For the month of December in the mornings, we're going to look at the opening chapters of the Gospel of Matthew.
It's on page 965 in the Church Bible.
And what we'll see today is a grace-filled family tree.
Matthew chapter 1 at verse 1.
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, 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 Nashon.
Nashon, the father of Salmon. 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.
Manasseh, the father of Ammon. Ammon, the father of Josiah.
And Josiah, the father of Jeconiah 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 Abiud. Abiud, the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the father of Zadok.
Zadok, the father of Achim. Achim, the father of Eliud.
Eliud, the father of Eleazar. Eleazar, the father of Mathan.
Mathan, the father of Jacob. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
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 Christ.
Amen.
One of the things that we're going to think about is, why does Matthew choose to start his story of the coming of Jesus with a family tree?
Many moons ago, I studied library and information science in Aberdeen, and I had a professor there who, as his party piece,
I remember one afternoon, he cleared the desk, and he rolled out a piece of paper, a huge piece of paper, on which he proceeded to map out, from memory, his family tree dating back four hundred years.
So he would tell us about who was married where, and it sounded like he'd been there. He knew that kind of level of detail.
He could tell us who were the great and the good, who were the sort of notable people.
And he also told us, he was one of those guys where even when his family had sort of dubious characters, skeletons in the closet, they were really interesting.
They were pretty cool. You know, it's like, my great-great-grandpa was a pirate. It was that kind of a family tree.
But what he was doing, as well as teaching us how to research, he was, in a sense, saying, this is who I am.
This is where I fit within this family, within this people.
Why does Matthew begin with Jesus' family tree?
Because Matthew is saying to us, this is where Jesus fits in the story of God's dealing with the world and with his people.
This is who Jesus is. This isn't just a family tree. This is also Jesus' CV.
Here is why he is qualified to be the Christ, to be the chosen King and Saviour.
So Matthew gives us, right at the beginning, this family tree to help people then and now to understand Jesus as a source of hope.
To see how the longings of Israel, indeed the longings of the world, are fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.
And so what we're going to see is that his family tree, the one that Matthew gives us here, makes powerful statements about Jesus' identity and about Jesus' place.
At first, and at a very basic level, it will remind us Jesus is a historical figure.
He lived in a certain place and at a certain time.
The story doesn't begin once upon a time, like our fairy tales or like our myths.
This story connects us with history and with the story of the nation of Israel.
We are also going to see that Jesus comes to fulfill God's promises.
We see that attention is drawn to Abraham and to David.
And we're going to see why that's significant when we think about what it means that Jesus is God's Christ, God's anointed King.
And we're also going to see that Jesus' family history is marked by God's grace.
Because like every family tree, as we begin to trace it, I don't know if you know yours, but at some point we will find skeletons in the closet.
We will find dysfunction and breakdown.
But in Jesus' family tree, that dysfunction is not hidden.
Rather, it's highlighted in order to show God's love and mercy to the world.
So as we were reading that, you may have been thinking, this is really not my thing.
I'm not a family tree person.
I hope that whether you're that person or not, we'll be able to see that Jesus' family tree is actually a cause for worship for all of us this morning.
So the first thing I want us to focus on is the fathers of Jesus and the promises of God.
I want us to focus on the two characters that are focused on in the family tree.
Verse 1, a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
And then that first chart of the 14 generations begins with Abraham there in verse 2.
Then in verse 6, the next 14 begin with David.
So this family tree is on the one hand connecting to what God has already been doing.
It reminds us as readers of God calling Abraham, of God giving him a family, that family who would become the nation of Israel.
And part of that was God then giving David and the kings to rule for him.
And that history is traced to the exile, the darkest days in the nation's history,
and then back to the coming of Jesus the Christ.
But let's ask ourselves the question, why highlight Abraham?
In Genesis 12, we first meet Abraham in Genesis 11, but in Genesis 12 we discover that God calls Abraham out of false worship
in order to become one of God's people, and he makes great promises to Abraham.
He makes a covenant.
He commits himself to Abraham and he says,
I will give you a family, I will make your name great,
and I will give you the land known as the promised land.
And he said to Abraham,
So one of the reasons Matthew highlights Abraham is so that we are clued into the fact that Jesus comes to be that promised seed.
He is the one through whom all the nations of the world, all peoples, can know God's blessing and God's goodness.
But the question is how?
How does that goodness come to us through Jesus?
Well, let's continue thinking about the story of Abraham.
