The Last Genealogy

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

And if you're a Jewish audience, your ears perk up because these are the two most important names in a genealogy. There are other significant names, but Moses is not of the genealogy of the Messiah. These are the two most significant names for the genealogy of the son you're looking for. Abraham, as we heard from Genesis 17, he's a father of fathers. You go back a few chapters, and in Genesis 12, God first introduces himself to Abraham, Abram, and he says, I'll bless you, I'll bless you, I'll bless you. It's a covenant to bless. And then it's repeated in Genesis 15, and then it's repeated again what we heard in Genesis 17. Well, why was it repeated? Because Abraham, the man of faith, lacked faith. So God continued to encourage him and strengthen him in his faith. I hope that might be encouraging to somebody. The man of faith was helped by God to have faith. That's how good God is. God's promise to Abraham was blessing. That's the key word. I will bless you. I will make you the father of many peoples and many nations, more than the stars you can count, more than the sand on the shore. I will bless you. And it all comes down to the need for one specific child. I will bless you with a son because the problem Abraham and Sarah had was she was barren. And the reason Abraham starts lacking faith is from 12 to 15 to 17, the dude was old and getting older. And they began to doubt, they began to have fear. And when it seemed most impossible, that's when God acted. That's when God fulfilled his promise and brought about the son Isaac, whose name is laughter, which is kind of ironic in the sense of Abraham and Sarah both laugh at God promising to keep his promise. The whole Abrahamic covenant, though, is focused on the lineage, looking for one son. And while Isaac was a partial fulfillment, we're really looking for a more specific son. Galatians 3.16 tells us the whole thing hinges upon one offspring from Genesis 17.7. The family line of God, the family line of Abraham, we're looking for one son, and that's why we look at those genealogies, because we're supposed to be asking, is this the son, is this the son, is this the son, over and over again. It was Isaac, not Ishmael. It was Jacob, not Esau, and of all the sons who the kings are gonna come from, it's Judah, not Reuben or Levi or Simeon or all the others. God's promise of blessing to Abraham must be viewed in light of Genesis 3 to 11, where all we hear is curse, death, destruction, rebellion. In light of that, God says, I will bless you, I will bless you, I will bless you. This is the covenant making and keeping God we get to learn from as we rejoice in how he has fulfilled his promise. Matthew 1.1 is the introduction, it's a genealogy, it's the generations, it's telling us who Jesus Christ is in a way that he's, we're alluding back to Genesis, we see that it's a connection to David and to Abraham, and we'll get into that more, but look at verse 17, the bookend of the genealogy.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14, and from David to the deportation to Babylon were 14, and from the deportation to Babylon to Jesus Christ, 14.

