If you have a copy of the scriptures, let me invite you this morning to turn to the gospel of Matthew, Matthew's gospel. And today we begin a new expositional series through the gospel of Matthew. And we'll probably be in this book for a good long season as we hope to work our way through it. And today we begin by looking at Matthew 1, and verses one through 17. And so let me invite you as you're able, let's stand in honor of the reading and the hearing of God's word. The Apostle Matthew writes, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. And Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar. And Phares begat Esram. And Esram begat Aram. And Aram begat Amminadab. And Amminadab begat Nahasan. And Nahasan begat Salmon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. And Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king. And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. And Solomon begat Reboam. And Reboam begat Abiah. And Abiah begat Asa. And Asa begat Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and Ozias begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Ahaz, and Ahaz begat Hezekiahs, and Hezekiahs begat Manasseh, and Manasseh begat Ammon, and Ammon begat Josiah, and Josiah begat Jeconias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Silathiel, and Silathiel begat Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor, and Azor begat Sadduk, and Sadduk begat Achim, and Achim begat Eliud, and Eliud begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Matan, and Matan begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations From Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. May God bless today, the reading and the hearing of his word, and let's join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, as we open today the word, And we seek to learn from it. We ask that you would send forth the illuminating light of the Holy Spirit that we might be able to gain even from a list of the names, the genealogy of Christ, according to the flesh, that we would be able to see a truth that is being conveyed, historical truth. spiritual truth, doctrinal truth that is being conveyed. Give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, give us minds to comprehend. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. And you may be seated. Today, again, we are beginning this new exposition through the gospel of Matthew and If you've been worshiping with us, you're a member of our body, you know that typically on these Lord's day mornings, we're going verse by verse, chapter by chapter through a book of the Bible. And, uh, every once in a while, we will return to the gospels over the past months and even years, we've gone through first and second Kings. And then more recently, we were in the book of James and now we're returning to the, to a gospel, to one of the four canonical gospels, to the gospel of Matthew, and we must indeed always be returning to the gospels. As the old hymn puts it, tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story, most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Who are we as Christians if we do not often go back to the well of the Gospels to learn about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we get the opportunity to begin that journey today. If we pick up any book, we will ask some basic questions, will we not? And if we pick up the book of Matthew, we have some basic questions we might ask about it. As we commence this, we want to do some teaching about the gospel of Matthew. And the first question we might ask about any book is who wrote it? Of course, the title of this book, and it's there in the most ancient manuscripts we have of it, is, as it probably appears over your copy of the scriptures, The Gospel According to Matthew. There aren't four different gospels in terms of proclamations of the good news about Christ. There's one gospel as it is relayed according to four penmen who were guided by the Holy Spirit. The gospel according to Matthew. Well, who was Matthew? Matthew was a tax collector. And Matthew was one of the original 12 disciples or the apostles, as we call them. If you were to turn over in your Bible to Matthew chapter nine and verse nine, it says, and as Jesus passed forth from fence, he saw a man named Matthew. sitting at the receipt of custom. And he sayeth unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. Matthew was a disciple follower of Jesus. And also he was tapped to be one of the 12. Turn over just one page. If you're at Matthew nine to Matthew chapter 10 and look at verse three, is there a listing there of, the names of the 12 apostles. It mentions Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the publican. And that English word publican means a tax collector. And it's interesting that in the other gospels and Matthew and, and, and, and rather in Mark and Luke, and also in the book of Acts in the first chapter, it lists the 12. Matthew's gospel is the only one where when it lists Matthew's name, It adds after that the tax collector. And so Matthew, who wrote this, was well aware of the fact that he had been a tax collector. That had been his profession. And he mentions it in particular because many of his fellow Jews didn't like the tax collectors. And it's more than just, we don't like the people who collect taxes, but they were occupied by the Romans. And many saw the tax collectors as collaborators. with the Roman oppressors. They were disliked. They were thought to be sinful men. And one of the striking things about the Lord Jesus Christ is he was a friend of sinners. And he called, he chose