Well, today we actually start a series, if you remember, I asked and thought a while back and wanted your feedback on two series that I was praying about to preach, and it was to continue in the Sermon on the Mount or to go to Daniel, and I was determined to do the Sermon on the Mount, but Daniel prevailed. So I ended up in Daniel, I only have a few sermons left in Daniel, but I had intended to come back to the Sermon on the Mount, but then I thought, well, it's this season, so let's just start Matthew right from the beginning, and I'll time it so that it works out through this celebration of the birth of Christ, and then we'll just keep going in Matthew and go through the book. So that's my plan here, not neglecting Daniel. We have chapters 10 through 13 to go, and probably we'll be moving that to the night so matthew chapter 1 this morning the genealogy of jesus christ and i invite you to turn there as we read verses 1 through 17 found on page 959 let's give our attention this morning to the holy word of the lord 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 Rehoaboam and Rehoaboam the father of Abijah and Abijah the father of Asaph and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram and Joram the father of Uzziah and Uzziah the father of Jotham and Jotham the father of Ahaz and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh and Manasseh the father of Amos and Amos the father of Josiah and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of 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 Akim and Akim the father of Eliud and Eliud the father of Eleazar and Eleazar the father of Mithon and Mithon 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 may the Lord bless the hearing of his word and I am worn out after that well we start a new series on the book of Matthew today and we come to the genealogy of Christ and I'm sure you thought well what in the world can we do with this this is a challenging section you probably thought I pulled the sermon off ancestry.com but they don't have sermons so you're safe there no two sermons are the same on this passage I mean it really is a challenge when you look at the genealogy and how this is approached even by the commentators and sermons it's all over the map in how to address this particular passage and what to do with it but i begin with that important question what is this all about i can imagine that matthew as he is producing this gospel as it's being drafted as it's being copied um as it was inspired the most important thing uh really probably in matthew's mind was you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna start my gospel with a genealogy because that's really important for us it's really important for my people the jews matthew is the most jewish book of the four gospels and matthew is unique matthew has a goal and i think that's what's important about the genealogies you really cannot understand them i mean i i i was a little I thought Daniel 7 or Daniel 9 last time was really challenging one of my more challenging sermons on the 70 weeks and then I jump right into a genealogy so I'm just glad people were back after the Daniel 9 but you know this is this is challenging why is Matthew doing this well this particular gospel takes on the religion of the pharisees like no other we went through the beatitudes uh just a while back that was a knockout to their religion that was a one-two punch to their religion the sermon on the mount goes after and i think as at its heart an all-out assault on the religion of the pharisees you have heard that it was said i say and then he went to attack all the conventional practices of the day there are certain things in matthew that i believe are proper to understand the genealogy certain emphases to show that matthew is pulling from the book itself that's why i wonder when he wrote it if it was the last thing he did because they say when you write a sermon you should write your intro last and matthew thought about this genealogy and matthew thought i i i this is so important for the jews it's so important for our people and and this genealogy if you were to break it down has three emphases i believe that matthew is pulling that you see throughout the trajectory of the book and those emphases are emphasizing his identity up front his mission and then his person i'll come back to that next time so really this is just a two pointer today i'm all about three pointers but this is a two pointer so i envision his we look here at his identity and his mission i envision matthew carefully crafting this genealogy with this in mind to showcase jesus christ to the jews to showcase to his people who jesus christ is and to emphasize certain things about him that were essential from the beginning with this call that he had in mind to his people to the jew first then to the greek of repentance and faith in their messiah and that's the same for us so that's what we're looking at today we begin by thinking about this season the birth of christ i want to consider with you today looking carefully at matthew's genealogy and it's important to understand what it's revealing about jesus what it's revealing about him so again those three things in mind his identity his mission and his person matthew knew that for the jews genealogies were of supreme importance i mean you couldn't you had to trace your genealogy you had to trace your genealogy to prove even think about history think about the tribes and land allotments where you lived in israel where you were to be in israel and even your right to a particular place in in when you came up to worship you had to prove that you were a jew you had to prove that you could be in worship this was important for the jews in order to show that they were of the faith. All the Jews believed that the true Messiah would have to establish, when he came, his credibility. He'd have to prove that he comes from the pure stock. He'd have to prove that he comes from the line. He'd have to prove that he's the king. That has to be proven, which I think is as many pastors observed today think about it the Jews are still looking for their Messiah could you imagine trying to find the genealogy back now it's impossible they don't even keep records