All right, this morning we're going to take a look at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew. The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the very first verses of the New Testament. You're welcome to turn there if you like, of course, and listen as I read. Of all the things that he starts his gospel with, he starts with a genealogy. This is the kind of passage that many of us are inclined to skip over when we're doing our reading time, because it's just a list of a bunch of names. There are actually, throughout the Bible, scattered around the pages of the Bible, 25 different genealogical records. The longest by far is one, maybe you've come across it at the beginning of 1 Chronicles and worked your way through nine chapters of name after name after name. It is one of the best ways to develop your reading skills. But other than that, it can really feel like a useless part of the Bible. But of course, there isn't anything useless or meaningless in the Bible. God gave us these genealogies for a purpose, and today we're going to take a look at this genealogy in Matthew and to try to understand God's purpose in this list of names. So listen as I read to you Matthew 1, verse 17, and remember this is God's holy word. Let's pay attention to it and see the beauty of the gospel given to us in this long list of names. Matthew chapter one. 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 Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, Nashon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. 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, Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, in 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 Shealtiel, and Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud, and Abiud, the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor, and Azor, the father of Zadok, and Zadok, the father of Achim, and Achim, the father of Eliud, and Eliud, the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar, the father of Mathan, and Mathan, the father of Jacob, 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. That's where the genealogy ends. This is the glorious word of God given to us to make us wise to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. So may we have ears to hear and hearts to believe. According to Time Magazine, researching your genealogy is the second most popular hobby in America, right after gardening. The author also says that the second most popular category of web searches is also researching genealogy. Now, he did not document these claims, and I actually just don't believe him, but what is undeniable is that there is a great increase of interest in researching our ancestry. You can go to Ancestry.com and other genealogy sites, find out all kinds of things about your family, your heritage, and you can fill out a family tree, and it's then going to show you all kinds of people that you're related to very distantly. I don't think it's the second most popular hobby in America, but it has grown into a $15 billion industry and continues to grow. Well, you might ask, why all this interest in genealogy? Why are people willing to spend money to research out their ancestry? Well, on a basic level, many people are doing this because they're trying to figure out who they are and where they come from. Where I come from and who I'm related to are some of the most basic identity markers. There was a show that ran for 10 seasons called Who Do You Think You Are? And each episode followed a celebrity who worked at tracing his or her family lineage and in some way trying to answer this question, where am I from and who am I? Genealogy helps us understand who we are. Well, here in the book of Matthew, we are given this genealogy to help us to answer this most basic question, who am I? This genealogy is the most basic question or answers the most basic question about our identity. But what we find here is that our identity only becomes clear when we first understand who Jesus is. So this genealogy helps us answer the question, who is Jesus? And then also answers the second question, who am I? Who am I is intricately woven together with who is Jesus and this genealogy tells us both. So let's take a look at this genealogy to help us answer these two questions. Who is Jesus and who am I? As we take a look at the genealogy, we're going to look at this first question of who is Jesus. Matthew, of course, is just one of four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, and all four gospels have a unique approach because they all have a specific audience in mind. They all include different stories and different teachings because they want to include those things that will be particularly impactful to the audience that they're intending to reach. So, for example, Mark was written to the Romans, the world power at the time. And he understood that the Romans, this world power, would be most impressed by a great display of power, the miraculous power of Jesus. And so to make the most compelling argument that Jesus is the Son of God, Mark records fewer times of what Jesus taught and far more times of what Jesus did and the miracles he performed to convince that audience. Well, Matthew was written primarily to the Jewish people. Matthew wrote to convince the Jews that Jesus really is the Son of God. And so he had to ask, what would be the most compelling information for a Jew? When we read the book of Matthew, our 21st century American mindset, it makes us inclined to think that Matthew has by far the worst start to