We see there's three theories in this. So it's helpful to kind of have some hooks. It's helpful to have a little order here. The first, Abraham to David, well that's promising. That's when things look good. And it looked good even with some very despicable characters that we'll see in a little bit. From David to Babylon, that's when it really starts spiraling downward. Because the deportation is when God keeps his promise that if you keep worshipping other gods, if you keep being unfaithful, I'm going to have to remove you to the land because you're breaking the covenant. And then it goes from the deportation to Jesus. Those are the three different sections. Abraham to David is the first series, so let's look at that. 2 through 6a, you see there where it breaks between David being mentioned twice, 2 through 6. Again, it ties us back to Ben's sermon that we're gonna see that Abraham has actually many sons, legally, in procreation with Sarah and Hagar, but there's one son, and it's Isaac, and then Jacob, and specifically, Judah, we must see the line of the king is coming from Judah. And the important we see from Abraham to David is, well, another key passage you need to know is 2 Samuel 7, that's the Davidic covenant. That's where God reestablishes the next segment of this covenant, where he makes it clear, David, I will give to you a son who will reign forever. He will be like a son to me and I will be like a father to him. The section from Abraham to David connect these two specific promises together because the son of Abraham and the son of Jacob and the son of David and the son of Judah are all the same one son. And what God's doing is taking a, a broad promise to Abraham and then to Judah and then to David, it's, it's becoming more narrow. It's becoming more clear the line that this will come from now. What really stands out, if we're paying attention in 2 through 5, is the women who are mentioned. There are three women, and they're not Jewish. They're foreigners. They're Gentiles. In verse 3, you have Tamar. In verse 5, you have Rahab and Ruth. Tamar is from Genesis 38. She's a Moabite. Judah, again, suppose the significant son of Israel, who is going to be the son of the king in Genesis 49, but he leaves the promised land and he goes and he lets his son marry foreign women. And Tamar is the wife of his eldest son and he dies. And as custom goes, because you need a lineage, importance of genealogies, the next son dies. And Judah gets scared that somehow she's the curse. and withholds his next son. Well, the story's not pretty. Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, pretends to be a prostitute, so Judah will lie with her, and he gets angry knowing his daughter-in-law pretended to be a prostitute, says, let's put her to death, and then he realizes, oh, I'm the guy. He realizes she's more righteous than him. What seems interesting in God's providence is this woman who is telling Judah be faithful to the covenant of God that protects the line because one of the twins born of Judah and Tamar is in the genealogy of Jesus. Rahab, that seems too late to be Rahab in Jericho. I'll skip down to Ruth where we also see another Gentile woman really playing the part of preserving the line of God, preserving the purposes of God in the midst of difficulty. The beauty of what God is doing is he's, he's, he made it very clear in Genesis 12, all nations will be blessed. The whole goal of the people of God is that we know which line the promised son will come from, that promised son was always designed to bless all people, and I believe the Gentile women are designed to hint at that and to show us that. David being the high point here. Finally, they're in the right land, the right people are in the right land with the right king. That's supposed to be the high point, pinnacle of Israel's history. Things are going great. Well, then we see the second series introduces to why it's a downward spiral. The second series. Notice how it's written in such a vague but clear way.

David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.

The other women are named. Here, this is Bathsheba. David took another man's wife for himself. He couldn't cover up the sin, so he killed the husband. Uriah, being a Hittite, a foreigner, more faithful to God and God's people than David the king. This is the beginning of the downward spiral. David, who was supposed to be finally the right king from the right tribe and the right land to see this kingdom established, we see this second series set off on the wrong foot. And it just spirals even further into trouble. Solomon, he starts out strong, he asks for wisdom, but by the end of his life, he has many wives and many concubines, and therefore he's from many countries, and therefore he's worshiping many gods. Rehoboam, the next one, because of foolishness, he causes the kingdom to be divided. And then we just see spiraling downward in unfaithfulness and the repeated refrain if you were to go through the genealogies. And this king walked in the sins of his father. This king, his heart was not true to the Lord. This king, he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. There are a couple kings that brought Israel back, but they were far and few between in these generations. The people of Israel were being led into spiritual adultery over and over again. And so we see how that ends in the deportation to Babylon. God made a promise in Deuteronomy that if you are unfaithful in this covenant, I will remove you from this promised land. And this is what he does. We just studied this in Daniel as Judah was in Babylon. We don't know a lot about this third section. It goes beyond where our biblical record ends in Malachi. We don't know many, but what we do know is really a genealogy without a great king, really without a throne. Even the way it mentions the Babylonian exile, it just mentions the deportation. It doesn't mention the reestablishment in any way of a kingdom. That's why it's important to see that Jesus came at the right time. He came as the true king to introduce a new kind of kingdom. We have to see the genealogy ends. Verse 16, the fifth woman, so we've had three Gentile women in the first series. We have a woman unnamed because of the sin of David in the second series. The third, it ends with the most significant woman, the fifth woman. Verse 16,

and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.

