of Boaz. And this is where he should have 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:15.299 stopped, right? He should have said, Boaz, the 00:12:15.299 --> 00:12:17.679 father of Obed. Obed, the father of Jesse. Da 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:21.279 -da -da -da -da. But... He does it again. He 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:26.720 says, Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Now, that 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.000 is a problem. And Matthew didn't have to tell 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:31.720 us that, right? He could have just carried on. 00:12:31.820 --> 00:12:38.019 But no, he pauses and he wants to name her. And 00:12:38.019 --> 00:12:40.720 the reason this is a problem is because Rahab 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:45.299 has a label. And many of you here know Rahab's 00:12:45.299 --> 00:12:47.919 label. Now, to be fair, Rahab is not the only 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:51.350 person in the Bible. who had a label. So, for 00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:54.669 example, Jesus had a cousin. His name was John 00:12:54.669 --> 00:12:57.929 the? That's right. And next week, we're going 00:12:57.929 --> 00:13:00.590 to learn about a guy whose name was Uriah the? 00:13:01.809 --> 00:13:04.370 Oh, some of you knew it. Uriah the Hittite. Come 00:13:04.370 --> 00:13:06.730 next week, and I'll tell you all about him. Or 00:13:06.730 --> 00:13:10.850 what about this guy, Alexander the? Right? These 00:13:10.850 --> 00:13:15.009 are great labels. How about Attila the? Or how 00:13:15.009 --> 00:13:21.379 about Buffy the? Yeah, yeah. Or how about Dora 00:13:21.379 --> 00:13:27.860 the... And one more, Jabba the... Right. I think 00:13:27.860 --> 00:13:31.220 those are all in the Bible, but I could be wrong. 00:13:31.379 --> 00:13:33.940 But I'll tell you one I know 100 % for sure is 00:13:33.940 --> 00:13:37.860 in the Bible, and that is Rahab. And she's a 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:39.799 problem for the family tree of Jesus. And she's 00:13:39.799 --> 00:13:42.559 a problem because of the labels she wears. In 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.200 fact, I would say to you today that Rahab actually 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:48.779 wears three different labels. The first is Rahab 00:13:48.779 --> 00:13:53.460 the outsider. Right? She's not even Jewish. I 00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:55.159 don't know why Matthew is going to include her. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.840 All he's proving is that Jesus doesn't come from 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:00.340 a pure bloodline. But he wants to include her. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:04.279 That's a bit of a problem. Right? Second, Rahab's 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:07.500 second label is Rahab the enemy. Not only is 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:10.299 she a foreigner and outsider, but she's a Canaanite. 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:13.320 And right at this moment in the story, Israel 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:17.279 is about to go to war against the people of Canaan. 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:19.220 They're meant to drive these people out of the 00:14:19.220 --> 00:14:24.179 land. So she's an enemy, but none of Rahab's 00:14:24.179 --> 00:14:28.399 labels stick quite like this one. She was Rahab 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:35.259 the prostitute, right? Or Rahab the harlot. Rahab 00:14:35.259 --> 00:14:43.000 the hooker. Rahab the sex worker. Rahab the woman 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.679 of the night, right? And the Bible... I mean, 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:50.320 why does Matthew highlight this? Because the 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:55.159 Bible has so many bad things to say about prostitutes. 