a servant taking on humanity upon himself in order to save us.
So we're going to be in a series, a mini-series,
in the first two chapters of Matthew for the Advent season
through Christmas Eve,
and then we will resume our series in the Book of Acts.
So please turn with me to Book of Matthew.
It's the first book in the New Testament.
If you guys don't have a Bible, you can also raise your hand.
We have ushers that can bring you a Bible you can use.
We're in Matthew 1.
It looks like there's one there.
We're looking at Matthew 1, verses 1 to 17.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Heavenly Father, it is a wonder
that Jesus, your eternal Son,
the perfect one, the Holy One,
would take on human flesh,
would take on our infirmities,
would be tempted in every way just as we are.
We pray that you would help us
to marvel anew at what you have done for us in Jesus.
We pray that you would exalt Jesus in our lives today.
And we pray that you would help us
to receive his grace anew
as sinners in need of a Savior.
Address us now from your Word.
Speak to us.
We are listening.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Matthew 1, verses 1 to 17.
I'll read it out loud here.
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.
And Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.
And Perez the father of Hizron,
and Hizron the father of Ram.
And Ram the father of Abinadab,
and Aminadab the father of Nashon.
And Nashon the father of Solomon,
and Solomon 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.
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.
And after the deportation to Babylon,
Jeconiah was the father of Sheltiel,
and Sheltiel the father of Zerubbabel,
and Zerubbabel the father of Abud,
and Abud the father of Eliakim,
and Eliakim the father of Azor,
and Azor the father of Zadoc.
Zadoc the father of Achim,
and Achim the father of Eliud,
and Eliud the father of Eliezer,
and Eliezer the father of Methan,
and Methan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob 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 14 generations,
and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations,
and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
For generations, many people have kept track of their genealogy
by using a pedigree or ancestry chart,
and we commonly call that a family tree.
And family trees can help us feel connected to our heritage and history,
and because they reveal things about ourselves, people are interested in them.
But that expression, family tree, actually is derived from the Bible.
Prophesying about the coming Messiah in Isaiah 11, verse 1,
is that there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
So because of this plant metaphor used for the genealogy of the Messiah,
starting as early as the 11th century,
many artists have depicted Jesus' genealogy in the form of a literal tree.
On illuminated manuscripts, salters, walls, and embroideries, and stained glass windows,
you can see this tree of the Messiah, the family tree, all over the world.
And here in Matthew 1, we see Jesus' family tree traced through King David
and all the way to the patriarch Abraham.
And Matthew includes it here for a specific reason,
because Jesus' family tree reveals something to us about who he is.
Namely, that Jesus is the promised Christ,
the messianic king who restores the kingdom of God.
So first, we're going to see how Jesus fulfills the promise to Abraham,
in verses 2 to 6,
and how he fulfills the promise to David, in verses 6 to 11,
and how he fulfills the promise to the exiles, in verses 12 to 17.
Verse 1 is kind of the decent statement of this passage.
It says,
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
There are some phrases in the Bible that are immediately recognizable.
So think, for example,
In the beginning.
Right?
Immediately.
Most of you are probably familiar with that phrase.
When John uses that phrase in the beginning of his gospel,
in the gospel of John,
we immediately make the connection to Genesis 1,
where it says,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In a similar way,
the phrase used here,
the book of the genealogy,
would have been a phrase that was immediately recognizable
for people who were familiar with their Greek Bibles.
Because in the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
the book of Genesis is organized around this recurring phrase.
Genesis 2, 4 begins,
The book of the genealogy of the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 5, 2 begins,
The book of the genealogy of Adam.
Genesis 6, 9,
The book of the genealogy of Noah.
Genesis 25, 19,
The book of the genealogy of Isaac.
And Genesis 37, 2,
The book of the genealogy of Jacob.
So in the book of Genesis,
this phrase is used to organize the history of the heavens and the earth
and the origin of the patriarchs
who became the fountainhead of God's people.
So then in the book of Matthew,
the phrase,
The book of the genealogy introduces to us the origin of Jesus the Christ,
who is the fountainhead of the new people of God.
And Jesus' identity is here summarized by three titles in verse 1.
He is the Christ,
meaning he's the messianic king.
He is the son of David.
And finally,
he is the son of Abraham.
In the following genealogy,
Matthew draws connections to each of those titles in reverse order.
We'll unpack those in turn.
First,
he tells us that Jesus is the son of Abraham,
who fulfills God's promise to Abraham.