In other words, Jesus is mentioned as the legal head, and that's important as we understand Adam was a representative for all of us. We are all tied to Adam as the first head of humanity. And Jesus is the new head of a new humanity. But the emphasis is Joseph is married to Mary. He's engaged to Mary. And the most significant woman in the genealogy, It's not clear that Bathsheba was a Jewish woman. Maybe Mary's the only Jewish woman. And it's amazing she's a woman of faith, as Luke tells us. But the language here about Jesus, of whom Jesus was born, well that's pointing back to Mary. In all these others, it's the man begets the man begets the man begets the man. by the wife, by the woman, by the woman, but here it's more specifically it's Mary of whom Jesus was born because Jesus did not take flesh and blood from Joseph. Jesus is the last in this genealogy. And he comes the most unique way. Just as Eve was fully human even though having taken the rib of Adam to form her, Jesus fully manned because of the physical descendancy of Mary alone. He's the promised son of Abraham, the son of blessing. He's the promised son of David. He's the one who will reign forever as the Lion of Judah. He is the one the Spirit will anoint. He is the Savior. This genealogy ends all genealogies because we're no longer looking for a promised son to come in this way. The genealogy that ends all genealogy because every promise of the old covenant is now a yes and amen in Jesus Christ It's the end of the genealogy as Hebrews 8 13 tells us that old covenant is now obsolete Because Christ has come to introduce his new covenant There's differences, but let's be very clear that there is a pattern in order to be saved at any time, at any place, you must believe. Abraham was only saved by God because of faith. David, Moses, Hezekiah, Elijah, only saved by faith. There are different ways in which God implements his covenant, but there's only one way to be saved by God. It's by faith. If you're a child under the age of 17, that means you're 1 to 17. Stand up. It's embarrassing. Stand up. It's great. We're all going to look at you. If you're a child here and your parents are believers, be thankful your children are teaching, your parents are teaching you the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope they're modeling the gospel of Jesus Christ and that they're teaching, modeling, and praying are all we can do for you. Your salvation in no way is attached to you being born into that family. Your salvation is fully dependent upon you believing in Jesus Christ and being born again by him who died for you and rose again. Make sure your faith is in the right place. It cannot be in your parents. It must be in Jesus. You can be seated and complain about me making you stand up later. Believers, I barely mentioned this, but we see enough in just Jude and Tamar. What a shady past Jesus' people have. It gets shadier on the other side. Praise God, he saves all kinds of sinners. Praise God, it has nothing to do with how good these people were that they were in the line of Jesus. Praise God, it has nothing to do with how good we are that we can be put in the Lamb's book of life. That's what replaces the genealogy. Praise God, he's faithful. He kept every promise despite how unfaithful his people were. The Babylonian captivity was meant to make that so clear that Israel failed and failed and failed miserably and failed miserably while they're failing. And God was faithful. He cannot deny himself. God is faithful. Secondly, God's grace is always meant to break beyond the border of Israel. The whole idea of having a kingdom there in the promised land is the other nations would come and see the orderliness and the goodness of God's people and say, what true God you must worship, tell me who he is. Praise God, his promises broke well beyond Israel and Judah. We need to make sure we are eager to see God's word spread. Praise God we get to partner with faithful missionaries. Praise God we get to pray for work like that was happening in Lord willing Mexico that will bring some peace to this very difficult time for brothers and sisters across the world. Let me turn our attention to a different direction. We're blessed to live in Charlottesville. A mile from here there's a university where other nations are sending their best and brightest. You don't have to go to the nations, you have to walk down the street and Lord willing, Those who are coming here, those who are sent here, we can send back as evangelists. Catch that vision. You don't have to get on a plane to do mission work here in Charlottesville. The best and the brightest from the nations are coming to us. We just gotta get on the street and share the gospel with them. And we might get to send them back as evangelists. Third, let us never forget the true children of Abraham are children of faith. As we conclude verse 17, we see the intro, verse one, verse 17, really a bookend to help us see Jesus Christ is necessarily tied to David and Abraham as a promised child must be. We see there's an order to the genealogy, but we need to ask some questions. Why did Matthew choose 14? Because he did skip a few generations here and there. That word father really just means beget. I could say Charles Ernest Goad beget me. And I could be referring to Charles Ernest Goad the first, the second, or the third. My father's the third, just in case you're wondering. So here it's making a point. And David, if you were to use the letters as they count as numbers, his name value is 14. Most people think that's what's happening. I think that is probably true. Whatever he is doing, his audience knows exactly what he's doing. As a tax collector, an accountant, he is giving an orderly account that would make perfect sense to his original audience. But this kind of tool was used to kind of show a pattern. This is how you would make a clear order and pattern in knowing the different series. So you know who Jesus is, and the 14 was chosen because David is the center of it, and it would be a way of memorizing. Something I've wrestled with, there's a number of reasons why people think 14. One I've wrestled with, if you take 14, well that's three sets of 14, that's six sets of seven. I kind of wonder with how much Matthew is making it about Genesis. You're supposed to see there's been six sets of seven, as in seven days of creation. We're looking for the Sabbath. And he's the right hand of the Father. I wonder if we're seeing here the last stage of the covenant of God, the last step towards the new creation. We're in it. That's something to talk about over lunch. So why did Matthew choose 14? I believe it's a literary tool to bring order and structure to the generations. Probably, I think another illusion back to creation. And now that we're in a new creation as Jesus Christ is the new head of a new human race. Second question. Are there 14 in short? Yes. Right. So if you were to look and count, it doesn't obvious it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14 and 14 and 14. Uh, Abraham to David, clearly 14. If you count Abraham as number one and David number 14. If you go to the second set, I believe you're supposed to count David to Josiah, and that gives you 14. And the reason I stop at Josiah is that he says specifically in verse 17, from the deportation to Babylon to Christ. Well, that makes it where Jeconiah to Jesus is 14, with the deportation being where you end that particular stage. This is the last genealogy. Folks, let me encourage you from this. Read your Old Testament. You want to know more of Jesus? Matthew is telling you over and over again how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. I'm a New Covenant believer, and the New Covenant means we've got to know what the Old Covenant is so we know what really is new and what is true and what is helpful. Matthew assumes so much of the Old Testament, we need to know our Old Testament to truly appreciate what he is saying. Our second point, how Jesus came. How Jesus came. Matthew makes a transition, not disconnected. Where did he come from? Being born of Mary, he was married to Joseph, It's enough to ask, all right, that's an unusual transition at the end of the genealogy. How did this happen? Well, Matthew is really helpful. Verse 18,