00:14:55.179 --> 00:14:56.820 I'm just going to share you one verse from the 00:14:56.820 --> 00:14:58.820 book of Proverbs. It says, For the lips of a 00:14:58.820 --> 00:15:02.840 prostitute are as sweet as honey, and her speech 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:05.440 is smoother than oil, but in the end she's as 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.919 bitter as gall, sharp as a double -edged sword. 00:15:08.220 --> 00:15:12.259 Her feet go down to death, and her steps lead 00:15:12.259 --> 00:15:18.870 straight to the grave. We need to tread pretty 00:15:18.870 --> 00:15:23.809 carefully here because we know that prostitution 00:15:23.809 --> 00:15:29.129 is a very complicated and painful reality. Scriptures 00:15:29.129 --> 00:15:33.370 like this don't give us permission to dehumanize 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:37.889 or oversimplify or to shame people who are in 00:15:37.889 --> 00:15:40.490 prostitution, right? People end up in prostitution 00:15:40.490 --> 00:15:42.830 for all kinds of reasons. They end up for poverty 00:15:42.830 --> 00:15:47.000 or coercion. People sometimes become prostitutes 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:49.879 just because of abuse or addiction or just to 00:15:49.879 --> 00:15:54.039 survive, maybe, right? Or there are whole, you 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:56.740 know, rings and trafficking groups that try to 00:15:56.740 --> 00:16:02.440 trap and exploit people like Rahab. But that's 00:16:02.440 --> 00:16:05.259 the thing about labels. Nobody cares about the 00:16:05.259 --> 00:16:08.679 backstory. Nobody cares about the nuances of 00:16:08.679 --> 00:16:11.179 how you got there. Just give us the label. Oh, 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:16.049 yeah, she's Rahab the prostitute. And it's a 00:16:16.049 --> 00:16:20.250 label that followed her her whole life. And so 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:23.610 her presence here, it raises a really interesting 00:16:23.610 --> 00:16:26.090 question. Why would Matthew deliberately put 00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:28.549 the spotlight on someone like Rahab at the start 00:16:28.549 --> 00:16:33.149 of the Christmas story? And again, it's because 00:16:33.149 --> 00:16:36.169 Matthew wants us to realize that she is not just 00:16:36.169 --> 00:16:39.090 one more person who's part of the story, but 00:16:39.090 --> 00:16:44.429 she is the very point. of the Christmas story. 00:16:44.509 --> 00:16:49.309 She's the very point of the Jesus story. So let's 00:16:49.309 --> 00:16:51.990 talk about Rahab's story a little bit, okay? 00:16:52.070 --> 00:16:56.259 Let me tell you that about 1400 BC. The people 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:59.320 of Israel freshly released from their captivity 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.419 in Egypt. They're still trying to figure out 00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:04.700 what it means to be God's people. And they're 00:17:04.700 --> 00:17:07.359 wandering and they're heading to the place where 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:09.940 God promised that he would give them. A land 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:12.460 of their own, the land of Canaan. They're finally 00:17:12.460 --> 00:17:14.180 coming home. Some estimates say there was maybe 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:17.039 2 million of them or 3 million of them. And as 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:19.059 they're about to enter into this promised land, 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.920 one of the first obstacles they encountered was 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:23.859 that there was a city right there filled with 00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:28.009 Canaanites. and it was the city of Jericho. And 00:17:28.009 --> 00:17:33.049 so Joshua, who has taken over for Moses, he sends 00:17:33.049 --> 00:17:36.349 two spies to go check things out in the city 00:17:36.349 --> 00:17:38.890 of Jericho. And so these guys, they slip into 00:17:38.890 --> 00:17:40.890 Jericho. They're not exactly James Bond material. 