“Beauty From A Broken Line”
Notes
Transcript
Grab a copy of God’s word this morning and open it to Matthew 1. You can look around the sanctuary this morning, and tell that the season of Christmas is upon us. It looks beautiful in here and downstairs as well. Thank you to Bruce & Jeanette and Brad & Tracy Lake for decorating. This sanctuary is gorgeous on its own, but when you add the greenery and lights, it just adds to the beauty.
We are in a beautiful season, a season that the church has set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Scripture never commands us to celebrate Christmas; it does present the birth of Jesus as a moment worthy of joy, worship, and proclamation. As believers, we choose to mark this season as a time to honor the miracle of God becoming flesh for us. The beauty of his presence entering into our messed-up world, to give us the greatest gift ever, salvation.
We are going to be looking at how Matthew, the disciple of Jesus, writes about this miraculous and joyful event. Our text for today is Matthew 1:1-17. As always, I encourage you to have God’s word open as we go through our time together.
Let’s jump right into the exciting words of Matthew this morning as he tells us about Jesus coming into the world.
Matthew 1:1-17
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon (Saul-man), Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of JOtham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh (MA-NASA), Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah (Je-Ka-Nia) and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abihud (A-Bye-Hud), Abihud the father of Eliakim (El-Lie-A-Kim), Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud (El-E-U-D), Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan (Matt-ON), Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.
Those are exciting words, right? I mean, when kids ask us to read the Christmas story, this is where we turn, isn’t it? Let’s be honest, show of hands, how many of you this is the first time you have actually read those verses? I’m just kidding, don’t raise your hands! Those verses are easy to skip over, aren’t they? It’s 16 verses of names, with a verse at the end calculating the names.
Matthew is the first book of the New Testament; it is one of the gospels of Jesus. Gospel means good news. Matthew chooses to start the good news of Jesus with 16 verses of names. Why? Believe it or not, these names serve a purpose.
Genealogy is about identity, and identity is everything in the story of Jesus. Matthew isn’t wasting words; he’s proving that everything God promised has come true. In these names, we see are main truth for today:
God brings His promised King from a broken line.
God brings His promised King from a broken line.
In the Bible, there are four Gospel accounts, 4 books that tell the good news of Jesus. Each account bears a different witness.
Mark = Lowly Servant
Luke = Son Of Man
John = Son Of God
Matthew = King Of The Jews
Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, and he is showing them that Jesus is the promised king who will rule forever. Jews kept extensive genealogies to establish a person’s heritage, inheritance, legitimacy, and rights. Matthew is saying, let’s see Jesus’ earthly family line, so you understand that he is who he says he is.
When my grandma was alive, she would at times talk about people, whom I had no idea who they were, but she thought I should know who they were. She may be talking about Henry like I know who he is, eventually I would say “I have no idea who that is,” and you know what she would tell me? “Well, yes, you do”, then she would proceed to tell me who they are, and it usually went something like this.
Well, you know, Sarah, that’s about your age who comes to church sometimes, well, her mom, who works at the bank, is a niece to Henry’s son. You have probably seen him a couple of times; he wears overalls and always has a toothpick in his mouth. He lives next to the old Miller place, anyway, he is Henry’s son, so now you know who I am talking about. 99% of the time, I had less of an idea who Henry was than when we started the conversation. So, I would say no, not really, and then we would try a different family tree, or she would say Well, it really doesn't matter for this story anyway.
Today, we do the same thing Matthew is doing here. To understand who someone is, we look back at the people they came from. Now, there are companies dedicated to this type of genealogy. In this case, these names absolutely matter. In verse one, Matthew says this is the genealogy of Jesus, but he doesn’t just say Jesus. It says in verse 1, the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah or Christ.
The word messiah or Christ means the same thing. Hebrew is Messiah, Greek is Christ, and it means “the anointed one”. God’s promised King who would save His people and establish God’s kingdom forever. By Matthew adding that title to this man named Jesus, he is saying I'm not just telling you about any guy, I’m telling you about the promised one of God that you have been waiting on.