now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

He's gonna tell us how.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph.

So Mary, somewhere between 15, 18 years old, betrothed to a man of Judah. Before they came together, before they knew each other biblically, before they were united as one flesh,

before they came together, she was found to be with child.

All right, so just pause. If she's found to be with child before they're married, it's scandalous? It's shameful? And it's supposed to be? Doesn't mean there's not redemption in that situation, If we're looking at a normal pattern of life, if a woman who's betrothed and they haven't known each other, it's especially scandalous because that means she's been with another man. But it's very important we see before they came together, she's a virgin, she is found to be with child, and we have to ask another question, well, how? Well, from the Holy Spirit. More specifically, verse 20 tells us the Holy Spirit calls the conception, The child in her womb is conceived by the Holy Spirit. That does not make the Holy Spirit the earthly father of Jesus Christ in any way. As Luke says, the Holy Spirit is overshadowing her womb to add to the Son of God her human nature. This is a miracle. It's beyond natural causes or rational doing. It presupposes the plan that God made us in his image predesigned to be incarnated? It is an act of God that breaks his creation design and is of utmost to the Christian faith. Why are creeds declare he was born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit? This event is when Jesus added to himself a human nature, fully man, by the Holy Spirit who's abiding in our womb. It's important as he, the God of life, comes to take on our nature, he does so that he become like us in every way so that he can redeem us and restore us to who we were supposed to be. Back to verse nine. So Jesus is born of Mary without Joseph, verse 19,

and her husband Joseph Being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