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:44.509 They're discovered pretty quickly. And so word 00:17:44.509 --> 00:17:46.990 gets out to the king. Hey, guess what? There's 00:17:46.990 --> 00:17:49.990 two Hebrew spies, and they've come in to kind 00:17:49.990 --> 00:17:52.390 of spy out the land. And the king of Jericho 00:17:52.390 --> 00:17:54.440 says, well, go find them. Go get them. Bring 00:17:54.440 --> 00:17:57.140 them back to me. And so the search begins. And 00:17:57.140 --> 00:18:01.259 just before sundown, someone says, I think I 00:18:01.259 --> 00:18:03.240 saw those two spies. And I think I saw them duck 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:04.960 into that house over there, the house that's 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.380 built right into the city walls. And that house 00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:11.400 happens to be the house of Rahab. And so the 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:13.400 guards, they go up to Rahab's house and they 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.279 knock on the door. And I mean, the Bible doesn't 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:16.880 say they knock on the door, but I think it's... 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:18.900 It's probably just a good idea that if you're 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:20.440 going to a prostitute's house, you should knock 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:22.619 on the door first. You never know what you're 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:25.759 going to find in there. And so Rahab answers 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:30.220 the door. And they say, hey, the king of Jericho 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:32.500 sent this message. He said, bring out the men 00:18:32.500 --> 00:18:34.980 who entered into your house because they have 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:39.000 come to spy out the whole land. But Rahab answers, 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:43.279 oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Those men were here, but 00:18:43.279 --> 00:18:47.059 they're not here anymore, right? They left. They 00:18:47.059 --> 00:18:49.180 left just before the city gates closed, and if 00:18:49.180 --> 00:18:53.359 you hurry, you might catch them. Now, this is 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:56.500 a lie. The spies are hidden upstairs, and it's 00:18:56.500 --> 00:18:59.839 a lie. And in many Bible studies, this is where 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:01.839 it gets real quiet in the room, and somebody 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:05.460 puts up their hand, and they say, So, is it okay 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:10.480 to lie? And you know what? We'll ask that question 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:13.599 when we get to heaven, I guess. But it is a lie. 00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:17.109 The guards leave. Rahab goes upstairs. And this 00:19:17.109 --> 00:19:19.130 is where the story starts to get interesting. 00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:22.470 We read that before the spies lay down for the 00:19:22.470 --> 00:19:25.170 night, she went up to the roof and she said to 00:19:25.170 --> 00:19:27.670 them, I know that the, and this is an important 00:19:27.670 --> 00:19:31.549 word, I know that the Lord has given you this 00:19:31.549 --> 00:19:34.789 land. Now, in your Bible, that word Lord is in 00:19:34.789 --> 00:19:38.809 all capitals because it is the sacred name Yahweh. 00:19:38.930 --> 00:19:41.930 It is the divine name of God. It is a name that 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:44.809 many Jewish people to this day will not say out 00:19:44.809 --> 00:19:49.859 loud. How did Rahab know this word, know this 00:19:49.859 --> 00:19:54.140 name? She grew up in a house with little idols 00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:56.559 and gods and household gods and fertility gods. 00:19:57.079 --> 00:20:01.539 That was her idea of what a god was. But now 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:04.539 she uses this word. And we don't know what language 00:20:04.539 --> 00:20:06.759 she was saying it in. We don't know the exact 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:11.660 words she spoke. But she has some kind of knowledge 00:20:11.660 --> 