all the Gospels. Mark starts off the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then he jumps right into the story, starting with John the Baptist. Luke begins with the prophecies about the birth of John the Baptist, and then carries on into the birth of Jesus. John has this very powerful introduction, poetic introduction to Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and then verses later, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Matthew begins with a whole bunch of names. And it sort of makes you want to skip and go straight to Mark, but what would this have meant to the Jewish audience listening to this book? To the Jew, this genealogy would be scandalous. It would shock every Jewish reader because Matthew is making a very huge claim by starting with these names. Matthew's goal here in this genealogy is to show that Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham and the promised son of David, which would mean that he is the promised king who would bless the nation. And this is very clearly his purpose. Matthew mentions Abraham and David in the very first verse, showing that Jesus is connected to these two heroes of the faith, and then he uses a very selective genealogy. And what I mean is that Matthew very purposefully doesn't list every single one of Jesus' ancestors. And he does that because he doesn't want us to get lost in the sea of names like we do perhaps in 1 Chronicles. But he just wants you to see that Jesus is the son of Abraham and the son of David. There are all kinds of prophecies in the Old Testament that speak about the coming of Jesus. But the perhaps two biggest prophecies that every Jewish boy and girl would know growing up is that he would be the offspring of Abraham and the son of David. And so by beginning his gospel with this genealogy, Matthew is declaring right up front that this Jesus is the fulfillment of the two most basic Old Testament promises that every Jewish boy and girl, man and woman would know. So let's take a look at these two promises, first given to Abraham and then to David. This promise to Abraham starts in Genesis 12. This is right exactly at the time when God first calls Abraham, then he was known as Abram. Abram was a worshiper of the moon. He was a pagan. He wasn't better than anyone else around him that attracted God's attention, but God taps Abraham on the shoulder and says to follow him. And at that time of his call, God promises Abraham, I will make you into a great nation so that all the families of the earth will be blessed. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you. And then skip forward many years, 10 chapters later, he clarifies this promise even a little more. And he says in Genesis 22, he says, I will multiply your offspring and in your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. What he's telling Abraham is that one of your descendants will in some way, somehow bless the whole world, all the nations of the world. And that's how it was understood by the Jewish people of the Old Testament. That's what little boys and girls heard growing up in their Jewish homes. A descendant of Abraham will bless the world, redeem the world, save the world. This message was so clear to Abraham that Paul says in Galatians 3 verse 8 that God preached the gospel to Abraham saying that through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So he quotes from Genesis 22 saying God preached the gospel to Abraham. God was telling Abraham about Jesus, Abraham's offspring who had blessed the world with salvation. And it says that Abraham believed and he was safe. Now fast forward a thousand years and here comes another prophecy, this a prophecy to David. God tells David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, David of course is the king over Israel and he says to him this, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your own body and I will establish his kingdom, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." It's actually quite repetitive. It's a bit redundant because God wants to make this very clear. The son of David will come and reign forever as king. This offspring of Abraham would bless the nations of the whole earth, and the offspring of David would reign over all the nations of the earth forever. Now, as a result of these two promises specifically, the Jewish people were very keen on keeping an accurate genealogical record. They were all about the genealogies, hence the reason why Matthew starts his gospel with a genealogical record. And it's a staggering claim. Clear to every Jewish man and woman, boy and girl, Jesus is the promised son of Abraham, the promised son of David. He's the fulfillment of God's promises. Jesus is the one who will bless the nations and who will rule the nations forever. He's saying, wake up. The one we've been waiting for is finally here. And he's born into this world and he lives a life of righteousness under the law. And he experiences the curse of this world. He experiences every temptation that we endure plus far more. And then he goes to the cross and he dies. And he does that. He pays the penalty for our sins so that whoever comes to him and believes in him, man or woman, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, will be saved and blessed with eternal life, blessed beyond imagination, blessed forever under the reign of his kingship. After he died on the cross, of course he rose in glory three days later, he ascended into And that's where God the Father enthroned him as the king, giving him authority and power, giving