He writes in verses 2 to 6,
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
and Isaac the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Judah,
and his brothers,
and so on.
This genealogy follows the summary genealogies found in 1 Chronicles 22,
sorry,
1 Chronicles chapter 2,
verses 1 to 15,
and Ruth chapter 4.
And it traces Jesus' lineage from Abraham to David.
And if you remember what God promised Abraham,
God said to Abraham in Genesis 17,
verses 4 to 5,
Behold,
my covenant is with you,
and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations,
no longer shall your name be called Abram,
but your name shall be Abraham,
for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
God had promised Abraham a land and a people,
and he had promised to bless Abraham,
and not only Abraham,
God had promised in Genesis 12
that through him all the peoples,
all the families of the earth would be blessed.
He promised that Abraham would be a father of a multitude of nations.
And Jesus is the ultimate heir of that promise.
He's the ultimate son of Abraham.
And it's through Jesus that not only the Jews,
but also the Gentiles,
indeed all the nations of the earth
who put their faith in him,
will receive the gift of salvation
and eternal life.
This might be the point that Matthew is driving home
with the woman that he selectively includes in this genealogy.
First, in verse 3,
it mentions that Judah fathered Perez by Tamar.
The Bible doesn't tell as much about Tamar's background,
but Genesis 38 implies that she was a Canaanite woman.
Since Judah was living among the Canaanites at the time,
was married to a Canaanite woman himself,
and likely took a wife for his son Ur
from among the Canaanites as well.
And since there is no mention of him going back to his homeland
to find a wife for his son.
And then second, verse 5,
says that Solomon fathered Boaz by Rahab,
the only human being named Rahab mentioned in the Bible,
is the Canaanite woman
who helps the Israelite spies escape Jericho in Joshua 2.
So she too is a foreigner, a Gentile.
Third, verse 5,
says that Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth,
who famously is known as a Moabite woman,
a foreigner, a Gentile.
Fourth, verse 6,
says that David was the father of Solomon
by the wife of Uriah.
This is a reference to Bathsheba,
whose father we know was Eliam,
according to 2 Samuel 11, verse 3,
also called Amiel in 1 Chronicles chapter 3.
If he is the same Eliam mentioned in 2 Samuel 23, 34,
he was a Gilanite,
a subset of the Canaanites,
which makes Bathsheba also a Gentile
and married to a Gentile, a Hittite, Uriah.
These are the four mothers
mentioned in the entire genealogy of Jesus.
And all four of them are most likely foreigners,
non-Jews.
This may well be Matthew's way of making the point
that Gentiles are being grafted in.
The lineage of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah,
suggests that the Messiah didn't have
a pure, unadulterated Jewish lineage.
Rather, he had many Gentiles in his heritage.
It's a glimpse of God's plan
to include the Gentiles in his salvation plan.
All those who repent of their sins,
all those who renounce their foreign idols
and pledge allegiance to the Lord God
will be saved and counted among his people.
This is the wonderful truth
that God's genealogy,
the Jesus' genealogy reveals to us.
For all those people who say,
well, I'm not a Jew,
so I can't believe in the God of the Bible.
All those people who say,
well, my parents are not Christians,
so this can't be for me.
For all those people who say,
well, no one in my country is Christian,
so I can't become one.
Or I'm not religious,
so I can't follow God.
For all of those people,
Jesus Christ came.
That's what we remember in Advent.
You don't have to be a Jew
in order to join the kingdom of God.
You don't have to be an American
in order to follow Christ.
You can be Iranian,
Afghan,
Indian,
Chinese,
Japanese,
Cambodian,
Uruguayan,
Algerian,
Tunisian,
or whatever else,
and still be a Christian
and a citizen in the kingdom of God
because salvation is from the Jews
because Jesus was Jewish,
but salvation is not exclusively for the Jews.
Rather, it is for all nations.
That's what we're commanded by Jesus,
commissioned by him,
to go to all the nations
and make disciples of them.
And then in verses 6 to 11,
Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy
from King David to Jeconiah
to show that Jesus
is the promised messianic king
who fulfills God's promise to David.
We see this in verses 6 to 11.
Now, there are significant discrepancies
between Matthew's genealogy of Jesus
and Luke's genealogy of Jesus
we find in Luke chapter 3
from King David onward.
For example, Matthew lists 41 male heads of families
while Luke lists 57.
And from David to Jesus,
there are in fact only two overlapping names.