So he's seeking to do what's right. He's confused because he just believes, he understands nature works a certain way. I want to pause here and just give a quick moral lesson. Honorable men do not shame others. Honorable men do not heap shame on top of shame. Honorable men do honorable things. And even here, he's speaking so quietly, there's still a way, and he's seeking to honor her, even though she would be putting him to open shame. Honorable men do not tear down in order to be built up. That's what silly children do. He plans to divorce her quietly, then notice, as he was considering these things, verse 20, behold, that's when action picks up in the Bible,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David,

interesting way of addressing him, given what we just saw in the genealogy,

do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Drop down and let's just look at verse 24 real quick.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

How encouraging is this? Joseph, the man of faith. How encouraging it is that he took this word from the angel as true over against everything he understood in life. He believed and obeyed. And therefore, it's part of the great story of salvation. But what we need to understand happens here is God himself broke into his creation in the most amazing way in that by adding to himself human nature, he's already promised himself to us, but now he's become part of us by adding our likeness, our nature to himself. The covenant God has truly come to be with us in the most intimate, powerful, and personal way. It's amazing to think of what the glory of God looked like in the Exodus as the cloud and the fire was in the presence of Israel, but the word of God came and made his presence known in our own nature to become like us in every way so that he might die for us. He's like us in every way, but yet without sin. It's important, we are still waiting for a coming, but we know who the son is, we know his name's Jesus. We know he's the lion of Judah, we know he's the final perfect lamb. We know who he is, now we're just waiting for him to come back. Here, God came down to save us. He came by the power of the Holy Spirit, conceived by the Holy Spirit, in the virgin's womb. Our last point, why Jesus came. Why Jesus came. Three simple answers. First, it was the only way for us to be saved. God himself had to come down to us to save us. There is salvation in no other name. Second, he came because God promised salvation. It was the only way for God to fulfill his promise. It was the design all along that Christ, the Son of God, the Son of God must become the Christ in order to save us. And third, it's in his name, Jesus. What does his name mean again? Yahweh saves. Make this as clear as possible. You will name him Jesus because, for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus is the only one who can save us. Let's just look at verse 22 there. I'm sorry, verse 21. If you're memorizing something, that's it. That simple little phrase, for he will save his people from their sins. First, he will save. He's already proven he's willing that. He's promised it. He's already proved he can do it. Christ himself came to be with us. He died on the cross and he rose again. He's willing, he's able. Do we trust him? Second part of that, his people. No longer tribal, no longer just Israelites, no longer the idea that it's just for a very specific people, born of a specific race, in a specific time and place. No, it's the son has come to bring about a new kind of people from among all peoples. Every tribe, every nation, every language. all unite together in a new humanity, a new kind of people, His people. He's come to make us His own. He's come to bring us together to be a new kind of people, to rejoice together in Him. A people by grace through faith.

For He will save His people from their sins.

Important you cannot be saved if you're not a sinner There's no salvation if you're not a sinner If you think you got this if you think you've outdone your bad things the good things that this this is not good news for you It's good news when you are blessed by God to see your life in light of his law and And you see you do lie, and you've broken God's commandment, and you do worship other gods, and you've broken his commandment, and you do not love the Lord your God with all your heart. This is good news only for sinners, those who are recognizing they fall short, they rebelled. It's also important to see it's their sins, that's plural. God saves us from our sins. It's amazing how convinced I was when I first became a Christian that I was a sinner, and how little I understood of anything of my sin. Fully convinced I was a sinner and needed to be saved, but had no idea how sin had just completely defined my whole life. It's really amazing to think about it as a Christian, how little we need to recognize of our sin to be saved. And then God graciously walks us along to see more and more sin so we can see more and more Jesus and grace. That's supposed to be what we're doing. If you don't see any more sin from the day of your salvation, repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Ask to see your hidden sins so you would see more of the grace of Jesus Christ. We have many sins. We have a plethora of sins. We have more sins than we'll ever know of and what a joy it is that God has saved us from all our sins and we get to enjoy him more as we know how to confess and repent all the more. Why did he come? To save us. Verse 22 goes one step further.

