Now let us open up God's Word together and look at a portion of the story of the Gospels. We'll be in Matthew Chapter 1, so if you have access to a Bible, please open up to Matthew Chapter 1. You can use a hard copy, a digital copy. We even have Bibles somewhere back there with the cookies. You might have to move some cookies to find them, but we encourage you to open up. to this passage as we look at it this morning. This E, why is that so hard? this evening. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 through 17. This is the genealogy of Jesus, the story of his family and where he comes from in an earthly sense. And before we officially read this text this morning, I want to share a little bit about a Christmas that I experienced growing up in my own household. I can remember when I was in high school receiving what I thought at the time was a very strange weird and in my young teenage opinion useless. You see we have cousins on my dad's side of the family who live on the east coast and at this time it was pretty new to have these DNA tests done and get your family tree and so one of the things that he did as a senior project is he went and did one of those ancestry.com tests and created this really robust beautiful bound report of our family the Kramer family and For whatever reason, him and my aunt and uncle thought it would be a wonderful gift to everybody to bind that really nicely and give it to everybody in the family as a present for Christmas that year. Now, if you ask a freshman boy in high school if that is an exciting gift, you would not be surprised to find out that, no, I did not think that was a very good gift. I was like, who cares about auditors? Where's the chocolate or the gift cards or something that I can use? This seems silly and pointless, in my opinion. And I'll confess as a high school student I kind of had that sooty opinion all Christmas long about that particular gift But my mom in particular really liked it and part of that was because we learned something about our family that we did not know Apparently because we didn't kind of grow up thinking of ourselves as anything other than just the Kramers but apparently according to this ancestry.com test we have quite a bit of German roots in our heritage and so my mom after looking at this report or booklet that my cousin had given Began to look up German Christmas family traditions. And so the next year she found one and And again, I was only a sophomore in high school, so my attitude hadn't changed. I thought this new tradition that we were suddenly adopting as a German family was strange. Some of you may have heard of this before, but apparently, in German Christian tradition, you have a special ornament that you can hang on the tree that is shaped like a pickle. It is a pickle ornament, right? And I'm like, what in the world? What kind of tradition are we adopting here? But the idea is that German families would have this pickle ornament and the parents would place it on the tree somewhere. And then the kids would get to come down and have to find the pickle on the tree. And the kid who found it usually got some sort of extra present for us. It was like a dollar. So again, having a bad attitude, I'm like, what is this weird pickle ornament thing? This is so silly, but credit to my mom. She stuck with it and she kept doing it year after year after year. And flash forward 15 years later, you ask some of my children what their favorite Christmas tradition is, it's looking for their Christmas pickle on their Christmas tree. And so while I may have had a bad attitude before that this whole present and learning of our history and genealogy was silly and useless, if you ask me now, it is something that I actually truly love to share with our family as a tradition. And so the reason why I share that is we're going to read the genealogy of Jesus. And if you've read the Gospels before, if you've read Matthew before, you might have read this passage before and wondered, why is this in the Bible? What purpose or benefit could this ever have for my life and my faith? Shouldn't we just possibly skip over this? Well, my hope this evening is that you will find a sense of joy and excitement and even encouragement from this passage. Although we may have had those bad attitudes in the past, like a young teenage boy, let us now look to God's word and be encouraged by it as we look at the genealogy of Jesus. At our church we have the tradition of standing for the reading of God's word so if you are willing and able I would ask you to stand for the reading of God's word and we also typically have a little bit of a call and response afterwards so we'll invite you to do that as well. It's okay if we don't get it right perfectly but I want to introduce that to you. So hear now the word from the Lord reading Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 through 17. Pray for me as I read these things. 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, Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon. 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, Abijah the father of Asaph, Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jekoiah, and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jekoinah was the father of Shealtel. And Shealtel, the father of Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud. And Abiud, the father of Elakim. Elakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the father of Zadok. Zadok, the father of Akim. Akim, the father of Eliud. Eliud, the father of Eleazar. And Eleazar, the father of Mattan. Matthew, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who was called Christ. So all the generations, from Abraham to David, were 14 generations, and from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations, and from the deportation of Babylon to Christ, 14 generations. This is the word of God this evening. Let us say together, may God apply his truth to us. Thank you. You may be seated. So I'll share one secret with you as you're reading names in the Bible, just say them fast and confident. And everybody goes, oh, that's how they