him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. Jesus is the son of David who sits on the throne in heaven, who rules the world forever. And so he's saying very loud and clear, behold, this is your king. When you understand the background to this genealogy, you can see why Matthew begins his gospel this way. This is scandalous. Jesus is the promised son who will bless the nations and rule the world. So rejoice and be glad. Worship and bow down. Trust and give thanks, for he is come. So this genealogy tells us very clearly who Jesus is, but it also tells us who we are. The question of who I am is fundamentally rooted into the question of who is Jesus. So to answer this second question, I want to point out a very unique element of this genealogy. For the most part, this is a long list of men, some heroes of the faith like Abraham and David, as well as villains like Ahab and Jeconiah. But the names are mainly men. But as you read through it, you find that Matthew very selectively includes five women in this genealogy. Five women who, again, are very well known to the Jewish people. And each of these women have their own unique story, bringing with them their own history, their own troubles, their own baggage. But what's so beautiful is that God incorporates these rather messy women. into the beautiful lineage of our Savior and they are grafted into the family of Jesus. These are five women redeemed by faith who were then given the privilege of being called the mothers of Jesus and the daughters of God. Five women who become a part of the family of God. So let's take a look at these five women. The first woman mentioned is Tamar. You can find her entire story in Genesis 38 if you want to read that later. Tamar is a Canaanite married to Judah's oldest son. Judah, of course, is one of the 12 sons of Jacob. His family grows into one of the 12 tribes of Israel. But before Judah is converted, he was a conniving, wicked man. It was actually his idea to make money off of his younger brother, Joseph, and sell him into slavery down to Egypt. He was a wicked man for much of his life. And as this wayward man, he had three sons. Mentioned in Genesis 38, Judah's oldest son was named Ur. And when he was of age to be married, he married this woman, Tamar. So Tamar is Judah's daughter-in-law. But Ur was wicked, and it simply says that the Lord put him to death. And as was the custom of the day, Tamar was then to marry Onan, Ur's younger brother, Judah's second son, to produce an heir. But Onan did not want to do that, so the Lord put him to death also. And Judah's third son, Shelah, he was not ready, he wasn't old enough to be married yet, but Judah told Tamar, he promised Tamar, stay with the family, and once Shelah is old enough to marry, you'll be married to him. Well, time passed, and Judah started dragging his feet. He didn't want to give Tamar to his third son, and Tamar noticed this, and she didn't like it, and she took Madison to her own hands. She knew that Judah always would go up to a place called Timnah to shear his sheep, and she went and stood by the road, the side of the road, dressed as a prostitute with her face all covered up, and Judah came by as scheduled and noticed her and paid for her services. But of course, he didn't know this was Tamar. As a result, Tamar became pregnant, and she left. and went back to Judah's house as if nothing happened. But when it started to become obvious that she was pregnant, Judah called her out for her immorality and actually ordered her execution. He ordered her to be burned. But she was actually able to clearly prove that it was Judah who was the father of her baby. And Judah caught red-handed here, he had a moment of remorse and humility and he acknowledged his sin. And it says that he said, she is more righteous than I. Well, from this act of their collective faithlessness, their immorality and incest, Tamar gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. And it is through the line of Perez that God produces a Savior. What a messy story. You almost don't want to read this story to your kids. It's messy. But what we see here is God's faithfulness in the midst of great unfaithfulness. Despite their plotting, their deception, their lack of trust, God converted them and used their oldest son, Paris, to be an ancestor of Jesus. Tamar became a grandmother of our Savior. As you reflect on your own life, you may feel that you've plotted and you've lied and at times you've taken matters into your own hands rather than trusting God. I can't count all the times that I've been guilty of this. Trying to take matters into my own hands to be in control rather than trusting God and you may at times feel like you're a lost cause. Well, this genealogy says otherwise because by faith in Jesus Christ, you are grafted into the family tree. By nature, you are a deceiver, but by God's grace, you are made new, redeemed, and a member of His family. By faith, you are a child of God, and this is who you are. So that's the first woman, Tamar. The second woman is Rahab. Rahab did not pretend to be a prostitute, but this is how she made her living. Her story is found in Joshua chapter 2. She was a prostitute who lived in the city of Jericho. And you might remember back in this story, Jericho was the first city that the Israelites conquered as they entered into the Promised Land. She was a prostitute who lived in this city, and when the spies of Israel, the Israelite spies, went to spy out the city, they stayed with her, which was probably quite strategic, to stay with someone of disrepute whose