00:20:17.039 of... of this Yahweh and some kind of faith in 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.779 this Yahweh God. She knew this God wasn't like 00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:25.140 her other gods. Now, how does she, how does she 00:20:25.140 --> 00:20:30.519 know this? Well, she says, I know this. I know 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:32.839 that the Lord is giving you this land because 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:37.180 we have heard, we have heard how the Lord dried 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:39.660 up the waters of the Red Sea when you came out 00:20:39.660 --> 00:20:42.460 of Egypt. This is pretty amazing. What is Rahab's 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:46.140 Faith in Yahweh based on? It is based not on 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:49.019 theology. It's not based on scripture. It's not 00:20:49.019 --> 00:20:52.799 based on any experience. Her belief in Israel's 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:58.119 God is built entirely on what she has heard. 00:20:58.279 --> 00:21:01.539 Stuff she's heard from travelers, rumors, secondhand 00:21:01.539 --> 00:21:05.619 information. And yet, that little bit that she 00:21:05.619 --> 00:21:09.740 has heard is enough to convince her there is 00:21:09.740 --> 00:21:13.930 something different about this God. And she continues 00:21:13.930 --> 00:21:17.029 on. She says, we heard. We heard it. And our 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:21.509 hearts melted in fear. For the Lord your God 00:21:21.509 --> 00:21:24.789 is God in heaven above and on earth below. And 00:21:24.789 --> 00:21:26.730 now it's really interesting because these are 00:21:26.730 --> 00:21:29.730 two different words for God. There's that word 00:21:29.730 --> 00:21:31.769 Yahweh, again, the Lord, but then there's your 00:21:31.769 --> 00:21:34.970 God, which is another Hebrew word Elohim, which 00:21:34.970 --> 00:21:37.410 is kind of small g God. Anyways, this is all 00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:40.890 just a very cumbersome way for Rahab to say that 00:21:40.890 --> 00:21:46.289 your God is greater than all the other gods that 00:21:46.289 --> 00:21:48.809 I've known. And again, she doesn't know the Mosaic 00:21:48.809 --> 00:21:50.809 law. She doesn't know anything about the covenant. 00:21:50.930 --> 00:21:53.369 She has never read the Bible. She doesn't belong 00:21:53.369 --> 00:21:56.049 to a life group. She's never listened to a podcast. 00:21:56.190 --> 00:21:59.789 She's never taken Alpha. Rahab's theology would 00:21:59.789 --> 00:22:03.250 never survive Professor Stratus's theology class 00:22:03.250 --> 00:22:07.089 down at Wycliffe College, right? She didn't know 00:22:07.089 --> 00:22:12.190 much about God, but she knew enough. She knew 00:22:12.190 --> 00:22:14.670 enough to trust him. She says, I don't know. 00:22:14.730 --> 00:22:17.259 I don't know much. But what I do know is your 00:22:17.259 --> 00:22:21.259 God's powerful and your God's real. And maybe 00:22:21.259 --> 00:22:23.940 she'd also heard that this God affords a greater 00:22:23.940 --> 00:22:27.019 dignity to women than a life of prostitution. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:30.319 I don't know. But she says, I know that I would 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:36.900 be safer with that God than anywhere else. Some 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:40.000 of you this morning, you're exactly where Rahab 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.200 is. You don't know much about this God that we've 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:47.220 gathered. To learn about, right? You don't know 00:22:47.220 --> 00:22:49.920 much about the Bible. You really don't know where 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:53.019 to start with Jesus or the church. You've got 00:22:53.019 --> 00:22:55.299 all these questions. You've got all these gaps. 00:22:55.500 --> 00:22:58.099 You've got all these doubts. And that's okay. 00:22:59.420 --> 00:23:04.140 Because so did Rahab. She didn't know much either. 