It's All In The Genes

(adapted from a message by Darryl Dash)

SPECIAL DAY: CHRISTMAS

TEXT: MATTHEW 1:1-17

TITLE: “IT’S ALL IN THE GENES”

INTRODUCTION: A. How do you feel about the genealogies in the Bible?

1. Do you feel it’s about as exciting to read as the phone book?

2. People don’t readily admit it, but it is understood: when reading the Bible, it’s

okay to skip over the genealogies

3. Listen closely to a Bible verse that you probably already know pretty well

--2 Tim. 3:16 – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for

doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

4. That statement in the New Testament includes the “begats” – the genealogies

5. I’m inviting you to join me this evening as we study something you may never

have heard preached on before: Jesus’ genealogy

B. I need some audience participation for the beginning of the message this evening

--I need you to help me

1. I’m going to read a paraphrased version of our scripture

2. I’m going to teach you some hand signals that correlate with a specific response

a. When I give you the hand signal, I want you to give me the response

b. Please help out

--This won’t work if you don’t help. Don’t feel awkward because it’s part of

helping you to understand our scripture passage

c. It’s kind of like one of the old silent movies

3. Here are your hand signals

a. Thumbs up = clap and cheer

b. Thumbs down = boo and hiss

c. Palms forward (two-hand stop motion) = say, “Huh?!?”

d. Hand behind ear = say, “Who?!?”

C. Okay, here we go:

This is the list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ (thumbs up), a descendant of David

(t u), who was a descendant of Abraham (t u)

Abraham was the father of Isaac (t u), who was the father of Jacob – the man who

stole his brother’s birthright (thumbs down)

And Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers who sold Joseph into slavery (t d)

And Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (stop) by Tamar (ear) and Perez was

the father of Hezron and Hezron was the father of Ram and Ram the father of

Ammindab.(ear)

And Ammindab was the father of Nahshon, who was the father of Salmon who was

the father of Boaz by Rahab, the prostitute (stop)

And Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, a great woman whose story is told in a

book of the Bible bearing her name.(t u)

And Obed was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David the King. (t u)

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah who he had murdered. (t d)

And Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, a good king (t u), but one who disobeyed

God for several years. (t d)

And Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, who had fourteen wives. (stop)

And Abijah was the father of of Asa, a good king but later disobeyed God and died of

gangrene of the feet. (t d)

Asa was the father of Jehosophat, a king who ruled wisely most of the time. (t u)

Jehosophat was the father of Joram (stop), the father of Uzziah, whose pride caused

his downfall. (t d)

But Uzziah was the father of Jotham , a very good king in every way. (t u)

And Jotham was the father of Ahaz, a very bad king in every way. (t d)

And Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah, who cleansed the temple and re-established the

kingdom. (t u)

Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, who ruled for fifty-five years (t u), but was evil

for most of that time. (t d)

Manasseh was the father of Josiah, who did right in the eyes of the Lord. (t u)

Josiah was the father of Jechoniah (shrug), who was the father of Shealtiel (ear), the

father of Zerubabbel, a governor of the people who was chosen by God. (t u)

And Zerubabbel was the father of Abiud (ear), who was the father of Eliakim

(ear), the father of Azor (ear, the father of Zadok (ear) the father of Achim

(ear), the father of Eliud (ear), the father of Eleazer (ear), the father of Matthan

(ear), the father of Jacob, not the one we mentioned earlier (stop).

And that Jacob was the father of Joseph, the carpenter (t u), who became the husband

of the Virgin Mary (t u), of whom was born Jesus, who we call King of King and Lord

of Lords – the Christ! (t u)

(I had adapted this paraphrase from another source but I can’t remember where)

D. What’s obvious from the prominence given to these names at the beginning of the