I invite you to take your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter one. Matthew, chapter one. We’re going to be reading verses one through 17. We’re in the last of a series on Advent. Advent means the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. And in each of those Sundays, we have focused on One particular benefit of Jesus coming into the world, four words that are, regularly associated with Advent historically.
the first week we looked at hope, Pastor Mike, couple of weeks ago looked at, peace. Last Sunday, Pastor Ben talked about joy. This morning, I’m focusing on love. When Pastor Ben spoke last week, he talked about Jesus and what Jesus was doing before his birth in Bethlehem. The statement he made, his question, was before the manger, what was pre baby Jesus like?
today we’re going to look at the human ancestry of Jesus. We’re going to look back at his biological family tree, and we’re looking at what really is the forgotten chapter. of the Christmas story. there’s a reason it’s forgotten. We choose to forget it because it doesn’t really seem that exciting.
We tend to zip through this thing. We skip it in order to get to the good stuff. But the Jews of the first century would be quite surprised by that reaction to the ancestral genealogy that is presented of Jesus. Because to them, it was absolutely essential. To the story of an individual, for instance, whenever land was bought or sold, you had to prove your ancestral background through your genealogy because in Israel, land had to be sold at this time in history.
Land had to be sold within the tribal ancestry that one had. So you had to be able to go back to show all the way back to a guy named Jacob, who was one of the patriarchs. It was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And Jacob then had 12 sons. And those 12 sons with the 12 tribes of Israel. You had to go back hundreds and hundreds of years to demonstrate that you were, had legitimate claim to own your property.
If you were going to be a part of the priesthood, you had to be able to prove your family tree, that you were of the tribe of Levi. If you were going to make a claim to the throne of David, to be the king of Israel, you had to be able to trace your lineage all the way back through the tribe of Judah.
through David and other specifics in that. The emphasis on one’s genealogy is front and center in the Christmas story itself. It’s interesting that in Luke chapter 2 it says, In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to his own town to register.
This meant that even in the Roman Empire, what they were doing was they say, you got to go back to your ancestral home. Now, I know that I was born in Mineola, New York. I know that because my parents told me, and it was verified by my birth certificate. But I have no idea where my father was born. I know I don’t know where my grandfather was born.
And to be able to establish one’s ancestral, Lineage is just fathomless for us today. The ancestry of Jesus that is presented in Matthew chapter one goes back over 2, 000 years. It is taking it all the way back to Abraham and such was necessary to prove one’s heritage and in his case, particularly his claim to the throne of Israel.
I’m going to read this passage in a moment, but genealogy was not just a genealogy in Jesus day. It was a resume. It was how you presented yourself to the world. And Jesus genealogy will declare two giant things about him. First, he is the center of God’s love story for humanity. And secondly, he is the revealer of God’s love for all people.
I’d like to look at this now. I’m going to read through the genealogy, in chapter 1 of Matthew chapter 1, down through verse 17. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
And Judah the father of Perez, and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. And Ram, the Father of Ammenadab and Ammenadab, the father of Nation and Nation, the father of Salmon and Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed, The father of Jesse and Jesse, the father of David, the King.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam and Rehoboam, the father of Abijah and Abijah, the father of Aesop, and Asaph the father of Jahashophat. There’s a lot of names here you might want to consider if you’re pregnant. And Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah.
And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiad, and Abiad the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliad, and Eliad the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Mathan.
And Matham, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David. were 14 generations. This is how the passage is divided up. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.
Let’s pray.
Lord, I thank you for this passage. I thank you for this genealogy. I thank you for the theology in it, the theology of God. It points to your character, it points to your love, and Lord, I pray as we gather on this Christmas Eve morning and speak to a group of people in this room and those watching online.
And God, I pray that the truth of the love that was Manifested in Christ might seep into the pores of our lives this morning, or there are people to whom Christmas is is confusing, is lonely, is painful. There’s all kinds of stories that we bring to this little sermon today. And Lord, you know them all.
And I ask you to speak into our lives this morning truth. In Jesus name. Amen.
Jesus is the center of God’s love story for humanity. All biblical history is pointing the way toward Jesus. Luke is here tracing the line of Christ all the way back from Abraham. Somewhere 2, 000, maybe 2, 200 years before. He is doing so to show that Jesus is the legitimate Air to the throne of Israel in verse one, he sort of summarizes the whole thing.
He says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and actually laying out that he is the seed of Abraham. He is a true Jewish claimant. He goes all the way back, but also that his ancestry flowed through David, the line of the chosen Kings. There are three central moments in this.