men like Matthew to leave all, to come and follow him. And he even appointed him to be an apostle. And then he was also tapped by the Holy Spirit to write this fateful account of Christ's life. You may know in the other gospels, he's sometimes called by a different name. He's sometimes called Levi. In Mark chapter two, verse 14, he's called Levi, the son of Alphaeus. So we know the name of his father also. In Luke 5, 27, he's simply called Levi. And we know that many men in that era often had more than one name that they went by, even as men sometimes do today. So it's written by Matthew. To whom did he write? Most agree that the Gospel of Matthew was likely originally written for Jewish Christians. Matthew was a Jewish man and many of the first Christians were Jews. And it seems from many things we find within this gospel, probably point to a few of those things as we work our way through it, that Matthew was likely writing this gospel for a Jewish Christian audience. In fact, there are some early church fathers who suggest that perhaps this gospel was first written in Hebrew or Aramaic. and only later translated into Greek, although we have no extant copies of it, early copies of it in Hebrew or in Aramaic, all the earliest copies we have are in Greek. When did he write it? We do not know. Ancient books rarely noted the date of their publication. We pick up a book today, we can look at the front and we can find out who the publisher was and what year it was published, but that wasn't done with ancient books. When was it written? Well, we know it must've been written after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, because the last thing it describes is how Christ was crucified, then it describes how he rose from the dead, and the very last thing is Christ commissioning. It has the great commission within it. telling his disciples to go and to make disciples or to teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's how the gospel concludes. So it was written sometime after the cross and the resurrection of Christ. How long after? We don't know, but I think it was probably written fairly soon after those events. Of course, the completion of the gospel did not depend merely upon Matthew's memory of these things, though he was an eyewitness of them, but we know that all the gospel writers were helped by the Holy Spirit. In John 14, 26, Christ promised His disciples that He would send to them the Comforter or the Holy Spirit. So Christ said, He, that is the Holy Spirit, shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. And so Matthew was helped by the Holy Spirit. One might look at a book like this and say, how could, Matthew possibly remember all the things that Christ said. Well, it didn't depend upon his memory, although he probably had a good memory. People in those days tended to have a better memory than we do. He was helped by the Holy Spirit perfectly to remember all of these things. Well, why did Matthew write this book? Matthew wrote this book under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in order to proclaim the gospel. It is the gospel according to Matthew. He wrote to proclaim the good news. That's what the word gospel means. The good news about Christ, about his life, about his death on the cross, about his resurrection. And because it's part of the totality of the New Testament, it also proclaims further his ascension, and it anticipates his coming again in glory. It is the gospel according to Matthew. Now, if you were to sit down, we would say after church today, we're gonna each sit down, we're gonna write an account of the life of Jesus. And ours wouldn't be an inspired account. We are not apostles or the associates of the apostles. But if you were to sit down and attempt to write a life of the Lord Jesus Christ, where would you begin? Where would you begin to tell the story? Well, if you were to look at Mark's gospel, Mark began to tell the story of Jesus at his baptism. Mark doesn't even mention the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but he begins with Jesus being baptized by John. Luke begins his account of the life of Jesus with his birth in Bethlehem. But in the opening chapter of Luke, he actually begins with the account of the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner to Christ. Where does John begin his gospel? John doesn't begin in Bethlehem either. John sort of trumps all the gospels. He begins in pre-existence. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Before the incarnation, the Logos, the Word of God, the Son of God was with God and is God from all eternity. Matthew, like Luke, is going to begin his account of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ with his birth in Bethlehem. And don't be too shocked that it's December at CRVC and we are gonna be preaching over the next several weeks the inspired accounts of the birth of Christ in Matthew chapter one. But before Matthew gets to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, he's gonna provide for us a genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's gonna provide for us the family tree of Christ so that we can see where he comes from with respect to his humanity. There's probably never been a greater interest than there is right now in our culture in family genealogies. And even if one is not able to trace his lineage through court records and so forth, many companies are now offering to test one's DNA and to trace one's origins and to tell you where your people come from. Several weeks ago, maybe, you know, I was attending my cousin's funeral in North Carolina at the little country church where many of my extended family members still attend and serve. And when I walked into the narthex of the church, uh, the first words I heard were from a man that I didn't recognize. I didn't know him, but he said, you must be a riddle. And he gathered that, uh, just from the way, I know it's scary if you were to go there, a lot of people look like me. He didn't know me, but my physical features indicated to him my family from which I come. Well, Matthew does something similar at the beginning of this gospel. He wants us to see the family resemblance of Christ. He wants us to see the covenant people of God from of old, from which, humanly speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ comes. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew wants us to understand, was the achievement, the goal of a long history that stretched out for years before his incarnation. This was the fulfillment of the decree of God, a plan that had been hidden for many generations and was only being revealed at the time of His conception, incarnation, birth, and His ministry. And all of this had been guided by the providential hand of God. That may be one of the key themes of this passage, the providence of God in bringing the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world. So let's turn to our passage now. It's a longer passage. You kind of have to handle it all together and we can break this passage into, into three parts. First of all, look at verse one. That is what we can call the title. Uh, this is the, the title of, uh, the, I think the, the genealogy, but also in some ways for the entirety of the gospel, then, The second part is the biggest part of it, and that's verses two through 16, where we have the family tree or genealogy itself of the Lord Jesus Christ set forward. And then the last part is just a single verse, verse 17, that provides a summary or explanation of what we'll see as a threefold structure within the genealogy. So let's begin by looking at the first part, the very first verse, which provides for us the title, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Now I said the title of the gospel of Matthew is the gospel according to Matthew, but this verse one is sort of like a second title. I mean, it's a title only for this particular passage, but I think in some ways, it anticipates the whole story of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it begins, the book, and the Greek word there is biblos, from which we get the word Bible, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And so we've got those two words put together, those two words that form a title, Jesus Christ. Of course, Christ isn't a last name, His mother wasn't Mary Christ, but Christ is a confessional statement. Jesus Christ, the book, the biblos of the generation, humanly speaking, of Jesus, the man who is Christ. The name Jesus, the name Jesus. is anglicized form of the Greek word, yesus, which is a form of the Old Testament name, Joshua. And that name means the Lord or Jehovah saves. And so that was the name given, as we'll see later within this very chapter, the name that the angels communicated was to be the name that was to be given to him. He will be called, Jesus, He would be called the Lord saves. And this reminds us from the very beginning that the Lord Jesus is a true man, a true man, not a phantom, not a ghost, but a true man. One of the earliest heresies that developed was the denial of the true humanity of Jesus. And it still pops up from time to time in people who would say, well, Jesus couldn't have suffered on the cross. God couldn't suffer there. Or Jesus couldn't have slept or Jesus couldn't have been thirsty or, or whatever it might be. In first John chapter four, verses two and three, The Apostle John wrote, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come. And even now already it is in the world. John said, anybody who denies the true humanity of Jesus is anti Christ is an opposer of Christ. We need also, though, to take note of the title that is given to the Lord Jesus. He is Jesus Christ, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And, of course, that word Christ Christos in Greek means Messiah, the anointed one. It was the anticipation of a king. a godly king, a God king. And this tells us, this title tells us that not only was he a true man, but he is also the son of God who is equal in essence with God. This is important to recognize at the very beginning because Matthew's going to be telling us about the physical lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ that will culminate in his birth. And indeed, there was a time when Jesus as a man was not. Before his incarnation, before his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary, before his birth, there was a time when Jesus, the man, was not. But there was never a time when the Son of God, the Word of God, was not. There was an early heretic named Arius who taught that the son of God was a creature, an exalted creature. And the right-believing men of that day countered him. And they said, no, no, no. John 1, 1. The word was in the beginning with God and was God. And they had slogans to counter Arius. They said, always father, always son, always God, always son. An early Orthodox writer countered Arius by writing, and those who say that there was a time when the son of God was not God, And before he was begotten, he was not. These, the universal and apostolic church anathematizes or condemns. Again, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. In John 1, 18, it describes Christ as