say it. I had a Hebrew professor teach me that. Well, the two things that I want us to take away from this brief time in God's Word tonight are these two points. The reason why we have genealogies, particularly the genealogy of Jesus, we can have two reasons as we look at it today. Genealogies show us that God keeps his promises. And secondly, genealogy show how God is growing His people. These will be the two points that I have this evening for us. So, as we reflect upon this text, I want you guys to see that one of the reasons, and there are many, but one of the reasons why we have a passage such as these is the genealogy of Jesus shows us that God is keeping His promises. We just read about the promise of Christmas, so some of this may sound familiar given that story, but the Bible, if we were to turn all the way back to the beginning, promises, God promises to send us a deliverer, that there's a promised child coming. If you're familiar with the story of the Bible, it starts with Adam and Eve being created by God, dwelling with him in perfect harmony. Everything is good. In fact, it's very good until sin enters in the world. As Adam and Eve rebel against God and do what he forbids, sin enters the world and as a result of sin, a curse for transgressing God's law. We now suffer death and strife and suffering and all kinds of evils in this world because of sin. But even in that very beginning, right after Adam and Eve transgressed against the Lord and His perfect law, a promise was given to them. A promise of a coming son. We read of this first promise of a coming son in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, one of my favorite verses in all the scripture. God says to Adam and Eve, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This is a poetic way of God foretelling of the coming of a promised child, a seed, a descendant from Adam and Eve who will come and crush the serpent's head that allowed and helped sin enter into this world, that this promised seed would crush his head, but this promised seed would be a wounded savior that the snake would strike his heel. would not ultimately defeat him, but nevertheless, he would be wounded by him as he delivers a people for the Lord. And so, this is how the Bible starts, that there ought to be this expectation as we continue to read scripture of looking for this promised son. And as we move through the scripture, God gets more specific, gives us more information about this promised son and where he would come from. We see as we progress through Genesis, Genesis chapter 12, that there's a man, Abram, who was called out by God and given a promise that through him all the nations of the world will be blessed. Through one of his descendants, all the nations will be blessed and so basically the idea is that this promised son who's going to crush the serpent's head, he's going to come through the life or the family of Abraham. This promise is given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3. Let me read that for us very briefly. Genesis 12, 1-3 says, Now the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country, and your kindred, and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So there's a few components to this promise. God's going to make Abraham into a great nation, right? From Abraham, we have the nation of Israel. All Jewish people find their origin in this person of Abraham. So he's going to make them into a great nation. He's gonna give them a land, the land of Israel, but most importantly, he is going to bless all the nations through him, particularly through a descendant of him. This is elaborated more in the New Testament as the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3.16. Paul writes, he says, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, but he notices it does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, to your offspring who is Christ. There was this understanding in kind of our first pass at reading, because offspring is one of those words that can be both singular and plural, seed can be singular and plural. And so we thought it was through the whole nation of Israel that all the nations would be blessed, but Paul is saying, no, it's through one descendant of Abraham, the one promised seed, the promised son that we were originally promised in Genesis 3.15. It was through him that all the nations would be blessed. And as you see, as we look at this genealogy in Matthew, there is special attention, special note. If you look back at verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. God is keeping this promise that the Savior would come through the line of Abraham. But you notice there's another name there. Son of David. Who is David? You may be familiar with David somewhat. Famous story of David is David and Goliath, the young boy who defeats the giant. But if you're familiar with the Bible, what David is most familiar for, in a biblical sense, is being the greatest king in all of Israel's history. That David, in many ways, is the king in which all other kings are compared against. And it was to David that this promise again was given or expanded. Not only would there be a coming Savior through the line of Abraham, but also through the line of David. David was given a covenant promise by God in 2 Samuel chapter 7. I'll read a couple verses from that promise that God gives to David. 