In the first section, it talks about from Abraham to David. And then the second section talks about David to the exile in Babylon, where Babylon, conquered Israel and, and took, deported many of the people to Babylon for 70 years. And then from the exile in Babylon to Jesus birth, from 600 B. C. down to literally 0 A.
D. There are 14 generations that are listed in each period, but there were many other generations. If you look, there’s over a thousand years. There’s way more than 14 generations of people. But these 14 are highlighted. So we immediately are tipped off that this is a select genealogy. But this genealogy fulfills something was that was said to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12.
And Paul talks about it. And I’d like you to look at this verse in Galatians chapter 3 verses 8 and following. Scripture announced, sorry, still learning my screens, announced the gospel in advance to Abraham and Paul says this, All nations will be blessed through you. Christ redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus.
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say and to seeds, meaning many people, but and to your seed, meaning one person. Who is Christ, Paul says the promise to Abraham that all peoples of the earth will be blessed. was talking about one guy, one person, and who would be that blessing?
He says, Jesus Christ, Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. We see that in the promise of the statement that was made to Mary, Jesus mother. It says this in Luke chapter 1, verse 33, and the first part of how he would bless all peoples. Was told to her and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Dave of Jacob forever and of his kingdom There will be no end first of all he is promised to be the king it says His kingdom will have no end.
That was a specific promise that was made to David’s heir in 2 Samuel 7. And Jesus is the promised king to her husband, the adoptive father of Jesus, a man named Joseph. The angel said this in Matthew 1 verse 20 and 21. Joseph, son of David, don’t fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He will be a savior to Mary. He will be a king. And then listen to what the angel says to the shepherds out on the hillside. After he has been born or he had just been born Luke chapter 2 verse 10 and 11 I bring you good news of great joy That will be for all the people for unto you is born this day in the city of David A savior who is Christ, the Lord.
Christ was the messianic name, the title, it means Messiah, the anointed one, the king. He will be the savior king. This is how he will bless all peoples. Was promised to Abraham thousands of years before, two full thousand years before. And now has been fulfilled, Paul says. As Jesus ancestry leads down through those years to a little hovel in Bethlehem, to a babe lying in a manger, his genealogy has given him the credentials to be this Savior King.
A king who would deliver his people from their sins, from their enslavement and bondage, a king as well as a savior. All human stories of heroic rescue and love are shadows of this story. God gives a story which is the story. I could go through, I was just thinking of some this morning, I mean this week, of, of talk about the myths and fables, even the storylines that are being written today, of great Great stories, great fable, great myths regularly portray people in bondage.
They’ve been tyrannized by the Empire and Star Wars. I mean, we could go on and on under the Dark Lord and Lord of the Rings and all of the contemporary Marvel characters in some way or another come in to be rescuers. They’re superhuman out of our cultural experience. They come to help individuals trapped and enslaved under tyranny or slavery.
They’re supernatural beings that are beyond our finiteness. The expectation is of a deliverer who will make things right. And Christmas is a story about this. Someone from out of space who can defeat death, who wields supernatural power, who promises to make all things right one day. I mean, it looks like the gospel is just one more myth, right?
One more story pointing to an underlying reality. But Matthew says that is not so. This story has been written over these millennia of time. It is THE story. Which all other human myths are stories are finding their underlying reality. Those stories are just reflected shadows of THE story. He does defeat death.
He does rescue. He does come to make all our hopes true and real. He is the heroic prince, the conqueror of injustice. The king is our savior. And Jesus Christ is the one who brings that message. that gospel of grace and love. And he is the revealer that God’s love is for all people. There are two shocking things about this genealogy.
One is very simply that God chose these ancestors for Jesus. He designed it, he orchestrated it, the whole thing was done, and his choices are surprising. He has an unusual cast of characters. One thing that’s surprising about it in the way it is delineated is that it includes women. Because in the ancient Near East, genealogies of this day never included women.
And it is a focus on these women. Now people argue, and I’m just going to digress for a second. People argue the Bible is culturally repressive because of its views on women. The Bible in its day was shockingly progressive. The Bible’s principles will never line up culturally as relevant with any culture in any day.
All cultures are made up of fallen humans. Some are much more conservative and repressive than the Bible. Some are more progressive and liberal. The Bible presents a supracultural view. It transcends human cultures. Offering a way of life that is real humanity. Humanity as it is designed to be. We’ll see that as we go into in February, a study in the book of Ephesians, which is a fascinating discourse on the way of life that God is advocating for people.
And interestingly, he is addressing two groups of people. One are the Jewish Christians who come from a culture that had become overly repressive and conservative. Gentiles who were liberal and progressive and he says to them I’m outlining for you a way of life That’s going to sound really new really alien to you It is however utterly human as God Intended humanity to build it is to be it is built on timeless principles of what is true, virtuous, joyous, holistic human experience.