And there are several reasons
for these discrepancies.
First, the word father
can be used narrowly
to refer to one's immediate biological father
or broadly to one's ancestor.
We see examples of this
in Genesis 32, 9,
John 8, 39,
Ezra 7, and so on.
Similarly, the word son
can refer narrowly
to one's immediate biological son
or broadly to one's descendant,
which is why Matthew can say
that Jesus is the son of David,
many generations removed.
And secondly,
genealogies are not always exhaustive.
Rather, they are often selective.
For example, Matthew explicitly says
in verse 17,
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.
He has a clear structure here,
a symmetrical structure
that he is working with.
And some people say
that this is related to Gematria.
Gematria is a method
by which Jews assigned
a numerical value
to each letter
of the Hebrew alphabet
so that someone's name
can be added up,
their letters can be added up
to form a number.
And according to this method,
the name David
has a numerical value of 14,
which is likely possible.
I don't think we can know for sure.
Maybe why Matthew chose 14 names
in each of those sections
to show that Jesus
is the son of David.
And so it's not surprising
that there are skipped generations
in this genealogy.
And thirdly,
Jews practice
levirate marriage
as stipulated by
Deuteronomy chapter 25,
which meant that
if a man dies
without a son
to carry on his name,
it was his brother's duty
to produce a son for him
by taking his brother's
surviving widow
as his own wife.
This was very important
for the Israelites,
for the Jews,
because their inheritance
of the promised land
and therefore their inclusion
in God's covenant community
depended on them
continuing to have male heirs.
And this was directly tied to it.
So because of that,
if to have no son
to one's name
would have meant
you and your progeny
would all be blotted out
from God's covenant people.
So because of this,
levirate marriage existed,
but it works for that purpose,
but it obviously
can complicate genealogies.
Because the son
of a levirate marriage
would be the legal son
of the deceased man,
but the physical son
of his brother.
So overall,
the discrepancies
between Matthew and Luke
are numerous,
but they can be accounted
for best when we understand
that Matthew is providing
the royal genealogy,
the line of people
who would have been
the legal heirs
to the Davidic throne.
And Luke is providing us
a physical genealogy,
the line of people
from whom Joseph,
Jesus' adoptive father,
was physically descended.
We can see this
from the fact
that Matthew's genealogy
in this middle section
is an abbreviated summary
of the succession
of Judah's kings
listed in 1 Chronicles 3,
verses 10 to 17.
While Luke's genealogy
lists no kings
of Judah
except for David.
So then Matthew
starts this section
with David,
who is the first king
of the Davidic monarchy,
and then he ends
with Jeconiah,
also called Jehoiachin,
who reigned
until he was taken captive
by Nebuchadnezzar
to Babylon.
Jehoiachin's uncle,
Zedekiah,
did reign as a nominal king
after this Babylonian invasion,
but he is omitted
from the list
as well as several others
since Jehoiachin
was still the rightful heir
and ruler.
He was living in exile
in Babylon.
So then Matthew's genealogy
is a royal genealogy
and likely implies here
that even with the dissolution
of the Davidic monarchy
during the Babylonian exile,
the royal succession
has continued
until the coming
of the destined son of David,
the Jesus Christ.
So God had promised
the king David
in 2 Samuel
this wonderful promise,
chapter 7, 12 to 14.
I will raise up
your offspring after you
who shall come
from your body,
and I will establish
his kingdom.
He shall build
a house for my name
and I will establish
the throne of his kingdom
forever.
I will be to him
a father
and he shall be to me
a son.
So in an immediate sense,
this prophecy
was fulfilled
in the reign
of David's son Solomon
who was established
as king
and built God's temple.
However,
the Davidic monarchy
did not exist forever,
even though God promised here
that he will establish
his kingdom forever.
That's how we know
that this prophecy
isn't ultimately fulfilled
by Solomon.
It is fulfilled
by the Messiah,
Jesus.
He's the one
who establishes
God's kingdom forever.
Jesus is the greater
son of David,
the greater Solomon.
In fact,
he is greater
than David himself
because he is not
merely a son of man,
but he is the son
of God,
the Father himself.
We have to remember this
because Jesus came
not to be served
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many,
but we must not forget
that he,
even though he's graciously
served us
and he has saved us,
Jesus is the king.
He is the Messiah.
He is the Lord
to whom we owe
our allegiance,
our very lives.
That's what his title means,
the Christ.