2 Samuel 7, verse 12, God says to David, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He goes on in verse 16 to say, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So now we know that this promised son from Adam, from Abraham, is now also going to come from the line of David, but we know a little bit more about this promised son, that he is going to be the king. In fact, he is going to be the king of kings, lord of lords. His kingdom, as we're told in verse 16, will be sure forever. He is a forever king of a forever kingdom. This is the promised son. And this is whom Matthew wants us to see Jesus is coming from. Why does Matthew go to all the trouble to trace these genealogies? Well, I think it's really summarized in that first verse that he wants all of his readers to know, as you open up the gospel of Matthew, that God is fulfilling his promises through Jesus to send a son who will deliver God's people from their sin. and bring them salvation. And he traces the line of Jesus from Abraham to David, showing that God's promises are true, that he does not fail, that this Jesus, he will be a son of Abraham, he will be a son of David, but even his name tells us who he is. Jesus, his name in Hebrew means God saves. And Christ is not his last name, that is a title. God's anointed one, the promised Messiah. So all in this chapter is evidence over and over and over that all God's promises are going to be fulfilled through this child, Jesus. God keeps his promises. And we ought to be thankful for that because we often are given promises that are not kept. I know even recently I've had promises made to me that are not kept. Amazon promises two-day delivery, and I am still waiting for some packages that I don't think are gonna be on the doorstep in time for Christmas. And I'm disappointed when those promises are not kept, but God's promises are true. He is not like man. He keeps his word. Proverbs 35 says this, every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. To draw back to that Amazon analogy, his packages ride exactly on time. That's exactly what Paul says in Galatians chapter four, verses four through five, that this plan that God made of a promised son was executed perfectly in God's perfect timing. Paul writes, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of the wine, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Jesus came exactly when he planned to. For eternity past, as our perfect triune God is working out salvation history, this is exactly what he planned. God's promises aren't true. But what promise is God making through Jesus? Well, as I stated before, it's a promise of salvation, of deliverance from your sins. God's promise is that your sins can be forgiven if you trust in Jesus as this promised son, as that forever king, as the one whom all the nations of the world will be blessed. It's in his name, in his name alone. And so the message that the Bible wants you to hear and what I, as a pastor, want you to hear this morning is that God created mankind to be in intimate fellowship with him. But there's a problem. Our sins, just like the sins of Adam and Eve, separate us from God. He is a perfect and holy God who cannot tolerate sin because of his perfect holiness and justice. And sin is anything we do, say, or think that goes against God, and that is a long list, friends. It's a long list for me, it's a long list for you. We are a sinful people by nature and by choice. And there's no amount of good deeds that you or I can do to ever make ourselves right with God. No, it is only through the forgiveness that Jesus offers. You see this promised son, he was born in order that he may die. At Jesus paying the price for sins, die and rose again. And he offers us new life when we believe in him. And this offer is to everyone, everyone who would believe in Jesus alone. Not Jesus and your good behavior, not Jesus or any religious system. No, trusting in the perfect work of Jesus. Everyone who does that will have eternal life. And the beautiful thing about the gospel is that eternal life is not something that you or I have to wait for. And when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, eternal life starts right now, that you now have fellowship with God. His spirit will dwell within you and you will have intimacy with Him that will only be greater over time as you fellowship with Him, as He makes you new from the inside out and will be perfected either when you go home or when He comes home and makes all things new. This is the message that God wants you to hear today and this is the message that he wants you to believe it and trust him this evening. And so this is one of the reasons why genealogies are important. Genealogies show that God keeps his promises. This is one small aspect of that here in this text. Let me now move to the second point about this genealogy of Jesus. The genealogy that we have here in the Bible shows that God is growing his people. God is growing his people. If you spent some time reading your Bible, particularly your Old Testament, you know that passages like this, they're not that infrequent. They come up quite a bit. If you read the Old Testament, we read over and over different passages that so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so. Why are those passages in the Bible? Why is it so important to know family trees and family histories? Well, you know the answer to that a little bit already in that God is showing how he's fulfilling his promises of a promised son. But God is also creating a people for himself, that he is growing a kingdom and kingdoms are made of people. And the idea that we get from the Old Testament is that the kingdom of God coming from Abraham is a kingdom that you're born into, right? If you're from the line of Abraham, if you're dwelling in the land of Israel, you are born into God's kingdom. At least, that's what we thought we knew as we read the Old Testament, and as many of the Jewish leaders in Jesus' day thought, that because I'm a descendant of Abraham, I've been born into God's kingdom. My father is Abraham. Well, Jesus would come along and bring a fundamental change to this idea. You're not just born into God's kingdom, but God's kingdom in many ways needs to be born into you. Can't believe that we inherit God's promises just because we're descending from Abraham or a believing family. No, God builds his kingdom, not by people being born into it through natural birth, but instead God is building his kingdom by people who are being born again through spiritual rebirth. This is how we enter into God's kingdom. We're not sons and daughters by birthright, but we're sons and daughters by faith and adoption. Galatians 4, 4 through 6, I'll read a few more verses from a passage that we read a little bit earlier. It says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born of