Now, in putting women in this genealogy, Jesus, Luke is already going counter cultural with this, but it is the story of these women and what they are associated with that makes it remarkable because they represent some of the most not necessarily their behavior, but they were associated with the most sordid, nasty incidents in the whole Old Testament scriptures.
And they’re a part of it. The other thing that’s shocking here is God chose to highlight these ancestors. Remember, I mentioned to you that they skipped over countless generations in Matthew chapter one. These individual stories were included for a reason. They were highlighted. for a messaging. And God shows individuals that were not the ones you would usually highlight in your ancestry.
Because everybody has ancestors who would embarrass us. I remember watching, the TV show, Who Do You Think You Are? a couple of times, and I know they’ve had Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Emmett Smith, and countless others. Joseph, those are just ones I was aware of. And basically they trace their, their, their genealogy.
Their ancestry and they find out they find out they’re related to royalty and all kinds of cool things a lot of times But they also find out there was some pretty Sorted characters scoundrels and criminals in their background of most of them Everybody has stuff somewhere and sometimes your family tree can be very unsettling I remember reading this story.
It was actually an account. I read it in a periodical about a guy named Craig Cobb, 62 year old man, white supremacist who was trying to form a new neo, uh, a neo Nazi town in North Dakota. Very outspoken, obviously anti any other race, and had the surprise of his life. when he received the results of his DNA test on the Tricia Goddard show.
He’d agreed to let them research his bloodlines through DNA testing, and he was being interviewed by Tricia Goddard, who is African American. And she presented his genetic makeup as having approximately 15 percent of his bloodline was black African American, black African. And she, she then proceeded to refer to him throughout the remainder of the interview as bro.
It’s striking that when God had Jesus genealogy mentioned, He does deliberately leave out stages. He is intentionally underline, underlining certain people. Now people, of course, today, we play with our resumes. Today, if you left your first college, you just leave it out, and just write the college, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a mulligan, it’s a false start, you know, a do over.
But God leaves out the heroes, the glory makers, and includes the shocking stories in the lineage of Jesus. There are four of them. There are four surprising people. And I’m going to highlight, there are others, I’m going to highlight just the women this morning. And the stories associated, I’m going to summarize them very quickly and say why I think it matters.
First of all, is in verse 3, a woman named Tamar. Tamar was married to a guy named Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, goes all the way back 2, 000 years. And it’s interesting that both Judah and Tamar are listed to make sure you, you get the story straight of who this Tamar is. Judah was Tamar’s father in law.
Tamar’s first husband died, and in Jewish law, the idea was that she would then be given his brother to carry on the family line within her family. She went to her father in law Judah and asked for the younger brother. He postponed it, held off, and eventually it was obvious he was not going to give her the older son.
He was not going to encourage this. So she set a trap for him. she actually posed with a veil as a, as a prostitute. He went into her, didn’t know it was his daughter in law, conceived, they had a child, and basically it’s this sordid, awful story. The child from that immorality is a part of Jesus lineage.
The story of Tamar. There’s a story in verse five of Rahab. She was a prostitute in Jericho, and Rahab ran a brothel in the red light district of Jericho. And a phrase that most of us that know Old Testament history is this phrase, Rahab the harlot. That’s her designation. That’s how she is known. But that’s not all.
Rahab was also a Canaanite, and a Canaanite were the people that were trying to wipe out the Israelites at this time. Her background is one that this is her story. And when you say the name Rahab in the scriptures, this is your association, but it is also That she was the great great great great great great great grandmother of Jesus Christ.
And for some reason, God wanted her name highlighted in the story. There’s a woman named Ruth in verse 5. She was a godly woman, but she was a Moabitess, came from a tribe of people that were continually trying to harass and restrict. The Israelites wouldn’t allow them to go through their land where most of the others would.
If nothing else, Ruth was an outsider.
And fourth, there’s a woman named Bathsheba, verse six. She’s associated with probably the worst moment in Old Testament history. Uriah, her husband, was a One of the mighty men of David, associated with David, one of his closest associates, and David’s army is out fighting. And David, while the guys are out fighting, David’s staying back at the palace, looks down, sees this beautiful babe, takes her, sleeps with her.
She gets pregnant. Her name’s Bathsheba. And in order to hide the fact that it’s his child, He brings Uriah home from the battlefield, hoping he’ll sleep with his wife, and then she’ll apparently be pregnant by him. But he’s too committed. He won’t sleep with his wife. How can he do that when all his troops are in the field?