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:08.960 But she knew enough. to be able to place her 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:13.259 life in God's hands. And she stepped toward this 00:23:13.259 --> 00:23:16.960 God that she barely understood. And this God 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:21.500 met her where she was. And he'll meet you too. 00:23:22.660 --> 00:23:27.880 Because even a small amount of faith, when it's 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:32.900 placed in the right God, is enough. Partial faith 00:23:32.900 --> 00:23:38.259 is enough. Incomplete faith is... Half -formed 00:23:38.259 --> 00:23:44.259 faith is enough when it's placed in the right 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:47.980 God. It's enough to save. It's amazing. It's 00:23:47.980 --> 00:23:51.299 amazing. Anyway, Rahab continues, Please swear 00:23:51.299 --> 00:23:55.799 to me by the Lord that you will show kindness 00:23:55.799 --> 00:23:59.720 to my family. Now, this word kindness is the 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:03.460 Hebrew word hesed. What she's asking these spies 00:24:03.460 --> 00:24:06.769 to do is accept her. But even a little bit more 00:24:06.769 --> 00:24:09.150 than that, to be faithful to her. She's not saying, 00:24:09.210 --> 00:24:13.049 hey, do me a favor. This is Rahab actually asking 00:24:13.049 --> 00:24:16.589 for a relationship, covenant relationship. She's 00:24:16.589 --> 00:24:23.369 asking them to see her more than her label. And 00:24:23.369 --> 00:24:28.210 these spies, they see past the label and they 00:24:28.210 --> 00:24:34.849 reply, our lives for your lives. Yes, yes. We 00:24:34.849 --> 00:24:41.390 bind ourself to you. And that is a shift from 00:24:41.390 --> 00:24:46.109 a woman with a label to someone who belongs. 00:24:46.630 --> 00:24:50.450 In this interaction, something profound has happened. 00:24:50.529 --> 00:24:53.410 Labels are falling off all over the place. She 00:24:53.410 --> 00:24:57.009 stops being Rahab the prostitute. They stop being 00:24:57.009 --> 00:25:00.869 just a couple of Hebrew spies. and they all become 00:25:00.869 --> 00:25:05.490 people who are seeking God, Yahweh, together. 00:25:06.529 --> 00:25:10.329 And that matters so much for us as a church, 00:25:10.529 --> 00:25:13.369 because we're supposed to be a place where labels 00:25:13.369 --> 00:25:16.690 also fall off. Not your name tag. We don't want 00:25:16.690 --> 00:25:18.289 your name tags to fall off, although they sometimes 00:25:18.289 --> 00:25:22.190 do. But we want to be a community where we're 00:25:22.190 --> 00:25:24.250 not just welcoming people, or we're not just 00:25:24.250 --> 00:25:26.890 tolerating people. We want to be a community 00:25:26.890 --> 00:25:32.130 that replaces labels with love a community where 00:25:32.130 --> 00:25:38.250 relationship comes before reputations where there 00:25:38.250 --> 00:25:41.789 is this grace that just binds us together no 00:25:41.789 --> 00:25:47.309 matter who we are anyways this is where Rahab's 00:25:47.309 --> 00:25:49.170 faith starts to get a little bit dangerous she 00:25:49.170 --> 00:25:53.220 she lets them down by a rope through the window. 00:25:53.339 --> 00:25:55.440 She helps them escape. You know, up to this moment, 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:56.960 she could have changed her mind. She could have 00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:58.299 backed out. She could have pretended nothing 00:25:58.299 --> 00:26:00.579 happened. But once she lets them down through 00:26:00.579 --> 00:26:02.720 that wall, now there's no going back. This is 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:04.859 not just belief anymore. This is a commitment. 00:26:05.480 --> 00:26:07.960 She's all in here. She's risking her life. She's 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:10.420 risking her family. She's risking everything 00:26:10.420 --> 00:26:14.440 for this God she barely knows, whose name she 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:18.640 can probably barely pronounce. But she knows 00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:22.079 this. She knows that her future is safe with 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:24.740 this God. I want to say to you, faith always 00:26:24.740 --> 00:26:31.619 involves taking some kind of risk. Now we're 00:26:31.619 --> 00:26:32.880 going to come to the part of the story where 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:36.279 most of you know the best. It's the fall of Jericho. 