In Genesis 15, you can read about it later,
There's this moment where Abraham is getting older and he still doesn't have any family,
and he's saying to God,
You promised me family and I don't have any,
and God recommits himself to giving him a great family, making him a great nation.
And to prove his commitment, he enters into this covenant ceremony.
And in this ceremony, Abraham is told to take some animals and to slaughter them,
to cut them in half and to make a path.
So there's an animal, half an animal all the way up one side and half on the other side, making that path.
Because in Abraham's day, when two kings wanted to make a binding agreement,
this is something that they might do.
They would walk through it, having made their agreement,
they would walk through these cut-up animals as if to say,
If I break my word to you, let what happened to the animals happen to me.
If I break this covenant, may death come.
Back to Genesis 15, Abraham in a vision sees God as a flaming torch
and God alone walking through the pieces of the cut-up animal.
Here is God saying,
I am absolutely committed to my covenant promise to bless the world.
And if this covenant is broken,
may what happened to those animals happen to me.
Now what does this have to do with our story?
What does this have to do with the story of Jesus?
Well, the Bible tells us that God made us in His image, in His likeness,
so that we might worship Him,
so that we might live in covenant relationship with Him,
where we would obey Him joyfully,
where we would love Him truly.
But for us as people, we have all broken covenant with God
by our lack of love,
by our false worship,
by our sin,
and by our rebellion.
And when we think in covenant terms,
and when we think of Genesis 15,
therefore, because we are covenant lawbreakers,
we should face the penalty for breaking that law.
We deserve God's judgment.
We deserve to face death.
But God in His goodness sends Jesus as an act of love and mercy.
What does Jesus do for us?
He comes as the perfect Son of God,
who lives in perfect obedience to God's law,
but then on the cross,
He dies for covenant lawbreaking.
He takes our sin on His shoulders,
and He faces that penalty.
His body is torn.
That He takes the penalty
so that we might once again
live at peace with God.
We might be forgiven by God
and enjoy life with Him.
Jesus coming,
and coming to die on the cross,
is our way back to God.
That's God's blessing for the world.
That's how Jesus fulfills that promise to Abraham.
That for anybody who understands,
I'm a sinner before God,
and I cannot make myself good enough for a holy God,
we see Jesus as good news.
Because we are invited to trust in Jesus
as our Son of God,
as our Savior,
the one who in love took our sin
to give us eternal life.
so that through Him,
we can know true love and peace and joy
that comes from God.
So the fathers of Jesus,
Abraham here reminds us of the promises of God.
But he's not the only one who's highlighted.
We're also told about David.
David stands at the head of the second
of the 14 generations.
David was the father of Solomon,
we're told in verse 6.
So why highlight David?
Well, David was the great king.
He was God's chosen king,
described in the Bible as a man after God's own heart.
And he too received a covenant promise from God.
So in 2 Samuel 7,
there's a moment where David
wants to build a temple for God,
and God says,
no one of your son, Solomon,
he'll build the temple.
But God says,
I'll make a name for you, David.
And he promises that one of David's family
would rule and reign as king,
not for a while,
but forever.
Not just of some people,
but over all people.
David is promised the universal eternal king
would come from his family.
Now, when we get to our family tree here,
and as we think about the history of Israel,
history suggested this promise was under threat.
Because bear in mind that the exile had happened,
so there were no longer kings of Israel
sitting on the throne.
Owing to their disobedience,
owing to the fact that they kept walking away from God
and choosing to worship idols,
they had been sent out of the promised land,
they had been defeated and taken prisoner,
and even now,
they are ruled by Rome.
So the line of kings had ended,
and so there's this source of tension,
will it ever come back?
Will there ever be a king in the line of David on the throne?
And here is Matthew's message.
This eternal king has come,
because Jesus has come.
And he has come to rule perfectly for God.
You can read the history of the kings of Israel,
and you discover that in many ways,
they all failed to perfectly reflect God's rule,
but Jesus won't.
And so he is the answer to the darkness and the fear.
He is the answer to hope beyond despair,
and that ties in with the title that Jesus is given.
Jesus is the Christ.
He is God's anointed one,
just as the kings of Israel were anointed with oil
to show that they were chosen by God
and were given authority by God.
This is true absolutely of Jesus.
He is God's chosen king for us all.
Therefore, there is a summons to us.
God has sent Jesus his king.
And so we need to ask ourselves,
am I submitting to his good and loving rule?
And for us as a church,
there's also an opportunity,
there is a mission for us.
How can I be part of establishing
the kingdom rule of Jesus in my life
and where I am?