the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoptions as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent his spirit of his son into your hearts to cry out, Abba, Abba. See, the privilege that we have as believers, as Christians who put their trust in Jesus, we don't say Abraham's our father, David's our father, we say God is our father. We've been adopted into this kingdom, this family, by our faith and trust in Jesus. And while the Old Testament is full of these genealogies of people being born into the kingdom of God, it's worth noting that Jesus' genealogy is the last genealogy that we find in the Bible. And I think that is very significant. No longer are you born into God's family. God, through his spirit working in your heart, causes you to be born again. This is a kingdom being built by faith, not by dissent. And oh, how wonderful it would be if there was another website out there like Ancestry.com that wouldn't just trace our physical genealogy and birthright, but if there was one that could in some ways trace the legacy of faith. Those who came to faith before us, who led others to come to faith before them, that eventually leads to us. Instead of so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so, it's so-and-so shared the gospel with this person. We share it with this person. We share it with this person. We share it with me. That's a New Testament genealogy of new birth. So if any of you are app or software developers, I'd really like to see that by next Christmas and give that to my cousin as a thank you for his gift 15 years ago. But if not, I'll wait till heaven. I do believe we will be able to trace our lineage, our new birth, all the way back to those who were faithful. Who knows? Maybe some of us will be able to trace our lineage, our spiritual lineage, back to some of the heroes of the faith as we may know them. Maybe you have someone in your family who was led to faith through a Billy Graham outreach. Maybe somebody who can trace it all the way back to the revival that was led by John Wesley or Charles Spurgeon, or maybe all the way back to one of the apostles themselves. How wonderful and interesting would that be? But the point that I want us to come away with from this is that God is building his kingdom, faith, through new birth, not by being born into a particular family. So some application here. who are here in this service, hear this from me. You are not a Christian because your parents are Christian. You may be growing up in a Christian household, and what a blessing that is, but you are not a Christian until you, by faith, put your faith and trust in Jesus. I know many of the parents here in this room desire that most of all. So heed their instruction as they teach you the word Be engaged as you attend whichever local church you and your family attend, and seek God through His Word. I'll also say, adults, you are not a Christian because you were raised in a Christian household, because you share some Christian values, because you think there are some good things in which the Bible teaches. No, you yourselves can only call yourself a Christian. if you've been born again by putting your faith and trust in Jesus. The Bible tells us what this looks like in Romans 10, verses nine through 10. Paul writes, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. It's not an either-or, it's a both-and. Confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth, but have that inward, new heart condition. For you put all your faith and trust in him. He's by his death, his resurrection, for the forgiveness of your sins. Like God's Spirit, it made your heart so that your cry will be, Abba, Father. My encouragement today is, as we head into Christmas, the most important thing on your Christmas to-do list, if you haven't done it already, is to come and fast. Put your faith in him, be sage, and fast Jesus with your mouth and your heart, that he is Lord. This genealogy shows that God keeps his promises, and that God is growing his kingdom. He's growing his kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel. And we here at Harvest Luree Lake Church believe that God wants to share this wonderful message, not just with you this evening, but with our entire community. That's why we're here. That's why we started this church. That's what we're committed to, is to see God's kingdom grow here in this community. So I invite you, as we close our service, to come and join us again. If you're not part of a local church, and there are many, if you're not part of one, please come visit with us. Learn from God's word about who Jesus is and what this gospel is, so that you can not only come to faith, but grow in your faith. And if any of you, after the service concludes tonight, have questions, or maybe tonight's the night that you're ready to put your faith and trust in Jesus, I would highly encourage you. In fact, I would beg you to please come talk to me. Let me share in this wonderful choice that you're making this evening. Let me encourage you in these first steps of faith that you may be taking this evening. And so with that, let us close with prayer, this time of teaching God's word, and close our service with one more song. Would you join me for prayer? God, we thank you that your entire word is inspired, breathed out by you. It's profitable for teaching, for proof, for correction, for encouragement, exhortation. And in your word, we have everything we need for life and godliness. And I pray that your spirit is moving and active here in this room, illuminating your word, allowing us to understand it and apply it to our lives. Whether we are already part of the faith, that we may grow in our faith, Or that maybe, Holy Spirit, you are working faith in the hearts of some who are with us this evening. Oh, Lord, would you complete that work? And would we see people come from darkness into light because of Christ? As we conclude our service, would you continue to be lifted up, Lord Jesus? Would this night be about you? Would you receive all glory, honor, and praise? And it's in your mighty name that we pray. And all God's people said, amen.