00:26:36.299 --> 00:26:38.019 You probably sang a song about this in Sunday 00:26:38.019 --> 00:26:39.559 school if you went to Sunday school. When the 00:26:39.559 --> 00:26:43.859 walls came a -tumbling down. But I'm not going 00:26:43.859 --> 00:26:46.279 to say much about it. And it's not because it's 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:48.140 not important, but it's because we don't have 00:26:48.140 --> 00:26:51.400 time. And this whole thing deserves a lot more 00:26:51.400 --> 00:26:53.500 time because there are some serious questions 00:26:53.500 --> 00:26:56.059 here. Questions about violence in the Bible. 00:26:56.180 --> 00:26:58.220 Questions of some people have accused of ethnic 00:26:58.220 --> 00:27:00.460 cleansing. There's even questions technically, 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:04.500 like how did the walls of Jericho come falling 00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:07.140 down anyways? It is a strange story. It is a 00:27:07.140 --> 00:27:11.470 thorny story that modern people. rightly struggle 00:27:11.470 --> 00:27:14.329 to understand. But we're going to have to skip 00:27:14.329 --> 00:27:16.130 it because here's where I want to focus, that 00:27:16.130 --> 00:27:18.549 right in the middle of that battle and in the 00:27:18.549 --> 00:27:22.849 bloodshed, a promise is kept. Joshua gives this 00:27:22.849 --> 00:27:26.309 command, go into the house of that prostitute 00:27:26.309 --> 00:27:29.950 and bring her out and all who belong to her. 00:27:30.539 --> 00:27:33.700 And then we read that Joshua spared Rahab the 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:35.660 prostitute. There's that label. It'll be with 00:27:35.660 --> 00:27:38.299 her for 2 ,500 years. But there it is again. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:44.559 And all her family who belonged to her. But perhaps 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:46.700 the most beautiful line in this whole story is 00:27:46.700 --> 00:27:49.000 the one we didn't even really get to today. And 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:54.740 that is this. And she, Rahab, lives among the 00:27:54.740 --> 00:28:00.940 Israelites to this day. She doesn't just survive. 00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:06.640 Now she belongs. This prostitute, this foreigner, 00:28:06.819 --> 00:28:14.420 this enemy now belongs to God's people. And a 00:28:14.420 --> 00:28:18.529 thousand years later. When people finally sat 00:28:18.529 --> 00:28:21.150 down and read Matthew's genealogy and they came 00:28:21.150 --> 00:28:24.130 to Rahab's name, yes, it made them very, very 00:28:24.130 --> 00:28:26.650 uncomfortable, but they would also be reminded 00:28:26.650 --> 00:28:31.509 of how God's love is greater than labels. And 00:28:31.509 --> 00:28:33.309 that is the story that Matthew wanted to tell. 00:28:33.390 --> 00:28:36.890 It is the story of Christmas. And if there was 00:28:36.890 --> 00:28:38.849 a sequel to this story, it would definitely be 00:28:38.849 --> 00:28:41.289 a Hallmark movie and it would go a little something 00:28:41.289 --> 00:28:47.579 like this. One day, my man named Salmon, meets 00:28:47.579 --> 00:28:51.640 Rahab. And, oh, you know, they start talking. 00:28:51.700 --> 00:28:54.779 They go on a few walks together. They have coffee. 00:28:54.819 --> 00:28:57.950 And then they start to have a... a few dinners. 00:28:58.069 --> 00:29:00.809 And then one day, Salmon says to Rahab, you know, 00:29:00.849 --> 00:29:02.990 would a girl like you ever be interested in a 00:29:02.990 --> 00:29:06.069 guy like me? And then he pops the question, and 00:29:06.069 --> 00:29:09.569 she says yes. And then they have a baby, and 00:29:09.569 --> 00:29:12.210 they name that baby Boaz. I don't know why they 00:29:12.210 --> 00:29:14.089 picked Boaz. I would not have picked Boaz, but 00:29:14.089 --> 00:29:16.450 they said, we're going to call him Boaz. And 00:29:16.450 --> 00:29:21.190 Boaz grows up to marry a lady named Ruth. And 00:29:21.190 --> 00:29:25.630 Boaz and Ruth become the great grandparents of 00:29:25.630 --> 00:29:32.099 King Which means that Rahab, her label doesn't 00:29:32.099 --> 00:29:35.400 just get removed. It gets completely rewritten. 