Matthew 1:1-17

[0:00] Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Matthew chapter 1, verses 1 through 17.

[0:16] 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, 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 Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon 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.

[0:56] 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 Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, 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 his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

[1:35] And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel the father of Abed and Abed 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 Eliud and Eliud the father of Eleazar and Eleazar the father of Mathan and Mathan the father of Jacob.

[2:05] And Jacob was 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 fourteen generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

[2:29] This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, God. Please be seated. I think I have an idea of what you're thinking.

[2:47] You're glad that your name's not Kevin Schwartz and that you weren't asked to read the scripture reading today. Just as Nathaniel once asked, can anything good come out of the town of Nazareth?

[3:02] Innumerable voices would rise today and ask, can anything good come out of a text that is comprised of nothing but names?

[3:16] Genealogies. The bits in the Bible that we blow by in search of better stuff is the boring part.

[3:27] Nothing more boring than hearing about someone else's family tree. At best, it's a garnish.

[3:39] A sprig of parsley that you push aside with the tine of your fork so that the real eating can begin. That's the way we take genealogies.

[3:53] We blow by them. We're bored with them. And truth be told, most of us think the Bible would not be any worse off if it were without them.

[4:04] And so I want you to picture yourself today standing quietly in the home of Matthew.

[4:15] There he is. In his study. Source documents laid out before him.

[4:29] And he's in search in his mind for the best way of beginning his glorious gospel story.

[4:40] Can you see him? And suddenly he puts his stylus down and his head is thrown back and he speaks as if there was someone in the room with him.

[4:54] I've got it! The grandest of stories requires the greatest of starters. Language elevated enough to stir every reader's attention.

[5:11] Words that cause the entire world to take note. I am going to open my gospel with a genealogy. And the world will wonder.

[5:25] Yes. The world does wonder. But not as he imagined. And so we should ask ourselves today upon the hearing of God's Word.

[5:38] What does Matthew know that you do not? What does Matthew understand that we fail to comprehend?

[5:50] Why does he open his Christmas narrative? And indeed if you look at this text 1-1 at least through 2-23 comprise his Christmas narrative.

[6:03] Why does he open his Christmas narrative with the recitation of nearly 42 names in sequence? You and I unless you're a political buff like Ben Leinard you can't handle all of our president's names in order.

[6:24] Yet here he's giving this all straight away. Today I want to be of some help to you. I'd like you to begin thinking first of all when you when you view the genealogy in Matthew 1 to view it as Matthew's Christmas party guest list.

[6:46] I think that's really what it is. There's certainly warrant I think exegetically in the text for doing so.

[6:57] After all take a look at your text no sooner does he have all of these people assembled under his roof drinking eggnog that by verse 17 at that point he commences with his Christmas story.

[7:14] Look at the way verse 18 reads now the birth of Jesus took place in this way. So when he speaks of Christmas he has first hosted a party and what a party he threw just look just look around take a look at the people in the room of verses 2 through 17 some of those who are in attendance are very well known names that would be familiar to most people even if they haven't read the Bible very much at all others are hardly known at all we have here in this list the famous and the infamous and they all alike have accepted Matthew's invitation and they have come in fact this is the only time in the Bible that we have all of these people in the same room together only here that's how special this list is only here at Matthew's party are they gathered for the world to see and so you and

[8:27] I when you begin to view it as his Christmas party guest list begin to imagine Tamar over on one side of the room talking with Ruth cheese and crackers in hand looking around at the vast room of men and wondering do you have any idea why we were invited and over here at this table with a bowl of shrimp is Solomon seated with Zerubbabel and they've got architectural drawings out on the table and they're in great discussion in regard to the temple they're all here Matthew finally closes the front door and enters into the room and he says excuse me can I have your attention please thank you for coming really thank you for coming to my party I know you're probably wondering why I've asked you all to come well you all have something in common you were the carriers of God's great promise in your own time each one of you singled out by God to move his promise forward and you need to know that the cause for the celebration well the season is nigh it is here it is come the promised one his birth is about to take place and before

[10:10] I tell the world well I want you here with me as we celebrate well that's that's the power of a genealogy there's nothing like a party to bring a genealogy to life and hopefully then your interest in this text will be piqued and I want to point out for you at the time that remains two things that are revealed in the genealogy that matter for us today first I want you to notice his party list is carefully put together this is not haphazardly done in other words I want you to notice it works according to a plan and then we'll talk about the implications of it and second

[11:13] I want to explore with you in the minutes that come that he intends this entire evening this celebration in which they are all gathered to serve one purpose and then I want to talk about what that might mean for you and for me so let's take a look keep your text open Matthew 1 what is the plan in this genealogy clearly it's revealed isn't it for us at the end of the reading not the beginning you don't really understand his plan until he he lands with these words in verse 17 where he says so let me let me let me let me bring it all together for you so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14 generations it reveals his plan the invitation list is meant to be viewed as perfectly balanced not comprehensive by nature but balanced it's a three it's written in a sense in a three fold division isn't it well I was going to get into this