That's not a last name.
Verse 16 says,
Jesus was born
who is called Christ.
Christ is a title.
It's a royal title
that means anointed one
or Messiah.
The prophesied king
who would come
to rescue God's people.
For centuries,
the Jewish people
had been suffering
the consequences
of their own sin
and rebellion
due to their idolatry
and unfaithfulness to God.
They were conquered
and oppressed
by people,
foreign nations,
again and again,
the Assyrians,
Babylonians,
and the Persians,
and the Greeks,
and the Romans.
And then they would return,
but they returned
to the Lord
for brief periods of time,
but they would turn
back again,
sin again,
backslide again.
And in their suffering,
they were yearning
and waiting
for the Messiah.
They thought to themselves,
when the Messiah
finally comes,
he will make
all things right.
When Messiah comes,
he will establish
his kingdom forever.
When the Messiah comes,
he will rescue us
once and for all.
When Messiah comes,
he will rule
with righteousness
and justice.
When the Messiah comes,
we won't be orphans anymore.
We won't be homeless anymore.
We won't be aliens
and foreigners anymore.
We will have a king,
all right.
We will have a kingdom,
all right.
And we will be citizens
in that kingdom.
for all of those people
who are waiting,
Jesus Christ came.
He came to a sinful world
governed by Satan,
the one whom Jesus calls
the ruler of this world
in the Gospel of John,
the one that Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 2
calls the prince
of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now
at work in the sons
of disobedience.
And Jesus donned his crown,
but it was a crown of thorns.
He ascended to his throne,
but his throne was the cross,
the ancient equivalent
of the execution chair.
He died there
to redeem a people
for himself.
And then he rose again
from the dead.
He ascended to the right hand
of the Father.
And in doing this,
Jesus delivered us,
his people,
those who repent of their sins
and put their faith in him.
He delivered us
from the domain of darkness
into the domain
of the kingdom.
of his kingdom.
This is how Jesus
set his kingdom in motion.
Jesus is the promised Christ
who restores the kingdom of God.
And it's for this reason
that the evil one,
Satan,
that we were speaking of
just moments ago
has no claim on us.
He has no claim on us.
He has no authority over us
because as those
who have pledged
allegiance to Jesus
who have put their faith
in Christ the King,
we have a new Lord.
We're under new regime.
The church,
the family of God
is an outpost.
It's an embassy
of the kingdom of God.
In this world
that's in rebellion
against God,
we must daily
endure innumerable
indignities
that our Lord's name
and glory face.
in this world,
we have tribulations
and temptations.
But when we gather
as a church,
we get to lay aside
our burdens
and our distractions
and worship our Lord
and fix our eyes
on Jesus,
our King.
It is an imperfect
yet genuine
foretaste of heaven.
The kingdom of God
is already here,
but it is not yet
fully here.
And as we celebrate
Advent,
the coming,
the first coming
of our Savior,
Jesus Christ,
we also anticipate
His second coming.
So it was really appropriate
that Gary had us sing
Even So Come,
expecting,
waiting
for Jesus'
second coming.
because He will return.
Our King will return.
In the first Advent,
Jesus came to save.
In the second Advent,
Jesus will come to judge.
And He will judge
all the wicked
and execute
perfect justice.
And our King
will dwell with us
again in the flesh.
He will wipe away
every tear
from our eyes
and we will sin no more.
And there will no longer
be any death.
There will no longer
be any mourning
or crying
or pain.
That's what it means
that Jesus came
as the son
of David,
the son of Abraham,
the Christ.
And finally,
verses 12 to 17,
Matthew traces
Jesus' genealogy
from Jequaniah
to Christ
to show that Jesus
is the promised Messiah
who fulfills
God's promise
to the exiles.
Even though none
of Jequaniah's
seven sons
would sit
on Judah's throne,
the Davidic line
continued through
his eldest son,
Shealtiel.
And Shealtiel
fathered Zerubbabel.
Interestingly,
1 Chronicles 3.19
says that Zerubbabel
was a son of Pediah,
Shealtiel's brother,
which makes Shealtiel
Zerubbabel's uncle,
not father.
But everywhere else
in Scripture,
in Ezra,
Nehemiah,
Haggai,
it says that Shealtiel
was the father
of Zerubbabel.
This may be an instance
of Levirate marriage
where Shealtiel
dies without
a male heir
and then his brother
Padiah
continues his name
so the royal line
continues through
Shealtiel's son
even though he was
deceased.