anymore this is it here it is that's what Matthew 1 is here you have it right here in Matthew chapter 1 proof that he came from the royal line and had a right to reign but how there's complications the first thing I think Matthew does is provide a record all the way back to Abraham to establish the identity first point of the Messiah why is that important well what will Matthew record this is a huge issue in Matthew and again I'm bouncing kind of back and forth here to show you what Matthew's doing I believe it's a huge issue in Matthew because the people at one point in the gospel of Matthew said can this be the son of David remember what the Pharisees said in Matthew 12 no he's not the son of David it is only by Beelzebub the prince of demons that this man cast out demons of course they had just committed blasphemy against the holy spirit because they associated the works of christ with that of the work of satan so they attack him from being from satan i mean they were just always on him with the worst perverse attacks but then think of this in matthew 13 he came to his hometown town and taught them in their synagogue so they were astonished and said where did this man get this wisdom in these mighty works is this not the carpenter's son is his mother not called mary and they took offense at him is his dad not that lowly woodworker over in the shop over there is his mom not that peasant mary who does this guy think he is they had no idea of the genealogy of joseph and mary you see why this would matter they had no idea who were they now you see the importance of matthew chapter one the first issue of identity is massively important for Matthew. How does the book begin? The book, the biblos, the book of the beginnings, Ganesaios, the beginnings or the record of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He's providing a summary here by saying, this is really important. He's the son of. The son of. now think about what he just put together the book of the beginnings the book of the genealogy the record that's really only found two other times in the whole bible it's found in genesis genesis 5 being one of those that construction the book of the genealogy of just hear it for a minute the book of the genealogy of the savior the messiah who is the son of abraham now that claim in and of itself is remarkable because the whole story of abraham centered on the promise of what a son and that son came with a lot of struggle and it came supernaturally by the way they were past age you remember all the struggle with abraham to have a son everything hinged on the abrahamic covenant all depended on that promise everything hinged on that promise that god would supply a son and how much struggle and how much time and how much period went by of weight and struggle and then isaac came finally and and abraham had tried to get a son himself with hagar but that was not the son and he said in isaac your seed shall be called the son will come from isaac well here we are galatians 3 when the promise was made to abraham says to you and your seed referring to one who is christ here matthew's saying up front here he is he's come you can trace joseph all the way back to abraham and mary which is what luke does he's the promised son he's the one now and this is the whole history of the the jews i mean even back in the garden of eden remember when when the fall happened and god she understood in that promise of genesis 3 that there was a son promised and remember remember what happened As soon as Cain came, she says, I've got him. You didn't have him. Every mother in Israel lived with this hope. Maybe, maybe I'll bear the Messiah. Maybe I'll be the one. Well, here he is. So all that history of a promise of the Savior to come took shape in the covenant made with Abraham. And Matthew begins this genealogy with three sets of 14 generations here. It begins with the first one with Abraham. But you'll notice that even before Abraham, as it's a descending genealogy, that really the first one to establish the point here that he's royal is, he says, the son of David. Well, there's the other big promise in history. It was the promise to David that there would be a son who would sit on his throne forever, forever and ever. And that son was not Solomon. So think of the claim now again. So the son of David, 14 generations follow. You have Abraham, the patriarchs, 14 generations. Then you have David, 14 that show the royal line here. All of this ends in verse 16, that Jesus is called the Christ, the Messiah. So the record traces the two crucial promises of the covenant of grace taking shape in history, showing really prophet, priest, and king. It's all traced right here. Everything we've ever studied. Now do you see how Matthew just dunked on the Jewish identity problem? This is not just a carpenter's son. Who is this? They traced, Matthew has traced before their eyes all the way from Abraham to David to the royal line of Joseph. And that's what we have here up front is the royal line of Joseph. There's been a lot of debate as to why Luke's is different. I tend to believe that that's the lineal line with Mary going back. But I'm not spending time on all that today. But what I want to move on to, as we've seen his identity of who he is, the son of the promise of history, we'll get in more to who he is in his person. That's next Sunday. I want to move to the crucial message in the genealogy that I think delivers the real punch to the Pharisees, because what was their biggest problem with Jesus? Well, obviously it was who he claimed to be. But one of their biggest problems was his mission. Who he came to hang out with. Who he came to deliver. Matthew 11 says this. The Son of Man came neither eating or drinking, and they say about him, look, a glutton and a drunkard, A friend of tax collectors and sinners. What a statement. How would you feel if your pastor was out constantly hanging out with prostitutes and the drunkards? I'm sure there'd be a lot of silent talk going on. I'm pretty sure. I wonder. I wonder about him. What does the genealogy reveal? let me make you a little bit uncomfortable today i'm kind of good at that that's the goal that's why i titled the message what it is an uncomfortable lineage