The following audio is from Shiloh Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. More information about Shiloh Presbyterian Church is available at shilopc.org. Well, if you'll turn in God's Word, please, to Matthew chapter 1. This morning, I'm going to read the first 17 verses and deal with that this morning. Next Sunday morning, I'll deal with verses 18 to 25. Matthew chapter one, and the sermon is entitled, The Lineage of King Jesus. Well, let's give our attention then to God's word. Matthew one and the first 17 verses. 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, and 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, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconoah 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 Ezor, And Edzor 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 Mattan, and Mattan 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. Amen, and thanks be to God for his word. Please be seated. Well, Shakespeare's Juliet asked the famous question, what is in a name? And the answer is, a whole lot is in a name. Names are indeed very significant. As Pastor Hughes mentioned earlier, we Welshmen like to identify ourselves by names. Hence, my oldest son has a Welsh name, Garin. My youngest son has a Welsh name, Geffin. There's a town in North Wales, It's the second longest place name in the entire world. In Welsh, it goes like this. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyndroblantysiliogogogoch. Did I get it right? It doesn't mean much to you apart from a bunch of vowels thrown into a word in some sort of random order. But to the Welsh it means something and it'll mean something to you when you remember or understand what the translation of that name is. Because as you understand what that name is in English, You begin to see something of the color, the rural setting of that place. You begin to see something even of the ecclesiastical history of that town. Because Llanfairpwllgwynn Gichogerywyndrobwllantysiliogogogoch means the Church of St. Mary in the hollow of the White Hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio and a red cave. Interesting. It's a name which tells you something. In answer to Juliet's question, what is in a name? When it comes to that town, everything is in the name. It literally tells you not only by its length, but its description. So it is with the names of people. If I were to mention three names, instantly you would think of associations with those people. Just their first name will do, Adolf. Joseph. Saddam, immediately your minds are filled with memories and associations. And yet scripture tells us there is one name which is above every name. And it's the name of Jesus Christ. Scripture says, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, whether on heaven or on earth or under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of Father. It is that name, Jesus Christ, that Matthew, in his genealogy, is seeking to unpack for us. The Holy Spirit today would have you know who is Jesus. And not only who is Jesus, the Spirit would have you also know what is Jesus. And a third and related question, what has Jesus come to do? Matthew's genealogy answers those questions for us. And yet it's a peculiar genealogy. It's a lineage, a record of immorality, a record of sin, a record of trouble, of broken and dysfunctional families, until we get to verse 16, and then the second half of verse 16, when we read the words of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Herein then, brethren, today do we see Jesus. who is called Christ. As you look at the text before you, you can probably see the genealogy is divided up into five sections. Verse 1, clearly, is an introduction to the genealogy. Verse 17, at the other end, is the conclusion to the genealogy. And the genealogy itself takes place in three distinct sections. Firstly, in verses 2 to 6, or the middle of verse 6, we have the lineage of Christ from Abraham to David. Then the middle of verse 6, it goes from David once again through to the deportation of Babylon, verse 12 or verse 11. And then thirdly, verses 12 to verse 16, from the deportation of Babylon to the Christ. This is how Matthew introduces us today to Jesus, who is called Christ. Intentionally, I want to spend most of our time today just in the first verse. And then we'll survey the rest of the genealogy in order to show Matthew's grand purpose of identifying to us and showing us the meaning of the name Jesus Christ. Look at verse one, if you will. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Matthew opens his gospel with a record of the lineage of Christ. Now children, perhaps you don't know what a genealogy is. A genealogy is just a long list of your family. Usually a genealogy will go from father or mother, to son, to grandson, to great-grandson, and it will trace your family all the way back as far as you can go. This genealogy is somewhat different. It is not an ordinary genealogy. Most certainly it does trace something of a family line, but we need to understand there are four considerations that we need to look at as we come to this genealogy. This will tell us more about why Matthew is writing about Jesus in the way he is. We'll notice, first of all, that when Matthew writes the book of the genealogy of Jesus, he is not giving a complete biological record of generation from generation to generation. That's made manifestly clear when we look at verse 16 and read the words, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom, Mary of whom, Jesus was born. You see what's happened, there's been a break in the biology. Jesus is not Jacob's, sorry, Jesus is not Joseph's son by birth, but legally he is Joseph's adopted son. And that's still hugely important for Matthew's purpose, to which we'll return in a minute. But what we're seeing is that Matthew is not setting out to provide us with a comprehensive biological history of who Jesus is. The second thing we need to note about the genealogy is this. It contains people that we would not expect to find in a genealogy, and certainly you don't find