testimony couldn't actually be trusted. But she didn't just house the men, she actually helped the men. She helped them escape, and they promised that when they take the city of Jericho, she and her family will be saved. And sure enough, when the walls of Jericho crumbled, these men kept their word, they rescued Rahab, and she was converted, and she lived by faith and was grafted into the nation of Israel, the people of God. But not only that, she then married a man of the tribe of Judah named Salmon, and she was grafted into the lineage of our Savior. So here's a Canaanite living as a prostitute, clueless about God, and God grabbed hold of her life and he saved her. And he grafted her into the family of God, and Rahab, of all people, became the grandmother of Jesus. Again, you might think your life is too messy, you've done too many bad things, you've lived in too much immorality, made too many bad decisions, chosen sin over faith, and perhaps you think you've gone too far. This genealogy says otherwise. And by faith in Jesus Christ, you are changed and grafted into the family of God, and you're no longer defined by the immorality of your past. But by faith now you're a child of God. This is who you are. That's the second woman, Rahab. The third woman is Ruth. Her story, as you might know, is found in the book of Ruth. She has her own book. So Ruth was born in Moab. Moab was a neighboring country, neighboring nation to the Israelites. And the Moabites were sworn enemies of God and of Israel. But through the waywardness of an Israelite man named Elimelech, who left Israel in search for greener pastures, he moved to Moab and brought his family with him, and they met Ruth there, and Ruth married one of Elimelech's sons. Well, in time, both Elimelech and his two sons died, leaving her destitute, Ruth, and Naomi, her mother-in-law, and the two of them traveled back to Israel, bereaved. A Moabite living in Bethlehem. It's hard to imagine a scenario where someone would feel more out of place. She stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn't belong there. She was a foreigner, an outcast. That is until she met a man named Boaz. And they were married, and she was grafted into the family of God. But not only that, again, she became the grandmother of Jesus. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to people who feel like they just don't really belong in the church or belong in the family of God. And it takes time, and they feel alone. And I've talked to lots of people who've said they just feel like they stick out like a sore thumb. But the truth is we were all Moabites, sworn enemies of the true God. We didn't belong in the family of God, but God sent His Son to be our Redeemer and to take us to be His own so that now we finally belong. The child of the Most High, you belong here. And so don't listen to the lies of Satan that he whispers in your ear. Don't let the shame of your past define you. Don't let your circumstances make you feel less than. But by faith, you belong here, because by faith, you're part of the family of God. This is who you are. The fourth woman in this genealogy. So we have Ruth, and now we go to Bathsheba. If you look at the genealogy, you won't find the name Bathsheba. She's not mentioned here by name, but Matthew deliberately refers to her as the wife of Uriah. Her story can be found in 2 Samuel 11. And her story goes like this. It is a sad story. Bathsheba was married to a man named Uriah who served as a commander. in King David's army, a loyal servant to the king. Well, David sent his army out to war, but he stayed home, and one day he could see from his palace rooftop a woman bathing, and he asked his servant who she was, and he said, that's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. This is your loyal commander's wife, just so you know. And David sent for her. and he brought her to his palace, and he slept with her, and he sent her home, trying to act as if nothing happened. Sometime later, she came back to the palace, told David that she was pregnant. David, instead of admitting his own fault, he tried to cover up his wickedness by bringing Uriah home from the battlefield so that he could sleep with his wife, and they'd think the child's his, but that plan failed, and so Plan C, then, he had Uriah struck down in battle and killed. A woman, it's hard to find a woman in the Bible who is more victimized than her. What happened to her would be regarded in our country, our laws today, as statutory rape. King David used his position as the king to take advantage of her, to use her, and he ruined her life. He sent her home heartlessly. And then he found out that she was pregnant and instead of owning what he had done, he tried to cover his tracks by killing her husband. It is a tragic case of abuse. An abuse by someone no less than we regard as a hero of the faith. It was wicked. But God redeemed her from it. And in the midst of that mess, He made her a grandmother of our Savior, grafted into the family of God. You may have a history of abuse in your life where you've been taken advantage of or used and discarded, and you feel damaged, and you feel like you don't belong. And yet this genealogy again says otherwise, because Bathsheba was redeemed from her abuse, grafted into the family of God, and the same is true of you. What has been done to you is awful, and it should be condemned, but it does not define you. Instead, God redeems you from it. Your clothes are not too dirty, because Jesus cleanses you. Your pains do not control you because Jesus heals