let me tell you what i struggle with today it's so shocking this this genealogy i don't want anyone to hear me say that repentance is not important and i don't want anyone to hear me say that we just justify living in sin as if we're antinomians i'll just get that out of the way up front anyone who believes that is not a christian anyone who believes they can just do whatever they want and live however they want and just say grace that's that's that's not christian but what would we think are the most perverse sins what would we think are sick twisted sins if somebody committed something really twisted in your eyes and disgusting what would you do with that person welcome to Jesus' family the genealogy begins with who well verse 1 it's David he was an adulterer He was caught up in the worst sexual scandal in the kingdom. One pastor, other pastors have said he was a polygamist, a murderer. He was a rotten father. He was a rotten father. He killed so many that he couldn't build the temple. That's the first name in this whole list. And you've got Abraham. Well, he lied about his wife. twice committed adultery with hagar not believing the promise at that point trying to do it himself believing it but taking matters into his own hands it's easy to dress up the record but i think we miss what's going on here i think and this is so good the genealogy does the most surprising thing It grabs the greatest sinners and those who would never make it into our genealogies. In other words, I would love to clean this up today. Some of the stories are the worst in the scriptures here. The family tree is no model family tree. I mean, what we find is the continuance of a line that came through some of the nastiest messes that humanity could create. There are always things in families that we would love to keep hidden. Imagine here if one of the respectable women in our church we didn't know was a former prostitute. But we wouldn't know, would we? Why wouldn't we know? Because we dare wouldn't tell anyone. Or imagine if it was your grandma. Our pride would hide that. Oh yeah, our pride would hide that. We would not want anyone to know these things. Listen to me. Not Jesus. This is the stuff in your own backgrounds you're never going to talk about. High school, college days. Verse 3, Judah, begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Do you remember how that happened? And this is the stuff that pastors have felt pressure over the years to be tactful, but pressure because, well, it makes the righteous very uncomfortable. We're worried about these kind of things being said. Judah has a son. His name was Ur. He was supposed to give to Tamar to be wife. Ur was wicked. God killed him. Yeah, God kills people in the Bible. Judah sent his next son, Onan, to go into Tamar to produce the seed. He just does his own matter of birth control. God kills him. Judah says, well, just wait till my younger son, Sheila, is older and I'll give him to you, Tamar. Judah doesn't do it. So Tamar dresses as a prostitute and goes out by the road. And Judah sees her and buys her for a night for his signet and cord and staff. And he goes in through prostitution. She conceives Perez and Zerah, who are right here in the genealogy of Jesus. Now that's not a mess I would choose in my genealogy. It doesn't get better. Remember righteous Boaz? I mean, this was a righteous man. This was a good man on all respects. Do you know who his mom was? Rahab the whore. His mom was a Canaanite prostitute. A temple prostitute of the pagan religions. Now, no one would like mom recorded like that in the Bible. Come to Matthew, you know what we find? Rahab the harlot is the mother of Jesus. She's a direct descendant. She marries Salmon, a direct descendant of Abraham. God chooses her to be the one to continue the line. And who then does God use to continue the line? and he sends a family outside of Israel who brings back a little Moabitess, a little Moabitess from a cursed people in Deuteronomy. Why does that matter? Why does that matter? Well, because Lot and his daughter's in the cave. His daughter said, let's get dad drunk and lie with him. And we'll have seed. And there came the Moabites. And Ruth's a Moabite. From that mess, from the incestuous line, incest. And the Lord brings this foreign woman from outside of Israel, from a cursed people, from incestuous origins, and she begets Obed, who's the grandfather of David. shocking, dirty, incestuous Gentile. Are you uncomfortable? So far, the first two women we have mentioned here were prostitutes. The next was a cursed foreigner, a stranger from an incestuous origin. Who's next? Verse 6, Jesse begot David the king, And David, the king, begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Well, that's just a mess. Here's a woman stolen away from her husband. The king has her husband killed. You couldn't use somebody like this in your line. I mean. coerced into an adulterous act, she's the one that now, who is to bear the seed, Solomon. And the whole thing ends with Mary, who's an absolute nobody. If you take the genealogy as a whole, a lot of people preach genealogy is kind of sweet in that God remembers names of people throughout history. I think that's true. I don't think that's what's being shown in this genealogy. you have a good start of people we know the patriarchs and then we know the people in the second set of genealogies this is what one pastor pointed a couple pastors pointed out i thought was really helpful then you get to the third set of genealogies we don't know any of these people because the whole thing had descended into total darkness obscurity judgment jeconiah curse i'll get to that next week. Now, do you hear the charge of the Pharisees? He's a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He sits around with those people. We and our children shouldn't be a part of that. Look, cover their ears. We're the righteous. We're the holy. who wrote this book? Friend of tax collectors and sinners. Who wrote this book? Matthew the tax collector. He was known as one of the filthy, corrupt politicians of the day. That's like Jesus calling Gavin Newsom to be a disciple. All right, I should have said that. We have to respect our leaders. If anyone's bothered, I ask