So he sleeps on the front steps of the palace. Doesn’t work. He tries to get him drunk. He still doesn’t go home and sleep with his wife, Bathsheba. And then David actually has Uriah, one of his own guys, one of his buds, killed in battle. To hide the whole thing and try to make people think, well, obviously it was Uriah’s son because Uriah, excuse me, yeah, Uriah isn’t there to, to renounce such an accusation because he wasn’t there.
Bathsheba’s there and it’s through her line that Jesus is born. Bathsheba’s the reminder of adultery and betrayal of one of the most godly men that ever lived named David. Now David had other wives. Why this one for the line of the throne? Why include the story? Well, the genealogy does establish Jesus as the rightful heir, the promised Savior King.
But the people chosen to highlight it are at least unexpected, right? So why does it matter? Why are they listed? What’s this about? What’s God saying to us? Two things. This genealogy is a message to self righteous people. Matthew was written especially to the Jews. These were the people that had the heritage, they had the lineage, they had the background, the ancestry themselves.
Many of them put their confidence in the fact of their heritage as Jews, that they did the right things, that they deserved life and grace. And what a shock it would be to read this giant genealogy which is associated with liars. murderers and thieves and adulterers and prostitutes. I think it’s the reminder that Jesus came to for people that recognized they were unworthy of grace.
The story of Christ coming to the world is God’s love message that my gospel, my grace, It’s for everyone that is willing to see their own brokenness, their own need, that is willing to see themselves as not deserving,
but as undeserving, and yet graced. This genealogy is a message to highlight that grace and love. Jesus identified with people who didn’t appear righteous and moral. He came for such people. That’s why Paul summarizes as he’s talking to the church in first Corinthians, and he says this in verses nine through 11.
Guys, don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, and you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
What he’s saying is, we could put in there the self righteous, the liars. He does that in many other passages. He’s got the greedy. Well, that covers most Americans. Most of us find ourselves in this list. There are certainly others that include us there. But what he’s saying is Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, prostitutes and pastors, religious insiders and outsiders, moral and immoral, all sit down together, utterly broken in their sin, utterly deserving of a Christless separation from God’s Heaven, eternity, and it doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been or how you failed.
Jesus says, in my church, those things don’t matter. Sin cannot halt God’s grace. There is more grace in Jesus Christ than there is sin in your life. There is more grace in Jesus Christ than there is sin in your life. It’s why Paul said this in the book of Romans. Where sin abounds, grace super abounds.
Maybe you’re a Ruth today, an outsider. Christmas can remind you of that canon. I look at all those commercials, all the hallmark, that’s not my life. It’s not my family. Maybe you’re a Tamar, a person who’s been deeply wronged, mistreated, took things into her own hands, tries to fix it because her father in law is not doing what he should do by obligation.
Your life is one of trying to work things, trying to make it okay. There’s pain, there’s stuff you’re trying to work off. God says to you, I’ve got people like you in my son’s story because I wanted you to be reminded that he came for you.
Or you’re a Rahab or Bathsheba, a Rahab particularly, and you say, Ha, you don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know where I’ve come from. You don’t know what I bring to this room or to this TV set as I watch this morning. You don’t know. I don’t know. And I don’t care. I know the one who does know. And where sin abounds, grace super abounds.
There is more grace in Jesus Christ than sin in your life.
And God threw on Rahab’s in order to say, My Jesus came for you. And then there’s Bathsheba’s. Well, really, the story of Bathsheba is really the story of David.
The horror of that story is a man after God’s own heart, God described him that way, could do such horrible sin. And God includes this story for the Davids in the Bathsheba stories of life that have said, Mark, I know Christ, but what I’ve done and where I’ve been and how I’ve wandered, God says, you know, my son gave grace not only at the cross.
When you believe me, my grace continues to super abound. for my Children that have turned from me. This whole genealogy not only affirms the claimant to the throne, it affirms the love that Advent is all about to broken people, to needy people, to wronged people, the people that are manipulating the people that are struggling, the people who feel like outsiders.
It’s a beautiful genealogy. It’s actually a shocking one. But God seems to never grow tired of shocking us with his grace, right? That’s what this story is about. Lord, we come to you this morning.
There’s not a person in this room or a person that’s watching on their phone or their computer or wherever they are. You are not sitting with them, seeing them, knowing them,
and loving them. Lord, whether it’s Ruth we identify with, or David in Bathsheba’s story, or Tamar, or Rahab,
we glory in grace. We glory in the love that is your very character. God is love. Lord, let us lean into that this morning, I pray, on this Christmas season. In Jesus name, Amen.