How can I be built up in my faith
so that my life is founded on Jesus
and his word and his salvation?
How can I share the good news of Jesus
with the people around me
and my friends and my family?
How can I be helping to build other Christians up
in their faith so that they will continue
walking with Jesus, the king,
and submitting to his rule?
So the fathers of Jesus that are highlighted here
speak to us of the promises of God.
Let's think now about the mothers of Jesus
that are mentioned and the grace of God
that we find in this section.
Before we do that,
let's talk about airbrushing for a couple of minutes.
Why is it that we, as people,
airbrush when we are about to post a photo,
perhaps to social media,
quite often people will like to do
a little bit of photoshopping,
a little bit of editing,
before that gets made public.
You will find that too,
when people are writing history or biographies,
they will sometimes airbrush history.
Now let's not focus on those failings
of a particular leader or a particular nation.
Let's concentrate on the great and the good moments.
Why do we, as individuals,
pretend that we have it all together,
that we have life figured out?
Why do we feel that urge to pretend
that our family is the perfect family sometimes?
We want to airbrush our flaws.
Now we maybe have different reasons for doing that.
Sometimes it's because we're proud.
Sometimes it's because we had that fear
or anxiety of being found out.
Sometimes it's because our self-image
and our feelings of self-worth
are not based on trusting in Jesus,
but this perception
that we are the ones that have got life all figured out.
Now, compare this with Jesus' family tree.
Compare this with what Matthew presents for us here.
Matthew goes out of his way
to reference time and again
elements of dysfunction.
He highlights in this family tree
those who are both sinners
and those who have been sinned against.
Matthew chooses to highlight
surprising figures
to highlight God's grace.
To show that being part of Jesus' family
isn't just for the great and the good.
It's not for people who've got their lives all sorted out.
It's for those whose lives are broken.
Those who are needy.
He's for us.
How does he do that?
It's largely done
actually through including women.
Did you notice?
Father, father, father, father, father.
But then occasionally
we hear about a mother.
That was very unusual
in Jesus' day.
Family trees were drawn
based on the male line.
But it's not just every woman
that's included.
Very particular women
are included in this family tree.
But before we get to the details
here is Matthew reminding us
that Jesus came
for those who perhaps society
undervalues.
those who might be forgotten.
Those who are undervalued.
Jesus came for.
God's love is not restricted.
God's love is open.
God's love is open to anyone
who will receive it.
But let's look at how
Matthew highlights grace for us
through the women
that he chooses to include.
Our first is in verse 3.
We're going to give a brief biography,
very brief biography
of these women.
Judah,
the father of Perez
and Zerah,
whose mother was Tamar.
What's her story?
Well, you can find it
in Genesis chapter 38.
Tamar was married
to one man
who died.
His brother
was supposed to marry her
and continue the family.
But he is disobedient.
Judah,
her father-in-law,
promises to care for her
and to provide for her
but lets her down.
She's badly treated
with no prospect of family.
So what Tamar does
is she dresses up
as a prostitute
and she tricks
her father-in-law
to sleep with her
to begin a family.
So she has these twins.
That's her story.
The second woman
that's mentioned
is in verse 5.
Salmon,
the father of Boaz,
whose mother
was Rahab.
Now when we turn
to the book of Joshua
and Joshua chapter 2,
we find that Rahab
is an actual prostitute
living in Jericho,
one of the enemy cities
that Israel will defeat.
But Rahab
fears God,
honours God,
recognises
that God has given Israel
the promised land
and so she
joins
the people of God.
Our third woman
mentioned
is also
in verse 5.
Boaz,
the father of Obed,
whose mother
was Ruth.
Ruth gets
a book
in the Bible.
In the middle
of the darkness
of the time
of the judges,
Ruth stands out
as light.
Here is another foreigner.
She's from Moab,
a hated enemy
of Israel.
But she turns
to God.
She sees her
mother-in-law's
faith,
her faith
in God.
She trusts
in the God
of the Bible.
She moves
back to Israel
and she becomes
a model
in her community
of faith
and loyalty
and she becomes
part of
King David's
family line.
Then we have
a fourth woman
mentioned
or not mentioned
in verse 6.
Jesse,
the father of King David.
David was the
father of Solomon
whose mother
had been Uriah's
wife.
So we know
from the story
of the Bible
that this is Bathsheba.
You can find
this story
in 2 Samuel
chapter 12.
Now you might
be asking
why is her name
not mentioned?