for forgiveness. I believe we have to respect our leaders. But there's things he says that are very troubling. And how do we feel about corrupt politicians? That way. What do you mean by questioning he's a friend of tax collectors and sinners? He's always been. The whole history of Israel proves it. His own genealogy proves it. But do you see the problem? they rejected their messiah for who he claimed to be they rejected their messiah for who he came to save what was his missions verse 21 the mission of jesus is verse 21 it's the mission of the gospels it's the mission of the book you shall call his name jesus for he shall save his people from all political problems from bad governments well yeah in the resurrection sure no primarily Merely, he will save his people from their sins. I think Matthew gets to the heart of the matter. What is true religion versus false religion right out of the gates? Who did Jesus come for? I did not come to call who? The righteous. But sinners to repentance. We pay lip service to grace. You know, one of the great challenges of ministry is We love to come here and hear good messages about the love of God. We love to hear about His favor to us. We love to hear that He does all these good things for us. We love sweet messages that are clean and that they're tidy. And, you know, they don't cross boundaries. We love to hear that. But few love to hear that they're one of these. Few will hear that. Why are we here? Why are we involved in the kingdom of God? Why are we called Christian? You see how easy it is to come as the religionists of the day. A lot of religious people Jesus bumped up against who came out to hear. Think about John the Baptist. What did Jesus say about John the Baptist? Who'd you come out to listen to? Did you come out to get sweet words and somebody's going to tickle your ears? Is that what you came out to? No, no. You know what you came out to. Listen, what did you see? A reed shaken by the wind? In other words, did he do this and say, ah, let's just see what everyone wants? He didn't do that. You heard a prophet who preached repentance. The axe is laid to the root of the tree. See, when it comes down to it, the religion of the Pharisees is always alive in the church. It's the default religion of the religious. We like Jesus going to the cross and hearing that he died, but we don't like to hear that actually I was the guy hanging right next to him who actually deserved it. The religion of the Pharisees are those who come here without ever wanting to be confronted with who they are deep inside. They don't ever want to show it. They wouldn't want ever anyone to know about their issues. Or that it could be in the genealogy. Devastating. But you see, that's the point. Jesus is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Isn't that a great message? For those who see. He's not just a friend, He's a Savior. And that's the best news to those who know who they are, who are not hiding under the guise of self-righteousness. You see what Matthew's doing here. Not hiding under the guise of self-righteousness or hiding by playing a religious game. Never seeing, never mourning, never repenting over the fact that they are in the Scriptures, all of us together characterized as adulterers, as liars, as prostitutes, as failed fathers, as perverse, sexually immoral, as dirty outcasts. We're all Gentiles. and any and all descriptions whoever is a great sinner the Bible is constantly saying I'm giving those descriptions to you to show you your own hearts we're capable of all of it we're capable of all of it Christmas is not the message of a harmless baby in a manger cute and cuddly who doesn't offend us i think that's why people like christmas that's why we draw this out so long he's the judge of all the earth who's come and who will in his compassions save all who call upon him that's why paul could say of abraham in romans 4 god justifies the wicked and that's why he could say of David in Romans 4 blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity blessed is the man who's forgiven and you know what the whole genealogy says that's whom God chooses you see your own calling brethren not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble God has chosen foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise God has chosen weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty and the base things of the world and things which are despised God has chosen and the things which are not to bring enough to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory or boast in his presence. Who did God choose? David. Tamar. Ruth. Bathsheba. A lowly virgin who knew what she was. That's Jesus' family. And the marvel of it is, as the genealogy shows his identity, that he's the promised son throughout history, shows his mission. We get to come back next week and see this is no ordinary man. How could that even be that the holy righteous Savior could have a genealogy like this? It's because, well, he's going to go on and say, he's not Joseph's son. He's God's son. And the Holy Spirit overshadowed that womb of a virgin so that he would come who knew no sin to become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What does that demand of us? Well, what the Jews should have done. Repent and believe the gospel. Do you believe? How do you relate? As a religionist of the Pharisees or as a broken, contrite son of Abraham and David? These, our Lord says, I'll never despise. You're my family. Let's thank Him together today. Heavenly Father, thank You for a marvelous text. Thank You for helping us to see what is so important about who Jesus is and what He came to accomplish to save His people from their sins. We confess our sins, Lord. We're no better than anyone in this genealogy. In fact, we like to hold up a religion of the Pharisees. And yet today, O Lord, that would be the greatest lie under the sun and before you. We are needy, we are sinful, and we need your justification. We need righteousness from your Savior. We need the curse to be removed. We are so glad to see that work in history and the sending of your beloved Son. Bless this series, O Lord, and open our minds to your truth in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.