the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father. So there never was a time when the Son of God was not. Always from all eternity, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But there was a time when in the wisdom of God and the fulfillment of His decrees, the man, Jesus, true man, true God, was conceived in the womb of the Virgin. And He was born. and he lived a sinless life and he ministered the presence of God to men and he laid down his life, a sacrifice upon the cross. We're reminded again, of who he is from the very beginning here, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And although, again, the remainder of this is gonna talk about his human lineage, we should never lose sight of the fact of his equality of essence with God. of essence, power, and glory with God, the Father, and with God, the Spirit. Now, you'll notice in this title, there are two more titles after Jesus Christ that are given to him. The book of the iteration of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And so let's look at those two further titles and descriptions. First, he is called the son of David. This means that he is, according to the flesh, a descendant of David, the great king of the old Testament, the man after God's own heart. And this tells us that he came from a royal bloodline. He came from the tribe of Judah, from the house of David. Jesus, in fact, is repeatedly called throughout the gospel of Matthew. It's one of the distinctive things about it. He's repeatedly called by various persons, son of David, more than any other of the gospels. In Matthew 9, verse 27, two blind men cry out to him and they call him son of David. In chapter 12, verse 23, amazed multitudes call him son of David. In chapter 15, verse 22, a Canaanite woman calls him son of David. In chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, two blind men call him son of David. In chapter 21, verse nine, the multitudes call him the son of David. In chapter 21, verse 15, the children in the temple call him the son of David. In chapter 22, verse 42, even the Pharisees inadvertently call him the son of David. And so it's a great theme within Matthew's gospel. Again, he's writing for a Jewish Christian audience. They would have known the Old Testament. They would have known about David. And so Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of David. In fact, this is affirmed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1.3. He wrote concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. that he came from the line of David was a fulfillment of the promise that had been made to David through Nathan the prophet. It's recorded in 2 Samuel 7, 12, where Nathan said to David, and when thy days be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. Was he just talking about Solomon? No, because in 2 Samuel 7, 16, he says of this one who will come after David, and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established forever. He was just talking about Solomon and the kings that came after him, that promise of God would have failed. It was only fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ came and he shall reign forever and ever. Christ will be a greater King than David. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Secondly, he's called here in verse one, the son of Abraham. And this tells us that his roots, humanly speaking, were from the first patriarch, Abraham. And Abraham, of course, was the source, physically speaking, of the covenant people of God. He was the father of all those who are Hebrews, Jews, Israelites. They all started with Abraham. And so with respect to his human origins, he came from Abraham and was a son of Abraham. In Genesis chapter 12, verses one through three, the Lord called Abraham, And we're told in verse one of Genesis 12, that the Lord said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. And then the Lord made this promise to Abraham, I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and I will make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. And the question is, how was that promise to Abraham fulfilled? How was the promise that through Abraham, through his seed, there would come one who would bless all the families of the earth Well, it was only ultimately fulfilled through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what all the early Christians knew. Paul wrote in Galatians 3, 29, and if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. See, that was a great thing that Paul declared and it mystified so many of his fellow Jews. As he said, you know, we were Jews. We are part of the physical descendants of Abraham. We're the physical seed of Abraham. But there's another way you can become the seed of Abraham. You don't have to be a physical descendant of Abraham. It's if you're in Christ, you become the spiritual descendant of Abraham. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the son of David. He's also the son of Abraham. and he has opened up the covenant people of God so that we who were not part of the people of God, we who were Gentiles, we who were strangers, are brought into the covenant people of God. So we've got this great title. The second part is the genealogy itself in verses two through 16. Now, the key to understanding this genealogy, I know maybe when I read through it, you may have been nodding off a little bit, all these names and so forth. And the key to understanding is to peek ahead to verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. He has not given us an exhaustive list of all the links between Abraham and Joseph, who was married to Mary and then to Christ. But what he has given to us is a list that is guided by the Spirit and a list that is set out in three consecutive progressions. He's told us about the descent from the time of Abraham to the time of David, from the time of David to the time of the exile in Babylon, and then from the time of the exile to the time of the coming of the Messiah to the birth of Christ himself. And so let's look briefly at each of these three progressions. The first one he talks about is from Abraham to David, And that's in verses two through the beginning of verse six, ending in verse six with, and Jesse begat David the king. It starts though in verse two with Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas or Judah and his brethren. And one of the things that might confuse you about this list, if you know the names from the old Testament, of course, the New Testament is written in Greek. And these are the Greek transliterations of those Old Testament names. So what do you know about Abraham? Well, that promise was made to Abraham. His seed would be multiplied. It would become a great nation. It would be a blessing to the nations. But what was the problem with Abraham? Abraham and Sarah were barren and they were unable to conceive. And in their frustration, they decided that they would carry out their own plan B. Remember that Abraham would have a child with Hagar and the result was Ishmael. But Ishmael was not to be the bearer of the covenant. I remember in Abraham and Sarah's old age, she conceived and bore Isaac. which some say should be rendered as he laughs. And so the covenant that seemed to be hanging by a thread, God's promise was preserved. And then even after Isaac was born in Genesis 22, Abraham was told to take Isaac. and to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. And remember, Abraham and his faithfulness was ready to do so. The very last minute, the Lord sent his angel to restrain the hand of Abraham. Well, with Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, something similar happened. They too were barren, unable to conceive. The covenant promise, the line of the Messiah might've been broken right there. But the Lord intervened. And Isaac and Rebekah conceived and they bore twin sons, Esau and Jacob. And Jacob, you remember, came out of the womb, grasping onto the heel of his brother. He stole the birthright from his brother. He had to flee from before the wrath of his brother. And all along the line, this was a threat. If Jacob had been stricken down by Esau, the line of the Lord Jesus Christ would have been broken. From Jacob came the 12 tribes of Israel. And one of those tribes was Judah. And in Genesis 49, Jacob prophesied over each one of those sons and the households that they would represent. And in Genesis 49, 10, it said of Judah, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. And so, The Lord ordained decreed that from Judah would come not only David, but the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll notice in verse three, there's a mention there of, and Judah begat fairies or Perez and Zara of Tamar. Now this is interesting because Tamar is the first woman to be mentioned. There are going to be five women who are mentioned within this genealogy. And that's strange because usually in these types of genealogies from these days, women were usually left off of these lists. The fact that her name appears here and the names of other women anticipates the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless and affirm women in his ministry. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, whose husband died and her family rights had been overlooked. She was unjustly treated. And so you may remember it's one of the most sordid accounts in all the Bible. In Genesis 38, she dressed as a prostitute and deceived her father-in-law and bore him these two sons. There were sinful men and women in the historical line of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse five. we're continuing in verse 5 it notes and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab who was Rahab she's the second of five women mentioned in this genealogy She is likely the harlot of Jericho. Remember who hid the spies within her household? She's mentioned in Joshua chapter two and in Joshua chapter six. And then while we're also in verse five, you'll notice it says, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth. And then Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David the king. Well, this is the Ruth of the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. And who was she? She was a Gentile. She was a Moabites. Within the family line of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a woman who is a Gentile, who's not from the line of Abraham. There's already something here of the great commission, that Christ will be a light to the Gentiles, that he will bring good news to all people. And again, through Obed and Jesse, eventually then there comes David, the king. And Isaiah will prophesy of him in Isaiah 11.1, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. He wasn't just talking about David. He was talking about the son of David. So the first progression from Abraham to David, the second progression is from David to the time when Israel went into exile and Babylon begins the second half of verse six and it goes all the way down through verse 11. In verse six, we have a note of David, the king begetting Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. This is now the fourth of the five women in this genealogy. We've had Tamar, we've had Rahab, we've had Ruth, and now we