Jesus Genealogy (2)

Opening- Matthew 1:1-17

What led me to preach on this for christmas?

Got to thinking about families and how the holidays always bring out the best in everyone or the worst and the crazy relatives come to visit

We always here about the birth this time of year but what about all the generations that led up to that moment?

Its important that we understand how God orchestrated everything and how he uses all the individuals in there own story as well as the final story.

Its also pretty cool and you will all agree when we get done here that there is a reason that they open up the new testament with the genealogy of Jesus not only does answer alot of questions about who he is but it closes out the Old Testament and shows us how important it really is.

Why did Matthew Include it?

He was a tax collector so documents and records were very important to him

Very common in Jewish Culture to describe a mans life

Lots of these lists found in Genesis

Purity came from your lineage

only way to be included in Gods People

When we walk through the some of the key people we will see that Matthew included women on the list and not just any women but gentiles to boot

Hugely important to a Jew to see that Jesus can be traced back to Abraham

It tells a story to the people reading it at that point in history

not just a bunch of random names but history to them

it would be like talking about our founding fathers or Lewis and Clark

Before we Dive in

One of the main things we need to remember is God used alot of Broken People to lead up to Jesus

His pedigree isnt perfect especially to the Jews of the time

As a jew read through this there is alot of people that would have made there skin crawl or they were not proud of at all

Alot of these stories have untied up endings looking for some sort of completions

The genealogy can be divided up into 3 main groups

Human Beings Were born for Greatness

Human Beings lost There Greatness

Human Beings can regain their Greatness

Jewish Origin

Going to skip some people because of time and alot of them I can’t actually pronounce there names

Its going to seem like I am focusing on the bad of alot of these people but remember they also did great things as well Im just doing what time will allow me to

Abraham “Father Abraham”

Liar

Telling the kings that he was Saras brother

Not Patient

Slept with servant to get a child even though God promised him and Sarah a child

The Good

Willing to sacrifice Isacc when the time came

Mirrors God and Jesus sacrifice

Also connects the dots that Abraham is the source of blessing for all peoples

Jacob

Tricked Esau into giving him his birthright

He dresses up as Esau and tricks a blind Isacc his father into giving him Esaus blessing

Jacob then has to flee the area

Jacob marries Rachel and Leah 2 sisters the plot thickens more here

Long story but he loved Rachel and not Leah the father got him to marry both for wages

To give Jacob full credit and there is a good ending to his story his brother pursues him and in his moment of dispair he wrestles with God in a dream and wakes with a limp but he also is reconciled through all that

Reconciles with his brother and gets his forgiveness

Judah

Jacobs son but from Leah not Rachel so was not one of his favorites

Judah was the one who came up with the idea to sell Joseph

Joseph was the favorite son and the one who out of all this goes to work for Pharoah and at the end is actually put in control of his brothers lives

You would think that Jesus would be a decendant of this brother but God had other plans he likes stories with unperfect people

Needless to say Judah made a bad decision there

There is more to Judahs story and will be tied to our first Woman in the lineage of Jesus

Reminder that this is huge that there is a woman included on the list not a jewish custom at all

Tamar

Marries Judahs oldest son but he dies

Jewish custom to give the next brother a chance and that doesnt work

Still one more son but for fear that he may also die Judah sends her off but she is still tied to the family

Dresses as a prostitute and tricks Judah into sleeping with her and then becomes pregnant

She gives birth to twin boys Perez and Zarah

The next guy on our list that I want to focus on is in verse 5 Salmon… he was a little fishy

Actually its not Salmon but Rahab the Harlot or loose woman

Suprise another woman Rahab the prostitute also a Gentile Cannanite woman

This is pretty huge because the Israelites hated the Cannanites

Agreed to help some of Joshua spies escape the city of Jericho she lived in before the army attacked in return that her family be spared

Again another beautiful story of someone reconciling before God and being used in the most amazing lineage ever.

Ruth is next on the list and spoiler alert she is another Gentile Woman!!

The story of Ruth is actually quite beautiful one

Ruth was a Moabite woman who chose to accompany her aging mother-in-law, Naomi, to Israel even though she would be a stranger there. Ruth’s devotion to Naomi resulted in her gaining a husband (Boaz) and son (Obed) and becoming an ancestress of King David (Ruth 4:21–22). Ruth’s place in Jesus’ genealogy hints at the universality of Jesus’ mission, as the law forbade Moabites from entering the Lord’s assembly

1, 2, skip a few and we land on David

This is very important just as Abraham was at the beginning. It makes it known that Jesus was the son of David that the people were searching for. He is referred to several times in the New Testament as the Son of David

The Jewish people dreamed of this son of David and waited patiently for him to arrive

We all know the story of David

Goliath

Becomes great leader

becomes a great king

very faithful to the lord

but breaks 3/10 commandments

Adultery

Murder

And lusting after ones neighbor

I love how matthew adresses it in the lineage

Bethsheba isnt actually wrote out in the genealogy but is referred to as Uriah’s wife

Also a gentile woman.... Uriah the Hittite

Huge dagger to an jewish person reading it

One commentary i listened to about this topic actually put a different spin on it where Bethsheba plays a bigger role

Next we see Solomon

Referred to as one of the wisest men to ever live

Also had a tendenancy to enjoy lifes pleasuers as well

But he also wrote 2 books of the bible

Then we see a whole bunch of names that lead through the exile to Babylon

They messed up enough that God said ok and leaves them alone for a very long time

Things begin to turn around in verse 13 with Zerrubabel he was shown favor and was able to return and begin rebuilding the temple

Follow it on down and you end up at Jesus

lots of great stories in the text but cant talk about them all.

The Three Stages

The First one being Human Beings were born for Greatness

We are Created in Gods image

God wants us to be great or he would not put so much time and creativity into life

God just wants us to fellowship with him

We see that in the early stories of the bible again and again

We see Gods presence everywhere

Life

World

The Second is Human Beings Lost there Greatness

Instead of serving God they chose to become slaves of sin

Men and Women used there free will to disobey God and make there own way rather than follow him

The Third thing is Human Beings can Regain their Greatness

God did not leave us in the end

He did not allow us to destroy ourselves

He sent his only son to rescue us from ourselves

All so that we can restored to a place of fellowhip with him in his image!

In his Geneaogy Matthew shows us the royalty of Kingship gained, the tragedy of freedom, the glory of liberty restored and that in the mercy of God is the story of all humanity and of every individual.

The last thing I want to touch is the Genealogy proves that Jesus is for everyone

We see it addressed in the Gospel of Matthew before the birth of Jesus is even discussed he proves some big things and powerful things by writing out the lineage of Jesus

Is proven in the women Matthew chose to include

Like I said earlier this was not customary

We see the barrier between Jew and Gentile fall

We see the barrier between man and woman fall

And the barrier bewtween saint and sinner is removed

Matthew makes it very clear to the whole audience that Barriers are now removed that this Messiah is for everyone

Its so influential that Matthew begins the New Testament with this genealogy and what proves and also sets the stage for it would have been a real eye opener for the people of the time that had waited and waited on the messiah

I mentioned at the beg we see lots of loose endings in the OT but all those are completed with Jesus all the endings are now tied together

We see this genealogy begin with Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his son and God provides the ram to sacrifice and then we see it again at the end God again provides the ultimate sacrifice for all so that we can again be in Fellowship with him

Merry Christmas