[12:39] I don't need to because we're only in Matthew for a couple of weeks but Matthew writes almost everything in three fold ways well it's for you to read through and see for yourself it's a three fold division take a look if you've never seen it before verse 2 through the first line in verse 6 is the first division it's the genealogy that moves from Abraham to David and then verse 6 the second line all the way through verse 11 David to the exile and then the third triad verses 12 to 16 the exile to Christ his list is perfectly balanced you know it made me think this week of weddings I don't know if you've been to a wedding recently it's not necessarily the time of year for them but at any rate most often when people get married the bride and groom think that the wedding is about them and it only is by getting married that they realize how far from the truth that it really is because it's not about the bride and the groom at least when the parents get involved so the bride and the groom think that they ought to be inviting all of their friends and the parents make very clear that it's not about their friends and so the bride and the groom well their invitation list might be roughly a third of those who are coming because a third has to be reserved for the friends of the bride's parents and another third for the friends of the groom's parents so that the entire invitation list has balance now if you're not married and you're going to get married learn this now your friends will not be with you at your wedding but such is the list here the structure look they're each with fourteen according to verse seventeen in actuality the third set only lists thirteen unless of course you include

[14:42] Mary which there are some warrant for let me just take a moment to speak of Mary and of the women in the text by way of an aside I should mention them they are the unique guests of Matthew it's interesting to me that in inviting Mary he might be doing something inviting the other women in Mary Matthew has a plan even there let me see if I can make the plan clear to you what better way to prepare the reader for the scandalous birth birth of one that comes through Mary than by highlighting for the reader ahead of time by way of foresight that God in his plan has often used scandalous births I mean we have in the list of women here one who gave birth in the promised line by way of incest doesn't get any worse than that one who comes by way of adultery one who comes as a foreign widow and another who is just clear cut prostitute

[16:05] I love the women of Matthew 1 because it is clear that he wants you to know God's plan when God does something in the world he's not afraid of scandal that surrounds it and so that by the time you get to marry and we will next week giving birth this young girl at the age perhaps of 12 13 or 14 impregnated without being married and as a virgin if you take Isaiah's prophecy without ever even having intercourse well it's the ultimate scandal of all it supersedes all those that go before but by placing the women there Matthew's plan is clear to the reader do not reject out of hand what I'm going to tell you about Jesus because there is scandal in his line and that ought to give great hope to everyone here who comes from a scandalous line

[17:12] Tamar one of the great women of the Bible who lived at a time when the men would not live out the truthfulness of God's word and so she takes it upon herself to be faithful to God's word that the promise might go forward you don't get any better than Tamar although I haven't dedicated or baptized any Tamars recently not only does it show us then that it prepares the reader but the inclusion of these women in this genealogy of otherwise all men already begin to hint at the extent of God's promise hey it's for the world it's going to the Canaanites and more Canaanites and it's going to the Hittites and the

[18:18] Moabites Matthew's told you all of that before you get out of his opening party the work of God in the world is for the world not just for the educated not the elite not the well healed not merely those who are moral praise God for those who are immoral as the scriptures say God justifies the ungodly which is another way of saying Christmas can come to you well so much for the aside we got into that when we were looking at the structure or the division of the text that that you have these fourteen generations I want to let you know you know it's puzzled people forever why does he make this great point in verse seventeen as if the reader would go wow that is great fourteen for what so what but if you take the name of David and you place numerical value as they often did in these days to the consonants in his name

[19:31] Dawid three of them the first one d was worth four the second consonant receives six and then you're back to the d which is four and fourteen and it was not uncommon in this time to place numerical value to things in order to highlight emphasis so that when you read forty-two names they are perfectly balanced to point where David the promised king that when I'm telling you about Jesus you are seeing God's promises to David being fulfilled well what good is that to you and to me I want to tell you a little bit about the implications of Matthew's plan I think Matthew's plan here this perfect symmetry is very useful to you especially if you have not studied the Bible very long and I know that there are many of you here who have not yet done that

[20:32] Matthew's plan can help you put your Bible together perhaps for the very first time let me give you an illustration if I came into your place where you're staying or your home tell me what does your clothes closet look like maybe you don't want to tell me it's usually the door you don't want the visitors to look behind because if you open a clothes closet it can look pretty ugly indeed indeed sometimes I've been on my hands and knees trying to fish through my shoes in order to find a pair stuff strewn everywhere now let me open the closet to your understanding of the Bible that is to the way the Bible is put together the Old Testament in particular 37 books do you have any understanding of how they are put together most of us know that's a clothes closet we don't want to get into but look at what Matthew has done for you he helps you put the Bible together when you think of the Bible Graham's goals worthy has been a great help to me here he thinks in terms of three great epochs he thinks of a promise made to

[21:42] Abraham and how that moved to partial fulfillment in David that's how the Bible works by the time you reach Genesis 12 we've already seen that God's purposes for creation namely to bless everyone have hit the rails gone off the rails through the sin of Adam and Eve through one man sin enters the world and all people are under God's judgment so that you have that first 11 chapters run you right through the flood well when you get to Abraham though you have the first great holder of the promise and what was the promise that through him one man just as through one man sin entered the world and put God's wrath on all men so too through one man Abraham God is going to bring blessing again to all people all the families of the earth

[22:43] Genesis 12 1 to 3 and when Matthew says let me help you get your Bible back together he says it really begins if you understand Genesis 12 God made a big promise to bless people again through Abraham and he runs that through all the way till it's partial fulfillment in David if you're reading your Bible it takes you where it takes you basically to 1 Kings 10 I think of David and Solomon his son as the high point right there of by the time you reach 1 Kings 10 Solomon is on the throne he's got more wealth than anyone could want God has blessed him in immeasurable ways the people are in the land and the queen of Sheba is in attendance doing what receiving blessing so the high point of David and Solomon is that God's blessing is going forth to all the families of the!