Matthew’s Jewish audience would know the Old Testament scriptures, which were very specific about where the Messiah would come from. From Abraham’s line, Judah’s tribe, David’s house, and Bethlehem’s town. Matthew opens with a genealogy to show that Jesus checks every box. That Jesus is the king who was promised through the line of David.
Why are we interested in Jesus’ genealogy? We are interested for the same reason that motivated Matthew to record it. To know that Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus.
Matthew’s genealogy is not just about names. It’s about what’s behind the names:
Promises
Purpose
Faithfulness
Hope
Grace
God’s unstoppable plan
For a couple of thousand years, the Messiah has been promised; he has now been born and lived, and Matthew writes saying Jesus, who was crucified, is the Messiah, the king, and he checks every box.
These names teach us that:
1) Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise
1) Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise
The Gospels were written after Jesus’ earthly ministry for a purpose; they were written to help people know who Jesus was and to come to follow him. Luke says at the beginning of his Gospel, “so that you may know for certain the things you have been taught”. So that you may know for certain who Jesus is. Matthew, in his Gospel, is appealing to the Jews, Jesus is the King, he is the Messiah, the promised one of God. He is the son of David.
That’s what verse 1 says: being the son of David means Jesus has the correct pedigree to be King. Matthew is pointing to the fulfillment of prophecy. Then he goes a step further and says the son of Abraham, in Genesis 12:3, God told Abraham through his seed all nations would be blessed. Jesus is the fulfillment of that.
Matthew is writing to Jews who took genealogies very seriously, and if they could have disproven it, they would have, but they couldn’t. This genealogy of Jesus here is not the blood descent of Jesus through Mary, but the legal descent of Jesus through Joseph. The Gospel of Luke provides Jesus’ genealogy through Mary.
Adoption in Judaism awarded full hereditary rights; an adoptive father’s pedigree became the child’s standing before the law. Knowing that Joseph was himself of the line of David makes Jesus the rightful legal heir to the throne of David.
Matthew is proving with factual, historical, and traceable evidence that Jesus is in fact the Messiah, just as he claimed to be, and he takes us back through 3 sets of 14 generations to prove it.
These names prove that Jesus is the Messiah he claimed to be, both legally through Joseph and through the bloodline of Mary in Luke. It also proves that Jesus didn’t just appear; he was promised.
This matters for us today. It shows that Jesus was always the plan to fix our broken relationship with God. The relationship that was broken because we disobeyed God the Father. From Genesis to Malachi, the entire Old Testament, we have promises of a Messiah that is to come, and every one of those promises came true in Jesus. God is reliable. You can trust him with everything in your life. God will keep every promise He has made to you in Christ.
Some of the promises God has made to us in Christ include:
· Salvation and forgiveness of sins — Ephesians 1:7
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
· Eternal life — John 3:16
· God’s presence and help — Matthew 28:20
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
· Peace and rest — John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
· Provision and care — Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
· The Holy Spirit to guide us — John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
God kept his promise to send the Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus. God will continue to keep his promises he has made to those who have faith in him.
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
When life feels uncertain, slow, or broken, this genealogy stands as proof that God is never late, never careless, and never unreliable. He keeps His word. We can live with confidence because our God is a promise keeper.
Where are you putting your hope and trust? Are you putting it in Jesus, who has been proven both through scripture and history? Or are you putting it in something temporary that won’t last?
Something else becomes very clear when we dig a little into these names: this is not a perfect family line. This is not the kind of polished, spotless family tree you would expect to lead to the King of kings.
Look at some of the names that we recognize here,
- Abraham — the father of faith, yes, but he also lied—twice—putting his wife in danger to protect himself (Genesis 12 & 20).
- Isaac — repeated some of the same sins as his father and played favorites within his home, which tore his family apart (Genesis 27).
- Jacob — whose very name means “deceiver,” manipulated and schemed his way through life.(Genesis 27).