And Zerubbabel
played a significant
role among
the Jewish exiles.
In Ezra
and Nehemiah,
the two books
of the Bible
in the Old Testament,
they recount
how Zerubbabel
became the governor
of Judah.
He was the first
to lead a band
of Jews
back from
the Babylonian exiles
back to Jerusalem.
And it says
in Haggai chapter 2
verse 21 to 23,
God says to Zerubbabel,
I am going to shake
the heavens and the earth
and I will overthrow
the thrones of kingdoms
and destroy the power
of the kingdoms
of the nations.
And I will overthrow
the chariots
and their riders
and their horses
and their riders
will go down,
every one by the sword
of another.
On that day
declares the Lord,
the Lord of armies.
I will take you,
Zerubbabel,
son of Shealtiel,
my servant,
declares the Lord.
And I will make you
like a signet ring
for I have chosen you,
declares the Lord
of armies.
God's choice
of Zerubbabel
as a signet ring,
which is a royal symbol,
as well as Zerubbabel's role
as the governor
of Judah,
suggests that
even though
the Davidic monarchy
had officially ceased
to exist,
the royal succession
continued in God's sight.
His king,
His line,
His royal line
has continued.
Unlike the preceding sections
of this genealogy,
the rest of this genealogy
has no Old Testament precedent.
So we don't know
what source Matthew used.
And since Jews
were very interested
in preserving
genealogical records,
and the Davidic line
in particular,
the royal line,
was of special interest,
so it's highly likely
that a tradition
of royal succession
was preserved
outside of Scripture.
Unfortunately,
we no longer have access
to those genealogical records
because according
to second century historian
Julius Africanus,
Herod the Great
destroyed all the Jewish
genealogical records
that were preserved
in the public archives.
He was,
Herod was particularly
embarrassed
about his lineage,
his Edomian heritage,
because he was descended
not from Jacob,
the line of promise,
but from Esau.
And so he feared
that someone
from an actual royal lineage
would lay claim
on his throne.
So Herod carried favor
with Rome
to get the title
of King of the Jews,
and he rebuilt the temple
to style himself
as the Savior,
Messiah of the Jews.
But he was only a pretender.
Jesus is the real Messiah.
Verse 16 notes,
he is the promised Christ.
Jesus fulfills the promises
that God had made
to the exiles.
In Jeremiah 33,
God promised,
verses 14 to 17,
Behold,
the days are coming,
declares the Lord,
when I will fulfill
the promise
I made to the house
of Israel
and the house of Judah.
In those days
and at that time,
I will cause
a righteous branch
to spring up for David,
and he shall execute
justice and righteousness
in the land.
In those days,
Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem
will dwell securely.
And this is the name
by which it will be called,
the Lord is our righteousness.
For thus says the Lord,
David shall never
lack a man
to sit on the throne
of the house of Israel.
That's what God promised
to the exiles.
And Jesus is the final
and greatest son of David
who sits on the throne forever.
He is the righteous branch
who through his death
and resurrection
ransoms a people
for himself.
And we, God's people,
Jews and Gentiles,
have now been grafted in
as branches
onto Jesus' family tree
so that we too
dwell securely in Christ
as the new Israel,
as the new Jerusalem.
For those struggling sinners,
maybe there's some of you
here who think
that they have straight,
far beyond restoration,
like these exiles
that Jesus came.
For those exiles
who have forgotten
what their fatherland
is like.
For those who think
that they are damaged goods,
good for nothing.
for all of those people,
Jesus Christ
came to redeem them,
to reclaim them
for himself.
Hebrews 2, 11-18
tells us that Christ
is not ashamed
to call us
brothers and sisters.
It says that
since we are made
of flesh and blood,
that Jesus himself
took on flesh and blood
so that through death
he might destroy
the one who has
the power of death,
that is the devil,
and deliver
all those who through
fear of death
were subject
to lifelong slavery.
This is the wonder
of the incarnation.
The creator took on
human flesh,
the flesh and blood
of creatures.
The son of God
became a son of man.
Jesus,
the word of God
that embraces
the entire cosmos
and upholds them,
became a babbling infant
held up in Mary's arms.
His feet got caked
with dust.
He had dirt
under his fingernails.
He got hungry
and fatigued.
He laughed.
He cried.
He was tempted
in every way
just as we are
yet without sin.
We see the paradox
of Jesus' incarnation
in verse 16.