All this took place to fill with the Lord as spoken by the prophet

So he didn't come to fulfill all what God said, but here Isaiah tells us,

behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

If you have one of those little journals, if you're taking notes in your Bible and you underline the first few chapters, make sure you underline all the times it says fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled. Old covenant promise, new covenant fulfilled. Here, Matthew wants to make it very clear. This is fulfilling the virgin birth promised. More specific for us, God's name, the promised one's name is Emmanuel, God with us. Don't let that be confusing. There's many names Christ has. There's many names tied to him. Jesus' personal earthly name. The son is his forever heavenly name. There's many names of Jesus because they all help capture some aspect of who he is, what he's done. And really, Jesus, as Yahweh saves, already captures God with us because Yahweh, by definition, is the God who is with us, not the distant God. The God who is with us, as sure as God saved Israel from slavery, God has saved us from sin in Jesus Christ. As we meditate upon this name, Emmanuel, God is not distant. He has drawn near to us so that we can draw near to Him. We create distance with our sin. We try to hide ourselves in shame. We beat ourselves up with guilt, but He has come to draw us near to Him by coming to us. He's God with us. You're never alone. He's God with us. He's come down to finalize and complete the covenant of God so that we can be in His presence. This is the last genealogy. Everything promised has now come to a completion. The sign of circumcision we read about earlier, that has come to an end because circumcision was reminding God's people a son will come. And now that that son has come, there is no more circumcision. He's fulfilled the sign. There is no more Passover because he's the perfect Passover lamb that doesn't just have God pass over our sin, but he's taken away our sin by taking it upon himself. Oh, what a joy it is to search all of God's word to consider all the ways in which he saved us. Two short points of application. If you're here and you need a new beginning, find it in Jesus Christ. You know you've practiced destructive sin. You know you're coming in with death hanging over your mind and your heart. Jesus has come to save you. He is the God of new beginnings. He forgives us, renews us, restores us. If you're a student and you're here in a new place with a new people, you're starting something new, make it matter spiritually. Make clear, wise commitments. Changing location does not change your heart. The sins that plagued you in high school are gonna plague you in college unless you truly come to the God whose grace was sufficient while you were in high school and whose grace is sufficient now. Ask for the grace to repent. Seek to have the faith that stands firm. Here's the advice I've been given for 20 years of college students. By the end of December, if you're a first year student, know you're gonna commit to a church and a campus ministry. One church, one campus ministry. Learn how to make clear, decisive commitments. Don't keep dating around until your fourth year. His grace is sufficient for a new beginning that will actually establish you in the maturity of Jesus Christ. Secondly, if you're looking for a new belonging, you know you're isolated, you know you're alone, maybe you are far away from family, Christ brings you into God's presence and among God's people. There's a whole new belonging, and church is a challenge for us. We're supposed to be part of that new belonging, welcoming people in to the presence of God, welcoming people in to the maturity of Christ, welcoming people in to be disciples of Jesus Christ. God is with us. Yahweh has come to save us. I want us to end with this, this is the beginning of Matthew. Anybody know how Matthew ends? Last sentence of Matthew? It's Jesus' own words.

I am with you to the end.

Begins with God with us, ends with I am with you. Christ has come, he's died, he's risen again, he is a son of the right hand of the Father, And he will come back, and while we wait watchfully, he's promised, I'm with you. I'm with you. So that we can be obedient to all that he says. So that we can be disciples who make disciples. So that we can be bold and courageous with the gospel as you are partaking and participating in the mission of Christ as a disciple. It's not your own strength. Christ says, I. and with you to the end. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you. You did not enact justice immediately in the garden, but you came and sought us out in our shame, in our rebellion, and you've made promises and you've kept them all. Father, we thank you that you kept your promises even when it hurt and that you sent your son knowing what we would do to him. Jesus, we thank you that you kept your promises even while we were torturing and murdering you on the cross. Lord, may you establish us as your people of faith to be more faithful to the promise that we make that we will deny ourselves, carry a cross, and follow you. And may we do so knowing you are with us in all of grace, in all of strength to forgive, restore, and make new. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.