have this woman who was the wife of Uriah, and of course, although her name isn't specifically mentioned here, we know he's talking about Bathsheba. This reference recalls one of David's great failures. We've talked about the complexity of David. He's called a man after God's own heart. On one hand, on the other hand, he's one of the most notorious sinners in the entire Bible. And this reference is one of David's lowest points. He commits adultery with Bathsheba. He arranges the murder of her husband, Uriah, to cover up his deeds. And yet the Lord takes that illicit relationship with Bathsheba and from it comes Solomon. And from Solomon comes the line that will lead us to Christ. This reminds us that Christ, as do many other things we've seen so far, we'll see after, it reminds us that Christ came to save sinners. He came to save adulterers and murderers. He came to save those who had broken every other commandment and law of God. We could say that in his suffering on the cross and in his going to the grave and remaining under the power of death for three days without experiencing corruption in his body, he suffered the pains of hell for our sins so that none of the elect would have to go to hell for their sins. At the end of this line in verse 11, there's mention of Josiah. Some of you remember from our study of 2 Kings, that Josiah had been the last best hope for Judah, but then he had died in battle. against the Egyptians, and then Israel was soon overcome by the Babylonians, and they were carried off into exile in Babylon. And there's a mention there that he begat Jeconias, as it said there in verse 11, and this is the king who is referred to in the Old Testament as Jehoiachin, or Jehoiachin. He was carried off into exile, but we're told in 2 Kings 25-28 that in exile, the Babylonian king spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon. To this point, Israel as a nation had lost everything. The holy city of Jerusalem was destroyed. The temple was destroyed. Worship was destroyed. The people were taken away as slaves into exile. And of course, in exile, although it was the worst of times, it ended up being for the Israelites of old, in some ways, the best of times, because they began to understand that their God wasn't limited to one geographical area, that he was a God of the nations. And so the Lord would take the time of exile and turn it to good for Israel. From the time of Abraham to David, from David to the exile, and the last part of this progression that's described here in this genealogy is from the time of the exile to the time of the birth of Christ in verses 12 through 16. In verse 12, mention is made of a man named Zerubbabel. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias or Jehoiachin begat Salathiel and Salathiel begat Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel is noteworthy because he was one of those who returned from exile and came back to the land of Israel. And what is more, he was the one, one of the ones, one of the chief ones who helped them after they returned to rebuild the altar and to rebuild the worship and to begin to rebuild the temple. In the book of Ezra, chapter three, verse two, it says, then stood up Jeshua, the son of Josedach and his brethren, the priests and Zerubbabel. the son of Shalatiel, and his brethren, and built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God. And they set the altar upon his bases, for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries, and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. And so in his times, Zerubbabel was used of God to restore worship, the worship that had been lost, the temple that had been destroyed. And in many ways, Zerubbabel anticipated the ministry of Christ. What did Christ say in John 2, 29? Speaking about his own body, he said, destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise it up. And John explains the apostle John and John two 31, that he spake of the temple of his body. And finally there will come after the exiles had returned from Babylon. Finally, they will come in verse 16, one named Jacob who begat Joseph, who is called the husband of Mary. Notice it does not say Joseph, the father of Jesus. Why doesn't it say Joseph, the father of Jesus? Because he didn't have a human father. This is a subtle affirmation of what we call the virginal conception of Christ or the virgin birth of Christ, and this is going to be made plain. As we continue, look at verse 18. We'll look at this next Lord's day, God willing. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Joseph was the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ, Messiah, Son of God. Mary is the fifth and final woman in this genealogy. She was not a spurned daughter-in-law like Tamar. She was not a harlot like Rahab. She was not a Gentile like Ruth. She was not an adulteress like Bathsheba, but she was a virgin through whom would come the Messiah into the world. Now you might ask, This is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. Why is the line traced through Joseph? Because Joseph was the legal father of Christ. If we had time to look at Luke chapter three, Luke also has a genealogy. Luke traces the line of the Lord Jesus Christ through Mary, his mother. But both Joseph and Mary were descendants of David and the line that they shared, they were also descendants, of course, of Abraham. The line that they shared was exactly the same up till the time of David. And so then we have the line of Joseph recorded by Matthew. We have the line of Mary recorded by Luke on both his mother's side and his foster father's side, his legal