you. That's not who you are. Instead, by faith you were redeemed by the blood of Jesus, made a child of God, and a bride of the King. This is who you are. And then the last woman is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary was a godly woman. She lived a life pleasing to God. She went to synagogue every week. She offered the right sacrifices. She knew her Bible. She kept the law. She did everything well. But what can often happen in people who have lived well is that it can create a sense of self-righteousness. But that's not what happened to Mary. Mary was a good woman, but she also knew she was far from perfect, and that she too needed a savior to come, not only to save Israel, but to save her. And when she and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to offer the necessary sacrifices, they met this man, Simeon, who told Mary that Jesus, her son, was gonna pierce her soul. And we understand that to mean two things. One, it means that he was going to put her through quite a bit of grief. He was going to break her heart, in a sense, because she was going to watch her own son be executed on a Roman cross. He would pierce her heart with grief. But the other thing that this means is that Jesus was going to expose what was really in her heart. He would reveal to her her own sins and then He would die on the cross to save her from those sins. Which means that a woman who seems like she has it all together needs a Savior just as much as any of the previous four women mentioned. There are way too many self-righteous people who go to church, who feel pretty good about their life. They feel like they don't need a Savior. And the Bible calls these people hypocrites because they feel self-righteous before God. But in God's grace, he pierces our hearts. And he breaks that illusion of self-righteousness, and he exposes our sins, and then he converts us and he saves us. And you may find yourself in Mary's position. Maybe a church goer all your life, you read your Bible, you seek to honor God, but you are not defined by how well you lived this life. You're defined by Jesus who saves you from your unrighteousness. Only by His blood do you belong here. And only by His blood are you saved, and only by His blood are you made a child of God. So here are five women, five very different women with very different paths, but they all need the same thing. They need the same Savior, the same Jesus. They were all grafted into the lineage of our Savior, grafted into the family of God. And it's clear that Matthew did not need to mention them. And you might think that he might have been a little bit inclined to sort of hide these figures because he might think that they would be a black eye on the lineage of the Savior. But that's not how Matthew sees it at all. They were not defined by their past. They were now defined by their new family. And by faith, woven into the lineage of Jesus. And they were a part of the family and they belong. So He doesn't hide them, He highlights them. So we have to get back to our question, who am I? This lineage doesn't mention any of us, of course, but it tells us exactly who we are. We were deceptive, immoral, outcasts, abused, and self-righteous. But when you come to know Jesus, those words no longer define you. And you're very simply a member of the family, sons and daughters of the King. Heirs of the throne, recipients of eternal life, with God, now and forever. You might think this is a hard start to a gospel, a long list of names. Well, as you read the Bible, which I hope you're doing and you need to be doing, you might be inclined to skip over the genealogies, but God has given them to us for a reason. And that reason is to display his grace and to encourage us in the faith. And what precious gold we mine from this genealogy in Matthew chapter one. It tells us who Jesus is, the promised son of Abraham, the promised son of David, the one who will bless the nations and who will rule the nations forever. He's our savior and king. Then it tells us who we are. We are inclined every day to define ourselves by all sorts of other things, who we're married to, what we've done in our past, what tragedies we've endured, how we've been mistreated. But none of that is what makes you who you are. Your fundamental identity is wrapped up entirely in Jesus Christ. Because through Him you are a child of God, sons and daughters of the King, heirs of the world, and are promised eternal life with God now and forever. Do you know who you are? Read this genealogy again and again. Let this genealogy remind you and rejoice, people of God. and the privileges that you have as a member of God's family. All to the glory of Jesus Christ, our great King. And together we say, amen. Let's pray. God, our Father, we bow before you because you have changed us and you have redefined us and you've redeemed us. You've redeemed us from our old way of life We followed Satan, we were destined for hell, we were doomed to be defined by our sins, by our pains, by our rebellion forever. But you've reached into our lives graciously and you've revealed your son to us and because of him we are changed forever. You've made us righteous, you've cleansed us, you've redeemed us, you've rescued us, you've redefined who we are, you've given us a place to belong, made a part of your family, you've grafted us into this family lineage. We praise you for it. Let us be in awe of your grace and help us to rejoice in this new reality as we live in this reality every day. Do this for the glory of your holy name. And together we say, amen.