[23:45] But that's only partial fulfillment the promise to Abraham partial fulfillment in David but then what happens from 1 Kings 10 on in the Bible you move from partial fulfillment in a sense to what it says here the exile or to the prophetic prediction that God will judge his people for failing to listen to his word but even though he judges them even though he sends them off into exile his promise of a king and a savior stands comfort comfort ye oh my people that's what he's saying it's happening and then the third great epic in the Bible moves from the exile to whom to Christ it's interesting many of us think the exile finished when they went back to rebuilding the wall not according to Matthew the exile is not done until Christ comes really until Pentecost comes that's not that's the time that we're finally

[24:47] God is drawing his people back from all four corners of the earth so when you read Matthew's genealogy there's a plan and the plan helps you put your Bible together think of the Bible in those terms God makes a big promise it looked like it was being fulfilled in David but it ran but it ran off to the exile but the prophets continued to speak that a ruler would come that's the way the Bible works who would have ever thought you'd learn that from a genealogy well aren't you glad you came today well let's move from the plan to his purpose Matthew's purpose in this genealogy is most clearly seen when you put the first verse together with the last verse Matthew 1-1 tells you something about

[25:50] Jesus's beginning the word genealogy there even is almost exactly what we have when we have our word genesis and there's a quiet subtle play on the mind of the reader that when you're beginning to read about Jesus you're beginning to read about a new beginning the origin of what God does in the world but look it takes you from the beginning and then it moves by verse 17 to what God is doing in the end now take those two words one one in the book of the beginning it's important for you and me to know that Matthew doesn't give you Jesus on his own no he introduces us to him by way of how he is related to two others who preceded him namely Abraham and David the son of

[26:53] David the son of Abraham and what was it about Abraham that was significant well we've already said he was the one who was the first recipient of the great promise to bring blessings to all the families of the earth and what was it that was great about David well David the son of David that's a term that has huge weight because in 2 Samuel 7 God promised David that one of his sons would be the promised one who would receive the kingdom of God forever and through whom God would begin to bestow his like presence upon all of humanity again that's David king he's the anointed one the Messiah the ruler so when he introduces Jesus he said I'm going to tell you about Jesus let me tell you something about Jesus he's a king he's not just any king he's the king the king of kings amen who comes through the promises of

[28:06] God that have been clearly laid out in history I get a kick out of people today who try to have this you know when did Jesus become the Christ and they do church history from 33 you know common era toward us you know as if somehow the church made Jesus this Jesus the Christ it's an absolutely backward way of answering the question Jesus as the Christ requires the reader to go back to the promises of time put forward to David and Abraham so that even in his birth we already know this Jesus is that Christ why he is the fulfillment of all of God's promises that's the first verse let me take you to the last verse well let me say one more thing on the first verse when you and I often think of

[29:14] Christmas we think of it only in terms of the beginning the start of something even take the liturgical calendar if you follow the liturgical calendar what's the first Sunday of the year first Sunday of Advent Matthew wants you to know that that's not quite the way you should have it his purpose is to put Christmas back in perspective it's not merely that Jesus is the start of something or that when you come to Matthew you're beginning something no he's the the end of it look at verse 17 he is the Christ now you've got to get this straight Christmas is not a beginning of anything by the time by the time you get here this is not some mere chronology this is the climax do you understand that in the opening line of Matthew's gospel you have entered into the climactic scene of all of human history in other words

[30:22] Christmas is the beginning of the end that's what 1.1 and 1.17 are meant to teach you and you have to get this back in perspective it's not about the creche it's about the one to whom you are to submit it's not a children's story I'm not looking for sentimental snow falling around the edges not that at all it's the sign that the end has come that God has put a king in the world and all humanity think of the snow falling around the edges what Matthew wants you to know is that all of humanity is to be falling on its knees that's Christmas well that's what we have from his

[31:31] Christmas list the point for you and for me well you ought to be asking yourself how do I get into this family line how do I get my way into this family tree how can I come under the purposes of God and his plan well Galatians 3 verse 7 says no then that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham that is your invitation to this party you want to party this year submit to the king how repent from establishing your own heritage and lineage and believe that in Jesus we have

[32:32] God's king under whom all the world will be judged let's pray our heavenly father we thank you for this genealogy and I pray lord today that it would cause us to not skip over the bits that we normally blow by or board with or push aside help each one here to understand your plan and to fall in line with your purpose to rejoice for the king has come in whose name we pray amen