It says,
Jacob the father
of Joseph,
the husband of Mary,
of whom Jesus was born,
who is called Christ.
Note that it doesn't
follow the standard
formula here
up to this point
in saying,
Joseph the father
of Jesus.
It doesn't say that.
It says,
Joseph the husband
of Mary,
of whom Jesus was born.
This sets the scene
for the following passage
which confirms
that Jesus was conceived
by Mary
while she was a virgin
by the miraculous work
of the Holy Spirit.
So Joseph,
though he was
the legal father
of Jesus,
the adoptive father,
he wasn't actually
his biological father.
Jesus' only real father
is God the father.
This has two very important
theological implications.
One,
the original sin
that entered the world
through Adam's sin
and contaminated
all of humanity,
as Romans 5.12 tells us,
is cut off
at this unique point
at Jesus' birth.
Jesus is the first
and only human being
to be born without sin.
1 John 3.5 tells us this,
you know that Jesus appeared
in order to take away sins
and in him
there is no sin.
And this is because
he who knew no sin
is the only person
who can bear the sins
of his people
so that we might become
the righteousness of God.
Jesus is the one man
who never deserved to die
because death is a consequence,
a punishment for sin.
But Jesus died nonetheless
because he was dying
in our place
so that we might have
eternal life.
That's the first
important implication of this.
The second important
theological implication of this
is that by being born of Mary,
though Jesus was sinless,
the blameless one,
he carried all of the sin
and shame and blame
of his people
upon himself on the cross.
Jesus was fully God
and fully man
but he was a real human.
He was born of a virgin
and so there was a suspicion
of illegitimacy.
In John 8,
the Jews falsely accused Jesus
of being a Samaritan,
a Jew of mixed heritage,
mingled with Gentiles
and presumptuously
they say this to him
in John 8, 41,
we were not born
of sexual immorality.
We have one Father,
even God.
But Jesus carried
all that baggage with him
to save us.
He experienced
all of our temptations.
He became one of us.
He came to save broken people.
And we can see this
in Jesus' checkered genealogy.
Some of these names
are not names
you would like to see
in your genealogy.
Verse 7 tells us
that one of Jesus' ancestors
was Rehoboam,
the son of Solomon.
It was Rehoboam
whose folly
and unnecessary cruelty
split the kingdom
of Israel in half.
It was Rehoboam,
according to 1 Kings 12.
And according to 1 Kings 14,
under Rehoboam's reign,
Judah was led
into all kinds of idolatry
called prostitution
and abominations.
It was under his watch
that Jerusalem was invaded
by Shishak,
the king of Egypt,
and the treasures
of the temple of God
ransacked.
Rehoboam had found
his way into the history books
for all the wrong reasons.
Abijah and Joram
were no better kings.
Ahaz, who succeeded,
Joram, quote,
even burned his son
as an offering
according to the despicable
practices of the nation
whom the Lord drove out
before the people of Israel.
And he sacrificed
and made offerings
on the high places
and on the hills
and under every green tree.
This is 2 Kings 16,
3-4.
Manasseh was even worse.
Can you believe it?
It can get worse than that.
Even though his father,
Hezekiah,
sought to reform Israel
and get rid of the idols,
Manasseh rebuilt
those idols.
He desecrated the temple of God
by building pagan altars
inside it.
In fact, it says
in 2 Kings 21, verse 9,
that Manasseh led Judah
astray to do more evil
than the pagan nations
that the Lord himself
had destroyed
and driven out
before Israel.
And Manasseh's son Amos,
more commonly known as Amon,
followed in the footsteps
of his wicked father.
And of course,
the infamous Jeconiah
under whose reign
who continued
in the evil ways
and under whose reign
Judah was conquered
by Nebuchadnezzar
and sent into exile
in Babylon.
Jesus' ancestors.
In Genesis 38,
Judah sleeps with the woman
that he thinks
is a prostitute.
Another one of Jesus' ancestors.
He does this only to discover
that the woman
that he thought
was a prostitute
was actually Tamar,
his daughter-in-law.
Daughter-in-law
who had disguised herself
in order to get impregnated
by him
since Judah had unjustly
withheld his son
from her
even though he owed her
his son
in accordance with
the principles
of levirate marriage.
And Perez,
Jesus' ancestor,
was conceived
by this illicit,
incestuous union
according to verse 3.