father's side. He was a descendant of David, a son of David, a son of Abraham. Well, then we come to the summary. Look at verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. What seemed to be a jumbled mess in this list of names is actually a very orderly progression. Matthew tells us that he has given us the line of descent of the Lord Jesus Christ in three progressions with 14 in each generation. Now, to do this, it meant that he did not list every person in the line of descent. Several kings, for example, are overlooked. And there is some overlap with Jeconias being part of both the second and third progressions. His doctrinal point, however, is clear. The Lord in the bringing about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord was working out his perfect plan. He was there in the call of Abraham. He was there in the coronation of David. He was there in the suffering saints during the exile. And he was there in the joy of the restoration under Zerubbabel. And his plans His plans were being fulfilled and his big plan was being fulfilled and that was to send forth in the fullness of time, his only begotten son, so that the word would be made flesh and whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. Friends, we've looked at this passage and let's hasten to draw a couple of spiritual applications for us today. First, we see in this genealogy, this listing of names, the sovereign plan of God being worked out in his providence. At so many points along the way, it might have seemed as though all hope was lost when Abraham and Sarah weren't able to conceive. when Isaac and Rebecca weren't able to conceive, when the Israelites were carted off into exile into Babylon, it seemed that all hope was lost. The Lord will never send his Messiah. His promises will fail. And what are we meant to gain from that? Well, how many times do we look at our circumstances and we despair? Woe is me. I am hopeless. This situation is hopeless. But this genealogy teaches us that we should not despair. What we see is so limited. What we see is so limited. Think about it. If the Lord tarries in his coming, we will likely not see in our lifetime how the Lord is working out purposes that are happening right now with us. Those things are gonna be worked out a generation or two from now. What we see is so limited. Can we then trust our assessments of things? No, we cannot. But we can trust the Lord. that His plan is good and nothing can thwart it. His plan is good and it's being worked out for His glory and for our good, even if we can't see it, even if we never see it in our lifetimes. I love Psalm 42, verse 11, which says, why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Why are you so disquieted? Hope in God, not in yourself, not in the circumstances, not in any man of this age or any other age. Hope in God. Second spiritual gleaning we can take from this passage. We see that the Lord works through the lives of sinful and fallen men to achieve his own ends. whether they be a deceiver like Jacob, a faithless father-in-law like Judah, a harlot like Rahab, or a sinful king like David. The Lord works through the lives of sinful and fallen men to achieve his own ends. Matthew Poole, the Puritan commentator, in talking about this detail within the narrative says, it's not incongruous, it's not inconsistent, that he who came into the world to die for great sinners should be born of some that were such. He came into this world to die for great sinners. And in his line, there were some that were such. And the proclivity of the Lord to continue to work through sinful men, to work out his purposes continues to this very day. We trust not in the competence or the faithfulness of his servants, but in the ability and faithfulness of our God. Third gleaning we can gain from this passage. The end or the goal of history is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. We have witnessed his first coming in humility in Bethlehem. And we're living in that in between time when he will come again. This genealogy reminds us that he came in that first advent as a true man. true man, true God, to redeem sinful men. His purposes are being worked out. This is the way the apostle Paul reflected on it in Hebrews chapter two, verses 16 and 17. He wrote this, for verily, he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, took on him not the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, Paul continues, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. It behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. This is what this genealogy tells us. Of course, Hebrews will later say in Hebrews 4, 15, that we have a great high priest who was tempted in all points, even as we are yet without sin. And so the end or the goal of history is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ made like unto his brethren, that he might make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Amen? Amen. Let me invite you to stand together. Let's join in prayer. Gracious and loving God, we give thee thanks for Matthew, a tax collector, a man who was called to follow after Christ and who had left everything to follow after him and he was not disappointed. Christ, we know that you never disappoint those who leave all to follow after thee. And so we give thee thanks for this inspired account. Bless us in the receiving of this today and for the study as it will unfold in future days as we learn more about Christ. Help us to be brought to a point where we admire him more We prize him more, we prize him above all else. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake, amen.