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Prayer
This passage from Matthew 1 is well known and often cited around Christmas time.
But directly proceeding that story, is Jesus’ genealogy.
Genealogies and Advent: New Beginnings, Part 1
On July 24, 2002, eighteen coal miners at the Quecreek Mine in Somerset, PA.
The miners accidentally dug into an abandoned mine which flooded their mine.
The miners became trapped underground with no way to get back to the surface.
You can imagine the fear of this situation.
Trapped underground.
Little resources.
Little air supply.
All they had for food was a “lunch pail” which was “floating...with the still dry corned beef sandwich.. and a bottle of Pepsi”
These men had no hope.
Almost four days underground and these men were on the verge of hypothermia.
What do you think would keep people going in a situation like that?
The answer was hope.
Their only hope was that someone was coming for them.
Their hope was for rescue.
Slowly but surely they began to hear drilling above them, which meant that others were coming for them.
After four days, there was a team to break the surface and bring the first miners up.
Since Jesus is the author of the new creation, we must set our hopes on Him.
As those miner’s that were stuck under ground probably wonder…
Is anyone coming?
Are they going to make it in time?
We open up the book of Matthew, the first book of the New Testament.
God has not spoken to the people of Israel in hundred’s of years.
There has been silence.
No prophet has spoken on God’s behalf.
Silence from God.
Silence in the Old Creation
“The Ache of Silence”
There are two kinds of silence I want you to have in your mind as we step into the book of Matthew.
Silence from the Garden
“Longing for Adam’s Seed”
This silence of the garden is the longing since Genesis 3 of God finally sending one to deliver the people from sin.
Since God’s promise to the serpent in Genesis 3:15
Since this promise there has been a longing for one to come and redeem the human race.
They were not even a generation out of the garden when you hear the desire of people for this offspring.
Genesis 4:25–26 (ESV)
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”....
At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
The silence from the garden was deafening.
It was so loud that the ache for satisfying the silence could be felt all throughout human history.
Which leads to the second period of silence....
Silence from the Exodus
“Longing for a Deliverer”
This is not the only period of silence that we see in history.
You also have the silence before the Lord took His people out of the Exodus.
The people were living in Egypt for over 400 years.
They were brutally treated.
Trampled and torn down.
It was the night of what is called the Exodus that God delivered His people out of the hands of his enemies.
Have you ever seen the movie of the Quiet Place?
There’s no movie quite like this one.
The whole movie is based around aliens that attack when they hear sound.
That movie has almost no sound the entire way.
It is completely quiet.
Very little speaking.
Background noise, but no music.
It is an intense movie.
But no sound.
Silence Creates Anticipation
Now between the time when Malachi wrote, Malachi 4:5-6
There was a period of great silence.
It’s not that God was not active, but He was silent.
Which is part of the reason the scribes and teachers responded to Jesus the way they did…
When we turn to the NT, we should feel this kind of silent anticipation.
The book of Matthew begins like no other gospel.
Other gospels start with Jesus preaching the kingdom.
Others start with his birth narrative.
But Matthew’s gospel is explicitly Hebrew in nature.
This why Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy.
What is a genealogy?
A genealogy is simply a list of people who are related.
It helps trace who your parents were and so on.
Genealogical Hopes in the Old Creation
“Beauty in the Details”
How could a list that says, “this person gave birth to this person...” be helpful?
We will always be tempted to skim over these sections.
I understand the temptation, and there is nothing wrong with skimming sometimes.
Because it takes a lot of work getting under the significance.
But let me give you three reasons why this genealogy here is significant.
Genealogies are important for three distinct reasons.
Continuity
“Fulfillment”
Matthew realizes his audience.
He is writing to people who would understand the OT context.
To people who knew the significance of certain figures.
He even seems to be picking up on other genealogies which have been written before.
Matthew is presenting his gospel as something which should be understood alongside the OT genealogies.
Picking up of where the OT left off.
Genesis 5:1 (ESV)
This is the book of the generations of Adam.
D. A. Carson says about Matthew’s genealogy...
show that Jesus Messiah is truly in the kingly line of David, heir to the messianic promises, the one who brings divine blessings to all nations
What is Matthew trying to communicate with his genealogy?
Genealogies can serve many purposes, like validating one’s upbringings or showing where a person came from.
Matthew is trying to validate or confirm the truthfulness of his message.
Truthfulness
“Validation of the Facts”
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