00:29:35.460 --> 00:29:38.740 And now the entire genealogy of Jesus the Christ 00:29:38.740 --> 00:29:42.240 goes right through her. Just proving again that 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:47.319 God's love is greater than our labels. Okay, 00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:50.579 it's a great story. As we close, I just want 00:29:50.579 --> 00:29:53.500 to say that that story is actually not too different 00:29:53.500 --> 00:29:56.809 from your story. Or my story. Because like I 00:29:56.809 --> 00:30:00.130 said, most of us come into this place this morning 00:30:00.130 --> 00:30:04.049 and we're wearing some kind of a label, right? 00:30:04.170 --> 00:30:06.369 And maybe it's a label that you picked up somewhere 00:30:06.369 --> 00:30:08.970 in your past. Or maybe it's a label that just 00:30:08.970 --> 00:30:10.750 kind of came to light more recently. I don't 00:30:10.750 --> 00:30:12.950 know. Maybe it's a label that everyone knows 00:30:12.950 --> 00:30:14.990 about. Or maybe it's one of those labels that 00:30:14.990 --> 00:30:17.609 you keep totally secret. But if we had to kind 00:30:17.609 --> 00:30:20.289 of plug you into the label machine and plug your 00:30:20.289 --> 00:30:23.440 heart in there, what would it spit out? Maybe 00:30:23.440 --> 00:30:30.380 the label with Mike the manipulator. Chad the 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:41.880 cheater. Gary the greedy. Aaron the addict. Faith 00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:48.630 the unfaithful. And you might assume, gosh, I 00:30:48.630 --> 00:30:50.269 can't let anyone see that label. I can't let 00:30:50.269 --> 00:30:52.950 God see that label. He wouldn't accept me. If 00:30:52.950 --> 00:30:54.849 I try to approach God with this thing stuck to 00:30:54.849 --> 00:30:57.109 me, first thing he's gonna see is my label and 00:30:57.109 --> 00:31:00.190 he's gonna reject me. But in Christ, as we've 00:31:00.190 --> 00:31:05.970 learned, we receive a new name tag. Bzzz, forgiven. 00:31:07.730 --> 00:31:15.180 Bzzz, accepted. Bzzz, loved. Okay? Matthew had 00:31:15.180 --> 00:31:18.339 a label too. Do you know that? Remember? Matthew 00:31:18.339 --> 00:31:23.359 the tax collector. Matthew the sellout. Matthew 00:31:23.359 --> 00:31:26.039 the trader. Matthew the crook. He had all these 00:31:26.039 --> 00:31:27.839 labels. And actually, it's no surprise, therefore, 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:31.480 that Matthew is the one who tells us this story. 00:31:32.019 --> 00:31:34.920 And he's the one who makes sure that Rahab's 00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:40.519 name makes it into the genealogy. He's the one 00:31:40.519 --> 00:31:42.200 who wants us to see that right from the very 00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:45.089 beginning. Your labels don't get the final word. 00:31:45.190 --> 00:31:49.130 Grace does. And that should change the way you 00:31:49.130 --> 00:31:51.329 approach Christmas this year and every year. 00:31:51.390 --> 00:31:54.650 The message of Christmas is not, what have you 00:31:54.650 --> 00:31:57.869 done for God? Or even, what can you do for God? 00:31:57.970 --> 00:32:00.170 Or what is the good life that you have lived 00:32:00.170 --> 00:32:02.269 for God? The message of Christmas is what God 00:32:02.269 --> 00:32:06.430 has done for us in Jesus. God deals with our 00:32:06.430 --> 00:32:10.109 sins. He changes our hearts. He replaces our 00:32:10.109 --> 00:32:15.369 labels. And then we begin the slow work of living 00:32:15.369 --> 00:32:19.269 into who we're truly meant to be. That relationship 00:32:19.269 --> 00:32:27.750 with God. So, Christmas says, your label is not 00:32:27.750 --> 00:32:34.690 your identity. Grace is. So, let's go from this 00:32:34.690 --> 00:32:40.460 place and live as the people. that God says we 00:32:40.460 --> 00:32:50.180 are. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for tuning 00:32:50.180 --> 00:32:52.579 in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. 00:32:52.579 --> 00:32:55.579 This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville 00:32:55.579 --> 00:33:00.240 in Mississauga, Ontario on December 14th, 2025.