Similarly,
verse 5 tells us
that King David's
great-great-grandfather
Salmon,
father Boaz,
by Rahab,
Joshua 2,
1 tells us
Rahab
was a Canaanite
prostitute.
And verse 6
is the kicker
of them all.
It says David
was the father
of Solomon
by the wife
of Uriah.
Bathsheba
is not even
named here.
Instead,
to make his point
abundantly clear,
Matthew describes her
as the wife
of Uriah.
David committed
adultery
with Bathsheba
and impregnated her
and then tried
to cover it up
by making Uriah
sleep with her.
And when that
didn't work,
when Uriah
refused to do it,
he had Uriah
killed in the battlefield
even though Uriah
was a prized
and valuable
and honorable man
and a warrior.
And then he took her.
to rub in the point
that David
had sinned,
Matthew says,
Solomon,
he said David
the father of Solomon
by the wife
of Uriah.
David should have
never had Bathsheba.
And yet it is
through that
illicit union
that Solomon,
one of Jesus'
royal predecessors,
is born.
I hope this is
a comfort to you all
because we're all
sinners
with a sordid history.
We all have
checkered lives.
And here is our Savior
with the checkered
genealogy.
There are prostitutes,
adulterers,
murderers,
in his genealogy
because Jesus
in himself
embraces
our sinful humanity
because he came
like a doctor
who goes to heal
the sick
and not the healthy.
He came
to save
sinners.
Are you a child
of adultery
or fornication
what besetting
sins
are part
of your life?
What guilt,
what burden,
what shame
did you carry
with yourself
into this building
this morning?
What about yourself
would you be hesitant
to share
with those people
sitting next to you
right now?
Whoever you are
and whatever you have
done,
Jesus sees you
and Jesus
knows you
and Jesus
says in John 6,
37,
whoever comes to me,
I will never
cast out.
This is the good news,
the gospel of Jesus Christ
that we proclaim
to all the world.
Jesus is the Christ.
He's the one
we've been waiting for.
20th century
American theologian
Lorraine Boatner
makes an astute observation
when he says this
in one of his books.
Quote,
in all the history
of the world,
Jesus emerges
as the only
expected
person.
No one
was looking
for such a person
as Julius Caesar
or Napoleon
or Washington
or Lincoln
to appear
at the time
and place
that they did appear.
No other person
has had his course
foretold
or his work
laid out for him
centuries before
he was born.
But the coming
of the Messiah
had been predicted
for centuries.
In fact,
the first promise
of his coming
was given to Adam
and Eve
soon after
their fault
into sin.
As time went on,
various details
concerning his person
and work
were revealed
through the prophets.
And at the time
Jesus was born,
there was a general
expectation
through the Jewish
world
that the Messiah
was soon to appear,
even the manner
of his birth,
a virgin birth,
and the town
in which it would
occur,
Bethlehem,
having been
clearly indicated.
Jesus is the only
expected person
in human history.
Isn't that remarkable?
because he's the
promised Christ.
He's the only person
that humanity
had been waiting for,
that sinful people
have been waiting for.
He's the only
promised person
that actually
came
and delivered
on that promise.
And so with the
symmetry of
three generations
of 14,
Matthew conveys
the sense of
balance and
perfection
that the long
awaited Messiah
came at the
fullness of time,
at the perfect
opportune moment
to restore the
kingdom of God.
And because the
Christ has already
come,
there's no need
for another
Savior or Messiah.
are you waiting
for another
Christ?
Who do you
wait for?
Or what do you
long for to
fulfill you,
to satisfy you,
to save you?
A spouse?
A charismatic
politician
to come and
take charge,
accomplish all
your agenda?
A great
Christian leader
to bring about
the third
great awakening
or another
reformation?
There is no
other Messiah.
And we are
not the Messiah
either.
The world
does not need
more of you.
The world
does not need
more of me.
The world
does not need
more of anyone.
It needs more
of Jesus.
because he is
the only
Christ.
Christ
was come.
Christ
will come
again.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we thank you.
We thank you
that you came.
Lord,
what
would you have
done without you?
you?
Lord,
we would
still be
lost in sin,
slaves to
death.
We would
be hopelessly
in futility
trying to save
ourselves,
but utterly
unable to do
so.
Lord,
what would
we have
done without
you?
Lord Jesus,
thank you
for coming.
Heavenly Father,
thank you
for sending
him.
Help us to be
a people who
live in light
of his coming
and who
wait expectantly
for his
second coming.
In Jesus'
name we pray.
Amen.