- David — Israel’s greatest king, but also a man who committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the death of her husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11).
- Kings like Rehoboam, who tore the kingdom apart, and Manasseh, one of the most wicked kings in Judah’s history.
Matthew is not trying to hide the brokenness; he highlights it. He includes 4 women in this genealogy, which is a big deal because women’s testimonies at this time were not even considered trustworthy, and these women show up in the genealogy of Jesus. We see:
Tamar — a story marked by deception and scandal. She sold herself as a prostitute to her father-in-law (Genesis 38).
Rahab — a Gentile woman, and a former prostitute (Joshua 2).
Ruth — a Moabite, from a people often opposed to Israel, she was a foreigner (Ruth 1).
"Uriah’s wife" —Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11).
The family line of Jesus is full of sinners, outsiders, failures, and broken stories. Even in the genealogy, we see grace on display. Jesus didn’t come from a perfect family line; He came for broken families. He didn’t come from a flawless line; He came to redeem flawed people. The genealogy is not a list of spiritual all-stars; it’s a list of people who needed the very Savior who came through them.
The truth we see here is that:
2) God works through broken people
2) God works through broken people
This matters for us today because some of you feel like your past disqualifies you. Some of you feel like your family story is too messy, too painful, or too embarrassing. Some feel like your mistakes make you unusable in God’s kingdom. Some focus so much on their past that they forget that God, through Jesus, has changed their future. But God worked through this genealogy to bring the Messiah.
Jesus Himself came from a line filled with imperfect, messy, and deeply human people, and He never let the brokenness of prior generations distract Him from His mission.
People tried to use His background against Him:
· “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” as if His humble upbringing made Him unfit to be the Messiah.
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
· “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” — as if where He came from determined who He could be.
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
· “We know this man’s family” (Mark 6:3 — as if the ordinary, imperfect nature of His earthly relatives disqualified Him.
Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
Yet Jesus never apologized for where He came from, because He knew His identity was rooted in the Father, not in public opinion. He walked in full obedience to God’s mission regardless of what others assumed about His background.
That same thing is true for us today, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we are given a new identity, we become a Child of God the Father. Our past shapes us, but Jesus transforms us. We don’t apologize for where we came from, but in Jesus, we are a new creation, and we must find our identity in that.
Your past does not disqualify you. Your family story does not disqualify you. Your weakness does not disqualify you. In Christ, your identity is not who you were or what you’ve done or what’s been done to you. Your identity is in our Savior Jesus.
Matthew 1 is proof that God doesn’t avoid broken people; He moves toward them. God doesn’t write around brokenness; He writes His story through it. God doesn’t discard flawed people; He redeems them and uses them for His glory.
The same God who worked through all these people to bring us Jesus still works through you today!
You don’t need a perfect family, a spotless past, or a flawless record for God to work through your life. The same God who worked through Abraham’s failures, Isaac’s fears, and David’s sins is the God who works through you. Their stories weren’t perfect. But God’s grace was.
And just like Jesus didn’t let the reputation of Nazareth, His humble family background, or the opinions of others derail His mission…neither should you. You are God’s workmanship, created for good works God prepared in advance (Ephesians 2:10). Your past can explain who you were, but it cannot define who you are. Your family history may shape you, but in Christ, it will not limit you. God delights in using ordinary, messed-up, redeemed people for extraordinary purposes.
Think of a stained-glass mosaic. Up close, it’s just broken, uneven pieces, scratched, chipped, and nothing special on their own. But in the hands of a skilled artist, those shattered pieces become something beautiful.
That’s what God does with us. He redeems us through Jesus. He doesn’t throw away the parts of your story you wish weren’t there. He says Come to me, and I will make you new. Trust in my son, and let him define who you are.
God works through broken people, and:
3) God’s timing is perfect, even when it seems slow.
3) God’s timing is perfect, even when it seems slow.