Is that
disrespect
on Bathsheba?
No, I think
the intention
is to show
that King David
had really
messed up.
The focus
is on the fact
that he has
committed adultery.
He's taken
another man's
wife.
He's slept
with her.
When she becomes
pregnant
he arranges
to have Uriah,
one of his
brave soldiers,
killed.
But Bathsheba
has a place
in the family
of Jesus.
And of course
the fifth woman
is in verse 16
and that's
Mary.
Jacob,
the father of Joseph,
the husband
of Mary
of whom was
born Jesus
who is called
Christ.
Mary,
the teenage
virgin
who is chosen
by God
to be the
mother of Jesus
the Christ
as a gift
of grace.
And we'll think
about her story
next week.
But what binds
all those
unusual surprising
stories together
it's God's
grace.
As Tim Keller
puts it,
there's a place
in the family
of God
according to
this family tree
and according
to the Bible
for those
who are outsiders
because of their
gender.
For those
who are outsiders
because of the
society or the
nation that they
come from.
Because of their
moral failure
and compromise.
There is grace
available
in Jesus.
Jesus.
So you might be
here today
and you're
thinking,
well,
I'm not
from a
Christian
country.
I'm not
from a
Christian
family.
Could God
love me?
And here
is Matthew
led by the
Spirit of God
to point us
to stories
that say,
yes,
of course,
here is
Rahab.
She's not
from the
people of God.
Here's Ruth.
She's from
a foreign
nation and
she knows
they know
God's grace.
Maybe we're
sitting here
full of guilt.
I've done
terrible things
in my past.
Could God
accept me
with the mess
that my life
has been?
Think about
the stories
that we've
just reflected
on.
Here is
Tamar
dressed up
as a prostitute
to commit
incest with
her father-in-law.
Here is the
story of David
and Bathsheba
and adultery
and murder
and there is
grace.
For them
I've been
sinned
against.
Does
Jesus
provide hope
that my
identity
can be
rooted in
something
other than
the way
people have
treated me?
Again,
Tamar,
Bathsheba
say yes
to us.
The grace
of God
is greater
than
our sin
and greater
than the sins
committed
against
us.
The family
of Jesus
today,
as it was
then,
is not
made up
of the
great and
the good.
The family
of God
is made
up of
those who
have
skeletons
in our
own
closets.
It's made
up of
people like
us who
are messed
up,
who are
broken,
who get
things wrong.
But there's
still hope
for us
because of
God's
grace.
Jesus'
family
is filled
with
tremendous
love and
hope because
it reminds
us that
we're not
the centre
of the
story.
Jesus is.
All of
this history
is moving
towards the
coming of
the Christ,
the one
who brings
forgiveness
and new
life and
promise from
God.
So this
family tree
gives us
really good
news if
we see
our spiritual
need, if
we see
Jesus coming
to fulfil
God's
loving rescue
plan, if
we see how
faith in
him brings
us into
this family
tree of
God.
So as we
enter into
Advent season,
here is an
invitation to
slow down
to stop
and to
reflect.
Because if
this is
true, then
it's something
that's too
important to
ignore and
it's something
that's too
important to
just rush
past in
the middle
of all the
other stuff
that we
do at
Christmas.
Don't let
that stuff
cause us
to miss
Jesus the
Christ and
to miss
the fact
that here
is a
family tree
that is
dominated
by grace.
I guess
in every
family tree
there are
qualities that
pass down
through the
generations,
whether that's
in terms of
physical appearance,
whether it's in
terms of our
temperament and
personality,
whether it's the
things that we
happen to be
good at.
what is it
that passes
down the
family line
of Jesus?
In Jesus'
family tree,
grace is
the cord
that runs
all the way
through.
It goes right
down to our
DNA, in fact,
as the people
of God.
And so that
has implications
for us as a
church as we
live together.
We should be
the most
graceful and
the most
gracious place
in the world.
We should be
an attractive
community of
goodness,
where the way
that we live
together makes
people stop and
think, what is it
about them that's
so different
in a good way?
It gives us
a mission
to share this
spirit of Christmas,
giving of
ourselves to
extend kindness,
to offer
friendship to
those who are
lonely, to
offer
reconciliation
where there
has been
breakdown, to
extend kindness
to outsiders
because that's
what Jesus
does for
us.
So, Jesus
is God's
Christ.
He is God's
way of
blessing the
world.
He is God's
eternal
king.
Will we
delight in
him, really
delight in
him, love
him, worship
him this
Christmas?