in most biblical genealogies. Who am I thinking of? Five women, four by name and one suggested. Five women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba is alluded to. And finally, we come in verse 16 to Mary, probably a young lady, maybe late teens, and she's found pregnant out of wedlock. Now, most biblical genealogies have names in there which prove the pedigree of the person of whom the genealogy is written. If that was the case, not only would Matthew have left out those five names, surely he would have left out a name like Manasseh. We'll come back to Manasseh in a moment, but there is Manasseh right in the middle of the genealogy. And again, another thing we need to acknowledge is that this is a selective genealogy. Matthew says in verse 17 that there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the deportation, 14 from the deportation to Babylon to Christ. Actually, that's not accurate. I'm not saying Matthew is lying or scripture is wrong. I'm saying Matthew has compiled a highly edited genealogy to suit a purpose. Three groups of 14 or six groups of seven generations. We'll return to that in a moment also. But what a strange way, don't you think, to introduce the Savior? What a strange way to introduce the King, because those are Matthew's two great points that the name Jesus and Christ point us to. This is an entirely counterintuitive way of introducing one who is going to be the king of kings and the lord of lords. Matthew does not seek to remove the blemishes of Christ's lineage. He actually seeks to highlight the blemishes of Christ's lineage. He does not seek to cover up the sin of the genealogy, but to highlight the sin of the genealogy. And that is because Matthew's purpose, his first purpose, is to highlight the name of Jesus. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, verse 16, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ is not his first and last name, like my name is Matthew Holst. Jesus is his first name, but Christ is a title. It means anointed. It means Messiah. But Jesus is his first name. It's a real name of a real baby born to a real woman. This is important. Jesus Christ, when he came to this earth, took to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. He was born a baby, more of that next week. He was born of a woman, born under the law. He's a real person. The name Jesus, you see, testifies firstly to his humanity. There was a baby that needed naming, and he was given the name Jesus. And the inclusion of Jesus in this messy and sinful genealogy testifies to the reality of his humanity. As one of our hymns says, pleased with man or as man with man to dwell. That's the point. Jesus is truly and really a man. And yet it's also a divine name. It's a name which came from heaven, as it were, to be given to this babe. Matthew 1.21, there is the name, the meaning of the name of our Lord. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. You know, the name Jesus is in a sense a testimony to the sovereignty of God in salvation. It's a Hellenistic version of the Old Testament named Joshua, which became Yeshua and then becomes Jesus. And it means the Lord will save. Notice that. The Lord will save. He will save his people from their sins. The Lord Yahweh is going to come into the midst of his people and deliver them from their transgressions. How is he going to do that? He's gonna do it by sending a king. No ordinary king, but a king nonetheless, because this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Better understood, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the anointed one, Jesus the Messiah of God. Now this announcement, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, should have a profound effect upon the reader of Matthew's gospel. It's a grand notification to all who read and hear it that someone spectacular, someone unusual, someone has come to do a task that no one else could do. Yes, to save from their sins, but how by being a king. We read of the great Abraham in this lineage. the father of the nation. We read of the son of David, and again in verse six, the father of David, the king, and yet we're told God's king has now come. The anointed one of the Lord has come. We read of kings good and bad, kings who were somewhat righteous but mostly kings who were unrighteous, kings who failed to protect the people of God and deliver them from their enemies. Why twice we have the idea of the deportation in Babylon brought to the forefront. What a damning statement that is upon the kings of Israel. Their kingship was so thoroughly rotten that Israel was sent into exile until Verse 16, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ, anointed, the King of kings. Matthew is saying this. The long history of Israel and the Davidic monarchy, in a sense, is coming to a close, but it's a close with a difference. It's actually gonna be fulfilled, because the Davidic king has come. The Davidic King has come. And that takes us back to verse 1, the son of David. That's who this king is. It seems, as scripture testifies, that Christ was of the line of Judah, both legally and probably biologically. Hebrews 7, 14 we read, for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah. It is evident, suggesting that Mary also was from the line of Judah. That's significant. Because you cast your mind back to Genesis chapter 49 verse 10, where Jacob is blessing his sons and he calls Judah forward and he says to Judah, Judah, the scepter will not depart from your household. The scepter, you know what the scepter is, don't you? It's the staff of power. It's the staff of dignity and authority. It's a staff of royalty. And now we're told that Jesus, the Christ, is of the line of Judah. He is going to hold that scepter himself. And that promise was later built on by God with King David in the Davidic covenant to Samuel chapter 7 and verse 11. Listen to this. God says to David, I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 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 shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me." Oh, the kingship of this one who Matthew is writing about is not like the kingship of those previous kings. It's an eternal kingship. It's a reign of righteousness and of peace, of justice and of equity. The promise here can't refer to Solomon. No, Solomon's in the genealogy, the wisest fool in Christendom, yes? The one, the one after whose reign the kingdom was split in two, no, it can't refer to Solomon. God promises, you see, to build a house for this one who will sit on the throne of his father, David. What's that house? It's the kingdom of Christ. It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is king of this church. You see, the Jews, they sang about this in their Psalms. Psalm 89 and verse 29, I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. Psalm 45 and verse 6, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. They heard about this from their prophets. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given of the increase of his government and of peace. There will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. They sang it in their psalms. They heard it from their prophets. And yet they missed their king when he arrived. What a terrible, terrible irony. And yet he's not just the son of David. Verse one tells us he's also the son of Abraham. Why mention Abraham? He's not a king. He's the father of the nation. And Genesis 12, one, Genesis 22, verse 18, tells us that God promised him a seed. And in that seed said God, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. All the nations, Jew or Greek, it matters not. All the families of the earth will be blessed. You see what Matthew's done? He's alerting his reader just by the first verse of his gospel. The first verse tells us whether you're Jew or Gentile, it matters not. The time of salvation has come. The time to be ruled by King Jesus has arrived. This is the one. All of God's promises find their yes and amen in this one who will be born of Mary and he will be called Jesus to save his people from their sins and he will be called the Christ because he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. All the more surprising then with the importance of this one name, Jesus, that we find all these names, obscure and immoral names, in the passage before us. Look at verse two to verse six. Here begins the narrative, does it not, of this genealogy. Abraham, what was he? A pagan idolater. Let's not forget that he was a pagan idolater. Before he was called from his country, his kindred, and his father's house to a land that God would give him. His wife could bear him no children, yet God promised him a seed. And through that seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. And yet God provided perhaps another miraculous conception, a picture of one that would happen thousands of years later. God provided, listen to this, as God promises, so he provides. As God promises, so he provides. Never ever forget that. Genealogies are a record of man's faithlessness and of God's faithfulness. And the faithfulness is manifested very clearly as we go into verse 2. We're not going to go through every verse, we don't have time. Go to verse 2, and what do we read? Isaac, there was the seed, the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Oh, why would Matthew put Tamar in there? You remember Tamar, don't you? Judah's daughter-in-law. Judah loses his wife and goes to seek solace in the arms of a prostitute. It just happens to be his daughter-in-law disguised and he doesn't know it. Tamar, that kind of woman in the line of Christ. Verse five, there's another one, isn't there? Rahab, here's word association, Rahab the, yes, harlot, the prostitute. In this genealogy, she is the great-great-grandmother of King David, a woman who made her living until she was saved by sleeping with men in the line of Christ. Ruth, verse five again. What was Ruth? Ruth was a Moabites. Remember what's said about Moabites? Deuteronomy 23, verse three, no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even to the 10th generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever. She's a cursed Gentile who cannot enter into God's people and yet she does. That which is cursed becomes that which is blessed. Is that not the gospel, brethren? We who are cursed have become blessed in Christ, not because we're physically in his lineage, but because we're spiritually in his lineage. Oh, there's more. Verse six, and Jesse, the father of David, the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, David. A deceiver, a plotter, a murderer, and an adulterer. The only one in this genealogy who's called David the King. And Bathsheba alluded to. What's Matthew thinking? Why is he trying to present the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords with this great backdrop of sin behind him? Matthew is achieving precisely what he wants to. Of course he is. He's showing us that Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus, the King, has grace sufficient for all. In his line, we find incest, harlotry, the cursed Gentile line of the Moabites, murder and adultery. Brethren, this is the truth. He came from these people in order to save these kinds of people. And as the apostle Paul writes, and such were some of us. Yes, you and me. Pleased as man with man to dwell. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, David, Bathsheba, Matthew Holst. Our names belong right there with them in the lineage of sin and misery. We move on, verse 7 to 11, the record of the kings. It's a record of failure. Let's just be quite clear about that. I'm gonna skip through some of these. Let's go straight down to Manasseh, verse 10. Manasseh, you remember Manasseh, do you not? What a wretch Manasseh was. 2 Kings chapter 21, verse two. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before them. What did he do? What despicable practice? Verse six. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune tellings. Can you imagine? He burned his own son as an offering to the gods. But by the time we get to 2 Chronicles chapter 33 and verse 10, we read this. