“family Promises”

I. Genealogies can tell us a lot about our ancestors, sometimes about who we are and occasionally who our offspring will be

A. I remember growing up and being told of one of my great greats whose name was John Pidcock (this is my fraternal grandmother’s maiden name)

1. Every year the Pidcocks would get together with pride and recount their great family ancestor John Pidcock who was a Scottish immigrant.

a. In 1684 he homesteaded 505 acres off of William Penn’s family along the banks of the Delaware River.

b. He built a stone house and Grist Mill and traded with the Indians.

c. With great plume the Pidcocks would recollect that this house served as the headquarters for General George Washington just before he crossed the Delaware and defeated the British at Trenton.

2. In order to enrich this legacy, the Pidcocks paid an History Professor from the University of Pennsylvania to research more about this revered patriarch.

a. The professor found that John Pidcock did homestead this land, build this house and a grist mill

b. Evidently Mr Pidcock married a Delaware Indian Squaw and had 6 children,

3. How did the professor find this info John Pidcock in the early 1700s?

a. Through old court records

b. The court records also mention that John lost the land due to unpaid debts

c. The court records also tell us why he could not pay his debts for it seems he spent a lot of time in jail due to public intoxication i.e. he was a drunk.

4. Result - I haven’t heard much about the Pidcock reunions lately.

B. Each of us have unique genealogies of our own family but this genealogy recorded in Matthew is actually also our family tree if we have received Jesus as Lord and Savior.

1. This record tells much about Jesus and why He came.

2. It also tells us once again who we are in relationship to Him.

II. Verse 1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

A. The birth of Christ fulfilled God's promises to Abraham and David.

1. God made many promises that Abraham and David’s prodigy would rule.

2. God promised to Abraham that his family would out number the stars in heaven

a. God pledged to Abraham that his people would possess the promised land

b. And God assured the Patriarch of the Jews, that through Him all the people of the world would be blessed.

3. God also promised to David that his throne would never go away.

a. The Creator pledged that even when David’s sons disobeyed, God would discipline them and keep David’s throne.

b. The Lord God foretold that one of David’s prodigy would be a mighty King and the promised Messiah

4. Both the genealogies in Matthew and Luke clearly establish that Jesus was both a Son of Abraham and a Son of David.

a. Matthew’s record genealogy clearly affirms that Jesus was the Messiah or as it is translated in the Greek “The Christ.”

b. Though Jesus birth was very humble, His family record would satisfy those who had to know his royal pedigree.

B. But what is most interesting in the record of Jesus’ ancestry are the mention of these four women

1. Women did not need to be recorded in ancient genealogies,

a. However, Matthew does not include the famous Matriarchs of the Jewish faith such as Sarah, Rebekah or Leah

b. The ones record here in God’s Word, were not the ordinary brides any Jewish mother would love to have her son bring home to wed.

2. Their inclusion in Jesus’ ancestral record says something about Jesus and us.

III. Verse 3 “and to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar;”

A. In Genesis 38, we find Judah, the third born of Jacob, marrying his first born son off to a non-Jew, a Canaanite woman named Tamar

1. But Judah’s first son, Er, was evil in God’s sight and the Lord took his life.

a. Judah instructed his second son, Onan, to take Tamar as his wife so there would be a descendant for his deceased brother.

b. But Onan was also evil and refused to let Tamar to produce a child for which God took his life as well.

2. Now Judah was afraid of losing his youngest son Shelah and falsely promised Tamar would be his wife when he was older

a. Even after Judah’s wife dies, Shelah does not marry Tamar

b. As the years went by, Tamar realized that Judah had lied.

c. There would be no prodigy for her or Judah if she did not do something.

3. She knew Judah’s lustful habits so she disguised herself as a prostitute

a. She stationed herself along the route she knew Judah would be taking to a special feast.