Verse 17 tells us Matthew organizes Jesus’ genealogy into three sets of fourteen generations—42 generations, stretching across more than 2,000 years. From Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and from the exile to Christ, God was writing one long story of promise and fulfillment.
And none of it came quickly.
There were seasons of waiting, centuries of wandering, and times of deep disappointment. God’s people lived through exile, where it looked like the kingdom was gone forever. They endured 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew—no prophet, no fresh word from the Lord, no visible movement.
But the silence was not absence.
While they waited, God was still working.
While they wondered, God was still faithful.
When it felt like nothing was happening, God was moving history toward Jesus.
And when the time was just right, not early, not late, Christ came
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
This matters for us because many of us are living in a “middle section” of our own story. You’re praying, but God feels quiet. You’re waiting, but you don’t see movement. You’re hoping, but nothing seems to change.
Matthew’s genealogy reminds us:
God is never rushed, never confused, never behind schedule, and never inactive.
His delays are not His denials.
His silence is not His absence.
His timing is perfect, even when it feels painfully slow.
Matthew 1 invites you to trust that God is working right now in ways you cannot see. Your waiting is not wasted. God uses the waiting seasons to shape you, prepare you, strengthen you, and draw you closer to Him. The same God who orchestrated 2,000 years of history to bring Christ at the perfect moment is guiding your story with that same faithfulness.
So what do we do while we wait? As believers.
We keep trusting when we can’t see.
We keep obeying when it feels slow.
We keep praying when it feels quiet.
We keep walking faithfully, believing God knows what we do not.
Waiting is not wasted when God is in it. He uses the waiting to shape your character, deepen your faith, and prepare you for what He’s planned next. You may not understand His timing today, but one day you will look back and see that every “delay” had purpose.
Think about an apple seed.
If you plant that tiny seed today, you don’t eat an apple tomorrow. You don’t even see a tree tomorrow. At first, it seems like nothing is happening.
But underneath the soil:
· The seed dies to begin new life.
· Roots push downward long before branches grow upward.
· A fragile sprout breaks through the dirt.
· Over months, the sprout becomes a sapling.
· Over years, the sapling becomes a tree strong enough to bear weight.
· And only after time, growth, storms, pruning, and seasons does fruit finally appear.
What looked invisible. What looked like nothing was actually a process that was leading to good fruit.
That’s what God does in your life.
You may feel like all you have is a seed, a prayer, a hope, a desire, a promise.
You may feel buried.
You may feel unseen.
You may feel like nothing is changing.
But God is growing something in you that will one day bear fruit, in His time, in His way, and for His glory. In the waiting, trust God, his promises are sure, and his timing is perfect.
Matthew begins his Gospel with a long list of names, not to bore us, but to anchor us. To show us that Jesus didn’t step into history randomly or accidentally. He came as the fulfillment of God’s promise, through a line of deeply human, deeply flawed people, at exactly the right time.
This genealogy is not filler; it’s foundation.
It tells us who Jesus is—the promised King.
It tells us who God uses—broken, ordinary people.
It tells us how God works—faithfully and perfectly.
And that means something for every one of us.
If Jesus is the promised Messiah, then you can trust every promise God has made to you in Him.
If God worked through a broken family line, then your story, no matter how messy, can be redeemed and used for His purposes.
If God was faithful through thousands of years of waiting, then He has not forgotten you in your waiting today.
Matthew 1 ends with a name: Jesus. Jesus, the King who stepped into human history to bring hope, healing, forgiveness, and restoration.
As you look at the broken pieces of your life. As you wrestle with your past or wonder about your future. As you wait on God to move or speak. As we celebrate this Christmas season, remember this: The same God who kept every promise leading to Jesus will keep every promise He has made through Jesus.
He is faithful.
He is trustworthy.
And He is still writing your story.
Because the beauty of Matthew 1 is not found in the names, it’s found in the God who keeps His word, redeems broken people, and brings His plans to pass right on time. God brings His promised King from a broken line.