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the armies of the king of Assyria and captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him and God was moved by his entreaty. and heard his pleas and brought him again to Jerusalem in his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God of the vilest offender that truly believes that moment, through Jesus, a pardon receives. That's why Manasseh is here. Jesus came from this kind of people to save this kind of people. Verse 12 to verse 16, from Babylon to the Christ. The chief note here is this, there's a deportation. Need we say any more? The Davidic kingship has come crashing to an end. They're in Babylon. The Babylonians dominate them. After this, it'll be the Greeks dominating them, and presently, as Matthew writes, it's the Romans dominating them. And yet in the providence of God, in the providence of God, what do we read? We read that the Davidic line continues and is preserved. We read of Zadok and Achim and Eliud and Eliezer and Matthan and Jacob and Joseph. You see what God's done? As he's broken down the physical picture, the actual throne of the Davidic king, he has preserved the Davidic line because what God promises, he always accomplishes. He always accomplishes. Matthew is saying to you today, remember God's promise to Abraham? Remember God's promise to David? and the appalling state of the nation, it doesn't look sometimes like God's promises will be fulfilled. And that's the same for your life, isn't it? There are times when you question God's will for your life. And as we read through this remarkably tragic genealogy, even as we come to the birth of our Lord, when Mary is found pregnant out of wedlock, what a mess. But our God is the God of messes. He overrules. And it's not like the mess is a surprise to Him because He has ordained the mess for your sanctification and for His glory. When God says He will do something, He does it. No questions asked. There are no doubts. What he promises, he simply provides. And the provision is seen in the conclusion of the genealogy, verse 17, in a somewhat cryptic manner. The conclusion of the genealogy tells us that Matthew has laid out this genealogy in a certain way. Three groups of 14 generations. We've already established there's not 14 generations. You can count them in scripture, there's more. But Matthew has edited the account for a purpose. Three groups of 14 or six groups of seven. Six groups of seven. Seven is that number of fulfillment, completion, perfection in Scripture. And look what Matthew is saying. Here's these six groups. Two from Abraham to David, two from David to the deportation, and two, again, from the deportation until we come to the seventh group. The moment of completion, of fulfillment and perfection. And what is it? It's this. of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. Matthew has signaled for us in a somewhat cryptic, numerological fashion, the reality that the completion and the fullness has come, and it's come in Jesus Christ. Brethren, we have then in brief, we could have spent much more time, of course, in this genealogy, we have then in brief Matthew's testimony to the name Jesus and the title Christ. He is the Savior King. And it's my duty and it's my joy to tell you, actually, that there's no other name, no other name by which a man, woman, or child can be saved. Children, are you listening right now? There's no other name, Jesus Christ. You must believe in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. Adults, You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That is the most critical thing that you can do this day if you have not. You see, it matters not what your religious pedigree is like. It matters not who your father is or who your ancestors were. Our Lord warns the Jews, he says, do not presume to say for yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. That's laid to the root of historic Israel. It matters not what your lineage is. It matters not what you do, whether you stand behind a pulpit, play a piano, whether you serve in office. It matters not. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not looking for credentials. He's looking for broken hearts. and a contrite heart. The psalmist says, these, oh God, you will not despise. Brethren, do you see what Matthew has done? He has shown you the place of perfect peace. Perfect peace from your sins, because a savior is born who is Christ the Lord, and he's shown you another kingdom. Having believed in Jesus Christ, you have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son. And that kingdom is a place of righteousness. It's a place of equity and justice and peace. And because the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled in those who believe, you can stand in that kingdom. Where else would you rather stand today, brethren, than in the kingdom of Christ under the rule of King Jesus? Is there any king, any governor, any president who can protect you like King Jesus can protect you? Is there anyone who can keep your soul from hell? The answer's no. Do not put your trust in princes or in a son of man in whom there is no salvation, but put your trust in the son of man, Jesus Christ, the King of kings. the Lord of Lords, and the God of Gods. Let's pray. Glorious God, we bless your name. Who is like you, O Lord, our God, and who is like Jesus, our King? He is our King of love, he is our shepherd, and his goodness faileth never. And so, Lord God, we pray that you will make our hearts steadfast and immovable, standing on that cornerstone that is Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. Give us the grace, Lord God, even those who are going through times of terrible trial right now, to see King Jesus for all his blessed worth. And we praise your name and bless your name in and through our Savior and our King, King Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen. Well, let's close our morning worship with number 184. It's a rendition of Psalm 23. Number 184, the king of love, my shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. And let's stand to sing.