To me, the first chapter of Matthew in the New Testament, has to be the certainly one of the most seemingly boring chapters in the Bible. I mean it goes on forever. In fact, for 39 long times, it says so-in-so "begot" so-in-so, and so-in-so "begot" so-in-so. Even the names are hard to pronounce, but this seemingly obnoxious, short chapter is certainly one of the most significant chapters in the whole Bible. For in it, God just wanted you to know that Jesus of Nazereth was 100 percent the Messiah spoken of and the one who had been prophesied to come to save the people from their sins.

At our church we practice Advent which is to honor the coming of the Christ child in the four weeks prior to His arrival on Christmas day.

This Sunday is the third Sunday in Advent. The event of the coming of the Christ child is too important and too monumental to just have one sermon on His coming. Each week a candle is lit on the advent wreath to prepare our hearts and turn our thoughts and minds toward Bethlehem.

The first candle that is lit is the prophesy candle. All the Scriptures relating to the prophesy of the coming of the Christ child are read and dealt with.

The second week of Advent the Bethlehem candle is lit and all the Scriptures dealing with where the Christ child was born are dealt with.

The third week of Advent we light the Shepherd's candle to signify how God revealed the coming of the Christ child through the seemingly lowly shepherds.

The fourth week of Advent we will light the Angel's candle to deal with how God used the angels during the whole birth of Jesus.

Finally on Christmas, the Christ candle is lit to signify that the savior of the world has come to save us from our sins.

At this time of the year, I strongly feel that we individually, as a nation, and as a church, need to return to the manger of Bethlehem. We need to return to the majesty and the power of that glorious night when, with the coming of this particular baby, all of history and mankind was changed forever and forever.

Back to the first chapter of Matthew. God just wanted you to know that you could be sure that if you put your faith and trust in Jesus of Nazereth, that He truly was of the house and lineage of David. This was truly significant because it had been prophesied of old that the savior would come from the "family tree of David," and that this "Jesus" was truly the son of God and the savior that would save us all from our sins.

God just wanted you to know!